Sir Vincent III.1286

That's why you have a glider. You launch yourself from your mount and glide to your target destination. It has nothing to do withe the mount. You just have to learn how to use launch and glide. You can even launch yourself from your Griffon or Skyscale, glide, then remount. I do this to heal their health to full while staying airborne. What I hate about the Skyscale is sticking to a wall instead of landing on the ledge on the cliffside that my Griffon never had a problem landing on. Each mount has pros and cons, no one mount is superior to others. If you like the Skyscale to travel everywhere, that's fine, others simply do not find the grind is worth the mount. I personally agree with them due to the fact that I can fly across the map with my Griffon while my Skyscale rans out of breath after a few seconds of flapping its wings.

Not what I said at all.

I just showed you that Scourge doesn't have the same problem that you are having with the Revenant, which makes your claim that "Daredevil dominates any condition builds" false. Again, your claim is false. My Scourge can apply 5 stacks of burning in one hit in addition to Torment, Vulnerability, and Cripple. Not to mention, I can reapply them right away when cleansed. That's the problem with Revenant condition build, it cannot replenish cleansed conditions. Which is an argument I've already made that you conveniently ignored. "everyone runs glass" -- again, another false statement. How many time you have to lie in order to push your agenda? You're making one false assumption after another. Revenant is a mess and very restrictive when it comes to build diversity. That is a fact that you're not willing to accept. What's this irrelevant argument? The nerf on Scourge was not about not having counter, rather the fact that the profession has a large zone control. With its ability to apply insane amount of conditions, it got nerfed to limit its range. Even the Daredevil was having a hard time fighting within the zone. Thus the Scourge now has to choose whether to activate their Shroud skill around themselves or around the Shade. It doesn't really change anything when it comes to condition application and re-application. Dodging your pathetic attacks to cleanse condition is a "rewarding manner" -- you're free to disagree. I never said that Condition Revenant needs a buff...that's all on you. I said it needs to get fixed because it's a mess and lacking options. You just like making false assumptions. TL;DR:Me: The sky is clear todayYou: OMG, why would you want dark clouds!

As for "Big World Boss Event" -- that would be Kralkatorrik in Dragonfall. There's always a lot of players in that map whenever I log in, may it be weekdays or weekend.

You have to understand that some players need assistance to play the game and some method of accessibility might be perceived as "botting". The dev knows who these players are and they are allowed to proceed as is. Thus sometimes, no matter how many times you report them, there are no actions taken -- this is one of many reasons.

Suggestion: Include a "Link Equipment" option to the build. So switching build will automatically equip the linked equipments.

Skyscale is only useful in Dragonfall during the main meta event to take down the pylons. In other places, you can use any of the other mounts. But I agree, the acquisition of this mount is really boring and I'm glad that's a thing of the past.

Following your logic, initiative would not be depleted if your skill didn't initiate an attack. Thus, the Dev could make all skills free if it didn't hit a target. So using infiltrators arrows or sword #2 without a target will be free and would not be depleted since it's not technically an intitiated attack.

