Guild Wars 2

Since the last thread got derailed, I am going to repost it and if anyone still has issues with me afterwards, you can do it through PM. Otherwise, I will report derailing comments.

I understand that you are focusing on the Daredevil. However, [Teef] has been at work trying to more or less “fix” the core profession. These two State of Thief [SoT] threads were posted on this forum to get feedback and some discussion cooked up about future balance changes. It would be nice if you read them in your spare time to give you an idea on which direction the balance changes should go in.

Understand though that all of the suggestions you read are just summarized from a large amount of discussion (most of them anyway) where the aim is to make things more viable. So as you read through, realize that [Teef] isn’t asking you do anything except consider the possibilities laid out in front of you. Here are said threads:

State of Thief: Specs and Traits

State of Thief: Heals, Utilities, Elites, Weapon Skills

During the BWE, [Teef] plans to discuss in their guild chat everything daredevil. It would also be nice if you attended. There is no rep required. Participation in any events and discussions isn’t required but it’s highly encouraged.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Teef-The-Official-Thief-Forum-Guild/first

Or you can message me and I can tell you who to contact.

(at the behest of forumers I have removed all parody. :c)

I still think this is a bad idea. The forums are just fine for thief feedback. Participating in a live guild meeting is just asking it to turn into something confrontational. Why do you think they are so selective in the threads they reply to? Heck, that gif you used alone, comedic or not, is indicative of being pushy and borderline rude.

Also…

yolo swaggins.2570:

There you go twisting my words. No, I don’t need to be a dev to understand people. If you can’t accept the facts I presented to you and you want to get all emotional, that’s on you.

That seems to be your response to everything. I think you’re the one getting emotional and not accepting facts, broski. I’ve tried to be diplomatic about the issue (heck, I was hoping for rifle for a long time until I saw the potential in melee staff, but you don’t seem to care about that). You just can’t get over that the thief hasn’t been molded to your exact image.

Sure the thief profession needs work, just like all the professions. There’s always room for improvement, but this elite spec looks like a good start to me. Just because it’s not exactly what you wanted it to be doesn’t make it useless. As I said, for PvE, the staff is gonna be great. Maybe it won’t be that great in PvP, maybe it will. We haven’t even gotten to try it and you’re already dismissing it.

You really just need to calm down and get of your high horse.

PS: I’m not derailing the thread, I just think it isn’t a good idea

This isnt the time for balance patches. Devs are busy working on giving you new content. There will be balance patches after HoT is released.

SeaBreeze, remove that part from your comment. I’ve already reported a few people and I don’t want to continue doing so. Drop the subject and move on. Stay on topic.

Now is exactly the time for balance adjustments, actually. Realistically speaking, this is the most developer attention we will probably receive for a couple of years. Other professions like Necro are getting core improvements along with their elite spec; why shouldn’t we? God knows we need it…

Alright, I’ll stay on topic, but as I said, I think having a live meeting—while good in theory—just has too much risk to subjecting the devs to rudeness from the players. All it takes is for one person to shout “HEY DEV WHY DO YOU SUCK” to wreck the whole thing.

I know it’s become a bit of a running gag that the devs aren’t too active around here (especially on the thief forums), but with all the animosity going on, who can blame them?

I’ll say what I’ve said numerous times already. I’m confident that the devs do in fact read the forums, even though they don’t reply very much. All we can realistically hope for is that they continue to read them and bring these ideas to the table whether they implement them or not. We can’t demand a response out of them.

Spurrlock.3219:

This isnt the time for balance patches. Devs are busy working on giving you new content. There will be balance patches after HoT is released.

Please don’t they made heavy system changes so no excuses there is no way they expected that no balance patches would be needed.

Thank you. And yes we can’t demand but we can ask. The more dev time we can get the better.

yolo swaggins.2570:

Thank you. And yes we can’t demand but we can ask. The more dev time we can get the better.

Agreed. I’m actually pretty sad that my Ricochet thread got locked after so many views and posts, but really I think everything that could’ve been said has been said.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Ricochet-gone/first

Don’t get me wrong, yolo, I still want a rifle spec, but honestly it’s for a different reason. I’m hoping for an elite spec that helps firearms as a whole, because I love my main dual pistol thief and want P/P to be brought up to a better light. A Gunslinger type elite spec would be such a good opportunity for that. Sorry if I changed the subject, I’m just passionate about dual pistols and would rather see it improved rather than replaced.

