Guild Wars 2

Kylex.5962:

Archonis.7249:

Solori.6025:

Kirei.1792:

Archonis, almost all the top teams in eu have a thief. but why would you say that u would prefer a ele instead of a thief? i think most teams have both?

Backstab Thief isn’t really all that desired in TPvP unless you team is synergizing arouns it.
Thats what you said…
in eu its so desired. i really hope that NA will come to EU and feel what the difference
and thief is better roamer than elementalist lol. and a thief can kill certain things what ele can’t. having no thief in team fighting against full bunker class is not do able. but maybe na thiefs are bad (i don’t know it) but im getting the impression that they think really lowly of thiefs.

Most thief roamers that i have seen are used to kill the weakest link, help in point battles by picking off the squishy, or bursting the burst mesmers.
Bunkers I have seen can hold off 1 -2 people on a point wether it be a theif+ or an Ele+
Maybe its because of that fact people dont use theif roamers, because an ele can sit in combat and has a little more CC than a theif , while being just as mobile.

Yea, a Thief is great at fulfilling the word Roaming. He is very mobile and can get around the map fast, but when met with the slightest resistance you have to (most times) back off. With an Elementalist you can engage where a Thief cannot. There really isn’t a vice versa. So to me Elementalist is a better roamer than thief, simply because he can burst and has much better survivability without having to break combat and control a lightly defended point.

elementalist can go and bunker out far point after you wipe them at mid or something.
thief can 1 shot guy on far point. with my vid been the main point (only 1 thief does similar combo to this which is why it works) he can pretty much take the point off anybody.

so where as an ele would still be fighting for agessssssss until they reinforce, a thief can simply take from anybody.

depends which you find the best but actually seeing this in action id go more the thief way.. and im NOT crying for Nerfs i just wanted to see peoples opinions on this

Understandable, this is a video on why Quickness is too much, the damage and time the damage happens wouldnt happen if quickness didnt clip animations..Their in lies a problem.

Ultima.8673:

some players in europe know what the thief can do…

it is good that kirei is not streaming ^^

i will do local streaming then upload own3dtv or youtube ^^ and then na can watch lulz

ok im gonna ignore most comments and pretend i didnt see anything.
im guessing most of u from na obviously cant play for kitten(no offense)
in eu at top level against good teams this kind of thing is game changing i am eu player dont need to mention who i am .
my main is a thief and all i can say is that this thing need a fix you can do the whole combo 1 shot someone and shortbow out and the enemy can see u for like 0.5/1sec max
so please cut the bullkitten its not a l2p issue or anything close
i hope you read this anet but u need to seperate na forums from eu
cuz we dont want this scrubs around its because of na anet doesnt bother fixing obvious stuff
i challenge your top team on na anyday to eu ill record it aswell if u get more then 200 points you rae lucky.
have a nice day and please fix this anet.

Lorienda.1349:

ok im gonna ignore most comments and pretend i didnt see anything.
im guessing most of u from na obviously cant play for kitten(no offense)
in eu at top level against good teams this kind of thing is game changing i am eu player dont need to mention who i am .
my main is a thief and all i can say is that this thing need a fix you can do the whole combo 1 shot someone and shortbow out and the enemy can see u for like 0.5/1sec max
so please cut the bullkitten its not a l2p issue or anything close
i hope you read this anet but u need to seperate na forums from eu
cuz we dont want this scrubs around its because of na anet doesnt bother fixing obvious stuff
i challenge your top team on na anyday to eu ill record it aswell if u get more then 200 points you rae lucky.
have a nice day and please fix this anet.

Let me summarize this.