It's a fact that Revenant doesn't have access to a variety of conditions that can easily be applied -- you have ignored that fact. Instead you go on talking about some subjective instances why "people can't make condition revenant work". It's a know fact that Revenant has a massive flaw when running conditions and the Daredevil just exposed that flaw in broad daylight. Your solution is to stop the Daredevil from exposing the flaw instead of addressing on how to fix it. Wait what? You are against the nerf on Scourge, yet you are advocating a nerf on Daredevil? un-freaking-believable! This is why your stance is ridiculous from the beginning since you have no idea what you're talking about. Seriously? That's your rebuttal? First of all, the main goal of condition damage is to apply pressure, which means, your build should have the ability to replenish cleansed conditions. Just because you can front load with conditions doesn't necessarily means it would be effective. Once your conditions are cleansed, then what? You're a sitting duck without resources to use any skills. As a Revenant, you have to auto-attack or wait for your energy to regen. By that time, the Daredevil has mulitple skills and traits out of CD. Revenant's CDs need improvement. Second, the Revenant needs an overhaul since the whole thing is a mess. The best build for Revenant is an auto-attacking shortbow power build. That's pathetic. You can't bring that in a competitive scenario. Every time you auto-attack, the Daredevil will dodge/evade it. Every time you drop a pulsing AoE, the Daredevil will use that as free condition cleanse. Locking the utility skills per stance is a stupid idea that limits the flexibility of the profession. At least, ArenaNet should allow Revenant to cycle through all Legendary stances (F1-F5) just like how Elementalist cycles through elements. Lastly, you need to accept the fact that Revenant needs a lot of attention, especially when it comes to Condition Damage build. You're just in denial of this obvious fact. Instead you are advocating to nerf another profession instead of fixing the Revenant.

I have a Condition Damage Scourge and I'm not facing the same problem that you are having with your Revenant. Why? Because Scourge has access to a variety of conditions. You cleanse one, the others will deal damage. You're not analyzing the source of your problem. Revenant will ran out of resources trying to pin down a Daredevil, then you're just a sitting duck. Scourge got nerfed to give Daredevil a fighting chance.

That is by design and that is what Thief in any Elite Spec suppose to do. You just happen to be using an inferior build that's played inefficiently that is easily taken apart by a Daredevil. I too have a Revenant and I've dabbled in making condition build works, but that's like cutting my legs off -- Revenant is not applying enough variety of conditions to make it work. A single cleanse can shut down your damage output because if it's not bleeding, it's torment -- that's it. The burning (elite skill only) and poison (10s ICD) are both restricted, they're not even worth taking. Wooden Potato made a Renegade power build that I started using with some tweaks. It is more effective in dealing damage than trying to make condition work -- it's just not gonna happen with the Revenant. You need to rethink your strategy. Just because Revenant can deal condition damage it doesn't necessarily mean they can run a full condition build. Your experience is already a proof that Revenant needs improvement in the condition damage department. The Revenant's dysfunction is not the Thief's problem. You can't fix Revenant's flat tire by poking holes in the Thief's tires. Learn to change tires. This is the reason I assumed the OP would be running grieving stats, since you'd then get decent power damage to prop up the condis. You are quite right if you're talking about pure condi builds like trailblazer tho. I've turned the Revenant profession inside out, I just can't make condition build to work. The fact that the utility skills are locked in per Legend, I cannot create skill combinations that can work. Every attempt is over shadowed by the fact that I'm better off running high crit power build. Even the Renegade E.spec is cruel to condition build-- while Kala grant tons of Ferocity, she grants pathetic amount of condition damage boost.

That is by design and that is what Thief in any Elite Spec suppose to do. You just happen to be using an inferior build that's played inefficiently that is easily taken apart by a Daredevil. I too have a Revenant and I've dabbled in making condition build works, but that's like cutting my legs off -- Revenant is not applying enough variety of conditions to make it work. A single cleanse can shut down your damage output because if it's not bleeding, it's torment -- that's it. The burning (elite skill only) and poison (10s ICD) are both restricted, they're not even worth taking. Wooden Potato made a Renegade power build that I started using with some tweaks. It is more effective in dealing damage than trying to make condition work -- it's just not gonna happen with the Revenant. You need to rethink your strategy. Just because Revenant can deal condition damage it doesn't necessarily mean they can run a full condition build. Your experience is already a proof that Revenant needs improvement in the condition damage department. The Revenant's dysfunction is not the Thief's problem. You can't fix Revenant's flat tire by poking holes in the Thief's tires. Learn to change tires.

It has that sound like you pulled and released a door spring stopper when the mark is cast. I always think of an old microwave when the malice is full, they just went BING. Dropping a freshly microwaved hot pocket directly into someone's lap does sound pretty malicious tbh. Imagine getting stab at the back with it. MBS.

