Guild Wars 2

and whats the weakness of this combo? so OP

Its 3 hit, C&D, mug and backstab. It just looks like a one shot because its all released one after another in 2 sec span. ( plus he has to activate signet )

Weakness is, if you survive, thief will probably die, because he burnt his cd’s and he cant restealth.
What you can do is either pop the -33% dmg utility skill, mist form, dodge if ure fast and thats about it. Its not that easy to do the rotation as a thief either, so many thiefs might fail too. Also, suggestion could be to move all the time, and never ever stop. Its a hard one as elementalist against thief

Weakness of this combo is that they are the true essence of glass cannon, and are not OP in the slightest given the fact that they can only pull this off once every 45seconds and on a squishy target. It’s a gimmick specc.

Because they are overpowered.

It is pretty OP. Most thieves I’ve seen that fight using this or other burst combos play strictly hit and run. They run in burn their combo and escape with stealth. Having bunker builds with roaming spike builds is probably the easiest strategy to get a lot of effectiveness out of. The thief is really good at roaming and spiking due to their burst, stealth, and mobility. They just roam around looking for squishies or other people engaged and spike down enemies their allies are in combat with.

From what I’ve seen and experienced 2 Bunker oriented and 2 Roaming oriented builds with a 5th build being whatever suits your group of 5 is the only viable way to do PvP currently.

For comparison: whirlpool has a 4x longer cooldown (180 seconds), takes longer to cast than this combo takes to execute, deals the damage over a much longer period, self-cripples the ele and locks out other skills, only works underwater, and it does not have the benefit of opening while stealthed.

It took a 33% damage nerf.

I’m still not seeing a good argument why thieves should escape the nerf bat.

ATMAvatar.5749:

For comparison: whirlpool has a 4x longer cooldown (180 seconds), takes longer to cast than this combo takes to execute, deals the damage over a much longer period, self-cripples the ele and locks out other skills, only works underwater, and it does not have the benefit of opening while stealthed.

It took a 33% damage nerf.

I’m still not seeing a good argument why thieves should escape the nerf bat.

They shouldn’t escape it. People always argue cooldowns, but if I had an instakill button with a 2 minute cooldown, it’s not OP because there’s a cooldown, AMIRITE?

Also, Is it true that Elementalists have lower base health than pretty much every other class? I’ve only played 2 classes so I can’t tell :P

Elementalists have the same base health as thieves and guardians.

ATMAvatar.5749:

For comparison: whirlpool has a 4x longer cooldown (180 seconds), takes longer to cast than this combo takes to execute, deals the damage over a much longer period, self-cripples the ele and locks out other skills, only works underwater, and it does not have the benefit of opening while stealthed.

It took a 33% damage nerf.

I’m still not seeing a good argument why thieves should escape the nerf bat.

This, exactly.

No class/spec should be able to (effectively) 1-shot under any circumstances. It’s the purest definition of a skill-less game.

Haette.2701:

Elementalists have the same base health as thieves and guardians.

But, unfortunately, we lack the Armor of those two (Thief doesn´t have that of an advantage because of medium armor, but he has very good avoidance/stealth mechanics)

You guys have pretty solid defense skills, though. As a thief one of the classes I take longer to kill in SPVP is a good bunker elementalist.

I think the problem with elementalists is that they still have a lot of bugs and skills not working as intended. Still, a well played elementalist is one of – if not THE – most powerful class in the game because he can do and counter pretty much everything. You guys have all the classes in your hand.

Well the 2 hit combo is using Steal with the stealth on steal trait + Mug for burst dmg, followed by an immediate back stab.

If the thief wants to make sure he get’s his combo off, usually it will go :

Start casting Cloak and Dagger, pop Devourer Venom (immobilize)
Steal (mug hits) to target, immobilizes, CnD lands.
Pop 150% signet (+ 5x might) Backstab crit.

If you’re squishy enough for this to down you (as an ele it probably will) you’re just going to have to hope you see it coming and react fast enough using a cooldown. Your next bet could be popping Static Aura to stun them as they mug/CnD you which could buy you time.

Also do not believe the people that say the thief is vulnerable and useless after missing the combo, not true at all. It’s incredibly easy to escape even if you have no utility cooldowns (should have Shadowstep anyway), and I can just continue sitting on people auto attacking for a ton of dmg til I redo the combo, or heal and redo the combo, or just spam heartseeker.

Basically, if they catch you off guard (kind of the point of the spec) there’s not much you can do (Arcane Shield proc trait might help though), if you do, just do your best to kite them, dodge after they stealth and just burn them down.

Oh, and blind field’s can help too. The Glyph of Storm (Earth) is decent, if you drop that after they stealth it can probably help, though it only tics every 2 seconds I believe, and just whiffing back stab in the air removes the blind, better than nothing. Or just any kind of quick aoe cc.

I wish all thiefs played this style, its so easy to counter!! Hmm.. I see a thief comming.. hmm.. I see him putting on poisons…

From this point on you can:
A. LoS
B. Dodge Roll/Move around
C. Burn a defensive cd

Once thief unstealths/wastes combo: auto win every time

Knote I am curious of something.

Your method relies on stealth via steal, yet you are not relying on the stealth via steal. Cloak and Dagger is hardly worth the damage. It’s used for stealth. If you are stealthing on steal, why C&D and then backstab when you can c&D after the backstab and then backstab again.

I was explaining how people do the combo with only 2 hits, using stealth on steal.

I don’t use stealth on steal, using CnD + Steal is much better, alot more dmg.

Ah. Gotcha. Thanks: )

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