Guild Wars 2

No suggestions on how to fix it from me, and honestly I think it should just be scrapped completely and replaced by something else. Seriously it is a one-and-a-half second stun on a nearly two minute cool-down. That is an elite skill? Pistol Whip is a stun followed by a ton of damage and no recharge, what does that make it? Some kind of “Ultra Legendary Cosmic Skill of Godliness?” Maybe someone knows something I don’t, but Basilisk Venom strikes me as by far the weakest elite skill in the game.

2 min cooldown? Its 45 secs….

Puandro.3245:

2 min cooldown? Its 45 secs….

Perhaps it simply feels longer. Either way it is still vastly inferior to a non elite skill.

Well, no. It’s pretty much on par with the other Venoms. Though the other Venoms are far from great.
It’s basically just a 4th Utility.

It’s by far the best elite skill for theives. Timed with a D/D burst it can be the end of someone.

Other than fighting a boss, I typically carry Dagger Storm.

What makes this worthy of an Elite slot is Venom Aura. In a coordinated party or group, you can literally freeze someone in place until they die.

Another reason why it is an Elite, not because of its power level, but it seems that Anet don’t want us using this with Dagger Storm.

Anet do this a lot in GW1. They place something as Elite because they don’t want it to be combined with another Elite skill by a single profession.

Try it with signet of malice and mad king runes. The cooldowns sync perfectly and make it a much better heal than your actual heals in any situation where you’re fighting 4+ targets.

Professor Sensei.2941:

It’s by far the best elite skill for theives. Timed with a D/D burst it can be the end of someone.

if this is better than thieves guild…idk what ur doing lol. umm it is very very very verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry useful and was “almost” OP when thieves actually had a good burst. now its basically a 4th utility. should be on 30 sec timer considering its an elite in MY opinion. 45 secs is fair….30 would make it an elite. even 35 is ok.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Other than fighting a boss, I typically carry Dagger Storm.

What makes this worthy of an Elite slot is Venom Aura. In a coordinated party or group, you can literally freeze someone in place until they die.

Another reason why it is an Elite, not because of its power level, but it seems that Anet don’t want us using this with Dagger Storm.

Anet do this a lot in GW1. They place something as Elite because they don’t want it to be combined with another Elite skill by a single profession.

srrry….. what does this mean?

Aww, sweet memorys… This skill used to last just one second but you couldn’t break it…

You ever roll stunbreaks?

Travlane.5948:

Professor Sensei.2941:

It’s by far the best elite skill for theives. Timed with a D/D burst it can be the end of someone.

if this is better than thieves guild…idk what ur doing lol.

thieves guild is the worst utility in the game, from a pvp point of view of course.
But probably you are talking of pve, for that thieves guild is an awsome dps booster.

thieves guild is great in pvp too. seriously. it soaks up backstabs and dmg that wouldn normally hit you….. blinds enemy…..pulls enemy…..great dmg on enemy…..and lasts 20 secs. mathmatically there is no elite skill thieves have that compare. Daggerstorm is slow…leaves you very susceptible towards melee dmg as you cant avoid it block it or dodge it or even reduce it…..and the dmg on it is horrible unless you ahve liek 30 targets….if you have only 2 targets it rarely hits more than 2-3 times in those 8 seconds. basilisk venom was the only"comparable skill and that was before all our bursts were nerfed. now it only gives you like a free 2k dmg. (2 critical auto attacks)….. some could argue that it allows you to set up CND to BS but steal does that better than BV. ur better off rolling devourer and hit from behind and pop thieves guild while invis. i doubt anyone will say other than you…that thieves guild is the worst utility in game. i think the worst utility goes to scorpion wire or shadow trap.

I don’t know why people hate on Scorpion Wire so much. It should be better, certainly; it has too long a recharge and is too easily avoided. But it is still extremely useful in certain circumstances.
Yank people off keep walls in WvW to get slaughtered, yank people into the heart of your group or far off a point in SPvP.
Under more common circumstances you can either close a 1200 yard gap and stun your target for some burst, or stop a fleeing foe.

eh….its a pvp only skill really…if they doubled the knockdown it’d be considered in one of my builds.

Thieves of thief guild are easy to avoid\predict, terribly squishy, also they are on a very long cd..
if only we could have an active control of the thieves skills, blind and scorpion wire, it could be a much better elite (something like rangers can do with their pets skills or Necro with his “summon flesh golem” elite).
In its current state this elite sucks against every experienced player

@kolly u know…i never thought of that. its actually quite an amazing idea! you should go start a thread about that right now! especially for a 2 min cooldown….control should be included.

that aside their AI is actually pretty good. they dont always use there skills right away but wait for a moment when ur standing still(scorp wire) and up close(black powder shot) which is rather impressive.

squishy isnt really an issue as people never target them on purpose and if they do thats great for the thief. saves HP and deals extra dmg.

from a defensive PoV it now gives you full defense mode bc u have 2 thieves attacking you and both with CC so you never know when the real one is going to pop up . high anxiety situation basically….so may things coming at you and trying to avoid burst is a tough spot to be in.

