Guild Wars 2

JonPeters.5630:

No, I am saying that I don’t want the balance of the thief held hostage by a 15 point minor in critical strikes so we need to take that initiative away from there and put it into the base class mechanics, which is exactly what we are doing.

Jon

Even playing a thief, i have to acknowledge that it is great to get more build diversity.

Still the crit line is to valueable for the thief compared to the others.

I think you have to somehow adjust the deadly arts trait line to be as good as the crit line as well as adjusting the acrobatics traitline to be as good as shadow arts.

Deadly Arts and Critical Strikes being the offensive lines that have to compete against each other and Shadow Arts and Acrobatics being the defensive lines to compete.

At the moment and after the changes you want to do, Critical Strikes and Shadow Arts will both win.

Profession Synergy

I know it would take alot of work, but i would like to see the individual professions to be able to contribute something special to the group.
Something that would make it more usefull to have different professions in your group.

In the past the mesmer was a good example.
In PvE you picked a mesmer instead of a 5th Warrior because of the aoe quickness buff.

Also combos allready help a bit. Like elementalist fire fields for might stacking.
Other things worth mentioning are traits like imrovisation that increases the damage with elementalis weapons and other bundles by 10%.

But i think it would be great to see each profession be superior to others with specific support.

For example Warriors could buff aoe might while thieves buff aoe fury, guardiands aoe protection, mesmer aoe quickness and so on.

At the moment a warrior only party can buff everything better then anyone else and has no need to play with another profession.

It wold take alot of work and alot of balance changes but would encourage to play mixed parties instead of something like the 4 warriors + 1 mesmer.

Continue from previous post above.

Next i would like bring up some other changes that could help the thief
Since Infusion of Shadow was the only trait on my list of to strong traits, the following changes will mainly include buffs for traits.
But lets start with the only other trait beside Infusion of Shadow that could take a nerf.

Shadow Arts IV – Shadow’s Embrace
Remove one condition every 3 seconds while in stealth.

This is a really strong condition remove. In my oppinion it could be moved up a tier or the trigger time could be increased.

Together with the grandmaster trait Shadow’s Rejuvenation you can gain great survivability.
While lowering the condition remove in the shadow arts trait line you could add better condition remove to the acrobatic trait line to make it more attactive.

Mechanic – Shadow Return
Return to your original location.

Like every other blink or shadow step it is not able to teleport your character to places that you cant reach without jumping.
I know that the reason for the blink abilities is to prevent players to reach otherwise unreachable places. However, the Shadow Return only teleports you back to a position you allready were able to reach (Like the mesmer portal). So i think it would be a great change to make the Shadow Return work like the mesmer portal.

List of other Traits
To shorten everything i will provide you with a list of links to topics i created to discuss other weak traits of the thief in the past. It’s not a full list, but it will include the most important ones for the current state of the game.

• Deadly Arts V – Potent Poison
  +33% poison duration.
• Deadly Arts VII – Improvisation
  Stealing recharges all skills of one type. +10% dmg with bundles.
• Acrobatics VI – Fleet of Foot
  Dodging removes cripple and weakness from you.

Thief feedback

Hello,
I am playing thief as my main class, but by playing other classes as well i will give you my objective feedback for the thief changes.
I tried that in the thief forum in the past but it’s so easy to lose the motivation because of the negative feedback you get when alot of thieves deny that something is to strong. (like the Infusion of Shadow trait for d/p builds)
Let’s start with your planned changes.

Shadow Arts V – Infusion of Shadow
Gain initiative when you enter stealth instead of gain it when using a skill that stealth you.

This is one of the best changes for the thief. I was waiting for it a long time.
The change will prevent the perma invis thieves with dagger/pistol without hurting other builds that much.

Initiative
Increase the base regeneration by 33% and reducing the initiative gain from alot of traits by about 33% to 50%.

I like the increased base regeneration. It helps all builds that don’t rely on the init gain traits.
However it is a huge nerf to those traits since their relative boost they give is dropping significant.

A trait that will regenerate 0.1 init/second is not as strong for a 1 init/second base regeneration as it would be for a 0.75 init/second base regeneration.

