New Thief Elite Preview.

[LITERALLYABIRD.3528]

ArenaNet, please call it a Nighthawk.  I will never not play it.  Go on, call my bluff

[mortrialus.3062]

I think a shadowcaster could be incredibly hype.   Think like the shadow user from Ninja Scroll, sinking into your shadow and attacking from it.  Cautiously optimistic about this one. 

 

Also one of the problems with the revealed elite specs is that aside from Bladesworn, all of them feel waaaay too "safe."  Giving thief a magic caster spec is the sort of insane shakeups I want to see out of elite specs. 

Edited October 3, 2021 by mortrialus.3062

[mortrialus.3062]

6 hours ago, MrForz.1953 said:

 

It's not so much about need, it's just that a full blown support e-spec trait line will have a hard time synergizing with the remaining traits. If it's "support" it likely won't be traditional support.

If it has support capacity, I'm guessing it'll be like scourge where it can go down a DPS, probably condition role, and it can also build for support with different gear and trait choices. 

Also it'll have team quickness or alacrity put on it because shoe horning passive team quickness or alacrity has been a theme lately. 

[RyuDragnier.9476]

7 hours ago, hash.8462 said:

He will be a healer... stealing the wounds of allies 🤣

Jokes aside... I don't have the faintest idea how it could be 😕

One idea I had for it is that they forsake stealth for a unique boon. Any time the thief or their allies would normally enter stealth from a Thief's skills, they'll instead gain that boon, along with other ones both defensive and offensive. So instead of living through stealth and evasion, you'll live by using the shadow magic to increase the defenses and power of yourself and your allies.

[ASP.8093]

2 hours ago, mortrialus.3062 said:

Also it'll have team quickness or alacrity put on it because shoe horning passive team quickness or alacrity has been a theme lately. 

You know what? I'll take it. The "pure DPS" specs are really boring because they can barely even provide their own Fury. Gimme that sweet sweet boon spam, and give me an excuse to actually take Trickery in instances PvE.

[GRRRR.3521]

10 hours ago, UNOwen.7132 said:

I am hoping for it to be some kind of debuffer or DPS. If its support, its doomed.

 

This. Firebrand and Scourge still exist so a theoretical healthief would need to be on the same level of broken op to compete (a problem all EoD specs share but whatever). In that case be prepared for hard, fast nerfs if it does more than 1k dps because thief is thief and thief needs nerfs because it can run away too good. Also be prepared to be shoehorned into shadow arts and trickery because those are the only core spec lines i can see synergizing.

 

Its decided anyway. Hope im wrong and its an awesome spec, ive been playing Daredevil for so long...

[Naxos.2503]

Odd as that may sound, I'm more interested in finding What would the f2 be

[Fueki.4753]

To me, that weapon looks more like an Axe than a Sceptre.

It's somewhat similar to Veilrender, but it's rounder and has a bobble in the middle.

The colour scheme reminds me of Deadeye skills.

 

I hope Arenanet will replace Stealth in this one with a proper defensive mechanic.

[Tails.9372]

17 minutes ago, Fueki.4753 said:

The colour scheme reminds me of Deadeye skills.

They always used red and black to represent thief. I wouldn't read too much into it, especially since several of the colors are bound to change in the actual artwork.

Edited October 3, 2021 by Tails.9372

[wongdong.9162]

Scepter Hex util Thief?

 

[Fueki.4753]

12 minutes ago, Tails.9372 said:

They always used red and black to represent thief. I wouldn't read too much into it, especially since several of the colors are bound to change in the actual artwork.

However, the red in Daredevil and Core skills was rather subtle.

In both this Artwork and Deadeye skills, red is featured far more dominantly.

[serow.6524]

I hope it's a support spec called the Shadowdancer!

[Rezok.2709]

9 hours ago, ASP.8093 said:

The "pure DPS" specs are really boring because they can barely even provide their own Fury.

Thief have permanent Fury without even trying if you pick Critical Strikes. And both Rifle and P/P have perma 25x Might. Trickery gives over 50% uptime on swiftness and Vigor and steals 3 boons on every Steal use.

Oh, and then of course Maleficent Seven alone gives perma 25x Might, Fury, Regen, Swiftness, Vigor and Protection.

Thief has a ton of boon generation already, with the right builds probably some of the best without even having to try. The only "problem" is it's not boon sharing, but in terms of giving yourself boons I have no idea how you can say "barely even provide their own Fury". Unless you play without traits.

[Meridian.9103]

9 hours ago, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

One idea I had for it is that they forsake stealth for a unique boon. Any time the thief or their allies would normally enter stealth from a Thief's skills, they'll instead gain that boon, along with other ones both defensive and offensive. So instead of living through stealth and evasion, you'll live by using the shadow magic to increase the defenses and power of yourself and your allies.

