Guild Wars 2

I stopped playing, but two months ago people seemed to talk about Thief being in a really good place, but now I’ve come back and everyone is talking about it like its been heavily nerfed. What happened?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-July-26-2016-1/first#post6270415

All the weak weapon sets got nerfed more, stealth attacks nerfed, Venomshare got nerfed, etc.

This explains why my Thief isn’t doing the amount of damage he use to.

Wtf you all saying? Only the 1s on stealth got nerfed when it comes to the meta build for PvP. As for Venom share, it maybe got nerfed when you traited for it, but it’s in a better spot than before (team venom share is really good).
It’s just that the current guardian, engi and druid are pure cancer to a melee thief. Sounds like you guys just cry over nothing: “all the weak weapon sets”, only staff and only its autoattack as it was doing too much damage PvE wise (and is a healthy change for PvP too, autoattacks do too much damage anyway).

The only stupid thing Anet did is was introduce a 1s CD on Backstab, but that shouldn’t affect a good thief.

The ICD did almost nothing to the meta build because of how it plays. It’s almost always better for D/P to not bother with a backstab and instead just AA from Shadow Shot. The ICD hurt non-meta builds much more substantially, particularly D/D power, since its only source of good damage hinges on the stealth attack. Which since BV got its stacks reduced, prevents setup on even CnD, causing in most cases wasted initiative + no stealth and even in the event it lands, the backstab will typically miss and go on ICD, which cannot be casted again in most cases since the ICD is applied after the ~1s of animations of backstab.

Every facet of running venomshare got objetively nerfed, from damage to utility to group utility to control to even the application AoE radius. The prospect of building into SA for sharing venoms is a total joke, and the major benefits of building into VS such as major group healing and might and CC all got nerfed.

Like I said, the weak sets and builds got nerfed, but not really what’s already in the meta.

DeceiverX.8361:

The ICD did almost nothing to the meta build because of how it plays. It’s almost always better for D/P to not bother with a backstab and instead just AA from Shadow Shot. The ICD hurt non-meta builds much more substantially, particularly D/D power, since its only source of good damage hinges on the stealth attack. Which since BV got its stacks reduced, prevents setup on even CnD, causing in most cases wasted initiative + no stealth and even in the event it lands, the backstab will typically miss and go on ICD, which cannot be casted again in most cases since the ICD is applied after the ~1s of animations of backstab.

Every facet of running venomshare got objetively nerfed, from damage to utility to group utility to control to even the application AoE radius. The prospect of building into SA for sharing venoms is a total joke, and the major benefits of building into VS such as major group healing and might and CC all got nerfed.

Like I said, the weak sets and builds got nerfed, but not really what’s already in the meta.

Actually the change does hurt meta builds. Example: all those passive dazes/blinds, aoes prevent you from getting backstab off -> you are locked out of AA, low on ini (or need to save it for interrupt) and you need to break blind and/or cleave body – jk CD, enemy got rezzed. Nerfing underplayed weaponsets is extra icing (beat dat dead horse harder, yo). The change overall is just beyond stupid given the current state of the game. What a joke /shakehead

Whatever, my money goes to other gaming company now. GJ balancing team, you finally accomplished that.

I vowed to stop as soon as HoT launched so abysmally lol. I’ll change my mind when ANet does.