Guild Wars 2

I’ve seen a couple of suggestions for how stealth could be changed for the better and I can’t help but want to share my own ideas. I would enjoy to hear any criticism, it helps improve on ideas afterall.

Revealed will no longer be a debuff but a buff that ties the attacker to the attackee. This buff allows the target to see his attacker (but not anyone else who is in stealth)

How it works to the target:
Revealed buff 4 secs when the attacker attacks from stealth. The buff will also be applied to the target if he successfully attacks someone in stealth. Attacks that is classified as aoes will only stack 0.5 secs and single target/melee attacks stack 1 sec. The duration of this buff caps at 5 secs.

This will provide opportunity for the target to keep a lock on the thief. But if he’s bad or the thief got some skills, the thief can evade or blind properly to get the target off his back.

How it works to the attacker:
There is nothing stopping them from stealthing now. Although the target may be able to see you, any benefits you gain from stealth would still apply except for being invisible.

This forces the thief to play smart and focus on one target only or everyone in the immediate area would see you. This also forces thieves to take out either the glass-cannon first or the stupidest player in the enemy ranks.

nope, rangers are getting a 4s reveal every 32-40s, adapt or go home

Ryan.8367:

nope, rangers are getting a 4s reveal every 32-40s, adapt or go home

I don’t understand what you dislike about my suggestion? Can you explain why it’s bad? I made this suggestion as a way to express my ideas about how to counter certain issues and let others take my ideas and expand upon.

If the changes I explained actually did somehow picked up by anet, then 1v1 against thieves would make it harder for them to run away to reset the fight at a more opportune time while keeping stealth as a reliable defense against zergs. If you disagree please expand your thoughts.

No. Stealth Thieves don’t have any sort of damage mitigation. EVERY other class has them, be it protection (guardian, elementalist), high regeneration(warrior, ranger, guardian, elementalist), high HP pool(warrior, necro), stability(warrior, guardian), condi cleanses(elementalist, warrior, guardian), invulnerabilities(warrior, guardian, elementalist, mesmer), NPCs(mesmer, ranger, necro). Only thing they get is a Blind Field, which is useless against ranged attackers and forces you to use x/P, and a blink (shadowstep). D/D will be nerfed into oblivion with your suggestion.

I would like to see how other classes perform if they had to wait 5 seconds before using each one of those defensive skills I mentioned.
I think stealth is fine as it is: 4s revealed is really balanced.

Dumb suggestion, as it would make stealth kinda pointless.

In any 1v1, the Thief would basically be visible 24/7. And then you’d just have a dead thief.

End result? Everyone starts playing an S/D evade spec. And then everyone rages about that, rather than stealth.

high regeneration(warrior, ranger, guardian, elementalist)

Pretty sure a Thief can get kitten close to a Warrior in terms of hp/s, if not above it. Shadow’s Rejuvenation is superior to Healing Signet at 1,980 hp, which of course isn’t a very realistic figure. However, throw in Withdraw or Signet of Malice and the numbers favor the Thief. Shadow Protector easily gets you permanent Regeneration if necessary.

hihey.1075:

No. Stealth Thieves don’t have any sort of damage mitigation. EVERY other class has them, be it protection (guardian, elementalist), high regeneration(warrior, ranger, guardian, elementalist), high HP pool(warrior, necro), stability(warrior, guardian), condi cleanses(elementalist, warrior, guardian), invulnerabilities(warrior, guardian, elementalist, mesmer), NPCs(mesmer, ranger, necro). Only thing they get is a Blind Field, which is useless against ranged attackers and forces you to use x/P, and a blink (shadowstep). D/D will be nerfed into oblivion with your suggestion.

I would like to see how other classes perform if they had to wait 5 seconds before using each one of those defensive skills I mentioned.
I think stealth is fine as it is: 4s revealed is really balanced.

I understand what you trying to say. Unable to shake off your attacker will be a great undoing of a thief. But the window of opportunity for them to have a lock on you is really slim if you play properly and because only one player can see you (assuming you don’t go sneak attacking everyone all at once)

e.g. When you sneak attack, your target receives 4 secs reveal buff. You do your full combo and at least 3 secs would have ticked off their boon and then you stealth again. This leave them with only a 1 sec window of opportunity to maintain a lock on you. Not to mention they can only keep their revealed buff if they are attacking you when you’re stealth’d (no… attacking something else in stealth won’t give them the buff to see you, But it does allow them to see whatever their hitting)

This also forces you to be more critical about where you stand, stand in the wrong spot and you’ll find yourself being focused down.

P.S. you can spam stealth, so it wouldn’t be as punishing if you messed up since you can still use your stealth attack and stealth influenced traits.

Olba.5376:

Dumb suggestion, as it would make stealth kinda pointless.

In any 1v1, the Thief would basically be visible 24/7. And then you’d just have a dead thief.

End result? Everyone starts playing an S/D evade spec. And then everyone rages about that, rather than stealth.

high regeneration(warrior, ranger, guardian, elementalist)

Pretty sure a Thief can get kitten close to a Warrior in terms of hp/s, if not above it. Shadow’s Rejuvenation is superior to Healing Signet at 1,980 hp, which of course isn’t a very realistic figure. However, throw in Withdraw or Signet of Malice and the numbers favor the Thief. Shadow Protector easily gets you permanent Regeneration if necessary.

it’s a 4s reveal every 40 seconds 32 if you trait for it, explain to me how this would entail the thief being visible the whole fight? thieves are so irritating sometimes, the best at blowing a scenario completely out of proportion. you guys are really good at making yourselves look like the victim.