Guild Wars 2

Yeah I agree, if Pistol Whip is going to do less damage Infiltrator’s Strike should at least be increased. Headshot I’m not sure about, it’s an interrupt, no interrupts have good damage. Although I don’t see it being too OP if it good damage as a finisher about 10% HP left as you said.

Devildoc.6721:

Joshmans.8937:

I still use s/p after nerf. Its fun. And the cleave it gives in events is extremely benificial for picking up like 30 bags on the CoF event.

D/p is cool aswell, blind aura + heartseeker = stealth into backstab.

Anything but d/d which i used from level 1-80

You’re better off autoattacking while moving around if using sword in events, not using pistol whip. This was always the case because of the root.

Pistol whip was more useful in solo pve, but now I run out of initiative before it can kill enemies, sooo.. stand in a black cloud and autoattack is the more efficient way now.

Yep, the main reason I use this set anymore is for 1’s AoE and Black Powder, yes Infiltrator’s Strike is good and Headshot has it’s uses at times. In dungeons I would mainly do this but I would occasionally throw out Pistol Whip for some burst damage if I’m maintaining initiative fine or Headshot if I notice a mob charging up an attack. Now I pretty much never use Pistol Whip unless I get lazy on a boss to evade an attack when they do a long charge up. For PVP I didn’t really use S/P before the nerf anyways, although I do use it for WvW where AoE is generally better than single target.

Knote.2904:

This is how it should be.

Although you can still argue it’s bad that all your dmg is baked into auto attacks (rangers).

Sword Chain doesn’t stun and give you evasion. Pistol Whip does. Initiative shouldn’t be spent based on “what hits the hardest” it should be spent on “what utility do I need”.

The fact that “if you want to do dmg” which is pretty much most of the time, you basically just spam 1 skill because it does the most.

That’d be fine if not every class had some higher damaging skills outside of 1. Not to mention the function of PW makes it not that useful for defensive purposes outside of PVP with haste. The stun is too slow to stop things on reaction (Headshot is used for this anyways) and the evasion comes out too far into the move to also be used on reaction (with the exception of some PVE bosses that you can see do a charge up and time it right).

Lets face it, they made this skill with the intention of it to do high burst damage and they killed that factor of it. If they thought the damage was too high they should have simply increased the initiative cost slightly for a band-aid fix, not nerf the damage itself. Keep in mind, one of Thieves main appeal was to be able to do high burst damage very quickly, they even list it in the class info on their main site.

If they now want this skill to be used more a defensive option (isn’t that what Flanking Strike, Black Powder and Head Shot are supposed to be for?) they have to speed it up. As it stands this skill does have some use for stun lock in PVP with haste against people that don’t bring stun break, other than that I want to write this skill off as wasted space in it’s current state.

CptCosmic.3156:

saying “l2p” is funny and denying. its always funny how useless those noobs quickness thiefs are when the quickness is on CD or does not proc from their sigil.

I abuse quickness out of stealth kill in 1 second for 2 weeks now. I would really like to see someone “countering” a build that can kill 2k thoughness 20khp builds in a second, which is about the time stealth reappear animations takes to end =D

I would suggest you to adapt to something else because the nerf will come for sure.

Guess what, I can counter these thieves with 900 toughness and 17k HP using a stun breaker, insanity! I use Dagger/Pistol, I’m not going to claim I always win against haste burst thieves, but I will say I win about 80% of the time. There are just those times when you’re stuff is on cool-down or you react too slowly, but honestly the majority of the time I have no troubles with them. Keep in mind, Thief has to use stun breaker against all classes or they die, that’s not the case for all classes.

On to the main topic, the OP has it right. People really should try out multiple classes to see how they work, not just thief. While I’ve played Mesmer in the BWE, it’s been awhile so I’ve learned more playing it again.

Please post your build, I can only get 8000 power! Perhaps I just need more training, or maybe I’m just not eating the right food.

@Knyx not letting me quote, these forums are weird sometimes. If they were to speed up and remove the root on Pistol Whip then they definitely need to lower the damage, personally I’d be happy with the change. It’d be less burst damage but more reliable I think.

