Guild Wars 2

I think the devs got a tunnel vision on nerfing the elementalists while working on this recent patch. The changes to Mist Form, Ride the Lightning and giving the ability to steal TWO boons to thieves makes it abundantly clear to me.

Lets take the Flanking Strike/Larcenous Strike move for example. I think splitting it up into two moves was a great idea but then what were they thinking when they made Larcenous strike steal two boons? They were thinking about elementalists and perhaps guardians. Thats all. They weren’t thinking about how a thief with that one weapon ability can mess up a warrior or a ranger using their elites Signet of Rage or Rampage as One. Each one is an elite skill and they provide three boons to the users. A thief can use a weapon skill that costs 4 initiative total to steal two of those boons, essentially making a joke of that elite. If they were thinking about balance at all, they would have kept it at one boon, but no, they were trying to give the thieves the ability to strip an elementalists boons away, and 1 at at time wasn’t quick enough for their liking. Apparently it never occurred to them that a thief can use that move on other professions as well.

Looking at the responses I am seeing a lot of the same arguments, either nerf stealth or leave it alone. So let me clarify (again) that I am not suggesting a nerf to stealth, this thread is not about changing the thieves. In fact I am saying that the thieves should be left alone.

I’ve also read a few responses to the effect that this suggestion breaks stealth, however I do not see how anything I suggested breaks it. Let me explain again what I am suggesting. All I am asking for is to give several professions (not all of them) a few utilities that can force a thief into a revealed state in the same manner that an attack from stealth would. Thats all. How does that break stealth? We are talking about utility skills that have an average CD of 30 seconds forcing a thief out of stealth for 3 seconds. A thief can stealth herself 10 times while that utility is on cooldown. A thief will leave stealth and have the revealed effect multiple times during a fight as they attack. All this does is give other professions a way to do the same, minus the attack from stealth, once in a blue moon. This will not fundamentally change how thieves play. A thief will still win most 1 on 1s since I am not asking to change the stealth mechanic.

What this change will do however is force thieves to be more careful around groups and zergs, you’re no longer going to see a thief C&Ding her way in the middle a zerg or a group. They’ll have to learn to respect superior numbers just like every other profession.