Guild Wars 2

I’ve been running with some random thieves in Borderlands, we evetually met a zerg by south east tower. Shadow refuging and equiping dagger storm, we managed to actually wipe 3/4 of the zerg instantly! Ofc there were some guard, wars, and rangers that had sos, renewed focus and ep, we eventually died, but it is still effective for only 5 measley thieves. We began expirimenting with combo fields to pair with dagger storm, i.e black powder blinds, poison fields and shadow refuge healing bolts. It sounds unintelligent for 5 thieves against a zerg but i would like suggestions on how to make this better. Maybe pair with an ele for the insane amounts of burning stacks and heals?

Woodenpotatoes made a video about this. It is slightly dated, but still works.

The comb is basically ele + ele + thief + guard. Thief uses venomshare for basilisk venom and devourer venom, and sometimes skelk venom. Thief also provides shadow refuge. Basically it goes like this:

1. Everybody buffs up and stealths to a zerg who’s sitting on a point.
   #2: Everyone grabs an ice bow.
   #3: The guardian warps inside and proceeds to “tank” the zerg, refusing to grant the zerg the capture point.
   #4: Everyone simultaneously drops ice bow #4 onto the group.
   #5: Bags rain from the sky.

However, as for what you are doing… I’ve never seen it done before myself. I can never find a group coordinated enough. But I can theorycraft.

#1: Signet of Malice is necessary. The healing it provides along with dagger storm is awesome.

#2: it is a little known fact that, because most venoms are instant activation, they can be used in the middle of dagger storm without interrupting. If you guys are using condi or hybrid builds, venomshare can boost your damage by quite a bit. Stagger the venoms 1 after the other, and you’ll effectively have 25 uses of those venoms in about 8 seconds. A total of 150 applications of spider venom amounts to 900 ticks of poison spread throughout the zerg, at base.

#3: Yes, an ele would be good to group with. This isn’t necessarily for burning, but for might. An ele can drop a fire field and then blast it repeatedly, giving the whole group long duration might and fury. In full zerk that amounts to a 28% increase in direct damage, and 220% increase in the damage done by bleed (110 to 350 or so). It is important that you’ll want to have the ele out of team, because the loss of an additional dagger storm means a 25% reduced damage from the burst, making all the buffs you receive to be very minor overall. Even if you can’t get group fury on everyone from the ele, thieves can still blast a ton of might with their shortbows.

#4: I can’t really give advice on which field to use without experimentation. Immediately I would say dark field, since those leeching bolts both do damage and generate health. But a smoke field would ensure more survival, and last longer than a dark field. So… depends on what you need I guess.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

Woodenpotatoes made a video about this. It is slightly dated, but still works.

The comb is basically ele + ele + thief + guard. Thief uses venomshare for basilisk venom and devourer venom, and sometimes skelk venom. Thief also provides shadow refuge. Basically it goes like this:

1. Everybody buffs up and stealths to a zerg who’s sitting on a point.
   #2: Everyone grabs an ice bow.
   #3: The guardian warps inside and proceeds to “tank” the zerg, refusing to grant the zerg the capture point.
   #4: Everyone simultaneously drops ice bow #4 onto the group.
   #5: Bags rain from the sky.

However, as for what you are doing… I’ve never seen it done before myself. I can never find a group coordinated enough. But I can theorycraft.

#1: Signet of Malice is necessary. The healing it provides along with dagger storm is awesome.

#2: it is a little known fact that, because most venoms are instant activation, they can be used in the middle of dagger storm without interrupting. If you guys are using condi or hybrid builds, venomshare can boost your damage by quite a bit. Stagger the venoms 1 after the other, and you’ll effectively have 25 uses of those venoms in about 8 seconds. A total of 150 applications of spider venom amounts to 900 ticks of poison spread throughout the zerg, at base.

#3: Yes, an ele would be good to group with. This isn’t necessarily for burning, but for might. An ele can drop a fire field and then blast it repeatedly, giving the whole group long duration might and fury. In full zerk that amounts to a 28% increase in direct damage, and 220% increase in the damage done by bleed (110 to 350 or so). It is important that you’ll want to have the ele out of team, because the loss of an additional dagger storm means a 25% reduced damage from the burst, making all the buffs you receive to be very minor overall. Even if you can’t get group fury on everyone from the ele, thieves can still blast a ton of might with their shortbows.

#4: I can’t really give advice on which field to use without experimentation. Immediately I would say dark field, since those leeching bolts both do damage and generate health. But a smoke field would ensure more survival, and last longer than a dark field. So… depends on what you need I guess.

Thanks for the suggestions, i really wanna create a group for this that can cordinate through voice comm. I also saw the woodenpotatoes strategy, it inspired me to make this. btw the signet of malice helped a lot

anyone from maguuma wanna try this out ?

I have done this before, but that’s years ago. Our tactic was 2 thieves, both using dagger storm. Opening, one of us used his SR. We then used the DS in Smoke Screen, comboing for blinding projectiles. Smoke screen has a 7 second duration, and will also reflect any projectiles. After the initial attack (downing several enemies), we would then shadowstep out and enter another shadow refuge. Then we’d just hunt targets who had dropped low and continue downing and stealthstomping. Weaponsets s/d – d/d or d/p.

If you’re coordinated enough, set up a murder site with some thoughtfully hidden seige, and have them chase you (it’s not hard when they realize it’s 5 coordinated thieves).

Baiting them to locations you pick is key., multi DS combos, you need some venom share, a few condis to share them, and a throw gunk handy. Stagger them enough so you can each drop a new field until you’re all spinning to win. You know the combos, be seeking out your steal targets while you’re spinning for quick clusters into ranger trees or more spin to win power based with warriors.