Guild Wars 2

It is unusual and really makes absolutely no sense that a Thief’s shortbow range is shorter than that of any other class that uses the shortbow.

Put the range back to equal distance as other shortbow using classes. I noticed that with my thief’s 1 attack on a shortbow, I have to get closer to the target while another class using a shortbow (and I verified that this ranger was using a shortbow) was further behind me.

Put it back. I think many shortbow thiefs would appreciate it. Just the regular 1 attack range please.

To be honest I find it sad that thief is the only class with no possibility for 1200 range. We use to have cluster bomb but apparently that was a bug… At least should make it that if you trait in it it has longer range (either short bow or pistol).
Well I guess this is the stealth curse.

Lady Minuit.3186:

To be honest I find it sad that thief is the only class with no possibility for 1200 range. We use to have cluster bomb but apparently that was a bug… At least should make it that if you trait in it it has longer range (either short bow or pistol).
Well I guess this is the stealth curse.

I suspect they don’t want to give maximum range to a class with both stealth and high mobility. That they wanted this class to be a close range class for balance reasons.

The current range of the shortbow is ok. They need only finallyto fix the shortbow shooting angle for the thiefs shortbow attacks when in Wvw standing on a wall, because most oftenly it happens just, that the silyl skill animations end in shooting the splitterbomw or the poison field into the WALL CURB right in front of you, instead of onto the targeted enemy …

That is just totally annyong, when you waste initiative, because of that stupid character model shooting the attack into the wall instead of onto the enemy.
The only spots where the collision of arrows is correct is when shooting right into a protective wall (which should block als ALL projectile attacks if you hide behind them, including all kinds of AOE!!! they need to be save spots that should protect players for the cost of not being able to attack back – defending places is way too hard due to the ridiculous AoE spam onto the walls, players with higher position should deal more damage to players on lower positions, cause they are in ADVANTAGE and should also have from increased positions a higher range, than normal.

To get back to thiefs..
Thiefs should get improved by that update that should bringnew skills to the game by adding long bows to the theif to give them a fitting silent weapon that has 1200 basic range and they should add a trait for pistols that requires either 20 or 30 point,s that increases the range of pistols from 900 to 1200. maybe somethign that cpould get then combined with an other pistol specific trait, like +10% damage or the ricochet effect so that one of those existing traits just gets improved with the range increase effect to make it in overall more useful.

However, thiefs in general need a bigger redesign, than just range improvements for pistols and adding longbows for a 1200 base range weapon.
Thiefs need most likely a redesign on the stealing mechanic into a automatic mechanism on critical hits with increased amoutn of steal skills from 1 to 3 and changed steal skill effects to ballance that increase out, that they can steal then more oftenly in combat, shadow step mechanic change from a teleport mechanism into a quick movement/dodge mechanism that lets you dodge automatically over time to prevent 8similar like the mesmer skills that makes you immune to damage, but just without movement), that you are forced to make a dodge roll always and especially the venom mechanic removing the utility venoms completely and integratign them into the thiefs main mechanic over F2-4 to let us choose out 1 of 3 equipable venom skilsl from 10 different ones to make them alot more versatile and add alot more of group support to this class due to venoms getting effects on their weapon skilsl changing their weapon skills in regard of which venom you’ve put onto your weapon for a duration of 60-120 seconds (think of venoms as like GW1 weapon spells which change the effects of your weapon attacks, for GW2 this would mean changes in the weapon skill effects beign able to perform other skills than as long the venom is working)

Here some suggestions for Thief Long Bow Skills:

1) Piercing Arrow (Auto Attack) / Stealth Shadow Flare
Shoots through all enemies in line of sight dealign damage and stacks of torment.
Ignores also 25% of armor rating from enemies.
Shadow Flare is similar wirking like Piercing arrow, but instead it shoots an invisible arrow out of the stealth that sets all enemies in line on burning.

2) Shadow Rain
The Thief shoots a small AoE Arrow Shower that deals multiple hits over a few seconds to enemies standing inside the AoE Field. Enemies in that field suffer on blindness every second the aoE is active. Shadow Rain works as Combo Field too.

3) Fearsome Volley
A long distance shot, that deals more damage to enemies, so longer the distance is.
With increased range increases also the chance, that the screaming arrow volley of 5 arrows (cone like shot) the enemy suffer on fear at the end + a 9% base chance, if the enemy had over 90% and +1% chance for every arrow that hits one and the same target HP.

