Guild Wars 2

Why hasn’t anet fixed this bug yet zzz

TheDarkSoul.1938:

Eh, just play DH with Longbow and traps and you can literally roll your face across the keyboard and still win.

Anything with good long range pressure… so, basically Druid and DH. We don’t like not being able to kite away from your damage.

Good Scrappers have a pretty good matchup VS us I think.

Berserkers (if full melee) are… eh. Problem is you’re just so darn easy to kite and evade your key skills (Bursts, Shield Bash, HB, stuff like that). You pop Resistance? We just swap to SB and wait it out. You pop Endure Pain? Same deal, just kite it out and re-engage. If I kite you then you’re struggling to hit your Bursts which cripples your rejen even more. Yeah sure if you land a Burst then thats a pretty good chunk of my health gone… but good thieves won’t let you do that, lol. Idk, I always felt like Berserker was one of my easier matchups (unlesss you’re playing Condi, in which case, kitten you.)

Condi pretty much kills us. We have pretty lackluster cleanse considering most of us take Pulm instead of cleanse on dodge. Just put a few condis on us, wait for us to pop SoA/Shadowstep, or whatever, and then just save your real condi burst for after that. If they are using cleanse on evade, just…. don’t attack afterwards. I see very few people that actually do this: if you land your condi burst and then STOP attacking, there’s literally nothing I can do about it. I fought a Condi mesmer the other day who would just stow weapons every time he landed a burst on me and I melted pretty quick.

Tempest is dependant on how good the Tempest is I guess.

Thief mirror matches are kinda boring tbh. Just whoever lands the first Steal + SS usually wins unless someone kittens up. ALL about the opening. Land your steal, dodge theirs, Pulm any heal/stealth attempts, done.

Rev just isn’t a great matchup against Thief. Idk about condi because I don’t think I’ve ever fought a good one, lol.

If you play power Chrono then you’re basically just gonna lose unless you catch us totally off-guard and land the PERFECT burst. Power Chrono just isn’t great, particularly against Thief because we can reset and burst so much more often and reliably than you can. Condi is the way to go.

I mean in general? Interrupt 5-2 from D/P to leave us with no initiative, dodge the shot from SS and play through blinds, ALWAYS count the cd on Steal! It’s so so essential for us to land it that it can often decide the fight, so dodge it/invuln it, whatever, just make sure we don’t hit it. Count stealth as well, because the backstab nerf means we basically get one attempt to land it everytime we go Stealth so just count 2-3 seconds and then just hit dodge. Stow weapons when you’re not attacking (this goes for full melee builds in particular) instead of hitting AA into thin air because Pulm procs off interrupted AA as well. Make sure you hit your CC skills, bait out the stun breaks and then burst. Every time thief enters stealth, try to anticipate where he’s moving (this is actually easier to do than it sounds). Pressure the kitten out of him because Thieves hate being pressured, we don’t have the defenses to put up with it for long.

Don’t think there’s much else tbh.

Very helpful, thanks for your input.

Although we all no against a good thief it’s just prolonging the inevitable it’s still helpful to see inside of that ganky mind haha

I’d love to duel you a bit Papasmurf <3 Hit me up on a weekend and we may even be able to stream it with other people playing various classes.

The thief that takes EA as their major cleanse is a good reason for long condition durations. Land one condi bomb and wait. By the time the durations expire as they try to trigger a cleanse on evade you will have another condi bomb ready. Shadowstep has a long cooldown and as a condition cleanse just not as reliable as the old shadows embrace which so few thieves take these days.

Without reservation I can state that very often if in a group against the thief that uses EA as their main cleanse , your own ability to inflict damge via conditions will drop as those others will continue attacking and help proc those evade cleanses. Indeed when on my own thief that relied on evades to cleanse, I would run into enemy camps so that the NPC guards would help proc those evades.

• General tips

1) Alt F4

2) Use a ranged weapon. And STAND STILL when you fire it! If you stand still it will automatically turn you and activate no matter how many times they get behind you.

