Guild Wars 2

Thought it might be fun and ease some of the doom and gloom if we theory crafted what our dream elite spec would be.

Here’s mine and i think it could have an interesting mechanic.

The Shadow

New weapon; Off hand sword

The mechanic is you have an energy bar over your dodge bars with ’pip’s corresponding with how much initiative you have (12 or 15 traited)

The Energy bar (Lets call them ‘Shadow Shards’) is used to go into Shadow Form (think perhaps black poly gem or some such for looks)

Shadow Form would be accessed by f3 .

Shadow Form
spending initiative while in combat gives ‘shadows shards’
spending initiative while in shadow form consumes the ‘shadow shards’
being in Shadow Form allows the thief to see stealthed enemies
Projectiles pass through you (this could be super op and is open for debate :P )

Skills: Off hand Sword

3: Shadow Dance – Step in and out of the shadows dealing damage
evade 1/2 sec – dmg – evade 1/2 sec

4: Shadow Guard – Block attacks 3s, if you successfully block a melee attack in the duration, return the damage back to the attacker and stun them (1s). (ranged attacks block for the duration)

5: Shadow Assault – Shadowstep to enemy and perform 3 quick attacks then return
The first attack blinds the target. If you take damage during shadow assault the return is canceled.

Utilities
Soothing Shadows – Heal for a small ammount and heal more for each shadow shard consumed

Cleansing Shadows – Cure a condition for each shard consumed.

Shadow Run – Breaks Stun/immobilize/cripple. Become an invulnerable vaporous shadow and travel forward at speed. Travel 100m per shadow shard consumed.

Shadow Meld – Become one with the shadows gaining 1s of stealth for each shard consumed

Shadow Warp – Consume all your shards and gain 0.5s of quickness and 0.5s superspeed per shard

Elite – Shadow Surge
Consume all shadow shards gaining
1% damage per shard
1% attack speed per shard
1 might per shard

Traits

Adept Minor
Gain access to f3- shadow form, off hand sword and shadow utilities.

Adept
Deal 10% more damage while wielding a sword

Evading an attack restores some endurance

Take Reduced damage per unspent ‘shadow shard’ (-1% per shard)

Master Minor
Gain Might when you dodge

Master
Deal extra damage when you have no shadow shards (10%)

Gain a Shadow Shard when you successfully evade an attack

Going into Shadow form removes conditions

Grandmaster Minor
Your movement speed is increased while wielding a sword (25%)

Grand Master
Gain Might when you use a shadowstep ability

Shadow Armor – Gain Protection (2s) when you sucessfully evade an attack

Skulk in shadows – gain resistance while in stealth – drains 1 ini every second (this could synergise with ’Shadow rejuvenation, nullifying the ini gain from that trait, it would also help thief survive the insane aoe conditions currently in game)

Notes

Shadowform is not an extra life bar but an extra initiative bar.
(This is not as OP as it sounds as you would be constantly spending shadow shards anyway and inside shadowform the shards would not regenerate)

At zero shards you drop out of shadowform.

You gain Shadow Shards for spending initiative while in combat on a 1 for 1 conversion.

You begin with an empty shard bar and each attack you do in combat fills it (so for eg heartseeker would give you 3 shards)

Shards cannot be gained while in shadowform.

Utilities also spend the shards (becoming more powerful per shard spent)
So it’s a trade off all the time.
Build them up and decide whether to spend them on a utility or shadow form.

Shadowform can see stealthed enemies for the duration (not reveal or fully see them, but see them how they see themselves when stealthed – thieves would be a transparent clear body, mesmers would have the pink tinge)

So that’s it basically, Sword off hand thief that focuses on shadowsteps

1. Combine lead attacks and sleight of hand traits as a Grandmaster major then move endurance thief into trickery grandmaster minor

2. Replace guarded initiation with Escapists Absolution

3. Have all those modified dodges on Daredevil as a seperate special skill that can be swapped only for each other. Thief does the most damage at meleee range so why on earth would you have dodges that either reveal or create distance. While at it I would change the dash animation.

