Since the feature pack patch Thieves have been left behind in the competition for power. I always firmly believe that Thief is very well balanced but other classes are just vastly overtuned. To cope with this power creep while keeping the Thief balanced we need more tools not more damage, also include fixing alot of broken and pointless stuff in our kitten nal alone would come a very long way.
Thief audio and voiced skills:
I’ve noticed sometimes my Thief will shout “Pillage!” when activating ‘’Thieves Guild elite". I’d like to see more interaction upon stealing or going stealth. I always liked the voice interactivity of other classes like Elementalists and Necromancers. Would love to see this on Thieves aswell.
Using steal: “Whats yours is mine!” / “Loot!”
Gaining stealth: “Shhhh” / “Hide!” / Taunting Whistle
Using Backstab: “Die!”
Using venoms: Sinister laugh
Initiative
Increase base Initiative to 14 but remove the added Initiative from Trickery trait line so that it isn’t nigh required to run for builds. Add in initiative regain in different ways in each trait line. Example: Critical strikes line gives initiative back when scoring crits
Weapons.
Shortbow 1. Buff arrow speed ànd always be a projectile finisher to keep up with the Dragonhunter #1 (which base cripples).
Shortbow 4. Add an extra stack of poison per pulse, synergy with Potent Poison trait.
Sword in general: there’s been talk about some delay in the attacks, needs looking in to.
Sword 2. Infilitrators Retun, change iniative cost to 1 instead of 2.
Dagger 4. Has issues with travel speed. Very unreliable to hit. Needs a fix.
Dagger 5. Needs to apply AoE blind when it lands.
Stealthed Staff 1. Needs to be much much faster in activation and animation.
Staff 2. Needs a different animation in my opinion. It’s a little sluggish to have the #2 skill root you in an animation. Proposed animation: The whirl like the Revenant auto attack #3 and able to move freely. It’s also aesthetically more fitting.
Utility skills
Fist Flurry/Pulmonary Impact effect: either apply AoE pulmonary impact (3 to 5 enemies are affected) or make Pulmonary Impact apply AoE damage. It doesn’t make sense since it’s uncrittable to not be AoE damage. Also description says it’s a rupture yet it only affects 1 person.
Contrary to the description. Pulmonary Impact does NOT cause massive damage.
Bandit’s Defense/Reflexive Strike: Change it so that if you block an attack the cooldown is greatly reduced. 50-75%. Change follow up animation to not root you in place.
Smoke Screen: Stealth allies passing through the smoke field. Reason: relieve mesmers from being veilbots in WvW so they can use other skills aswell and added general team support (triggering Shadow Arts traits).
Scorpion Wire: needs the same treatment as Dagger 4. very unreliable to use so it needs some speed to it, I would also like a piercing fact (up to 3 targets) to make this worth it or puncture through minions and or clones.
Traps: lately the Ghost Trapper has become a problem in WvW, it’s very hard to deal with if they run as a guild or organized group. Needs a (mid to high) damage fact so that it reveals Thieves but compensates for it by adding high spike damage to it.
Traits
Cloaked in Shadow moved to Master. Remove the falling damage from the trait and put it on Last Refuge it makes the most sense really.
Move Hidden Thief to Grandmaster and add the following to it: When you gain stealth you also stealth nearby allies (up to 3) for 3 seconds.
Preparedness: Initiative increase removed, gain a boon depending on the item stolen.
Warrior: Swiftness
Guardian: Aegis
Elementalist: Might
Necromancer: Protection
Mesmer: Quickness
Ranger: Regeneration
Thief: Fury
Revenant: Resistance
Engineer: Stability
Ankle Shots moved to Grandmaster, remove the 10% damage bonus. Instead Pistol shots will now pierce targets. (this makes up for the removal Ricochets).
Hidden Killer moved to master and crit chance reduced to 50%.
Addition of while in stealth skills
A long time ago we got consistently nerfed for perma stealth D/P Thieves and the issue was always the Heartseeker leap and Black Powder Smoke field.
Add new while you are in stealth attack skills for #2 and #3 skills to balance out the D/P meta and shift some love to D/D.
Stealth skills (All are while you are in stealth
Dagger #2: Puncture Armor, very low damage but cause 20 stacks of vulnerability for 7 seconds.
Dagger #3: Falling Spider, low damage whirl around causing 2 stacks of poison for 5 seconds per strike. (x3).
Sword #2: Shadow Walk, Shadowstep to target causing low to mid damage stealing a boon and transfering 1 condition.
Sword #3: Beguiling Haze, mid damage immobilize for 1 second and slowing the target for 3 seconds.
Pistol #2: Desperate Shot, low damage shot that dazes enemies in a line. Unblockable.
Pistol #3: Assassins Powder, high damage projectile on impact that scatters lower damage to those near the target. High bleed on the scatters 6 bleed for 5 seconds.
Shortbow #2 Smoketrail arrow. mid damage. Leaves a smoke field trail behind the arrow blinding foes struck and in the field.
Shortbow #3 Retreating shot. evade backwards with a shot while restoring 3 initiative.
Staff #2 Unseen Fury, hit the target blinding him and granting yourself and allies fury for 5 seconds. Mid damage.
Staff #3 Way of the Master. Strike your foe for very low damage. you and your allies next 5 attacks have a 20% damage increase.
Tell me what you guys think, this is just what I’ve been thinking of for a while but never posted my thoughts on the forum.
I feel Thieves don’t need much more damage but just needs more tools to play with the situation given at hand to compete with the power creep of other classes whilst fixing some of our cheesiest builds.
(edited by bettadenu.5483)