Guild Wars 2

Hey Forum, how’s it been? My PC died at the end of July and I finally got the parts to fix it. Will be back indefinitely, and always offering help to those with questions.

Any interesting changes? Doesn’t seem like anything is different. Guess they’re saving minor changes for Tuesday and a balance patch later this month? Just some words I hear going around. Hope they give us old mug, eh?

Anyway, on to the main topic!

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I was basically watching Caed [SYNC] (US) as much as I possibly could to see what he was up to. It seems like he was running his normal 10/30/0/0/30. I didn’t see if they went over specs/gear. (could’ve been 25/30/0/015 as well) From my experience, with duels against him, it seemed like he was playing to the best of his ability. Regardless of what the stream chat was saying, [SYNC] played well. Just that this Meta is a mess with Necro and Ranger spam.

There were some moments where Caed was dying a lot, but that was because he was the focus target quite often for [FCC] (EU). As he was playing d/p he had damage they couldn’t let him dish out, so they had to kill him often. When he had free reign he positioned and timed the burst well with his team and was super effective for the majority of the games. There was also a fight where Caed fought, what appeared to be, a condi warrior running the confusion on interrupts trait/runes. This build was a direct counter to Caed. Despite what the chat said, there was nothing he could do against that.

Others were saying that if he were s/d he would’ve performed better. I disagree, I think he would’ve lost a lot of potential damage playing S/D which wasn’t what his team really needed.

Though thief is strong in the current meta, they are easily countered by various condi builds unless they have a build with some points into Shadow Arts. With all the popular condi builds, currently in the meta, I think playing 10/30/30/0/0 with zerker and Ogre Runes would’ve been a better choice for this tournament. The damage difference would be quite minimal, but the sustainability would be welcomed. The fight with the condi warrior would’ve gone smoothly that way. (this build is my personal favorite for all PvP)

The tournament was fun to watch and was exciting in places. It was the first one ever, so there are places ANet can improve on for the next one. I had a good time watching it, and hope you all did as well.

If you have any opinions about the thief meta, just post away. Let’s get a discussion going. :-)

Love,
Iove

Edit: By request http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/454437568 — Jump to 4:36:00!

do u have a link to the tourny?

I’m surprised neither Caed or Lady Nag Nag ran a condition caltrops thief as a hard counter to the guardian point bunkering. Maybe I run a different build than everyone else, but when Team Legacy was still together we kicked kitten with a 2/1/2 setup with thief holding center, built to fight and survive against multiple opponents. The NA bunker meta melts when confronted with heavy condition damage, despite the WvW meta being pure conditions.

Excalibur.9748:

do u have a link to the tourny?

I edited the post with a link.

Viking Jorun.5413:

I’m surprised neither Caed or Lady Nag Nag ran a condition caltrops thief as a hard counter to the guardian point bunkering. Maybe I run a different build than everyone else, but when Team Legacy was still together we kicked kitten with a 2/1/2 setup with thief holding center, built to fight and survive against multiple opponents. The NA bunker meta melts when confronted with heavy condition damage, despite the WvW meta being pure conditions.

That would’ve been an option if thief conditions were more effective. As you said, it would’ve been a nice counter for those bunkers. But, that’s about it. Thief Condi builds aren’t really made for the teams fights that they had.

When I participated in the Class Tournament (5Thieves), we had an excellent bunker thief who ran a d/d-d/d caltrops evade build that held mid quite well. That could be a possibility for us with more changes to come to thief condi, according to Anet.

Iove.3902:

Viking Jorun.5413:

I’m surprised neither Caed or Lady Nag Nag ran a condition caltrops thief as a hard counter to the guardian point bunkering. Maybe I run a different build than everyone else, but when Team Legacy was still together we kicked kitten with a 2/1/2 setup with thief holding center, built to fight and survive against multiple opponents. The NA bunker meta melts when confronted with heavy condition damage, despite the WvW meta being pure conditions.

That would’ve been an option if thief conditions were more effective. As you said, it would’ve been a nice counter for those bunkers. But, that’s about it. Thief Condi builds aren’t really made for the teams fights that they had.

When I participated in the Class Tournament (5Thieves), we had an excellent bunker thief who ran a d/d-d/d caltrops evade build that held mid quite well. That could be a possibility for us whith more changes to come to thief condi, according to Anet.

Which class won? Do you have some links to watch too?

Excalibur.9748:

Iove.3902:

Viking Jorun.5413:

I’m surprised neither Caed or Lady Nag Nag ran a condition caltrops thief as a hard counter to the guardian point bunkering. Maybe I run a different build than everyone else, but when Team Legacy was still together we kicked kitten with a 2/1/2 setup with thief holding center, built to fight and survive against multiple opponents. The NA bunker meta melts when confronted with heavy condition damage, despite the WvW meta being pure conditions.

That would’ve been an option if thief conditions were more effective. As you said, it would’ve been a nice counter for those bunkers. But, that’s about it. Thief Condi builds aren’t really made for the teams fights that they had.

