Guild Wars 2

Stream highlight link: http://www.twitch.tv/liquidoxygg/v/4460500

Hi guys,

two issues have been plaguing thief play for quite some time now. I’d like to discuss these issues in light of the upcoming trait reworks.

Issue #1: Hidden thief + ranged attacks

When using a pistol (vital shot) or short bow (trick shot) autoattacks in conjunction with hidden thief, mid-air projectiles will instantly reveal you as you reach your target faster than the projectiles themselves.

Discussion: This breaks the flow of combat by requiring you to either about-face to avoid facing your target as you stealth, by requiring you to stop your attack about a second ahead of time, or by requiring you to turn off your autoattack altogether, though mid-air projectiles can still reveal you then.

Suggested fix: Vital shots and trick shots that originate from before stealthing should an anti-revealing clause added to them, as to prevent accidental reveals.

Further discussion: The design goal of reveal was to prevent thieves from dealing damage from a stealthed state. However, given that the projectiles are launched before stealthing makes this a tricky issue to handle, to the point where meeting the exception rather than the rule would be a very nice quality of life fix for thief players. I do not believe that game balance would be impacted heavily by this change.

Issue #2: Shadow trap + stealth

When using shadow trap from a stealthed state, your thief character will begin using their autoattacks (if they are activated) without being ordered to do so. It is as if the game considered that dropping the trap was an offensive move, thus reactivating your autoattacking.

Discussion: As with the above issue, this breaks the flow of combat by requiring you to either about-face to avoid facing your target as you drop the trap or, by requiring you to stop your attack about a second ahead of time, or by requiring you to turn off your autoattack altogether. Given that Vital shot and Trick shot have such short cooldowns and cast times, you end up in a situation of keyboard mashing to get the most out of your attacks in order to avoid dealing with clunkiness.

Suggested fix: Simply stop considering traps as autoattack-declaring abilities.

Thank you for watching/reading.

That whole projectile/stealth issue also plagues Last Refuge, and is one of the reasons why the minor trait is almost universally loathed. I keep hoping they use the same workaround they have for Smoke Field + Heartseeker when it hits.

Have you ever tried stealth and infiltrator signet? if i remember corretly infiltrator signet is ONLY shadow stepp yet its considered attack and break ur stealth if you have auto attacks on.

Fix Turn off autoattack when ur playing thief, learn to spam 1 like madman in fights.