Guild Wars 2

In yesterday’s interview a developer implied they were considering making the Mesmer portal mechanic accessible to other professions as well because the ability was so powerful that it was considered mandatory in many situations.

I wonder if Thieves might be candidates for receiving such a portal-like ability.

Here are the Pros:
+Suits their theme with various Shadowsteps. A group-Shadowstep doesn’t seem unimaginable.
+Thieves tend to be weak on group support. Some more group utility would be well appreciated.
+Traps could potentially be reworked into a Portal mechanic (similar to the one we already have)

The Cons are:
-Portals combined with Stealth may cause some serious balance issues.
-Thieves are very unpopular amongst the general community.
-Other professions like Rangers or Engineers maybe in more dire need of such a buff.

could be cool, Maybe replace the ambush trap, it could not let invisible people enter? or give everyone the stealth debuff for 3 secs.

I think they should definetly give it to rangers not 100% sure on engi because i havent really played one so not sure how much extra group utility is needed. And then give mesmer something that gives them 25% run speed out of combat.

DanH.5879:

Dee Jay.2460:

The Cons are:
-Portals combined with Stealth may cause some serious balance issues.
-Thieves don’t care that, they are very unpopular hated amongst the WvW community.
-Other professions like Rangers or Engineers maybe in more dire need of such a buff.

fixed for you

Here we are…

And to the topic.It’s easier just to get rid off the portals,instead of giving them to all.

Thieves are also best suited to hide in a keep. You would see a lot of D/P perma stealth specs come back for that purpose. That along with the hate for Thieves it seems unlikely.

Unlikely because of reasons posted above, but from “it fits the them” is probably the best one of the 7 possible professions to get it.

Second one, because how Team Fortress is a great inspiration for arenanet, would be Engineers.

I think it’d be a little OP. IMO, it should be given to a profession more along the lines of a ranger.

I really don’t think it belongs on a thief, even if it might fit thematically.

Don’t see why not, in all seriousness.
Thing is by the nature of what we are, it would not be that great on us, save running away. We’re not point defenders, and outside of that it would probably use the shadowstep nature instead of Portals nature and have those shadowstep limitations, and being likely 1-person use only. So taking a keep isn’t likely happening, especially when more of those warp exploits get removed.

I mean look at Shadow Trap in an ideal situation and compare it to portal, still not that great.

I imagine a skill like “Shadow Rift” or something along those lines, which would be either the same placement as a Mesmer with both sides or a Shadowstep from the Thief him/herself with the starting location being the entrance and the ending location being the exit, and the portal would allow up to 5 allies etc.

lol, I imagine the hilarity if we can portal ourselves into Lord’s room while in stealth. If given portal ability, I suggest we change our profession name to “Ninja”.

For the stealth argument, mesmer can stealth too. Not as often but they still can go through port burst their sword combo shatter.

biggest problems with GW2 right now?
-Free Transfers + server ranking system + terrible way they announced the end of transfers = server homicide
-Culling ruining enjoyment of WvW through thief stealth / mesmer portal bombs
-Guesting not being implemented, then being implemented terribly
-Huge hype for E-Sport, zero deliverability

Im not saying GW2 is a bad game, because i love it, have had a great time and I’ll expect to have more, but if they dont fix those issues yesterday this game is in trouble, and those are only the tip of a very large pile of problems.

giving portals to thieves is the exact opposite of a good idea. giving portals to anyone prior to fixing the rendering issues with portal bombing is sheer stupidity. now, if they fixed rendering FIRST, then gave portals to thieves… well, then it would still be a really bad idea.

Too strong on the thief.

With all the stealth we have access to it would be easy cake to place portals wherever, whenever u want. It takes some sort of effort on a mesmer to sneak into a guarded SM for example but its easy cake on a thief

for those saying to give it to a ranger i would have to disagree. my main is a ranger and it just doesn’t seem to fit the ranger. the ranger needs a little help but to give them something that doesn’t fit their theme(just for the sake of buffing them) would be wrong IMO.

I could however see the engi getting some type of transportation devise. portable asura gate.

Make the ranged classes much more stronger? What logic is this?

Last class deserving of portal is thief. You guys have it in several different aspects for yourselves giving you the current best mobility in and out of combat. To give portal mechanic to the thief would be too much and much of the community especially mesmers which I think should have a big impact on where it goes since it is OUR MECHANIC getting shared think that Engineers or Necros should get something similar to portal not an exact replica but close enough to where people stop whining about mesmers (which still won’t happen). But thieves teleporting abilities

Shadow Step/Shadow Return: AoE requires LOS but still has good range and can be a quick retreat card if necessary.
Infiltrators strike: Same concept as shadow step/return but target oriented.
Infiltrators Signet: Doesn’t give ability to return but still instantly teleports to foe.
Shadow Trap: Placed and can be left when triggered the thief has 10 seconds to choose to return to the position of the trap while stealthed. Very portal esque right here except it doesn’t require the thief to place a secondary trap down and the thief can move in any direction with in a certain range of that trap and come back IF he knows an enemy is there.

