Guild Wars 2

How are things on the PvP side and WvW. Anything other than +1’ing and decapping possible in PvP? Zerging in WvW?

More broader question, can we do anything that we haven’t done before?

Dang forum bug…

Zero, I am winning 1v1s again. Also, denying stomps is a total thing =D But then again… I play kinda crazy, idk if people can use my build safely since everyone I know says Berserker is worse than Marauder (but I like my 20% damage boost).

Serious Thought.5394:

Zero, I am winning 1v1s again. Also, denying stomps is a total thing =D But then again… I play kinda crazy, idk if people can use my build safely since everyone I know says Berserker is worse than Marauder (but I like my 20% damage boost).

Well, that’s 1 reply.

Just monitoring this thread to see how things are going…

I think it would be cool if staff 5 gave the thief a tiny amount of fall damage, making stealth arts something to consider as a daredevil.

Pros: Dodges feel amazing now. Least dash / bounding, I havnt tried lotus yet.

Con: Staff still lacks disengage, fields to use our finishers, and no way to utilize it’s stealth skill. A smoke field or a stealth attachment to staff 4 would solve … All of these actually.

Surprisingly enough the Daredevil isn’t completely dead and out of place. GG to the dev for frustrating us to death, but most definitely for doing work and delivering.

Dodges
Dash became my favorite, it feels great and I like the way it is now.
Bound, dodging gets a little tricky because Bound takes an aggressive approach. You need to dodge foward most of the time, just a matter of control.
Impailing Lotus…. It’s aight.

Staff

This weapon left me perplexed. I want to main it because it has potential, but it’s missing something. The support is offers isn’t as nice as they claim it to be.

- Weakening Charge is wonderful. the targeting added is exactly what one needed.
- Debilitating arc :/ I don’t see the use really. I already got enough Endurance to save my life, unless it’s there for spam purposes like SB #3. I suggest we change it. Can we make it a forward dodge?
- Dust Strike casting speed is perfect. BWE2 was a real nightmare. I suggest we add a smoke field to it. It could have much better support in Team fights wether pve or pvp.
a Very small and reasonable smoke field.
-Vault is fine.

Utilities

- Impairing Daggers to have an increase in project speed. a small one.
- Bandit’s Defense… CD to 12 secs.
- Impacting Strike is pretty hard to land. It says “Strike your enemy and stun them.” Can we have it as a stun?

Traits
- Driven Fortitude needs some help a decent sustain. With
- Acrobatics unfortunately needs to go. Completely revamp. I mixed DD with all the traits and even thought Acro grants nice regen, it’s never worth it. Two words: Opportunity Cost.
-Pulmonary Disruptions need some help too. Slight damage buff.

Conclusion

Good Improvement my faith in the Dardevil may be restored. The damage is almost there, but the real problem is the sustain and I think Driven Fortitude is the key there as a minor, it should really fulfill its role with a decent heals.

Again the problem isn’t really with the Daredevil but the cohesion and synergy with other cores and utilities. Shadowstep, Roll For Initiative should see their CDs reduced, there should be a rework on Signets. SoA is coming back on top this expansion.

So thank you Mr. McLain.

Competition

I had no problem killing a tempest. They are easier to kill than typical D/Ds.
Berserkers were easier than Warriors.
Scrappers were borderline impossible. This is where Driven Fortitude may come in handy.
Reapers were not as hard as Scrappers…. but they up there.
and other Daredevil were a pain. Good.

On a personal and vague note, I think that the staff kind of lacks gap closing features to stay in the face of the ennemies.
For a weapon destined to be “used recklessly”, it has more the feeling of a pistol/dagger, than a dagger/pistol, providing more way out than way in.

(Vault as it is, doesn’t feel like something you use to engage the fight)

Other than that, the physicals feel gratifying (I like the aesthetic of the visual effects on them).
Escapist’s Absolution is a great trait which gives me more leeway on my build, and which forces to have an active playstyle in order to cleanse yourself (which is a good point). It was much needed for the thieves and it’s good to finally have it.

• The auto attack chain hits pretty hard now, I like it. That said, the reflect on the third attack is, to put it bluntly, idiotic. First, it’s unreliable because it’s the third attack in a chain, with like one second to reflect stuff once the attack starts. Second, it’s the third attack in a melee chain, which reflects projectiles. If I’m in melee range (a requirement for me to reach the attack with the reflect tooltip), my opponent is either swapping to melee, or moving out of melee range so they can range better. If my opponent is at range (where this tooltip would actually be desired), then I can’t hit my opponent in order to get to the third attack on the chain so I can actually reflect the projectiles.

