Guild Wars 2

Thief

Piercing Shot: Fixed an error in this skill’s damage tooltip.
Dancing Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 50%.
Blinding Powder: This skill’s recharge has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds.
Smoke Screen: This skill’s height has been increased to help it absorb projectiles.
Shadowstep: This skill is temporarily disabled underwater to keep players from circumventing walls when using it.
Tactical Strike: This skill’s damage has been increased by 10% in all formats. This skill’s daze duration has been reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds in PvP.
Leeching Venoms: This trait now scales based on the thief’s power.
Cluster Shot: This skill’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
Cloak and Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
Body Shot: This skill now allows players to activate other skills sooner after the ability ends.
Sneak Attack: This skill will now only apply the Revealed buff on the first attack that hits an opponent.
Stab: Damage for this skill has been normalized so that it doesn’t deal less damage from behind the target.
Bountiful Theft: This trait no longer applies aegis at odd times.
Scorpion Wire: This skill’s range has been increased to 1200.
Shadow Trap: This skill no longer shadowsteps the thief when the trap is triggered. This skill now has two additional abilities: The first ability becomes available when Shadow Trap is cast and will destroy the current trap. The second ability, Shadow Pursuit, becomes available when an enemy triggers the trap. The thief may choose to activate this ability and shadowstep to the enemy that triggered the trap. If this ability is not activated after 10 seconds, the ability will fade and Shadow Trap will be available.
Piercing Shot: This skill is now a small projectile combo finisher.
Ink Shot: This skill is now a projectile combo finisher.

Overall “interesting” changes in some areas and not at all what I was expecting.

So much for “we are lowering thief spike damage and compensating them in other ways.”

Something tells me that this patch will be a big disappointment for a lot of people.

Leeching Venoms: This trait now scales based on the thief’s Power.

Wow! Now that is a major change for all Thief builds. I wonder if the extra damage is scaling on Power while the healing is still based on Healing. Or is the damage staying the same and the healing is now based on Power? Did they change the .2 multiplier (which was normally applied to our +Healing value), or are we now going to heal for much more? Interesting questions. I’m going to have to pay attention and see how these changes feel. As a Venomous Aura spec, I think that I just got a serious boost in the effectiveness department.

best news is no BS nerf… not fun that dancing dagger got nerfed but largely not too awful… I was expecting a major nerf-bat…

Seems odd to buff Blinding Powder, Scorpion Wire, and Smoke Screen, some of the good utilities already. Yet leave many of the crappy utilities untouched. Cool change to shadow trap though.

I like the change to Leeching Venoms, Im anxious to see how much we will heal for since most builds have lots of power.

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Backstab has suffered a minor incoviniece, (LOLOLOL), dazelock build was nerfed (sneaky anet,1 step ahead of whiners,this was most powerful build,this and pistol/dagger, props to balance team!!), blinding powder is now AWSOME, weird trap reworked, slight nerf to cluster but nothing special, another preemptive nerf on dancing daggers (sneaky developers, again props to them!!),i dont know (yet) if leeching was buffed or nerfed, nice ranged buff on wire,and speacially, buff to P/D!!
LOL,we were buffed!! i knew it!!
Allow me to laugh more:MUAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!

Why they nerf shortbow I need it for mesmers.

The overall damage for a S/D stealth dancing thief isn’t down too much (+10% tact, -33% on CnD, #1 combo no change), and the daze time reduction was probably needed – you’re right in saying that people hadn’t figured this out yet or the whining would have been epic. The DD nerf is more of a buff for rangers than anything else, and now is more of a gap closer skill instead of a damage one.

Question I still have on tact strike – do Sigil of Paralyzation (15% stun duration) and Runes of the Mesmer (33% daze duration) stack? I’ve had a hard time figuring this out in the mists.

OH, and body shot is now quicker on activation and no “aftercast”, it follows up imediatelly with watever u wanna follow up with!!