Come now thieves… Let other classes get some love you guys will be fine and dandy and still HATED by most other classes. I sincerely feel you should be asking ANet to buff your less popular builds back up not wondering if you will get a portal type mechanic since you already have so many (even if they aren’t group friendly)

jportell.2197:

Last class deserving of portal is thief. You guys have it in several different aspects for yourselves giving you the current best mobility in and out of combat. To give portal mechanic to the thief would be too much and much of the community especially mesmers which I think should have a big impact on where it goes since it is OUR MECHANIC getting shared think that Engineers or Necros should get something similar to portal not an exact replica but close enough to where people stop whining about mesmers (which still won’t happen). But thieves teleporting abilities

Shadow Step/Shadow Return: AoE requires LOS but still has good range and can be a quick retreat card if necessary.
Infiltrators strike: Same concept as shadow step/return but target oriented.
Infiltrators Signet: Doesn’t give ability to return but still instantly teleports to foe.
Shadow Trap: Placed and can be left when triggered the thief has 10 seconds to choose to return to the position of the trap while stealthed. Very portal esque right here except it doesn’t require the thief to place a secondary trap down and the thief can move in any direction with in a certain range of that trap and come back IF he knows an enemy is there.

Come now thieves… Let other classes get some love you guys will be fine and dandy and still HATED by most other classes. I sincerely feel you should be asking ANet to buff your less popular builds back up not wondering if you will get a portal type mechanic since you already have so many (even if they aren’t group friendly)

Thief doesn’t have “the current best mobility in and out of combat”.

You can’t compare 17s, Shadow Return’s to Portal.
Well you can, but they obviously cannot compete with Portal for it’s goal.
Shadow Trap is the most like it, and it wonky for a couple reasons, including the profession it being on, being arguably the most fragile. They’re also 1-person only, and Shadow Trap is useless unless someone so happens to trigger it.

Tell me what other class does? Mesmer mobility in combat relies on clones… Without those our mobility is laughable at best. MAYBE D/D eles can match you but that is barely so and ANet already said that D/D ele’s were on their watch list… So NERF INCOMING FOR THEM. So out of skills that I gave you that INSTANTLY move you to a target location plus a freaking signet that grants 25% passive increase in speed plus ALL THE BUFFS YOU GET from traiting in your stealth line that bolster things for you while in stealth please tell me how you are lacking mobility in and out of combat? Don’t even try to talk about mesmer blink at a measley 900 range. And our portal relying on us dropping a second one else where. Give me a specific example of a class that has better mobility than you in as many respects as you guys get. PLEASE.

ensoriki.5789:

You can’t compare 17s, Shadow Return’s to Portal.
Well you can, but they obviously cannot compete with Portal for it’s goal.
Shadow Trap is the most like it, and it wonky for a couple reasons, including the profession it being on, being arguably the most fragile. They’re also 1-person only, and Shadow Trap is useless unless someone so happens to trigger it.

Actually I can compare shadow returns 17s To portal. WHY? Because portal says in the tool tip that the exit portal lasts for 20 seconds… Really though it only lasts for 10… You were saying? Wonky for a couple of reasons? Shadow trap has just as much if not more tactical advantage than portal because of the length of time its there and while you guys may be OH SO FRAGILE it brings you back and you are immediately in stealth and able to do your CnD steal backstab instagib combo that I hear everyone griping about. Thieves aren’t meant for group utility they are assassins rogues… ninjas if you will. NOT MEANT TO HAVE MASS GROUP TRANSIT. You guys are fine and do not need this mechanic shared because you already have so much in demand for pvp. It needs to be given to engi’s or necros… End of story. Thieves may like getting it but it will do nothing but enrage most of the community a large majority of which already hate the profession not for the people playing it but the extreme flaws that come with it making it over the top.

Im sorry to of triggered your mental condition that forces you to arbitrarily type in caps.
Like I said you can compare, but they’re inferior.

1. Who cares about the exit portal, why even bring it up? Can Shadow Return on either of the two skills or Shadow trap create exit portals? No they create 1 Anchor point, and give you sub 17s to use on Shadow Return (less on Shadowstep) and wait till an opponent steps on them in Shadow trap.

2.
A person can literally never step on the Shadow trap by sheer luck, and if it so happens it’s pointless for that role. Have you seen the shape of thief traps? Best suited for in combat use.

