FrancisN.9276

I don't like how Anet keeps nerfing thieves' numbers, but in terms of QoL, I would say they at least they gave us a couple of improvements: DE got walking and piece, DD got proactive reflect (which is a bit worse but gameplay wise it is more controllable).

Initiative system is why I main a thief. I just hate looking at 4 different squares counting down and missing out more interesting things happening around me. Thief gameplay feels like total freedom - unbound by the old (almost outdated) CD skill system. I hope more future RPGs will be like this.

Different skill effects for different game modes always feel kind of off-putting for me in terms of game design - It is unimmersive, which is self-defeating for RPGs. But it is too late for GW2 to restart balancing for every game mode to have the same skillset effects, so I guess I'll just stick with PvE only.

"Unneccessary" is an understatement. You know other classes have separate CD on 4 weapon skills, and their shortest CD (skill 2) is usually 5-8s. Meaning, they can trigger their skills 4 consecutive times and then start spamming more onto you in 5-8s, while DE's 12 initiatives pool can do what? One high cost skill and one skill 2 and then what? Start switching to utilities? But other classes can do that too. You HAVE to take Trickery for the extra 3 initiatives, while other classes do not have to be obliged to anything to spam those skills.

Maybe I have not been using it correctly, but after a couple of months of running daredevil, new Dust Strike feels worse than its old version: - 4 initiatives for 1s reflect with internet latency of 70-200ms is too unreliable and too expensive. - The loss of 600 range blind + vulnerability limits the number of approaches I can take in a fight. - Trading the new initiative-costly Dust Strike for the loss of reflect on the old Punishing Strike (free reflect AA skill that lasts for 2/3 of the whole combo length while also does decent damage) significantly reduces survivability. What are your thoughts on this now that you have played with it for sometime after the patch?

I don't know if the other team thinks like me, but if there is a weak link in the chain, I'll try to break that first and then use my advantage in number to dominate the fight.

Willbender or any Guardian espec. If you look at previous patch notes, you can see how often it has gotten buffed or skipped out when other classes get nerfed. This class is dev's favorite and will be more than just fine for years.

I feared I was too optimistic about this patch because they finally gave daredevil a small buff, so I went to see what the rest of the balance patch for other classes, especially Willbender because this class is the closest one to Daredevil's identity (melee dps and mobility). It turns out they give Daredevil's evade frame on ultimate to Willbender's ultimate (which is extremely similar to Daredevil's ultimate, but has already dealt 2x damage and defiance break), on top of giving them more healing, condi cleanse and vigor generation. So now Willbender has endurance dodge, F2 dodge, ultimate dodge, shadow step with healing and condi cleanse, all from base skills and utilities without the need for any traitline - and all 3 dodge mechanics are on separate cooldowns. It is very balanced, isn't it?

That is not all. Comparing Willbender's ultimate ( Heaven's Palm) with Daredevil' ultimate (Impact Strike) , we can see that not only Willbender's ult has shorter cooldown (20s compared to 25s), but also double the damage, double the defiance break on top of being instant damage in a single hit, but now they also give Willbender evade frame on during the attack (Daredevil only has 0.5s evade during the FIRST phase of ult). They take every class strong point, buff it and give it to Guardian.

I did not realize it had been this bad for the last 3 years. Boy, noone even bothers to dodge anymore. Just boon spam and attack spam on top of one another. How about implementing Social Awkwardness but with half the radius to reduce this boon stacking situation?

Deadeye changes look really good. Daredevil, however, still needs more work in the boon generation department and should have its animation locking removed - animation locking is the worst survivability debuff on a class with the lowest HP and its sole defensive mechanism revolving around dodging.

I don't know if they have nerfed Willbender's and Necro's mobility, but last year when I played against them, I, as a DE with superspeed from SA traitline amd extra initiative from Trickery traitline, could barely catch up to them after expending all my initiatives and utilities. And you know, DE without initiative is a sitting duck because its autoattack is the equivalence of mosquito's bite.

Deadeye keeps getting nerfed despite having no benefit from being a single-target dps class with crippled mobility. Now they increase ini cost and make DE only able to dish out 1-2 skills before becoming completely vulnerable for the next 8s. I am at loss for words.

I have read all that and I am not even an Anet's paid employee to do that. If someone is not doing their job right and the company is ok with it, then, I guess, as a customer, I should not be supporting them financially.

I nominate this for the Post of the Year award.

After a couple of previous patches, they somehow managed to further nerf both Daredevil, an already underperforming espec, and Acrobatic, an almost dead traitline. I am impressed!

Good news! We may have a dev reading through this thread, because there is someone "confused" at every post here 😂

For consecutive rapid low-damage shots, Dust Strike can reliably reflect some projectiles back because those shots spread over 5-6s duration. However, for hard-hitting shots that shoot out in less than 1s time frame, Dust Strike is not at all precise.

The reflect window is so tiny that you most likely end up wasting your initiatives and eat those projectiles at the same time. Devs made this skill without taking into consideration the average latency of internet connection when playing MMO. In order to fix Dust Strike, it has to have 2 things: 1. Ability to animation-cancel over other weapon skills, even autoattacks, the same way as dodging does. Everytime I need Dust Strike, I am in the middle of another attack and the 1s Dust Strike queued after said attack animation just renders it useless. 2. Longer reflect window, even a 0.5s longer is better than this, considering an average MMO ping is around 70-100ms.

I wonder if it is the clunky part of the skill or the short reflect frame (1s), but I tested it on skeleton archers in Dragonfall map and everytime I pressed Dust Strike right when the skeleton knelt down to prepare the shot, the shots just went through. The only way to reflect those shots for me was to start Dust Strike BEFORE the skeleton shooting telegraph begins. For a skill that only last 1s, and having to start before the oponent's attack telegraph, that is not very useful, is it? My ping is 70-100ms, which is about the average.

DD staff sound on hit has always been a buzzkill. They must have used a lightweight wooden staff when recording these sounds.

If that is their plan, give us Stability and Agis.

Thief axe just feels out of place. It plays like a mesmer.

In order to use Helmet Smash (2 ini), we have to use Debilitating Arc (3 ini), making it a total cost of 5 ini. The range is also bad: falling back (0.5s evade frame) 400 range and leaping forward (no evade frame) for 450 range. It is extremely predictable, heavily telegraphed, and - with the forward 50 range - easy to get out of.

We have been saying this for years, and even more so after the plan to introduce axe mainhand was announced. Still, they chose to go ahead with axe... I must say I am unimpressed by how axe skills play out in the stream.