3) learn to chain ur dodges, watch ur surroundings, anticipate when they break stealth and dodge the initial blows.

4) Don’t chase them, don’t try to outsustain them or wait out their rotations.

5) they have a block most of them take that has only a 12sec cd or something…so proc ur unblockable if u have one when they put their fists up.

6) Condi, condi and more condi is usually the way to go, with ranged obviously being easier than melee.

7) Just run, by not fighting them you are already a winner.

8) A good way to kill them are bursty builds that have a ranged option to follow up.

9) When a thief backs off, run in the opposite direction so they have to expend initiative or cool downs to re-engage. If you have a non damaging condition on you make sure to cleanse it as it can stop you getting ooc but the thief can get ooc.

10) Anything with good long range pressure… so, basically Druid and DH. We don’t like not being able to kite away from your damage.

11) Condi pretty much kills us. We have pretty lackluster cleanse considering most of us take Pulm instead of cleanse on dodge. Just put a few condis on us, wait for us to pop SoA/Shadowstep, or whatever, and then just save your real condi burst for after that. If they are using cleanse on evade, just…. don’t attack afterwards. I see very few people that actually do this: if you land your condi burst and then STOP attacking, there’s literally nothing I can do about it.

12) Interrupt 5-2 from D/P to leave us with no initiative, dodge the shot from SS and play through blinds, ALWAYS count the cd on Steal! It’s so so essential for us to land it that it can often decide the fight, so dodge it/invuln it, whatever, just make sure we don’t hit it. Count stealth as well, because the backstab nerf means we basically get one attempt to land it everytime we go Stealth so just count 2-3 seconds and then just hit dodge. Stow weapons when you’re not attacking (this goes for full melee builds in particular) instead of hitting AA into thin air because Pulm procs off interrupted AA as well. Make sure you hit your CC skills, bait out the stun breaks and then burst. Every time thief enters stealth, try to anticipate where he’s moving (this is actually easier to do than it sounds). Pressure the kitten out of him because Thieves hate being pressured, we don’t have the defenses to put up with it for long.

13) The thief that takes EA as their major cleanse is a good reason for long condition durations. Land one condi bomb and wait. By the time the durations expire as they try to trigger a cleanse on evade you will have another condi bomb ready.

14) dodge at start of a roll an at end of the roll have .15 seconds of being able to dmg the thief.
so if a thief dodges twice in a row that become .3 of unavoidable dmg try to use 1/2 or 1/4 skills in that time frame for max value.
no matter how strong a thief build himself his core def is from weaken and blinds. if you can deal with that you can crush any thief build.
as a video rephrase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sihmw2bDBY i used a 3/4 skill

15) Weaken would have more of an impact that blind on a teef. Both are still a pain however a teef has many multi attacks or range to see blind as a major hindrance.

16) weaken means alot less (with exception of the endurance regen debuff) vs a condi thief, and good luck getting blind to stick when they run EA.

17) If a Thief goes D/P, they will generally be more vulnerable but more mobile if they take dash. D/P Thieves generally have better damage compared to Staff especially when the Thief takes DA instead of Acro. Even though staff has easier bursts than D/P (vault), it is weaker since it gets to hit less than D/P.
Mind you that staff DDs tend to use staff 3 a lot. Begin autoattack animation → steal → staff 3 → kite is something you will see a lot when dueling staff acro thieves.

18)
- A Thief’s defense is their mobility
- Wasting their Backstab is crucial
- Don’t give them a chance to use Black Powder if they’re near you
- If they blocked an attack at close range with Bandit’s Defense, dodge since they may use a counterattack which can CC you and let them rip off a nice chunk of damage with Vault or other means
- If you’re condi and you deliver a burst, don’t attack them. If you notice their condis completely removed then they may have wasted their Signet of Agility and Shadowstep. With those two gone the Thief is slightly weaker and less agile.
- The most dangerous part of a Thief is when they’re in stealth. If they’re running Basilisk Venom and they steal you, they can interrupt you even if you had 10 stacks of Stability for quite a while so save those stun breaks.

