nopoet.2960

You know what they need to do is modify the scepter skills so they hit your target and your target's target. For example if you are attacking an enemy, you also buff the ally it's attacking. If you are targeting an ally, you also debuff, the foe it's attacking. That and give Well of Bounty Stealth.

Dude if warriors got a pull Anet will give it a 600 unit range. I still can't stop lanughing at melee pistol. Something something monkey paw.

NO you can't have scorpion wire! It's a beautiful mess of a utility but I need to for PVE. Might I interest you in some venoms?

But then why would you ever use sword?

Oh, I didn't grasp the ally buff part. I think it's a neat idea but I don't think that fits the theme for core thief. Something like that would have to show up in the form of a elite spec. I'm going to update the original post one more time. With the words Don't Stop - When you gain swiftness, lose a movement-impairing condition. Gain stability periodically while you have swiftness. I imagine the stability part working like this: Gain 8 seconds or Stability after having Swiftness for 8 seconds. A bit a of a buff from what I wrote before but I can dream.

We can work with this! How about: Periodically grants Stability when you have swiftness. I'm thinking 3 seconds of Stability every 8 seconds. There is a necro trait that does something similar with protection. It's not full coverage like I want but I could live with it. Who has doubletap's number to let him know we fixed accro?

Ok @Kodama.6453 Updated Don't Stop in the op based on your feedback. Still too much?

I don't know man. Your argument against Gear Shift just makes me want it more. You make it sound so cool. Don't Stop might be over done but I still think we need something of that caliber to move folks into acro. It's just going to continue to be ignored otherwise and not really provide and build diversity.

So here's my take on it. Specing into acrobatics is never going to be optimal because it's primarily defensive. With the exception of some specter builds thieves are expected to deliver damage and a lot of it. So the question is how do we make acro good enough that people would actually us it but not so good that it becomes a problem. To my mind Gear Shift simply adds flexibility to create different weapon combos; staff/shot bow could be a thing for instance. I don't think it adds power so I don't see how it could be overpowered . Like I said before you are making a pretty serious trade off by going into acro at all. I agree my suggestion to Don't Stop will make thieves resilient to ccs. That's actually the point. This one trait in this defensive spec should have the potential to change the way you play your thief. Again remember your job as a thief is max dps. This trait doesn't help you get there but it could add some variety to your play style.

There's not an acrobatics thread on the first page so I'm here to remedy that. I tried to think through traits that would play well with other specs and expand the theme already present. What do you guys think? Minor Adept: (no change) Expeditious Dodger - Gain swiftness upon dodging. Major Adept: (new) Momentum - Your next attack after using a weapon skill that moves you (including shadowsteps) will refund 1 initiative (3 second cooldown) (udpated) Vigorous Recovery - Gain bonus healing power. Gain vigor when using a healing skill. (no change) Pain Response - Gain regeneration and remove damaging conditions when struck while below the health threshold. Minor Master: (no change) Feline Grace - Gain vigor upon successfully evading an attack. Major Master: (new) Gear Shift - Swapping weapons also swaps your power and condition damage stats for 12 secs (8 sec cooldown) (no change) Swindler's Equilibrium - Successfully evading an attack while wielding a sword or spear recharges Steal. Swords and spears deal increased damage. (updated) Catching Shadows - Gain endurance and Dark Aura when you shadowstep. Minor Grandmaster: (no change) Endless Stamina - The effects of vigor on you are enhanced. Gain bonus concentration. Major Grandmaster: (new) Acceleration - Gain 1.5 seconds of quickness and alacrity when you use a utility skill (no change) Upper Hand - Gain initiative and regeneration when you evade an attack. (updated) Don't Stop - Controlling effects remove swiftness but while you have swiftness you are immune to there effects. When you gain swiftness, lose a movement-impairing condition (updated) Ineffable Balance - While you have swiftness; push, pull, launch, sink, and float are converted to stun. When you gain swiftness lose a movement impairing condition. (updated) Don't Stop - When you gain swiftness, lose a movement-impairing condition. Gain stability periodically while you have swiftness.

