Guild Wars 2

Sigmoid.7082:

Rap Tiger.1257:

Give me a good reason to eliminate sigil air and fire? Since I use exactly because there are classes that are difficult to kill … such as berserk, dragonhunter, reaper ….

From Cal Cohen in the original thread.

Even if there are sustain nerfs, why would someone who can weaponswap every 10s use 5% extra dmg on a condition only when they can also pick Intelligence, Battle, Agility, Doom, Energy etc.
Thieves are screwed by this because they have to stay on their melee set if they want to down somebody so they can’t take on-swap sigils on their melee set. Edit: and whichever build requires you to stay on a weapon for longer periods like lb rangers as well
Solution: increase 5%dmg bonuses to 7-8% and add more dmg sigils that can be used without swapping. Just not on-interrupt sigils because ppl will just spam interrupts vs every autoattack.

Sigmoid.7082:

Kicker.8203:

Eleazar.9478:

Any chance of getting a fury on crit or interrupt sigil?

Honestly, there should be if they remove air, fire and blood, yet they keep might on hit and vulnerability. Vuln is only worthwhile for condi specs to cover their condis.
Fury on hit with a cd should be a thing because not every class swaps weapons when they try to deal max dmg and there is no other pure power option for onhit sigils. Or might could just give 60 power and 0 condi dmg if you have a really low condi dmg stat anyway

Might on hit and vulnerability on hit won’t provide as much of a damage boost as fury which is probably why they don’t have an option if it.

No it could be balanced to be the same effectiveness. Just tune cd and duration accordingly

What about a sigil that after you successfully evade, for 3 sec your next hit procs a sigil of blood or fire effect. 5s CD. This way it can be dodged and there is a lot more play to it.

Eleazar.9478:

Any chance of getting a fury on crit or interrupt sigil?

Honestly, there should be if they remove air, fire and blood, yet they keep might on hit and vulnerability. Vuln is only worthwhile for condi specs to cover their condis.
Fury on hit with a cd should be a thing because not every class swaps weapons when they try to deal max dmg and there is no other pure power option for onhit sigils. Or might could just give 50-60 power and 0 condi dmg if you have a really low condi dmg stat anyway. Like below 300.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Update 3/15:

• Doubled Sigil of Agility cooldown and double quickness duration to 2 seconds.
  Fine change
• Removed Sigil of Revelation. While we like this effect, we will keep it in our back pocket for some more thought.
  it is an awesome sigil, don’t remove it. Finally a counter equipment vs stealth, would be refreshing to the game, yet doesnt make stealth useless
• Sigil of Punishment is now Sigil of Enhancement and deals .5% damage per boon on yourself. We didn’t like the idea of a damage bonuses based on something you didn’t have direct control over.
  . 5% dmg is not something you change your rotation for, there are simply builds it synergizes well with. Id remove this sigil and stick to more conditional sigils like dmg vs snared foes
• Removed Sigl of Peril. We don’t feel this sigil would be a strong choice compared to the other condition duration sigils.
  just make it give 35% duration
• NEW: Sigil of Ruthlessness: Gain 5 might (3 seconds) when interrupting a foe.
  interrupts shouldnt trigger vs autoattacks, this just incentivizes more headshot spam with pulmonary impact. if you interrupt a cooldown then the effects are well deserved. If interrupts continue to proc on autoattacks remove these sigils entirely

There should be some sigils that give crit chance instead of dmg%. Like if a sigil gives 7% dmg on a condition, there should be a crit version too that gives 10% crit on that condition. There could be the limitation to choose either crit chance or dmg% on a certain condition but not both.

Sigils should give more than 5% dmg if they are tied to a condition. On-swaps were already better when 5% was an all-time bonus. The gap is gonna be even bigger now.

Sigil of Frailty: either remove it or make it cause vulnerability in stacks of 4 with a higher CD and shorter duration. Currently it is just a cover condition for condi classes.
for example:

• On hit Cause 4 stacks of vulnerability for 3s. 5s CD

Old map was better. The new one looks weird and has lost its flavour.