Sounds horrible.

[ASP.8093]

29 minutes ago, Rezok.2709 said:

Thief have permanent Fury without even trying if you pick Critical Strikes. And both Rifle and P/P have perma 25x Might. Trickery gives over 50% uptime on swiftness and Vigor and steals 3 boons on every Steal use.

Oh, and then of course Maleficent Seven alone gives perma 25x Might, Fury, Regen, Swiftness, Vigor and Protection.

Thief has a ton of boon generation already, with the right builds probably some of the best without even having to try. The only "problem" is it's not boon sharing, but in terms of giving yourself boons I have no idea how you can say "barely even provide their own Fury". Unless you play without traits.

Yeah, and I love all that stuff. It's great!

Until it's time to do a Raid and you're mostly playing builds that can't do it because almost every trait you're taking is a passive damage multiplier (e.g. Executioner or Bounding Dodge) in order to keep up.

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

If I remember correctly, wasn't there like a criminal gang in GW1 Factions that were magicians? Or just had a lot of magicians or something? I can distinctly remember a quest or two involving them but the details are too hazy to recall. First thing I thought of when I think of a casting thief in a Canthan setting.

[Ultramex.1506]

Support thief, hopefully

[draxynnic.3719]

13 hours ago, mortrialus.3062 said:

If it has support capacity, I'm guessing it'll be like scourge where it can go down a DPS, probably condition role, and it can also build for support with different gear and trait choices. 

Also it'll have team quickness or alacrity put on it because shoe horning passive team quickness or alacrity has been a theme lately. 

I have a hunch that it'd be alacrity of the two. There's been a trend, since alacrity chrono was murdered in an alley, for team alacrity to be on builds that are limited by something other than just cooldowns - mists energy for revs, dodge energy for mirages. Thief having initiative as their primary limiting resource makes them a prime candidate if this is genuinely what ArenaNet was thinking.

 

1 hour ago, Elricht Kaltwind.8796 said:

If I remember correctly, wasn't there like a criminal gang in GW1 Factions that were magicians? Or just had a lot of magicians or something? I can distinctly remember a quest or two involving them but the details are too hazy to recall. First thing I thought of when I think of a casting thief in a Canthan setting.

They pretty much all do. The most prominent were the Jade Brotherhood (mostly warriors, mesmers, elementalists, and ritualist with a bit of a 'delinquent upper-class non-inheriting children going into crime' feel) and the Am Fah (mostly assassins, rangers, necromancers, and monks, seemed to recruit mostly from the desperate and downtrodden, had an unhealthy obsession with disease). There are also the Crimson Skull corsairs on Shing Jea, and in the north of the Jade Sea region there was another that even I don't recall off the top of my head (maybe something about a thousand daggers?).

 

That said, the Am Fah did tend to wear gruesome masks, so if the oni mask is the thief as commonly surmised, that might be a connection.

 

It's worth noting that assassins in general were more magical than any thief if they wanted to be, however.

[iKeostuKen.2738]

Really hope this spec is a boon hate/strip/converter.  Would be absolutely amazing for WvW especially if it came with unique mechanics that prevented the application of more boons in place for immediately swapping them to conditions.

[LITERALLYABIRD.3528]

3 hours ago, Elricht Kaltwind.8796 said:

If I remember correctly, wasn't there like a criminal gang in GW1 Factions that were magicians? Or just had a lot of magicians or something? I can distinctly remember a quest or two involving them but the details are too hazy to recall. First thing I thought of when I think of a casting thief in a Canthan setting.

I bet you're thinking of the assassins' guild, the Obsidian Flame.  🙂

[Downstate.4697]

Its actually a T-pose and you are part of the genyuu force

[InsaneQR.7412]

I hope the scepter will get some whip like functionality with some CC added to it and condi as its main damage source.

 

For class mechanic i hope for shadowform that prevehts stealth making you invisible but you get damage reduction bonusses instead that you can share to allies.

 

Utilities i think I think manipulation could really fit the theme, lets see how it goes.

[hash.8462]

41 minutes ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

Its actually a T-pose and you are part of the genyuu force

Nah, I am absolutely certain that it is Excalibur of the anime Soul Eater 😅

Edited October 3, 2021 by hash.8462

[hatozeni.5721]

If it is a Thief capable of using long distance magic it will be incredibly OP in pvp. It will probably fill the target with conditions so just swap to daggers to finish the thing.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

1 hour ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

Its actually a T-pose and you are part of the genyuu force

Tbh I'd buy the expac just to be able to do the genyuu force pose on top of towers that don't belong to me.