Guild Wars 2

Zenith.7301:

fierotecknics.5961:

First off: Backstab IS the current thief profession. Anyone arguing otherwise simply doesn’t know what they are talking about.

Having said that, and now having practiced some s/d, the mobility is pretty nice. Perhaps we’ll get a mobile sustained damage build out of this. I hate being forced to play a non-face-melting-dps thief but, if A-net must listen to all the whine “thief kills me to fast”… and I must then play this new… whatever it is.. then so be it. Sucks, but so be it.

If you think “thieves kill me too fast” is a whine, then perhaps your posts should be disregarded in the future.

There’s no other class who can spike my necromancer down from 22k hp into 3-4k hp left in that short a time span, not even mesmers.

At least with mesmers you can see the shatters running to you. With the thief it’s all a lottery of whether he will get off the backstab or not.

Sword thieves should be the baseline for their design — highly mobile, but they should not be doing the kitten burst they do. No, you don’t need basilisk venom for your combo.

Like it or not, it is a whine. That is how stealthy class plays in virtually every mmo. and for that matter nearly every game period. So the ele’s QQing about the RtL nerf isn’t whining? A whine is a whine is a whine….

Mrbig.8019:

Hello, i welcome to you Black Powder.

It’s a pusling blind field, pulsing blind every sec, basically S/D rate of attack.

A simple blind field totally neglects 90% of an S/D thief damage, due to how slow sword attacks are. Better if i do not mention Flanking strike.

If a D/P thief loses to an S/D thief, he’s simply bad.

Nah, horrible.

Nah, he should change proff or uninstall.

That’s why you have also a secondary weapon set.
Black Powder harms every melee, not only S/D. Don’t pretend it isn’t true.

If the d/p thief is built for stealth and not right out burst the s/d has no chance as long as the d/p is competent.

sorrow.2364:

Mrbig.8019:

Hello, i welcome to you Black Powder.

It’s a pusling blind field, pulsing blind every sec, basically S/D rate of attack.

A simple blind field totally neglects 90% of an S/D thief damage, due to how slow sword attacks are. Better if i do not mention Flanking strike.

If a D/P thief loses to an S/D thief, he’s simply bad.

Nah, horrible.

Nah, he should change proff or uninstall.

That’s why you have also a secondary weapon set.
Black Powder harms every melee, not only S/D. Don’t pretend it isn’t true.

try doing that with a war spamming chop or 100blades and see who dies.

Mrbig.8019:

try doing that with a war spamming chop or 100blades and see who dies.

The warrior, if he’s standing still in a 120 radius field. About 50% of his hits will fail, more than enough to harm a good portion of the damage output.

Face the reality, none is spamming melee skills in that field. This theorycrafting makes no sense.

Na blackpowder will only get you out maybe first or second blast? Who’s gonna run out of initiative first? The black powder thief or infiltrator’s? Also, I don’t need to stand in the radius as long as my sword can hit you from the outside, which it does, and as a thief, it doesn’t take much sword hits to kill another one. Plus landing backstab means going into stealth first, which means ill set up infiltrator’s shadow step ready before that happens. The only chances d/any thieves had was their mug to crit and land the same time as heartseaker or cloak, but now that’ll be gone.

As Vence said, you can stand outside the black powder field w/ sword and hit the thief who is standing in the field, unless he moves to the opposite end of the field from you — in which case he can’t hit you either.

That said, even though Mr. Big’s reasoning is wrong, I think his conclusion is still correct. A D/P thief can stealth indefinitely to regen health while still putting out strong backstabs. At the very least, the S/D thief would have to retreat.

ROFL @op ….

I watched that stream, and seriously if you get killed by that build , you would have died 3times before against default GC D/D 25/30/0/0/15 specc !!!

Clearly l2 kitten ue.

