itspomf.9523

The quote below why I think a lot of us actually want to see this change. I for one could see it being implemented as sinking enough Hero Points into a specialization to acquire it's Tier-0 weapon unlock (30 points), whereafter a player can slot that "weapon mastery" into a separate place in their build. Concept: Weapon Mastery as an Unlockable Add-On Rather than a full trait-line, this would be a simple "add-on" bonus that allows a class to wield an additional weapon type -- guardian's could use axes or longbows, engineers could uses hammers or swords, etc. Only one mastery can be chosen at a time, allowing more expansive and atypical builds, but also preventing the wholesale abuse of weaponry. Keep in mind that this would also be self-limiting, a very important distinction to make! Let us take the following scenario: a Daredevil thief wielding a Rifle. Sure they gain access to the powerful Death's Judgment stealth attack, but keep the following in mind: They cannot access the Deadeye traits that improve upon rifle dramatically -- so no "Silent Scope."Neither can they gain Malice, greatly inhibiting the effectiveness of "Death's Judgment" (which normally gains +25% damage per stack -- up to +125% or +175% with Maleficent Seven).They still only get "Swipe" for their steal ability, so there's no potential for a powerful boon spam as an opener to its use (that doesn't immediately place them in melee range and immobilized for the 1/2 second of activation)."Kneel" works entirely counter to Daredevil's core mechanics of rapid movement and evasion, forcing a very detrimental trade-off with the entire trait line if one wishes to maximize rifle's damage and effectiveness. In fact, it could even be noted that kneeling should prevent the use of Daredevil's dodge abilities. (Why? Because you aren't mobile.)Losing staff (because they swapped for Rifle!) means they also cannot properly benefit from the "Staff Master" trait.Rifle is best used from range (as a 1200/1500 range weapon), which lays well outside of the 360 range of "Marauder's Resilience."Etcetera, and so on. And this is hardly as polarized (hah) as what synergies a "Holosmith" engineer would lose if they chose to run hammers. There's something else to keep in mind: weapons already have only limited trait synergy with their elite spec! Trait lines only grant a single trait which directly benefits a weapon's usage -- of those that even do. Dragon Hunter (guardian), Scrapper and Holosmith (engineer), Soulbeast (ranger), Reaper (necromancer), Tempest (elementalist), and Chronomancer (mesmer) do not grant an explicit trait for wielding their elite weapon! Counterpoint: Handling Competitive Play While I am very aware that granting access to a number weapon-specific skills could cause some ripples in the balance of the game, this is a feature that could simply be disabled in competitive play -- which is clearly quite possible now that skills and traits (and builds, with the release of templates!) have been split between PvE, PvP, and WvW gameplay. Having it as a PvE-only ability would not be terribly unfair in any regards, when it has no influence upon other modes of play where strictly regimented builds and balance are a requirement. tl;dr: If anything, it would grant a lot of us more freedom and creativity in how we approach problems -- and epitomize the concept of counterplay once touted with the original release of Elite Specializations, for the fact that using a contrary weapon mastery would not only be a conscious choice, but one inhibitive of an "optimal" build.

Anyone else remember when Thief was described as "deadly in 1-on-1 combat"?

It's almost like mesmer players forget they used to be the kings of denial and shutdown back in the days of enchantments and hexes. Just get your team -- since you appear to be a PvP / WvW player -- to lay down some AOE and force a stealthed foe to either waste its advantage by retreating or betray itself by setting off traps and marks. Your Ranger, Necromancer, and Elementalist buddies (or your Dragonhunter) will be more than happy to do so. ... or, you know, watch for all of the tells of "perma-stealth" builds where they refresh constantly and leave effects behind, and just drop a pile of AOE on that.

