Guild Wars 2

Hello guys! I’ll try to make this thread as clear as possible and not too painful to read. Also i apologize in advance for the english mistakes i could make. ^^’

So after i tested the Acro line out for few days, i made my own conclusion about it.
Like most of you know already, evade capacity granted by this line have been nerfed a lot.
I personally like the new endurance regeneration just because it limit general evade spam (yet players keep dodging randomly).

While I agree with the feline grace was OP before and encouraged too much brainless dodges, i think the line deserve a bit more survability revolving around the “always on your toes” gameplay.
So here i come with few ideas. I leave my thoughts and explanations about thoses possible changes.
I also hope Devs are gonna take a look at it, this will maybe give them similars ideas.. who knows? =)

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Minors:

Expeditious dodger: increase <swiftness> from 2s to 3s upon dodging.
+Just to compensate a bit the boon duration loss, especially for the ooc speed move.

Feline grace: same as now.

Endless stamina: Effect of <vigor> is enhance by 50% on you as well as effects of <weakness> are reduce by 50%.
+The idea is to avoid the only defensive mecanic of this line to be completely killed by only one condition. Also compensate the loss of fluid strikes, so weakness don’t shutdown completely your damages as well.

Adepts:

Fleet shadow: gain 2s of <super speed> upon entering stealth [5sec ICD].
+Allow Dagger off hand users quick repositionning using CnD, and also rewarding them with faster movements in combat.

Vigorous recovery: increase <vigor> gained when using healing skill from 5s to 7s.
+Compensate the boon duration loss, and also the nerf of <Withdraw> CD which is the only healing skill use to trigger this trait.

Pain response: same as now.

Masters:

Guarded initiation: Remove <slow> <vulnerability> <Weakness> and <cripple> from yourself when you critically hit a foe while above the threshold [75% health]. Conditions are removed 1 by 1. No ICD.
+Lowered the threshold restriction to make the trait more functional. Added <cripple> to the removed conditions for a better synergy with [Don’t stop] GM trait. Changed functionality from “when striking” to “when critically hit” to avoid multiple hits skills such as dancing dagger to grant a 100% chance 4 conditions cleanse with one skill only.

Swindler equilibrium: same as now.

Hard to catch: same as now.

Grandmasters:

Assassin reward: changed functionality to: when you successfully evade an attack foes around you are blinded for 2s (240 radius, 5 targets). Cannot trigger more than once every 10s. Trigger at the end of the evade frames (dodge roll or evading skills).
+With the actual power creep and AoE spam, i came up with this idea so the thieves going in a team fight at melee range could survive a bit longer (especially since evades capacity have been nerfed).
This will also give the opportunity to thieves playing evade skills such as <death blossom> or <pistolwhip> to put more pressure on team fight without suffering too much AoE dmg.

Upper hand: gain 1 initiative, 2 stacks of might for 15s, and 15 endurance regen upon successful evade. Cannot trigger more than once every 10s.
+Merged [Quick recovery] [Power of inertia] and previous [Feline grace] all in one trait. Still fitting the “on evade” gameplay. 10s ICD to prevent mindless dodges spam and over might stacking.

Don’t stop: Added 2s of <resistance> upon converting <immobilize> to <cripple>.
+Added <resistance> to avoid a double incoming <immobilize> being covered by a <cripple> letting thief in a worst position than it should be. Also give a small window for <withdraw> users to heal them-self without suffering poison effect.

Good thoughts over all. Not asking too much while still giving a reason to select each trait.

Like it! I could even give a try to the espantion with such changes. Ain’t happening anytime soon tho

Her’s my take on it

Minors

• Expeditious Dodger : Gain 3 seconds of swiftness on evade.
• Feline Grace : Dodging returns some of the endurance used (15%). (Same as before the patch)
• Fluid Strikes : Deal more damage while endurance is below the thresold. At 100% hp: 2%; at 66%: 3% and at 33%: 5%. (At first i wanted to keep Endless Stamina as a minor, but the idea is that boosting vigor might be useless if you don’t take any trait that grants it, so anything else here might be quite good.)