The trait that is suffering the most will be Critical Strikes 15 – Opportunist
The drop of Initiative gain for this trait for high crit chance builds is to high in my oppinion. You should consider to set the internal cooldown to 3 seconds instead of 5.

I know that its not easy to balance the initiative numbers since you can lower a 2 initiative gain only to a 1 initiative gain. It is not possible to set it to a 1.5 initiative gain.

Vigor
Cutting all vigor durations from traits by 50%

I can understand that you dont like the character to have a to long vigor duration. But i think the thief really needs that to survive. The thief is the only profession that has no skills to become invulnerable or block attacks. Thats why the thief needs thos extra dodge rolls.

Acrobatics X – Assassins Reward
Increased healing scaling by 35%. Moved to Grandmaster Tier.

I think this change has a good intention but will still be way less healing then the grandmaster trait in shadow arts.

On top of that the acrobatic trait line does not offer any good condition remove and the shadow arts trait line is far superior for survival because of the toughness and healing power.

Even a 100% increase in healing for this trait would make it less effecient then Shadow’s Rejuvenation with 50% stealth uptime. (50% stealth uptime is easy to achieve. Even without dagger/pistol).

I don’t think that this change will do much about the bad survivability the thief has.

Sword – Shadow Return
Added a 1/4s cast time.

This is a huge change that will make thieves way more vulnerable to disables.
It feels like the plan is to make the trait Hard to catch more attractive. But the random teleport can put you in a way worse position then you were before.

I think the change to shadow return is reasonable. However it needs some other tools for the thief to survive better to compensate this.

Pistol Whip
Reduced the after cast on the first half of this skill by .25 seconds.

A change that was needed to make at least the first 1 or 2 attacks after the stun hit.
It will help a bit, but to use it effective in pvp you would immobilize the target anyways.

Since i exceeded the message length i will split it here.

Hi,

i wanted to start a discussion about the change to Assassins Reward and see how much it will heal us.

I assume that the base heal and the scaling with healing power will both be increased by 35%.
For extra initiative gain i used:

• signet use (with 2 signets)
• infiltrators signet
• quick recovery
• kleptomaniac (29.25s cd on steal)

old heal: 69 /initiative
old heal per second: 51 / second
old heal per second (1,000 healing power): 78 / second
old heal per second (1,000 healing power + traits): 136 / second

new heal: 93 / initiative
new heal per second: 93 / second
new heal per second (1,000 healing power): 140 / second
new heal per second (1,000 healing power + traits): 189 / second

Compared to other traits that heal:

Shadow’s Rejuvenation(50% stealth time): 146 / second
Shadow’s Rejuvenation(50% stealth time + 1,000 healing power): 196 / second

Warriors Vigorous Shouts(2 shouts + 1,000 healing power): 190 /second (aoe)
Warriors Vigorous Shouts(3 shouts + 1,000 healing power): 238 /second (aoe)

My thoughts:

Assassins Reward heals less then Shadow’s Rejuvenation and the vitality you get from the acrobatic trait line does not synergize with healing as good as healing power or toughness would do. In addition to that the thief has a very limited access to regeneration and protection. I think the heal increase is still way to small to make assassins reward worth the trait points you have to spend. Other professions can heal way more with traits and have great access to regeneration, protection, condition removal and more.

Initiative

• Base regeneration increased by 33%
• Most initiative gain from traits reduced by 33% to 50%

This change makes the relative initiative gain from traits very small.

Example: Quick Recovery
Old initiative regenaration: 7.5 initiative / 10 sec
Old initiative gain from trait: 2 initiative / 10 sec
Old relative gain from trait: (7.5 ini + 2 ini) / 7.5 ini = 1.2666 (26%)

New initiative regenaration: 10 initiative / 10 sec
New initiative gain from trait: 1 initiative / 10 sec
New relative gain from trait: (10 ini + 1 ini) / 10 ini = 1.1 (10%)

This reduces the effectivity of this trait by 61.5%.
But the change to the base regeneration is a great buff.
You get more initiative with the new base regeneration without trait then you would get with the old base regeneration with the old trait.
As a result the initiative gain from traits will become kind of useless.

