Fun Speculation on Future Thief Elite Spec

[DrakoBlade.1759]

I have taken a try at this before, but never fully and completely sat down to do it. After a recent Wooden Potatoes video, it made me want to try it with the class I probably know most out of the 9 of them. Who knows? If this is fun enough, I might try to take a crack at the other classes too. This is mostly the ideas of it, I am not confident enough to look at the specific balance side of things yet. My reasoning for this one is that Thief needs a pure support spec, granted a few classes do, and to actually maybe make Shadow Arts relevant in PvE on the higher end, although I also tried to not make this only synergize with Shadow Arts.

Ghost(Name would be subject to change)Flavor Text- Users of this are theives who saw the true potential in shadow magic an delved deeper into it, often mistaken for Necromancers or even Liches. The warhorn usually calls to them due to the existence of Verdarach, wishing to find it and use it to its utmost capibilities, becoming a ghost that doesn't exist in the world but wishes to help it in some way.

Class Weapon: WarhornWeapon 3(w/sword main hand): Stab enemy twice, the first stab gives alacrity to nearby allies and the second stab gives quickness to all nearby marked allies. After using the ability, one can chain into a slash that deals X amount of damage to a targeted enemy based on the total number of mark allies nearby.Weapon 3(w/dagger main hand): Spin in place(X amount of rotations), every enemy it hits it applies X stacks of bleed and does X damage, every ally it hits is given X amount of barrier, marked allies gain X% more barrierWeapon 3(w/pistol main hand): Shoot a bullet encased in shadow, if it hits an enemy it deals X amount of damage and dazes, all allies it hits along the way would be healed for an X amount, the first ally would be marked, and all marked allies hit would also get X stacks of regeneration. (X amount of cooldown/recharge; potentially ammo based?)Weapon 4: Blow a silent tune that Marks 1 nearby targeted ally, give ally taunt and X stacks of stability, X stacks of protection, X stacks of retaliation, and X stacks of swiftness. (X amount of cooldown/recharge)Weapon 5: Give stealth to yourself, ability turns into 1 random boon you can pulse out of yourself once, it does this until stealth runs out. (X amount of cooldown/recharge; give up to 5 random nearby allies the boons)

Class Mechanic: Steal becomes a state of invisibility resembling a necromancer's Death Shroud, but more like a sort of "Shadow Shroud"(probably with an invisible body and the player seeing red flames similar to the shadow stuff in deadeye). I think I will call it Shadow Cloak for now, and within Shadow Cloak all 5 weapon skills change depending on the off-hand weapon. The user will stay in this state until they either use 3 of the 5 skills or for an X amount of seconds(Chains and Ammo-based weapon skills count as 1; can't use the same skill twice within a single Shadow Cloak). Due to how this "Shadow Cloak" works, one using this would have to gain some type of energy, or I would have to have it use initiative in some way. Figured I would go the initiative route, and making it that if the user has zero initiative but has been in combat for at least an X amount of time, then they can use it.

Shadow Cloak weapon abilitiesShortbow:Weapon 1: Arrow would bounce between and X amount of enemies or allies(Prioritizes enemies, but if allies get hit then they get marked and if already marked they heal for a small amount), deals increased damage to foes with poison(X% more than outside of Shadow cloak).Weapon 2: Fire a shadowy cluster bomb, detonate in mid-air for multiple explosions, upon hit or detonation for each explosion the enemy is given stacks of poison and bleed.Weapon 3: Mark 1 random ally and teleport behind a targeted enemy, the targeted enemy is dazed and poisoned.Weapon 4: Fire an arrow that fills the targeted area with poison that also inflicts bleed upon contact with the area and stuns them. (durations and pulses are the same as original ability, just more powerful.)Weapon 5: Shadowstep to a targeted area a pulsate a blast of shadow magic once at the location, the damage scales an X amount for each stack of Bleed and Poison is on the foe. Daze the enemy for an X period.

Warhorn:Weapon 1: A blast of shadow magic that heals all marked allies for an X amount, single enemy get damaged an X% of the amount the allies were healed.Weapon 2: Mark up to 3 allies, give each ally marked X stacks of might and X stacks of protection, up to 5 enemies damaged an X amount for each boon on yourself(Damage is split among the enemies equally).Weapon 3: Make a loud sound, revealing yourself early then deal X damage, immobilize(X stacks), and blind(X stacks) enemy.Weapon 4: Blow a silent tune that Marks 1 nearby targeted ally, give ally taunt, X stacks of stability, X stacks of protection, X stacks of retaliation, X stacks of quickness, and X stacks of alacrity. (X amount of cooldown/recharge)Weapon 5: Pulse out 3 random boons to up to 5 random allies, it pulses X times. (can use other abilities while its pulsing)

Dagger:Weapon 1: Chain... Strike enemy twice, gain might for each hit... Strike again, if it hits successfully, gains X barrier... Strike enemy, give them X stacks of poison and all damaging Condi currently on the user. (X recharge/cooldown)Weapon 2: Teleport to target, deal X% of their health in damage, gain X% of damage as own health(gains barrier if overhealed, for the value left; X cooldown/recharge)Weapon 3: Can attack 3 times all Condi on the first enemy get copied onto the second and third(both attacks can be used on the second but then, in that case, it's an X% of it and even less in the third; ammo based; X rechange and X cooldown)Weapon 4: Throw a dagger that cripples, torments, burns and poisons enemies and can bounce to X amount of enemies. (X amount of stacks for each Condi)Weapon 5: Teleport to behind enemy, stab them to make them vulnerable and gain 5 stacks of might, stab also inflicts X stacks of Bleed.

