Guild Wars 2

No class under any circumstances should get alacrity unless it’s chrono. Period. And 6s of cripple on a weapon skill that can be used repeatedly is too much.

Sin.1827:

What do you think should be changed?

Would you like the list?

First off, that no other class should get alacrity is in my honest opinion absolutely wrong.
Alacrity is something what made the Chronomancer in the first placet so absolutely overpowered and instant Meta everywhere, especially for Raids and WvW that Anet had to nerf it, because it was simply too good.

If Alacrity should stay Chronomancer only, then I would like to see some of the other things become class specific again also too…

Then should become Stealth a Thief Only thing, how it was at Game Release, before Anet dumbed down the Stealth Mechanic to oblivion giving it way too much other classes because of incompetent players being unable to handle stealth, so anet broadened the stealth field giving others stealth too and lots of hard counters to reduce the massive QQ around stealth…

Hard Counters is absolutely undersandable here, but to give more classes access to stealth also too is absolutely not and was an utterly bad decision by Anet to begin with from the start on.

Then should become Fear a Necromancer Only thing, theres a fear exceptions that would need to get changed here including a ranger Pet Skilll that would need to get changed and a Warrior Utility Skil lthat would need to get removed and replaced with an other in general more useful skill that should make usage of the other CC skill that is Taunt and not Fear, practicalyl renaming “Fear Me!” to Provocation what makes in regard of a Warrior more sense, then fearing enemies away… as a Warriro you want to have your enemies near you in melee combat, because melee combat is the best thing for a warrior…

Confusion then should become a Mesmer only thing again, what would mean again some skilsl that would need to get reworked, like Enginners Static Shot and Pry Bar (Toolkit Skill), Revenants Banish Enchantment, some Pet Skills again and Corruptions would need to get adjusted by making Retaliation get corrupted into somethign else, like Torment or Poison

Just the top 3 things that under this way of thinking should get then corrected also too, if Alacrity should stay Chronomancer only…
However, the real point for why Alacrity a Chronomancer only thing is, is it that the Chronomancer is an Elite Specialization and access to Alacrity is a good selling point for buying the expansion naturally to get the Elite Specializations, so that a player can get this way more access to more build diversity

If Anet would make Alacrity something, that any base class can get, then theres essentially no need anymore to get elite specializations like the Chronomancer to get Alacrity for a mesmer’s build diversity and thats the only real reason why we won’t ever see a change on this here.

However, the other 3 problems named above, that are no issues with the elite specializations – that are gameplay mechanics which come from the basic game and it should be mechanics, that Anet should fix for the sake of this game’s balance by making Stealth, Fear and Confusion again like on game release state something too, which only the Classes Thief, Necromancer and Mesmer in that row of order have access too, because it are gameplay mechanics that are unique to these classes and their elite specializations originally, which are part of what I would call “trademark abilities” that make each class feel different and unique and which shouldn’t ever be given to any other classes.

Same goes for Shadow Steps (Teleportations), something that should have stayed Thief only.. the other classes shouldn’ have any kind of instant movement skills that are practically shadow steps..they can have different kinds of movement skilsl, but nothign that works essentially as like a shadow step.

With that beign say, skills like the following should get reworked in my opinion:

- Blink
- Lightning Flash
- Necrotic Traversal
- Phase Retreat
- Flashing Blade
- Judge’s Intervention
- Air Pocket
- Illusionary Leap
- Dark Path
- Spectral Walk

All skills that I would rework to restore the uniqueness of the thieve’s shadow step mechanic that ensures, that the thief is the fastest moving most mobile class of all in combat. No other class should have movement skills that feel like teleportign you instantly to somewhere, like practically using a thieve’s shadow shadow step mechanic.

Imo it would be quite interestign to see, how the games combat of this game would look like, if ANet really would restore the uniqueness of those gameplay mechanics, where only Thieves can use Stealth and Shadow Steps (Teleportations), where only Necromancers can fear enemies around and where only Mesmers can confuse their enemies…

I honestly think, the game would be much more fun then …

Now on the actual topic..

