Then the rest of us will, and already have I might add but for the sake of having official input that isn’t just to people in game asking me about balance… here is my list (feel free to add and let’s make our class viable!) be careful though, some of these changes may hurt the brains of those not ready for this extreme of action:
1) Remove stealth from all classes (and runes) except for the thief (and smoke field combos).
Yes, I said it. Why? Because thief is built in many ways to operate using stealth as a defensive and offensive tool. Keeping it class specific outside of combos will allow it to be balanced according to it’s impact over the thief without the worry of another PU crisis or some ridiculously powerful trapper build emerging because we decided to give it a damage reduction and blind pulse as a baseline or something.
2) Make reveal uniform across the game at 3 sec and make shadow refuge unrevealable.
I think it is agreed by almost all the thief community that reveal at 4 sec in pvp is unnecessary now as people know how to deal with stealth and there are plenty of counters to it anyway. Making it uniform would also avoid messing up the flow of sets like D/D and possibly allowing for an emergence of greater build diversity. SR is obsolete outside of dueling or roaming. The amount of aoe reveal being tossed out to other classes makes thief’s only support skill completely useless, making you unrevealable while inside the refuge allows the skill to have effective support but doesn’t eliminate counterplay as every class has at least a bit of aoe to toss on it. (note: revealed will still be applied in SR if you attack from stealth)
3) Preparedness as a baseline and mug allowed to crit again.
Preparedness is mandatory in practically every single thief build in the game. Making it baseline removes the need to spec into Trickery if a thief only had it for the increased initiative thus opening more builds and allowing anet to add a new trait into the minor slot. Mug allowed to crit would help to bring our single target damage up to the level that it needs to be at to be competitive with other classes. Ofc to avoid 1 shot mug builds the damage on it could be reduced (as in maybe 15%-20%).
4) Sword #2 made an instant cast again.
As it is now, sword 2 is not really useful in combat except as an attempt to run away which still does not really work most of the time due to it not being quick enough. Restoring it to it’s former function would allow S/D and S/P to have the utility and escape routes needed for the sets to be more competitive in fights where lots of cc is being tossed around. CC would still be carried through the port like steal.
5) Insane amounts of CD reduction on thief’s utilities.
Most of the utilities have insanely long cooldowns for the function of the skill. (I.E blinding powder’s 40 sec cd for a 3 sec stealth no stunbreak or pretty much every thief utility that has a 60 sec cd.) If thief is going to be reliant on escapes as a means of survival then it needs to have cd’s up when it’s time to escape. Also a few cd reductions might encourage others to take skills they don’t normally use. (mostly because the massive cd makes the skill near worthless in the long run)
6) Give a base hp buff to thief.
Simple, bring it up to match engi and you have given the class more build diversity right off the bat. The issue now is that thief is REQUIRED to build some sort of vitality gear in order to avoid dying to a breeze and that is causing an extreme limit to build diversity. A small buff like that will open up so many new options for thief and eliminate some of it’s being too squishy problems so a good portion of the imbalance is addressed there. Both ele and guard would receive the same buff to hp.
7) Make Black Powder tick every second again.
A small blind field that everyone can easily avoid while still hitting the thief. Not sure why buffing it is a big issue. Plus it allows for the skill to become a possible defensive tool again for stealthless play rather than just sitting as a stealth entering combo field.
8) Buff base initiative regen and grant 6 initiative on weapon swap as long as the sets are different (I.E D/P SB combo) (One or the other, definitely not both)
This will allow the thief to synergize with it’s weapon swap while avoiding the potential power creep from restoring all initiative every time a swap occurs. Quick pockets can be changed to allow someone to acquire the swap bonus while wielding 2 of the same set. Base initiative regen is too small right now and thief lacks the ability to sustain damage in a fight because of it. Buffing it slightly (10-15%) will help the thief to sustain it’s damage in a fight while still punishing spammers for not managing resources effectively.
9) Make Blind on stealth baseline for CnD
D/D needs the trait to function properly and having to sacrifice all your possible sustain just to make a weapon set work is silly. Blind on stealth as a baseline would allow for D/D to be used in pvp assuming the reveal change is done too and would give a bit more defensive utility to sets like S/D that still utilize stealth occasionally.
10) Give Daredevil a rate of endurance regen proportionally equal to other classes.
Right now it just has the same rate which means proportionally it has less endurance regen relative to it’s total endurance. If a spec is to be completely dependent on dodge for damage mitigation then it should have a higher regen rate as well.
11) Serious damage buffs to thief weapon skills.
-Heartseeker needs a 10% damage buff
-Flanking strike needs 20% more damage, not needing to hit a target to cycle to larcenous strike, or needs to be combined with larcenous like at release. And make larcenous steal 2 boons again.
-CnD 5-10% increase. Right now its highest crit is like 2.5-3k. A necro’s dagger auto hits for more than that which shouldn’t be happening when the thief is specced for full damage.
-Cluster Bomb given back it’s 1200 range, and given a projectile velocity increase. Thief needs to have at least some way to reach 1200 range with it’s ranged weapons. The projectile on cluster bomb is so slow it feels like you wait for years for it to actually land when you try to use it from range, it just sounds nice to be able to at least hit things a bit quicker from range with the skill.
-Disabling shot could benefit highly from a 10% damage increase and the removal of the stupid walking animation at the end (rubberband is killer
). It’s an evade let it be an evade not a deathwish.
Thanks all for your time in reading this, if you have questions or concerns leave a comment below but please read the whole post before posting to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications. Let’s make this stuff happen so we can be feared again!
(edited by Ario.8964)