• Weakening Charge feels really good now. Sometimes it goes the wrong direction if you’re being too spammy with it, but all the hits land and you always travel the full distance, while the hitbox feels considerably larger now.

• Debilitating Arc is still one of those skills that you just never press. I wonder if an initiative increase and making it a stunbreak would be too much? (probably, yeah). Either way, this skill needs something. Preferrably something that helps define staff as a unique playstyle.

• Dust Strike is one of those skills that I only ever use when I remember I have it, and only before I actually start fighting. once I leap in, its directional nature makes it pretty bad for a kit that’s meant to fight while surrounded. But at least the cast time feels right now.

• Vault, I still don’t like it being the damage skill. I’d much rather have some sort of competition for shortbow in the form of a long leap with evasion frames, rather than a “spammy spammy DPS” skill. It would give staff newfound mobility, and great engaging/disengaging power. I’d trade any DPS on this skill, and even get a higher ini cost again, for that.

Side note, I think it’s a bit of a shame that there isn’t much in the way of condi traits on the Daredevil trait line. I mean, it would’ve been fine if one of the grandmasters wasn’t begging for D/D condi thieves to pick it.

i use the p/p weapon set with DD .
dash gives more space and ability to handle melee pressure
still pp set need more love and ability to do some unblockable dmg or have 1 more evade #3 skill like all other weapon set have.

bounding dodger should be leap and not blast and also work from inside the field
fist flurry hard to connect 5 attack
impact strike i think the seconds and third attack should hold for like 5 sec before the icd go active. so you can play more tactically

The main point I’d like to make is just to highlight what others have said about Daredevil completely overshadowing acrobatics to the point where many acro traits are literally redundant. What one would expect is for acro and DD, two dodge/endurance focussed traitlines, to have fantastic synergy, but often that’s just not the case.

First I want to mention something that everyone already knows: the nerf of Feline Grace paved the way for the DD traitline. In other words right from the start, DD was born on the corpse of acrobatics.

Beyond that:

- Dash makes acro’s Expeditious Dodger completely redundant as you can stack swiftness through dodging just fine without it. If you take both acro and DD you basically lose a minor adept trait
- Dash makes acro’s Don’t Stop redundant. Why trait to reduce cripple, chill and immob once every 10 secs when you can dash?
- The many vigor effects in acro simply don’t scale with the +50 max endurance in DD resulting in a loss of potential synergy
- There is a glut of the same condi clears: immob, cripple and chill from two tricks (RFI + Withdraw) and two grandmaster traits (Don’t Stop and now Dash) Clearing these condi’s IS great and all but a little differentiation wouldn’t hurt either.

Acrobatics needs a lot of love and differentiation from DD with more thought given to the synergy of both lines, as they both do the same job but DD is currently better in every way.

Damage feels better now, but there’s still a lack of survivability in general. Compared to other elites, which have a wealth of conditions and buffs that increase their longevity, we’re still reliant on a very short weakness and a very short blind. Both of which prevent us doing damage by eating our initiative.

Bound dodge feels terrible. It’s just really weird to have this offensive dodge that is extremely hard to hit with, when you’re a melee class. Like, unless the mob is massive, you just miss by over-shooting the hitbox of the thing you’re fighting.

Really don’t like the physical skills, apart from the thrown daggers and Bandit’s Defence. The elite is just awful, doesn’t do enough damage and leaves you wide open. For it to actually kill somebody, they need to be basically dead already. Pointless. It needs to either do a_TON_more damage, or something else. Fist Flurry/Palm Strike is really hard to land. If a mob oversteps you as you use it, it’s wasted. If someone backpedals away from you during it, it’s wasted. Channeled Vigor is too slow, leaves you open.

Staff lacks combo fields. Staff #4, Dust Strike, really needs to be a smoke field. Opens up access to stealth, and gives more reliable blinds to enemies around us.

Staff #3 should have a flip to re-engage with a leap or something. Similar to ranger sword skill. Really weird to have a skill that disengages on a melee weapon that’s all about being in the fight.

Some of the traits are just awful this time. Springing to mind is the staff damage increase when endurance isn’t full – should just be an increase, regardless of weapon. Else it’s useless to other sets. Also the damage buff after dodging trait, 2 seconds isn’t long enough to deliver any decent strength ability. Return to either next attack, or increase duration.

Acrobatics feels useless when specced DD too. Should probably overhaul Acro to do something of its own, instead of being a kittenty version of Daredevil.

DASH is there. This a great skill and contrary to others claims that the staff has no disengage this worked wonderfully to do such. I like the animation better then before.

