Tails.9372

Balance changes seem to be based almost entirely on internal decisions (and are rather random most of the time) unless there's some big public outcry. What is and what isn't currently "meta" as well as the general consenses of the playerbase seem to have little to no impact on their desition making (not that they feel the need to justefy their desitions). A-Net employees are not required to use the official forum / engage with the player base outside of scheduled events iirc so I doubt that most of the feedback even reaches the responsible decision makers (not that they seem to care much otherwise they would have been a lot more active here and we would have something like subforum for suggestions).

The best way to add support to thief would be though special debuffs, deadeye's mark is a huge missed opportunity in this regard. Imagine party members gaining certain benifits based on the amound of the deadeye's malice while fighting the markted target (doing more damage, taking less damage, HP gain on hit for their attacks, you name it).

The leader is probably whoever has the most momentum behind him atm and if one falls there are probably many just waiting to take his place. There are also most likely many individuals / subgroups independently working on their own litte projets. Iirc some asuran NPCs said they wouldn't mind workig with the inquest due to the research funding they provide.

> @"maxwelgm.4315" said:

> it would actually make more sense they have no cohesion **or are led by a Golem AI or something like that**

I can actually see some inquest researcher trying to create an artificial superintelligence. Come to think of it, given the level of asuran technology they should have created something like this centuries ago. I guess we can't have this from a writing point of view as it would be the ultimate deus ex machina. Also, whtever hapened to the fully automated economy building a gigantic ~~robot~~ golem army. Can't have that either eh.

> @"Danikat.8537" said:

> I think profession is just one aspect of who the character is

I don't think the "profession" is a factor at all when it comes to aesthetics. For example both [this guy](https://i.imgur.com/RThfRKC.jpg "this guy") and [this guy](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e1/5f/96/e15f96b54739e60318bc9e500309097a.jpg "this guy") fit into the the "thief" archetype but what's fitting for one obviously isn't fitting for the other (even tho for some reason A-Net wants them both to have a similar style of gameplay which makes absolutly no sense whatsoever). The thread should be renamed into "Legendaries that actually fit your build / playstyle" IMO.

@topic

No, not really. It would have to be either a revolver or some futuristic looking pistol which I dont think we're going to get anytime soon (if ever). That's one of the main reasons why I want legendary footsteps, auras and projectile animations (in general) to be wardrobe unlockables.

Rifle skill 2 has piercing bullets iirc. With a cost off 3 ini it's also quite spammable, it's the best ranged power based AoE thief has to offer IMO.

I was never really "torn about" single traits but I kinda want to have both critical strikes and deadly arts. That being said I do wish that they would make trait builds weapon set dependent, that would be a huge QOL improvement.

SB as a weapon or as a tool? I can't speak for every class but in case of thief:

It's a great tool for moving around thanks to skill 5 but it generally fails as a weapon. Skill 4 is usable for condi builds but the power option (skill 2) fails completely thanks to how impractical it is from a gameplay point of view (the damage is also quite bad). Skill 1 and 3 are ok(ish) I guess but nothing special either. It's definitely not a good weapon set which is why you almost never see anyone use it aside from tagging stuff and moving around.

> @"Vavume.8065" said:

> I would prefer it if we could move weapon skill slots around the same way we can with utilitys

That's exactly the QOL change I'd like to see.

What for? PvP? PvE? More casual content? Raids?

> @"InsaneQR.7412" said:

> i can deduce that you are PvE player so id say it works very well.

For tagging and moving around but skills like cluster bomb seem to be extreamly poorly thought-out as it requires you to jump into the enemy group and immediately explode it in their face if you want it to be "effective". The skill would probably work just fine if detonate cluster would be turned into an after explotion which accrues after the initial one but I'd rather use a staff for AoE untill the SB gets a proper rework (which of course is never going to happen because A-Net doesn't care about fixing broken stuff if there isn't a sufficient amount of public outrage behind it).

Games like Phantasy Star Online (both one and two) and the Borderlands series pretty much nailed it for me in regards to weapon swapping. In these games I always have multiple weapon sets equipped but they never feel like a burden to me. It could have been the same for GW2 if it weren't for A-Net screwing up the weapon designs, take deadeye for examle. Just looking at the ranged options you could have had dual pistol for drawn out fights in direct engagements, rifle for burst damage from range and short bow for AoE but instead rifle does everything dual pistol does but better, you get punished for sniping because mobs are just teleporting to you (or get insanely high regen if they can't reach you) and short bow is just a dumpster fire outside of skill 5. If A-Net is bad at one thing then it's incentivising the player to change up their gameplay (they're good at forcing it tho).

> @"scrimCD.1027" said:

> As far as I can tell, you have to craft it.

No you don't, you can just kill veteran creatures in WvW until you have a full set of ascended gear.

I would like to have a wardrobe option to change legendary auras / footsteps and projectile animations in general. This would give me an incentive to go for some legendaries / black lion skins I otherwise wouldn't have cared about.

More importantly there is no cowboy hat either.

> @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> Who thought it was a good idea to force players into playing styles where they have to break immersion to play effectively ?

[There you go.](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/48330/should-the-difficulty-level-of-skill-rotation-reflect-in-the-amount-of-dps-or-being-melee-ranged/p1 "There you go.")

> @"Cifrer.6013" said:

> > @"Hannelore.8153" said:

> > Who thought it was a good idea to force players into playing styles where they have to break immersion to play effectively ?

>

> Other players. Those are the people trying to put demands on how you play.

