In the April 20, 2023 Parting the Veil (source) @Joppa explained that Ability Down Ranking would now be possible again and as you level up and gain new Abilities in an ability line they would no longer replace the lower versions of that line and instead would allow the player to choose which Rank of that Ability line they would like to have on their LAS, even allowing multiple ranks of the same line to be available on the LAS together.
Then in the latest Rogue Refresh (source) @Minus explained that the Backstab and Waylay Techniques would: "at the start these abilities will function the same way to allow Rogues of various weapon loadouts to perform expect them to grow in functionality as the Rogue grows in tandem."
This would suggest that Techniques are not going to follow the same formula with regards to Ability Lines. Instead it suggests that Techniques will not gain new versions as you level but instead will just evolve and gain added effects without a new Technique to be learned. So instead of having a Backstab Line of Techniques that you need to seek out a trainer to learn the new ones for, you instead just keep using the same Technique and it just "grows in functionality" or in other words it gets more powerful.
This then implies that Weapon Techniques will not have the ability to Down-rank as other Abilities do.
As you may have noticed, there are many "suggests" and "implies" here in this post which means that assumptions and guesses are being made since we lack Clarity. As @Savanja has already said lately that you guys are trying to work on your communication, could one of the VR folk be so kind as to Clarify for us how Techniques evolve ("grow in functionality") differently than Abilities Rank up and what that means in regards to downranking with Techniques.
GoofyWarriorGuy said:Then in the latest Rogue Refresh (source) @Minus explained that the Backstab and Waylay Techniques would: "at the start these abilities will function the same way to allow Rogues of various weapon loadouts to perform expect them to grow in functionality as the Rogue grows in tandem."
I understood this statement as "masteries will differentiate them later on"
Hegenox said:I understood this statement as "masteries will differentiate them later on
In @ZaideGod's Rogue footage on May 21, 2023 (source) he looks at some of the Masteries and you can see that both Waylay (at 13 minutes in the video) and Backstab (at 13:30 in the video) have exactly the same Masteries for all 3 Tiers.
1) Reduce cooldown by 2 seconds.
2) Increase weapon bonus to 400%
3) If target is Vulnerable, immediately refresh the cooldown of Blackjack kick.
So unless something has changed in a month... @Minus was likely refering to a different kind of 'grow in functionality'.