33% damage reduction on CnD… ahhh don’t know if that will change the current burst problem much? Dancing dagger wow 50% down. Mug dmg unchanged. Interesting blinding powder got 40s cooldown, now maybe it can compete with SR. I am surprised no real buff to pistols from what i can tell? Otherwise i suppose nothing too drastic here. CnD steal precast still possible. hmm. guess this is supposed to be quick 3s down on glass cannon game. I reserve judgment until playing 2nite and see how these changes interact with other class changes in PvP (looks like guard healing nerfed, not sure about water ele)

Cufflink.3985:

The overall damage for a S/D stealth dancing thief isn’t down too much (+10% tact, -33% on CnD, #1 combo no change), and the daze time reduction was probably needed – you’re right in saying that people hadn’t figured this out yet or the whining would have been epic. The DD nerf is more of a buff for rangers than anything else, and now is more of a gap closer skill instead of a damage one.

Question I still have on tact strike – do Sigil of Paralyzation (15% stun duration) and Runes of the Mesmer (33% daze duration) stack? I’ve had a hard time figuring this out in the mists.

No, they dont stack; before this patch, both were giving tactical strike 3 secs duration,now i believe they will make daze last for 2 secs.

All they really did was push people away from using off-hand Dagger. 50% reduction on DD is huge, and the 33% reduction on Cloak and Dagger wasn’t where the reduction was necessary. Now we have a hard to land ability that deals far less damage than a 900 range distance closer, assuming you have a 10 point trait. That seriously makes no sense.

Mug is what needed nerfed. It’s far too cost efficient in terms of traits, and it dealt way too much damage when combined with everything else. Now we have a useless off-hand weapon, and Steal is still good.

Guess I’ll just go play D/P like I wanted.

I’m also confused as to why they nerfed short bow. Its damage has always been mediocre. Now it’s just awful. It’s still going to be a near-required offhand for WvW or sPvP for movement. Now you just can’t use it as an actual ranged option anymore and expect to deal damage.

I also like how they said they were going to buff other areas to compensate. They barely buffed anything at all. P/P is still bad, Flanking Strike is still bad, S/P is still underwhelming, and traps are still awful, among other things.

This is a really disappointing patch as a whole.

“Scorpion Wire: This skill’s range has been increased to 1200.”
-do you have any idea how many little kittens im going to snag off the walls and zerg-face-stomp in WvW???? >:D
“Blinding Powder: This skill’s recharge has been reduced from 60 seconds to 40 seconds”
-:O!!!!
that is all

Eduardo.4675:

Cufflink.3985:

The overall damage for a S/D stealth dancing thief isn’t down too much (+10% tact, -33% on CnD, #1 combo no change), and the daze time reduction was probably needed – you’re right in saying that people hadn’t figured this out yet or the whining would have been epic. The DD nerf is more of a buff for rangers than anything else, and now is more of a gap closer skill instead of a damage one.

Question I still have on tact strike – do Sigil of Paralyzation (15% stun duration) and Runes of the Mesmer (33% daze duration) stack? I’ve had a hard time figuring this out in the mists.

No, they dont stack; before this patch, both were giving tactical strike 3 secs duration,now i believe they will make daze last for 2 secs.

Looks like I’ll have to go test the new tact strike with these combo’d and individual, to see if anything has changed there. Would be cheeky of them to nerf the duration, only to allow both of these to stack now.

Psikerlord.2569:

33% damage reduction on CnD… ahhh don’t know if that will change the current burst problem much? Dancing dagger wow 50% down. Mug dmg unchanged. Interesting blinding powder got 40s cooldown, now maybe it can compete with SR. I am surprised no real buff to pistols from what i can tell? Otherwise i suppose nothing too drastic here. CnD steal precast still possible. hmm. guess this is supposed to be quick 3s down on glass cannon game. I reserve judgment until playing 2nite and see how these changes interact with other class changes in PvP (looks like guard healing nerfed, not sure about water ele)

There was a buff to pistols, body shot is now quicker,and most important, the sneack attack before required 3 autos before reapllying C&D, now its only 2 and a very slight delay on C&D… BUUUUUUFFFF!!