Larcenous Strike should also steal ~400health for each boon stolen successfully. So it could steal 0/400/800hp. (It’s 6 initiative and u have to land 2 hits!)
Reason: With the upcoming sigil nerfs(air, fire, blood) and no being able to utilize the on-swap sigils as a thief(because u use melee set for dmg) is gonna be detrimental to thief dmg. S/D was already low on dmg.

The main goals of these changes are really good and I like this rework but a few things I’d add:

* There could be new sigils that trigger upon a certain successful combo finisher. If they are not used in a field they don’t work.
For example:
Sigil of Blasting: upon successfully activating a blast combo, you strip Stability from enemies in a small radius. 20s CD
Sigil of Projectiles: upon successfully executing a projectile finisher gain 5s of Might. No CD
Sigil of Leaping: for 3s after a successful leap combo: On your next hit, cause 10 stacks of Vulnerability. 20s CD
Sigil of Whirls: upon successfully executing a whirl finisher gain 2s of Fury. No CD.

* Rune of Agility - increase quickness duration to 1,25s(maybe 1.5s) quickness. This way you could hit twice on slower weapons before quickness wears off.

* Passive +dmg% sigils: The ideas to add play is nice, although the numbers could be tuned up. +5%dmg vs <50% is even worse than the previous 5% at all time which had no place in the PvP meta.
All 5% sigils should be increased to 7-8% and go from there. For PvE purposes it should be lower but in PvP with the loss of proc sigils(Air,Fire, Blood) It would be a huge nerf since those proc sigils were guaranteed to deal damage between all the dodges, blocks, blinds, etc, while the dmg%s are prefferred for PvE.
The ones giving 1% could give 1.2% if possible. For PvE version it could stay 1% of course. Or better yet, remove them coz they don’t affect gameplay like other sigils.
* There is no dedicated power on-hit sigil on this list and I’m glad, although it is a huge nerf for burst characters and there should be an non-weapon sap burst option. The question is why is there Sigil of Strength for hybrid builds and Frailty for condi builds(used for a cover condi and dmg%)? I think vulnerability should come in stacks of 4 or more with higher cd and shorter duration.
* Sigil of Paralyzation
+30% Stun duration -> It’s kind of arbitrary that it only affects "stuns". Can’t it affect knockdowns, launches, and unique effects like Stoned(basi venom) but be lowered to ~20%.
* Sigil of Revelation: awesome idea! However, it should cause 1s of reveal(currently 0.25s) so people won’t be able to just reapply stealth straight away.
* Sigil of Generosity: 15s CD - this is high for a random condition. Should lower it to 12s and then adjust it if needed.
* Sigil of Stagnation
Cripple nearby foes when swapping to this weapon while in combat (3 Seconds, 240 Radius). -> I suggest to make it also strip swiftness to be worthwhile.
(Cooldown: 9 Seconds)
* As ppl have pointed out condi duration sigils shouldn’t all be 25%. Burn in particular should be lower, ~15%.
* These 2 sigils are still very random, I’d prefer them removing a specific group of condis/boons. They are also considered weak sigils compared to on-swap sigils which stay unaltered in strength.

Sigil of Purity
On hit: Remove a Condition -> Could be split into 2 sigils: remove a damaging condition. And remove a hindering condition: slow/chill/cripple/blind/weakness/slow/immob (vulnerability could or could not be added here, I’d rather not)
(Cooldown: 10 Seconds)

Sigil of Nullification
On hit: Remove a Boon -> Split into 2 versions: Remove a random offensive boon(might/fury/quickness/retaliation). Remove a random defensive boon(protection/regen/vigor/aegis/resistance/stability)
(Cooldown: 10 Seconds)

* A rune rework would be also great where you can choose stats for a rune effect
This would mean that u don’t have to take condition damage if you pick rune of the Thief for example(+10% dmg from behind)

