Guild Wars 2

So I’m glad I can stop getting auto-revealed from last refuge, that’s a nice buff. But can we just delete the auto smokescreen on going downed?

There’s a reason no one ever picks that thing, and I can guarantee you it’s not because it’s actually good and people just don’t know it is. All it does is wave a giant sign around saying “HEY YOU DOWNED ME, ATTACK RIGHT HERE PLEASE”. Mind you it was often moot since you’d have last refuge auto-reveal you in the first place anyways.

I mean, maybe it can have some use in coordinated sPvP, but for anyone roaming or doing more causal stuff it’s quite useless. I’d prefer if the auto smokescreen was just deleted, the only thing that makes it partially worth taking is the deception recharge reduction. Just have it reduce deception recharges by 20% and nothing else and that sounds like a buff to the trait to me.

And to top it off this competes with shadow’s embrace. Really? You’re going to put concealed defeat next to shadow’s embrace and pretend like it even remotely compares? The 20% recharge reduction on deceptions is quite nice. But you want to trade some the most powerful and reliable source of condition removal available to thieves for a smoke screen that pops when you go down, or an equally useless trait that just automatically reveals you at every opportunity it has?

I mean you might as well just delete the other two options on SA adept tier. Shadow’s embrace is just too attractive.

easy to fix:
switch smoke screen when downed and blinding powder when reaching 25% health to smoke screen when at 25% health and blinding powder when downed

still not sure whether they’d be able to compete with SE, even if you put both of these effects in one trait

I agree with this. I bet it’s hard to balance since Shadows Embrace is such a powerful trait (since it’s almost our only condition removal). The smoke screen is better to be changed into blinding powder I think. I personally liked the Blinding Powder at 25% , but it might be seen as too powerful. Blinding Powder at downed on the other hand doesn’t seem too strong to me so I think it would be a nice change!

Only my opinion though, I can imagine thiefs that died in stealth don’t want to be revealed by a smoke screen, though you can also imagine a smoke screen can stop a lot of cleave which can possible help in your team rezzing you.

Take shadow embrace, ignore the other two.

Yamsandjams.3267:

I mean you might as well just delete the other two options on SA adept tier. Shadow’s embrace is just too attractive.

This ^

There is no choice when the choice is this obvious.

Vavume.8065:

Yamsandjams.3267:

I mean you might as well just delete the other two options on SA adept tier. Shadow’s embrace is just too attractive.

This ^

There is no choice when the choice is this obvious.

True yeah but i mean anet can at least try to give us a choice when fighting non-condi builds even if random weakness or poison can be removed by that…
i mean i will always take SE if i have the chance but they can at least try

Yamsandjams.3267:

I mean you might as well just delete the other two options on SA adept tier. Shadow’s embrace is just too attractive.

To me this is a problem, SE is just so vital to a thief’s survivability that most just cant go without it, a problem that is only going to get worse with the coming condition buffs.

IMO no matter what you put in the tier with SE in it most will feel forced to take SE for the condition management, which leads me to believe SE should have been what replaced Last Refuge as the minor trait (due to its near mandatory nature) freeing up the adept tier so thieves no longer totally ignored the other options in the tier.

IMO Thieves Guild AND Hide in Shadows becomming Deception skills is HUGE and makes the 20% trait totally woth it. I never needed the remove conditions trait in the first place and didn’t have a problem with my stealth builds without it.

The smokescreen is a big positive considering you’re harder to interrupt and only some area projectiles will hit you (plus you can teleport away from that “target” if you want).

Lokheit.7943:

IMO Thieves Guild AND Hide in Shadows becomming Deception skills is HUGE and makes the 20% trait totally woth it. I never needed the remove conditions trait in the first place and didn’t have a problem with my stealth builds without it.

The smokescreen is a big positive considering you’re harder to interrupt and only some area projectiles will hit you (plus you can teleport away from that “target” if you want).

Yes, the trait does work well with HiS and the guild elite, but it’s some very potent condition clearing you’re getting rid of for that. A lot of thieves will also run shadow’s rejuvenation, so the extra healing from more frequent HiS is not as important. The guild will still have a fairly long cooldown as it is.

If you’re going up against a power spec, then yes, shadow’s embrace is probably not going to be a better choice over the deceptions trait. But as soon as you hit someone that can apply very frequent conditions, not having that trait can easily mean your death. Mind you, it looks like they’ve maybe changed HiS to remove all damaging conditions instead of just poison, bleed, and burning.

I’ll still give the deceptions trait a try and see if I can get it to work, but shadow’s embrace is just way to valuable, particularly for thieves that don’t run full deceptions (i.e. withdraw, signets).

Even then, I just want that kitten auto-smokescreen deleted. If I’m already dead, it’s not going to be that useful. If it popped on like 25% health or something, then I’d be fine with it. In fact, I’d be really happy to have it around. But they might as well just change that part of the trait to “reveal yourself when you’re downed”.

Shadow’s Embrace is there, it really is irrelevant what the other two traits are.

Nomad.4301:

Yamsandjams.3267:

I mean you might as well just delete the other two options on SA adept tier. Shadow’s embrace is just too attractive.

To me this is a problem, SE is just so vital to a thief’s survivability that most just cant go without it, a problem that is only going to get worse with the coming condition buffs.

IMO no matter what you put in the tier with SE in it most will feel forced to take SE for the condition management, which leads me to believe SE should have been what replaced Last Refuge as the minor trait (due to its near mandatory nature) freeing up the adept tier so thieves no longer totally ignored the other options in the tier.

SE is the reason why I always had at least 2pts in SA, the other traits are not as reliable as shadow embrace. The only time SE fails badly is when condi bombed + reveal from ranger/engi/trap.

Nomad.4301:

Yamsandjams.3267:

I mean you might as well just delete the other two options on SA adept tier. Shadow’s embrace is just too attractive.

To me this is a problem, SE is just so vital to a thief’s survivability that most just cant go without it, a problem that is only going to get worse with the coming condition buffs.

IMO no matter what you put in the tier with SE in it most will feel forced to take SE for the condition management, which leads me to believe SE should have been what replaced Last Refuge as the minor trait (due to its near mandatory nature) freeing up the adept tier so thieves no longer totally ignored the other options in the tier.

At some point I agree with this. Since thief barely has any condition cleanse at all, people will generally always take this, unless they are dual-ling 1 vs 1 against a power spec. But at the other side, there are probably more choices that are quite obvious. If we would place them at the minor some setups might become to overpowered compared to other profession.

Personally I think GW2 should try to collect some data on which traits are practically never picked on all professions, and try to replace those for some more unique/better traits.