Vornollo.5182

Yes, Thief struggles in such settings. No, that's not a bad thing. Different professions, builds and specializations fill different roles and niches, I'm fine with the fact that Thief isn't able to do everything. I also honestly just love the playstyle of moving in and out of a fight to pick off the right targets at the right time. Don't forget that it's often enough to just scare a backline by popping in, dealing minor damage and leave. If the backline gets scared and yells out they're being jumped by a thief, you're going to force movement, which creates opportunity for you own commander. You approach the situation form a different angle. If you're only in it for the bags of loot and WXP, you're probably going to have more "fun" on a different profession and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Ah yes, meant Weaver regarding stances. It really depends on how it's all implemented, between all professions using stances, they all have their own bit of flavor. Ideally, I'd have an Elite Specialization would really lean heavily into the Dual Skill and in the chaining of different abilities. Using the Utility (like a stance), almost more like Attunements on an Ele, where it changes the way you use your weapon skills between offensive and defensive styles and skillchains, even taking evades/blocks (or parries, could be interesting with off-hand swords etc.). Opening a highly adaptable playstyle, focused on the use of weapon skills to parry, counter, taunt and essentially control the flow of combat. Where a bad decision would get you killed pretty quickly to drive home a risk vs reward playstyle, or where you'd make sure to hurriedly start kiting or moving away once you notice you're getting outnumbered. Had to look up that FFXIV Scholar, which I think already leans too much into a supportive-type character, but would definitely be an intriguing take for a Thief, hah. I'd sooner use the LotRO's Warden for counters or GW1's Assassin as reference. Functional by themselves, able to help an ally in dire need with a little of almost incidental support, but really focused on themselves. Building up a chain of weapon skills, parry/block/evades to unlock stronger attacks or defenses, depending on the sort of chain leading up to it etc. High reaction based stuff, tough to pin down provided a skilled player with the right awareness is on it, but gets slaughtered the instant they loose their focus etc. I just don't see the GW2 Thief in any sort of fitting setting where it'd be this big magic caster or dealing a lot of AoE and stuff. Their class identity lends itself much more to a more solitary setting. That said... I definitely see a lot of potential for an Arcane Trickster sort of Thief Elite Specialization too and would surely enjoy it no matter how it fits thematically. I prefer good gameplay over a suitable "class identity".

I'm fine with any off-hand, really. Sword makes most thematic sense, that's all. Thief is the original dual-skill class but it's been neglected with the previous Elite Specs, I think it's a real shame not to utilize one of the mechanics that makes Thief so special. Daredevil leans into the mobility, Deadeye into the stealth. A bruiser/duelist type leaning into counters and flipovers of dual skills and the likes (fits the Cantha/Assassin theme to have chained abilities, for that matter) seems far more interesting and interactive than anything else we've seen up to now.

Personally I don't think it's too thematically fitting for Thief to provide support. Some semi-/off support, sure. But not as a focus. I'm also a big fan of the Thief as more of a practical character, instead of a magical one. My ideal elite spec for Thief is (a return to) the once advertised deadly duelist. Duelist/Bruiser type, Sword/Axe off-hand (because yet another two-handed Elite Spec weapon is a real cop-out after what Tempest got). Sacrificing Stealth almost entirely would be a fair compensation, if handled well... Heck. Since it will need to counter D/P, give it some ridiculous trait where every third hit in an auto-chain reveals what they hit, lmao. (I'm not super serious about that idea, no.) I'd be happy with a more magically inclined Thief with support for a focus, but the spec is either going to be ridiculously OP as they're picking up bodies from certain death left, right and center, all while stealthing and displacing everyone from any dangerous situation. Which wouldn't be fun for anyone long-term. Not the Thieves playing it, or those fighting it (plus easily countered by D/P Daredevil). Or it's going to be extremely underwhelming and overshadowed by existing supports easily. I like some ideas that have been floating around where Stealth is instead functioning as some sort of Druid's Celestial Avatar. Could be pretty interesting. But yeah. I just don't think that's a route that fits the Thief archetype.

