Guild Wars 2

Earlier I saw a post about a new trait line called mobility arts and I thought it was a fantastic idea. I wanted to expand on it. This post will

Address the DD and acrobatics overlap
Focus on shadowstepping and blocking for the new line by utilizing focus on the gw1 assassin as well

First, the main thing is that DD was created from a nerfed acrobatics, which was nerfed to create DD. To bring build diversity, acrobatics needs to be removed entirely, with slight buffs given to DD, making DD the dodge line.

Changes:
Currently, the entire acrobatics line is very very bad. The only traits I find useful are Feline Grace, fleet shadow and vigorous recovery. The rest are shocking, with the grandmasters absolutely terrible and Don’t stop redundant due to the new “dash dodge”

We will add in fleet shadow to the “hidden thief” trait so
Stealing grants stealth. Move 50% faster while in stealth

Add feline grace to “driven fortitude”, so now you gain health and vigor when you successfully evade an attack.

Not sure where to add vigorous recovery to.

The next changes, remove the acrobatics line and replace it with a line titled “assassin arts”
This line will focus on shadow steps and blocking, which will allow thieves a bit more chance of survival without relying on stealth and dodging. The reason this line is going to be so different is that when you dodge you are not dealing damage. When you are in stealth you are not dealing damage. This line is going to promote active play to get the benefits. A few traits will require you to be attacking. This makes it an offensive and defensive line at the same time, with the core focus being defensive properties.

Minor adept
“Critical strikes”
25% chance to block attacks while attacking

Major adepts
Assassin’s Remedy – Remove a condition when you shadowstep (ICD 5s)
Determination – Gain protection and aegis after you shadowstep(ICD 25 seconds)
Hidden blades – whenever your attacks trigger an enemies health drops below the health threshold, shadow step to that enemy and deliver a quick strike that stuns your enemy. You evade attacks for 1 second. Conditions do not affect this. (ICD 75 seconds).

Minor master
“Death’s Charge”
Gain health whenever you shadowstep

Major masters
Shroud of Distress – whenever your health drops below the health threshold, gain protection, stability, aegis and regeneration. Health threshold 50%. (ICD 60 seconds)
Aura of displacement – Whenever you shadow step to a foe or block a foe, you steal life.
Augury of Death – whenever you shadow step to a foe, mark them with a shadow mark. Foes with a shadow mark move 5% slower per mark, maximum 3 marks. Marks expire after 5 seconds.

Minor grandmaster
Way of the fox – your bass movement speed is increased by 25%

Major Grandmasters
Flashing blades – whenever you block an attack, your attacker takes damage. Periodically block attacks (this is similar to one of the old traits anet made with “periodically evade attacks”)
Shattering Assault – shadowsteping to a foe stuns them (ICD required).
Deadly paradox – You attack 33% faster and your weaponskills activate 33% faster. Your thief utilities recharge 33% slower

Dude, u r joking, right? Just give thiefs an Instant Kill skill, that’ll be less work for Anet…

corwen.5798:

Dude, u r joking, right? Just give thiefs an Instant Kill skill, that’ll be less work for Anet…

These are just rough ideas. And how is this in any way a joke?
What is wrong with these ? I know some are a bit much at the moment like deadly paradox should be 15% not 33, but what in the list screams OP to you?

Deadly paradox isn’t really reflective of the original skill. The whole point of deadly paradox, originally, was that you had to nerf your attacks to buff your spells.

I think it was fun, mechanically in GW1, but GW2’strait systems usually work on a straight buff mechanic rather than the complex system of tradeoffs that many GW1 skills used.

Maybe a better rewrite would be something along the lines of reducing damage on weapon skills. As written your deadly paradox is kind of a clearly OP trait that overshadows your other GM options, and pretty much all other trait lines as it’s a straight buff to every single conceivable thief build.

Maybe rewrite deadly paradox as weaponskills are 33% faster, all utilities (+heal and elite) have a 33% longer cooldown.

BFMV.3198:

The next changes, remove the acrobatics line and replace it with a line titled “assassin arts”
This line will focus on shadow steps and blocking, which will allow thieves a bit more chance of survival without relying on stealth and dodging. The reason this line is going to be so different is that when you dodge you are not dealing damage. When you are in stealth you are not dealing damage. This line is going to promote active play to get the benefits. A few traits will require you to be attacking. This makes it an offensive and defensive line at the same time, with the core focus being defensive properties.

Minor adept
“Critical strikes”
25% chance to block attacks while attacking

Major adepts
Assassin’s Remedy – Remove a condition when you shadowstep

Not balanced if not icd. At least 5s.

Determination – Gain protection and aegis after you shadowstep(ICD 5 seconds)

ICD at least 15s, more like 30.

Minor master
“Death’s Charge”
Gain health whenever you shadowstep

ICD depending on the amount of health at least 10s.

Minor grandmaster
Way of the fox – your bass movement speed is increased by 33%

33%? thats like perma swiftness… 15% is ok imo.

