Guild Wars 2

Shadow Strike: This skill now applies 2 stacks of torment for 5 seconds.

I guess the thief is now fixed …

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/july-23-content-release-notes/

Thief:

Poison Tip Strike: Fixed the skill fact for poison so that it displays the correct duration.
Tripwire: This skill no longer indicates that it has a range.
Thieves Guild: This skill now displays a duration skill fact.
Tow Line: Increased the skill-fact range to 900 to match the actual skill range.
Tactical Strike: Fixed the damage skill fact to display the proper amount of damage done.
Shadow Strike: This skill now applies 2 stacks of torment for 5 seconds.

Well that seems reasonable. That skill might now have some use after all, my p/d thief approves.

It does seem oddly appropriate to place Torment on that skill indeed. As if the skill was meant to do that from the start

Yeah, while I still want a Body Shot improvement, placing Torment on Shadow Strike makes sense and was one of the candidates for Torment I though when it was introducted. It wasn’t getting much use because CnD served for the same and more, now you have a reason to use it between Sneak Attack and CnD against melee opponents.

2 torment isn’t much, but I guess it’s ok. Shadow Strike is one of our few skills where they can experiment without fear of something being spammed as it is a melee skill that opens space between you and your foe so you can’t spam it to get more torment stacks.

Other professions are getting torment too, it seems like they tested how affected the meta-agame and felt it was safe enough to start giving more of it. To be honest it isn’t a very dangerous condition given how it’s a 75% of a bleed with potential to be 150%, but with very few ways to stack it.

Well, at least the P/D set would be quite good.
Considering the easy access to stealth, kiting capabilities of Shadow Strike and torment, it will be quite funny to play with :P

In real life, Torment always deals 150% damage of a bleed. Have you ever seen your enemy standing still unless immobilized?

sorrow.2364:

In real life, Torment always deals 150% damage of a bleed. Have you ever seen your enemy standing still unless immobilized?

Some mindless Shortbow spaming rangers come to mind :p

stof.9341:

Some mindless Shortbow spaming rangers come to mind :p

Well, he won’t stack a single bleed if he doesn’t move and you look him into his eyes.

stof.9341:

sorrow.2364:

In real life, Torment always deals 150% damage of a bleed. Have you ever seen your enemy standing still unless immobilized?

Some mindless Shortbow spaming rangers come to mind :p

And I’d say more than “some”, it’s surprising how many players still think this is an old generation MMO and stop themselves in place when using skills.

Still it would count as “3 extra bleeds”, which is ok for me. I think I will start adding this skill to my rotation as usually I have a good amount of initiative available and it’s another cover condition to add to the other 5 I use

You cannot use P/D #3 in a rotation. Not easily at least. You need to be in melee range to use it and when you do, you’ll not be in melee range anymore. It’s a situational escape tool after all

stof.9341:

You cannot use P/D #3 in a rotation. Not easily at least. You need to be in melee range to use it and when you do, you’ll not be in melee range anymore. It’s a situational escape tool after all

With adding to my rotation I meant to use CnD, Sneak Attack while still on melee, and then Shadow Strike to open distance while waiting for the new extra long Revealed effect to disappear and add more conditions in the process

And to regen a full initiative bar? At that point, isn’t the extra long Revealed duration kind of not the problem at all? :p

stof.9341:

You cannot use P/D #3 in a rotation. Not easily at least. You need to be in melee range to use it and when you do, you’ll not be in melee range anymore. It’s a situational escape tool after all

You can definitely use it every rotation its just a different style of p/d then normal.
0-0-30-10-30
IV-V-XI
V
VI-VII-XII

HIS, Shadowstep, Shadow Trap, Inflitrator’s Signet, coupled with 21 sec steal cd.
You can literally get all the teleport’s on rotation with practice. D/P is a very hard counter though be warned.

CND – Steal – Shadow Trap – Sneak Attack – Shadowstrike – AA- Shadow Trap – Sneack Attack -Shadow Strike – AA – CND – Signet – Sneak Attack – Shadow Strike – AA – CND – Steal – Sneak Attack – Shadow Strike – AA, and so on using Shadow step as a replacement tele when the others are on CD if needed, try to just do a regular CND/Sneack Attack combo if things are on CD best to have a stunbreaker always available.

Its gonna be fun

Is this in effect immediately? I just tried shadow strike – and it did not apply any torment

steal, p/d 3, infiltrators signet, with skale venom, then steal again,etc.

