Guild Wars 2

I’m quite hoping for a support/DPS setup on the coming elite specialization. Something with a good amount of supportive options for various situations, and a unique way of going about applying them. To that end, the setup I’m dreaming of is…

All five rifle abilities take Initiative. Even the auto-attack. Most are also chargeable, consuming one Initiative per “tick”, and multiplying their power by the Initiative spent. 1500 range, but able to go beyond similar to Ranger’s Longbow.

- Ability 1: Create Opening: Does moderate damage to an enemy, and inflicts a debuff basically identical to Vulnerability in function, but being able to stack with it, giving Thieves a class-specific contribution to fights outside of their maddeningly high damage. Charging it multiplies the damage, as well as both the debuff stacks and duration, meaning that full charges will give higher effectiveness and uptime. Or not, who knows? :P
- Ability 2: Cover Fire: Rather than charging, holding the button attacks repeatedly, dealing moderate damage and giving the enemy a debuff that reduces their outgoing damage and condition damage.
- Ability 3: Healing Round: Does low damage to an enemy, and heals all allies around them similar to Elementalist’s Water Staff #1. Charging it multiplies the damage and healing amounts, as well as increasing the healing radius.
- Ability 4: Explosive Round: Does moderate damage in an area centered around the targeted enemy. Charging it multiplies the damage, and increases the damage radius.
- Ability 5: Line Up The Shot: Does high damage to the target. I mean high. Charging multiplies the damage. While charging, a beam shows up between the Thief and the target. Once finished charging, the beam disappears and the target gets a crosshair above their head for one second before the shot actually fires.

As for the class mechanic change: Initiative no longer regenerates automatically. Instead, the Thief gets an F3 ability, Reload, which replenishes all Initiative on a two-second cast time, no cooldown.

Utility skills, there are so many cool ones available. XD I kinda like the idea of Turrets; supportive debuff-ones that can help set up enemies for rifle kills, with ranged deployment like the old Engineer trait used to give.

That’s my dream! Time to be berated by every single PvPer and raider out there. FLAME ON!

Seems nice, but for the stealth attack?

The thing is both Rev and DH had bursty long ranged attacks with the intro of HoT and elite specs via coalesce of ruin and True Shot, they were both promptly and repeatedly nerfed into the ground thanks to pvp.

So I can’t for the life of me even begin to fathom how Anet plans to implement a sniper spec which the very identity SHOULD be long range bursty attacks.

I fully expect the weapon to be underwhelming like Hammer or Bow for the respective classes.

I think you will love my headcannon Deadeye spec im putting together. Ill share you the google doc in a PM later when i get time after work. Interestingly we have similar ideas on several of the rifle skills, but my minor traits and major traits are where the actual healing and supportive elements of the spec are found. Basically, a bounty hunter mechanic of healing allies and granting boons on a successful kill. Also 50% bonus damage on Downed foes, making it an excellent elite spec to assist with killing people in PVP and WVW from a distance rather than traditional stomping, and against Downed foes in PVE if they ever revusut that mechanic.

Esquilax.3491:

The thing is both Rev and DH had bursty long ranged attacks with the intro of HoT and elite specs via coalesce of ruin and True Shot, they were both promptly and repeatedly nerfed into the ground thanks to pvp.

So I can’t for the life of me even begin to fathom how Anet plans to implement a sniper spec which the very identity SHOULD be long range bursty attacks.

I fully expect the weapon to be underwhelming like Hammer or Bow for the respective classes.

Which is why I don’t think it will be a bursty sniper, but rather a utility based E-spec. Engineer 2.0 teef edition.

Vitali.5039:

Seems nice, but for the stealth attack?

I hadn’t considered that! Perhaps a combination Boon Removal + Stun with low damage, firing automatically if Stealth is lost mid-charge (can the game make that distinction? Perhaps another approach would be needed). One Boon removed and 1/2-second Stun per Initiative spent.

When the ability is just tapped quickly, it’s a pretty basic interrupt ability that, due to Boon Removal, goes past Stability. When charged up, it’s a substantial wrench in the works for the enemy. If they lack a Stunbreak, it could easily spell death if they’re currently locked in combat with one of your teammates.

