Guild Wars 2

Day after day, this is how my day goes in sPvP.. I got so many of these screen shots that show the exact same thing, time, and time, and time again.

Yes, i get lucky some times, and get out of this BS with a dodge, or some other escape, but I mean, still… COMON!!

Yeah, there really is no excuse for such high burst capability.; even for the “assassin class”. I run decent toughness on all of my characters, at least 2500 armor on each, and I still get nailed for 5k Steal, 5k C&D, 10k Backstabs. Kind of ridiculous. Easy to counter if you see it coming, but I thought the point of no long-duration stealth was to avoid stuff like this, and killing in a chain CC (PW). Stealth in this game is worse, IMO, than it ever was in any other game. It makes what should be a paper thin build very survivable, and allows fight resets and re-opens far more than games like WoW ever did.

I understand that ANet wants a fast-paced, action-oriented game, but they stated they wanted fights to be between 20-40 seconds. This throws in the face of that by making scenarios where the fight doesn’t even happen – someone just dies instantly.

the main thing you need here (if your class has is) is an invulnerability skill to hit.

I’ve had plenty of thiefs run like hell after pistol whip or backstab got invulnerabilitied in wvw, they didn’t even want to fight me at that point and I didn’t even hit them yet.

Was this in WvW?

There’s no way in hell you could reach backstab numbers like that in Spvp no matter how squishy you are, with 25 stacks of vulnerability, etc.

I know dmg is inflated by pve stats to insane amounts in WvW though.

Look at the picture closely, Knote. You can see a capture point in the background (white ring) and it’s obviously on Legacy of the Foefire. Wouldn’t surprise me if it were a Warrior with Frenzy up, though.

@ REFLHEX
WvW is not a very good standard to measure things by due to most not having good gear and not being lvl 80. But yes, having an invulnerable skill is EXTREMELY beneficial when fighting any class with burst skills

@OP
That Backstab crit was really high. Unusually high. This is what happens when you have lots of health but no toughness (not saying that an 18k hit is acceptable).

@Animosity
Stealth in GW2 (as of now) is currently bugged/glitched. When any profession (not just Thieves) come out of stealth, they are not visible to you for another 2-3 seconds. That needs to be fixed ASAP. I know that you’re like woah, i just died in like 2 seconds, but that’s how fast that Thief dies if he gets nailed. I think fixing bugged traits for all the professions and the rendering of stealth working would do wonders for people fighting against Thieves. But yeah, their damage is a little over the top with the Backstab spec (this is coming from a Thief).

Zunhar.4079:

@ REFLHEX
WvW is not a very good standard to measure things by due to most not having good gear and not being lvl 80. But yes, having an invulnerable skill is EXTREMELY beneficial when fighting any class with burst skills

I used wvw for my example because i tend to stay away from spvp. However, what I said will go for both formats, you invulnerability that initial bust and put them in a bit of trouble, but the cloak and dagger is repeatable twice I think in a short period of time but it will lack the steal.

And yes I’m pretty sure these numbers can be done in spvp this looks like it was on forest of nifhel I’ve seen similar screenshots.

I know about the stealth bug, but the problems is the ability to do 20k damage in around 2 seconds by activating C&D, hitting Steal before it finishes to ensure you land it, then Backstabbing. If everything crits and you get a Sigil proc, it can easily do 20k damage. Shouldn’t be like that. This kind of stuff promotes 1-dimensional builds with Thieves and prevents them from ever getting buffed in other areas.

R E F L H E X.8413:

Zunhar.4079:

@ REFLHEX
WvW is not a very good standard to measure things by due to most not having good gear and not being lvl 80. But yes, having an invulnerable skill is EXTREMELY beneficial when fighting any class with burst skills

I used wvw for my example because i tend to stay away from spvp. However, what I said will go for both formats, you invulnerability that initial bust and put them in a bit of trouble, but the cloak and dagger is repeatable twice I think in a short period of time but it will lack the steal.

