Before I share my thoughts, I want to ask a question.
What was Anet’s intended outcome from this nerf? Does anybody really know?
Sword has been nerfed in pretty much every balance patch to date, some warranted and others not. This happens to be one that was 100% unwarranted.
Lets look at the current sword meta(s):
2/0/2/4/6 or 2/0/0/6/6 Acro Evasion S/D-SB
2/0/6/0/6 S/D-XX
Now, anyone who has played a thief knows the ONLY complaint comes from the #3 ability, which happens to be the focus of this patch…again. The comment was always the same:
“LOL 3 SPAM EVADING NOOB” and any other variation of that phrase.
If you are running the Shadow Arts build then this was only somewhat possible at the expense of blowing through all of your initiative. However, throw the trait feline grace into the mix and that’s where things become problematic. This has been stated MANY MANY time already, but perhaps doing so once more will help. Ultimately, what Anet has done here is this:
You’ve essentially taken the entire evade complaint and made it worse, while simultaneously ruining the S/D weapon sets ONLY burst. Because now you can get 4 evades from Sword #3, 2 from Signet of agility, and basically 3 from dodging with feline grace. This doesn’t even count the vigor from steal/bountiful theft. So instead of nerfing the trait the synergized with a weaponset and making it overpowered, you nullify the entire weaponset and make the evade problem even more ridiculous.
The normal amount of evades by default is 2. Given that the current meta doesnt change with thief, thats 9 evades you can pull off by spamming before vigor. Like, is that honestly what you wanted?
