Showing Posts For Jortakk.6792:
I believe removing the ramp up time and making Death Spiral a 450 leap would be enough in regards to more mobility for greatsword. Nightfall moving with the necromancer would be great as well. You could do some pretty nifty stuff with them and a few small changes might make greatsword more worthwhile.
If they are worried about rending shade proccing multiple times… Just remove the CD from stealth skills and add one to the trait itself. That way you don’t detrimentally affect thieves’ core playstyle, and still make the new trait balanced.
I was just wondering… Is there a good reason why Rending Claws been changed to be like Burst of Strength? I mean they look similar and do similar things. Am I alone in thinking that a change like this would make the weapon a bit more useful/viable?
They are removed for the next expansion. The thieves’ elite spec will be a gunslinger or rifleman with the trait reintroduced. Critical Strikes will be the next Acrobatics line.
Just want to throw some ideas out there for some skills that are almost never (or never) used.
General Summoned Thieves
- Make them scale competitively with levels, up to 2064 armour, 11645 health, 1560 precision, 560 ferocity, 1050 condition damage and 2050 power at level 80.
- Allow the summons use stealth attacks, contribute to point capture and use current weapon skills.
- Allow the male summon to use vital shot.
- Allow the female summon to dodge.
- Remove the female summon’s scorpion wire.
Ambush
- Reduce cooldown to 30 s.
- Reduce summon duration to 10 s.
Thieves Guild
- Make it a trap instead of a deception.
- Reduce summon duration to 15 s (makes it similar to rampage/signet of humility in that they are huge game changers in 1v1s, but rather than it being defensive it just gives a huge dps increase).
(edited by Jortakk.6792)
Just a few ideas for acro, as thieves don’t have much in the way of group support:
Expeditious Dodger
Replace with: “You and nearby allies gain swiftness whenever you dodge (swiftness for 4 s, Radius 240, No ICD)”.
Vigorous Recovery
Replace with: “Slipstream
Whenever you grant swiftness to an ally, they gain superspeed as well (superspeed for 4 s, 10 s ICD)”.
Thieves already have plenty of vigour, especially in the Acro line, Vigorous Recovery is just too much.
Guarded Initiation
Replace with: “Evasive Adjustment
Dodging removes weakness, slow and vulnerability (10 s ICD)”.
Limited condi clear above 75% hp after striking an enemy is just bad. This makes it similar to other classes’ condi clear on dodge that do find use, especially if you can dodge as often as a thief.
Don’t Stop
Replace with “Go with the Flow
Whenever you dodge, other nearby allies evade for a duration (Evade: 0.5 s, Radius: 240, Number of Allied Targets: 4, 2 s ICD”.
Don’t Stop isn’t needed as Dash just makes this obsolete.
This might be a silly question, but why didn’t they just put a 1 s ICD on Rending Shade rather than mess with the fluidity of the thieves’ kit?
I wonder if a simple 3 seconds of Stealth on Cloak and Dagger (without needing to hit something) would help Dagger/Dagger enough.
It would be a pretty cheap way to enter Stealth compared to Black Powder. It could be stacked 3 to 4 times if you commit all of your initiative, similar to Black Powder. But it would be lacking the combo field and Shadow Shot to assist in melee or gap closing, so it wouldn’t be trying to mimic Dagger/Pistol.
It would give a bit more flexibility, however, in that you don’t have to commit to stacking Stealth at the beginning like you do with D/P. You can CnD once, then if you can’t get in position for a Backstab, just CnD the air again to gain 3 more seconds.
If my calculations are correct, and you’re running with Preparedness, then you can stack a total of 12 seconds of Stealth… the same amount you can get with D/P.
I’m sorry but I don’t believe that would be a wise change for the following reasons:
- Flavour wise, it sort of takes the “Dagger” out of “Cloak and Dagger”
- You could achieve permanent, uninterruptible (albeit after the first CnD) stealth with just the /D, Meld with Shadows and Shadow’s Rejuvenation, without any help from utilities, stealth skills or runes, something even D/P can’t achieve. It would be the old Infusion of Shadow all over again, which isn’t a good thing.
