AikijinX.6258

Yeah brother I more or less agree. These changes are excellent and definitely moving in the right direction. My hidden thief stealth steal will be missed as well as heal stealth, but I can definitely get over all of that because it wasn’t really my absolute go to thing. I am over the moon about the change about stealth stacking. But I guess you are right in that sense about the super speed because it’s really nothing special, since it’s bringing us up to the standard, since literally every other class had access to this and the protection boon. Still a good QoL. I’ve always wanted super speed AND protection on my Thief and now I have it after 10 years. Oh man CnD… if D/D as you said wasn’t so terrible with mobility it would 100% thrive in this patch. S/D will have an resurgence. Too bad Acro wasn’t even touched and preparedness wasn’t made baseline. Anet is going in the right direction. So I will wait and see. But I already can tell that in a couple more balance patches super speed and protection will probably be taken away from us. Because once the higher than average thieves start adapting to the new changes and start winning every battle they get into whether it be 1v1 or 1vX, then I can foresee, (as this always happens) a nerf coming to something introduced to us but taken away because good players started ‘ wrecking ‘ the bad or casual (majority) of the player base. So then they’ll complain of ‘unbalance’ because thieves are in the end thieves and it’ll go like “ how is this fair, they get stealth, on top of SuperSpeed and protection, and tons of mobility, disengage power and now barrier and extra lifebar “. It’ll be like clockwork.

Guys we know the public outcry will definitely pour out pretty soon. Enjoy these CRACKED buffs while they last. Protection and SuperSpeed and barrier on heal (innate sanctuary runes), merciful ambush adept. Enjoy this while it last because these changes won’t be here for long. They will get nerfed and honestly pretty justifiably. (Although I love this beloved class.. it’s getting nerfed) but I’m ecstatic about these changes! They are incredible! Good job Anet. Well done. I guess I’m returning to the game again. EDIT: However, I am slightly unhappy about my stealth on steal ‘ hidden thief ‘ trait not being usable, but that is kind of overshadowed by the overall buffs and QoLs. EDIT2: I had more time to think about these changes. I still like them because this reinforces the need to actively use stealth rather than passively sit and wait. Most of the brain dead passive traits carried anyways, so these changes will require a bit more thought and planning. The stealth on heal will be missed with the ‘ withdraw ‘ heal I used, but as this class always does, since it’s a high skill cap profession, we adapt. - I do hope that the shadow rejuvenation change gives back a sufficient amount of initiative back since it’s been reworked like that. If it gives back only 1 initiative, the trait is dead on arrival.

Hungering Darkness trait to tethered ally

Do you truly believe Anet will read any of that? I commend your efforts with that really good read, but they aren’t reading any of that. If they haven’t read posts from their very own specter feedback thread. As evident from their “balance notes.”

Yeah man you did great work showcasing the bugs and explaining the problem. It’s absolutely disgusting and disrespectful that they didn’t atleast comment or quote the post acknowledging your efforts or gave some type of sign on the balance notes that they’ve acknowledged the problem. (Assuming they deem this slow moving projectile as a problem)

Has Anet mentioned anything about the new runes and sigils, if any? Why isn’t this being talked about more?

Twilight Combo velocity was not addressed. Needs a velocity increase. Edit: T.C should also pierce, since it’s literally a wave of energy that slicing the air, which should pierce thru people.

This is exactly what I feel is going to happen. You more than likely hit their “balance” philosophy spot on. But as said before, Specter is in a pretty strong spot. (In the hands of competent players.. wvw wise) to everyone else this Specter may seem a little underrated and not good enough. 1 Thing I know is that if they sped up the Sc/D twilight combo skill and fixed the pathing since the last beta, then power Specter will be very high on the list for roaming/1vX specs (for me). Speeding up the skill and fixing the pathing is a necessary QoL fix that should have been looked at since beta 3 and already fixed in beta 4. But I digress… I hope the projected nerfs don’t have anything to do with initiative increases. What do you expect? Do you truly believe Anet wants the player to be super successful with a profession. If it over performs and you’re too successful with the class Mechanic(s) then you get punished. This is how it’s always been. As soon as competent thieves start running specter and because of their skill and knowledge of the game, start destroying the more casual and chill group of the gw2 community in WvW or even in PvP. Then it will start to become a problem, because Specter will be seen as over-tuned, rather than validating the Specter player’s own skill.

Is that the main source of outcry for Necro’s?

People cry when they can see us (evasion era) People cry when they cannot see us (on-going stealth era) And now people will cry when they cannot get past our 2 life bars (tanky-specter era) There really isn’t any winning. And although as I said above, our shroud is very fragile and can easily be bursted. People will still have a problem. People fear what they don’t know or care to learn.

Yes T.D gives a lot of generation to shroud. I can honestly see this getting nerfed. But would it be justified? I just don’t know. I couldn’t answer that. New blood to the class is always good. But we are talking about Thief here. This class always comes with outcries and calls for nerfs. It comes with the class.

