Guild Wars 2

Personally, I think this was a bad idea to begin with. I knew there would be an influx of bads crying about how thieves are OP, no matter what state they’re in because.. well, that’s just what happens to stealth classes in MMO’s.

No one likes them.

I loved the Assassin from GW1, much, MUCH more than the thief in GW2. I would rather have a combo system (lead into offhand into dual attack) and more out of stealth combat options.

I’d rather they just remove stealth as a whole tbh and make us more as swashbucklers / assassins who can dodge and briefly move through the shadows (teleports)

Stealth really isn’t needed and it’s only a cause for massive debate and QQ.

This is my opinion, feel free to disagree and explain why. Btw don’t worry if you’re in favor of stealth because at this point ANet wouldn’t even imagine removing it. I’m just curious how all you other thieves feel.

Been thief since BWE3.

I’d feel extremely vulnerable in pve. It’d also remove our main support skills for dungeon parties.

Well if stealth was removed obviously it would be compensated… I don’t just mean removed and thief is just left at that.

Rukia.4802:

Well if stealth was removed obviously it would be compensated… I don’t just mean removed and thief is just left at that.

Hmm, if we’d get rifles, extra base HP, extra defensive traits, more base initiative/regeneration and extra mobility, I think I could live with it.

Rukia.4802:

Well if stealth was removed obviously it would be compensated… I don’t just mean removed and thief is just left at that.

It would really depend on what we got in return, specifically.

I really like stealth in this game, especially in PVE. There aren’t many MMO’s where you actively get to utilize stealth in a non-PVP environment as you do in this game.

Jefzor.7145:

I’d feel extremely vulnerable in pve. It’d also remove our main support skills for dungeon parties.

I’d take you over a ranger any day of the week though, so this doesn’t really matter.

remove thief from gw2

Betrayed :P
Also I would reroll.

I would feel very betrayed like a few people have said above.

I’d probably have some fun though and end up trolling those whining little babies that have been demanding the thief class to be constantly nerfed into the ground.

Fook.3914:

remove thief from gw2

Yes, remove thief and let present thieves choose another profession with same gear, level, archievements, maps revealed…etc. Thief was totally ruined during last patches with nerfes. All cry here on forum and Anet still listen and dance how crying kids play. Thief = useless, with no defence, no damage and nerfed with every new patch. Remove thief.

Runcore.5107:

Fook.3914:

remove thief from gw2

Yes, remove thief and let present thieves choose another profession with same gear, level, archievements, maps revealed…etc. Thief was totally ruined during last patches with nerfes. All cry here on forum and Anet still listen and dance how crying kids play. Thief = useless, with no defence, no damage and nerfed with every new patch. Remove thief.

I agree just delete the class and move on. Let the QQ start on another class till they are down to 1 and calling for that to be nerfed as well. It is so bad it isnt funny. That is the only real solution remove it from the game completely and compensate me with better equipment then I have now because of your inability to do things right or to tell QQ’s to stuff it.

Invisibility for a thief should have been from only traits. If a thief is caught he or she should only be allowed to make a quick get exit but not also the ability to reenter stealth. Allowing both is just too OP especially with the Culling issue with invisibility in the game at the moment. There needs to be a give and take system for thief which forces them to either spec in stealth and lose some dps/quickness, or spec in dps/quickness and lose some stealth(duration).

assassins in guildwars 1 are better , more fun to play PvE and PvP wise. this is a fact. please Anet make assassins and rangers the way they used to be , o wait bring back ritualists!

I’d actually be okay with this. I’d love Assassin in GW1, and I’d be fine with our current weapon set ups as long as they tweaked them a bit to make them better/compensate for lack of stealth. P/D thieves would hate it, though.

Rukia.4802:

I loved the Assassin from GW1, much, MUCH more than the thief in GW2. .

Hated them, started one, never got it past level 17. I’d quit GW2 for good if they turned Thief into some sort of Assassin.

I would only be okay with this if we were justly compensated. The first major fix they would need to make was allowing shadowsteps to cross gaps like the engie rocket jump, otherwise no dice. But hey I mained a Sin in GW1

Q: How would you feel if stealth was removed?

