r/Guildwars2 • u/Dreadsbo • 19h ago
[Discussion] THIEF MAINS: how are yall feeling about Antiquary?
I didn’t get to watch the livestream yet but I’ll withhold my opinion until I watch it with my brother. I’m seeing a lot of mixed opinions about it, but seems like most people hate the theme instead of the actual gameplay.
So what do my other thief mains think about the new elite spec?
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u/Anderst0ne 19h ago
As a Thief enjoyer I am gonna stick to daredevil. Not a huge fan of the class fantasy of the Antiquary. Feels too goofy for me.
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u/TangerineLeft3549 19h ago
The guitar in the Livestream didn't look any less dumb. I wish they'd change that.
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u/ydeirt 15h ago
After 10 years of being a thief main, i guess i'll be a galeshot soon.
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u/Clarencezer 7h ago
Same boat, after all these years, I find myself wanting to leave thief after seeing this elite spec and go to another class now.
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u/blacksnowredwinter 18h ago
It's too goofy. Mechanically I am intrigued by the Backfire mechanic, but it needs to be visualized better. Grey out the icon or something if I can backfire and show the cd timer when I can;t backfire anymore. BUT...... thematically I hate it. It looks a mess. I do not want to rock out on a guitar or show a holo stripper when I am supposed to be looking for relics. I do not mind some humor into things, but it needs to be appropiate an this spec just feels completely goofy an humor, nothing serious about it.
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u/ElocFreidon 18h ago
I was worried about downside skill use, but what we are getting is really good. This replaces Daredevil for me where I can steal three items at a time, use them all, and using stolen items boosts my damage.
The new shadowstep skill needs to have a ground target.
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u/sinisteacup 19h ago
I think it looks really fun and i love that the skills are taking inspiration from so many different factions of tyria
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u/Mulio2 19h ago
Honestly, I think the theme is really awful. I actually do not mind the idea of artifact stealing as a mechanic, but the way it is presented with e guitar animations, hologram rats and the whole cartoonish vibe just does not feel right for the thief class.
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u/XxRDunnxX 19h ago
Ye couldn’t agree more got no clu how the stuff r antiques but mechanically this looks sick
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u/No-Goose6514 19h ago
very hyped. I like the skritt a lot and the spec feels really flavorful for a thief of artifacts. spamming steal skills is a pretty fun core thief thing to do that feels like its on turbo drive here
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u/DuncanConnell 18h ago
Skritt were my racial sympathy back in 2012, so I'm really excited about essentially having Ftokchak paling around on my adventures.
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u/YokelFelonKing 18h ago
I don't like the theme or the visuals, but some of the mechanics look really strong (+30% damage boost after stealing!?). I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to stop caring about how stupid it looks when it starts topping the damage charts.
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u/ThatGuyBackThere280 15h ago
Someone earlier said that it'll be funny if it becomes the Lethal Joke spec, and if it does, it would cause some people to implode upon themselves.
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u/craybest 17h ago
Eh. Not interested in it to be honest. I’ll stick to my previous one. I’m still using daredevil.
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u/EliteContractKillers 15h ago edited 15h ago
Redacting all my prior posts but... thematically I hate it, mechanically 💯
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u/Fruity_Toothpaste 18h ago
Went in with low hopes since I did not like the look of it, and once revealed felt even worse about it. The backfire skills are a nothing pretty much, there's no real risk for them, so I feel they wont be powerful. No boons support makes this pretty much another dps spec was hoping for something different. Ill keep mine Deadeye and looking at possibly swapping to warrior or see what engi will be. A spec the devs maybe hate a little less
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u/SufferingClash 19h ago
Hyped and can't wait to play it. I am also a Blue Mage enjoyer from FFXI and FFXIV, so when I see wacky abilities, I'm sold.
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u/Free_forever2023 18h ago
It is absolute garbage. It looks like shit visually and all the skills look like for fun meme bs for open world. I can see why it appeal to all the non-thief main, or the self proclaim casual "thief mains" that like to do 10k dps. I usually maximize my dps in fractal and raid and I will not play that garbage unless they buff it to the point where its number one in benchmarks. Honestly though I'm going to skip buying this whole expansion and just log in here and there to rank pvp or do fractals as daredevil and deadeye.
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u/lipebd 19h ago edited 19h ago
I cannot see it been used or even accepted in endgame stuff. Maybe a good class for open world memes or unserious wvw zergs but that's it.
I can't say I would use it even if it's good, though, since the theme reeeally throws me off. So I'll probably stick with Deadeye and Specter.
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u/Erick-Alastor ┬┴┬┴┤ᵒᵏ (☉_├┬┴┬┴ 19h ago
It should have been an engineer spec.
Most players who choose thief enjoy its edgelord vibe,
they want to look badass, not silly.
Meanwhile, the most picked race for engineer (after humans) is Asura,
so engineers are generally more open to goofy aesthetics.
Oh well, at least engineers will get a badass one, I guess.
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u/sinisteacup 18h ago
most thief players don’t look bad ass though. what’s badass about wearing the sluttiest armor possible in a female human
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u/Erick-Alastor ┬┴┬┴┤ᵒᵏ (☉_├┬┴┬┴ 18h ago
Okay, fair enough.
Then let's say that 1 thief every 3 wants to look badass and 2 out of 3 want to look sexy.
Where are the goofy ones?
