Thieves not viable in tournaments.
After the damage nerfs the thief is to squishy AND does low damage. I never thought the backstab build was viable in competitive play. Too squishy and to situational. It was more of a pub stomp build. I agree to a nerf to that but that is not what we saw.
We saw a nerf to a key ability to other builds for more competitive play. I feel thief burst(chaining huge dmg abilities together) needs to be reduced. Having a 30% nerf on back stab would be fine. Cloak and dagger nerf fine. BUT on dancing dagger this is to larger a reduction in damage.
it just seemed to me that the nerfs where a good idea but targeted at the wrong abilities.
Btw the backstab build is a pubstomp build because good players:
1. Avoid the damage.
2. Immobilize the thief(theif has only 1 ability to remove conditions its traited and is not part of the backstab build also only removes 2 conditions if in stealth for more than 3 seconds)
3. kill the thief while he is rooted in stealth(the best players just kill them while there moving)
HINT If you hit a thief in stealth you see damage numbers!!! just follow them (while facing them to prevent back stab) and auto attack.
Ok. So you are saying thieves SHOULDN’T do that much damage? Then there survivability(condition removal, base health, utility) Needs to be improved. Preferably by buffing something OTHER than stealth. Falling back on my 1 2 3 how to kill a thief, step three good players still kill thieves easily in stealth AND stealth is really annoying to mediocre players.
So solve two problems with one shot.
P.S. Is this game balanced off of 5v5 or 8v8? I feel like it is more balanced of of 8v8 some times. Which is sort of a slap in the face to competitive players.
P.S.S. Would love to hear(or i guess see) some other ideas for balance.
P.S.S.S. Shout out if you want the pistol auto attack to do more base damage or attack WAY faster!!!