Revitalizing thief changelist:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1slZrh_ND6Bu6qYm8Yzmh5HMO43RhcE9_GLRt046i0JE/edit?usp=sharing

I’ve been collecting ideas for 11 months now, reworking the list with every balance patch.
In the past I’ve sent it in PM to a few devs(Karl, Grouch and Gaile to redirect it to people at balance) (I wonder if anyone read it) but I’ve made reworks since and now there is the option to split skills for PvP.
original thread(for proof):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Balance-everything-that-needs-it-updated/first#post6078636

Since I spent this much time writing this, I’d be glad if a dev would read it and consider implementing the changes so it isn’t gonna be for nothing.

I guess I should really get a more useful hobby or just study…

It would be great to be able to see the name of the character one played most with and not just people’s account name.

people have all sorts of random account names, to mention a few:
Oni – Helseth
bluri – Sindrenerr
HealOfMidnight – Drazeh
Misha has a totally unrelated account name as well (and a lot of other people who are commonly known(or personally known by you) but you only know their character name)

Is it possible to make the leaderboards show the character name?

Evan Lesh said on the forum that because of the nature of conquest even a much weaker team could get like 200 points by the end so they decided to cut it.

IMO they should NOT reward getting 100, 200, or 300 points but for getting 400 the losing team could get some extra pips and maybe rating so ppl won’t go afk too soon.

And also a proper way to report afkers should be added.

The match should count as a loss if you or your duoque partner gets DC’d to prevent exploits.(unless you win anyway)
If one of the people DCs who you didn’t que together with then the match shouldn’t count if you lose.

Crinn.7864:

Gaile Gray.6029:

• New PvP Amulet: Deadshot Amulet: 1050 Precision, 1050 Condition Damage, 560 Vitality, 560 Expertise

It’s going to be nothing but d/d permaevade condi thieves everywhere

Precision is a waste for them, it would be good if it gave Power instead.
Permaevade thief: d/d #3 should be a flip skill like Flanking Strike.

Let us choose stats on runes. With limitations, of course.

What’s up with profession-based MMR? It used to be separate for each class you play. Is it taken out of the equation?

I have a lot of changes at the sword and at the dagger section in my document
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1slZrh_ND6Bu6qYm8Yzmh5HMO43RhcE9_GLRt046i0JE/edit?usp=sharing

I hope this is only a fraction of the changes. I have a list of things to change for thieves
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1slZrh_ND6Bu6qYm8Yzmh5HMO43RhcE9_GLRt046i0JE/edit

Changes for the thief profession are not overly extensive. All were good changes but a lot more has to change to make an impact.

Now they should work on these: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1slZrh_ND6Bu6qYm8Yzmh5HMO43RhcE9_GLRt046i0JE/edit?usp=sharing

Can we have a balance preview with all the changed traits and skills?
I guess arenanet stopped doing that because of the quality of the feedback(“oh thanks for killing rev, I’m going back to WoW” and such) but there is a lot of good feedback out there they just need to be filtered somehow.

Spartacus.3192:

Personally it should have 2 leagues a solo/duo league and a 3/4/5 man league. Exclusively doing one or the other is not a good idea. As mentioned above it discriminates against full teams.

yeah yeah queue times blah blah

I agree except IMO there should be a

• soloque
• and another que for teams with 2/3/5
  or for teams with 5 players only with better integration of the LFG tool so you could quickly fill in your spots with the desired roles before queuing.

Queue times are indeed just an excuse, there are many ways to work around this:

• There is the rotation of game modes: 1 week you have stronghold, 1 week you have soloque in conquest.(or rotate on a daily basis)
• Only allow soloque during peak hours.
• Add it instead of Unranked.
• The population rise coming from adding a soloque mode with proper MMR, and proper skill balance may simply allow this game mode to exist alongside the current ones.

