For god sake, thieves should not be able to spam perma-stealth with this easy as pie black powder heart seeker combo. Not only can they stealth with it, but it is extremely hard to interrupt because the kitten field blinds you too (and they’ll probably just stun-break or shadowstep away even if you do). Even if you manage to get them on low initiative or health for half a second they can just use their heal or utility to stealth until both regen (which takes no time at all). Throw 2 thieves in the mix and you have an unkillable duo since they can further stealth eachother with shadow refuge and smoke fields even when one has it on cooldown/has low initiative respectively. Maybe if thief was properly designed to be ineffective with low initiative there would be no problem, but because their dagger autoattack is supremely effective (especially when stealthed) there is absolutely no disincentive to blow initiative on stealthing at every possible opportunity.
In sPvP it may be fine because you can’t take objectives while stealthed, but in WvW skirmishes this is beyond broken.
With the proliferation of boxes o fun lately, I’ve discovered how fun the petrify status is. Striking a pose and becoming a purty statue for all to admire is quite excellent. The only problem is that boxes o fun are the only source of this nifty effect, unlike most of the other effects in a box o fun, so you can’t really take advantage of it on demand. For instance, we now have a book that allows the special dances, there are many animal transformation tonics, and there are hylek potions that can change your color.
Thus, as a tonic enthusiast, I propose that endless petrification tonics be added to the gem store a la the “learn to dance” book, for 400-800 gems. Alternatively, a recipe could be made requiring 50 lodestones like the other recent infinite tonics. I believe onyx lodestones would be an ideal candidate given onyx is a type of rock… and petrification turns you into a rock.
My character wholly approves of this idea… or at least I think she does. She can’t really seem to talk right now:
