Guild Wars 2

Bit of click-bait title sorry ;p

Anyone else tired of only having one choice of weapon since we’re basically forced into SB as one of them? It’s too good, you just can’t not run it if you’re trying to be competitive.

Don’t get me wrong, I love SB, it’s just getting a tad boring.

I’d personally love to run P/P Staff or maybe D/P Staff, but I feel I’m hindering team without the z axis teleport.

If I were in charge, I’d change SB #5 to something cool that does massive damage for high ini like staff 5, and to compensate the loss of the tele bring shadowstep’s CD down from 50 to like 20ish >.>

<,< pls

>.>;

I never ran SB in my whole career as a thief is sPvP. I run S/D + P/P Daredevil and I have loadsa fun with it…just try and get in comps where someone else can spam Sb 5 and you do whatever the hell you want.

Currently sitting in high diamond on mostly solo to 3 queue using my D/P Staff build about 90% of the time.

You can run without shortbow. Make a build that you like and make it work.

That being said, you should know your build’s limits, pros and cons, so it is important to know that your role switches up a bit as to not hinder your team.

You don’t have to run shortbow. Take some combination of Dash with any of Sword Mainhand or Staff, Infiltrator’s Signet, or Shadowstep. You’ll be mobile enough.

I only run shortbow, as the other weapon, because in terms of usefulness there’s only two options Staff or Shortbow and Shortbow is more useful vs downstate because of the DoT poison field and you don’t have a lower gank risk than staff since you’re ranged.

The other reason to not run Staff with Dagger/Sword/Pistol mainhand, is that you have 1 pool of resources as a thief, so it makes since to pick the option that covers what you can’t do instead of something that already does what you can do.

It’s not shortbow 5 that’s the exclusive reason for running shortbow, it’s the utility of the shortbow kit as a whole covers options the other sets don’t cover.

Problem is not only sb5. Issue is we have only 2 ranged options which is sb and pp. PP is kind of joke in pvp and is huge ini dump. SB offers range and utility. I think if thief had more ranged options we would see less sb?

I love sb. I honestly think the aa of it needs a range increase. Or there can be a range bonus to pp and all will start to use pp instead of sb. Richochet was a very beautiful thing. After that gone, pp is dead for many of us.

The problem with Shortbow is that it is a utility “tool” that is treated as a “weapon” by taking up a weapon slot and using initiative. It is basically an Engineer kit without the benefits.

That is why I have a few different suggestions that could be done to benefit the Thief’s reliance on Shortbow…

1. Make Shortbow an “F3” kit. This will allow every Thief to run with it, still using initiative and such, but will be free to have a second combat weapon set. You would no longer be able to apply sigils to the Shortbow, but you would no longer be locked into it for 10 seconds either.

2. Since initiative is a unique system to the Thief, and because both weapon sets share the same initiative pool, allow the Thief to swap weapons at will with no/low cooldown (perhaps 1 second).

3. For the same reasons as above, keep the weapon swap cooldown at 10 seconds, but make swapping weapons refill the initiative pool significantly or completely.

4. Give each weapon set its own separate initiative pool, allowing one to refill while not in use.

Personally, I believe that any one of those options would dramatically expand the Thief’s combat capabilities… each in its own way.

Cynz.9437:

Problem is not only sb5. Issue is we have only 2 ranged options which is sb and pp. PP is kind of joke in pvp and is huge ini dump. SB offers range and utility. I think if thief had more ranged options we would see less sb?

Give us a “useful” 1200 ranged weapon and I can die happy

Cynz.9437:

Problem is not only sb5. Issue is we have only 2 ranged options which is sb and pp. PP is kind of joke in pvp and is huge ini dump. SB offers range and utility. I think if thief had more ranged options we would see less sb?

It’s not even this. It’s the dependence on vertical mobility because the thief has to play a decap/+1 role. So in respects to sheer mobility, the weapon can’t not be used in sPvP.