I use it in some situations, mostly pve boss fights or PvP 1v1s against GCs.

On bosses its great to overcome the boss CC immunity and interrupt a powerful attack.
The low CD makes it great to use it frequently on a boss fight.

On PvP its great to get a stun before going for a burst (d/d) or to chain another stun (S/D).

The low CD makes it great to use with lyssa runes for extra cond cleanse and buffs.

I like basilislk venom, it’s pretty much the only elite I use. I currently use a GC build so it works perfectly with it.

Thieves guild can just be ignored or in larger encounters just destroyed instantly. I honestly will either directly attack the thief who used it (rarely causes a problem) or just HS away and reset.

Dagger storm is horrible in pvp unless the fighting against uplevels in wvw.

I basically only got one option.

Basilisk Venom is great in an sPvP situation (maybe WvW? I haven’t tried there), if you’re one of those rare thieves trying out a Venomsharing build and happen to take it. Think about it.

Applying a buff that stuns enemies onto EVERY teammate within a short range of you.

In group fights, I’ve found that sharing Basilisk Venom can utterly destroy people on the other team. Sometimes we all hit the same target, so he falls down and dies before he can do anything. Other times, our attacks are split and the entire enemy team can’t do squat for its (short) duration. When they do recover, their weaker teammates are sitting down or eating dirt. After that, I’ll pop another venom on my utility bar to spread immobilizes or chills to my allies’ attacks. I crowd control so you don’t have to!

Is it a mediocre elite? Well, yeah. I’ll never consider it for anything other than a venom sharing build, since Thieves Guild brings in a lot of firepower; the other elite we have makes me giggle like a raving lunatic whenever I use it. Daggers, daggers everywhere! ALL THE DAGGERS, MUAHAHAH!

Er, excuse me.

It’s a bad elite on its own, but with traits and teammates it can help wreck everything in sight.

Isn’t the elephant in the room being missed here in that Basilisk Venom stuns through defiant?

Bvenom is so much better than dagger storm. Dagger storm is really the only trash elite thief has. Using that against any semi good opponent only gets you killed. D;

I just hate how the effect wears when blocked or evaded. I feel like the main thing it’s truly good for is spamming effects that proc via elite skill usage. :/

Ruruuiye.8912:

Isn’t the elephant in the room being missed here in that Basilisk Venom stuns through defiant?

This.

It’s awesome in PvE because, couplede with VA and coordinating attack rotation of teammates, you can stunlock bosses w/o care of defiant stacks. It’s a niche build, no doubt, but in CoE P1, where you spend most of the time with 5 ppl hugging the boss, VA is kitten amazing.
And turning Alpha or Bjarl in stone is always so funny.

spvp and WvW wise is still a nice skill, but it’s less interesting due to opponents stunbreaking out of it imo.

Basilisk Venom is the best elite skill by far. Steal to your target with basilisk venom —> cnd —> backstab —> down. If you are fighting a tough tanky build follow with 2x heartseeker and your enemy is dead.
I agree it’s pretty bad in zergs bur for roamers who fight 1 – 4 enemies at a time it’s the best elite skill.

Royce Melborn.3276:

Basilisk Venom is the best elite skill by far. Steal to your target with basilisk venom —> cnd --> backstab —> down. If you are fighting a tough tanky build follow with 2x heartseeker and your enemy is dead.
I agree it’s pretty bad in zergs bur for roamers who fight 1 – 4 enemies at a time it’s the best elite skill.

if u can cnd + bs and an enemy is down u have a horrible build :P 1 v 1 is the only thing it can do. cant even do 2 v 1 :P . can a thief do 20k backstabs on lvl 20s? definately. does he? no. why? obvious.

BV is about the only Venom I can justify using personaly.

I hate it’s cast time

check out mesmer elites, then look at ours
it’s a freaking tragedy to be a thief these days

I find it really usefull for 1 vs 1 combat and if u combine it with lyssa gear u get tons of buffs every 45 secs.

Grimwolf.7163:

Well, no. It’s pretty much on par with the other Venoms. Though the other Venoms are far from great.
It’s basically just a 4th Utility.

To be honest, this is pretty much the way I think about it myself.

Personally, I have to admit I tend to think of the elite slot as less valuable than the utilities. Essentially, there’s two types of elite skill:

1) Relatively short-duration stuff that is, basically, another utility skill. Most if not all elites with recharges of 90 seconds or less fall into this category – if you look, most if not all of them you can find a utility or even weapon skill that has a similar effect, often with a shorter recharge.

2) Long recharge stuff that is intended to tip the scales when the fecal matter strikes the rotatory air circulation device.

In my experience, the first category is actually generally more useful. The second category I find is something that occasionally performs as advertised, but summons sometimes provide little more than a momentary distraction before they die, while transformation elites that remove options you normally have can actually end up making the situation worse. The ‘extra utility slot’ elites, then, are something that you can work into your regular playstyle to make sure you’re less likely to get into one of those situations.

