First, I’d like to preface that I’m PvE-centric and therefore have very little knowledge of the current PvP and WvW meta. Also, I do not mean to suggest that these changes will balance the Thief profession, or fix any of the other inherent problems with the class. What these changes are for are to bring a little more build clarity to the Thief’s weapon sets. Since the launch of the game the Thief’s weapon sets have lacked any, what I refer to as, Purity of Purpose. For example, the go-to physical damage weapon set in PvP(D/D) is the same go-to condition damage weapon set. And really the only reason for this is that, even though D/D is nearly all physical damage, it just happens to have one condi skill that’s able to be spammed over and over. I suppose that would be good design if you were meant to only take hybrid builds, but as soon as you try to make a build that prioritizes one damage type over the other the weapon skills no longer synergize with each other. You would never use a scepter on a power Necro or Mesmer, and you would never take GS/rifle on a condi Warrior.
I think the Thief’s weapon choices should adhere to the same philosophy.
My suggestion to fix this problem would be to, when equipping an off-hand weapon, not only change the 3 skill but change the 1 and 2 skill as well. With one off-hand prioritizing condi damage and the other prioritizing physical damage. My initial thoughts would be to have D/D and P/D be condi sets and D/P and P/P be physical damage sets. Though it pains me to suggest D/D only be condi, as it ruins the feel of the archetype, I also would hate to suggest removing Death Blossom for a physical damage skill and then have to come up with alternative skills for D/P to make that a condi set. My fondest memories of Thief were first leveling it ~3 years ago using the Death Blossom condi build.
The weapon skills will then be as follows:
D/D: Lots of changes to make more of a clear condi damage choice.
1: Animation stays the same. Reduce physical damage and add bleeds to first 2 skills in the chain.
2: This skill could now mimic the skill that you get in the living story season 2 episodes in which you become Caithe. So basically Heartseeker, but with poison.
3: Good ol’ Death Blossom. Stays the same.
4: Should keep its prior utility but now also transfers one condition from the target (probably the first one on its bar) to any targets that it bounces to. This gives it synergy with condi builds while not making it exclusively a condi skill. (More on that later)
5: Stays the same.
Stealth 1: Instead of being a large burst of physical damage, this version of Backstab apply immobilize (1s?) and maybe some torment or something. The reasoning for this is that because of how DB works it’s more effective if the target isn’t moving around alot. It also allows for your caltrop fields, either from dodging or the utility skill, to apply at least that one extra tick of bleed.
D/P: Stays pretty much the same with the exception one major change to off-hand pistol.
1: Stays the same. Keep poison, the second effect still keeps targets from healing as well. So still works.
2: Stays the same.
3: Stays the same.
4: Stays the same.
5: Suggest making Black Powder function a little more like Hunter’s Shot (Ranger Longbow 3). Keep the smoke field but now make the projectile put you into stealth if it hits target. The reasoning is several-fold. It currently allows for generally reliable stealth in PvP when used in conjunction with Heartseeker. However, in a PvE scenario this is an overall DPS loss because of the time it takes to pull this maneuver off. It also wastes quite a bit more initiative to do and is less reliable because there are always many more fields competing with yours. This change would also give weapon sets that didn’t previously have good access to stealth, S/P and P/P, the ability to do so. I believe it would also still have good balance in a PvP scenario because it is a projectile which can be blocked, evaded, and reflected. (perhaps putting opponent into stealth in the case of the latter)
Stealth 1: Stays the same.
P/D: Stay mostly the same just with a few tweaks.
1: The duration of the bleeds needs to be increased to at least 5 or 6 seconds. Physical damage can stay as is since it’s garbage imo.
2: (See below)*
3: Fine as is.
4: New functionality.
5: Stays the same.
Stealth 1: Increase bleed duration.
P/P: Stays the same except now with added functionality of skill 5 giving it access to stealth.
1: Damage needs to be increased in a major way. As it is now it’s terrible. It’s currently balanced to be able to be used as either condi or physical damage and as such doesn’t do well in either.
2: (See below)*
3: Stays the same. I thinks it’s in a good spot as is. Some people still think it needs a damage buff but I would disagree. Buffing the AA will help it keep up in the damage department with out HAVING to keep up unload. This lets you use the other skills without being initiative starved.
4: Stays the same.
5: New functionality.
Stealth 1: Remove bleeds, buff physical damage slightly. Perhaps add vulnerability to the attacks.
*As for Pistol 2, I personally haven’t been able to think of any truly good substitutes for both versions but I think we can all agree that it needs to change. I get that it’s supposed to be some kind of setup for an unload but both debuffs it hits with are so short lived that it’s not worth using. It’s more effective to just save the initiative for a second unload instead. I would like to hear some suggestions regarding this.
Now regarding the elephant in the room. The sword. I personally think sword is a good place currently (from a design perspective) and does everything that it’s meant to do. The changes to the off-hands I suggested would only enhance what it already does. The issue comes from the implementation. Since the 1 and 2 skills would change for the other sets, it would stand to reason that the sword’s skills would change as well. But I don’t think they need to. It should probably just stay physical damage only. That’s kinda where this whole plan kinda falls apart a little.
Anyways, I’d like to hear other peoples’ opinion. Do these changes seem viable? What would you change about them? Or should I just keep my opinions to myself?