That's only half true, these players are actively campaigning to get stuff they don't like removed from the game / nerfed into oblivion because in their mind "it shouldn't exist" / "doesn't deserve to be effective" and the worst pat is A-Net seems to pander to them for some reason (although it's kinda hard to tell since they never try to justify these changes).

> @"MUDse.7623" said:

> the only difference in efficency you can build for with skin choice is projectile animation in wich case the best rifle is [Pop Gun](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pop_Gun_Skin "Pop Gun"). thats for me the only thing keeping me from building this legendary. if we get an option to allways see standard visuals for projectiles, i would build the weapon..

I don't think that would help you very much as the baseline for deadye is different from what it is for other classes. TBH I think footsteps, item related auras and projectile animations should have their own cosmetic subcategory.

> @"necromaniac.7629" said:

> > @"MUDse.7623" said:

> > > @"necromaniac.7629" said:

> > > > @"Scud.5067" said:

> > > > Just want to add:

> > > >

> > > > Deadeye wins because I can shoot people with a boat shaped as a gun. Or a gun shaped as a boat. Or a gun..boat. I..

> > > >

> > > > Awesome.

> > >

> > > which skin is that

> > [this](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_HMS_Divinity "this")

>

> oh ok thx......ewe :/ that's an actual legendary :o

Ikr, at least the first one is decent. I'm still hoping for some kind of futuristic laser rifle for the 3rd gen.

> @"maddoctor.2738" said:

> hopefully this time we'll beat the Inquest for good!

You can't beat the Inquest for good since by its very nature it's more like a "train of thought" within the asuran society that you should be capable of doing research without moral constraints holding you back. They don't have any specific goals which aren't shared by asuran society as a whole and their main objective (research & tecknologigal progress) makes them much more "splashable" than let's say the ghosts of ascalon. "Cutting off their head" doesn't help much either since they don't really follow a leader, they follow ideas and the asuran race as a whole doesn't really have a shortage of megalomaniacs with crazy ideas.

The [Mad Scientist Outfit](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mad_Scientist_Outfit "Mad Scientist Outfit") works to.

I'd like them to redo the rune of vampirism to actually include a % of damage (on hit) dealed tured into HP effect. It's pretty much useless as it is rn.

I like to see both a buff and a nerf to P/P thief.

The main point of even running this weapon set was applying constant pressure from the "back lines" but as it stands right now P/P on thief has no real purpose anymore as it's pretty much outclassed by rifle in every way. What I'd like to see is this weapon set changed towards more of a "duelist" kind of playstyle to properly differentiate it from rifle (which also actually fits more thematically).

But there are two main problems here, the lack of sustainability and the lack of proper utility.

Unload is way to cost intensive for how easy it is to play around it. I wouldn't change much about this skill and I definitely wouldn't buff it's damage (at least not in PvP based modes) as it would turn the skill into another "nuke" and rifle already fits that role but the cost has to go down (as in at least half of what it is rn and the regained ini by successful execution should be at least tripled). Not primarily to make it more "spammable" (although every build should be able to use it's most basic attack whenever it's needed) but to reduce the strain it puts on other weapon skills as initiative basically works like a shared cooldown for every skill and you generally wouldn't want to use your utility if this means that you can't attack properly anymore.

Speaking of utility, every weapon skill except unload (which should be put into the first weapon skill slot (they can keep the ini cost)) should be replaced with new ones as most of them are either redundant or to situational (ofc.without affecting P/X / X/P builds). The main reason P/P "only uses 3" is the lack of other things to use and this has to change. If P/P had good utility skills then it wouldn't be such a one trick pony and it would actally be able to put up a decent fight without having to rely on one skill all the time.

But in exchange for better performance in direct combat I'd also tone down the stealth a bit, as unload is (and should be) the main source of damage I would add the revealed debuff to it so the P/P thief would have to cut back on one of his main "defences" once he engaged in combat.

It's probably the permanent version as everything else wouldn't even make sense since the 2 week version was always available for purchase (I know cause I looked at the trading post for it quite regularly). That being said the sale is not up yet (probably on friday).

The new weapons look nice and all but that's about it. No SFX for the ranged weapons (and to some degree all weapons in generall but that's were it's the most noticable), that's what I hate about pretty much every weapon set. Correct me if I'm wrong but the pop gun is still the only non legendary ranged weapon with both special projectile animations & sound effects afaik. We still have energy crystals shooting regular bullets with gunpowder animations. C'mon A-Net, git gud.

> @"Etheri.5406" said:

> I propose a trade.

>

> We completely gut thieves ability to stealth and be obnoxiously mobile allowing them to pick any fight THEY want and disengage any fight which they don't want; and we can give them some kind of duellist presence.

I actualy agree with this to some degree, certain weapon sets could trade in some stealth for other things. P/P for example has little synergy with stealth to begin with (and it doesn't really fit thematically either) so unload could apply the "revealed" debuff (which would make sense since it's quite the attention grabber) in exchange for more sustainability (and 4 new weapon skills). This way you would have a stronger distinction between dual pistol and rifle (which is desperately needed) with one focusing more on burst damage from stealth and the other more on continuous pressure in direct engagements.

> @"Crab Fear.1624" said:

> role doesnt change with weapon set

Actually it does, different weapon sets / e-specs have different strengths / weaknesses and are therefore more suited for different tasks (rifle is more suited for backline damage support while high mobility builds are more suited for flanking). The problem is A-Net trying to force the profession (as a whole) into a certain role (which is stupid for multiple reasons) even tho the specific role should first and foremost be decided by the build the player is running.