Guild Wars 2

Should be boosted from 30% to 60%. It no longer does burst damage really, it would open up our ability a lot more.

You know, you have a lot of wacky balance suggestions but this one might actually be in line. Consider that steal is a one way shadowstep, and that compared to the other class with a single key ability of moderate power (warrior) a fully traited 18 second steal cooldown seems like it might be in line with warrior adrenaline use, mesmer’s basic shatter, etc. I feel like even traited with the new non-crit mug steal traits add up to a similar power level as these profession mechanics.

Combine this with the idea in SOTG of making steal function as a shadowstep regardless of distance and you’re looking at what Anet seems after, which is increasing thief mobility (shadowsteps) and survivability (most PvP steals are a form of defense or CC) across the board.

It’s also sort of internally limited because of the basic binary nature of our one “pocket” for stolen items. You’d be spamming them a lot if you wanted to keep steal’s CD ready, but that’s not always an optimal way to use them so it would definately make steal more useful without, IMO, overpowering it, or needing to add complex mobility tools to individual weapon sets.

However… 18 seconds recharge may necessitate a few nerfs to some stolen skills. Having warrior axes, guardian stun, or necro fear on an 18 second cooldown may be a bit too powerful. I’d be willing to trade in duration on these kinds of effects for the faster steal CD though.

PopeUrban.2578:

You know, you have a lot of wacky balance suggestions but this one might actually be in line. Consider that steal is a one way shadowstep, and that compared to the other class with a single key ability of moderate power (warrior) a fully traited 18 second steal cooldown seems like it might be in line with warrior adrenaline use, mesmer’s basic shatter, etc. I feel like even traited with the new non-crit mug steal traits add up to a similar power level as these profession mechanics.

Combine this with the idea in SOTG of making steal function as a shadowstep regardless of distance and you’re looking at what Anet seems after, which is increasing thief mobility (shadowsteps) and survivability (most PvP steals are a form of defense or CC) across the board.

It’s also sort of internally limited because of the basic binary nature of our one “pocket” for stolen items. You’d be spamming them a lot if you wanted to keep steal’s CD ready, but that’s not always an optimal way to use them so it would definately make steal more useful without, IMO, overpowering it, or needing to add complex mobility tools to individual weapon sets.

However… 18 seconds recharge may necessitate a few nerfs to some stolen skills. Having warrior axes, guardian stun, or necro fear on an 18 second cooldown may be a bit too powerful. I’d be willing to trade in duration on these kinds of effects for the faster steal CD though.

Thieves can’t really choose which opponents they fight though.

Daecollo.9578:

Thieves can’t really choose which opponents they fight though.

What?

Edit: Sorry for the one word answer.
If I was playing a 4v4 against a mesmer and 3 elementalists, I would ALWAYS target the mesmer before Stealing.
All the buffs. All the time.

the ONLY thing worth stealing is whirl from warriors. the rest are kinda neat….or kinda tricky…or kinda fun…..i mean the ice stab COULD be usefull but its SOOOO slow and SOOO small range i think i hit like 10% or less of those :P

Travlane.5948:

the ONLY thing worth stealing is whirl from warriors. the rest are kinda neat….or kinda tricky…or kinda fun…..i mean the ice stab COULD be usefull but its SOOOO slow and SOOO small range i think i hit like 10% or less of those :P

and the water field from ranger is bad, specialy when you got an shortbow to area heal 5 ally’s for 1400 x5 blastsx 5 targets -you actualy can heal in 3 seconds 35000 hp with 1 steal and 15 initiative
also the area fear from necro is bad /the daze from guardian /all buffs from mesmer… etc

Rayya.2591:

Travlane.5948:

the ONLY thing worth stealing is whirl from warriors. the rest are kinda neat….or kinda tricky…or kinda fun…..i mean the ice stab COULD be usefull but its SOOOO slow and SOOO small range i think i hit like 10% or less of those :P

and the water field from ranger is bad, specialy when you got an shortbow to area heal 5 ally’s for 1400 x5 blastsx 5 targets -you actualy can heal in 3 seconds 35000 hp with 1 steal and 15 initiative
also the area fear from necro is bad /the daze from guardian /all buffs from mesmer… etc