Edit: yeah its just better if we simply replace team que with solo/duo entirely

Or when is the next balance patch going to come?

alchemyst.2165:

You can also hit someone at the end of their dodge (if they don’t double dodge)

You can always hit them between dodges even if they double dodge if timed right. The evade downtime between 2 dodges is as match as you ping if you time it perfectly but most people don’t, so it’s even more.

Good advices tho, deathly blossom can be kited and has an evade downtime at the end where they can’t even cancel it by dodge rolling.

Smaller capture points are more fun because you 1 team can’t bunker it for the whole match. they can literally run bk after getting ressed

-balance unused skills and traits to be viable. this would shakes up the meta and
-add 2v2 gamemode
-soloque at least during peak times.
-proper mmr rewarding system, with something to show off like the badges for divisions(which are not prestigious enough)
-(add a button in the pvp menu that links to the LFG tool’s pvp section; dont let ppl leave a match until they click that they decline)
I probably forgot a lot of important things but these were what I could suddenly think of.

I’ll try the new map only if they have a good list of balance changes bundled with it. ( mean skills and traits)

They should definitely add more sigils into PvP but I also like they don’t just add every PvE sigil in there. eg.: Interrupt sigils sound really fun at first but what they really do is just incentivize randomly interrupting every autohit the opponent does instead of interrupting heals/important skills.

@Josh. 1 thing to mention: Balance changes shouldn’t all(or even 90%) be held back until the next upcoming season. It’s too long of a time to keep the meta stagnant, and also making a lot of changes at once is more likely to have unwanted side-effects than balancing gradually. You are starting to get better at it(like the guardian changes) but there’s still room to improve

Josh Davis.6015:

So, we’ll likely change things in phases so we don’t over-correct. Here’s what we’re thinking for a phase 1:

• Reduce downstate invuln duration to around .1s. This means you still get the full condi cleanse, but you can keep cleaving.
• Cap rally distance.

Thoughts?

Edit for clarity: these would be PvP-only changes. Also, not including any skill proposals at this point.

I would also include a res speed reduction on function gyro for pvp only. It could still res but not that fast. maybe -50% or -30%

• Implement 1-to-1 rally policy, similar to WvW. This means that only 1 player would rally per enemy killed, rather than up to 5. Would likely be the downed ally closest to the enemy player. yes, would reduce snowballing
• Cap the range at which someone can rally. yes, random rally from a death on the other side of map is terrible
• Bring back PvE-downstate policy *yes, maybe it should be in a state between current pve and pvp. We dont want ppl to be able to abuse ressing too much but neither should it be too harsh. Maybe only start reducing health after 2nd downed state
• Shorten revive/downed “invuln” buff. yes, very annoying and unjustified when you accidentally fail key skills that would help you finish someone like, Cloak and Dagger, ranger lb3, thief finisher elite, invuln also absorbs projectile AoEs, etc
• Reduce healing per tick when rezzing. maybe a tiny bit or not at all
• Further reduce downstate HP no
• Adjust outlier revive skills (Function Gyro) yes

Condi dmg should be able to deal dmg to the treb, other than that it’s fine and I’d rather see more class balance instead. Good idea on adding poison etc to treb but there things that need help more.
Edit: and a treb mechanic with different skills could also be added to a future PvP map, which would be more interesting to see.

Made minor changes to the first posts.

Not all ideas are mine. Thanks to other forum posters.

On the most recent change: sword 2 jumping trick fix should obviously be reverted and added to the tooltip instead.

Edit: I can’t edit the original writings anymore for some reason(it seems the character limit has been reduced). Moved my post to : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1slZrh_ND6Bu6qYm8Yzmh5HMO43RhcE9_GLRt046i0JE/edit?usp=sharing

They never read thief forum so they must have seen it on Sizer’s stream. They saw something unintentional and fixed it immediately without considering to keep it and change the tooltip instead . A lot of times they should just go with the flow instead of being so hard-headed.

