Guild Wars 2

Hello I am Seth Alre… And I am a D/D Thief for over 4000 hours.
I have loved it, hated it and loved it again. And I still play it 4 hours a day on an average base. I even had a period where I made some YouTube videos with it…

Well I am afraid, I am very very afraid. That there will be darkness to come specifically to d/d players like me… D/D which I personally consider one of the hardest sets to play as a thief and most fun to fight as opponents.

As they already made D/D useless in PvP ages ago… I had hoped to find mercy for HoT…. But as it looks to me now I am wrong, very wrong. Looking at the newer simplified trait system I noticed every thing that made d/d still work is moved, gone or changed so much it won’t work the way we would want any longer. ( I do like how it looks visually lol, but read on and know my concerns)

I do not know all the details of what is becoming baseline and core systems so excuse me if I am wrong about certain things and feel free to correct me in that manner

Now I mainly used

0
6
6
2
0
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In critical arts I used ‘’Trait I: gain fury when target is below 50%hp’’ This is no where to be found in the new trait system…

I used 7 % crit change on sides, oh good that one is still in I like that, odd that its now I instead of III though.

And I used executioner and hidden killer.. Hmm executioner moved to deathly arts OK I don’t care much about that, If I want I can trait into DA for that.
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Now shadow arts.. I just don’t even recognise it anymore…
I am glad they left in the condi-clean on stealth and I can live with not having blind on stealthing….. but to give 3 totally useless traits in the middle line is beyond me… sure stealth on steal may sound nice…
But to me… that means not being able to use half of my combo’s that I use with steal ability F1
I do not want to be forced to stealth on steal. I want just 2 initiative on stealthing… its shadow arts not Steal arts.

And gaining some buff by reviving someone… well good luck gaining something from that when you mainly play solo. and well venom share trait that’s just not my play style. especially not for d/d. and even if I play in a team it would be a quite useless thing for a squishy like me. or a much to rare event as my roaming buddies are boss and don’t die often <3. (oh I jest.) (mostly if we die its a zerg that rolls us over so yea xD reviving is futile)

then acrobatics…
I used speed in stealth that’s there, and I used fall damage trait… but now they combined it with steal stealth something I do not want as it screws up my combo’s so I can’t really take it and feel comfortable. and that leaves me with? well not much.. rather spend the other 4 points into another trait line but well they simplified it, and took out about 50% of the creativity in making the builds… and 99% of the fun in doing it.

Honestly I do not see why they want to simplify a system that was so unique and so rewarding to play around with, I have never faced another MMORPG I liked making builds in as in GW2, I am a loyal GW2 player, I love about every work Anet did to the game truly I do. but this seems so wrong, I do not want to be alienated to the game I spend this much time and effort in. Changes are fine I love em.. but to overhaul a good system is weird to me. even if its easier to balance I think cutting out ability’s of a class is a bad idea..

I originally thought it would enhance build diversity so I got hyped till I noticed it became a line-click tingy with only 3 choices per level (adapt, master, Grand-master) and you cant even put adapt traits into the master lines… nor will you longer be able to spread around your points, something they made so amazing not even too long ago

So yea I am very worried…. I love lots of the new things I just think this new trait system will not work out as you guys at Anet hope, I believe simplifying it this much will just chase away veteran players, veteran players who make the best community in MMO gaming.

Unless of course I got it all wrong.. In that case I would stand corrected. Until then I am very worried I will be able to enjoy a class I main’ed for 4k hours, and loved. I’f I’d lose that sure I have 13 other characters but non of them will mean the same to me as my main thief.

And before you say, I don’t wanna become a full zerker d/d thief. I like skirmishing not fights that end in 5 sec with either me dead or my opponent dead. Any SA thief would understand this.

I know many of you will I say I should just adjust, and honestly I can not agree more.. but there is a limit to that, what is happening here is a cool system with tons of options, being trimmed down to a minimum, a shell, a shadow of its former ways. (unless I miss interpreted it all.)

Seth over and out. I hope for feedback from players and perhaps even devs.

