A crazy idea on how to balance thief
Thieves are supposed to be slippery while mesmers are supposed to be confusing.
Also I don’t like the idea.
this idea is bad. here’s why:
1- it pigeonholes thief into “all or nothing” backstab/burst builds. screw condis, screw sustained damage, screw support (even if it isn’t much of a thing in PvP right now, you /can/ play a support thief if you want)
2-by making the thief semi-visible AND weaker by simply taking damage, you’re making lava font (or whatever other easily spammable AoE) a free thief shield, even on tanky builds. this would just make tanky AoE builds (hello hambow) stronger than now.
3- this would make fighting thieves even more frustrating. instead of “fixing” stealth, you’re making it an all or nothing mechanic. your suggestion says that if the thief is stupid and goes through damage after stealthing, he would be visible. that’s implying that the thief is stupid enough to apply stealth in front of the enemy. now why would he do that? he can apply stealth from a distance, even measely 3s stealth from D/P combo, then teleport 3000 units in one second to deliver a one-shot backstab that the victim, who wouldn’t know better. even without packing utilities for that, every thief worth their money has shadow refuge, which gives 12 seconds of stealth, more than enough to line up a backstab against that home bunker.
in short, this idea is only going to make the stealth “problem” worse, by making thieves stronger, by making it harder to fight against thieves (because you’ll be too busy dead), under the pretense that really, really stupid thieves will only apply stealth when they’re fully visible. your “solution” also enforces bunker AoE play, because AoEs magically make thieves deal less damage, and bunkers would be the one thing that can survive the one-shots.
TL;DR: it’s bad, it aggravates a problem that doesn’t really exist.
An interesting thought might be to have this be a GM trait:
You will appear semi-visible when damaged while stealthed, but take 75% less damage while stealthed.
because thieves need to be nerfed right?
did you pvp lately? the game is nothing but massive brainless aoe spam from bunkers…
[Teef] guild :>
the only decent aoe comes from dd zerker ele and warriors I can literally put down all my damaging wells and my blinding well and still be killed by a thief through that necro is so weak atm
Now, I’m sure your pitchfork is at a fine point know, and you’re ready to burn the bridge I’m obviously hiding under, but I do have a perfect buff for thieves. When ever they are poking the spine, a.k.a behind their target, they’ll do more damage. I’m not saying “hire a masseuse tomorrow”, no, I mean “Every chiropractor’s wet dream and worst nightmare” levels of damage.
No. No no no nonononono.
That would encourage exactly that kind of gameplay on the thief that everybody (legitimately) hates: the instagib that doesn’t allow any counterplay.
For stealth, I only see a slight problem for new players that encounter d/p thieves. For other stealth builds, I like the way that ANet went: when the thief is in stealth, dude, you better run (and crit dmg nerf was awful regarding this) but before that, he has to get into stealth. Trying to CnD? Lol, dodged. Shadow Refuge? I guess the floor is lava now, on a second thought, let’s just push the guy out.
the only decent aoe comes from dd zerker ele and warriors I can literally put down all my damaging wells and my blinding well and still be killed by a thief through that necro is so weak atm
This, like honestly the entirety of the game, wouldn’t be about 1v1.
The first idea isn’t that bad, if the thief only shows for like 1/3 sec. The rest punishes thieves that don’t really use stealth, so that doesn’t work at all. However, also the first idea would not be a problem as this would make Asura stronger. This issue is already at the table. Nothing serious if you ask me, but no need to make it worse.
People seem to have a lot of issues with stealth. No one ever gave me a convincing reason why there is lack of balance here. Every single class is “OP” in their own way, that is just how things are in Tyria.
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