3. You’re comparing Shadow return that less sub 17s vs a 60s Portal with a 10s Exit point, for a total of 70s at total? In what world does that make sense as an argument of thieves being strong in that department? They aren’t. Thieves are relatively selfish, and you can bet if they got an upgrade to similar capabilities it would likely remain, very selfish.
How the hell are you going to put any of these 3 against Portal without it being a joke? They just don’t stack up. It’s like comparing 3, 4" muscle men, vs an anorexic 6 foot’er, each has their advantages, but none of them are within the same league of each other at what they’re good at.
Who said Mass group transit, they aren’t going to add a new skill. If thieves got it, it’s probably as an addition to Shadowstep or Shadow Trap, which are 1-person only.
That is primarily the reason, why even if we did or did not get it, it would not mean much. A thief warping himself into a keep…that he had to of been in to of planted already? Not doing much, but again it would be bound to the rules of shadowstepping so it would flop.
Going for a point? Not bad, other than that you’re a thief.

Caps are for emphasis apologies for that. In any case you may not feel these abilities hold a candle to portal when they really do (look at CD duration of option to return and so on). And if thieves are so selfish and the mechanic would stay for thief only then why even get it? You already have several instant transport options. You don’t need another and you don’t need a mod to make it seem like stealth is even more powerful than it is now.

Dear god don’t give thieves the ability to portal.

Support is the onliest thing thiefs lack right now.

For me they have the best defense ingame (most evades, longest stealths, most teleports), burst damage (both in AoE and single target), one of the best condition specs (P/D) and the best mobility (next to eles).

If you give them even more support (next to venom share) I soon wonder why you should play any other class. We could also rename this game into Thief Wars. The day thiefs get such a major buff out of no reason we truly know where the devs want this game to be.

It’s ok to give thieves portals. 90 sec CD, 10 sec window, uses up 1 skill slot…. You lose stunbreak or refuge or shadow step …. U will lose survivability for some teamplay.

jportell.2197:

Caps are for emphasis apologies for that. In any case you may not feel these abilities hold a candle to portal when they really do
(look at CD duration of option to return and so on).

Did we not just discuss this?
Having a 60s Choice, vs 17s there is something called, “urgency”.
If I plant this, I have 17s to do my dirt, including running/shadowstepping towards my opponent, and then it’s warp back or lose it all together.
A mesmer has 60s to make they’re choices, and an additional 10s on top of that before the portal closes. They don’t, they’re purpose is different. The closest Shadow Return on IS get’s is chaining it with other shadow steps to close gaps from farther away, giving you a farther return point. This is generally most useful on Foefire, where you can plant near the graveyard. However again you have to close that gap in 17s, fight… and lose it.
In contrast, a Mesmer can plant on Foefire, run up to Waterfall, actually cap it if it’s empty or contest it if it’s not. Have time left over (enough to cap the waterfall in full) and warp back. Where a thief cannot replicate this in any way shape or form, there just is not enough time. You might as well call an Ele Rtl’ing back to an area he just left 17s ago, portal.

And if thieves are so selfish and the mechanic would stay for thief only then why even get it? You already have several instant transport options.

Hence why I mentioned before, how little it mean’s for our profession. The only team support we’d be giving is going back by ourselves to something we had previously abandoned. If this is a keep? We’d get easily screwed as it’s just us. If it’s a point? You can’t bring in back-up. Hence thieves getting a portal or not, mean’s little, even if we want to, we are not good users of it. At best in ideal conditions Shadow Trap replicates the initial jump of Portal, but as everyone who’s used it will know, those ideal conditions don’t exactly happen, sometimes it doesn’t even work, and a thief isn’t as good at that role as he would think.

You don’t need another and you don’t need a mod to make it seem like stealth is even more powerful than it is now.

What the hell are you talking about?

If it comes, it makes sense thematically, but it’s likely bound to the rules of Shadowstepping, which inherently means inferior. If it comes it’s likely to be selfish, which mean’s inferior to portal. If it comes it’s a buff to a pre-existing skill, and in all likelihood that would probably be Shadowtrap which likely also mean’s a cooldown increase. You think they’re going to just add new skills like that son when they can just augment something pre-existing and then sell you new skills in an expansion without the precedent that they gave you new ones for free? Doubtful.
I could care less if it comes or not, if it’s not an increase to Infiltration as a buff itself, it’s worthless, and if it’s an increase on Infiltration on Infiltrator strike, they’re making that weapon more unwieldy the moment you have to chase someone and move from that anchor point.

no
Thief+ portal = kitten br /> I can hide in Bay for 3 hours with 50 ppls chasing me as thief, that keep is huge , same goes with hills and garrison.
And with the help of descent of shadows i can perma stealth in an tower as well

Go for it hide as long as u can. If u can then someone in other servers can too so u cap it we will just take it back the u cap it again then we will take it back again.. I don’t see a problem… Lol 1 min to decide haha …. Enjoy it cause the CD is 90 seconds try not using one of ur skill slots for that long in a fight… Enjoy

I don’t think so. The closest thing I could think of that would make sense with the thief is a group shadowstep which is already more powerful than a portal as it would be an instantaneous teleport of several allies to an enemy location. I can’t see a thief having a portal like a mesmers type. I feel portals are more likely to be an engineer creation where they can set up an entrance gateway and exit gateway with some sort of gadget.

