It’s probably way too late to bring this up – I’m sure anet is already working on whatever thief specialization we’re going to get. But, just for fun, I like the idea of a thief with a rifle. Skills would be long-ranged and powerful, but with a long cast time so they wouldn’t be too terrifying.
We’re going to devote our energies to sports, gardening, all the cultural pursuits;
in fact, we’re going to put the goons to sleep.
Meanwhile – we dig.
The major difficulty with a ranged thief is the utility Shadowstep-retreat. (And the ability to stealth at will and shadow step in general.) Not only would this have to immobilise the thief like a killshot sniper, it would also have to be low damage to accomodate thiefs very high ability to disengage (hence thief being the only class without range 1200)
I.e. a range class that can also teleport and and dissapear at will is o.p. (and before you scream mesmer, i know i know, but their damage is much higher nowadays with the strange abilities set up and strange trait combinations, like chaos condi + PU for instance gives both offense and defence, and triple MW shatters have become quadruple)
I’m guessing rifle thief is something we’ll see at some point. How it is implemented and how long we will have to wait for it remains to be seen.
Regardless, this is not actually a HoT-related topic since the first elite specialization is already being developed (and it appears not to be a rifle thief) so a rifle thief would be coming at some point after HoT.
It may be cool to play Rambo when you are, well, Rambo. But it´s not cool for the Soldiers falling to his bow without even knowing what hit them most of the time.^^
A rifle thief could be cool if they took away total stealth. If they made the new stealth for them something translucent where they are clear in color but you can make out some details (aka predator camo) that would be cool. That way if the thief is staying still he can somewhat hide but still be seen. If he moves or shoots though that stealth is gone. Then make the shots root you in place while casting. As a non thief that would be pretty balanced.
this has been an ongoing topic over in the thief forum, and the short version is:
rifle thief would be a nice addition to the thief, whose ranged damage isn’t great
rifle thief would either have to be low damage (and therefore somewhat disappointing) or it’d be broken (some folks want a 1200-range backstab, and that’s just not feasible)
Current Evidence leans towards the HoT Elite being a Melee-Staff Thief, though nothing is confirmed
it is generally agreed that a 2-handed weapons would be easier to add than a 1-handed weapon, due to thieve’s combo skill 3, and the balancing issues that would bring.
whatever people want, espescially at this late point, will likely have little to no bearing on what launches with HoT. I hope that the new spec will get the balancing fixes that we’ve seen on Revenant/Reaper/Chronomancer, but I don’t expect any huge overhauls.
most importantly, we need to wait and see before making any judgements. far too many people have gotten massively worked up over nothing more that their own assumptions, that it’s important to remember nothing’s confirmed.
I’d actually prefer a melee staff right now. It has the potential to be one of the most fun weapons out of all the classes if done right.
The thing is… I’d want rifle as well, but its sort of for the wrong reasons depending on one’s point of view. I want a rifle spec later on down the line after Anet figures out ways to bring dual pistols into a more favorable position (some form of Ricochet would be nice, like the dragonhunters longbow auto-attack that bounces to enemies behind your target).
As far as their first elite… yeah, the idea of a melee staff sounds so awesome! The icing on the cake would be if their stance with the staff was like the Monkey King, given that thieves are nimble and acrobatic in nature!
We are not warriors we’ll accept a melee or acrobatic rifle-Team Rifle-
If you don’t believe it’s possible check out the Gunslinger from C9.
Again, if we got a Gunslinger elite spec that not only gave us rifle, but also reworks to dual pistols to make them fun and effective, then I would absolutely love it. I still run P/P on my main, but it’s just not quite as fun as it used to be.
I like p/p myself and would like to see rifle on thief also, maybe bring back richocet with the spec. But I imagine, if anything, it’d be along the lines of those pale reavers we saw in beta
I mean… we have those [redguard] warriors with curve swords, CURVED sword. Then we have revevant with range hammers, RANGED HAMMERS! I mean then we have overloaded OVERLOADED warhorns. What’s the next crazy thing that can happens? OF COURSE it’s BOW staffs!
Oh yea it will for sure be staff with a name probably like the monk.
Probably not, since the term ‘monk’ was used for a GW1 profession which was nothing like a melee staff-wielding fighting monk but which could best be described as a priest, i.e. a light armor-wearing healing/holy-magic using profession.
Oops, you’re right, I should have put this on the thief forum. I had HoT on the mind…
Yes, the real issue with a sniper thief would be preventing it from being too powerful. I’m picturing a long cast time (maybe watch your character bend down and adjust his sights) and probably a revealed effect during and a bit after to prevent you from just disappearing or suddenly attacking out of stealth. Range doesn’t have to be more than 1200. And not all the skills need to be ranged. It would be tricky to design, but a lot of fun if they ever figure something out.
I hadn’t heard the staff rumors – I’d been assuming it wasn’t a possibility since that was already a special weapon for the rangers – but now we see shield on both chronomancer and herald, so they’re obviously not using unique weapons for each class. I will be happy with a staff!
We’re going to devote our energies to sports, gardening, all the cultural pursuits;
in fact, we’re going to put the goons to sleep.
Meanwhile – we dig.
Oops, you’re right, I should have put this on the thief forum. I had HoT on the mind…
Yes, the real issue with a sniper thief would be preventing it from being too powerful. I’m picturing a long cast time (maybe watch your character bend down and adjust his sights) and probably a revealed effect during and a bit after to prevent you from just disappearing or suddenly attacking out of stealth. Range doesn’t have to be more than 1200. And not all the skills need to be ranged. It would be tricky to design, but a lot of fun if they ever figure something out.
I hadn’t heard the staff rumors – I’d been assuming it wasn’t a possibility since that was already a special weapon for the rangers – but now we see shield on both chronomancer and herald, so they’re obviously not using unique weapons for each class. I will be happy with a staff!
Check this here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s593TFD1NNQ Snowball mayhem infiltrator “class”. If i imagine a thief with rifle it would be along these lines. In fact IF thief actually gets rifle (what the class most likely wont get given the datamined “evidence”) then i do hope it got a similar mechanic like that here… just obviosly tweaked to not be OP or stuff
I understand what you are saying for sure. Rifle would actually make sense on a thief as a “sniper” specialization, and Predator would match Incinerator so nicely.
As a ranger, I also would have preferred rifle (though I guess I may love staff, but i doubt it). Kinda hard for me to get excited about druid when my mesmer gets Chronomancer though….
I think off hand sword will be added since in the picture it makes more sense that thief had 2 sword on his belt. sorry to destroy your dreams muwahahahaha!