4. The expeditious dodger should be changed from swiftness on dodge to super speed on successful evade.

5. Swap vigorous recovery for evasive empowerment, or just remove vigorous recovery all together and have a different offensive trait for daredevil. The trait is pointless considering all the sources of vigor and endurance regen (with daredevil)

Right now there are 6 traits missing from DD . To replace them I would have traits that give unique effects like Necros Curropters Fervor, Mesmer Alacrity, Revenant Vicious Lacerations. Ill fill in what effect later

Steal Mechanic modifications like giving you the old feline grace for a period of time after you steal. Changing the the endurance gain on Brawlers tenactiy to something else.

Ill fill in the rest later

Some sort of shadow magic spec.

Do an F1 replacement with an explosive component.

Like, in stead of steal, create a clone and gain stealth. Unlike mesmer clones this one would actually be a functional duplicate using all the appropriate weapon skills. You can not shatter the clone on demand, but when it dies it leaves a smoke field + all f1 traits (so it would healthstel/damage if you take mug, poison, daze, etc. from traits)

This could be simply additional DPS or a legit distraction if you used it from stealth, as it would stack a bit more stealth duration on you while giving your opponent a false target.

Thief rotations per weapon set are pretty predictable so it wouldn’t be super hard to have it fool someone for a couple seconds if it simply dodged occasionally and ran the “bread and butter” attack chain for each set.

New utilities would be conjures which are lesser duration than ele conujres, run on init, only summon one in hand, and function as mines when dropped. Maybe 10 sec durations on these, used more for set up attacks and then dropping than as weapon replacements (so, like a better, more controllable stolen item at the cost of a utility)

Weapon would be a MH/OH focus centered around crowd control abilities with low damage (cripple, chill, slow, etc.) and the dual skills would be combination slow/disengage in the MH or combination slow/gap closers in the OH.

Elite would be a straight up instant 10s stealth with no additional effects (unless SA traited OFC)

Shadow Sniper

Uses Rifle as it’s new Weapon.

Utilises Smoke Fields and heavy single target damage.

(Presuming Full zerker gear)

1 1st Chain Skill: Aimed Shot
1200 Range
Deals 1350 Damage
Applies 2 Stacks of Vulnerability
20% Combo Projectile Finisher

2nd Chain Skill: Precise Shot
1200 Range
Deals 1550 Damage
Applies 2 Stacks of Vulnerability
50% Combo Projectile Finisher

3rd Chain Skill: Snipe
1500 Range
Deals 1875 Damage
Rooted for 0.5 Seconds before the shot
Applies 5 Stacks of Vulnerability
100% Combo Projectile Finisher

Sneak Skill: Headshot
1500 Range
Deals 2450 Damage
Rooted for 2.0 seconds before the shot
Applies 2s of Daze
Applies 2s of Stun if the target was interrupted
100% Combo Projectile Finisher

2 Skill: Kneecapper – 4 ini cost
900 Range
Deals 400 Damage
Applies 5’s of Cripple to the target if they were not moving
Applies 2’s of Immobilize to the target if they are moving
100% Combo Projectile Finisher

3 Skill: Retreat – 4 ini cost
Break Immobilize, Cripple & Chill
Gain 3 Seconds of Swiftness
Flip/Leap 600 Units backwards
Combo Leap Finisher

4 Skill: Shadow Round – 4 ini cost
900 Range
Deals 1350 Damage
Teleport to your target when your bullet lands
Knock your enemy back 350 units
100% Combo Projectile Finisher

5 Skill: Smoke in the Chamber – 6 ini cost
Your next 1 skill is now automatically converted to sneak skill Headshot
Your next Headshot now creates a line smoke field 1500 units long
(This skill will automatically blind as Headshot is 100% Combo Finisher Projectile)

#Heal Skill: Reposition – 45 second cooldown
Targeted Teleport 900 Range
0.25s cast time
AOE Blind at both start cast location and then again target location
Heal for 4350 and an extra 1000 per blinded target in 600 units (max 3 targets)
Heal only procs at the target location
Blast finisher at start cast location and again at target location

#Utility skill 1: Ambush – 30s cooldown
0.5s Cast time
Gain stealth for 4 seconds
Gain 4 seconds of Swiftness
You are unable to be revealed for the next 20 seconds
Your next attack is a guaranteed critical strike
If Traited for Hidden Killer instead: Your next attack deals 33% extra damage

