Guild Wars 2

Should look something like this. If you want to nerf stealth you have to address the issues the traits, utilities and weapon skills that are tied to it ie the sustained dps, healing, condition management etc. So after reading many nerf stealth threads I took a stab at what would likely need to happen to nerf stealth. These are just ideas so don’t flame me on any of them as they might seem dumb. My main goal is that I wanted to illustrate the scope of change that would have to happen to truly nerf stealth and still leave thief functional. Thank you for reading.

Reveal should be buffed to 10 seconds and stealth should last no longer than 3 seconds in exchange.

While out of stealth thieves have a 20% damage bonus on auto attack. (Stealth Attack) Vital Shot cast time reduced to .25 seconds.

Smoke Aura added to combo list. (see below)

While out of stealth thieves evade 1 incoming attack every 10 seconds. (general survival)

Traits

Thief get a passive that removes one condition every 5 seconds while out of stealth and one every 3 seconds while in stealth. (Shadow’s Embrace)

While out so stealth thieves regain 300 hp every 2 seconds. (Shadow’s Rejuvenation)

While out of stealth thieves blinds nearby enemies passively every 5 seconds. (Cloaked in Shadow)

If you take damage greater than 10% of your total health poll in a single strike, you release feathers to blind nearby enemies and evade 2 attacks (Instinctual Response)

While out of stealth thieves get 2 initiative every 5 seconds when initiative is below or equal to 6
(9 if trait Preparedness is present) (Infusion of Shadow)

Gain 1 initiative when you evade 10 second icd. (Patience)

When a thief reaches 25% life they evade attacks for 3 seconds. (Last Refuge)

While out of stealth all evasive skills provide 1 second longer. (Meld with Shadows)

When revealed steal immobilizes for 2 seconds and blinds for 3 gives temporary access to stealth attack. (Hidden Thief)

When thief stealth they get 9 stacks of might for 20 seconds. (Hidden Assassin)

When revealed dodging provides super speed for 2 seconds 15 second icd.(Fleet Shadow)

When revealed 315 precision added to self ie 15% crit chance (Hidden Killer)

Utilities
When revealed blinding powder produces a smoke field that on initial pulse within 900m blinds all enemy targets. For 6 seconds smoke aura is applied.

When revealed cloak and dagger heals for 950 hp and restores 20 endurance.

When revealed hide in shadows removes all conditions and evades attacks while being cast.

Shadow Trap reduced to 3 seconds. At end of stealth 3 seconds of smoke aura applied.

Shadow Refuge creates a dome that revives allies and provides 2 seconds of stability with each pulse. Dome blocks all projectiles. Provides 3 seconds of stealth with last pulse. CD increased to 90 seconds.

Blinding Tuft & Throw Feathers are now an evasive forward roll (450m) that blind enemies within 150m.

Combo

Leap + Smoke Field = Smoke aura for 4 seconds.

Blast + Smoke Field = Smoke Aura for 3 seconds AoE.

Smoke Aura – a smoky aura surrounds the the player and affects all enemies within 300m blinding them for 3 seconds 1 second interval. 50% chance to evade projectile.

Reserved for later

way too overpowered. sorry/.

No, sry but the stealth is the problem, not the traits.
And your suggestions to this mechanic dont make it better, it just destroy it.

what?? why should i take a non-sthealth thief instead to roll a mesmer?
or, maybe, a warrior… 10 sec of immunity is better then blind, stealth, block..
i know that there are non-stealth builds, but i assume that is the one of the intrinsec mechanic of this prof… 10 secs revealed is meh.. no matter how many blinds, condi or heal i receive.. at last is my point of view. I thing just one thing: if u have problem with some kind of invisible stealth, u donno how play against it.. u ’v just say: take the stealth off from game.

Well at least leave us ability to WASD so we can at least “function” in some way

Karolis.4261:

Well at least leave us ability to WASD so we can at least “function” in some way

But only keyboard turning!

… You seriously put “not trolling” here? Oh boy…
Well at least you wasted a lot of time thinking about it, I’ll give you that.

The point about making the buffs, survival and healing less dependent on stealth is definitely in the right direction. Then, stealth wouldn’t need to be nerfed or even complained about (although people still will) because there’ll be builds which can focus around traits that don’t in turn focus on stealth.

