Guild Wars 2

This seems kind of odd to me. Thieves have two stabilities — dagger storm (90 sec cd), and assassin’s equilibrium trait (grandmaster acrobatics). There are blinds, of course, supposing you use a pistol offhand or blinding powder (40 sec cd) and/or assassins signet (30 sec cd).

So.. does this just mean condi thieves just aren’t intended to be viable in sPvP (given that I’m almost never going to be traited for equilibrium…)? Even trying traiting for equilibrium (which… frankly is a pretty crappy stability given not only do you have to guess when they’ll use a cc, but you have to plan your stealths around it to time the 1.5 sec stability just right), I get knocked around like a pinball against any cc-heavy team. Coming from the thief perspective, this feels incredibly imba, but am I just missing something? It seems odd that an engineer/warrior duo can literally juggle a thief between them to cc -lock to death without any opportunity for escape, outside of the odd chance that maybe, just maybe, a shadow signet (for instance) blind will block an incoming cc and give enough time to roll away, and not just be wasted on an auto attack in between the knockdown madness.

It seems that if thieves have to deal with Reveal to prevent constantly chaining stealth, knockbacks and knockdowns at least need to grant some kind of brief immunity to the target letting it have a chance to get back up and respond.

Shadow step does wonders to combat this. It gives you 2 stun breaks in one skill. If you’re getting juggled, use it. Then stealth up and run away, and strike when it better benefits you.

the key words are run away, if you are against 2 cc heavy builds

EDIT: I just had to add some rant at devs cos of AE, cos its is a horrible trait that completely fails in its application.

Anet devs told us this trait is a “high skill” trait, in reality they expect us to react to incoming cc by 1. stealthing up (most skills/combos have casting time) and 2. breaking the stealth (most skills again have casting time). Add some latency, the fact that a human needs time to actually register that enemy is executing a skill. When you combine all, you are nowhere to being actually able to REACT to inc CC, you have to PREDICT it.

So essentially devs think that players of thief class should have some sort of future vision skills to use their traits effectively.

People go nuts with CC especially when a thief GOES INTO stealth. They want to avoid backstab and just randomly CC around them – I get a lot more with 2pts in SA for blinds on stealth than with stability for 6pts.

I would love to see a vid where devs show us how they effectively use AE in pvp, not just CnD off a golem and stabbing it.

With a trained eye you can time evades against most CC. Warriors are the most obvious in the game with their hammer, learn those animations and it becomes a complete joke unless caught off guard.

Any time an engi is doing a long cast it is either a pull or their crate box which stuns you once out and most of the time unless you are good it is just smart to run away vs their ‘iwin’ button. Always run at least shadow step, sometimes you can’t avoid it and need to break out of a knockdown or stun. Time how long their knockback bomb takes to explode and as long as you aren’t immobilized or if you have a teleport it is non issue.

Some CC is basically unavoidable unless you get a lucky blind or spam dodge.

Word of advice.. don’t even try condi thief they are incredibly bad unless you are playing WvW you can cheese with P/D. Anyone in spvp is going to rek those builds. Thief isn’t designed to stay in a fight for long. You get in, burst, and get out. You should not be getting hit the majority of the time because when you do you are pretty much dead.

You can’t rely on stability like other classes, and dagger storm should not be used in spvp. Bask venom is our only good and truly viable elite skill. Also, signet of shadows should never be ran in pvp.

TL;DR you should not be getting hit, l2dodge/teleport/blind/interrupt/run

Watch for stability and blocks, time your CC so you can bring the pain to them.

So you’re stubbornly sticking with p/d? It is certainly not ideal but not because it lacks stability. It lacks evades and blinds so while it’s a great duelist spec, it isn’t the best for conquest. However, if you’re going to do it, try 6/0/2/0/6 air/fire celestial. Inf sig, shadow step, shadow refuge. That’s a ton of stunbreaks and it’s more than you really need to stay alive. All classes get stuck in a cc-chain once in a while. If it’s happening more often then that it means your positioning and mechanics need improving. Sorry if this sounds harsh but I believe it to be true.

just use shs or pick some target away from cc and hit steal or inf. signet, will still port you away even under cc

This is one of the reasons why I run roll for initiative in WvW.

alchemyst.2165:

This is one of the reasons why I run roll for initiative in WvW.

not gonna do much for you if you are perma stunned/dazed