Guild Wars 2

I’ve been testing this out in the PvP training area after seeing thieves do this in WvW. It’s actually really simply to perma-stealth.

First, the build:
1. Put 20 points into shadow arts and acrobatics
2. Take “Infusion of Shadows”, “Patience”, “Fleet Shadow”, and “Quick Recovvery”
3. Equip dagger offhand

The technique:
1. Use any stealth skill to get into range
2. At the exact moment stealth would run out, hit 5 for “Cloak and Dagger”
3. Wait until the exact moment your initiative meter would hit full and hit 5 again (just before the black swirls would appear around your feet).

If you time it exactly right, you never leave stealth at all. If you screw it up and hit too early, you’re in trouble though, as you have 3 seconds where they can see you. If you’re a half second late, you’re visible for that half second, but this isn’t enough time for many NPC’s to get an attack off (let alone players).

You lose 1/2 an initiative per cycle, but this lets you stay stealthed for at least 20 seconds, which is more than the recharge of other stealth skills.

So, I thought “revealed” was supposed to trigger when stealth ran out. Is this a bug? Is stealth supposed to work this way so you can stay permanently invisible? Why doesn’t “revealed” trigger in this case?

Not practical.

15char.

Not practical against players. Let’s you solo-farm NPC’s in WvW though. I’ve seen thieves solo camps this way.

greyblue.4962:

I’ve been testing this out in the PvP training area after seeing thieves do this in WvW. It’s actually really simply to perma-stealth.

First, the build:
1. Put 20 points into shadow arts and acrobatics
2. Take “Infusion of Shadows”, “Patience”, “Fleet Shadow”, and “Quick Recovvery”
3. Equip dagger offhand

The technique:
1. Use any stealth skill to get into range
2. At the exact moment stealth would run out, hit 5 for “Cloak and Dagger”
3. Wait until the exact moment your initiative meter would hit full and hit 5 again (just before the black swirls would appear around your feet).

If you time it exactly right, you never leave stealth at all. If you screw it up and hit too early, you’re in trouble though, as you have 3 seconds where they can see you. If you’re a half second late, you’re visible for that half second, but this isn’t enough time for many NPC’s to get an attack off (let alone players).

You lose 1/2 an initiative per cycle, but this lets you stay stealthed for at least 20 seconds, which is more than the recharge of other stealth skills.

So, I thought “revealed” was supposed to trigger when stealth ran out. Is this a bug? Is stealth supposed to work this way so you can stay permanently invisible? Why doesn’t “revealed” trigger in this case?

Revealed does trigger only when you do damage out of stealth. You can sit there for a long time punching CnD but it won’t kill fast enough and things will start to reset I imagine.
CnD is mainly used to stealth, I don’t know If I’d ever use it to do damage.
I have killed squishy players with it (in pvp) but that rarely happens.

To be honest though I want to try this to its fullest potential like you have. I have tried something similar to this before. I also have tried a nearly infinite daze build with Sword/Dagger which in a group situation could be really messed up.
You don’t do amazing damage again but you lock people down as long as you’re next to them.
Anyway sorry to trail off there.

People I see doing this tend to be using poisons too (noticeable because the NPC’s turn green). That might be part of the trick to pulling off kills this way. I’ve also seen teams of two people doing this kill off zergs of 10-15.

I generally run a mesmer in WvW (my thief is an alt), and this can be countered by using an AoE stun (max illusions trait) and then moa-morphing them, but large teams that do this are nightmarish to fight.

greyblue.4962:

…and this can be countered by using an AoE stun…

Appart from that it’s the easiest thing to counter.Just dodge like 2-3 sec after you get hit.Voila

I’ve got this amazing Ranger tactic where you never go anywhere near anything and just send your pet after people. You deal damage and don’t die, it’s incredible.

TeoH this sounds like an exploit or something?I mean you are supposed to take damage…I mean blocking,reflecting,redirecting,soaking trough high base HP and/or Toughness is normal,but (god forbid) avoiding trough Stealth? Cheezz

Revealed only trigger when one attack when “Stealthed” is still active

Greyblue – I hear a lot about “oh, this build can solo camps and dolyaks”, are many thieves having issues in these areas? Yes, you can permastealth to kill NPCs, but most of them (dolyaks in particular) attack so slowly you can literally hold strafe and spam 1 until they die and you’ll take no damage. For most camps you can hit Daggerstorm and get a sammich then come back and finish the claim NPC, even the more upgraded camps are simply a matter of shooting your shortbow at the crowd for a couple minutes.

Seems like a ton of effort to go through to “assassinate” NPCs that most professions (including thieves) can just go burn/AE down without much risk.

As far as using this against camps; no it does not work. NPC’s do see you the moment you break Stealth, and will cast their attack, stun, immobilize, or AOE at you right away. And since you’re visible again every 3-4 seconds, it doesn’t take long before you have to back out to heal.

Soloing a camp is nothing. Grab a Pistol offhand and use Black Powder, and stand still until everything is dead.

Killing off zergs? No, this ability does anywhere from 1.5-3k damage depending on your gear. It’s a medium damage skill for the 6 initiative it costs, and although people can use it to setup their Backstab, they are not using C&D only in that case. No one is just using C&D to take out a zerg when it takes at most 4 seconds between an average 2000 damage attack that anyone could heal or escape from.

C&D is negated by: blocking, aegis shield, shield, damage immune forms, dodging, running away.

C&D is mitigated by: cripple, stun, Moa, immobilize, blind, AOE, any sense of awareness.

ZLE.8293:

TeoH this sounds like an exploit or something?I mean you are supposed to take damage…I mean blocking,reflecting,redirecting,soaking trough high base HP and/or Toughness is normal,but (god forbid) avoiding trough Stealth? Cheezz

This is not a joke: In WvW the other night a player was complaining about Thieves and how OP they are because they are too survivable. The usual debate occurred until it became quite clear: this player (a fairly decked out Warrior) thought only Thieves could Dodge.

I am not making this up.

This thread should be renamed into “How to fuel noob tactics”

As a thief main, the fact that they can even CnD during large groups amazes me. If the game isn’t rendering, then its also probably lagging. When it is, hitting with CnD is maddening. And even better yet, stealth doesnt even work half the time when the area is full of people.

Ive had Blinding powder, refuge, steal, and even my healing stealth not work during larger engagements.

Anet, fix your kitten game already. Put a dam CD on stealth, reduce output or increase the toughness variables, but do something.