I suggested they make FS a shadow step behind a while back as well, just make the first attack an evasive attack then shadow step behind. I wish they would do this or at least add immobilize to the first hit of FS as Dual suggested, it would at least be a decent band-aid. With that they still need to make it dodge during the entire spin animation. Another issue I have with it is it feels clunky, you can’t really use it as a reactionary dodge due to it not cancelling out your current attack and the start up of it not actually dodging anything. Perhaps if sword #1 was faster it wouldn’t be quite as bad, but they would have to reduce the damage on it. Personally I dislike the idea of parry/block it could be too abusable with our imitative, I mean look at Nine-Tail Strike underwater.

Not 100% sure this is a bug, but it seems like it. If you use Roll for Initiative (and probably Withdraw) to break immobilize you won’t actually roll back in many cases, you just do the roll animation then it breaks immobilize and you’re still in the same spot. Disabling Shot (3rd shortbow skill) sometimes doesn’t leap back, just does the animation and you don’t actually move, I’m assuming this is an issue with lag more than anything.

ryston.7640:

Blind stomps are not good at all. Im not sure why you think thats an issue.

The thief downed state is pretty solid, probably 2nd best in game. That needs changing too but only because downed states in general need fixing.

Blind stomp is great and yes it’s not an issue, it’s working as intended, your ignorance is truly spectacular. Thieves down state is horrible, once again your ignorance is amazing!

Yes indeed, good post. People need to stop assuming something is overpowered instead of trying to find a counter for it (as devs have asked us to do). I also won’t pretend I know the state of Necro, it could be in a bad state right now, from what one of my friends says a lot of the skills are bugged (somewhat akin to Heartseeker missing I guess).

@auhfel (won’t let me quote) This issue isn’t even restricted to Thief too, I’ve ran into a supply with a couple of friends and suddenly like 20 people loaded for all of us when we were right next to them, I really hope this issue gets fixed. In WvW I’ve kind of gotten used to attacking invisible people now, but I do agree that it’s even worse for thieves.

Cribbage.2056:

You said yourself that PW is not really an sPvP skill. There’s fewer people, smaller spaces and generally less chance of landing it.

If we agree that PW is not really used in sPvP, then where would be the harm in lowering its burst to balance it for WvW?

Personally, I think you could build a very powerful team around PW in sPvP/tournaments. Have a composition that includes a lot of roots and snares, and used 1 or 2 thieves to spearhead the kills. However, I don’t know whether that’s imbalanced. It remains to be seen really.

It still has it’s uses in sPVP, just not as reliable or easily used, but it still has a place. Reducing the damage would only hurt it’s sPVP use further. I still think the main problem is too many people going for pure class cannon in WvW and not the skill damage itself. I mean when I steal Whirling Axe from a Warrior I actually do more damage with that than I do with Pistol Whip. Admittedly Whirling Axe doesn’t evade towards the end of it, but Warriors themselves have more armor than we do anyways.

Won’t let me edit, I’ve been thinking of skills in terms of balance for sPVP due to that being the focal point of balance for the devs. Keep in mind if you nerf something because it’s good in WvW it just might make it useless in sPVP. Perhaps that’s not the best way to go about, but it’s what the devs are doing currently, because as I stated before, WvW isn’t this focus for class balance (it’s meant to just be chaotic fun where tactics are supposed to prevail over anything). They want sPVP to be a competitive esport game-mode, not WvW.

Cribbage.2056:

KaiserCX.7103:

Cribbage.2056:

Yes, I’ve used it and I found it to be an easy way to kill people. If you have used it and didn’t, I would imagine you need more practise.

Obviously “removing” the burst from PW would be too extreme a measure. Reducing it would be a more sensible approach, which should not need saying.

So now you question my skill without actually seeing me play, it isn’t my skill in question here, it’s the people that don’t bring condition removals or know how to avoid a skill that is so simple to avoid (yes I even avoid it)? I honestly don’t even use Sword/Pistol in a sPVP setting because a lot of people have learned how to avoid it now. I prefer it in WvW where it’s chaotic and people are less focused on a single target and it’ll hit multiple targets. Honestly I’ve gone into big clumps of enemies and sat there and fought them for 30 seconds before they even notice me (without the use of stealth and with my warrior friend with me). For sPVP I prefer Dagger/Pistol due to it being more versatile for my play style. Oh yeah I thought I was done here…..

a) I did not question your skill. I surmised that if you have trouble killing people with PW, you might need to practise with it more.

b) This discussion is about WvW. Or so I assumed from the fact that the original post was a complaint about PW in WvW.

c) When your in a WvW zerg with 20+ opponents on each side, it’s a little unreasonable to think every single person there should be able to keep track of every other. That’s kinda MY point. In such situations, a PW thief is going to have many opportunities to exploit the imbalanced burst damage.

