Guild Wars 2

This is all about builds which take “Infusion of Shadow” to gain ini upon entering stealth. I will show a maybe good build for D/P (traits only, gear and utilitys are your choice) and explain how the “Infusion of Shadow” fix will affect stealth builds

At the 10.12.13 thief will see some change in their resource management.
One is the “fix” on “Infusion of Shadow” to gain only 2 initiative on entering from nostealth to stealth and not from stealth to stealth.
With this “fix” perma stealth D/P will be near dead or you could spend all your ini one time to leap through “Black Powder” 3-4 times and gain a good amount of stealth.
After that you have 0 ini and you have to run away.
If you play D/P more agressivly and dont need to stack stealth, because you use every backstab possible, not much will change.

But how will the thief trait in the near future?
If you play D/D you can stay with 10/30/30/0/0 or 0/30/30/10
but i think D/P will trait differently in the future.
The amount of stealth D/P could gain is perfect for the trait “Shadow’s Rejuvenation”
to get the maximum hp reg out of it.
But you cant stack stealth very good in the future without blowing your utility skills.
And with that i mean “Shadow Refuge”.
So maybe a D/P thief will specc 0/30/25/15/0 to gain 1 extra dodge roll,
only use 1 “Heartseeker” in “Black Powder” for 3 sec stealth, use every backstab if possible and only use more “Heartseeker” to run away and survive. With that you can counter every melee or warrior. Conditions can be a problem, because you cant go through “Black Powder” with “Heartseeker” multiple times in a row anymore.

With all that in mind it is not possible to…
regain full ini with “Shadow Refuge”
regenerate a huge amount of health in stealth
gain 2 ini again after going stealth and gaining stealth
(stealth + heal “Hide in Shadows” = only 2 ini on the first stealth)
gain near “infinte” stealth with “Black Powder” / “Smoke Screen” + “Heartseeker”
clear more conditions with the “stealth combo”
stack stealth very high in dungeons to avoid trash
walk behind a zerg in stealth and spy the hell out of them

And that means…
carefull use of stealth utilitys to not lose 2 ini
maybe “more” skill needed for stealth builds
less condi remove (hi @ necros)
more time seeable and most of the time main target by raging warris who you downed
the last matches in spvp or in front of their spawn in wvw.

What bugs me the most is the amount of stealth for 1 “Heartseeker” + “Blackpowder”.
The thief uses for that combo, if traited, 7 ini for 3 seconds of stealth, while D/D needs to hit the target but gain 4 seconds for 4 ini.
I think the combo should cost 6 ini in total to be a little bit fair, cause you and me know that 3 sec are not long. In 3 sec everybody can avoid a backstab by running and dodging and for that 7 ini is too much.
Today that is no problem because of very good stealthstacking but in the future you may be not possible to get the backstab done in just 3 secs and shwoops you shot 7 ini into the wind.

MfG

Ps: Sry for my maybe bad english, but english is not my main language.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cloak_and_Dagger

it still cost them 6. they just got 2 back(if they hit). Just like it cost your combo for d/p 9. You just got 2 back if you complete the combo.

with the new proposed rate of ini regen, you could still get full ini from a refuge(’s stealth provided). (with the spec you provided (no 15 in trickery))

People good at avoiding backstabs will still be good at avoiding backstabs. I think it’s supposed to cost a good deal to enter stealth. I also when I very first saw the d/d and d/p weapon lineups a long year ago never would have thought:

Hey, that d/p set looks like it’s meant to be in stealth a lot. Even knowing about the combo.

We are calculators and tacticians. when calculations don’t add up in our favor (I can’t possibly make that backstab in 3s…) (I do concur the +1s minor should affect the combo) – we use sound tactics to be able to ensure one within 3s, or we don’t waste the cost associated, that 9 ini could be better spent closing/opening the gap, and regaining a little and see if the calculations run any better for landing it and devoting the cost associated with your prefered burst method.

Of course, we aren’t all mathematicians, so our calculations can easily be flawed…

there’s always room for human error, it just costs armor repairs.