Guild Wars 2

Thief

•Skills that must be performed from stealth are now labeled as “Stealth Attack.”
•Vigorous Recovery: Improved accuracy of description.
•Cloak and Dagger skill: Now functions with the Hidden Killer trait.
•Needle Trap skill: Removed the duration skill fact as being misleading.
•Shadow Shot skill: The projectile portion is now unblockable.
•Choking Gas skill: Added an Unblockable skill fact to reflect functionality.
•Flanking Strike skill: •Now evades and delivers one strike instead of delivering two attacks.
•Removed boon removal.
•Reduced initiative cost from 4 to 3.
•Now toggles for 5 seconds to a second skill, Larcenous Strike, if the attack hits an enemy.
•Improved reliability of flanking strike.

•Larcenous Strike: Deliver a quick strike that steals up to two boons from an enemy. Costs 1 initiative.
•Larcenous Strike, Stab skills: Reduced aftercast by 0.5 seconds.
•Mug trait: Can no longer critically hit. Now heals the thief from a range of 1980 health to 2700 health.
•Leeching Venoms trait: Increased the damage scale from power by 33%. Increased range from 325-400 to 325-425.
•Signet of Agility skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
•Assassin’s Signet skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
•Revealed effect: Reverted duration to 3 seconds in PvE.
•Trick Shot skill: First arrow is no longer heat-seeking.
•Smoke Screen skill: No longer destroys unblockable missiles.
•Haste skill: •Increased duration by 1 second.
•Players now regenerate endurance at 50% effectiveness (increased from 0%) when under the effects of this skill.

•Leeching Venoms trait: Increased the damage scale from power by 33%. Increased range from 325-400 to 325-425.

What??? And, BTW, revealed has been reverted only in PVE.

Dont forget you can also now unlock an arrow cart skill that destealths people

so many little tiny nerfs again… someone will have to check the new flanking strike and see if its still as usable as before for evades and such (my net is terrible atmo)

Unfortunately I’m out of the house and rather impatient – would anyone be so kind as to check the damage/activation time on Larcenous strike and let me know if it matches the second swing of pre-patch FS?

Larcenous Strike steals TWO boons?!?!

/dance

Overall, it could be better, but it could also be worse.

the two boon steal could be what makes it workable, we loose the spammable first strike and evade from old flanking but gain 2 removals and hopefully a faster overall attack, hopefully.

I can see smokescreen no longer working in the few places I tended to actually use it though :/

What do the new Smoke Screen, Shield of Absorption, Swirling Winds etc. get affected by? Like, what projectiles are defined as unblockable? Does that include various places in PvE like Old Tom and the Asura at the end of that Fractal, Lava Elementals and other things?

Because THAT would suck. BIG time.

the patch hasnt actually been released yet as far as i know so no way to see the flanking strike animation and numbers.. will be the first thing i do

mug not critting effectively reduces a bs burst by 2k which is a pretty decent amount

Dumb question:

What weapon set is Larcenous Strike part of? I was looking on the Wiki and I couldn’t find it.

As a d/p and s/d thief I love this patch! Improved flanking strike, steal two boons (the entire stack too) and the projectile from Shadow Shot can’t be blocked! I love this!

But they said in a SotG that they want people to be able to switch easily between PvE and PvP without having to adjust anything. How can they say that and still keep 4 seconds in PvP?! That’s a huge difference and flow to every weapon set that rely on stealth. They just keep going against their own words…

Wiser with Age.3714:

Dumb question:

What weapon set is Larcenous Strike part of? I was looking on the Wiki and I couldn’t find it.

Sword Dagger skill #3

In before ADADADADAD > shortbow.

Auesis.7301:

What do the new Smoke Screen, Shield of Absorption, Swirling Winds etc. get affected by? Like, what projectiles are defined as unblockable? Does that include various places in PvE like Old Tom and the Asura at the end of that Fractal, Lava Elementals and other things?

Because THAT would suck. BIG time.

I’m pretty sure it’s just siege, but I don’t know…

I dont understand the cloak & dagger notes. Is it implying that it will always crit if you trait hidden killer? O.o

Trick Shot skill: First arrow is no longer heat-seeking.