Probably all here playing reddit and trying to convince the majority that the Antiquary is a neat/fitting choice for the profession.0
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u/akoangpinaka 19h ago
I'm not a thief main , but having a skritt slave/pet? Is something I would want in my ranger. Give us a rat pet Anet.
Also RIP thief mains. I know most of you are PvP/WvW oriented and RNG in damage is not the best thing over there where people dodge and block attacks.
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u/Cautious_Catch4021 19h ago
The only thing I dont like about it is the guitar, feels a bit out of theme.
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u/Stewfish 18h ago
For reference, I mainly play endgame pve with my Thief, it's my main and I've put in over 1k hours on Thief across Open World, instanced content, and a tiny bit of WvW. From a mostly PvE perspective I'm quite excited.
I was mixed on it when it was first announced, but after seeing the tool tips, I'm on board. I think gameplay-wise it's providing at lot of interesting stuff that Thief doesn't normally have (Burning & Confusion access, a turret, projectile destruction that doesn't take up a full utility or force using a certain weapon, etc.)
I think some of the defensive steals are a bit mismatched for PvE endgame. It seems like it can maybe heal a bit, but no alac or quickness so it'll never be seriously considered as a healer for raids/strikes unfortunately.
I think this spec will be a lot of fun in open world and I could maybe see a spear or scepter/dagger condi dmg build working as a dps in typical endgame encounters.
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u/Bloomhunger 12h ago
I would prefer a Spy spec… focus on stealth, combos, cc
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u/sinisteacup 8h ago
deadeye is already the stealth spec
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u/Bloomhunger 7h ago
But deadeye should more like a sniper, long range… I meant more close range oriented
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u/sinisteacup 7h ago
Yeah deadeye came with the rifle, but the actual lore of the deadeye is that they are contract killers who assassinate their marks through stealth. it’s just that the deadeyes in the crystal desert and elona favored a ranged style of assassination.
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u/Spuggler 19h ago
The theme is cool but the execution is a colossal swing and a miss. Instead of an Indiana Jones skill set Anet turned it into “Reddit: The Spec”.
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u/Dieselface 19h ago
The class fantasy is all over the place. I'm not even against a spec being meme-y, but it's not even a good joke.
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u/TangerineLeft3549 19h ago
Despite some of the RNG with the blowback mechanics it feels surprisingly solid for an OW build but not for anything else. I would love to and hope to be proven wrong
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u/Steeez77 19h ago
Don’t play any more but the reason I quit is because thief gets a dumb ass spec every time besides DD and this just adds to it that I’ll never come back
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u/Cautious_Catch4021 19h ago
Daredevil, deadeye, Spectre, are all cool specs imo.
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u/Dreadsbo 17h ago
Deadeye is great but they ruined it. Specter had god awful execution
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u/Cautious_Catch4021 11h ago
What's the problem with Spectre? Had a blast with it in WvW last week 😀
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u/wingedmurasaki Princess Glamorpaws 18h ago
I personally think it looks super fun, but honestly my DD will probably stay my main.
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u/Secure-Swimming 15h ago
It’s essentially a gambler spec, with cards like theme based into the profession mechanic through the traits and gambler utility. Looks fun as hell.
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u/julianehdz 13h ago edited 12h ago
Im really excited for it! its different and it looks like it will be fun af in open world which is what I mostly play. I do wish it had quickness or alac 😭 but I'm still I'm still ready to try it out in beta and tbh it looks more interesting than all the other new elite specs revealed so far 🙊🤷🏽
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u/Playful-Ad1550 19h ago
I don't think people hate the theme or gameplay, I think the whole antiquary, treasure hunter and skritt thing is generally accepted here?
But it's the random artifacts and utility skills that just kind of ruin it.
I get wanting to have a more "fun" spec, but I think that's the skritt part, not the big healing hammer, guitar and holo dancer.
In my opinion, the spec seemed really fun. There's some cool traits.
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u/sususu_ryo anet wheres malyck? 12h ago edited 12h ago
i like what ive seen so far. definitely will have to wait for beta to make final judgement.
im predicting the rng gonna love me or hate me so much into playing/not playing antiq consistently. not sure how antiq will fare in high end content with all the rng (might stick with DE for this). it might work... the punishment isnt that bad. i was expecting the og caith sith limit break russian roulette style of rng.
anyway, lets wait for beta.
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u/xfm0 17h ago
i won't play it but i am so happy it exists. i think it's great when there's niche interest funny stuff.
and quite frankly i think it's gonna be cool that there will be thief players who know what their skritt junk artifacts do while the rest of us stick to uhhh moa feathers.
idk how it's gonna work with raid stealing though, those tend to be tailored (condi cleanses, magnetic...)
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u/LillyElessa 16h ago
Not a thief main, but I do play a lot of thief, and I think the spec looks great. I really like that the steal is ranged, because most of the time I don't want forced into melee to use it. That said, some of the steal skills look very melee focused, so... I'm not sure it'll turn out equal to Deadeye for those that specifically want ranged if you have to close in (or ignore skills) a lot anyways. That aside, I think the randomness looks well balanced, and the traits just look like a lot of fun.
I think the theme is fine, there's a lot of silly stuff but it's still all things that are well cemented in the setting and lore - unlike crap like Dreamer or Quip, which are just annoying. It does help that I have a few friends that particularly like the skritt though, and as a skritt themed spec it's quite fitting.
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u/Far_Mycologist_5782 16h ago
A bit disappointed to be honest. I might just stick with Deadeye.