Buffs

• Initiative regeneration increased by 33%
• Pistol Whip. Reduced the after cast on the first half of this skill by .25 seconds.
• Critical Strikes VI – Practiced Tolerance. Increased conversion from 5% to 7%.
• Critical Strike X – Critical Haste. Increase trigger chance to 25%.
• Acrobatics IV – Assassin’s Retreat. Increased swiftness duration to 20s.
• Acrobatics X – Assassins Reward. Increased healing scaling by 35%. Moved to Grandmaster Tier.

Nerfs

• Shadow Return on Sword. Renamed to Infiltrator’s return. Added a 1/4s cast time.
• Initiative
• Shadow Arts V – Infusion of Shadow – This trait functionality has been changed to “Gain initiative when you enter stealth.” 2 init.
• Deadly Arts VI – Sundering Strikes. Increased the trigger chance from 50%. Remove ICD. Decrease Vulnerability duration to 6s.
• Critical Strikes VIII – Signet Use. Reduced initiative gain from 2 to 1.
• Acrobatics IX – Quick Recovery. Reduced initiative gain from 2 to 1.
• Trickery 5 – Kleptomaniac. Reduce initiative gain from 3 to 2.
• Vigor
• Acrobatics III – Vigorous Recovery. Reduced Vigor duration to 4s from 8s.
• Trickery VII – Bountiful Theft. Reduced vigor duration to from 15s to 8s.

Feedback

The major changes are

• increased initiative base regeneration
• increased healing on Assasins Reward
• reduction of initiative gain from alot of traits.
• reduction of vigor duration from traits.

I think the increased initiative regeneration is a change that will help the thief alot to keep his overall damage up and is a good change for sure. The reduction of initiative gain from traits on the other hand will reduce their relative effectivity greatly and some will become traits for the “useless” category that no one would pick.

One of my favourite changes however is the Infusion of Shadow nerf.
I am thief myself and i know that the trait worked way to well with dagger/pistol.

The change i dont like is the reduction of the vigor buff.
I think that vigor is something that the thief needs alot to survive.

The plan to increase the healing on Assasins Reward sounds great, but in reality the acrobatics traitline does not offer enough that would make it worth to go for it.
It would result in 93 health / 1 initiative. With the regeneration of 1 initiative / 1 second it would be like 93 health / second.
Compared to the Shadow Arts grandmaster trait that gives 323 health / second when invisible, the heal from Assasins Reward will still be low. Even after the change the Shadow Arts line will be way stronger then acrobatics.
I know this might sound a bit crazy but i think the heal of Assasins Reward as grandmaster trait could very well be increased by up to 100% instead of the 35%.

Other changes could include increased condition remove and mobility in the acrobatic trait line. I think the Warrior can be even better at “running away” with all his charge skills then the thief at the moment.

Azraelle.1683:

Black Teagan.9215:

Zerbo.5381:

Black Teagan.9215:

Sry, but this is the first patch since the release, where I see not one nerf.

Is this a joke- “Not one nerf”? If not, I think you should go back and read the notes a little more carefully.

Give me an example for “a nerf”

Read the patchnotes. You’ll see it unless you are absolutely kittened.

Thats one of the main problems in this forum … thats not a mature answer to his question.

I listed the obvious buffs and nerfs here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Balance-preview-breakdown-with-feedback/3137949

Nerfs are mainly reduced vigor duration and cast time for swords shadow return on sword.

The reduced initiative gain on traits is not a real nerf since the base regeneration is increased. It just changes that you dont need those traits anymore. they will become useless like the improvisation trait.

Black Teagan.9215:

My idea:

[General]
Reduce CD’s of Venoms to 35 Secs
+
[Improved Venoms]
Venom skills recharge 20% faster and have a higher duration of 25%.

I think you’re in the wrong topic. My venom disscusion is here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/State-of-the-thief-Venom/3007746

There allready is a trait that increases the venom recharge rate by 20% in game. But adding a duration effect to it would be nice.

Like i said i dont use pistol whip that often.
And i think after the huge nerf to the s/d boon remove, the s/p is equally good.
But s/p needs bountyful thief to remove stuff like stability so he can interrupt with headshot and stuff.

Volrath.1473:

The Pistol auto-attack must be the weakest in game… its is very slow, does very low dmg and the bleed is insignificant…

I think engineer pistol auto attack is weaker.
less damage and less bleeding duration but a small aoe.