I am so leet, but I don’t want to put my name out there. Because then people would search for my play and I would be more accountable for my comments. I actually don’t even play Thief. I am just saying this to help support my view in hopes that Theif gets nerfed.

just remove the out of stealth skill changes that would make thief much more equal compared to other classes. bad enough they can invis every few sec and move 50% faster smh ,but u want them to do massive dmg out of stealth as well. just dumb

Lorienda.1349:

ok im gonna ignore most comments and pretend i didnt see anything.
im guessing most of u from na obviously cant play for kitten(no offense)
in eu at top level against good teams this kind of thing is game changing i am eu player dont need to mention who i am .
my main is a thief and all i can say is that this thing need a fix you can do the whole combo 1 shot someone and shortbow out and the enemy can see u for like 0.5/1sec max
so please cut the bullkitten its not a l2p issue or anything close
i hope you read this anet but u need to seperate na forums from eu
cuz we dont want this scrubs around its because of na anet doesnt bother fixing obvious stuff
i challenge your top team on na anyday to eu ill record it aswell if u get more then 200 points you rae lucky.
have a nice day and please fix this anet.

i agree.
eu and na feels so different. its like that a thief works different in na than in eu does. from all those comments i hear

Kirei.1792:

Lorienda.1349:

ok im gonna ignore most comments and pretend i didnt see anything.
im guessing most of u from na obviously cant play for kitten(no offense)
in eu at top level against good teams this kind of thing is game changing i am eu player dont need to mention who i am .
my main is a thief and all i can say is that this thing need a fix you can do the whole combo 1 shot someone and shortbow out and the enemy can see u for like 0.5/1sec max
so please cut the bullkitten its not a l2p issue or anything close
i hope you read this anet but u need to seperate na forums from eu
cuz we dont want this scrubs around its because of na anet doesnt bother fixing obvious stuff
i challenge your top team on na anyday to eu ill record it aswell if u get more then 200 points you rae lucky.
have a nice day and please fix this anet.

i agree.
eu and na feels so different. its like that a thief works different in na than in eu does. from all those comments i hear

All through beta phased and alpha. EU did not impress me. There are some really good EU teams, just like NA. Both have trash players in majority.

I think what is different about EU and NA, is that most NA people seem to be really entitled where EU aren’t that emotionally invested in gaming. So NA like to come and rage, while EU doesn’t really care. This is coming from an NA player.

Lol these egos are kittening ridiculous. It’s a kitten video game, it’s not like you are ranked number 5 in the kittening Olympics.

The burst or stealth need to come down, 1 or the other, personally I support the idea of adding longer reveal debuff time, as the combo is react able I just don’t think it’s good for the overall health of the game.

I think OP is just over-mystifying this thief video. The game is one key one action as macros are bannable. Given that there are only so many ways to mash steal-c&d-bs-hs with quickness somewhere in there.

Aside from that posting based solely upon your own experiences while using phrases like “all the thieves…” or “just one thief…” is bad reasoning to base a point off of. The point being thieves kill too fast, obviously they do. It’s not uncounterable and it comes with weaknesses. As a thief doing such combos against any well-played guardian is no easy task. I could go into details or we could play with one another. Prolly more constructive than this.

The only real issue is that Thief can kill anything in 1.5 seconds with 1 button.

But the Lead Balance Dev plays a Thief and that is what he considers “balanced”.

Enjoy Thief Wars.

XiL.4318:

The only real issue is that Thief can kill anything in 1.5 seconds with 1 button.

But the Lead Balance Dev plays a Thief and that is what he considers “balanced”.

Enjoy Thief Wars.

I understand the frustration of being defeated and analyzing takes effort. But to do that ya need full offensive traits and gear, one elite, two 40sec avg cool downs, 9 to 15 initiatives (regens at 1.33 sec per one initiative). Only left with escapes and no endurance after whether successfully killed (more likely in 8v8 mess-fest) or not.

Hardly one button.

Foehn.2489:

XiL.4318:

The only real issue is that Thief can kill anything in 1.5 seconds with 1 button.

But the Lead Balance Dev plays a Thief and that is what he considers “balanced”.

Enjoy Thief Wars.

I understand the frustration of being defeated and analyzing takes effort. But to do that ya need full offensive traits and gear, one elite, two 40sec avg cool downs, 9 to 15 initiatives (regens at 1.33 sec per one initiative). Only left with escapes and no endurance after whether successfully killed (more likely in 8v8 mess-fest) or not.

Hardly one button.

It is 1 button with a very simple macro. Or a face slapping firmly against the keyboard if you can’t make a macro.

The point is, my pro thief friend, that Thief is too kitten kitten kitten easy. So easy in fact that any fully kitten primate with a pointer finger can roll face with it. And the really smart chimps rocking even more extra zomes can abuse stealth mechanics rendering your argument moot.

