Guild Wars 2

I see a lot of this on the forums:

• Stealth is the only viable mechanic for the thief
• Stolen items are useless in group play
• Traps are for rangers
• Who uses venoms (Leaving out basilisc + lyssa rune)

Can you think of an interesting mechanic that replaces one of these mechanics?
I’d like to see:

• Easy to implement
• Supportive
• Fits in with the thief profession

Give the thief more thiefly mechanics, like life stealing.

Something like Signet of Malice. That thing is rarely used. Give it a trait or baseline functionality to restore health to allies as well as yourself.

Assassin’s Reward could heal in an AoE. The heal isn’t that much even if it’d apply to multiple people.

Probably just small things for now. Venomshare and stealth stacking are pretty powerful support options already, more powerful options than some other classes get.

I would actually like to see Stealth removed from abilities like Cloak and Dagger or Black Powder and instead moved to become a general class skill like Steal.

This would give every Thief build access to some form of Stealth.

However, unlike the current implementation using F2 Stealth would consume Initiative so that you can’t stealth indefinitely and stealth comes at the expense of your offensive abilities. You might need to reduce the cost of our weapon-skills slightly to accommodate this change but overall I think it would work better than what we currently have.

TL,DR:

• Make stealth a class skill like Steal and remove stealth components from Cloak and Dagger and Black Powder.
• Stealth now consumes 1 Initiative per second.
• Reduce cost of most weapon-skills.
• Utility stealth skills like Shadow Refuge can remain unaffected by this change.

“Stolen items are useless in group play.”

HAHAHA!

Idiots! (dear mods this is an observation not an insult)

“Stolen items are useless in group play.”

Healing Seed (stolen skill)
use blast finishers and your group will be full hp in no time

Skull Fear
Fear is always good

Throw Gunk
Surprise Shot>Throw Gunk>Clusterbomb geegee

Whirling Axe (stolen skill)
black powder>Whirling axe geegee

Dee Jay.2460:

I would actually like to see Stealth removed from abilities like Cloak and Dagger or Black Powder and instead moved to become a general class skill like Steal.

This would give every Thief build access to some form of Stealth.

However, unlike the current implementation using F2 Stealth would consume Initiative so that you can’t stealth indefinitely and stealth comes at the expense of your offensive abilities. You might need to reduce the cost of our weapon-skills slightly to accommodate this change but overall I think it would work better than what we currently have.

TL,DR:

• Make stealth a class skill like Steal and remove stealth components from Cloak and Dagger and Black Powder.
• Stealth now consumes 1 Initiative per second.
• Reduce cost of most weapon-skills.
• Utility stealth skills like Shadow Refuge can remain unaffected by this change.

This would make S/? way too powerful and kill the D/? and P/D builds.

In gw1 most skillfull play was predicting your enemies. Not only trough movement as in:

• A warrior comes charging in, he will probably hit me.
  But also skills like frenzy, where your attack rate increases but you take more damage.
  And other conditional skills, if foe is knocked down/if foe is casting a skill/if foe is attacking.

Personally I would love to see more of these traits and skills in the thief lane. Which makes thief play harder but more rewarding.

Example:
Now: When you steal, you inflict poison.
Future: When you steal from a foe you inflict poison and bleeding, if your foe is attacking you are knocked down.

Now: Cloak and Dagger: Become invisible for x seconds.
Future: Become invisible for x -2 seconds, when you hit the foe in the back; become invisible for x +2 seconds.

If you would only punish bad play, you could call it nerfing. But technically you could still be as effective if your personall skill gets better:

Example:
Now: Cloak and Dagger: Become invisible for x seconds.
Future: Become invisible for x -2 seconds, when you hit the foe in the back; become invisible for x +*0* seconds.

If people would learn which classes you gain each stolen ability from and actually use their finishers we wouldn’t be having this discussion. I swear, I’m the only thief that utilizes a combo field other than black powder.

Not trying to be disruptive here, but stealth in and of itself is not a thief mechanic, steal is the class mechanic, initiative is a mechanic, sneak attack (which don’t care how you became stealthed) are a class mechanic. Just had to get that out, carry on.

Syncesta.7592:

“Stolen items are useless in group play.”

Healing Seed (stolen skill)
use blast finishers and your group will be full hp in no time

Skull Fear
Fear is always good

Throw Gunk
Surprise Shot>Throw Gunk>Clusterbomb geegee

Whirling Axe (stolen skill)
black powder>Whirling axe geegee

throw gunk is only arguable thing bc its aoe. even tho only 3 secs. 35 sec cooldown for 3sec aoe SMALL dmg still kinda sux for the entire F mechanic on thief.

compare to engineer now

3 turrets 1 turret heal

you get this in your f mechanics

1x AOE dmg x3 + 4.5secs burning x 3 + 1s burning x 3
1x AOE dmg + Breaks stun + Stability + Blast Finisher
1x AOE dmg + 1500 Range
1x AOE allies regeneration + water field

and when you place turrets you get 4 more skills

1x AOE dmg + Blast finisher (detonate turret , usually as its low on HP)
1x AOE dmg + Blast finisher (detonate turret , usually as its low on HP)
1x AOE dmg + Blast finisher (detonate turret , usually as its low on HP)
1x AOE dmg + Blast finisher (detonate turret , usually as its low on HP)

then compare ALL this to steal every 35 secs when most of engi is 30s or 25s EACH

900 gap closer
1 item stolen ( most crap )

yes both can be buffed but then they counterbalance. have to look at base. either way thief has the crappiest f mechanics in game.

Bran.7425:

Not trying to be disruptive here, but stealth in and of itself is not a thief mechanic, steal is the class mechanic, initiative is a mechanic, sneak attack (which don’t care how you became stealthed) are a class mechanic. Just had to get that out, carry on.

good point. but only steal and initiative are. weapon skills are different for every class so hard to say its a mechanic :P. i see what you mean but many classes have 2 part skills.

our only good mechanic is initiative which is still less 2-5 attacks than any other class. our steal is worst F-mechanic in game as you will read above this post.