Guild Wars 2

squints suspiciously at the Shiro stance
That looks like a well built thief weapon set
looks vaguely at the main hand weapons
I’m now getting ranger flashbacks as well
sees the ventari spirit tablet moving sensibly
Gosh it’s almost like the designers know how to build working elements of a video game. It’s a shame the HUUUUUGE chunks of existing professions don’t see such sensible design choices and developer acknowledgement of player concerns, or at least that’s what it seems like when one glances at the other profession’s sub-forums below the sticky posts.

Now it could just be bad timing (attempting to prep working demos for conventions is an enormous drain on development resources and there are a lot of conventions at this time of year) but the efforts going into the development of the profession content for the expansion seem oddly to be going well for a team that spent a long portion of this game’s life making large scale changes and then undoing 90% of those changes. Even with the Beta weekend events we’ve got going on, it seems like there’s far too much work to do for the few people you have available to do live work as the event happens and are spending a lot of the following time playing catch-up.

What might be a good idea for gathering some extra info in the long run is a fixed state arena, where players don’t get to decide on their build as they join a PvP match or a isolated PvE arena but are instead given pre-built setups to get some nice solid numbers on interactions in a sterile environment. Because at this point it really seems like you guys are being pushed beyond what you can handle and could use some self sustaining metrics (rather than the observation heavy beta weekends). Setups like that might not be representational of the final product you want Heart of Thorns to be, but giving 1-to-1 representation of upcoming content isn’t what large scale beta tests are for (for those interested they are for checking coherency of player choices and matching expected actions to player actions).

So from one developer to another, I wish you the best of luck keeping up with the convention schedule (and pretending to have new content to show off at each successive show floor).

Overworld.9613:

squints suspiciously at the Shiro stance
That looks like a well built thief weapon set

I have played thief before and while it’s not my class, and I do get where you’re coming from, it’s supposed to feel close to a thief. The stance isn’t called “assassin” for no reason. But there is also a lot that is different from the thief in there as well. Also thief skill 3 changes depending on off hand weapon and the sword has a lot more interchange to it. All but two of the skills have a secondary one on the thief and those two are offhand dependent.

Overworld.9613:

looks vaguely at the main hand weapons
I’m now getting ranger flashbacks as well

Pardon, when did ranger get main hand mace?? Yeah, they have a main hand sword but the feel of it is very, very different as is the mace vs the axe.

On the rest of the post, I am not going to comment.

frayon.3984:

Pardon, when did ranger get main hand mace?? Yeah, they have a main hand sword but the feel of it is very, very different as is the mace vs the axe.

Ranger has two main hand, one-handed weapons; one for additional manoeuvrability and the other for condition pressure. No class is a 1-to-1 reflection or directly takes elements from another, but some changes and additions do look quite like one is “heavily inspired” by another in a few instances.

Well are people forgetting that the Thief in GW2 is modeled theme-wise to the Assassin of GW1, which the Rev Assassin is built to mimic?

So of course they are similar.

Knighthonor.4061:

Well are people forgetting that the Thief in GW2 is modeled theme-wise to the Assassin of GW1, which the Rev Assassin is built to mimic?

So of course they are similar.

except they’re not. There is no single Shiro skill that resembles any thief skill.

Kidel.2057:

Knighthonor.4061:

Well are people forgetting that the Thief in GW2 is modeled theme-wise to the Assassin of GW1, which the Rev Assassin is built to mimic?

So of course they are similar.

except they’re not. There is no single Shiro skill that resembles any thief skill.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Skelk_Venom – equal junk heal from the point of mechanic except our also deal damage and has intervals unlike this one.. I think Shiro healing ability is even worse than this one tbh.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Roll_for_Initiative – Pretty much riposting shadows, except while this one grants ini, rev getting 50 endurance. Also shares animation with
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Withdraw

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infiltrator%27s_Signet – Pretty much phase traversal without casttime. It was even used as a example in changes by Roy.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Haste – They gain fury, quickness. We gain quickness, superspeed.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Basilisk_Venom – Single target version of jade winds. Both turns you foe into stone.

Shiro doesnt look similiar to a thief. Not even a bit.

Kidel.2057:

Knighthonor.4061:

Well are people forgetting that the Thief in GW2 is modeled theme-wise to the Assassin of GW1, which the Rev Assassin is built to mimic?

So of course they are similar.

except they’re not. There is no single Shiro skill that resembles any thief skill.

Really Kidel? Really?

Jade Winds is more similar to Ctt then to venom. No need to contact, no weapon coating.

The heal is also very different. Necro’s healing signet is more similar.

Necro also has spectral walk giving swiftness and life force instead of siperspeed and quickness.

If you stretch things like that any class can be similar to Shiro.

What has venom in common with Jade Winds eccept the stun? Then every class with stun and dodge is like Shiro?

Make a topic in thief forum section and ask if Shiro doesnt feel like s/d. Shiro is basically s/d 2.0 and everyone knows it.

You know that rangers basically say the same?
you can have a ranger build to emulate every shiro skill in a very similar way to how you described thief. Quickening Zephir is basically impossible odds with no upkeep (no need to change effects, they are THE SAME), Lightning reflexes is almost the same as riposting shadows (vigor instead of 2 condi cleanse, buth both are evade, stunbreakers and cure immobilize), and Entangle is an aoe immobilize. Even water spirit, heal on attack, gg.
Hornet Sting and Monarc’s leap haveTHE SAME exact animation as phase traversal + reposting shadows. You know why? Because it’s the same game, the same tech. Of course skills are going to be similar.

They reuse the same tech for many classes, and each class has a huge skill pool, so you can find something to emulate Shiro in any class.

This
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNUQJAsHn8IClsgtsAUtAA-e
(yes, I even omitted a skill and the pet)

is actually more similar to shiro then the thief skills you described. but I’m not going to try and reason with you. I can put things right under your nose and you’ll never admit they’re valid. Just like you did with weaponswap (I still remember when you said you were never going to use it lol).
Or you’re saying, with that build in front of you, that those ranger skills are less similar then thief skills?

Utility wise? Yes, Shir is still more similiar to thief still. Phase traversal uses animation from bullrush btw, not the ones you listened. I fail to use connection between Shiro heal and water spirit lolz.

Weapons ranger wise? Check OP post. Sword/sword thematically fits thief better still. Just like a sword thief you teleport and evade stuff.

Ps. i barely use wep swap as current weapons simply dont work well with that feature, espesially condi builds that has no weapon to swap for.

Still you should actually make a topic in thief section, espesially that they discussed Shiro and revenant a lot and ask if hes more like a thief or ranger