Okay fair enough, but the devs have stated in the past that WvW is not supposed to be greatly balanced (in terms of classes), their main focus of balance in dungeons and sPVP. You forget that there’s still a lot of low level people with horrible armor in WvW as well. Not to mention too many people buy berserker gear which makes them an easy target for high burst damage. This isn’t GW1 where they have separate skill balances for PVE/PVP or in this case WvW/PVE/sPVP, they could do that, but they wanted to avoid it. Ultimately their balancing decisions will be focused on sPVP mostly.

Cribbage.2056:

Yes, I’ve used it and I found it to be an easy way to kill people. If you have used it and didn’t, I would imagine you need more practise.

Obviously “removing” the burst from PW would be too extreme a measure. Reducing it would be a more sensible approach, which should not need saying.

So now you question my skill without actually seeing me play, it isn’t my skill in question here, it’s the people that don’t bring condition removals or know how to avoid a skill that is so simple to avoid (yes I even avoid it)? I honestly don’t even use Sword/Pistol in a sPVP setting because a lot of people have learned how to avoid it now. I prefer it in WvW where it’s chaotic and people are less focused on a single target and it’ll hit multiple targets. Honestly I’ve gone into big clumps of enemies and sat there and fought them for 30 seconds before they even notice me (without the use of stealth and with my warrior friend with me). For sPVP I prefer Dagger/Pistol due to it being more versatile for my play style. Oh yeah I thought I was done here…..

Cribbage.2056:

Rika, the stun in PW is an irrelevance. PW has too high burst damage. Even if it had no stun component, that would be true. Even infiltrator’s strike is more relevant to this discussion than the half second stun.

People who keep bringing discussions of PW to the stun at best do not understand the complexities of multi-player PvP. At worst they are deliberately trying to distract from the real issue of the burst damage.

The Immobilize on Infiltrator’s Strike will wear off before the stun does for Pistol Whip. We understand burst damage, that’s the entire focus of Pistol Whip, remove that and it’s a pointless skill. The burst damage can be avoided easily I don’t get what you’re having trouble comprehending. Really have you tried using it against people that know how to actually play? If you have then you would realize it’s not simply a “WIN” button, it’s just something that helps you get some damage off as it should be.

Cribbage.2056:

You really need to stop theorycrafting in a bubble. Sure, if I was in a dual-type situation with a thief, where we are the only combatants, have full endurance and no skills on CD, you would be right.

In the ebb-and-flow of PvP where you spend a lot of your time fighting other people, with low end or skills on CD you are dead wrong. All the thief has to do is look for an immobilised, crippled or stunned target. Failing that, just sneaking up behind someone who is engaged on another target will often allow them to apply the PW.

I didn’t realize ACTUALLY playing and seeing how people react is “theorycrafting”. If you’re nearly full initiative at the beginning of a fight and most of their stuff is on a cool down and they have no endurance then why shouldn’t they lose or at least have to try and retreat? Any class if they are built to do some damage will tear someone up if their opponent has little or no endurance and their skills are on cool-down. I fail to see how this is a thief related problem, you’re simply grasping. I’m done here, neither of us are going to change our opinions on this matter I’ll just agree to disagree.

Cribbage.2056:

You are wrong.

Everyone here is agreed, including you it seems that the summary of PW’s issue is “if you let the thief get close, PW will almost certainly kill you.”

You say “well then don’t let him get close,” but you are wrong.

In a multi-participant game, the thief may well not be the focus of your attention. The first you know of his presence could well be when he PW’s you. That’s even more likely give the thief’s stealth options.

In addition, there are many forms of root, snare or stun than the thief or his team mates could apply to you and which you may not have the ability to avoid or clear. At that point there is no way of stopping the PW from landing.

It’s balance breaking to have an ability which is so lethal.

Like I said before, I am a thief and intend to stay as one. I’d rather play a balanced class, and all you easy-moders who wanna PW your way to the top are not helping us at all.

