Guild Wars 2

I’ve lately taken up a d/d backstab burst thief in sPvP and noticed an issue with my burst against classes that apply weakness. Now I know that weakness now applies to crits, but being spec’d with hidden killer and a plethora of crit damage, when my backstab hits for 700 damage instead of 7000, I find that ridiculous. With stealth being on a 3 second window and the amount of conditions applied these days (and the limited cleanse abilities of thieves), I find that I either take the chance that rng will make my backstab a wet noodle, or don’t attack from stealth at all. Am I the only one suffering from this issue?

Backstab doesn’t deserve some sort of special treatment to be immune from the effects of Weakness. It’s doing what it’s supposed to – heavily hindering 50% of attacks, even crits, by bringing them down to glancing blows. Hidden Killer is also working as intended – it’s just a 100% boost in crit chance, and nowhere is mentioned that it’s a guaranteed crit. The 100% boost would make it effectively a guarantee, but Weakness will potentially mitigate it, again, as intended.

Sorry to tell you but backstab is not the be all and end all of this game and there are ways to counter it.

I agree.

Weakness on you + Protection on them = wet noodles.

It’s even worst from a Warrior’s perspective. When Skale Venom used to apply weakness instead of torment, it was the only way to tame a Warrior.

when u put it that way, it makes weakness seem amazing

Excalibur.9748:

when u put it that way, it makes weakness seem amazing

Not anymore.

Skale Venom weakness used to last 25s on full stack (without counting gear bonuses). That’s from the 15s base (fullstack) + 30% from DA + extra tick from Residual Venom (DA) that totally kitten any Warrior.

Instead, we now have the useless torment and 3s Weakness from Lotus. >.<’

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Excalibur.9748:

when u put it that way, it makes weakness seem amazing

Not anymore.

Skale Venom weakness used to last 25s on full stack (without counting gear bonuses). That’s from the 15s base (fullstack) + 30% from DA + extra tick from Residual Venom (DA) that totally kitten any Warrior.

Instead, we now have the useless torment and 3s Weakness from Lotus. >.<’

remember they tried to remove weakness from sword AA too?

Excalibur.9748:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Excalibur.9748:

when u put it that way, it makes weakness seem amazing

Not anymore.

Skale Venom weakness used to last 25s on full stack (without counting gear bonuses). That’s from the 15s base (fullstack) + 30% from DA + extra tick from Residual Venom (DA) that totally kitten any Warrior.

Instead, we now have the useless torment and 3s Weakness from Lotus. >.<’

remember they tried to remove weakness from sword AA too?

Never really cared about a 2s Weakness from a sword. So whether they tried to remove it or not after adding it post beta, I didn’t really care because Skale Venom was all that’s needed.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Excalibur.9748:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Excalibur.9748:

when u put it that way, it makes weakness seem amazing

Not anymore.

Skale Venom weakness used to last 25s on full stack (without counting gear bonuses). That’s from the 15s base (fullstack) + 30% from DA + extra tick from Residual Venom (DA) that totally kitten any Warrior.

Instead, we now have the useless torment and 3s Weakness from Lotus. >.<’

remember they tried to remove weakness from sword AA too?

Never really cared about a 2s Weakness from a sword. So whether they tried to remove it or not after adding it post beta, I didn’t really care because Skale Venom was all that’s needed.

I have to admit I’m suprised people actually used venoms prior to their “buff”. Especially since weakness was pretty bad before the buff.

Excalibur.9748:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Excalibur.9748:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Excalibur.9748:

when u put it that way, it makes weakness seem amazing

Not anymore.

Skale Venom weakness used to last 25s on full stack (without counting gear bonuses). That’s from the 15s base (fullstack) + 30% from DA + extra tick from Residual Venom (DA) that totally kitten any Warrior.

Instead, we now have the useless torment and 3s Weakness from Lotus. >.<’

remember they tried to remove weakness from sword AA too?

Never really cared about a 2s Weakness from a sword. So whether they tried to remove it or not after adding it post beta, I didn’t really care because Skale Venom was all that’s needed.

I have to admit I’m suprised people actually used venoms prior to their “buff”. Especially since weakness was pretty bad before the buff.

Not sure what “buff” to weakness you’re talking about, but I used Skale Venom only against Warrior and other Thieves because it was hilarious and effective.

Was there more than 1 buff to weakness?

IIRC there was just that 1 buff – making weakness affect critical hits as well.

Excalibur.9748:

Was there more than 1 buff to weakness?

IIRC there was just that 1 buff – making weakness affect critical hits as well.

Ah, that’s right…my bad. Yeah, that was a nice buff but not for Thieves, they remove weakness from Skale :/

I agree that the consequence of weakness on Backstab-based builds can suck, but I think it’s fair. It’s a gamble that any player takes when they base their burst around 1 or 2 skills.

If weakness is a persistent issue, you could try changing out one of your utilities for SoA.