New Thief Elite Preview.

[nopoet.2960]

On 10/10/2021 at 6:17 AM, Overworld.9613 said:

The new Elite Spec needs to have a name also starting with D so we have an even harder time differentiating between Daredevil, Deadeye and kitten Normal Thief Build. 

lol it'll be called Dreadnought as a nod to the sailor scout origins.

[DeceiverX.8361]

On 10/10/2021 at 5:31 PM, fluffdragon.1523 said:

The question, then, is what did Deadeye come from?  Their slot skills are all shadow-themed, but nothing else about them is.

It came from the culmination of my brainchild/proposal after HoT (I had confirmation the developers looked into it on the old forums) and the commonly-desired-bad-idea/request for a SA sniper.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/ES-Suggestion-The-Deadeye-FORMAL/

 

It was doomed to fail as soon as a SA Sniper concept was actualized, because it literally can't be balanced.

[InsaneQR.7412]

I thought about thief e-spec for a while and i honestly think that it could quite possibly b that initiative could be replaced by a new form of energy and all thief skills will get a cooldown instead. As a compensation thief might gain group alacrity. Further i think steal could get replaced with a toggle mode that consumes the class energy. During that mode stealth gets negated and replaced by a shadow armor that reduces damage for all allies stealthed by your abilities. This armor could count as revealed and stealthed at the same time for the purpose of trait interaction.

 

Its a bit far fetched but would seem like a coherent spec design tbh.

 

 

[Teratus.2859]

Funny idea actually hit me randomly the other day.

Thief is obviously based off the Gw1 Assassin class which debuted in Gw1 along side Ritualist with Factions, which also give us Cantha. 

Now going back to Cantha in Gw2 we're getting a Thief spec that has a scepter, and likely some kind of caster playstyle.
Well Ritualist was a caster type class as well so wouldn't it be kinda fitting for the thief class to get a Canthan based elite spec that basically functions like some kind of Assassin/Ritualist duel profession which is something you could do back in Gw1.

The class that the Assassin inspired in Gw2 now representing both the classes introduced in Factions upon it's return to the same region in Gw2, it's kinda perfect lol

It could get some kind of spirit summoning AoE skills, something like the Renegades summon skills.
Some being support and others that do damage and have a thematic focus on lightning damage to tribute the ritualist.

Anet could also overhaul the Steal mechanic for this spec, changing it entirely so that instead of porting and stealing random items from enemies you instead conjure useful and unique support items similarly to how Ritualists would conjure held items in Gw1 that would provide various effects when held and other effects when dropped.
Although these items would not replace your weapon skills in Gw2, or maybe just your offhand weapon skills.
If it replaced the offhand only this would allow for you to access your basic MH skill 3 on any weapon at any time by conjuring one of these items.

The trade off for these being that each one would permanently reduce your max initiative until the item was dropped/used for it's secondary effect.

This would mean thief would be getting multiple F skills this time around and each one of these conjurable items would have different max initiative requirements to summon them based on how powerful/useful they are.

You could have a fair bit of support utility with something like this, which would be perfect for a support based caster thief imo

Edited October 12, 2021 by Teratus.2859

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

19 hours ago, nopoet.2960 said:

lol it'll be called Dreadnought as a nod to the sailor scout origins.

Then it'll be useless, so will be known as the Dread-not. 

[Klypto.1703]

On 10/2/2021 at 7:50 PM, nopoet.2960 said:

I have no idea why someone with a scepter would move like that... I'm hooked.  Can't wait to see what they came up with.

This is basically a mesmer take on Thief where you become the Toothfairy.  So instead of just a F1 - F4 as stealing skills that will steal a type of tooth.  So you can steal Incisors, Canine, Premolars, and Molars so depending on Tooth you are able to first make a portal.  Once the portal is gone it then allows you to use your next Scepter attack to shadow step either to your target or away from it.  However your elite skill the Wisdom Tooth will reset all of your Toothfairy steals.  However do not confuse the root canal with a portal because the root canal will teleport your entire squad but you cannot move while you use this.  Your initiative bar as the trade off is changed to a quarter dispenser.  So you have to leave a quarter every time you steal a tooth but if there is any conditions or decay on your target it may require you to use additional quarters in order to get a desired tooth.   Finally the healing skill is a full dental extraction where you can heal to max health but you have to stand still or else your skills will not activate until you are able to eat solid food and use the dentures skill to regain mobility.  Lastly is the utility known as braces which will paralyze your target and the longer they have braces the more people will laugh at them and plague them with conditions.  It is a truly ground breaking or some may say tooth breaking with excitement and creativity for the Thief class to become that Tooth Fairy they've always dreamed of.