Pistol:Weapon 1: Shoot to through the vitals with an invisible bullet, crit chance on this is +X% more likely. (X recharge/cooldown)Weapon 2: Make the enemy vulnerable with a severe body shot, immobilizing them and making the next hit deal +X% more damage. (X recharge/cooldown)Weapon 3: Blast enemy from seemingly multiple directions out of nowhere, giving them torment and confusion, but also dazing them. All allies within range of the shot gain might.Weapon 4: Shoot enemy in the head; stunning them and putting 10 stacks of vulnerable on them.Weapon 5: Mark up to 2 allies, Blinding foes, and making a pulsating orb at the current location, X stacks of might per pulse(for X amount of pulses) for all allies near it, X stacks of Confusion for every pulse on enemies.

Elite Spec Utilities would use Spectral abilitiesHeal: Mark 1 nearby ally and Heal for an X amount for each marked ally, if there are no marked allies before using this skill then heal allies for an X% of own max health. (Costs X amount of initiative) Marked Allies gain Aegis from the use of this skill.Utility1: Remove all Marks and gain X amount of initiative and an X amount of damage per Mark removed. (X cooldown; damage is divided among how many enemies are around up to 5 enemies.) X stacks of Regeneration are given to all allies that a Mark was removed from.Utility2: Tether yourself to all nearby Marks and for an X amount of time, all boons on them get copied onto player and vice versa. (Costs X amount of initiative) If there are no marks, mark 1 nearby ally and gain stealth for X seconds._Utility3: _Mark up to 2 nearby allies and stealth yourself for X seconds, next attack does X% more damage and stuns(for X seconds), all allies(up to 5) gain 2 stacks of Might each but if they are Marked they gain 5 stacks(Marked allies count as .5 allies toward the cap of 5, for this skill)(Costs an X amount of Initiative)Utility4: Heal all Marked allies for an X amount, all none marked allies gain X stacks of Protection. (Costs X amount of Initiative)_Elite: _Mark up to 5 allies nearby, for X amount of seconds Marked(for all nearby marked) benefits from utilities are X more effective. (Costs X amount of initiative.)

Specialization Traits:1.) Gain use of a Warhorn, Steal is replaced by Shadow Cloak, and also gain access to Spectral skills. Any time an ally would be Stealthed they are instead Marked, which each utility would do an extra effect to marked allies. (Mark lasts a default X amount of seconds, Mark would stack by duration; only a maximum of 10 people can be Marked)--Extend the amount of time(by an additional X amount of seconds) and casts(to 5 instead of 3) in Shadow Cloak.--Anytime an ally is Marked, they gain aegis.--When a Spectral ability is used, deal an additional X amount of damage to each nearby enemy and gain that much health(only from the additional damage).2.) Marking allies gives more initiative if above half total initiative, and if it's below half it uses up the initiative. gaining initiative gives might to yourself and losing it gives X stacks of a random defensive boon to Marked allies(up to 5).--Higher Critical Chance and Condition Duration while in Shadow Cloak--Marked allies gain Power based off of X% your own Vitality.--When a Spectral ability is used, gain a stacking buff(max stacks at an X amount) that increases own Max Vitality based on Toughness.3.) Use taunt on the marked ally with the highest toughness, marked ally gains X stacks of Might. If the user has the highest toughness then when they reach below 25% health, then they heal X amount for every boon that is on them at that time.--When in Shadow Cloak, allies around don't bleed out when downed and gain X stacks of regeneration after being revived if they are marked.--Enter Shadow Cloak if reached to below 10% health, while in Shadow Cloak can't be damaged. Once Shadow Cloak ends, X% of heals output while in Cloak turn into damage at a targeted enemy. Within the first X seconds of Cloak, Damage done to enemy gets turned into heals on marked allies.--Taunt nearby enemies(up to an X amount within an X radius) when the elite utility is used, gain quickness and alacrity in the same instance.

I know this was probably rough around the edges, it was my first time doing something like this, but maybe I will do another one for a different class. I was thinking of either looking into doing Mesmer w/ Tomes, Gylphs, and a Dagger offhand OR Necromancer w/ "Adrenaline", Meditation, and a Mace main-hand next if I do another one like this. The reason for those two is it just seems interesting to do something unconventional with what they have, and sometimes it seems like that's Arenanets cup of tea.