Mrbig.8019:

Vence.6974:

Lol plz a good S/D thief will beat a good D/any thief any day simply because when you combine sword with some acrobatics, you literally become the fastest profession in the game. You’re the most agile with infiltrator’s, FS, withdraw, shadowstep/roll for initiative. You can get to anywhere really fast assuming you have a shortbow, and even without it, you still have high endurance regen, swiftness on dodge, and infinite teles. Not to mention, you do extremely high steady dmg with your auto attack and can strip (soon steal) boons at will. The really kool part bout this spec is its ability to sync well with any utilities you prefer (deceptions, stealth, signets, and even traps) yea thats rite, traps too because infiltrator’s teles you too an enemy and while they’re immobilized, just set the trap and watch it activate instantly.

Hello, i welcome to you Black Powder.

It’s a pusling blind field, pulsing blind every sec, basically S/D rate of attack.

A simple blind field totally neglects 90% of an S/D thief damage, due to how slow sword attacks are. Better if i do not mention Flanking strike.

If a D/P thief loses to an S/D thief, he’s simply bad.

Nah, horrible.

Nah, he should change proff or uninstall.

A lot of people need to uninstall then.

ensoriki.5789:

Mrbig.8019:

Vence.6974:

Lol plz a good S/D thief will beat a good D/any thief any day simply because when you combine sword with some acrobatics, you literally become the fastest profession in the game. You’re the most agile with infiltrator’s, FS, withdraw, shadowstep/roll for initiative. You can get to anywhere really fast assuming you have a shortbow, and even without it, you still have high endurance regen, swiftness on dodge, and infinite teles. Not to mention, you do extremely high steady dmg with your auto attack and can strip (soon steal) boons at will. The really kool part bout this spec is its ability to sync well with any utilities you prefer (deceptions, stealth, signets, and even traps) yea thats rite, traps too because infiltrator’s teles you too an enemy and while they’re immobilized, just set the trap and watch it activate instantly.

Hello, i welcome to you Black Powder.

It’s a pusling blind field, pulsing blind every sec, basically S/D rate of attack.

A simple blind field totally neglects 90% of an S/D thief damage, due to how slow sword attacks are. Better if i do not mention Flanking strike.

If a D/P thief loses to an S/D thief, he’s simply bad.

Nah, horrible.

Nah, he should change proff or uninstall.

A lot of people need to uninstall then.

Or maybe they should simply change prof

it’s all about D/P being almost like the perfect counter to S/D.

S/D is slow and requires melee range, BP counters it almost totally.

Inf strike can be done from afar, sure, but then you’re in melee ( BP dominion) so you need to port back. Just to be followed by a shadow shot, unless you teleport miles away ( basically leaving the fight) or unless you want to inf strike, teleport miles away, follow the thief for half map to do it again and again and again ( never killing a glass thief has been so long lol).

If you stay in the fight, you’re at D/p range, if you stay outside, you’ll take too long to kill what other classes can kill by simply loooking at him with a scary face.

Agree dp is the best counter for sd. Saying that, it’s more like a nill all draw if the sd doesn’t stand in the bp.. A sd can always kite with sb and then switch to sd when the dp is low on ini.. It’s all about tactics and timing..Really difficult fight for sd but still doable
sd is better at beating bunkers or classes who use alot of cc, so it can’t have it all

I’m pretty happy to see people trying builds like this. I’ve only seen it a couple times. As I said, I’ve beaten it before. It’s not an issue.

I also see PW on occasion which is refreshing, but this is one I can’t say I’ve ever seen before this past week or so. Backstab burst seems to be the favorite still.

As for those saying l2p, you should probably l2Read. Just saying.

I wasn’t expecting this thread to get this much attention either lol I’m glad Jumper got to see it though. Hah. Fun times man :P I’m just happy people are trying new things. Now if only bunker builds weren’t running rampant.

bomber.1540:

Agree dp is the best counter for sd. Saying that, it’s more like a nill all draw if the sd doesn’t stand in the bp.. A sd can always kite with sb and then switch to sd when the dp is low on ini.. It’s all about tactics and timing..Really difficult fight for sd but still doable
sd is better at beating bunkers or classes who use alot of cc, so it can’t have it all

How is it good against bunkers? You need raw sustained or good spike windows to deal with bunkers.