Edited October 13, 2021 by Klypto.1703

[Cynz.9437]

1 hour ago, Klypto.1703 said:

This is basically a mesmer take on Thief where you become the Toothfairy.  So instead of just a F1 - F4 as stealing skills that will steal a type of tooth.  So you can steal Incisors, Canine, Premolars, and Molars so depending on Tooth you are able to first make a portal.  Once the portal is gone it then allows you to use your next Scepter attack to shadow step either to your target or away from it.  However your elite skill the Wisdom Tooth will reset all of your Toothfairy steals.  However do not confuse the root canal with a portal because the root canal will teleport your entire squad but you cannot move while you use this.  Your initiative bar as the trade off is changed to a quarter dispenser.  So you have to leave a quarter every time you steal a tooth but if there is any conditions or decay on your target it may require you to use additional quarters in order to get a desired tooth.   Finally the healing skill is a full dental extraction where you can heal to max health but you have to stand still or else your skills will not activate until you are able to eat solid food and use the dentures skill to regain mobility.  Lastly is the utility known as braces which will paralyze your target and the longer they have braces the more people will laugh at them and plague them with conditions.  It is a truly ground breaking or some may say tooth breaking with excitement and creativity for the Thief class to become that Tooth Fairy they've always dreamed of.

 

I logged in just to upvote this post. You, sir/mam made my day 😄

[Puck.3697]

On 10/12/2021 at 2:37 PM, InsaneQR.7412 said:

I thought about thief e-spec for a while and i honestly think that it could quite possibly b that initiative could be replaced by a new form of energy and all thief skills will get a cooldown instead. As a compensation thief might gain group alacrity. Further i think steal could get replaced with a toggle mode that consumes the class energy. During that mode stealth gets negated and replaced by a shadow armor that reduces damage for all allies stealthed by your abilities. This armor could count as revealed and stealthed at the same time for the purpose of trait interaction.

 

Its a bit far fetched but would seem like a coherent spec design tbh.

 

 

If its coherent design, it'll be the first of all the elites to be on their beta xD the others have seemed pretty disjointed.

i think imho, we'll get a 600 Range Condi DPS / Support hybrid. and i think we're gonna get Some form Shadows which grant Barrier / Healing.

i'd like to see some hard change on initiative and Steal.. would be nice to see a Proper change up, but i cant see both mechanics being changed.

[Rezok.2709]

On 10/10/2021 at 11:31 PM, fluffdragon.1523 said:

The question, then, is what did Deadeye come from?  Their slot skills are all shadow-themed, but nothing else about them is.

Almost everything about them is. Death's Retreat is a shadowstep. Sniper's Cover literally says "create a barrier of shadows...". And everytime you shoot your rifle a burst of shadow comes out, and the shots are clearly entangled with shadow magic. Spotter's shot is quite clearly some sort of shadow chains that immobilize. Kneeling cause shadow magic to flow around you. Deadeye's Mark somehow cause the target to take increasing damage from you through Malice, which is most likely also shadow magic (what else would it be?). And the theme continues in the traits as well.

Besides, I think you read way too much into the "evolution of previous traitlines". It's not like that sit and look at things thief already have and try to make an elite spec out of it.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Reveal just posted on Twitter. Specter with a Scepter. Uses 'Shadow Shroud' to tether themselves to an ally to protect them.

[NorthernRedStar.3054]

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Reveal just posted on Twitter. Specter with a Scepter. Uses 'Shadow Shroud' to tether themselves to an ally to protect them.

I figured it would be "an allied steal".

[nobleboivin.4102]

I love this but it also literally threw out my idea of a sunspear with a scepter 🤣  New I should've kept my edgelord sylvari thief