Guild Wars 2

Perhaps I’m missing something, but I’m trying to build a support thief, I’ve messed about with various venom sharing builds and none of them seem to make sense. The idea behind Venomous Aura is great, but having it in Shadow Arts is just strange.

I understand having high toughness for that kind of build makes sense, but that line is mainly dedicated to stealth type abilities (2 of 3 minors plus most major traits) and if you go a support role you don’t really have room for anything stealthy.

I like the thought of coating my short bow arrows with with different poisons but could we please have a build that makes sense? I feel kinda useless in large scale WvW.

So many changes coming Dec 10, but this isn’t even mentioned and hasn’t been for a long time.

I’m sorry, but if you want to be remotely non-selfish then a Thief is not the class for you – all you bring are blast finishers and stealth. In group combat, the role you can fulfill is picking off the back-line when they are not really paying attention. Venoms and traps haven’t made a lot of sense for the longest period of time.

unfortunately thieves are not build tosupport the team rather as contribute to it .
sure you can go as venom share but making you invest all utilities in venoms to be something for at least 5 seconds in the fight while only 5 ppl will grant the share and maybe also give them boons while stealing

boons sharing can be done much better with guardian and mesmer and also the venom share in every 32 seconds if traited will leave you so vulnerable during those 32 seconds

so our main role in team fight is to take the backline fast and clean or even maybe do some blast with SB but warriors and guardians do it better or just scout from afar.

dont be surprised that in every guild raid they want only 1 thief with them and in gvg which is 20v20

thieves not meant to be support class ! so sry

there is no reason atm for having a thief in a medium/big group.
We are good for skirmish in a small, very mobile group. We can kill ppl fast and stealth ress or stealth stomp.
When numbers grow up a bit we become almost useless.
Warriors, guardians, necros do it better

@Deathspike

Thank you for stating what the thief is now, I think we all know this. Anet have put some support skills into the Thief trait lines but never really made them work properly. What I’m asking for is some changes to make Venomous Aura, Traps or other support builds viable.

@Messiah

Who said thieves aren’t meant to be a support class? You? In their current state they are not, but there is a foundation of some traits that if changed would make this a possibility.

@Daendur

And this is exactly why I’m posting this, there is NO reason to have a Thief in a large scale group whatsoever and as someone on Blackgate that plays a lot of zergball WvW I’d like to play my Thief in large scale WvW battles and be somewhat useful.

@Trikki
as you see here (and almost any other thread) i am not the only one who say that thief aren’t built to be a support class

if you see venum share as support i think you are mistaken as thief need to have at least 1-2 stun breaks in wvw leaving them with 1-2 venum utilities which traited with venom share must also traited with reduce cd so again leaving you expose with low dmg/health just to give 5 more ppl 3-15 seconds immobilize/poison/torment while necro/engineer do it much much better alone…

to be more supporting the group venum share must be changed to be more useful and powerful
as regarding boon sharing again guardian/ele/mesmer/engineer do it better
and the same go for traps
so beside fast kills from smart thief i dont think you can expect this class to be supportive

also by anet “Thieves use their initiative to fuel their weapon skills, dishing out quick chains of damage before slipping away into the shadows”

if ppl would comprehend that 3 thieves can do mayham in 1 border by taking camps/dollies/ tag gates /eliminate roaming ppl fast and clean thus making the enemy to choose whether to split its forces to retake camps , to check if tower is being zerg etc – this is the kind of support thieves bring to the server

I see you still don’t get it, you’re telling me how things are now, not what we can make it. They’re not a support class RIGHT NOW, but I’m proposing that we use the support abilities that Anet have already half provided and make them viable instead of being the joke they are now.

Support by its very definition in the context of GW2 is increasing the power of your team by supplying increases to damage or survivability. The very nature of Venomous Aura is support, its an ability that doesn’t help the Thief at all directly, it empowers your team mates.

I’d like to see Thief be able to run support should they choose to, at least then they will have a place in WvW zergballs.

i do get your points but nevertheless venom share only benefit 4 more ppl in your group thus making valuable in roaming team and not zerg fight where there you must to spec to stay alive.
by increasing power you mean like empower, increase survivability with aegis/protection → go guardian
i am agree with you that i want to see more thieves getting chosen in zerg fight but venom share wont do enough. maybe if they would give it as area share without 5 max ppl.
and venom share doesnt actually act as support rather than fast conditions burst. try to take thieves guild+ambush with venum share against 1v3 and you’ll get the point
in small scale fights its very usefull as it can turn 5v5 to 5v4 very fast with Basilisk Venom,Devourer Venom but with large scale fights it wont even get noticed

come up with more unique ideas that arent being used by other classes and are being unique to the thief class and maybe if the community will agree with your ideas eventually anet will listen to you (1 year from now …. )

dont get me wrong i am with you

I don’t see what the scale of the fight has to do with anything. Just about every multi-target spell has that 5 limit. venom share’s effects can be pretty powerful; it’s just that it consumes your entire build

Now this is an idealization, but
imagine if every 6th person were a venom share thief, and then everyone in the group attacks a different target. You open the fight by stunning everyone for 2-4 seconds, and then you stack a huge immob on everyone, then chill/poison/torment/whatever everyone. All the while giving everyone 6 stacks of might, doing an extra 350 damage per hit and healing for 350-700(healing power build) per hit. for 9-15 hits depending on how hardcore you want to go with your venoms. I’ve run a 4-venom build just to try it out; wasn’t too bad. Anyway, that’s kind of a lot of potential power

If I recall wasnt it stated by Anet that all classes would have no defined roles and that all classes would be more or less versatile in how they are played?

the problem (one of them) with venom share that all the time the beginning of the fight start with empower by 2-4 guardians which give the entire group 12 stack of might.
your enemies probable will have stability plus shouts and nullfield which make all conditions gone so making your venum build unreliable and also in every restack
as Reikken said you can try 4 venom as it wasnt too bad, but was it good? i dont think so

as again its true every class can be versatile but every class has unique mechanism to work with. some are really good in supporting some just dont. (i think mesmers have the same problem of supporting in group fight as illusion die so fast )

thieves need a snatch skill. now that could be fun xD

There are various ways that could make the thief more support friendly.

- Changing some of our fields to say water (although that might also work into being OP in smaller fight).
- Making our stealthed traits also work for friendlies. Say people you stealth when you have ini regen traited gives others endurance or some other form of boost.
- Make venom sharing more friendly and possibly change the venoms to be more group oriented.

op support theif is viable(better than nothing) if spec right just not desirable and every other class just does it better.