Guild Wars 2

@Daays

Sorry, but 10k+ backstabs have no place in the game. Not in hot join, not in tournaments, not anywhere. You forget that thieves can use stealth, an ability that doesn’t break on damage, lingers for a second after breaking and thieves can bring several to a fight. I’ve been hit by 10k backstabs on 1.6k-1.9k toughness out of nowhere, mostly when I was fighting someone else.

No other class combines mobility and damage in such a devastating way. A single stealth can get you out of any fight. With a shortbow you can get anywhere faster than anyone else and fight only the fights you want to fight. And if things go south you can just roll away with spin-to-win.

Thieves definitely need a damage nerf across the board. Too much stealth/mobility for that burst.

Cal.1985:

This is the only burst skill in game that has so many requirements:
1. Stealth
2. Getting behind targed (in 3-4 seconds window)
3. Strike

You underestimate how powerful stealth is in this game, it makes steps 2 and 3 much easier. It’s unreasonable to combine stealth with the highest damage ability in the game. You cannot dodge it, and the thief only needs to use one button. The situation gets even worse once the fights get bigger. In a 2v2 or 3v3 it’s much more difficult to accurately determine when the thief goes into stealth, how long the thief has been in stealth and so on.

To beat a reasonable experienced thief you cannot do a single mistake. Meanwhile the thief has a shot at winning a fight, even if he/she fails with openers. Backstab needs a flat 30ish percent damage nerf and even after that the damage might be too high.

auhfel.4129:

sorrow.2364:

2. When a stealthed player get struck by any hit, there should be something to let the attacker realize he hit the stealthed guy. As it is now, you can only swing the air having no clue of there the enemy is going.

There are some ways to do so, but they are situational. for instance, I use Signet of Malice (heals when I hit people) and I can tell if I hit a stealthed unit. Of course, you also have to not be at full HP, otherwise the healing won’t show.

Just a note.

Also, if you got a weapon ability that chains, you’ll know you hit someone stealthed when you get to the second skill in the chain. However, I think that stealth should break on damage, atleast direct damage

I was fighting a necromancer as an elementalist with a guardian earlier today, when suddenly a thief jumped on me from stealth with super high burst damage (mainly backstab). I wasn’t insta-gibbed though, and since I’ve been told that thieves should be easy to deal with if you can survive their initial burst, I thought it was the perfect time to retaliate. But no, as soon as I got a few damage skills off, he vanished in stealth and appeared with full hp. This is just one example of what seems to be very common in spvp now and not even the worst case scenario.

Before you say thief burst is balanced think of these high-damage skills in the game (While these percentages are rough estimates, they should give you the idea):

Warrior Eviscerate: Deals maybe 80% of backstab’s damage – easily avoidable if you pay close attention

Engineer Jump Shot: 70% of backstab’s damage – avoidable if you dodge before the engineer hits you. Requires the engineer to stand on top of you to do max damage.

Elementalist Dragon’s Tooth: 70% of backstab’s damage – most obvious skill in the game

Thief Backstab: Very high damage – unavoidable unless you know there is a thief just around and you can perfectly guess when the thief is going to hit you.

Not only that, but thieves also got access to Assassin’s Signet which increases the damage of their next attack by 50%. I think a lot of people underestimate the power of stealth in this game. While it last for a limited (albeit rather long) duration, it doesn’t break on damage and lingers for a second or two after it breaks.

I am aware that thieves are rather weak in pve, but I sincerely hope that ArenaNet looks into their damage in pvp, since this gets rather frustrating. Along with backstab, pistol whip and heartseeker damage as a finisher might be a bit too strong, but that’s not as big of a deal.