Guild Wars 2

What do you guys think of this change…. I usually prep a larcenous strike/burn the flanking strike before engaging the enemy usually with an infiltrator’s to “guarantee” larcenous will hit. With this change, this will no longer be an option. I’m not a personal fan of this change however I don’t claim expertise with thief (only just got champion shadow recently). Is this a good change? Fair? Underserved?

It doesn’t affect me much because when I s/d for pvp I don’t pre load it so my playstyle will remain unchanged for the most part.

alemfi.5107:

What do you guys think of this change…. I usually prep a larcenous strike/burn the flanking strike before engaging the enemy usually with an infiltrator’s to “guarantee” larcenous will hit. With this change, this will no longer be an option. I’m not a personal fan of this change however I don’t claim expertise with thief (only just got champion shadow recently). Is this a good change? Fair? Underserved?

Undeserved. People think it’s S/D that’s “OP” but in reality it’s only acrobatics. If this change goes through im probably done with this game and its terrible balance patches.

Isn’t flanking strike actually extremely easy to dodge if you want to dodge it? People just don’t waste dodges on Flanking because there is no point… but now there will be. And with the inability to “preload” the larcenous strike and flanking being 4 ini, larcenous should have been reverted to stealing 2 boons to at least balance things a bit.

I think it will affect thieves that spam it. I don’t think it will have much affect on anyone else.

Pavel.8531:

Isn’t flanking strike actually extremely easy to dodge if you want to dodge it? People just don’t waste dodges on Flanking because there is no point… but now there will be. And with the inability to “preload” the larcenous strike and flanking being 4 ini, larcenous should have been reverted to stealing 2 boons to at least balance things a bit.

NO… FS is the one that spins you and homes in on your target.. Larcenous Strike was the slow one that is easy to avoid…

One thing that you can see as a “buff” is you can use FS twice/three times in a row to evade a bunch of attacks… Also maybe S/D thief will now take the new GM in acro?

So, if I wanted to, while running away, I could spam 3 and be in a state of permanent evasion since I’m not trying to hit anyone.

Top kek. Totally going to do that to annoy people.

For me it s a buff as well as a nerf :
- buff because you can chain evede with this set like if you were using shortbow number 3
- nerf because you can’t precast larcenous strike anymore
- nerf because now there is a counter play to the boon reaping of the sword as well as easier/stronger ability to alnd of the set, but i think it s actually for the better and won’t hurt that much the best thieves

you will not be able to chain flanking strike if you’re not sheath canceling it or swapping to a 2nd s/d set to avoid the aftercast.

While it does allow s/d to chain evades I still thinks its an overall nerf because FS can no longer clear blinds for a LS, LS can’t be pre loaded before a burst, and the boon strip of LS because less reliable simply because you need two abilities to hit.

Amonatory.2453:

alemfi.5107:

What do you guys think of this change…. I usually prep a larcenous strike/burn the flanking strike before engaging the enemy usually with an infiltrator’s to “guarantee” larcenous will hit. With this change, this will no longer be an option. I’m not a personal fan of this change however I don’t claim expertise with thief (only just got champion shadow recently). Is this a good change? Fair? Underserved?

Undeserved. People think it’s S/D that’s “OP” but in reality it’s only acrobatics. If this change goes through im probably done with this game and its terrible balance patches.

What exactly is OP about Acro? Feline Grace? Hard to Catch? Quick Pockets?

Dirame.8521:

Amonatory.2453:

alemfi.5107:

What do you guys think of this change…. I usually prep a larcenous strike/burn the flanking strike before engaging the enemy usually with an infiltrator’s to “guarantee” larcenous will hit. With this change, this will no longer be an option. I’m not a personal fan of this change however I don’t claim expertise with thief (only just got champion shadow recently). Is this a good change? Fair? Underserved?

Undeserved. People think it’s S/D that’s “OP” but in reality it’s only acrobatics. If this change goes through im probably done with this game and its terrible balance patches.

What exactly is OP about Acro? Feline Grace? Hard to Catch? Quick Pockets?

Feline grace, the abilty to gain endurance back is pretty over the top.

Oh one more thing, whats the point of LS being unblockable if FS has to hit first?

Dante.3754:

Oh one more thing, whats the point of LS being unblockable if FS has to hit first?

Removing boons including and not limited to Aegis.

Dante.3754:

Oh one more thing, whats the point of LS being unblockable if FS has to hit first?

Hit nail on head

I hate this change, it’s just another example of the casualisation of this game. Not being able to change/choose the rotation of stage skills restricts the player of developing a playstyle or having a variety in play style. Not only was the ability to skip flanking good to set up a larceneous, but it gave you the ability to use it as a seperate dodge with a timed counter larcenous, not a forced one. This and the posion hit reveal make my blood boil. There was simply no need for these changes, these were not the aspects of S/D builds being ’ overpowered ’, but instead of showing inovative change to traits/skills they mess up frequently used mechanics dedicated thieves made use of.

Dirame.8521:

Dante.3754:

Oh one more thing, whats the point of LS being unblockable if FS has to hit first?

Removing boons including and not limited to Aegis.

