Guild Wars 2

What is the best strategy to reliably land it (in sPvP)?

Somehow the way I’m using it, this thing seems to be dodged a lot if not an out right miss. Not to mention the recent spats of lags makes landing one a total PITA.

I usually set it up with HS, and then CnD, but between the aftercast and lag, I end up not getting a clean hit. Is there a bettter tactic for successfully landing one – preferably something that doesn’t involve steal because the cool down on that is a tad excessive and there’re really better traits to take than 30% faster steal.

At 6 init, it’s really hard to afford a miss.

Using some kind of “shadow step to your target” skill usually works when combined with cnd. Personally i use infiltrators sig. although a well placed shadowstep can work as well. and as always the thief staple steal will usually work.

1. cast cnd
2. immediately cast the shadowstep skill
3. ????
4. ownage.

Bud.5617:

What is the best strategy to reliably land it (in sPvP)?

Somehow the way I’m using it, this thing seems to be dodged a lot if not an out right miss. Not to mention the recent spats of lags makes landing one a total PITA.

I usually set it up with HS, and then CnD, but between the aftercast and lag, I end up not getting a clean hit. Is there a bettter tactic for successfully landing one – preferably something that doesn’t involve steal because the cool down on that is a tad excessive and there’re really better traits to take than 30% faster steal.

At 6 init, it’s really hard to afford a miss.

You just made a post that was saying HS spam is overpowered, and now you post this…But I’ll bite anyways.

Honestly, the best way to learn to land CnD is to learn its range and learn when to pre-cast it while running up to someone for the best results in my experience.

Some more obvious tips:

1. Don’t keyboard turn
2. Don’t click your skills.
3. Go into a pve setting so that you can learn the range of CnD.

Madjack.4598:

Using some kind of “shadow step to your target” skill usually works when combined with cnd. Personally i use infiltrators sig. although a well placed shadowstep can work as well. and as always the thief staple steal will usually work.

1. cast cnd
2. immediately cast the shadowstep skill
3. ????
4. ownage.

I like to safe infiltrators for when I really need it though… ie, that stun warrior barrelling down your way… Its cool down is also on the long-ish side of things and def. not something you want to miss when you really need it…

Any chance of using Sigil of Ice (a little weak I know due to long-ish cd) or some other form of snare?

Forz.1725:

Bud.5617:

What is the best strategy to reliably land it (in sPvP)?

Somehow the way I’m using it, this thing seems to be dodged a lot if not an out right miss. Not to mention the recent spats of lags makes landing one a total PITA.

I usually set it up with HS, and then CnD, but between the aftercast and lag, I end up not getting a clean hit. Is there a bettter tactic for successfully landing one – preferably something that doesn’t involve steal because the cool down on that is a tad excessive and there’re really better traits to take than 30% faster steal.

At 6 init, it’s really hard to afford a miss.

You just made a post that was saying HS spam is overpowered, and now you post this…But I’ll bite anyways.

Honestly, the best way to learn to land CnD is to learn its range and learn when to pre-cast it while running up to someone for the best results in my experience.

Some more obvious tips:

1. Don’t keyboard turn
2. Don’t click your skills.
3. Go into a pve setting so that you can learn the range of CnD.

It’s not overpowered in a way that it needs a straight up nerf. It’s more correct to say HS is decent rewarding skill that a monkey can use. It needs to be a great skill, that requires a human to use.

That out of the way, why running to someone isn’t a great idea:

1) The caster types, will usually run away from you. Mesmers will nuke you to death in the process and eles will kite you until you say uncle…

2) Warriors will daze and wipe the floor with your corpse – even if manage to land C&D.

3) Rangers will push you back and you start from square 1 while sprouting 3 feathers every second.

4) Engineers will gladly let you get to them only to blast you away and set you on fire.

5) Necro… will o well, I guess Necros will stand there so you can safely land C&D on them if not 1 of their minions.

Bottom line, running up to anyone in thief armor and health tends to be… rather unhealthy shall we say.

Cnd is very unreliable, especially in spvp where guardians are giving teammates aegis and people spamming blinds. Truly unreliable in spvp. Better to go with bp+hs running d/p.

Bud.5617:

Forz.1725:

Bud.5617:

What is the best strategy to reliably land it (in sPvP)?

Somehow the way I’m using it, this thing seems to be dodged a lot if not an out right miss. Not to mention the recent spats of lags makes landing one a total PITA.

I usually set it up with HS, and then CnD, but between the aftercast and lag, I end up not getting a clean hit. Is there a bettter tactic for successfully landing one – preferably something that doesn’t involve steal because the cool down on that is a tad excessive and there’re really better traits to take than 30% faster steal.

At 6 init, it’s really hard to afford a miss.

You just made a post that was saying HS spam is overpowered, and now you post this…But I’ll bite anyways.

Honestly, the best way to learn to land CnD is to learn its range and learn when to pre-cast it while running up to someone for the best results in my experience.