Now, admittedly, on my thief I tend to break the rule of using short-recharge elites that I have on other characters, but that’s because summons are just so useful for thieves. I would have to agree that it would be nice to have an underwater option that isn’t Basilisk Venom, though.

Travlane.5948:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Other than fighting a boss, I typically carry Dagger Storm.

What makes this worthy of an Elite slot is Venom Aura. In a coordinated party or group, you can literally freeze someone in place until they die.

Another reason why it is an Elite, not because of its power level, but it seems that Anet don’t want us using this with Dagger Storm.

Anet do this a lot in GW1. They place something as Elite because they don’t want it to be combined with another Elite skill by a single profession.

srrry….. what does this mean?

There are certain skill combination that Anet didn’t want a single profession to pull off on their own. I agree that BV is a utility skill in an Elite slot only because the combination of BV with other Elite skill will make it OP. Imagine if BV is not an Elite and was placed as one of the utility venoms, you can practically disable multiple targets on your own using BV+Dagger Storm.

In order to keep this skill in our skill library, they have to place BV in the same slot as DS so we can only pick one or the other, not both.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Travlane.5948:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Other than fighting a boss, I typically carry Dagger Storm.

What makes this worthy of an Elite slot is Venom Aura. In a coordinated party or group, you can literally freeze someone in place until they die.

Another reason why it is an Elite, not because of its power level, but it seems that Anet don’t want us using this with Dagger Storm.

Anet do this a lot in GW1. They place something as Elite because they don’t want it to be combined with another Elite skill by a single profession.

srrry….. what does this mean?

There are certain skill combination that Anet didn’t want a single profession to pull off on their own. I agree that BV is a utility skill in an Elite slot only because the combination of BV with other Elite skill will make it OP. Imagine if BV is not an Elite and was placed as one of the utility venoms, you can practically disable multiple targets on your own using BV+Dagger Storm.

In order to keep this skill in our skill library, they have to place BV in the same slot as DS so we can only pick one or the other, not both.

What…. You do know if you, say, Cluster Bomb with BV up, you aren’t going to petrify the entire group, right?

Grimwolf.7163:

What…. You do know if you, say, Cluster Bomb with BV up, you aren’t going to petrify the entire group, right?

This. BV like all venoms lose one charge per affected target in an AoE situation.

Though the idea is sound. BV + Venom Share + Thief Guild + Ambush Trap would give a solo thief player some heavy disable potential :p

stof.9341:

Grimwolf.7163:

What…. You do know if you, say, Cluster Bomb with BV up, you aren’t going to petrify the entire group, right?

This. BV like all venoms lose one charge per affected target in an AoE situation.

Though the idea is sound. BV + Venom Share + Thief Guild + Ambush Trap would give a solo thief player some heavy disable potential :p

Not really. The petrification doesn’t stack, it only refreshes. All the summoned Thieves would blow BV immediately and waste it.

BV works really really well with Mad King runes. It’s really even better than Lyssa.

stof.9341:

Grimwolf.7163:

What…. You do know if you, say, Cluster Bomb with BV up, you aren’t going to petrify the entire group, right?

This. BV like all venoms lose one charge per affected target in an AoE situation.

Though the idea is sound. BV + Venom Share + Thief Guild + Ambush Trap would give a solo thief player some heavy disable potential :p

How are you going to use two elites at the same time without two Thieves?

Superior Runes of Lyssa makes it quite nice both offensively and defensively.

It is more of a “I want another utility” type elite than a “long friggin cooldown” type of elite. This has inherent advantages and disadvantages.

Well its the only one I use in spvp. Seeing as it theoretically disables you from doing something for 1 second whilst being cast and then lasts 1.5 seconds – that’s a tad – wehay! wot..Thieves guild could be arguably ok but the cool down is so long, any time I see another thief popping either this or riverdance aka Daggerstorm – its pretty random whats going to happen for the user that is. I mean you’re about to pounce an down an enemy and that silly thief with scorp wire whips them away from you, as for riverdance…there aren’t that many knives they’re pretty avoidable, its very situational. BV is at least precise – when it hits.

I honestly find Basilisk Venom to be the most effective when good thieves are using it against me. I can often nullify the effects of Thieves Guild with most of my builds … or even use it to my advantage if I’m on my own thief.

Arkham Creed.7358:

Puandro.3245:

2 min cooldown? Its 45 secs….

Perhaps it simply feels longer. Either way it is still vastly inferior to a non elite skill.

That is probably because you have no idea what you’re talking about. Common misunderstanding.

Basilisk Venom is a 45 second cooldown (can be traited into 36) 1,5 second stun, can be traited for twice the hits (and twice the stun).

Since it’s stacked and delivered with a normal hit it’s a standard “opener” of any “assassination”. As a 45 second cooldown elite it provides ridiculous synergy with, for example, runes of Lyssa, granting you a full condition clear and “all boons” boost every 45 seconds.

It’s the only “stun” in the game that ignores defiant.