If Aegis is up and you use Flanking Strike it won’t hit thus Lar won’t be able to be used.

So you’re now out 4 init instead of 3 w/out being able to use the good part of the skill

Dirame.8521:

Dante.3754:

Oh one more thing, whats the point of LS being unblockable if FS has to hit first?

Removing boons including and not limited to Aegis.

Unblockable needs to be added to FS – it does crap damage, it’s there for the evade (and now for access to LS)

Dante.3754:

Oh one more thing, whats the point of LS being unblockable if FS has to hit first?

This

Jhughes.8341:

Dante.3754:

Oh one more thing, whats the point of LS being unblockable if FS has to hit first?

This

gg anet, you created a paradox in your own skillsets. ¬_¬

T raw.4658:

Dirame.8521:

Dante.3754:

Oh one more thing, whats the point of LS being unblockable if FS has to hit first?

Removing boons including and not limited to Aegis.

If Aegis is up and you use Flanking Strike it won’t hit thus Lar won’t be able to be used.

So you’re now out 4 init instead of 3 w/out being able to use the good part of the skill

Maybe they overlooked this scenario.

suppose they could make block/invuln count as a “hit” that transitions to larcenous, while evade could still be a miss.

Flanking Strike is really easy to dodge and not rewarding to dodge, LS is slightly harder to dodge, but more rewarding to dodge.

Now you get the reward of both by dodging flanking strike.

You can ofc Flanking Strike from distance and teleport to target the moment it is about to connect. Weapon skills dependent on utilizes, gg.

But on the other hand, it will be possible to spam flanking strikes under the condition that it fails to land. Although it has a slight aftercast, it might end up similar to disabling shot, and get nerfed again.

All i can say is that two s/d thiefs fighting will be one sexy dance

Narkodx.1472:

Pavel.8531:

Isn’t flanking strike actually extremely easy to dodge if you want to dodge it? People just don’t waste dodges on Flanking because there is no point… but now there will be. And with the inability to “preload” the larcenous strike and flanking being 4 ini, larcenous should have been reverted to stealing 2 boons to at least balance things a bit.

NO… FS is the one that spins you and homes in on your target.. Larcenous Strike was the slow one that is easy to avoid…

One thing that you can see as a “buff” is you can use FS twice/three times in a row to evade a bunch of attacks… Also maybe S/D thief will now take the new GM in acro?

FS homes but has a REALLY obvious animation. I think just about anyone can dodge FS on reflex, while LS is kind of difficult to spot.

While in the shower I was thinking of something that might allow flanking strike => larcenous strike work, while balancing it to address dev concerns.

If flanking strike misses, have it convert to an ability that lasts for about half a second (or whatever the after cast on flanking strike is) named “follow through”, or something, that does nothing except burn another initiative, and perhaps have a rotation animation, and follow through will convert to larcenous strike. If “follow through” is not activated it will convert back to flanking strike. If flanking strike connects it will convert to larcenous strike as normal.

What this will address:
- Allow players to prepare a larcenous strike before engaging at the expense of another initiative.
- While in combat, allows for counter play by the opponent avoiding flanking strike to not allow larcenous strike to occur without additional cost and tells.
- Allows players the defensive option of flanking strike chaining as it already has an after cast, so the half second delay on “follow-through” shouldn’t impact it too much.

What do people think about this? Just a random out of the shower idea.

soo well guys, normally i dont write in forum but this upcoming changes make me really angry. As usuall it seems as anet does not understand thief… When anet would visist they would see ~ 3 builds: sw/d d/p and p/d …

with the upcoming patch they´ll destroy sw/d cuz how shall we now beat a guardian? whole time aegis ( dunno english name → block buff) so we cant get larcenous strike cuz flanking strike doesnt hit ._. and yea larcenous strike is unblockable not flanking strike. d/p will be not as strong as be4 as well.

If i remember right blackpouder will only hav 2x blindness not that often like be4.. so no safestomp.. on the other hand it was the big advange of d/p that u hav that much blindness … and u need it vs war.. one mistake ur down .. .
So.. after this i reached the conclusion that we should all play p/d thiefs… omg all guys will play boring non gameplay thief.. u make this game become kitten anet…
Greets
a Thief…
( sorry for all those english mistakes still learnin

i suggested that change all the way back when the skills got split. sooooo i’m fine with it.

They should also remove or reduce the cast time on LS if they are going to do this change. At least this way LS has a better chance of not being dodged or telegraphed to the enemy. Its gonna blow if once you land an FS your LS gets dodged, I can see the rage quits now!

Speeding up larc strike would be neat.

Now Thieves will use FS on pets or clones to get LS Kappa

I think S/D thieves are going to get more QQ after this change because of the higher evasion uptime. With a full bar of base initiative, you could chain 3 of these together now, so it’s probably going to lead to an increased aftercast down the road. Regardless of whether thieves see this as a buff or nerf, non-thieves are going to see FS>FS>FS instead of FS>Some attack(because honestly it seems most people don’t recognize thief animations)>FS>some attack. We’ll just see more perma-evasion threads in the class balance subforum.