A: Time to reroll to warrior!

Honestly I hate in combat invis on any class, in any game…its beyond silly unless restricted to major CD…When u look at thieves/assasins/rogues in other games they all follow a simple concept…Stealth- sneak into a fight and choose ur target, assasinate them…but once theyre in the fight and out of stealth…thats it, there is no "well whoops I messed up let me press 5 and invis again…ok now let me invis again…and again…Low CD stealth abilities = bad design…sorry its how it is

I’d feel very naked.

Stealth is our defensive (although it tends to be very offensive too at times) utility that sets us apart from all other professions.

Removing it would be like stripping Boons from a Guardian or Pets from a Ranger.

Stealth generally performs better and tends to be more useful in PvP than PvE.

If stealth was removed and wasn’t replaced with something that lets you evade attacks that is equal to fighting with stealth I’d be a little bit angry and likely wouldn’t play thief for a long time.

yup…OP should roll a warrior or a ranger and never mention this bad idea again.
If you like lots of evasion/survivability non-stealth class, roll a ranger, use melee weapons and spec him to be survivable.

Instead of removing stealth from the Thief I would prefer to see the Assassin class back.

Honestly, I’d probably start shopping for a new game. Not that I’m that married to Thief, even though it’s my main, I love Ele as well and have both at 80.

But the epic failure of professionalism in game design displayed by the removal of stealth, that would do me in here. Added to the meta-events that stay broken for weeks without comment from Anet, the face-palm worthy nerfs already, etc.

So here’s hoping that they find a reasonable solution, especially to culling.

personally, there are very few games where i’ve actually liked how stealth was handled. GW2 isn’t an exception. it’s far less “stealth” and far more “klingon cloaking device”. what i want from stealth is exactly what games like thief 3 or even the elder scrolls series offered. something you actually have to put more thought into than just “click button”. shadows, environmental factors, line of sight, outfit color, silhouette. realism. what games currently offer isn’t stealth. it’s invisibility. with persistent stealth, i can stand directly in front of someone’s face for 3 hours and they can’t see me. here, it’s 3-4 seconds, or up to 12 with shadow refuge. but it’s still just invisibility.

what i’d love to see is environmental stealth be possible. no more neon signs over my head. no more emote chat spam. give me an ability to mask these, as well as block tab targeting and the highlight button all while only when i’m not in combat, and i’m a happy camper. let people be able to target me with their mouse if they see me, and then the excuse they have is that they were oblivious to their surroundings.

put in a “backstab” button that would remain active for, say, 10 seconds or until they hit someone that can only be used out of combat. then the thief could pop that, step out of their hiding spot, and backstab for an opener. or better yet, make it a “stealth attack” button to give them a few options. backstab for burst damage, sap for a knockdown, or garrote for bleeding damage. you could even make them invisible for that time frame, or give them a significant movement speed increase so that a zoomed out camera isn’t an all encompassing counter to it.

for escape? a 10 second smoke bomb that actually makes smoke. yes. a giant cloud of actual vision impairing smoke. they can use it to escape, they can use it to disorient, they can use it to distract. they can open with it, or they can exit with it. have it break targeting and channeled abilities and put it on a 1-2 minute cooldown. then people can swing away blindly inside the cloud and be able to hit if the thief just stands there like a goon. much the same way people can still hit thieves inside shadow refuge now.

what is unique about thieves? stealth and the initiative system…

complaints here…

stealth and the initiative system.. if anet follow ur suggestions thief would just be warrior.. a camel is a horse designed by comitee. if you try to let everyone have there say. you will end up with something that doesnt make sense just leave it for the devs to balance over time.

I was really surprised to find stealth so radically different in this game compared to what I’d been used to. It seemed crap that it only lasted for 3-4 seconds at a time. But I learned that it makes things so much more strategic.

In previous games people moaned about perma out of combat stealth. Now they’re moaning about temporary stealth. The crux of the issue is stealth, specifically on the thief, is one of the few truly unique skills in this game. Therefore almost every class will bemoan it and begrudge it in some way.