However, I wouldn’t want thief to become the next warrior. I like doing things myself; I don’t want to take a bunch of traits which provide me with passive buffs and abilities every so often. If I wanted to face roll, a warrior is what I would be playing. Give us an effect which we can apply to ourselves (and sometimes allies? some support capabilities and diversity there) which grants us particular buffs. Let these effects not be dependent – or at least not entirely – on stealth. If it has to be, let it be from exiting stealth and the way you entered or exited depends on the type of buff you get – where longer cool down abilities grant greater buffs i.e shadow refuge significantly better than heart seeker in a smoke field.

It is clear that we are a damage dealing class. We lack diversity to be useful in other areas, and our damage doesn’t compare to other classes which DO have diversity (commonly mistaken in PVP because we are forced into berserker stats and critical strikes line while other classes are able to trait somewhat defensively, if not entirely, and remain effective). We can’t effectively heal, offer sustained healing, offer group buffs, bunker nodes, and our damage is always being complained about by people who forget the fact that we are almost always in maximum offensive gear and traits to be able to contribute anything.

So why do we have a trait line which grants us might, healing, regeneration, blindness on stealth which is our survival tool – all defense oriented – when we are clearly an intended damaging class? Why is the tool with which we survive and acquire those effects, one that depends on us halting the attack? Why don’t we have a similar selection of traits which are activated through offensive play? Why not buff our offense significantly so we can be that damaging while picking up some defense? Why not let there be some thought to our builds as well as when playing them?

General examples:
- Increased damage with each attack evaded, or after evading so many attacks (thereby also scaling with the number of foes around – perfect assassin ideology, adapting to the situation).
- Want to stick with the idea of buffs through shadow arts? Why not a period of increased critical chance/damage when we shadow step to a target – which is using shadow arts (like stealth) but offensively instead of defensively.
- To borrow the idea of auras from the OP, Shadow Auras for nearby allies increasing their damage – damage support!
- Another idea from the OP which I liked (although it needs a longer ICD to not be over-powered) automatically evading an attack every so often. Heck that’s getting toward the idea of an acrobatic assassin build. Some more traits with that style in mind and you have diversity already. It’s not over-powered with a longer cool down of say 20-30 seconds. Guardian has aegis after all.

There are many possibilities, and I’m sure I, the rest of the community, and the devs themselves could think of an array of new traits and offensive oriented applications for them which would make thief more interesting, more fun, and more useful to groups in PVP and PVE both.

Would be better to just limit how long stealth can last. People can still perma stealth even after the dec 10th patch. It makes for boring duels and lackluster goose chases that lead to no where but wasted time.

Stealth should not exceed 12 seconds in pvp/wvw. Otherwise you come out revealed for the 4 seconds, 12 is more than enough to figure out what you want to do. To compensate, traits that rely on staying in stealth should be buffed but shouldn’t apply when out of stealth.

Shadow’s Rejuvenation- buff healing by 10% and buff healing power ratio to .15

Shadow’s Embrace- pretty solid as is.

Shadow’s Protector- remove the silly “if they have regen it doesn’t apply” kitty litter and grant it a 10 second ICD. If you enter stealth and the ICD is up, you get 10 (X boon duration) seconds of regen, this cooldown is per unique character(you’ve already done that with lotus poison).

Patience- weak trait, but I’m sure those who moved on from infusion of shadow have seen this as a potential perma stealth remake. If you can’t exceed 12 seconds, just buff it to grant 2 initiative every 5 seconds in stealth. The trait is called patience, make it pay off for doing just that. If a can mange to rack up 5 seconds of stealth, they had to use some combination of skills, they aren’t going to be able to CnD on its own and get it. If they want to dance like a fairy through Bps then let them, they will only be revealed in 12 seconds.

Fleet shadow- stealth lowers condition duration of cripple, chill and immobilize by 50% (works actively and passively in stealth). This does not remove those conditions, only cuts their duration in half. Continued applications of cripple chill and immobilize are reduced by 50% while in stealth, effect lost upon exiting stealth.

FYI the devs don’t think stealth needs to be nerfed (or they haven’t shown that yet). All they wanted last patch was to make it so you can’t remain in stealth permanently without using utilities to secure it.

Hype.8032:

FYI the devs don’t think stealth needs to be nerfed (or they haven’t shown that yet). All they wanted last patch was to make it so you can’t remain in stealth permanently without using utilities to secure it.

