Shadow Shroud (Specter) should activate Stealth Traits.

[Wolfmor.7156]

With the recent changes to the Shadow Arts tree I feel it needs to synergize more with Specter.  Shadow Arts is all about Stealthing but Specter alone has no way to stealth itself other than if you so happen to be using a Dagger in your Offhand.  This causes you to have to branch out into other utility skills in order to Stealth but that causes another issue.  One of the key reasons why Specter would also take Shadow Arts is for Shadow Savior, the trait that allows you to heal allies when shadowstepping.  If you're taking other traits to reliably stealth then you're removing one or more of your shadowsteps which is the key mechanic to Specter. 

To better add synergy I propose making it so the activation of Shadow Shroud triggers the stealth traits .  This means going into Shadow Shroud would do things like Heal you, give you superspeed, grant 3 stacks of Spider Venom, Grant Initiative, etc.

[Blackari.2051]

oh boy, oh boy, no other way than dagger OH from weapons? really? So there is not a combo system that can achieve stealth ?

short answer to your suggestion is: NO! 

And this is why Anet never actually uses any feedback from forums, because at least 80% of them is made by players who have no clue.

But just for the sake of not instantly being flagged as a "toxic player", let me ask you,
Which direct ways, outside utility slots since you do not want to "sacrifice" those, have other thief specs, to get into stealth?
 

Only one comes to mind and that is DE's Silent Scope trait, which is already bound to rifle.
So then what about daredevil, hmm staff provides no stealth, so it has as many ways to get to stealth as specter, and core thief is the same... Every single spec has exactly same amount of possibilities of getting into the stealth, so you know what? let all the specs interact with SA not depending on their stealth access but rather on their core mechanic, so let's see...

Core - it has only a steal so lets give core thief alone back the SA trait to stealth on steal
DrD - hmmmm, it's main mechanic are dodges, so lets give DrD built in Silent Scope trait from DE to get stealth on every dodge, wow it has three of them ? does not matter.
DE - well it has Silent Scope, but that is a trait and not core mechanic like you propose so then lets get stealth everytime you hit max malice ?

What a great design we got ourselves here. Seriously, claiming there is no other way to access stealth other than OH dagger is probably the definition of being clueless. 

[Wolfmor.7156]

The irony of not wanting to come off as a "Toxic Player". 

You're very missing the point.  Also I should clarify when I say Specter I mean the cookie cutter build, the way it was intended, Scepter + OH and its 5 utility shadowsteps.  You can stealth through other means but you have to go outside of the Spec's design by using other weapons and utilities.  The changes to Shadow Arts was supposed to make it friendlier with Specter but Specter needs to first be friendlier to stealth.  

[Blackari.2051]

You are never playing espec with just it's corresponding weapon and utilities, smh ..... 

oh wait, we are talking about common gw2 player, then no wonder...

Edited July 6, 2022 by Blackari.2051

[MorningGlow.5376]

While Blackari's posts are rather sarcastic, they are correct.

I assume you are rather new to the game and are not familiar with the aforementioned combo-system. Read a bit into it (especially on smoke-fields + blast/leap-finishers) and you'll realize that you actually have to put in effort to find a build that doesn't have access to stealth in some form :)

With that in mind, your proposal would overpower shroud and therefore is not likely to happen.

[Wolfmor.7156]

I'm not a new player.  Been playing on/off since the game came out, rocking about 15k AP

In order to stealth it would require a Smoke Field.  All of the Specter wells provide Dark Fields. However I did forget about Pistol OH providing a Smoke Field which combos well with the shroud's leap/blast. 

Would it really overpower shroud since typically people run Trickery/Deadly/Specter if they're looking for damage so replacing one of these trees (likely Deadly) with a defensive tree like Shadow would be at the cost of damage. Also using your comment about combo fields the Specter could already trigger the traits with OH Pistol and leap/blast or Dagger OH so is Shroud that close to being broken that not having to drop 5 initiative first before using Shroud's Leap/Blast would push it over?  What is it competing against? As much as I love the spec it's not the king of support.