Staff

I think the AA’s are all there. I like number 2 and number three is perfect as I prefer the evade back to one forward. Dust strike begs for a dark field.

Vault I like as a damage skill. It might need a short evade yet while at same range/cost.

Pulmonary impact needs a boost in power or the ability to crit. It too weak for the number of times you will get it to hit comapred to other choices.

Staff mastery is fine. we have a number of traits specific to a weapon type and I have no issues with it.

Escapists Absolution seems better than I recall but that likely because I am doing better at getting evades with the tweaked animation on unhindered.

Evasive empowerment needs another boost. Maybe rather then 2 seconds make it “the next 2 attacks” or make it three seconds.

Driven fortitude The heal should be adjusted upwards.

Brawlers tenacity . Maybe 15 endurance rather than 10?

Bounding Dodger. Seems great when I get it to land understanding there issues with it that will be resolved. That it a blast finisher is useful.

Impaling Lotus. The only one of the dodges that needs a bit more. As another said the daggers should be tossed all at once rather then through the dodge. That said it needs something else as it seems the weak one of the three. Maybe 2 seconds resistance on dodge.

DD feels much much better overall from last bwe, looking forward to seeing the finalized dodge animations.
The worst part for me is the staff idle animation, i don’t know if its just human female but when i turn my camera my head goes on backwards :P (turn with rt mouse)
Also i think the 5 seconds added to the block was a bit excessive for a 1 second block.
But GJ so far mostly

Tabootrinket.2631:

On a personal and vague note, I think that the staff kind of lacks gap closing features to stay in the face of the ennemies.

^^^^ exactly.
Make Debilitating Arc, a forward dodge.

Kocoff.7582:

Tabootrinket.2631:

On a personal and vague note, I think that the staff kind of lacks gap closing features to stay in the face of the ennemies.

^^^^ exactly.
Make Debilitating Arc, a forward dodge.

This skill is not intended as a gap closer. It an Immob break. if you are not immobilized stay in the battle. If an enemy in front of me and I am immobed it does no good to dodge forward and past him. Generally speaking running forwards takes me deeper into enemy ranks aoe and the like.

Can somebody test if you can use the three different daredevil dodges while dazed? I hope they still function as a dodge instead of a skill that can be dazed..

There’s so much damage on points currently I don’t feel like you can go in very well with any weapon set, in team fights with cele builds.

But in 2v2’s or smaller you have some room to breathe.

MEGA HUGE BIG ISSUE:
class icon being a boot is really bugging me. It just doesn’t fit the theme (I know Hermes and whatnot, but he was not known for the thievery, but as a messenger boy). I really hope you don’t change it, and if you do, it’s something more sinister than a boot.

OK now on to PVE stuff:
I, unlike some, felt that the staff seems almost there damage wise. Albeit, it’s lack of conditions will make it lose some of that appeal for using it.

DD seems like a must have trait line with the condi-clenses and dash. Yet somehow I feel underwhelmed. I do have near endless dodges but staff feels outshined by better weapon combo’s for thieves.

The positive is that with DD S/D feels like the S/D of old. Movement abound.

As many other stated, I don’t feel right when wielding a staff like a hammer. I understand this is more of a resource allocation issue and we won’t see it change by HoT launch, but I do hope it changes sometime.

Edit: grammar.

Oh, and use monkey king animations for staff. Makes so much sense it’s not funny.

I know “constructive advice” is the word of the day, but I am just not happy with this weaker-than-Sword/Dagger specc. Seeing that no-one is even streaming Daredevil really shows you how well received this specc is. One ill-timed dodge and you’re dead. The class has not changed since it was nerfed to hell on June 23rd. I know my post may be deleted, but I don’t care, ban me if you like, but I would like my $100.00 back. Maybe it’s time to go try Heavensward.

First things first, I will not comment on bound or impairing lotus dodges because I know they are works in progress, as far as dash is concerned, it looks better but can still use a few tweaks, like the human males holding the staff behind them as they dash along with a bit of effects trailing behind them. I would also suggest that the human male animation has it so that their feet leave the ground during the dash and one knee is propelled forward a bit more, the current static stance kinda looks like iceskating. Overall dash Feels better mechanically though, very fluid and same range as the withdraw heal skill, I was very happy to see you used my suggestion for the animation or at least it seemed so.
On to staff, although you said other animations are in progress, I am not sure if you meant staff will see animation changes or not .. But I was sad to see they all look the same and unappealing. I hope that you guys pull a rabbit out of a hat and surprise us with some really cool fluid animations for the staff too. I have to say the little spin added to the human male auto chain was an improvement but the final part of the auto chain … I am not the nose of an airplane.
I would also like to comment on weakening charge and debilitating arc. These two skills still feel extremely clunky, mainly weakinnkng charge. The cast on it has a strange lock down like feeling at the start and finish of the cast making it feel very unusable and incomplete. Same for deb arc, it feels as if it happens in such a manner that with a few fast key strokes it will drain your initiative without you intending to. Both these skills concern me mechanically and animation wise.
Dust strike feels much much better mechanically, but again.. The animation makes me cry inside.