It has that sound like you pulled and released a door spring stopper when the mark is cast. If it makes a sound, I never noticed it. It might be really faint. Or it just get drown out by other sounds.

To be honest, I never notice a sound when using Mark or being marked. However, I notice the sound when full Malice.

^This. You just need to be smart in running your condition build. If you know they are cleansing on evade, don't give them anything to evade from. No need to change the trait, this is a L2P issue.

Yeah, I use that with my Scourge. In my Reaper, I use both Plague Signet and Plague Sending. Plague sending is enough most of the time since I go in and out of Reaper Shroud. It's really difficult as a Condi Thief fighting against the similar build as my Necros.

There a number of reasons I would take the Trickery line in an s/d build for conditions. While I do not play s/d I do play a d/d daredevil build and aspects of the two are similar. Added INI. You allude to this when suggesting taking quickpockets over BA as an advantage but the same holds true of TR over Shadowarts. You are not goind to stealth a lot in an s/d build (just as you do not in d/d condition) and with Prepardness and ini on steal 5 more INI is very useful. I have to disagree. The added +3 init from Preparedness is no different from staying in stealth for 3 seconds thanks to Shadow Rejuv. While you are in stealth for 3s, you are also stacking up Spider Venom, which means in your next Malicious Sneak Attack, you are applying Poison, Bleed, and Torment practically for free. Also, waiting for +2 init on steal has a cooldown of 17s while you can get +3 init every 10s with Quick Pockets -- this is why Quick Pockets is better at giving initiatives than waiting for Steal CD. This is dodge vs stealth and DD vs DE. As DD, I agree with you since you have no access to Malicious Sneak Attack. But as DE, you can save your dodges for evading attacks rather than stacking conditions. Not to mention, as DE, you can easily overload with Poison using both 1k Needle and Binding Shadow -- not only they both apply poison but they also trigger Panic Strike. Then you add Leeching Venom to that from SA -- you got a plethora of options to apply poison. Not necessary ever since Concealing Restoration. My Withdraw can also cleanse using SA when Shadow's Embrace is taken. Of course, SA will not work well with S/D, but with P/D -- DA/SA/DE is great. You have to spend 15 initiatives to get the max 15% bonus -- not ideal. I can get extra condition damage from Leeching Venom, Malicious Sneak Attack, and Malice without spending that much Initiatives. In order for BA to shine, your Steal CD has to be low enough for it to matter. Since you have to sacrifice Sleight for BA, it becomes an unnecessary GM trait. The amount of damage BA offer can be gained from Leeching Venom in SA. The only real advantage of BA is it applies a different kind of condition so it can survive a cleanse or acts as a cover. However, due to the high Steal CD, this wouldn't matter at all. Quick Pockets on the other hand will give you 6 initiatives before Steal goes out of cooldown, this is the reason why they want to nerf this. It just gives a lot of fuel for the Thief condition damage build. In a 30s time frame, you can Steal twice with Sleight (net 4 initiatives), apply 6 stacks of Confusion for 3s with BA (WvW), or have net 11 initiatives from Quick Pockets (9 from swapping and 2 from steal). You can see the advantage right away when you put them side by side. BA is the weakest of the 3 GMs. I am not discounting the front load capability of BA but in comparison to other GM traits, it is indeed trash. If we're talking about the PvE version, I would undoubtedly agreed with you, but the nerfed version in PvP and WvW is designed to discourage players from taking it. Consider me discouraged. I'm not sure why would you go D/D daredevil when you can use something better -- P/D Deadeye (DA/SA/DE)? Burning Initiatives to stack bleed makes no sense when you can do so through Malicious Sneak Attack that stacks Poison, Bleed, and Torment practically for free. You should not limit yourself to one build. I have p/d DE as well. My take on the TRickery line is totally different then your own. You talk about staying in stealth for 4 seconds for INI. I do not stay in stealth that long. It not worth it. The SA i take is not rejuv. It is Rending for the boon theft. I do not take shadows embrace in my p/d build for cleanses. I take Hidden thief. Well, I don't like staying in stealth that long either but that is what ArenaNet designed SA for. In order to stack Leeching, you have to stay in stealth at least for 3s. I don't stay in stealth longer than 3s