Guild Wars 2

The way I see it, a thief is your average joe, unskilled in heavily armed combat, lacks the upper body strenght to pull the draw weight of a longbow or lift a heavy greatsword no real magical powers or anything of that sort.

Now rifles arent that heavy… and it doesnt take massive trigger finger strength to pull a trigger, hell you can pull the trigger of a pistol you can pull the trigger of a rifle.

So why can’t a thief use a rifle?
I just dont get it.

I can get why rangers dont use them, because we’re rangers, and are somewhat elitist about what weapon is better and stuck in the old ways, but thieves are opportunists and would gladly use any weapons they can at their disposal and rifles would fit right in there.

I’d love to see Thieves be able to use rifles simply because….P/P kinda sucks, and it probably always will kinda suck. Thus, we lacking in the the single target ranged category.

I feel like they could come up with a very nice-feeling, synergistic kit similar to rifle Warrior, mostly because they wouldn’t have to worry about shared abilities (which is what kills P/P).

Not to mention rifles just look and sound sweet.

What rifle abilities would they have?
I would love to see Thieves use Rifles (and Torch) but they would need to be
unique skills not duplicated by other professions.

I would suggest something like:

• Slot 1: Standard three step combo, 1200 range light dmg>medium dmg>heavy dmg. No conditions, No debuffs. Combo Finisher: Projectile 20%. Fast attack
  speed for shot one and two, delay prior to third heavy shot.
• Slot 2: Knee-Cap: 1200 range Cripple, no other effect. Init: 4
• Slot 3: Sniper Shot: 1200 range, 2 second cast, Heavy damage, Thief immobilized while sniping. Combo Finisher: Projectile 20%. Init: 6
• Slot 4: Take cover: Shoot from cover, Gain protection. Init: 5
• Slot 5: Hide and Seek: Gain stealth and swiftness.

• Stealth Attack: Confusing Barrage. Fires a rapid barrage of shot from hiding. 5xDmg+confusion.

Most ranged shots are single stepped skills.

The rifle’s first shot would probably work like a rangers long bow.
More distance = More Damage.
Stealth = Sniper shot, 1200 range, 2 second cast heavy damage, thief immobilized

Skill 2 = knee cap is a good suggestion.

Skill 3 = Head Shot, the less health a target has the more damage it does 6 int

Skill 4 = Distracting shot, half the normal damage, but interrupts target: 5 int

Skill 5 = Take cover, gain 3 seconds of stealth 5 int

Loving the rifle and torch concepts.

I think a sniper build would suit the class, especially since we’re scouts.

Stealth – Takedown – Roots thief, 2 second cast heavy damage, 1200 range. Piercing shot.
1 – Engagement – Fires a piercing shot.
2 – Suppressive Fire – Fires a quick barrage, applies Confusion.
3 – Die Tired – Immobilizes the target for one second, applies Weakness.
4 – Called Shot – Fire a powerful shot, less health the target has, more damage you cause.
5 – Entrenched/Backdoor – Stealth and Protection. While Stealthed, you may Shadowstep backwards, 900 range.

I also think that a rifle as in “sniping” would fit the theme of the class perfectly. But on the other hand, a long-distance thief would be clearly overpowered…

Thief as a sniper? Hell yes!

Here’s my suggestions:
Slot 1 – Piercing Shot: Fire a round that pierces the target’s armor. (0 Initiative – Medium Damage, 1200 Range, Applies Vulnerability.)
Stealth Slot – Sniper Fire: Fire a aimed shot at the target. Hold down to increase damage. (0 Initiative – 3 Tier Heavy Damage, 1500 range.)
Slot 2 – Marking Shot: Mark the target, increasing the damage of your next attack. (3 Initiative – Medium Damage, 1200 Range, 10 Seconds.)
Slot 3 – Kill Shot: Fire a killing round at the target, dealing more damage the less health they have. (5 Initiative – 3 Tier Heavy Damage, 1200 Range.)
Slot 4 – Suppressing Fire: Fire a volley of shots at target area. (5 Initiative – Medium Damage, 1200 Range.)
Slot 5 – Gilli Suit: Blend in with the surrounding terrain, gains stealth and protection. (6 Initiative – No Damage, Self-Target.)

