Guild Wars 2

I believe that after the developments of the past months and seeing how the Thief profession plays out in practice, it’s time to rebalance some of the Initiative costs.

Dagger
Heartseeker – currently 3, should cost 4
Death Blossom – ok
Dancing Dagger – currently 4, should be 3
Cloak and Dagger – ok

Sword
Infiltrator’s Strike – ok
Flanking Strike – ok
Pistol Whip – ok

Pistol
Bodyshot -currently 3, ok….but it’s still useless
Unload -ok
Shadow Strike -ok
Headshot -currently 4, should be 3
Black Powder -currently 6, seems rather a lot but justifiable

Shortbow
Clusterbomb -currently 3, should be 4
Disabling Shot -currently 4, should be 3
Gas Cloud -ok
Infiltrator’s Arrow -ok

The general idea aside from minor nerfs/buffs according to cost/effectiveness is to make spamable abilities less spamable while making situational skills slightly more available.

I have never had 1 moment in all my thief life that i would WANT to use disabling shot. EVER.

Dee Jay.2460:

Shortbow
Clusterbomb -currently 3, should be 4

Cluster bomb is fine since it’s the only skill which deals damage, 3 is an evade skill, 4 aoe poison and 5 a shadowstep

Cluster bomb is actually in a good state imo. In order to have really good dps with it you need to shot gun it up close, after that you relying on hopes and dreams it hits it’s target at full range after it flys around the world.

After the damage nerf, dancing dagger should be reduce in initiative.

Clusterbomb is an incredibly strong ability for such a low cost. The damage is also much higher when you don’t detonate it (but you don’t get the spread or Bleeds iirc). The combo finisher aspect is just icing on the cake.

That’s why I believe it could be increased.

Disabling Shot on the other hand is a very situational skill and when you need it you need it now. The snare doesn’t last long and the dodge is shorter than a regular dodge so I think it could be lowered to 3.

Same reasoning applies to Headshot

Heartseeker and Dancing Dagger should be obvious. One is an extremely strong skill for what it costs and the other is a situational skill that doesn’t deal much damage since the nerf. There’s no reason for it to still cost 4.

Dee Jay.2460:

Clusterbomb is an incredibly strong ability for such a low cost. The damage is also much higher when you don’t detonate it (but you don’t get the spread or Bleeds iirc). The combo finisher aspect is just icing on the cake.

That’s why I believe it could be increased.

Clusterbomb hits harder when detonated because it hits 3 times for a total slightly more than undetonated. + if detonated and all 3 hit it does 3 stacks of bleed instead of 1.

DigitalMaster.4870:

I have never had 1 moment in all my thief life that i would WANT to use disabling shot. EVER.

It can actually be pretty beneficial if you are in a situation with a lot of AoE or targets attacking you. Just face them and spam it, you will keep jumping back, dodging everything.