Guild Wars 2

Honestly, if you were never using this in the first place,it seems to me that you are not so experienced with the S/D gameplay in general. Let me list a few more reasons as to why this little trick was so useful:

• Condi clear when being chased

You don’t even need a target for this. As long as you have ini to spare, you can clear those pesky condis without having to port back.

• Running away when weapon swap is on cd.

Short bow is always going to be superior as far as mobility is concerned, but it’s nice to have another way out when your bow is inaccessible. The downside is that it always requires a target.

You have to realize that most of us are complaining, not because we relied on this to play S/D efficiently, but simply because this nerf was uncalled for. You could say it is the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s one more change that heavily impacts the versatility of a weapon set, that was struggling in pvp to begin with.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

SHow me a video of this lol, I would love to see how or why people did this.
Of all of the sd thives I have seen I have never seen 1 do this bug, even in pvp, so that’s 5 inative used up, are there’s the sort of s/d thives that only use #1 and #2?

I believe Sizer has been streaming once again, so you can check out his VoDs to see how/when this was used in pvp.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

and why would you use it ? was this a desperate act just to get to a point in pvp?

Chasing targets that try to flee. S/D right now has no way of catching up if someone decides to run away. It’s just another dead weapon set without a reliable gap closer.

This bug has been in the game since Anet started messing around with the Steal code around 2 months ago.

Essentially if you’re targeting something and your starting position is outside of Steal’s range, you cannot use the skill right after a teleport(i.e., Shadow Step, Infil Signet) even if that teleport lands inside Steal’s maximum range. The skill works just fine if you activate it a bit later after casting your teleport.

To make this easier to understand you can replicate this bug by going into the Heart of The Mists. Find a practice Golem, target it and stand right in front of it. Start walking backwards and away from it until you’re outside steal’s range( A red bar will appear under Steal when this happens). Once you’re there, use your Shadow Step to teleport on top of the Golem, immediately followed by Steal and you will see the message “Out of Range” pop up. If you repeat this process but cast Steal a bit later after the teleport, it will activate like it should.

Additional reminder number 9001:

If you use steal right after a teleport starting just outside of steal’s range, the skill will not trigger even though you land inside its maximum distance.
Now if you repeat this process, but cast steal a bit later after the teleport, it should work just fine.

The bug that Impact mentioned is that steal cannot be used right after a teleport, even if you land inside its maximum distance. You can easily replicate this in pvp by using a sword, targeting a golem and standing right outside of steal’s range ( you should see a red bar under the skill when you move 1200 away from the golem).
Now if you cast Infiltrator’s Strike immediately followed by steal, you will see the “target out of range” message pop up. If you repeat the process but cast Steal a bit later it will work like it should.

This bug still exists still even after they reverted the steal changes. Like Impact said if you use steal right after a teleport the “target out of range” message pops up.

+1

This nerf was uncalled for, especially when the class is already struggling in every game mode there is. They also managed to introduce a new range bug as was mentioned above and all this right as the pvp season started.

Maugetarr.6823:

It’s not about the fact that it was (slightly) too good, but the combination of 2 of the minor traits wont be as good as 1 of the ones they are replacing, and eliminating the 10% damage trait. Sure, FG could be changed, but the possible change shown is not a good one.

Couldn’t have said it better imo, as a lot of people keep focusing on the buffs we get from being able to go full on the Deadly Arts trait line. Thing is they obviously omit the fact that every single other spec in the game, is also getting access to two additional major traits. The Acrobatics trait line that Anet showed us is arguably the second worst of all the lines they previewed( Yeah, i’m looking at you Critical Strikes)

Personally I’m still holding off from raising my pitchforks just because they said that numbers are subject to change and nothing is set in stone. There are already a lot of ways and great suggestions here in the forums that could promote skillful play for the S/D thief. Hopefully the devs will find the right path and won’t pigeonhole the class to one spec.

Strategist.6132:

Or am I wrong at this? Of course they are still tweaking the numbers, but I hope they would buff the vigor rate to around 150? Or do you guys think that is too much?

This has been mentioned before when the changes were first announced. If they changed the vigor trait to a 50% increase it would still be a nerf but closer to what we are used to with the current FG trait.

Copy pasting the math from another thread, provided by Maugetarr.6823

Math for FG and the change:
Baseline Endurance: 50(endurance)/5(endurance per second)=10 seconds per dodge
Baseline FG Endurance: 35(endurance)/(5 endurance per second)=7 seconds per dodge
Vigor Endurance: 50 (endurance)/ (5*2)(endurance per second)=5 seconds per dodge
New trait: 50 (endurance)/ (5*2.2) (endurance per second)=4.5454 seconds per dodge
Suggested trait (50% increase): 50 (endurance)/(5*2.5)(endurance per second)=4 seconds per dodge.
Current Vigor+FG: 35(endurance)/(5*2)(endurance per second=3.5 seconds per dodge

I feel as though we need small balance changes for eles because it would trully be a shame to have the class nerfed into oblivion once again.

Imho the main problem now is that cele d/d eles have insane defensive capabilities. They are the only class that can cope with both physical and condition pressure just by using the 0-0-2-6-6 build. It’s really not fun to play against somebody that has nearly permanent protection upkeep and a lot of condition removal while also being able to get stronger the longer the fight lasts because of might stacking. Basically you either need to burst them down early or else you’ll soon be facing a 25 stack powerhouse.

I totally agree with phantaram as far as lightning whip is concerned. On the other hand i believe that a lot of the changes he proposes are over the top, not to mention that nerfing amulets and game mechanics in general(might stacking) ,because currently 2 classes dominate the scene , is not justifiable.

Elemental Shielding. This trait needs to be moved to master tier and swap it with Geomancer’s Freedom. This way ele players will need to sacrifice some of their condition removal and healing potential in order to get more physical damage mitigation

Insanity.5174:

-geomancer’s freedom decrease the condi duration and should give regeneration or protection.

Why not just move it down to adept tier then and make it just like dogged march. I really don’t get why warriors can have access to a better trait than eles just by investing 10 points in defense.

1. Elementalist : Only viable in pve for speedruns and that’s just because of fgs. Needs major adjustments and not just minor tweaks or simple nerf reversals like some previous people suggested. We don’t want to bring back the OP state that forced the devs to nerf them in the first place.
2. Ranger : They may be viable in pvp but oh boy do they need more build variety. Also pets, pets pets….
3. Warrior : When a class becomes an irreplaceable necessity for every single part of your game, then it’s not considered balanced anymore.