I would like to change the Dagger Skills this way, that they favor using Dual Daggers more, than using them with other weapons together.
That way can Anet make D/D bette,r without that D/P profitates automaticalyl too from any changes of the first 3 skills.

Auto Attack String

Double Strike > Wild Strike > Lotus Strike
When used with D/P, its like it is now
When used with Dual Daggers then following things change:

Double Strike becomes Quadruple Strike, and the first attack does instead of 2 then 4 hits bringign the first attack more to how Assassin was in GW1 where its attacks hit twice being its trademark abilitiy, so this is practically a Double Strike where each attack hits twice when used with Dual Daggers

Wild Strike under Dual Daggers grants you Vigor for 3s (or whatever durations thats enough to grant practically 50% more Endurance back than what Wild Strike gives under D/X back)

Lotus Strike under Dual Daggers should inflict besides of poison also a stack of Torment to cover better the poison and to make D/D a better choice for Condi Thieves
—-

Heartseeker
Under D/P how it is now.
Under D/D

When using Dual Daggers, Heartseekers range is increased from 450 to 600, making it a better Gap Closer and it will work essentially like the Warrior’s Whirlwind Attack, having a Line of Sight Arrow Mechanic with that you can change better the direction, making it possible for you under D/D to use Heartseeker easier while changing also your directions of it quickly when you chase your enemies like a cheetah that needs to change on full speed quickly its direction while hunting its prey. This way will get the mobility of D/D significantly better without that D/P will profit from it, because D/P has with Shadow Shot already its own mobility over greater range, than what Heartseeker has.

Death Blossom
Its evade frame needs to get fixed finalyl so that it lets you evade over its full animation time and it should hit 5 instead of 3 targets to make it a better crowd buster skill with that the Thief can survive better when fightign against multiple targets due to Invigorating Precision and Signet of Malice that heals on dealt damage.

Also ANet should make it possible finally, that damaging conditions when they tick should trigger also the Healing Effect of Signet of Malice.
So when I deal poison for example to an enemy, Signet of Malice should heal me whenever the posion damage ticks, so that Signet of Malice becomes also for Condition Thieves a better option as alternative over the Skelk Venom or Withdraw because of giving the thief this way better survivability. But this is just a sidenote.

Dancing Daggers
Under S or P/D like it is now.
Under D/D

When used with Dual Daggers, have Dancing Daggers 33% increased Velicity, are unblockable and steal Boons when the bouncing Daggers hit the same targets again.

So if you hit for example with a Dancign Dagger that bounces 3 times 2 targets twice, both enemies will be stolen each a Boon when u use Dancing Daggers with Dual Dagger Build, giving D/D this way more of Boon Steal, what is something essential that the thief in general should do alot more than it does currently. This way would become Danging Daggers under a D/D build a significantly more useful skill with that Boon Bunkers would have a harder time to deal with …especially due to the attack beign unblockable then, so also reflecting auras ect wouldnt prevent the boons from being stolen.
That defensive tactic would work then only against S/D and P/D thieves, but not anymore against D/Ds that are by design alot more melee combat focused with Dancing Daggers being their only semi ranged skill that they have…
I think for such a full melee combat focusede build its just only fair, that their only ranged skill that they have should be unblockable.

Cloak and Dagger
Under S or P/D it is like now
Under D/D

When used with Dual Daggers, is the Initiative Cost reduced from 6 to to 5 and it will cause Blindness instead of Vulnerability, while providing even 2s Stealth if you don’t hit a target and 5s stealth, when hittign successfully a target, so that the stealth of it is also more powerful, than when using it with a S or P/D build.
—-

With these changes would profitate the Dagger Skills of the thief significantly from dual wielding, without that the other weapons get these benefits too, so that the thieve’s most basic trademark combat style that originated from GW1’s Assassins practically has its most powerful effects, when actually also dual wielding daggers, because fighting with just only 1 dagger as thief is naturally lesser effective, than when fighting with one in each of your hand.