This was more of a feature than a “bug”. Instead of removing it they should have included it in the tooltip and implement more tricks like this.
It’s weird how they manage to make thief less fun every patch. First they make D/P the only meta build for years. Trait choices limited to 3 specific tratlines. Then they started to ruin skills 1 by 1.: Disabling shot now makes your character stutter at the end even if you are running away. Stealth attack CD is really clunky if they seriously do this they should add a “reveal myself” button because being in stealth is more of a curse than anything since u cant autoattack if you miss your stealth attack once and you become a sitting duck. Now this sword 2 change… lol

This is a terrible build, even his own stream proves that. He couldn’t kill any other class than thief in a reasonable time(he could kill a kill a druid in over 4 mins but that would have lost him the game in a conquest match because he had to kite and los constantly), and couldn’t bring drazeh’s warrior below 80%. Sizer really does play s/d like a god but s/d’s terrible damage can’t be made up by skill, except when playing against newbies like he does in his unranked matches. We already knew that condi dodge was the best 1v1 trait because of guaranteed hits and easy sigil procs although it is very selfish. In a team fight however he doesn’t do concentrated damage with it(and even waste sigil procs on pets and such) nor get a useful 10% dmg or reduction boost. He can’t go for super quick decaps with dash either. Edit: and Imapling Lotus also causes accidental self-reveals.

For people who don’t want to PvE to get the elite specs for their character, please add the option to get hero points from PvP and WvW achievements. Personally as a PvPer, I’d try WvW maybe raids too if I didn’t have go through the entire PvE content to get a proper build(get the elite spec).

updated the post.

Updated for 26th July patch.
My opinion about the patch highlighted:

Stealth Attacks: All stealth attack skills will now have a 1-second recharge between uses. It’s good at limiting stealth attack spam but it is a bit too much plus I don’t really like this change because of its clunkyness. If you miss your stealth attack you can’t even come out of stealth in order to autoattack. I would have preferred more reveals added to classes. Also makes the class more shallow because it reduces the tricks you can do.(u could use sb stealth attack twice from max range before breaking stealth or cast half a pistol stealth attack, stow and then start casting another one before getting revealed – it’s arguable whether these tricks are a good thing, but as these aren’t game breaking I prefer leaving them in for they make a higher skill ceiling) If it isn’t reverted the 1 s CD could be reduced to 0.5s. Or if you miss your stealth attack, the skill 1 swaps back to autoattack for the duration of the CD so you won’t become a sitting duck. Honestly I would just remove the whole CD.
Staff Strike: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 5%. Good change, staff autos are still very high dmg.
Staff Bash: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 5%.
Punishing Strikes: The damage of this skill has been reduced by 5%.
Venomous Aura: The area-of-effect aspect of this trait has been merged into venoms as baseline. The radius has been reduced from 360 to 240. The recharge reduction has moved to Leeching Venoms. baselineing was a great idea, but venoms are still too situational. Some trait improvements could help their situation.
This trait has been renamed Rending Shade and now causes all sneak-attack abilities to steal up to 2 boons when striking an enemy, while receiving less damage from foes without boons. not worth a Grandmaster trait, having no boons is too situational, and 10% dmg increase would fit thief better as you are meant to avoid dmg and not facetank it. The boonsteal part would be good if there was a lifesteal upon boonsteal trait.
Leeching Venoms: This trait no longer grants might to allies it is applied to. This trait now reduces the recharge of venom abilities. venom adjustments are good
Devourer Venom: The number of stacks that this skill applies has been reduced from 3 to 2.
Basilisk Venom: The number of stacks that this skill applies has been reduced from 2 to 1. Stun duration has been increased from 1 second to 1.5 seconds.
Haste: The recharge of this skill has been reduced from 60 seconds to 50 seconds. as I suggested although it could be applied to the trait version too but well the trait isn’t too bad with 60s cd either.