Thief needs overlapping cooldowns that prevent animation exploits and stealth / quickness need to be toned down or removed entirely.

That’s an entertaining way to put it my friend. It’s like saying 100b warriors hit too hard, or mesmers have too much clones and shatter too hard, or ele is too hard to catch… the list goes.

I do agree it is easy to shaft beginner players as a thief, too easy to play does fit, but the point is that: something so simple to do can also be so darn simply countered.

I don’t believe in any 1v1 situation (let alone 5v5) that a class can kill another well under 10 seconds. Unless of course for the sole purpose of demonstration or clueless beginners that remain newbs as their only tact is to rage and complain :x

Kylex.5962:

EvisceratriX.1750:

i came here to lelz, funny vid, guardian was just standing, that was pro move. gg

i dont know why i bother feeding the trolls but… it was “staged” as i said 3x+

AND

semi bunker is as it says. dont ask stupid questions. “whats glass cannon guys!?”

so actually a semi-buker guardian means a crappy guardian able to do pretty much nothing…..well…ok…now i understand why I sometimes meet guardians with no dmg and going down like stones into a lake, they’re semi-bunkers…cool..you learn something new everyday..

btw start banning macros and everything would be fine….for eles, mesmers and thieves QQ topics…just ban everyone macroing for botting, i fully agree with that.

It’s not a problem with the combo, it’s the Haste skill. When I get haste and use bow there is no animation of the attack, when Im finishig someone the animation goes quicker than they die etc.

This skill causes animation errors, that’s it.

if you dont run a stunbreaker ur basically asking for this to happen.

and yeah guess i can agree there is too much quickness in the game although i dont really care about those either. theres normally more useful utilities.

Foehn.2489:

I think OP is just over-mystifying this thief video. The game is one key one action as macros are bannable. Given that there are only so many ways to mash steal-c&d-bs-hs with quickness somewhere in there.

Aside from that posting based solely upon your own experiences while using phrases like “all the thieves…” or “just one thief…” is bad reasoning to base a point off of. The point being thieves kill too fast, obviously they do. It’s not uncounterable and it comes with weaknesses. As a thief doing such combos against any well-played guardian is no easy task. I could go into details or we could play with one another. Prolly more constructive than this.

I understand your point about it only been 1 thief at the moment. but the fact is.. the bigger the game gets, the more skilled players will join the game. and what your basically saying is: if you master a thief you should be able to 1 shot anything instantly because your skilled. Which also means you would agree with EVERY class been able to do this if they are all top top players and fully mastered there class.

Arch – responce to you + the macro:
this is possible to do without macros. just change all your keybinds –
Cloak and dagger – 1
Steal – 2
Backstab 3
Heartseeker 4

and just faceroll the keyboard. so skilled.
the macro makes it 100% and the time much faster BUT a “pro” thief would eventually learn the timers legit.

and before trolls start those key binds was just an example.

Archonis.7249:

70% of the players in this game have very low skill, about 20% have moderate skill, 8% have high skill and 2% are the elite. When you listen to the 70% in terms of balance, you will have a serverly imbalanced game. I hate to sound elitist, but you never hear of the higher skilled players complaining too much about balance. You always hear it from the people that are playing at a low skill level or those new to the game and finally people that are just playing FOTM builds.

.

You don’t watch many streams of these self proclaimed elitists do you? They complain all the time, they just don’t post it on the forums as often as people new to the game do; instead they try to bend the ear of the developers to tilt game change in their favor.

Archaon.6245:

Kylex.5962:

EvisceratriX.1750:

i came here to lelz, funny vid, guardian was just standing, that was pro move. gg

i dont know why i bother feeding the trolls but… it was “staged” as i said 3x+

AND

semi bunker is as it says. dont ask stupid questions. “whats glass cannon guys!?”

so actually a semi-buker guardian means a crappy guardian able to do pretty much nothing…..well…ok…now i understand why I sometimes meet guardians with no dmg and going down like stones into a lake, they’re semi-bunkers…cool..you learn something new everyday..

