Guild Wars 2

So from the look of the staff reveal on POI a couple minutes ago.

I probably will still continue to main S/D— Shortbow.

And also take the Escapist Absolute condition removal trait, with the Dash dodge.

How about you guys? Impressions?

I’m a bit sad the staff doesn’t hit 5 targets instead of 3 considering it’s supposed to be Aoe oriented (for a long stick it takes just one more guy than a little dagger xD).

Really excited about everything else.

I think we will cry a lot though when the balancings will occure.

Me after watching the daredevil POI.

I was distracted, did they mention if Bound breaks stealth on hit when comboing? Or it will work like heartseeker? It looks great and the damage is solid, so I hope I can synergize it with my build.

Disrupting daggers needs to stick around more than 15 seconds. It’s basically a mantra that throws a dodgeable projectile.

The visual effect allows the enemy to see when it is cast, and exactly how many daggers you have left, which is good for counterplay, but IMO 15s is too short to get good use out of it.

Since it tosses a counterable projectile, and the enemy can easily predict when we have the ability to use it due to the visible daggers, why doesn’t it just work like a mantra with an icon visible to the enemy? Heck, you could even greatly increase the cast time to balance that if you wanted, but 15s isn’t really enough to use it as pressure, or successfully interrupt.

I like the sound effects for it though.

Kinda sad that they increased the cooldown of the stunbreak to 15s but even at 15s it’s still pretty hot.

I wish the last hit of the elite had a cooler animation in stead of a sped up normal stomp animation.

Wow, I thought the staff would be mediocre in damage but I was wrong. It’s probably does the highest damage from any other weaponset. From that 5 k plus (3 hits) whirl damage 7 k Leap not to mention our awesome auto-attacks. Staff is like a combo GOD with the new physical skills. I’m truly impressed.

Karl McLain.5604:

Lokheit.7943:

I was distracted, did they mention if Bound breaks stealth on hit when comboing? Or it will work like heartseeker? It looks great and the damage is solid, so I hope I can synergize it with my build.

It works the same as Heartseeker.

Thanks for the answer Karl!

Now I’m 100% replacing my P/D for P/P “in your face pewpewpew”.

PS: It still works if it hits multiple targets right?

So you can’t use Shadow refuge with DareDevil spec. because you can’t dodge in the SR? (and if you can, you land damage so u got reveal)

It looks to me like they cannibalized Acro for DD, and left Acro in a complete crap state.
Now if I want to play a dodgy thief rather than a stealthy, I’ll have to shell out for HoT.

philheat.3956:

So you can’t use Shadow refuge with DareDevil spec. because you can’t dodge in the SR? (and if you can, you land damage so u got reveal)

Take dash if you want to dodge around your SR, as dash does no damage effects.

Might also be an intended balancing effect.

I saw the Red logo and I just stopped everything.

THANK YOU SIR!!! * applause *

Seabreeze.8437:

Me after watching the daredevil POI.

Hahahaha xD

IDICERI.4268:

Wow, I thought the staff would be mediocre in damage but I was wrong. It’s probably does the highest damage from any other weaponset. From that 5 k plus (3 hits) whirl damage 7 k Leap not to mention our awesome auto-attacks. Staff is like a combo GOD with the new physical skills. I’m truly impressed.

Yeah the staff looks absolutely amazing! My only problem with it right now is that I wish the skill 2 had evade frames but that’s just me. Skill 3 looks great for survivability and skill 4 is a whole lot better than I thought it would be. Skill 5 is a godsend.

The dodge animations look really ugly IMO besides the condi dodge. Idk, just personal preference I guess. I’m having a hard time trying to figure out what builds I want to try out during BWE. Condi thief looks like it’s going to be a bunch of fun with the new dagger utility and dodge. S/d with Staff offhand maybe for power oriented builds. I wonder how traditional stealth abuse d/p and d/d builds could benefit from DD traitline.

evilapprentice.6379:

It looks to me like they cannibalized Acro for DD, and left Acro in a complete crap state.
Now if I want to play a dodgy thief rather than a stealthy, I’ll have to shell out for HoT.