Uhhh… who said don’t let the thief get close? I said people need to learn how to avoid the skill (dodge out or even just run behind the thief while he does it if you’re out of endurance). If you’re immobilized and didn’t bring a condition/immobilize removal (your fault) then you’re going to die by many classes anyways. It’s not like Thief is the only class that can completely destroy your while you’re slowed or rooted. Lets face it, Pistol Whip is a high damage skill that is kind enough to tell you you should dodge out instead of being a fast spike damage.

Cribbage.2056:

I’m a thief. Play it as my main at 80.

Pistol Whip is overpowered. Its damage is too high.

There is plenty of evidence for it, as you can see by playing it or watching videos. Also, circumstantially it is obvious from the number of people using it as a build – that’s almost always a sign of something being OP.

People need to wise up:

1) Don’t defend and OP skill, even if it belongs to your class. Imbalance ruins fun and eventually leads to game populations dwindling.
2) Don’t try to justify the validity of skills by retro-theorycrafting specific fights. Spreading out DOES NOT counter PW. It might limit it to mowing down just one person, if you’re lucky. If that’s your only defence, you’re pretty much admitting it is OP.
3) Stop saying kitten every other sentence. In a few months when the cool kids have moved on to another fotm phrase, you’ll look back and feel stupid.

It is in everyone’s interest to have a balanced game. Sure, your ganking and face-rolling will not be as common, but you’ll be surprised how much fun a truly challenging fight can be.

What do you not understand? Most of Pistol Whip’s damage can be avoided (without haste) people just suck and stand there, this is their problem not the skill’s fault. While with Haste you can get more damage off, people can still dodge out towards the end to avoid a 2nd one, I’ve had tons of people roll out of it towards the end with haste on so I know it can be done. If people want to avoid nearly all damage simply bring a stun break and get out, simple as that.

People need to look at how to get out of a skill instead of come to a forum and complain it’s too OP while never actually improving their own skill. Plenty of classes can do Pistol Whip damage, it’s just Thief can do it more than once in a row, but honestly the skill isn’t even that great without haste. Avoid the hasted Pistol Whip and you’re good to go, if you know how to play you’re only going to take around 2k damage (depending on armor) from a non-hasted Pistol Whip.

I actually recently had an idea, I know it won’t happen but tell me what you guys think. Perhaps make Death Blossom do a bit more damage (a tiny bit more than auto-attack damage, perhaps around the 700 range while auto-attack is 600-ish depending on build), have it cause weakness or vulnerability instead of bleed and reduce the initiative by one. Then they could make the Sword/Dagger a pure condition damage setup, make the invisibility skill cause x stacks of bleeding from behind. Make Flanking Strike cause 3-5 seconds of poison first hit and x stacks of bleed 2nd. I know these ideas aren’t perfect and need to be thought out more, but it’s just an idea I just came up with a few minutes ago (probably obvious considering it’s not greatly thought out).

ryston.7640:

Well… the thief is op. Not horrible own your face over powered, but it is the best roaming and killing class in the game.

Why? Well shadow step is good. Infiltrator arrow is the best teleport in the game, and that signet is pretty handy. All of this on the best utility in the game (stealth stomps and rezes). Makes the thief… too good at what it does.

No truly competitive team of 5 would que without one.

So… it needs a nerf. I suggest this one. It keeps the class viable and we will still see it used alot as a roamer, but with this change a team could consider leaving the thief out if they wanted.

These ideas make no sense at all. First of all, stealth ressing is not great in PVP, it’s good for dungeons, but you can still hit people while they are stealthed so it’s your fault for not paying attention to them. If it was Shadow Refuge they used to res then it’s highly obvious and if they used Blinding Powder it only lasts 3 seconds. Stealth finish is perfectly fine as is, it’s not even as good as blind finishing.

Infiltrator’s Arrow is not the best teleport in the game, it’s clunky and slow. Shadowstep is worlds better, instant, longer range, breaks stun and has the option to return which also removes 3 conditions and removes another stun.

And well last of all, thief is not overpowered I don’t get where you get the idea they are required for tournament play. I’ve even seen tournament groups ask for no thieves in their group. It’s a good class that has it’s strengths and weaknesses, but definitely not overpowered.

ryston.7640:

Well… the thief is op. Not horrible own your face over powered, but it is the best roaming and killing class in the game.

