Guild Wars 2

Not running a glass cannon build. Only do PvE. Thought I would check out Assassin’s Reward before the update on the 10th and after. Heal pre 10th was 81 pts./initiative and heal post was 87 pts./initiative.

Was that really what you considered a reasonable “buff” to move a trait from Master to Grandmaster? It feels like a not a very funny joke. Thinking about going back to Pain Response.

Overall I expected the changes to initiative to be a wash for my build (ran the math ahead of the change). But I may well have been quite wrong about that (so far it feels that way). I used to occasionally solo champions in PvE and now I think that won’t go the way it used to . . .

Anet – it seems to me if have in the past and probably will ongoing nerf initiative, stealth, and dodging/endurance. Here’s a thought for you: HOW ABOUT GIVING US SOMETHING IN RETURN! You know maybe something like hit points or toughness or even just a passive dodge ability . . .

Just did the math for Assassin’s Reward vs. Pain Response.

Assuming I can spend 88 initiative in a minute (base plus every initiative I generate in 60 seconds based on my previous calculations of the impact on initiative from the December 10th update) my max healing per minute would be 7656. The caveat here is that a possibly large portion of that will be wasted – that is all or part of the healing from any particular initiative spending attack. will have no effect. So lets assume that only half of that healing is effective: 3828 per minute.

Pain Response if it triggers twice in a minute (30 second cooldown) would heal for a total of 4538 (2269 x2) AND I would remove three fairly common conditions (bleeding, burning, poison) twice. In this case though I can expect ALL of that healing to matter since my base hit points are 18772 and this trait will not trigger until I’ve lost at least 4693 hit points.

So, clear winner is still Pain Response.

Not to defend Assassin’s Reward (the 35% buff translates to 1 additional heal per init per 100 healing power), but you’re not taking into account the fact that AR is on demand. If you desperately need some health to live that last second until your heal comes off CD, you can spend initiative for healing, something regen can’t do.

It’s still a subpar skill for master tier, let along Grand master, and the buff feels non-existent. How many thieves have room for Healing power in their build? Who would make said room for 1 additional healing per 100 healing power?

I was hoping when they said 35% increase that meant a 35% increase in the healing potency of the skill – so go from 81 to 109 might not have been that bad. Honestly, they just don’t really seem to have any idea how to handle the class. If this is their idea of a Grandmaster Acrobatics skill then I’m fairly disgusted with them.

Thanks for the information. There’s another trait that isn’t very tempting.

I use Assasin Reward before and after the patch on a simple reason, the boon heal from pain Response can be stolen or canceled on different ways from your Opponent.
The Assasin Reward is not beeing canceled by any other class and its independent from your life bar.