As for traits, I’d suggest a damage increase, range increase, or a penetration (Makes the shot go through the target.) trait.

With the addition of rifles, though, I’d suggest lowering the range of pistols to 650-750, while increasing damage as an offset. (Shortbow needs to be worked out on it’s own.)

(Put in the suggestions thread.)

Did I not fix this already?

Am I the only one who wishes thieves could use maces or axes on top of swords?

Probably not, but you’re likely the most vocal.

axes like the tomahawk would have been epic, i love that whole tomahawk/dagger or tomahawk/pistol look.

in all actuality tho, a rifle isn’t necessarily a sniper rifle. an actual rifle makes way more sense as the long range weapon to a thief and a bow does. (considering he can use pistols)

that aside, i love the short bow with a passion and id never willingly give it up after seeing what all its capable of

Bah, humbug. I actually can’t stand the shortbow for some reason. Though, you are right. Considering it’s current weapon choices, a rifle makes more sense than any kind of bow.

While, I also like the idea of being a sniper / rifle-using thief, I think you guys aren’t thinking clearly about the concept of a “Thief”.

A thief steals things. They go into close or mid ranged combat in order to take what they want, and their skills are adapted to being in that range.

• Steal brings you into melee-range, and is something you should be using very often to maximize your performance.

So, in what universe would a thief (on his/her own) want to be fighting at long ranged, where he or she is unable to steal anything?

A long-range focused build simply contradicts the concept of GW2’s Thief.

That’s why Thieves can use the Short Bow, but not the Long Bow, they’re made for skirmishes and dicey encounters, not one-sided sniping assaults.

A Better Question Would Be:

Why can’t Rangers use Rifles?

They can use greatswords and axes, for hell’s sake… Why not a Rifle?!

DreamOfACure.4382:

A Better Question Would Be:

Why can’t Rangers use Rifles?

They can use greatswords and axes, for hell’s sake… Why not a Rifle?!

The forest ranger arch-type typically uses a longbow for ranged combat, and a hand-axe, or scimitar for close-quarters. They also forsake technology for more natural methods. (Pets, wooden stake spike trap, and such)

I can’t imagine adding another weapon set for a profession. Cuz they’d have to add another set for every other profession, and then what do you do for engi and el, and so on.

How about if they made it you could have the look of a rifle with P/P? Just take the animations from engi/war…

What? Why would they have to add another weapon set for each profession? If anything, thieves have the lowest amount of weapon skill bars.

Making a rifle animation for P/P skills just defeats the purpose, or atleast mine. We want rifles for the range/skills, not the look.

Because of the initiative system. The initiative system limits ability creativity duo to the fact that abilities must be spam-able proof, this is why Thieves have so little weapon choices and why there is no good control ability on our weapon skills.

It is a choice that arenanet made and it can’t be changed now, this is why the Thief doesn’t have an OH sword, Torch etc.

Arenanet already had a lot of trouble with being creative with our underwater weapon, hence the copy pasta abilities like Delunge etc.

Just for the fun of it I’ll fill in the skills for a thief’s rifle as well!

1 – Stealthed – Calm shot: Fires a medium damage round that removes 2 boons and dazes your target for 1 second. 1200 range.

1 – Quick scope: 3 combo shot, mediocre damage. Third shot cripples foe for 2 seconds. 1200 range.

2 – Crippling round: (4 ini) Mediocre damage, cripples foe for 4 seconds and reduces healing by 33% for 10 seconds. 1200 range.

3 – Ranged round: (5 ini) Heavy damage, deals more damage the further away you are and damage is increased if target is crippled/slowed. 1200 range.

4 – Tactical retreat: (5 ini) Low damage, fires a flashing round that confuses (2 stacks) targets in a cone in front of the thief for 5 seconds, jumps back during the shot and evades for 1 second. 200 flash range, 150 jump range.

5 – Flesh wound: (4 ini) Medium damage, heavy bleed damage (2 stacks). Adds weakness to your target. 1200 range

There we go! That was fun :P Good or bad idk I would personally like more reliable cripples as a thief! Guess you can tell by now lol!