And yes I’m pretty sure these numbers can be done in spvp this looks like it was on forest of nifhel.

They can be done in sPvP but require much more setup and work. Depending on how the Thief traits (read, lots of initaitve regain) he can pull of 3 CnD in a row, but is then worthless for several seconds.

Animosity.5231:

I know about the stealth bug, but the problems is the ability to do 20k damage in around 2 seconds by activating C&D, hitting Steal before it finishes to ensure you land it, then Backstabbing. If everything crits and you get a Sigil proc, it can easily do 20k damage. Shouldn’t be like that. This kind of stuff promotes 1-dimensional builds with Thieves and prevents them from ever getting buffed in other areas.

I would like to see other kinds of builds as well (like a S/D one), but to pull of that 20k damage is more than just C&D and Steal. It involves a Signet and at least one venom (sometimes 2) all popped within 1-2 seconds,plus manuvering to the back of the target.

I actually run an invulnerability skill, but this combo in the picture above can happen in a blink of an eye. Yes, like i said, there are times, I actually catch it, and manage to get away with half my health or less.

I generally don’t complain about something that has a “chance” of escape, but regardless of all that. There should not be ANY skill in this game that does that much damage under ANY circumstance. I’m not even close to a cannon spec in this picture.

Again dont get me wrong, I actually enjoy a thief, I even enjoy the idea of this combo. However that is simply too much dmg in too short of time, coming from a class you cant even see coming most the time. You should have to work harder then this to be as successful as this simple combo offers.

Im actually building specs around being able to survive a thief now days, because everyone is running this BS, and I still cant survive it most he time.

You put this BS in the hands of a skilled team, and… UGH.. yeah…

Zunhar.4079:

I would like to see other kinds of builds as well (like a S/D one), but to pull of that 20k damage is more than just C&D and Steal. It involves a Signet and at least one venom (sometimes 2) all popped within 1-2 seconds,plus manuvering to the back of the target.

Except for the maneuvering (which when an opponent is immobilized only takes a fraction of a second to do mind you) all of which can be done by my g-19 keyboard’s macro function, or my corsair vengence macro function as well. Most gamers have built in macro functionality in their hardware in this day and age I would assume, considering how old the tech is and how cheap it is any more.

For the record I run a stealth-sustainability backstab build on my thief as well. With the bug to stealth there are times where you can tell that you have gone through 2-3 stealth rotations without ever becoming visable for more than a second for the opponent due to whatever is causing this issue. I see other thieves do the same as well. Finish entire backstab burst chain + restealth and never become visible to the enemy players.

Thieves are bugged in their own favor, and the build is cheesy and kitten simple to pull off. HOWEVER you cannot, CANNOT blame us for abusing it. ANet said “esport” which means people are meant to find the most broken mechanics possible and run them into the dirt in order to reduce as much challenge from securing a win as possible. That’s the entire nature of playing to win.

If they made a class that had a spec where auto-attacking ranged attacks gave you evasion and did 10k dps everyone would switch to it to farm those wins. It’d be lame, it’d be cheap but it would also be expected. Nature of the beast.

Zunhar.4079:

Animosity.5231:

I know about the stealth bug, but the problems is the ability to do 20k damage in around 2 seconds by activating C&D, hitting Steal before it finishes to ensure you land it, then Backstabbing. If everything crits and you get a Sigil proc, it can easily do 20k damage. Shouldn’t be like that. This kind of stuff promotes 1-dimensional builds with Thieves and prevents them from ever getting buffed in other areas.

I would like to see other kinds of builds as well (like a S/D one), but to pull of that 20k damage is more than just C&D and Steal. It involves a Signet and at least one venom (sometimes 2) all popped within 1-2 seconds,plus manuvering to the back of the target.

Oh, well that makes it OK, then! I guess Elementalists should be able to pull off 25k(!) bursts because they have to hit 9 buttons for a single combo. Right? That’s what you’re trying to say, right? Doesn’t matter how many buttons they have to press. 20k damage in 2 seconds is too much. Don’t try to justify it when no other class can do it.

