Guild Wars 2

Ok im at boss farming like melandru and grenth etc etc. people are droping symbols and poison fields and caltrops and fire ele powders aoes and marks.

Problem: most of the mobs (90% to almost all of them) go from 100% to 0 in less than .1 seconds. you dont see the HP suck down it just blinks gone.

if there are 60 people or 70 , or 80 or even just 40…. they can each drop 1-2 forms of this kind of dmg and it kills before anyone gets a chance to hit them.

Question 1: i know caltrops wont give loot by itself or poison field from SB but what other skills from other classes wont/will etc. is there a link to gw2 site that says or how do u know?

Question 2: i like to use cluster bomb/daggerstorm. i get a few hits on each 1-2 and im good for loot but when other people do that aoe thing and pulse my CB is like a joke. as always thief is coming up short. how to get around this?

im very pro in wvw and pve tpvp etc….but this is on thing i just dont see how to get around as a thief. i know lots of tips including getting 2 stealth attacks from 1 utility and etc but this boggles me

idk
p/p with ricochet and fire sigil?
bullets fly a heck of a lot faster than cluster bombs

also sword 2

The only thing in the game that beats a thief using a short bow for tagging mobs is the Guardian staff.

I’m not sure what issue you’re running into…spam tab target enemies and explode clusters into mobs. =P

P.s. stand close. Thieves have the most mobility of any class, so it shouldn’t be hard to get near enemies first. If you’re lobbing a cluster at max range, don’t expect to hit much. Pop it off like a shotgun at close range.

Explode your cluster bombs before impact.
Cycle through different targets so the bounce hits more different targets.

There is a minimum amount of damage you need to get credit for the kill, but it’s pretty low. You’ll need to hit champs etc. more than you will a regular mob, bukitten isn’t really about doing a lot of damage, just hitting a lot of things. Just try to get a feel for how many hits you need on different target types.

Dahkeus.8243:

T
P.s. stand close. Thieves have the most mobility of any class, so it shouldn’t be hard to get near enemies first. If you’re lobbing a cluster at max range, don’t expect to hit much. Pop it off like a shotgun at close range.

Basically this.
Just max out dps and use traveler runes/signet/swiftness. Spam 1 and tab while running to mobs and spam cluster bomb at point blank. SB is more effective the closer you are to your targets. Generally i just run through and spam 2.

i dont think i explained myself well. yousee the mobs runningtoward you…… they are invulnerable until they reach their attack point…… at this “attack point” (like melandru 2nd beacon) there is a kitten load of symbols and fire ele powders used and caltrops and poison fields and many many many dozens of aoes pulsing on the ground. so finally when they reach this attack point they are able to be hit and no longer invulnerable. im standing right in the middle of it spamming 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 and still only lucky to hit 2 out of 10 bc their hp blinks gone bc of the dmg that is stacked up.

lets say there is 60 people there. each person casts 1-2 (call it 1.5) AOE pulses on ground plus there is 25 fire eles summoned. thats 115 AOES pulsing with dmg on the ground at the point of the mobs being able to be struck. now in ONE second these mobs are being hit for lets just say 500 damage per pulse to be conservative. so we have 115(aoe type stuff) x 500 dmg per pulse/hit etc which is a grand total of 57,500 hp worth of dmg when they only run about 12-15k ish (depending on mob). not to mention the spamming of auto attacks and weapon attacks.

since we dont have any of these aoe pulse types other than caltrops which wont give loot if its the only kskill used.

see what i mean now?

which skills do and dont give loot BY THEMSELVES and on what classes? why dont we have something we can just do to be lazy like other classes. all these other classes have all this passive defense (healing signet like etc) and passive dmg that just pulses in PVE.

Turn “autotarget” on in options (for this purpose, and only this purpose, obviously), and run around with your shortbow spamming “1” and occasionally tapping the tab key. Bonus points if you have a sigil of fire on your bow.

There are times it will still be too slow, but only Daggerstorm is faster for a thief. Those 50+ person zergs break a lot of encounters. At least you’ll still tag vets and champs

@Travlane, With zergs that big it all comes down to timing and dumb luck really. I’m sure some of those players throwing down fields wont tag aswell. Fields usually dmg once/sec. If mobs are dying too fast for you to even get a cluster bomb off b4 they’re dead odds are other ppl arent tagging aswell. Anyways as you said its a large zerg, you cant expect everyone to tag every mob.

