Guild Wars 2

Here you go

Deadly Arts is a nasty line now. You can run executioner and revealed training together. I believe they said the 5% damage boost to daggers is now base, so the new dagger training either gives an additional 5% damage vs poisoned targets or will end up procing poison.

Critical Strikes actually looks pretty weak now considering you have to go all in with it. The current grand master traits seem mostly useless as Invig Pro., Ricochet and Hidden Killer though I suppose wvw d/d will still run it.

Shadow Arts is looking a bit silly in the way they have it now. 50% damage reduction in stealth is now a minor trait, which still leaves you with a choice of cloaked in shadow, Shadow Rejuv or venomus. It is nice to see the might stacking in stealth removed from this line. I don’t know that it is nerfed as much as people think w/ the 50% reduction an automatic and shadow rejuv still select able at grandmaster.

Acrobatics are getting hit and deservedly so, imo. Feline grace now grants vigor on a Successful dodge and enhances the effects of vigor (120% recharge rate), they also have a 20% base vigor duration increase as part of the minor traits in this line. Hard to Catch looks really good now, breaks stun and refills your endurance vs porting you. Vigorus and Pained are both adept, so you have to choose one giving acro thief more susceptibility to condi. Don’t stop sounds cool as a grandmaster, you periodically evade projectiles while under the effects of swiftness. 10% damage minor is gone too, so both defensive trait lines don’t give damage bonuses anymore via fluid and hidden.

Trickery has the same minor traits though lead now has a steal reduction fact since you go all in after the update. Has an interesting buff for condi thieves in that you proc torment on interrupt. Can still run all the standard d/p trickery traits after the update. And haste is now a boon.

Anyway, they said repeatedly that this stuff wasn’t final, and stuff is all subject to change. Thanks to Dulfy for the screen caps and notes. I didn’t mention everything so be sure to check out the link above.

edit: mods please feel free to merge this with other thief change discussion threads

lol rip the threads

I’m happy with the thief changes actually.

I agree with critical strikes feeling “meh” though. I always thought that trait line was a bit lack luster and one of the only good things about it was executioner. Then again, we can have revealed training, executioner, and that trait that heals on criticals at the same time now. Maybe there’s some cheese waiting to be created there.

As much as I loved it, I think the “nerfs” to acrobatics are fair, and am interested in the new traits.

also trickery steal remains the same cooldown, cause 15% is part of the specialization and the other 15% was made baseline. So all is good for Good ol’ DP.

I’m not very happy about these changes. It’s not that they are bad as a whole, but that compared to some of the other traits other classes got, they seem incredible simple and lackluster. Like if they ran out of imagination for the Thief iteration.

1. Don’t stop looks good, but why just not make it work without the swiftness?
2. The Ricochet + Invigorating precision combo is gone.
4. Improvisation being a GM now is a joke.
5. Guarded Initiation is our only access to Resistance and we’re supposed to get with it with full HP. I don’t even…
6. Flanking and Side Strikes did not get merged.
7. Rangers get “Strider’s Defense” and"Most Dangerous Game", etc, etc.
8. Warriors get Rending Strikes while we are stuck with Sundering Strikes and also get the break immobilize with “Warrior’s sprint”.

What is the Thief exceeding at now? It sure isn’t single target damage, could arguably be mobility, can’t clean conditions or resist that much outside of the Godly sent “Resilience of Shadows” and isn’t even the faster attacker.

And then we have a whole set of “Is that all?” traits like:

1. Serpent’s touch
2. Pressure striking
3. Keen observer
4. Bewildering Ambush
5. Last refugee still doesn’t work if you are Revealed.

I’ve played Thief only since pre-release, and I admit I’m not the best player ever, but with pain in my heart, I think I’ll just move on this time. Time to use that Engi I got to lvl 80 through KTs.

MakubeC.3026:

I’m not very happy about these changes. It’s not that they are bad as a whole, but that compared to some of the other traits other classes got, they seem incredible simple and lackluster. Like if they ran out of imagination for the Thief iteration.

1. Don’t stop looks good, but why just not make it work without the swiftness?
2. The Ricochet + Invigorating precision combo is gone.
4. Improvisation being a GM now is a joke.
5. Guarded Initiation is our only access to Resistance and we’re supposed to get with it with full HP. I don’t even…
6. Flanking and Side Strikes did not get merged.
7. Rangers get “Strider’s Defense” and"Most Dangerous Game", etc, etc.
8. Warriors get Rending Strikes while we are stuck with Sundering Strikes and also get the break immobilize with “Warrior’s sprint”.

What is the Thief exceeding at now? It sure isn’t single target damage, could arguably be mobility, can’t clean conditions or resist that much outside of the Godly sent “Resilience of Shadows” and isn’t even the faster attacker.

And then we have a whole set of “Is that all?” traits like:

1. Serpent’s touch
2. Pressure striking
3. Keen observer
4. Bewildering Ambush

I’ve played Thief only since pre-release, and I admit I’m not the best player ever, but with pain in my heart, I think I’ll just move on this time. Time to use that Engi I got to lvl 80 through KTs.

I really don’t know what you’re talking about. 60606 thief is going to be godmode.

Well, I’m not happy with the FG changes as you could use it to cover the weaknesses of D/D by giving it more access to dodges. Now, yeah it might have more vigor uptime (depending how you build) but the grandmaster minor trait is a little weak.

Assuming you have vigor, you get 1 dodge every 5 seconds. With the increase in the effectiveness of vigor (+20%), you get one dodge every 4.54 seconds….. we gave up 2 minor traits (FG +damage) to get something back that is significantly less powerful than the single skill they’re replacing. FG, by itself, allows 1 dodge every 7 seconds. Combined with vigor, it allows for a dodge every 3.5 seconds (yeah, perhaps slightly too powerful, but keep in mind that means you get 1 extra dodge every ~10 seconds over regular vigor). If they made it a 50% increase, that would mean that you would get 5 dodges for every 4 available with vigor on another class (i.e. you would get 1 dodge every 4 seconds instead of every 5 seconds).

Math for this since it’s a rate increase and not a reduction in time:

Baseline Endurance: 50(endurance)/5(endurance per second)=10 seconds per dodge

Vigor Endurance: 50 (endurance)/ (5*2)(endurance per second)=5 seconds per dodge

New trait: 50 (endurance)/ (5*2.2) (endurance per second)=4.5454 seconds per dodge

Suggested trait (50% increase): 50 (endurance)/(5*2.5)(endurance per second)=4 seconds per dodge.

Current Vigor+FG: 35(endurance)/(5*2)(endurance per second=3.5 seconds per dodge

It’s not really that the new FG will be bad but the new GM minor is very weak in increasing vigor over its baseline. In fact, the new FG (excluding any other sources of vigor) is on par with the old one (4sec*2.2mult*5end/sec+2sec*1mult*5end/sec=54 endurance in 6 seconds) assuming you hit the next evade frame right when the ICD of FG goes away.

TLDR: Endless Stamina is pretty weak as a trait and doesn’t make up for the fact that FG and Vigor no longer stack

One thing I noticed in the Thief traits is little in the way of condition duration increase. We get one for poison as a GM trait and that is it meaning all duration increases for bleeds confusions and torments have to come from gear.

The warrior as example has a trait that increases bleeds by 50 percent. the Necro has a trait that increases all durations to the full 100 percent.

We have nothing that increases boon durations either and a lot less sources for boons overall.

And last refuge is still there anet wth…..

oEnvy.3064:

I really don’t know what you’re talking about. 60606 thief is going to be godmode.

And if I don’t want to play 60606? :/