Implying you weren’t gonna buy HoT anyway….

Karl McLain.5604:

Lokheit.7943:

I was distracted, did they mention if Bound breaks stealth on hit when comboing? Or it will work like heartseeker? It looks great and the damage is solid, so I hope I can synergize it with my build.

It works the same as Heartseeker.

Thats freaking awesome!

Any chance we can get an answer on how long the 2nd and 3rd skill in the Impact Strike chain will last?
Will using a weapon skill or another utility in the middle of Impact Strike reset/cancel the chain?

Staff seems like pve weapon to me. Animations are too long and not enough utility for pvp.

Physical are nice but locked to spec and can be countered by dazes/blinds/body blocking etc.

Traits are probably most interesting aspect, seems like it can go well with acro. However i don’t see that trait line going well with d/x builds. Meaning it is s/x or gtfo. Kind of boring.
Also, build has 0 team support which we really needed. SA is still superior in that area.

I can see why people are getting excited, but personally i don’t think there will be anything i will be using from new spec (sb, dp > staff, trait line selfish and only works with s/x, utilities not usable w/o spec), for team pvp that is. Disappointed~

I think when the next expansions will come out, it will be VERY hard to make us get rid of the Daredevil spec.

Red logo,
You guys are welcome haha

Cynz.9437:

Staff seems like ove weapon to me. Animations are too long and not enough utility for pvp.

Physical are nice but locked to spec and can be countered by dazes/blinds/body blocking etc.

Traits are probably most interesting aspect, seems like it can go well with acro. However i don’t see that trait line going well with d/x builds. Meaning it is s/x or gtfo. Kind of boring.

It can most definitely go with d/x due to dodges being leaps now. (blinding powder and dodge means free backstab).

PopeUrban.2578:

philheat.3956:

So you can’t use Shadow refuge with DareDevil spec. because you can’t dodge in the SR? (and if you can, you land damage so u got reveal)

Take dash if you want to dodge around your SR, as dash does no damage effects.

Might also be an intended balancing effect.

You go out from SR with Dash, too much distance traveled

Karl McLain.5604:

Lokheit.7943:

I was distracted, did they mention if Bound breaks stealth on hit when comboing? Or it will work like heartseeker? It looks great and the damage is solid, so I hope I can synergize it with my build.

It works the same as Heartseeker.

Wow a Dev Response in the Thief Forum! Keep it coming Karl, you just won the hearts of a lot of thieves!

Question my internet dropped for a second during the stream, did you mention when the CD for Disrupting Daggers starts?
Right after you activate the skill or after you consumed the last charge? (hope the latter as it would otherwise be a really bad mantra)

Rain.9213:

evilapprentice.6379:

It looks to me like they cannibalized Acro for DD, and left Acro in a complete crap state.
Now if I want to play a dodgy thief rather than a stealthy, I’ll have to shell out for HoT.

Implying you weren’t gonna buy HoT anyway….

I wasn’t planning on buying HoT in the first place. This pretty much sealed the deal – there’s always a chance I’ll change my mind I suppose, but at the moment I’m not interesting in paying 50 dollars to gain access to a playstyle Anet took away mere months ago with no explanation or reason.

Links to video?

philheat.3956:

PopeUrban.2578:

philheat.3956:

So you can’t use Shadow refuge with DareDevil spec. because you can’t dodge in the SR? (and if you can, you land damage so u got reveal)

Take dash if you want to dodge around your SR, as dash does no damage effects.

Might also be an intended balancing effect.

You go out from SR with Dash, too much distance traveled

You can swap weapons. Same as with Withdraw in SR.
EDIT: lol doesn’t work, seems like i had a blackout, sorry

treizebee.2091:

Any chance we can get an answer on how long the 2nd and 3rd skill in the Impact Strike chain will last?
Will using a weapon skill or another utility in the middle of Impact Strike reset/cancel the chain?