I don’t blame Thieves for it, Braxxus. While I’d never want to play a build like that (tried it on my own Thief, didn’t find it fun) as it will more than likely be nerfed, and finding a viable build that isn’t likely to be nerfed will make you a better player in the long run; I do, however, blame ANet for not seeing this coming and continuing to let it go un-checked.

Animosity.5231:

and finding a viable build that isn’t likely to be nerfed will make you a better player in the long run.

Well…. yes and no.

If you watch esport metas really the “pro” play strategy is discovering the next “broken” thing and abusing the crap out of it for the edge it gives before it’s “fixed” and then moving on to the next “broken” mechanic.

There are almost no instances of the pro players sticking with some “balanced” thing through the good times and bad instead of jumping all over what’s broken and overpowered in order to exploit the advantage it provides in the short term before moving ahead of the meta (incoming nerf) by looking for the next one to move on to.

Take a look at LoL, Braxxus. Their tournaments have had the widest range of champ selection for the past year than they ever had, and no one champ is being picked over and over and winning consistently. If they are, they get nerfed, and they can be countered anyway with banning. If the game is reasonably balanced to a 5-10% difference in effectiveness, there are no easy-win strats to abuse. But I agree, when there are, people abuse them to the max – and I can understand why when money is on the line.

I’m 100% sure the player posting this was a troll.
Those numbers are literally impossible UNLESS he was naked.

Nothing to see here.

Warrior with Fenzy up, Spacemayu. Doesn’t change the fact that Backstab crits for 10k.

Animosity.5231:

Take a look at LoL, Braxxus.

I will admit complete ignorance about LoL. I don’t follow it, never have (personally I just never found it very interesting/engaging to watch or play) so I will take your word on what goes on there.

The reason I used the whole " " around pro is because of the nature of “pros” in the MMO genre (and there’s the whole MMO combat genre as a competitive esport anyways, but that’s another rant). Take the big gun for example. I did the whole gladiator thing for years. Got my armor, title, mount, blah blah blah. I started out trying to play my preferred class in my preferred way. My friend did the same. Then we realized the nature of the beast and started running the most powerful cheese comp of the current patch and breezed our way to the rewards in 2’s and 3’s.

It wasn’t fun, but it worked. We then got to spec how we actually wanted to and go into the BG’s and world pvp with the gear and actually have fun. When we really wanted to faceroll we ended up re-rolling our class entirely to take advantage of the meta balance (sort of like what’s going on here in GW2 currently) and RMP’d our way to “1337” status.

I will say however that I am choosing to have more faith in ANet to step back and look at what’s going on in the meta, and WHY it’s going on and balance it than I ever had in the other game/company. I could be choosing to set myself up for disappointment but oh well.

Posting a screenshot of high damage without posting your build shows us nothing. Please leave a link to your build, or at least a quick rundown of your power/precision/toughness/vitality so that some of us might be able to help your build, or if not, it will actually expose imbalance. That screenshot is posting half of a story.

@Zunhar
Wait what? There is a bug/glitch for the stealth feature that doesn’t let us see thieves for another 2-3 seconds after they pop out of stealth? Your joking right? This can’t be right lol I mean I do realize thieves are extremely hard to catch (at least the good ones), but I think you better check your info again.

I agree, Braxxus. I know how competitive scenes work. It’s obvious that we all take the path of least resistance, and I too have faith that ANet will be able to balance properly with that in mind. My faith has been dwindling, though. We still have two week before paid tournaments come out for them to make balance changes, but so far they haven’t done too much. They might be waiting for paid tournaments for data collection; see what the top teams are running, and whether it’s too strong, and balance with that in mind.

STIMjim, there is currently a rendering problem with all stealth. After it wears off, they can be targeted but not seen for another couple of seconds. If you tab target you can get them, but you still can’t see them besides damage numbers and the red arrow indicating your target.