But engineer pistol is made for condition builds while thief with p/p has a condition auto attack and a physical damage dual skill.

I am testing the following at the moment: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlYmiO3aS0E/5EB3jiC1n6pgsjVTBNtJA-ToAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNKYWC

It is not strong for 1v1 fights and needs to team with a good damage class like warrior.

Using s/p mainly for control: Infiltrators strike for gap closing and condition remove, headshot for interrupts and black powder for the blind.

Rarely using pistol whip for an increased damage spike because the damage is not that much higher then the auto attacks and the auto attacks cripple the enemy. The evasion is handy when you have to jump into a teamfight to burst a target down.

Using basilisk venom and devourer venom to prevent the enemy’s movement and the spider venom for some extra damage / life leech and heal reduction.

Using steal for some extra damage / heal when needed but mostly when the target has some buffs that rly should be removed / stolen.

No stealth, no extra health and only a few condition removals are tha bad things about the build.

So using shadow step correctly is very important to get out of danger and for removing conditions.

if you are not able to look at the whole, please read up everything i have written about the thief balance.

I also suggested buffs… and at the moment i am pointing out the strong stuff the thief has.

It is a work in progress after all.

But my experience so far is that most players in this forum are to busy with flaming.
Give buff suggestions and you have attention of a few players for a short time.
Give nerf suggestions and the whole thief forum is going crazy.

I can fully understand when anet is not listening to the thief community.

i never asked to make something as specific like d/d stronger.

The main reason for all those suggestions is to put each trait in a tier on the same level.

At the momment there are traits that you would never pick and some you would never change for anything else in its tier.

pain response is a master trait and shadow’s embrace is removing way more conditions while being an adept trait

pain response is a fail.

• it can trigger without removing conditions.
• it can trigger only once every 30 seconds.
• it can only remove 3 different conditions.
• it is a master trait.

———————————————
Unpredictable:
———————————————
Trickery Trait

Entering stealth and shadow steps apply 5 stacks confusion for 1 second to nearby enemies.

let them cry. as long as they add a condition remove in the acrobatic line that is close as powerfull as the current shadow’s embrace its fine

———————————————
Unload:
———————————————
Pistol Skill 3(offhand pistol)

Add 1 condition with each shot. The condition applied changes with each shot.
Damage: 101 10
Number of shots: 8
Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile (20% chance)
Range: 900

1st bullet: 3s cripple
2nd bullet: 3s vulnerability
3rd bullet: 3s weakness
4th bullet: 3s confusion
5th bullet: 3s bleeding
6th bullet: 3s poison
7th bullet: 3s torment
8th bullet: 3s burning

My idea:

Remove one condition every 3 seconds 10 seconds while in stealth.
And give more condition removal for the acrobatic trait line instead.

This is a sub topic for the state of the thief. you can get to the main overview by clicking one of the links below.
This Topic is used to discuss about a specific skill or trait and to make suggestions on how to improve it.

• General
• Traits – weak
• Traits – strong
• Skills – weak
• Skills – strong
• Wild Ideas

———————————————
Shadow’s Embrace:
———————————————
Shadow Arts Trait: IV
Remove one condition every 3 seconds while in stealth.

———————————————
Ideas :
———————————————

crouze.3078:

Remove one condition every 3 seconds 10 seconds while in stealth.
And give more condition removal for the acrobatic trait line instead.

s/d has only “decent” damage. the main strength of it was to make the target weaker and yourself stronger by stealing the boons.

playing s/d against something with only a few or no boons and youre just playing a with something decent against something good.

I agree with you on the “stop crying” part.
But not with the “pretty cool changes” you are talking about.
We should talk about what should be changed to help the class without crying

regen on shadow trap wont do much because with 1.5s channeling no one would take it.

Venoms didnt get buffed. Its the venom share range that got buffed… the venoms are still as weak as before.

The “buffs” as you call them dont really change anything big for thief while the nerfs hit right where the thieves where good.

the collaborative development was announced like 1 month before patch? do you really think they add changes that fast?

I think we’d have to wait like 3 more month before the collaborative development shows effect.