What exactly does that mean?

I’ve seen trick shot cut an L before to hot its target. So guessing that was “fixed”

Puru.4217:

In before ADADADADAD > shortbow.

Huge nerf to the shortbow….

Tempest Darqmane.4862:

I dont understand the cloak & dagger notes. Is it implying that it will always crit if you trait hidden killer? O.o

yes so if you traited for it, your c+d will always crit if landed.

Pretty sad no buffs to Pistols and s/p :9
and still no real nerfs to backstab setup. lol.

Ntranced.7415:

Trick Shot skill: First arrow is no longer heat-seeking.

What exactly does that mean?

+1. I don’t really understand…

•Cloak and Dagger skill: Now functions with the Hidden Killer trait.

I don’t understand this. Didn’t it always trigger Hidden Killer when going in to stealth with C+D? Or does this note mean something else entirely?

well with the CnD change I assume it means that it will now crit with the hidden killer where it didn’t before (not sure, didn’t tend to use CnD while stealthed) doubt it will always crit now.

As for the trick shot change it means the first shot no longer homes in on people.

•Cloak and Dagger skill: Now functions with the Hidden Killer trait.

anyone know what that really means?? Does that mean If I have hidden killer, cnd will ALWAYS crit? If so that’s kind of amazing.

bladie.5084:

and still no real nerfs to backstab setup. lol.

mug no longer crits. That’s the nerf

I love these changes tbh. As a thief I’m fine with mug not critting considering we get our 3 sec reveal again and a lot of really good changes across the board. More build variety is always a plus in my eyes.

Nerf to Trick Shot… great I just hope its not as bad as it sounds. Hope dies last.

Spike.1526:

Ntranced.7415:

Trick Shot skill: First arrow is no longer heat-seeking.

What exactly does that mean?

+1. I don’t really understand…

Basically the shortbow auto attack couldn’t miss before (like almost every projectile in the game), this patch now enable to dodge them it seems, and since the travel speed of that weapon is relativly slow, you will probably be able to dodge it with ease at far range.

Gamblit.5041:

Arrow Cart
•New skill (slot 4): Toxic Unveiling Shot. Removes stealth and applies poison to targets.

First skill in a game to remove stealth?

I wonder if having stealth removed triggers reveal.

DeceiverX.8361:

I love these changes tbh. As a thief I’m fine with mug not critting considering we get our 3 sec reveal again and a lot of really good changes across the board. More build variety is always a plus in my eyes.

Except the Mug change was pvp-centric, and pvp still has 4s revealed… even though the initial logic was to deny WvW perma-stealth (not that it was a good idea for that either, making the subject more complicated). Not that I care very much about 4s revealed in sPvP, but it feels like a smoke screen to me to keep the revealed at 4s in the one format it wasn’t really an issue in.

On the upside, Larcenous strike has the potential to be amazing (not sure yet if damage/cast time was changed from the pre-patch FS second strike), the shot portion of shadow shot being unblockable and leeching changes are nice minor-ish buffs.

TooBz.3065:

Gamblit.5041:

Arrow Cart
•New skill (slot 4): Toxic Unveiling Shot. Removes stealth and applies poison to targets.

First skill in a game to remove stealth?

I wonder if having stealth removed triggers reveal.

Probably, but in the situations where your likely to be hit with that from an arrow cart stealth is mostly useless anyway.

Wiser with Age.3714:

Thief

•Revealed effect: Reverted duration to 3 seconds in PvE.

this will work in wvw?

Every patch since I’ve made my thief I’ve been hoping for a buff to P/P. I want to play my thief with P/P, but no matter how hard I tried, giving up mobility and stealth for LESS DPS just was not playable competitively. Heck, I gave up trying to use it in PvE as why take 15 init and 7s to kill one mob with 3 unloads when I can kill it quicker for less initiative with any other weapon? I guess I’ll hold my breath for the next patch.

As for the rest of the patch notes, most are relatively nice but the Short Bow nerf. I’ll have to see how bad it is, but part of the factor that made up for SB crap damage was the reliability of Trick Shot along with it’s multi-target. I’m hoping it’s fast enough to not fail on general mob walking, but as a spinning, obvious projectile I fear this may render it useless in PvP except against unaware groups.