I am the semi-bunker guardian in the video. What does semi-bunker means ?
It means that you are a bunker guardian but with a little less defensive stats (18k hp instead of 20k in my build (keep in minds that I have the same armor, so a bunker guardian would have died to this)), but the ability to do much more damage.
Bunker guardian = guardian that hold point, deals near to 0 damage, and support his team.
Semi-bunker guardian = guardian that hold point and deals bruiser dps.
It is the choice of 30 points, one utility and runes set + weapons that make you either bunker or semi-bunker …

Kylex.5962:

Foehn.2489:

I think OP is just over-mystifying this thief video. The game is one key one action as macros are bannable. Given that there are only so many ways to mash steal-c&d-bs-hs with quickness somewhere in there.

Aside from that posting based solely upon your own experiences while using phrases like “all the thieves…” or “just one thief…” is bad reasoning to base a point off of. The point being thieves kill too fast, obviously they do. It’s not uncounterable and it comes with weaknesses. As a thief doing such combos against any well-played guardian is no easy task. I could go into details or we could play with one another. Prolly more constructive than this.

I understand your point about it only been 1 thief at the moment. but the fact is.. the bigger the game gets, the more skilled players will join the game. and what your basically saying is: if you master a thief you should be able to 1 shot anything instantly because your skilled. Which also means you would agree with EVERY class been able to do this if they are all top top players and fully mastered there class.

Arch – responce to you + the macro:
this is possible to do without macros. just change all your keybinds –
Cloak and dagger – 1
Steal – 2
Backstab 3
Heartseeker 4

and just faceroll the keyboard. so skilled.
the macro makes it 100% and the time much faster BUT a “pro” thief would eventually learn the timers legit.

and before trolls start those key binds was just an example.

wow xD keybind 1-2-3-4 the combo ur doing haha;p epic
but having normal keybinds isn’t difficult either. i guess most people have standard 1-5 the same as usual. and 6 to 0 qertc, aslong as you know the order of how its done, and when you know the order, then you have to watch the movement, and then you need to know When to press them. knowing those 3 = gg. and even good guardians having troubles dodging my burst. because everytime u see a guardian dodge, theres a 0,1-0,2 sec where he’s vulnerable and For sure hittable. if u practice on that timing and burst cd its not avoidable. u can try to dodge 2x rly fast. theres a gap where u can’t dodge and where EVery1 can hit u at that time. its only avoidable by pressing something that is instant while dodging and then u do a block or something.
and btw, i seen some thiefs on NA and… thats not called burst lol, thats called harass build.
but i’ll make some vids without editing and show u guys a little how eu players play.

dank.3680:

I guess you don’t understand sarcasm/satire very well.

I understand and like sarcasm.
I just hate meaningless and uncalled sarcasm, that’s all.

Quickness and on a stationary opponent.

I fail to see the point

I still find it ironic that they pointedly called the class a thief not assassin yet turned it into as much of an assassin as any other game ever has.

I’m starting to wonder if Anet are just going to cut their losses on this game to be honest.

They seem to be incapable of balancing the pvp at all. Its just terrible at the minute.

I guess ill wait out the next patch and if nothing changes just quit. The Tpvp is really just appauling.

Most people in this thread have completely overlooked the point of this. It doesn’t matter if this guy is bunker or semi bunker, or whether he was moving or not, or whether it was setup, or whether its a macro or not.

The point I took from watching that video is that it’s not ok for a thief to kill someone that quick. He was playing the most defensive classes in is game and still went down in under 3 seconds.

I thought the point was to showcase that this type of damage is what’s ruining this game. Why is it ok for a class uses a mechanic that has no counter to it can also kill people in under 3 seconds??

Thiefs need a bit of a rework.

Eristina.5967:

The video was staged to show the bug, it’s not an actual in game footage, but thrust me it happened in paid tournament, that’s why we did research to know what was hapening.
I’ll make a resume of the video content because not everyone get it :
In a time windows of 1.5 seconds :
- 1.5 seconds is the duration of basilic venom’s stun.
- Thief is invisible (it’s ok for some class, but for necro, you can’t DS fear him and you’ll get an heartseeker with this exploit when other thief will be fear right after backstab).
- Does 4 skill in 1.5 seconds (clipping bug and haste make it possible).
- Does 17k damage to someone who has 3k1 armor.
- All this can be done using one macro, no skill required, high reward.