It shouldn’t be actually it should be enhanced honestly (for pve) because there are soooo many things missing from this class it’s not funny.

Thieves are capable of so much more.

It’s sad that a game mechanic is messing with people in pvp.

Confused, mostly. Although I’d be a little curious about what they’d replace all the deception skills and Cloak & Dagger with. Oh, and half the traits in the Shadow Arts line.

Assassin was my main in GW1, but the guardian is my main this time around, because I hate the mechanics of the thief. To me, invisibility cloak type stealth is a horrible mechanic for any MMO, and many other genres as well. Additionally, the initiative system makes combat dull. If stealth was removed, my thief would probably be played more.

As someone else said above, I would like to see the assassin make a non-spiritual return with a focus on evasive skills and combo attack chains more than anything.

Kasei.8726:

Assassin was my main in GW1, but the guardian is my main this time around, because I hate the mechanics of the thief. To me, invisibility cloak type stealth is a horrible mechanic for any MMO, and many other genres as well. Additionally, the initiative system makes combat dull. If stealth was removed, my thief would probably be played more.

As someone else said above, I would like to see the assassin make a non-spiritual return with a focus on evasive skills and combo attack chains more than anything.

I would ask for sin instead of thief revamp but honestly do you think they would add in assassin when they have copied a ton of names from GW1 sin to the thief already? Shadow arts, Crit strikes, Deadly arts, Scorpion wire, Death blossom, etc etc. this IS ANets GW2 version of assassin, albeit a bad one.

I think what could be better is “jobs” where you can choose what type of class you’d like your profession to be. Like guardians could be paladins or paragons, warriors could be dragoons maybe using spears and thieves could be assassins idk just throwing stuff out there, it’s the only way I see us getting sins in GW2.

You want an idea of what a thief would be without stealth if they were given compensation? Look at Thief’s Spear. Underwater thieves only get one stealth skill, do deal with this, the devs gave thief the most evasive counter weapon in the game.

Anyways, I find Sin’s form or defense plays similar to Mesmer’s Distortion buff. Then again, I had Aura of Distress on my Sin most of the time in GW1.

I would reroll.

Would not bother me at all, in spvp. My current build has nothing to do with stealth surprisingly lol.

But in pve…. It would kitten me over big time. No more condition removal(my main source for removing conditions), bonus hp regen, helping someone downed lose aggro before they die fully, and worst of all no quick burst 5 bleed stacking pistol shots

And no more harvesting with 10 monsters around me while I laugh at them as I mine a rich ore vain without worry lmao

I wouldn’t like losing stealth :/

That would destroy the entire core value of the thief. It would need an entire rework.

Might as well delete the class and start over.

Remove stealth -> remove Thief. Literally no point in a Thief existing without it, because without it, every other class can do a given task better.

Just refund me all of my equipment, gold, gems, skill points and items and give me an Assassin instead.

Coming from a P/D thief who uses Condition Damage – CnD > Stealth Attack I would feel pretty vulnerable unless they boosted us up with something else.

Also, that would mean taking away Shadow Refuge which cannot happen cause the skill is too awesome.

Well, we’d need every single one of our weapon sets, and something like a fifth of our traits to be reworked.

Then there’s the whole, thieves have nearly no access to protection, stability, or retaliation. In addition to being tied for the lowest amount of health with classes that get piles of all those boons. That’d be an issue to, seeing as we’d be losing out on a great deal of our damage mitigation.

Auesis.7301:

Remove stealth -> remove Thief. Literally no point in a Thief existing without it, because without it, every other class can do a given task better.

Just refund me all of my equipment, gold, gems, skill points and items and give me an Assassin instead.

Don’t get me wrong you will call me noob or troll but you guys know what ?
Im thief who don’t using ANY invis skill and use I just use more dodges replace on that so yeah, Im theif and im 100% for nerf invis for that class.

For those who wanted assassin from GW1 back. That class will give us even more crying. An asssassin in GW1 that didn’t kill in 3 seconds, wasn’t a threat.

Rukia.4802:

No one likes them.

I loved the Assassin from GW1, much, MUCH more than the thief in GW2. I would rather have a combo system (lead into offhand into dual attack) and more out of stealth combat options.