though since I use the last second for Malicious Sneak Attacks. I'm still not a believer in Rending because whether they have boon or not, they still die due to Poison and Vulnerability. The only boon that I would like to strip is Resistance, but that is very rare. I am yet to get in a fight that boon strip in necessary. In PvE, I would take boons strip right away since bosses spams boons. If you don't take Shadow's Embrace, what is your cleanse? There's so many ways to stealth which means many opportunities to cleanse. I believe that it is rarely cleanse and I mentioned that as the advantage of BA is it can act as a cover. However, the way they nerfed Confusion makes it not worth it. It used to be that Condition Damage factors into the damage over time, but that is not the case anymore. The damage over time is flat 10dmg/s per stack at level 80 and the bulk of the damage is when skill is used. So if they don't use any skills, you'll only deal the base damage -- that's not very convincing. Any target that is in a brink of dying will die to anything, even from Malicious Sneak Attack that stacks 3 different DOTs. Even if they don't use any skills, the DOTs will kill them. I think that is my problem with Confusion, it requires an action from your target and if they didn't do anything, you get nothing from your investment. Don't get me wrong, the damage from Confusion is massive, but it is unreliable against competent targets. Confusion doesn't even work on me and I'm not even as skilled as you. The way I look at the trait is; will it work on me? My answer to that is obviously no. In WvW you have to expect to have all kinds of condition on you if you are in a fight. With SA, I don't have to care what conditions I have on me, I'll just cleanse it away. I think you mean Guardian. Necro's stolen item is bleed. Either way, both Necro and Guardian has a lot of ways of dealing with conditions so even if you overload them with conditions, it will either be easily cleansed or transferred to you. So I would hesitate at overloading those professions with conditions, especially the Necro since it can backfire. Also, I disagree. Sleight reduces the Steal CD further down to 17s, thus it is superior to BA which it has to deal with a 22s Steal CD. But I was not arguing that Sleight is better than BA, rather that Quick Pockets is better than both. As for your point, yes that is an impressive amount of conditions, however we are not fighting unresponsive targets and most of those who roam in WvW are very competent. This is why I don't front load my conditions rather I spread them out, thus I pick SA over Trick. As for SA, I can do a back to back Malicious Sneak Attack using Shadow Meld that stacks Poison, Bleed and Torment for an extended amount of time. That seems to be the case. EDIT: typo On P/d thief I use Hide in Shadows along with shadowstep. That generally enough cleanses and comes with the add of the lower cooldown on deception. I find the added stealths from hidden thief invaluable and the best way to set up your burst once the DE has malice stacks high enough to garner the full torment add on of malicious. I do not like using a shadow meld up here.I see. But you said that you don't stay in stealth for long, so isn't it a waste to use Hide in Shadows since the stealth from the heal will stack with the stealth from Concealing? I don't know, ever since I got interrupted when I used to take Hide in Shadows, I never used it in WvW. With Shadow's Embrace, it doesn't matter how I stealthed, I get the cleanse. It's just more options for me and Withdraw cannot be interrupted. Withdraw + Embrace + Concealing...it's the best combination in terms of healing, cleansing, evade, and stealth. I stopped taking Trickster because of this. Also, I don't think Hidden Thief is good enough compared to that combo when Embrace is taken. In addition, Hidden Thief is on a 25s CD while Withdraw is on 18s. If you wanted added stealth, Hidden Thief makes less sense since it doesn't bring anything else on the table other than lowering the CD of a couple of skills that you won't even need if you take Embrace. But even with the CDR, those skills still have long CDs. It really doesn't make sense. lol, I guess our difference is the approach since I tend to be more noble and tactical, so my build do not start from stealth rather from interaction by building up Malice, then spiking with loads of conditions. I find it more satisfying to at least give them a fighting chance, though it's futile. The thing is, my build can also approach from stealth and condition bomb if I want to. Yeah, but in my experience, I am very cautious dumping conditions on either Necro or Guardian. Rangers are free loot.

