Two lines of thought are going into the suggestions below:
- My first line of thought is that the thief is not seen, so the target should not be able to run away from him. I mean the target does not know he is even being attacked, let alone where it is coming from.
- My second line of thought is that the thief should have more in his tool box, like items and tiers. (In fact, every class should. See Seiyria's thoughtful posts on this: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8534.)
Suggestions:
- A lasso - an item held in left hand that keeps the target in range
- A garrote - like a lasso, but keeps the target on hex and does damage
- Spike Tiers: causes spikes to be formed around the thief. Any NPC that wanders onto a spiked hex is stuck, for as long as the tier lasts. Four tiers of the spike type become available to the thief: at 96/40 (spikes only on hex), 97/41 (spikes area 1x1), 98/42 (area 2x2), 99/42(area 3x3).
- Trap Tiers: causes random traps to be formed around the thief. The traps should be non-damaging and designed to stick, confuse, disrobe npcs, disarm npcs, drop items (on belt, in sack, ...), etc. Anything that keeps the npcs in range and adds some random fun to having a thief in a party or even when playing solo.
Thoughts?
P.S. Note that if the thief is using a bow then the lasso or garrote would make that unfeasible, which is ok. And if he is using a two-handed weapon then his damage will be greatly reduced too, which is ok. It means that the lasso or garrote will be used like shield logic.
P.S.S. Brad, I really like the SK shortbow tier you placed on it. It would be cool if you could do more of that.
P.S.S. I lose 15-20% of my kills to no experience/quirks/arcanes because NPCs move so fast in random directions that they end up out of range and die often.