Changes I’d like to see:
There is a thread about rebalancing Initiative around impact/cost, which would be nice to bring the weapons in line whith each other. (I would like to see lower ini cost instead of power creep here)
Venoms:
make them work similar to Signets. A passive when in combat as long as you didn’t used it.
When in combat it will give you one charge of Venom. This would need a fair bit of changes to work.
Lets say it pulses every 5 seconds: Leeching Venoms should still apply 2 stacks might, but only for 4 seconds. (this would give a thief with 5 venoms the possibility to maintain over 10 stacks of might constantly for the group, if he uses superior rune of strength for example)
For active use the might gained by leeching venoms should be increased around 2-3 seconds, so that you can maintain the might.
Though the pulsed venoms must be proper balanced: for spider Venom and skale Venom that wouldn’t be to hard (a question of duration), though devourer venom pulses should give cripple then and only the active immob.
Skelk shouldn’t be to hard either, Ice Drake Venom pulses might still give chill, though maybe with half a second.
Basilisk Venom should give slow for the pulses, maybe around a second or a half.
Overall the active use should be stronger, like higher burst, stronger CC and so on. Though to make them more viable on the board: active use will give you maybe 1s resistance. Like immunizarion through poison/venoms.
The effect would be: Support thief would be a thing, condi thief would get a decent buff, but should not overpower them madly. And it would fit the Venom theme I think.
Signets:
I think the only real problem maker are Signet of Shadows and and Assasssin’s Signet.
Signet of Shadows: the passive is nice, though not really needed anymore (Daredevil), but the active is… well just not worth it. Maybe a 2-3s stealth would be better? A lower CD blinding Powder without Blind/AoE stealth? Something that makes it worth using actively, maybe give it fpr passive apply 4s of swiftness every 4/5s. Which means you could rip/convert it as an enemy, but will make for an more interesting pick overall.
The only problem I have with Assassin’s Signet is more PVE based, it just seems it is not worth using actively in most cases, as long the cooldown is this long.
I think it is a delicate thing and it is more safe to change CD then buffing/handling the numbers, or adding things like unblockable, which will break it. I think it just needs a CD reduction mostly, to be more usable across the board (active I mean) using it actively should normally be an DPS increase even in prolonged fights.
Traps:
Needle Trap is fine I think, maybe to make it more viable across more builds a slight increase on immob. But not sure that it really is needed.
Shadow Trap: First of all just make it a teleport like mesmer portal… seriously it is just unreliable this way.
Second thing is: why is there a cast-time on destroy Shadow Trap? To be stunbreaker it is worthless, I understand that is to hinder thief to instantly disengage with just a button (Shadowstep needs more skill and you are still a lot nearer). Removing the cast time might be a bit bad, so how about giving it for the duration of the cast: Take no damage from attacks. You are still susceptible to conditions and crowd control effects. This way you could interrupt the attempt or kill him with condition pressure
Then this could really shine! And not be “useless”
Tripwire: I’m not sure to be honest, I think it is fine, but thieves need more utility so it almost never gets picked. Even in PvE it is hardly used, though I don’t think that this trap is actually bad.
Ambush: it has a nice flair though… it helps little even when soloing/world. Maybe give it a short taunt on the summoned thief? I think if it hits all who are ‘hit’ by the trap, even if it is just half a second/a second it will give enough room for the thief to actually do something.
Tricks:
only really one thing which comes to mind…. make Scorpion Wire reliable, that is all. From what I gathered and experienced the pull on GS by a Guard is a lot more reliable
Physical:
Bandit’s Defense: just make the knockdown faster or give it a Evade frame for the activation time and everything is fine and really good!
For the Traits:
Acrobatics: It still is bad, we had three dodges in a row with it and it got ripped only to go to daredevil. And we got (almost) nothing in return.
For once changed Guarded Initiation to what you showed us pre patch: let us gain resistance maybe 3s with kitten cd or something. Remember the threshold is 90%.
Assassin’s Reward could use a little buff.
You wanted to make the play more skillfull, and we got gain Vigor on successful dodge. Instead of the get 25 endurance back… so how about giving us might on dodge back? On a successful Dodge the same as Vigor, as the same minor Trait? I think that would greatly enhance the use of acrobatics. Without stripping something from Daredevil.
Shadow Arts:
Revert changes on Shadow’s Embrace, maybe just make the damaging conditions priority?
Again the choice in the adept tier is just bad. No real choice here. Somehow I still think Shadow’s Embrace should be a minor trait. Maybe Meld in Shadows could become a choice (to be honest I never took SA for the increased Invis). The we would have only Last Refuge as a bad choice in the Adept tier (Concealed Defeat at least gives a CD reduction). Maybe Last refuge could give us one block in addition? So that we really could say it may save our kitten Or just give us a stealth on last refuge which can’t give us a revealed debuff, which I would find nice maybe on a higher ICD (revealed because of attacking out of stealth by a ‘random stealth’ is what makes this trait unpredictable and hard to use)
Daredevil: The only thing I find a bit bad: Staffmaster. A damage Multiplier exclusive for staff. I think the endurance gain on staff only is good, the damage multiplier should not be staff only.
Critical Strikes: Ankle Shots. Just decrease the ICD and/or make the DMG multiplier without the need that the target is crippled. Or how about a piercing Damage? That would be nice and Skillfull
So for now enough. Maybe I can get some nice input on my Ideas