I’m playing assassin thief- do not take my vulnerability away from me. Do not. Do it.

Lol, as if removing 3% Vulnerability from a landed Cloak and Dagger with D/D would make such a huge difference, when it would get exchanged with Blindness, which is in combat the much better defensive option for a D/D Thief in my opinion.

As a D/D which makes usage of Vulnerability, theres enough other ways to get constant Vulnerability on your enemies that are alot better, than just beign dependent on Cloak and Dagger’s laughable 3 Stacks alone that don’t make a huge difference in damage for long as Vulnerability can get any time cleansed away anyways.

As a Thief making usage of Vulnerability, its alot better to use thigns like this:

• Sigil of Frailty = Every 2 seconds Vulnerability on your enemy from hits with 50% chance that lasts for whopping 10 seconds.
  So this Sigil allows you practically with a fast hitting build to keep up constantly 5 stacks of Vulnerability

• Combine the above Sigil with the Thief Trait https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sundering_Strikes
  This one together with a Sigil of Frailty in your Dual Daggers makes you alone already practically a Vulnerability Machine that constantly keeps up Vulnerability on your foes, simply from auto attacking…regardless if your hits were critical now or not, but if they are, then you ramp up super quickly vulnerability when at that moment the Sigil triggers also its effect.

Then you have still Body Shot with pistol with that you can cause Vulnerability from a Weaspon Skill. 5%, Thats 2% more than from Cloak and Dagger, its RANGED and COSTS 2 INITIATIVE LESSER than Cloak and Dagger, so in regard of Vulnerability spam the clear superior choice over the Dagger Skill.
With it you can produce instantly 15 stacks of Vulnerability at the cost of what Cloak and Dagger costs for usign it twice, that gives you just in return lousy 6 Vulnerability and presenting yourself on the silver platter out of initiative in melee combat..while with pistol you have at least 900 distance between you and the enemy still and can regain some initiative before the enemy gets to you.

If thats not still enough Vulnerability for you, use Deadly trapper to make your Traps cause Vulnerability on enemies that run into your Needle Traps for example so that they have a nice initiative 5% of Vulnerability before you burst it easily then to 20to 25 with your pistol spam.

Cloak and Dagger Vulnerability is absolutely NOT needed at all for a bursty assassin build. Thats how I do see it.
Small AoE Blindness for Dual Dagger Cloak and Dagger is alot more useful for the melee fighters that D/D Thieves are, just to get a quick attack in, blind the foe and get out, without having to fear an instant counter attack hitting us directly back from diving with a Cloak and Dagger into Melee Combat.

I’d rather lessen the CnD aftercast and put 130range Cone indicator for QoL.

Orpheal.8263:

Now on the actual topic..

I would like to change the Dagger Skills this way, that they favor using Dual Daggers more, than using them with other weapons together.
That way can Anet make D/D bette,r without that D/P profitates automaticalyl too from any changes of the first 3 skills.

Auto Attack String

Double Strike > Wild Strike > Lotus Strike
When used with D/P, its like it is now
When used with Dual Daggers then following things change:

Double Strike becomes Quadruple Strike, and the first attack does instead of 2 then 4 hits bringign the first attack more to how Assassin was in GW1 where its attacks hit twice being its trademark abilitiy, so this is practically a Double Strike where each attack hits twice when used with Dual Daggers

Wild Strike under Dual Daggers grants you Vigor for 3s (or whatever durations thats enough to grant practically 50% more Endurance back than what Wild Strike gives under D/X back)

Lotus Strike under Dual Daggers should inflict besides of poison also a stack of Torment to cover better the poison and to make D/D a better choice for Condi Thieves
—-

Heartseeker
Under D/P how it is now.
Under D/D

When using Dual Daggers, Heartseekers range is increased from 450 to 600, making it a better Gap Closer and it will work essentially like the Warrior’s Whirlwind Attack, having a Line of Sight Arrow Mechanic with that you can change better the direction, making it possible for you under D/D to use Heartseeker easier while changing also your directions of it quickly when you chase your enemies like a cheetah that needs to change on full speed quickly its direction while hunting its prey. This way will get the mobility of D/D significantly better without that D/P will profit from it, because D/P has with Shadow Shot already its own mobility over greater range, than what Heartseeker has.