Eduardo.4675:

buff to P/D!!!

I don’t know if you are trolling or being serious while trying to be funny (I really don’t, sorry). How did P/D get buffed? CnD damage reduction? Dancing Dagger reduced by 50%?

Seems P/D got hit… what am I missing?

ROFL – I just logged in, I have to relearn CnD now! That nerf should have been documented :P

I thought we were supposed to get nerfed in the burst department and get buffed in other ones such as condition builds?

Honestly, as a warrior the only real annoying problem was stealth rendering to slow. They still should of added getting hit removing stealth. A BS I can live through, it’s the whole spike as a whole that’s the problem and perhaps the CnD nerf makes it less insane. I’d like to see thieves be more like assassins in GW1 where you could run a spike but chances are you needed the target to be hurt already to kill.

I do agree with the idea of not making thieves worthless but I do want to see the game as a whole move away from spike and more into DPS.

50% damage reduction on dancing dagger?

It now does less damage than a shortbow auto attack and STILL costs 4 init?

Methinks they did not think this one through very much.

Shortbow damage nerf – what were they thinking?!! Nerfing mediocre weapon…

Scorpion Wire – oh poor people in zergs and on the walls /insert evil laugh here/

50% damage reduction on dancing dagger?
It now does less damage than a shortbow auto attack and STILL costs 4 init?
Methinks they did not think this one through very much.

It’s a utility skill.

SpaceCowboy.1398:

Eduardo.4675:

buff to P/D!!!

I don’t know if you are trolling or being serious while trying to be funny (I really don’t, sorry). How did P/D get buffed? CnD damage reduction? Dancing Dagger reduced by 50%?

Seems P/D got hit… what am I missing?

Body shot is like instant 25 stacks of vulnerability now. It’s animation is a lot faster.

Eduardo.4675:

Psikerlord.2569:

33% damage reduction on CnD… ahhh don’t know if that will change the current burst problem much? Dancing dagger wow 50% down. Mug dmg unchanged. Interesting blinding powder got 40s cooldown, now maybe it can compete with SR. I am surprised no real buff to pistols from what i can tell? Otherwise i suppose nothing too drastic here. CnD steal precast still possible. hmm. guess this is supposed to be quick 3s down on glass cannon game. I reserve judgment until playing 2nite and see how these changes interact with other class changes in PvP (looks like guard healing nerfed, not sure about water ele)

There was a buff to pistols, body shot is now quicker,and most important, the sneack attack before required 3 autos before reapllying C&D, now its only 2 and a very slight delay on C&D… BUUUUUUFFFF!!

Except that they nerfed the ever-loving hell out of CnD damage, which was actually the only real source of direct damage the build had.
It was also a very excessive nerf to D/D, even if you don’t play the gimicky way.
I’ll admit that it may have been too strong, providing such easy stealth with that kind of damage, but the damage of the builds as a whole were not out of line, and they did nothing to compensate that loss of damage.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Honestly, as a warrior the only real annoying problem was stealth rendering to slow. They still should of added getting hit removing stealth. A BS I can live through, it’s the whole spike as a whole that’s the problem and perhaps the CnD nerf makes it less insane. I’d like to see thieves be more like assassins in GW1 where you could run a spike but chances are you needed the target to be hurt already to kill.

I do agree with the idea of not making thieves worthless but I do want to see the game as a whole move away from spike and more into DPS.

My Assassin in GW1 could teleport to a warrior and burst his entire HP bar down from full instantly though.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Honestly, as a warrior the only real annoying problem was stealth rendering to slow. They still should of added getting hit removing stealth. A BS I can live through, it’s the whole spike as a whole that’s the problem and perhaps the CnD nerf makes it less insane. I’d like to see thieves be more like assassins in GW1 where you could run a spike but chances are you needed the target to be hurt already to kill.

