Guild Wars 2

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Honestly, I wish they’d stop creating traits that give a +100% effectiveness to a skill/mechanic. It makes it hard to balance. That’s my biggest beef with Steal-related changes.

How exactly do you balance something when it can be half/double effective?

guys would appreciate some support in this thread on thief’s steal having some cost thanks!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Make-steal-use-initiatives/first#post5143713

EremiteAngel.9765:

guys would appreciate some support in this thread on thief’s steal having some cost thanks!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Make-steal-use-initiatives/first#post5143713

wow ure desperate lmao

Ross Biddle.2367:

Advent.6193:

EremiteAngel.9765:

Simonoly.4352:

Saves the Thief a bit of time (1 second to be exact) if he just wants to steal off you again without having to first consume the plasma already stolen. But this is dependent on a Thief saving his/her Consumer Plasma for….a rainy day? Never really happens as it’s such a powerful steal that you will want to use it immediately if just for the protection uptime and boon strip safety. Won’t be very noticeable therefore for the most part.

this 1 second unfortunately may decide the outcome of the fight
and this just makes it easier to play the thief which we shouldn’t encourage too much since they are OP when played by skilled players.

We can use the bolded argument for any profession in the game, honestly. Thief is a serious problem for Mesmers, sure … but a skilled Mesmer is probably the close second for classes called “OP” by their opponents.
Truth is, the QoL change on Steal is something Thieves should have had from word-freaking-go. Now, if we can just get a bleeding range indicator on Portals …

There are a lot of things all professions should have had from the “word-freaking-go”, and a lot of things Thieves in particular shouldn’t have had, but w/e. What should be highlighted is that the statement “OP when played by skilled players.” should be tweaked slightly to OP when played by a moderately competent gamer of any stripe – It doesn’t take an Expert Thief Main to capitalize on thief mechanics for maximum effect. Any halfway decent gamer can click on to them within an hour of playing the Thief class. That’s because the issue is tied to the design first and foremost.

Ross I’m pretty sure your exaggerating. Have you ever played thief ? It’s much, much harder to play than the majority of classes / builds that are in the meta (guardians, warriors, dd ele). Thief is not a faceroll class and rewards skillful play.

@Sadrien:
That largely depends on the skill level of the playerbase in question.

• At high levels, yes.
• At moderate levels, meh. Very build dependent in my opinion
• At low levels, heck no.

I have always had a love-hate relationship with the Thief class

• Thief has such a high skill ceiling that it is a blast to play as you rarely ever feel restricted by the class
• Thief has several non-telegraphed but high-damage abilities that I feel harm counterplay

Now, Ross has a point at the moderately competent thieves due to the non-telegraphed issue. If a Glassy Thief runs into a glassy anything, they do a single DPS combo and it’s a downed player. Sadly, this creates a low skill floor for Thieves which leads to aggravation from players as no one likes to see nothing but it take them down. It is why you don’t see nearly as much aggravation from players that get hit by a Warrior’s Eviscerate. Only the least mature players complain about that as the rest realize that “hey, I saw it coming and failed to do something about it”.

Side-note: I have the same dislike for some of Mesmer’s own “instant” abilities with no telegraph (ex: Mantra of Pain and Mantra of Distraction). I’m for things that promote counterplay and dislike things that harm it. I want good fights and being able to see my opponent’s skills and react while they do the same concerning my skills leads to much more fun fights in my opinion.

Sebrent.3625:

@Sadrien:
That largely depends on the skill level of the playerbase in question.

• At high levels, yes.
• At moderate levels, meh. Very build dependent in my opinion
• At low levels, heck no.

I have always had a love-hate relationship with the Thief class

• Thief has such a high skill ceiling that it is a blast to play as you rarely ever feel restricted by the class
• Thief has several non-telegraphed but high-damage abilities that I feel harm counterplay

Now, Ross has a point at the moderately competent thieves due to the non-telegraphed issue. If a Glassy Thief runs into a glassy anything, they do a single DPS combo and it’s a downed player. Sadly, this creates a low skill floor for Thieves which leads to aggravation from players as no one likes to see nothing but it take them down. It is why you don’t see nearly as much aggravation from players that get hit by a Warrior’s Eviscerate. Only the least mature players complain about that as the rest realize that “hey, I saw it coming and failed to do something about it”.

Side-note: I have the same dislike for some of Mesmer’s own “instant” abilities with no telegraph (ex: Mantra of Pain and Mantra of Distraction). I’m for things that promote counterplay and dislike things that harm it. I want good fights and being able to see my opponent’s skills and react while they do the same concerning my skills leads to much more fun fights in my opinion.

I agree mostly, especially for example mantra of pain. Mantra of distraction however is meant to be an instant interrupt and can be baited as people can see the mantra charge on your condition bar.

@Quadox:
Aye, there is the fact that opponents can at least see that the Mantra is up and how many charges are left of it so it does provide a bit more counterplay than other instant abilities that don’t show this. Steal being a good example of and ability that is instant and shows no sign of being off cooldown but can largely influence the outcome of a fight (especially if the Thief is fighting something like a Mesmer/Necro/etc. as those stolen items are much loved by Thieves).

Sebrent.3625:

@Sadrien:
That largely depends on the skill level of the playerbase in question.

• At high levels, yes.
• At moderate levels, meh. Very build dependent in my opinion
• At low levels, heck no.

I have always had a love-hate relationship with the Thief class

• Thief has such a high skill ceiling that it is a blast to play as you rarely ever feel restricted by the class
• Thief has several non-telegraphed but high-damage abilities that I feel harm counterplay

Now, Ross has a point at the moderately competent thieves due to the non-telegraphed issue. If a Glassy Thief runs into a glassy anything, they do a single DPS combo and it’s a downed player. Sadly, this creates a low skill floor for Thieves which leads to aggravation from players as no one likes to see nothing but it take them down. It is why you don’t see nearly as much aggravation from players that get hit by a Warrior’s Eviscerate. Only the least mature players complain about that as the rest realize that “hey, I saw it coming and failed to do something about it”.

Side-note: I have the same dislike for some of Mesmer’s own “instant” abilities with no telegraph (ex: Mantra of Pain and Mantra of Distraction). I’m for things that promote counterplay and dislike things that harm it. I want good fights and being able to see my opponent’s skills and react while they do the same concerning my skills leads to much more fun fights in my opinion.

Instant abilities like f1 – f4? Not to mention every stun break In the game? All of these are instant but still have counter play. You can bait steal, dodge shatters or destroy the clone, bait out stun breaks with short cd control affects. In sorry but I have to disagree with you here, instant skills are a huge part of how this game achieves more active combat.