I still want a proper Bruiser-style Elite Spec. Sword Off-Hand because another two-handed weapon on an Elite Spec is a cop-out. Seen so many asking for greatsword and such... Looks cool, but I'd take an off-hand Sword for thematics as well as gameplay options. As for utilities... Stances could work. Could be made to fit quite well, playing off of how the Tempest Stances vary massively from Warrior ones and such. Seems to fit better thematically than consecrations or spirits for example. Leaning more into the Shadow Magic side could also be an option, could be interesting with an off-hand focus. But yeah. Proper Duelist bruiser-style with some team-support outside of group-stealth is something that Thief misses, but got to sacrifice stealth and a bit of mobility to make it balanced. Daredevil can to some extent fill this role, with Staff and/or S/D or S/P sets, but it you're really pushing it against other professions filling a similar role.

Shade getting re-buffed and (Winds of) Disenchantment gets no nerfs...Condi builds still burst just as hard as Power builds do with much less skill required.The Patch is interesting (especially for Chrono) but it's very lacking where it matters.Condition duration isn't so much the issue, it's the short-term scaling of damage compared to the required ability of actually landing them.

I'm still of a mind that Mounts shouldn't serve any purpose but Horizontal mobility.As soon as you get in Player Combat, get dismounted.Get rid of the damage on it and get rid of the instant-stomp.At the very, very, very least, make them vulnerable to CC effects.

Balance isn't good, but it's better then how it was prior to the March patch.Conditions should be reduced to be more on-par with power (as you can currently spike with "DoTs" just as hard as Power). But don't forget that you cannot judge WvW zerg efficiency just on DPS.Try doing that DPS without a Firebrand and/or Scrapper carrying you from point A to point B with their support.Try to get those numbers without Spellbreakers popping their ridiculously OP Winds of Disenchantment (e.g. completely disabling the enemy FB's/Scrappers who are carrying their DPS's).In a good zerg/group, everyone has their own little role to perform. Individually those builds will be dreadful, but in a group they'll be nearly unstoppable.So sure, you can use DPS-meters for some idea of what's happening (and establishing that balance is still not quite there yet and hasn't been since HoT's powercreep), you can also use it to establish that the enemy is doing bad on condi-cleansing/maintaining resistance, or that your spellbreakers are doing a good job at controlling the enemy's resistance and such.Heck, there's fights where you got some annoying mesmer on the side who decides to Moa the commander, completely swinging the engage in their sides' favor, but you won't see that on your DPS meter. So yeah, agreed that balance isn't good yet (mainly condi and Winds of Disenchantment need looking at), but you cannot just judge all of it on a DPS meter.

Lol.If you're standing on the edge of a wall without cover, you can of course get pulled.It's not just Dragonhunters who can do this and it's been a part of the game (and gave many fun memories, even while on the receiving end) since launch.

Underwater Balancing..? Hah.But good point, there's a variety of underwater skills and utilities that could use another look.

Try running a melee group he says lol yeah that would work well against the perma booned continual aoe ranged brainless condi spam that is every blob. Ud melt before reaching a target in melee range and by time u got one skill off ud have to TRY and disengage before melting.Can be done, stealth engages are a thing, though 'Marked' and 'Detected!' effects make it tedious at times. We've been doing it actually relatively successful for the past couple of months, even while running ~15 vs 30+.

@"Lord of the Fire.6870"It's been nerfed, yes. Once. Enjoy checking the wiki on it and actually having a proper look through it's patchnotes.The only nerf it's actually had is to the Duration. It's still too strong, many fights are quite literally decided by whoever spams most bubbles.Especially in the scenario of a small (organised) group fighting against a large® (unorganised) group. All it takes is 5 muppets popping their bubble while running around like a headless chicken to completely bend you over. There's no thought process behind it other than "oh there's something red over there! Oohhh over there too!" to properly mess people up with it. I'm against all forms of "braindead" gameplay, WoD's just been one of the biggest offenders (in my opinion and many others'). WoD's a crutch in it's current iteration. @Psycoprophet.8107Try running as part of an actual Melee group rather than some pirate-shippy snoozefest. (sorry for the assumption)I'm not against boonstripping at all, the issue with Winds of Disenchantment is with the 'Disenchantment' effect that entirely prevents reapplication of boons.I'd rather spam all my stability and get it all stripped every 0.75 second, but at least have a counter to Winds of Disenchantment despite having to blow all of my CD's on it (Hence no 'Enchantment Collapse' part in here).Plus there's more professions that are actually good at boonstripping, it's not a Spellbreaker exclusive.Something to deal with conditions without over-tuning WoD even more is already there; Resistance.Guess what screws that up though..? Usually it's Winds of Disenchantment. So TL:DR, Boonstripping is completely fine (even a bit lacking), entirely preventing Boon-Application is not.