Updated and created a separate post for general tips too as the main post was getting too long. Linked in main post.

saerni.2584:

I’d love to duel you a bit Papasmurf <3 Hit me up on a weekend and we may even be able to stream it with other people playing various classes.

Im always up for dueling partners, despite what class im up against. Im def not the best, however i’m not terribad either and theres always something to learn

My thoery is " To get good, you must fight good and against good" so im always looking to git gud.

I would love to get a group of ppl together that main different classes that want to learn to fight each other with a friendly atmosphere, or even have people teach others how to fight using certain classes.

How to beat a Daredevil as a reaper:

1.) Play power GS + A/D with Suffer in Spite/SR/R. You’ll need Speed of Shadows.
2.) Read Shadow Shot’s animation and dodge.
3.) When they steal combo you just cast Suffer to return weakness cutting their crits and dodge refill rate + applying chill, then Shroud -> 3 -> 4 -> 3 while they’re in melee to force Shadowstep and BP or they die.
4.) Slight chase to keep them willing to attack you and then nuke the hell out of them post-Shadowstep via Axe 2. Most will try to escape via BP -> CV and will likely be too slow and get nuked from the Spinal Shivers proc at half which will corrupt their ToTC boons as well.
5.) They’ll panic-re-engage or try to stack stealth in BP + HS to flee so swap GS and 4 -> 5 -> Shroud 5 -> Shroud 4. GS4 will trap HtC in Acro, so Charge into Scythe if you need to. Lay on the heat.

DeceiverX.8361:

How to beat a Daredevil as a reaper:

1.) Play power GS + A/D with Suffer in Spite/SR/R. You’ll need Speed of Shadows.
2.) Read Shadow Shot’s animation and dodge.
3.) When they steal combo you just cast Suffer to return weakness cutting their crits and dodge refill rate + applying chill, then Shroud -> 3 -> 4 -> 3 while they’re in melee to force Shadowstep and BP or they die.
4.) Slight chase to keep them willing to attack you and then nuke the hell out of them post-Shadowstep via Axe 2. Most will try to escape via BP -> CV and will likely be too slow and get nuked from the Spinal Shivers proc at half which will corrupt their ToTC boons as well.
5.) They’ll panic-re-engage or try to stack stealth in BP + HS to flee so swap GS and 4 -> 5 -> Shroud 5 -> Shroud 4. GS4 will trap HtC in Acro, so Charge into Scythe if you need to. Lay on the heat.

I fought a similar build the other day while on my DD and they had similar rotations, however it didnt end well. They hurt when their GS and axe hit, however it didnt end well for them. Blind and the stolen fear is a wonderful thing

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

DeceiverX.8361:

How to beat a Daredevil as a reaper:

1.) Play power GS + A/D with Suffer in Spite/SR/R. You’ll need Speed of Shadows.
2.) Read Shadow Shot’s animation and dodge.
3.) When they steal combo you just cast Suffer to return weakness cutting their crits and dodge refill rate + applying chill, then Shroud -> 3 -> 4 -> 3 while they’re in melee to force Shadowstep and BP or they die.
4.) Slight chase to keep them willing to attack you and then nuke the hell out of them post-Shadowstep via Axe 2. Most will try to escape via BP -> CV and will likely be too slow and get nuked from the Spinal Shivers proc at half which will corrupt their ToTC boons as well.
5.) They’ll panic-re-engage or try to stack stealth in BP + HS to flee so swap GS and 4 -> 5 -> Shroud 5 -> Shroud 4. GS4 will trap HtC in Acro, so Charge into Scythe if you need to. Lay on the heat.