That rendering issue only applies in WvW afaik, and from my experience I have seen the issue only in WvW.

Also OP, you could be completely glass cannon for all we know, in which case those numbers aren’t as ridiculous as you have made them out to be. (Although, still quite ridiculous, coming from a Thief.)

Yes Backstab is really getting old now. What’s even more annoying is that they nerfed PW, yet didn’t touch the most broken skill a thief has, it’s more proof that Anet rarely ever PvP in their own game. Maybe next patch they will nerf Flanking Strike making more thieves migrate towards backstab.

Minachilles, I see it often enough in sPvP and tPvP, so do many others. I think you’re thinking of the distance loading problem, where the enemy zerg can be 10 feet away and invisible. That’s not what this is. If you spend most of your time in WvW, you’re obviously going to see it more often there. :P

And it doesn’t matter if the OP is a glass cannon because no other class or spec can put out that much damage in that amount of time. And the ones who even come close like 100B Warriors have a number counters besides dodging/invul. It’s too high no matter how you slice it.

For my last post on this topic..

Again, That screen shot shows something that should not be possible under any circumstance that I am not suffering from stacks and stacks of vulnerability(Even then, it shouldn’t be possible imo).

I do not need anyone’s help here. I understand I can spec FULLY into toughness, use toughness amulets, runes, etc, and lower that dmg, but I would be doing so for no other reason then thiefs. I would be doing so for one reason only. To survive a thief for a few seconds longer.

I also understand thiefs are my hard counter. However, there is no chance to even run in most cases as you can clearly see. In most cases you do not see them coming, nor do you get to see any part of this combo being executed. Your alive one second, and dead the next.

I am also fully aware of the current staff ele, heal/tank spec that would save my kitten in most of these situations. However, I also understand that, that Ele build is ALSO BS, and that the Devs are trying to allow for more diversity among all classes/specs.

I posted this so the devs could have a look at what is possible with the current build, and I think we can all agree, its quite ridiculous.

Again, I am not glass cannon, but I also do not spec into toughness. Yes thats possible, and no im not going to post my spec so you can argue over it. Beleive it or not, I know what Im doing. Its hardly the issue here.

Glass cannon with 0 armor against glass cannon that only has his burst and nothing else.. I would think less of the game if he did not 1shot you

Also.. Congratz for speccing into health instead of either toughness or dmg for yourself.. See that worked out fine

Ps.. I run ele staff but they will have to kill me if i ever use the standard tankbuild hey run now. Nothing worse then people copying specs

If no other class can do that burst, then if anyone wants a burst build why roll anything but a Thief? If you play a Thief, try to step back and see the larger picture. No one should be able to do that damage.

And he may have 11k HP, but he still has stealth and shadowsteps to retreat if he fails. If an Elementalist were to run 11k HP, not only would they be unable to put out that damage, but they also would die immediately because they don’t have stealth. Stealth is the best retreat simply because the enemy doesn’t know where you’re going. Apply the same concept to other classes.

Stealth is overrated… Its more of an inexperience issue then it is an problem

Animosity.5231:

Minachilles, I see it often enough in sPvP and tPvP, so do many others. I think you’re thinking of the distance loading problem, where the enemy zerg can be 10 feet away and invisible. That’s not what this is. If you spend most of your time in WvW, you’re obviously going to see it more often there. :P

And it doesn’t matter if the OP is a glass cannon because no other class or spec can put out that much damage in that amount of time. And the ones who even come close like 100B Warriors have a number counters besides dodging/invul. It’s too high no matter how you slice it.

I don’t spend most of my time in WvW, I spend most of my time in sPvP or tPvP and I do not encounter the issue in sPvP I haven’t heard any one complaining about it either in sPvP.

And of course it matters, I even said myself the number was too high but it absolutely matters if they are both glass cannons because it’s not painting the entire picture, it’s simply “Here is a number, nerf Thieves”. Backstab Thieves that aren’t specced into an absolutely gimmicky build don’t put out numbers any where near like the one in the screenshot.