So the real question, with the SB nerf, P/P being ignored still, D/P > D/D, etc that everyone just runs with D/P and S/D?

bomber.1540:

the patch hasnt actually been released yet as far as i know so no way to see the flanking strike animation and numbers.. will be the first thing i do

mug not critting effectively reduces a bs burst by 2k which is a pretty decent amount

it makes a burst build steal go from 6500 to around 2700. ur math is off sir. im guestimating but yeah….it decreases by 250%.

What a surprise, still no p/p tweaks.

Man it’s getting hard to stick with it.

Drawing Guy.3701:

Every patch since I’ve made my thief I’ve been hoping for a buff to P/P. I want to play my thief with P/P, but no matter how hard I tried, giving up mobility and stealth for LESS DPS just was not playable competitively. Heck, I gave up trying to use it in PvE as why take 15 init and 7s to kill one mob with 3 unloads when I can kill it quicker for less initiative with any other weapon? I guess I’ll hold my breath for the next patch.

As for the rest of the patch notes, most are relatively nice but the Short Bow nerf. I’ll have to see how bad it is, but part of the factor that made up for SB crap damage was the reliability of Trick Shot along with it’s multi-target. I’m hoping it’s fast enough to not fail on general mob walking, but as a spinning, obvious projectile I fear this may render it useless in PvP except against unaware groups.

So the real question, with the SB nerf, P/P being ignored still, D/P > D/D, etc that everyone just runs with D/P and S/D?

READ THIS PAST POST OF MINE:
Travlane.5948:
Blackhat.4016:
It was pretty strong for an adept major trait. Imo way too strong for only 10 points. Maybe moving it to a higher tier instead of nerfing it would have been better though.
They would still complain about it. You know whats next, right? CnD! Or, asking for a 25% deduction on back stab. Every single major patch we have had an extremely large damage nerf on at least 1 trait/skill. It will not stop :P If they do, they should start implementing a respective 2 boosts for defense/heals so we can still play at a competitive level! This is what the nerfs have done! (’s indicate which setups were better/more usable before their respective dmg/skill nerfs)
SKILL SET__________PVE_______WVW_____SPVP______TPVP
D/D______________ YES________NO______NO*_______NO*
P/D______________ NO________1/2*______1/2*________NO*
S/P______________ 1/2*________NO*______NO*_______NO*
S/D______________ 1/2________YES_______1/2________1/2
SB _______________1/2________1/2*_______1/2*_______1/2*
P/P_______________NO_______NO________NO_______NO
D/P_______________1/2_______YES________YES_______YES
Shows what weaponsets are playable/played by thieves in each respective mode.
***1/2 = Situation Specific but usually as a main weapon set “No”
I’m guessing heart seeker leap removed, no more per-casting CnD, backstabbing arc cut down to 5 degree, black powder and HS interaction removed and thief is no longer able to crit.

As a pure tPvP player, the shortbow nerf makes me

Thief has to stand outside of team fights with SB to survive, and this will drop our damage contribution.

On the brightside, I was not expecting 2 boon steals from larcenous strike. That could be quite strong.

could be quite strong…but dont forget…(guessing here) a VERY high majority of boons are usually very short lasting and easily/quickly for reapplication. it will be usefull but far from powerful
…it MIGHT be powerful if auto attack with sword were a lil faster i think

I really dig the s/d changes. I never had a problem with Flanking Strike before, so I’m going to assume I’m super pro with it now. Just need to test it in actual combat. I expect sword & dagger to be everywhere for a little while.

Anyone tested to see if cnd is 100% crit with trait?

I just checked, no it doesnt.

Discordia.7293:

Wiser with Age.3714:

Thief

•Revealed effect: Reverted duration to 3 seconds in PvE.

this will work in wvw?

At work so I can’t check. Can someone confirm if this is PvE only?

MIrra.3604:

Discordia.7293:

Wiser with Age.3714:

Thief

•Revealed effect: Reverted duration to 3 seconds in PvE.

this will work in wvw?

At work so I can’t check. Can someone confirm if this is PvE only?

