Guild Wars 2

They’re awful.

I’m level 65 on my first thief so maybe I’m missing something, but on the whole I find them all but useless. The first is just the usual do damage, the fourth is the standard heal, and the other two do nothing more than delay my death by 1 to 2 seconds.

They used to be a little better—you could sometimes combo the 2 and 3 skills together to reset a mob and then revive yourself—but they changed the AI a while back so that it takes NPCs longer to reset. This made the stealth nigh on useless, and as far as I know it still hasn’t been addressed.

Ehh, most other classes don’t have very good downed abilities either, but it also depends on the situation. Thieves have a terrible #2 ability against other thieves for example, the second you teleport they use infiltrator signet to shadowstep back to you and complete the stomp. In pve thieves #1 attack does very little damage but it bounces which can be good or bad depending on who is near you and how low hp the targets are.

But as you described, the #2 and #3 skills on most classes are designed to either stop a stomp or make yourself revive faster(ranger and guardian mostly), not just thief. In pve though, thief’s 2 and 3 abilities are pretty underwhelming compared to things like rangers or guardians that if you’re just fighting one mob can basically net you a free revive.

So to sum up, thief’s downed abilities are ok for pvp, terribly designed for pve.

Those down skills are designed for PvP balance so they are not much use in PvE. The shadowstep can get you out of aoe circles which is reasonable enough in a dungeon group.

Always thought downed was stupid anyway. I’d rather people just died when I killed them.

Personally i think thief have some of the best downed skills.
Number 1 does pretty decent damage
Shadow escape is great, you can teleport away from the enemy or out of aoes.
Smoke bomb is disappointed but i feel that way about stealth in general.

Well Shadow escape is fantastic in dungeons, teleport away from mob horde and let the others attack and take aggro from them while you self rez

Warrior and Guard have best. Necro is not bad (since you heal with #1) but thief.. they’re bad.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Warrior and Guard have best. Necro is not bad (since you heal with #1) but thief.. they’re bad.

I think warrior skills are horrible.

1. and 2 are both single target and do low dmg.
   Vengeance unless traited is basically suicide/last attempt.

Guards arent bad.

But what kind of skills are you expecting whilst down? The objective is to rally rather by healing your health or killing an enemy.
This makes warrior bottom tier. Low damage and no class specific heals.
Guardians do well and i think thieves do as well.
Thief number 1 does decent dmg, and depending on the situation i’ve killed trash mobs with full hp. And the teleport allows you to further your distance from danger giving you more opportunities to either heal or kill.

I don’t think thief is that bad. Spamming 1 can usually get enough damage for me to rally. Mesmer has it worse. The summoned rogue can do nice damage, but illusions don’t draw aggro/attention as effectively….and when they do, they don’t last long anyway. But deception is next to useless. At least a thief can choose where to shadowstep to while downed. the generated clone draws aggro (usually right next to you, and the enemy going for you right after anyway) and rarely lasts long enough for you to heal and get back up. And worse, you need a target to cast it. You’re as good as dead if you can’t see what’s killing you.

MyCondolences.8172:

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Warrior and Guard have best. Necro is not bad (since you heal with #1) but thief.. they’re bad.

I think warrior skills are horrible.

1. and 2 are both single target and do low dmg.
   Vengeance unless traited is basically suicide/last attempt.

Guards arent bad.

But what kind of skills are you expecting whilst down? The objective is to rally rather by healing your health or killing an enemy.
This makes warrior bottom tier. Low damage and no class specific heals.
Guardians do well and i think thieves do as well.
Thief number 1 does decent dmg, and depending on the situation i’ve killed trash mobs with full hp. And the teleport allows you to further your distance from danger giving you more opportunities to either heal or kill.

war

1. - it’s not channeling like some classes have and this is amazing, cause you can instantly change target
2. - whats bad in long range knockback?
3. - Vengeance, beautiful skill, saved my life thousand times, even untraited (if no hope to completely res at least you have possibility to run as far as you can and die in safer place, where easier to ressurect)

Imagi, thanks for the history, it’s a bit less irritating at least knowing it once was useful and it’s just now out of date.

People comparing the thief downed abilities to that of warriors makes me wonder if I’m playing the same game. 2 seconds of stealth is comparable to 15 seconds to fight as if not even downed and with a chance of fully rallying? Or with a trait, 100% chance of rallying? In what universe?

