Guild Wars 2

I remember when it was instant it made thieves nearly impervious to any cc. I would keep my return up at all times and use it as an escape when I got knocked down or stunned. it didn’t break them but it would move me away from my opponent long enough for it to wear off.

Heimlich.3065:

Adahilia.3678:

nikkistar.1409:

Heimlich.3065:

Maybe it “happens” to every server that SBI faces, but it’s not something that I witnessed on YB in any other week of Season 1.

I’ll concur with this statement. As much as I wvw, last week was the first time I have ever seen an opposing server have trolls that transfer over to grief. That’s not to say, there hasn’t been in the past, but they may have been less obvious in their endeavors. Maybe this time, they were more blatant about it and didn’t care. Who knows? I just know, this is the first time I have ever encountered it myself.

In the 6 months I’ve been playing(only been on SBI), I have only heard of this happening 4 times and that has been with the SOR match, week 1, 6, 7 of league. What I would like to see instead of blaming an entire server for the actions of one or two people is for Anet to implement an easier and more effective way to shut these people down. It misrepresents those who try to play it clean, no matter what server you’re on.

I definitely agree with you on your final points. It should be possible to /report a player specifically for wvw-griefing (in its many flavors), it should be harder to do in the first place, and ANet should penalize players for doing it (including penalties on their primary accounts).

A week-long lockout on WvW participation following a server transfer would inhibit some griefing and level-locking siege use and blueprint-deployment would force the griefers to change tactics (i.e. require character level 30 before you can use siege and 40 to drop blueprints).

This has been addressed before. ANet’s replies have always summed up to “this is PvP, ‘griefing’ is simply part of PvP…”.

[BSty] will forever haunt my worst nightmares…. that mesmer with the blue ‘fro…. Seriously though, [EV] and [BSty] are both excellent roaming guilds from what I’ve seen. I apologize for the blanket statements others on my server have made.

PS: Actually got a cameo in that vid near the end there…(the norn thief with [BURN] tag) embarrassing being on my kitten for it :-P.

A 0-20-30-20-0 build is good for dagger main and allows a little more room for error in initiative expenditures for a new thief.

edit: forgot to put in last trait line (OCD stuff)

S/D is the best counter atm; however that all changes in a month with the nerf to Infiltrator’s Strike, so don’t get used to that.

I was a day late getting into the reward chests, I’m up for my first weapon skin at reset today but have a concern. All I see in the preview is the Longbow, Shortbow, Staff, Greatsword, and Hammer. Do the sword, dagger, pistol, etc come at higher rank?

Don’t run from a 1v1…ever. I will however check out if a zerg rolls over the hill :-P

I don’t think the players are any different now so much as the way the media is presented. In the days of Atari and NES, a company would create, test, and produce a game in house and release it. There were no retroactive patches or “balancing”. Players had to simply either get good enough to beat it or just not win. (Contra anyone?)

Now, companies produce a game and provide support via online downloads that include things such as balance and additional content. True, the majority of the current generation of gamers has never experienced the requirement to literally HAVE to L2P, but do you really think us “old farts” would have behaved any differently than they do, given the opportunity?

There is no distinction between “Team” and “Guild” atm though. What do you do for the 150 man guilds with 4 or 5 teams? They’d need to add a team system similar to WoW’s (/gag) arena system to make this work.

Kasama.8941:

ArenaNet doesn’t have an endless staff of people, so they need to split up their focus between things. PvE has the most players, so therefor it gets the most focus. It doesn’t make sense to put a lot of effort into a game mode, that doesn’t have a huge amount of players. If the majority played sPvP, things would look different. But hopefully, paying gems for custom arenas will help pay the way to faster sPvP changes.

This is kind of a catch 22 though. ANet doesn’t devote resources to PvP because fewer people play it…. and fewer people play it because there aren’t many resources implemented in improving it….

These won’t just grow on trees. They’ll have to be bought from a merchant. We have no idea of how long they take to build or how large their radius is. Either way, they’ll likely only be useful for zerg vs zerg in any reasonable capacity. Thieves don’t typically rely on stealth for these anyway as they tend to use ranged weapon sets.

Thought they fixed the use of immunity to prevent death on that. Seem to remember reading that in last patch notes anyway…..

Invision.1307:

How often are you able to blind? It costs 6 initiative, and you’ll often use heartseeker after which is 3 initiative.

I can answer that. I can keep a perma black powder blind field down with the standard 10-30-30 thief build. You don’t even need to use the stealth vs 85% or more of the encounters just blind field + auto attack with a few HS at the end to finish.