I fought a similar build the other day while on my DD and they had similar rotations, however it didnt end well. They hurt when their GS and axe hit, however it didnt end well for them. Blind and the stolen fear is a wonderful thing

Thats where Improv can really shine. If I want to steal two of anything it plasma off the mesmer and fear off the necro. A double fear on a necro can really turn a fight in your favor.

babazhook.6805:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

DeceiverX.8361:

How to beat a Daredevil as a reaper:

1.) Play power GS + A/D with Suffer in Spite/SR/R. You’ll need Speed of Shadows.
2.) Read Shadow Shot’s animation and dodge.
3.) When they steal combo you just cast Suffer to return weakness cutting their crits and dodge refill rate + applying chill, then Shroud -> 3 -> 4 -> 3 while they’re in melee to force Shadowstep and BP or they die.
4.) Slight chase to keep them willing to attack you and then nuke the hell out of them post-Shadowstep via Axe 2. Most will try to escape via BP -> CV and will likely be too slow and get nuked from the Spinal Shivers proc at half which will corrupt their ToTC boons as well.
5.) They’ll panic-re-engage or try to stack stealth in BP + HS to flee so swap GS and 4 -> 5 -> Shroud 5 -> Shroud 4. GS4 will trap HtC in Acro, so Charge into Scythe if you need to. Lay on the heat.

I fought a similar build the other day while on my DD and they had similar rotations, however it didnt end well. They hurt when their GS and axe hit, however it didnt end well for them. Blind and the stolen fear is a wonderful thing

Thats where Improv can really shine. If I want to steal two of anything it plasma off the mesmer and fear off the necro. A double fear on a necro can really turn a fight in your favor.

True, but I myself would have to give up executioner

since it does not seem to be covered dodge at start of a roll an at end of the roll have .15 seconds of being able to dmg the thief.

so if a thief dodges twice in a row that become .3 of unavoidable dmg try to use 1/2 or 1/4 skills in that time frame for max value.

no matter how strong a thief build himself his core def is from weaken and blinds. if you can deal with that you can crush any thief build.

as a video rephrase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sihmw2bDBY i used a 3/4 skill

Taobella.6597:

since it does not seem to be covered dodge at start of a roll an at end of the roll have .15 seconds of being able to dmg the thief.

so if a thief dodges twice in a row that become .3 of unavoidable dmg try to use 1/2 or 1/4 skills in that time frame for max value.

no matter how strong a thief build himself his core def is from weaken and blinds. if you can deal with that you can crush any thief build.

as a video rephrase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sihmw2bDBY i used a 3/4 skill

Weaken would have more of an impact that blind on a teef. Both are still a pain however a teef has many multi attacks or range to see blind as a major hindrance.

weaken means alot less (with exception of the endurance regen debuff) vs a condi thief, and good luck getting blind to stick when they run EA.

K THEN.5162:

Alt f4 seems to do the trick for me

I’m not ashamed to say I do this regularly.
It’s Arenanet’s fault for putting such awful classes in their game.

Daredevil does well against both power and condi builds now due to the buff to Signet of Agility. For my Mesmer I find it much easier to kill Daredevils on my power build because I can end the fight much quicker with a well timed burst. It’s a difficult fight simply because the evade uptime is really high between Signet of Agility + Channelled Vigor + all the other endurance gain things. Then there’s the stealth uptime on top of that with the now pretty uncounterable BP>Bound combo, although Dash is arguably harder to deal with because it means the DD is immune to any attempts to root them. Stuns don’t really work because Bandit’s Defense has a very short cooldown. The window to land a burst is very small and often reliant on the DD making a mistake that I can capitalise on. Usually forcing them to burn a few things early on by faking out a burst can help.

A PU condi Mes can bunker nicely against a DD but it’s not a certain win because the DD can disengage at any point and just wait out cooldowns. When I’m on my DD I just wait for the Mesmer to cycle through some cooldowns and then just close in. Just have to be patient. Hybrid meta Chrono probably has better killing potential against a Thief because there’s more burst. Other condi builds not running Chaos will have a tough time without any protection. So hybrid Chrono is the way to go in my opinion.

Ele main here, I’ll try to provide tips on how to fight a Daredevil.

I’ve tried my hand at Daredevil, both playing D/P meta, Staff acro, and a mix of both.

