Guild Wars 2

If swindler’s equilibrium could be made to only activate when steal is already on cool down, that would be great. Otherwise, it promotes opening with steal, which is predictable, and it cannot be easily judged to know when swindler’s is ready to be used.

It’s a nice change, and could be an improvement if adjusted such that it can’t be wasted. Unfortunately as it stands, the previous version of the trait was measurable; you could see it working, and use it without it being wasted, while this version is the opposite. It needs to be improved thus, to compete with improvisation, and give sword builds a chance to come back.

If this really is how this was intended, that’s awful. I hope this is a bug.

I agree, it needs to trigger only when steal is on cd otherwise is pretty inconsistent.

Yeah this is kind of annoying, it can easily go on CD without you benefiting from the trait. But remember this is also how CD works on many sigils, like remove condition goes on CD even if it didn’t remove any condition, as long it procs. I think it’s not a really comfortable design because many cases you can’t even prepare for it with any skill involved

I’ve always felt a little encouraged to use Steal early for this trait to maximize use even if it wasn’t really necessary. It kind of promoted wasteful spending on my part since I’d combo Steal with CnD for some cover after. This change does seem to make it feel more necessary to open with Steal with a set cool down.

Yea if they don’t fix this then it is a clear nerf imho and doesn’t synergize with the thief playstyle at all

SlitheSlivier.1908:

Yea if they don’t fix this then it is a clear nerf imho and doesn’t synergize with the thief playstyle at all

a nerf? how so? i just stole into a guy in wvw, stole 3 boons from bountiful theft then evaded his attack, and then I used steal into him again and stole another 3 boons, not to mention double mug/slight of hand. only improvisation has an internal CD, most steal traits do not.

because this skill procs even when steal isn’t on CD, whereas before the recharge did not

i’d rather have it like it is now than being able to get lucky and steal twice as much.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

i’d rather have it like it is now than being able to get lucky and steal twice as much.

The thing is, currently it is luck; and completely random on if it will work for you. With no way of knowing before you fight if the trait is on CD, you’re left to pray that after stealing your next dodge resets it. If it doesn’t, you’re left in the dark. You’ll have to either wait for steal to recharge fully, or hope your next dodge resets it. That part of the trait just shouldn’t function until steal is on CD, then you could easily guarantee a second steal at any point. This trait is crucial to bringing back power sword, I really hope this gets fixed ASAP.

Best use of this trait is to use bound + steal as an opener, dodge and use steal as you normally would.

they should of left it as it was or at least upper the static %. because its still going to be a random thing due to our soul purpose it to evade to stay a live (not including stealth and position)

As much as I’d like more certainty the trait before the change was more active with Daredevil endurance. I understand it should be equally effective with core traits now, but it shouldn’t have frequent dead space.

The current design of “Swindler’s Equilibrium” has an other flaw, beside it’s activation when steal is already ready.

Look on how the traits internal cooldown correlates to the cooldown of steal:
When the trait is activated, it recharges steal and starts it’s internal cooldown. Usually you would use steal shortly thereafter and start steal’s own recharge cooldown. Which means Swindler’s Equilibrium will always be ready when there are some few seconds on the normal steal cooldown left. Now there are three possibilities:

• You evade before the normal steal cooldown has finished and recharge steal surprisingly a second or two early.
• You evade when steal is ready and waste the use of the trait.
• When you let steal normally recharge, then use it and only then start evading again, you gain a second use of steal.

Nearly every time you would prefer the last possibility, get one normal use of steal and then get nearly 100% off of you next steal cooldown, instead of winning only very few seconds.

Hence Swindler’s Equilibrium punishes to much evading. That is a bad mechanic for a trait for the weapon sets sword and spear or the acrobatics specialisation, which otherwise only encourage evading, like the old trait.

While it is sometimes possibly to differentiate between an activation of Swindler’s Equilibrium and a normal refresh of steal and therefore make a guess about the trait’s internal timer, it is quite hard to plan when you have to and when you shouldn’t evade enemy attacks. Therefor the activation of the new Swindler’s Equilibrium seams most of the time entirely random.

I noticed this, no more sword, back to the old d/p

I agree this needs to be fixed. This trait is very interesting, but its current iteration is lackluster.

It got fixed, 10 mins ago

FIXED!!! woohooo!!!

Thanks for posting and getting this issue noticed! It got fixed. I’m back to being keen to try out S/D with Dead Eye.

My tests thus far have indicated that, while CS with strength runes, sigil of courage and assassin’s fury is the best for damage, the nerf to endurance return from agility signet makes you need another dodge in the build, and I’m not using Daredevil. So, I feel forced into Rune of the Adventure. It actually plays nice, but means switching traits around, resulting in DA being better since without 25 might stacks and +5%, damage becomes around the same, and 2x mug with 1x improv is very nice.

Improv is still useful with swindler’s for the recharge factor, especially when running core thief since there are less skill types in the pool. 4x ecto plasms or mace skull cracks is also attractive.

The tough decision will be whether or not Dead Eye is worth more than DA. There is some brilliant synergy to be had there with S/D. It brings some defense, a lot of offense, and a utility skill which instantly recharges steal/mark. The potential problems are worth vs. improv+mug, and the fact that it seems Dead Eye steal will not shadow step you. An instant ranged daze sounds nice and preferable in some scenarios e.g. DH traps, static fields or a general cluster of aoe.

I see ANet gave the mark the same CD as steal with trickery, but trickery will still be needed for an S/D or D/P build due to the defensive daze, and the (especially now for S/D!) initiative return when you use steal thanks to the first minor trait.

Edit: I don’t think anyone has mentioned or perhaps even noticed yet, but core thief with withdraw and roll for initiative (which is now note-worthy with its much needed CD reduction) can cover the same amount of ground as dash over about 20 seconds, not counting infiltrator’s return for a head start of infiltrator’s strike at the end. The lack of stealth remains a weakness, but with 2 charges of reveal-proof stealth as an elite with Dead Eye, that might be getting addressed.

This skill is now sweet. I was just playing with it with the bug fix and it really pushes s/x into a better place.

babazhook.6805:

This skill is now sweet. I was just playing with it with the bug fix and it really pushes s/x into a better place.

^
True.
Not sure S/D will be good in PvP anyway but defo nice in WvW.

Saku Joe.2857:

babazhook.6805:

This skill is now sweet. I was just playing with it with the bug fix and it really pushes s/x into a better place.

^
True.
Not sure S/D will be good in PvP anyway but defo nice in WvW.

I do not play PvP but am not sure as to why it would not work there. It has the same port as D/P and can conceivably get two mugs in a row. If fighting a thief you can trait up Improv and get 4 stealths in short order via steal and fighting a Necro can garner 4 fears.

If it goes DE it could get even more stealth .

d?P with DrD would be more mobile but S/X should hit harder.

As to WvW , traited with Improv and DE with Fire for effect and Peripheral vision, You can get a whole lot of group support, this dependent of course on what new stolen skills are.

Why is this thread still being bumped (Yes I know i bumped it), The trait is fixed.