Showing Posts For jayem.2630:
Same issue in PvE, has been happening for at least a month now – unplayable lag at all dragon events, lag in fractals (especially the ascalonian run), Gave up on WvW. Lag getting progressively worst each patch, lagging in Southsun Cove everywhere, so I’ll have to skip this content for now.
It’s pure anecdote and I don’t have enough network know-how to prove it, but I did a dns flush on my computer today and the lag seems to have gone for the time being.
Same issue here since last patch. Although I’m playing Australia, the lag and rubber banding have never been this bad until the April patch.
Change dual skill to work in “reverse” – hits the target with sword that does a small knockback, then fires the pistol 5 times. Remove the evasion part and reduce the damage since it’s range.
What will this do to the S/P set? Adds synergy: a projectile finisher to Black powder shot combo field, and because the second part is range, a thief can infil strike into a target, hits the target in melee, then use shadow return to move back while firing the pistol.
Being able to deal a mixture of range and melee damage also means the S/P set isn’t completely useless against anyone who knows how to kite; S/P biggest drawback right now is that both pistol whip and the auto attack can be juked by anyone moving fast enough.
Picked thief because I thought that is the control and mobility profession – at least that’s what those skill showcase videos made thief appeared to be on the official website: Caltrops, infiltrator arrow, flanking strike, steal, stealth.
Instead the class is really just an assassin with a different name, this is just another stealth glass cannon in any other MMOs. Back stab and haste pistol whip being the niche of the profession is kind of disappointing but I’ll see where ANET is going with this.
Being a thief essentially means have an unfair advantage on every “Dodge or die” mechanic in dungeons. And they are everywhere.
First of all, to the OP, this thread is a great idea. ANet has shown appreciation of constructive feedback in the past. So if we can crowd source some good ideas such that the non-glass cannon PvP thieves don’t get screwed in the process of rebalancing, then that would make me a very happy thief. The idea of reducing burst via an Assassin’s Signet nerf was a largely popular one in these forums prior to ANet changing it, so let’s continue that trend.
1) Cutting the damage from CnD and backstab, and
2) Change assassin’s signet to increase damage by X% (say 100%) of all attacks for 2 seconds on use with a 120 sec recharge time, moving it to an elite skill to replace basilisk venom.These changes, as is, would severly cripple PvE Backstab thieves though, which is precisely the kind of thing we’re trying to avoid. When it comes to thieves, ANet has so far done a pretty admiral job of balancing PvP which leaving PvE unscathed. Let’s hope they continue.
Not necessarily. The combined damage of a CnD + backstab could be on-par or lower than Pistolwhip without destroying PvE viability, especially with the Hidden Killer trait, a PvE thief can skim some crit % for power and crit damage.
I think the Mug > CnD > Backstab combo should be kept, It’s rare enough as it is for thief skills to have good synergy. The issue is purely about damage numbers, rather than mechanic.
The damage should definitely be tuned down, but there should also be an option for high burst damage; I’d suggest
1) Cutting the damage from CnD and backstab, and
2) Change assassin’s signet to increase damage by X% (say 100%) of all attacks for 2 seconds on use with a 120 sec recharge time, moving it to an elite skill to replace basilisk venom.
The 2 – 3 min recharge time will force players to use it intelligently, instead of using it every 30 – 45 seconds whenever steal/basilisk/devourer is on up.
Slightly off-topic, but backstab is just a symptom to a much bigger issue in the game at the moment; The damage role in the GW2 trinity outperforms control and support in a lot of pvp scenarios. The finer mechanics like skill lockdown from interrupts, poison’s healing reduction, endurance slowdown from weakness, recharge slowdown from chill and especially combo fields in general are overlooked because focusing your target down is far more effective. This is akin to WoW arena when “cleave” teams are overly effective and created a 2 dimensional meta game. Was not fun.
I’ve been thinking about this for awhile – why aren’t dual skills separated into 2 part chains, similar to infiltrator strikes > shadow return? Specifically Pistol whip and Flanking strike, although Shadow strike and Shadow shot also feels like a 2 part chain as well, but their animations are shorter.
These dual skills are essentially two different attacks being glued together, and are only arrange that way just to fit the name: the short stun with a charge time doesn’t add much to Pistol whip since your target can move out of range before you can finish the whole attack. The shot after shadow stab, again, the 2nd hit in flanking strike and the stab after shadow shot really don’t add much to the overall play-style of the weapon sets.
I think it’ll add more synergy between weapon skills if chain attacks are the norm rather than the exception – example, ranger’s sword/dagger or sword/axe set, there is a flow to attacking with Hornet’s sting > Crippling talon/Path of Scar > Monarch’s leap, it works especially since the last 2 attacks are combo finishers, not to mention the option to switch to a range weapon after Crippling talon.
/rant
The damage from PW should be distributed elsewhere, I agree with Devildoc that should be infiltrator strike, but I also think it would be interesting if headshot does some realistic damage.