Guild Wars 2

I’m thinking this will become less of an issue when siege weaponry and organized tactics become popular. Considering Thieves can solo supply camps and sentries and are super mobile, I can’t see why they couldn’t set up some dangerous artilery behind the enemy to punish their frontal assault. But this will take time while funds accumulate

Im not even sure where the argument against this is coming from. Have you ever encountered a short bow wielding thief and thought “Oh god I’m screwed!” The short bow has pitiful damage outside of the cluster bomb, it’s mainly a utility thing (great when used with allies ranged abilities) but in a wall siege poison is next to worthless (most people retreat before trying to heal.)

Making JUST the 1 have a 1200 range would mean you could hit a single target and 2 random ones regularly for some simple damage, and would give you something to focus on more than “shoot cluster shot, wait a few seconds, push again for maximum damage, hope you didn’t push too early.” The MOST you’d see from this is an actual use of the short bow, because having 1200 range to pepper a target means there might be a reason to keep it as a secondary weapon.

The biggest counter argument I could think of are the short bows mobility is the strongest of all the thiefs weapons. (disabiling shot and infiltrators arrow, meaning as long as they have initiative they can engage or disengage at will)

There was a time when everyone only had 1 weapon :p even if you bought one you had to get the gold to do so

There is a venomancer build that’s great for it for PvP, particularly WvWvW. The ability to give 20 or so allies 2 shots of stone venom is really crazy

I’m so glad someone else posted on this, I was waiting for the forums to open up to talk about the same thing. So far I’ve attempted it 5 or so times (not counting the double digit deaths each attempt) and the only way I’ve beaten him was by kitting him and taking 5 minutes to whittle him slowly down. (As a thief multiple level attempts most recent was at 33 I believe, and then only by abusing sneak attack on double pistols to bleed him dry.) But as said he seems to prioritize me and no one in my party until I drop, then half my party seems confused about reviving me.

The other problem I’ve had with this encounter, after you do the second trap gauntlet (when the ghosts join you, the spike traps on the floor) if you make it to the end the ghosts want to engage on the enemy right away, no chance to recuperate if you stepped on the last set of traps.

And then Mazdak… the only time I’ve seen him beat or heard of him being beat is by people kitting and spamming the ranged chain lightning.