Guild Wars 2

Think we can still get away with running zerker or will we need soldiers, Knights or like a mix? Same goes for 50+ fractals, what do you guys think?

I haven’t played raids at all but I surmise knights and/or Valkyrie may be optimal for thief

Definitely not that ^ with the boss timer valk or knights would be an utter waste on a thief given the burst we can pull off, either your glassy zerker/semi glassy condi (dire/sinister)/ or full on glass sinister condi venom share build of course.

Kill.3458:

Definitely not that ^ with the boss timer valk or knights would be an utter waste on a thief given the burst we can pull off, either your glassy zerker/semi glassy condi (dire/sinister)/ or full on glass sinister condi venom share build of course.

Does every boss have a timer? Is the timer strict or is it pretty lenient? I would think with 9 other teammates, your burst could potentially be more than made up for with their traits and boon dispensing. If the bosses don’t hit absurdly hard, then I don’t see the problem with zerker gear, however if you’re on the ground every five seconds you’re no help either way.

RedSpectrum.1975:

Kill.3458:

Definitely not that ^ with the boss timer valk or knights would be an utter waste on a thief given the burst we can pull off, either your glassy zerker/semi glassy condi (dire/sinister)/ or full on glass sinister condi venom share build of course.

Does every boss have a timer? Is the timer strict or is it pretty lenient? I would think with 9 other teammates, your burst could potentially be more than made up for with their traits and boon dispensing. If the bosses don’t hit absurdly hard, then I don’t see the problem with zerker gear, however if you’re on the ground every five seconds you’re no help either way.

Probably the biggest dilemma right there, while condi builds are a bit more lenient towards survivability/DPS output on thieves its a totally different story with power builds, you sacrifice to much and don’t gain much in the process, we still have poor mitigation so a poorly timed dodge could mean instant death, coupled by our meager damage output in defensive gears, as in a total dead weight (and from what ive seen of this 1st wing of the raid, the bosses love hitting hard and fast).

As for the timer, I believe it was 8 min before Vale Guardian starts literally one-shotting everything in site

Timers are very strict in raids.
Now to the state of thiefs. I’m a thief main and played around 10 ish hours of raiding last Beta weekend purely on thief.

I started out with a Normal dps daredevil (zerker) build and it was bad. Dps is lower than Revs while revenants have SO MUCH more survivability/team utility ( with glint).

I then swapped to a sinister condi build and was quite fine. Your survivability is amazing with liefetsal form poison/3 dodges. Also the mobility comes in handy (I always made it to the red circle in time)

And DMG is nice. ( probably not as good as Engi, however there are a few condi buffs comming to daredevil so I have high hopes) .

Also a full Basi share deleted every Defiance bar I cam across. (sadly revenants have a redicolous OP staff skill which someohow removes defiance bar completly Hope they fix that!)

So my best guess is If THiefs have a role in raids ( f.e. if later stealth/blind is needed) it will be a condi daredevil for the named reasons.

I still hope sinister thief will become a… thing…

Depending on exactly how hard the boss actually hits, i’m thinking almost full zerk with maybe 1-2 valkyrie pieces to bump vitality just high enough to be able to take one hit.

Yeah, raid comps generally have a healer, and what we tested, the unavoidable damage was percentage based of max HP, so having more hp is actually less effective at mitigating that damage, as you end up taking more total damage while your healer is outputting the same amount of heals.

That damage also ignores armor, so, basically, if you have enough EHP to take normal damage, or enough evasion to avoid it you can run zerk. Thieves (especially daredevils) are unique in that they’re on a short list of characters that can successfully build full glass and stay alive in the raid mechanics we tested due to a combination of mobility and evades letting them get out of many of the smaller hits that most other classes had to facetank or mitigate.

The issue right now for Thieves in raid content, revenants do everything better than us by a large margin.
Revenants actually makes every power dps spec that doesn’t provide unique buffs( aka warriors banners ) almost irrelevant.

reroll revenant or engi, enjoy raids… i am not kidding :/

Shadowstep.6049:

reroll revenant or engi, enjoy raids… i am not kidding :/

Yeah, this is what I’m sensing. Especially about engies for some reason. Druid for support as well.

:P It will be interesting to see the meta raid groups after launch. So far, from what I gather, revs, engies, and druids will have spots.

If thief has a place ( and currently thats a big if) it will be full sinister.
Daredevil will bring some condi buffs ( at least 10% flat condi dmg buff) While you have more survivability than Engi and more team support ( with stealth rez + defiance bar shredding).

However, I’m afraid that the team comb will be : 3-4 Engi 3-4 Harald 1 Druid 1-2 Ps war.
There is no way thief will take the harald sport. And it will be a close call towards the engi.

It is possible though ( if harald staff defiance removal gets fixed) that the usual group is in need of more def removal wich would maybe result (some ) Engis getting replaced with Thiefs.

Chances are we’ll be fine in zerkers. Thieves are the only class that gains a substantial amount of healing from the damage we inflict, so if we should find ourselves needing more health we can also swap out No Quarter for Invigorating Precision.

Sinister venomshare with high alacrity uptime seems like it will be viable.

GodSaw.2675:

If thief has a place ( and currently thats a big if) it will be full sinister.
Daredevil will bring some condi buffs ( at least 10% flat condi dmg buff) While you have more survivability than Engi and more team support ( with stealth rez + defiance bar shredding).

However, I’m afraid that the team comb will be : 3-4 Engi 3-4 Harald 1 Druid 1-2 Ps war.
There is no way thief will take the harald sport. And it will be a close call towards the engi.

It is possible though ( if harald staff defiance removal gets fixed) that the usual group is in need of more def removal wich would maybe result (some ) Engis getting replaced with Thiefs.

If breakbar takes into account the duration of the CC like I think it does, thieves won’t be a big help for those :/ (this will need some testings).
Also you forgot Chronomancer in your list, Alacrity + Quickness will be a very nice addition.

Overall we’ll see once it’s there, the first boss didn’t seem to require a thief but future content might, you may need stealth, blind for high number of adds or someone with superior mobility for exemple.

arkealia.2713:

GodSaw.2675:

If thief has a place ( and currently thats a big if) it will be full sinister.
Daredevil will bring some condi buffs ( at least 10% flat condi dmg buff) While you have more survivability than Engi and more team support ( with stealth rez + defiance bar shredding).

However, I’m afraid that the team comb will be : 3-4 Engi 3-4 Harald 1 Druid 1-2 Ps war.
There is no way thief will take the harald sport. And it will be a close call towards the engi.

It is possible though ( if harald staff defiance removal gets fixed) that the usual group is in need of more def removal wich would maybe result (some ) Engis getting replaced with Thiefs.

If breakbar takes into account the duration of the CC like I think it does, thieves won’t be a big help for those :/ (this will need some testings).
Also you forgot Chronomancer in your list, Alacrity + Quickness will be a very nice addition.

Overall we’ll see once it’s there, the first boss didn’t seem to require a thief but future content might, you may need stealth, blind for high number of adds or someone with superior mobility for exemple.

Dont heralds have loads of quickness? From a pure time= breakbar removal: A full basi share gets you 5*2*1 seconds of stun at a 30secondish cooldown with relatively low cast time. (plus headshoting/stealing wich is pretty irrelevant though)
I dont know of anything comparabel ( besides maybe freeze which has way higher cast/ set up times and higher cooldown)

nope raids will be nothing but revenants, engis, and druids . reroll to these classes cause odds are they will be most asked for in raids