When I participated in the Class Tournament (5Thieves), we had an excellent bunker thief who ran a d/d-d/d caltrops evade build that held mid quite well. That could be a possibility for us with more changes to come to thief condi, according to Anet.

Which class won? Do you have some links to watch too?

If I recall correctly, the Guardians won the first tournament and the Warriors won the second one. It may take me awhile to find links, but I’ll try to.

One of the two: http://www.twitch.tv/soacgaming/b/401474155

Iove.3902:

Excalibur.9748:

Iove.3902:

Viking Jorun.5413:

I’m surprised neither Caed or Lady Nag Nag ran a condition caltrops thief as a hard counter to the guardian point bunkering. Maybe I run a different build than everyone else, but when Team Legacy was still together we kicked kitten with a 2/1/2 setup with thief holding center, built to fight and survive against multiple opponents. The NA bunker meta melts when confronted with heavy condition damage, despite the WvW meta being pure conditions.

That would’ve been an option if thief conditions were more effective. As you said, it would’ve been a nice counter for those bunkers. But, that’s about it. Thief Condi builds aren’t really made for the teams fights that they had.

When I participated in the Class Tournament (5Thieves), we had an excellent bunker thief who ran a d/d-d/d caltrops evade build that held mid quite well. That could be a possibility for us with more changes to come to thief condi, according to Anet.

Which class won? Do you have some links to watch too?

If I recall correctly, the Guardians won the first tournament and the Warriors won the second one. It may take me awhile to find links, but I’ll try to.

Warriors didnt win either. Defektive didn’t have K-Pop to assist and none of us had ever run the builds he wanted us to play.

If there is a class tournament again, warriors would win easily.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Iove.3902:

Excalibur.9748:

Iove.3902:

Viking Jorun.5413:

I’m surprised neither Caed or Lady Nag Nag ran a condition caltrops thief as a hard counter to the guardian point bunkering. Maybe I run a different build than everyone else, but when Team Legacy was still together we kicked kitten with a 2/1/2 setup with thief holding center, built to fight and survive against multiple opponents. The NA bunker meta melts when confronted with heavy condition damage, despite the WvW meta being pure conditions.

That would’ve been an option if thief conditions were more effective. As you said, it would’ve been a nice counter for those bunkers. But, that’s about it. Thief Condi builds aren’t really made for the teams fights that they had.

When I participated in the Class Tournament (5Thieves), we had an excellent bunker thief who ran a d/d-d/d caltrops evade build that held mid quite well. That could be a possibility for us with more changes to come to thief condi, according to Anet.

Which class won? Do you have some links to watch too?

If I recall correctly, the Guardians won the first tournament and the Warriors won the second one. It may take me awhile to find links, but I’ll try to.

Warriors didnt win either. Defektive didn’t have K-Pop to assist and none of us had ever run the builds he wanted us to play.

My apologies, it was quite some time ago. I swear I remember them getting far in the matches though. Was quite the display, regardless.

Excalibur.9748:

If there is a class tournament again, warriors would win easily.

Warriors have received some very beneficial buffs recently that would make them even stronger than before, for sure. I updated a reply with a link to one of the tournaments. :)

Some of my friends were saying that [SYNC] should’ve dropped a ranger and went with an Engi. I would agree entirely, for an Engi would’ve turned the tides in many fights.

The thing is I’ve noticed D/P is really pubstompy. If I’m playing against good players it’s much less of a problem. The reason I think S/D is stronger is because of that boon ripping. The evade is great for survivability but the ability to rip boons is insane. Also Larcenous Strike is the second attack is unblockable so you can cast the first half, cast Basilisk Venom and jump targets that think they’re protected. Also with conditions everywhere a lot of classes don’t have to fight you in your blind field from Black Powder. Necros, Rangers are going to move out of it and pew pew away. Warrior’s have berserker’s stance to basically ignore blinds while they stomp you. Along with the fact that most classes are decent at stopping or countering burst.

NinjaSonic.1392:

The thing is I’ve noticed D/P is really pubstompy. If I’m playing against good players it’s much less of a problem. The reason I think S/D is stronger is because of that boon ripping. The evade is great for survivability but the ability to rip boons is insane. Also Larcenous Strike is the second attack is unblockable so you can cast the first half, cast Basilisk Venom and jump targets that think they’re protected. Also with conditions everywhere a lot of classes don’t have to fight you in your blind field from Black Powder. Necros, Rangers are going to move out of it and pew pew away. Warrior’s have berserker’s stance to basically ignore blinds while they stomp you. Along with the fact that most classes are decent at stopping or countering burst.

S/D does have some nice utility in the sense of the unblockable attack and positional abilities. It’s just that a thief really needs to put out the massive damage we’re capable of. S/d doesn’t provide much for team fights in that sense. Though, this is not to say that neither of the two are viable or not. Both are very effective in various situations. I just don’t see S/D making a difference in that tournament.