The key with this ability is to use the first, and HOLD the second until you’re sure you’ll make contact. It’s unblockable so that’s irrelevant. Most of the noobs just spam 33333333333 where a good player will mix it up so the opponent can’t just dodge the predictable timing. Maybe hit 3, then auto for a bit or do an infiltrator’s strike THEN hit 3 again for the boon steal.

Also I find it helpful to queue up larcenous strike and hold it til my opponent tries to cast a boon then steal them immediately from them.

ski.4927:

Camelot…

Unchained….

Good things come to those who wait.

At this point this very well could turn into vapor-ware. They aren’t even in alpha builds yet.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Adaneshade.2409:

Luthan.5236:

Why do you need to keep your build secret? If someone else is “stealing” it you still can use it. You lose nothing.

Sure, you can still use it, but once a build become public knowledge, countering that build also does. So long as you are able to do things that your enemy didn’t think you could, you hold an advantage.

Any good pvper will recognize what your build is and how it does it after one, maybe two encounters with it. Countering a build is a non-issue.

One or two encounters can be the difference in a win or a loss in tournaments.

Luthan.5236:

Why do you need to keep your build secret? If someone else is “stealing” it you still can use it. You lose nothing.

Sure, you can still use it, but once a build become public knowledge, countering that build also does. So long as you are able to do things that your enemy didn’t think you could, you hold an advantage.

Demosthene.2195:

Grandmaster Boon Hate trait for Warriors is actually terribly bad. It competes with other DPS traits, end result is you deal the same damage as before vs boon-stacked targets, significantly less against anyone else and lose out on other useful traits and their utilities.

Sadly, no one will notice this except for tPvP Warrior players, everyone else will just assume we got buffed and problem got fixed. Flat nerf to protection fro m 33% to 20% would be a much better balance change, without nerfing any profession’s skills or traits in particular.

Perhaps this is the case, I’m by no means a warrior expert. However I do play a thief as a main and can say with certainty that the buff to S/D makes killing bunkers pretty faceroll atm (in fact I expect to see a nerf to the ability).

I agree with most of this. However, bunkers received their counter in the S/D thief buff and the warrior boon hate buff. Bunkers rely on boons, thief denies boons / warrior does more damage because of them…… dead bunker.

I guess my point is it’s obvious that they are working towards a better balance in the meta. This patch went a good ways towards ensuring the necessity of bringing a good spread of classes rather than just stacking the holy trinity of ele/guardian/engi.

In general, I’ve found the builds that are most effective in hotjoins are not the most effective in tournament play. This allows us to just roll our zerg builds for hotjoins and keep our real tournament builds safe since there is no spectating there.

I would agree with reducing condition cleansing to the level of access we see in healing IF a stat is added that works on dots like toughness works for direct damage.

hharry.1967:

need more game types no more maps =/

I agree here, conquest was a good starting point, but it’s stale. ANet already has a working CTF system as evidenced by their winter special PvP. Why not make that a permanent mode?

It’s not a bug, they removed haste stomping. The flag will still drop it just has a set amount of time now.

Auesis.7301:

Wrong part is bold. I was responding to “decent spike damage capabilities”. How on earth did you come to the conclusion that I was talking about the single-target DPS when I specifically quote the “decent” part? :S

And you took my post completely out of context as well. The entire post was referring to the statement that that thieves were “SUPPOSED to have the highest single target dps” and it’s inaccuracy. Burst and mobility are the thief meta in the developer’s eyes according to what they’ve said. Nothing about being the top sustained dpser.

randomfightfan.4091:

Master of Timespace.2548:

Yea! Personally I think it’s stupid my mesmer doesn’t have as big autoattack as warrior, can’t perma stealth and it’s also stupid that I can’t take a flame thower from my pocket!

…

Point is, you can’t just steal the class mechanic (here big numbers of warrior) to another class without making that class overpowered.

mechanic is thieves are SUPPOSED to have the highest single target dps. We don’t even have the highest single target spike (which I am fine with). Sorry but your point isn’t relevant here.

I’m not sure where you go this information, All I’ve ever heard from developers is they want the thief class to be the most mobile, with decent spike damage capabilities. Nothing about “highest ST DPS”…..

Please show a link to verify this statement.

Mrbig.8019:

Frenk.5917:

I still use my 0 10 30 30 0 build. I still kill. I know that this is not viable for a burst class, but due to the recent nerfs we can’t play our class like we did before. We have to adapt and change our role in tpvp. We are no longer able to burst someone down in few seconds, not even whit full glass cannon traits and gears.

You don’t suddenly “change” your role in tPvP.

Your role in tPvP is given by what you bring to the table.

The thief offered great burst and good ranged AoE sustained damage ( if not focused).

Now we still have good burst but no longer ranged AoE sustained damage.

Without compensation, there’s no way a thief will eve be useful again in a team ( yes, shortbow nerf is really THAT bad).