As far as utilities are concerned I am actually happy with all of them animation wise at this point.. Except for the animation on final blow (final part of the elite chain) it looks awekward and I wish my character would just do a front flip and punch the foe through the door.
Overall with a bit more praying I can picture myself liking he daredevil. Please anet.. Makes my dreams come true.

Riz.8925:

I know “constructive advice” is the word of the day, but I am just not happy with this weaker-than-Sword/Dagger specc. Seeing that no-one is even streaming Daredevil really shows you how well received this specc is. One ill-timed dodge and you’re dead. The class has not changed since it was nerfed to hell on June 23rd. I know my post may be deleted, but I don’t care, ban me if you like, but I would like my $100.00 back. Maybe it’s time to go try Heavensward.

You cand send in a ticket and get a refund. You do not get it back by asking for it here.

daredevil feels better this time, fist flurry feels more rewarding and the dodging is way better (but the animations will hopefully change). the dash animation is the best of those three, but it would look better if your character is not frozen in midair. a little bit more movement would be nice.

i still think thief should get an F3 for swapping between dodges in combat with 10s CD and then get 3 grandmaster traits which helps to get those dodges better/benefit more. its like the only elite spec where the mechanic is hidden in the grandmaster trait.

the projectile reflect on the third auto attack feels wrong. you just cant really time it and its only by luck when you reflect something. so get the reflect maybe on weakening charge.

weakening charge feels better this time. but please add the damage numbers when you hit the same mobs, so you actually see how much damage you do (like hundred blades).

dust strike needs initiative lowered to 3 or to change to 180° cone or 360° blind. it just is plain bad and not useful.

vault's aftercast is way too long. you are already super vulnerable if you are in the air and then the rooting in the end. its too much. it needs an evade frame too.

the healskill is still on 2.25s but it was said it will went down to 0.75s, then its maybe okay.

is it intended, that bandits defence does NOT stunbreak if you are launched? otherwise please fix that bug. also, bandits defence needs a longer block duration. at least 2s.

the vault steal combo doesnt work every time, please fix that bug.

edit: forgot the traits. evasive empowerment is just plain bad. 2s is way to less time to have any impact on any skill. the time should be upped to 4s after each dodge to have impact.

can we get, the default stow position for the weapons on character while using physical skills? because right now they just disappear.

Anyone else feeling Bounding dodge is way to short of distance?
Also can we please make vault longer?

I also forgot to add in my last post, that after further testing vault in many one vs one scenarios and in pvp game modes alike, I found that it would make much more sense for it to remain 6 initiative but instead have evade frames while flying through the air. The biggest problem the skill has is that it is a long cast and though it hits hard, it is stopped before impact almost always since people see it coming. Evade frames on it will also give staff more ad an edge being the most evasive weapon the the of can use. This would feed into the theme of the daredevil more and give the staff a much stronger and significant place so long as it’s other issues addressed are also fixed.

Just a request:

Anyone else feel that Evasive Empowerment needs a longer duration? Even if it’s just a second increase, at least that gives us enough time to get our skills off.

Daredevil overall feels much better than last time. A few things I’ve found and realized this beta:

- Vault is hard to land normally, although this could be due to not being used to using it. However I think the range should be increased slightly, at least to 750. Karl said he was looking at the range.
- Autoattack chain is much better, reflect and damage is nice to have especially if you time it correctly. Just an idea, but we could make the third auto chain a block. I mean, it’s not totally ridiculous, considering ranger has evades on their autoattack.
-Bound radius should be increased to 200-240.
-Driven fortitude still needs buffed. Again, I suggest at least 700.
-Brawler’s Tenacity should be buffed to at least 15 endurance gain.
-I don’t see anybody picking Staff Master over EA or even ID. This needs a buff in some way, maybe adding "Staff Attacks also blind (10-15 sec CD?)
-Maybe increase Vault’s radius to 200-240 but then again the increased range could be enough to help land it.
-Fist Flurry needs to be an AoE cone, only last hit is needed to proc palm strike, give it cripple instead of vuln to help it hit.

That’s basically it, good work overall Karl. Appreciate it.

