Guild Wars 2

i’m not really hyped for this. most people take it as “I should spam my initiative” but in actuality, it was meant more for “the fight is drawing out, but i’m getting stronger”

for my build in particular, I trait DA, CS, and DD, because I like burst damage and bound helps. but if I had to choose between replacing one of them, I’d have to go with CS. yet, while comparing the damage, i’m still dishing out more damage with CS over trickery with the lead attacks.

yes, it gives me more initiative, but i’m doing significantly less damage. as for people hopping on the bandwagon, as I’ve read from other threads, people spamming their initiative JUST to get the damage boost, are risking their chances to disengage if things go south. it’s kinda stupid…

but hey, they pretty much said it was mostly to boost pistol and sword skills. in that case, I think they did a good job in their attempt.

but still, I think lead attacks is just eh. d/p thieves honestly didn’t get much attention but that’s fine. what bothers me most is they again buffed eles. they were even the first class on the list of changes, which clearly, to me anyway, shows a distinct bias. and why engi?… I dunno…

The classes are listed in alphabetical order. That the first class in the list matters to you is mind boggling.

D/P needs no love. The rest of the options do.

The Lead Attacks changes only buffed spam play (especially now with a buffed AA which makes wasting init have no real consequence in terms of damage) on a few already overly-efficient abilities and AA finishers, notably, Shadow Shot.

Yes, Unload was buffed with this, but honestly, unload already had huge burst, and now has even more burst with the might stacks, enabling P/P to be the best burst damage the class has. It’s objectively better than backstab and in fact so good it nullifies the purpose in playing CS/signets because Signet use becomes pointless for massive P/P unload damage.

Further, the changes nerfed builds which already were poor performers, like S/D and D/D, which upon conventional engage/core thief already have more initiative than D/P, punishing bursty specs and providing a damage loss for conserving initiative.

I understand that spamming doesn’t replace truly skilled play and initiative management, but there’s little reason to nerf builds which are already suffering, especially D/D power, but cutting its damage upon engage and buffing unskilled play. It simply isn’t good design and isn’t justified.

Honestly, I’m so turned off by this change that I haven’t even touched my beloved thief. It’s the notion of invalidating a style of play and punishing more skilled, calculated play that really bothers me the most about all of the changes in the patch.

I feel like it has helped S/D compete a little more since that weapon set relies on proper use of your Ini, yes you won’t spam your Skills like other weapon sets and get the full 15% buff right away but as the fight prolongs you will constantly be able to sustain the 15% buff.

DeceiverX.8361:

Yes, Unload was buffed with this, but honestly, unload already had huge burst, and now has even more burst with the might stacks, enabling P/P to be the best burst damage the class has. It’s objectively better than backstab and in fact so good it nullifies the purpose in playing CS/signets because Signet use becomes pointless for massive P/P unload damage.

i’m actually pretty tempted to try out P/P. it’d be a nice way to open perhaps, but there still would be no way for me to integrate it with d/p play since the two builds pretty much use different trait lines completely. least, from what i can see.

I disagree. I’m a d/p thief and I get 15 stacks with lead attack with a almost 100% up-time. and that’s without spamming skills. while traveling with sb you get stacks (6 per use) so once you enter a fight you’ll usually already have 12 stacks at least, once I hit p/5 that puts it at 15 and helps my burst. having an extra 15% dmg almost all the time is pretty nice if you ask me. you’d think it’d only be good for prolonged fights because of the description (I know because I thought the same thing) but then you actually use it and pay attention to it’s up-time. that kitten is up before you even start a fight, so, no you don’t have to be in a fight for a bit for it to be effective.

Without a piercing / bouncing trait, p/p can never be “that” good for my taste (for wvw). I really miss my cowboy thief. With everyone having new role options, I think thief needs one too.