Dirame

I haven't read most replies, so if I say weird things you are allowed to correct/butcher me.

For one, I do not think you should compare the combat of GW1 and Gw2.
This because they are two entirely different games with different mechanics,
Both have their strengths and weaknesses.

Guild Wars 1 allowed for a deep amount of strategy, since you could pick every skill on your bar, and those of your heroes.
This allowed for a massive amount of theorycrafting, especially with over 1000 skills in the game.
Ignoring solo builds, the GW1 combat was not really about how YOU performed, but how YOUR TEAM performed.
The combat itself however was pretty basic, and sometimes boring.
For me this was countered by the hexes and enchantment system, allowing for various effects adding massive strategic depth.
The last few years of GW it steered away from its purpose, since several buffs allowed you to pull over 30 mobs and beat the crap out of them without a single death.
Before that it was great, since not only did you need to plan encounters, you also had to micro your skills, hero skills/party skills, positioning, but also what the enemy was doing.

Guild Wars 2 reduced the amount of skills and locked 5 of them on your bar, in order to optimise efficieny buildwise.
While I agree that GW1 became a bit like magic: the gathering with a gazillion skills, making it easy to create bad builds, it also really simplified the game.
We do no longer have enchantments or hexes with their respective effects, everything is reduced to boons and conditions.
The combat is more active and flashy, and the dodge mechanic is a great addition, but I do miss GW1's strategic planning of battle's, and the rewarding feel if you built your team in such a way you got through that hard encounter.

If anything, I would love a mix of the two.
The dodge and actionbased power of Gw2, combined with the strategic depth and free usage of every skill slot on your bar from GW1.

Bright Wizards!

Even though I do use the Tool Kit, the only skills worth using are Pry Bar (for spike damage) and Gear Shield (for obvious reason...block while moving is nice).

Imo they don't have to make completely new skills, just make auto-attack faster, less casting time on Box of Nails, instant casting for Magnet as well as increased range (something like 900~1200).

Let's face it folks. Thieves are broken. With endless initiative and back-to-back spam gameplay being a staple of Thief sPvP (and quite unnecessarily, I may add) and with a semi-decent amount of Thief experience myself (I have about 100 or so sPvP games as one, though it's not saying much) I feel like my experience with Thieves has been shallow and button masheriffic.

So let's look at what the problem with the Thief is: The initiative system. With it's fast recharge rate and no cooldowns, it's no wonder Thieves spam their best attack. Why use anything else? Why play smart, and have a chance of losing, when you can press one button and instagib someone from 100-0? This is the main problem that really needs addressing.

So here's my idea. A new class mechanic, called "Predictability". When using a single skill that costs initiative back to back, you take 15% reduced damage for each subsequent attack, stacking up to 60% at max. This won't affect autoattacks due to proccing off of one skill used over and over that costs initiative, and using an autoattack drops all stacks of Predictability.

Before you cry nerf, think about it. This promotes good Thief play, and punishes the bad button mashing that ends up being so shallow and generally not fun for anyone. Thief burst still exists, because you can go into stealth with Cloak and Dagger, Backstab, then Heartseeker for a good wallop of damage. It just requires more smarts and setting up now, instead of Haste-> Heartseeker until death.

Not only does this fix HS spammers, but it fixes everything bad about Thief builds, while still keeping them viable. Pistol Whip, when used multiple times inside Haste, is bad. But a good Thief will use skills in between, like Head Shot, Infiltrator's Strike, etc. to lock you down, and not just relying on that one moment where they have Haste up and can kill you in a second.

Pistol/Pistol and Shortbow Thieves get a trait somewhere, made for them: "Cloak of Shadow". This makes Predictability do less damage reduction, or no reduction, as long as they stay a certain distance from their enemies. Projectiles are unreliable burst and Unload/Cluster Bomb is easy to avoid and counter, so not as much punishment for repeated skills is needed. Also, most Thieves don't spam Unload in melee range anyway, as they're unable to react as well.

Tell me what you think. I thought pretty hard about this!

I know this topic has been discussed, but in Arena Net's most recent article they were discussing that this is something they are still unsure of and need more feedback. So I am doing my part here trying to make everyone understand why you SHOULDN'T be able to change skills,traits, or builds during a game.

First, the easy answer is Guild Wars 1 didn't allow this in GvG, Team Arena, Codex Arena, Random Arena, Hall of Heroes, and etc. The build wars in GW1 started before the game started. It was more organic feeling then, and you would realize what the other teams build was and had to PLAY accordingly, not switch skills accordingly.

Second, let's be honest some classes are able to counter a lot more classes just based on utility skills. A condition Necro is screwed if the 5v5 team he is playing switches to condition removal + stability mid game. Unlike the Axe Necro, who can still burst dps. The Condition Necro was hard countered and literally can't do anything but be support. Even if he switches his elite or utility skills he still can't catch up to what he had before. This is just completely not competitive, sure people will say it takes skill to learn when to switch skills. But how much does it take really? First see first switch bases is not "skilled". Plenty of more examples of course.

Third, it just feels gimmicky. I don't see how it feels competitive. Look at other eSports like LoL, or Starcraft. LoL has it's summoner spells which are a lot like utility skills. You can't change summoner spells mid game because you would be able to counter every situation possible. Reward people for superior builds and skills, not punish them by allowing them to be hard countered mid game. Starcraft gives you a lot more flexibility but I could go as far to say that imagine having a free Dark Archon to mind control different races allowing you more units and more counters. Doesn't exactly make sense.

Fourth, you know how most of the competitiveness of LoL starts before the game even starts? They have their own build wars and it is very entertaining to watch. People constantly counter pick each other, and I am not going to lie it would be pretty cool if Guild Wars could pick professions like that but that is not really an idea just a thought. Anyway, people counter pick all the time in professional play (Soraka > Karthus easiest example). Gives the crowd time to understand what they are going up against. Could you imagine after explaining everyones builds in a shoutcasted money tournament the announcers have to say mid game "well EX Force changed his abilities to blah blah blah". It doesn't sound exciting and takes away from the game. I much rather have the observer mode giving them all the information they need and not having them keep track of our skills all game. Imagine no observer mode now, how will the shoutcasters keep up even after announcing everyone's skills/builds?

Fifth (bare with me here I know TL;DR), what is the point of even having build wars pre-game because you can make up for a bad pick mid game? That is just a game breaker for me, if you plan a better team build and strategy you should be rewarded for that. Some teams just plan better than others because they put more work into it, reward them for doing that.

TL;DR I don't think the mid-skill changing current meta is very competitive and will be helpful for GW2 reaching eSports status. Thanks.

I know it's cliche, but play what you want to play (is that ok? If I may?). I think it can be argued that certain profession pairs work better together than others, but the result differences you get are small enough to the point where a profession you enjoy will be a better value than a profession that melds best. The only thing I may add is that it would be best to pick two different professions.