If a Thief goes D/P, they will generally be more vulnerable but more mobile if they take dash. D/P Thieves generally have better damage compared to Staff especially when the Thief takes DA instead of Acro. Even though staff has easier bursts than D/P (vault), it is weaker since it gets to hit less than D/P.

Mind you that staff DDs tend to use staff 3 a lot. Begin autoattack animation -> steal -> staff 3 -> kite is something you will see a lot when dueling staff acro thieves.

Just try to remember these things:

- A Thief’s defense is their mobility
- Wasting their Backstab is crucial
- Don’t give them a chance to use Black Powder if they’re near you
- If they blocked an attack at close range with Bandit’s Defense, dodge since they may use a counterattack which can CC you and let them rip off a nice chunk of damage with Vault or other means
- If you’re condi and you deliver a burst, don’t attack them. If you notice their condis completely removed then they may have wasted their Signet of Agility and Shadowstep. With those two gone the Thief is slightly weaker and less agile.

The most dangerous part of a Thief is when they’re in stealth. If they’re running Basilisk Venom and they steal you, they can interrupt you even if you had 10 stacks of Stability for quite a while so save those stun breaks.

Now for some Fresh Air Elementalist tips:

- Tempest doesn’t scale well against Daredevil. Even by taking Harmonious Conduit, their steals will interrupt the Stability. In theory Tempest is good because it supplies AoEs which should counter a Thief, but unlike Dragonhunter, Overloads are really long channels which basically tell a Thief, "Interrupt me!"

- I tried running Fresh Air Tempest but it does not work. Fresh Air core ele is the best you can take.

- Your main attack will come from Air. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Scepter 2 is generally what will do the big damage. Phoenix from Fire works pretty good too, just make sure your Phoenix is aimed at slightly behind your Thief if you can do that, since you may hit the Thief 5+ times with the skill (but it’s unlikely the Thief will take your Phoenix).

- As someone said above, you can use Arcane Blast for huge bursts. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Lightning Strike + Arcane Blast is a deadly combo. It’s easy too.

- Contrary to popular belief, Lightning Flash is not necessary!! This is especially true if dueling a Thief who can teleport to you after wasting your LF. Thieves catch up to you no matter what so it’s best to have a stun breaker instead of LF. I would take Armor of Earth, Mist Form, and Arcane Blast or Arcane Shield.

- When swapping to Air attunement make sure the Thief isn’t dodging or blocking. Your attack will go right down the drain.

I’m sure there are more tips but that’s all I will say for now.

Abelisk.4527:

Ele main here, I’ll try to provide tips on how to fight a Daredevil.

I’ve tried my hand at Daredevil, both playing D/P meta, Staff acro, and a mix of both.

If a Thief goes D/P, they will generally be more vulnerable but more mobile if they take dash. D/P Thieves generally have better damage compared to Staff especially when the Thief takes DA instead of Acro. Even though staff has easier bursts than D/P (vault), it is weaker since it gets to hit less than D/P.

Mind you that staff DDs tend to use staff 3 a lot. Begin autoattack animation -> steal -> staff 3 -> kite is something you will see a lot when dueling staff acro thieves.

Just try to remember these things:

- A Thief’s defense is their mobility
- Wasting their Backstab is crucial
- Don’t give them a chance to use Black Powder if they’re near you
- If they blocked an attack at close range with Bandit’s Defense, dodge since they may use a counterattack which can CC you and let them rip off a nice chunk of damage with Vault or other means
- If you’re condi and you deliver a burst, don’t attack them. If you notice their condis completely removed then they may have wasted their Signet of Agility and Shadowstep. With those two gone the Thief is slightly weaker and less agile.

The most dangerous part of a Thief is when they’re in stealth. If they’re running Basilisk Venom and they steal you, they can interrupt you even if you had 10 stacks of Stability for quite a while so save those stun breaks.

