The Rogue is a concept of mine for the Thieves true first Elite Specialization with the Daredevil in mind becoming merged withthe Base Thief Gameplay, because lets be honest, Daredevil was from begin on nothing but just a powered up Thief 2.0 for which Anet sacrificed Acrobatics to give them a reason for existance through HoT.
All of the aspects would fit prfectly as well under the Base Thief and under the current Game Balance its what exactly Thieves need to stay competitive with the rest of the Game.
However, this here is now about the “Rogue”, my vision of the first real Elite Specialization for the Thief, which does exactly, what the Daredevil should have done – change the Gameplay of the Thief and alterate its mechanics instead of expanding just only existing mechanics like Dodging Styles and adding another 3rd Dodge.
Weapon of Choice: The Longbow
Rogues in Guild Wars 2 should be essentially themed after “Robin Hood”, Thieves which steal from the rich and give what they got to the poor.
With other words – their whole Gameplay should be completely mainly focused on Boon Stealing and Boon Sharing
This is neccessary to give the Class the needed Group Support that a Class needs to have in this game to be everywhere in the Game viable – be it in PvE (Story, Raids, Fractals), or be it in PvP and WvW – you always need classes, that add to your group somethign benefitial and that was always sicne day 1 of GW2 somethin in which the Thief class totally lacked in, because all we’ve got are only Stealth and Venoms – two gameplay mechanics that are not very impactful, or at leats not impactful enough compared to other group support mechanics of other classes to be with them on an equal level.
Boon Stealing and Boon Sharing CHANGES that. The Herald is exactly the perfect example for this. A class which currently shines only due to its massive Group Support, which is the reason why this class is wanted in Raids so much from the begin on, or why Mesmers are so wanted there – because of superb Group Support!!
The Rogue will fix for the Thief Class also some other things, which will help in balancing the game. Namely the fact that there are noo real good counters against Boons like Might and Protection, which are too powerful, if you can keep them up permanently high, if you have no way of removing these from your enemy, then you are in a very bad disadvantage.
Thus the Rogue will come with improved Steal Mechanics and Skills which will give this Elite Specialization the unique feature of receving some exlusive new Conditions which only Rogues will be able to give their foes – namely:
- Disarmament = Reduces per Stack Power and Condition Damage from the Enemy. Max Stack 25 = Direct Counter to Might Boons.
- Robbed = Increases temporarely the Damage the Target receives by 30% = Direct Counter to Protection Boons
Additionally to these two things, they receive 1 exclusive new Boon, called Presence
Presence is an aggressive Debuffing Boon, which works essentially like a temporal Banner Effect on you, just with the difference, that it reduces Attributes of your Enemies, that are under effect of your Presence in your near.
And it additionally steals Attribute Buffs from Enemy Banners and other evnironmental similar Attribute Buffs and shares them with your allies insteads, basicsallyneutralizign the Attribute Buffs for your Enemies, if you stand with your Presence in the near of their Banners, so that Banners finally receive a neccessary overdue Hard Counter
Lastly will Rogues be specialists, when it comes down to Trap Control, so that this will help finally balancing out the game in all those annoying powercreepy Trap Builds, while giving at the same time more Group Support for your Group’s other Classes, that aren’t able to safely see and remove laid traps for them, so that builds like DH and Ghost Thief get finally a counter class, that can do something actually against all the trap spam.