~ \(._.)/

i will probably try out 60606 for d/p in tpvp to see if thats viable
and i would probably also use that in wvw, the extremely low cd on steal makes the steal-stealth-trait pretty nice (especially on d/p where your dmg doesnt partly rely on c&d)
probably the main reason why 60206 d/p works atm in wvw as well is because i’m always full bersi, so its also a matter of gear – if you watch out you will almost never die anyway unless you engage without a port rdy (still using infiltrators signet) and especially d/p doesnt offer that much burst making the fights mostly last longer but imo is still honorable as its a pvp build without 6 in SA
how i feel about the honor after HoT is questionable of course as i will be forced to take 6 in SA if i want any condi removal whatsoever apart from shadowstep

but maybe you could also try 06606, even though then mug and improvisation would be missing
for d/d its kind of a weird choice atm i think, 66600 may be nice for burst, and the regen on stealth may be worth trying out for some extra healing

Yeah teefs are kittened, when I saw the changes I flipped out and thought I might as well learn S/D to have some experience with it, but they’ve even nerfed Feline Grace

This new system has brought great buffs to my alts (Shatter Mesmer, Condi Survival Ranger, Signet Cele Elementalist) but it had me looking at my two favourite characters with eyes filled with sadness (My main engineer and my beloved teef)

Sealreth.1425:

I know many of you will I say I should just adjust, and honestly I can not agree more.. but there is a limit to that, what is happening here is a cool system with tons of options, being trimmed down to a minimum, a shell, a shadow of its former ways. (unless I miss interpreted it all.)

~ \(._.)/

Its not a shadow of its former self at all, the system we are using now is the shadow, this new trait system will be much better, how can you not want 9 majors instead of 7, 3 GM’s instead of 2, and 6 lines to choose from instead of 5. The whole thing is expanding. The SA line which we both know you love is going to be very strong, although I wont be taking it, I have other ideas that I cannot wait to try, personally I’m excited for the new trait system, and yes you just need to adjust, which you will.

To think that the patch is going to make thief’s SA weaker, even though you get free cleanse, regeneration boom, -50% damage reduction, initiative gain, another regen somehow shows that your 4k hrs of play doesn’t help you learn too much…

And missing falling damage trait, I don’t even…. omg… You could trait for much better stuffs from acro post patch, like auto stunbreak on 30CD, resistance on hit, etc. (And don’t forget you get 4 more trait points post patch, so you’re able to get full acro)

Also if you go deadly art for executioner, it’s much better to get that poison + steal 2k hp than getting that worthless 7% crit chance on side. You have much better traits in adapt and major to pick compare to the old Critical Strike Line. If you’re worrying about stats, they all moved to gears, so no traits are bound to critical strike anymore.

Also to think that steal is not important to thief… I don’t even…. Most WVW/PVP thief are all build around that insanely OP traited F1 (boon removal, buff, -cd, poison, 2k hp stealing, and for wvw = confusion), and they merged several traits to make trickery even stronger.

Sorry to say this to you, but I kind of questioning about what you learn about thief from that 4k hours…

I will keep saying that they shaved SA miraculously without nerfing it to the ground stop saying it got buffed. We shall see how smooth the transition will be.

Sagat.3285:

I will keep saying that they shaved SA miraculously without nerfing it to the ground stop saying it got buffed. We shall see how smooth the transition will be.

I’d love to hear your thought process on this. Are you basing this entirely on Cloaked being GM?

So long as ‘Cloaked in Shadow’ is there (AoE blind on Stealth) is there, D/D will work.
Don’t know what the fuss is about.

The revealed iteration of Shadow Arts is a big buff for D/P but a substantial nerf for D/D. Hopefully they’ll change that up before launch.

Sealreth.1425:

I know many of you will I say I should just adjust, and honestly I can not agree more.. but there is a limit to that, what is happening here is a cool system with tons of options, being trimmed down to a minimum, a shell, a shadow of its former ways. (unless I miss interpreted it all.)

That’s not entirely accurate. Looking at Acrobatics where you used to spend only 2 points in, you now have access to the full trait line. This is a great way to expand the profession.

I run 50036 build, but after the expansion, I can now run 60066 where I have access to traits I previously have to give up.

Also having Resilience of Shadow as a minor (if they keep this forever) is a big plus since it no longer competes with Shadow’s Rejuvenation for the GM slot. Your overall survival as an SA user just improved by 100%.

The only annoying thing that will take time to get used to is the Blinding Powder all over the place. BP on fall, BP on Steal, BP on low life, etc. I mean, that’s just stupid and needs to be addressed.

Other than that, I am quite sure that your D/D build will see a lot of improvements in terms of survivability.

evilapprentice.6379:

Sagat.3285:

I will keep saying that they shaved SA miraculously without nerfing it to the ground stop saying it got buffed. We shall see how smooth the transition will be.

I’d love to hear your thought process on this. Are you basing this entirely on Cloaked being GM?

SA lost 300 toughness+healing,CiS did went master that is big, SoR is lesser version of CiS baseline because you will probably get it only 1-2 sec when you stealth instead of negating damage,effect or condition, S.Rej, got a passable addition. It got shaved slightly and with the offensive power/condi creep it’s seems basic.

The removal of hidden assassin from the SA line was a strong offensive nerf imo, but replaced with a rather strong defensive buff.

my guess is anet wants more thieves to get into the other trait lines for might stacking purposes.