Guild Wars 2

Yes, this keeps happening to me as well. Please fill in the in game bug report if you haven’t already so they can have a look and fix it as soon as possible.

My remarks and ideas:

Staff

• Auto Attack feels better compared to previous BWEs mainly because of damage increase and animation speed increase?

• I kind of like the more “skillful” or positioning-dependant usage of Weakening Charge to be able to hit all three strikes against “smaller” opponents. I guess against moving targets it will be dependant on good timing and great anticipation of enemy’s movement.
  This skill has a synergy with the trait Weakening Strikes, as you are able to reach up to 10s of Weakness with a critical hit (hint> Weakening Strikes has an internal cd of 10s)
  Sidenote: Combos well with Steal and Infiltrator’s Signet

• Debilitating Arc is comparable to Disabling Shot, the distance travelled might be the same but for some reason I am getting pushed forward every-time Disabling Shot ends. Could anyone confirm the distance as the information is not included in the skill description?

• Dust Strike is much faster now, which is nice, but I would rather have this skill work as a combo field.
  It could either:
  #1 create a field that would spread in line in front of us
  #2 or could leave the skill as is but when it hits a target it would create a circular combo field at that location.
  This would allow us to Vault right into the field for the combo finisher effects (either smoke or dark).

• Vault’s radius or the hit area is bugged as the skill does not land a hit when at max distance or even a bit into the traget circle.
  The damage is great.
  Vault is still very avoidable and easy interruptable skill. It is good that it has a huge tell for the sake of counterplay, but a great execution of this skill should be more rewarding. I would like to see this skill buffed with either of these:
  control effect, survivability boon, evasive frames or invulnerability when we land or distance for better mobility
  I personally would like a 1s Aoe stun on hit just like Warrior’s Earthshaker. That added Stun would syngergize well with Impacting Disruption.
  To avoid spamming those stuns I would bring the initiative cost back to 6.
  Rather popular idea is to have Staff rival the Shortbow as a mobility weapon choice. In this case increasing the distance of Vault to 900 would do the trick?

I’ve noticed the same thing. Kite Fortunes seem to no longer drop from monsters. An official response would appreciated.

As a loyal S/D thief I did not expect so many “fixes” for this weapon set.

Daze duration from Tactical strike was a logical fix as it allowed us to daze lock opponents!
(Most of them would just stand still, try to spam skills and wonder what was happening to them during the fight …)

Dancing Dagger is now a waste of initiative for me, as I am running Crit 30/Shadows 20/Acrobatics 20 so with 12 initiative I will rather wait a bit for another Cloak and Dagger.

I was expecting a Cloak and Dagger fix but more in the line with stealth duration.

10% damage increase to Tactical strike is welcome but does not balance out the damage reduction from our two dagger skills at all …

What I am really upset about is their ignorance towards FLANKING STRIKE ?

Flanking Strike needs a fix for a while now (since BWEs), yet they seem to ignore it for some reason…
Buffs from way back (Boon removal and damage buff) were great additions, but they did not solve the main problem, which is skill pathing/animation!

There are numerous constructive suggestions from players here on the forums raging from simple animation fixes to thoughtful redesigns of the skill but… well… ?

I will still continue to play S/D and wait patiently for Flanking Strike fix.

Till then YAY to more Cloak and Dagger and Auto Attack spam!!

Regards,
Aetaru

Hullo there fellow Thieves,

In media res

Sword lacks Combo Finishers! Or rather there are no combo finishers on any Sword skill available to the Thief!

Please check the list below and see for yourself!

Combo finishers on every Thief weapon-set as in the game:

S/D
No.4 Skill Dancing Dagger: Physical Projectile

S/P
No.4 Skill Head Shot: Physical Projectile
No.5 Skill Shadow Shot: Physical Projectile

D/D
No.2 Skill Heartseeker: Leap
No.3 Skill Leaping Death Blossom: Whirl
No.4 Skill Dancing Dagger: Physical Projectile

D/P
No.2 Skill Heartseeker: Leap
No.3 Skill Shadow Shot: Physical Projectile
No.4 Skill Head Shot: Physical Projectile
No.5 Skill Shadow Shot: Physical Projectile

P/D
No.1 Skill Vital Shot/Sneak Attack: Physical Projectile
No.2 Skill Body Shot: Physical Projectile
No.4 Skill Dancing Dagger: Physical Projectile

P/P
No.1 Skill Vital Shot/Sneak Attack: Physical Projectile
No.2 Skill Body Shot: Physical Projectile
No.3 Skill Unload: Physical Projectile
No.4 Skill Head Shot: Physical Projectile
No.5 Skill Shadow Shot: Physical Projectile

SB
No.1 Skill Trick Shot/Surprise Shot: Physical Projectile
No.2 Skill Cluster Bomb: Blast
No.3 Skill Disabling Shot: Physical Projectile

(I apologize for possible mistakes!)

Both Dagger and Pistol provide two combo finishers when held in the main hand. Sword doesn’t have any combo finishers in its main hand skill palette … Sword has access only to combo finishers provided by weapons wielded in the off-hand!

What are your thoughts?

Do you think they should add combo finishers to the Sword?
(If not, what is the reason not to?)

Toodles!

Aetaru

I think the OP did a good job!
I feel competent enough to comment only on S/D as that is my main weapon set.

Flanking Strike!

The thought behind the skill is to evade an enemy attack and launch a counterattack from the rear.
As the OP already suggested a simple evade and Shadowstep to the rear would be a very effective fix, still maintaining the original design of evasion and counterattacking.

With the modification in place, Flanking Strike would fit very well with the theme of Infiltrator’s Strike, which is also a Shadowstep, but used mainly as a gap closer and condition purging skill.
I really like this idea!

Regards,
Aetaru