Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

Just some thoughts I had. This isn’t well thought through, so flame away!

Dagger skill 4: Dancing daggers:

*Add new effect: Gain 2 seconds of stealth on initial hit, plus 1s of stealth for each extra bounce that hits.
*Increase initiative cost to 6.
This could mean 4s of stealth if all three bounces hit (+1 second if traited Meld with Shadows). You cannot stack this though, since you would reveal yourself if you used this skill again to do damage. I feel this makes it balanced. If an enemy blocks or evades it, you gain no stealth, this adds some counter play. Gives x/d sets a more reliable stealth than cloak and dagger in the current meta.

Dagger skill 5: Cloak and dagger

*Remove the stealth effect from this skill.
*Add new effect: If you hit an enemy (i.e not blocked or evaded), grant 1s of quickness for you and each nearby ally: Number of allies 5.
Radius: 360
This would give d/d some party support and maybe open up some +boon duration builds.

OR if the AOE quickness might be too OP

*Add new effect: If you hit an enemy (i.e not blocked or evaded), gain 1s of quickness for yourself and blind up to 5 enemy targets: Radius 360

I tried to introduce unique stuff that would augment sword, pistol and dagger if combined with offhand dagger. That’s why there are no shadowsteps (sword main can do this), leaps (dagger main can do this), evades (dagger main and sword main can do this), immobs (pistol main and sword main can do this), or kiting (p/d 3 can do this) in my offhand dagger ideas.

I hope this makes sense.

I kinda like dancing dagger idea, it’s quite easy to land but still has counter play. The problem is, if it’s reflected does the enemy goes into stealth instead of you ?

A ranged access to stealth opens up a lot of possibilities for p/d, d/d, s/d.

I like the 2nd version of cloak and dagger better. There is more flavor to it. In the end your dagger off hand is really heavy in terms of initiative, I suppose trickery would still be mandatory to make it work…

Wargameur.6950:

I kinda like dancing dagger idea, it’s quite easy to land but still has counter play. The problem is, if it’s reflected does the enemy goes into stealth instead of you ?

Probably – this is what happens when Ranger gets his LB stealth arrow reflected IIRC.

Wargameur.6950:

I like the 2nd version of cloak and dagger better. There is more flavor to it. In the end your dagger off hand is really heavy in terms of initiative, I suppose trickery would still be mandatory to make it work…

Could probably reduce both my ideas to 5 initiative and still be viable?

These are definitely interesting ideas, my take on fixing OH Dagger would be Lower cast time of CnD to 1/4 Sec and increase the Stealth to 5 secs base and increase the Area of the attack(not the range). Dancing dagger would add 3 secs of Weakness on top of the Cripple.

The CnD change would make it more consistent, and more meaning full to setup Stealth Attacks.

The Dancing Dagger change would provide Dancing Dagger to have a more beneficial use which allows Thieves to stick on target since no real Ranged attack options with OH Dagger.

Maybe add a short tick of vulnerability to Dancing Dagger? It would give it a purpose as an opener and contribute to combat more than at current.

Perhaps put a very short range shadow step on CnD to give it a better chance at landing?

Aside from my ideas, I do like the stealth off DD idea, and the idea of doing a decently substantial effect off CnD instead of stealth.

I just thought about it, but can they technically apply stealth with bouncing dagger ?

If it stealth on hit and bounce then I suppose it would reveal you. And getting stealth at the end of all bounces seems a bit clunky.

how to fix CnD: make it a small range forward dash
how to tone down D/P: increase cost of heartseeker (pvp only)
how to fix sword dagger: return #3 to 1 single animation
how to fix dodge spam staff/dagger: increase the cost of vault increase the cost of death blossom (pvp only)
how to generally fix sword: increase auto atk speed and remove cast time on #2 return
how to fix p/p spam: increase cost of unload, increase auto atk speed and dmg
how to promote new builds for: add more condi to dagger auto chain. now plays as a hybrid weapon. or make backstab apply poison confusion torment 1 stack

OR they could just buff everything that is UP and keep everything that is OP the same cuz if everything is OP then nothing is UP

Tutankhamun.3679:

how to fix CnD: make it a small range forward dash
how to tone down D/P: increase cost of heartseeker (pvp only)
how to fix sword dagger: return #3 to 1 single animation
how to fix dodge spam staff/dagger: increase the cost of vault increase the cost of death blossom (pvp only)
how to generally fix sword: increase auto atk speed and remove cast time on #2 return
how to fix p/p spam: increase cost of unload, increase auto atk speed and dmg
how to promote new builds for: add more condi to dagger auto chain. now plays as a hybrid weapon. or make backstab apply poison confusion torment 1 stack

OR they could just buff everything that is UP and keep everything that is OP the same cuz if everything is OP then nothing is UP

Glad you are not in the balance team ^^ Increasing the cost of everything is not a solution and increasing HS cost doesn’t tune down d/p at all.

Hmm, I actually like your ideas! Having the short Quickness would also slightly help with S/D’s lower damage output.
But like Wargameur mentioned, I’m not sure if the Stealth would work with Dancing Dagger’s bounces. Still, I’d gladly settle for a single hit that deals more damage than it does now, while giving 3 seconds of stealth instead of 2-4 or 5 if traited.

Interesting and flavourful ideas!

Dancing Dagger should be an Immobilize not a Cripple. CnD should cost less Init when it misses. Currently missing with CnD is punishing since it chews up a big chunk of init, keeps the thief in close range without protection and has very poor damage.

I would add D/D needs the Backstab ICD removed or greatly reduced otherwise it will continue to languish.