MorningGlow.5376

Death's Advance: Fair. I've seen this change coming since the skill was implemented. It took so long to get rid of perma-stealth deadeye, just to get accidently reestablished a few patches later? Skirmisher's Shot: This one makes me a bit twitchy. Skirmisher's Shot is a make-or-break skill, the way rifle is currently balanced in sPvP. I like the direction the devs are taking deadeye in sPvP utility-wise, but if you fiddle to much whith the damage of this skill, without rebalancing the damage of the weapon as a whole, you always run the risk of breaking it. I hope the Devs can have a look at it in the next competitive update, after they've finsihed implementing axe.

Thank you! At first i was a bit intimdated by the sheer amount of text, but i found it to be quite an enjoyable read. I really appreciate the tremendous amount of effort you put into this! In terms of content... i don't think there's much to add. You've done your research well. (Also: pointing out the negativ in a constructive, non-toxic manner, while also mentioning the good? Am i still in the forums?) This deserves to be seen by A-net. Fingers are crossed.

I wouldn't expect anything drastic anytime soon. Right now the Devs are busy preparing axe for live. And once it is live, rebalancing in some form is to be expected, until it is in the place where the they want to see it. After that is done, they will once again have the capacity to adress other issues. But that's just my prediction.

The blind hate in these forums. Holy smokes. In fact the main reason to change traps into preparations was that the damage would kick you out of stealth, while you also had no control over when this would happen. Preparations solve exactly that problem. They give the control back to the thief. Did this change also break the interaction between an obnoxious rune and the profession that benefited most from it? Yes. But again, it was never the main reason.

Since my post is only a couple of days old, quite good i guess?

Speaking of Pistol Whip: A few months ago, they changed Flurry so you can now cast it while moving. Since those two skills are somewhat similar, i have hopes they will give Pistol Whip the same treatment. With improved usability, we could reassess how weak/strong it really is.

You are not lost, brother. My guess is, that Steal activating Relic of Fireworks is a bug. A bug i'd honestly hate to see gone. Since Steal usually sets up your burst, the interaction feels quite smooth. Nonetheless it's probably a bug, since by definition it is a profession mechanic and not a weapon skill. I mean, an argument could be made, that it's the only way to make this relic work on thief at all, so an exeption might be in order? But that's up on the Devs to decide and if so, should be stated in the tooltip. Therefore, on Warrior it's likely working the intended way.

Good call! And since we already have a spilt between PvP and PvE/WvW, a split itself wouldn't be a problem. Then again, i don't think it was an oversight (the interaction between Meld with Shadows and Silent Scope is pretty obvious), but rather that two seconds are where the Devs would consider the trait balanced in the overall picture (could be wrong here ofc). I personally would even prefer a reduced duration on Silent Scope. There are situations where i want to dodge and not stealth attack, because my malice wasn't fully stacked. That either leaves me for taking myself out of the fight for three seconds or messing up my malice-rotation. But that's only my opinion. And nerfing Silent Scope? Then the Devs will probably get caught in the crossfire of certain deadeyes, who already went rampant when old Shadow Arts was reworked.

Old SA was indeed a source of frustrating gameplay.

Very keen actually. And Fire for Effect is predestined for this change, so i would wonder if Anet didn't go down that road eventually. Although it probably won't give it alongside might and fury, but instead. And it will be a PvE change only (in WvW/sPVP it will continue to work the old way)

Since you're mentioning this twice (even thrice, if we count your signature aswell), i think your mixing up two questions here. The first question being: Is "revealed" too strong/ prevalent in the game, to a point where it cripples thief gameplay too much? Possibly. But the question behind this change is: Should DE be allowed to have a counter to "revealed"? I mean, don't you see that your implication ("revealed" being balanced around DE having a counter to it) is the very argument why shadow meld should be nerfed? How to properly balance reveal, if there is a spec, that can just ignore it? It is basically the same reasoning behind the removal of CDR-traits. So should DE be allowed to have a counter to "revealed"? It's true that "revealed" hits DE harder than other thiefs, due to it's reliance on perodically hitting stealth attacks. But does the nerf completely break DE? I don't think so. Look, do you believe i like seeing my favourite spec get nerfed? of course not. Do i enjoy getting oneshot by unblockable sic 'em rangers, with ever fewer means to defend myself? Holy smokes, no! But this game is bigger than just DE and in the greater picture eventually balancing stealth i think this change is indeed healthy for the overall game. Therefore i apporve it. Having said that, what i am concerend about (thanks to the Acemos' friendly reminder) is the side-effect on rifle: It's less about the averted damge and more about the disrupt in malice flow. Since this skill has one of the strongest cues in game, it is not that hard to avoid. Hence it felt fair to at least have a second shot at it. Rifle is not in a very balanced spot in PvP and i'm afraid this might further tip it into the direction of breaking it. And lastly... ...we agree on that point.

Shadow Meld: This skill no longer removes revealed in PvP and WvW. to make it short: the ability to counter skills that were devised to counter stealth is not very healty, therefore i approve the change. having said that, it ultimately concludes in a nerf for rifle-flow aswell, so a follow-up buff to death's judgement is desirable.

Now would you believe, i actually didn't keep that in mind^^'. And you're making a very good point. While i still believe that having the ability to counter skills that were devised to counter stealth is not very healthy (not least because it complicates balancing stealth as a whole), i do agree that a follow-up change to death judgment is needed, or it will ultimately result in a nerf for rifle. Therefore i think your proposal in the last sentence is quite sensible. Have you considered putting this in the main feedback thread? I think i will, and you know how it is: the more, the merrier :)

No offense, but i don't understand what you're saying here. Abilities that reveal were introduced as a counter to stealth. So from my perspective, giving DE (and only DE) a way of saying 'Nope' via countering the counter has always been a bit silly. Even though i agree that shadow meld might now be too weak for an elite skill.

A very promising change. This might help a lot in instanced PvE content. But we'll have to wait for this going live to actually see how this 'feels'. HOLY SMOKES! I cannot tell you, how long i've waited for this change. Getting dodged, fine. Enemy moves out of you line of sight, fair enough. But finally no more random pet/golem/other player randomly running into the path and ruining your day (the reason it maddened my so much is, because there was no actual skill involved into avoid your stealth-attack, just luck). Mmmmh! SO GOOD! My main problem with this is, that i cannot understand why this nerf is happening. From the stream i take it, that they wanted to do this for a while, but htey didn't drop as word on the 'why' behind this change. I appreciate the work of the dev-team and they migh even have some good reason behind it, that i am oblivous of. So an explanation would be desirable. But for now i share the general sentiment of discontent with this change, because it almost kills the fantasy of a sniper class (which should not be take too lightly)