Now S/D thieves have a chance to rise, but the set is still heavily subpar when compared to D/P and it’s mostly due to OH dagger skills being utterly crap.

And due to trait sinergy being horrible for sword thieves.

It’s not that a simple buff to a skill ( unless it sinergies good with traits, like Shadow arts tree and tactical strike pre-nerf were) suddenly makes the set good, at least with the thief class.

There at aNet should start to understand this.

This is why the S/D + D/P setup works so well….
VS, say an HgH engi, or a bunker ele, S/D is now faceroll for victory. However, vs a build that doesn’t rely on boons it’s a little short, that’s where you simply swap to D/P. Theory-crafting without considering weapon swaps doesn’t portray an accurate picture.

Dear Devs,

Nerf Paper, Scissors is fine though.

Sincerely,
Rock

Stof.9584:

I must say I agree.

Past nerfs and recent buffs have proven AI is difficult to balance in PvP.

It’s not fun to play if you have no control (ex. Minions), but it’s too intensive for new players to give more control (Anet has stated in the last SOTG).

To make a list:
Ranger pets – RNG secondary skills, greatest source of Ranger damage, made tankier next patch.
Engineer turrets – get focused because players have brains, but PVE mobs don’t.
Warrior banners – can’t be destroyed, no counters / passive playstyle.
Necro minions – AI is unreliable, weak active skills, low hp, players will aoe or focus player.
Ele ults – reliable source of boons & damage, but low interaction.
Thief thieves guild – instant activation, long cd, gimmick trap.
Guardian spirit weapons – easily kited, RNG, nerfed in past patch.

I’d say the only class which has an effective playstyle related to non-player summons is Mesmer, even though I don’t like playing it myself.

I must correct the thieves guild statement, it has a rather long cast time actually.

I think the likelihood of this is minimal. Devs have already stated they want to decrease thief burst vs targets that aren’t bunker (no boons) while increasing damage to bunkers (most stack boons)

Jordan.6157:

Adaneshade.2409:

They are pet classes, that is a valid tactic, the tactic of using pets as meat-shields goes back generations in MMOs.

Did you read what I said? Using pets as meat-shields hasn’t gone back generations in MMOs because as far as I know guild wars 2 and tera are the only ones that have the type of combat where you hit what your sword touches etc.

Other MMOs such as WoW you hit what you target and you can’t miss/ wont swing if you are facing the wrong way. You only have to be in range. Your sword actually most of the time is swinging far away and your still hitting.

I hope you can understand

The physics in this game does add a new layer to it, but it existed as far back as DAoC. Camping in shroom patches on a lurikeen.

multani.1452:

well if pretty much any build is considered cheese, I declare my build the “Sharp bacon cheddar eliminator”

Sounds yummy!

They are pet classes, that is a valid tactic, the tactic of using pets as meat-shields goes back generations in MMOs.

Karolis.4261:

SO any build that is actually viable is called cheese right ? LOL.

Any build is viable, some just take more effort to get the same reward. Most people won’t call ya out on a build so long as you aren’t a kitteny prick.

Coffeebot.3921:

Adaneshade.2409:

The issue is the “lawl-I-so-good-you-so-bad” from the people running these “cheese” builds after they defeat an opponent using a build that’s more difficult to play. Feeling proud about a kill when it was 100% their googled build and had nothing to do with their own skill.

If every build is a google build… who puts the builds on google?

Oh that’s right, “hard” to play builds are “better” because they require more “skill” to use than the so called google builds. Then again, if you think about the way that builds are structured in GW2, all the “good” and “interesting” builds will be on google (and are thus google builds) and most of the “average or bad” builds will also be on google.

Hell, if the build is on google then the counter will also be on google, but it’s too difficult to search for a counter right?

In terms of builds; harder != better, not does using a harder build make you a better player, especially if you complain about the people using the so called “easy mode” builds killing you and your “harder and obviously superior” build.

I don’t care what build a person plays, I’m simply pointing out the error in logic of those players assuming they are so “pr0” and using slurs like “you suck” after they win some 1v1 with a build that requires half the effort to play of their opponents.

I don’t speak to them like that even when their build falls to my handicapped support build. Why on EARTH would I have respect for them when they have this false sense of “skill” combined with the audacity to claim they are somehow a “superior” player by belittling another player?

TLDR: I’ll stop calling people out on their cheesy builds when they cease to insult players attempting to break out of the mold.

Volrath.1473:

Adaneshade.2409:

Decked.8274:

Rengaru.4730:

Decked.8274:

I’m low health and running from my oponent, let me steal him, mug will save me.
These devs are plain stupid…

So… if you are low health now, you steal towards your opponent?