Why is it that warriors seem to get the best of everything in this game with pretty much no downsides? I don’t get it.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

war

1. - it’s not channeling like some classes have and this is amazing, cause you can instantly change target
2. - whats bad in long range knockback?
3. - Vengeance, beautiful skill, saved my life thousand times, even untraited (if no hope to completely res at least you have possibility to run as far as you can and die in safer place, where easier to ressurect)

I still stick by my first opinion, thieves have a nice set of down skills.

1. hits does decent dmg and cripples targets. It also hits 3 targets increasing your chance of rallying.
2. Considering your #1 cripples, i’m sure you get much more time to recover from teleporting away compared to a single target knock down.
3. is pretty much useless now, it used to awesome cause it broke aggro giving you a chance to escape, or atleast buying you some time for shadow escape to recharge so you could further the distance from mob til this skill would work. But now its just trash, buys you a second or 2 of time inwhich you cant really do much.

The Thief Downed state is decent in most situations but probably the worst in solo PvE, which is very annoying especially at lower level when Thieves don’t have a lot going for them and go down easily with adds and no one around to help you.

The mechanics behind stealth really need a total overhaul – currently it’s designed and balanced more as an offensive tool than a defensive one, when it really should be more defensive. That’s the main reason I will always be completely baffled by the way they made Stealth not drop aggro.

The intended use of downed 3 is to sneak attack with downed 1, which makes it a much stronger attack and adds poison. 2 is a tele that will routinely save you from aoes or traps that may have downed you.

Einlanzer.1627:

The Thief Downed state is decent in most situations but probably the worst in solo PvE, which is very annoying especially at lower level when Thieves don’t have a lot going for them and go down easily with adds and no one around to help you.

The mechanics behind stealth really need a total overhaul – currently it’s designed and balanced more as an offensive tool than a defensive one, when it really should be more defensive. That’s the main reason I will always be completely baffled by the way they made Stealth not drop aggro.

It’s pain to leveling thief solo, especially on events with lot of mobs or veterans with skills. You got downed – you died. Especially painful when i remember my warrior leveling year ago – you got downed, you use VENGEANCE, 100 blades and Bam, you’re alive.

When i was leveling necro.. i just never dies, so easy on leveling. (My main now, love this immortal thing)

PopeUrban.2578:

The intended use of downed 3 is to sneak attack with downed 1, which makes it a much stronger attack and adds poison.

Which is great except for the small problem that by the time I can use 3, I’m usually already dead.

Necrotize.2974:

Ehh, most other classes don’t have very good downed abilities either, but it also depends on the situation. Thieves have a terrible #2 ability against other thieves for example, the second you teleport they use infiltrator signet to shadowstep back to you and complete the stomp. In pve thieves #1 attack does very little damage but it bounces which can be good or bad depending on who is near you and how low hp the targets are.

But as you described, the #2 and #3 skills on most classes are designed to either stop a stomp or make yourself revive faster(ranger and guardian mostly), not just thief. In pve though, thief’s 2 and 3 abilities are pretty underwhelming compared to things like rangers or guardians that if you’re just fighting one mob can basically net you a free revive.

So to sum up, thief’s downed abilities are ok for pvp, terribly designed for pve.

3 is a joke i mean really ? what am i gonna do with a 1 sec stealth when i am down ?

Who ever designed it was either drunk or really really stupid…

Like others already say, downed skills for thief are for PvP (like almost every single class feature in this game). In PvE Smoke bomb (downed skill 3) was really good at the begining because it reset the mobs aggro leaving you alone to revive yourself. Later the IA of mobs was changed so to no restart the figth because you entered stealth and to find you in any place you were when you get out of stealth (this was a change made for PvP to make a little stronger the minions and pets master professions against stealth) then the skill was completly destroyed for PvE players and it remains like that until now, and will be remain like that forever at least something change in PvP (of course).

No one hear mentioned that DS #3 puts you in stealth making DS#1hit pretty kitten hard. This combo alone has rallied me too many times. 1111121113(1)111111
EDIT: Someone did mention it >_>

RedSpectrum.1975:

No one hear mentioned that DS #3 puts you in stealth making DS#1hit pretty kitten hard. This combo alone has rallied me too many times. 1111121113(1)111111
EDIT: Someone did mention it >_>

I’m assuming you’re referring to if this stealth attack crits with the Hidden Killer trait? It’s an interesting bonus with that trait that I didn’t think about before, but not everyone uses Hidden Killer. Executioner is better for pretty much every build I make/run.