NorthernRedStar.3054

All the legendary trinkets allow for this. Just check off the equipment square indicator.

What is this solo roaming you're talking about? I never see anyone else besides myself do this.

The roaming variety? You mean parties of 5-10 people who are afraid of actually fighting someone, and have their pocket b-- support cover for them? Oh, actual roaming? It's dead, isn't it? At least on the more "popular", high-ranking servers.

This. Even a 1v3 quickly turns into a 1v10. And the bigger server "roamers" refuse to walk anywhere without their pocket b---- support. Like true wimps.

Disable them by default.

Fair, you're probably far better equipped to delve in the details by comparison.

Can't blame it all the players, though. Anet has a history of leaving problematic, low risk/high reward mechanics and interactions untouched. This leads to most players getting comfortable with their low brain energy gameplay, and being sad when thiefs drag them down to their playing field - improvisation. Doing PvE-esque rotations does not make your class a special grade of "high level" in competitive. It just means your class (and/or build) packs a lot of passive power behind their kit. While I would change every stealth skill to reveal thief even if they miss, even Backstab has a lot of counterplay that - sadly - even some of the more experienced players aren't aware of (i.e. about face "spam"). Most importantly, thief has trade-offs written all over their kits: initiative comes with weaker utility and elite skills, going on the offensive immediately limits your defensive options, stealth requires commitment (unlike, say, certain class mechanics) and the mobility comes at the cost of damage and the evade frames come with clear after-cast windows that can be exploited by decent players, particularly in groups of 1+.. Only Steal really breaks this box of rules, but it can be argued thief would die if Steal were to get nerfed.

The beauty about evades, blocks and invulns, though, is that you actually have to time them and they're a moment of weakness thanks to non-cancellable aftercasts and whatnot. Necromancer shares the same fundamental problem as warrior does in that its design is outdated and fundamentally flawed in modern GW2, and would have to redesigned to an extent. Otherwise you're left with a bloated mess for class that's either notoriously too weak or too oppressive, never anywhere near between. This obviously wasn't as much of an issue when competitive was more high risk/reward. Necromancer who say they should be farmed by ranged classes are actually just bad at the game, really. Like, really bad. You can often tell how Anet prioritizes between casuals and veterans based on the state necromancer is in. They should really target the amount of passive sustain necromancer has, but should not have due to shroud. I do not think Shroud's cooldown should be increased, but the amount of effort it takes to regen it and their actual health should be targeted. This would allow a power shift elsewhere, as well; and I think that would be fair, too.

I'd imagine a lot less people would actually have issues if they didn't "stand there and watch them do their stealth combo".

Exactly. And if you play non-stealth condi, well, we know what happens: people will cry, Anet will certainly nerf it (again). And how often do I actually want to play condi thief in competitive, lol. Every time a non-stealth thief build enables the class to 1v1, it gets nerfed. Which leads to stealth triumphing in mirrors, as well, every time. Anet is reinforcing the issue.

Thief is pretty countered by boon spam in both competitive game modes, has to slot in glassy stats in order to deal meaningful damage, lacks the 5-second blocks and (nigh') instaneous evade frames that other classes have on weapon skills AND (non-elite) utility - on low cooldown - and has, on average, weaker utility skills to compensate for the initiative system. Meanwhile, glasses like ranger, warrior, engineer and revenant can go mix in tankier stats without losing out on much damage (hello, WvW soulbeast and nades engi), have all of the aforementioned + reflects, superior sustain, and mobility that's - yes - comparable to thief's. Why are people complaining? I do not understand. There are far more toxic builds in this game than SA thief.

1vX in WvW.

Judging by the recently announced changes to both PvE and PvP content, it's safe to say the balance and dev teams are prepared to toss more seasoned players under the bus in order to attract "fresh blood". It is extremely unlikely thief will see ANY buffs, outside maybe specter. This is the sacrificial lamb. A part of it, anyways.

Actually, the first thing this brought to my mind was that there's no way something similar isn't coming for WvW thieves. There's reason to be reasonably worried.

This is the thing, btw. After stealth finally gets gutted due to "public opinion", they come for A) Shadowstep, B) Infiltrator's Strike and Return, C) Shadow Shot and D) Dagger Storm. You know it's going to happen, because people want those free kills above all else.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have people claiming minor changes w/o much of an understanding.

I, too, quit PvP a while (months) back. Best decision I ever made with this game.

I agree with the Smokescreen nerf, even if there were better ways to do it. I have no issue with the Rejuvenation nerf, either, since the heal was deceptively powerful on top of very solid utility. I don't see the reasoning behind gutting Hide in Shadows and Blinding Powder w/o resorting to SA, though. Thought the goal was to get thieves to move away from SA, not reinforce their reliance on it.

Smokescreen had it long coming. Shadow Rejuvenation is fine, too. The other two? Not liking.

"Shadow Arts is an issue. Hence, we'd like to nerf some core thief skills, which reinforces thief's reliance on SA." DansGame .

This, and despite the value of quickness and alacrity, it is stability and blocks (and reflects) that allow even below-average players to skip most mechanics. There's a reason strikes are so godawful easy compared to (non-CM) raids. It's because a single healbrand or hybridbrand can essentially carry the entire squad. I am, more often than not, this firebrand, lol. Sure, it feels (sorta) satisfying for the guardian player - but what about the others?

Indeed.

Avoid fresh air.

Depends on the type of content you play. Sigil of Force with the 5% modifier is generally staple for squad and party-based PvE content. For solo content, it depends entirely upon your build - although, Sigil of Cleansing is very popular for expansion content thanks to its kiting and sustain implications. After the global damage nerfs, to my understanding, stacking sigils lost much of their WvW ground. You're much more likely to see Sigil of Energy, Cleansing, Flame or Air, or another utility-based sigil. Although, Sigil of Vision has been one of the greatsword staples for ranger for the longest time, and there are other class and role based builds with less common sigils equipped. For TL;DR: if you do equip one, it better be on a character that's got some good escape tools.

The last ~0.5 seconds of Dagger Storm, despite its skill description, does not provide evade frames either. Unless the thief cancels early, it's almost painfully easy to time a burst skill or CC into that time window. Same goes for condi DD, you root them once and they're kitten't.