Thief Elite Speculation

[Duke Blackrose.4981]

Icon 4 - the Obsidian Flame. Offhand torch, condi spec with a stealth and/or support focus.

[Scynte.1340]

For a while now, I've been sitting on an idea for thief elite spec: Bard. I'm aware that it seems less likely to be the case now, with the profession icons out already. In my opinion, the class fantasy of bard seems to fit thief much better than mesmer looking more like a FF Bard (especially 4's Edward) or a DnD Bard. Ultimately: more tricksy, less magical.

F1 is Sing; it is affected by the traits that affect steal. Positive effects go to nearby allies; offensive effects go to nearby enemies. No mobility, similar to Deadeye's Mark. Very few additional traits would be needed to make this a powerful support ability. Mug could heal allies and damage enemies; Thrill of the Crime could steal boons from multiple enemies and give them to allies. It may be a bit op if it could daze multiple enemies and stealth a bunch of allies. This would certainly be a longer cooldown and likely require elite spec-based trait tweaking as is done with the scourge already. There would be no F2 or the F2 could be what produces the secondary effects of the traits above or the song's effect as an encore. I'm not even sure what the primary effect of sing would be; it already sounds quite good. A tier of major traits could give it some flexibility. A few possibilities: unblockable, might, a stretch might be a way to prevent or remove revealed for a very short time.

Its weapon would be Warhorn which could act like a noisemaker, producing sound that you're not sure where it's coming from. If you're near a thief using a warhorn skill, it could sound like it's coming from the opposite direction. It could be a supportive weapon, with the dual attack opening up a few options based on the mainhand. The weapon skills could be very free as far as balancing goes: ranging from full support to full offense. Offense would be sonic attacks. Support would have to be well-timed support: Vigor + direct endurance restore, powerful yet short duration boons, perhaps a mix of blind and aegis?

The tough part with a supportive thief is figuring out how it would be fun to do a more support-focused thief. Very short-duration boons, especially on the weapon seems like a way to give it some identity from other support builds. I like vigor and endurance regen as an idea. I'm not sure what else it could be. Aegis could be neat for thief, I think. Healing or barrier could be a possibility too; perhaps it could do a little bit of both?

Utilities could be a lot of things. Venoms already cover offensive support to an extent. Roll for initiative would drive warhorn-based support. They could be a way to augment venom offensive support coverage or give a bit of defensive support. I see these as less of a part of the main identity and more of a way to cover the rest of the spec. They could be sound-based, but I think if they were songs, shouts, or chants, it would be too limiting.

Edited August 1, 2021 by Scynte.1340
Typos

[quaniesan.8497]

Daredevil is already kinda ninja-ish thing.  Anet really has to be careful if they indeed go for the shinobi theme with dual swords with this overlapping.   Not that I object to anything. It's just very.... interesting to see how they distinct it from daredevil.

[MrForz.1953]

Anime protagonist e-spec.

[DrakoBlade.1759]

This is kind of funny looking at this Thread after the Thief Teaser, I think a lot of the Comments here early on in the thread sort of hit on different parts of what is seen lmao...