Guild Wars 2

DeceiverX.8361:

If you have boon duration AF isn’t worth it because your base power or other modifier-accrued (or really lack thereof) damage isn’t worth ramping with the modifiers.

Especially since AF only applies to critical hits.

Actually I’d suggest to drop CS entirely because you won’t get that much good stuff from scaling crits; DA will be miles better.

Disagree. I already tried the two matched against one another and CS does what I want to do better then DA. This specifically in the staff p/p boon duration build. I do not have to rely on TOTC for fury as the CS line brings me this and so can take Quickness out of the TR line. I get full uptime on Fury along with 10 seconds quickness on the lesser haste trait (along with fury and swiftness) and 10 seconds quickness on a 24 second cooldown with Haste utility.

There no Fury sources in DA. We can only get it from traits via trickery and CS and I want high fury access.

That added quickness in staff P/P is huge and not something I can do as easily when I tak DA. it has been tried.

I also have a build that uses d/p and so far this build works better with DA.

I am not sure where you get that AF applies only to critical hits. ?? Af stacks might and the might stacked on application of Fury not of crits.

Dunno why I thought AF was Twin Fangs. I stopped posting halfway through to play a game of league and that obviously led to dastardly consequences lol.

Yah I saw this change and my heart sunk.

Had a thief on D/D specifically for this trait. I don’t really have desire to play D/D anymore now, I mean that desire has been slim for a long time, but now I won’t bother for the time being I guess. Oh well, I will donate his armor to a different thief.

I will miss popping sigs and assassinating someone, was risky but fun c":

I miss the old but i really hate how the new trait for signets of power only has on kill effects I think the only signet that works well with the on kill effect is signet of shadows with the gain stealth on kill

signet of agility should just grant endurance on a successful dodge

assassins signet should grant might on crit

signet of malice and infiltrators signet should just increase the passive effect or something

idk but the number of on kill effects kind of make the trait feel pretty useless the trait will never see the light of day in pvp … no in fact I see 0 reason to use the trait in any gamemode

the stealth on kill could be fun but u cant really justify picking this trait and slotting sig of shadow for something so minor the stealth does not even stack … and if they where worried about stealth stacking through multiple kills they could have just added a cool down

With the advent of DE running DA/CS/DE or Tr/CS/DE you get a lot more damage than the old D/D Signet build. This time they will know that it’s coming.

The Assassins Signet Nerf is overshadowed by the Gains from Mark up to 21% damage modifiers which then benefits the Power gained by Assassins Signet.

It should be substantially less damage as your maximum gain is 2% more in modifiers in trickery, but you lose on-steal fury reliability and the 15% modifier from Assassin’s Signet which vastly overshadows the gained power.

CS has been crap for pvp/wvw so idk what all the fuss over losing a few might is about unless you run a one-shot build that will be brought back with deadeye

SoP isn’t the issue, really. Assassin’s signet’s change destroyed the SoP build and made the utility worthless while doing nothing to really improve the traitline’s usability.

Outside of just sustained damage for PvE the line really just doesn’t have much of a purpose or identity anymore.

P/P Unload spam and some other niche builds got some buffs but still aren’t really any better than before in the greater context of things.

Like how the Deadeye will be, especially with the rifle, these builds are remaining very much binary in their performance given capacity to either instantly shut someone down or instantly be shut down (reflects etc.).

Completely removing a build which had some semblance of tactical utility for pin-sniping (D/D signets) while providing no such other options or meaningful utility elsewhere is kind of silly.

I’d have been okay with a reduction in quick-kill mechanics if people seriously were adverse to them (though PW, Unload, and Vault also then need a nerfs), but they’d have needed to give CS a lot of power elsewhere in the utility/consistency departments.

DeceiverX.8361:

SoP isn’t the issue, really. Assassin’s signet’s change destroyed the SoP build and made the utility worthless while doing nothing to really improve the traitline’s usability.

Outside of just sustained damage for PvE the line really just doesn’t have much of a purpose or identity anymore.

P/P Unload spam and some other niche builds got some buffs but still aren’t really any better than before in the greater context of things.

Like how the Deadeye will be, especially with the rifle, these builds are remaining very much binary in their performance given capacity to either instantly shut someone down or instantly be shut down (reflects etc.).