- Guard had no Aegis up which would have blocked at least 4k dmg
- Guard had several skills on cooldown and did not react at all, one dodge and ALL the attacks would have been avoided !
- C’n’d has a casting time, so you can see it
- if thief openes invis, he needs either his heal oder shadow refuge / blinding powder (3sec)
- if he stuns you he also used up his elite
- most likely he also used signet of shadows

so 2 utils + elite for 1 attack that can be AUTO blocked and dodged .. seems fair to me.

but thrust me it happened in paid tournament

-you should be aware of your surroundings, and your should communicate with your team to know where their thief is.

lvis.3824:

Eristina.5967:

The video was staged to show the bug, it’s not an actual in game footage, but thrust me it happened in paid tournament, that’s why we did research to know what was hapening.
I’ll make a resume of the video content because not everyone get it :
In a time windows of 1.5 seconds :
- 1.5 seconds is the duration of basilic venom’s stun.
- Thief is invisible (it’s ok for some class, but for necro, you can’t DS fear him and you’ll get an heartseeker with this exploit when other thief will be fear right after backstab).
- Does 4 skill in 1.5 seconds (clipping bug and haste make it possible).
- Does 17k damage to someone who has 3k1 armor.
- All this can be done using one macro, no skill required, high reward.

- Guard had no Aegis up which would have blocked at least 4k dmg
- Guard had several skills on cooldown and did not react at all, one dodge and ALL the attacks would have been avoided !
- C’n’d has a casting time, so you can see it
- if thief openes invis, he needs either his heal oder shadow refuge / blinding powder (3sec)
- if he stuns you he also used up his elite
- most likely he also used signet of shadows

so 2 utils + elite for 1 attack that can be AUTO blocked and dodged .. seems fair to me.

but thrust me it happened in paid tournament

-you should be aware of your surroundings, and your should communicate with your team to know where their thief is.

please… is this a troll…

no matter how good you and your team is. you cant track the thief 24/7

lvis.3824:

Eristina.5967:

The video was staged to show the bug, it’s not an actual in game footage, but thrust me it happened in paid tournament, that’s why we did research to know what was hapening.
I’ll make a resume of the video content because not everyone get it :
In a time windows of 1.5 seconds :
- 1.5 seconds is the duration of basilic venom’s stun.
- Thief is invisible (it’s ok for some class, but for necro, you can’t DS fear him and you’ll get an heartseeker with this exploit when other thief will be fear right after backstab).
- Does 4 skill in 1.5 seconds (clipping bug and haste make it possible).
- Does 17k damage to someone who has 3k1 armor.
- All this can be done using one macro, no skill required, high reward.

- Guard had no Aegis up which would have blocked at least 4k dmg
- Guard had several skills on cooldown and did not react at all, one dodge and ALL the attacks would have been avoided !
- C’n’d has a casting time, so you can see it
- if thief openes invis, he needs either his heal oder shadow refuge / blinding powder (3sec)
- if he stuns you he also used up his elite
- most likely he also used signet of shadows

so 2 utils + elite for 1 attack that can be AUTO blocked and dodged .. seems fair to me.

but thrust me it happened in paid tournament

-you should be aware of your surroundings, and your should communicate with your team to know where their thief is.

Legit answer, not trolling at all. Thief has to use elite and cast cnd to open. If first hit is blocked by aegis there goes the basilisk-poison elite. Like I said no class can bring another down in 1.5 seconds during 1v1 given equal player skills, let alone 5v5. This only happens during demonstration purposes (aka the video) or uneven player skill. Many many many decent players of all classes I’ve encountered can counter this if they know its coming. If they don’t then its usually a 2v1 ambush in which case they are helpless.

Again block-dodge-stunbreaker solves it completely. Climb the skill ladder.