I’d rather they just remove stealth as a whole tbh and make us more as swashbucklers / assassins who can dodge and briefly move through the shadows (teleports)

Stealth really isn’t needed and it’s only a cause for massive debate and QQ.

This is my opinion, feel free to disagree and explain why. Btw don’t worry if you’re in favor of stealth because at this point ANet wouldn’t even imagine removing it. I’m just curious how all you other thieves feel.

Been thief since BWE3.

I totally disagree,i’ll explain why:
First i don’t care if no one likes us,it’s not mine(our) problem.We are not here to like each other,but to kill each other.After all the game is called Guild Wars,not Guild Loves
Second in GW1,we had an option to choose from total of ~300 skills(with the secondary profession) to make good build.Here you have total of 20 UI skills,3 elites and 9 weapon combinations(compared to 21 for warrior).Also in GW1 Assassin have an armor of 70(almost the best,only warrior have armor 80).In GW2 as thieves are very squishy and only mobility and stealth are on their help.
Third the massive debates will not stop even if the Stealth be removed.There will always be particular group of people,pointing at something/anything else,rather than themselves to justify their inability to play.(either burst damage,or condition damage,or Shortbow mobilty,or Shadowstep skill,or whatever,just pick one).

Stealth will never be removed.

Stealth should not be removed. I use a thief that is not overly reliant on stealth and am satisfied with the thief as it is now.

Wouldn’t affect me much, my only means of stealth is Cloak & Dagger and I barely use it cause my main damage output comes from Death Blossom.

I keep myself alive by dodging, plus Withdraw and Roll for Initiative

Dynia.9574:

Auesis.7301:

Remove stealth -> remove Thief. Literally no point in a Thief existing without it, because without it, every other class can do a given task better.

Just refund me all of my equipment, gold, gems, skill points and items and give me an Assassin instead.

Don’t get me wrong you will call me noob or troll but you guys know what ?
Im thief who don’t using ANY invis skill and use I just use more dodges replace on that so yeah, Im theif and im 100% for nerf invis for that class.

I don’t think you quite understand. You might be perfectly fine with stealth removal because of your playstyle, but then what? A Thief is a slightly nimbler and worse version of a Warrior? There is no point in the class existing. Every other class will be able to perform any given task to a better degree than the Thief can. Damage? Thief is at least formidable. Control? Subpar. Perhaps you can spam evades to maintain aggro or drop some Caltrops, perhaps immobilise one person while you’re at it. Pathetic, and traps right now are literally worthless. Support? Stealth provided most of the support to begin with, venom sharing is worthless for anyone who isn’t hugging you and steal boon sharing is IMMENSELY subpar to the boons given by other professions eg. banners, shouts, spirits, whatever.

Sure, you might enjoy playing the class, and I still would too (S/D and S/P are my main builds and I rarely use stealth barring powders and refuges for the team). That’s completely irrelevant. The Thief would become a worthless profession that can’t do anything within the game as effectively as any other class. The Thief already has limited options as it is now. It would be the final nail in the coffin for the class’ usefulness, anywhere in the game, ever. It will be nothing more than a fairly effective damage dealer with no dimensions and no depth, and you might as well pick up a Warrior instead. At least the Warrior can provide you with immense support while he deals his damage.

That’s also an incredibly flawed argument. “I don’t use it, so get rid of it.” That’s absurd.

I’d expect 50% movement speed, condition immunity, 18k health.

I’d be cool with stealth being replaced with something else.

Though it’d be a huge overhaul and remake to do so that I doubt will ever happen.

The huge overall they would have to give us to compensate, combined with sticking to the theme of our class, would probably have people complaining even more than they are now.

That would be lame :< It’d be like removing pets from Rangers, or kits from Engineers, or clones from mesmers, or.. you get the idea.

Stealth is a super strong mechanic, and the rendering problem is a big issue, but anyone that thinks that the Thief’s core gameplay mechanic should be removed is just silly.

who cares , it wont happen.

Like a warrior without enough sense to be using big weapons or wear heavy armor.