I try to pre-place poison fields from SB. That way you get some credit (I believe) if people combo through it too.

@ Travlane
I take for granted that you play a Power spec and no way a condi spec right?

I’ve never had problems half-assing my way through zergs with a sb, just spamming auto-attack with auto-target on while jumping around and spamming sb tele and steal when it’s up to make sure I spread the love among all the mobs.

I offer no REAL contribution, but it’s enough to convince ANET they should give me loot.

i never had problem tagging with just shortbow auto attack o_o

Travlane.5948:

i dont think i explained myself well. yousee the mobs runningtoward you…… they are invulnerable until they reach their attack point…… at this “attack point” (like melandru 2nd beacon) there is a kitten load of symbols and fire ele powders used and caltrops and poison fields and many many many dozens of aoes pulsing on the ground. so finally when they reach this attack point they are able to be hit and no longer invulnerable. im standing right in the middle of it spamming 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 and still only lucky to hit 2 out of 10 bc their hp blinks gone bc of the dmg that is stacked up.

lets say there is 60 people there. each person casts 1-2 (call it 1.5) AOE pulses on ground plus there is 25 fire eles summoned. thats 115 AOES pulsing with dmg on the ground at the point of the mobs being able to be struck. now in ONE second these mobs are being hit for lets just say 500 damage per pulse to be conservative. so we have 115(aoe type stuff) x 500 dmg per pulse/hit etc which is a grand total of 57,500 hp worth of dmg when they only run about 12-15k ish (depending on mob). not to mention the spamming of auto attacks and weapon attacks.

since we dont have any of these aoe pulse types other than caltrops which wont give loot if its the only kskill used.

see what i mean now?

which skills do and dont give loot BY THEMSELVES and on what classes? why dont we have something we can just do to be lazy like other classes. all these other classes have all this passive defense (healing signet like etc) and passive dmg that just pulses in PVE.

Poison field where they go to or hit them as soon as they’re vulnerable.

Problem solved.

If tagging mobs is really that troublesome for you, then I’m not sure what to tell you. You’re talking about the most brainless aspect of the game. =P

Hawkeye.9687:

@ Travlane
I take for granted that you play a Power spec and no way a condi spec right?

both dont work….they die in .1s. so unless we can drop a field…..that actually gives loot its dumb luck.

Maugetarr.6823:

I try to pre-place poison fields from SB. That way you get some credit (I believe) if people combo through it too.

if u JUST deal dmg thru poison field/caltrops you will NOT get loot. it has to be power based dmg or direct attack dmg. thieves have nothign like this.

the only fix they can do is add a pusle dmg to these 2 fields OR scale regular mobs up. scaling wuld be the best idea.

Dahkeus.8243:

Travlane.5948:

i dont think i explained myself well. yousee the mobs runningtoward you…… they are invulnerable until they reach their attack point…… at this “attack point” (like melandru 2nd beacon) there is a kitten load of symbols and fire ele powders used and caltrops and poison fields and many many many dozens of aoes pulsing on the ground. so finally when they reach this attack point they are able to be hit and no longer invulnerable. im standing right in the middle of it spamming 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 and still only lucky to hit 2 out of 10 bc their hp blinks gone bc of the dmg that is stacked up.

lets say there is 60 people there. each person casts 1-2 (call it 1.5) AOE pulses on ground plus there is 25 fire eles summoned. thats 115 AOES pulsing with dmg on the ground at the point of the mobs being able to be struck. now in ONE second these mobs are being hit for lets just say 500 damage per pulse to be conservative. so we have 115(aoe type stuff) x 500 dmg per pulse/hit etc which is a grand total of 57,500 hp worth of dmg when they only run about 12-15k ish (depending on mob). not to mention the spamming of auto attacks and weapon attacks.

since we dont have any of these aoe pulse types other than caltrops which wont give loot if its the only kskill used.

see what i mean now?

which skills do and dont give loot BY THEMSELVES and on what classes? why dont we have something we can just do to be lazy like other classes. all these other classes have all this passive defense (healing signet like etc) and passive dmg that just pulses in PVE.

Poison field where they go to or hit them as soon as they’re vulnerable.

Problem solved.

