Cloaked in Shadows can't compete
If you blind one autoattack with cloaked in shadows, it’s going to be worth more hp than 3 seconds of shadow rejuvenation.
Cloaked in shadows is better by far against any blind-vulnerable loadout.
Elementalist – Necromancer – Warrior
If you blind one autoattack with cloaked in shadows, it’s going to be worth more hp than 3 seconds of shadow rejuvenation.
Cloaked in shadows is better by far against any blind-vulnerable loadout.
Not neccessarily – you won’t be hit every time you’re stealthed. And it only blocks one attack, so I run after you and try to backstab, first misses, second one hits. I love that trait but it moved from adept to grandmaster and got no further buff, wheras shadow rejuvenation now also gives initative – so I fail to understand why it’s now gradmaster.
If you blind one autoattack with cloaked in shadows, it’s going to be worth more hp than 3 seconds of shadow rejuvenation.
Cloaked in shadows is better by far against any blind-vulnerable loadout.
Not neccessarily – you won’t be hit every time you’re stealthed. And it only blocks one attack, so I run after you and try to backstab, first misses, second one hits. I love that trait but it moved from adept to grandmaster and got no further buff, wheras shadow rejuvenation now also gives initative – so I fail to understand why it’s now gradmaster.
I said if, and mentioned that its situational.
The thing 100% deletes hammer warrior/lifeblast necro from existing, you can’t expect it to be good all the time.
Elementalist – Necromancer – Warrior
If you blind one autoattack with cloaked in shadows, it’s going to be worth more hp than 3 seconds of shadow rejuvenation.
Cloaked in shadows is better by far against any blind-vulnerable loadout.
Not neccessarily – you won’t be hit every time you’re stealthed. And it only blocks one attack, so I run after you and try to backstab, first misses, second one hits. I love that trait but it moved from adept to grandmaster and got no further buff, wheras shadow rejuvenation now also gives initative – so I fail to understand why it’s now gradmaster.
Arenanet fails at intelligent design choices, this is why you fail to understand why it’s grandmaster with no compensation.
I said if, and mentioned that its situational.
The thing 100% deletes hammer warrior/lifeblast necro from existing, you can’t expect it to be good all the time.
You failed to get my point =)
I agree, they need to either add some effects to cloaked in shadow — (maybe something with using blinding powder in addition to using a stealth skill) – for example: when you gain stealth, cast blinding powder.. which would have the blind nearby foes effect, and give you a blast finisher plus a few extra seconds of stealth.
As it stands right now, theres no competition for this trait in grandmaster, Personally I’d like to see it moved to the master tier, as that tier seems a bit lacking.
Edit: Of course you’d have to have an icd if you gave it the blinding powder effect.
It’s a trait that was only really relevant for D/D Shadow Arts anyway, which was not a particularly good build; D/P would never bother with it since it’s stealthing with a blind field most of the time anyway.
I think it’s a trait that really should be master tier, but I don’t blame them for keeping it as a GM trait – Shadow Protector is pretty mediocre but at least can sort of compete on a D/P thief, and doesn’t belong next to Shadow’s Rejuvenation at all (where it is clearly outclassed). They really need to invent a totally new trait to stick in the GM slot to move it down, and I cannot imagine that’s a priority when the trait line looks good enough for D/P anyway.
The thing is this is currently an adept trait, its being moved to GM without any changes at all. I mean I’m going to run this trait no matter what, I think, but I can’t help but think that I’m going to constantly want to switch to Shadow Rejuvenation because it is so obviously better. It’s like the current state of a lot of traits, its flavorful and fun but it cannot compete with the other things in the slot. This seemed like something that ANet has been trying to get away from and this is why I am saying something. Especially considering the other traits in Shadow Arts Major and Adept right now. There is really only one good choice in all of those. Once again I thought this was something they are trying to get away from, but Shadow Arts seems to be suffering greatly in this regard in the current iteration of the new trait lines.
Well in fairness, there are two specs in Shadow Arts – D/P stealth troll runs 3/5/8, and some sort of venom share build will run 3/6/9. It’s not that much different from the current reality, where everyone runs Shadow’s Embrace and Shadow’s Rejuvenation (or the same venom share loadout); the only variation is whether you take Master of Deception or Infusion of Shadow (on D/P) or Cloaked in Shadow (D/D).