Completely removing a build which had some semblance of tactical utility for pin-sniping (D/D signets) while providing no such other options or meaningful utility elsewhere is kind of silly.

I’d have been okay with a reduction in quick-kill mechanics if people seriously were adverse to them (though PW, Unload, and Vault also then need a nerfs), but they’d have needed to give CS a lot of power elsewhere in the utility/consistency departments.

You do not play any of the builds anyways so are speaking without any thing to base your claims on.

Staff works great in CS along with P/P and s/p is doing great. NG can generate 40 seconts fury piled on top of one another with relative ease this in turn piling on might. It is not intended for builds like you have championed, those that make one attack of 4 seconds every 20 in the hopes someone can be downed.

The line favors builds that keep pressure on so as to fuel the might and fury which can wreck those thieves in dire because you are not relying on a 4 second window.

You really didn’t understand my writings on DA to claim that I made a statement that it’s only good for four seconds of every twenty. I did the exact opposite.

I’m not even sure why you’re talking about Dire thieves as though they give me issues when it wasn’t a discussion in this thread, and rarely did I struggle against them on my thief after switching to S/D for the cleanses on IS/IR and when Trickster’s condition cleanse was added. And to make the claim that CS in a sustained fight not running heavy cleanses via DrD and SA is going to out-trade an equally-skilled Dire/TB condition thief is just ludicrous.

DeceiverX.8361:

You really didn’t understand my writings on DA to claim that I made a statement that it’s only good for four seconds of every twenty. I did the exact opposite.

I’m not even sure why you’re talking about Dire thieves as though they give me issues when it wasn’t a discussion in this thread, and rarely did I struggle against them on my thief after switching to S/D for the cleanses on IS/IR and when Trickster’s condition cleanse was added. And to make the claim that CS in a sustained fight not running heavy cleanses via DrD and SA is going to out-trade an equally-skilled Dire/TB condition thief is just ludicrous.

You do not go more than a few days without making the call to remove Dire because it OP and allows too much sustain. In other threads you have indicated your inability to kill people in Dire.

Your claims of “ludicrous” when a power thief using CS faces someone in dire are example of how you are the one being ludicrous as I face persons in Dire with such builds and have no real issues and no, It not because YOU only run into good players and all i see is the bad.

Staff and p/p are built around maintaining continous pressure. They are not builds that wait on a burst that comes from a Mug and this continous pressure takes out persons in Dire , thieves included.

I do not need YOU to tell me that. I do not live in a world where another person must dictate how the game works based on his own vision and own experience. Unlike you, I play thief everyday and have thousands of hours chocked up on a variety of builds. I did not quit playing it years ago.

I have currently stopped using DrD on my staff p/p build and it STILL takes out "skilled “thieves in Dire”. It has never used SA. It certainly harder without EA but I also play a p/d thief that wears TB and knows exactly how unreliable EA can be as a cleanse. Given I play that build I also know that players that know what they are doing do not have issues killing people in TB. (it is in fact UC and the extra dodge missed out of Drd and not EA the larger issue with dropping DrD, however I did this to prepare the way to using DE and getting used to having less dodges)

Added to that just because someone takes CS, it does not preclude him from taking DrD. DrD, Tr and CS also works with staff and p/p and just as a point , DA does not have any cleanses in any case.

Staff has at range blinds, multiple evasive attacks and Immob breaks. All of these are used to counter condition builds in dire and a “skilled” d/d thief , just as example , can really not do a lot against an at range p/p set which can whittle it down at range with a combo of immobs , interrupts and unloads and switch to equally as evasive as DB attacks in staff when in melee. Adding ~500 added ferocity, or a ferocity and heal on crit combo along with an easily achievable 15 might stacks is hardly “sub par” and incapable of dealing with a dire thief.

Again if you want to talk about d/x builds, which play differently it another matter entirely as they do not fight the same way as staff and p/p. Furthermore I am not maligning DA as a traitline. It very solid and a go to for a number of build types. Indeed given many of my reservations against all of the “on steal traits” can be worked around via Swindlers out of DA < I can see it being even more potent in s/x type builds. I am suggesting you get out of the 5 years ago mentality when it comes to thief and start playing them rather then condemning every traitline that you could not get to work for yourself as useless.