I liked it more when i could start casting and then turn around or have a look around. Now the aoe skills retarget to where i moved the mouse during the casting time… it is helpful for some skills but it should be an option(separate from other skill retargetings)

@Evan
before the revamped map comes out there should be a balance patch. ppl could practice for next season. Now you practice for nothing
Or at least balance notes would be nice.

It should be this 12th. I also miss the balance preview but they probably won’t have one if they haven’t done it so far.

It trivializes ressing too much.
Stomping – not so much but the gyro should disappear after 1-2 interrupts on its finishing move instead of trying to finish of someone until it eventually succeeds.

2v2 / 3v3 round based arenas would be really nice

Yeah dont add Draining in any case

to OP, very good post sums up what ppl think ATM with good reasoning.
With this I don’t agree though:
“-If an event occurs that the majority of your team dies but you are able to live until the timer, you still have the potential to win the round if your teams damage total is greater than the opposing team. This makes the match exciting until the very end, giving opportunities to carry, not to mention awesome comebacks despite lacking numbers.”
This could still cause a person to kite all game once his teammate dies.

And also about PvP rewards. There should be something to show off your PvP skills with, like mini llamas once used to(before they added the llamas to a vendor). Those wings can be acquired eventually by everyone so I am against the way to obtain it rather than the skin. The league badges themself would be really prestigeous if the ladder wasn’t a grind.

this would be definitely better if they make the correct limitations. like not being able to have much vitality and toughness, and no merccenary stats.

yeah but if you have a more casual team and u don’t practice for a tournament the best team comp would actually include 2-3 revenants, 1 ele, and the rest mesmers/warriors/engis

kash.9213:

Kicker.8203:

S/D is perfect if you want to climb the ladder with worse winrate and slower matches
than with staff and D/P.
Staff is even better than D/P for casual play because you can kill less skilled players before they can react, much like the zerker meta in dungeons where u kill the bosses so fast that u skip phases.
As for tourneys if it was only 1 tier below meta sizer and toker would have not stopped playing it. No matter how skilled you are with this weaponset you can’t do nearly as much burst/sustainted dmg as staff / d/p.
And let’s not forget the top 2 teams in the world don’t run a thief, not even D/P, but for ladder it’s still good so I dont think they should nerf it too hard as that alone wouldn’t help S/D. There could be a few tonedowns like Impacting Disruption(-10%dmg, 3-4s cd) and shadow shot slightly nerfed(blind application moved to the attack part, reduced blind duration from 5 years to 3s).
S/D should deal more damage but survival should be more skill-bound: e.g.: add 5-10s CD to dash’s immob removal.

PS: forget about Acro, it is terrible and if it has been bad for this long, why would they buff it now?

What does nerfing Impacting Disruption and buffing Dash have to do with improving S/D?

Edit: TLDR: nerf broken rupt trait and dash, then buff s/d(dmg, reliability and initiative improvements)

S/D is perfect if you want to climb the ladder with worse winrate and slower matches
than with staff and D/P.
Staff is even better than D/P for casual play because you can kill less skilled players before they can react, much like the zerker meta in dungeons where u kill the bosses so fast that u skip phases.
As for tourneys if it was only 1 tier below meta sizer and toker would have not stopped playing it. No matter how skilled you are with this weaponset you can’t do nearly as much burst/sustainted dmg as staff / d/p.
And let’s not forget the top 2 teams in the world don’t run a thief, not even D/P, but for ladder it’s still good so I dont think they should nerf it too hard as that alone wouldn’t help S/D. There could be a few tonedowns like Impacting Disruption(now grants might instead of dmg) and shadow shot slightly nerfed(blind application moved to the attack part, reduced blind duration from 5 years to 3s).
S/D should deal more damage but survival should be more skill-bound: e.g.: add 5-10s CD to dash’s immob removal.

PS: forget about Acro, it is terrible and if it has been bad for this long, why would they buff it now?

Edit: actually impacting disruption shouoldn’t deal dmg at all. too random. corrected to might gain

Edit: made a gallery