Really important info I was hoping to get from stream. Basically I want to know if I can use the first two and then save the third for right after I down the guy for insta finishes. LET US KNOW KARLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

T raw.4658:

Links to video?

Dulfy’s Thread

Tarkan.5609:

philheat.3956:

PopeUrban.2578:

philheat.3956:

So you can’t use Shadow refuge with DareDevil spec. because you can’t dodge in the SR? (and if you can, you land damage so u got reveal)

Take dash if you want to dodge around your SR, as dash does no damage effects.

Might also be an intended balancing effect.

You go out from SR with Dash, too much distance traveled

You can swap weapons. Same as with Withdraw in SR.

But you can’t do multiple dodges

Just one.

And you need to have weapon swap available

Tarkan.5609:

Karl McLain.5604:

Lokheit.7943:

I was distracted, did they mention if Bound breaks stealth on hit when comboing? Or it will work like heartseeker? It looks great and the damage is solid, so I hope I can synergize it with my build.

It works the same as Heartseeker.

Wow a Dev Response in the Thief Forum! Keep it coming Karl, you just won the hearts of a lot of thieves!

Question my internet dropped for a second during the stream, did you mention when the CD for Disrupting Daggers starts?
Right after you activate the skill or after you consumed the last charge? (hope the latter as it would otherwise be a really bad mantra)

Awesome indeed, I couldn’t believe I combo triggered a red logo in the Thief forum haha.

Hopefully now that the reveal is in place and it won’t spoil stuff, Karl can talk to us a bit more?

It looks great.

On question I had was does the stun on Palm Strike trigger two Pulmonary Impacts if it interrupts when traited?

philheat.3956:

Tarkan.5609:

philheat.3956:

PopeUrban.2578:

philheat.3956:

So you can’t use Shadow refuge with DareDevil spec. because you can’t dodge in the SR? (and if you can, you land damage so u got reveal)

Take dash if you want to dodge around your SR, as dash does no damage effects.

Might also be an intended balancing effect.

You go out from SR with Dash, too much distance traveled

You can swap weapons. Same as with Withdraw in SR.

But you can’t do multiple dodges

Just one.

And you need to have weapon swap available

Doesn’t work anyway, just remembered :p
And yeah neither of the DD GM’s will work with SR it seems… kinda sad but in WvW Roaming I dont like SR much anyway

Some of the animations looked a bit wonky tbh, like Debilitating Arc. It seems jerky… I think something more like a sweeping uppercut with the staff followed by a twisting side flip might’ve looked more fluid. Weakening Charge looked nice and smooth, no complaints there. Auto-attack could be flashier, but that’s no big deal. Dust strike seems like it should be a sweep rather than a scoop, but again no big deal there. Also, I wonder if using the heartseeker animation would be better for the Bounding Dodge rather than reusing the staff vault. Speaking of staff vault, I wonder if all races will do a back flip… It’d be cool if human males did more of a twisting front flip and actually vaulted off the staff instead of simply jumping.

As you can see, most of my minor critiques are in the visuals. All in all it looks really fun, and I love the focus on evading rather than pure stealth. Would be nice to be able to hit 5 targets on the last hit of the AA chain though.

Can’t wait to try this out for myself!

When Karl McLain around 29 minutes said " The Feline Grace Stuff" .

“BRUH”

Karl McLain.5604:

Lokheit.7943:

I was distracted, did they mention if Bound breaks stealth on hit when comboing? Or it will work like heartseeker? It looks great and the damage is solid, so I hope I can synergize it with my build.

It works the same as Heartseeker.

This is a really well designed Elite Spec and it seems that we finally have someone who understand what the Thief profession is lacking.

I really hope that you remain strong to resist the QQs post launch and not nerf the Thief to the ground.

Keep up the good work Karl.

Good Job! Looks fun!

OMG! DEV POST ON THIEF FORUMS, TAKE A PICTURE AND RECORD IT IN THE HISTORY BOOKS!