Yeah, because you know… what can kill you when you have a 2k heal?

They did state they intended to make steal usable as a shadowstep without a target. So you could steal AWAY form your target and get a heal out of it.

Yes, steal, not mug, if you steal without a target won’t trigger mug thus will not heal you.

How do we know this? Other abilities that trigger on steal still work without a target…..

Puandro.3245:

They don’t want ele roaming apparently. Just when i though they went kitten mode with the RTL change from 15 seconds they do this. It still isnt hitting eles main issue in PvP where they are too good in team fights by stacking them.

I wouldn’t say that, they just are unhappy with the current state of ele’s being better at it than the class that’s supposed to be the most mobile.

“Trash talk” goes both ways lol. What do you think the “cheese build” retort is exactly? That term is simply a way of verbalizing an absolute lack of respect for anyone requiring builds like that to feel successful.

Decked.8274:

Rengaru.4730:

Decked.8274:

I’m low health and running from my oponent, let me steal him, mug will save me.
These devs are plain stupid…

So… if you are low health now, you steal towards your opponent?

Yeah, because you know… what can kill you when you have a 2k heal?

They did state they intended to make steal usable as a shadowstep without a target. So you could steal AWAY form your target and get a heal out of it.

The issue is the “lawl-I-so-good-you-so-bad” from the people running these “cheese” builds after they defeat an opponent using a build that’s more difficult to play. Feeling proud about a kill when it was 100% their googled build and had nothing to do with their own skill.

Atherakhia.4086:

I agree with the above comments that this method of boon hate is a terrible idea. It won’t help the thief against real boon heavy classes like mesmers, guardians, and elementalists because they can reapply the majority of boons instantly and the random nature of stealing them. It will only have an impact on the easily abused mechanics like HGH 25might stack or classes like thieves and warriors that don’t have many boons and they’re on long cooldowns.

Without a mechanic to make the target incapable of gaining new boons for a brief period of time, this whole system will have no function use whatsoever.

The boons I strip are usually the might stacks because they are the most frequently applied boon, and that is the one boon that no boon stacking build can live without. FS removes the last applied boon. D/D ele damage is downright laughable without that 25 stack of might.

Heavy golem is stationary, the issue is actually HITTING someone with all that stuff while they are moving around. It’s just not practically useful, while it works in a vacuum it’s not effective in combat.

Depends on the class. HS spam is simple, just hit em with an immobilize (HS does not give an evade). Infiltrator’s Arrow is a bit more tricky, best bet there is just forget about it unless you’re an ele or warrior.

Commisar.8695:

d/p thieves are the one I encounter most, I literally stop fighting them because the stupid amount of stealth just kitten es me off more than any other thief build, well second to s/d bunker but that build makes me cry for a whole other reason. If you think bs thieves are the only useful thief you’re pretty kitten wrong.
Lack of condition removals compared to how often they can be planted on you makes p/d thieves useful too.

You don’t like me? Wanna fight about it? :-P

No, based around TOUGHNESS….and kitten tons of lifesteal.

Simply make it public knowledge that leaving = loss both on your leaderboard rank and your rating. The only reason we’re seeing so many leave atm is because of the belief that it helps their leaderboard rank to do so.

S/P

P/V/T Armor + P/V/T Inscriptions
Knights (Emerald) Jewelry

0-30-30-10-0

Use omnomberry pies for food and SoM for healing. Whatever traits you like. Use black powder ability liberally. Actually makes a solid tank, dps isn’t too shabby either. (Be sure to pick up the 20% dmg boost to targets under 50% train in the crit line, others are whatever you like) Can go with Venomous Aura and the trait to grant lifesteal on venom triggers and run all venoms for even more health regen (good help for allies too since they’ll get the lifesteal procs as well).

EDIT: for PvP I actually run something similar but swap the 10 points up to DA for mug.

How much better would pvp be if rather than standing in a circle, one just had to interact with the node to flip it. This would prevent one “bunker” from holding off 2 opponents by themselves for as long as they do.

No, when you enter hotjoin you stay with the same group unless you change rooms. Also, if you’re clicking “Play Now” you’ll most likely be put in some nearly empty room with some duelers in it. The best bet if you want to do hotjoins is manually select a nearly full server.

Really, though, this is a discussion about leaderboards which hotjoins have 0 impact on. This is concerning tournaments.

Server is irrelevant, all tPvP queues are cross server.

PS – more people in tournaments than hotjoins, maybe you should check it out lol.

It’s been the general belief that a player starts out kind of in the middle of the road for rating. I don’t know if we have any true proof to back that up or not, but it does fit with what we see for new players in tournaments.

I’m kind of middle of the road for rating (55% atm I think) and I see first timers quite often.