Hello all. Hopefully this post has some educational merit to it, for those of you interested in learning more of the details about playing your Thief. This post is in Quiz form (mixed multiple choice and free response), hopefully to make it more entertaining. How many questions will you get right, without looking them up?
Section 1 – Initiative
1) Initiative points regenerate at a rate of…?
a. 1 per second
b. 1 per 2 seconds
c. 1 per 1.67 seconds
d. 1 per .5 seconds
the correct answer is c. 1 per 1.67 seconds
2) What is the starting size of the initiative pool? What is the maximum size?
starting size is 12 points of initiative. can be expanded to 15 points with the Preparedness trait (15 points in the Trickery line).
3) Which abilities ACTIVELY recover initiative (meaning instantly gain more initiative when activated)?
Roll for Initiative restores 6 initiative when used. It is the only ability available by default that instantly recovers initiative. However, several traits can grant this ability.
Kleptomaniac trait (5 points in Trickery line) causes Steal to gain 3 initiative.
Hastened Replenishment (30 points in Trickery line) causes your self-heal slot skill to restore 4 initiative. Quick Pockets (30 points in Acrobatics line) causes weapon swapping to restore 3 initiative.
Infusion of Shadow (10 points in Shadow Arts line) causes stealthing to gain 2 points.
Signet Use (20 points in Critical Strikes line) causes using a Signet to gain 2 points.
4) Which abilities PASSIVELY recover initiative (meaning gaining more initiative without it being linked to a specific ability activation)?
The only slot skill that accomplishes this is Infiltrator’s Signet, which regens 1 extra initiative every 10 seconds (a pretty weak effect).
Traits can offer much more significant passive initiative recovery.
Opportunist (15 points in Critical Strikes line) gives your crits a 20% chance to recover a point. Patience (20 points in Shadow Arts line) regains 1 initiative every 3 seconds while in stealth, usually resulting in 1 or 2 points of extra initiative every time you go into stealth.
Quick Recovery (20 points in Acrobatics Line) regens 2 extra initiative every 10 seconds.
Initial Strikes (20 points in Trickery line) gives a 7% chance per auto-attack hit to restore 1 point.
1) The endurance bar contains how much endurance? Dodging requires how much endurance?
100 points total. 50 points to dodge roll
2) What is the natural regen rate of the Endurance bar?
a. 10 per second
b. 5 per second
c. 7.5 per second
c. 15 per second
the answer is b. 5 per second. this means that it takes 20 seconds to regen a full bar of endurance, and each dodge consumes 10 seconds worth of endurance.
3) Which conditions PREVENT a player from dodge rolling?
Immobilized makes an afflicted player unable to use their dodge roll. Chilled and Crippled affect the distance your dodge roll travels, making it MUCH less effective at getting out of the way of incoming attacks (particularly true of Chilled which slows you by 66%). Other control impairing effects like Stunned, Knocked Down, and Feared have this effect as well (because they disable all control of your character). Your own slot skill Haste will also drain your endurance and block endurance recovery for 4 seconds, so this makes YOU unable to dodge for a time.
4) What does Vigor do and what grants it?
Vigor is a boon that doubles the rate of endurance recovery. A character buffed by Vigor can effectively dodge twice as often (every 5 seconds rather than every 10). Thieves have no slot skills or weapon skills that grant Vigor but do have some traits that grant it. Vigorous Recovery (10 points in Acrobatics line) grants 10 seconds of Vigor on using the self-heal slot skill. Bountiful Theft (20 points in Trickery line) grants 15 seconds of Vigor (as well as stealing 2 boons) to self and nearby allies on Stealing.
5) What sources of evasion does a Thief have access to?
The normal dodge roll of course, but several others as well.
Withdraw (healing skill) evades with a backwards roll.
Roll for Initiative (utility skill) also evades with a backwards roll.
Flanking Strike (Sword+Dagger dual skill) evades with a flanking maneuver that tries to roll you to the back or side of your opponent. The evade will occur reliably, but the actual position you end up in is a bit less predictable.
Death Blossom (Dagger+Dagger dual skill) is a leaping evade that will vault over an enemy’s head and land at his rear.
Disabling Shot (Shortbow, slot 3) will evade while leaping backwards.
1) True or False: A Thief can be damaged while in Stealth
True
2) True or False: A Thief can be targeted while in Stealth
False, and any enemies who have the Thief as their current target will drop their target when the Thief enters stealth
3) What does the “revealed” condition do?
Revealed is a condition a player gains whenever exiting Stealth. It lasts for 1 second and prevents that player from entering Stealth again while they are revealed
4) Which activated abilities grant Stealth to a Thief?
Hide in Shadows (healing slot skill, 30 second cooldown),
Binding Powder (utility slot skill, 60 second cooldown),
Shadow Refuge (utility slot skill, 60 second cooldown, revealed if leave AoE),
Shadow Trap (utility slot skill, 30 second cooldown, requires enemy to trip the trap),
Steal if traited with Hidden Thief (20 point trait in Shadow Arts line),
Cloak and Dagger (off-hand dagger melee attack, 6 initiative),
Blinding Tuft/Feathers (stolen item abilities)
5) What will drop Stealth?
basically nothing except for attacking or running out of time. taking damage does not drop stealth. i’m unaware of any abilities that reveal stealthed enemies
6) Which other classes are capable of using Stealth, besides the Thief?
