Guild Wars 2

I play a ranger and just ran into a thief who was out of bow range, never went into stealth, flew across that 1200 range hit me with abilities I though you needed stealth for out of stealth and dropped me from 18000 health to zero in 3 hits, I run 1600 toughness and all this happened in literally less than half a second. I have a sneaking suspicion that this wasn’t in the thief normal arsenal and there may have been some game tampering on the players part.

‘Flew’ probably means his ‘Steal’ move. The F1 ability.
And the rest was probably just your average backstab build.

Sounds like a typical backstab burst build with traits for longer range stealing.

First, and most important is identifying this build. Usually, they’ll have on them assassin’s signit, and put on a couple venoms in addition to wielding D/D.

A few solutions to this as ranger.

You need to ensure you can evade his backstab. If you cause him to miss his backstab, he’ll have blown multiple utilities, and likely an elite to, making for the rest of the battle fairly easy. How to do this? There’s a couple ways.

#1: This is the hardest, and least reliable, but works with any build. Use an evasive roll, or ability (sword 3, dagger 4) as he’s using steal. If he misses the steal/cloak and dagger, he won’t be stealthed, and can’t backstab you. You’ll see him start the animation for cloak and dagger a brief moment before he shadowsteps/steals, so roll then. It’s extremely difficult, but at least you can do this mostly any time.

#2: There’s a Novice level trait in Wilderness survival that puts stuns/dazes/etc. on your pet rather than you once every 90 seconds. After he lands the cloak and dagger, roll, and make sure he can’t get at your back.

#3: Spike trap at your feet. Despite what the tooltip says, this trap also causes immobilize, preventing the thief from getting at your back in time.

#4: The signit that stunbreaks basically the same thing as in #2, only with an extra button press. It’s arguably the best solution for ranger, as it stops both movement preventing venoms at once.

#5: Protect me. Let your pet take the hit.

#6: The other stunbreaker the ranger has, I don’t recall its name right now.

Feel free to ask any questions.

I can definitely say that Steal wasn’t in the combat log. Just 2 5000 point hits then a 9700 point Backstab. He was outside SB range, my icon was red, so over the 1200 range mark, he was moving far faster than I have ever seen a character move before.

This was literally less than half a second, no time to roll or dodge, or use signet of stone.

If he was outside 1200 range, than the only thing that comes to mind is that he used shadowstep earlier, and “returned” to right next to you.

Other than that? I got nothing. Sounds like a WvW hacker.

The reason I am asking is because I have fought multiple thieves before and after the last patch and never have seen anything like this, I run signet of stone as an emergency button exactly for that reason. And I have never seen a thief move that far that fast and do that much damage on my ranger until today.

I personally enjoy fighting thieves when they are played well, but I didn’t think that what this guy did was in your normal utility belt, if he had dropped into stealth at any point in the fight, then maybe, but he never went stealth.

If he’s faster than any other character moving, he’s definitely hacking. I’m pretty sure you can’t get run speed for thief faster than what swiftness gives you, or at least not on the thief.

Shadow step + steal = 2100 range (2400 if steal is traited) and it can be almost istant.

But will I physically see the character flying at me like that? That’s where I am more confused than anything else. And I know for a fact that Steal wasn’t in the combat log. It was 2 of the same attack followed by backstab.

it is a teleport so you should not see the character fly or run to you (unless maybe a bug or some lag issue)
regarding steal it is not reported in combat log as it does no damage unless it is traited with “Mug”. this does not mean he didn’t use it.

Never mind, no this guy is definitely speed hacking, just saw him moving faster than anyone I have ever seen. Funny, this is the first one I have ever seen. Can’t be fun zipping around a map at 100 miles an hour getting freebie kills.

There is also the short bow 5 slot ability that allows you shadow step a pretty good distance. He could of pop’d it and then changed weapons and opened his burst on you.

I was going to suggest that he chained traversal skills eg. Infiltrator’s Signet -> Steal, but since you saw that he was hacking, nevermind.

Honestly though, watch out for that sort of thing regardless. I run with a sword, and if an enemy is going to get away at a considerable range, I hit Infiltrator’s Signet -> Infiltrator’s Strike -> Steal. That’s a 2400 range, almost instant travel that could also damage if used with Mug and if the IS strike is timed to hit after the Steal. If you’re not that far away, IF will immobilise and deal damage as well.

The capabilities you’re seeing definitely aren’t outside of the realm of possibility for a thief, so I’m hesitant to call “hax!” on it.

and by speed hacking you mean our signet + heart seeker.

Stort, are you really claiming that the signit + heartseeker can close a distance of 1200+ before someone can react?

Honestly people…

Rottaran Owain.6789:

Stort, are you really claiming that the signit + heartseeker can close a distance of 1200+ before someone can react?

Honestly people…

I’m not claiming either way but it’s definitely possible, much like how its possible for someone in Black Ops to walk into a room and head shot 5 people without hacks.

All-in-all when reflexes are concerned some people are crazy skilled and some are slower then a stoner on payday.