41 Ranger, 80 Thief, 80 Warrior, 80 Mesmer, 80 Ele.
Thief burst is still too high
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but i agree there are viable builds aside the common ones.
the point is that viable =/= competitive.
You can play as a bunker thief with S/D+ pow-tuf-vit gear or cleric gear and be an indestructible bunker, but stealth doesn’t prevent capping so a thief will NEVER be a viable bunker , because stealth is too important for a bunker thief.
A blind thief, currently, will never be a good roamer because it deals less burst damage than D/D while not providing any relevant support in order to take a D/P thief over another proff.
Current “competitive” builds offer tons of versatility, and they SHOULD NEVER nerf them on non-competitive builds level, because it would simply reduce the amount of versatility the professions can offer.
The nerf on OH dagger and TS really removed 90% of thief balanced/dps builds, without compensating, leading to extrmely polarized gameplay.
I can’t understand how could someone be in favor of it.
Competitive is the thin difference between viable and “there is something way better around”, which is exactly what I’m talking about.
While a guardian can outlast every other profession when speccing as tank, none is going to bring another profession other than guardian in their team to play that role. So, despite the fact that bunker thief is viable (not speccing into Shadow Arts but into Arcobatic/unlimited dodges), people will never get a thief over a guardian in their team because it isn’t “competitive” (read: because there is something better around).
Once guardian’s tank capability will be put inline, probably people will start looking for a valid alternative. Probably there will be more variety or probably we’ll end up on another “must have” profession which still outperform every bunker in the game, which need to be toned down also, until every profession can play tank as effective as every other profession do, according to what ArenaNet originally intended. This is how balance works in my opinion.
1: there’s no way to currently make a bunker thief relying on dodging, due to not having the required healing amount to overcome damage from 2+ opponents, like guardians or eles, or necros.
Currently you can make a stealth bunker thief thanks to shadow rejuvenation+ shadow’s embrace, the 2 most powerful traits the thief has for survivability ( with venom leeching coming close), but stealth doesn’t prevent capping, so a bunker thief is not viable, till they’ll fix FS animation ( DB eats too much ini, moreover a D/D thief is vulnerable to CC effects, unlike S/D).
2. It’s not that some builds outperform other ones. It’s simply that some proffs features are not well designed.
A great example would be MM necro and Spirits rangers: those builds will never see the light in tPvP due to AI/animations bugs, heavy weakness in teamfights, no good reward/cost ratio.
Just like thief traps and 70% of thief utilities ( because 2/3 slots are always Shadow refuge and Shadowstep, because those 2 are the only 2 really well designed utility for the thief).
Current viable classes can build extremely different:
necro ( wells, conditionmancer, basically all builds are viable as long as you don’t rely on minions aside the flesh golem)
guardian ( used in tPvP both as offensive bunker and super bunker, both viable, and with multiple builds).
mesmer ( viable in tPvP both as bunker -condimesmer- and the infamous power/crit shatter build)
ele ( viable both as power/crit, especially in big fights, and as super bunker)
etc etc, excluding warriors and rangers that are not really that viable, and engeneers viable only as bunkers.
The thief, among all professions, is the only class forced into D/D + shortbow or P/D to be competitive, and we have overall only 3 builds to play with.
No balance, you need or to go full bunker with bleeds ( and you’re still not viable as a bunker, due to stealth not preventing capping) or full glass cannon with D/D.
Other classes are not only more challenging, but also offer more tools to play with, and more build diversity.
This is not valid for the thief.
And altough i agree some classes are in much worse shape ( power/crit engies, rangers and warriors), those nerfs made no sense.
Well, I can’t talk about other professions because I didn’t played them so deep to know the viable builds, but as far I know Necromancer has way less build variety than thief.
Conditionmancer and wells are the only viable spec, every other is just unviable. Death Magic and Blood Magic traitline are a mess and not worth a single point spent into.
Thieves can be incredibly good “bunkers” when putting points in both Shadow Arts and Arcrobatics. A 0/20/30/20/0 or a 0/0/30/20/20 thief can easily hold 2+ people on a point for a consistent amount of time popping in and out of stealth when you need heals and dodging to mitigate the damage you take and hold the point.
So, in my opinion, the build variety on the thief side isn’t that bad compared to other professions.
Regarding build variety, it is clear that some builds outperform the others. That’s why you see just 2 kind of builds as roamers and 2 kind as bunkers. If all builds performed all the same, there is no reason to stick to just one build.
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