I’m very happy to see people brainstorming here, but just a few things to keep in mind.
- I am speaking primarily from a PvP and WvW viewpoint here, I know that D/D is used a lot in PvE and achieves top tier DPS, so any ideas involving increased damage to its optimal “rotation” should be advised against.
- If there is any criticism to be made, I’d appreciate it to be constructive and specific.
- I understand there are problems involving other classes and their traits and skills, but they belong in their respective forums.
- I did not make this topic to discuss crazy major overhauls to GW2’s attribute system, but small, relatively realistic changes to skills and traits for the thief, specifically dual wield pistols, daggers and the critical strikes trait line.
D/P has remained relatively unchanged over the years (in regards to dual wield and offhand skills) and has constantly been in use in PvP and WvW. This leads me to believe that it is regarded as a “balanced” and decent weapon set in the scheme of things.
Guys, the things I am suggesting are to create meaningful, thematic and competitive combinations of skills and traits between main and offhand sets for D/D and P/P. Currently the only set that achieves that is D/P, which has remained relatively consistent over the patches, as opposed to D/D and P/P.
I’m not trying to suggest powercreep, as many of the skills and traits I am mentioning have been nerfed into being almost worthless or removed entirely (specifically Dancing Dagger, Body Shot & Ricochet). What I believe I am trying to suggest is a compromise.
What Thieves used to have:
- P/P + Ricochet + hitting up to 5 targets + Signet of Malice + Invigorating Precision
- D/D + Blind on all stealth + Shadow’s Rejuvenation
What I am suggesting:
- P/P + Ricochet + hitting up to 3 targets + Signet of Malice + Invigorating Precision + Combination of Reload and Black Powder.
- D/D + Blind on only Cloak and Dagger + Extended Range + Swiftness + Shadow’s Rejuvenation.
When two weapon sets haven’t been used in many (if any) a game type in years, as opposed to another that hasn’t seen much change over that time, the idea shouldn’t be to nerf the most used weapon set, but to buff the traits and skills related specifically to the underused weapon sets.
(edited by Jortakk.6792)
Sick of seeing the same crap everywhere. Just making a few suggestions in regards to a few weapon sets and trait lines to bring back some of the old really fun and unique builds that never see play any more. Any feedback would be welcome.
Mainhand Dagger
Heartseeker
- Reduce the damage by approximately 5% (so power builds don’t lose out).
- Applies 3, 6 and 12 stacks of bleeding for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd damage thresholds respectively, all for 1 seconds.
Offhand Dagger
Dancing Dagger
- Applies 1 torment for 6 seconds.
Cloak and Dagger
- Remove the vulnerability.
- Applies AOE blind in a 240 radius when the skill would hit, even if it doesn’t (so missing isn’t completely ineffective).
- Refunds 2 initiative if it doesn’t hit.
- Increase the range to 170.
- Grants 4 s of swiftness on hit (to close in on the target).
Mainhand Pistol
Vital Shot
- Increase damage by approximately 34%.
Body Shot
- Remove the vulnerability.
- Reduce initiative cost to 3.
- Now chains to Backpedal when you successfully hit an enemy.
Backpedal
- Has a 1/4 s cast time.
- Costs 1 initiative.
- Shadowsteps you backwards or directly away from your target.
- Has a range of 450.
Dual Wield Skills
Unload
- Remove the might.
- Reduce initiative cost to 4.
- Chains to Reload when you successfully hit an enemy.
Reload
- Has a 0 s cast time.
- Costs 1 initiative.
- Applies AOE bind in a 120 radius.
- Is a blast finisher.
Critical Strikes
- Swap Sundering Strikes and Side Strike.
- Replace Side Strike with Mark of the Assassin.
- Replace Ankle Shots with Ricochet.
Mark of the Assassin
- Activate Assassin’t Signet when you strike a foe from behind or to the side (Identical to Assassin’s Signet).
Ricochet
- Pistol shots bounce to additional targets (Additional Bounces: 2, cannot hit the same target twice).
