Guild Wars 2

Would it not be better if Signet of Malice became a life leech alike ability, that makes attack do a little more damage (in %), and returns that damage as health. This would help solve 2 problems:
1. An adjustment in the right direction for thief DPS, which due to lower health and worse survivability should be higher than warriors (today its lower).
2. Give a little extra survivability to DPS specced thiefs, since more damage would mean more healing.

It could also to some extent offset the nerf on food that heal on crit, which affected us (or at least the build I was using) very much.

These changes are meant for PvE, I don’t PvP enough to know how this will affect PvP, but it can always work a little different in PvP if needed for balance purposes.

I find any heal skill that requires attacking counter-intuitive especially when the only way that it is viable is during an increase in attack rate (i.e. quickness).

On top of that, Signet of Malice’s activated ability is horrible in comparison to other Thieve’s heal skills.

Hide in shadows heals for more, plus it removes DoTs, regen, and put you in stealth, which prevents taking more damage.

With that said, I don’t think leeching health will be a good solution since that can be easily abused. So for balance’s sake, the percentage of dmg-for-heal will be really tiny if not buffed (stacking Might will quickly break this skill) and going to be a very unattractive heal skill.

I mean, compare this to Healing Signet…Warrior’s can just stand there and get heal, plus the activated heal, which again, is much better than SoM.

If it were to change though, I rather have it work like Sadist’s Signet of GW1 with a GW2 twist. For example:

Passive: Heal 100 (+ 5…10…15 per condition on target) per second.
Active: Heals 3,275 (+ 5…10…15 per condition on target)

(Note: level 80 numbers)

This way, it ties very well with weapons set that focuses on conditions and matches the name of the skill.

I like the scaling of damage, but how could that work with conditions?

I think thief heals are some of the most balanced heals in game, and should be left as-is.

Laika.8795:

I think thief heals are some of the most balanced heals in game, and should be left as-is.

Stealth heal is fine.

Withdraw needs to roll where your running or looking.

SoM needs upgraded a bunch for its passive effect.

I think it’s a great idea, Signet of Malice should heal as a percentage of damage done, including condition damage, instead of a set amount of healing per hit

I would personally be more inclined to use Signet of Malice if it didn’t have the long cast time. You have to pick the heal that works best for you of course, between the cast time, extra effects, amount of the heal, healing power, cooldown, and your build.

I don’t think you should drag in other classes’ healing options. That’s why they’re not a Thief, but class X.

But yeah, that activation time on Malice Siggy, makes me feel all Malicey towards using it.

the cast time is my only complaint about the signet, the passive and actual heal amounts tend to be fine for me, I just wish people who don’t use builds that can make the most of it would stop trying to change it in ways that builds that currently can use it and use it well would then be out of any sort of decent healing skill for them.

The cast time is necessary. Otherwise it would be OP. You passively heal constantly, and you want it to activate quickly?

If you’re dying during activation time, Withdraw is your friend.

As someone mentioned, SoM is not as good as the other heals, unless you fight lots of mobs at the same time and spam AoE.

But isn’t it more in line with a thief and the name “Malice” to have it as a life leech instead of a heal. Its also more logical (why would I heal when I hit mob, if it wasn’t some life leach to begin with)?

Or reduce its strength and make it into a trait instead, so it can be combined with withdraw (should still be a life leech though).

SoM gets kind of insane with the signet CD reduce trait. It’s our best healing skill for raw healing done over time.

Well, was before the Withdraw buff. I didn’t check if the position was changed.