This thread started off very good, then became a mixed bag of responses. All in all though I’m glad we have a Anet started thread to voice our feedback. I’ve been getting discouraged by the way Thieves are shaping up patch after patch. I’m primarily a PVE’er, as unless I want to go for a few specific builds, WvW is nothing but frustration for me.
I’d like to throw my support in for Tulsin’s (sorry if I misspelled that) synopsis, and just relate my thoughts on another common request/concern I’ve seen here.
The Thief has to few weapon sets, and as someone else said, it limits us to only a few builds with little variety. I think besides fixing bugs, this is our most pressing concern. Give us new weapon options, probably the most commonly requested fix to the class. Then take a look at our balance and rework all our sets to be more cohesive and fun.
Take a look at our utilities, rangers already have traps covered, so why not get rid of a couple through consolidation and refinement? Give the Thief something unique and tricky. I feel one aspect of gameplay that the game lacks is playing with positions, both for defense and offense. We’re the closest thing to the Takuyan (GW1 Assassins) on Tyria, lets get some of that shadow magic back.
Thematically we’re to broad, narrow it down even just a little bit, and I think it could really inspire the sorts of changes that people are looking for. I’d like to ask the class design and balance developers a question;
“If you had to boil down the Thief class to one word and one word only, what would that word be?”
You can see people are craving new variety in their weaponsets, and most specifically for an off hand sword and rifle. I think these are two requests that would make a lot of players happy. Even if not all of us stuck with these two new options, we would appreciate the simple fact that we got them. That Anet listened and gave us something specifically asked for. Not only would the new additions be considered fun but it acts like a show of good will and a boost to player moral.
Don’t stop at those two though, look at other weapons (before getting into a new class of weapon of course) such as a mace. If the Thief is supposed draw on concepts of a thug as well as the other things, then this makes sense yes? Main hand only, off hand only, or both hands, it could work like a control/support set and free up options on our other weapon sets. This is just an example, not a personal request since its not really my style anyway.
Once we have these options, reexamine all the weapon sets. Is everything logical in that set? Is it synergistic with itself?
Lets take it further, when you have some skills ready to implement, take a sampling of players that focus on s/tPVP, PVE, and WvW and discuss them with them to get some feedback before sharing them with a wider audience.
Weapon set options are I believe what Thief needs first and foremost, and that it’ll pave the way to the rest of our problems being solved. An Anet developer said when traits were reorganized into trait tiers that having some restrictions creates more chances for creativity, but I say that having to many restrictions stifles creativity AS WELL as freedom.
Everyone else is either blond, pink haired or a red head.