Now for some Fresh Air Elementalist tips:

- Tempest doesn’t scale well against Daredevil. Even by taking Harmonious Conduit, their steals will interrupt the Stability. In theory Tempest is good because it supplies AoEs which should counter a Thief, but unlike Dragonhunter, Overloads are really long channels which basically tell a Thief, “Interrupt me!”

- I tried running Fresh Air Tempest but it does not work. Fresh Air core ele is the best you can take.

- Your main attack will come from Air. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Scepter 2 is generally what will do the big damage. Phoenix from Fire works pretty good too, just make sure your Phoenix is aimed at slightly behind your Thief if you can do that, since you may hit the Thief 5+ times with the skill (but it’s unlikely the Thief will take your Phoenix).

- As someone said above, you can use Arcane Blast for huge bursts. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Lightning Strike + Arcane Blast is a deadly combo. It’s easy too.

- Contrary to popular belief, Lightning Flash is not necessary!! This is especially true if dueling a Thief who can teleport to you after wasting your LF. Thieves catch up to you no matter what so it’s best to have a stun breaker instead of LF. I would take Armor of Earth, Mist Form, and Arcane Blast or Arcane Shield.

- When swapping to Air attunement make sure the Thief isn’t dodging or blocking. Your attack will go right down the drain.

I’m sure there are more tips but that’s all I will say for now.

I don’t play ele much so I can’t really comment on that. But your general tips are very insightful kind Sir. Thanks!

If you’re a condi reaper, put geomancy and hydromancy on your weapons and hit shroud as soon as he engages. Very difficult to avoid, you’ll have 6-9 stacks of bleeding on him just from that, and you’ll have broken basilisk venom with foot in the grave. I used to do the same thing on condi engi vs thieves: geomancy and intelligence with incendiary powder and plex runes. Swap on their engage, heal and pull for the finish.

Watch your life force and health, spam staff 2 where you’re stood to force him to waste dodges. Place staff 3 and 5 on the shadowstep return point if he uses it for distance.

Avoid spamming scepter auto. Thieves specced for interrupt damage will tear you a new one if you do, and you don’t need many condis to put serious pressure on once agility signet and shadowstep are on cooldown. If you land a blind, that’s when you can use elite shout etc to avoid being interrupt bait.

That, and always have full life force if possible. If I can waste it or chew through it with attacks too easily, that’s when necro becomes an easy kill. I probably can’t one shot you so if you force me to trade blows when I engage I will almost certainly come off worse.

I finally killed my 2nd good Daredevil as a hybrid Reaper. I defined good as someone who used to kill me for fun meaning I died almost every engage previously =/

I learnt from the general tips section points 11 and 18 and the Reaper section point 3.

It was a Staff DD.

Stopped attacking after I loaded him with around 6 bleed stacks each time. Doesn’t even have to be a lot of bleeds. just around 6 stacks and stopped attacking each time. He kept dodging and dodging, probably hoping I would hit him lol…
It was really my most convincing win on my hybrid Reaper against a DD.

The first good DD I killed was a Sword/Dagger DD but it was more luck and felt less convincing than this win. This win it felt like I controlled almost the entire fight just by not attacking lol…he was forced to burn his shadow step even though he wasn’t stunned at all just to clear the condi…then he died in the follow up burst.

It would probably still be an uphill fight against even better thieves but hopefully more practice can help give me a fighting chance.

Man did it feel good when I could feel myself in control of the entire fight when previously I was just chasing shadows and spamming my skills.

Thanks for the tips guys!

Edit: And seems like a very good point from Jugglemonkey above on the geomancy and hydro sigil to enter shroud with. It would make it much easier to burst the thief and stop attacking after.

How can you fight what just runs away?

And I submit that while EA a good cleanse for the thief, it is overrated by far too many. Once people can discipline themselves into not attacking once the bomb on you will see a whole lot of those thieves drop.

A thief using combinations of PR/Trickery shadowstep and SE for cleanses is more dangerous as not only are some of those cleanses specific to certain conditions , but they can better control when they will clean a condition.

What was learned here in my opinion is how to deal with a class that spams a skill and use that spam against them which is something more people should do rather then start all these “Nerf XXX it OP” threads

Live by the spam Die by the spam!