However, charging it high enough to have such a large impact requires either spending your long-cooldown Shadow Refuge, or taking a chunk of time to set up with Dagger/Pistol’s stealth combo (which then means you have no Shortbow).

Esquilax.3491:

The thing is both Rev and DH had bursty long ranged attacks with the intro of HoT and elite specs via coalesce of ruin and True Shot, they were both promptly and repeatedly nerfed into the ground thanks to pvp.

So I can’t for the life of me even begin to fathom how Anet plans to implement a sniper spec which the very identity SHOULD be long range bursty attacks.

I fully expect the weapon to be underwhelming like Hammer or Bow for the respective classes.

Which is why I’m thinking any spike ability should have a very obvious tell on it, as shown with the laser sight and delayed-fire/crosshair-warning. I don’t do much PvP in GW2 (at least not successfully), but having playing numerous other PvP games, I know that the most infuriating thing to go against is a sniper, as there’s typically no counterplay whatsoever. That’s what I was hoping to prevent with how I offered up the spike damage ability here; obvious warnings and indicators of an incoming shot that tell you exactly when to dodge or take cover (and where to take cover from as well), and take an acceptable amount of setup and/or teamwork to be able to hit with.

Swiftwynd.1685:

I think you will love my headcannon Deadeye spec im putting together. Ill share you the google doc in a PM later when i get time after work. Interestingly we have similar ideas on several of the rifle skills, but my minor traits and major traits are where the actual healing and supportive elements of the spec are found. Basically, a bounty hunter mechanic of healing allies and granting boons on a successful kill. Also 50% bonus damage on Downed foes, making it an excellent elite spec to assist with killing people in PVP and WVW from a distance rather than traditional stomping, and against Downed foes in PVE if they ever revusut that mechanic.

Looking forward to it! The main thing I’m concerned about in how you presented it is the requirement for a kill to provide support; if you’re up against a big Legendary enemy or something, your support won’t ever come into play. And who needs support against smaller enemies? As a selectable trait, perhaps, but it’s got its flaws if implemented as a core method of support.

YuiRS.8129:

Which is why I don’t think it will be a bursty sniper, but rather a utility based E-spec. Engineer 2.0 teef edition.

Well, that’s pretty much what I’m hoping for! Just with one ability that IS set up for being bursty. :P And not little baby peashooter damage like Warrior’s Killshot; I’m talkin’ insta-down if fully charged. X) The major tells would, I believe, keep it from being at all overpowered. Heck, I’d say that much warning makes it borderline-unusable for PvP stuff, unless you’ve got some major cooperation going on with your teammates. o_o Unless your Utilities work out well for it.

Which is why I was thinking of turrets as a new utility, actually, though the loss of Overcharge on Engineer turrets is a potential disruption. If the turrets can be set up to give some crowd control, either as an Overcharge or a detonation (both things that can be used mid-ability, such as charging a shot), that provides the Thief with a way to make use of their shots without depending entirely on teammates.

Ok here is a sharable link to the google doc, with commenting enabled! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LRORYwRBWQ5AxAUVwtugn1YGAGL6bNh9Jjl9-E9VnbI/edit?usp=sharing

To address your concerns about support coming from kills: My hopes are that raid content moving forward, as well as a lot of the events, move away from a “single big bad” and involve more interesting mechanics with additional foes spawning, as some raids already do, and that the Deadeye will be among if not the best elite specs at focusing down those targets from any range, since they can snipe from afar without having to worry as much about their mobility to get to the foe.

Also, even in purely single target fights, my traits include options to increase the entire raid’s damage by basically having a unique professional mechanic to “Add” an effective additional 10 vulnerability to raid bosses that the Deadeye is maintaining their focus on.

Also, much like the Scrapper’s Functional Gyro, while raid content doesn’t currently make exceptionally great use of it, I hope they add more “Downed” enemy mechanics in future raids so that Finishing is used more outside of just in PVP and WVW, and finishing off Downed foes is the Deadeye’s absolute best specialty to bring to an encounter from a design stand point! The ability to charge up a ranged Snipe to automatically Finish a foe/player from up to 2,000 range (if fully charged, which takes forever) is a huge asset in PVP/WVW and could be very beneficial if content supports it in new raids.