Major Grandmasters
Flashing blades – whenever you block an attack, your attacker takes damage.

Yeah, we’ve got so many blocks. Even with your 25% blockchance while attaing this trait is crap.

Periodically block attacks (this is similar to one of the old traits anet made with “periodically evade attacks”)

Also crap, we Need controlled blocking of attacks and not random blocks.

Deadly paradox – You attack 33% faster. Your thief utilities activate and recharge 33% faster.

This is your instant winning button?! Check out Revenant’s legend Shiro increased attack Speed and at which costs it Comes. And you wanna give an additional reduced cooldown of utilities? Lol… Rather go for 33% increased attack Speed + 33% increased cooldown of utilites, heal & elite.

knyy.6427:

Maybe rewrite deadly paradox as weaponskills are 33% faster, all utilities (+heal and elite) have a 33% longer cooldown.

I like this idea. I changed it

corwen.5798:

BFMV.3198:

The next changes, remove the acrobatics line and replace it with a line titled “assassin arts”
This line will focus on shadow steps and blocking, which will allow thieves a bit more chance of survival without relying on stealth and dodging. The reason this line is going to be so different is that when you dodge you are not dealing damage. When you are in stealth you are not dealing damage. This line is going to promote active play to get the benefits. A few traits will require you to be attacking. This makes it an offensive and defensive line at the same time, with the core focus being defensive properties.

Minor adept
“Critical strikes”
25% chance to block attacks while attacking

Major adepts
Assassin’s Remedy – Remove a condition when you shadowstep

Not balanced if not icd. At least 5s.

Determination – Gain protection and aegis after you shadowstep(ICD 5 seconds)

ICD at least 15s, more like 30.

Minor master
“Death’s Charge”
Gain health whenever you shadowstep

ICD depending on the amount of health at least 10s.

Minor grandmaster
Way of the fox – your bass movement speed is increased by 33%

33%? thats like perma swiftness… 15% is ok imo.

Major Grandmasters
Flashing blades – whenever you block an attack, your attacker takes damage.

Yeah, we’ve got so many blocks. Even with your 25% blockchance while attaing this trait is crap.

Periodically block attacks (this is similar to one of the old traits anet made with “periodically evade attacks”)

Also crap, we Need controlled blocking of attacks and not random blocks.

Deadly paradox – You attack 33% faster. Your thief utilities activate and recharge 33% faster.

This is your instant winning button?! Check out Revenant’s legend Shiro increased attack Speed and at which costs it Comes. And you wanna give an additional reduced cooldown of utilities? Lol… Rather go for 33% increased attack Speed + 33% increased cooldown of utilites, heal & elite.

Yeah I forgot some of the ICD and some were broken. Someone else suggested the deadly paradox change so I fixed that to. I agree with everything you stated except

Minor master
“Death’s Charge”
Gain health whenever you shadowstep

ICD depending on the amount of health at least 10s.

This will have a 1 second internal cooldown becasue think Shadow’s embrace. This trait actually requires you to shadow step, be attacking or use utilities

The Thief is the class imo with the most lackluster traits of all the classes currently.
Alot of them should get merged, alot of them would be better placed in other Trait Lines.
Certain ones are completely useless and should just get completely removed to make space for the really more useful traits that Anet removed from the game and with that literally butchered the Thief into nothingless to give the current DD line just a reason for existance, while nerfing acrobatics into oblivion at the same time.

I like some ideas here and will use them in a slightly changed way for a new iteration of Thief Traitline Concepts, because they include things I haven’t ever thought about yet.
But for a better overview, I’ll post it in an own thread.

You could also link to the thread where you got the shadowstep traits from.

Just sayin’

BFMV.3198:

Minor grandmaster
Way of the fox – your bass movement speed is increased by 25%

But… there’s no underwater combat in PvP :-(

You know, you dropped a gem I think you almost entirely overlooked. Thief survivability was always all about smart movement and timing. How’s about we introduce a true “duelist” trait line. Before you all explode about how mesmer already has one, that’s all centered around their magical bs. What I’m thinking of is a trait line that’d bolster sword’s capabilities. Imagine if you were to time your auto attack to match the exact moment the enemy’s attack connects with you so that you could parry it. If you successfully parry, the attack (if physical) is blocked. If the attack is magical, the attack glances. If your third attack in your auto chain parries an attack, that attack is reflected with 50% increase in damage (like, you parry a backstab and end up insta killing the enemy thief, or warriors, guardians, and reapers would have to think about when and how the setup their GS bursts).

Just a rough idea.

No, Acrobatics needs to be restored to Acrobatics. Anything else needs to be built on top of it, not in place of it.

I suppose this is random ideas and you don’t want them all implemented at the same time ^^

Let me add a proposition:

Critical strike one of the most rewarding feeling of almost invulnerability in gw1. ( remember that bow/criti build ??)

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Critical_Defenses

maybe it would rise the survavibility on thief significantly as a critical strike grandmaster.