P.s. Love the daredevil <3

S/P, Bounding dodger , Impacting disruption, distracting daggers. Synergy, Synergy , Synergy.

Rain.9213:

Seabreeze.8437:

Me after watching the daredevil POI.

Hahahaha xD

IDICERI.4268:

Wow, I thought the staff would be mediocre in damage but I was wrong. It’s probably does the highest damage from any other weaponset. From that 5 k plus (3 hits) whirl damage 7 k Leap not to mention our awesome auto-attacks. Staff is like a combo GOD with the new physical skills. I’m truly impressed.

Yeah the staff looks absolutely amazing! My only problem with it right now is that I wish the skill 2 had evade frames but that’s just me. Skill 3 looks great for survivability and skill 4 is a whole lot better than I thought it would be. Skill 5 is a godsend.

My only problem with it is I can’t play it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The 4th can’t get here fast enough;-)

i think that a d/d – d/d condi build with energy sigil and dire equip will be really really OP as you can almost always death blossom, being tanky and sending out tons of aoe damage. bleed+torment+cripple is way to much for a dodge skill. I mean, 3conditions spamming+ everything else a condi thief can do is just crazy. there will be no chance to clean it up and conditions do way to much damage compared to power (which also needs precision and ferocity),

philheat.3956:

So you can’t use Shadow refuge with DareDevil spec. because you can’t dodge in the SR? (and if you can, you land damage so u got reveal)

You could just point to the floor and use shortbow 3, but yes, this is pretty significant, good catch. Also dodging in stealth, which is key sometimes, could potentially reveal you with Bound or Impairing Lotus due to accidental damage. But it’s definetly doable with good positioning.

Good lord, who needs stealth for safety, when they can never touch me?

I am looking forward to seeing how all these dodge effects work with http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Adventure and http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Energy and with a little food like this http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Orrian_Truffle_and_Meat_Stew

evilapprentice.6379:

Rain.9213:

evilapprentice.6379:

It looks to me like they cannibalized Acro for DD, and left Acro in a complete crap state.
Now if I want to play a dodgy thief rather than a stealthy, I’ll have to shell out for HoT.

Implying you weren’t gonna buy HoT anyway….

I wasn’t planning on buying HoT in the first place. This pretty much sealed the deal – there’s always a chance I’ll change my mind I suppose, but at the moment I’m not interesting in paying 50 dollars to gain access to a playstyle Anet took away mere months ago with no explanation or reason.

Then don’t pay for that. Pay for Guild Halls, other specializations, a new class, a new story, raids(according to IGN), and more content yet to be revealed.

Considering the fact that GW2 isn’t subscription based, $50 dollars is a reasonable amount of money to pay for an expansion. Original base game price for me plus HoT puts me at $90 for 3 years of gameplay so far. While in The Old Republic or WoW, I would have spent over $500 dollars plus the original cost of the game plus expansion price…

Tarkan.5609:

Doesn’t work anyway, just remembered :p
And yeah neither of the DD GM’s will work with SR it seems… kinda sad but in WvW Roaming I dont like SR much anyway

Staff 3 could potentially work with SR :o Not sure though, you’d also have to be really careful not to hit anyone as you do it.

Over 5000 hours on my thief

I feel you Aiki i’m just re-rolling to Rev since daredevil looks incredibly boring man. Even if i used it i wouldn’t take the staff. Potentially Perma-weakness is some cheesy game-play too power V power.

Why bother dealing with any of the typical thief life problems when you can just re-roll to a better class at this point.

All of you people who are buying into this “evade hype” seem to be forgetting about guardian circles/lines and ele lines or are just pvers.

Sigmoid.7082:

S/P, Bounding dodger , Impacting disruption, distracting daggers. Synergy, Synergy , Synergy.