And there were some suggestions in the past i made for the thieves that were implemented in previous patches

They could just preset this one viable build for thieves and dont let us change it… for traits, skills and armor.

Having only 1 viable build feels so stupid.

There might be a few more builds that are playable … but they are nothing compared to the d/p build.

I’ll test more later and might continue my “state of the thief” topic to talk about what should be changed.

Black Teagan.9215:

What is with the P/P venom-condition build, it very popular at the moment

like i said i dont had much time to test. will do it later.

But for me p/p venom build does not sound very promising.
It sounds more like it’s popular because it got changed and everyone tests it now.

@liefbread
yeah i think i forgot about the p/d.
And i wonder why they didnt touch the most annoying build in WvW (d/p perma stealth)

Hey,

thought about writing down some of the basic builds but i couldn’t think about anything viable.

I would have listed:

• s/d Larcenous Strike
• s/p pistolwhip
• d/p

I couldn’t test much yesterday but looking at the patch notes then the only viable build left for thief is d/p?

What would be your list of viable builds after the patch? (dont post empty lists)

I thought about 3 sec standard stealth duration + 3 sec revealed = 6 seconds.
I know you might not allways stay the whole duration in stealth but i thought 6 seconds would be a good time to make the users think more about it then just hitting cloak and dagger again as soon as revealed is gone.

The internal cooldown could be increased as well. but i think that might break the gameplay to much.

I think 6 seconds is a great time but i wouldn’t complain if it’s 5 seconds in the end

i allready gave some ideas that would help against the BS + HS combo.

Like Infusion of Shadow.

i dont like it. it would not have enough impact and takes one of the best defensive abilities the thief has away.

if you want p/p to become a more viable condition set, then start with reworking unload.

something like reducing the damage and make each hit apply a different condition.
1st hit: immobilize 0.5 seconds
2nd hit: vulnerability 3 seconds
3rd hit: chilled 2 seconds
4th hit: bleed 3 seconds
5th hit: poison 3 seconds
6th hit: torment 3 seconds
7th hit: burning 2 seconds
8th hit: confusion 2 seconds

And then give us a rifle to deal single target physical damage.

Pistol immobilize(4 ini) + unload(5 ini) = 9 initiative. Leaving us with 3 initiative.
No thief would do that. Instead they could do 2 unloads for 10 initiative.

Claretta.1742:

The thing I dislike most about the thief right now is that many skills and traits are designed to work together too much.

So you can’t use venoms without all the venom traits, you can’t really use signets without the signet traits. You need shadow arts to even think about using stealth, and so on.

It feels as though there are a few pre-designed builds, instead of player discovery.

I agree.
And the combination of those traits don’t make them very strong.
It only makes them as strong as stuff from other classes that work without having to combine it with other traits/skills.

And the upcoming range increase for venom sharing shows that they have no intention of removing that.

its not used because it is unique. there are other skills that give stealth as well.

Scorpion wire is unique (ok, necro has the same)
Ambush trap is unique.
Tripwire is unique.
Venoms are unique.

So why aren’t they used as often?
Because shadow refuge is so much better…

When using it you can walk until revealed and still get enough distance to the enemy to get away.

DanH.5879:

we have SO many useless utilities and traits that it’s difficult to put them all

Sure it will take some time, but as long as we point them out, give reason why they are bad and make balanced suggestions, we can help alot to improve the thief.

The main problem is that most players just take the nerfs.
Maybe they complain for like a weel but then its silence.

It is because of the missing feedback of thieves that there is not happening much.

On the other hand there are thousands of players that complain about the thief because they dont get it how stealth works.

And the few thieves that asked for buffs are more like “make us invulnerable in stealth” or “buff backstab damage by +50%”

Anet can’t take suggestions serious of they are way overpowered.

evilapprentice.6379:

Really Anet?

It’s bad enough you’ve introduced a hard counter to an entire traitline and class mechanic for people too lazy to L2P, but it’s completely unavoidable (seeing as thieves can’t go immune or block) as well?

I can’t wait for my unavoidable hard counters to other classes – here are some suggestions for you

- scorpion wire ignores block/dodge and removes all adrenaline
- Needle trap ignores block/dodge and despawns ranger pet and puts them on a 4s CD
- Signet of Shadows ignores block/dodge, knocks necro’s out of DS and locks it for 4s.

