Guild Wars 2

Here we are, Ladies and Gentlemen! It is that time in the game’s life cycle where it has become necessary! If the F3 button wasn’t enough for you, I’m throwing in the kitchen sink with this one! Yes! The ultimate new toy… F4!!!

F4? What does it do?
I’m glad you asked!

You see, with all of the new skills and features that other professions have been getting recently having to do with Stealth and Reveal, it seems like the time of the Thief is drawing to a close. But don’t worry, folks, it’s just part of the show!

What is actually happening is the creation of a new aspect within the game. It’s called the Shadow Realm. What is that? It’s the place where players enter when they gain Stealth. What’s the difference between the new Shadow Realm and being stealthed today? For one, when you are in the Shadow Realm, you can see everyone else who is also in the Shadow Realm. And just as with normal Stealth, you can also see those who are not in the Shadow Realm, though they cannot see you.

Why is this a wonderful thing? Because the Thief is the only profession that is receiving the F4 mode. It actually toggles Stealth on and off. No more initiative or utilities required!

Yes, Revealed works the same as before, but because the Thief can literally stay stealthed indefinitely, it will not be as much of an issue. That is also why other professions are receiving methods to enter Stealth and to Reveal those who are within it, because the Thief would be completely overpowered if that were not the case.

But do not worry! The Thief will not be completely at risk against these new devices, for the Thief will also be able to detect which players possess the ability to Reveal others.

Be of good cheer, my friends! This will completely shift the balance of power in the Thief’s favor! :-D

Kageseigi.2150:

Be of good cheer, my friends! This will completely shift the balance of power in the Thief’s favor! :-D

And hence it will never happen, regardless of how interesting, cool, and even potentially balanced of an idea it is

The structure of a modern MMO with PvP and people’s expectations of what that should look like demand that rogue classes be held in check. For reasons beyond my comprehension, the rogue archetype generally doesn’t appeal to general audiences in the same way that other archetypes like warrior, ranger, and mage do.

This results in rogue classes continually getting the short end of the stick in MMOs in two dangerously interdependent ways:

1> It is hard to find developers passionate about developing rogue classes, due to statistically lower appeal mentioned above.
2> People fear and hate what they don’t understand… especially when it’s popping out of stealth to do burst damage to them.

It’s not fair, but that seems to be the way of the MMO world. I guess we’ll have to start our own if we want to play a satisfying and well designed rogue class. Shame they’re so expensive to get off the ground…

Toggle’d stealth is actually the best idea if all our opponents are to be given means of Reveal like this. As much as there’s a trollish air in this post, the suggestion itself is the only one that can salvage such a mess, that is reveal.

F4: Shadow Realm

Enter a realm of shadows that serves as a safe location.
There will be cookies. There will be chocolate.
There will be tiny thief-dolls to describe where other classes pawned you the hardest.

Another great idea that will unfortunately never see light of day. I love how the Thief forum, whist it does have complaints (rightfully so), it’s got people like OP trying to come up with satisfying buffs or mechanics which could work with some professional dev balancing.

I’d love to see this in the game and when roamers complain that Thief is OP in WvW Roaming, we’d get to reply:

“Tough kitten, the game isn’t balanced for WvW Roaming” as we’ve been told many times before in regards to PU and Cele D/D Ele’s.

The funny thing is scrapper will be the closest thing to having a stealth toggle…