Death Blossom
Its evade frame needs to get fixed finalyl so that it lets you evade over its full animation time and it should hit 5 instead of 3 targets to make it a better crowd buster skill with that the Thief can survive better when fightign against multiple targets due to Invigorating Precision and Signet of Malice that heals on dealt damage.

Also ANet should make it possible finally, that damaging conditions when they tick should trigger also the Healing Effect of Signet of Malice.
So when I deal poison for example to an enemy, Signet of Malice should heal me whenever the posion damage ticks, so that Signet of Malice becomes also for Condition Thieves a better option as alternative over the Skelk Venom or Withdraw because of giving the thief this way better survivability. But this is just a sidenote.

Dancing Daggers
Under S or P/D like it is now.
Under D/D

When used with Dual Daggers, have Dancing Daggers 33% increased Velicity, are unblockable and steal Boons when the bouncing Daggers hit the same targets again.

So if you hit for example with a Dancign Dagger that bounces 3 times 2 targets twice, both enemies will be stolen each a Boon when u use Dancing Daggers with Dual Dagger Build, giving D/D this way more of Boon Steal, what is something essential that the thief in general should do alot more than it does currently. This way would become Danging Daggers under a D/D build a significantly more useful skill with that Boon Bunkers would have a harder time to deal with …especially due to the attack beign unblockable then, so also reflecting auras ect wouldnt prevent the boons from being stolen.
That defensive tactic would work then only against S/D and P/D thieves, but not anymore against D/Ds that are by design alot more melee combat focused with Dancing Daggers being their only semi ranged skill that they have…
I think for such a full melee combat focusede build its just only fair, that their only ranged skill that they have should be unblockable.

Cloak and Dagger
Under S or P/D it is like now
Under D/D

When used with Dual Daggers, is the Initiative Cost reduced from 6 to to 5 and it will cause Blindness instead of Vulnerability, while providing even 2s Stealth if you don’t hit a target and 5s stealth, when hittign successfully a target, so that the stealth of it is also more powerful, than when using it with a S or P/D build.
—-

With these changes would profitate the Dagger Skills of the thief significantly from dual wielding, without that the other weapons get these benefits too, so that the thieve’s most basic trademark combat style that originated from GW1’s Assassins practically has its most powerful effects, when actually also dual wielding daggers, because fighting with just only 1 dagger as thief is naturally lesser effective, than when fighting with one in each of your hand.

Note sure the way skills laid out that they should differentiate between ALL 5 skills dependent on what wielded left hand unless it through traits. No other weaponset does this on any class that I am aware of and the DUAL wield skills at 3 are rather unique to thief along with the sneak attack.

You basically make all the d/d set a dual wield type set. I have reservations on that. What you propose would in my opinion just create another problem in that there no reason to play s/d or d/p or even p/d. D/D would overwhelm.

CutesySylveon.8290:

No class under any circumstances should get alacrity unless it’s chrono. Period. And 6s of cripple on a weapon skill that can be used repeatedly is too much.

Then, no class under any circumstances should get stealth unless its Thief, period.

Shogun.7401:

CutesySylveon.8290:

No class under any circumstances should get alacrity unless it’s chrono. Period. And 6s of cripple on a weapon skill that can be used repeatedly is too much.

Then, no class under any circumstances should get stealth unless its Thief, period.

That’s just your personal bias. Alacrity was advertised as an unique effect for chronomancers only, it is an effect which they can produce because they are able to manipulate time. Until now, no other profession is able to do so.

And stealth was NEVER a thief only thing since the start of the game. Smoke field combos existed, engineer toss elixir s existed, mass invisibility existed, ….

Stealth was never advertised as an unique adventage for thiefs only. And IF you would want to change that, so you want to remove smoke field combos with blasts and leaps? Because you would have to, engineer has some smoke fields to combo stealth with, but if it should be a thief only thing…. say goodbye to d/p 5,2 combo.

