Guild Wars 2

I played a bunch of matches in unranked (so anything should be taken with a grain of salt, the unranked fauna is pretty heterogeneous, you can get good enemies/teammates and complete clueless ones too), trying mostly d/p and staff.

AA buff aside, it felt like the core problem of thief is still there unchanged: we’re paper thin and can’t really sustain mere seconds in aoe spammed points without disengaging, and the same is when we’re focused even by 2 enemies. Conditions still are a huge problem imo, but I haven’t tried to equip Acro with the new anti-condi traits (still not sure that the new Pain Response can be good and I can’t decide in case what to drop in order to get Acro).

If you tried some matches, what are your impressions? New patch, same old same old?

Same old same old… I was trying to main staff, pointless. Changed up my build a lot, ended up with a sword/pistol combo with acrobatics and deadly strikes… but most my acrobatic traits are not triggering, nor is daredevil rune.

I felt tanky on my thief before (yes, I ran a bunker thief) and I feel totally fine now

The changes have been very positive in WvW. Don’t sPvP much so cannot say there. AoE spam and heavy bunker still remains but many builds are just a tad bit less bunkery and CoR hasn’t torn me a new one yet.

I cloak, stealstab to one target, spike, cloak and finish.

I do the same, just faster now.

Played a quite a few now and really the same thing just easier because of the nerfs. And I’m not saying easy as in like I can kill anyone I look at but easy as in things are actually killable now. Other than that idk why ppl are screaming that we got over buffed.

A few things don’t work… but otherwise I feel… the same really. Just a tiny bit more efficient. (then again… I didn’t use my same build when I started bashing the crap out of mobs with a stick.)

It really changed nothing tbh. Stuff I killed before the patch goes down just a tiny bit faster. Enemies that know their class and how to counter are still just as hard, but a tiny bit more doable without the tanky amulets.

The basilisk venom is the only thing that impacts real fights and it’s just 2 hits on a decent long cooldown. Perhaps if they made this instant, so I could choose when to apply it would make it work.

Shovel Face.4512:

Played a quite a few now and really the same thing just easier because of the nerfs. And I’m not saying easy as in like I can kill anyone I look at but easy as in things are actually killable now. Other than that idk why ppl are screaming that we got over buffed.

That’s right, stuff are killable now. BUT- it feels like we’re sort of back to the zerker meta, and if i get caught in 1 attack i’m simply done with. The elite specs got too many AOEs and high-damage attacks, so for me it feels like the zerker meta, but worse. I know i have l2p issues, but it is still frustrating to get 1/2 shotted by random stuff that fly around.

I only get around to testing two of the existing builds to any great degree those being my s/d power and d/d condition. Most of it on the s/d. This in WvW

The extra AA damage on s/d is nice and is noticeable. Some seem to think we would just dismantle everyone using AA. Not the case. Our style the same, in and out we just hit harder on the in.

I focused on new acro line as I had been using Acro in my s/d build for the past while in anticipationof changes.

The extra condition cleanse on PR is very nice. Given s/d has infiltrators this goes a long ways to keeping conditions off without having to go SE or escapists. GI is very much more usable though I am not sure this will remain in the s/d build. That lowered threshold and confusion removal makes one all but immune to those conditions early.
Swindlers gives a nice damage boost now though I am not so sure on the lowered steal cooldown usage yet.

The new assassins is much more worthy as a GM. I used this in conjunction with IP off the CS line and had high regen uptime from the PR plus health coming in from every crit. A nice boost. The new upper hand it was hard to see if the INI inflow was triggering but I was definitely getting more regen.

On the DB condition build using d/d the acro line much much better. Both GI and PR traited and used in conjunction with the escapists and was pretty well condition proof. Assassns reward in shamans build pulled in over 800 health jist from assassins on a single db. Coupled with SOM this is 1400 in heals per DB. The CnD steal MUG combo can gen close to 3800 heal.

Basi as an unblockable worked very well finally making that trait more elite worthy. I did find I used it less then previously as I wanted to ensure I maximized its ability so It available when needed to finish. (open finish not used much in between)

The tone down to other professions was noticeable. Scrapper is easier to deal with as they lost that everlasting stealth. Revs are easier to deal with then prior and I can live through those DH traps a bit more easily. Dragon hunters are still tough. Never met any mesmers to any large degree. The Condition build fared much better agains te eles I met as did s/d

AOE is still AOE and is everywhere. If anything people are more reliant in it. I found myself just bypassing those larger scale fights to avoid the stuff as I can not do much in it.

BTW the s/d build I used has high armor/vitality (3100 18K respectively) using Sigils of Intel and Daredevil runes for on demand crits.

Tonight will be staff testing and likely S/D some more

The limited play time I’ve had since patch has been spent testing AA DPS in the mists…they feel much more responsive though! So glad they shaved the aftercasts.

So they finally made some changes!!! They took too much time to make changes to thief and it is not good enough for me to come back. I lost interest and probably wont come back until I see some good changes on thief class.

Karl, I remember you saying that you are working on pistol buff like 3 months ago. So it took you guys 24 months to buff thief class? I am sorry you have to do better for thief class.

Good luck guys!!

They will never listen to our feedback. We asked for something and they gave something worthless.

I’m totally happy with the changes.

I’m not happy with the general brainless direction of this game.
“Come here, I’ll show you my skill with my random passives” “no problem, I’m gonna counter you with mine!” “Hah, your random passives aren’t random enough, I landed a hit!!” “Good Game, lad!”

I run S/D so:

The damage increase is there but slight. S/D still seems irrelevant to the meta, especially when main hand dagger got a AA boost as well. The changes to Acrobatics are welcome, but only because I play vanilla version of the game. I can’t imagine many players with HoT are jumping ship to Acro when they have DD. Sustain thief is not and will never be a thing.