Don't worry, OP, you aren't alone. I'm still trying to figure out if Scarlet Briar isn't secretly Trahearne in leafy drag. Having gone on hiatus from the game for the majority of LS1 (talk about whiplash going from the end of "Flame and Frost" to "Escape from LA"!), and then skipping most of LS2 when I grew tired of its nonsense, Heart of Thorns was kind of a trip for me as well. I couldn't connect to anything at all, had no investment in these characters (despite enjoying Roxx's personality, if not her occasionally disturbing appearance, which they actually toned down later on), and Brahm was apparently going through the Norn equivalent of puberty, as far as I could tell for most of it. Which ... yeah, the Heart of Thorns story was a huge miss for me, and I had to quit on the last mission because I simply could not bring myself to slog through any more of it. In the effort of avoiding spoilers, I won't say anything with regards to the events that unfold, but some of the most formative actions regarding the PC and the rest of the cast just fell flat for me. I think the biggest problem is that a lot of Heart of Thorn's story feels like it's being guided -- there's very little room for interpretation or allowances for the player to make their own decisions with regards to how the story affects them. To elaborate, the first arc of the Personal Story for my main character involved hunting down a gladium sire who had gone AWOL. While I'd never actively roleplayed this character in the game, I was using the story, as it unfolded, to try and conceive of who this character was and how they would interact with the world and the society they were in -- I mean, it was the first time that the Charr were a people and not just baddies, for me, so I wanted to explore as much of it as I could. So as that arc progressed and I created my own emotional attachments to the people involved and started to sympathize with what they meant to do, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by how overwhelming the ending of that short arc was, but all the same, it was emotionally overwhelming for me -- precisely because I was given the opportunity for it it be. Same as with the mentor arc that followed it. In developing this character as more than just a virtual avatar, I'd effectively turned the Personal Story into my own tale within the game, and it had a far greater impact on me than any other content since. And I think that's what has been missing for a while, now; there's aren't enough points where the player can make the story their own. Anyway ... I've slowly worked through LS3 and LS4 with the help of friends, and honestly, I couldn't bring myself to enjoy them much, either. 3 was particularly egregious at times. It's kind of bizarre that I actually enjoyed Path of Fire's story by comparison to Heart of Thorns, though there's a lot there as to why (and very little has to do with this cast of characters following us around). The Olmakhan are still a favorite from LS4, though, and I'd love to see their society expounded upon a bit more.

Since apparently there are too few veteran players in this thread: ANet got rid of costs after a sizable outcry from people who were running dungeons and what was the original "hard" content of the game back in the day, where considerable sums were being spent on constant repairs due to armor breakage. Because before the power creep and figuring out ways to cheese every fight, yeah, people died regularly and death started to outweigh the rewards. Ergo why repair costs -- like that for resetting your traits -- are gone. I believe you're looking for Guild Wars 1, where this was a thing, and where mobs did not respawn since all maps were instanced. And no, it was not fun hunting down powerful foes to remove that penalty, when the effect for defeating them was only ever a +2% effectiveness. There's a reason it idn't come back.

I support this idea. Maybe then all the people complaining about the game being "too easy" will feel properly challenged. Don't even worry about the wallet stuff. When someone wipes in a raid and 1000g of items disappears from the economy in an instant, it literally won't be any different from how many languishing accounts or massive bank expansions have been holding onto resources for years.