Stop me when I’ve come up with a suggestion you like…

I understand your grudge.
But Sic em does not reveal you when in stealth, but gives you the revealed debuff while visible so you can’t go invisible.

So it would be more like:

- warrior: no adrenaline gain / disable F1 for 4s
- Ranger: Daze the pet for 4s / disable pet swap for 4s
- Necro: no life force gain / disable F1 for 4s

The reason is to make the players use other skills as well.
It is not a huge nerf.

It gives enemies 1 extra second to kick you out, reduces stealth duration but increases healing for the 1 extra second.

Even after the stealth reduction you will still have enough time to put some distance between you and your enemy.

———————————————
Critical Eye:
———————————————
Critical Strikes Trait (master)

Gain +1% critical-hit chance for each vulnerability stack on the target.

Traits that benefit from vulnerability at the moment:

• ele water adept trait: While attuned to water, your spells deal 20% more damage to vulnerable foes.

This is a sub topic for the state of the thief. you can get to the main overview by clicking one of the links below.
This is a special topic to add some wild ideas for new traits, skills and more for the thief

• General
• Traits – weak
• Traits – strong
• Skills – weak
• Skills – strong

—————————————————————————————————————-
Ideas :
—————————————————————————————————————-
.
—————————————————————————————————————-
Traits :
—————————————————————————————————————

crouze.3078:

———————————————
Critical Eye:
———————————————
Critical Strikes Trait (master)
Gain +1% critical-hit chance for each vulnerability stack on the target.

crouze.3078:

———————————————
Unpredictable:
———————————————
Trickery Trait

Entering stealth and shadow steps apply 5 stacks confusion for 1 second to nearby enemies.

—————————————————————————————————————-
Skills :
—————————————————————————————————————

Cronicle.5691:

———————————————
Shadow form:
———————————————
Deception Skill
Use shadow art magic infusing yourself with shadows cannot be critical hit for 15 seconds, increasing movement speed by 15%, increasing initiative cost by 1 for all skills.

Cooldown: 60 seconds

crouze.3078:

———————————————
Unload:
———————————————
Pistol Skill 3(offhand pistol)

Add 1 condition with each shot. The condition applied changes with each shot.
Damage: 101 10
Number of shots: 8
Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile (20% chance)
Range: 900

1st bullet: 3s cripple
2nd bullet: 3s vulnerability
3rd bullet: 3s weakness
4th bullet: 3s confusion
5th bullet: 3s bleeding
6th bullet: 3s poison
7th bullet: 3s torment
8th bullet: 3s burning

My idea:

Create a pulsing refuge at the target area that heals allies and cloaks them in stealth.

Duration: 4 seconds 5 seconds
Stealth: 3 seconds 2 seconds / pulse
Healing: 355 / pulse (+0.18 / healing power)
Range: 600

Combo Field: Dark

This is a sub topic for the state of the thief. you can get to the main overview by clicking one of the links below.
This Topic is used to discuss about a specific skill or trait and to make suggestions on how to improve it.

• General
• Traits – weak
• Traits – strong
• Skills – weak
• Skills – strong
• Wild Ideas

———————————————
Shadow Refuge:
———————————————
Deception Skill:
Create a pulsing refuge at the target area that heals allies and cloaks them in stealth.

Duration: 4 seconds
Stealth: 3 seconds / pulse
Healing: 355 / pulse (+0.18 / healing power)
Range: 600

Combo Field: Dark

———————————————
Ideas :
———————————————

crouze.3078:

Create a pulsing refuge at the target area that heals allies and cloaks them in stealth.

Duration: 4 seconds 5 seconds
Stealth: 3 seconds 2 seconds / pulse
Healing: 355 / pulse (+0.18 / healing power)
Range: 600

Combo Field: Dark

My idea:

Regain initiative faster while in stealth. (gain 1 initiative 2 initiative after 3 seconds).

This is a sub topic for the state of the thief. you can get to the main overview by clicking one of the links below.
This Topic is used to discuss about a specific skill or trait and to make suggestions on how to improve it.