Also OP you are unbelievably arrogant and single minded, if you perhaps took on some advice from others you would improve your game play, no matter how perfect you imagine you have got it down. Honestly if the Devs where to listen to the player base this game would have gone to pot already.

Lmao @ Warmage. Clearly you should add me in game and show me how its done, and when your done showing me how to play, Ill be posting the footage all over these forums, youtube, and twitch.

Ready, and waiting for your lesson sir..

Feel free to spout off ignorant, pointless arguments like “it’s an inexperience issue”. You’re not really helping your case, and you’re not exactly backing up any of your points – nor are you making points. I assume you’re a troll, but I’ll bite anyway.

Stealth is not overrated. Especially not combined with someone who also knows how to move while in stealth to juke. This is compounded by the current rendering issue. And if you’re looking to get out of the fight and re-open when your CD comes back, stealthing and using I-Arrow or another Shadowstep can easily ensure your escape. Bad Thieves stealth and stay in the same area, good Thieves stealth and move behind the target, since any smart opponent will begin attacking the area the Thief stealthed in. Sounds more like you’re inexperienced with stealth than your opponents if you think it’s overrated.

@Miniachilles

It still doesn’t matter because no other class has that gimmick build, or can put out those numbers. If everyone could do it, it would be balanced, but also a fragfest. Might as well play an FPS. If only one class can do it, it’s broken. In other words, if the best burst build is a Thief build, then why roll anything but a Thief for that role? Imbalance.

Try doing a forum search for stealth bug/exploit. You’ll find numerous complaints. Shutting your eyes to them doesn’t mean they aren’t there…

Animosity.5231:

Feel free to spout off ignorant, pointless arguments like “it’s an inexperience issue”. You’re not really helping your case, and you’re not exactly backing up any of your points – nor are you making points. I assume you’re a troll, but I’ll bite anyway.

Stealth is not overrated. Especially not combined with someone who also knows how to move while in stealth to juke. This is compounded by the current rendering issue. And if you’re looking to get out of the fight and re-open when your CD comes back, stealthing and using I-Arrow or another Shadowstep can easily ensure your escape. Bad Thieves stealth and stay in the same area, good Thieves stealth and move behind the target, since any smart opponent will begin attacking the area the Thief stealthed in. Sounds more like you’re inexperienced with stealth than your opponents if you think it’s overrated.

@Miniachilles

It still doesn’t matter because no other class has that gimmick build, or can put out those numbers. If everyone could do it, it would be balanced, but also a fragfest. Might as well play an FPS. If only one class can do it, it’s broken.

Try doing a forum search for stealth bug/exploit. You’ll find numerous complaints. Shutting your eyes to them doesn’t mean they aren’t there…

When did I say it wasn’t broken, heck when did I even imply that? By all means, this along with the rest of those unbelievably un-practical builds can be taken away, it means nothing to me, but it is still undeniable that the OP has not given the full story.

As for the rendering issue, I have simply not come across it in sPvP, not once but I know the issue and if it is happening to others in sPvP that is hardly the fault of the class.

First of all i want to notice i never have his rendering issue, outside of wvw everythi g renders and appears as it should for me.
Second of all, if a thief stealths and you allow them to ge behind you, you are doing something wrong. From the moment he stealths you should be dodging, laying down snares, and never stop running and turning for 1 second. Ofcourse as always you will need to make sure to have at least 1 spell that can absorb a small burst (immunity,teleport,block.. Anything) and aside from that have 1 conditionremoval or stunbreaker.
Do everything to keep him on distance or disabled, the trick is not to burst him.. Nor to fill him up with conditions.. The trick is to outlast him.