Decided to offer up what I've been toying with since they remade Thief traits back in 2014, and carried me through most of Path of Fire. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PaQAQlVwgYXMMmJW2XnvfA-zxQYBFTBsT4DhOcYKgWmAqZA-e Went with Deadeye as well, after being very unenthused with Daredevil, and I've been using Invigorating Precision since it was added to the game. Key points to keep in mind: You can't take huge hits, or many hits in sequence, so choose your targets and engage from afar -- and dodge the nasty stuff. Cripple and immobilize are your friend.Remember that daggers hit two targets at once with their auto attack, and you heal on both hits. Swords can hit three if you want a bit more damage and healing.Stealth attacks and heavy hits heal you quite reliably, but don't wait for them if you're hurting; if you need to, slap 4 on Rifle ("Death's Retreat"), and then use "Malicious Restoration."If you're running Pistol / Dagger, then "Shadow Strike" can be a good way to escape, too (and get a bit of extra damage in via "Repeater") -- but only if you manage to hit them, first!Pistols have the fastest attack cycle of all Thief weapons, or near enough, which means healing more regularly despite the dip in damage. Unload is also a cheesy way to heal off of beefier targets, due to its ratcheting damage output and the Initiative recovery if all shots hit."Invigorating Precision" heals on critical hits, so having high precision, high ferocity, and high power means better healing and negating what damage you take -- but don't get too aggressive, as you can only heal off of what you can hurt!"Deadeye's Mark," when traited via the Trickery line with "Sleight of Hand," causes Daze -- this is a free interrupt! You can use it in a variety of situations to proc the sigils on your weapon(s) with this build, gaining a pile of damage output in the process and softening up foes.This is a "group-hug" build -- your Steal has been traited to give you and your allies piles and piles of boons. Keep near friends, or try to use stolen skills when your melee fighters are near the enemy, to ensure they get the biggest possible effect! However, this also means getting used to opening fights with it, since having Might, Fury, Swiftness, and Vigor up makes you harder to kill, so don't be afraid to strafe!Tiny Disclaimer: You might also notice that most of this build is a template; that's intentional. The Ascended rifle is easy enough to get on your own or with a bit of help (and lucky timing, for certain events), but not necessary in the least. All exotics is more than sufficient for most Lv.80 content, but if you have the time and energy, collecting Ascended trickets does mean a slight bump in stats. I'll also be honest that the Berserker / Assassin split seems really counterintuitive and really would be, outside of a build designed to exploit its own damage output.

Uhhh... what class mechanic? Stealth? Everyone's got that, nowadays. Mobility? Nope. Dodges are right out, even with Daredevil. Stealing is kind of moot when bundles exist, too (unless you're running Trickery/Deadeye and use it for boon generation / group-hug builds). Initiative is just Energy before Revenant was cool. The only thing we genuinely have are somewhat lackluster stealth attacks that have been repeatedly degraded over the years (regardless of what Deadeye did), and the dual-wield weapon skills. That's ... that's it. So unless that means more two-hand weapons like longbow or magic staves, or giving us some kind of Warrior Lite™ spec that eschews stealth entirely, I'm not really sure what there is to be sacrificed.

In the very least, I want to try out the new Pistol traits. Might finally be worth taking a bit of critical damage loss by swapping off from Practiced Tolerance.

And yet the entirety of the mesmer board is people bemoaning how awful it is and how ANet has nerfed it into the ground ...

I'm curious about the demographics of the game when it comes to thief players. Which game mode (or modes) and/or content do you primarily play thief in?

I mostly got them for the humor of making my characters even more ridiculous on the height slider. So … not all the time, but often enough in fights where I find their use amusing.

I was a bit punchy last night after roaming the Labyrinth and having a really intense fight with Steve over who got to carve the pumpkin (we won), and it occurred to me just how crazy fun it could be if weapon specialization was unrestricted from specializations. This would cause some really wild issues with balance and perhaps offer even more freedom of choice than the original mechanics did back around launch, when still we could sink points into all 5 trait lines, but it could potentially open up numerous new builds and approaches to play. Then again, this is just me thinking about the fantastic party boon support of Deadeye and how much I enjoyed Daredevil's staff (but hated its elite mechanics), and how awesome it'd be to just mash the two together. Anyway, onto the concept: At its core, the idea is the fact that, if we've unlocked it, we might as well make use of it. That, and it seems a bit weird that we get amnesia any time we change our elite spec! Suddenly I can't remember how to hold a shield as a mesmer, or use a torch as a necromancer. It makes sense that the passive buffs that are traits would be changed around because of *waves hands*, but that's meta game mechanics rather than the flavor of running around with a giant, rocket-powered wrench. Thus, I'd want to decouple weapon proficiency from specializations. You'd still need to master a specialization to acquire everything, of course, and the existing mechanisms for unlocking new skills and traits would remain unchanged. However -- and this is the fun part -- instead of having only 3 trait specializations to choose from, you get a 4th slot: weapon proficiency. That's basically the entire concept right there, but as for why this would be fun, it's equally a trade-off: almost every Elite specialization has a focus upon its analogous weapon and at least one trait that improves their usage, just like many core specializations do -- like how Arms for warrior is great for swords, axes, and maces, but you'll want Strength for greatswords or hammers. Or how Discipline is even better for axe-toting barbarians. So even if your Chronomancer picks Axe Proficiency as her weapon slot, the fact that you've chosen Chronomancer as your Elite specialization means you cannot benefit from the traits of Mirage, thus losing improved Axe usage! This would be the same as if I followed my wild, candy-corn fueled fantasy of Deadeye, but with a staff: I cannot use rifles, and only one-third of the Silent Scope trait, nor would I be able to choose the Daredevil trait, Staff Master. Obviously the inherent loss of value in this trade-off between our hearts' desires and game mechanics isn't going to be equal across all professions and Elite specializations, but neither are they necessarily equal to one another.