You can’t win against daredevil if daredevil player have read what his skills do.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Abelisk.4527:

Ele main here, I’ll try to provide tips on how to fight a Daredevil.

I’ve tried my hand at Daredevil, both playing D/P meta, Staff acro, and a mix of both.

If a Thief goes D/P, they will generally be more vulnerable but more mobile if they take dash. D/P Thieves generally have better damage compared to Staff especially when the Thief takes DA instead of Acro. Even though staff has easier bursts than D/P (vault), it is weaker since it gets to hit less than D/P.

Mind you that staff DDs tend to use staff 3 a lot. Begin autoattack animation -> steal -> staff 3 -> kite is something you will see a lot when dueling staff acro thieves.

Just try to remember these things:

- A Thief’s defense is their mobility
- Wasting their Backstab is crucial
- Don’t give them a chance to use Black Powder if they’re near you
- If they blocked an attack at close range with Bandit’s Defense, dodge since they may use a counterattack which can CC you and let them rip off a nice chunk of damage with Vault or other means
- If you’re condi and you deliver a burst, don’t attack them. If you notice their condis completely removed then they may have wasted their Signet of Agility and Shadowstep. With those two gone the Thief is slightly weaker and less agile.

The most dangerous part of a Thief is when they’re in stealth. If they’re running Basilisk Venom and they steal you, they can interrupt you even if you had 10 stacks of Stability for quite a while so save those stun breaks.

Now for some Fresh Air Elementalist tips:

- Tempest doesn’t scale well against Daredevil. Even by taking Harmonious Conduit, their steals will interrupt the Stability. In theory Tempest is good because it supplies AoEs which should counter a Thief, but unlike Dragonhunter, Overloads are really long channels which basically tell a Thief, “Interrupt me!”

- I tried running Fresh Air Tempest but it does not work. Fresh Air core ele is the best you can take.

- Your main attack will come from Air. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Scepter 2 is generally what will do the big damage. Phoenix from Fire works pretty good too, just make sure your Phoenix is aimed at slightly behind your Thief if you can do that, since you may hit the Thief 5+ times with the skill (but it’s unlikely the Thief will take your Phoenix).

- As someone said above, you can use Arcane Blast for huge bursts. Electric Discharge + Sigil of Air + Lightning Strike + Arcane Blast is a deadly combo. It’s easy too.

- Contrary to popular belief, Lightning Flash is not necessary!! This is especially true if dueling a Thief who can teleport to you after wasting your LF. Thieves catch up to you no matter what so it’s best to have a stun breaker instead of LF. I would take Armor of Earth, Mist Form, and Arcane Blast or Arcane Shield.

- When swapping to Air attunement make sure the Thief isn’t dodging or blocking. Your attack will go right down the drain.

I’m sure there are more tips but that’s all I will say for now.

I don’t play ele much so I can’t really comment on that. But your general tips are very insightful kind Sir. Thanks!

Those tips are good, however a lot of DD’s now run the trait that tricks (such as the heal thats widely used nowadays) now remove condis as well so its not safe to assume that of they have no condi’s then they wasted their siggy and/or shadowstep. Condis are the bane of DD’s I will admit, however you need to be more of a 1 trick pony to beat a good DD (ie … ele’s mainly use burn for condi, but not enough pressure compared to burn guardian so you need to be on your A game as well).

• General tips 2

19) while EA a good cleanse for the thief, it is overrated by far too many. Once people can discipline themselves into not attacking once the bomb on you will see a whole lot of those thieves drop.
A thief using combinations of PR/Trickery shadowstep and SE for cleanses is more dangerous as not only are some of those cleanses specific to certain conditions , but they can better control when they will clean a condition.

20) a lot of DD’s now run the trait that tricks (such as the heal thats widely used nowadays) now remove condis as well so its not safe to assume that of they have no condi’s then they wasted their siggy and/or shadowstep. Condis are the bane of DD’s I will admit