Guild Wars 2

What’s the most fair way for it to go? Giving some anti-stealth measures to Rangers felt justified I think since Rangers tend to be thief cannon fodder, but what about other classes? The way I see it:

The maybe pile:
Mesmers – clones make them naturally weak to thieves, but mesmer is already a really strong 1v1 class, so if they ever got a reveal ability it should probably be put on a mantra or some other really underused area.
Thieves – thieves vs thieves fights tend to get silly, I think it would be interesting to see a way for thieves to counter eachother, maybe a revealed mechanic on a thief trap utility?
Ele – if Anet ever revamps the ele focus, I think it might be good candidate for a reveal ability, otherwise eles seem fine to me.

The no pile
Warriors/Necros/Guards/Engies – These classes generally have everything they need to deal with thieves, and not in really inconvenient ways. I’d be disappointed in Anet if any of them got a revealed utility/mechanic.

lol if your a mesmer struggling against thiefs you need to l2p mesmer have an advantage in a duel against thiefs (learn to manage your clones if vsing a x/d thief) you can add mesmer to the no pile.

And when was the last time a d/d ele had any trouble vs a d/x thief? As it turns out, a hard counter to stealth on any profession is a bad idea O_o.

Any class with an AoE attack has a good counter against thieves.

Any class with a way to block or deny attacks has a very good counter against thieves.

Any class that can immobilise has a arguably good counter against thieves.

I don’t think more counters are needed.

Any class with cc has a good counter against thieves.

They must change the anti stealth mechanic.
Giving abilities to apply “revealed” isn’t the right way to counter it.
They must introduce a new buff “visible”: the thief is still stealthed but he is visible.
No invisibility but the thief can use his skills/traits.

Daendur.2357:

They must change the anti stealth mechanic.
Giving abilities to apply “revealed” isn’t the right way to counter it.
They must introduce a new buff “visible”: the thief is still stealthed but he is visible.
No invisibility but the thief can use his skills/traits.

This is fair. Revealed doesn’t only reveal the thief, it also disables some of their skills, and shuts out a lot of their traits (specifically shadow arts). Revealed should remain a debuff that the thief has to personally manage as part of his class, not a negative affect that can be afflicted upon him.

Guardians can’t be hit with a skill that prevents them from generating boons, elementalists cant be hit with something that stops them from swapping attunements, warriors cant be hit with something that drains their adrenaline or blocks adrenaline generation, and thief shouldn’t have his class mechanics completely disabled by an outside effect either.

I understand that they need to get the ball rolling somewhere, and sic em may act as an alright temporary solution, but in the long term I hope they work out something more fair to both the thief and his opponent.

vincecontix.1264:

lol if your a mesmer struggling against thiefs you need to l2p mesmer have an advantage in a duel against thiefs (learn to manage your clones if vsing a x/d thief) you can add mesmer to the no pile.

Mesmers are nothing vs shortbow. If they can’t get a shatter off, you win. Their burst is also incredibly obvious and easy to avoid, hurr immobilize shatter… between double stunbreak and withdraw I don’t think I’ve lose a 1v1 vs them in months.

If we’re talking phant build, well, just main SB the entire time and laugh in the mesmers face for not being able to play the class themselves.

to be fair there are builds mesmer can use other than shatter. Ther is even one where you get punished for killing illusions.

I think ele has too much stomp to get stealth counter, mesmer maybe but they have decoy that even swifts the target to a clone.

Thieves prolly but i cant imagine a fight where 2 perma stealth thieves can see each other, it feels from one dead end to another. In warhammer online the assassin class had a chance to see through stealth of the opponent and it all got down to which spotted the other first. Plus the s/d build will always pawn the d/x build if they get counter.

I think they should expand on wvw anit stealth measures instead of skill counters really.

There is no need to stealth counter, what really needed is making the effect visible when u successfully hit a thief in stealth mode. More over, some thief builds have either really long duration (like 2-3 min ) or short cool down stealth (like appear for 2 sec, stealth 10 sec, appear 2 sec ), those need to be fixed. I know thief supposed to assassinate but they should not be immortal in the middle of a zerg and God mode 1v1.

To be honest I really like the change for rangers. In tournaments, that spot is much better off being used as a stunbreak or spirit, signet, etc.

But, in WvW, if a ranger wants to solo roam, one of their main enemies and biggest counters will be stealth thieves, so that utility could be worth taking. It doesn’t really hurt thieves in tPvP but helps WvWers deal with them more effectively, meaning less QQ and therefore less direct thief nerfs.

Im starting to see things differently after the way they implemented stealth counter to rangers. The way it was implemented it doesnt make sic em that much more appealing and stealth is handicapped in pve and tpvp (in different ways).

If i was to see stealth counters positvely it would have to come with a large scale revamp to implement other ways for theif to achieve sustain in fights. Evasion is a nice kinda subpar alternative but people have been complaining bout it as well.

You’re going to buff an entire class by nerfing another class Anet? That is wrong logic. You don’t solve a problem by introducing another. Rangers needed their buffs, but don’t nerf thieves because Rangers are weak. Just buff rangers without a skill that is obviously meant to target another class.

What are we going to have next? A warrior skill that removes the ability to use guardian symbols? Virtues?