It's a bug that Lesser Haste still has the old 60s cooldown.

Full disclosure: I'm one of those old-school veteran players that still manually does jumping puzzles because it's "more fun" that way. Anyway, onto the subject at hand: the problem with the efficacy of mounts for gaining event credit, and the damper this puts on others. I'm sure we've all encountered moments where someone comes sailing in on their raptor or swoops down on their glittery skyscale and obliterates a pile of mobs before you get a chance to toss some damage in -- let alone get an assist to earn some credit -- and how frustrating it can be when it keeps happening. And usually it isn't too much of an issue on things like scaling champion and legendary fights, where that damage is just another ping on the boss' health. But in regular play, it's starting to become frustrating. Especially when you manage to corner a few straggler enemies and are just about to finish them off to earn that event credit toward dailies ... when someone on a mount blitzes by and decimates the group of foes behind you, thus ending the event and leaving you stuck standing about and trying to figure out where else you can hope to go that you'll actually manage to be viewed as "participating." I would hesitate to call it an issue of damage, as I've had my targets dropped even while projectiles are in-flight. It's simply a matter of the fact that mounts can deal hard damage in a sizable area, and the raptor is uniquely disposed toward clustering foes for maximum punishment. The only solution that comes to mind is preventing a mount's engage skills (their 1) from contributing to event credit. Obviously this would cause havoc, since few events have functionally infinite spawns that would allow them to continue in perpetuity until enough player characters gain enough credit to advance the meter -- mobs already defeated are gone, and that credit is lost. Likewise would changing these events to "respawn" foes not make any sense, since it would create a soft stall on event progress. I mean, obviously the community could be better about using the mighty power that is mounts in Central Tyria maps where power-creep never caused the generic mobs to be anything more than so much cannonfodder at the best of times, but ... ... well, if it weren't so commonplace, I'd not be here making a forum post about it. Nor am I going to say that giving mounts high-powered AOE damage skills may have, perhaps, been a slightly myopic decision when they're highly useful in the kind of combat you'll find down in Elona, but it's certainly a bit overkill compared to most at-level and on-par characters. Regardless, we need some means of ensuring that everyone has a fairer chance at event participation that doesn't boil down to everyone using Tail Spin and Blast on a bunch of hapless centaurs.

Then why would anyone ever "turn off" the Kneeling Stance skill? Regardless of the fact that it would eventually expire as well, it becomes mandatory to take if you want to maximize the profession and weapon's damage. I think what you really want is compromise between the two versions that normalizes the damage to something more worthwhile (nevermind that it already heavily outclasses pistols in raw burst damage). This way players can continue to move and strafe about in combat, mitigating the wonky feel of dodge-rolling while kneeling and the time-lag in having to stab your 5 key before running out of an AOE -- or worse, the annoyance of realizing you're just standing there because your screen is so full of the guardian or elementalist's fire effect that you didn't notice you were hit with a control effect that knocked you out of it. In addition to a new iteration of Rifle skills for Deadeye that are between the current Standing and Kneeling forms, I would propose these: Sniper's Cover is moved to the #5 position on the skill bar, due to the loss of Kneel.A new skill, Cursed Bullets (remember that one?) replaces the Elite skill, Shadow Meld, because even un-traited, stolen skills will more reliably grant you Stealth and thus the ability to use sneak attacks:

Alright, so I'm hoping that this doesn't get lost in the sea of negativity that is this board, but let's try it anyway. I've been playing Deadeye since shortly after release. It's great fun, the new Mark skill is absolutely fantastic (I finally use steal, and all the time to boot), and Rifle is, quite frankly, a great weapon, even if I don't use kneel as often as I should because of all the hazards to avoid even in big group fights. But all the same, it really fills its purpose of a powerfully strong ranged option for Thief that only gets better if you're willing to sacrifice mobility. The problem? It overshadows everything else, even with that loss of mobility in exchange for devastatingly high damage (yes, rocking a near 40k crit on a legendary boss as its bar breaks with full might and malice is delicious to behold). Shortbow and Pistol simply don't compare terribly well, but it's on the latter that I'll focus for today. On Identity and the Pistol Pistol was, and still is, the only other ranged option for core thief, and the only other firearm (in terms of flavor) for deadeye. Over the years has it gone through a lot of flux, specifically with regards to its first two skills and Unload, but more on that in a moment. Desperado aesthetics aside, the pistol has something of an identity crisis -- it can't seem to decide whether it's a condition weapon, or a power weapon. Let's look at Vital Shot, shall we? Listed, it's 211 base damage, 57.5% power contribution, and 4 stacks of Bleed for 88 damage. Not bad, right? That 88 bleed constitutes about 40% of the overall damage before Power, however, and if we assume 2200 Power and 14 stacks of bleed (308 per second, unmodified, for 4 seconds), each pulse of bleed will only deal about 1/10th of the physical damage you'll deal in the same period of time. For a power build that's ... quite the let-down. And that's what I wish to address. Vital Shot is the only attack on dual pistols that inflicts damaging conditions. You need a dagger in one hand to really get access to more conditions (poison, additional bleeding, and torment, in this case). Therein lies our crisis of identity. What is pistol? What is it trying to be? Why have half of its skills languished for years, yet those which see practicality in PvP and WvW been refined again and again (as well as to retrofit the damage bonuses from Ricochet)? Perhaps the better question is: as fun as it is to play, why isn't it seen more often in PvE content, regardless of specialization? There's really no indication as to identity here, so perhaps part of the problem is that this lack of identity is influencing its favor amongst players. Obviously it has conditions, but immobilize and vulnerability both rely on Expertise, not Condition Damage, and Daze is immutable in those regards. This forces Pistol into a rather uncomfortable position of being split between good base damage, but poor application. It really only shines if you're running a condition-critical hybrid, but by then you've sunk points into 5 different attributes, and that means making even more sacrifices for modest gains. The problem: uncertain identity hampers builds Okay, so, let's illustrate what I'm trying to get at here. This is a build that represents a lot of free-time for the average PvE player to collect all the Living Story ascended gear for this, as well as obtain / craft the requisite gear. It focuses entirely on doubling bleeding duration to capitalize on its auto-attack, and drag out just a little bit more duration from its other conditions. With the ability to fight with near-constant Fury, the 74% crit rate will see some very solid damage dealt, thanks to 191.33% critical damage. Condition-Pistol hybrid Thief: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PagAoqlFw6YYsLGJO+LbrTA-zRZYmBzmYFJNQYUUAhJg/A-e Not bad. Not great, but not bad. The might generation from Unload really amps up the damage potential, but even then vital shot is only bringing +151 damage per second at 25 stacks of might. This results in a theoretical 2519 damage per second. On a critical hit, this becomes 4681 damage per second. Note that conditions don't scale with this. Here's what I've been running lately, more or less. Power / boons Deadeye: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PagAoqlFw6YYsLGJW2XnvfA-zRZYBJNUfgbKEE6BORCOFuQg0hgCTB0yEQNDA-e You see only 39 extra base damage increase and much worse condition contribution, at only +67 damage even at 25 stacks of might. All the same, this results in a theoretical 2585 damage per second, already better despite condition damage being the dump-stat. On a critical hit, this increases to an astounding 5754 damage per second, far eclipsing the more specialized build (with traits chosen specifically for conditions!). Even under ideal circumstances against a foe at or below half health, Vital Shot, Might, and Fury alone can only bring the condition-spec'd build to 5617 damage per second, which is still below a build using a less-than-ideal weapon. A solution: Pistol, as a Power Weapon -- and Bows for Bleeding My solution is an overall uplift to a weapon set which sees rather ... well, frankly abysmal damage across 3 of its 5 skills. The bleed damage should be on Shortbow instead, bolstering its already lackluster auto-attack, Trick Shot, and cementing its identity as the "condition-oriented ranged alternative." This frees up pistol to be the "power-oriented" option -- and helps align much of the changes I'll lay out momentarily. All of this, mind you, is inspired by the Unload skill, which is phenomenal for stacking Might and has incredible and well-sustained damage output if you're smart with your triggers. The big problem to address, and will be illustrated below, is the poor damage of most of Pistol's skills. Oddly enough, I can find no fault in the dual-wielding skills, which complement their builds well -- even Unload, in theory, which itself sees good synergy and holds parity with Rifle's kneeling Spotter's Shot in terms