Guild Wars 2

Yes, I will always hope that the Thief will be given instant-weapon swap ability due to its unique style of play. However, here is another thought of how to give the Thief a little more to work with without too much effort…

Changing the hands the currently equipped weapons are in.
For example, a Thief has two weapon sets…

1. Dagger main-hand, Pistol off-hand
2. Shortbow

Why not allow a simple hand switch to the first weapon set? The Pistol can become main-hand with the Dagger in the off-hand.

Yes, I understand one is a power set and the other is a condition set. But at least it would give a little more capability.

Heck, Thieves only have 4 types of (land) weapons. Can’t we find a way to incorporate them all? Maybe even add a “backup” weapon like the following?

Set 1. Dagger/Pistol
Set 2. Shortbow
Backup. Sword

Unless the Sword is reworked to become an off-hand weapon, we could only replace the main-hand with the Sword. So we would end up with Sword/Pistol. Or if we changed hands first, we would have Sword/Dagger.

Or better yet, just make the Shortbow an F3 mode.

Or better yet, let me shoot my off-hand dagger with my bow

EDIT: Actually, other than skill 3, each weapon attack only uses 1 weapon at a time, no reason why we can’t whip out an off-hand pistol when holding the bow in the other hand (other than the skill bar would look like butts)

I think a unique option that could give the thief elite spec some great effect would be simply to allow it this elite spec as only class to have 3 Weapon Sets instead of 2.

That way you coud then swap your weapons between say Staff, shortbow and D/D, or S/D or P/whatever.
This would allow the thief player to become in combat more versatile by simply gettign more access to diverse skills in combat.
That way this Elite Spec would profitate also a bit more then from on weapon swap upgrades/runes, because you would have then a weapon more onto which you can swap on to receive the benefitial effects from the upgrades at the moment and it would suit to someone, who fights recklessly to swap alot weapons around, more than anyone else.

It would make the thief player also a bit more unpredictable in combat, if they would have in combat an option more to swap between weapon sets.

I like the idea of changing hands, thematically. D/P and P/D are already existing sets that complement in each-other in interesting ways in a “changing hands” scenario.

Unfortunately, they’d also have to overhaul/redesign a lot of stuff, and fix certain weapons having narrowly defined stat niches… so unlikely.

Amante.8109:

D/P and P/D are already existing sets that complement in each-other in interesting ways in a “changing hands” scenario.

That actually makes me think it could be used for “hit and run” evasion tactics like a Sword has with Infiltrator’s Strike.

Start with D/P.
Shadow Shot to close the gap.
Auto-attack a few times.
Change hands to P/D.
Shadow Strike to get away.
Rinse and repeat.

Not to mention giving P/D condi builds on-demand access to Stealth without relying on a melee attack.

Start with D/P.
Black Powder + Heartseeker to Stealth.
Change hands to P/D.
Sneak Attack.
Repeat.

Of course, this is assuming that changing hands would have no cooldown. Perhaps instead of a cooldown, it could have a minimal cast time so it could be interrupted. If that happened, then it could act as a 1 second daze due to you dropping your weapons.