Why? Well shadow step is good. Infiltrator arrow is the best teleport in the game, and that signet is pretty handy. All of this on the best utility in the game (stealth stomps and rezes). Makes the thief… too good at what it does.

No truly competitive team of 5 would que without one.

So… it needs a nerf. I suggest this one. It keeps the class viable and we will still see it used alot as a roamer, but with this change a team could consider leaving the thief out if they wanted.

These ideas make no sense at all. First of all, stealth ressing is not great in PVP, it’s good for dungeons, but you can still hit people while they are stealthed so it’s your fault for not paying attention to them. If it was Shadow Refuge they used to res then it’s highly obvious and if they used Blinding Powder it only lasts 3 seconds. Stealth finish is perfectly fine as is, it’s not even as good as blind finishing.

Infiltrator’s Arrow is not the best teleport in the game, it’s clunky and slow. Shadowstep is worlds better, instant, longer range, breaks stun and has the option to return which also removes 3 conditions and removes another stun.

And well last of all, thief is not overpowered I don’t get where you get the idea they are required for tournament play. I’ve even seen tournament groups ask for no thieves in their group. It’s a good class that has it’s strengths and weaknesses, but definitely not overpowered.

When Basilisk Venom is used with Shadow Shot it doesn’t stun the target, it just wastes the venom.

Ashanor.5319:

KaiserCX.7103:

Ashanor.5319:

Personally, I think you need to rely less on Blinding Powder – Heartseeker (Considering the cost is 9 initiative) to get into stealth if you use a D/P build and focus more of your utility around stealth. I mean, sure, if you got a BP up anyway feel free to use it, but don’t use it in every time you want to enter stealth. It is just too expensive.

I’d rather dump my initiative into it at the beginning then use utility to stealth a second time while initiative regenerates.

I guess, but if you aren’t speced for the extra 3 initiative, you just burned 75% of your initiative just to do a small amount of damage and get into stealth (previous to the backstab, if you land it from behind).

It only takes 7 initiative with the trait that gives you back 2 initiative when you use a stealth skill, it’s still a big initiative dump with that I agree. If I’m using it from far away I’ll generally have like 90% of my initiative back before I backstab though. Admittedly if Shadow Shot was more reliable that would definitely change my play style more.

bwillb.2165:

Ideally you’d be traited into regaining initiative on critical and regaining initiative in stealth. These are great for backstab builds.

Yep, I take both of those as well as the gain 2 initiative every 10 seconds under acrobatics.

Ashanor.5319:

Personally, I think you need to rely less on Blinding Powder – Heartseeker (Considering the cost is 9 initiative) to get into stealth if you use a D/P build and focus more of your utility around stealth. I mean, sure, if you got a BP up anyway feel free to use it, but don’t use it in every time you want to enter stealth. It is just too expensive.

I’d rather dump my initiative into it at the beginning then use utility to stealth a second time while initiative regenerates.

Ashanor.5319:

That is more of a bug than a problem with the skills functionality imo.

I agree, Shadow Shot would be a great skill if it weren’t for the root, I really hope they fix it.

@Ashanor Won’t let me quote. No I want it to not root me so it’s not wasted initiative if they are moving slightly, this skill is horrible if the person is moving around and I don’t mean dodge, just straight up movement.

EDIT: I’d be perfectly fine with them even slowing down the 2nd attack (not too much, we don’t need super slow moves) or reducing the damage some as long as it doesn’t root me.

Oh yeah and generally if they’re standing still I will Shadow Shot to them, put up Black Powder and auto-attack a bit till they move out or it’s about to run out, then I Heartseeker and then backstab them. If they are moving I might just do Black Powder from far away and Heartseeker in then go for backstab as bwillb said. After that it depends on their HP, if they’re half or less I’ll go for Heartseeker, if not I’ll Blinding Powder and go for another Backstab.

Personally I prefer dagger/pistol over dagger/dagger for the daze and blind. This set would be amazing if Shadow Shot wasn’t so lackluster for PVP, it is great for PVE at least.

bwillb.2165:

The biggest problem with this build is teammates. If someone uses a combo blast ability right after you drop blackpowder, it will stealth you, which will then break when your heartseeker hits and give you the “revealed” debuff, completely negating your ability to backstab for 3 seconds.

