Edit: Well, this got moved to the Thief forum, where only thieves who believe their class is Underpowered and totally fine will come and bash and give me “advise” on how I failed to swing my weapon to the air and spam all my AoE and put it in CD in the hope that one tick will tickle their hp similar to mine in which case I have no skill that could put out 8k of damage to counter his 8k backstabds and 6-7k HS, while resseting the fights at will.
How in the world is it balanced to just die to a backstab that hits you for 8.5k out of the blue, wearing PVT/valk accesories and weapons, with no way of blocking it, with no counterplay involved, followed by two 3k HS (pray none crits., because then you are looking at 6-7k HS easily). Where is the counterplay to that? Dont tel me that zerg because I was in a zerg, the guy came in backstab, HS, stealth on top of me, nobody could do shiznit about it, stomped me and walked away with 50% hp.
Stealth is out of control, I understand its good to get the jump on people, but I have been hit by 11k backstabs with my squishy equipment, I was wearing PVT/valk weapon and accessories, yet it hit me for 8.5k. EDIT: 10.5khp for berzerker, we have the lowest hp pool in the game, have I been full zerker I would have literally died in one hit, with zerker I get hit with 11k backtabs all the time.
From what I can tell, your ele build seems to be like one of those Meteor Storm heavy damage. Otherwise, I don’t know why you would have full Valkyrie. You’re obviously level 80 from your screenshot, but your HP doesn’t add up at all for what you say it is. “I was wearing PVT/valk weapon and accessories, yet it hit me for 8.5k.” My level 80 ele with full exotic Soldier’s gear and healing runes (with no vitality in them) has 13k HP with NO trinkets, NO weapons, NO traits equipped. Fully equipped with my equipment and what not it comes out to 19k HP. Now, even with the WvW HP bonus, it’s a Sunday at 3 AM so it’s not even as much as a gain and we’re at 3rd place. So either you’re full of crap about your gear or you’re undergeared, which against a fully geared ascended thief, you’re going to die. Or maybe I’m wrong, could be some glaring omission I’m not seeing at 3 AM in the morning.
I haven’t read through this entire thread yet, but I’m sure I will in the morning. Staff eles are group support and ranged “Bringing down the rain” AoE damage, but they aren’t going to be able to do crap in a 1v1 or when they get singled out on in a zerg. You might stun them or cripple them, but any competent PvPer will avoid all that because they already have it planned in the back of their head. A thief with a crapload of mostly offensive skills is going to take down an (undergeared) ele with staff no problem. Maybe I’m wrong again, but I haven’t seen any great staff builds for a 1v1 ele ever. Perhaps I just haven’t run into one, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t any.
If you can understand what a thief can do, you can counterplay against it. I main one and I’ve gone on my rifle shout warrior to destroy them. You see familiar things, patterns, key things to look out for that give them away. Pew pew pew from range then he notices me. By the time he gets close, he’s half health or so for your standard zerker ones. With my Immobilize, they usually waste their stealth heal to get to me. Soon as they get close, Rifle Butt, pew pew some more. Fun part is when they Shadow Refuge to hide, instant Fear Me into Kill Shot or more pew pew and it’s done. Channeled skills still hitting them through stealth is also fun. Now, if that was a rare, kitten, constant PvP thief, I would’ve lost 10/10 duels with that build.
Sure thieves have stealth, but it’s not even that overpowered in terms of overall WvW and sPvP. Tourney players know how to destroy generic thieves like the back of their hand. I believe most of the top thieves use S/D and don’t even stealth at all with their build other than for a stomp. Have you seen other class burst builds as well? I’ve seen a zerker D/D ele drop zerker squishies faster than a thief can. Some of the things in video are oudated, but the builds tweaked can still output crazy burst damage.
Guardian GS Sword/Focus Burst
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgYhGde9Qmc
Ele S/D Burst
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD1S_sP90Ao
This one always makes me chuckle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVn7us9Fvpk
Thief | Warrior | Ele | Necro | Guardian