Guild Wars 2

Hello,
My main character is a Thief and upon seeing the latest trait released for the Deadly Arts (Revealed Training), a trait that grants extra power to the thief when he got the Revealed status. Or the new Acrobatics trait, that grants 1 sec of stability when the Thief gets Revealed. The first trait is great for PvE, the second one is hardly passable in any game mode.

But what if this logic could be applied to some of the Shadow Arts(SA) traits? Currently through SA, thieves get an absurd survival increase by extending the stealth mechanic and encouraging the user to burst fast and sit the rest of time in stealth in order to regen/blind/remove conditions and so on. Which not only force SA thieves to depend so much on stealth but also creates a style of fight that is quite undesirable to fight against (which a lot of the QQ comes from). I wonder if any roamer enjoys when a thief gets to use Shadow Refuge, swap to shortbow and keep you in permanent poison while he’s regenerating to full life…

So, here is some food for thought and just ideas that could be better thought about:

Trait Cloaked in Shadow could go from “Gaining stealth blinds nearby foes.” to “Blind the area around you when striking an enemy from stealth.”

Or adjust the trait “Shadow’s Rejuvenation” around Revealed so that it doesn’t reward the Thief for sitting in stealth, but to reward the thief when he’s engaged in a fight.

Seeing how the game will receive a wider range of skills able to inflict the status “Revealed”, it makes sense to adjust the Shadow Arts traits tree so that it is not entirely disabled by this one status. I believe stealth by itself is already a great active defense when used properly and SA trait line greatly improves upon it, which in turn makes thieves too dependable on it.

So, how do you believe this would affect your thief play style? Or when against it, being able to deny the thief the “revealed” bonus when you skillfully dodge attacks or force the thief to do a frontal backstab for the sake of getting revealed?

sorry for the topic hijack, but i have to wonder: do the revealed traits trigger when the enemy applies revealed to you? that would be interesting.

BrunoBRS.5178:

sorry for the topic hijack, but i have to wonder: do the revealed traits trigger when the enemy applies revealed to you? that would be interesting.

Yes, it does

Sic Em and Analyze are instant cast but not radius effect 6 sec might be too much but it’s just 1 skill you should really wait until we see what’s coming to thief before alarming ourselves.

Nope be alarmed now 4secs is enough to get a thief killed esp if you have bunch of condi dumped on you b4 hand. Its mean in a group setting rangers (I) win button against thief’s just got better. Also means a terrible player can simplely press 1 button and get a good thief killed.

vincecontix.1264:

Nope be alarmed now 4secs is enough to get a thief killed esp if you have bunch of condi dumped on you b4 hand. Its mean in a group setting rangers (I) win button against thief’s just got better. Also means a terrible player can simplely press 1 button and get a good thief killed.

If well used yes but the best that could happen is to have an anti-revealed ability for thief or improvements of SA traits but seriously if ranger and engi are so happy maybe we will be too and maybe just maybe my guardian.

You have to think of how many engineers run analyze, and on what builds they would dare slot it for. This isn’t an add-on to the pile of kitten some engi builds ckittene, its just something different. Considering the flamethrower buff I’d say they are looking into the power aspect of engi, which was rather glassy to start with.

While both Ranger and Engineer skills to apply Revealed are dangerous, especially to an SA build I do believe they just show how dependable to stealth some specs are.

In the end of the day our biggest source of Revealed is the thief itself. If SA could work more around revealed and less sitting in stealth for the full duration, it would make a better setup to use and to fight against.

The larger issue is not a single reveal of 6 seconds. I do believe those survivable.

The issue is one being chained after another as more classes gain access to the skill. An engineer and ranger in a party can chain reveals so there no stealth for 12 seconds.

The counter balance of a long cool down on said skill becomes less important in a party setting where it just chained.

Suggesting few rangers or engineers would use it as it compromises their builds in other ways does NOT apply as much to group settings. Three people in a party of 20 with this skill can chain 18 seconds of no stealth. This will not compromise the damage output of the party to any great extent while totally neutralizing stealth and back stabs as a tool.

babazhook.6805:

The larger issue is not a single reveal of 6 seconds. I do believe those survivable.

The issue is one being chained after another as more classes gain access to the skill. An engineer and ranger in a party can chain reveals so there no stealth for 12 seconds.

The counter balance of a long cool down on said skill becomes less important in a party setting where it just chained.

Suggesting few rangers or engineers would use it as it compromises their builds in other ways does NOT apply as much to group settings. Three people in a party of 20 with this skill can chain 18 seconds of no stealth. This will not compromise the damage output of the party to any great extent while totally neutralizing stealth and back stabs as a tool.

They can just not let reveal stack at all. It would just take up the highest duration applied.

babazhook.6805:

The larger issue is not a single reveal of 6 seconds. I do believe those survivable.

The issue is one being chained after another as more classes gain access to the skill. An engineer and ranger in a party can chain reveals so there no stealth for 12 seconds.

The counter balance of a long cool down on said skill becomes less important in a party setting where it just chained.

Suggesting few rangers or engineers would use it as it compromises their builds in other ways does NOT apply as much to group settings. Three people in a party of 20 with this skill can chain 18 seconds of no stealth. This will not compromise the damage output of the party to any great extent while totally neutralizing stealth and back stabs as a tool.

in a party of 20, all semblance of balance goes out the window regardless of revealed.

>>They can just not let reveal stack at all. It would just take up the highest duration applied.

I am not talking about stacking> I am talking about chaining it. Two very different things. I can not see a mechanic that would prevent a reveal being used every 6 or 7 seconds. Cooldowns as a means of doing so do not work in groups with such powerful skills.

If the suggestion that “all professions get access to a like skill” followed as some suggested then it becomes even more worrisome.

That all said until I see other changes in store I will reserve judgement. My own thieves have always been bigger on acrobatics. Stealth tends to be used for condi clears more then anything in my builds.

The problem I have is, there were already counters to stealth but they were soft counters, not hard counters, and I liked that people had to think to counter stealth.

Now arenanet is basically saying “kay now you can prevent them from doing anything useful for 6 seconds and basically kill them just by pressing a button from long range”

Edit: They better have some good stuff planned for thief or I will be kittened. We’ve gotten constant nerfs and I think it’s time arenanet treats us better.