I would increase maximum range every time you use malice. It would only affect your target though. The idea is once you've locked on it's harder for your target to escape. Mechanically I'd add 20 units per malice spent up to a max of 1800. It would take 15 malice to get there so really the only thing surviving that would be elites and champs. PVP your target should be dead before you maxed out.

The changes to Deadeye are odd. Yeah, kneel is problematic but allowing movement at 25% of normal speed doesn't solve anything. There are many many fights that punish you for being immobile and a 75% reduction is still to slow to escape the red circles. If anything, at this point, I think the devs could double down on kneel if they aren't going to completely remove it. Maybe give extra range based on how long you've been kneeling.

They do this a lot with thief skills too. I suspect its true function is an anti spam mechanic for skills with no cooldowns or just a way to impose a more "natural" feeling cooldown.

Ally siphon has a shorter cool down. I bet not triggering bountiful theft is intentional and not broken.

The op suggestion is better than what we have. Honestly though, I wish Consume Shadows would just change Mind Shock so that it used all your shadow force and healed based on how much you had. Basically just move all the the healing functionality to Mind Shock. That would be way more straight forward.

Nope you've convinced me and you can't take it back. 🙂 Wells should be used for their stated utility and movement alacrity should be a result of putting barriers on your allies like rot. This gives more regular application in combat but if you have a special case you could use shadow refuge to apply from a distance.

I'm running mace right now because after going down the rabbit hole of unlocking Willbender, theory crafting for a while I realized it would never be as much fun as my thief. I reevaluated what I wanted out of my guard and it turns out I just wanted a very different play style from thief. So I use mace/shield and staff right now in a healing build with giver's gear (had all the mats). The damage is slow but the build is neigh invincible. Instead of red numbers I see green. Lots and lots of green; so satisfying. So anyway before you go trying to turn your guardian into a dps spec just make sure that's what you really want.

This comment resonates with me. What if we get rid of alacrity on wells and instead add another venom that gets applied alongside of rotwallow. Call it like Quickening Venom. It would work like traditional venoms so every time your ally lands an attack they get some duration of Alacrity. This feels way more teef like to me.

I'm never going to stop asking them to put 1 sec of stealth on WoB to trigger Panaku's Ambition and Cover of Shadow in SA.

So one thing that gets me is that none of the theif specs are easy to play well. We don't have a "mechanist" spec. Yeah specter was durable but that doesn't help with positioning, initiative management, using combo fields. It just feels like we are being punished for playing a class that Anet designed and had the poor luck to like.

You can make anything work as a leveling build. I really like the dagger/dagger condition build. You could pair it with pistol/dagger or shortbow. Short bow is a little harder to get the hang of, you will pull extra enemies without meaning to, so maybe start with pistol/dagger as your second set. If you want condition damage unlock deadly arts first. Then I would go with shadow arts but everyone else will tell you to do trickery next. The reason you want shadow arts first is because trickery will spoil you. That said, try all the weapons. Give them all a good chance. You never know what's going to click with you. Dwayna forbid, but you may fall in love with swords. You'll never know until you try it.

1. Why not both? To your question...Winning with a Mesmer makes me feel smart. Winning with a thief makes me feel superior. Which feeling do you enjoy more?

I would like to see all CCs put on some kind of diminishing returns. Essentially, first hit full CC then they get less effective if you are hit in quick succession leading to temporary immunity on the forth. Stability, in this context, would give you like level 3 protection from ccs so you could get to immunity sooner. Also, want to see cc heavy weapons have stability hate. If I hit you with backbreaker and you have stability you should take extra damage.

What a fun read! The question that comes up for me after reading all of this is: Did Anet underestimate how much damage thieves were willing to give up for a proper support class? If you get that answer wrong you end up with something that doesn't really satisfy most people. Speaking for myself, I'd rather specter be full out support. There are other options if I want to do damage. I don't know what you guys think but I'd like to hear it.

I haven't tried hammer again yet but if you aren't starting encounters with 2-5-2 you're missing out. I did try double mace and was really surprised by the uptime on quickness. It's a good kit. It was just slow and they took care of that. You are right though, defiance bars are a weakness to both maces and hammers until it unlocks; then you're a god.