Edit: I also like the new added little twirl on the second autoattack chain, adds a little flare and makes it more fun. Don’t think it was there before but either way I noticed it and it looks cool.

Dash feels pretty all right and is now my favorite dodge! Bound’s lack of leap finisher needs to be fixed ASAP. Not too interested in playing with the Lotus Dagger dodge.

Staff still feels pretty worthless compared to other, better weapon sets. What can it do that S/P and S/D can’t do? Staff might have good damage, but the utility just isn’t there. Staff Autoattack just looks silly and doesn’t accomplish much, Staff 2 is in a decent place, Staff 3 is a short little roll that can’t compete with S/D 3, Staff 4 is SO BAD compared to Offhand Pistol 5, and Staff 5 devours initiative. I feel like I’d be even more successful in Verdant Brink with my current Thief build as opposed to this nice Daredevil build with all the new shinies.

Staff needs to carve its own niche and be kitten good at it, or get to be comparable to S/D and S/P.

Modify that freakin elite already. Its awfull.

Doesn’t work on stability, easy to get interrupted, hard to hit. low range, low damage.

Using the elite isn’t that much of advantage compared to a normal finisher (more like 1 sec advantage or so, why bother).

Could write a book of situation when that skill simply failed me:
- Stability made me miss first hit
- Pet knocked me down while finishing a ranger
- Fear trigged on damage on someone using Fear runes.
- Launch simply failed
- Guardian/necro got downed with stability on and simply countered it like any finisher
- Got killed while doing it (because Thiefs aren’t suppoed to finish down players, thats a freakin golden rule for starters sake)

Bound and Impaling lotus both need a bit more IMHo. I suggest bound generate 1 stack might for 10 seconds on dodge and Impaling lotus grant 2 seconds resistance on dodge.

I suggested as much before but after more testing am more convinced something else needed.

Luclinraider.2317:

Just a request:

Anyone else feel that Evasive Empowerment needs a longer duration? Even if it’s just a second increase, at least that gives us enough time to get our skills off.

Yes longer duration or the next 2 or three attacks or some such.

babazhook.6805:

Luclinraider.2317:

Just a request:

Anyone else feel that Evasive Empowerment needs a longer duration? Even if it’s just a second increase, at least that gives us enough time to get our skills off.

Yes longer duration or the next 2 or three attacks or some such.

Current 2 seconds works fine with D/D tough

Active assassin signet, rush, Steal + C7D + BS for a entrance burst.
Switch to Staff and finish it

Signet of agility does in fact add 100 endurance.

Sigil of energy is supposed to restore 50 percent endurance. it restores or 1/3rd on a Daredevil.

I do think the endurance recharge rate needs to go up so that under normal conditions the three bars recharge as fast as a non Dare devils would with two bars.

Tabootrinket.2631:

On a personal and vague note, I think that the staff kind of lacks gap closing features to stay in the face of the ennemies.
For a weapon destined to be “used recklessly”, it has more the feeling of a pistol/dagger, than a dagger/pistol, providing more way out than way in.

This is a thought that I had. It isn’t reflected in the numbers, since according to them vault is about as good as Infiltraitor’s Strike and Heartseeker at maintaining engagement. Though it is currently bugged, I have toyed around with another suggestion, and I think that since so many others feel that way it is time to make it:

Increase the distance of Vault to 800/900 range.

I think this will do a lot for the skill, considering that weakening charge is our close range DPS move. I’m fairly certain that the longer range of vault would be counterbalanced by the higher initiative cost. While heartseeker doesn’t go as far, it also doesn’t cost as much initiative.

Luclinraider.2317:

Just a request:

Anyone else feel that Evasive Empowerment needs a longer duration? Even if it’s just a second increase, at least that gives us enough time to get our skills off.

Yeah. My suggestion is 5.75 second duration, at the start of the dodge instead of the end. This gives thieves a unique damage buff for 5 seconds, which is enough to combo it with many skills instead of just half of one.

The reason why such a long duration? It is exclusive with brawlers tenacity and weakening strikes. Brawlers Tenacity contributes greatly to our endurance gain, so without BT we won’t have as may dodges to make use of Evasive Empowerment. Likewise, weakening charge cuts enemy endurance regen to 75% and damage output to 87.5%, making it both offensive and defensive. The endurance regen cut is hard to quantify, but quite frankly an 87.5% reduction in enemy damage throughout the entire fight is better than 2 seconds of 10% more damage for very small portions of time.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Tabootrinket.2631:

On a personal and vague note, I think that the staff kind of lacks gap closing features to stay in the face of the ennemies.
For a weapon destined to be “used recklessly”, it has more the feeling of a pistol/dagger, than a dagger/pistol, providing more way out than way in.

