Guild Wars 2

Tulisin.6945:

I don’t understand why there is such a strong desire to “streamline” weapon sets into particular stat combinations. GW2 has done remarkably well by not making weapon/itemization design that cut-and-dry and it pays off in build diversity. I’m all for stuff like making backstab more appealing to more builds, but there’s no reason to cut down build diversity by narrowing weapon functionality.

- Posted in Heartseeker Suggestion

Build diversity comes from using different weapons to achieve different goals. That’s the very basis of GW2 skill design. Making weapons share “dual stat distribution” only decreases the effectiveness of the set as a whole and as it is now; forcing you to use less skills. This is not really a problem at the moment because it is technically also a form of initiative management and since spamming the same couple skills of a set is an option, you can get away with it. What many claim this is doing is “increasing build options” but all I see is it actually lowering diversity inside those “builds” which are actually built around single skills, not the weapon. On top of that, this “build diversity” idea is even more flawed because of the fact many of the weapon sets as a whole share the same split goals.

You want diversity? What if you actually focused weapon sets to achieve goals correctly?

Dagger Main Hand – Large burst damage.
Pistol Main Hand – Ranged condition damage.
Sword – Sustained damage pressure.
Dagger Off-Hand – CQB damage prep.
Pistol Off-Hand – Ranged target control.
Shortbow- ./removed
? Longbow – Long Range AoE effects.
? Rifle – Long Range single target DPS.

Combining these weapons gives different advantages/disadvantages; That’s where your build diversity should come from. It should NOT come from combining something like;

Dagger Main – Large burst damage
+
Dagger Off-Hand – CQB damage prep.
===
CQB Condition damage.

This is not only completely counter intuitive but also hindering to the weapon combination as a whole.
The following are some skill suggestion I’m making up on the spot just to get everyone’s creative ideas flowing in the hopes it illustrates what I mean by actually having useful skills that you would want to use in combination of your other skills.

Pistol
Use different type on ammunition to disable and inflict damaging conditions on foes.

Body Shot – Shoot your foe with a poisonous round inflicting poison for 5 seconds. If your foe was already suffering from poison they are instead chilled for 2 seconds.

• 3 Initiative

Unload – Fire with both pistols at your foe inflicting a multitude of conditions.

• Number of Shots: 8
• Conditions applied in this order: 1 stack of Cripple(2s), 3 stacks of Bleeding(4s), 3 stacks of Confusion(3s), 1 Stack of Burning(1s).
• 5 Initiative

Head Shot – Daze(1/2s) and Blind(3s) your foe with a head shot.

• 3 Initiative

Black Powder – Shot a round that detonates in a cloud of smoke granting you stealth(3s) and explodes on impact blinding(5s) nearby foes.

• 6 Initiative

Dual Skill
Many of these skills are not only very fun to use but very effective(Flanking Strike’s tracking of course being omited). This is the exception however as its focus on condition damage is completely counter intuitive to the two weapons combined to use this skill.

Death Blossom – Do an evasive leap over your target striking them 3 times. Each hit does X% more damage than the previous strike.

• 5 Initiative

Longbow
I have felt the Shortbow was just too clunky for its own good with its array of AoE skills and often close range. I decided to change it out for a Longbow which keeps many of the same effects however allows a longer range at which to utilize them to partially counteract the clunky feel. Also it has a unique chain attack to make it feel more effective at long range at the cost of initiative regeneration rate. A new skill in slot 3 was introduced to counteract this however (if the circumstances are met) which was a re-imagination of Trick Shot which we all love.

Skill(1):
Chain Skill:
1. Opening Shot – Shoot an arrow at your foe. (0 Initiative)
2. Follow-up Shot – Shoot another arrow at your foe that moves twice as fast. (1 Initiative)
3. Final Shot – Shoot a final arrow that moves twice as fast and deals extra damage. (1 Initiative)

Skill(1):
Stealth Skill:
Triple Shot – Shoot 3 arrows at your foe. You remove a boon for each arrow that hit. Nearby foes all lose the same boons. (0 Initiative)

• Effect Range: 600

Skill(2):
Cluster Bomb – Fire a cluster bomb at target area. Detonate in midair for multiple explosions. Moves slower than normal. (4 Initiative)

• Slightly faster than the current version to compensate for added range.