The revert also goes for WvW, just tested it.

•Cloak and Dagger skill: Now functions with the Hidden Killer trait.

lol, this is gonna get nerfed fast. CnD(crit) -> Backstab(crit)

I guess they really didn’t want to nerf Backtab builds.

•Flanking Strike skill: •Now evades and delivers one strike instead of delivering two attacks.
•Removed boon removal.
•Reduced initiative cost from 4 to 3.
•Now toggles for 5 seconds to a second skill, Larcenous Strike, if the attack hits an enemy.
•Improved reliability of flanking strike.

•Larcenous Strike: Deliver a quick strike that steals up to two boons from an enemy. Costs 1 initiative.
•Larcenous Strike, Stab skills: Reduced aftercast by 0.5 seconds.

Overall cost is the same but now allows for repositioning before the 2nd attack hits. I’ll take that.

•Mug trait: Can no longer critically hit. Now heals the thief from a range of 1980 health to 2700 health.

For some reason I don’t really care about this given that CnD crits now instead of Mug.

•Signet of Agility skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.
•Assassin’s Signet skill: Increased passive stat bonus by 100%.

I love all the signet buffs.

•Revealed effect: Reverted duration to 3 seconds in PvE.

Very glad to see this.

•Haste skill: •Increased duration by 1 second.
•Players now regenerate endurance at 50% effectiveness (increased from 0%) when under the effects of this skill.

Still not good enough, that still equate to one extra swing just like before. The 1s duration is negligible, the point of haste is fast attack in a short amount time, not minor attack speed at increased duration.

@sir vincent…..either you …or I….misunderstand CND change……from what im getting is if you hit CND while under stealth it would not (before) be critting with hidden killer. NOW…after this patch…u can use CND while understealth and it will crit with hidden killer……thing is…who in the hell uses CND while they are invis? thats just dumb bc you get revealed. the change is useless and only and idiot would jump for joy….no offense to you i think you just mistook it. unless im wrong and CnD while invised gives more invis?

C&D won’t stack stealth. But as for the Hidden killer effect, it would depend on where you get stealth in the attack. Is it before the damage or after? I honestly can’t remember if it 100% crit before or not. Then again the only time I hit C&D while stealth is if I messed up the timing on it.

exactly. so skill then stealth….so it shouldnt crit automatically right? anyone tested it?

Auesis.7301:

What do the new Smoke Screen, Shield of Absorption, Swirling Winds etc. get affected by? Like, what projectiles are defined as unblockable? Does that include various places in PvE like Old Tom and the Asura at the end of that Fractal, Lava Elementals and other things?

Because THAT would suck. BIG time.

Im pretty sure it was the Fractals thing, like the steps in the Asura dungeon every one had trouble getting up? Yea, a well placed smoke screen and dagger storm allowed a thief to make that a joke.

I just hopped on for a bit, and larcenous strike does roughly as much damage as the third hit in the autoattack chain.

i just stole 25 might stacks from an engie and it felt good.

Travlane.5948:

who in the hell uses CND while they are invis? thats just dumb bc you get revealed.

My thought exactly so I am led to believe that CnD crits outside stealth, but I’ll be testing it when I get home.

Good points. I hope I’m wrong because that would be OP.

well if its true and works as a 100% crit no matter when used….would make up a little for the 250% dmg nerf on mug :P YES 250%! bc the ones that use it hard have 250% or 270% which is said to be 20% above cap but idk.

The .5 seconds recovery off sword stab is pretty major. It helps chain attack 3 for sure, and I’m assuming it helps infiltrator (which is also a stab) as well. It would help the flexibility of most attacks and also increase dps.

ryokoalways.3450:

The .5 seconds recovery off sword stab is pretty major. It helps chain attack 3 for sure, and I’m assuming it helps infiltrator (which is also a stab) as well. It would help the flexibility of most attacks and also increase dps.

I didn’t notice that until just now, that is pretty huge and will prove to be a substantial buff to S/X

Why the hell didn’t they reduce the aftercast of Vital Shot? Or buff Ricochet or Body Shot for that matter? Pistols honestly need love more than Swords did.