Guild Wars 2

Nobody made a thread about it that I can see. So here it is. What are your thoughts on this new change?

Thief
Choking Gas: The daze duration of this skill has been increased from 0.5 seconds to 1 second. Poison duration has been increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. Daze interval has been increased from 1 second to 4 seconds. All of these changes affect PvP only.
We felt that a skill that provides a pulsing AoE daze to such a large area was too strong in PvP. It allowed coordinated players to completely control downed-state situations within the area of effect. By limiting the daze to once per cast, it still allows for the AoE daze but makes the skill significantly less oppressive.

I just feel like this is just another reason for me not to play PvP as often, and at a serious level. While I agree there should be an increase in the Daze Interval, jumping 1-4 seconds (0-100 Real Quick) in my opinion was un-just. maybe 1.5 at max 2 second interval would be justifiable. I know the role for Thief in PvP is to Decap and +1. But when you’re trying to +1 and give pressured support to your team in a 3v2 situation (Via Choking Gas on Cap circle) every bit of skill disorientation helps. But that’s my opinion.

How do you guys feel? Was the 1-4 seconds necessary?

Edit: I also recognize their concern regarding downstate pressure using choking gas, and I agree to an extent, however I am still reluctant with the 3 second increase.

it was smitebooned.
we’ve dusted off our shortbow for a few weeks, now time to put them away again…
its gone from too good to borderline worthless.

(for none GW1 players there was a skill called “Smiter’s Boon” and instead of decently balancing/nerfing it, Anet decided to utterly destroy it, the easy option.)

4 seconds seems like a lot, 2 would have been better (and kept the same potential 4x 0.5 vs 2×1).

But I’ll enjoy the poison duration increase.

I think on reflection it won’t change anything because people would use multiple fields anyways.

Each field comes with its own daze and it takes multiple fields to stack enough poison anyways. And with the duration increase on poison fewer fields will be required before daze begins to apply.

It will reduce the total number of interrupts but still afford significant aoe daze that will remain relatively spammable. And with the duration increase it will hurt players much more in all situations.

Edit: so I guess I’m arguing this is an “adjustment” more than just a pure nerf. We will see how it plays out in practice.

It was simply too strong as a no-skill gimmick. Good players getting roasted by noobers with overpowered mechanics.

We’ve already been through this with DH trap causing daze. Why did we have to go through it again.

And no it wasn’t smiter’s booned. It’s still better than what it originally was.

They should have just made it daze on the first impact…but they had to keep the poison stacking component.

and again, they only do this change to pvp only.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

and again, they only do this change to pvp only.

It’s a good change and shortbow is still worth it. They are doing it pvp only do that they don’t have to test it on ove and delay the update which is the best thing about this update overall, an indication the pvp team is breaking away from the pve team

saerni.2584:

I think on reflection it won’t change anything because people would use multiple fields anyways.

Each field comes with its own daze and it takes multiple fields to stack enough poison anyways. And with the duration increase on poison fewer fields will be required before daze begins to apply.

It will reduce the total number of interrupts but still afford significant aoe daze that will remain relatively spammable. And with the duration increase it will hurt players much more in all situations.

Edit: so I guess I’m arguing this is an “adjustment” more than just a pure nerf. We will see how it plays out in practice.

Don’t think this is true. Try stacking tons of choking gas on a boss and you’ll see the break bar go down as slowly as one choking gas field. I think the “Daze Interval is unique per Choking Gas AoE.” applies to different thieves’ choking gases.

Have to see how it plays out, but 4s does seem a bit harsh. . . although the every 1s was, on reflection, maybe a bit much.

Fairly sure it works per aoe but I’ll do some testing and get back to you.

1s interval might’ve been a bit much. Increasing that duration by 300% was a bit much. Lowering the current by 33-50% seems reasonable.

