Guild Wars 2

Any ideas on what people want to see for the next elite spec?

One of the ideas that’s being batted around on the ranger forum that I think fits thief way better is a sniper elite spec using longbow.

(Note: thread is for discussion of new elite specs, not current issues that need rework. Be imaginative, and have fun. If you’re not having fun, what’s the point?

Have just seen the deadeye thread for the first time. Appearently it is possible and therefore disproves my entire point. Havent had the time to look into everything in detail yet, but it seems to be good, really good actually.

I have to agree with Asrat.
I would love a thief sniper class but the balance issues are way too huge.
When a double dagger thief one-shots you it’s okay because he is close range and easily punishable.
But a long range burst sniper… (and let’s be real, everyone would try to go for full dmg!) thats OP.
and if the auto attack and damage skills are too weak, then the whole kit is bad.
The main problem I think is that it’s all about damage. If they are able to create the class around special and interesting mechanics rather than raw damage as well as they find a nice tradeoff to the high damage possibilities then I think it’s possible and playable.

All valid points. So let’s table that idea. What elite specs have you guys thought of?

I would love a Desperado elite spec indeed – no need for a riffle actually: just gimme some traits to buff Pistols.

That being said, there 3 things that make thieves unique (besides the Initiative mechanics): speed, spammable dodges, and stealth. SB + dash make them pretty much the fastest class. Physical Supremacy, Staff Master, and Signet of Agility make them the one class that can really spam dodges (up to 5 times in a row!). But there’s one thing that was left aside by HoT: stealth.

Not sure I like it or not, but I have the feeling the next elite spec will be all about stealth.

A few months ago in another (now long buried) thread, I brought up another medium armor class type.

For awhile I played a game called LOTRO. In it they had a medium armor class called the Warden. It was basicly and medium tanking class, but also had ranging attacks. Main weapons were either sword/shield, or spear/javelin with shield. Sword/shield was strictly melee. Spear and javelin were a bit more complicated as you also used a shield with them. Spear was melee while javelin was a ranged weapon. Shield had a sizable notch in the upper right corner so you could both block and jab with the spear while fighting. While we don’t have a Javelin as a current weapon, we do have the Lances used by the centaurs, and the ranged trident for under water combat. So no “new” weapons would be needed, just used differently.

Not sure how this would work with current medium classes, but thief might be better than the others.

I currently main a thief and i’m just thinking a little outside the box!

Ever since I knew classes would get new weapons, I’ve had some in my mind that I really hope make it into the game. I’ll ignore other classes, cause ele elemental sword with teleports and cool animations was something I was also really looking forward to.

Greatsword: I always pictured getting a backstab on someone with a greatsword. The way I saw the skill, it was more like shadowstep behind someone and stab them from behind. Of course for balance reasons, the skill would deal much lower damage than dagger backstab, since it teleports you behind and strikes all at once (like sword 2), and in the same vein I think it would teleport you back. So kind of a sword 2 full combo, but with a greatsword, and leaves you distant. I think there should be a lot of deflections and blocks, so when you are fighting attacks can’t hit you well due to blocking projectiles and other strikes, but I didn’t want to have a lot of evasion. More focused on smashing opponent strikes to avoid them, while also occasionally teleporting behind them and striking them with a giant greatsword.

So that is my top choice for Thief’s next elite spec.

Sniper: I know a lot of people don’t see how to balance it, but frankly I still want to see it. If the actual snipe skill is a stealth skill, and the weapon has no way to access stealth, the thief will rely on combos with traits, or utility skills to access the all powerful snipe skill. I would love to see a long ranged snipe build for thief, but only after we get a type of bruiser greatsword wielder. (with mad teleports, lots of blocks and reflects, but no evasion)

Off-hand torch: This is not my favorite, but I would like to see a more damaging offhand for conditions with creative skills. (Smash the ground with your torch, emitting a powerful blinding flash blinding everyone within 1200 yards of the point of impact every second for 3 seconds. During the 3 seconds a fire spreads from the point of impact up to 600 yards inflicting burning. And other cool skills. Maybe another skill that creates a mirage and when the clone is attacked, the person killing it is struck with 2 stacks of burning. Stuff like that. All about subterfuge, burning and blinds.

After those, I suppose I wouldn’t mind seeing a off-hand shield, longbow, and other cool weapons, but I would firstly love a bruiser, then a long ranged fighter, and finally a condition damage dealer that can keep up in terms of raw damage with some of the other condition damage dealers.

My original concept, but that is just logic, not what I actually want to see.
Its pretty interesting, people already brought up spear and offhand torch, since that pretty much resembles my ideas:

-Main hand spear, not to be combined with a shield, but rather for a wardancer style.
aka pretty much what they turned the daredevil into.

Off-hand torch, but only due to the lack of alternatives, the main concept, that is really fitting the thief class would be a witchhunter. Something between
this
and this

A sniper that uses tge lb or a rifle

I think that thief lends itself to different archetypes, which is reflected in the weapons and the armour.