4) Sniper Shot
Lets the Thief kneel with the bow and perform a sniper shot with it, that increases in power, so longer the player holds down the button to draw the bow until its maximum tension has reached and the thief shoots automatically.
For every second holding the button to draw the bow (max 7 seconds) the critical hit chance increases for 5% and the critical damage also by 5%.
This attack is easily interruptable and lets lose all initiative, if it gets interupted.

5) Arrow of Sins
Ths Attack removes up to 2 Boons from enemies and heals the thief for every boon that has been removed. If you had conditions on you, 1 condition will be spread over to the enemy target with Arrow of Sins.

Something like this would I personally wish for the thief to have

Im happy enough with my level 80 thief, ive 65 skill point built up so u know ive spent alot of time on my thief over the last 3months, leave thiefs as they are. If you want longer range create a ranger

You clearly have no clues ricoh, if you think having played just only 3 months with the thief is enough to think that the currrent thief design is ok as they are.

I play the thief since release of the game, played with it mainly PvE and WvW and especially in WvW you really are kitten with no skills that have a range of 1200 and you are utterly completely USELESS as thief for any kind of defending places like towers/keeps, whereas rangers with their longbow skills are very helpful as like too and all other classes that have long range skilsl with 1200er range and also don’t have problems with their skill animations of shooting their arrows just into the stupid wall curb in front if them, when they target an enemy at shoot at them, because the longbow mysteriously has a better shooting angle animation, than the short bow so that they can shoot at enemies without any problems of wasting attacks/time due to bugged arrow collision controls in WvW.

Its only the thief, that has no single 1200er range skill and that is just plain unbalanced and needs to get changed.
Best with the implemention of Longbows for thiefs and as said a pistol trait to increase their range from 900 to 1200. Best done by fusing that effect together with one of the other mostly underpowered/useless traits.

The only weapon with 1200 range the thief has, are the harpoon guns, but thiefs totally suck anyways in underwater combat compared to all other classes due to a massive lack in AoE-Skills, bad melee skills, basically no stealth there and half of their utility skills all not being usable instantly, as also no trait effects, that seriously make thiefs in underwater combat better, while other classes also have traits, that work for them in underwater combat to improve their skill recharges ect…

The thief is seriously a complete game mechanic fail and needs a redesign and the only thing in which this class currently shines the most in is in dealing high burst damage and the ability of perma stealth, what is at the moment the only real thing, that makes this whole class dangerous, but also extremely predictable for any kind of SMART player who fights against them that has the ability also to stay under damage pressure cool, when being surprised to perform quickly the right counter skills that force the thief to flee or brign them to the point to need to reset the fight through stealth to get a chance to try to get again the upperhand in the fight through some high critical damage bursts with a backstab that hopefully hits hard enough to end the battle quickly with either another backstab or critical heartseekers.

65 skill points of game time is nothing. Come back, when you have like 800-1000 Skill Points of gameplay experience with the thief, then we can discuss this further

Just telling other people to change the class when they want more range is no solution at all, this is just a childish argument per se… sorry to say that, but thats my honest opinion.

If you think a person needs 1000 skillpoints before they know their class well enough to comment on it, that’s a sorry statement.

I’m happy with the shortbow range as-is. It’s the first weapon kit I really loved on my thief. I think the #5 skill could be improved (I have steal to close gaps), but I don’t want to be a clone of a ranger.

LaoShin.2986:

Put the range back to equal distance as other shortbow using classes.

all other shortbow using classes? there is just one and thats ranger.
ranger has 900 range shortbow, why should you get 1200?

Lady Minuit.3186:

To be honest I find it sad that thief is the only class with no possibility for 1200 range.

steal can be traited to 1500 range.
scorpion wire (utility skill) has 1200 range.

Put a ranger shortbow to it’s farthest 1 attack range to a target in LA, have a thief shortbow 1 attack next to it (equal distance from target like the ranger)..you will see the difference…Magische 1200 range scorpion wire 1500 range steal, are those attack abilities?..those are pre-combat tools unless you trait mug on steal..i’m really just looking at the 1 attack

LaoShin.2986:

Put a ranger shortbow to it’s farthest 1 attack range to a target in LA, have a thief shortbow 1 attack next to it (equal distance from target like the ranger)..you will see the difference…Magische 1200 range scorpion wire 1500 range steal, are those attack abilities?..those are pre-combat tools unless you trait mug on steal..i’m really just looking at the 1 attack

If you’re not utilizing steal during combat, you’re not playing the class mechanics, and I daresay you’re missing out on a key element of the class. Also, how is scorpion wire a pre-combat tool? It’s an interrupt and a gap-closer.