S/P and Bounding dodger is enough to consistently interrupt your target. The other skills are just overkill. lol

Looks very interesting, but i’m a bit worried about the staff.
I’m not sure if it’s going to do enough to be good in spvp, and in pve dagger is still definitely going to deal more damage (unless we get crazy damage buffs).
Also on the multi hit utility thing, imo the after hit of palm strike should be able to crit, or at least deal a lot more damage considering how easy it is to miss hits due to all kind of random things. Also lets be honest, 2k base damage is very weak if it cannot crit. On the interrupt trait it is fine because you can spam it much more and it is easier to proc.

very impressed. the whole spec is just excellently designed – looks, synergies within the spec, synergies with other weapons, customizable unique mechanic, great animations. Best elite spec so far.

Only problem i have with it is Escapist Absolution is wrongly placed. you have to take it if you use staff to have any condi cleanse (which means Staff Mastery is completely obsolete, you can never equip it). same for S/P, you need condi cleanse since even though you can stealth with S/P now thanks to dodge you dont want to do it so often to pick SA and therefore cant pick the interupt trait despite the synergy with oh pistol.

THere would be much more build diversity across the entire class if EA was minor (switch with heal on evade) or adept major.

You would still have a tough choice at the master level since all 3 traits would be great, it wouldnt lead to overpowered builds, and would open many new ways to spec the thief and using the staff trait would be possible.

The elite looks amazing for finishing, or just smashing/launching in general.

Also maybe make the daze daggers work like mantras, they are available until spent, increase the cast time if needed. 15s is a bit short and you cant really prepare them pre-fight. You are sort of forced to just use them right away, before they run out. If they dont wear of, its a tool that you have ready when you need it, promotes skillful use and not just hey might as well throw this before it runs out.

Heal skill looks a bit weak though. channels are very risky and it doesnt really heal that much or provide enough secondary bonuses to justify the use. Maybe add a stealth on end or some boons. It needs buffing to be used.

Staff AA – doesnt seem as weak as i initially thought, but could be more interesting maybe. Add something to 2nd skill in the chain – plain hit-plain hit is a bit boring.

Maybe change skill 2 or skill 5 to 5 targets, would be nice to have 5-target skill for large mob fights. Its still a thief, their primary concern by nature is loot :P, need to tag 5 enemies for good loot though.

Zaerah.1630:

I’m not sure if its going to do enough to be good in spvp

Staff would allow the Thief to defend a node instead of running away…which is a plus.

I’m going to base my assumptions on marauder amulet since it was used in poi.

Heal skill is way slow. Its easily interrupted on 2,1/4 sec channel. Imo 1,1/4 would be better. Still interruptable. 2 and half seconds is a lot of time to die.

Disrupting daggers. Would be nice if it lasted full duration. Its really situational. Kinda like venoms :/ Also projectile finisher?

Impairing daggers. How many daggers does it fling? Projectile finisher?

Pulmonary impact should crit. Or at least get more damage on it. Text says massive. Its kinda not.

Impairing locus. I don’t like that little bit of damage on it. I can understand cheese it could bring to condi builds but one dodge in stealth and you are revealed. And your enhance dodge killed you.

Crazy idea. Staff skill 4, Dust Strike. I would love if it pushed short smoke field with it. Something like Tempest has with fire and water field. Mobile field. Just enough for 1 Vault or Bound in it. You wouldn’t camp stealth like with some specs but it would offer a way to proc Hook strike. You are sacrificing 4 for Dust strike and 5 for Vault initiative or 1 dodge for it. I would at least like to test that.

Rest seems solid, cant wait to test it.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Sigmoid.7082:

S/P, Bounding dodger , Impacting disruption, distracting daggers. Synergy, Synergy , Synergy.

S/P and Bounding dodger is enough to consistently interrupt your target. The other skills are just overkill. lol

More interrupts, more Impacting disruption procs, more damage, more win. Interrupt thief can totally be a thing. Plus being able to stealth yourself with that set is a godsend. synergy synergy synergy.

Pulmonary impact should crit. Or at least get more damage on it. Text says massive. Its kinda not.

No it really shouldnt lol. With damage mods looking at 2~3k+..not a low amount.