This is so cringe worthy. I feel really bad for the devs. When you get to the point that you are using phrases like melting your face it just becomes too awkward. Maybe remake this post and be more more informal. This post will be deleted anyway because threads directly addressing developers are against the rules.

Daniel Handler.4816:

This is so cringe worthy. I feel really bad for the devs. When you get to the point that you are using phrases like melting your face it just becomes too awkward. Maybe remake this post and be more more informal. This post will be deleted anyway because threads directly addressing developers are against the rules.

You mean formal. My post too was deleted, so I will refrain from commenting from that point on.

Pretty sure some devs are in some guilds… so I don’t think it’s unusual or something that’s completely crazy.

I don’t think he even has to say anything, more like sit there and gather info…

That’s for all those thinking this a crazy idea…

I’d actually be psyched to see him attend. Especially cause he could also bring up some possibilities for changes or what the thought process was behind certain skills. After the SoT discussions I’m convinced that [Teef] has a mature enough group to handle something like this without it becoming confrontational. In fact I think they’d be highly appreciative of a dev’s presence even if they just sit and listen, but I also think it’d be great to have Karl’s input on things or explanations of really anything daredevil so we can better understand which direction he intends to go with the spec in the future.

Overall seems like a good idea to me.

Zero Day.2594:

I don’t think he even has to say anything, more like sit there and gather info…

They can do that just fine here on the forums though.

They can do it on the forums yes, but then you have the people who troll forums or are too immature to have a formal discussion with a dev. It’s not as safe a situation for them imo. I think it’s be easier for dev’s to open up because they’d know that they’d be in an environment where people would actually be focused on a discussion rather than throwing out insults and arguing over things they don’t understand. Granted you do have a valid point that they can do it on the forums but I’m not sure I completely understand why you are so against it in a guild setting, would you explain a bit more to me?

We’ll be lucky if we can even get Karl to answer a few questions on the forum. An in-game guild meeting is just not happening.

Seabreeze.8437:

All it takes is for one person to shout “HEY DEV WHY DO YOU SUCK” to wreck the whole thing. Get banned from the chat.

The guild leader of [Teef] is pretty chill, I think he’d be able to moderate the discussion. It’d be cool if Karl showed up for some class discussion, but at the same time I could imagine him being busy with other things. Probably would be more likely to happen if you folks tried to schedule it around when he’d be available, assuming he’s interested that is. Not sure if you’ve already sent him a PM or whatnot, but that’d probably be a good way to figure out if he is.

I doubt you’re going to get anywhere with this when your consensus seems to be that 50-70% of thief traits/skills need buffing. Even if a dev reads your discussions, that lack of objectivity is likely to put them off engaging in a dialogue.

Clloydio.3524:

I doubt you’re going to get anywhere with this when your consensus seems to be that 50-70% of thief traits/skills need buffing. Even if a dev reads your discussions, that lack of objectivity is likely to put them off engaging in a dialogue.

In all fairness, for a long time at least 60% of the thief profession was lackluster and there were some things that nobody used in any part of the game for any reason except to max something. Our worst was pre-spec Hard to Catch which had a moderate chance to put you in the middle of an enemy zerg without removing the stun that sets it off. It was considered the worst trait in the game.

I disagree with the “lack of objectivity” you seem to think the SoTs have, however. The standard criteria for their suggestions from my understanding is to address any major issues that keep players from using it or create a standard of viability and evaluate those that do not meet said standard. Then the group would suggest buffs and discuss what will solve the issue.

All those buffs that they suggested actually did what [Teef] was striving for. They wanted to set standards in all parts of the profession and bring everything to those standards. For example, the only reason why nobody uses venoms outside venomshare is because the way venoms are designed around Venomous Aura is terrible. So their solution was to make them place effectless combo fields on activation. I mean that alone turns Venoms into something you can use that you don’t really NEED to trait for it to work in a build. Its basically puts them on Caltrops level where you can use it in any build and it will still work.

Do you understand where I am coming from?

yolo swaggins.2570:

In all fairness, for a long time at least 60% of the thief profession was lackluster and there were some things that nobody used in any part of the game for any reason except to max something. Our worst was pre-spec Hard to Catch which had a moderate chance to put you in the middle of an enemy zerg without removing the stun that sets it off. It was considered the worst trait in the game.

I disagree with the “lack of objectivity” you seem to think the SoTs have, however. The standard criteria for their suggestions from my understanding is to address any major issues that keep players from using it or create a standard of viability and evaluate those that do not meet said standard. Then the group would suggest buffs and discuss what will solve the issue.

