Guild Wars 2

Hi,

Which elite skill do you use the most? I’m having a little trouble deciding which one I should stick to.
Usually I use Thieves Guild, but Dagger Storm seems pretty awesome. The thing with Thieves Guild is that you can change the attention/aggro of your foes, as with Dagger Storm people keep focusing on you, which sometimes results in loosing a lot of health while executing it.
If you’re a Human Thief you also have Hounds of Balthazar, but is it better than Thieves Guild? It has a much longer cool-down, so I never use it.

Take care.

Thieves Guild is my go-to skill while out in the PvE world, but I use Dagger Storm in dungeons, combined with Shadow Refuge (Leeching Bolts can get huge heals off of trash mobs).

Thieves guild is the only usable skill in the open world, Storm/Venom are useless
Venom is the only usable skill in water
Thieves guild or Storm in dungeons/WvW
Any in sPvP depending on build

Signet of malice over dagger storm is essentially a healing elite. Bonus to shadow refuge builds. Just keep the signet off cool down till the end/need to run away

i do want to know how good the hounds are

This made me lol. Dagger Storm is amazing for aoe in the open world. It inflicts major bleeding, direct damage.. and it slows everything it hits (which means you can essentially kite everything and not get hit if the mobs are all melee). To say thieves guild is the only usable skill in the open world is kind of absurd

Thieves guild here

Great for a distraction while I hammer on vets or champs. Also nice when I get a pack on me and I’m getting outnumbered.

Wolfe.3097:

i do want to know how good the hounds are

From what I have seen I prefer the thieves over the hounds. There are a few reasons the Thieves cc’s seem much better than the hounds, (in my opinion) and thats one of the + of using them. The hounds like you said are on a longer cool down. Now I have he thieves but don’t have the hounds, have just seen them in action a few times, plus the thieves get ranged skills, not sure about the hounds on ranged skills though.

Thieves Guild is awesome. I know Dagger Storm seems more impressive but I don’t like it. It only looks cool, I never get good results with it. Thieves Guild just works better most of the time, even in the same situations.

I do like Basilisk Venom in one particular build though. Its profoundly awesome in the Backstab Burst Damage build where you get to apply it on your combat entering Steal, stoning the target for a second and guaranteeing that your initial backstab hits. Big damage. Good times.

Thieves guild in PvE and dungeons. They are just too good at adding dps and taking the heat off of you. For skill point challenges and veterans I usually pop it instantly to burn down as much enemy health as possible before black powder chaining it to death for a nice safe kill.

In sPvP I use dagger storm with signet of malice and will occasionally trait in to venoms to get leeching and extra application. It’s a pretty reliable way to go from no to full health without burning your signet.

Basilisk venom has been beyond useless since they changed it in BWE2 or 3. Hounds of Balthazar seem to die much much faster than the thieves. Mistfire wolf can be fun when you are tra-la-la-ing around a zone, but not as useful in clutch situations as Thieves or even dagger storm.

Thieves Guild in WvW.

It allows you 2v1s and really is insta win 1v1.

I alternate between Thieves Guild and the Hounds. Use TG for veteran/champion mobs as they seem to do more damage against single targets.

Hounds are really good for packs of mobs (their initial move is a pretty big AoE fire blast move).

Arena Net stated that profession elites are suppose to be better than racial elites of the same type. This is to prevent people from being forced to chose a race based off of the profession they want to pay. Since Thief’s guild combos very well with share venom builds I would assume that it’s better than Hounds of Balthazar and Mistfire wolfs (for those with the digital deluxe edition).

I personally use thief’s guild for both pvp and pve.

Thanks all, this was the feedback I needed.
I guess I’ll mainly keep using Thieves Guild…and maybe try out the Dagger Storm plus Signet of Malice combo.

Thieves even seem to out damage the hounds. The hounds will ocasionally knockdown but sometimes the theives do it with scorpion wire

depends on the build really.

A venom share build, it has to be Thieve’s Guild.

For a condition/Bleed build, it has to be Dagger storm

For a normal venom build, without venom share, basilisk.

For those asking about the hounds, NEVER EVER get them.They are a waste of your 30 points.I saved 30 points after getting thieves guild and was honestly disappointed with it.
1) Longer cool down time and shorter lasting time.They come out for 40 secs, Worst is that they can Die Really Fast.Couple that with long cool down time and its useless. A Moa Bird can almost kill them. That’s how weak they are. Your thieves guild can last a lot longer.
2)You are a thief.Notice the Thieves using the smoke field? Leap or spin through it to combo through those.Yes you can do it for a free cost to get a free stealth or to cost blind. Now how awesome is that?
3)The Advantage of the hounds….AOE fire burst the occasional knockdown. The Advantage of the Thieves guild.One ranged and one close ranged.One using Unload and the other having a chance of pulling out scorpion wire which can save you or someone else.

See the difference now?

I tend to just stick with dagger storm, pve, pvp, anywhere.

I don’t like super long cooldowns (I absolutely hate that Anet went in this directly with elites to begin with, GW1 elites were 1000000x better). Not to mention thieves guild is pretty cheese, and frankly, popping my elite to insta win a 1v1 fight isn’t going to help me improve so I just decide not to take it at all.

Basilisk is just laughably bad, I’ve only used it when trying to do venom share support builds that gives everyone x2 basilisk venom triggers to be cute.

D-storm is quite bawler though, stability, good aoe dmg/bleed, reflect, cripple. So many uses.

Thief Guild – More tactical, takes the heat off you (sometimes not), you can cast it, stand back and shoot away.

Dagger storm – you go in to the middle of a mob and they either die or reduced to very low health, but you still gets hit while spinning around.

I alternate between hounds and thieves whichever I feel like using. :P

For PVE and WvW.

Most situations. Thieves guild hands down.

The hounds? They have really bad draw backs and was honestly disappointed with them. Thieves guild you can cast to summon them is on the move. Hounds you are rooted in place as you cast. That can make you a sitting duck for 2-3 seconds.

The only time I’ve found dagger storm useful is for large packs of mobs you want to dance with or used defensively when defending a fort in WvW. Such as popping haste, refuge and spin to win outside your fort’s gate that’s being assaulted by the enemy for some easy kills. Then popping back into the door to safety. Repeat once off cooldown.

All 3 are bad. Thieves guild against bosses that don’t summon adds & in the overworld and dagger storm everywhere else.
The venom isn’t even good enough to be a regular skill.

B Venom is the only elite you can use underwater however.

It has a cast timer. You’re better of not using it underwater.
As in, you can’t do anything but move (Can’t even dodge) for one second to stun the enemy for one second. Great pay-off.

I use all 3, all 3 are good elites.

Santent.3647:

This made me lol. Dagger Storm is amazing for aoe in the open world. It inflicts major bleeding, direct damage.. and it slows everything it hits (which means you can essentially kite everything and not get hit if the mobs are all melee). To say thieves guild is the only usable skill in the open world is kind of absurd

…you’re supposed to be level 80? Why you’d want to AOE with dagger storm once every 3 minutes in Orr is beyond me. At least the thieves can get you out of a bad spot or kill something you couldn’t kill before; dagger storm is just a minor upgrade over your normal AOE options. Either it’s ineffective due to ranged mobs or you might as well spam 2 with shortbow+malice if they’re melee.

Dagger storm in open world PvE is terrible…