This is a thought that I had. It isn’t reflected in the numbers, since according to them vault is about as good as Infiltraitor’s Strike and Heartseeker at maintaining engagement. Though it is currently bugged, I have toyed around with another suggestion, and I think that since so many others feel that way it is time to make it:

Increase the distance of Vault to 800/900 range.

I think this will do a lot for the skill, considering that weakening charge is our close range DPS move. I’m fairly certain that the longer range of vault would be counterbalanced by the higher initiative cost. While heartseeker doesn’t go as far, it also doesn’t cost as much initiative.

The problem is a higher Initiative cost makes trickery all but mandatory in a DD build. One utility using half of ones INI is just not a good idea.

Too many builds are being forced into trickery to get that extra INI. I do not think the heavy hitter of the DD line should force that as well. Right now at 5 INI I can manage a DD build no trickery. At 6 not so much. I am all but left with one choice on my traitlines.

now another fix is to take away preparedness and make 15 ini baseline so we can afford those high INI skills but if that does not happen I think this suggestion a bad one.

trying to be as constructive as possible, theif feels kind of useless compared to the other elite specs.

bounder is possibly most useless gm trait.

p/p with cs+trick and daredevil seems to be most effective build ive run so far… there might be a s/d build out there…

just feel like all these other classes got something really cool like druid and reaper and we got one extra dodge?

not feeling the love here…

babazhook.6805:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Tabootrinket.2631:

On a personal and vague note, I think that the staff kind of lacks gap closing features to stay in the face of the ennemies.
For a weapon destined to be “used recklessly”, it has more the feeling of a pistol/dagger, than a dagger/pistol, providing more way out than way in.

This is a thought that I had. It isn’t reflected in the numbers, since according to them vault is about as good as Infiltraitor’s Strike and Heartseeker at maintaining engagement. Though it is currently bugged, I have toyed around with another suggestion, and I think that since so many others feel that way it is time to make it:

Increase the distance of Vault to 800/900 range.

I think this will do a lot for the skill, considering that weakening charge is our close range DPS move. I’m fairly certain that the longer range of vault would be counterbalanced by the higher initiative cost. While heartseeker doesn’t go as far, it also doesn’t cost as much initiative.

The problem is a higher Initiative cost makes trickery all but mandatory in a DD build. One utility using half of ones INI is just not a good idea.

Too many builds are being forced into trickery to get that extra INI. I do not think the heavy hitter of the DD line should force that as well. Right now at 5 INI I can manage a DD build no trickery. At 6 not so much.

now another fix is to take away preparedness and make 15 ini baseline so we can afford those high INI skills but if that does not happen I think this suggestion a bad one.

I’m not suggesting that we increase the initiative of vault. I’m saying that as an engagement move, the higher initiative cost is already balanced for more distance.

EDIT: NEW BUG FOUND: Impaling Lotus is tagged to be a “combat only” trait. However, this trait activates regardless of whether you are in combat or not.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

babazhook.6805:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Tabootrinket.2631:

On a personal and vague note, I think that the staff kind of lacks gap closing features to stay in the face of the ennemies.
For a weapon destined to be “used recklessly”, it has more the feeling of a pistol/dagger, than a dagger/pistol, providing more way out than way in.

This is a thought that I had. It isn’t reflected in the numbers, since according to them vault is about as good as Infiltraitor’s Strike and Heartseeker at maintaining engagement. Though it is currently bugged, I have toyed around with another suggestion, and I think that since so many others feel that way it is time to make it:

Increase the distance of Vault to 800/900 range.

I think this will do a lot for the skill, considering that weakening charge is our close range DPS move. I’m fairly certain that the longer range of vault would be counterbalanced by the higher initiative cost. While heartseeker doesn’t go as far, it also doesn’t cost as much initiative.

The problem is a higher Initiative cost makes trickery all but mandatory in a DD build. One utility using half of ones INI is just not a good idea.

Too many builds are being forced into trickery to get that extra INI. I do not think the heavy hitter of the DD line should force that as well. Right now at 5 INI I can manage a DD build no trickery. At 6 not so much.

now another fix is to take away preparedness and make 15 ini baseline so we can afford those high INI skills but if that does not happen I think this suggestion a bad one.

I’m not suggesting that we increase the initiative of vault. I’m saying that as an engagement move, the higher initiative cost is already balanced for more distance.

Ok thanks for the clarification. I know it was suggested in the past to change vault to having an evade of some type and putting INI to 6 to compensate. I would be opposed to that for reasons outlined.