All those buffs that they suggested actually did what [Teef] was striving for. They wanted to set standards in all parts of the profession and bring everything to those standards. For example, the only reason why nobody uses venoms outside venomshare is because the way venoms are designed around Venomous Aura is terrible. So their solution was to make them place effectless combo fields on activation. I mean that alone turns Venoms into something you can use that you don’t really NEED to trait for it to work in a build. Its basically puts them on Caltrops level where you can use it in any build and it will still work.

Do you understand where I am coming from?

- In all fairness most professions have >60% lackluster traits. Many professions live from a very small amount of traits and utilities. And Hard to Catch was for sure not the worst, because it had a small place.

- Your group doesn’t have the needed understanding of the thief profession. I would be seriously disappointed if a dev would find the time to discuss this stuff. I bet that many of you have only a very limited experience in thief builds and what traits are doing. I’m sorry to say that, but after I’ve read through the stuff I was seriously shocked that thief players are responsible for this.

- The reason why nobody uses venoms outside of venomshare is, that we need defensive utilities to survive. We will see the same with our new physical utilities. Beside the new stunbreaker is just nothing that can replace refuge, ss, bp and/or a signet. Btw: Devourer Venom sees some use.

apocom.3172:

- In all fairness most professions have >60% lackluster traits. Many professions live from a very small amount of traits and utilities. And Hard to Catch was for sure not the worst, because it had a small place.

Not sure about that, I guess it’s more like “these traits are just too good to not take them, but we could survive with others” wheras when I look at the thief traits it’s “Yeah well, I don’t need this, I don’t want this, but I have to take it to get to next trait which I want”.

apocom.3172:

- Your group doesn’t have the needed understanding of the thief profession. I would be seriously disappointed if a dev would find the time to discuss this stuff. I bet that many of you have only a very limited experience in thief builds and what traits are doing. I’m sorry to say that, but after I’ve read through the stuff I was seriously shocked that thief players are responsible for this.

Do you mean because acro was rated slightly higher than SA? The SA linie is rubbish in my eyes, from a to z – it would get a F- if I rated it². I still take it because it’s the only half reliable condi remove we have and because I want to have CiS which D/P have got on their weapon set. Hard to catch was a really bad trait, no one’s brain could work that fast – it’s a good trait now. And whatfor are we responsible? Some of us are for the nerf of SA – and yeah, I’m pretty mad because of it. But like I said in another trait: I wish the devs wouldn’t listen to us at all – I wish they just know what the game and the class needs. I do hope that they will rework SA – and for that they don’t need our help.

ETA: ²= so in your eyes I wouldn’t have an understanding of the class as well because I don’t rate the poor acro line lower than SA – but my point of view is D/D, not D/P nor S/D (which doesn’t need SA).

Jana.6831:

Not sure about that, I guess it’s more like “these traits are just too good to not take them, but we could survive with others” wheras when I look at the thief traits it’s “Yeah well, I don’t need this, I don’t want this, but I have to take it to get to next trait which I want”.

True that. One problem a lot of our lines have is the few good choices being all clustered around one specific tier, making one choice overloaded with too many competing options, and whole other tiers with nothing but subpar ones. Feels bad, man.

Jana.6831:

Do you mean because acro was rated slightly higher than SA? The SA linie is rubbish in my eyes, from a to z – it would get a F- if I rated it². I still take it because it’s the only half reliable condi remove we have and because I want to have CiS which D/P have got on their weapon set. Hard to catch was a really bad trait, no one’s brain could work that fast – it’s a good trait now. And whatfor are we responsible? Some of us are for the nerf of SA – and yeah, I’m pretty mad because of it. But like I said in another trait: I wish the devs wouldn’t listen to us at all – I wish they just know what the game and the class needs. I do hope that they will rework SA – and for that they don’t need our help.

ETA: ²= so in your eyes I wouldn’t have an understanding of the class as well because I don’t rate the poor acro line lower than SA – but my point of view is D/D, not D/P nor S/D (which doesn’t need SA).

The one with Acro is one example, we can go through a lot of stuff which is clearly rated random.

And yeah, when you say the SA line is so rubbish you would rate everything F-, but you take it regardless is in my opinion strange. For you it’s the worst traitline but you take it?

And again, my opinion: I think the devs showed us that they know what the class needs with the new traitline.

I understand that you are disappointed, D/D got butchered without any reason and compensating. I don’t understand that either. And yeah, if you rate traits only from a D/D perspective it’s imo not a good rating. It’s like rating traits from a pve perspective where SA and Acro is useless.

