Guild Wars 2

I think this is one of the most vital questions that needs to be answered…

What is the purpose of a Glass Cannon?

Honestly, I don’t understand. The Thief seems to be designed for it, but for what reason?

We can agree on this, correct? That a Glass Cannon is meant to be a very fragile build, but with very powerful attacks. If that’s true, then what should a Glass Cannon be useful for?

If a Glass Cannon cannot be hit hard enough to be a threat to anything other than another Glass Cannon, then what’s the point?

I hear all the time that it is the Thief’s own fault that it cannot go head-to-head with current meta builds. Because no one would be foolish enough to run a build that the Thief can easily kill. So the Thief shaped the meta into Thief-proof builds. But that logic doesn’t make sense to me. If a Thief in its current state could kill such builds, then EVERY other profession would make absolute toast of them as well. Yeah, I get it, the Thief is mobile… so what? Are these fragile builds trying to avoid fights so only a Thief could catch them? No, they are heading straight into the fray where everyone can kill them!

So again, what purpose does a Glass Cannon serve? Shouldn’t they have a pretty decent shot breaking through even the toughest of defenses because they have such powerful attacks? Shouldn’t they be able to survive at least a few more shots from full Bunker builds than they do from more offensive builds?

Think of it in terms of Zelda/Minecraft’s hearts.
Health = Hearts
Power = Loss of Hearts per hit

Build / Health /Power
Glass Cannon : 1 / 1.75
Balanced : 2 / 1.25
Full Bunker : 3 / .75

Don’t get too caught up in the specific numbers, but that is just a general concept. Right now, it feel like a Glass Cannon Thief doesn’t have enough power for the lack of survivability. And trying to go to the other extreme, trying to Bunker without stealthing (in Conquest) is making an even worse tradeoff.

I understand it’s not all about direct damage output or healthpool, but even still, there doesn’t seem to be a good balance.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideal ratios?

Kageseigi.2150:

Full Banker

Heehee…

Anyway…I think that this isn’t really so much our fault, as much as those tanky builds being too strong right now. I did argue before that we had significant pull in the evolution of the celestial meta, but I would consider our inability to fight them to be a different issue…one which was not caused by us, but rather by celestial classes being too strong in general.

blarghhrrkblah.3412:

Kageseigi.2150:

Full Banker

Heehee…

Oops! :-P
Well, I wish I could cash in like they do! :-D

As a full zerker thief, I find it very easy to take out other full zerker players. Against bulkier foes, imo Thief has the tools to do continuous damage and stay alive long enough to kill just about anyone. The only thing you have to do is play well and dodge important things.

This meta is all about sustain. Even if you go zerker, you prioritize sustain over damage. That’s why SA thief and PU mesmer are the meta and they are very hard to die with some additional help of vampirism runes.

Point of Glass Cannon or “assassin” classes is that fights between bunkers and bruisers are simply to predicable.

Bunkers builds would never die since any player who is paying attention to their health can take all the time of the world to use their heal skill or simply kite until they reach a safe area.

The point of the GC build is to pick that guy who dropped to half-health to finish it instantly before it reacts.

It’s been well-known for a very long time that durability is inherently a superior setup to play in a ratio of damage dealt vs damage received. Until you hit power values and scaling/damage modifiers way beyond the realms of what is possible in sPvP, it is always better from a numbers perspective to build tankier over DPS. Only in PvE is this flipped because the encounters are designed around being doable as any build/class and is done to speed said encounters up, not to make the encounters easier; there is a warrior facetank solo video of lupi doing nothing but attacking/damage skill use on a tank build for about an hour— no heal use or evades— and he does it with obvious ease and plenty of health to spare. Since sPvP focuses on staying in an area for points and simply not dying (as deaths are penalized), there is no reason from a numbers and design perspective to play more DPS-oriented. The only format with a definitive balance of the builds is WvW, although even now we’re seeing heavy conditions pressure due to the absurdity that conditions have become and the unbelievable benefits dire gear provides at next to no cost to damage.

The thief suffers from simply lacking any innate synergy with playing defensively aside from the nerfed-into-the-ground Acrobatics line with evasion builds, and perma-stealth SA. There is very limited potential to skirmish outside of stealth, and thus it’s just optimal to play aggressive and hope the spike damage is enough to quickly finish a +1 to keep moving to the next point to cap or decap uncontested.

Strictly speaking, the thief’s design, even the Daredevil’s, is poor in regards to balancing for sPvP/capture and hold due to the innate defensive requirements of the format that the class lacks on all levels of play.

Glass cannon purpose lost its meaning when Anet devs decided to throw risk/reward/opportunity costs balancing out of the window and switch to powercreep/“we don’t communicate with each” other balancing.