If tagging mobs is really that troublesome for you, then I’m not sure what to tell you. You’re talking about the most brainless aspect of the game. =P

what skill can you use that activates AND…yes AND….hits in under .1 seconds? link me and ill feel dumb. btw im sure you know poison/blind/caltrops doesnt give loot right? the problem is on anets. if i was on my guardian dropping symbols or my necro dropping marks that activate only on non invulnerable mobs …… id be getting 4x the loot.

how about you make a video of you at melandru with 60-80 people getting drops. i usually get about 100 ish drops there when theres less than 20 people. show us how its done. u will prolly say you dont have a recording program so its easy to downloand bandicam or fraps.

problem is on anets side not thieves. its a problem only hav on my thief. hrm….. and my thief is my main…. 4 legendaries full armor/accs/weapons ascended 10k ap . not a nub ….brah. come again.

Travlane.5948:

Dahkeus.8243:

Travlane.5948:

i dont think i explained myself well. yousee the mobs runningtoward you…… they are invulnerable until they reach their attack point…… at this “attack point” (like melandru 2nd beacon) there is a kitten load of symbols and fire ele powders used and caltrops and poison fields and many many many dozens of aoes pulsing on the ground. so finally when they reach this attack point they are able to be hit and no longer invulnerable. im standing right in the middle of it spamming 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 and still only lucky to hit 2 out of 10 bc their hp blinks gone bc of the dmg that is stacked up.

lets say there is 60 people there. each person casts 1-2 (call it 1.5) AOE pulses on ground plus there is 25 fire eles summoned. thats 115 AOES pulsing with dmg on the ground at the point of the mobs being able to be struck. now in ONE second these mobs are being hit for lets just say 500 damage per pulse to be conservative. so we have 115(aoe type stuff) x 500 dmg per pulse/hit etc which is a grand total of 57,500 hp worth of dmg when they only run about 12-15k ish (depending on mob). not to mention the spamming of auto attacks and weapon attacks.

since we dont have any of these aoe pulse types other than caltrops which wont give loot if its the only kskill used.

see what i mean now?

which skills do and dont give loot BY THEMSELVES and on what classes? why dont we have something we can just do to be lazy like other classes. all these other classes have all this passive defense (healing signet like etc) and passive dmg that just pulses in PVE.

Poison field where they go to or hit them as soon as they’re vulnerable.

Problem solved.

If tagging mobs is really that troublesome for you, then I’m not sure what to tell you. You’re talking about the most brainless aspect of the game. =P

what skill can you use that activates AND…yes AND….hits in under .1 seconds? link me and ill feel dumb. btw im sure you know poison/blind/caltrops doesnt give loot right? the problem is on anets. if i was on my guardian dropping symbols or my necro dropping marks that activate only on non invulnerable mobs …… id be getting 4x the loot.

how about you make a video of you at melandru with 60-80 people getting drops. i usually get about 100 ish drops there when theres less than 20 people. show us how its done. u will prolly say you dont have a recording program so its easy to downloand bandicam or fraps.

problem is on anets side not thieves. its a problem only hav on my thief. hrm….. and my thief is my main…. 4 legendaries full armor/accs/weapons ascended 10k ap . not a nub ….brah. come again.

Really? Is this where you’re going with the thread? Come on, tagging mobs with a short bow isn’t rocket science.

I have documented a film to explain to you the intricacies of tagging mobs. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0esK73JaDA

Dahkeus.8243:

I have documented a film to explain to you the intricacies of tagging mobs. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0esK73JaDA

the thread was serious plz dont bring sarcasm. thanks.

Dahkeus.8243:

I have documented a film to explain to you the intricacies of tagging mobs. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0esK73JaDA

when you are ready to accept the challenge let me know.

Dahkeus.8243:

Travlane.5948:

Dahkeus.8243:

Travlane.5948:

i dont think i explained myself well. yousee the mobs runningtoward you…… they are invulnerable until they reach their attack point…… at this “attack point” (like melandru 2nd beacon) there is a kitten load of symbols and fire ele powders used and caltrops and poison fields and many many many dozens of aoes pulsing on the ground. so finally when they reach this attack point they are able to be hit and no longer invulnerable. im standing right in the middle of it spamming 22 2 2 2 2 2 2 and still only lucky to hit 2 out of 10 bc their hp blinks gone bc of the dmg that is stacked up.

lets say there is 60 people there. each person casts 1-2 (call it 1.5) AOE pulses on ground plus there is 25 fire eles summoned. thats 115 AOES pulsing with dmg on the ground at the point of the mobs being able to be struck. now in ONE second these mobs are being hit for lets just say 500 damage per pulse to be conservative. so we have 115(aoe type stuff) x 500 dmg per pulse/hit etc which is a grand total of 57,500 hp worth of dmg when they only run about 12-15k ish (depending on mob). not to mention the spamming of auto attacks and weapon attacks.

since we dont have any of these aoe pulse types other than caltrops which wont give loot if its the only kskill used.

see what i mean now?

which skills do and dont give loot BY THEMSELVES and on what classes? why dont we have something we can just do to be lazy like other classes. all these other classes have all this passive defense (healing signet like etc) and passive dmg that just pulses in PVE.