Hmm i like some ideas, especially with heartseeker with 4 ini and blind on CnD. To buff d/d death blossom should be changed for some sort of gap closer (best if with evade frame). Also D/P is the king cause it has interrupts. In hands of skilled player it is almost like a fight in Bloodborne :P.
Sword should also have a better option for using stealth attack like 1s stun instead of daze or something, cause right now it is better to use infil strike or something easier to land instead of stealth attack.
As for the trait i would go for quickness or superspeed instead of alacrity while gaining stealth – it would help nicely with stealth attacks without steal and overall CnD.

Also staff needs some sreious rework – this weapon is braindead and offers no reliable utility, only dmg.

these sick people still suggest nerfing other skills instead of just removing the smoke combo field from black powder lm-kittening-ao

Sin.1827:

At the moment, d/p ultilize the leap finisher from Heartseeker through Black powder to stack stealth. Through testing, Quad-Leaping through Black powder using Heartseeker results in a total net loss of only -2 initiative after stealth ends (we look at the initiative loss after being visible again because for all testing purposes you’re basically invuln in stealth; ofc that’s not literally true). At this rate, it is possible to maintain perma-stealth especially when combined with Bound. Stealth is okay but. Perma-stealth is not! It’s not fun for the other person. So we increase the intiative cost of Heartseeker to raise the cost of maintaining stealth.

Stand in their black powder after they go for the first stack and they’ll either reveal themselves, or get two stacks of stealth at most. Taking a blind for 2 seconds is worth the trade, since they lose so much in resources and time, you’ll often get blinded anyways by their allies when they try to peel for the thief.

Otherwise if you don’t want to take heartseeker/bound damage, CC their black powder and cleave it.

Also if you notice thieves are wasting their resources stealthing for a long time, immediately focus one of their team members, you’ll either have 12+ seconds free while they stealth or they’ll engage without their resource pool having replenished leaving them with half or less initiative. Either way it’s a win win for you.

Thieves sitting in stealth is one of the most useless things they can do in PvP, it only ever adds value if it results in a gank burst, which along with mesmer is one of their main things in combat as their team fighting is otherwise bad (except for staff theif while they have initiative).

Edit
Also raising the initiative cost of heartseeker ignores base thief and is only attempting to balance around Daredevil’s picking the Bound options, this pidgeon holes thieve’s into relying more on bound to survive instead of being able to pick other options.

Edit2
Raising the initiative cost also pidgeon holes them more into the Trickery line, which I would love to see be less necessary.

Kodama.6453:

That’s just your personal bias. Alacrity was advertised as an unique effect for chronomancers only, it is an effect which they can produce because they are able to manipulate time. Until now, no other profession is able to do so.

And stealth was NEVER a thief only thing since the start of the game. Smoke field combos existed, engineer toss elixir s existed, mass invisibility existed, ….

Stealth was never advertised as an unique adventage for thiefs only. And IF you would want to change that, so you want to remove smoke field combos with blasts and leaps? Because you would have to, engineer has some smoke fields to combo stealth with, but if it should be a thief only thing…. say goodbye to d/p 5,2 combo.

Engineers have got one smoke field, thieves have got a million, so take away the smoke field from engineer – wouldn’t hurt them anyway.
On the one hand it seems to be good that a lot of other classes have got access to stealth as we’ve had less whining on this forum since – on the other hand these people have no idea how a thief works and how crucial stealth is to them – so my gameplay is hampered with because someone thinks they just spam their stealth, because why not, right? I’m ok with mass invisibility, with veil, with rangers hunter’s shot, even with engis self stealth but I’m absolutely not ok with the stealth skills that came with HoT.
Also I hate it that anet seems to have forgotten what stealth means to thief, so the revealed skills look rather like something counter playing engi and mesmer stealth to me but our class mechanics are tied to stealth – so we suffer greatly while every other class just pops their invulnerabilities when forcefully revealed.
So yeah I’d like to be stealth a thief only mechanic. And I bet thief has been advertised as “they attack from stealth” and no other class – that means only thief was supposed to have it, right?!