The rogue-like classes in Warhammer used to have a lockpick ability that would open up a side entrance iirc.

I -really- don’t want anyone to get portal (because the skill is stupid and further forcing people to bring that skill is dumb imo), but i do think if anyone were to get it it’d be thieves and/or necroes because they already have something similar.

Thieves portal would just be tied into Shadow trap (or w/e one allows you to port back in stealth when triggered) and necros would use flesh wurm.

Every class can have a lore-fitting version of portals:

Thief: Shadow Portal (teleports people through shadows just like shadowstep)
Ele: Black Hole (generated by unstable elements)
Necro: Dark Vortex (uses an underworld passage)
Engineer: Teleport Machine (new engineer technology, gets bugged and destroys self after X uses)
Ranger: Quicksand (self-explanatory)
Guardian: Door of Dwayna (the power of Dwayna allows to create a passage through dimensions)
Warrior: ??? Too simple minded to create a portal perhaps.

But honestly, I see portals as a cheap gimmick and easymode ways of dealing with walls.
People should learn to use siege correctly instead of trying to “bypass” walls.
I wonder why Anet finds something gimmicky and decides to give cheese to everyone instead of removing it. Meh.

@Ensoriki Way to take what I said out of context I said you have Tons of instant transport options and you don’t need another or a mod to make stealth even more powerful than it is. Let me explain that you have:
1. Steal
2. Infiltrators Strike
3. Shadow Shot
4. Shadow Step/Return
5. Shadow trap/Pursuit
All of these have a shorter cooldown that portal mesmers some of these stealth you upon use depending on your traits. And all are instant travel abilities and several have the option to go between the starting point and the target point. Essentially portal. This is why you don’t need portal. And if it means so little for your profession to get then why are you arguing for getting it? It would just be another reason for people to dislike this profession and more so loathe Anet.

I think elementalist would get portal before a thief would.

Eslakon.8149:

I think elementalist would get portal before a thief would.

Spoken like a true elementalist.

I think engineers would first, tunneler/sapper engineers were used throughout the Great War (WW1) to tunnel behind the frontline and also to blow up enemy emplacements from below.

Like I said earlier though, conceptually, the Thief could work as a burglary ability. It was done in Warhammer Online with the Witch Hunter.

Absolutely not. They already can hide in keeps for a long time. This is guild wars 2, not hide and go seek online. As said above, Engineers would be a good choice, maybe necromancers also.

Thieves with portal would be insanely overpowered in WvW, they’d be moronic to give the class portal…

So pretty much expect it next patch.

Give the new portals to warriors! They tear open the fabric of space time with brute force!!

While I would love it if thieves got a portal like ability (akin to a group like shadow step), I would much prefer them get some other form of support. I could just see the QQ a group of thieves would generate if they could now portal around (2/3 thieves would become vary vary dangerous, it’s not as much now with 2 thieves and a mes because the mes has to rely on the thieves for most of their stealth).

In reality, portals could be given to any class in a way that would make sense (although I’ll have to think about the warrior one for a bit…):
-Ranger: Hidden Path(shortcut thingy)
-Elementalist: Portal/Dimentional Rift
-Necromancer: Shadow Rift/Underworld/Something to do with traversing space via Hell/whatnot
-Engineer: Transport Pad/Tunnel
-Warriors: guess they could also use a shovel…
-Thief: Walk in Shadows
-Guardian: somesortoflightheavenportallikething/Divine Ark/Heavenly Gate

Edit: Sorry Red Falcon, didn’t see your post :P

And to those posting about it giving us just 1 more “teleport” like ability, I would imagine it would be like the mesmer portal, in that you have to run/teleport to open the destination…and it’s not like whichever class gets the portal is getting a bonus utility slot. The biggest advantage a portal has is for group use, it’s not meant to be solo only (although it does have some great solo uses). Hopefully, when whichever class gets this, it will be at the same time they look at a lot of the useless/near useless utilities many classes have and improve them. (This would also help the classes that did NOT get the portal swallow that pill…)

I doubt it. Thiefs are already strong. Giving them portal would make them even stronger. I dont wanna give anet a reason to nerf us in other areas.

Ide say give it to a engineer (sapper) or a necro (dark portal). Both class are in need of help and i think it would give people a reason to actually play them.

I’d guess thieves would be the last candidate for portals, combined with already hated stealth, portals for thieves would be a balance disaster