Poison field where they go to or hit them as soon as they’re vulnerable.

Problem solved.

If tagging mobs is really that troublesome for you, then I’m not sure what to tell you. You’re talking about the most brainless aspect of the game. =P

what skill can you use that activates AND…yes AND….hits in under .1 seconds? link me and ill feel dumb. btw im sure you know poison/blind/caltrops doesnt give loot right? the problem is on anets. if i was on my guardian dropping symbols or my necro dropping marks that activate only on non invulnerable mobs …… id be getting 4x the loot.

how about you make a video of you at melandru with 60-80 people getting drops. i usually get about 100 ish drops there when theres less than 20 people. show us how its done. u will prolly say you dont have a recording program so its easy to downloand bandicam or fraps.

problem is on anets side not thieves. its a problem only hav on my thief. hrm….. and my thief is my main…. 4 legendaries full armor/accs/weapons ascended 10k ap . not a nub ….brah. come again.

Really? Is this where you’re going with the thread? Come on, tagging mobs with a short bow isn’t rocket science.

reading is even easier. plz re read. you are missing the problem.

ok guys i did some testing.

i use caltrops/poison field for about 24 kills and only got 3 loots. i let each pulse from 1 tick to 15 ticks. the bags that got dropped were from the higher number of tix. in melandru type event farming when there is so many people and so many fire ele powder summons you dont get more than 1 tick…. so the loot chance is low. perhaps the only way is to stick in a party and hope for the dmg of theirs to add up with yours.

i also tried doing duo farming mobs and the drop % was about 80-85% which is much better than 12.5% from the tix (would have been 0% if they were all 1-2 tix max).

when the HP of the mobs blinks for .1 secs and shortbow has about a full second of activation/animation time theres not much chance other than anticipating and spamming on spot but then its all luck.

i made some videos of these findings and ill make a 3rd one tnite when melandru is up with lots of people.

Is it an option to find smaller scaled group events?

frans.8092:

Is it an option to find smaller scaled group events?

ummi guess i could do then before reset…. but tis hard to then being earlier in day. after reset every server is just chuck full. i coudl always look for a party of guards/ aoe chars…

is there a consumable that does aoe? i know theres the golems but those are slow (the mini flying golems)….ill have to recheck.

reikken.4961:

idk
p/p with ricochet and fire sigil?
bullets fly a heck of a lot faster than cluster bombs

also sword 2

It’s still a lot easier to tag people in wvw with pistol and it’s still pretty lame in small groups. I tried to make use of it for quite some time but P/P is just unnecessary in WvW as it is now.

Also SB gives you the ability to charge head first into hordes of people in a zerg v zerg w/o dying if you’re using Signet of Malice and spamming explosions.

Short bow auto attack, sigil of fire (it wont tag but it will add to the damage of mobs you hit with auto attack), spam 2 at 300 range or less, and play a power build. It really is that simple. If you want easy tagging get a guard use staff and once again a power build. Condi builds do not tag well at all.

In terms of AoE tagging as said before the only thing above SB thief is guardian with a staff. Even nade engineer is limited by flight time.

they die in .1 seconds. SB using cluster bomb is 1 sec minimum. math…no bueno. 0_o

Travlane.5948:

they die in .1 seconds. SB using cluster bomb is 1 sec minimum. math…no bueno. 0_o

Well, timing it properly would theoretically be able to land it just in time, but that might be practically unreliable.

Tripwire and needle trap do some damage when triggered, are they of use for your ability to tag foes?

@ Travlane
Well my fellow thief I could think only one other possibility. Check all the autotargetings and target assists on .Take Sb-S/P and potition your self first at the incoming way of the mobs .Though I play in a T1 EU server I never had so much problem with looting .
On the other hand you may were unlucky to have so much power eles and necros during these events but it’s difficult for such a thing to happen often (at least at my server) .

frans.8092:

Travlane.5948:

they die in .1 seconds. SB using cluster bomb is 1 sec minimum. math…no bueno. 0_o

Well, timing it properly would theoretically be able to land it just in time, but that might be practically unreliable.