A line can be filled with crappy traits and still see plenty of use because it is the only line that makes something else that’s not so great by itself a bit more useful. Just like you can have a line with a bunch of good traits but the line sucks because there is little synergy with anything.

Secondly, the ratings weren’t random. Each trait was rated individually so you could expect a more realistic rating for each spec. Another thing is that the ratings and suggestions were done by thief players from all aspects of the game at varying levels of skill with a majority of those players being either wvw or pvp players, not just pvp exclusively.

Popular opinion might say one thing but it is never realistic.

Amante.8109:

We’ll be lucky if we can even get Karl to answer a few questions on the forum. An in-game guild meeting is just not happening.

This is pretty much my thoughts on the matter. I think they just prefer to browse the forums and gather ideas while keeping communication to a minimum. Not saying that’s good or bad because that’s a whole other discussion, but that seems to be their MO.

I definitely got the whole “each trait is rated individually” vibe from reading the SoT. Not sure how much I agree with that approach. Personally I feel like it makes more sense to rate traits considering the entire traitline, and more importantly the traits that trait is competing with in the same tier. Since realistically that’s the scenario a player is going to be in when he/she chooses his/her traits. Like for instance Bewildering Ambush gets a mark for the mere fact that you have to choose it over Sleight of Hand. Similarly, like others have said in this thread, I would give most Acro traits marks for the mere fact that you have to spec into Acro for them (Because realistically a player has to choose to spec Acro over SA/DA/CS/Trick before he/she can use any traits in Acro).

Also just my opinion. But I felt those ratings were pretty void of PvP considerations. I suppose you pooled a wide mass of players so there must have been some PvP input in there. But that is just my opinion nonetheless (I suggested the whole splitting PvE/WvW/PvP thing after the first SoT for this reason).

yolo swaggins.2570:

Clloydio.3524:

I doubt you’re going to get anywhere with this when your consensus seems to be that 50-70% of thief traits/skills need buffing. Even if a dev reads your discussions, that lack of objectivity is likely to put them off engaging in a dialogue.

In all fairness, for a long time at least 60% of the thief profession was lackluster and there were some things that nobody used in any part of the game for any reason except to max something. Our worst was pre-spec Hard to Catch which had a moderate chance to put you in the middle of an enemy zerg without removing the stun that sets it off. It was considered the worst trait in the game.

I disagree with the “lack of objectivity” you seem to think the SoTs have, however. The standard criteria for their suggestions from my understanding is to address any major issues that keep players from using it or create a standard of viability and evaluate those that do not meet said standard. Then the group would suggest buffs and discuss what will solve the issue.

All those buffs that they suggested actually did what [Teef] was striving for. They wanted to set standards in all parts of the profession and bring everything to those standards. For example, the only reason why nobody uses venoms outside venomshare is because the way venoms are designed around Venomous Aura is terrible. So their solution was to make them place effectless combo fields on activation. I mean that alone turns Venoms into something you can use that you don’t really NEED to trait for it to work in a build. Its basically puts them on Caltrops level where you can use it in any build and it will still work.

Do you understand where I am coming from?

The venoms suggestion was actually one of the things that made me dismiss the POI threads in the first place. Giving thief (the profession with the most spammable finishers) access to all the combo fields without even mentioning the dangers of this being ridiculously overpowered display a lack of objectivity. I’ve no doubt that these threads come from a desire to improve the game, but I do not think (from what I’ve seen) that they come from individuals that have a good grasp of balance within the game as a whole.

Venoms creating a small elemental field that doesn’t pulse anything is not a bad idea in and of itself. It would be silly to give Thief access to ALL the combo fields, yes, but there’s no reason it’d HAVE to be implemented that way.

If anything, I would suggest that these cloud-creating Venoms only make Poison fields, other than the possibility of Skelk Venom creating a water one—which would bring something new to Thief and give you a reason to even CONSIDER using Skelk Venom. Be honest, when’s the last time you used that clunker of a heal skill, even IN a Venom build?

apocom.3172:

The one with Acro is one example, we can go through a lot of stuff which is clearly rated random.

We could but I’m still baffled by:

Jana.6831:

I still take it because it’s the only half reliable condi remove we have and because I want to have CiS which D/P have got on their weapon set.

apocom.3172:

And yeah, when you say the SA line is so rubbish you would rate everything F-, but you take it regardless is in my opinion strange. For you it’s the worst traitline but you take it?

