NorthernRedStar.3054

You're better off with deadeye or daredevil, combined with Deadly Arts and Trickery. The issue is how heavily Acrobatics overlaps with Shadow Arts AND Trickery. You get vigor from Bountiful Theft with a (ha har) bountiful duration. Why'd you waste entire major traits for essentially the same effect, but worse (no boon strip). Aside from that, much that Trickery offers doubles as an offensive/defensive tool - plus Lead Attacks is way better than Swindler's Equilibrium, and a minor. I assume I don't even have to discuss SA, because boosted stealth > any of the defensive tools on 300-second cooldown + regen, lol.

All things considered, SA grants superior damage options as well (concerning the nature of PvP and thief gameplay). CS is, of course, taken over it in PvE where the over-time gains are vastly superior.

So it begins. Again.

I enjoy the mind games, and I know I'm not the only one here. Don't be so hasty to call your subjective opinion to be everyone else's.

If SA gets nerfed, other trait lines need compensation. We cannot have 2 completely gutted trait lines in Acrobatics AND Shadow Arts. And before you say Acrobatics is fine - no, this isn't early level PvE. It's not fine by any measure, especially in competitive. Revamp Acrobatics, adjust Shadow Arts and compensate others.

It's a shame Acrobatics is so harshly overshadowed by the other trait lines. It has some of my favorite effects, both thematically and gameplay -wise. It needs a soft revamp, though. Like, who uses Pain Response in its current form - anywhere? It's way too similar to Instant Reflexes (which, coincidentally, has also been turned useless). This could be the ultimate boon strip / share specialization with some work. Currently, it's the "defensive" trait line of thieves that's outdone by Shadow Arts in every way imaginable. It also doesn't grant enough offense and utility to merit taking over Deadly Arts and Trickery. Fix? Make it serve a niche, but a powerful niche at that. At least it'd see some competitive use.

Fair.

This type of mindset doesn't make sense in the current western culture, where services are the king. You're going to have a bad time going forward in these coming years. Besides, the cost is optional since you can unlock the episodes with the in-game currency transfer. I don't see an issue here. They've had promotions where you can unlock the same stuff absolutely free of charge. There is so much content in the game that Anet's pay model is extremely generous by comparison.

I'm happy they added an indicator to Steve's chainsaw thrust. Now I don't have to wonder if I'm one cm too close to his backside. There's a few attacks like that in the game, and they can be a source of frustration, particularly if going solo.

It wouldn't be an "issue" whatsoever if the space wasn't so tight. GW2 shines when you have space to maneuver.

Every second you have to waste is more added to your team's complaints and your ineffectiveness. That's just a fact. That's the price you pay as a thief. You don't have to kill a thief to render them ineffective - which, apparently, is the point that triggers most players.

Which is meh, because before Feb 2020 you could kill a warrior you noticeably outskill within 10 seconds.

They learned from this mistake, as a lot of the instanced content has "pre" -encounters that introduce you to the mechanics. One of the best examples would be wing 1 of Forsaken Thicket. Onward, EoD has a fully committed tutorial area for new and returning players (which they should include in the core Tyria later on, honestly). Learning and absorbing information for later usage is a core part of most, if not all, game experiences. Just saying. You can't lay it _all_ on the devs.

Which got me thinking if they have data to back up improved visual clarity in volatile situations. It struck me as odd at first, but I may actually benefit from this.

Possibly in preparation for the new e-spec. To my knowledge this change wasn't exactly requested...?

Celestial gear works for soulbeast, but not on greatsword (dagger mainhand, primarily - alternatively, sword). Marauder stat is the one you're looking for. Same goes for guardian (who has even lower health pool than ranger). Are you asking as per greatsword stat line, or in general? Generally speaking, celestial gear works great on firebrand (guardian e-spec), and I can see it working fine on core as well. For dragonhunter I'd gear marauder/berserker, every time.

Doubt it will be long range. That'd feel too similar to deadeye, be hard to balance and completely undo certain utility and trait synergies.

What the actual kitten?

Ditching Trickery or Deadly Arts loses you a lot of damage in Bewildering Ambush/Potent Poison. Might not manage the 10-minute timer in tougher bounties.

This. The amount of healing core guard can dish out got heavily nerfed months ago. It's a deadweight build unless the player actually knows how to utilize the utility to its fullest.

So is the issue that support guard is too squishy to sit on node and take it like necro, or what?

I can sum this up: thief's playstyle is much more freestyle flow, timing and improvisation -oriented than other classes. Other classes who come "close" would be ranger and revenant in my books - but thief doesn't have the tools these two have, and their rotations are much more constant than thief's. They're more likely to approach a set of given situations in a similar manner than a thief. Playing as and against thief requires active adaptation. Many players (1) are not very good at it, and/or (2) hate being "forced" to do that or are unable to perform that on a level necessary of a competitive player. In other words, I suppose, thief highlights your weaknesses as a player on either side of the field. This brings out an unrecognized bias in most players, reflected in the hate the class receives at a constant basis.

Big fan of the walking animation while wielding a scythe-staff. Maybe the running animation could derive from that? Not holding my hopes up, but if a dev sees this. It'd be cool of classes who wield staff melee had unique idle and movement animations.

Already trading damage by taking said trait, but hey let's slap another (-) damage modifier on it for the sake of it. That's about as absurd as not reducing death shroud's modifiers while nerfing damage all around the board.

Game's more reliant on build countering and +1 than ever, and you want a dueling mode.