Guild Wars 2

After years of thinking about thief traps and coming up with a whole host of terrible ideas about how to improve them, I think I’ve landed on something that might actually work for the game.

Thieves should have the exclusive ability to reset traps. Here’s how it would work.

1. After a trap is triggered, a broken trap shape appears on the ground where it was triggered that only thieves can see

2. For a short time, like 8 to 12 seconds, if you get close enough and press F (plus cast time for balance) the trap is reset

3. The reset trap is identical to the original trap

4. Reset traps have a small chance, like 25%, of being able to be reset

Here’s the thing, this would work with all friendly traps. So if you are playing with a ranger, dragonhunter or another thief you can reset their traps too. If traited (Deadly Trapper) thieves would be able to reset hostile traps as well.

I know that this doesn’t actually improve thief traps but it does make playing with them more interesting by reusing and commandeering traps on the field (spy vs spy meta). It also gives thieves, in an indirect way, access to all traps in the game present and future and I think that’s pretty cool. Also scorpion wire.

so to understand your logic.

if someone would trigger needle trap? i could press F and it repop it on top of them ? if so that sounds beyond broken lol.

nopoet.2960:

After years of thinking about thief traps and coming up with a whole host of terrible ideas about how to improve them, I think I’ve landed on something that might actually work for the game.

Thieves should have the exclusive ability to reset traps. Here’s how it would work.

1. After a trap is triggered, a broken trap shape appears on the ground where it was triggered that only thieves can see

2. For a short time, like 8 to 12 seconds, if you get close enough and press F (plus cast time for balance) the trap is reset

3. The reset trap is identical to the original trap

4. Reset traps have a small chance, like 25%, of being able to be reset

Here’s the thing, this would work with all friendly traps. So if you are playing with a ranger, dragonhunter or another thief you can reset their traps too. If traited (Deadly Trapper) thieves would be able to reset hostile traps as well.

I know that this doesn’t actually improve thief traps but it does make playing with them more interesting by reusing and commandeering traps on the field (spy vs spy meta). It also gives thieves, in an indirect way, access to all traps in the game present and future and I think that’s pretty cool. Also scorpion wire.

This does sound like a very interesting idea, but I will have to agree with Taobella in that this could become very powerful, very fast. I will also attempt to brainstorm some ideas on how to balance this, because this is a very cool concept.

Taobella.6597:

so to understand your logic.

if someone would trigger needle trap? i could press F and it repop it on top of them ? if so that sounds beyond broken lol.

Yes and no. You wouldn’t be able to reset the trap until after the animation finished and immobilize wore off. Its hard to describe the timing…trigger, immobilize ends, two beats, broken icon fades in. Same with tripwire; knockdown ends, two beats, broken icon fades in. You won’t be able to stack effects. There is also an activation time to contend with but if someone stands in the the same place knowing that a thief can reactivate the trap … they deserve it.

nopoet.2960:

Taobella.6597:

so to understand your logic.

if someone would trigger needle trap? i could press F and it repop it on top of them ? if so that sounds beyond broken lol.

Yes and no. You wouldn’t be able to reset the trap until after the animation finished and immobilize wore off. Its hard to describe the timing…trigger, immobilize ends, two beats, broken icon fades in. Same with tripwire; knockdown ends, two beats, broken icon fades in. You won’t be able to stack effects. There is also an activation time to contend with but if someone stands in the the same place knowing that a thief can reactivate the trap … they deserve it.

animation itself is a single trigger animation so that like 1/8 and immo can be scaled on con duration all i can see in this idea is thief becoming super broken.

because you have to remember thief does not just have 1 needle trap they have 2 on different internal CD.

so even if you gave this say like a 30 second CD where a thief pull this combo off just once. you have to look at it as that +15 might +15 vul +3 posion +9 bleed +9s of immo well a thief gain 6 second of stealth.

that all being said i do not dislike this idea of trap resetting mech i am just saying. needle trap either have to be removed from the game or would have to rewrite the idea so it cant effect thief traps.

Ok no problem. What if the trap can only be reset if there is no hostile entities in the trap area. That should solve it and frankly is more in line with how I see it working in my head.

Why reset a trap if it is easier and simpler to drop a new one without the casting time nor other silly requirements, like “hostile entities”?

Seriously, what’s the advantage of making this functionality a reality? All I see is more ways to make the Thief’s like even more miserable.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Why reset a trap if it is easier and simpler to drop a new one without the casting time nor other silly requirements, like “hostile entities”?

Seriously, what’s the advantage of making this functionality a reality? All I see is more ways to make the Thief’s like even more miserable.

Because it’s fun. Why else do you do anything in a game? If this ain’t your thing don’t do it.

Each trap you cast can trigger twice without disrupting regular cooldowns. I know everyone doesn’t have the same idea of fun but this fits the theme of a thief and I like traps. Also I’ve always been jealous of ranger and dragonhunter traps. This simple mechanic would let me steal them. Area control, unpredictability, max efficiency, blah blah, blah …

nopoet.2960:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Why reset a trap if it is easier and simpler to drop a new one without the casting time nor other silly requirements, like “hostile entities”?

Seriously, what’s the advantage of making this functionality a reality? All I see is more ways to make the Thief’s like even more miserable.

Because it’s fun. Why else do you do anything in a game? If this ain’t your thing don’t do it.

