Guild Wars 2

seriously! a class whose main mechanic is Stealth actually has very few ways to enter stealth out of combat!

i propose a new elite that would grant constant stealth but make you move at walking pace or slower.

this would be a 2 chain skill

Assassin’s Patience
gain stealth, move 90% slower.
Cast time: instant
Duration: 64
Recharge: 60

(so letting it tick down without using the 2nd skill would let you keep perma-stealth)

upon using the 2nd skill in the chain Assassin’s Ambush, the movement penalty is removed, you gain Might+Fury (durations/stacks would need testing) but the stealth duration is cut to 3-5 seconds, the skill goes on cooldown.

(the reason for making it 2 parts is that while moving at -90% you will find it very difficult to actually ambush your enemy, the 2nd part will give you a short window of full movement)

the aim of this elite is to allow thieves to truly feel like sneaky assassins and have the element of surprise but without allowing them to zip around wvw/pvp/dungeons unhindered.

Why need a stealth elite when we already have fair access to personal with weapons alone and shared stealh if utilities are added?

I believe you are looking for SB.

Pistol #5 + Dagger #2
Pistol #5 + Shortbow #2
Pistol #5 + Blinding Powder
Smokescreen + Dagger#2
Smokescreen + Shortbow #2
Smokescreen + Blinding Powder
Shadow Refuge
Blinding Powder
Hidden Thief trait
Hide in Shadows

id rather have it something like

Camuflague

-Can only be used outside of combat
-3 second activation
-duration 45 secs
-Trappers patience (TRAIT) increases the duration of camuflague by 5 second for each trap you equip (+15s max,making it 60/60R time)
-recharge 60 second
-UNSTEALTH IF MOVED
-When unstealthed gain fury and swiftness for 10 seconds and stability for 5 seconds
Would be fun to set a bunch of traps and wait in stealth till someone walks by and springs the traps

I’d rather alter Assassin’s Signet or Signet of Shadows, so that one of them grants us stealth when activated cuz I think the current mechanics are rather troublesome.
A trait that grants us stealth when we activate a signet is even better, a new special stealth skill on the F2 slot would be best.
“Fields+Finishers” should be an extra way for us to go into stealth mode, but not the major way.

Meryn.6875:

Pistol #5 + Dagger #2
Pistol #5 + Shortbow #2
Pistol #5 + Blinding Powder
Smokescreen + Dagger#2
Smokescreen + Shortbow #2
Smokescreen + Blinding Powder
Shadow Refuge
Blinding Powder
Hidden Thief trait
Hide in Shadows

Pistol #5 + Dagger #2
9 initiative, 3s stealth.
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Pistol #5 + Shortbow #2
9 initiative, 3s stealth.
locks weapon choices.
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Pistol #5 + Blinding Powder
6 initiative, 40s CD, 6 second stealth
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Smokescreen + Dagger#2
3 initiative, 30s CD, 3s stealth
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Smokescreen + Shortbow #2
3 initiative, 30s CD, 3s stealth
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Smokescreen + Blinding Powder
2 utility slots, 40s CD, 6s stealth
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Shadow Refuge
the best current option for stealth ambush, but still, 15s stealth, 60s CD,
obvious aoe on ground present for alot of the duration.

Blinding Powder
40s CD, 3s stealth.

Hidden Thief trait
2s stealth.

Hide in Shadows
30s CD, wastes your heal if used for stealth, 3s stealth.

the aim of this elite was to give thief a way to reliably ambush unsuspecting enemies,

other than blowing shadow refuge around a corner and then hoping you make it to your enemy in the 11 second window, thief has no way to stealthily ambush someone without them knowing you’re there.

all of the current forms of stealth have incredibly short durations, require attacking a target or have high costs and obvious ground effects.

Vukorep.3081:

id rather have it something like

Camuflague

-Can only be used outside of combat
-3 second activation
-duration 45 secs
-Trappers patience (TRAIT) increases the duration of camuflague by 5 second for each trap you equip (+15s max,making it 60/60R time)
-recharge 60 second
-UNSTEALTH IF MOVED
-When unstealthed gain fury and swiftness for 10 seconds and stability for 5 seconds
Would be fun to set a bunch of traps and wait in stealth till someone walks by and springs the traps

i do like this idea, and its kinda what i was going for with emphasism on staying around the same spot while stealthed

Or you could have an active skill instead of a passive one…

There is a reason thief is a resource driven class instead of a CD based one. Being active. Its why people think thief is up, cause it requires you to be active not just push a button and squat.

