How to fix thief chain stealth without destroying s/tPvP, WvW, and PvE thieves. If Anet feels that trolling in WvW is too overpowered and would like to tone down chain stealth/trolling, this in my opinion is how it should be fixed.
Reveal debuff decreased from 4 sec to 3 sec.
Remove/change the following traits
Shadow Arts
• -Infusion of Shadow
Using this trait alone gives the thief the ability to chain stealth via CnD. By the time stealth ends, you regen almost all of the 4 init spent. This trait is also used in D/P set to chain stealth via HS+BP.
o Change Infusion of Shadow to “Gain 5 sec of protection when using a skill that stealths you.”
• Patience
Same reason as Infusion of Shadow but less potent.
Change Patience to “Gain endurance faster while in stealth.”
• Quick Pockets
Additional init regen is not needed.
Change quick Pockets to “Weapon swap cool down decrease by 5secs.”
Acrobatics
• Quick Recovery
Same reason as Infusion of Shadow but less potent.
Change Quick Recover to “you recover from stun/daze/launch/knockback/sink/fear 33% faster.”
Trickery
• Keep Preparedness
• Hastened Replenishment
Very few use this trait but for the sake of consistency, please remove and replace with using useful.
Utilities
• Infilitrator’s Signet
Addition init regen is not needed.
Change Infilitrator’s Signet to “Remove 1 condition every 10 secs” to match other signet.
• Roll for Initiative
Additional init regen not needed.
Change Roll for Initiative to “Evade backward to gain protection and swiftness.”
Why am I suggesting that you should nerf almost all form of init regen? Because while other classes have traits that reduce cool downs by 20-25% at the most, thief can technically regen almost all init in a relatively short term. By keeping “Preparedness” in the trickery trait line, this allows the thief to increase their resource pool by 25% which is what other classes have.
Example:
Infusion of shadow +Infil Signet + quick recovery
Combo: BP + 3 HS
Cost 6 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 15 Init
Cost after traits = 6 + 3 -2 + 3 – 2 + 3 – 2 – 2 – 1= 6
So basically, you’re reducing the “cool down” by 60% which is above and beyond what other classes can do in terms of resource/cool down reduction. While thief does not utilities real cool downs on abilities, init acts as an artificial “cool downs.” By having massive init regen, thieves can use these traits to stealth indefinitely.
What will this do to certain builds? Let us see.
-Burst D/D – No change. They will still kill and be killed as fast as before.
-Balance BS D/D – Slight nerf to init regen but not much. They can still CnD and re-stealth but you will see fewer of those. The most CnD they will be able to perform is 2 CnD chain before waiting 1 to 2 secs for a 3rd CnD chain. After that, they are out of init and a sitting duck. This forces the player to decide between stacking stealth or DPS. If they stack too much stealth, their dps will decrease due to lack of init.
-S/D – Slight nerf in init regen. They can’t spam infil strike like before. More careful timing of skills used.
-P/D – Med nerf to init regen thus toning down the amount of sneak attack.
-D/P – Stealth via combo field with almost instant init regen got to go. This build will feel the nurf the hardes. This will end infinite stealth build.
What do you guys think?