D/p has a 6 ini skill and near everyone feels the need for trickery to help address that.

Most weapons do. Infiltraitor’s Arrow, Cloak and Dagger, and Black Powder all cost 6 initiative. The only one that doesn’t is Vault. With how things are now, I think the initiative cost of Infiltraitor’s arrow and Cloak and Dagger should be reduced to 5. Black Powder is pretty strong, so I am hesitant to reduce it, especially after Bound works correctly.

That is more of a base thief issue, though.

Needed fixes:

Quick and easy:

-Signet of Agility needs to refill all 150 endurance, not 100.

-Evasive empowerment needs to last longer, somewhere around 4-6 seconds.

Full Changes:

-Distracting Daggers need to have an instant cast on its own timer once it’s prepared. This skill imo is the flagship of the DD, even more so than our dodges. It lets us interrupt anything that an ememy is doing. A Charge, channel, stomp….it really lets us control the flow of battle…which is something that Thief has lacked for some time. The problem with it right now it that it shares a timer with the rest of our moves AND has a quick animation. This means if I am mid HS Strike, or Mid Unload, or Mid Bound…ect, and see my enemy channeling their heal, I try to throw my dagger, but I can’t….I have to sit there and wait until I’m done, then sit there for the quick throwing animation….THEN it flys to them. By that time they are done channeling whatever they were doing and my interrupt just turned into nothing more than 300 damage…….

No matter what I am doing, if those daggers are prepared and on my wrist, and I hit the button, it should shoot at them. They also needs less of a cd between when I can throw them.

All in all…a big upgrade from last time…..still underwhelming when compared to my Necro and my Ranger….but better.

Just as a side note Pistols vs Terrorgrifs = no good. Pistols mid fight keep dropping dmg and require you to re target repeatedly to sync back up. no miss/evade/out of range, just damage stops connecting. Seems after every charge.

Driften.8716:

Just as a side note Pistols vs Terrorgrifs = no good. Pistols mid fight keep dropping dmg and require you to re target repeatedly to sync back up. no miss/evade/out of range, just damage stops connecting. Seems after every charge.

This is because when Terragriffs use their charge they leave a damaging trail behind that blocks all projectiles in a fairly large area as long as it’s up which means that as long as they are inside their own trail they can’t be hit by any projectiles, the trail also seems to count as an invincible entity since shooting it with signet of malice actually heals you and trick shot seems to bounce into it.

I’ve realized that you can buff DD all you want but it’s pointless till you won’t badly nerf every other elite spec.
Seriously those specs are so imbalanced now, but once people will master them, they will be the most broken thing ever seen.

Staff feels a lot better since last Beta. It’s just that it feels weak in the sustain area.
I feel that removing Driven Fortitude’s cool-down will resolve this issue.

Hey Karl

I just logged in and saw you guys changed the dodge traits.
I was really looking forward to playing S/p and p/p because of the prospect of leaping through my smoke fields.
But now i logged in and i see that its no longer a leap finisher, its now a blast.
And since the blast will come at the end of the dodge, it feels clucky trying to get that wanted stealth effect.

I dunno, was just really exited for that trait and now not so much ^^

Love the overall clean up thou, i have confidence its gonna be great on release!

Ninja.4629:

Hey Karl

I just logged in and saw you guys changed the dodge traits.
I was really looking forward to playing S/p and p/p because of the prospect of leaping through my smoke fields.
But now i logged in and i see that its no longer a leap finisher, its now a blast.
And since the blast will come at the end of the dodge, it feels clucky trying to get that wanted stealth effect.

I dunno, was just really exited for that trait and now not so much ^^

Love the overall clean up thou, i have confidence its gonna be great on release!

It is a bug. Already said it. They will fix it

I will make the key points black, so you don´t have to read through walls of text.

Practicality of skills. Is a certain skill reliable? Does it do enough damage or perform it’s function well? How’s the cast time?

I only tested the Physical Skills but here is what I think:
-> Damage output is good when you choose the Impacting Disruption trait. It really creates a unique playstyle where you do damage by interrupting others and trying to lock them. Kudos to you for this Karl!

Distracting Daggers: Its already a nice skill! But some ideas to enhance it:
– Make the daggers a projectile finisher.
– Make the daggers cast time instant, so it can be used while using other skills. (This is because you do not in general want to stand there doing nothing, while waiting for the opponent to use a skill.)
– Maybe reduce the cast cooldown a little to 0.5 seconds (is this technically possible?)
– Since the cooldown will trigger once all daggers are thrown, the effective cooldown is a bit longer. Maybe make the cooldown trigger when you charge them? I know this sounds powerful, but this basically means that you will be able to throw 3 daggers in 25 seconds right? (It could be stacked up, but if the after-cast cooldown is high enough, it shouldn´t be too much of a problem right?)

