Guild Wars 2

Lemme explain, at the moment when you use a hammer and burn all its abilities, you can then switch to a greatsword and do the same thing, how is that fair to a profession like thief who cannot do such a thing, we have initiative and cannot switch weapons.

Please freeze the cooldowns of the weapon your not using until you switch back, this would still allow you to do the same, but you can’t just weapon switch to ignore cooldowns.

You’re a thief, you have the ability to spam skills with your unique resource initiative. Other classes rely on CD timing and can be hindered if they mess up, thief is a bit more forgiving in that way. What you suggested would be bad design.

Thieves can weapon swap to a short bow to escape or kite enemies.

An example of that mechanic hindering a class would be the Mesmer. You’re using sword/pistol and you use your iDuelist/#5 skill and you used all your CD’s possible for that weapon. You swap to GS and unload with burst CD’s and a strong ranged #1 skill while you wait for your previous CD’s to refresh. Let’s say you added this mechanic into the game, Mesmer’s would be nearly useless. They rely on weapon swapping for illusions/phantasms and lining up huge amounts of burst.

Also, you know you can dodge their CD’s…right? It’s not hard.

Thief can only escape if they have enough initiative, meaning if they used it all killing you they probably won’t have that initiative.

Also, an elementalist can switch there stances and lightning away fast without any penalty because they don’t have to rely on a resource or a cool-down as long as they switch weapons, which is very unfair.

Using the method I said above, a warrior for example can just keep switching weapons and ignoring cooldowns since they are so short for them with no penalty at all.

Elementalists don’t switch weapons they switch attunements and having cool downs freeze would take away the biggest reason to switch weapons. Why would you switch if when you switch back nothing changed?

Exactly, you have to pick and choose what you want to use wisely, not just switch and keep button mashing away.

Currently because of the cooldown system and weapon switching, you can have best of both worlds.

This is a poorly thought out idea, as you are only looking at it from your class’s perspective (that does not share this mechanic).

You are thinking the grass is greener. Initiative is currently MUCH MORE POTENT than the CD system, as most classes have very mediocre dmg abilities and 1 strong ability that is on cd. So in theory we can spam 2 strong abilities between two weapons and then switch back to weapon one after weapon swap cd.

Thief on the other hand can spam 4-5 strong attacks (PW/HS/Unload/etc) and within a second of regen can hit it again. This is not taking into account all of the initiative building traits, INCLUDING initiative on weapon swap.

So i would argue that thief is completely favored in the number of times their strong skills can be used , not only in burst/spam fashion, but also over the long run.

Thank you for pointing out how blatantly overpowered the initiative system is.

I play a guardian and warrior as well, the advantages of switching weapons greatly exceeds the cost of initative, THERE ATTACKS do more then just damage, SWITCHING to a hammer, knocking them down and putting vuln on them, then switching to a greatsword and blinding them and burning ALL there attacks that do damage AND add conditions to you HURTS more then just spamming a damaging attack.

Have you not seen Guardians who switch weapons alot constantly lighting people on fire, this mechanic was not intended to be a way to force people to weapon switch to be the best, its an exploitive mechanic that needs fixed.

A thief cannot BLIND you and shove on 4-5 damage attacks, they have to pick and CHOOSE what they do wisely because they’re attacks that stack non-damaging conditions DO NOT do damage, meanwhile, a Warrior and Guardian can switch weapons and be best of both worlds, tell that to some classes like necromancer who pretty much is the same regardless, its poor class balance.

I think you are confusing poor class balance with people who understand and use a game mechanic. Weapon switching is supposed to be used during combat to increase your damage output. I cannot say how this pertains to thief because I have not played one, but all the traits the give you bonuses on weapon swap would be worthless. There would be no incentive to switch weapons. Classes switch weapons because with cooldowns they are sitting ducks. Don’t know if you have done a dungeon as a Warrior yet but after you go through cooldowns if you don’t switch to your other weapon you are dead. Your cooldowns will take too long if you just wait and you will die. So having them freeze would mean you always die.

ummmmm, no.
Silly idea. Weapon switching is a big part of this game (or attunements or kits or whatever…).

And from a thief, who can spam a nuke many times this is really a bit rich.

The initial point Daecollo makes refers to the fact that the average use of skills for a thief is lower because they are based on initiative and not cooldowns. I believe its a valid point.

However, the trait “initiative on weapon swap” effectively increases their average use of skills just like swapping weapons (and cooldowns) would.

My point is “initiative on weapon swap” should be a class mechanic regardless of traiting.

I agree, it would bring more balance to said classes if that was the idea, its kind of dumb its in such a deep trait.