Edit: I’m not necessarily saying it’s easy to counter, but given enough practice and awareness it is very much possible. Rendering the thief’s only the option is to escape and retry if not caught and killed, given how much he has to invest initially for that combo.

it’d suck if they banned macros across the board.
i use a simple macro so when i hold down 1 it keeps pressing it, this is just so i dont have to keep manually spamming the button myself, it offers no advantage, just spares me from the click click click click click click click! (yes i know about auto casts but i use that for other skills like poison if i’m playing ranger/thief, or the proc glyph if i’m playing ele so i dont have to check when they’re off CD and reactivate them,
the problem is’nt with the ability to chain skills together with timing using a macro, its with the skills doing so much damage and stealth bugs (and quickness)

TLDR: its not the ability to macro, its the ridiculously OP skills used in the chain.

Foehn.2489:

lvis.3824:

Eristina.5967:

The video was staged to show the bug, it’s not an actual in game footage, but thrust me it happened in paid tournament, that’s why we did research to know what was hapening.
I’ll make a resume of the video content because not everyone get it :
In a time windows of 1.5 seconds :
- 1.5 seconds is the duration of basilic venom’s stun.
- Thief is invisible (it’s ok for some class, but for necro, you can’t DS fear him and you’ll get an heartseeker with this exploit when other thief will be fear right after backstab).
- Does 4 skill in 1.5 seconds (clipping bug and haste make it possible).
- Does 17k damage to someone who has 3k1 armor.
- All this can be done using one macro, no skill required, high reward.

- Guard had no Aegis up which would have blocked at least 4k dmg
- Guard had several skills on cooldown and did not react at all, one dodge and ALL the attacks would have been avoided !
- C’n’d has a casting time, so you can see it
- if thief openes invis, he needs either his heal oder shadow refuge / blinding powder (3sec)
- if he stuns you he also used up his elite
- most likely he also used signet of shadows

so 2 utils + elite for 1 attack that can be AUTO blocked and dodged .. seems fair to me.

but thrust me it happened in paid tournament

-you should be aware of your surroundings, and your should communicate with your team to know where their thief is.

Legit answer, not trolling at all. Thief has to use elite and cast cnd to open. If first hit is blocked by aegis there goes the basilisk-poison elite. Like I said no class can bring another down in 1.5 seconds during 1v1 given equal player skills, let alone 5v5. This only happens during demonstration purposes (aka the video) or uneven player skill. Many many many decent players of all classes I’ve encountered can counter this if they know its coming. If they don’t then its usually a 2v1 ambush in which case they are helpless.

Again block-dodge-stunbreaker solves it completely. Climb the skill ladder.

Edit: I’m not necessarily saying it’s easy to counter, but given enough practice and awareness it is very much possible. Rendering the thief’s only the option is to escape and retry if not caught and killed, given how much he has to invest initially for that combo.

>> Like I said no class can bring another down in 1.5 seconds during 1v1 given equal player skills, let alone 5v5. <<
So, let’s take some examples from yesterday.
http://www.twitch.tv/ooeristina/b/351315942
Vod of paid tournament that I made yesterday.

Vs Super Squad (one of the top team in EU) :
2:52:57 we’re 2v2, one in down state in each side. Look how our thief kill the guardian in less than 1.5 (you can see that he is stun in middle air and he die before the stun duration end).
(The thief don’t use macro, only quickness and spam skill).

5:25:45 The opponent thief is far away, he shadowstep and steal (close gaps in less than half a sec).
The steal combo begin at 47 sec, purie (first player in QP in EU) is killed 1.5 sec later, I try to rez and he tries to fear, he is stomped before at 49.
The thief took 2.5 sec ~to kill and stomp.

Is it a problem of skilled player or a problem of design ? You have to do the same or you can’t stay at the top in EU (while in NA player complain about guardian …).

The real problem is that we need mesmer and thief to kill broken spec like ele tank or ranger.

Eristina.5967:

Foehn.2489:

lvis.3824:

Eristina.5967:

The video was staged to show the bug, it’s not an actual in game footage, but thrust me it happened in paid tournament, that’s why we did research to know what was hapening.
I’ll make a resume of the video content because not everyone get it :
In a time windows of 1.5 seconds :
- 1.5 seconds is the duration of basilic venom’s stun.
- Thief is invisible (it’s ok for some class, but for necro, you can’t DS fear him and you’ll get an heartseeker with this exploit when other thief will be fear right after backstab).
- Does 4 skill in 1.5 seconds (clipping bug and haste make it possible).
- Does 17k damage to someone who has 3k1 armor.
- All this can be done using one macro, no skill required, high reward.

