(Due to length, my first post is separated into 2 posts)
Before I proceed, let me first introduce myself. I am Exitus, and my main is a Thief named Exitus Peacemaker. I have been part of GW2 for about a year now, with a primary focus on PvP. I wouldn’t say I’m a pro by any means, but I have been told by a few people that I have some skill with the class that I main, enough for me to make several Video Guides on the Thief specifically. I haven’t made a video in a long time, mainly because I haven’t had the time to do it. The last video I made was when I was still running D/D and the Shortbow. I finally decided to go D/P after the buffs made to the Thief’s base Initiative regeneration in this meta where protection is based around how much you can dodge or how many blinds you can spam. It’s really hard to make Cloak and Dagger work in a meta like that. Now, before anyone starts screaming “omg noob QQing on the forums trying to defend his class,” I am NOT here to complain, but rather point some things out and get some records straight. Thus, I will try and keep what I say neutral. Now let’s move on.
I’m assuming anyone reading this post knows what ANet did to Black Powder, so I won’t discuss the change itself. If you aren’t familiar with the changes, I would go familiarize yourself with them now.
I would rather discuss the reaction to the nerf. I took a while to think about it and this is what I have come up with: Whether or not the nerf was warranted, I can see why ANet went this direction. As someone who plays D/P in PvP, I can attest to the fact that if I am fighting a target who mainly uses a melee attack, I nearly always win simply because of the protection Black Powder offered. The only things that could effectively kill me are strong bursts from nowhere when I have no initiative or utility skills ready, which is rare, or by strong AoE spam, which is much more common in this meta. In short, we were pretty much encouraging a meta where people are forced to play AoE condition damage spam. However, actual melee attackers didn’t really have a strong chance against Black Powder if the Thief managed to position himself correctly. There was not much timing involved. It was up to the Thief’s opponent to tap dance around the Black Powder field or stand perfectly on the outside of the ring to hit the Thief (which did/does happen), or to switch to a ranged attack. Waiting for the cloud to wear off was out of the question because we know that the Thief would be leaping through it for stealth before it wore off.
I know there are a ton of people out there arguing that Black Powder should not have been touched because players could just sit on the outside of the ring and hit us anyway. I say to you people that this logic only says that it doesn’t matter if the blind field had 1 blind or 1000 blinds, it won’t make a difference either way if you are up against someone who knows what they are doing. So that argument doesn’t hold up to scrutiny in this particular context.
EDIT: Removed a paragraph due to a misunderstanding on my part.
(edited by Exitus.3297)