Each trap you cast can trigger twice without disrupting regular cooldowns. I know everyone doesn’t have the same idea of fun but this fits the theme of a thief and I like traps. Also I’ve always been jealous of ranger and dragonhunter traps. This simple mechanic would let me steal them. Area control, unpredictability, max efficiency, blah blah, blah …

me: “All I see is more ways to make the Thief’s (life) even more miserable.”

you: “Because it’s fun. Why else do you do anything in a game?”

me: /facepalm

Me: Brainstorming, theory crafting, engaging others in a hobby that I enjoy
You: Bringing negative energy

I don’t agree with you about it making life miserable. I think it does the exact opposite. We see the world differently. We aren’t going to come to an agreement.

Answers like “because is fun” is the source of all negative energy.

There has been feasible suggestion about how to improve the Thief’s traps in the past and those are the one anybody can say as “brainstorming” and “theoryfracting” — for instance, a triggered trap leaves a combo field, for example, Needle Trap leaving a poison field — that is a feasible suggestion that is both fun and non-hindrance…and no, that suggestion was not mine. My trap suggestion is completely on a whole different level.

Apologies if someone already suggested this, but what if this was only available if the trap was avoided? Aka evade or invulned, etc.

It could also be tied to one of the trapper traits.

alchemyst.2165:

… but what if this was only available if the trap was avoided? Aka evade or invulned, etc.

Traps are already unblockable. They aren’t likely to be avoided. That situation would almost never come up.

What would be really funny is Anet decides to let thieves reset all traps from both friends and enemies so a thief can get killed by his DH friend’s triggered trap which had been reseted by an opposing thief.

nopoet.2960:

alchemyst.2165:

… but what if this was only available if the trap was avoided? Aka evade or invulned, etc.

Traps are already unblockable. They aren’t likely to be avoided. That situation would almost never come up.

Again, I’m talking about when they get evaded or invulned. Traps get evaded all the time, even by accident.

alchemyst.2165:

nopoet.2960:

alchemyst.2165:

… but what if this was only available if the trap was avoided? Aka evade or invulned, etc.

Traps are already unblockable. They aren’t likely to be avoided. That situation would almost never come up.

Again, I’m talking about when they get evaded or invulned. Traps get evaded all the time, even by accident.

i think being able to eva threw a trap is dumb honestly. it should be classed same tier as a ward if you run in to it should get hit by it.

shadow trap is an excellent example of how thief traps should be, it may need to be buffed in some way but if it wasnt randomly breaking the teleport it would be a good ability

ambush is also a decent idea for a trap even if it sucks now, if you could actually port in your teammate/party member through it instead of a useless NPC i think it would be a great utility skill that fits the dirty fighting theme of thief, something like shadow trap but for your team/party members, of course it would need some adjustments in case of that change, like a longer cooldown and stuff

tripwire and needle trap are examples of bad traps for thief, guardian and ranger traps cover the offensive trap niche much better already so thief could specialize in the area of utility/mobility traps like in the above mentioned examples

yiksing.9432:

What would be really funny is Anet decides to let thieves reset all traps from both friends and enemies so a thief can get killed by his DH friend’s triggered trap which had been reseted by an opposing thief.

This is the exact sort of thing that I would want to happen.; two thiefs going at each other to claim a dragonhunter trap would be awesome! Or even being hit by a dragonhunter trap only to commandeer it, scorpion wire and turn the tables. These are the kind of tricks I expect a thief to be able to play.

Some random details –
1. Reset Trap is a passive ability thieves get when they train their first trap skill and has a 25 sec cooldown
2. Resetting a trap does not trigger Trapper or Dragonhunter runes because it’s not on the skill bar
3. Reset dragonhuter and ranger traps will use the untrated version of the trap
4. Reset traps will trigger Deadly Trapper
5. In order to reset a trap the person/thing that set it off has to leave the trap area for a second and a half (scratch the hostile entity thing from above). In the case of pulsing traps that trap has to both finish all pulses and the original victim needs to have been out of the trap area for a second and a half.
6. The activation time to reset a trap is half a second for thief traps and 1 second for all other traps

I feel like simply resetting traps wouldn’t be that useful.

Why not make something like : " when triggered your trap breaks and leave parts on the floor. Picking up those parts reduce the traps cooldown by X amount" ?

I leave the balance to someone else on the X.

They have the tech to do it since things like continium split exist.

I dont get mind why Trapper’s Respite on Withdraw use triggering at final place…

Wargameur.6950:

I feel like simply resetting traps wouldn’t be that useful.

Why not make something like : " when triggered your trap breaks and leave parts on the floor. Picking up those parts reduce the traps cooldown by X amount" ?

I leave the balance to someone else on the X.

They have the tech to do it since things like continium split exist.

It’s because you aren’t thinking about the synergies between classes. I mean yes on a very basic level my suggestion is about putting more traps on the ground in a shorter time. But it is also about increasing the value of all traps when a thief is around. A ranger might switch to her heal trap if she is in a group with thief because she knows that it can trigger twice doubling the effect. Same with dragon hunter. It would be cool if other players saw a thief and thought oh cool I should pull out my flame trap or lights judgement or whatever. Even if it’s just two thieves, could you imagine the hilarity if both slotted tripwires and they could be reset.

Gatcha.9027:

I dont get mind why Trapper’s Respite on Withdraw use triggering at final place…

The skill heals you at the end of the animation and the trait triggers on heal despite on what the trait says that should trigger on use. If the heal happens at the front, then the skill will be a bad evade skill, since it either heal first then dodge or dodge first then heal. The game treats Withdraw as if it’s two skills (dodge skill + heal skill) in one and if you think about it that way, it would make sense.