Someone had mentioned in another thread making venoms act as mesmer mantras. This sounded like a great idea. This would let us pre-load venoms and then use them strategically rather than just spammed as they are now. The next x attacks causing chill are a waste imo, as it’s just stacking duration anyway. Rather have them loaded so that I can have 2 charges of my next attack causing chill.
Another idea would be to remove venoms and replace them with stances. These would augment the attacks or defense of the thief for their duration. For instance…
Mirrored Stance would let all attacks stack vuln & weakness for x secs, but for every stack applied to an enemy 1 stack of vuln is received too.
Withering Stance would let each attack stack torment for x seconds, but costs 1 more initiative.
Cautious Stance would let you gain protection for x seconds and your attacks cost 1 less initiative but you deal 15% less damage.
Make it a strategic give & take that can be planned around. Obviously, tweaked and balanced. I realize Cautious Stance as I described it would only encourage perma-stealth.
The only issue I haven’t figured out would be the venom sharing trait. It’s one of our few group support abilities, so that’d have to be figured. So for the 1st idea give each ally 2 immediate use charges of the venom, to be used the same as it does now. For the 2nd idea: take a page from the Engineer book & have each do a unique action whenever triggered, like Engi’s Kit Refinement. So for Mirrored Stance give allies retaliation for x seconds or for Withering Stance let each ally’s skills recharge 10% faster for x seconds or for Cautious Stance give allies protection for x seconds.
Thoughts?