These numbers are unacceptable only because it can be dumped on anyone from an opener without warning, so it doesn’t take a lot of skill. I’d have no problem with this if it required the thief to engage the fight first and having to use abilities that hit for less in order to prepare their burst. People must be given a chance to counter such high damage. As it is right now, the thief opens up on you, if you react fast he won’t kill you but you’ll be at like 20% hps so you have to go instantly on the defensive without really much of a chance to fight back. I’ll often be able to kill a bad thief with 20% hps left, but a thief that plays as good as me, absolutely no chance in hell. Just don’t take it personal when you lose to an overpowered profession.

I did rather see Arenanet Fix alot of bugs first and after that look at the balance again though

My Ranger has 1.9k Toughness and still gets hit for 9-10k backstabs. That’s half my health (21k total HP) in one hit. Sure, it can be avoided with either a lucky dodge or a damage immune, but what if make one tiny mistake or your immune is on CD? They don’t have to wait as long as you for that damage combo to reset, even if it doesn’t hit as hard the second time around, it’s still a good 6-7k damage on someone spec’d for survival on a very low CD; how is that balanced?

One mistake while fighting a Thief with this build and you’re dead because you fall too far behind on damage. As mentioned before, some players can even dance in and out of stealth without ever being touched simply because of a bug. No other profession has THAT much of a risk:reward ratio.

People say that you can still hit the Thief while he’s stealth because it isn’t an immune, but it might as well be. How many of your hits do you think you’re going to land when you have no idea that you’re even hitting them in the first place? 98% of the time you’re not unless you’re running a lot of AE’s. That leaves Rangers with pretty much ONE build to fight thieves with; a trap condition build. We have no other options. That is not balance and that build imo isn’t really fun either.

Warmage Timeraider.5861:

First of all i want to notice i never have his rendering issue, outside of wvw everythi g renders and appears as it should for me.
Second of all, if a thief stealths and you allow them to ge behind you, you are doing something wrong. From the moment he stealths you should be dodging, laying down snares, and never stop running and turning for 1 second. Ofcourse as always you will need to make sure to have at least 1 spell that can absorb a small burst (immunity,teleport,block.. Anything) and aside from that have 1 conditionremoval or stunbreaker.
Do everything to keep him on distance or disabled, the trick is not to burst him.. Nor to fill him up with conditions.. The trick is to outlast him.

Please do what this man says if you’re ever on the other team and I’m on my thief. While you waste your two dodges mindlessly I will be waiting patiently to tag you with mug>backstab>DD>CnD. Please please save your entire utility bar to try and counter the backstab (this will mean my mesmer chum has a much easier time removing you from play since you will not have condi removal, stun breaker or CC available). And PLEASE try to “outlast” me as I have passive condi removal, regen, might gain and initiative regen while stealthed, combined with perma-vigor dodging and infinite blinds.

It’ll be fun, really.

Welcome to Thief Wars 2.

This problem is similar to SWTOR at release. Operatives were equally insta-gibbing people.

They fixed it in SWTOR within 30 days, and I would expect the same with Anet.

It’s just more drastic in GW2 because people can re-roll instantly. Anything OP like this immediately corrupts the PvP population.

They didn’t spend all that time programming different professions and abilities for everyone to be a BS Thief, so I’m sure they are aware of the issue.

All-in-all they have done an admirable job. MOA and thieves need immediate attention, but otherwise it’s just minor things here and there.

Please do what this man says if you’re ever on the other team and I’m on my thief. While you waste your two dodges mindlessly I will be waiting patiently to tag you with mug>backstab>DD>CnD. Please please save your entire utility bar to try and counter the backstab (this will mean my mesmer chum has a much easier time removing you from play since you will not have condi removal, stun breaker or CC available). And PLEASE try to “outlast” me as I have passive condi removal, regen, might gain and initiative regen while stealthed, combined with perma-vigor dodging and infinite blinds.
It’ll be fun, really.

Not sure if you’re openly admitting your own OP-ness or whether you actually believe you can “outlast” everyone, and that it’s balanced :/

On topic tho, surviving a backstab thief is pretty easy if you know they’re coming. If you don’t it’s usually pretty rough unless they kitten it up/you’re quick on your toes (fingers).