Are you serious? Just had to read it to understand why I’m still taking the line.
And if you had ever tried D/D which you obviously didn’t, you’d know what the spec needs to be halfway viable. So wheras SA is kitten for D/D, it works/has been slightly buffed for D/P which doesn’t need CiS (because the /P does that job) and which has stealth on demand, so you don’t really need to fight melee – together SA isn’t too bad. Get my point? Acro is used by S/D mainly, so only the usage for S/D gets into the rating, also some experimental D/P builds can use it as well.

I said:

it would get a F- if I rated it

But I didn’t officially rate it (not even in Teef but that’s a long story) because it isn’t only used by D/D and I don’t want D/P to be nerfed.

apocom.3172:

And again, my opinion: I think the devs showed us that they know what the class needs with the new traitline.

I don’t think so as once again D/D gets nothing. SB gets nothing and well mayybe P/D can make it work.

apocom.3172:

I understand that you are disappointed, D/D got butchered without any reason and compensating. I don’t understand that either. And yeah, if you rate traits only from a D/D perspective it’s imo not a good rating. It’s like rating traits from a pve perspective where SA and Acro is useless.

You rate Acro and DD from your S/D point of view, so.. work on that?

Edit: Messed the quotes up – fixed it (hopefully)
Edit²: Grammar

I thought the new line was supposed to be optional and not the answer to everything. Revert the SA nerfs, improve Acro no Acro is not just Feline Grace.

For those of yous bringing in “well others profs are also in kitten…”, yeah that’s true, and it has nothing to do with thieves or what’s being started here. Now, if they, the other profs, on their forums could organize something like this, then by all means. Trying to use this as a argument as to why it can’t or not allowed to work… well, it’s silly.

Carry on.

Sagat.3285:

I thought the new line was supposed to be optional and not the answer to everything. Revert the SA nerfs, improve Acro no Acro is not just Feline Grace.

Acro should be rethemed into something that enhances mobility. It’s already part way there, so with the replacement of a few skills and tweaks of others, it could be strong in a way that’s not a weaker version of DD. Some shadowstep traits would be cool.

Maugetarr.6823:

not a weaker version of DD

Let’s really emphasized this and SA is not even related to daredevil so why the nerfs? I understand you can’t fix everything at once buf a true caring dev comments or gives hope on the bad times not just the brief happy ones. Watching daredevil stream is not a source of that.

@Jana
I will not requote everything, because I think that will mess this up. Just to be clear, I play every spec and have played everything that was somewhat Meta in the last 2-3 years.
The problem with D/D lies not only in the traits (D/D#3 and #4, the #5 nerf in pve/wvw). But the only trait problem I can see is that CiS is not master anymore. Which is really huge for D/D but it doesn’t make SA useless. Most S/D thieves I know are using SA now instead of Acro outside of pvp.

And no, I don’t rate Acro from a S/D POV, but from every POV. It’s a traitline that nearly nobody uses, regardless of the build. And if you have two traitlines, one is wildly used, and the other is extinct than this has nothing to do with my personal preference when I say that the second one is bad.

@YoloSwaggins
I’m sorry if I sound harsh, I really appreciate what you are doing. But I think we had so much more from a dev interview by for example Magic Toker.

apocom.3172:

@Jana
I will not requote everything, because I think that will mess this up. Just to be clear, I play every spec and have played everything that was somewhat Meta in the last 2-3 years.
The problem with D/D lies not only in the traits (D/D#3 and #4, the #5 nerf in pve/wvw). But the only trait problem I can see is that CiS is not master anymore. Which is really huge for D/D but it doesn’t make SA useless. Most S/D thieves I know are using SA now instead of Acro outside of pvp.

And no, I don’t rate Acro from a S/D POV, but from every POV. It’s a traitline that nearly nobody uses, regardless of the build. And if you have two traitlines, one is wildly used, and the other is extinct than this has nothing to do with my personal preference when I say that the second one is bad.

No you don’t, otherwise you wouldn’t have complained about “the overall rating of acro” as you would’ve understood – and in the end an overall rating doesn’t matter anyway. I think it’s pretty arrogant to claim that you have understood the class as a whole wheras everybody else hasn’t.
It isn’t our job to do anyway as a lot in this game is currently off (damage, condis etc etc) – all of it correlates, if anet decides to nerf condis they probably don’t have to buff our condi cleanse and so on.
We did a good job trying to be heard but none of us is an expert and it’s up to anet to make our class work.