Edit: Spelling
ETA: Sorry that this is slightly offtopic – I don’t have much to say to dagger rework right now – I already said what I’d like to see and in the end it’s another 3 months until we can hope that something will change for the better for the vanilla specs.

If by ‘Perma Stealth’ you mean ‘Permanent Stealth’, could you please demonstrate it on a video.

Jana.6831:

Engineers have got one smoke field, thieves have got a million, so take away the smoke field from engineer – wouldn’t hurt them anyway.

Engineer has: smoke bomb, flame turret overcharge and toss elixir u, that are 3 smoke combo fields
Thief has: smoke screen and black powder, that are just 2

That about the “engineer just has 1 and thief a million”, engineer has the most available smoke fields in the game. And just because thief gets special benefits from stealth doesn’t mean it has to be a thief only mechanic.

Look at tempest. Many traits are improving auras for them, giving them protection, heal, share with allies and so on. But just because tempest is the class which gets the most benefit from auras it doesn’t mean nobody else should be able to generate them.
And I don’t think anet is forgetting that stealth is a big part of the thief concept. It seems more like they want to give thief additional options in the future to not rely so much on stealth as before. That’s what they wanted to do with daredevil, to call an example. They are improving the defense (extra dodge, block, high weakness uptime etc) and didn’t give any new source for stealth with this elite spec. They wanted to give thief the option to rely on dodge and evasion for defense instead of stealth.

About the topic: I just could imagine a slight improve for backstab, like the suggestion to make it ignore armor. It is kinda sad that this skill isn’t able to keep up with all the other burst attacks which came with HoT, this skill is meant to be one of the hardest hitting skills in the game. So please improve it to be that again. But the other things mentioned are not necessary, at least in my opinion.

Kodama.6453:

Jana.6831:

Engineers have got one smoke field, thieves have got a million, so take away the smoke field from engineer – wouldn’t hurt them anyway.

Engineer has: smoke bomb

Yes

Kodama.6453:

flame turret overcharge

No

Kodama.6453:

and toss elixir u, that are 3 smoke combo fields

No

Kodama.6453:

Thief has: smoke screen and black powder, that are just 2

So for the one class you count buggy spells and non smoke fields but for thief you only count smoke fields and dismiss the fact that one of it comes from an OH weapon which is found in 3 builds – well ok, then.

In short: You have no point.
And I don’t want to look at tempest – it’s just silly to demand that a spell should “only be for one elite cause the advertisement for HoT said so!!!111” especially when there’s no rules depending professions in this game anymore anyway.

Anyone else noticed this 4 seconds Revealed Bug in Spvp? Though i had no problem in pve and wvw, i wonder why this game become buggy lately.

rename Heartseeker to Heatseeker, increase the initiative cost, and give it 1200 range if you have a target in range

Orpheal.8263:

Then should become Stealth a Thief Only thing, how it was at Game Release, before Anet dumbed down the Stealth Mechanic to oblivion giving it way too much other classes because of incompetent players being unable to handle stealth, so anet broadened the stealth field giving others stealth too and lots of hard counters to reduce the massive QQ around stealth…

What did the mesmer’s torch do before then?

The mesmers stealth skils are something in regard of class design, that imo should have never existed. The whole class would have been better of, if skills like Mass Invisibility, Veil, Decoy and that torch skill would have never existed.

Stealth is imo the trademark gameplay of the thief and has it ever been from release date on, as no other class is dependent so much on this gameplay mechanic as like the thief to survive and to deal burst damage.