I do agree with the idea of not making thieves worthless but I do want to see the game as a whole move away from spike and more into DPS.

Were we playing the same GW1? I could burst people in 3 seconds from 100-0(There were no stunbreakers so anything was pretty helpless once I started) as a Sin with Backbreaker and with my fav, the flashing blades build I could upkeep 75% blocking permanently and when I did the chain it was a guaranteed a kill

I do agree that stealth needs looking, and quickly also, the rendering is aweful

Leeching venoms:
insignificant change even at 3800 power
healing still scales with healing power
Dancing dagger:
Just dead skill. It was my main pve skill
Tactical strike:
Damage increase minimal
Tooltip for daze not fixed?
Body Shot:
still too slow and expensive
Other things are either insignificant or meaningless.

Shortbow nerf = more backstab
x/D nerf = more backstab
CnD damage reduced… like anyone cares

Overall, it went very well. I like the new Shadow Trap and the Scorpion Wire. Don’t play PvP much so I’m not gonna go there.

PhoenixDown.5467:

Shortbow damage nerf – what were they thinking?!! Nerfing mediocre weapon…

Scorpion Wire – oh poor people in zergs and on the walls /insert evil laugh here/

50% damage reduction on dancing dagger?
It now does less damage than a shortbow auto attack and STILL costs 4 init?
Methinks they did not think this one through very much.

It’s a utility skill.

Last time i checked dancing dagger is on weapon slot not utility

Shadow trap: u set the trap, the foe triggers,but u dont shadow step imediatelly,instaed ull gain a " marked" target,and then,since the icon changes in ur bar,u can choseto shadowstep AND become invisebleor not at all… no moreunwanted guests!! I havent tested the range, but if ist almost map wide like before… YUMMY!!

Doggie.3184:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Honestly, as a warrior the only real annoying problem was stealth rendering to slow. They still should of added getting hit removing stealth. A BS I can live through, it’s the whole spike as a whole that’s the problem and perhaps the CnD nerf makes it less insane. I’d like to see thieves be more like assassins in GW1 where you could run a spike but chances are you needed the target to be hurt already to kill.

I do agree with the idea of not making thieves worthless but I do want to see the game as a whole move away from spike and more into DPS.

My Assassin in GW1 could teleport to a warrior and burst his entire HP bar down from full instantly though.

At launch maybe, but towards the end of it they were pretty well balanced.

I thought they were going to reduce burst damage of backstab builds not ruin everyone’s build that didn’t want to go glass cannon backstab build. /boggle

I think Anet is more clueless about balancing than SOE was in EQ2…..and that is saying something.

Oh look warriors got more buffs. Who saw that coming. LOL.

Update: Runes of Mesmer and Sigil of Paralyzation do not seem to have any effect on Tactical Strike daze. I hope this is unintended… can someone else verify?

Kizee.2184:

I thought they were going to reduce burst damage of backstab builds not ruin everyone’s build that didn’t want to go glass cannon backstab build. /boggle

Exactly, BS is still going to be strong but now my precious non glass S/D sucks.

Cufflink.3985:

Update: Runes of Mesmer and Sigil of Paralyzation do not seem to have any effect on Tactical Strike daze. I hope this is unintended… can someone else verify?

Can’t test yet. If this is true…kitten

All i can say :
Thx to A-net for this patch
as an thief i welcome the changes:)

SpaceCowboy.1398:

Eduardo.4675:

buff to P/D!!!

I don’t know if you are trolling or being serious while trying to be funny (I really don’t, sorry). How did P/D get buffed? CnD damage reduction? Dancing Dagger reduced by 50%?

Seems P/D got hit… what am I missing?

You are completely oblivious to the mechanics of both sneack attack and tactical strike: they both required a sort of “tempo” to maximize DPS, the tempo for sneack attack was 3 autos after the sneak, then pop C&D, now u need only 2, thus, dmg increased… and body shot applies 25 stacksof vuln in a matter of 3 secs tops,its team ability now.

eXs.6210:

best news is no BS nerf… not fun that dancing dagger got nerfed but largely not too awful… I was expecting a major nerf-bat…

i agree with the dmg reduction, it was ridiculous but they also should has reduced its cost by 1 init imo, other than that im a very happy thief

ens.9854:

50% damage reduction on dancing dagger?