Go to WvW and the weapon itself becomes highly unnecessary, because the thief can go toe-to-toe with other professions with any other weapon set and doesn’t need to worry about decapping a point across the map ASAP. The problem is that so long as the thief has access to the best mobility, and so long as the decap role is part of the sPvP meta, they can’t buff the thief for combat because then everyone would just play thief. The inverse is also true.

More 1200 range options would be nice just to fill more play style opportunities. More options alone won’t change dependence on shortbow for sPvP; they’ll just enable more options for the other set.

The issue stems from the design of sPvP more than anything.

DeceiverX.8361:

Go to WvW and the weapon itself becomes highly unnecessary, because the thief can go toe-to-toe with other professions with any other weapon set and doesn’t need to worry about decapping a point across the map ASAP.

It’s pretty much required in WvW also if you’re working with the usual squads in any way. Unless you’re hanging around during pvd hour or something, getting to a point on time, cutting across instead of taking the path, and closing the distance to attack/defend/supply are clutch.

I’ve never felt a dependency on the weapon in my few thousand hours of WvW play. I’ve been running without shortbow for almost two years now, and to those who I’ve worked with in WvW, after mastery of a few other weapons, they haven’t either. And this goes from everything from solo roaming to organized duels to periph in a blob to frontlining a blob (which I do in T1/T2 zergs and have a reputation for doing well with). I don’t change my build for anything, because it isn’t necessary in WvW.

Yea, it’s handy for map sprinting OOC, but you don’t need to take it to combat encounters, and in most cases, if you know what you’re doing, you can achieve near-identical landspeed on S/X with IS jump-cycling. Sheer landspeed doesn’t mean much unless you’re a zergling who died. If you go down in a small group fight, you wait it out for your team either to succeed the fight and res you, or wipe, in which case you’ll be held back by your slowest teammate when regrouping, so there’s no point to having shortbow. If being the group’s engage, running a sword is actually strictly more advantageous, as then you have an escape + cleanse on IS/IR to save on a shadowstep and costing less than IA and having a better disengage range.

In all honesty, I only find the shortbow attractive for playing backline in large blobs for CG, or strictly running away, because it’s easier to do it with than S/X.

DeceiverX.8361:

I’ve never felt a dependency on the weapon…

I’m inspired. I’ll definitely give it a go with out it for a bit again. I’m sort of irresponsible as a thief and try to do too much that someone else should be doing anyway so I’m likely just inflating my perceived worth in those areas, mostly I just need to let other builds fill the niche they’re more suited for.

What we need is incentive to have an alternate combat weapon. No weapon swap cooldown would be a great change imo, since we’re tied down by init. D/P Staff or P/P Staff could freely swap and BP+Vault to stealth for example.

kash.9213:

DeceiverX.8361:

I’ve never felt a dependency on the weapon…

I’m inspired. I’ll definitely give it a go with out it for a bit again. I’m sort of irresponsible as a thief and try to do too much that someone else should be doing anyway so I’m likely just inflating my perceived worth in those areas, mostly I just need to let other builds fill the niche they’re more suited for.

It definitely changes style of play a little bit, but I find the sword an incredible if not superior alternative for WvW. I personally like S/D as it provides me with consistent damage, evasion, and boon stealing to better-deal-with those pesky eles and engis, since I run Trickster over Bountiful Theft, although that’s more due to me needing a cleanse since I play core thief over DrD. A DrD could most certainly do just as well with S/P, depending on preference of cohesion with other traits.

In sPvP the shortbow is critical for its mobility, but for WvW, if you really think about combat effectiveness and what getting to a destination across the map a few seconds sooner means, it really doesn’t provide any more value than another weapon/set all things considered.

Zodryn.4216:

What we need is incentive to have an alternate combat weapon. No weapon swap cooldown would be a great change imo, since we’re tied down by init. D/P Staff or P/P Staff could freely swap and BP+Vault to stealth for example.

