Guild Wars 2

As its a common subject on our forums I deccided to make a movie about how I usualy handle thiefs. I picked fights in some cases where i do some misstakes and for examle dont get to finnish the thief of as moa, or clips where the thief clearly attack 1st or notice me and use hes cd,s. This is intentional as its more interesting than 10 clips of how somone stomp thiefs who get caught half hp or with back against the attacker.

www.judge-guild.net
wvwvw guild who fight in smal group max 15 and go behind enemy lines. Still searching for 1 or 2 new members.

To answer the pm,s and mails about spec and so I play 10_30_0_0_30 idd. 20% mw dmg , Pistol cd, sword cd and clone on dodge, 50% =? shatter reset, 3% dmg\clone and effect on self.

The spec is linked and explained in the other vids that I have on my Youtube account.

I appreciate the effort but those thieves were beyond terrible. In a tournament with you playing like that vs a half decent thief you would get annihilated.

A mesmer’s only chance vs a decent thief (I assume backstab since its broken) is to stunbreak/distortion his opener (mirror images if you have it then smash distortion) then kill him when he is out of initiative. Getting phantasmal duelist on him is also crucial (after distortion). Note that this is only 50/50 at best, if you see him coming and are ready to react – there is still a chance you will just get instagibbed.

Don’t forget the change to assassin’s signet to 15% over 5 hits instead of 50 on 1.

The backstab combo still does about 29k damage on squishy targets. That is way more than a mesmer’s hp. It is still broken.

Edit: Hence your only hope is distortion and getting your heal off, then restarting the fight on even terms.

Well arguably you’re now at the advantage because his reliance was on that initial opener and he also has to reset.

I argue some here

Ehtom i call you false, no single hit do 29 k and if its idd a combo like you say its several hits and you theirfore get time to use some of your many stun brakers and dmg immunitys. If the thief class is broken or not i leav to another thread for discussion this is about if we can kill them even after we mess initial part up. Also you point at huge dmg spike backstab is the typical turnament thief, I kinda sure they not even before the change was the biggest part of teh specces used. The typical backstab thief was louring in random spvp hitting ppl who then went to forums qq about nerfs.

Asterisk, idd I 100% agree, for the backstab thief who lean to a 1st huge dmg spike hit its now spread ower 5 attacks and we got time to hit immunitys etc. Also add their unbrakebal stun now can be broken.

Also last note, guess i can direct it to Ehtom, the video is fights piced just cause its not perfect gameplay from me, the vids where a burst mesmer get stun etc in from start the fight is ower so fast its not educational or even fun to watch.

I kinda stole the idea what a thief does when they wanna finish someone cloaked.

Right before I finish someone with my mesmer, I pop a decoy that makes a clone and I’m stealthed and I just walk up to them finish them while invis.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;9;9;9;09T;0T5;039B;425y is this the spec?

no sorry, here is the build I generaly use http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8alwzaqHTzoGZ9ICqHYH49dkK0alewbXYuB;TUAg0CnssY8xGCA

need to copy pastle it btw, just click give bad link

Thanks. I´ve been running taugrims legion, but wanted to try a cookie cutter shatter as well.

I really enjoy your videos and I am slowly transitioning from condition mesmer to shatter mesmer thanks to you and your playstyle which works very well in world vs world

Just two questions:

1- What stats am I looking for? Power and Crit? Is 40% crit chance good enough or do I need more? What about condition damage?

2- Is there a big reason I should pick compounding power (3% more damage per ilusion) over Precise Wrack (+10% crit chance on mind wrack) ? For a build focused on shatters, id imagine 10% more crit chance on my main damage source would be essential

Thanks in advance

Ty alot and glad you like my vids, Just ended a fantastic night whener we with a 8 man team killed up to 20 man zergs using 2 mesmers with timewarp, thief cloak and portals. Recorded alot of it and will post a vid later.

I do mainly hardcore wvwvw in a tight group of 8-15 players behind enemy lines teams and always run with 10-30-0-0-30 spec. I on sieges change to reflection on distorsion istead of 50% hp shatter reset.

Shatter is extremly effective in wvwvw if you run in a team or if you go outside the grid. remmeber to always carry a focus ofr better run speed unless you like me is in a group with constant buffs running. You need a focus anyway for pulls of walls etc but remeber to see it as a utility for special occations. same with GS carry one for sieges.

