Guild Wars 2

I’ve been experimenting (or tying to anyway) with arcane thievery during my now frequent encounters with vet karkas in the hopes of stealing their retaliation. I’m in range, but not once have I been able to accomplish this. In fact, the skill doesn’t seem to work consistently at all.

At first I wondered if you had to have three conditions on you to steal anything, but that’s not the case apparently. Are the stolen boons random? Even if a mob has exactly three boons, I’ve never gotten retaliation.

Can anyone shed some light on this and the skill in general? Is it broken and I’m the only mesmer who didn’t know that?

you cant steal boons with no timer on them. some mobs have passive always on boons, you can’t steal those.

It’s broken, has been that way since launch.

That being said some mobs have ‘boons’ which aren’t really boons and cant be ripped or stolen.

Because who needs logic.

So in other words, null field is a better option for staying alive?

clipnotdone.9634:

It’s broken, has been that way since launch.

That being said some mobs have ‘boons’ which aren’t really boons and cant be ripped or stolen.

Because who needs logic.

But some boons, when ripped, defy logic. It’s possible to get stacks of permanent Might in HotW. If you have 2 Mesmers, you can then make it 25 stacks and everyone in the party will have 25 stacks. These do get overridden by players throwing Might on other people.

Dexlmentia.7391:

So in other words, null field is a better option for staying alive?

Against karka, reflects are king. Take a traited focus, feedback, and mimic.

You can reflect basic attacks, you can reflect that green poison, the immobilize attacks. You can reflect them laying eggs even. You just have to watch out for their big physical attacks and use blurred frenzy to dodge them.

I run Arcane Thievery 100% of the time on my Mesmer and have absolutely NO issue stealing Karkas prot, regen, retal and stability.

Are you sure that:

1) the karka is in front of you
2) a thief, or another prof, isn’t stealing or removing the boons before you can
3) that the karka is NOT evading
4) you are not interrupting your own cast
5) the karka actually has the boon up.

I’ve been stealing their 50s of prot, stability and retal all month and have been LOVING it, so it’s not the skill, it’s the user, I’ve used this skill in both PvE and PvP and have had absolutely no issues with it.

Arcane Thievery trivia:

- Fails when invulnerable target (invul, evade, block)
- Fails when blind

- Does only steal boons “archieveable by players” (by other means)
- Does only steal boons with a white border (timer)
- Does only transfer conditions “causeable by players” (by other means)
- Does only transfer conditions with a white border (timer)
- Does only transfer conditions to non-environmental targets (living things)
- “Removing conditions” only happens on successful “tranfering”
- Stealing boons and transfering conditions are individual actions

Personally:
I only use AThievery on mobs with high timers.
I use Inspiration IV for condition cleansening. Condition Mantra only if necessary.
I use iDisenchanter or cSword for ripping boons.

I actually think karka retaliation is a “real” boon. This weekend ive been stripping retaliation on those big karkas with mind stab.

I still need all the karka achievements… Hope i still have time today :’(

Yep, totally stealable with Thievery.
The main trick is while they set it up, they are evading. So you have to wait for them to get back to their normal stance before stealing. Otherwise, Thievery will go on CD without effect.

I use this skill a lot, and I have to say it is very stable in it’s behaviour. It isn’t explicit on why it fail, but there always is a reason (mainly those listed bu Durzlla and Nretep).

Generally you’re better off with Null Field because it’s AoE and it can’t be blocked, dodged etc… alternatively illusionary disenchanter, especially in pve.

Idk why people are saying Arcane Thievery can be blocked, the skill literally says it’s unblockable, which is exactly why you can steal aegis with it.

I think it is because all cause of skill failing but block affect AT, so when listing, blocking is included, out of habit. Plus, it wasn’t always unblockable (it became so a few patch in after release, iirc).

Elidath.5679:

I think it is because all cause of skill failing but block affect AT, so when listing, blocking is included, out of habit. Plus, it wasn’t always unblockable (it became so a few patch in after release, iirc).

Oh i know it didn’t -used- to be, but now that it can’t be blocked it should be considered as such. Otherwise you just confuse people

I remember in BWE2 when I Arcane Thievery could steal 3 boons, including those that are champion specific. I can’t bare to use the skill now because it just pales in comparison to how awesome it use to be.

Crossplay.2067:

I remember in BWE2 when I Arcane Thievery could steal 3 boons, including those that are champion specific. I can’t bare to use the skill now because it just pales in comparison to how awesome it use to be.

Remember when it was first introduced and was bugged so you could steal transformations too? Oh stealing an eles tornado and necros lich/plague form… How I miss you… (God they cracked down on that fast though)

Durzlla.6295:

I run Arcane Thievery 100% of the time on my Mesmer and have absolutely NO issue stealing Karkas prot, regen, retal and stability.

Are you sure that:

1) the karka is in front of you
2) a thief, or another prof, isn’t stealing or removing the boons before you can
3) that the karka is NOT evading
4) you are not interrupting your own cast
5) the karka actually has the boon up.

I’ve been stealing their 50s of prot, stability and retal all month and have been LOVING it, so it’s not the skill, it’s the user, I’ve used this skill in both PvE and PvP and have had absolutely no issues with it.

I’ve also spent the past few weeks stealing these boons from Karka, you just have to make sure you activate it at the right time. Then with Signet of Inspiration you can share the boons with everyone