There a number of reasons I would take the Trickery line in an s/d build for conditions. While I do not play s/d I do play a d/d daredevil build and aspects of the two are similar. Added INI. You allude to this when suggesting taking quickpockets over BA as an advantage but the same holds true of TR over Shadowarts. You are not goind to stealth a lot in an s/d build (just as you do not in d/d condition) and with Prepardness and ini on steal 5 more INI is very useful. I have to disagree. The added +3 init from Preparedness is no different from staying in stealth for 3 seconds thanks to Shadow Rejuv. While you are in stealth for 3s, you are also stacking up Spider Venom, which means in your next Malicious Sneak Attack, you are applying Poison, Bleed, and Torment practically for free. Also, waiting for +2 init on steal has a cooldown of 17s while you can get +3 init every 10s with Quick Pockets -- this is why Quick Pockets is better at giving initiatives than waiting for Steal CD. This is dodge vs stealth and DD vs DE. As DD, I agree with you since you have no access to Malicious Sneak Attack. But as DE, you can save your dodges for evading attacks rather than stacking conditions. Not to mention, as DE, you can easily overload with Poison using both 1k Needle and Binding Shadow -- not only they both apply poison but they also trigger Panic Strike. Then you add Leeching Venom to that from SA -- you got a plethora of options to apply poison. Not necessary ever since Concealing Restoration. My Withdraw can also cleanse using SA when Shadow's Embrace is taken. Of course, SA will not work well with S/D, but with P/D -- DA/SA/DE is great. You have to spend 15 initiatives to get the max 15% bonus -- not ideal. I can get extra condition damage from Leeching Venom, Malicious Sneak Attack, and Malice without spending that much Initiatives. In order for BA to shine, your Steal CD has to be low enough for it to matter. Since you have to sacrifice Sleight for BA, it becomes an unnecessary GM trait. The amount of damage BA offer can be gained from Leeching Venom in SA. The only real advantage of BA is it applies a different kind of condition so it can survive a cleanse or acts as a cover. However, due to the high Steal CD, this wouldn't matter at all. Quick Pockets on the other hand will give you 6 initiatives before Steal goes out of cooldown, this is the reason why they want to nerf this. It just gives a lot of fuel for the Thief condition damage build. In a 30s time frame, you can Steal twice with Sleight (net 4 initiatives), apply 6 stacks of Confusion for 3s with BA (WvW), or have net 11 initiatives from Quick Pockets (9 from swapping and 2 from steal). You can see the advantage right away when you put them side by side. BA is the weakest of the 3 GMs. I am not discounting the front load capability of BA but in comparison to other GM traits, it is indeed trash. If we're talking about the PvE version, I would undoubtedly agreed with you, but the nerfed version in PvP and WvW is designed to discourage players from taking it. Consider me discouraged. I'm not sure why would you go D/D daredevil when you can use something better -- P/D Deadeye (DA/SA/DE)? Burning Initiatives to stack bleed makes no sense when you can do so through Malicious Sneak Attack that stacks Poison, Bleed, and Torment practically for free. You should not limit yourself