He said “if you want to nerf stealth”, likely because every other day there’s a ‘nerf stealth’ or ‘nerf some aspect of thief’ thread. There’s no responses from ANet, there’s not been any news concerning the next balancing patch yet, and when there is, the changes don’t always reflect what they say they want to accomplish. Basically we have no idea what they want now. However, since they won’t do a significant trait rework for necro which they admitted it needs, due to not wanting to focus too many resources on one class, I can’t see them nerfing stealth further because it would require significant reworks on existing stealth oriented traits.

i cannot understand why everyone cries for stealth.. come on, i don t cry for 10 sec of war invunlnerability, after 5 secs of “block” follows a “stun”.. i try to improve my skills to beat him.. so, instead, i suggest to do same thing.. take stealth off and thief becomes a bad image of war.. less hp, less armor, less mobility, less damage.. i just come back to gw2 because of thief.. specially D/D thief.. ok, fight against aD/P is quite annoying and personally i cannot win much often.. but is a problem of mine and ( think) of my build.. but maybe, my build win easily ( or counters if u prefer ) others builds. if u r build cannot win against stealth, try a different way.. ain t the right point??
when i fight in outnumbered a guardian let my attacks have no effect.. i don t go in guardian community to ask to nerf him..

@OP….. you have no idea how thieves work.

thieves die in 2-3 secs MAX if caught in any cc. yet you are proposing 10 sec revealed. nice. totally gonna work. (sarcasm)

Sanduskel.1850:

way too overpowered. sorry/.

For once, I agree with him. But at the same time sure…
Also, essentially you’re making the class depend less on stealth by bringing all the benifiets of stealth while being stealthless… roughly.

What’s likely to happen out of your whole post is:

TheGuy.3568:

…
Reveal should be buffed to 10 seconds and stealth should last no longer than 3 seconds in exchange.
…

Everything else is very unlikely.

Also, trav is right, we’re still going to have problems with CC’s…. the 10 seconds reveal doesn’t help in that aspect…

why not in Performance subf.
after my suggested stealth nerf……
plz also watch https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Thief-Power-of-Inertia-non-stealth-supp/first#post3480688
tell me what you think, risk and reward fine?!

eww no. u forget…just like i said above. stealth cannot be changed til our base HP is moved up and some more defensive boons are added. without stealth…we need those. period. and i consider 10 sec revealed having no stealth.

Travlane.5948:

eww no. u forget…just like i said above. stealth cannot be changed til our base HP is moved up and some more defensive boons are added. without stealth…we need those. period. and i consider 10 sec revealed having no stealth.

Yeah, essentially, he’s manipulating stealth so we don’t depend on it… but he’s leaving all of what you mentioned out…

And if and when those things do get addressed, stealth will take a nerf most likely.

The problem I have with the GW2 community is this sick addiction to attempting to rationalize why thieves “need” nerfs. Seriously, this thread is the equivalent of “reroll a regen warrior”. Revealed 10 sec? Stealth no longer than 3 sec? Just remove stealth then.

Thieves were designed as high DPS/low survivability BECAUSE of stealth, and our class has already been kittened with a million times. Thieves are not face-tankers and they should NEVER be changed to be. If the idea was to be just some other high dps melee class, not only would warrior do it better, but we wouldn’t be called “thief”. We aren’t designed to be some kitten samurai gangster charging faces and swinging like morons.

Time and time and time and time again all this stuff has to be repeated to people.

Get over it or go play a different game.

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

The problem I have with the GW2 community is this sick addiction to attempting to rationalize why thieves “need” nerfs.

Thieves were designed as high DPS/low survivability BECAUSE of stealth, and our class has already been kittened with a million times. Get over it or go play a different game.

Welcome to every game that has had a rogue class in it.

Zero Day.2594:

Travlane.5948:

eww no. u forget…just like i said above. stealth cannot be changed til our base HP is moved up and some more defensive boons are added. without stealth…we need those. period. and i consider 10 sec revealed having no stealth.

