Guild Wars 2

I know this has been said before but it needs to be repeated over and over till the devs take notice. Thieves need a form of defense other than stealth!!! When it comes to theives and stealth there are too many different ways for them to disappear and now form of detection to keep them from slipping away.

Let me Explain:

When any profession chooses to build glass cannon they get the age old tradeoff. They are masters of dishing out pain but at the risk that if anyone comes after them they will need help or they goners. For every profession this is true and thats great.

Every profession features a few utility skills that can help keep your glass cannon alive for a few seconds in the hope of either bursting down your assailant or getting that help from a nearby ally. These sometimes work but are often unsuccessful with a persistant enemy.

The thief’s method of buying them a few seconds however is stealth. Stealth is far more effective than other means of “panic buttons” because it not only stops the onslaught but allows for an escape. If an engineer pops a cooldown and blocks all incoming dmg or the elemental turns to mist or a ranger uses “protect me”… etc etc they don’t disappear altogether. You just hold back your attacks until the effect ends.

When the theif uses one of the 4 ways most have to stealth they can run away or close the gap between the two players completely unseen. In a team fight this means even if you catch them making a mistake or out of position they will always be able to slip away and rejoin the fight later (often to finish you off).

There either needs to be a way to keep a theif from using multiple forms of stealth back to back or the cooldowns need to be lengthened to give the other professions a chance to punish the glass cannon before they can slip away.

I don’t think the theif is so much overpowered but the stealth mechanic is really fustrating when you outsmart and outmanuever and opponent only to have them refuge or whatever and get away every time. For a class that does that much damage there should be a negative consequence when you bite off more than you can chew.

Oh and another option is to make it so cripple sticks better to theives. Then they can keep all their stealth and evasion because they can only go so far with cripple applied. Just give the classes that are vulnerable to theives ONE shot at escaping and give classes that can beat them a way to actually fill that role. As it stands right now the only time they die is when they mess up or run out of stealth cooldowns. Even their counters take too long to kill them.

Can you suggest a change that won’t entirely cripple a whole trait line of the thief or make 1/2 of their weapon sets unviable?

Saint.4876:

Thieves need a form of defense other than stealth!!!

“Yeah, like evasion! The community would be totally okay if thieves could use evasion instead of stealth as their sole defensive mechanic!” Oh wait.

Saint.4876:

The thief’s method of buying them a few seconds however is stealth. Stealth is far more effective than other means of “panic buttons” because it not only stops the onslaught but allows for an escape. If an engineer pops a cooldown and blocks all incoming dmg or the elemental turns to mist or a ranger uses “protect me”… etc etc they don’t disappear altogether. You just hold back your attacks until the effect ends.

No it does not. You do damage to thieves when they are stealthed. Channeling skills like this will continue track, hit, and kill the thief even when he goes to stealth. The thief has not access to protection also, to help and reduce the damage, like for example mesmer when they go to stealth. Learn to use channeling skills and AOE versus thieves. Stealth IS NOT invulnerability like the other skills you mentioned.

Saint.4876:

When the theif uses one of the 4 ways most have to stealth they can run away or close the gap between the two players completely unseen. In a team fight this means even if you catch them making a mistake or out of position they will always be able to slip away and rejoin the fight later (often to finish you off).

Have you not ever seen a warrior running away, while passive healing fast to full health, and then come back for more? Or a mesmer going to stealth, and blink far away, while she left her phantasms back to continue and harass yo,u and passive healing also? An engineer using rocket?
Many classes have the ability to escape, please do not act as if only thief can do it.

Saint.4876:

I don’t think the theif is so much overpowered but the stealth mechanic is really fustrating when you outsmart and outmanuever and opponent only to have them refuge or whatever and get away every time.

You did not brink any knock back skill like this ? Or some AOE to kill the thief while he is in refuge? Then do not cry if he gets way. You should know that the thief has to stay 4 secs inside the refuge, otherwise he gets revealed. Push him out or fear him out etc, and finish him.

Also, I would like to add here that if you want to win vs a thief you should use CC on them. Thieves do not have access to stability (only one elite skill at 90 sec CD, and most glass cannons do not slot it), and it is easy to abuse CC on them. Glass cannons also have the bad habit to not bring a stun breaker in their build. Use it at your advantage.

Now that you are more informed about thief’s stealth, go fight some of them out there, and kill them if you outplay them. But please do not expect to win vs better and more experienced players than you. You should lose to these thieves, and any other class if your opponent outplayed you.