Oh noooooo the most ridiculously overpowered class in the game lost an ability that makes rezzing impossible! THE HORROR!!!

lel

Potato.2567:

Oh noooooo the most ridiculously overpowered class in the game lost an ability that makes rezzing impossible! THE HORROR!!!

lel

It was possible, you just needed stab. That said, it’s silly strong and I fully expected it to get changed somehow.

Jugglemonkey.8741:

Potato.2567:

Oh noooooo the most ridiculously overpowered class in the game lost an ability that makes rezzing impossible! THE HORROR!!!

lel

It was possible, you just needed stab. That said, it’s silly strong and I fully expected it to get changed somehow.

Well you needed a crazy amount of it. The daze ICD is not shared between instances of choking gas. So if you put three of them on a down, anyone trying to rezz would have their stability ripped at 3 stacks a second.

Also thief does have a stability rip in the form of steal.

As expected, they “changed” it. Surely, it was nice, it also drained off ini you like crazy but whatever. At the end i still relied more on steal daze to stop rezzes as choking gas was just not fast enough. As for general fights, it didn’t have that much difference (at least from my experience) as there are so many blocks/stab/condi cleanse flying around. Regardless the change i will be still camping d/p 24/7 as (omg cmon forum filters) sb will remain teleport tool basically.

I really wish they would rather put all that effort into nerfing elite specs and making core an a viable/good alternative in pvp than continuously nerfing spells on weapon sets, adding some silly buffs that nobody asked for just to basically revert them later.

While the change is PvP only at this point, my worry is it will find its way into PvP. I do not think the skill OP and especially when stacked up against some of the other Area denial spells. You still need to meet the threshold and the thief still limited by the maximum range of 900.

I fought using this in a ZERG battle a few times and it made me feel very useful to the group as a whole. In a Castle battle standing on a stair above lords, I could use this and force people below out of the area they standing in and this was due to dazes NOT the poison.

One daze is just not going to do much of anything anything . Resistance goes up in a group and the poison is not doing a heck of a lot.

As to the thiefs ability to steal Stability rather then rely on something like a daze off the field, that a non starter in a Zerg fight. It means moving into the heart of an enemy zerg and delaing with any manner of multiple AOE stacks.

The defined intent of the change was to make the thief more important to the group. Dropping that ability to daze to once per cast off the field will not do that. The enemy just parks in their own field and shrugs off the poison with resistance and other boons. . A 1 per 4 second stab strip is not a great threat. If it intended to help in group fights it has to help and not just be a nuisance. A thief just spamming this is pretty vulnerable in a group fight as their ini will be burned away and SB relies a lot on #5 to escape.

Suggestion. Field duration extended to 5 seconds. Daze pulses happen with the ICD at three seconds per iteration. Thus if pre poisoned to threshold there a shot at 2 dazes per cast.

Crinn.7864:

Jugglemonkey.8741:

Potato.2567:

Oh noooooo the most ridiculously overpowered class in the game lost an ability that makes rezzing impossible! THE HORROR!!!

lel

It was possible, you just needed stab. That said, it’s silly strong and I fully expected it to get changed somehow.

Well you needed a crazy amount of it. The daze ICD is not shared between instances of choking gas. So if you put three of them on a down, anyone trying to rezz would have their stability ripped at 3 stacks a second.

Also thief does have a stability rip in the form of steal.

Does it take three a second with three fields? I was under the impression it only dazed once a second no matter how many fields, as breakbars don’t go down faster with multiple fields. Might be wrong about that tho, and you’re definitely right about bountiful theft. I just know some have managed to res through the fields in WvW with stab.

I just expected it to get nerfed, as casting choking gas on a downed, impairing daggers on someone trying to res and steal on the downed basically stopped all attempt at ressing or using downed skills, which was excessive.

It was OP and now kinda meh. In WvW it is stupid OP. If CG lands on a target after a full steal shot, said target is dead most of the time. The interrupt can stack a ridiculous amount of damage.

Didn’t really affect my gameplay the first time around and it certainly won’t affect it now.
AoE PI like that was rather ridiculous both on paper and in practice though.
So yeah, I’d say it’s a just nerf.