It now does less damage than a shortbow auto attack and STILL costs 4 init?

Methinks they did not think this one through very much.

Yeah that was pretty silly in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong DD deserved a nerf but not that much of a nerf…

BurrTheKing.8571:

Doggie.3184:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Honestly, as a warrior the only real annoying problem was stealth rendering to slow. They still should of added getting hit removing stealth. A BS I can live through, it’s the whole spike as a whole that’s the problem and perhaps the CnD nerf makes it less insane. I’d like to see thieves be more like assassins in GW1 where you could run a spike but chances are you needed the target to be hurt already to kill.

I do agree with the idea of not making thieves worthless but I do want to see the game as a whole move away from spike and more into DPS.

My Assassin in GW1 could teleport to a warrior and burst his entire HP bar down from full instantly though.

At launch maybe, but towards the end of it they were pretty well balanced.

No, he still does. Signet of Deadly Corruption build is one of my favs to run in FA, and I always disable and kill my target instantly unless one of their allies interupts/KDs me or a monk heals them. Which is why they didn’t add it to GW2 so I can’t nuke someone with 25 bleed stacks.

Yea, the high toughness S/D build I was running is the hardest hit by this, whereas D/D burst is still attractive. Go figure.

Still looks like tac strike daze is unaffected by runes or sigils, would love it is someone could verify or show that they do ><

Cufflink.3985:

Yea, the high toughness S/D build I was running is the hardest hit by this, whereas D/D burst is still attractive. Go figure.

Still looks like tac strike daze is unaffected by runes or sigils, would love it is someone could verify or show that they do ><

The Sigil of Paralyzation doesn’t effect the daze anymore. Rune of the Mesmer only increases Tactical Strike daze to 2s instead of being 1.5s.

Rune of the Mesmer isn’t worth running if it only increases the daze by .5s.

Dreleth.3647:

The Sigil of Paralyzation doesn’t effect the daze anymore. Rune of the Mesmer only increases Tactical Strike daze to 2s instead of being 1.5s.

Rune of the Mesmer isn’t worth running if it only increases the daze by .5s.

Awesome, so my S/D daze build was nerfed by 1.5 seconds

Are you sure mesmer runes are having an impact? I cannot see any difference using them in the mists

Range on shadow trap seems like before, so now we have another good stealth skill, specially for www… as if the culling issue wasnt bad enough,lol.

Cluster Bumb – Nerf was really uncalled for. Would have accepted this nerf if they sped up it’s projectiles at longer ranges or increased it’s range to balance it out.

Dancing Daggers – It needed a nerf. BUT not this bad a nerf. I would’ve nerfed its damage for each consequtive bounce instead of 50% as a whole.

Cloak and Dagger – CnD didn’t need the nerf, Backstab did. and 33% is just going overboard.

My only real opinion is that I think they are missing the mark on nerfing ability damage. The issue is stat stacking on glass canon builds. Nerfing damage to the ability means that those with low damage attacks are penalized when their damage was not an issue in the first place.

Why would they nerf shortbow… Anet you have failed.

25% would have been appropriate, 50% was too much. Otherwise, I’m mostly disappointed they didn’t do anything with Venoms.

Thebeginning.7053:

Why would they nerf shortbow… Anet you have failed.

That was the only unbelievable nerf I’ve seen. It’s just cruel to nerf shortbow. Now it’s balance is upset and it’s going to need something to fix it, like faster bomb speed or longer range.

You guys are missing the point. It’s obvious that they’re slowly phasing out Thieves from the game, so they’re goading you in to re-rolling Warrior, the perfect profession that will receive buffs depending on how generous they feel at any given time.

Really, what the actual kitten were they thinking?