Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone!

As some (or most, I assume) will know, there used to be a Grandmaster Minor trait in the Acrobatics Traitline that would have the Thief ‘Deal 10% more damage when Endurance is not full’.
With the switch of Traitlines to Specialization, this Trait (and yes, many others) was taken from the game. However we now had the reveal of the Daredevil Elite Specialization! And guess what? There’s a trait in there that does exactly was was taken from us and more!

Staff Master – Daredevil Master trait
“While wielding a staff, gain endurance for each initiative point spent. Deal bonus damage when your endurance is not full while wielding a staff.”

… While wielding a staff… Great.
So I had hoped this would be specified a bit further in the PoI, but they didn’t elaborate on it.
I’d like to get a clear answer wether or not this Trait is bound to just the staff, why not for all weapon sets? Sure, I get that they want the staff to have a bit extra in the traitline, which is understandable in a way. But why keep the 10% extra damage part of that trait restricted to the staff? In fact, will it really be restricted to the staff or not?

I personally don’t see why they can’t re-label it to:

Staff Master – Daredevil Master trait
“While wielding a staff, gain endurance for each initiative point spent.
Deal bonus damage when your endurance is not full.”

Seems more balanced to me, at least.
Thoughts? Answers? Constructive discussion and/or feedback? Post below!

The only problem I see is it’d feel pretty meh to spend one of your three choices for that line on if you were a non-Staff user. Still, wouldn’t hurt to have the option.

I would rather they redesign some Acrobatics traits—given that it’s widely considered our worst line by far—and find a way to slip that old one back in, but that’s unlikely.

Yeah, this would see a lot more use opposed to the condition removal if it could benefit more weapons. Not necessarily better, but more lucrative at least. It would also mean that DD could be a competitive PvE line vs. something like Trickery while using Dagger or Sword.

The initiative-endurance conversion should definitely be reserved for the Staff else it would be crazy (I can’t imagine how much more evasion S/D would get on top of its superior mobility to Staff already).

@Amante Agreed, Acrobatics could do with major reworks.I fear though that with the addition of Daredevil, the chances of an Acro rework are ever so slim.
For that reason I’d rather have Daredevil the best (replacement) it can be.

@Auesis S/D would indeed get a bit too crazy I think (I’d like to try it though).
PvE-wise, I haven’t the foggiest to be honest. I didn’t even think about that side of the game (sorry!). Doesn’t take away the fact that you make a valid point.

At any rate, this small adaption would mean that non-staff users would at least have 3 traits to consider, rather than 2.

Vornollo.5182:

@Auesis S/D would indeed get a bit too crazy I think (I’d like to try it though).
PvE-wise, I haven’t the foggiest to be honest. I didn’t even think about that side of the game (sorry!). Doesn’t take away the fact that you make a valid point.

No problem, that usually happens. Especially in that huge rework suggestion thread, pretty much everything was so PvP-centric that they would have totally broken PvE for Thieves and made them worse than Necros if they ever got their way.

Basically, Trickery has a nice amount of group support with its Vigor at about 50% uptime and good Initiative management with the low Steal cooldown plus gaining it back on Steal, and a fair amount of Quickness from Flanking Strikes. One of the biggest benefits is Lead Attacks, which is usually at 10% but CAN stay at 15% sometimes.

If we were to use DD instead, and Staff Master were to be like you suggested, then we could trade off our group support, Steal benefits/Initiative sustenance and Quickness for some decent static damage boosts and more selfish benefits in the endurance etc, while having a more interesting rotation to try and keep up with the old one, incorporating dodges and such. I don’t think it would completely match Trickery damage-wise but it would be a very close match and a more fun alternative.

Vornollo.5182:

I’d like to get a clear answer wether or not this Trait is bound to just the staff, why not for all weapon sets? Sure, I get that they want the staff to have a bit extra in the traitline, which is understandable in a way. But why keep the 10% extra damage part of that trait restricted to the staff? In fact, will it really be restricted to the staff or not?