Now Infusion is sort of rolled into Shadow’s Rejuvenation, neither Master of Deception or Cloaked in Shadow are options for the 3rd slot, so you just take Hidden Thief and call it a day. As far as D/P is concerned that’s not much build variety lost.
Losing D/D Shadow Arts is a real loss of variety, though I suspect that ship has sailed at this point.
Another big thing here to keep in mind is that all three master slots in Shadow Arts are, arguably, quite useless (post patch).
Eh? Leeching Venoms is quite good for the venom share support builds, and while Hidden Thief isn’t as good as Concealed Defeat (for the 20% deception recharge) it’s a perfectly reasonable trait that’s just overshadowed by current options (at least for a D/P thief; Hidden Thief is godawful for D/D).
I’m not going to argue for Shadow Protector though, it’s a pretty bad trait without much going for it.
I agree with Arkitech. Unless I’m misreading it Shadow Protector is pretty kittenty actually – 3 seconds of regeneration ON ALLIES (which has value in very limited circumstances). If it affected the thief might be worth taking. Leeching venoms is only worthwhile if you run venom (so pretty much useless to me). So its Hidden Thief by default for my D/D thief.
I like the 5 seconds AOE blind from Cloaked in Shadows. I just play PvE and since I tend to play very aggressively spending more than 3 seconds in stealth is rare so I usually have 2-3 seconds of the blind left as a benefit. I might swap to Shadow’s Rejuvenation IF I get 1 initiative when I enter Stealth then 1 initiative every 3 seconds (functioning like the Shadows Embrace does for conditions) which would really only mean my C&D’s cost 5 initiative. The regen doesn’t impress – less than 300/sec if I remember correctly. Attaching a lot of benefits to being in stealth just promotes a passive play style (“excuse me I need to wait around in stealth for a 3-4 count”) that I find kind of annoying.
BTW – Am I wrong or did the thief trait lines received the least significant changes out of all the classes? I look at what’s the new system has and many of the traits seem to be exactly the same as the old traits with less than a handful of real “improvements” and couple of unnecessary nerfs. Stuff’s moved around a bit but its all relatively uninspiring.
Acrobatics trait line. Then sell it back
to them for $50. Brilliant! – ghost of P.T. Barnum
On allies does not mean it precludes the thief that cast it. There a number of traits that say “on allies” including the current shadow protector and the person casting gains the boon as well.
That said it pretty underwhelming given there no longer a healing bonus from that line meaning the 3 seconds regen will garner little in the way of health. Couple this with boon duration now gone unless through items and it closer to an adept then anything.
(edited by babazhook.6805)
On allies does not mean it precludes the thief that cast it. There a number of traits that say “on allies” including the current shadow protector and the person casting gains the boon as well.
True. But I’ve noticed that most of those actually specifically note that they affect “the character and nearby allies” or something similar. Of course, ANet doesn’t excel at providing clear descriptions/tool tips.
Acrobatics trait line. Then sell it back
to them for $50. Brilliant! – ghost of P.T. Barnum
On allies does not mean it precludes the thief that cast it. There a number of traits that say “on allies” including the current shadow protector and the person casting gains the boon as well.
True. But I’ve noticed that most of those actually specifically note that they affect “the character and nearby allies” or something similar. Of course, ANet doesn’t excel at providing clear descriptions/tool tips.
Regen gets applied to you as well – at least it used to like 1,5 or 2 years ago when i was new to thief and ran it…
I think anyone who looks at this trait pre and post patch will wonder what ANet was thinking moving this one to Grand Master. While they technically did give it the fall damage trait, it’s not something that pushes this beyond master tier imo.
There are numerous trait tier choices that are “confusing” (to put is nicely) across all professions.
Norn Guardian – Aurora Lustyr (Lv 80)
Mia A Shadows Glow – Human Thief (Lv 80)
On allies does not mean it precludes the thief that cast it. There a number of traits that say “on allies” including the current shadow protector and the person casting gains the boon as well.
True. But I’ve noticed that most of those actually specifically note that they affect “the character and nearby allies” or something similar. Of course, ANet doesn’t excel at providing clear descriptions/tool tips.
In all descriptions I have seen, “allies” always includes yourself as well. assuming you are in range.