For the mesmer is was always more like some kind of bonus mechanic, but realy beign dependent on stealth were mesmers never as like thieves, because stealth was never a such heavility gameplay integrated focus mechanic of the mesmers, because they have clones and phantasms as distractions that deal for them burst damage through shatters and help them survive at the same time by irritating enemies.
the mesmer would benefit alot more if Anet would remove the complete stealth stuff from this class and repace those skills with things, that fit alot more to the core desisn of the Mesmer, which is Illusions, which is Control (Dominion), which is Boon Sharing through dealing Conditions (Chaos)

The Core Mesmer is lacking in an Elite Skill, whith that they can actually deal some damage. They just have with TimeWarp and their Signet Elite skilsl that are only good for support and for control. In regard of the signet it is one of the games best “I win button skills”, when used at the right moment to completely outplay an enemy easily …
Just first with the chronomancer latekly they received now an elite, that actually deals damage and I think this is wrong, the core mesmer should also have somethign with that they can deal damage, what would be possible, if Mass Invisibility gets replaced by a better fitting elite skill thatis actually something that makes usage of the mesmers core designs, like for example some kind of Elite Phantasm Skill with that you can deal damage or an elite Mantra skill that lets you deal damage with it.

Skills like Veil and Decoy shouldn’t give stealth..
Veil should be turned into a support skill that grants resistance when moving through it, while removing also conditions like confusion and torment and be renamed to “Illusion of Pain” to make an old nostalgic gw1 mesmer skill return.

Decoy shouldn’t stealth you, it should be a defensive skill that lets you block an incoming attack and causes an counterattack with creation of clones if you successfully decoyed an enemy to attack you while being in that defensive stance…
thats a skill effect that you would expect from a kind of illusional duelist that the mesmer is, that they have also some kind of counterattack skills in their repertoire.
—-

@ baba

I don’t think D/D would overwhelm the other sets, when D/D as thieves’s trademark weapon set of choice would provide that weapon combo some little increased/better skill effects for its dagger skills when used with two combined daggers.

Sword and Pistol have their very own advantages over D/D for why you would still want to use them over using D/D

Sword hits more enemies, than Dagger does
With Sword you have more access to on demand Condition Removal and Crowd Control to keep your target at place and catch it due to AA Cripple/Weakness and Immobilize on Skill 2 with bigger range than Heartseeker that would be with only D/D then on same range if ANet would increase HS range for D/D to 600 like I proposed
With Sword you have more access to Daze from Stealth and on demad Evade/Boon Steal what is what you want against Boon Bunkers

With Pistol you get on demand stealth without having to hit a target on melee range, you have better options as Condi build due to spamming more Bleedings, having on demand daze on range, on demand stun with combo of sword with pistolwhip and a strong burst attack if you can land all hits with the help of dazes, stuns and immobilize (Panic Strike)

It really just depends on your preferred playstyle and naturally also your player skilsl with which weapon setting yu can simply play better.

Would make my proposed skill changes on D/D make D/D thieves better?
Clearly yes.
Would they make them superior over all other builds?
I think clearly no, because there is more into a combat between thieves, than just the weapon skills that decides over it, if you win or not.

Trait Settings
Player Skill
Sigils and Rune Set Combo Synergy
Luck (In regard of effect triggers/critical hits at the right moments).

Surely could be my idea here also get reworked completely into trait mechanics, but i think this would be the wrong way to do it.
I’d personally find it better, if playing as D/D with the thieves most iconic weapon combo should give the player also by themself alone a different gameplay feeling over playing just only with 1 dagger in either your main of offhand without having to waste for that trait slots, just to get the feeling of being significantly different over other thieves that just use only one dagger in combat and with significantly different i mean concrete gameplay effect changes, like increased ranges or additiona condition effects and so on like proposed.

As it was said, stealth was never a mechanic specific to thief, initiative and steal are. Alacrity is part of mesmers profession mechanic tied in with chrono, like 3 evades are to Daredevil. So if you want to start tossing alacriy to thieves, then start giving other classes 3 evades etc. Stealth may be an important part of how thief works, and they should be strong in regards to it, but that doesn’t mean only they can use it. But I will say that I think stealth gyro is lazy and shouldn’t be a thing.

My opinion on stealth is that it should not stack just refresh. The only modifier would be be from traits. Shadow Refuge and Sneak Gyro would need a minor rework but otherwise the entire concept of hitting someone from nowhere would effectively be done with.