The trait 5 points in Shadow arts “Last refuge” needs to be changed. This trait stealths you when you hit 25% health by droping a blinding powder. However (And I’m not the only thief with this problem), it will even activate mid attack. So for example, you realize your health is getting low so you go to cloak and dagger an enemy, so you can stealth to get regen, blind, escape, or other things depending on your build. During the middle of this cast, before Cloak and Dagger deals its direct damage, blinding powder triggers due to last refuge, and cloak and dagger then reveals you because you “attacked from stealth”, and then you die because enemies kill you and you can’t use stealth like you had planned. There is no abillity to cancel casting the cloak and dagger before this trait activates because there is absolutely no warning aside from knowing that you are about to get hit below 25% health (Which is very hard to predict how much damage an enemy is about to do to you in a fraction of a second) Now normally I’d say it’s kind of a tough luck scenario, but you can’t even choose to not have that trait. If you plan on taking any traits in Shadow arts, you MUST have that minor trait.
I’d like to suggest a few ways that anet could easily solve this problem:
1. Change it to a special blinding powder, that doesn’t activate while casting a skill, or has a 1 second internal delay before it can reveal you. Perhaps the second part of that statement could be exploited, but the first would greatly help fix this issue. It seems to me like a do-able change.
2. Introduce a new minor trait to replace last refuge. This would be very interesting to see accomplished, and it would definately make the thief a bit more interesting if it had something new.
3. Swap it with one of the adept traits, so that it is a choice to have, rather than forcing it upon players that want to use shadow arts. I’d recommend swapping it with one of these traits:
-Shadow protector; as an already underused trait, switching this and last refuge would aid greatly in fixing this problem, while not giving thieves much extra power. Nobody would spend 5 points in SA just for that minor trait (At least I wouldn’t think so, doesn’t seem worth it)
-Infusion of Shadow; First off, I’ll admit that this trait in its current state would be overpowered if it was switched with last refuge. However, the nerf coming to this trait makes it much less desirable when combined with the +33% init regen boost we will be getting. Most thieves already plan on switching out that trait as soon as the balance patch hits. Maybe if further balancing was required, you could change it to a 1 init regen upon entering stealth. I can see this being a bit controversial, but I believe it could be implemented properly without giving thieves too much extra power.
-Slowed pulse; I’ve never used this trait in my 1.2k hours as a thief. Not once. Why? Because there are significantly better traits to choose from, so swapping this and last refuge would not greatly increase the strength of the thief class, but would solve the problem.
Any solution at this point is desirable, because I’m getting sick and tired of dying in the middle of a fight because this trait messes me up and reveals me. I am considering not putting any points into shadow arts anymore because of this trait (That is how strongly I hate it), which definately limits how I can build my thief, which seems to be the problem anet is trying to fix by making thieves less dependent on initiative traits. I can’t think of a single good reason why this trait needs to be kept how it is, I mean for 10 points in trickery you can get a very very similar trait called Instinctual Response, that just activates at a lower health threshold. Either way, it seemed like a good idea to make this suggestion as a huge balancing patch is coming out soon, but maybe it will have to wait until the next patch. Any opinions on this?