[Wolfmor.7156]

I should also add I do not PvP/WvW so these changes are made with Open World, Fractals, Strikes, Raids in mind 

[kash.9213]

If the traits are registering Shroud as entering Stealth, then traits like Cloaked in Shadow would pad an already strong Shroud, and strong as an individual but especially strong with a team.

Would exiting Shroud immediately toggle off the trait interaction? Coming out of a Stealth modified Shroud right into having a Stealth Attack would be wild. 

You're also capable of Stealthing your team while you're in shroud so those advantages are piling up.

It is a little frustrating having to blow through Shroud if you have Consume Shadows to use a Stealth Attack, but the sustain you'd have otherwise could be a problem.

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by kash.9213

[Mincsk.6028]

22 hours ago, TezPoca.7203 said:

While Blackari's posts are rather sarcastic, they are correct.

I assume you are rather new to the game and are not familiar with the aforementioned combo-system. Read a bit into it (especially on smoke-fields + blast/leap-finishers) and you'll realize that you actually have to put in effort to find a build that doesn't have access to stealth in some form 🙂

With that in mind, your proposal would overpower shroud and therefore is not likely to happen.

Still bad design needing to use another players combo field to get into your own core mechanic. It would be like untamed needing a combo to get it's unbound skill.

[MorningGlow.5376]

On 7/7/2022 at 9:18 PM, Wolfmor.7156 said:

I'm not a new player.  Been playing on/off since the game came out, rocking about 15k AP

In which case i'll apologize for my hasty assumption.

On 7/7/2022 at 9:44 PM, Wolfmor.7156 said:

I should also add I do not PvP/WvW so these changes are made with Open World, Fractals, Strikes, Raids in mind 

My bad (again). Should have realized this, when you mentioned you wanted to go all wells. Because we might have been talking past each other. Since i do a lot of pvp, i defenitely had a tunnel vision on pvp, when i wrote that answer^^'

So thanks for clarifying!

On 7/7/2022 at 9:18 PM, Wolfmor.7156 said:

[---] so is Shroud that close to being broken that not having to drop 5 initiative first before using Shroud's Leap/Blast would push it over?

...and with pvp (and pvp only) in mind, that was exactly what i was thinking, yes^^

So while your proposal actually might be a good idea in PvE (where i lack the expertise to make a proper judgement), i still think it's difficult because of the other game-modes. And splitting not only numbers but entire mechanics between game-modes would be bad game-design.

Speaking of:

7 hours ago, Mincsk.6028 said:

Still bad design needing to use another players combo field to get into your own core mechanic.

Why bother useing someone elses, when you can use your own :P

Edited July 8, 2022 by TezPoca.7203

[Mincsk.6028]

30 minutes ago, TezPoca.7203 said:

In which case i'll apologize for my hasty assumption.

My bad (again). Should have realized this, when you mentioned you wanted to go all wells. Because we might have been talking past each other. Since i do a lot of pvp, i defenitely had a tunnel vision on pvp, when i wrote that answer^^'

So thanks for clarifying!

...and with pvp (and pvp only) in mind, that was exactly what i was thinking, yes^^

So while your proposal actually might be a good idea in PvE (where i lack the expertise to make a proper judgement), i still think it's difficult because of the other game-modes. And splitting not only numbers but entire mechanics between game-modes would be bad game-design.

Speaking of:

Why bother useing someone elses, when you can use your own 😛

Spend all of your own initiative to blast your field and get 1 opener and like 3 ini left over? nah I'll pass on all that and just roll a better profession.

[Downstate.4697]

Ill help you.

Take deception utilities and the well elite. Run scepter/pistol. You have 2 blast finishers inside shroud for your smoke field. Boom support spectre

[kidbuu.4071]

Just wanted to add an additional note. Combo fields are a wonderful way to step into stealth if used correctly. Blast and leaps give you access as long as you have a smoke field laid down.  There are enough ways to lay down a smoke field to give you access to stuff.  Alternatively, you have access to a sword in your main hand which will give you shadow step so that you can spam all day long for a low initiative cost( healing). What really needs to happen for thief with the shadow arts trait line is being able to stack might some how. Also it be interesting if we had a better way to provide stability( to our group). I'd be curious for them to add smoke field while entering shroud not sure if that would be two overpowered though....