Guild Wars 2

I really like the concept of the thief but I’ve noticed when I’m playing and playing against a thief a lot of their damage is stuck on one single ability; I personally think this is a mistake as it just leads to thieves spamming a single ability in combat at every available moment, even I’m guilty of this as much as I try using other abilities.

We all know the two worst offenders here, Heartseeker and Pistol whip and here are my suggestions for alterations to these abilities:

Heartseeker should deal lower damage from the front but higher when behind, I know we already have a backstab ability but Heartseeker also fits this role really well; keep the increasing damage depending on target health.

Pistol whip should have a very slightly longer stun, only strike once or twice for moderate damage and not lock the thief to the floor.

I don’t think lowering variables X and Y will fix these abilities, I think they need a proper change to being them into line without breaking them.

so you want to ignore the intended mechanics of the thief class cuz you disagree wit them?

The only problem with any burst abilities are skills such as haste, frenzy, and quickness.

Heart Seeker already lost a lot of damage for anyone above 50% health last week. I think that was enough personally.

Pistol Whip? Not that great unless you pop Haste and land two in a row on someone while they are immobilized.

Personally, I am more of a Dagger/Pistol, Pistol/Dagger, and Dual Pistol Thief.

Initiative system is designed to be able to spam the ability you need when you need it. If it wasn’t they would have just use the recharge system of every other class. Why does this get beat to death, rise from the dead, and get beat to death again. No matter what you tweak, whatever the current flavor is people will use it. If you change these 2 abilities everyone will just use haste/unload or backstab builds, or scorpion wire/cluster bombs.

Wolfe.3097:

so you want to ignore the intended mechanics of the thief class cuz you disagree wit them?

Not sure where you got that from…

No. I want those two specific abilities altered to make them less spammy and more tactical.

For instance I’d like to see people using heartseeker intelligently by positioning themselves behind the enemy in a fight and doing heavy damage then melting back into the shadows.

Pistol whip just doesn’t gel well with the rest of the sword/pistol skills in my opinion so I’d like to see it changed so a thief can use them and remain mobile and of course actually start using the other abilities on the bar (I rarely see any thieves bother with 4 & 5, for instance, I know I certainly don’t except in the rarest of occasions)

Thadren Calder.1397:

Initiative system is designed to be able to spam the ability you need when you need it. If it wasn’t they would have just use the recharge system of every other class. Why does this get beat to death, rise from the dead, and get beat to death again. No matter what you tweak, whatever the current flavor is people will use it. If you change these 2 abilities everyone will just use haste/unload or backstab builds, or scorpion wire/cluster bombs.

I’m not petitioning a change to prevent thieves being able to spam a single ability, I think if the situation calls for it then that’s fine but at the moment with the way some skills are set out ‘that moment’ is every moment and frankly I find that boring to play and boring to play against.

Notice how my suggested change to heartseeker doesn’t actually prevent spamming, just makes it less effective when the ability isn’t used intelligently.

Ickorus.4518:

Heartseeker should deal lower damage from the front but higher when behind, I know we already have a backstab ability but Heartseeker also fits this role really well; keep the increasing damage depending on target health.

Heartseeker already has a damage restriction. Its damage is based on enemy’s current health. Why does it need to ALSO have a positional requirement? Its already been adjusted. Its fine now. Why are you immediately calling for more nerfs?

Ickorus.4518:

Pistol whip should have a very slightly longer stun, only strike once or twice for moderate damage and not lock the thief to the floor.

your suggestion would actually overpowered Pistol Whip by a large amount. a longer stun and the ability to move while doing it would only further encourage spam of it, not encourage people to use different abilities. the way it is currently it at least requires set up (with an immobilize or chill or something) to be able to reliably land it. its also got inherent risk baked in because of the self-root. if your opponent dodges it (because you failed to set it up properly, for example) then you’re wide open and are gonna get nailed. as it stands currently there is some inherent balance and subtlety to the use of Pistol Whip. what you are proposing is making the ability much more powerful and much more brainless.

Let me ask you an honest question: do you play a Thief? it sounds like you don’t. it sounds like you play some other class but have some opinion about a class you don’t play.

It seems to me that a certain ranger doesn’t like fighting thieves.

One last try here, after this I’m just not going to bother because you guys must be being deliberately obtuse.

My suggestion for Heartseeker isn’t a nerf, it would add depth to the ability that isn’t there at the moment, I would like to see the ability used to either flank an enemy who is already fighting and deal high damage to them or to deal with fleeing foes.

Pistol whip would deal around half the damage it does now but would get more CC capability which would synergise much better with the rest of the Sword/Pistol abilities.

And to answer your questions: I main as a Ranger in Tournaments but play Thief, Warrior, Guardian and Elementalist outside of that when the mood strikes me.

I like the way the thief plays, just not the way that if I want to be effective with my build I have to use a single skill for the vast majority of my damage. (Sword/Pistol & Shortbow)

Oh and before you say it, my Ranger has little trouble dealing with most thieves and other burst damage characters, I load a bunch of conditions on them then evade their burst whilst my pet nibbles on their legs; when the burst is spent I go back to loading conditions then repeat.

ok, then how about this suggestion for you, on your ranger

I think too much emphasis is placed on your Crippling Shot ability. In my opinion it makes the Ranger class “lack depth” because its too simple and effective to shoot someone with Crippling Shot whenever the cooldown is up. There is no tactical decision making involved here. You just always shoot it at your primary target. In my opinion, for the good of the Ranger class, the Crippling Shot skill should be changed (buffed?) to not inflict bleeding. Instead, it should have its cooldown increased to 60 seconds, but instead of a cripple it should be an immobilize. Thats more powerful right?

Also, your pet abilities lack skill. You don’t even have to supervise them, its just automatic. I’d suggest changing this to a far more tactical “pet attack button” setup so the ranger has to press an attack key once every 4 seconds to make his pet attack.

Spam is dumb in any form regardless of class. They should make combo chains where abilities have added benefits if so and so move is used first or afterwards. This could also encourage more weapon swapping for a thief, which in the current state, is lacking. Or they should make each consecutive ability that is the same used after the first, do reduced damage; call it a Winded or Exhausted debuff that last for so and so seconds. A self regulating cooldown if you will, though still useful to use in certain situations. And maybe since the added penalty, we add a buff that does a little more damage the longer you go without using said ability. This could potentially lead to problems though, but hey, it’s an idea.

Why not build on your idea Cyricus and place a gain 1 init each time you use a different skill? And lose an init each time you hit the same skill more than once.

This would reward use of other skills and punish anyone spamming the same ability. And add more depth to the thief profession.

So if i hit heartseaker once it costs 3init but if i spam it, it costs 4. but If i change ability i would gain an init which would make other skills more attractive.

The reason for adding a init and not just make the skills cost one init less is because you would have people being able to use hs at 2init and that doesn’t reward init management.