That’s because they’ve added Evasive Empowerment to the mix which technically does exactly what you’re looking for. When you dodge, your endurance is not full, you deal more damage. The good thing about this one is that even if your endurance refilled afeter dodging…you still get the 10% damage boost.

So it would be redundant if Staff Mastery also gives 10% boost to other weapon set, then nobody will take the Staff — this trait makes the Staff extra special.

Yeah that makes no sense considering it’s only for a single hit.
Sorry but how can you seriously consider that a proper reason when there’s already so many damage multipliers around that simply use a different trigger than “endurance not full”.
Why would you limit (or rather cripple) a trait in such a way?

Anet does this with many weapons. it isn’t unheard of.. look at Mesmer greatsword..

Vornollo.5182:

Yeah that makes no sense considering it’s only for a single hit.
Sorry but how can you seriously consider that a proper reason when there’s already so many damage multipliers around that simply use a different trigger than “endurance not full”.
Why would you limit (or rather cripple) a trait in such a way?

Probably a static 10% damage is just too good and perhaps the same reason they gutted Feline Grace.

Static 10% damage is too good because we dodge too much, noted.

So in conclusion it seems that no one knows how this trait will work.
Then I’d go for a call to action and have thieves give it as feedback.
We got other ways of getting 10% extra damage so it’s certainly not overpowered. There’s definitely no reason to limit it to the Staff.

Vornollo.5182:

Static 10% damage is too good because we dodge too much, noted.

So in conclusion it seems that no one knows how this trait will work.
Then I’d go for a call to action and have thieves give it as feedback.
We got other ways of getting 10% extra damage so it’s certainly not overpowered. There’s definitely no reason to limit it to the Staff.

One probable reason was already given to you, to give Staff something special. You just don’t want that reason even though it make a lot of sense seeing that this is an Elite Spec supporting a Staff.

I did take note of that, hence the original suggestion I made to leave the ‘endurance returned on initiative spent’ for Staff.
The damage multiplier is strange to keep tied to the staff. If ANet fears that such a trait is needed as staff-restricted, they made a flaw with staff design and openly admit it really.
And that’s when you completely neglect the fact that we had a trait that did just this prior to june 23rd.
For proper balance and build variation, I think that my proposed change isn’t that bad. Especially given the fact that you’d give up a good Condi cleanse for it.

Actually no, the damage multiplier isn’t strange. What would be strange is having a trait that does bonus damage for all weapons AND benefits for a staff.

Vornollo.5182:

I did take note of that, hence the original suggestion I made to leave the ‘endurance returned on initiative spent’ for Staff.
The damage multiplier is strange to keep tied to the staff. If ANet fears that such a trait is needed as staff-restricted, they made a flaw with staff design and openly admit it really.

That I agree. I think they are overly cautious about the Staff being too powerful.

And that’s when you completely neglect the fact that we had a trait that did just this prior to june 23rd.

I didn’t neglect it. I’m just not one of the users of it since most of the builds that were going around prior to that date only invest 3pts into Acro just enough to get Feline Grace but not enough investment to get the damage boost.

Thus it’s not something a lot of builds missed nor a big deal even if it is now restricted to Staff only.

For proper balance and build variation, I think that my proposed change isn’t that bad. Especially given the fact that you’d give up a good Condi cleanse for it.

We can’t really say at this point. We’re basically just exchanging speculations.

Vornollo.5182:

I’d like to get a clear answer wether or not this Trait is bound to just the staff, why not for all weapon sets? Sure, I get that they want the staff to have a bit extra in the traitline, which is understandable in a way. But why keep the 10% extra damage part of that trait restricted to the staff? In fact, will it really be restricted to the staff or not?

Pretty sure you just answered yourself. It’s restricted to staff to incentivize the staff. Same reason why Swindler’s Equilibrium only works for staff/spear.