Guild Wars 2

Someone design a awesome set of skills and traits for a staff thief. Make them look really appealing so I can feel better knowing that thief staves are not simply being overhyped by the part of the thief community that wants to play ninja. Here is the bar in terms of quality. The first to reach or exceed the bar wins.

Source Thread and discussion: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Shadow-Mage-thief-ranged-staff-concept/first
OP: Phyrak.7260

Staff: range 900-1200

1. chain
   Fire 1 shadow bolt – vuln
   Fire 2 shadow bolts – vuln
   Fire 3 shadow bolts – cripple

Stealth attack:
Umbral touch – basically a sniper shot taking a long time to cast and hitting like a truck
1200-1500 range
Basically a long range backstab
100% projectile finisher

2.) shadows teeth – a long range heart seeker

3.) dark pillar – regen/aegis on allies and blind/ poison on foes > AOE

4.) shadows maw – fury/prot on allies and chill/torment on foes > AOE

5.) living ghost – 4 sec self stealth > next attack does additional damage
————-

Utilities:
Mantra’s
Due to how Mesmer’s also have a thing for stealth and playing with boons – I thought they would work well
The aim is to give the shadow Mage a way of long term positioning and harassment at range whilst being able to snipe commanders and support self and allies

Healing:
Mantra of the ghost song – gain distortion: heal x and y% of incoming damage avoided

Utility:
Mantra of umbral wrath – grant fury, stability and might on self and 5 allies

Mantra of living shadow – you and allies gain stealth, regen and protection periodically
(Useful for speed running dungeons/avoiding zergs coming your way)

Mantra of the deep beast – summons spectral creatures to attack your foes – like that of CoW of ranger but small AOE instead of single target

Ult:
Mantra of a bright death
-Gain fury, might and quickness
-Sneak attacks can be performored outside of stealth gaining stealthed benefits for x seconds
- lasts for 3-7 seconds

Spec tree:
Up for debate – if you think of something: if it fits/works well – might be a good add for it
A very rough thought of how this tree works
3 lines (need some names – support/condi/assassin) feel free to get creative with names

Minor
-gain access to staff/mantras
-stealth attacks occur 10-15% quicker/ 25% to blind for 1 second on bases attack (5 second CD)
- damage increase based on distance

Major:
Support
- allies blasting/leaping into your fields gain might
- allies/you gain hp when ini is spent OR fields heal periodically
- gain an extra mantra use/condi cleanse/ CD

Condi
- AOE fields now apply additional torment per tick/last longer
- inflict x stacks of bleed per ini spent
- blinds now inflict burning too

Assassination
- increase cast time by .25-.5 but gain 15 stacks of vuln on target prior to sneak attack
- exposed (I can’t think of the name when you’re forced out of stealth) now lasts 1 second less
- attacks from stealth now do increased damage/pierce with ranged weapons/attack up to 3 targets with melee (sword/dagger)

might dress it up later

Thanks @yolo swaggins.2570

Wanna help with damage and coefficients? :P

What are your thoughts on the staff as a ranged assassination/ support weapon?

Personally I think I can deal with ranged de-/buffing since thief doesn’t have that. If I were to make a suggestion to your skillset though, give it a theme and design the skills around that theme while deciding if it should be a condition or power weapon.

As for coefficients and other stuff I might do it after I get back from my appointments today while I dress up your idea.

yolo swaggins.2570:

Personally I think I can deal with ranged de-/buffing since thief doesn’t have that. If I were to make a suggestion to your skillset though, give it a theme and design the skills around that theme while deciding if it should be a condition or power weapon.

As for coefficients and other stuff I might do it after I get back from my appointments today while I dress up your idea.

From my current googles – hybrid builds are a hard thing to find depending on your play style
Sided with any sort of ranged support – a few skills from bow or pistol but nothing with any decent buffing of allies

My personal preferance would be of power base

Then what we have is hard cc, full support, long range condi and melee condi

That’s my thoughts anyhow XD

-Phyrak

How about doing a supplimentary type of hybrid? Like power based but 30% of the damage comes from conditions and vice versa?

So, I made this in a couple of hours. Tried it here first, but it was too long for the forums

Sorry for the remnants of forum formatting, by the way, but I hope you can still read it and enjoy it!

yolo swaggins.2570:

How about doing a supplimentary type of hybrid? Like power based but 30% of the damage comes from conditions and vice versa?

Sounds good me!

Power preferred but whatever works

Power because of shadow magic sniper XD

Warulfen.6549:

So, I made this in a couple of hours. Tried it here first, but it was too long for the forums

Sorry for the remnants of forum formatting, by the way, but I hope you can still read it and enjoy it!

Not bad, more along the lines of what I’d like for thief but would need some re vamping imo. First steal to vault with a cd reduction would be way op imo. The staff auto attack is nice but ability 5 reminds me of the thief underwater ninetail strikes. But I like the general direction you are headed with this.