of damage output. That and it's just fun to use. So, onto the revisions. Vital Shot - Original Damage: 211 (0.575)Bleeding (4s): 88 damageAs previously described, Vital shot has the stats above, less its range and combo details, taken off the wiki. It was last modified in October of 2016, to further increase its base damage. Compared to Brutal Aim, which has 253 base damage and a scalar of 0.6, it doesn't seem half bad when you consider the higher base damage. However, even with the bleeding, the still comes out at 97 damage higher with 2200 Power. Respectable, and about what we'd anticipate. So let's adjust that. Vital Shot - Revised Damage: 233 (0.6)This adjustment, despite the loss of Bleeding damage, gives us a 25% uplift in damage output, not only bringing it in line with what it did originally, but making it effectively more competitive by exceeding it per-attack. The main focus here is that pistol is sacrificing range for raw power, and we've reflected that. It now comes with 20 points of damage output of rifle. Body Shot - Original Damage: 92 (0.25)Vulnerability (5 x 3s): 5% increased damage from all sourcesImmobilize: 1.5sInitiative: -4This is pretty good if you ignore the rather wimpy damage of this attack. Even compared to Vital shot, it's poor: 642 vs 1476 before revision. You're obviously not using this to hurt your foes, so much as to get away and make them weak to a followup attack. Against anything with a break-bar, however, it's just a short-lived dip to their resiliency. Last modified in May of 2017 to use the improved immobilize duration from PvP modes, it's clear that the focus has been competitive balance, more than much else. It's a utility skill, and one with limited reward. Comparing it to Skirmisher's Shot on rifle, which does 377 base damage with a scalar of 0.8 and a piercing cripple attack that gives you swiftness (and costs only 3 initiative!) ... it's actually rather awful. The only benefit here is that immobilize, which is more effective for an escape or kiting about. Let's capitalize on that, shall we? Body Shot - Revised Damage: 280 (0.65)Vulnerability (5 x 3s): 5% increased damage from all sourcesImmobilize: 1.5sVigor: 4sInitiative: -4The addition of vigor sets us up to immediately dodge roll away, putting distance between us whilst minimizing the cost of a dodge by recouping a portion of the endurance spent. The enhanced damage also brings it in line with the Brutal / Skirmisher dichotomy, wherein the latter outperforms the former at the cost of initiative. Thus the boon generation and conditions inflicted feel appropriate to the cost, and establish synergy for additional attacks during a tactical retreat -- like pumping a few rounds into them with Unload. Headshot - Original Damage: 92 (0.25)Daze (0.25s): unable to use skillsInitiative: -4 Now, the fact that Daze is an interrupt means that the timely usage is both great for break-bars and for telegraphed attacks. Exchanging 4 initiative for the equivalent of a free dodge is pretty great. The fault here, however, is not that it's a potential escape from harm, but rather that it seems as though our character is just ... reaching out and flicking the ear of our enemy to distract them a bit. No comparison to rifle this time, as Death's Retreat is, well, a retreat. And you can get that with Shadow Strike (or Shadow Shot if closing range would be better). But for the sake of being comprehensive: Death's Retreat has 127 base damage and a 0.3 scalar, already outstripping Headshot, removes a condition, and poisons foes in a small radius at your starting position. Wow. Oh, and ... Headshot hasn't been modified since it was added to the game in August 2012. At release. Headshot - Revised Damage: 210 (0.575)Daze (0.25s): unable to use skillsOn interrupt: 210 (1.15)Initiative: -5 Expressing this one in text will need to be the job of the skill team, but in short: overall the damage has been boosted to about 1475 damage at 2200 Power -- if you interrupt your foe with the daze, this jumps to double the Power contribution, and a whopping 2,740 damage. This more than makes up for putting it back to 5 initiative cost. Thematically, it's kind of the idea of exploiting a target's vulnerability; a poorly placed shot will mostly just daze your target, but "hit the weakpoint for massive damage" (ugh, I just said that). Moreover, it presses the tactical use of the skill -- as a potentially high reward for consuming an appreciable amount of your initiative! Black Powder - Original Damage: 92 (0.25)Blind (2s): next outgoing attack missesPulses: 3Duration: 4 secondsInterval: 2 secondsInitiative: -6This one, frankly, is pretty good where it is. The self-combo blindness results in both a ranged and area blind, albeit rather expensive for what it is. Having not been modified since September 2014, before the trait and specialization overhaul, it feels like another skill that has slipped as once again the damage is not only poor, it's well below what the basic attack would give you, and that just doesn't make much sense. The tricky bit, however, is that while the rifle offers Sniper's Cover -- which deals no damage and blocks missiles for 5 seconds -- they aren't really equivalent, so a comparison is a little difficult to make here. Black Powder - Revised Damage: 186 (0.48)Blind (2s): next outgoing attack missesPulses: 3Duration: 4 secondsInterval: 2 secondsInitiative: -6Mostly this revision just bumps up the damage, boosting it to about 1242 damage at 2200 Power -- lower than the others, as the skill flavor specifically calls out firing a "black powder shot," and thus keeping with the flavor of the windup and animation. Overall, however, I'd not really touch anything else, save perhaps to lower the initiative cost to 5, because it is the single most-expensive skill for Thief, and it's certainly nothing like any of the 5-Initiative attacks from other weapons (or even Unload) -- however, when compared to Infiltrator's Arrow the pulsing AOE utility makes up for the cost.

