The Arcane Thievery Changes are Awful

[Jables.4659]

The May 11th patch pretty much ruined this skill.  The notes said it would require a target to activate, but it appears that you now need to be facing your target in order to use the ability.  The main purpose of this skill has historically been to transfer conditions to your enemy.  For abilities to be useful condition management tools you need to be able to activate them quickly as a single tick of condition damage can be extremely devastating.  Apart from condition management, Master of Manipulations causes the ability to grant super-speed when cast.  I could accept needing to target an enemy, but quickly popping the ability for a burst of superspeed when kiting now requires you to awkwardly turn around and face the players chasing you.  Since Master of Manipulations was nerfed and now only gives 1.5s of superspeed, you would be lucky if you don't lose distance between you and your enemies when using it in this way.  Arcane Thievery worked perfectly fine before this patch, but in its current state feels absolutely awful to use.  For the love of god Anet, please revert this ridiculous change.  Mesmer was bad enough in PvP modes before this patch, it really doesn't need more dirt kicked on its corpse.

[moutzaheadin.4029]

Agreed the skill is ruined.

Edited May 14, 2021 by moutzaheadin.4029

[Yoci.2481]

I replaced it with the cleanse "mantra" in the builds where I used to run it.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

Agreed. I removed and replaced it with another signet. Haven't missed it or any manta I used prior.

[Zraurum.8493]

It was necessary to do it as ax 3 works, but for some reason I ruined everything, and so this skill did not use now, there is no point at all. Another skill in the trash heap chaotic interrupt