No, I don’t think that especially 1000 Skill Points are needed to have a right to say what you “think” of wehats good for a class.
This is still the suggestion ares and everyones free to suggest as much as they want.
But 1000 Skill Points of Gameplay Experience, if gained through really playing the class and not through consumeable items like the skill point scrolls definetely are a sign of more experience with a class.
You could level just vom 1 to 65 in a in a few days and have the same amount of skill points build up, like ricoh, without ever having faced real high end combat in any kind of PvP related situation to really grasp the class mechanics under certain situations.

You have to play this class for a logne tiem than just 3 months in all kinds of gameplay modes that GW2 offers to really know this class how it works from A to Z.

I play the thief long enough to know exactly, how it worked with the old range and with its current 900er range and having that experience, knowing that every single other class has combat skills that deal serious lethal damage over 1200er range on land, ist for the thief an absolute disadvantage.
Skorpion Wire is a joke, its just as said only a silly weak utility skill that is helpful in situations when you need to get quickly to a fleeing enemy to finish them off, or if you want to seperate a specific enemy out of a group or of you want to get an enemy away from a specific position. Then this skill is great as utilty, but you win absolutely nothing with it as a combat skill, when other classes can permanently attack you all from 1200er away constantly without having long recharge times as its mostly their auto attack or skilsl, that launch you wide away back to keep you on distance, knowing that you have absolutely no skills with the same range to counterattack back.

And using just a utility for these kind of rare occassions isn’t very effective, then its better to take something with you that is more of universal usage and effectiveness in overall, like blinding powder or smoke screen.

The thief , while it had 1200er range with shortbow was just more effective and NOT obsolete in defending situations in WvW. When thiefs had 1200er range, there wasn#t also this werid shooting angle problem, that they started to shoot their splitter bombs and choking gases into wall curbs in front of you.
This weird problem started to happen just only, when Anet reduced the range to 900 cause of the shooting animation got then a slightly different shooting angle animation due to the reduced range, which forces thiefs to jump onto the wall curbs just to be able to freely attack the enemies below them, what turns you then also to free targets on the silver plate to get pulled down into the enemy crowd to just die a quick n cruel death due to the masses stomping you to dust in seconds then.

This never happened when thiefs had with short bow a range of 1200 and could attack enemies from the walls like rangers and all other classes with the same range that used rifles instead or scepters/staffs, or even as mesmer great swords oO what makes the whole thing so ridiculous…!!

You have a 1500 range instant cast gap close…

If you’re not utilizing steal during combat, you’re not playing the class mechanics, and I daresay you’re missing out on a key element of the class. Also, how is scorpion wire a pre-combat tool? It’s an interrupt and a gap-closer.

an interrupt to attack, a gap closer to attack…pre-combat.

I am still referring to the 1 attack in comparison to ranger shortbow, guardian scepter and so on..

Also 1 attack on the wall in wvw doesn’t work properly compared to the other classes.
I still refer to the one fact that a shortbow 1 attack is still short ranged compared to rangers, guardians with scepter, mesmer great sword..

lol, that can be used once every 30 seconds like and can only be used, if you have at the moment no stolen item skill that blocks the further usage of the stealing mechanic (one reason why I want that stealing should get raised from 1 item to maximum 3 items, so that thiefs become finally able to steal more oftenly in a battle, that just having stolen 1 items won’t block off anymore the furthe usage of the gap closer)
However, I’m also for removing the free shadow step from stealing.
Stealing shoud be something, that should always happen automatically at specific chances.
Shadow Stepping needs a redesign to remove the massive independency of stealth from thiefs and thats only possible if Shadow Steps become instead of a teleport mechanism a quick movement mechanism that lets the thief automatically dodge incoming attacks for some short time, without having to do a dodge roll.
If thiefs can avoid that way more oftenly damage, then theres no need to use penetrantly stealth to avoid damage and thiefs would give players the impression of really being the fastest class of all in regard of movements)

And it the current 1500 range gap closer REQUIRES of you to waste a trait slot for it extra just to get it to 1500 range, otherwise its range is 1200, but for beign able to use it only like every 30 seconds, its way too uneffective in combat, when you would have to react in short time multiple times quickly needing to close gaps, cause of beign launched back or getting CC’ed through chill or fear and so on …

