Lex, no not at all. Immunity is lazy and pointless on thief, especially if it’s in stealth which is where thief is stronger. It would force x/p and bound from DD in replacement of dagger, shadow refuge would be a free ‘you can’t touch me haha’ button for anyone without a lot of AoE, any smoke field would be mandatory, SA would be mandatory like Trickery already is for the most part. You see where this is going? Any form of stealth would be required because it would make you unkillable every 4 sec. No thanks, that’s over the top and extremely OP. Not just for thief either, mes and scrapper both have stealth too.
It’s a very good heal and can be at the lowest CD (or close iirc) of any necro heal. It generates LF, can have added life steal: it’s an all around great heal. But as said before, the condi heavy meta makes consume conditions very hard to pass up since the more condi on you means more healing, and it ignores poison. The only downside is the cast time, the vuln and blind are easily manageable. IMO, consume conditions is one of the best heals in the game.
I run with zerk gear with bandits defense, shadowstep and roll for ini; all stun breaks with very good utility. Having those 3 let’s me be a bit more aggressive because I know I have something ready to either get me out of trouble if I’m a bit over my head, or help with mind games and offense. I use SA, Trickery and DD with Escape A and unhindered with hide in shadows for heal. Gives me plenty of condi cleanse and good access to stealth with d/p. It works for me.
Rise is good against power damage but the minions are eaten alive by condi unless the necro runs death magic, and you don’t see that except for MM’s. And rise still doesn’t render us immune to any form of damage like a block or invuln, it just makes it hurt less, so no, I don’t consider that a defensive utility like blocks etc. Shroud is the same way: not immune to damage, just a bigger sponge. And in shroud we have no access to any utilities or heal. We have Rs2 as a gap closer and that’s it. Why do you think everyone kites a reaper in shroud: because he loses near ALL pressure capabilities if he’s not in melee and has only one way of getting back in melee aside from walking at the slow necro pace we’re known for.
Reaper useless now. Rerolled to scrapper.
Warriors were usually easy, as you said. A good jump usually decides it when I fight them Scrappers I avoid, hated them even as necro if I didn’t have condi. I played rev for a while before I went back to necro so I know what to watch for; obvious glint heal and UA. Most revs I fought were trying very hard to pressure, it made headshot pulm impact easy to melt them with.
Oddly enough, necro doesn’t give me that much trouble. It being my main, I know to haul tail when shroud comes up, usually they don’t try to follow and they drop out of it. I steal to them and pressure right at that moment because I know I have at least 7 sec to play with.
I’ve been playing necro for a while, long before HoT, but I’ve been playing on my thief a good bit recently. I like it for PvE and WvW. Have no trouble in PvE, but I could use some tips for fighting in WvW or against other players in general. What to look out for and avoid, aside from DH’s, and how to approach each class in a general sense.
As it was said, stealth was never a mechanic specific to thief, initiative and steal are. Alacrity is part of mesmers profession mechanic tied in with chrono, like 3 evades are to Daredevil. So if you want to start tossing alacriy to thieves, then start giving other classes 3 evades etc. Stealth may be an important part of how thief works, and they should be strong in regards to it, but that doesn’t mean only they can use it. But I will say that I think stealth gyro is lazy and shouldn’t be a thing.
No class under any circumstances should get alacrity unless it’s chrono. Period. And 6s of cripple on a weapon skill that can be used repeatedly is too much.
It being simple isn’t going to stop you from beating them. Like everyone said, find the real one and focus him. Watch for when the clones all run at you because incoming shatter, stealth is annoying but it makes it obvious which one is real when he reappears.
Shroud for necromancer is affected by chill, both its skills and its actual CD.