Yeah, essentially, he’s manipulating stealth so we don’t depend on it… but he’s leaving all of what you mentioned out…

And if and when those things do get addressed, stealth will take a nerf most likely.

without changing anything as far as a nerf is conscerned ….we should be in middle HP range not bottom. that alone would make us more balanced and atleast let us play in zergs a LITTLE bit…not even a lot. we die in 2-3 secs right now…another 3500 hp is basically giving us 1 more hit. not too powerful but enough to give us time to do somethign in a zerg/group/guild etc. would be ncie to be able to play in large groups and actually be productive…. not just 1 1 1 1 with sb and occaisonal 4 etc.

those buff seem random buff trowhn all togheter, while i can accept a balanced change of the stealth these changes seems terrible

Look, all of those are NICE ideas to re-balance thieves, however, why would you want to take the path of the ele? Where you are completely forced to take 1 or more traitlines due to how weak the other ones are?
Just as no ele in their right mind would go without arcana tree(somehow), no thief in their right mind would go without shadow arts tree(somehow) if this was actually implemented!
I like the ideas, but the traits aren’t the way. They could use a few changes, but not something that is going to pigeon-hole thieves into shadow arts like this.

There is no “stealth problem” just lazy players not willing to learn enough about the game to know how to counter it. You can’t pick up a chess rule book and expect to be a master after you finish reading, getting to level 80 just means you’ve earned the right to start to learn how to play.

As a non-stealth thief, I would be very happy with these changes…

>.>
<.<

Viking Jorun.5413:

As a non-stealth thief, I would be very happy with these changes…

>.>
<.<

:)

yeah you would …
hence it won’t happen

Travlane.5948:

@OP….. you have no idea how thieves work.

thieves die in 2-3 secs MAX if caught in any cc. yet you are proposing 10 sec revealed. nice. totally gonna work. (sarcasm)

Sigh “My main goal is that I wanted to illustrate the scope of change that would have to happen to truly nerf stealth and still leave thief functional.”

LTR

I forgot some thieves are too…

Look my point was to truly touch stealth it isn’t a one a done nerf or buff. Instead of being defensive read my post history. Guys like you kitten me off just as much as the “NERF THIEF NOW!” crowd.

If it was missed my point is that to nerf stealth I mean really nerf stealth you have to change every kittening skill related to it.

Wow thieves your just as sad as the trolls.

The point was it is too much work and the scope to big to ask for a nerf without major buffs and changing 20 something traits and skills.

Travlane.5948:

eww no. u forget…just like i said above. stealth cannot be changed til our base HP is moved up and some more defensive boons are added. without stealth…we need those. period. and i consider 10 sec revealed having no stealth.

I doubt you actually understand what changing stealth means. Sigh…it means sustained DPS for stealth builds get nerfed so does healing and defense. It isn’t a matter for 5k hp but everything reltated to stealth. Not understanding scope was the first mistake you made. Thinking I do not understand the class the second. Suggesting this reminds me why most thieves are just as oblivious as most of the trolls who troll you.

So if they nerfed stealth how would you add for the loss in sustained DPs and condition management?

Do you even play the class?

A thief nerf thread with suggestions to improve thief survivability? Absurd.

Oghier.7419:

Stealth does not need a rework.

A small percentage of players will complain about stealth in any game. Approximately the same percentage of players post angry screed about any class or ability that kills them in PvP, especially if countering that class requires them to learn and adapt even slightly. The fact that a handful of posters continue to whine about stealth is not a sign that it needs a nerf, but simply a reflection of the fact that this is an MMO with PvP in it.

I never said it needs to be reworked. In fact for a while now I have posted why it really doesn’t need to be reworked.

My issue remains the same and I am sorry to say this but it is stupid played. If anyone is going to suggest a stealth nerf the first thing we hear is well base HP better get moved up. Rangers still have issues with conditions and they are above us in HP. No one ever mentions the loss in sustained that one missing backstab every 10 seconds during the 4 second reveal nerf.

My point was simple if you are going to advocate nerfing stealth you have to examine everything that gets nerfed at the same time. I took the time thought about each skill
and posted. I literally said some idea will seem dumb. My goal was to show you actually have to look at each thing that is getting nerfed with just a small change to stealth especially sustained DPS and condi management which is always ignored.

I do not want stealth nerfed but before making suggestions to change stealth look at everything affected by one simple nerf. I feel like an kitten looking at each skill and trying to figure out a buff to match the nerf and trying to explain why it would be a lot of work

You’re not trying to rework thieves. You’re trying to make them into warriors. Instead of “fixing” their core class mechanic (stealth), you’re neutering it and making changes elsewhere.

Requiem.8769:

You’re not trying to rework thieves. You’re trying to make them into warriors. Instead of “fixing” their core class mechanic (stealth), you’re neutering it and making changes elsewhere.

