Guild Wars 2

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/meet-the-daredevil-thiefs-elite-specialization/

If I get HoT and specialize my thief, I will refuse to refer to it as “daredevil”. It will be my “specialized thief” :P No idea where that name came from, seems incredibly out of place for the game’s setting. But anyway….

Cliffnotes:
- 150% endurance from the first minor trait? Yes, please! Especially since they nerfed Acrobatics…
- Staff: PBAoE damage (probably underwhelming?), weakness, blindness, evasion, cripple, interesting mobility options.
- Heal increases HP and endurance.
- Fist Flurry/Palm Strike: Single target DPS attack with delayed burst.
- Bandit’s Defense: Block utility with knockback on block.
- Impairing Daggers: Single target poison, slow, immobilize
- Elite: three part single target attack: daze -> knockdown -> finisher. Unless the damage is obscene, the finisher makes this look like it’d be only effective in PvP.
- Minor traits: 150% endurance | endurance on steal | heal on evade
- Adept traits: +dmg after evade | weakness on crit | Endurance on physical attacks, reduced cooldown on physical attacks
- Master traits: +endurance for using initiative with staff, +dmg when using staff without full endurance | Remove condi on evade | delayed burst on interrupt
- Grandmaster Traits: Select a dodge mechanic (below)
- New dodge mechanics sound situationally fun. Lotus for kiting, bounding for DPS, Unhindered for…PvP? Increased distance might be handy from time to time, but otherwise not worth much.

Overall, looks like the skills are a good fit for thief and there’s a lot of nice synergy with typical thief playstyle. I’m looking forward to hearing feedback after the next BWE.

I am kinda looking forwards to this. Fits that theme I have wanted that GW has been lacking.

I think the name comes from the super hero of the same name. High mobility, wields a staff, etc

Warcry.1596:

I think the name comes from the super hero of the same name. High mobility, wields a staff, etc

I think he knew that

And was just saying its kinda out of place

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stunt_performer
It could make sense if you are jumping/evading everywhere.

This part puzzles me in fact because a lot of things seem to proc on dodges which could mean that if you want to play a full power one you have to be constantly on the move.
In sPvP, zerg WvW I can see how powerful it may be but for PvE it seems to not fit with the actual gameplay of static World Bosses and dungeons (the two main activities in PvE). I mean the risk is to see people jumping everywhere around (unless bounding is a targeted dodge) and in the process either loose a lot of DPS because they spend half of the time out of range or, if they are attracting aggro, the boss will always be out of range of the team….

I hope they’ll speak in POI a bit of how the spec will fit in PvE and not only PvP… but since they never do I think only beta week ends will answer the questions.

Daredevil is the exact concept I was expecting and wanted

I love that they make endurance such a big part of the specialisation. It’s just just more dodge like Acrobatic was before. Endurance is not just about dodge now. Your actions give you endurance and your dodge give you several advantage. Managing both your Initiative and Endurance give the Daredevil a unique feel.

Physical skill was view as the most boring option for the thief spec. There was talk about kits and Rage skill, but Physical was view as the easiest route. I love that the twisted them and merge them with the chain skills system of the Assassin in GW1. Nice job.

What I don’t really like is that the profession mechanic of steal seem totally unchanged.

Impairing Daggers and Distractin Daggers are really powerful. A Power Block on Thief and access to Slow are situationally extremely powerful.

So… nerf the kitten out of Acro to reintroduce the dodging in the specialization. Nice…

Eh makes me think of this . ..
https://youtu.be/lLXaRtc1f4I?t=196

Jerus.4350:

So… nerf the kitten out of Acro to reintroduce the dodging in the specialization. Nice…

my thoughts exactly. traits are just a slight difference from the acrobatics tree, even to the point of reintroducing removed ones.

It’s funny that the only thing you people complain about Daredevil is just issues that the reaper wishes it had.

I mean, you at least got a damage modifier traits and all your traits help damage. Unlike most of the useless reaper traits who are just chill/shout gimmicks and the even more useless shouts.

No class gets to complain until they get something as bad as the necromancer shouts. You know it’s bad when even the Tempest ones are better.

Anyone else hoped the Thief specialization would be a rifle/sniper thing?

I for one love the idea of the staff Thief.

I won’t promise that it will be amazing in PvE, but some of its skills are extremely situationally powerful, particularly Distracting Daggers. I’m also fairly confident that damage numbers on the autoattack chain will see buffs after the coming BWE, and with that it may be enough to usurp the value of S/D. It will also depend heavily on how exactly the Staff 4 skill works (it apparently inflicts blinds for 3 pulses, but we don’t know much more than that).

Anyway, I’m excited. At a minimum I’ll PHIW and run around with it in open world and have fun with the class.

KevinB.9643:

Anyone else hoped the Thief specialization would be a rifle/sniper thing?

No. Rifles are ugly!

I’ve been clamoring for a monk-type class for a long time. A martial artist is far cooler.

As much as I humor the thought of carrying The Predator around and roleplaying a sniper, the staff fits better with my thief (Hit Girl)’s image as a close quarter combatant.

As an ERP’r, staff is much safer to use for certain aspects of gameplay than a rifle.