S/D is a CC spec. It stunlocks certain classes with little access to stability or weaker players who don’t know to dodge cnd or not get hit by the stealth opener daze.

Dagger single target is far superior in output to sword. Sword is mainly for the cleave or mobility.

Either way, a good ele or guardian bunker hardcounter thieves. So do BM bunker rangers.

Thieves are there to cheese other glass cannons/non-bunkers, and that’s pretty much it.

Thieves don’t have meaningful boon removal like well of corruption or corrupt boon or null field — nor should they have it considering their spike.

The function of the thief in tourneys is to soften people with shortbow and finish someone off with his easy spike. Thief with shortbow can abuse teleport spots so easily.

Zenith.7301:

bomber.1540:

Agree dp is the best counter for sd. Saying that, it’s more like a nill all draw if the sd doesn’t stand in the bp.. A sd can always kite with sb and then switch to sd when the dp is low on ini.. It’s all about tactics and timing..Really difficult fight for sd but still doable
sd is better at beating bunkers or classes who use alot of cc, so it can’t have it all

How is it good against bunkers? You need raw sustained or good spike windows to deal with bunkers.

S/D is a CC spec. It stunlocks certain classes with little access to stability or weaker players who don’t know to dodge cnd or not get hit by the stealth opener daze.

Dagger single target is far superior in output to sword. Sword is mainly for the cleave or mobility.

Either way, a good ele or guardian bunker hardcounter thieves. So do BM bunker rangers.

Thieves are there to cheese other glass cannons/non-bunkers, and that’s pretty much it.

Thieves don’t have meaningful boon removal like well of corruption or corrupt boon or null field — nor should they have it considering their spike.

The function of the thief in tourneys is to soften people with shortbow and finish someone off with his easy spike. Thief with shortbow can abuse teleport spots so easily.

i said its ‘better’ at dealing with bunkers than DP because it is

if you want to fight bunkers you trait for bountiful thief, combine with flanking strike and your stealing/removing 3-4 boons.. when your traited for power/crit, it has very high sustained damage

and no you don’t/cant stunlock after the daze nerf, its a handy tool when used appropriately but the ini cost of cnd is too high to keep dazing, in my opinion

bomber.1540:

Zenith.7301:

bomber.1540:

Agree dp is the best counter for sd. Saying that, it’s more like a nill all draw if the sd doesn’t stand in the bp.. A sd can always kite with sb and then switch to sd when the dp is low on ini.. It’s all about tactics and timing..Really difficult fight for sd but still doable
sd is better at beating bunkers or classes who use alot of cc, so it can’t have it all

How is it good against bunkers? You need raw sustained or good spike windows to deal with bunkers.

S/D is a CC spec. It stunlocks certain classes with little access to stability or weaker players who don’t know to dodge cnd or not get hit by the stealth opener daze.

Dagger single target is far superior in output to sword. Sword is mainly for the cleave or mobility.

Either way, a good ele or guardian bunker hardcounter thieves. So do BM bunker rangers.

Thieves are there to cheese other glass cannons/non-bunkers, and that’s pretty much it.

Thieves don’t have meaningful boon removal like well of corruption or corrupt boon or null field — nor should they have it considering their spike.

The function of the thief in tourneys is to soften people with shortbow and finish someone off with his easy spike. Thief with shortbow can abuse teleport spots so easily.

i said its ‘better’ at dealing with bunkers than DP because it is

if you want to fight bunkers you trait for bountiful thief, combine with flanking strike and your stealing/removing 3-4 boons.. when your traited for power/crit, it has very high sustained damage

and no you don’t/cant stunlock after the daze nerf, its a handy tool when used appropriately but the ini cost of cnd is too high to keep dazing, in my opinion

Tactical strike should be either rebuffed or totally rehauled.

In its current state it has no use and requires too much effort to be pulled off ( ini, positioning) especially when compared to other attacks such backstab and sneak attack that are way more balanced ( sneak attack maybe needs a slight buff but that’s about it).