So first off, I’d like to say that I find it rather dissapointing reading most first impressions of the daredevil. Before I get to my impression, let me tell you why. (this post will be aimed at HoT content, as I like most people went in there with beserker gear and tried to thief it up like normal)
Most people are expecting to get away with the regular thief playstyle of burst damage and squishy as ever with some survival utilities like smoke screen and the like, but I wonder how many of you are actually observing what arenanet is trying to push thieves to.
My impression was similar and I thought yeah staff is fun but it’s useless and squishy. I thought I’d be limited to a condi hybrid build with DD, which. I do enjoy alot, but I wanted more diversity. Then I decided to open up my perspective and try to see what anet has intended thieves to become. (on HoT atleast).
First of all, lets start with looking at the new runes, as I feel this is giving us a good direction with daredevil that is being over looked. Power, toughness and 100% crit after a dodge roll. Woah! Hold your horses here, Holliday. Are you saying we aren’t getting a nice precision/condi mix with weakness to compliment the hybrid playstyle? And what is with the toughness? Where is my precision?!
Let’s think about this for a second.
anet is basically telling us: “Look, thieves are getting free 100% crits on hardhitting attacks after a dodge, so go use some stats other than precision”
This got me thinking. If precision is free, all I need is power and ferocity. This opens up the stats I can use as a thief tremendously! Finally I can use something like valkyrie to get all that vitality I always wanted, heck I could go for the new wanderers stuff for some boon duration on my vigor. Yet I still can keep hitting hard and constantly evade on my vaults.
Let us also not forget that I can now trait way more defensively too, acrobatics, trickery, daredevil anyone? Well, I can now use traits in acrobatics that I never used before! I can actually use it to heal or gain initiative for longer fights because Look, dash is a better don’t stop!
No more need for insane fury uptimes and extra damage from this and that because the weapons hit hard enough (staff, p/p) on their own.
This is only one playstyle I have played with and it’s extremely fun and viable in the new zones.
I guess all I want to say with this post, is that before you start calling out for buffs and how daredevil isnt viable here and there, think about redefining everything you knew about thief and try out the awesome stuff anet is pushing here.