1-Stats, tbh go crit and crit dmg + power, the longer you run the spec the better you will become on read incomming attacks and hit distorsion, sword 2 or generaly move out. Its important to not see it like a glass cannon spec and same time remmeber your survival not is based on your ability to take hits. Its based on the use of utilitys, skills and movment. 2 sec sword + 4 sec disorsion, staff armour + chaos field and then 4 sec disorsion at 50% hp heal up an back on sword 2 etc and you can spend ALOT of time almost without take dmg.

Condition dmg is less important in my opinion as you want big crits and have the condition as a bonus, also 30 points in chaos give some. still a full shater burst leav enemy with 12~+ confusion the secs they hit back witch give 2k + confuison dmg and finnish alot of ppl of.

2- The 3% dmg / cone is better of several reasons. First as it apply on AL your dmg withc include your own shatters. Testing done seem to show 1st shatters (yours + 1st clone) apply 9% extra dmg, 2nd clone 6% and last 3%. Also your BF and pistol dmg is a nice extra part. I tend to let phantasm hit as same time as sword 2 hit and then shatter, give phantasm dmg + sword + 4 shatters and then insta 3 confusion shatters. It hit hard with 9% up alot of time.

gl on your shatter testing If ever feel squishy in 1 vs 1 try out 0-20-20-0-30, its amazing.

Hum, so this old 10/20/0/20/20 GS Sword/Pistol phantasm build would be a bad idea against, heck most fights I seem to get into. I feel like I want at least 20 into Dom for GS trait with 20 into Dueling for the clone on dodge. And while Fury and Regeneration overwrite each other it’s better not to get those two clashing traits.

Course, running around in WvW large group fights are hard to determine what’s working in the build and what isn’t.

Tbh i think best way to find a good spec that work for you is to experiment and try different ones. I dont claim My to best in any way but for me its fantastic. It have a extreme good survival at same time as the burst destroy Ppl literaly. I have notised thu that if i play in pvp on a position i might get attacked by several enemys and want to survive untill My team come 0-20-20-0-30 is usefull. This as extra staff, less dmg and thoughtness. In al other situation i prefere 10-30-0-0-30.

Yea the CD reduction for both sword and pistol would be big against thieves, with extra invuln and the daze up. Illusionary persona works for having to daze without a clone out, and the staff is just that tanky.

Well as long as retaliation and regeneration from the 4th line don’t work, I should move those 10 points into dueling and get CD on both the sword and pistol just for thieves.

Because thieves suck.

Also see the cd reduction as survival as skills on those two weps lock thievs down effectivly. Feel fre to experement with traits aswell, retaiation on cry of frustration do cause alot of …. frustration .)

Osicat.4139:

hardcore wvwvw

Why are these 2 words in the same sentence?

cause some ppl focus their efforts in different aspects of the game. kinda sure we can call the ppl spend 6 hours aday farm orr hardcore farmers. a guild who go in for wvwvw with voice com, setup teams and classes, trategy and focus and who recrout and theorycraft for maximum effectness in wvwvw is in my opinion a hardcore wvwvw guild, even if you mabye just go in zerg around and qq that your class dont farm well enought :-p

Hello! I have a few questions regarding battles vs thieves and the weapon set in general.
- I usually come across thieves that stack condition damage. I can survive their initial burst fine and remove the conditions with null field but soon enough the thief will be back again re-applying his stacks and I’m just left to bleed to death as he dances in stealth. I see in your vid you don’t even use null field or any condition remover, how do you handle condition builds?
- I also wanted to know how you feel about chasing people with that weapon set. It’s what I use in spvp actually but in wvw I would imagine people can get away easily from you without the pull (focus) or crippe (GS). Any input?

Hi turist, yes conditions need to be handeled abit different. Here we need to separate wvwvw and sPvp tactics in my oppinion. Yes in the vid i dont use null field or at, still I do use it when its needed. As you mention some setups leav you in spvp with a condition enemy and if i fast run into one or get report there is one i simply trade decoy for it. In wvwvw thu its less off a problem with condition enemys and portal usage is so huge that i simply cant go at/null.

About chase down and focus/gs, I use the tools I have and can ensure you its rather effective with staff. 2 (mark any npc hehind u and u got a 2nd blink) chaos field (often give speed) sword and pistol traited for shorter cd, sword cripple and swap, pistol stun. Also bink and portal. I dont say it always work in solo Wvwvw some classes like thief outspeed u in wvwvw but still same classes roflstomp me if i used gs and focus in this build. Still i often kill thiefs as not al feel they want to run. pls see thw solo mesmer 1 vs x effective wvwvw vid on tube or in this forumsthread for more ideas.

ps in my guildruns we have 2 thiefs who run down runners if needed. still we hit stuff so hard and fast we usualy dont need to. Last nights guildrun, 500+ kills with a 15 man team divided in 3 teams with 1 mesmer in each a guardian and athief in each aswell. Portal attacked zergs any number and killed what we landed on and portaled out. we did it from 2030- server reset (;

Truth is, if a Thief gets the jump on you, it is gg.

9 times out of 10 anyways.

I would say this is not fully true Tamek, mabye if you already low on hp and no clue its a thief around. But if you know he lurking , you see house of stealth or he comming closer then stealth and you feel a itching in your back there is alot you can do. rReactions help, so do staff, decoy, sword 2, shatter nr 4 and shatter nr 3.

I dunno man, I have been basically one shoot from Thiefs with a backstab combo that takes my 23k life away in no time flat. Mind you though, I am not vit/tough built.

The fact that they can consume all your life almost the instant they come out of stealth is a little unbalanced, even still with the few adjustments they have had.

They die just as fast, MV and sword 2 often is enought to get them donw and dont forget thiefs HATE confusion, they literly hate it. Also nearly 100% of the times you have atleast a hunch or sign that a thief is around, and time to get some immunity up in my opinion, In bigger fights this is harder but here you anyway have immunitys up etc and the backstab insta glascannon thiefs are not as viable with al aoe going down. They go dagger storm in this instead and and there are other ways to deal with.

I dont say its a perfect “do this to win” for teh matchup just saying its not impossible or even wery unbalanced classes between. I kill more thiefs in wvwvw than thiefs kill me thu.

Kind of ironic because I just had a 1v2 versus a thief and a ranger in wvw. Best way to take down thieves is to use distortion right when their big attack chain is coming. You negate incoming damage and waste their initiative. After that, since their in melee range, I burst with blurred frenzy and shatter combo with 3 clones plus the additional effect that it has on myself, making it effectively 4 mind wrack shatters, and boom. You have a dead thief. And anyone else in range will have taken some of the AoE damage as well.

@ Osticat.
I watched your videos and love them, i ALWAYS die to thieves but can beat all the others 80% of the time.
Untill tonight
I just had 4 fights almost straight in a row against thieves and won every one of them lol.

My weapons are GS then S/P
My build is 0/30/15/20/5

I take mostly the healing and mantra traits (i can give a link to the exact build if anyone wants it)
Im in Cleric armor and knights jewelry.

I watched Osicat’s vids and tried to recreate what he was doing but i just couldnt. I either died in seconds, or i managed to drag the fight out for a while but still died without getting the thief below 50%.
I realised that my reactions wheren’t fast enough and the rendering issues didnt help either. So i went for a Power/toughness/healing build using mantras and it works a treat for me. I can stand in AoE and stomp a player without getting hurt too badly.

Thieves take me to 60% on their opener (glass cannon spec) then i hit decoy and heal to full and spank them.
A condition thief died without getting me below 80%, condition removal on heal and the state removing mantras are awesome. I waited till he hit me with 9 bleeds while fighting him then simply removed them.

My build isn’t anything like yours and my weapon choice and playstyle are different but you showed me that i didnt have to run every time i saw a thief.
Tnx Osticat

Cheers mate, exactly what i try to reach, I dont have the magic spec that sort i for ppl, I just found a way that work for me. What do is clear thu both for bigger fight in wvwvw and in 1-2 vs 1 is that if you show your back and run you lose one way or another. you have alot bigger chance by attack, move in unpredictabe ways. Fake a run, drop a portal and portal behin folower etc etc, agressor have the owerhand as he contoll the fight and force the other to react.

Also ty for support, I keep post my vids, just that when you go public I discovered you draw some heat

I wouldn’t worry about drawing heat too much mate.
Its easy to hate, its easy to criticise and its easy to ridicule someone.

Putting yourself out there is way harder, and offering proof of what you are saying is harder.