First I have to say that I belive the changes to revealed was not needed, the fix to culling was going to be a change big enought to provide reaction time to the GC thief attacks. The change actually hurts those builds that used stealth to keep in combat (balanced builds) and not those that chain stealth to run or to stay in the middle of zergs or the “one-shot” Mug-CnD-BS-HS-HS comboers.
Another problem is that the change came without any other promissed changes to thief mobility. The effectiviness of thiefs (both PvP and PvE) has been changed to anyone that used Shadow Arts line and relied on stealth for buffs/regen.
Stealth has a lot of problems that have been overlooked on this change.
Thief is now very clunky with a broken chain and no fluid attacks.
The change on revealed is bigger than most think.
Its not only that the thief stay out of stealth one extra second, its much more than that.
The problem is, the change decreased thief dmg, buff stacking, healing and utility greatly, without anything to balance out the loss.
For the few people running builds that dont relly on stealth (or only used itto escape) this might not be a big deal, but for those using stealth to its full it was a big deal.
Healing/cleansing – Stealth healing/cleanse was the main form for balanced builds to stay in combat. The extra second means the thief have lost a huge amount of regeneration and now its even more squishy than before. This means that more and more thiefs will be resorting to chain stealthing or heavy GC (all or nothing) builds to be able to win any fights. I dont think that was the intention of the changes.
– To solve that I think healing on stealth could be improved (or the impact of healing power) and/or stealth time increased for thiefs.
Dmg – CnD/BS builds were the best dpsing builds for single target fights for thiefs. For those, stealth was only a preparation for backstab spike dmg. The dmg is now reduced due to the frequency that can be pulled out and what can be done in between (see clunkyness below).
- Sugestion: Increase BS dmg (by more than 30%) and split it into 2 chained attacks. This would make the chain more fluid (BS – new attack – Dagger chain – CnD) and reduce the lost dmg from revealed. It would keep the thief dps for groups (staying behind target) but not much for solo (mobs turn around) and pvp (stealth first attack doing less dmg than BS)
Clunkyness – Before changes, both Sword and Dagger main hand had attack chains that fit perfectly on the revealed time. Now, the extra second of revealed leave the thief only able to do one weak attack (first of the chain) or nothing at all (maybe a dodge). For defensive builds, the lack of a parry or block makes this extra second critical. Now to be able to survive, you need not only 30 in SA but also at least 15 in Acrobatics, to be able to dodge on this window where you cant stealth to regen or attack eficiently.
Suggestion: Make stealth attacks for both sword and dagger main hand a 2-attacks chain or increase the normal attack chain by one attack for such weapons (and increase the duration of its conditions) in order to make combat fluid again.
Buffs/debuff – Stealth also provides might and regen and AoE blind for those traited for this. With the changes, the (de)buffing potential has been fairly reduced.
Suggestion: Increase (de)buff duration and/or stacks of such buffs.
TL:DR – The change hurts balanced thiefs, GC will still “one shot” people, CnD will still be chained to achieve “perma-stealth”, but others are now clunky. It breaks thief ability to stay in combat, buff and debuff. It also does so without any balancing for the thiefs traited for balanced play (staying in the fight) and without the promissed increase in mobility.