Esquilax.3491:

Which is why I’m thinking any spike ability should have a very obvious tell on it, as shown with the laser sight and delayed-fire/crosshair-warning. I don’t do much PvP in GW2 (at least not successfully), but having playing numerous other PvP games, I know that the most infuriating thing to go against is a sniper, as there’s typically no counterplay whatsoever. That’s what I was hoping to prevent with how I offered up the spike damage ability here; obvious warnings and indicators of an incoming shot that tell you exactly when to dodge or take cover (and where to take cover from as well), and take an acceptable amount of setup and/or teamwork to be able to hit with.

Here is how I manage making Snipe VERY powerful but has tons of counterplay:

• It is a Stealth 1 attack for the Rifle.
• Stealth is modified on the Minor traits of Deadeye to have “lower max duration, and higher time on Revealed debuff” to make it less accessible. (Stealth does auto refresh itself while remaining stationary though and can stack back up though!)
• The actual Snipe attack uses no Initiative, but it has a long channeled time with different “stages” like some abilities used to have back in Beta.
• The final Stage has: over 2000 range, high damage base, 1 second Stun, and will instantly Defeat a Downed foe, but this is after 4 or 5 seconds of charging it, and it is a stationary ability. The final 2 seconds of holding it inflicts Revealed on you and it draws a laser sightline between you and the foe, meaning it can be body blocked ala Caitlin from LOL.

One nice benefit of my Rifle skills though, is that for a generous initiative cost, you can reposition to a ground targeted area with a “combat leap roll” and then continue to Channel Snipe from where you left off, giving you some counter play to either change the “angle” of your sight line for the shot to land OR to avoid some ranged attack or a person getting up in your grill trying to stun you or block the shot.

Snipe is also Unreflectable but can be blocked with anti projectile skills, but you can trait to have Rifle skills penetrate Reflects/Blocks at 50% reduced damage.

All of these combine to make a very tactical “line up that perfect shot” game play, with the 50% longer Revealed debuff, less access to long-duration Stealth, and the limitation of only have 1 dodge bar (with some other changes to this single, but powerful dodge), it makes the class play a lot different from base thief.

It would be the only class to “out range” a ranger long bow, but only with the Snipe skill, and only after it has reached its last or second to last stage.

I also use Gadget skills in a very effective way to function as an “off the point” fighter in PVP. You have Decoy Beacon which will contest points even if you are not on them by spawning a Clone of yourself with your total health that will sit on point and apply Vulnerability to foes it attacks. In PvE, it also applies Taunt periodically to NPCs.

This, along with doing 50% increased damage against Downed foes or instantly Defeating a Downed foe on a fully charged Snipe, allows the less-mobile, less stealthy, but longer range Daredevil to assist a capture point from a far, similar to a glassy staff elementalist with more effective range, but single target more so than area damage on point.

In PVE, it would function as a strong ranged dps build that, while still lower than base Thief / Daredevil, has the ability to reliably maintain their damage and enhance the damage of everyone else. Killing adds, if traited, can extend the boons and heal the entire raid for 25% health, and they will increase the damage that the raid can do to the boss by 10% by “adding” those additional vulnerability stacks.

They also had a trait option to add +300 range to any projectile based attack, bringing P/P unload spam to a 1,200 range, as well as some short bow abilities and some dual wield pistol skills. This gives a lot of build variety in how they can play with various pistol combinations.

Definitely designed as more of a power-spec kind of Elite, but it also has several raw supportive options if you want to play more of the “Special Ops” type role with its new stealth mechanics.

I designed a Grand Master that “shares” your minor trait passive with up to 9 other allies in range of you if you are remaining stationary. It can let you and an ally set up an ambush, and also allows allies to “contribute to capture points” while stealthed. You passively gain might stacks while in stealth and not moving, so this shares to your allies, as well as any other “passive traits” you have while personally in stealth also apply to your allies.

Allows for a PVP or WvW “recon leader” type role if you want to set up ambush points