Tripwire and needle trap do some damage when triggered, are they of use for your ability to tag foes?

i thought about this an tried it but uszually only 1 mob :? and they dont travel ontop of each other…usually in a line all coming into play about .2s after the preceding.

im going to put up a video today. so hang tight and you can see

heres a short clip…i could put the whole one up but its just redundant. ull see what i mean spamming CB.

the best solution i think its to scale up the event. poison fields arent enough dmg to really get credit for loot but exp yes.

check it out.

http://youtu.be/5qkkDBeLRBE

Reroll for farming? I haven’t farmed a lot recently, but my engi with grenades / bombs was more effective when I was. They have improved the bomb radius also. Sorry I don’t have better advice.

Chaos … I am thinking a lot of people get few mobs tagged. Anyway if none of our aoe options work, cluster bomb, caltrops, tripwire etc… I would move on to another champ train.

Being in a party might help, I think you get loot from everything your entire party tags.

you have to have the dmg set in place already…. i think thats the trick … and thieves have 0 aoe placed dmg that pulses :/

But a 1 second pulse would miss the .1 sec window of opportunity 9 time out of 10 anyway. Maybe the people who manage to get lots of hits there know what works, or maybe everyone is as lucky as you.

Travlane, are you using the instant ground targeting option? If not use that.
Also find a smaller zerg, the window you have way to small for any class/build/dps to get any significant amount of hits.

Travlane.5948:

you have to have the dmg set in place already…. i think thats the trick … and thieves have 0 aoe placed dmg that pulses :/

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Choking_Gas
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caltrops

Dahkeus.8243:

Travlane.5948:

you have to have the dmg set in place already…. i think thats the trick … and thieves have 0 aoe placed dmg that pulses :/

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Choking_Gas
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caltrops

points up

re read earlier passages.

TLDR: no loot from those.

Travlane.5948:

Dahkeus.8243:

Travlane.5948:

you have to have the dmg set in place already…. i think thats the trick … and thieves have 0 aoe placed dmg that pulses :/

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Choking_Gas
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caltrops

points up

re read earlier passages.

TLDR: no loot from those.

Points up You said there was no AoE damage that pulses. Those are AoE that pulse.

I really have no idea what your problem is. Cluster bomb and short bow auto attack alone is all you need to tag every mob in sight. Choking gas tags mobs for me…and I run a direct damage build, but it’s rarely if ever necessary since you can just cluster in the face of enemies.

And yes, I’ve done all the Orr events enough to make my eyes bleed on more than just my thief.

Tab target auto attack, run in circles, spam 2, loot. It’s really that simple.

There’s no special magical formula or hidden thief skill you’re missing. You don’t need some special build just for tagging mobs. You just run around, faceroll with your short bow, and nothing will tag mobs better than you except for a Guardian with a staff.

Travlane.5948:

. i know lots of tips including getting 2 stealth attacks from 1 utility and etc but this boggles me

What is this? Can someone explain?

SR maybe, might last long enough to for stealth-attack-revealed-stealth-attack. Smoke Screen should easily last long enough to do this.

Dahkeus.8243:

Travlane.5948:

Dahkeus.8243:

Travlane.5948:

you have to have the dmg set in place already…. i think thats the trick … and thieves have 0 aoe placed dmg that pulses :/

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Choking_Gas
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Caltrops

points up

re read earlier passages.

TLDR: no loot from those.

Points up You said there was no AoE damage that pulses. Those are AoE that pulse.

I really have no idea what your problem is. Cluster bomb and short bow auto attack alone is all you need to tag every mob in sight. Choking gas tags mobs for me…and I run a direct damage build, but it’s rarely if ever necessary since you can just cluster in the face of enemies.

And yes, I’ve done all the Orr events enough to make my eyes bleed on more than just my thief.

Tab target auto attack, run in circles, spam 2, loot. It’s really that simple.

There’s no special magical formula or hidden thief skill you’re missing. You don’t need some special build just for tagging mobs. You just run around, faceroll with your short bow, and nothing will tag mobs better than you except for a Guardian with a staff.

they dont pulse dmg.

frans.8092:

SR maybe, might last long enough to for stealth-attack-revealed-stealth-attack. Smoke Screen should easily last long enough to do this.

Yup, you can also do the same with D/P if you time your HSs right.