What IS stupid tho, is that they can do their whole burst while stealthed. This is what pisses me off most. You’re dead before they’re even visible.

Even if they mess up the rotation, it doesn’t take them long to reset it and you have to hope no one else comes into the fight AND that you don’t make a single mistake while trying to counter them.

Their reset time is much shorter than anyone else unless all you do is dodge, but even then you’re not avoiding that much damage and you’re probably loaded down with conditions to make your reset time longer anyway.

rainbowstylin.1358:

Not sure if you’re openly admitting your own OP-ness

^
This. I assumed there was enough lulzy sarcastic venom oozing from my post to make that obvious, lol. My thief is only 2nd to my mesmer in terms of faceroll. He has the tools needed to duel anyone 1v1 and win (including bunkers, just takes a bit longer) and in a team fight provides nigh infinite safe rez/stomps while dropping any non-bunker I see at 75% hp or less within a keystroke or two.

If I had access to portal and timewarp on my thief he’d push my mesmer out from the number 1 spot of my “go to” character for tourney chest farming.

Mind you I could theoretically do all this faster and more viciously on an elementalist, however it would require more effort. And frankly tourney’s are about getting the MOST REWARD FOR THE LEAST EFFORT, which keeps the ele (and my engi) in the 3rd/4th spots on my go to list. They are both far more fun playstyles though.

Oh, I totally got the sarcasm but it seemed to fade when the outlasting bit came up.

All thieves need is a tone down in burst and for stealth to actually reveal upon attacking. I’d even be happy to only be granted the second, if not for the fact that if 2 thieves are actively coordinating, you actually can’t do anything at all ever no matter your class.
No other class can do this.

“I’m 100% sure the player posting this was a troll.
Those numbers are literally impossible UNLESS he was naked.”

Nonsense. I was in tpvp running a condition build with my engineer, 17k hp, just under 1700 toughness. I was one shotted twice in the same game by backstab, first one was just over 17k, 2nd just under 19k.

I asked the guy about it during the match, and he explained it was just a “ kitten build” he was messing around with, and that if messed up the set up and execution of it, he’s a sitting duck.

I asked the guy about it during the match, and he explained it was just a “ kitten build” he was messing around with, and that if messed up the set up and execution of it, he’s a sitting duck.

Pretty much this, atleast from my experience. Every thief who has ever kittened his combo up on me has felt it pretty hard (D/D Ele).

Yeah, you blow all your CDs for one second of glory, and then you die. But it does put a smile on your face before you do
I don’t mind the thieves, most are just fodder. The mesmers annoy me to no end though.

Fight fire with fire, make a thief x’ D

I have 2,200 toughness on my character and that combo still takes off a large chunk of my health.

The thing is… In order to get that kinda toughness I gave up a chunk of health. So what does it matter.

You either have high health and get hit for a lot of your HP pool % wise.
or
You have high toughness and get hit for a lot of your (smaller) HP pool % wise.
or
You have high health and high toughness and your damage is totally crap.

Where is the balance?

BWE2 is still by far, the best state this game was in.

I want to guess that your “skill recharging” was either your stun-breaker or your heal?

The backstab combo… Yea.. Im a thief… and I agree it needs something to fix it.

Its hard to pull off and leaves your character like crap when cooling down, but still…

The 150% damage signet is the culprit here – I expect a nerf on that soon

there is however 1 easy way for me to avoid all damage without moving, stun breaking or dodging tho. Blind the area I am standing in (I use 5 with pistol/pistol thief). Youll need to know its coming tho, which isnt to hard if you aware of your surroundings

Again nerfing the signet will cause a ripple effect. It will not be worth using if you are not anything but a glass cannon

Congrats. you died from a very difficult combo to pull off. That is if you didn’t stop moving when the theif stealthed. Oherwise you had a big bullseye on your back that says “STAB HERE”