Arenanet has to stop nerfing Thieves’ core themes and playstyles. Recent patches just keep widening the gap between HoT and vanilla builds and weapon sets. Sometimes numbers (specifically with the vanilla weapon sets) aren’t enough, functionality of skills and traits have to be changed to bring these underutilised builds up to par.
(edited by Jortakk.6792)
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Plague_Signet ?
Look down in the notes.
So you have 9 classes in the game all having certain boons available to them. The ones with the least amount of boons usually have skills that affect the enemies’ boons in some way.
Boon Reliant Classes: Engineer, Elementalist, Ranger (sort of) Revenant and Guardian
Classes that aren’t Boon Reliant: Necromancer, Thief, Warrior and Mesmer (not really)
The Mesmer rips boons, the Thief steals boons and the Necromancer corrupts boons.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if the Warriors main boon mechanic was having certain skills that ignore enemy defensive boons?
Errr, I meant interrupting the queue and aftercast, not the skill animation itself.
For the Guardian:
Wings of Resolve: This skill is no longer affected by movement-altering effects, such as cripple and swiftness. It also no longer queues and will activate immediately when possible.
Rightio, so I guess it can be done.
Since playing an evasion based thief is all about immediately reacting to your opponents skills, why wasn’t something like this done for things like Flanking Strike (both), Death Blossom, Disabling Shot, Debilitating Arc, Vault or Shadow Assualt?
The image has been updated to include some recent changes and will probably be updated again after the patch hits. I’ve really tried to streamline traits, skills and abilities in order to cater for any build conceived for thief, while also making them relatively balanced and competitive in most game modes. I’m still looking forward to receiving any further constructive criticisms, feedback or suggestions about the changes I’ve collected and adapted.
Thanks for the replies! The reason I replaced the projectile reflect with destroy is that I felt it didn’t promote active or skilful play, which is what being a thief is all about. You just auto attack and hope that you reflect something. It also sort of removes the uniqueness of the staff skill 4 I created, which would allow you to profit from controlled reflects at any range, rather than just random ones in melee.
I’ve posted this on the Thief forums before, but I would really like to see a thief specialization that revolves around a Jack-of-all-trades Engineer-like playstyle with weapon swapping and kits (I know you are restricted by initiative, but taking a certain GM trait makes something like this totally viable).
http://i.imgur.com/PKZdIgC.png
Its quite a long read.
Not all of these ideas are mine, but I feel like pistol/pistol would become relatively competitive as a weapon set if the following things were changed:
Body shot
Remove vulnerability applied.
Now is unblockable.
Reduce initiative cost to 3.
Now chains to Backpedal when you successfully hit an enemy.
Backpedal
Has a 0 s cast time.
Costs 1 inititative.
Shadowsteps you backwards or directly away from your target.
Has a range of 450.
Unload
Reduce initiative cost to 4.
Now chains to Reload when you successfully hit an enemy.
Reload
Has a 0 s cast time.
Costs 1 initiative.
Blinds for 5 s.
Is a blast finisher.
Has a radius of 120.
Is unblockable.
Replace the Ankle Shots trait with Ricochet.
This would allow for some much needed mobility and cleave on this weapon set as well as practical finishers with its own combo field.
(edited by Jortakk.6792)
Thief happens to be in a bit of a precarious spot at the moment in all aspects of the GW2 game. I have been brainstorming ideas on how to make thief more competitive and the ideas I’ve seen in the forums or come up with are:
Disincentivizing the Trickery Line.
Increasing build diversity.
Increasing survivability while adhering to the core thief playstyles and themes.
Increasing support while adhering to the core thief playstyles and themes.
Increasing the effectiveness of underused utility skills.
Remaking pointless traits that have no chance of finding use and
Creating meaningful combinations between weapons skills, utilities and trait lines.
I saw the news post this morning and thought “Crap I should have posted this sooner!” Even though changes like these might not have any chance of finding their way into the game, I still had a lot of fun creating this and just wanted to put it out there for the community to see.
Any feedback would be welcome.
http://i.imgur.com/32IJxED.png
It’s quite a long read.
