Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone, check out the photos I attached and what I wrote for changes I would like to see for Thief’s core specializations! Thanks for reading my ideas (some of those ideas are yours actually… our ideas?) and hopefully some even better (is that possible?!) ideas come out of this! All the traits I did not mention are fine and dandy in my opinion, and I feel if those were modified it would just push them out of balance. There are 3 posts choc full of goodness so hopefully you can bear it all!

Deadly Arts Grandmaster

Potent Poison – Increased the poison damage modifier to 20%. Most of the damage added from this trait is from the duration increase, while the additional 10% damage provides little bonus. This change will actually put the “potent” in Potent Poison.

Critical Strikes Adept

Side Strike – Increased the bonus critical hit chance to 10%. With all the shuffling I did, Side Strike started to look slightly underpowered. While I know 3% means very little in terms of actual gameplay, double-digits do look more impactful. Perception is everything!

Practiced Tolerance – Moved down to the Adept tier. Firstly, I wanted to either move this trait or Sundering Strikes down to the Adept tier because those two have essentially the same goal (increase damage) but have different ways of achieving it. We don’t want people deciding which one is better and never looking at the other again. Secondly, this is the one that moved down because we want Signets of Power, which is now a Master trait, and Practiced Tolerance separated. The damage modifier on Practiced Tolerance will likely discourage people of ever taking the signet trait and thus never making signet-focused builds (not good!).

Flawless Strike – Kept the name but changed its mechanic entirely. Now grants a 50% chance to restore 1 initiative on critical (3s ICD). This you may remember was a Minor Critical Strikes trait called Opportunist. I did this because the original would be obsolete next to Practiced Tolerance in the Adept tier. Choosing good ole Opportunist to fill the gap seemed fitting as Critical Strikes is lacking an initiative restoration option and I want to shake this feeling I have of taking Trickery for its initiative bonuses for every build I make. By having more initiative options in more specialization lines, people are not being punished in taking other traits because they can make it up elsewhere.

In summary of the changes I made, there is a nice balance of unique choices to be made. A critical chance increase, a ferocity increase, and an initiative upgrade.

Critical Strikes Master

Sundering Strikes – Increased the duration of the applied vulnerability by 2s. To put this in Sundering Strikes’ perspective, it ramps up damage, it is not like Practiced Tolerance which adds its damage bonus directly to your base stats. Not to mention it is arguably weaker than it. So it’s all around a better choice to stand beside our signet trait.

Signets of Power – Now a Master trait. This is the trait that made the move up because Side Strike and Flawless Strike do not have the impact to fill the position.

Ricochet – Changed the name of Ankle Shots to Ricochet and rolled in the namesake’s mechanics. Pistol shots have a 60% chance on critical to bounce to an additional target, up to a maximum of 3 targets. Increased the damage when foes are crippled to 15%. 150 range bonus is rolled into baseline. I thought it was a shame to leave such a unique and useful trait sidelined.

In summary of the changes I made, there is now (where there was not before) a nice balance of unique choices to be made. A trait that increases flat damage, one that gives bonuses to signets, and one that gives bonuses to pistols.

Shadow Arts Adept

Last Refuge – Also applies 3 initiative when you reach the threshold (25s ICD). This is in line with what I did in Critical Strikes, to reduce reliance on Trickery.

Shadows Embrace – Condition cleanse now encompasses all conditions. Thief is supposed to be weak to conditions, but it is slightly ridiculous to conform us to always have specific skills on our skill bar. What ArenaNet has done here would not be a problem if some of our skill types had some form of condition cleanse ability (venoms, traps). I don’t want to be disincentivized to take full traps or full venoms more than I am already.

Shadow Arts Master

Shadow Protector – Added a mechanic where regeneration you apply is 33% more effective. I think this is probably the top contender for most boring trait award, so let’s spice it up a little! Since regeneration is a defensive boon that fits with Shadow Arts and can be found on Thief elsewhere, I decided to up the ante on the trait instead of changing it completely. Now it’s stronger and has more synergies without blowing the trait out of proportion compared to its competitors in the Master tier.

Hidden Thief – I put the fall damage trait here so I could to add something interesting to Cloaked in Shadow.

Shadow Arts Grandmaster

Cloaked in Shadow – Blind now deals damage. Scales with condition damage and does not remove you from stealth. In addition to the existing mechanic, this gives Cloaked in Shadow some flavour that I think it was missing as a Grandmaster, because ArenaNet literally just moved it up to that prestigious position without doing anything to it. I got my inspiration from Deathly Chill in the Reaper elite specialization. A unique point to this mechanic compared to Deathly Chill is that blind will deal much more damage, because blind is applied and stripped off very quickly.

Acrobatics Minor

Expeditious Dodger – Increased the swiftness given to 3s. I think this needed to be able to upkeep swiftness better due to the changes they made with Feline Grace.

With respect to the other Minors, I think they should be left the same. The old Feline Grace is simply too powerful to be implemented again due to the vigor nerf. I find what ArenaNet has done with Feline Grace and Endless Stamina is creative and manages to be effective. It is more of a mechanic I would rather see in a Grandmaster trait so not every Thief carries it (see Assassin’s Reward).

Acrobatics Adept

Fleet Shadow – Gain 3s of super speed when you exit stealth. I think this trait was bland and did not fit well as an Acrobatics trait (seems more like a Shadow Arts trait doesn’t it?), so adding an element of movement outside of stealth was fitting. Great addition to aid kiting.