Adepts
In this category you chose between some initiative regen, health regen /cleanse or endurance regen, depending on the playstyle you want.

• Combined Tactics : Dual skills return initiative when completed. (This can be usefull for many builds: D/P, D/D Condies, P/P, P/D Condies,S/P, S/D, …)
• Pain Response : Gain 10s of regeneration and remove conditions when below when struck below 75% hp.
• Vigorous Recovery : Gain Vigor for 6s when using a healing skill.

Masters
As the first category, the idea is to provide different type of regen or sustain, depending on what you aim. Hastened Replenishment can benefit any condi-spam spec or any initiative hungry build. Hard to Catch is your classic life saver. Endless Stamina boosts the effect of vigor. (I placed it here, so you don’t specialize in Acrobatics for the vigor nor the dodges, but you are able to choose between different options depending on your playstyle)

• Hastened Replenishment: You receive 4 initiative when using a healing skill.
• Hard to Catch : Break stun and refill endurance.
• Endless Stamina : The effect of vigor on you are enhanced by 50%.

Grandmasters
Assassin’s Reward is buffed so it’s worth taking over Don’t Stop. It helps, here again, different builds and mainly the initiative hungry ones. To have a better synergy with Combined Tactics, this later should return the initiative after the Assassin’s Reward heal. Upper Hand is still underwhelming IMO.

• Assassin’s Reward : Heal yourself when using a skill that uses initiative. Gain 1 initative every 10s.
• Upper Hand : Gain 1 initiative when you evade an attack.
• Don’t Stop : Cripple and chill applied to you have reduced effectiveness. Periodically ignore incoming immobilize effects, becoming crippled instead.

Some interesting ideas in here — not sure how well they’d work together though. Some traits blow others out of the water in terms of usefulness.

I guess i’ll repost some of the thoughts I had for acrobatics here

1. Feline Grace and Endless Stamina are buffed and combined into one trait, it would now grant vigor on dodge and improve vigor potency to 150% but no more endurance restored on dodge.. If these changes are made I would also recommend increasing the amount of vigor received on successful dodge to 5 seconds but also increase the internal cooldown to 6 seconds. This would allow for two things: The first being that the way the trait functions right now with such a small amount of vigor and low internal cooldown it promotes using your dodges up rapidly in order to maintain vigor uptime ( which if the current potency stays the same ) an acrobatics thief cannot afford to do. Secondly it would allow for more rewarding boonstrip counter play, since you are stripping a bigger amount and the thief would theoretically have to go longer without vigor. Mesmers, I’m thinking of you here.
2. This combination of minor traits would allow fluid strikes to be restored or another new minor trait 5 that was on par with shadows resilience to be introduced. My suggestion would be Pain Response as the new minor 5 and replace its spot in the adept tree with Power Of Inertia ( which would also keep might stacking builds around. ) since the new acrobatics survivability is so dependent on vigor this would allow thieves to take vigorous recovery and still have adequate condition cleanse.
3. Swindler’s Equilibrium is made a Grandmaster in place of “Don’t Stop” or “Assassin’s Reward” so that a thief could take for example, Swindler’s Equilibrium and Hard to Catch.
4. Guarded Initiation: This trait needs to be completely reworked. It should function by granting resistance when struck while your health is below 75% Guarded Initiation would be synergistic with a different trait called Pain Response so that when you were hit at or below 75% you’d be cleansed of damaging conditions and receive 5 seconds of resistance. If these changes were made Guarded Initiation could be used over Hard To Catch. The only issue with this is that it would only be effective if you had pain response. Therefore I don’t recommend this change unless also following suggestions #2 and #3 of making Pain Response the 5 minor trait AND making Swindler’s Equilibrium grandmaster because as I said before Guarded Initiation and Hard To Catch should never be picked over Swindler’s as a sword thief.

The new Assassins Reward. Suggestion.

On successful evade gain 30 vitality. This caps at ten stacks. These stacks erode when out of combat.