to one build. I have p/d DE as well. My take on the TRickery line is totally different then your own. You talk about staying in stealth for 4 seconds for INI. I do not stay in stealth that long. It not worth it. The SA i take is not rejuv. It is Rending for the boon theft. I do not take shadows embrace in my p/d build for cleanses. I take Hidden thief.Well, I don't like staying in stealth that long either but that is what ArenaNet designed SA for. In order to stack Leeching, you have to stay in stealth at least for 3s. I don't stay in stealth longer than 3s though since I use the last second for Malicious Sneak Attacks. I'm still not a believer in Rending because whether they have boon or not, they still die due to Poison and Vulnerability. The only boon that I would like to strip is Resistance, but that is very rare. I am yet to get in a fight that boon strip in necessary. In PvE, I would take boons strip right away since bosses spams boons. If you don't take Shadow's Embrace, what is your cleanse? There's so many ways to stealth which means many opportunities to cleanse. I believe that it is rarely cleanse and I mentioned that as the advantage of BA is it can act as a cover. However, the way they nerfed Confusion makes it not worth it. It used to be that Condition Damage factors into the damage over time, but that is not the case anymore. The damage over time is flat 10dmg/s per stack at level 80 and the bulk of the damage is when skill is used. So if they don't use any skills, you'll only deal the base damage -- that's not very convincing. Any target that is in a brink of dying will die to anything, even from Malicious Sneak Attack that stacks 3 different DOTs. Even if they don't use any skills, the DOTs will kill them. I think that is my problem with Confusion, it requires an action from your target and if they didn't do anything, you get nothing from your investment. Don't get me wrong, the damage from Confusion is massive, but it is unreliable against competent targets. Confusion doesn't even work on me and I'm not even as skilled as you. The way I look at the trait is; will it work on me? My answer to that is obviously no. In WvW you have to expect to have all kinds of condition on you if you are in a fight. With SA, I don't have to care what conditions I have on me, I'll just cleanse it away. I think you mean Guardian. Necro's stolen item is bleed. Either way, both Necro and Guardian has a lot of ways of dealing with conditions so even if you overload them with conditions, it will either be easily cleansed or transferred to you. So I would hesitate at overloading those professions with conditions, especially the Necro since it can backfire. Also, I disagree. Sleight reduces the Steal CD further down to 17s, thus it is superior to BA which it has to deal with a 22s Steal CD. But I was not arguing that Sleight is better than BA, rather that Quick Pockets is better than both. As for your point, yes that is an impressive amount of conditions, however we are not fighting unresponsive targets and most of those who roam in WvW are very competent. This is why I don't front load my conditions rather I spread them out, thus I pick SA over Trick. As for SA, I can do a back to back Malicious Sneak Attack using Shadow Meld that stacks Poison, Bleed and Torment for an extended amount of time. That seems to be the case. EDIT: typo

