Elite skills for thief

Elite skills for thief

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Posted by: Captain Obvious.6951

Captain Obvious.6951

So ever since release I literally never played a Thief. Seeing the Deadeye class was coming out (aka, sniper/smuggler from SWTOR) I knew exactly what I’d be making in the expansion cause I was a hell of a good sniper in that game.

That brings me to wondering about the Thieves elite skills. Can someone help me understand some things about them?

Like, why is the cooldown 3 whole minutes just to summon a few thieves? They don’t deal THAT much damage though it is kinda nice but that cooldown feels very long. In most PvP sessions you’d only get it off twice, or 3 times max. In PvE it’s like a skill you only save for a final boss which feels almost like an unused skill.

And Basilisk venom. Yah it’s fun, and nice short cooldown at 40 seconds but… it’s only 1.5 seconds of stone and every single class in the game can bust it with a stunbreaker. That doesn’t feel very elite at all. Now if all of your attacks were unblockable for like 3 seconds, or if the stone was unbreakable or something that to me would feel more like an elite skill.

Am I missing something on these skills? Is there more usefulness to them than I’m seeing?

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Posted by: DeceiverX.8361

DeceiverX.8361

Elites aren’t meant to be overpowered so much as that they can be game-changing when used correctly. This is still the case with the thief’s elite skills.

TG cooldown is high because it’s got built-in CC and you can share venoms to them which can generate a lot of condition pressure or heavy CC in a short period of time. It may be just a bit weak for the cooldown it offers, but it isn’t a strictly terrible skill when active. Body-blocking, CC, and the likes are all useful when built to have synergy with it.

BV is more of the all-fitting elite and used to have a longer cooldown/duration (but not unblockable) and could not be stunbroken. It was not very healthy for the game, though, and didn’t really change much in a fight; there was no counterplay at all when it went through, and it was basically a free kill in most cases. Otherwise it did nothing for consistency against classes with lots of blocks, which have been vastly expanded since HoT. The unblockable attack itself is quite powerful when used properly to gain interrupts and damage on classes with lots of blocks like guardians and chronomancers. BV will ignore the block and since it CC’s will also interrupt the channel of said block, all the while it can be applied to any given attack – like Vault or Backstab – applying potentially very high damage as well. Since the thief has very good capacity to burst on single attacks, it’s actually quite a powerful elite.

The elite skills are quite good for what they are; I think the problem is that you’re comparing core game elites to the HoT game-state and other elites where the power creep is massive. There are some professions where elite skill potency may be much higher, however the thief has the ability to utilize these lesser-effects due to a lower dependency on rotations etc.; their lack of weapon skill cooldowns and alternative forms of defensive play allow for responding to a lot of things without simply needing to depend on such potent abilities.

(edited by DeceiverX.8361)

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Posted by: Imperadordf.2687

Imperadordf.2687

If it was unbreakable it would be beyond broken. But yes, unblockable attacks for 1,5 or 2 seconds seems fair enough.

Livia – Ring Of Fire

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Posted by: Ramoth.9064

Ramoth.9064

Tbh i find most elites lacklustre in this game. Not because they aren’t powerful enough, but that they work in the same vein as utilities, they are just situational. In GW1 elites were almost always the skill you build your whole build around. They often provide exceptionally unique effects or they were incredible versions of another skill, letting you double down on a particular tactic.

In gw2 most elites are like fire and forget skills. They pack a punch, sure, but hardly ever stand up by itself

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Posted by: Orpheal.8263

Orpheal.8263

Agree with ramoth.. Alot of Elite Skills in this game have been always underwhelming, either due to too long CDs, or the effects for their CDs are not convincing enough.
Then again is also your option of choice often ver limited the moment you go into weate,r because Anet is unable to make all skilly useable underwater, but why ever they can suddenly do this with Eles Tornado, is just completely not understandable why they adapt for them this skill for underwater combat, when in fact they could do the same with alot of otehr Elite Skill s as well!!
TG was several years long not useable under water.. now after some time Anet magically has made them finally useable underwatr in soem kind of ninja patch I guess, because I can’t remember a patch note telling us this change …

On top of this is the fact, that all classes are also still after 5 years missing utility/elite skilsl of specific types.
The Thief for example is missing an Elite Signet Skill.
Thats also something Anet should hopefully fix finally some day, that all classes have also for all skill types a fittign elite skill. Could create also some new build diversity if anet woudl fix this once and for all.

Could be somethign as simple as like an Elite Signet that combines assasins with agility signet to have both effects of them in 1 Elite Signet Skill, what would free up the signet builds of the thief for 2 utility slots, that could be fileld then up with different utility skills instead, if you use the elite signet skill in your build, likle two other signets (infiltrator/shadows) or better, merge infiltrator/shadows to an elite signet and replace those two signet skilsl with two completely new utility signet skills

Dagger Storm feels massively nerfed after its last change with the reductino of its duration while not reduction also its cool down tiem accordingly to the reduction of its duration, so that it has lost all its appeal as a useful elite skill, unless you need that on demand for the moment projectile attack reflection …

TG would be better useful, if the summons would stay so long, until they get replaced with a new summoning, or they get defeated, added with a very very slow health degeneration and increased max health instead of that dumb 30 second limit, cause oftenly they are way much quicker already defeated, before they did even last for 30 seconds … and they need a better A.I. in regard of targeting, that they should also focus attack on the enemy I as player give them as a target, instead of self target attackinganythign thats just in their near and if you are downed, they shoudl also try to rally you, just like a rangers pet does, so that summonign them close before you get defeated in a dueal could be very helpful to get up quicker eventually.

Then theres also no Elite Trap Skill for the Thief, also an oversight by ANet.
I really wish they would fix this with a balanc patch to give all classes some new skilsl by adding just those missing skill type elites.

Every Class also should have a trait effect somewhere , which allows them to use instead of an Elite Skill another Utility Skill in their slot instead.
For Thief for example somewhere under the Trickery Line, like for example as part of Prepardnessthat id increases not only the Initiative, but enables also the ssage of a 4th Utility Skill as Elite Skill with improved Effects

Personally I like the idea behind sub classes ~ quoted from Chris Whiteside

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Posted by: Ramoth.9064

Ramoth.9064

Shadow Trap would actually make a nice elite trap, if it had adjusted effects and stats and what not.

It has a very unique effect, it actually opens up a different style of game play for the thief, that you can be that much better at interception than if you were just running around with your shortbow.

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Posted by: Warrost.4895

Warrost.4895

Shadow Trap would actually make a nice elite trap, if it had adjusted effects and stats and what not.

It has a very unique effect, it actually opens up a different style of game play for the thief, that you can be that much better at interception than if you were just running around with your shortbow.

If the would change the effect to an actual teleport instead of a bugged since day 1 shadowstep, shadow trap could really be an option.