Winds of Disenchantment has too much impact on X vs 15, tbf.It's just ridiculous by design... A big mobile field that strips boons and on top of that also makes it impossible to reapply critical boons..? How anyone ever even thought that was a good design is just beyond me.Remove the effect where you cannot reapply the stripped boons at least and either reduce the radius or make it a targeted AoE again like it used to be.It's been in this overly power-crept stage since March 2019 and has defined how larger groups almost have to play. Time for a change and hopefully one that isn't so ranged-favored.

Actually agree on all points raised.Only things I'd adjust would be the Mount and the way that Marked works.Mounts (which WvW didn't need before either) should be there just for Mobility. As soon as there's player combat of any kind, you should get dismounted. At the very bare minimum Mounts should be affected by CC's and such effects.Personally I'm fine with the effect 'Marked', being able to see the red dots (which already update relatively slow) is what generally leads to more fights.I am however not fine with the effect of 'Detected!'. The fact that some areas allow for absolutely no way of getting off a stealth engage (which is currently quite critical if you want to run any sort of melee, compared to the pirate-shipping we're back at now) is just mind boggling in my opinion.Keep Marked, but for the sake of bringing back some melee, they should really get rid of 'Detected!' it's not like perma-stealthing thieves are still a problem.Heck, if that's really an issue have the 'Detected!' debuff Reveal you after 10 seconds and have it maintain the Revealed effect on your character for 30 seconds or something.I'd genuinely prefer that over this complete area-denial. 'Detected!' really grinds my gears, both while roaming and while playing with my melee-only guild. It's also not fun to play against... We actually actively try to get our enemies away from these two debuffs so that we're all on an even playing field (even if we're outnumbered 2:1, lmao) because it's really that garbage of an addition to the game.

It's better now, though Condi builds burst too much (mainly builds that pump out Burning).We're getting there...

I'd rather have Chrono gain proper access to Distortion again. The lack thereof makes it really quite terrible to play in PvP/WvW.Requiring clones is already bad enough, to be fair.

I don't generally do PvE, but this reminds me a bit of what happens in WvW squads sometimes where you "have to do this/that, runs such/so build" etc.My opinion?Make your own LFG for like-minded people. The small amount of time spent on the forum seems to indicate there's so many of the kind of players who think just like you.If I ever feel like doing Fractals but can't find a T4 group that's looking for what I play: I make my own LFG.Squad in WvW doesn't want me as a Thief main..? Well, kitten them I'll do my own thing.You are as much entitled to these demands not to do it, as they are to do demand them, lol. Also, there's clearly a difference... If I run around in WvW with my guild (private tag, because no we don't want you around us) and we're about to jump into a 15v30 fight, but some pug comes around in our smokefields and gives our advantage away, yeah that's a good way for that 1 pug to spoil the fun of 15 others.Same thing for PvE I'd figure. You want people who know what they do, understandable, carrying dead weight is heavy work.You're fine with casuals who just want to have fun in their own way, understandable too. You do you, nothing's stopping you in any part of this game to do what you want to do, the tools are there.

Poison is generally not an important Cooldown and slows it all down by a whopping 33%.I also often play around the fact that these are a thing with my own CD's. Keeping up a Steal/Swipe for the interrupt on those rez skills and such.Everyone can counter them one way or another, especially if you are aware that they exist. Quickness rezzing used to be a thing, it's gone.Percentile rezzes have been heavily nerfed.The few remaining Utility 'Instant rezzes' got high CD's and extremely clear tells. I'm genuinely fine with how they are right now myself...

Charr Melee train, mhmmmm glorious.

Mounts in WvW do enough by simply offering mobility.The mobility already has a huge impact to how fights (especially prolonged ones) pan out. People being able to return faster has made the meta in WvW even more of a "who outnumbers who" deal than it was before, lol. Honestly, the mounts should have no combat abilities and everyone should be dismounted as soon as they get into any kind of Player combat.Players engaging with Mounts hitting for well over 4k even when you're running over 3k armor..? What? That same skill being an instant-stomp ..? What?The mount functioning as an easy 8k health sponge..?All in all, incredibly unhealthy for the game mode and I'd honestly rather they'd never add them. However, I know it's too late now and it's good marketing, so fair's far, use them as a boost to mobility (which is already doing a lot for tons of professions regardless of how they play WvW (roaming, zerging, just doing dailies or whatever)). But get rid of the ridiculous combat abilities that got no place in such a game mode.At the very least they got to get affected by CC skills. TL:DR Mount Mobility is fair, Combat abilities got to get deleted, dismount upon any form of Player Combat.