(edited by Jortakk.6792)
Thats the thing though, most of the other classes have builds that can fill multiple roles in PvP. All I am trying to do is create a thief Specialization that has the possibility of doing the same. Also, its not I wanted them to be an expert at everything, I tried to make so they had less:
Stealth and blinds than a d/p or d/d thief.
Boon stealing than a s/d thief.
Damage while evading than a Staff thief.
Speed and vertical mobility than a Shortbow thief,
or single target ranged damage than a p/p thief.
I just wanted the Specialization to have a little bit of each. That’s what I mean when I said “Jack of all trades”.
Its supposed to be a Jack all trades spec (it isn’t tied to a specific build or playstyle, its supposed to be flexible). Also, being like James Bond was deliberate.
its working for me
I was a little bit disappointed with the fact that the thieves’ Specialization didn’t really offer a new playstyle to the thief, so I have been working on making one myself. The Specialization revolves around weapon swapping, which is something thieves don’t really utilize. It introduces a new f1 mechanic and gives thieves a 1200 range weapon.
The idea is that it plays similarly to an engineer, but instead of separate weapon skill cooldowns, you have to manage weapon swap cooldowns and your initiative. The Specialization still gives niche support in PvE, but opens up the ability for thieves to use the Celestial amulet and possibly hold points on their own in PvP.
The damage and healing numbers are just placeholders, but I’ve tried to make them similar to existing skills in that regard. I had a lot of fun creating this and just want to put this out there for the community to see.
Any feedback would be welcome.
http://i.imgur.com/PKZdIgC.png
It’s quite a long read.
I wouldn’t mind the idea of giving it a cooldown of 5 s, as long it was then affected by the Trickster trait.
The wiki is wrong, the actual coefficient of the last hit is 2.6.
+1, this really hurts voluntary support and ooc movement speed, especially for power based thieves.
^^ That as well as MagicToker and AllieFarron
some elixir gun skills do not apply might when underwater.
I wonder why Anet kept the skill like this. They removed Ricochet because they didn’t like the RNG. Furthermore as possible new expansions are released, the chances of it recharging what you want will be reduced. I honestly think it should be changed to “One random skill currently on cooldown is immediately recharged when you steal.” This way there is more control over what you want to reuse and it promotes more skilful play.
Honestly I feel that Dust Strike is not worth the initiative, its a cone of blinding that deals insignificant damage. Pistol does so much more for the thief with Shadow Shot and Black Powder. Might I suggest tagging the blind on the end of Debilitating Arc for 1 initiative, similar to Larcenous Strike and Flanking Strike?
The reflect on Punishing Strikes does not promote skilful play, you hope you are going to reflect something while auto-attacking as there is really no control. Might I suggest creating a reflect on staff 4, dealing minimal upfront damage and mainly used as utility if you are being pressured from range? Something like 4 initiative for a 1 or 1.5 s reflect?
I believe these changes would go a long way to ensure staff becomes a competitive weapons compared to the ones we can already use.
With the expansion we will have 3 heavy, 3 medium and 3 light armour classes. I don’t know if this has been discussed before but their base vitality doesn’t really match up. There are two classes with the same base armour (medium) and the same base vitality (medium) which are Engineer and Ranger. It just may be my OCD kicking in but does anybody know why either one of those classes wasn’t given a higher tier of vitality?
I’ll probably use this for pvp, I love the idea of 100% crit chance with s/d and the damage on dodge.
The thing with that trait is that you only cure one condition on a SUCCESSFUL EVADE, which means that you can put all the conditions you want on the thief, and then just watch them bleed out from that. They are still susceptible to condition burst from necromancers, its the sustained condition application that they will do better against.
I love how down the bottom of the metabattle build it says TBD for counters XD.
I don’t know why, but I have received mail telling me that my account will be shut down within 72 hours if I don’t remove restrictions by following a link. Has anyone else experienced something like this? Does anyone have any ideas what this is about?
WvW front line:
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQEqAXoBuQ~
The hydromancy staff is supposed to be a greatsword
The second utility slot is supposed to be “You are all weaklings!”
Run whatever in the third utility and elite
The idea is to get great amounts of life force generation and siphoning (every HIT with 100% crit) in deathshroud while still dealing good damage and being built very tanky. Makes you immune to most movement impairing conditions and lets you also remove conditions from nearby allies.