So how exactly would you “fix” while addressing each and every skill and trait affected by the “fix”?

Additionally read what I said more carefully.

Requiem.8769:

You’re not trying to rework thieves. You’re trying to make them into warriors. Instead of “fixing” their core class mechanic (stealth), you’re neutering it and making changes elsewhere.

Maybe that’s a good idea actually. I mean, everything that gets nerfed or taken away from a class ends up being added to the warrior’s kitten nal in some shape or form. If we become warriors too, it might help to balance the game this time next year, so the other class’ traits and qualities are split between two classes instead of one.

Seriously though, I won’t be here when the time of the attunement swapping death shrouded perm stealth shatter grenade kit warrior arrives.

If your point is: To nerf stealth, you must make Thieves into Warriors then ok, I get it.

Hell of a way to go about it while making it look like you’re pitching a theory-crafted revamp proposal though. I’ve read too many similarly formatted “revamp proposals” to think this was anything other than that. I don’t think even your first paragraph makes it clear that this ISN’T one of those.

I misread your intent. I do apologize.

Zacchary.6183:

A thief nerf thread with suggestions to improve thief survivability? Absurd.

ikr?

Hence I’m not going to add this thread to the nerf-wish list, since it’s not actually QQ’ing.

Sir Kaboomski.1508:

If your point is: To nerf stealth, you must make Thieves into Warriors then ok, I get it.

Hell of a way to go about it while making it look like you’re pitching a theory-crafted revamp proposal though. I’ve read too many similarly formatted “revamp proposals” to think this was anything other than that. I don’t think even your first paragraph makes it clear that this ISN’T one of those.

I misread your intent. I do apologize.

lol

It is like the bold text at the top that says,“My main goal is that I wanted to illustrate the scope of change that would have to happen to truly nerf stealth and still leave thief functional.” is skipped with impunity though it is a known fact that I play thief and do not have an issue with stealth. Furthermore, I took the 2 harshest ideas from this thread and tried to propose the proper buffs that would have to go along with them to even keep thief functional. Taking into account HP regen, attacks generally avoided by stealth, condi management, sustained dps, blinds, burst, condi builds, and all traits and skills tied to stealth and their general functionality. Everyone who wants thief nerfed never ever says well look at what is tied to stealth first and see what needs to be buffed to let go of it. The truth is it is a lot.

My failure was thinking that showing how many traits were attached to stealth and the level of change you would have to consider it would be understood.

The other thing is no thief would not be warrior. Note 2 things I did not do. One I didn’t not suggest any type of protection or reduced damage. The second is I did not suggest any type of HP increase. The only class I had to use to figure out what thief would need is zerk guardian (the only other class I even feel like playing right now). Generally you avoid damage while using blinds and blocks. I suggested less hp regen but more blinds and evades. Since the traits changes are trait change you could literally only take 3 from SA. Thief would not be overpowered but defensive (which SA is all about). The only way to make thief warrior is to give it fast hands and up its stability and stun. Another thing I refused to propose. If there was a point besides my main point it would be,“To nerf stealth you would have to make all thieves evasion based.”

To make my point perfectly clear. If you want stealth nerfed you have to consider every trait, skill, and utility related to it and buff/change them and not just propose random nerfs and a bit of hp.

TheGuy.3568:

To make my point perfectly clear. If you want stealth nerfed you have to consider every trait, skill, and utility related to it and buff/change them and not just propose random nerfs and a bit of hp.

your most changes goes into shadow arts, you forgot the 4 other traitlines,
buffing only stealthed based traits would do more Independence into shadow arts as into others as well

Arkantos.7460:

TheGuy.3568:

To make my point perfectly clear. If you want stealth nerfed you have to consider every trait, skill, and utility related to it and buff/change them and not just propose random nerfs and a bit of hp.

your most changes goes into shadow arts, you forgot the 4 other traitlines,
buffing only stealthed based traits would do more Independence into shadow arts as into others as well

I didn’t write up a balance patch if that were the case then it is an entirely different discussion. In general Deadly Arts, Critical Strikes, and Trickery are actually pretty balanced. Each line serves their purpose well. With the exception being Acrobatics. Right now imho Pain Response, and Assassin’s Reward are just too under powered. Hard to catch is counter intuitive and pointless and needs a complete rework.

TheGuy.3568:

lol

It is like the bold text at the top that says,“My main goal is that I wanted to illustrate the scope of change that would have to happen to truly nerf stealth and still leave thief functional.” is skipped with impunity

No, not skipped, but I still interpreted it as a “well guys if we REALLY want stealth nerfed this is how they should do it!” thing.

I know you have “thief” in your sig, but so have others who still WANT nerfs.. I didn’t look into your history, soo.. there’s just been so many "halp plz nerf " threads I got trigger happy on you lol. Again, my mistake. :-P

I think they should limit stealth in combat but increase it while out of combat, possibly even make it permanent out of combat. OFC there are other issues with the class that need to be addressed, OP you may have overshot/changes too much but i get the idea.

Stealth in GW2 is unique but kitten its annoying as hell to all the other classes… THFs are labeled a trolls and bullys and TBH its for good reason lol. The sad thing is that even the trolls that we are our usefulness in group play is really limited so we are forced to troll nubs in WvW with perma stealth.

Its cheap, we all know it lol

Hopefully, what can be taken away from this post for the devs/QQ-er’s is:
Nerfing/Making a change on stealth itself will require a lot of other changes (arguably more than what OP mentions).

Then again… who am I kidding… doubt either care.

@OP
I commend the effort but that’s not the right solution, unfortunately.

If you make Revealed 10s, you are removing the Stealth Attack from being viable and breaking a lot of Thief builds. You did not address this issue.

What needs to happen to reduce the reliance on stealth is to change Stealth Attack to Flanking Attack — meaning it doesn’t require stealth and can only be used if attacking from side or back of target. Of course, you get 360 degree flanking status when in stealth, thus you can use the skill even if you’re in front of the enemy.

If Anet do this, there will be more builds not relying on stealth because even if they make stealth non-stackable and 10s revealed like you suggested, it wouldn’t matter much because it will not lock us out from our best source of burst damage.

We can adapt when it comes to survivability, what we cannot handle is the continue nerfing of our damage, our broken animations, and buggy skill/trait functionality.

Zero Day.2594:

Hopefully, what can be taken away from this post for the devs/QQ-er’s is:
Nerfing/Making a change on stealth itself will require a lot of other changes (arguably more than what OP mentions).

Then again… who am I kidding… doubt either care.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

@OP
I commend the effort but that’s not the right solution, unfortunately.

If you make Revealed 10s, you are removing the Stealth Attack from being viable and breaking a lot of Thief builds. You did not address this issue.

What needs to happen to reduce the reliance on stealth is to change Stealth Attack to Flanking Attack — meaning it doesn’t require stealth and can only be used if attacking from side or back of target. Of course, you get 360 degree flanking status when in stealth, thus you can use the skill even if you’re in front of the enemy.

If Anet do this, there will be more builds not relying on stealth because even if they make stealth non-stackable and 10s revealed like you suggested, it wouldn’t matter much because it will not lock us out from our best source of burst damage.

We can adapt when it comes to survivability, what we cannot handle is the continue nerfing of our damage, our broken animations, and buggy skill/trait functionality.

Yeah be sure to add in a CD (a long one) and your golden “Backstab” should just require a back… its not called “Stealthstab”

tattoohead.3217:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

@OP
I commend the effort but that’s not the right solution, unfortunately.

If you make Revealed 10s, you are removing the Stealth Attack from being viable and breaking a lot of Thief builds. You did not address this issue.

What needs to happen to reduce the reliance on stealth is to change Stealth Attack to Flanking Attack — meaning it doesn’t require stealth and can only be used if attacking from side or back of target. Of course, you get 360 degree flanking status when in stealth, thus you can use the skill even if you’re in front of the enemy.

If Anet do this, there will be more builds not relying on stealth because even if they make stealth non-stackable and 10s revealed like you suggested, it wouldn’t matter much because it will not lock us out from our best source of burst damage.

We can adapt when it comes to survivability, what we cannot handle is the continue nerfing of our damage, our broken animations, and buggy skill/trait functionality.

Yeah be sure to add in a CD (a long one) and your golden “Backstab” should just require a back… its not called “Stealthstab”

“Backstab” is possible in front, side, and back especially how the Thieves hold their daggers. Of course a cool down will be in place if it is done without stealth, but if done with stealth, it ignores cool down. Also it would not be possible to gain the flanking status while revealed to prevent a double backstabs. All those fine tuning and balance will be done later anyway.