They wont be moving anytime soon.

I like it

this is going to help my p/d sooooooo much! i actually use this alot in melee fights…guardians…rangers then steal back to them for cnd then sneak attack then shadow strike again

folly dragon has the combo….not sure id run infil signet over blindpowder/shadrefuge tho.

I wish we could get some P/P buffs, but this is nice and will probably cause me to go full condition P/D for a bit just for the fun of it.

stof.9341:

Shadow Strike: This skill now applies 2 stacks of torment for 5 seconds.

I guess the thief is now fixed …

That indeed makes sense…so, where’s the Torment on Dancing Daggers? (snickers)

srry to ask a stupid question that i am pretty sure i know the answer to . but since its a new skill ill ask anyway. torment can be increased with condi duration buffs/runes/foods skills right?

Travlane.5948:

srry to ask a stupid question that i am pretty sure i know the answer to . but since its a new skill ill ask anyway. torment can be increased with condi duration buffs/runes/foods skills right?

Torment is a conditional condition that behaves like bleed. I know for a fact that Condition Damage increases it but not sure about duration.

One of the number one troll specs got a buff…. seems legit

what exactly defines as a troll spec?

Condition duration will increase the duration, but I’m not sure which specific duration type will also, e.g. Bleed, poison, etc. I suspect anything that increases bleed duration will increase torment, but I haven’t really tested it, as my build has the flat Condition duration increase for all conditions.

yeah true fade…thats a very good point. im wondering that too bc they dont have any specific type of increase duration for torment so chances are it falls under another type. hrm thats a good question.

The way they implemented Torment for thieves initially, made me kind of sad. I can’t give up Caltrops for a 9 second torment, on a 45 second cool down. With this addition, Skale Venom could actually be used in tandem with Shadow Strike, for some nice pressure.

Shadow strike away, steal in (prepping CnD), pop Skale Venom,Sneak Attack, Shadow Strike out.

As long as you get some other conditions in, you’ll have a decent chance to keep some of those up from a removal. (sigils of doom come to mind for poison/weakness)

The only thing that Shadow Strike Torment will do is to act like a patch, so that it gets removed first before your bleed stacks.

I’d love to see Shadow Strike kind of Hybridized, in that if you aren’t in melee, you don’t get the teleport or damage, but you can still land the 2 stacks of torment.

even if torment makes somebody nervous/pressured thats great and does wonders. a patch is even better. plus not everyone has condi removal. i dont mind if people remove my bleeds. unless ur d/p u have no chance of doing it over and over.

Travlane.5948:

even if torment makes somebody nervous/pressured thats great and does wonders. a patch is even better. plus not everyone has condi removal. i dont mind if people remove my bleeds. unless ur d/p u have no chance of doing it over and over.

Yes, psychologically, it is very effective especially if they remove your 2 stacks of Torment instead of your 15 stacks of Bleed, you can almost see them panic and commit a lot of mistakes.

I used to patch my bleeds with cripple, but with Shadow Strike having faster animation than dancing daggers, it is now a more effective patch.

You can overwhelm a D/P thief with conditions from time to time. It won’t kill them, but it will back them off a bit. Poisons, bleeds, torment, weakness, cripple and the occasional vulnerability can be applied fairly often, keeping them on their toes.

well running 10 0 30 0 30 with scorp wire. its a hella time to fight 2x scorp and 1x stun for 2 secs….even with stun breaks.

Typically you only D/P to apply pressure and swap to your preferred weapon set to seal the kill.

It’s a nice addition. I would have liked to see the 2 skill fixed some how. Since you know, it’s useless right now. Hard to make me wanna use 3 when I can use 5 tho. We’ll see shrug

Fade.7658:

I’d love to see Shadow Strike kind of Hybridized, in that if you aren’t in melee, you don’t get the teleport or damage, but you can still land the 2 stacks of torment.

But wouldn’t that be a little too strong then? 8 torment stacks in 2 sec’s from a 900 range?

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Typically you only D/P to apply pressure and swap to your preferred weapon set to seal the kill.

Most D/P thieves I’ve run into, in WvW, stay with D/P and don’t swap out. I can count on one hand the number of really good thieves that swap in and out of different weapons that include D/P.