Not only this, but if there are other combo fields out there, the leap will often combo with one of those instead of your blackpowder which is also annoying.

After playing using Shadowstep on my bar pretty much all the time now, I would like to see it give you 15 seconds to shadow return like you have on Infiltrator’s Strike (sword #2 skill).

Tolfast.6289:

KaiserCX.7103:

Tolfast.6289:

Edit: Just tried this vs elemental NPC in the mists, when I have chill I can only HS a VERY short distance!

The short distance thing isn’t a bug, movement speed effects Heartseeker. If you have swiftness or Signet of Shadows on it will go slightly further, if you’re crippled or chilled it won’t go far.

Learn something new every day, I never really noticed this before but that is most likely because I don’t overuse heart seeker (not saying you do btw), or because I am rarely chilled.

However this means that movement debuffs are reducing the range of a skill, which I don’t think is right, if chill decreases range for a skill then it should be universal across all skills

I don’t use it often either, truthfully I didn’t know till I saw people complaining about Heartseeker in the forums and some people mentioned chill/cripple was a counter, then I went into game and messed with it and noticed swiftness/Signet of Shadows boosts the range as well. I mean it could be a bug, but I think it’s intentional so people can counter it with slows.

Shisx.1658:

Pistol Whip- I have a huge problem with this skill and it being used with quickness. The skill is a very good opener but with quickness is become more than that. If Anet refuses to get rid of quickness than maybe one of these changes would work better.
-Quick CD (2sec)
-Remove the stun – The reason for this your "2’ key already gives you a snare, if you get the trait where if your target falls below 50% health, inflict snare for 4s
-Remove Evasion from skill
-Increase Initiative cost (6/7)

And you just made a useless skill by doing that, they increased the stun from how long it was before because it wasn’t good with only 1/4th a second of stun, so outright removing the stun alone would make it useless. If they get rid of the stun and evasion then they need to allow you to move during it and easily dodge out of it and possibly even speed it up a little, but honestly it wouldn’t feel like a pistol whip without a stun. Currently plenty of other classes can do Pistol Whip level of damage, it’s just the thief can get in and out the best while doing it.

I do like the idea of haste only effecting auto attack, if they do this though haste should last X amount of hits rather than a time limit though simply due to the fact if you’re stuck in a long animation attack when you proc it, you’ve pretty much completely wasted it.

EDIT: You shouldn’t have to trait to make a skill useful, you should trait to make a skill more useful. I think Thief is fine in terms a balance, Pistol Whip is powerful I admit, but a lot of classes have very powerful attacks as I stated before. People need to learn to bring stun removal and conditional removal, so many people don’t.

Tolfast.6289:

Edit: Just tried this vs elemental NPC in the mists, when I have chill I can only HS a VERY short distance!

The short distance thing isn’t a bug, movement speed effects Heartseeker. If you have swiftness or Signet of Shadows on it will go slightly further, if you’re crippled or chilled it won’t go far.

I agree, I love this game but the camera is absolutely horrible. I would love to have an FoV slider, option to disable mouse acceleration, camera lock option and overall better camera collision. I would also like for the camera positioning slider to have a greater effect as well as add a vertical position slider.

It isn’t bugged, as Ranzou said everyone gets a movement speed reduction in combat. You’re still moving 25% faster while in combat than someone without the signet, it’s just less noticeable due to the natural movement speed reduction.

I would love to see this too, I have some additions that I would like as well that might have been suggested already, I haven’t read through all the posts. I would like to see mouse 1 and 2 become skill 1 and 2 and have shortcuts for example you hold down E and mouse 1 and 2 becomes 3 and 4 and so on.

Trikittenistos.3046:

-slight increase on blinding powder and shadow refuge stealth duration

edit: i want a RAPIER skin for my sword :p

Personally I’d rather see Blinding Powder just have a slight cool-down reduction, somewhere between 40-50 recast. It can have 4 seconds of instant invisibility (traited) with a blind attached to it which I think is pretty good, just a long recast on it.

And yes please to the rapier skin, I’ve been wishing they would have one.

Heartseeker animation sometimes plays out twice when you only activate it once (only does one hit too).