I’m a fan of kits, but feel your kits don;t offer much new to thief other than the ranged shurikens/ throwing knives. Also a dps kit for elite wouldn;t work imo as kits can be switched freely and as such if the kit did its job and was a good dps boost, and as elites are meant to be the ‘best’, people would camp in the elite. That’s why engies get mortar kits (a debuff kit, not dps) as an elite kit.

Like I said, I know it’s just a bit of fun and I like the condition/ confusion specced staff idea. I also like the kits but personally would tweak them to give them more of a niche and make them a bit more original. good work though ;p.

i play a their for an assassin like class. If i wanted to play my mesmer, i’d play my mesmer. If thieves get staff just /uninstall..honestly if you want a ninja like class give us dual swords…but we all know the good people at anet are giving thieves a war horn since we already have to many melee weapons.

Here you are:

1) Smack your foe, smack them again, deliver a crushing blow leaving them vulnerable. 1 stack for 8 seconds; Attack speed: 1.1 seconds; # of targets 3.

2) Swing in a wide arc to destroy projectiles in front of you while dealing damage. 3 initiative; 180 degree arc covering entire front half; moderate damage; # of targets 5.

3) Jab your foe and then evade backwards stealing 1 boon on hit if the foe was vulnerable. 4 initiative; evade 350 units; Evade frame 1/2 second; low damage.

4) Rush towards your foe with a blinding upper swipe. 4 initiative; low damage; rush distance 600 units; combo field: Smoke; blind duration 3 seconds on hit, 2 seconds per pulse; pulse 1 second; field duration 2 seconds.

5) Leap towards your enemy with a lethal jab, dealing extra damage if the attack would of been blocked. 6 initiative; heavy damage; leap distance 450; unblockable; bonus damage against blocking target 50%; combo finisher: Leap.

Stealth Attack) Spin around with your staff causing knockdown the first time a foe is hit and constantly dealing damage. Knockdown duration 1 second; radius 130, duration 2.5 seconds; combo finisher: whirl; this causes a 6 second reveal instead of 3 (4 for pvp).

Range: 130-1200

1a) Shadow Whip

Swing your Staff, creating a shadow-infused gust of wind that strikes near a distant target. Foes within melee range are also hit by the staff’s physical form (struck twice).

Number of Targets: 3
Vulnerability (1 stack)

1b) Shadow Coil

Spin and swing your Staff again with more momentum, striking twice in melee range again.

Number of Targets: 3
Vulnerability (2 stacks)

1c) Shadow Helix

Swing with yet more momentum, briefly evading attacks. Strengthen yourself for each attack you avoid.

Number of Targets: 3
Evade: 3/4s
Might (1 stack) for each successful evasion.
Combo Finisher: Whirl

2) Malicious Vault (4 initiative)

Strike the ground to damage foes and jump backwards, leaving a shadow mist that saps enemy strength and blocks projectiles.

Number of Targets: 5
Weakness: 3s
Mist duration: 3s
Combo Field: Dark
Radius: 300
Range: 900

-> Malicious Return (2 initiative)

Vault forward to the mist’s location, bringing the staff crashing down on nearby foes.

Number of Targets: 5
Combo Finisher: Blast
Range: 900

3) Shadow’s Path (3 initiative)

Infuse and hurl your Staff to spin through foes in front of you, transferring a condition each way.

Combo Finisher: Projectile
Range: 1200

-> Shadow’s Displacement (2 initiative)

Shadowstep to your Staff’s current location in flight, blinding adjacent foes.

Blind: 5s
Radius: 240
Range: 1200

4) Shadow Riposte (4 initiative)

Block the next attack, parrying and causing them to stumble.

Block duration: 1 second
Knockback: 0 (not a typo)
Range: 130

5) Dark Descent (6 initiative)

Leap directly upwards and dive down with a forceful swing, sending forward a heavily damaging wave of mist that reflects projectiles as it moves. Vulnerable foes that are hit by the wave take massively increased damage.

Damage Increase vs. Vulnerable foes: 50%
Range: 1200

Stealth Attack) Shadow Cord

Strike your foe with a black tether that continuously blinds as you attack with your Staff. The next time they attempt to dodge, the tether will trip them and break.

Tether Duration: 10s
Blind: 1s
Knockdown: 2s
Range: 1200

Utilities (Stances);

Heal) Dark Escape

Heal yourself and gain Super Speed for a time. Heal yourself proportionately to how far you moved from your original position.

1) Unseen Fury

Pulse blind around yourself. Blinded foes cannot block your attacks.

2) Deadly Paradox

Regenerate Initiative at a massively increased rate. You cannot use auto-attacks.

3) Way of the Shadow

Break stun. If a foe disables you during the stance, you evade that foe’s attacks for X seconds.

4) Malicious Abrasion

Gain Fury. Critical hits remove boons

Elite) Flashing Blades

Pulse Aegis for the duration. Foes that break an Aegis receive damage.

Came up with this stuff at the top of my head just now. Went for a Stealthless AoE set with range versatility. Stances were just a choice inspired by GW1, if we do get Kits that’s awesome too, but I can’t even think of that many kits.

Damage numbers not included for anything because that takes a lot of tuning.