Cyhann.2609:

Fade.7658:

I’d love to see Shadow Strike kind of Hybridized, in that if you aren’t in melee, you don’t get the teleport or damage, but you can still land the 2 stacks of torment.

But wouldn’t that be a little too strong then? 8 torment stacks in 2 sec’s from a 900 range?

I’d love to see it, but I acknowledge that it would be OP. One can dream :P

Fade.7658:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Typically you only D/P to apply pressure and swap to your preferred weapon set to seal the kill.

Most D/P thieves I’ve run into, in WvW, stay with D/P and don’t swap out. I can count on one hand the number of really good thieves that swap in and out of different weapons that include D/P.

My bad, I meant to say P/D, not D/P (obviously P/D is to apply conditions, then swap to a different weapon set for clean up, that could be either S/D or D/P). >.<’

Can I just say finally a cover condition in the actual weapon set. TY

I have been playing a P/D caltrop build for a long time and love it. This is a very cool addition.

TheGuy.3568:

Can I just say finally a cover condition in the actual weapon set. TY

“cover” – “patch” – same difference

stof.9341:

You cannot use P/D #3 in a rotation. Not easily at least. You need to be in melee range to use it and when you do, you’ll not be in melee range anymore. It’s a situational escape tool after all

go P/D and P/P

CnD, backstab, Shadow Strike, switch to P/P and use the #3
easy burst combo. Gonna eat alot of initiative though

Prysin.8542:

stof.9341:

You cannot use P/D #3 in a rotation. Not easily at least. You need to be in melee range to use it and when you do, you’ll not be in melee range anymore. It’s a situational escape tool after all

go P/D and P/P

CnD, backstab, Shadow Strike, switch to P/P and use the #3
easy burst combo. Gonna eat alot of initiative though

you don’t have backstab with P/D

Lantz.7240:

I have been playing a P/D caltrop build for a long time and love it. This is a very cool addition.

What’s this P/D Caltop build you speak of? I’d like to give it a spin.

I’m just about to hit level 80 on my alt Thief, and Conditions are a preferred style of play for me.

Thanks!!

I think this just makes sense on shadow strike.
I still think 5-1 play on P/D should be redirected.

i play p/d sb caltrops as well with 0/0/30/10/30. Using preempty caltrops > steal unto target then stealth in and out using first slot ws to bleed the target more.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

The only thing that Shadow Strike Torment will do is to act like a patch, so that it gets removed first before your bleed stacks.

And isn’t that great? I already put 5 conditions on target, but not every P/D build does and protecting your bleeds with anything is a good idea

Lokheit.7943:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

The only thing that Shadow Strike Torment will do is to act like a patch, so that it gets removed first before your bleed stacks.

And isn’t that great? I already put 5 conditions on target, but not every P/D build does and protecting your bleeds with anything is a good idea

Bleeds are removed first no matter what I believe. But a little extra damage other then bleeds is a nice change no doubt.

I like how warriors got the most buffs this patch.

Faction.4013:

Lantz.7240:

I have been playing a P/D caltrop build for a long time and love it. This is a very cool addition.

What’s this P/D Caltop build you speak of? I’d like to give it a spin.

I’m just about to hit level 80 on my alt Thief, and Conditions are a preferred style of play for me.

Thanks!!

Its a bit of a gimmicky build that most people make fun of but the only one so far that I have done really well with. Here is my build. I mostly do Spvp so don’t know if it can translate well to Pve or WvW.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY4alYmyNXeS0E95Ei3jvasMLNF0UD2pgrkPA-T4AgyCuI0SplTLjWStsaNWY5x+jjIzAefA

Tons of vigor from heal and steal allows a lot of dodging which creates caltrops to bleed the enemy. CnD then pistol to stack bleeds along with that and poison on top of bleeds does decent damage while making you very evasive. I really only use the second weapon set for the blind and HS to run orb. For utilities I almost always use Caltrops and spider venom. Really like ambush but its easy to replace.

Drtrider.6314:

Lokheit.7943:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

The only thing that Shadow Strike Torment will do is to act like a patch, so that it gets removed first before your bleed stacks.

And isn’t that great? I already put 5 conditions on target, but not every P/D build does and protecting your bleeds with anything is a good idea

Bleeds are removed first no matter what I believe. But a little extra damage other then bleeds is a nice change no doubt.

not always…..it seems random to me.

Zacchary.6183:

I like how warriors got the most buffs this patch.

the pve monster must be fed with more buffs !