The mesmer has several abilities that grant stealth to himself and/or allies. Unlike the Thief, however, the Mesmer does not have any special stealth opening attacks.
1) Which combo fields does the Thief have the ability to create?
Black Powder (off-hand pistol 5 button) can create a small circular Smoke Combo Field centered around the Thief.
Smoke Screen (utility slot skill) can create a line/wall shaped smoke combo field (that also blocks projectiles, this is from Smoke Screen skill and not a usual property of Smoke combo fields).
Choking Gas (shortbow 4 button) creates a large circular poison combo field at the location of your ground target.
Shadow Refuge (utility slot skill) creates a large circular Dark Combo Field at the location of your ground target.
2) Which combo finishers does the Thief have access to?
Heartseeker (mainhand dagger 2 button) is a Leap combo finisher.
Death Blossom (dagger+dagger 3 button dual skill) is a Whirl combo finisher.
All Pistol shots are 20% chance to trigger projectile combo finishers. This is per bullet so the Unload ability (which fires 8 bullets) has 8 chances to trigger a combo if shot through a field.
Trick Shot (shortbow 1 button) is a 20% chance projectile finisher. Disabling Shot (shortbow 3 button) is a 100% chance projectile finisher.
Dagger Storm (elite slot skill) is a Whirl Combo finisher that combos with the field you are whirling in once per second for its entire duration (8 seconds).
Finally, Cluster Bomb (Shortbow button 2) is a blast finisher.
3) Which Weapon Set has the most combo finishers? Which has the least?
Sword+Dagger has zero combo finishers. It is the only weapon set totally incapable of interacting with combo fields.
Sword+Pistol is also a bit restricted here, but has projectile finishers from pistol off-hand (4 and 5), though these are impractical finishers.
Dagger+Dagger is tied for the most (with Shortbow) with both a Leap (Heartseeker) and a Whirl (Death Blossom).
Shortbow also has 2 finishers, a projectile finisher and a blast finisher
4) What self-combos (where the Thief provides both the Combo Field and the Finisher) does the Thief possess?
Smoke Field + Leap = Enter Stealth
Smoke Field + Projectile = blind enemy hit by that projectile
Smoke Field + Whirl = Blinding Bolts (blind enemies hit by the scattered blinding projectiles)
Smoke Field + Blast (note: hard to pull off, requires rapidly swapping to Shortbow) = Area Stealth (all nearby allies are put into stealth)
Poison Field + Leap (note: hard to pull off, requires rapidly swapping to mainhand dagger) = Weakness
Poison Field + Projectile = poison enemy struck by that projectile
Poison Field + Whirl = Poison Bolts (poison enemies hit by scattered poison projectiles)
Poison Field + Blast = Area Weakness (weakens all enemies in the blast radius)
Dark Field + Leap = Blind enemy struck by the leap attack
Dark Field + Projectile = Life Leeching (steal health from enemy hit by that projectile)
Dark Field + Whirl = Leeching bolts (steal health from enemies hit by scattered leeching projectiles)
Dark Field + Blast = Area Blindness (blinds all enemies in the blast radius)
5) True or False: two combo fields in the same area will apply both effects to a finisher used in the area?
False. only the most recently created combo field will apply. finishers can only trigger one field at a time
6) True or False: there is a limit to how many combos a single field can produce from finishers used in it?
False. a combo field will combo with EVERY finisher used in the field by any number of players.
I have Evaded a few times with Steal.
Obviously not in melee range, but works very well with projectiles, spells and other ranged abilities with traveling time.
Overall a nice read and a very clever idea thanks!
Worth noting that the minor trait “Swiftness on evade” needs to be reworded “Swiftness on dodge” as it only happens when you dodge, not during moves like Withdraw or RFI.
I hope you haven’t forgotten my role in this little story. I’m the leading man.
You know what they say about the leading man? He never dies.
Can you add detail regarding the 15 points acrobatics endurance regain after all dodges- do we know the exact value of that recharge, it seems to be close to 40-60% of that 50 cost
you are referring to Feline Grace, right? I don’t have exact numbers on that skill. The wiki entry implies that it restores about 20 endurance. That sounds about right, but I don’t have an exact answer for you, unfortunately.
interesting. i was unaware of those traits. i know that those classes don’t have any activated skills that stealth them. can you list which traits these are? good to learn something new about other classes.
initiative regens on a rate of 0.75 per sec. 3 ini every 4 secs. The solution is wrong, since it states ( 1.67) 2 ini every 3 secs.
Chill doesn’t prevent dodging, only immobilize, as far as conditions go.
Combo fields: an AoE finisher can trigger both combo fields as long as they’re not overlapped ( tried with cluster bomb detonate on various combo fields).