I like the idea especially the trait, it would give us some more support options. As someone suggested, they could put it as an F2. To go further you use F2 and it steals from the ally you’re closest to (no shadow step). Also they should share the same cool-down timer.

I made this thread to make it easier for people and devs to look through suggestions. Feel free to post any changes, additions or whatever you’d like to see for Thief. My only request is try to keep class balance in mind. Anyhow I’ll start off with a few of my suggestions.

-Shadow Shot to not root you, if it’s too powerful lessen the damage some or slow down the stab but at least allow us to move right after the shadow step.

-Meld with Shadows I would like to see work with combo field invisibility as well.

-Sword off-hand, I know this won’t happen for awhile seeing how some of our current weapon sets still need a bit of work, but it would be nice to see some time down the road.

-Flanking Strike, perhaps instead of the spinning animation they could simply change it so it starts out as an evasive slash then you shadow step behind your foe and stab them again.

-Infiltrator’s Strike/Shadowstep add a countdown on the skill icon to show how long you have left to Shadow Return.

And some general requests…

-Target’s health bar, it would be nice if they colorized the health bar based on the percentage of health. Another option they could do is have lines at the 75%, 50% and 25% marks or even something as simple as adding a text percentage on the bar itself would be nice.

-Disable skill queuing would be a very nice option to have that has been asked for since at least BWE1.

Bountiful Theft trait lasting 35 seconds when the tooltip says 15 seconds. The range to give to allies seems too small (feels like 300 range, but that’s a guesstimate from some dungeon runs last night). I’m not sure if it’s a bug or intended to be that small of a range.

Shadow Shot appears to randomly miss on stationary enemies like Heartseeker does.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Heartseeker-missing/first#post109216

I went with Knight’s insignia for my armor and rings. Berserker for everything else (weapons, accessories, ect). Personally I mainly use S/P in PVE and shortbow when there’s a big DE or I need to get back to recover. For PVP I go with D/P and shortbow. So far I’m liking it, decent toughness as well as some HP from my traits and I still do good damage and have a high critical chance (59% with the signet on).

EDIT: Oh yeah, my runes I use are Divinity.

I would like to see this trait work with combo fields, currently you don’t gain an extra second of stealth from them with it.

Neoshai.6351:

KaiserCX.7103:

Neoshai.6351:

No people started to learn how to counter and dodge it probably.

Uhh.. stationary means they aren’t moving, so no. It happens in PVE as well.

Overread this word, I’m sorry.

Haha, certainly can’t say I’ve never done that before!

Yep, been having this exact problem as of today, it was an issue back in beta. Appears they broke it again, hope it’s fixed soon.

Neoshai.6351:

No people started to learn how to counter and dodge it probably.

Uhh.. stationary means they aren’t moving, so no. It happens in PVE as well.

Vexus.5423:

Skills aren’t supposed to be ‘a right time to use it and a wrong time’ it’s supposed to be effective at any time, per game design promises made for years. Again I only contend the 20% damage nerf above 50%. There’s a 40-60% damage difference between the target at 51% health and 49% health now.

What are you talking about? Thief has a lot of situational skills, hell a lot of classes do. Would you use headshot any time? Would you spam Death Blossom from far away? Would you spam Shadow Shot at melee range? There should always be a right and wrong time to use a skill, Heartseeker is no different. Even at 100% it has it’s uses as leap and a gap closer anyways.

Seriously has anyone noticed Heartseeker missing a lot since this patch? I’m constantly missing with it now in PVE when my target isn’t even moving.

I agree, the nerf is fine my only complaint is the change from 33% to 25%, annoying but not a huge deal, it’s still a great skill overall. On a side note, has anyone noticed Heartseeker missing on stationary targets like it did back in beta since this patch?

Blazer Hellsing.9184:

Shadowstep abilities tend to bugg depending on latency, GW2 has huge latency problems and has entire error codes dedicated to it. Arenanet is doing their best to fix these problems of ability buggs, latency and disconnects.

But that’s not really the issue with this skill, yeah shadow step skills get bugged sometimes, but this skill actually roots you after the initial shadow step.

I agree, the root needs to go, this skill isn’t that practical in PVP currently, it’s still great for PVE at least. I would even been fine with a slight damage reduction or increase the initiative by 1 or 2 for them to simply remove the root on the dagger attack.