ETA: And if they don’t then so be it – I can’t care anymore. It’s just a game, let them make it for casuals who all want to run their metabuilds and who all want to complain about stealth and this and that. If that’s what they want I can’t change it. I tried and failed.

Jana.6831:

No you don’t, otherwise you wouldn’t have complained about “the overall rating of acro” as you would’ve understood – and in the end an overall rating doesn’t matter anyway. I think it’s pretty arrogant to claim that you have understood the class as a whole wheras everybody else hasn’t.

No, I don’t say that I’ve understood the class. And I’ve never claimed that.

True, the overall rating doesn’t matter. It was again just an example. Another one is Shadow’s Embrace and Vigorous Recovery. The first one is widely used in different builds in WvW and PvP and is the main reason a specific traitline is meta. The other one is so bad nobody uses it. Not even the guys who still spec in Acro. Both have the same rating. And I can’t understand how anyone who plays thief would give both traits the same rating. That has again nothing to do with that I play S/D. Nobody is using Vigorous Recovery.
Maybe I’m wrong with this. Ok. Maybe you guys are right. So we have a forum here to discuss such things. And my opinion is that it would be a waste of time for a dev to go into such ratings, or discuss something based on them. I would rather see a discussion with a higl lvl thief.

I hope Mr. McLain is consulting with some high level SPvP thieves, because he’s certainly not engaging in a dialogue with anyone on this subforum.

Amante.8109:

I hope Mr. McLain is consulting with some high level SPvP thieves, because he’s certainly not engaging in a dialogue with anyone on this subforum.

If that’s the case… It will stay in the hands of high level sPvP thieves (tournies and such)…

And honestly, who here is amongst them? Having a giant gap-of-void between terrible and godlike… is not so good for a class….

Zero Day.2594:

For those of yous bringing in “well others profs are also in kitten…”, yeah that’s true, and it has nothing to do with thieves or what’s being started here. Now, if they, the other profs, on their forums could organize something like this, then by all means. Trying to use this as a argument as to why it can’t or not allowed to work… well, it’s silly.

Carry on.

I would highly recommend the other professions do this. It shows initiative on the community’s part.

yolo swaggins.2570:

Zero Day.2594:

For those of yous bringing in “well others profs are also in kitten…”, yeah that’s true, and it has nothing to do with thieves or what’s being started here. Now, if they, the other profs, on their forums could organize something like this, then by all means. Trying to use this as a argument as to why it can’t or not allowed to work… well, it’s silly.

Carry on.

I would highly recommend the other professions do this. It shows initiative on the community’s part.

Meh they probably don’t have enough INITIATIVE to start anything like this hehe

Nephrite.6954:

yolo swaggins.2570:

Zero Day.2594:

For those of yous bringing in “well others profs are also in kitten…”, yeah that’s true, and it has nothing to do with thieves or what’s being started here. Now, if they, the other profs, on their forums could organize something like this, then by all means. Trying to use this as a argument as to why it can’t or not allowed to work… well, it’s silly.

Carry on.

I would highly recommend the other professions do this. It shows initiative on the community’s part.

Meh they probably don’t have enough INITIATIVE to start anything like this hehe

Jana.6831:

ETA: And if they don’t then so be it – I can’t care anymore. It’s just a game, let them make it for casuals who all want to run their metabuilds and who all want to complain about stealth and this and that. If that’s what they want I can’t change it. I tried and failed.

I share this position because I have seen many times that changes to professions and the balance they make never reflect the actual experience of the Thief players. ArenaNet will do what they want in their game, we’re nothing licensee to play their game. They’ve invited us as guests to their game only to be treated poorly by giving us crackers and water while other profession gets hors d’oeuvre and wine. This stance may not be factual, but this is how it feels playing a Thief.

@OP
I really doubt that they will allocate some time to tag along with TEEF. What I’ve noticed in game is that, when there’s a new boss, like the Marionette and the Wurm fights, some Dev plays with players probably to test out the new boss fight. So if your goal is to just have the Dev gather info, they can easily do that by watching videos of Thief gameplay in YouTube on their own time. So, in my opinion, that request will not be granted. Besides, Karl is not exclusively working on Thief so the time constraint will make the request infeasible.

So, in my opinion is, it would be better to just make videos and add comments to the videos and direct him and his team to it so that they can review it when it is convenient for them. This way, they can also pause and rewind the video rather than miss everything because they are so engaged in participating into the current event. Just a suggestion.