• General
• Traits – weak
• Traits – strong
• Skills – weak
• Skills – strong
• Wild Ideas
  ———————————————
  Patience:
  ———————————————
  Shadow Arts Trait: X
  Regain initiative faster while in stealth. (gain 1 initiative after 3 seconds).

———————————————
Ideas :
———————————————

crouze.3078:

Regain initiative faster while in stealth. (gain 1 initiative 2 initiative after 3 seconds).

My idea:

Gain 2 initiative when using a skill that stealths you. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.

This is a sub topic for the state of the thief. you can get to the main overview by clicking one of the links below.
This Topic is used to discuss about a specific skill or trait and to make suggestions on how to improve it.

• General
• Traits – weak
• Traits – strong
• Skills – weak
• Skills – strong
• Wild Ideas

———————————————
Infusion of Shadow:
———————————————
Shadow Arts Trait: V
Gain 2 initiative when using a skill that stealths you.

———————————————
Ideas :
———————————————

crouze.3078:

Gain 2 initiative when using a skill that stealths you. This effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds.

Chobiko.9182:

Implementing pauses should therefore be optional; decided by the shoutcaster/admin of the tournament. It should also be explicitly stated whether pauses are enabled or not in a game so that the player can enter knowing what s/he chooses.

I think it should be voted by players and only be available on custom servers (as option for this server).
Keeping it away from standard servers and there is no problem with trolling.

If you dont want to play with pause … dont join custom servers / filter out all servers with the pause enabled.

Thats like the same with players filtering out the servers with skyhammer :P

Just look at games like dota 2.

• team votes for a pause
• Everyone get the info on screen that a pause vote started
• 3/4 players of the voting team have to accept
• Everyone get the info on screen that the game will be paused in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
• Everything freezes (timer, characters, buffs, conditions, points and capping)
• anyone of the team that voted for pause can unpause.
• after a certain time the enemy team can unpause as well (2 minutes?)
• if someone unpauses everyone gets notified that it will continue in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Good esport teams will wait for the enemy to reconnect.
Otherwise they ruin their own reputation.

Just give the option in custom arena to allow that.

If a tournament is running where you can win money and stuff and someone abuses it…. just disqualify the team.

Just look at tournament games like Dota 2 or League of Legends where someone gets a disconnect an you’ll see how it works

NightmareFiction.5478:

Claretta.1742:

If a condition stacks duration then subsequent applications will lengthen the application. I.e if you use Spider Vendom, it goes 6 × 5 = 30 seconds.

Huh. I was always under the impression that the condition was overwritten, never bothered to mouse over the condition icon to see if the duration stacked or not.

its a bit complicated. it depends on the condition and the source of the condition.
caltrops for example is capped at 10s cripple while the caltrops on dodge have no limit.

Kydar Schattendolch.6879:

2 ideas:

1. 33% chance to inflict poison (5s) and vulnerability (5 stacks) for 5 seconds. Can only Trigger once every 10 seconds.

2. 33% chance to inflict poison (5s). If your target is moving, you also inflict 2 stacks of tourment for 5s. Can only Trigger once every 10 seconds.

I think adding more then just poison would be to strong.
Looking at similar traits (100% burning on crit 4 sec with 10s ICD). (for engineer an adept trait)
And your ideas are not on crit? maybe you forgot to add that, but 33% with every hit would be very strong for condition builds without precision.

Looking at the damage of poison compared to burning, i would change my initial idea from
33% chance on crit to poison 5s with 10s ICD to
100% chance on crit to poison 5s with 10s ICD

It would be less damage then the engineer trait but the main reason to pick this trait would be to lower the healing.

But i also like the other ideas.

forgot to add that the mesmerone is a master trait.

But i think the strongest the the elementalist trait.
It can stun multiple targets and has a damage boost.

Ok, we can compare it to all classes:

Engineer: Grandmaster. 4s blind field with 30 sec cooldown.
Ranger: Adept. Transfer disable to the pet with 90 sec cooldown
Elementalist: Grandmaster. Gain shocking aura that stuns attacking enemys with 60 sec cooldown. And a +20% damage bonus against stunned or knock downed foes.
Mesmer: Master. mirror disable to the source with 45 sec cooldown.

all the big zergs i know have alot of aoe swiftness. So i dont know any use for this trait.

But your experiences might be different