Some more obvious tips:

1. Don’t keyboard turn
2. Don’t click your skills.
3. Go into a pve setting so that you can learn the range of CnD.

It’s not overpowered in a way that it needs a straight up nerf. It’s more correct to say HS is decent rewarding skill that a monkey can use. It needs to be a great skill, that requires a human to use.

That out of the way, why running to someone isn’t a great idea:

1) The caster types, will usually run away from you. Mesmers will nuke you to death in the process and eles will kite you until you say uncle…

2) Warriors will daze and wipe the floor with your corpse – even if manage to land C&D.

3) Rangers will push you back and you start from square 1 while sprouting 3 feathers every second.

4) Engineers will gladly let you get to them only to blast you away and set you on fire.

5) Necro… will o well, I guess Necros will stand there so you can safely land C&D on them if not 1 of their minions.

Bottom line, running up to anyone in thief armor and health tends to be… rather unhealthy shall we say.

If you think I implied to just “walk up and CnD”, then I don’t know what to say. I use CnD very well to weave in and out of stealth, creating plenty of disorientation, and throwing opponents off guard in WvW and sPvP. I do agree, it can be unreliable with all the counters such as blocks and dodges, but that is part of learning how to fight other classes. You need to learn when to use certain skills in certain situations. That is the great thing about thieves, they are pretty adaptable to different situations if you understand the class and it’s mechanics.

Of course the most reliable way is to use a shadowstep while precasting CnD, but if you are like me and stingy with cooldowns, then learning how to use it in melee range can be an amazing alternative.

I gave you an option to learn, which works for me often enough to be confident with it’s use, and if you refuse the advice, that’s cool.

strafing i like.

Forz.1725:

Bud.5617:

Forz.1725:

Bud.5617:

What is the best strategy to reliably land it (in sPvP)?

Somehow the way I’m using it, this thing seems to be dodged a lot if not an out right miss. Not to mention the recent spats of lags makes landing one a total PITA.

I usually set it up with HS, and then CnD, but between the aftercast and lag, I end up not getting a clean hit. Is there a bettter tactic for successfully landing one – preferably something that doesn’t involve steal because the cool down on that is a tad excessive and there’re really better traits to take than 30% faster steal.

At 6 init, it’s really hard to afford a miss.

You just made a post that was saying HS spam is overpowered, and now you post this…But I’ll bite anyways.

Honestly, the best way to learn to land CnD is to learn its range and learn when to pre-cast it while running up to someone for the best results in my experience.

Some more obvious tips:

1. Don’t keyboard turn
2. Don’t click your skills.
3. Go into a pve setting so that you can learn the range of CnD.

It’s not overpowered in a way that it needs a straight up nerf. It’s more correct to say HS is decent rewarding skill that a monkey can use. It needs to be a great skill, that requires a human to use.

That out of the way, why running to someone isn’t a great idea:

1) The caster types, will usually run away from you. Mesmers will nuke you to death in the process and eles will kite you until you say uncle…

2) Warriors will daze and wipe the floor with your corpse – even if manage to land C&D.

3) Rangers will push you back and you start from square 1 while sprouting 3 feathers every second.

4) Engineers will gladly let you get to them only to blast you away and set you on fire.

5) Necro… will o well, I guess Necros will stand there so you can safely land C&D on them if not 1 of their minions.

Bottom line, running up to anyone in thief armor and health tends to be… rather unhealthy shall we say.

If you think I implied to just “walk up and CnD”, then I don’t know what to say. I use CnD very well to weave in and out of stealth, creating plenty of disorientation, and throwing opponents off guard in WvW and sPvP. I do agree, it can be unreliable with all the counters such as blocks and dodges, but that is part of learning how to fight other classes. You need to learn when to use certain skills in certain situations. That is the great thing about thieves, they are pretty adaptable to different situations if you understand the class and it’s mechanics.

Of course the most reliable way is to use a shadowstep while precasting CnD, but if you are like me and stingy with cooldowns, then learning how to use it in melee range can be an amazing alternative.

I gave you an option to learn, which works for me often enough to be confident with it’s use, and if you refuse the advice, that’s cool.

This guy is pretty much right. the trick is to learn the range and when you need to pre-cast.

Kay I’ll try thank you for the input, I’ll try to precast

One trick that’ll make it infinitely easier to land reliably is Canceling. The long cast makes it easy to avoid, but that also makes it easy to cancel it and lose absolutely nothing in the process.
Not only will doing that prevent you from losing anything when it does fail, but you can bait people with a feint before using the real thing after they’ve blown their dodge/blind/aegis.
http://www.blackwolfbrotherhood.com/guides/techniques/attack-canceling/

Like the others said, pre-casting is vital as well. Just activate it while still out of range and running up to them, so that it triggers by the time you reach them.

You can also run up on the side of your oppnent,or cloak on pets/illusions/Minons/thieves/turrets/elemtals and such.