Yeah.. eeh.. no.

One thing this game has done right, is having no class with perma stealth. Perma stealth is a terrible thing on open world pvp. Unless you are a fan of groups stacking a perma stealth class, camping in spawns or various map points…

I’d trade a stealth elite for a conditions cleanse elite any day

Shadow’s Embrace

No. Simply no. This would be only a good idea in a single player game. So you like to feel all stealthy and want to attack any player any time without that player being able to get ready? Do you understand the concept of MMORPG? Who would still have fun in this game if they could be insta-gibbed any time? If this would be ever included in the game, the (justified) outcry would just lead to more nerfs to thief’s core areas. Backstab would probably hit like a non-crit AA, etc.
Yes, thief is totally UP right now but the goal must be to make it viable again and not turn it into an uncounterable 1-shotter for the power creep kiddies.

A cool idea for a stealth elite would be a skill that stealths you for 3 seconds (the typical, untraited duration), but that lets you attack or perform actions without breaking the stealth.

It has to be a short duration for obvious reasons and if you use another stealth skill on top of it, it overwrites it (so you can’t extend the elite’s duration).

Aside from that, perma stealth has all kinds of issues, so I’d be against it. Lots of content would become unbalanced with that kind of mechanic.

I don’t agree with the stealth and slow thing. It would make thief too much of a scouty class, and it would be way to easy to disengage from a fight. BAM pops elite laughs at enemy’s confusion

Liewec.2896:

Pistol #5 + Dagger #2
9 initiative, 3s stealth.
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Pistol #5 + Shortbow #2
9 initiative, 3s stealth.
locks weapon choices.
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Pistol #5 + Blinding Powder
6 initiative, 40s CD, 6 second stealth
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Smokescreen + Dagger#2
3 initiative, 30s CD, 3s stealth
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Smokescreen + Shortbow #2
3 initiative, 30s CD, 3s stealth
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Smokescreen + Blinding Powder
2 utility slots, 40s CD, 6s stealth
aoe on ground enemy knows you’re there.

Shadow Refuge
the best current option for stealth ambush, but still, 15s stealth, 60s CD,
obvious aoe on ground present for alot of the duration.

Blinding Powder
40s CD, 3s stealth.

Hidden Thief trait
2s stealth.

Hide in Shadows
30s CD, wastes your heal if used for stealth, 3s stealth.

Assassin’s Patience
60 sec cooldown upon activate
Waste of elite for stealth

If youre gonna shoot down all options, please dont let your own out.
The thief has to use init/utilities to stealth for a reason, being able to permastealth with no sacrafices would be too OP. I’m cool with stealth having some location tells and costing a bit of initiative, after all were still able to perma-stealth, so dont tell me its too costy to use.

the aim of this elite was to give thief a way to reliably ambush unsuspecting enemies,

other than blowing shadow refuge around a corner and then hoping you make it to your enemy in the 11 second window, thief has no way to stealthily ambush someone without them knowing you’re there.

all of the current forms of stealth have incredibly short durations, require attacking a target or have high costs and obvious ground effects.

If you want to ambush a target from stealth without them knowing, use Shadow Trap. Im not sure if it puts the target in combat as well, but even if it does, no biggy.
Shadow Trap does exactly what you appear to ask for, without even wasting an elite and having a shorter cooldown.

Vukorep.3081:

id rather have it something like

Camuflague

-Can only be used outside of combat
-3 second activation
-duration 45 secs
-Trappers patience (TRAIT) increases the duration of camuflague by 5 second for each trap you equip (+15s max,making it 60/60R time)
-recharge 60 second
-UNSTEALTH IF MOVED
-When unstealthed gain fury and swiftness for 10 seconds and stability for 5 seconds
Would be fun to set a bunch of traps and wait in stealth till someone walks by and springs the traps

This means you will have to have a visual on your enemy first and then stealthing untill he’s near your position. The problem with this is, if you can see your enemy, he can see you too and if you keep perma-stealthed he will know where you are, since this will be the only way to perma-stealth without tells (see above) Sure you can just perma-stealth at your location but cmon, who likes waiting 15 minutes just for 1 target to pass..

0/10 OP because thief actually can permastealth…
So why are you talking about “no permastealth”, “little to no out of combat stealth…”
wtf? Are we even playing the same game?
And if you want 100% uptime on non-noticeable stealth… Well that’s too hard for WvW sneak-ins. Right now you can get spotted because enemies hear the sound/see visuals of your stealth abilities… Remove that and there’s not even a single hint of a thief sneaking in.