However, my single and absolute simple to understand reason why thiefs need back 1200er range either with pistol traits or through giving them long bows originates from a problem of WvW.
As long as thiefs have no 1200 range for combat, they will always be utterly useless and obsolete for defending places.
This must get changed!
You can’t just simply say, that thiefs should all go use arrow carts, canons ect. only so that they can be effective and helpful at defending places.
They should be same as effective in dealing with enemies from higher positioned walls, like rangers with longbows, warriors with rifles/long bows, engineers with rifles/turrets without being forced to jump on the wall curbs, just to be able to normally target enemies with their skills

This needs to get fixed and that ASAP!!

LaoShin.2986:

Also 1 attack on the wall in wvw doesn’t work properly compared to the other classes.

You clearly don’t play the other classes, the other bows don’t work on walls either.

Player Character.9467:

LaoShin.2986:

Also 1 attack on the wall in wvw doesn’t work properly compared to the other classes.

You clearly don’t play the other classes, the other bows don’t work on walls either.

No ranged weapon does for any class…

Give longest range to a class with high mobility, multiple escape skills, stealth, and can do the highest spike damage?

Why not? I see no problem with this.

LaoShin.2986:

It is unusual and really makes absolutely no sense that a Thief’s shortbow range is shorter than that of any other class that uses the shortbow.

its funny because the only other class that can use a shortbow is ranger… and ranger SB got reduced to 900 range a while ago

Bron.9647:

Player Character.9467:

LaoShin.2986:

Also 1 attack on the wall in wvw doesn’t work properly compared to the other classes.

You clearly don’t play the other classes, the other bows don’t work on walls either.

No weapon does for any class…

fixed

it is obvious I do not play Ranger or I likely have detailed the ranger too.

Player Character.9467:

You clearly don’t play the other classes, the other bows don’t work on walls either.

—Yet NPC Archers can…odd isn’kitten

Thank you.

Magische Boek.2530:

LaoShin.2986:

Put the range back to equal distance as other shortbow using classes.

all other shortbow using classes? there is just one and thats ranger.
ranger has 900 range shortbow, why should you get 1200?

Lady Minuit.3186:

To be honest I find it sad that thief is the only class with no possibility for 1200 range.

steal can be traited to 1500 range.
scorpion wire (utility skill) has 1200 range.

So a 20-35 second cool down substitutes a basic attack at 1200 range?

I don’t think you understand the argument, it’s about consistent range to match the other professions. Thief is the only profession who is incapable of even 1000 consistent range on any weapon. I think the nerf to cluster bomb was unnecessary, considering how slow it moved and how limited it was to it’s uses in wvw. It was good for siege clearing especially on briar but now they lost many places to put it yet maintained other professions ability to still do so. I’m fine with ranger and ele having 1500 range, and I’m fine with some professions getting 1200 range. I think its unfair that thief is stuck at 900, at least make it 1000. It’s not like our ranged dps is significant atm, unload is a joke and bleeding pistols are soo slow and single target. Sb is just for tagging but even with zerker it isn’t that significant, its a great utility weapon. At least let it tag at a matching distance.

As for pve and pvp, I think sb hasn’t changed all too much. I rarely ever use it for anything but it’s aoe hits against minionmancers or turret engi’s, or large groups of mobs.

Astral Projections.7320:

I suspect they don’t want to give maximum range to a class with both stealth and high mobility. That they wanted this class to be a close range class for balance reasons.

It also makes sense thematically.

A “Thief”, as opposed to a “Rogue”, would want to be closer to their target.
They’re not necessarily trying to snipe people down, but harass and distract to get what they want.

Shame nobody else on the thread acknowledged your incredibly good point.

Alright.
First of rangers and thieves are the only two professions that can use the shortbow, so saying “all the others that use shortbow” overstating a bit as there is just that one other class.
Now Rangers are more or less meant to, stay clear of the foes and shoot them down, while others take the front. As a ranger you will often be in long or midrange.
Thieves on the other hand are as others said meant to be a mid to closerange combatant. If the ranger is a sort of sniper trying to do damage before the foe gets too close, the thief is to jump in, do some damage and get out again as fast as possible.

Sorry but the way it already is, is fine and makes sense.

PS. I love both classes as one is my main and the other is my primary alt.