We have…

Pirate – S/P or S/D
Assassin/Ninja – D/D
Gunner – P/P
Rogue – P/D
Kung F to the u Master – Staff (it turned the name of the martial art into “kitten”

Only one I can’t really place is Shortbow…

So that said, I’d suggest the following:

Sniper – Rifle
Bandit – Axe Main hand
Bard – Focus off hand

And one that needs explaining…

Duelist – S/S – but make it so that it can ONLY be paired this way. (ie you can’t use D/S). They could even set skills 1-5 based on this pairing as this is the elite spec mechanics taking over after all.

Can’t think of much else at the moment.

A lot of people like the rifle idea, and honestly this seems like the most plausible for something that would actually be released (especially considering there are currently only two classes that can currently use rifle lol).

But I’ve always though it would be cool to go away from the steel blade/gunpowder weapons and make a magic thief (no idea what to call it lol) themed around taking traits/mechanics from the caster classes (plus rev, its ritualist-ish right?) and using them on weapon attacks. New weapon would have to be focus offhand, which could make for some pretty cool dual wield skills if you take it to be an attack with the mainhand weapon imbued with some extra effect from the focus. The focus itself would have some kind of support skills, something like shadowstep to target and create an effect based on the caster classes.

This elite spec grants access to the conjure weapon skill type, and the elite spec mechanic is an F2 skill that consumes whatever you have stolen and creates a conjure weapon out of it.

The actual conjure weapon utility skills would be (generally) weapons that thief could already equip, but with attacks based on whatever class (out of ele/mes/necro/rev) they are conjured from. Rather than have charges, these weapons start with some amount of initiative (non-regenerating), and each skill costs X initiative from that weapon to use. When initiative runs out the conjure weapon is destroyed. So you could have something like:

Conjure Elemental Daggers – Dagger attacks with elemental effects; auras

Conjure Illusory Sword & Pistol – Sword & Pistol attacks that create illusions; distortion evades; ethereal fields

Conjure Corrupted Axe & Dagger – lifesteal; boon removal; dark fields

Conjure Mist Swords – Attacks based on the revenant legends (shiro attack is unblockable, ventari attack cleanses condis, mallyx attack applies torment, etc)

Conjure Ascended Staff (elite) – Attacks themed around tempest/chrono/reaper/herald (so chrono attack could give alacrity, herald attack applies boons, etc)

There could be traits that do things like generate certain effects at the location the weapon is conjured (maybe it makes a fire/ethereal/ice/dark/whatever field or grants stealth or something based on what is conjured). Also could have elemental/lifesteal/etc things happen under certain conditions (chance on crit, next attack after shadowstep), and of course there would be buffs to conjured weapons (damage, extra initiative, etc).
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This isn’t a super fleshed out idea and there are certainly problems as I have written it (it’s potentially way too versatile; creating all the F2 skills for class mechanic would be a pain; a conjure weapon heal seems generally bad; conjures have to be balanced around being able to be picked up by allies). But it seems like a really fun idea that doesn’t totally go against the idea of thief as a hard to catch, agile stealth fighter class and is pretty different from what I think most people would make as a thief elite spec!

Remove thieves from the game nobody wants them

Asrat.2645:

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Thief sniper qould be more likely to use the rifle.
But es enthising as the idea is, when you actually try to develop a specialization concept basd on the ‘sniper’ idea you wont come up with anything cool.
I’ve been thinking in that direction for a while and: it would simply be impossible to maintain the classes’ feeling with a long ranged weapon. It would therefore be very difficult to implement the new traits and skills to fit the existing ones.
With thief having an infinite access to gap openers if they want to, anything that allows them to attack from a safe distance is also extremely dangerous and potentially op.
Last but not least there is the initiative system.
Lets just imagine a hard hitting, sniper rifle burst skill: it would be spammable.
Now lets imagine a sniper rifle without a hard-hitting burst skill: Its not a sniper rfile anymore, is it?
I also find the idea of rangers fantasizing about a sniper longbow extremely amusing.
Ya know: a couple of pot smoking ranger hippies under a tree, and then one of them says:
‘Guys…we should get like…a bow…with ranged attacks’
‘brief moment of silence’
‘Yeah’
‘Totally’
‘Sure could use that’

Have just seen the deadeye thread for the first time. Appearently it is possible and therefore disproves my entire point. Havent had the time to look into everything in detail yet, but it seems to be good, really good actually.

:D

Seriously I do recommend thief players who really care about the profession to check my thread out. It is a lot to read, but it’s completely comprehensive, with skill coefficients and everything. The more eyes refining and discussing the idea, the better.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Suggestion-WIP-The-Deadeye-ES-Suggestion/first#post6046130

Anything that makes dual pistols effective and stylish the way they should be.

The Gunslinger

I want a rifle because thieves have the worst ranged options in the game (this is literally the only class without a single 1200 range weapon), and that desperately needs to be fixed.