I felt the sarcasm oozing from every word. Love it xD

Rayya.2591:

Travlane.5948:

the ONLY thing worth stealing is whirl from warriors. the rest are kinda neat….or kinda tricky…or kinda fun…..i mean the ice stab COULD be usefull but its SOOOO slow and SOOO small range i think i hit like 10% or less of those :P

and the water field from ranger is bad, specialy when you got an shortbow to area heal 5 ally’s for 1400 x5 blastsx 5 targets -you actualy can heal in 3 seconds 35000 hp with 1 steal and 15 initiative
also the area fear from necro is bad /the daze from guardian /all buffs from mesmer… etc

oh the sarcams :P not a thieves job to heal buddy. did you know that water fields overlap fire fields? did you also know that fire fields are the ONLY ones commanders want down during zerg fights/raids? giving people 25 stacks of might and burning foes i suppose they prefer. anyway yeah but u gotta understand that the 25 might is always better than the heals. bc they are abviously all random… healing going to somebody who doesnt need it….doesnt help. if 25% of the people are hurt and 75% are full HP or close…you have a 12.5 % chance of atleast HALF of the heals being used on somebody that needs/can use them. :P

I LOVE Water fields, I spam bombs on them everytime I see a Ranger using their long duration one in Orr for example. It can heal a lot of people a huge chunk of HP. Thief is a very understimated support profession, specially when we got the best combo finisher in the whole game.

Fire fields are great too for WvW zergs, granted, but you don’t have to overlap them (the splash area from the combo covers more than the field area). About the heals, I think the game heals the ones that need it the most in the affected range but I’m not really sure. Anyway I usually try to spot allies with low hp to share some leeching venoms and try to activate some water field.

And the Healing Seed is my fav stolen skill by far. A P/D can sustain himself with it given how Sneak Attack is a 100% combo on all 5 shots.

The Axe is great for berserks too, but you have to look at it from a wider perspective, not everyone is building berserk (Carrion still hits hard with it though, but I like others more).

I agree that the ice knife is kinda useless given its range and the fact that the chill won’t last a second on a good Ele and most times you end up using it against thin air so you can steal again.

The other 7 are fine, except for some that aren’t very good or are risky if you’re a 100% ranged Thief but you can’t always choose.

Travlane.5948:

Rayya.2591:

Travlane.5948:

the ONLY thing worth stealing is whirl from warriors. the rest are kinda neat….or kinda tricky…or kinda fun…..i mean the ice stab COULD be usefull but its SOOOO slow and SOOO small range i think i hit like 10% or less of those :P

and the water field from ranger is bad, specialy when you got an shortbow to area heal 5 ally’s for 1400 x5 blastsx 5 targets -you actualy can heal in 3 seconds 35000 hp with 1 steal and 15 initiative
also the area fear from necro is bad /the daze from guardian /all buffs from mesmer… etc

oh the sarcams :P not a thieves job to heal buddy. did you know that water fields overlap fire fields? did you also know that fire fields are the ONLY ones commanders want down during zerg fights/raids? giving people 25 stacks of might and burning foes i suppose they prefer. anyway yeah but u gotta understand that the 25 might is always better than the heals. bc they are abviously all random… healing going to somebody who doesnt need it….doesnt help. if 25% of the people are hurt and 75% are full HP or close…you have a 12.5 % chance of atleast HALF of the heals being used on somebody that needs/can use them. :P

Did you know that water fields can be blasted by people that aren’t yourself? How about that it heals in an area, or that it heals for a considerable amount? How about that projectile finishers give regeneration through it? And if you think that it isn’t your job to heal, why? Because generic ‘thieves’ don’t?

How about that the necro fear disables 5 people for up to 3 seconds? It doesn’t even break stealth. The engineer ‘throw gunk’ is a chaos field – chaos armor is the best aura. Mesmer ectoplasm gives you stability, and aegis (I think?). The warrior one isn’t just used for damage – it reflects projectiles like net shot. Thief steal is a free blinding powder.

Most of the stolen skills are actually very useful.

Edit: On TC (T2 WvW), we definitely use more than just fire fields. Water, lightning, dark, and smoke fields are all very useful. Obviously thieves can’t access all of them, but to say that ‘oh we only need fire fields’ is incorrect.