I favor the added mobility DD has over DE. The aftercast on rifle skills feels clunky, to boot. I don't use Rifle in my DE condition build. Rifle is counter intuitive in condition builds. SA grants stealth on Withdraw and DE grants stealth on stolen item use...don't need Silent Scope, besides Premed is better for condition build.

There a number of reasons I would take the Trickery line in an s/d build for conditions. While I do not play s/d I do play a d/d daredevil build and aspects of the two are similar. Added INI. You allude to this when suggesting taking quickpockets over BA as an advantage but the same holds true of TR over Shadowarts. You are not goind to stealth a lot in an s/d build (just as you do not in d/d condition) and with Prepardness and ini on steal 5 more INI is very useful. I have to disagree. The added +3 init from Preparedness is no different from staying in stealth for 3 seconds thanks to Shadow Rejuv. While you are in stealth for 3s, you are also stacking up Spider Venom, which means in your next Malicious Sneak Attack, you are applying Poison, Bleed, and Torment practically for free. Also, waiting for +2 init on steal has a cooldown of 17s while you can get +3 init every 10s with Quick Pockets -- this is why Quick Pockets is better at giving initiatives than waiting for Steal CD. This is dodge vs stealth and DD vs DE. As DD, I agree with you since you have no access to Malicious Sneak Attack. But as DE, you can save your dodges for evading attacks rather than stacking conditions. Not to mention, as DE, you can easily overload with Poison using both 1k Needle and Binding Shadow -- not only they both apply poison but they also trigger Panic Strike. Then you add Leeching Venom to that from SA -- you got a plethora of options to apply poison. Not necessary ever since Concealing Restoration. My Withdraw can also cleanse using SA when Shadow's Embrace is taken. Of course, SA will not work well with S/D, but with P/D -- DA/SA/DE is great. You have to spend 15 initiatives to get the max 15% bonus -- not ideal. I can get extra condition damage from Leeching Venom, Malicious Sneak Attack, and Malice without spending that much Initiatives. In order for BA to shine, your Steal CD has to be low enough for it to matter. Since you have to sacrifice Sleight for BA, it becomes an unnecessary GM trait. The amount of damage BA offer can be gained from Leeching Venom in SA. The only real advantage of BA is it applies a different kind of condition so it can survive a cleanse or acts as a cover. However, due to the high Steal CD, this wouldn't matter at all. Quick Pockets on the other hand will give you 6 initiatives before Steal goes out of cooldown, this is the reason why they want to nerf this. It just gives a lot of fuel for the Thief condition damage build. In a 30s time frame, you can Steal twice with Sleight (net 4 initiatives), apply 6 stacks of Confusion for 3s with BA (WvW), or have net 11 initiatives from Quick Pockets (9 from swapping and 2 from steal). You can see the advantage right away when you put them side by side. BA is the weakest of the 3 GMs. I am not discounting the front load capability of BA but in comparison to other GM traits, it is indeed trash. If we're talking about the PvE version, I would undoubtedly agreed with you, but the nerfed version in PvP and WvW is designed to discourage players from taking it. Consider me discouraged. I'm not sure why would you go D/D daredevil when you can use something better -- P/D Deadeye (DA/SA/DE)? Burning Initiatives to stack bleed makes no sense when you can do so through Malicious Sneak Attack that stacks Poison, Bleed, and Torment practically for free.

If you're running Condition Damage build, why would you take Trickery over Shadow Arts? Assuming you've already picked DA and one of the Elite spec. With the free Poison Venom on stealth from Shadow Arts, it gives you more condition damage when you stealth attack than what Bewildering Ambush can offer. The pathetic 3s duration of 6 stacks of confusion is trash. Sure Sleight of Hand can lower the Steal cooldown and can apply poison on steal, but you can stealth more often than you can steal, especially when using Deadeye, thus you can apply more poison damage over time. In other words, if you're running condition damage build, you're only crippling yourself by taking Trickery. However if you want Trickery, you're better off using Quick Pockets -- at least this way you can have extra shots out of your Shortbow.

Adding more Initiatives is just delaying the inevitable of running out of Initiatives. When you run out of Initiatives and you used Shadow Shot every 4s, for example, you are basically adding 4 more seconds of cooldown to every other weapon skills. The Thief's weapon skill cooldown starts low, but it snowball to crazy length in a long fight. For instance, if I used up my Initiatives and used Shadow Shot every 4s, I'm adding 4s CD to Blackpowder basically making its CD 10s. For every Shadow Shot I use, Blackpowder's CD just keep on accumulating by 4s, 14s CD, 18s CD, 22s CD, 26s CD, ad infinitum. As long as I keep on using Shadow Shot every 4s, Blackpowder will never see the light of day. This effectively limits the Thief's access to other skills in a long fight, while other profession's skills will recharge independently from each other -- in both weapon sets. A Warrior who uses Savage Leap every 8s is not adding 8s CD to their other weapon skills. This flaw in the Initiative system creates bad gameplay like "permastealth" to wait for Initiative regen or flat out abandoning the fight, aka running away. Neither the Thief nor other profession view this kind of gameplay satisfactorily.

This is my hybrid Weaver build I use in Dragonfall events (link). You set everything on fire then burst them with Fire Grab. Works really well on escort events and final meta event.

That's about right. Scourge, Firebrand, Holo, and Mirage in that exact order.