Problem 1: Virtue of Resolve has incorrect skill factsThe skill facts for Virtue of Resolve are incorrect, when traited with Absolute Resolution and Battle Presence (see: notes on anomaly). Virtue of Resolve skill facts As shown, Virtue of Resolve shows 217 Heal, as though it were not traited, but does reflect the 15% Endurance regeneration from Purity of Body. When active and sustaining damage in combat, the log instead shows 216 Heal with each pulse. Problem 2: Absolute Resolution does not improve passive healingThe Absolute Resolution trait increases the passive effects of Virtue of Resolve, and additionally causes it to pulse every 3 seconds, rather than each second. Absolute Resolution trait facts Here it shows that this should be 649 Heal every 3 seconds. This is not reflected in the log, nor the healing visually applied to the player. Problem 3: Allies under the effects of Battle Presence do not receive the same healing, nor the correct healingWhen traited with Battle Presence, the trait facts read: "Nearby allies gain Virtue of Resolve's passive." Battle Presence trait facts This trait shows the same 649 Heal every 3 seconds as Absolute Resolution, in addition to the 15% Endurance regeneration that the Purity of Body trait applies. However, when active and in combat, it does not apply the same healing as listed either in its own trait facts or as recorded in the combat log for the effects applied to the player. As we can see, each player who received the full effect (apologies, Moon Flytrap) healed for 248 Heal which is reflected in neither the Resolve effect applied to the player, nor in any of the three skill / trait facts. Notes on anomalyAs I have Absolute Resolution enabled in the traits, the anomaly for the incorrect skill facts on Battle Presence can be functionally ignored.

More come, yes?

Oh dang I was just about to run a poll about this! Good on you, and those are some awesome stats. Thank you!

Here's Geppa, whom I've mained since early access. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKIPIV3XcAIuxbq.jpg