Skill(3):
Leeching Shot – Fire an arrow that bounces on impact damaging struck foes. Gain Initiative per foe struck. The same target cannot be hit twice. (4 Initiative)

• Initiative gain per foe: 1
• Max bounces: 4

Skill(4):
Choking Gas – Fire an arrow that fills the target area with a poisonous cloud that dazes foes inside. (6 Initiative)

• 4s Duration (5 pulses).
• Poison 4s each pulse.
• Daze (1/4s) on 3rd pulse.

Skill(5):
Infiltrators Arrow – Fire an arrow and shadow-step to the target area, blinding(5s) nearby foes. (6 Initiative)

Rifle
To feel unique to the Thief I had the idea of specializing instead on types of dangerous ammunition (like the pistol above) instead of focusing on unique skills. This idea, in my opinion, ended up turning out quite well as it allowed the ability to have a high initiative consuming attack which could deal lots of damage while still synergizing well with the rest of the bar. As such, only one effect can be activated at a time and they cannot be stored out of combat for more than 30s.

Skill(1):
Precise Shot – Aim a shot at your foe. Increased Critical chance per point of initiative.(0 Initiative)

• ~1% increased critical chance per point of Initiative.

Skill(1):
Stealth Skill:
Heavy Round – Your next Precise Shot Knocks Back your opponent and causes vulnerability. (0 Initiative)

• Vulnerability; 5 stacks for 5 seconds.
• Knock Back Range – 450
• Channel time: 1.5 seconds

Skill(2):
Obsidian Round – Your next Precise Shot applies Cripple and has a 100% finisher chance. (3 Initiative)

• Cripple 4s.

Skill(3):
Poison Round – Your next Precise Shot applies Poison and has a 100% finisher chance. (3 Initiative)

• Poison for 5 sec.

Skill(4):
Deadly Shot – Channel a shot at your foe that deals more damage the more initiative it consumes.
*Base cost: 5 Initiative.

• Max channel time: 4s. 1 Initiative drain per pulse. 2 pulses per second.
• Beginning the channel breaks stealth. Cannot move during channel.
• Max Range: 1,500.

Skill(5):
Smoke Canister – Drop a smoke canister that explodes a second later granting stealth to allies within range. Dropping a Canister while in stealth reveals you. (6 Initiative)

• Fuse Time: 1 second
• Radius: 180
• Stealth Duration 3s
• Blind (3s)

The Reason I included a Longbow and Rifle suggestions in this was to give some suggestions for a 1200 Range option for the Thief which it currently lacks as I’ve seen an increasing amount of these comments. I removed the option for a Shortbow simply because it would just become redundant with Pistols, Longbows, and Rifles. Also, I just personally prefer the Ranger to be the Master of the two bows. I’m aware that there is a 99.99% chance none of these changes will ever be implemented. Especially something so drastic as add/removing weapons. Most of them were just thoughts that I took off with when I was writing this up.

Steal
I love steal so much but there are times and weapons I just do not feel like it has any remote synergy with. I want to suggest an alternative form of skill you can swap it out for (like swapping a utility skill) that has a better synergy with the ranged aspect of the profession. While also promoting preemptive actions of the Thief before battle.

Anchor – Drop an anchor at your current position. (Lose all Initiative)
Return – Return(shadow-step) to your Anchor. (Lose all Initiative)

• Max shadow-step range: 1,200
• Red Line to appear under skill when out of range of Anchor.
• Small but visible to enemies and therefore can destroyed if targeted?.
• Shares recharge with Steal and traits could be made to have some effects on this skill as well as Steal.