Bit like "Twice-Told Legend"?That seems fair enough for sure.

My personal wish-list: Remove the Daze and go back to the 4 ini cost.Make Swipe 900 range to have it properly flow with Thieves' other skillsfunny enough, that would promote more aggressive play.Remove Stability off of Blinding Powder, but make it instant-cast again.This change dumbed down Thief so much...Equalize Shadow Portal and Mesmer's Portal a little bit by having both exist for 30 seconds.Feels unfair as it is now, especially in PvP, less so in WvW.Improve Dagger 1 a tad (Auto Attacks and Backstab).Backstab feels very unrewarding for the required investment. Backstab to a 2.0 modifier (up from 1.8), AA1 to 0.5 (from 0.4), AA2 to 0.6 (from 0.433) and leave Lotus Strike (0.733).To compensate a little, reduce Heartseeker modifiers a bit.Above 50% from 1.0 to 0.9, below 50% from 1.5 to 1.85 and below 25% from 2.0 to 1.8 this would hopefully result in a bit braindead players spamming Heartseeker, lol.Pistol Whip initiative cost reduced to 5 again, at the cost of some damageDidn't really crunch numbers on this one, to be fair... But I think dropping the damage modifier from 2.12 down to 2.0 would still be fair...The main ones I'd like to see would be the changes to Swipe and Blinding Powder though.Oh, and Preparedness (Trickery) should really be baseline at this stage... What to replace it with though..? Maybe simply a Blind on Steal?Just really don't like how recent changes are messing with the fluidity of Thief and how it plays... Things are just so much more clunky.

Definitely LotRO's Warden. The versatility was great.Mobile, Medium Armored class that could roll as Tank, Melee or as Debuffer, depending on the chosen trait tree. They also had these unique shields, only available to that specific class. Thematically I guess it'd fit the Ranger, or maybe funny enough the Thief. It's been described as a "border-patrol" based on Haldir (that Elf guy from Lorien who also comes to help at Helms Deep), but also as a "local beat cop".So the link to Rangers is clear, but you could also consider it for a Thief-gone-good sort of thing. Could even give up Stealth (wouldn't a lot of people like to see that...) Mechanically, pulling it off in GW2... Maybe difficult. It would come closest to Ele's attunement swapping and playing into various combo fields/finishers and base new flipover skills based on the combo effect. Kind of like how you currently get the ability to transmute aura's on an Ele when you get them, but then amped up to weave intricate skill-combinations based on action input, feedback on it and the following change of reactions/interactions.Like... Blocking an Attack using your #5, it flips over into a taunt, simple enough. However, it expands from there. if the taunt works and you get hit by the taunted opponent, your skills #2 and #3 flip over into ripostes, one offering damage, the other boonstrip or something. If the taunt isn't succesful due to a stunbreak being used, your #5 may still flip over again into a quick short-range pull or something. It could get very, very intricate and I do believe it could be doable. It would also require a very dedicated team to work out all of the options and scenarios... Really loved it because, while it wasn't really the best at anything, it was able to play into niche roles and setups due to always having something, some kind of tool that fit the situation... A versatile skillset and toolkit. while playing very fluidly as a mobile-melee bruiser "bob and weave" type with a high skill-ceiling.

Lost me at "Guaranteed possibility". Lol.

Main problem with stealth is not the potential for unexpected burst, but the amount of damage it prevents. Aside for AoEs (and thieves have no problems avoiding most of them due their extreme mobility) every damage falls to 0 when a foe is in stealth, because most of skills that deal damage and aren't AoE need a target or at least to cleave a very delimited area to produce pressure. Stealth makes most of those skills temporaly useless and therfore is the largest damage preventing ability in the game. There's a very limited amount of skills that require you to have a target. Most skills can be used anywhere, anytime. Your statement, while not completely untrue, is rather irrelevant to the majority of skills in this game.Sure, it's more difficult to land, but at least they can land on stealth foes.