Fist Flurry:
– The damage is very rewarding for this! But to hit the skill is really hard. People can evade, block, do blinds, ect. But I believe that is also the risk of the skill. One thing I would think would be nice is: Maybe allow this skill to miss because of blind or blocks, and still flip over then? Since it is already hard enough hit when players can dodge. But in general this skill is already okay I think!

[Possible Bug] While all other skills only give endurance on every initial cast, I noticed that Palm Strike also gave endurance with Brawlers Tenacity. Now this is far from overpowered, so I don´t think its bad to have it there, but just to let you know.

Bandits Defence:
Theoretical this is a really nice skill, but in practise it was a little hard to use in groups. I noticed this:
– This skill gets triggered by clones and pets, which make you knockdown them instead of the pesky ranger or mesmer.
– The small travel duration on melee attack is nice.

Channeling Vigor:
I think its a nice heal which gives you back about 2 dodges. It would be nice if the cast-time could be decreased a little more.

Endurance Skillfact Bug: Most skills that give endurance are showed as a percentage, while in fact it is a flat amount of endurance given. Maybe good to change this? (100% endurance is 2/3 for a Daredevil)

Trait synergy and effectiveness. Do traits work well with each other and with traits from other lines? Do they perform well in practice, not just on paper? Do they define builds well?

Few things here! I like the dodge abilities, I secretly hope we can make it swappable on demand. But its not bad as it is now. Some comments on the traits:

Impacting Disruption: This is an amazing trait to create a whole new different play style. Great to see:P

Escapist’s Absolution: Thief does not have much condition cleanse. But once it does it is a really powerful one. I got totally pwned by condi builds on PvP when I chose Impacting Disruption. Personally I would really like to see this as a grandmaster minor trait, as Daredevil is based around dodges and it would be nice in every mode. The 50 endurance on steal trait kind of forces you to take Trickery too, otherwise it would be much less effective. Notice though that right now the choice is forced between Impacting Disruption and Escapists Absolution, which is basically choosing between surviving vs the whole new interrupt playstyle (which is already hard as it is, but fun with practise and skill).

Evasive Empowerment: I heard others sugesting this too, but I believe it would be nice if this trait was a little buffed to for example 5 seconds (without it stacking)

Staff Master: I believe the idea is fine as it is! Just because it has to compete with two amazing traits, I think it will be rarely chosen. Expecially if Escapist Absolution stays in the master line, then this trait will probably not often get chosen, since it is the only (reliable) way for Daredevils with staff to condition cleanse.

Does daredevil feel unique from thief (given that acro has changed, please avoid comparing to pre June thief)? Can you create fun and useful builds with the tools it provides?

Impact Disruption really creates a nice new playstyle, the dodges are also a nice mechanic added to daredevil. I do not think that Acrobatics overlaps too much with Daredevil, as Acrobatics is mainly about getting vigor, and mitigating stuns and movement impairing conditions, which is not what Daredevil does.

How does thief (not daredevil) fare against daredevil and other classes introduced in HoT. Keep in mind, all elites and even base specs have received significant changes since the last BWE. Please give feedback based on this weekend and not past experiences.

State one thing you really like about daredevil.

This might already be leaked inside the post^^, but Impacting Disruption really is great. It creates the mesmered GW1 playstyle where interrupting is rewarded through skillfull play.

State one thing you dislike/want changed about daredevil.

If you want to play the mesmerized GW1 gameplay you are basically going to be countered by all condition builds, because you cannot choose Escapist Absolution anymore. Shadow Arts does not make much sense for a Daredevil since we do not have much access to stealth, so we´re quite limited in condition removal right now. (The only ones I can name out of the top of my head are, Signet of Agility, Shadow Step and The Trick trait, but they all have very high cooldowns)

So what I´d like to see changed: Please make Escapist Absolution a minor grandmaster trait, so that we are not forced into trickery for better endurance regen, or forced into shadow arts for a reliable condition cleanse. This is of course, if you want to support the skillfull interrupt playstyle.

Good luck developping!

EDIT: If Escapist Absolution would be a Minor Grandmaster then Staff Master and Endurance Thief would have to compete:

Staff Master: 2 endurance per initiative = ~2 endurance per second.
Endurance Thief: 50 per steal = 2.5 endurance per second (with Trickery)

Which is a much nicer comparison if you ask me, since Steal will not always be instacast when off cooldown.