Why would you want a gap closer on a RANGED weapon. I
m sorry but that is idiotic. Can you imagine Sword – Dagger thieves 2 skill teleporting them away?? That is the same thing mate.
And why can’t we have burst at range? Because whiners say so? Rangers can burst at range and thieves are meant to be strong at burst.
Giving them a really strong single target damage weapon to control and take out targets fits perfectly into it
Alright. Thief is often a source of high burst damage and relies, when defending itself, on mobility (and positioning), blinds to an extent, dodge movements + endurance management, aaand stealth. Most of used weapon combinations give a measured amount of all of the above. All the weapons will get you up close and personal with your opponent, and this is where Initiative shines, and its management is what the Thief is all about.
- >Now let’s go for your extreme range single target DPS weapon. If at first you don’t care about adding defensive skills to your rifle, then what kind of offensive skills would you want to put on it? Burst damage you said? The problem is that you’re on a class that doesn’t have cooldowns, so you’d be primarily spamming that burst damage skill whenever it’s up and then go back to auto-attacking when you’re empty on initiative. The Shortbow and Pistols are okay in that matter because you’re close enough to keep some initiative for one of the various utility skills when you fight. But with the rifle, you’re pretty much a Warrior with no cooldowns at that point, and not only that’s boring, but it’s not quite Thief like in terms of core gameplay.
Also, there will be the matter of stealth striking with the rifle, especially in PvP. Doing so with the shortbow, or a pistol at 900 range gets you to be close enough for a prepared opponent to make a response attempt, to jump on you, to shoot you back. With a rifle’s stealth attack, assuming that you still want burst, you’d be mowing your unsuspecting prey down at 1200 – 1500 range and he’ll have two options: To flee, or to desperatly make an attempt at catching you, and he’ll already be 3/4 dead with defenses already used when he gets to you. That’s not quite healthy. And should a nerf come to pass with this, the weapon will simply suck.
- > Should such a gameplay come to pass, now what kind of defensive (or outplaying) skills that is in line with what a Thief is mainly about would you put on your rifle? Stealth? Evades? Mobility? All those would be 100% toxic for such a weapon. And blind alone wouldn’t cut it.
Oh, and Steal would only be there to look good.
I understand that many Thieves want to be shadow snipers or whatever, others simply want a 1200 range weapon, but the very core of the class will make it incredibly difficult to make this wish a reality.
Disgruntled Charr Engineer and Thief – Jade Quarry.