Specter will most certainly receive a similar fate, probably not the same (Right now). But unfortunately since Specter is VERY GOOD, and especially (In the hands of competent Thieves) it’ll pose a problem for the more casual based players (in WvW) . Specter is very solid. And because of this, we will receive among the harshest of “balances” I believe. This is due to the fact that most of the community just doesn’t care or know how to counter Thieves or play against them in general and that’s the unfortunate part about it. And simply refuse to learn because mass uprisings for Thief nerfs solve things much quicker than practicing.

I don’t disagree with that sentiment at all. I can comfortably 1 v X (WvW) Power Sc/D — DP Specter. And with this new armor stat combo (dragons) mixed with marauder stats, it’ll allow for higher vitality, but also better precision without having to break your back and suffer too much. I will say this now. Pack Runes are one of the most well rounded runes in this game for a power specter that’ wants to min max crit chance and power. But we’ll have to see what the new runes look like. Give the game a vitality, precision,, power based rune and you’ll never hear the end of power creep. (exuberance rune is already here, but that’s kinda meh.)

It’s incredible how people will more than likely complain about Thief being “too tanky” when like 1 or 2 clean hits on shroud can obliterate Shroud hp, and not to mention those builds with high burst condi. Shadow force generation is pretty slow too, but this I can definitely see being nerfed too. It’s only a matter of time. which build are you playing with your Specter? Don’t underestimate their ambition to balance and Over-balance. Unfortunately the majority of people playing this game are more of the Casual/Relaxed kind of player. They will cater to them 1st and foremost. Plus I wouldn’t put it past them to nerf ini for Specter since the Spec itself loses 3 base initiative in general. They don’t want specters to be “too viable” without trickery. And what do you project will be the main target for “balance” ?

You believe Anet will inadvertently and indirectly continue to nerf core? You think it’ll be as a result of a continuance of “balance” with SA? Or do you think they will go into another trait-line and gut that or an increase of more core utility CDs?

So my question for you is: How long do you think it’ll take for Specter to receive a nerf? For me I am speaking in regard to (WvW and in specific to me, Power SC/D —DP roaming & 1vX Specter) But you guys can speak in regard to any mode and play style. I think it’s only a matter of time before the community complains about shrouds 2nd life bar (FRAGILE life bar I should add) but even knowing all this about how fragile shroud is… even then I believe the community will still be in an uproar, and will rally for nerfs for this new specialization’s shroud mechanic. It’s only a matter of time. The upcoming nerf to Specter Shroud that is bound to happen fairly soon into the expansion (I project) will be in addition to the massive gutting that’s already going to happen to SA. I’m just curious what you guys feel is going to get targeted and nerfed with Specter and what the next community uprising will be in regard to? (This is a serious topic and question, not an OMEGALUL Troll post) please try to be respectful.

Yeah Specter coming soon! And that’s gonna be a breath of fresh air. It’s also gonna be broken as kitten😂🥴 power sc/d dragons/marauder stat combo. These twilight combo crits WILL hurt. (WvW roaming/1vX perspective) and in regard to the changes. Yeah they’re quite illogical and backwards. Really don’t understand how they missed the mark but still won’t effect me or any other Thief of competence. And it’s crazy to me that people are crying over hidden Thief. I’ve been using this trait OVER the condi cleanse trait that I had thought was the meta BiS trait for a while, especially in this kitten condi infested period we are in. (WvW) I always picked hidden Thief because I saw the benefit of it years ago, but I guess now it’s a threat and just is additional fluff to add on to the SA is OP narrative. (Which objectively it is, and always has been, im just sad that my trait I’ve been using for years now has eyes on it and is a target) EDIT: Oh and not to mention. Rending Shade is a great trait that people overlook because of shadow rejuv. Cloaked in Shadows is good too, but I feel like it alerts the enemy too much, since they get blinded when you go near.

These Thief SA changes are very illogical. That’s all I’m saying about that, however, if these get brought in to WvW I’m flipping a table.

Doesn't matter how much crit you got with weakness on you (; That being said, my Thief has been running this 100% crit build for a long time now, I'm glad the meta is changing ever-so-slightly

Dragons stat combo mixed with marauder. Man… specter thief power sc/d gonna be scary with higher hp plus a 2nd life bar from shroud in WvW for roaming/duels 😊

So you want a Super Shroud that can do everything for pretty minimal cost?

Yes I would be running the TD trait instead, as well as Well of Bounty, I would also run Acro instead 😊 Yeah bro power Spectre is crazy. Now what we don’t know is how much they’ve either balanced ( nerfed ) or buffed certain aspects to Spectre. I wish there was another beta to really verify what we will be getting into before actual launch, but a man can dream. Haha. But I’m sure you’re super happy. You loved running your P/D Condi build. So this spec is like amazing to you😄

Merry Christmas Everyone Enjoy ✨❤️

Very interesting take bro! And honestly you’re right. But I am still not understanding how this has to limit us to be shoe horned into these types of avenues. D/P is great and has a lot of utility behind it, but why does this automatically make thieves unable to do anything else? D/P inherently brings massive levels of support because of the ability to blackpowder and daze. But with this thinking, so does S/P and P/P. Specter brings the ability to blast smoke field and aoe stealth, etc, which is one of the biggest and best supports in the game. But why does all of this have to limit us to only being able to 2v2 and +1 You serious? You actually want to be controlled by someone?