#Utility skill 2: Sniper’s Intuition – 40s cooldown
Instant Cast time
900 Reveal AOE around your character
Gain 5 stacks of might per Revealed target
Remove 2 conditions per Revealed target
(This works on things that are not in stealth, you’ll still get the might stacks)
Breaks Stun

#Utility skill 3: Shadows Defence – 30s cooldown
Block all incoming attacks for 4 seconds
Per attack blocked, gain 1 stack of Shadows Defence (Max 6 Stacks)
Once Shadows Defence has ended, consume all stacks
Gain 1s of Stealth per stack consumed
Gain 1 stack of might for 10s per 1 stack consumed
Breaks Stun

#Utility skill 4: Controlled Breathing – 45 second cooldown
Gain 5 Stacks of Focused Breathing (Lasting 10 Seconds)
Whilst you have at least one stack of Focused Breathing you have Resistance to all conditions.
Damaging a Foe will remove one stack of Focused Breathing,
After all stacks have been removed gain:
8 Stacks of Might for 10 seconds,
Swiftness for 10 seconds,
2 Stacks of Stability,
and also Remove immobilize, chill and cripple
If the 10 seconds pass and you still have stacks of Focused Breathing:
Self Inflict 10 stacks of Vulnerability
Self Inflict 5 Seconds of Cripple
Self Inflict Daze for 2 seconds

#Elite Skill: Dead-Man Walking – 120s cooldown
Mark an enemy for death for 10 seconds
All damage against the target is increased based upon their missing health
For each 1% of missing health the target has, deal 0.5% extra damage to them
If you down the marked target, the 10 second duration is refreshed
If the target is finished by you or you get an assist, reduce the cooldown to 30 seconds. Also heal yourself for 20% of your max HP.

CBA doing traits, but you get the general gist of it

You guys dont know how to make REAL Thief spec, but dont worry i will show you the way.

1thing we nerf shadow arts to the ground, making it not viable, then we are announcing new spec:

NINJA NEW STEALTH BASED SPEC with totaly new playstyle.
Weapon it gets is TRIDENT cuz F you thieves!
The mechanic is you have 3,5 sec of stealth every time you use STEAL!(GREAT isnt it?)
Skills: Trident
1:Ninja Star – throw ninja star at enemy that heals enemy and dmgs teammates.
1.Stealth/ Ninja attack – most powerful atack of ninja if you land it you stun enemy for 0.5 sec and deal 200 dmg, if you dont land it you commit “sudoku” out of shame.
2:Im not dead – using this skill will make you look like dead(consumes 1 ini per sec), if anyone lands any cc on you – death.(yours ofc)
3: Ninja flip- you flip backwards for all of your initiative getting revealt for each ini spent. No evade.
4: Ninja Block – you form ninja copy to block enemy hit for you, if it gets hit you get 150% dmg shared to you.
5: Ninja dance – it works like /dance but gives you evade for a duration, every hit you evaded drains your ini and reveals you for 2 sec.
Utilities
Way of the Yolo- roll forward healing for (50% withdraw) ,Cleansing slow but applies 10 sec of quickness to enemy. 20 sec cd
Way of the ninja – apply every condition possible to yourself for 10 sec, for each not cleared condition you get 1/2% dmg buff next 2 sec.
Way of the Hate – throw slower version of scorpion wire, if it lands enemy gets pulled to you and you are taunted by them, if it fails to land all other utilities get back to cd state (+10 sec)
Way of the Shadow- Become perma invisible but if there is enemy in 1200 range you get 20 sec revealt.(NO CD OP)
Way of the scorpion – make a trap that takes 4 min to activate and is up for 5 min, this trap deals insane dmg (1000) and STUNS!(0.5sec) 90 sec cd.
Elite – Way of 3 hit combo.
3 hit combo that gives you blind and reveals you, each time you press the button you will get blinded for 10 sec, if you miss attack you will get dmged instead of your target, last attack is finnisher but autocasts enemy 2nd downed skill(even if not on cd)
Traits are basicly Shadow arts with new cool names suitable for ninja!

GUYS NINJA HYPE!