- Guard had no Aegis up which would have blocked at least 4k dmg
- Guard had several skills on cooldown and did not react at all, one dodge and ALL the attacks would have been avoided !
- C’n’d has a casting time, so you can see it
- if thief openes invis, he needs either his heal oder shadow refuge / blinding powder (3sec)
- if he stuns you he also used up his elite
- most likely he also used signet of shadows

so 2 utils + elite for 1 attack that can be AUTO blocked and dodged .. seems fair to me.

but thrust me it happened in paid tournament

-you should be aware of your surroundings, and your should communicate with your team to know where their thief is.

Legit answer, not trolling at all. Thief has to use elite and cast cnd to open. If first hit is blocked by aegis there goes the basilisk-poison elite. Like I said no class can bring another down in 1.5 seconds during 1v1 given equal player skills, let alone 5v5. This only happens during demonstration purposes (aka the video) or uneven player skill. Many many many decent players of all classes I’ve encountered can counter this if they know its coming. If they don’t then its usually a 2v1 ambush in which case they are helpless.

Again block-dodge-stunbreaker solves it completely. Climb the skill ladder.

Edit: I’m not necessarily saying it’s easy to counter, but given enough practice and awareness it is very much possible. Rendering the thief’s only the option is to escape and retry if not caught and killed, given how much he has to invest initially for that combo.

>> Like I said no class can bring another down in 1.5 seconds during 1v1 given equal player skills, let alone 5v5. <<
So, let’s take some examples from yesterday.
http://www.twitch.tv/ooeristina/b/351315942
Vod of paid tournament that I made yesterday.

Vs Super Squad (one of the top team in EU) :
2:52:57 we’re 2v2, one in down state in each side. Look how our thief kill the guardian in less than 1.5 (you can see that he is stun in middle air and he die before the stun duration end).
(The thief don’t use macro, only quickness and spam skill).

5:25:45 The opponent thief is far away, he shadowstep and steal (close gaps in less than half a sec).
The steal combo begin at 47 sec, purie (first player in QP in EU) is killed 1.5 sec later, I try to rez and he tries to fear, he is stomped before at 49.
The thief took 2.5 sec ~to kill and stomp.

Is it a problem of skilled player or a problem of design ? You have to do the same or you can’t stay at the top in EU (while in NA player complain about guardian …).

The real problem is that we need mesmer and thief to kill broken spec like ele tank or ranger.

I appreciate the video and your analysis of the fights are spot on. While I agree that the current meta is stuck on some specs (as with all games people tend to find the optimal) I would still like to add something.

Situation would be key. Those situations are exactly what good thief players look for, especially with the all out haste combo spec. A cooldown-blown mid-fight to quickly execute your own cooldowns and kill a weakened player. Done successfully as your video has shown.

But given that a 2v2 where folks are fighting over a point, renewed and ready, it would be best for the thief to wait for a opportunity to strike or risky failure by initiating. Against many capable escape or tanky classes the thief would most likely fail and has to forfeit point.

The name of the game is to hold points and move between them. Sure ele can RTL away and mesmer can clone and run, but it is a defeat in that sense already. Same with thief, can’t kill = lose points, therefore to maximize that killing potential wait for the key situation to occur and feel overpowered otherwise just roam elsewhere.

Not at all saying that current state is perfect, but I try to understand why it is there. Give our beloved game some time, meta will shift and adapting to each one is the fun part.

Any decent necro should know that if the other team has a thief the first thing to do when you reach a point is to place a reaper mark under your feet.
That said, the problem lies within stealth completely disappearing only 1 second after the end of the actual effect for gameplay reasons, the thief is still targettable (for example with the get target key) but you don’ t see it for 1 more second. To completely solve the problem i use the autotarget option that automatically targets your nearest target when you don’ t have one, it doesn’ t work on stealthed targets but it’s perfect for thieves who already made their opening but aren’ t being rendered yet.