Need an ICD on Quick Pockets, then. Otherwise infinite initiative and that’s real bad on something like D/D condi or X/P trapper/perma-stealth, say. Even then I’m not sure if it’s a responsible idea. It just seems like it gives the thief a little bit too many options in combat.

Though I did propose an ICD already in my elite spec suggestion >.>

I still run d/p + p/p + dash in wvw. Sb nice to have but I can burst tanky melee classes down at range with pistol and keep good positioning. Works pretty well on just about everything once reflects/blocks/invulns are down.

Good positioning means it’s easier to kite, los, escape and don’t need to rely so much on stealth for survival.

Sb 5 also has a really slow projectile so you don’t get much distance out of it. I find dash competitive and using 40% endurance regen food + agi sig is dashes for days + 100% swiftness uptime.

Still feels really quick and I don’t have a terribly clunky ranged “weapon” taking up a slot.

In pvp if you use dash you can replace sb with staff and run with another set as staff offers high utility and some mobility from vault. Is it optimal mobility? no but if you don’t want sb it is definitely doable and can be highly effective if used right.

I don’t understand why you’re forced into using Shortbow. I have a thief that uses Shortbow, and a thief that uses twin pistols instead. Both are fun to play with different roles.

Anet, Please delete Theif or do something with its cheating skills! Macro-cheating thief can use 8 skills in 0.3 sec. And kill 3 enemies in WvW within 15 sec.

KINGRPG.3492:

Anet, Please delete Theif or do something with its cheating skills! Macro-cheating thief can use 8 skills in 0.3 sec. And kill 3 enemies in WvW within 15 sec.

Triple-instant-actives on 7/8/9 (available to all professions), weapon skill, and F1? I’m not really sure how you’re getting 8 skills, since all weapon skills have cast times, BV is a channel, and all heals will interrupt existing animations or also have cast times/channels.

Really, guardian is the only class which can activate the most abilities all at once seeing as virtues have no activation speed. Although doing so is a pretty terrible idea.

As far as dealing damage, again, almost any profession given the right build in WvW can kill three enemies in 15 seconds given the right build. Actually, my reaper can kill five people in just one skill if they’re not tanky.

And how is this even related to the thread?

DeceiverX.8361:

KINGRPG.3492:

Anet, Please delete Theif or do something with its cheating skills! Macro-cheating thief can use 8 skills in 0.3 sec. And kill 3 enemies in WvW within 15 sec.

Triple-instant-actives on 7/8/9 (available to all professions), weapon skill, and F1? I’m not really sure how you’re getting 8 skills, since all weapon skills have cast times, BV is a channel, and all heals will interrupt existing animations or also have cast times/channels.

Really, guardian is the only class which can activate the most abilities all at once seeing as virtues have no activation speed. Although doing so is a pretty terrible idea.

As far as dealing damage, again, almost any profession given the right build in WvW can kill three enemies in 15 seconds given the right build. Actually, my reaper can kill five people in just one skill if they’re not tanky.

And how is this even related to the thread?

It was a blatant, and quite amusing, troll/joke! You bit way too hard :P

Madisonlee.9641:

Bit of click-bait title sorry ;p

Anyone else tired of only having one choice of weapon since we’re basically forced into SB as one of them? It’s too good, you just can’t not run it if you’re trying to be competitive.

Don’t get me wrong, I love SB, it’s just getting a tad boring.

I’d personally love to run P/P Staff or maybe D/P Staff, but I feel I’m hindering team without the z axis teleport.

If I were in charge, I’d change SB #5 to something cool that does massive damage for high ini like staff 5, and to compensate the loss of the tele bring shadowstep’s CD down from 50 to like 20ish >.>

<,< pls

>.>;

I run d/p staff and do just fine I love sb too but you don’t HAVE to run it to do your job as a thief shadowsteping and dash provide more than enough mobility to get where you want to go. in short Sb doesn’t need a nerf. Cluster bomb could do burning tho if anything lol