Pain Response – Cleanses 3 damaging conditions. I don’t understand why ArenaNet has not changed this trait to include confusion and torment. I did not want to negatively affect Don’t Stop so control conditions are off the table.

Vigorous Recovery – Gain 3 initiative when using a healing skill. Exactly the same change I made to Last Refuge. This is the last initiative restoration option I added to the core specialization lines. With only 5s of vigor given, this trait really felt less than satisfactory. To put this into perspective, you get 4s of vigor through evading an attack by just choosing Acrobatics!

In summary of the changes, just gave the traits slight bumps so they are more interesting.

Acrobatics Master

Guarded Initiation – Gain resistance and 2 stacks of stability for 3s (10s ICD) while your health is above the threshold. What this trait does right now is just bad. Why would I take this over Hard to Catch? By making this change it gains the value it needs to see some real use. Counters all the pesky traits like Tempest Defense that proc on your daze and gives you time to remove some of the conditions from traps if you decided to run into a bunch!

Swindler’s Equilibrium – Weapon restriction removed, increased cooldown reduction to 2s on evade. I would be happy if the restriction to just sword was removed in all honesty, but a buff to the recharge reduction may also be necessary since it’s in the company of two other strong Master traits.

Acrobatics Grandmaster

Assassin’s Reward – Gain 1 endurance for each point of initiative spent. This is a good place to introduce an endurance trait, because Assassin’s Reward at present is weak. This will give a noticeable bonus to endurance replenishment that will be close to the bonus given by the old Feline Grace. And yes, I did not touch the crappy healing ability, I just doubled its scaling with healing power.

Upper Hand – You have a chance to evade attacks while under the effects of swiftness or super speed when opponents are past the range threshold. Upper Hand at present, like Assassin’s Reward, can’t hold a candle to Don’t Stop. Through, ironically, adding ArenaNet’s original concept for Don’t Stop to Upper Hand, maybe more people will choose it! I like the idea they had because it fits perfectly thematically with Acrobatics and is a strong mechanic.

In summary, now both Assassin’s Reward and Upper Hand have some more clout so they can stand on even footing with Don’t Stop.

Trickery Grandmaster

Bewildering Ambush – Rolled the daze from Sleight of Hand into this trait. I removed Sleight of Hand because I knew from the get-go that removing the 20% reduced recharge on steal was one of the most important changes to make. It made it hard for me to choose the other two Grandmasters, since steal is so prevalent, and that is just not good design. Of course, removing the 20% reduced recharge also means requesting the reduction of the base cooldown of steal to 25s. Now without its main draw, Sleight of Hand looked quite uneventful for a Grandmaster. However, I soon realized that the daze would integrate perfectly with Bewildering Ambush, leaving room for another more interesting trait to take its place.

Quick Pockets – Also reduces recharge on weapon swap to 5s. I made this trait into the Thief version of the Minor Warrior trait Fast Hands, except Grandmaster-style, because I retained the 3 initiative gain. I have always envisioned something like this on Thief, because we have, in a sense, no cooldown on our weapon skills. Therefore, by equipping the same weapons and choosing Quick Pockets as our Trickery Grandmaster, you have quite a large supply of initiative to spend!

Fox’s Promise – The only “actually” new trait I added to my suggestions list. I drew inspiration for this trait from a combination of the Guild Wars Assassin elite skill Fox’s Promise, Malicious Reprisal from Revenant’s Devastation specialization line and Ranger’s Signet of the Hunt. When you are blocked, you gain 2 stacks of Fox’s Promise. Your next 2 attacks are unblockable and deal 50% more damage (10s ICD).

In summary of the changes, I can see Trickery in an entirely different light now that I have many options outside of it for initiative recuperation and with the removal of Sleight of Hand’s overpowering 20% recharge reduction on steal. It feels almost refreshing actually, I kinda like it!

Blinding shouldn’t do damage. Would pop you out of stealth using something like Blinding Powder if you’re already stealthed and it does damage. I do like a lot of your ideas though. Some of them might be a little OP working together though but I like where your heads at. I even proposed the endurance gain rolled into Assassin’s Reward in a thread a few days ago as well. I think that’d be a really cool idea and worthy of a acro thief GM.

YOUNGaz.5690:

Blinding shouldn’t do damage. Would pop you out of stealth using something like Blinding Powder if you’re already stealthed and it does damage. I do like a lot of your ideas though. Some of them might be a little OP working together though but I like where your heads at. I even proposed the endurance gain rolled into Assassin’s Reward in a thread a few days ago as well. I think that’d be a really cool idea and worthy of a acro thief GM.

I think Anet could work around blind not revealing the Thief when it starts ticking damage (like they did with Traps) and plus it works like a condition, just with an insanely high base stat. I am pretty sure there will be an OP nature somewhere cause I ain’t no dev (lol). Come to think of it, Pressure Striking + Bewildering Ambush would be really scary. And yeah! Assassin’s Reward would be perfect for what you suggested!

o well yeah i guess if blind is a condi tick damage that would function. I was thinking inflicting blind causing damage instead my bad. Perhaps a trait called “Pepper Spray” or something to make blind as a DoT make sense lol. Not really a good name but yeah xD