I think it would be pretty cool if it worked like a reverse invigorating precision, restoring health equal to a percentage of incoming damage, with no icd.
They look and act similar to Earth 2 on sceptre for Elementalist.
Add “Regenerate health based on initiative”.
Healing per point of initiative: 23 (0.0125)
The whole Acrobatics trait line is all about damage avoidance and movement. Why not give more incentive to evade attacks and buff a GM trait that desperately needs it in order to find more regular use?
soooo… noone is worried about:
http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=guardian&traits=“Zeal”,2,4,9-“Valor”,2,5,8-“Dragon Hunter”,2,6,9
A meditation build with a +90% modifier to power damage?
10% from Zealots Aggression, Pure of sight, Fiery wrath, 15% from Big Game Hunter, 20% from Symbolic Avenger and 25% from vulnerability stacks? Is it just me? Yes? No? Maybe? Anyone?
I think a Dragon Hunter going into the radiance/virtues lines for the new justice/resolve/courage would be amazing.
Spear of Justice: 3 stacks of might, blind and immobilize if you take wrath of justice master trait that recharges on kill. Gain huge amounts of crit chance and more burning damage.
Wings of Resolve: Regeneration and 3 conditions removed when you activate the skill, as well as a heal when you land. Can be further traited to do more things when you land. Works well for either an engage or escape.
Shield of Courage: Protection, stability and a stun break. Blocks attacks from the front, which sounds like it would work great with the new Amplified Wrath. Combine with Wall of Reflection for amazing amounts of projectile stopping power and burning application.
Instead of running traps I think Consecrations would work well. It was mentioned somewhere in one of the live steams that they were planning on making Wall of Reflection move with the Guardian, just like Shield of Courage and the hammer ability of the Revenant.
Say if I were to run a build like this in HoT:
http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=elementalist&traits=“Fire Magic”,2,5,7-“Water Magic”,1,5,8-“Air Magic”,1,6,9
With gear like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhcMqb23wtBdEA-TJRHwACOBAAeAAk2f4YZAA
Would the Shocking Aura applied to allies proc Lightning Rod?
Would the Fire Aura applied to allies proc Blinding Ashes?
How about making dark path a ground targeted teleport? Similar to the way blink and lightning flash work. Reduce the cooldown, the number of bleed stacks and chill duration and it could be a great way for necros to have more freedom of movement.
There was a suggestion in the ready up specialization episode where shield abilities would give aegis. The developers thought it was a great idea.
I just want to share some ideas for putting kit refinement back into use.
Med Kit:
Expunge Poison – Cures poison, release a cloud of noxious gas to poison nearby foes, similar to grenade kit skill 5.
Uses – Allows for full healing from drops when switched to and can give weakness with blasts and leaps.
Grenade Kit
Glue Grenade – Drop a grenade that creates a puddle of glue, immobilizing and crippling nearby foes, similar to bomb skill 5.
Uses – Allows for easier aiming, kiting and escapes.
Bomb Kit
Magnetic Bomb – Set a timed charge that pulls nearby foes, similar to tool kit skill 5.
Uses – Makes sure your bombs have a better chance of people being in them and more crowd control.
Tool Kit:
Super Elixir – Drop an elixir orb, healing nearby allies on impact and creating an area of continual healing, similar to elixir gun 5.
Uses – When switched to for blocking, gives healing and removes a condition going through it.
Elixir Gun:
Smoke Vent – Vent smoke from your elixir gun blinding nearby foes, similar to flame-thrower 5.
Uses – Allows for easier escapes with about face>acid bomb, potentially stopping stuns/dazes/immobilizes from hitting you in the animation time.
Flame-thrower:
Drop Stimulant – Drop a stimulant that grants fury and swiftness, similar to med kit 5.
Uses – More damage and stick potential.
Creating these effects does not trigger the cool-downs of the associated skills, if any.
All kit skills are on a separate recharge (30 seconds).
All kit skills only trigger while in combat.
Possible movement up to grandmaster tier, if so move gadgeteer down to master trait.