Thief: Reveal vs. Expectation & Comments

[Art]

The German video in English relating to the update later today is has been given the a-okay.

However I do think that the other videos were meant to be viewed later rather than now.

We can talk about it - but I do think that CMEPTb has a point in showing Anet (Not NCSoft!!) our respect and patience (Most of us have seen it by this point though so it's easy to say that).

-Art

[Alaris]

They might as well bite the bullet and release the Theif info as far as I'm concerned... if it's ready, that is. If not, might as well make it ready asap and release it.

[shawn]

Bolded because...

That's the reason we got tons of QQing and updates on assassin. Also, that's one primary reason we now have 5 skills linked to weapon choice.

Actually the 5 skills thing was mostly a matter of simplicity, and to make it impossible to great a truly godawful build, doomed to failure from the start.

All that needs to happen is to have some way of demonstrating how to properly play the class before they set you out. Some class specific chains near the start would be amazing. As in, here's some giant oakheart, as a guardian you can get up and bash its face in, as a thief you'll want to shadowstep in and dodge around and blah blah blah. If you try to just tank it, you should fail. I don't care if that's not fun, there need to be some damn basic ground rules laid out early before you go running off to pug with people in some dungeon and die horrifically.

[ccrazool]

Thief in GW2:
"No-cooldown attacks which drain your Initiative bar; Initiative bar regens at a set rate"

Rogue in WoW:
"No-cooldown attacks which drain your Energy bar; Energy bar regens at a set rate"

*sigh*

Well, I guess if it works, it works. I like having a duration on Stealth, at least.

[Alaris]

The thing is that rogue/thief needs to be able to use skills quickly, and then have a reason to move out rather than tank. So yes, it kinda makes sense to implement it this way. You can stand there and dps, or you can move in, spike until initiative depletes, move out / dodge until initiative regens. The GW1 sin was problematic in a way because there was no incentive to move out except death, and so people stayed in until death.

Glad to see no combo points adding up though (e.g. GW1 assassin, WoW lolcat druid).

[Enenion]

The videos were leaked so I'm not surprised they were taken down. I wouldn't be surprised if this thread was closed too. Some of the footage didn't have the polish I've come to expect from official ANet videos, like the norn running into an invisible wall in part 1 or the glitch where the event with the giant wurm ended when the wurm had half health in part 2 and the overall way the thief was played in part 4. I think the content still needs a bit more polish before PAX.

In other news though, the thief looks like a really fun, though difficult class to play correctly. I like the initiative skill and I would like to see a small boost in initiative or decreased cost maybe if you attack someone from behind or from stealth. That would give you more initiative in real life as well. Also yay for stealing weapons.

One thing that worries me though, is how little damage the attacks were doing. Especially against the enemies in part 4 which repeatedly downed the player. The player was dealing damage in the 50s while the enemies were dealing damage in the 100s and 150s. It may have been because of the level difference though.

[ccrazool]

Glad to see no combo points adding up though (e.g. GW1 assassin, WoW lolcat druid).

AGREEEEEEEE sir.

Or charging up moves which add orbs that rotate around you, and finishing moves which release them. (d2 assassin)

[Alaris]

I'm also glad that thieves have good posture.

[shawn]

an invisible wall

Wow.. that's.. really disappointing. Invisible walls are probably my biggest MMO peeve. Especially ludicrous in gw2. So what if we get stuck somewhere? We can map out!

[Malhavoc Adhamar]

Thief in GW2:
"No-cooldown attacks which drain your Initiative bar; Initiative bar regens at a set rate"

Rogue in WoW:
"No-cooldown attacks which drain your Energy bar; Energy bar regens at a set rate"

*sigh*

Well, I guess if it works, it works. I like having a duration on Stealth, at least.

With energy being used for dodging then this approach makes sense, if it is a little over used.. I couldn't see the thief working well if energy was the only resource.

I'll admit I'm not usually a fan of melee squishy DPS (didn't like rogue in WoW, Assassin in AION or Witchhunter in WAR) though the combination of dual pistols...I might just be rolling an Asuran thief. Also hope this class will have a piratey feel.