Guild Wars 2

Yea I wasn’t going to blindly follow anything real specific. Just looking for some opinions/combos or what not. Or someone to theory craft so I do not have to:)

See topic title.

I used to run strength runes, but stealth no longer granting might seems to make it too reactive a rune without having might unless someone hits me.

Obvious rune choices: Eagle, Scholar, perhaps thief.

Until this patch I have sworn by Valkyrie armor stats. But with precision granting more ferocity(when traited), perhaps it’s time to incorporate some zerker gear with my valk. Or even go with assassin stats.

ohhhh ok. I did not know they were just regular rank up chests. I thought they would be something else different.

I don’t know if I have mistaken a weekly reward chest as an achievement chest, but I’ve played 3 weeks this season( a lot) and have not noticed a chest on fridays. Did I hap-hazzardly open a chest thinking I had gotten an achievement chest?

What is in them?

Sifu.6527:

Frenk.5917:

Bazzoong.7145:

I can permastealth with d/d without CnD…

I’m sorry sir, but could you please enlight me about how can you do that?

Smoke Screen + HS = 15 secs of stealth
Then use blindin powder or health for more stealth
Then use Shadow Refuge
By this time smoke screen should be off cooldown and repeat the above

shhhhhh. Don’t give away secrets! They will nerfed when noobs realize this can be done! Zomg 2 thiefs took my keep because not a single person happened to walk into it and totally disrupt 15 min of time taken to assault a keep with a few people inside it.

roamzero.9486:

I’m somewhat conflicted with the d/p change since it mainly appears to target WvW, which by it’s nature is all about fighting unfairly 95% of the time. On the other hand though, since the team may finally be sort of considering WvW in their balancing decisions maybe they’ll target some other issues down the road, like the ridiculous mobility cheese warriors can pump out, toning down perplexity runes with a cooldown on #6, making rangers not a laughing stock and a free kill, etc.

This better sums up my mentality. To the person that said a thief can kill someone in a group and go on their marry way: you must roam in some pretty bad groups. The thief may be able to get away, however warriors can do that better, but the thief certainly cant kill anyone. The level 2 up leveled guy maybe.

To the random kitten say play D/D and see how hard it is to stay in stealth: its not(unless youre of course fighting another thief 1v1…but how often is anything 1v1 in wvw).

I dont understand why they wouldnt take a middle ground step first. Make it so abilities that grant stealthed while in stealth grant 1 initiative. You go from 1 extreme to the other with this nerf.

Omnitek.3876:

The majority of wvw players are lacking in skill/running to a zerg/specced to spam 1 over and over. I am a decent player/thief. Not an expert at all, D/P is outrageous because of the average level of players, and I was very rarely challenged. Didn’t win all the time, but I died once an hour at most.

People who defend D/P are the ones who hate to lose. Who rage when they get downed. Cry about stacks and lag. The people in denial that abusing a mechanic wasn’t actually skill based…

So because some zerg player can’t put up a fight that means its an OP spec? If you’re any specced class who has an idea of what to do, you’ll beat 85% of roaming players just looking to link up with the zerg.

And I don’t rage or cry. It takes very little skill to deny a thief perma stealthing.

A big part of the thief class is….wait for it….STEALTH. It’s a huge defensive mechanic and one of very few options available to thieves. Just because people refuse how to counter it isn’t a good reason to nerf it.

Edited out my last name calling rant. I’m lobbying against way too many people for my voice to be heard. Oh well.

Is this not achievable by heart seeking twice and running away? I fail to see the difference. And yes you can get some good duration stealths by waiting for the right init amount before chaining them. But its certainly not permanent by JUST heartseeker and powder. You can only chain 2 sets of 3 heartseekers and powder(unless you run quick recovery). All I see still is complaining about annoyance. I see nothing imbalanced. Saying its a gimick and never intended and should not be in the game…..the games been out over a year. Clearly, it was intended. Furthermore, that’s an opinion. Thief has been chipped away like the carcass of a dead animal because of these “shouldnt be there” arguments that have no real logic behind the nerf. Where does it stop? Mark my words, when d/d is the popular way to chain stealth effectively, people are gonna kitten and whine and that will be gone. Zomg hes running around in stealth not hurting me, i better stand around and wait for his cooldowns to return and stay in a vulnerable position instead of moving away from the thief so he can’t get a backstab.

Frenk.5917:

Check my video. I can achieve permastealth very easily, allowing me to not to lose a duel, an encounter or a fight, ever.

Most of those fights were against VERY inexperienced pvpers. None of those players used any strategy to stop you from using stealth.

Can someone explain to me why this supposed “perma” stealth is op? I play every thief spec. And being able to stealth a lot has really only bonus: annoyance. The spec is laughable for zergs, it’s inefficient for tpvp/spvp(node capping lol), and doesn’t have a whole lot of evasion(talking typical 0/30/30/10 build). There ARE counters to this “perma” stealth. It’s not hard to disrupt this stealth spamming: stand in the powder so they hit you with heart seeker, interrupt them, knock them out, fear them out,etc. Stealth is about the only defense this spec has. No stability, no ridiculous evasion spam, little to none condition clearing(Shadow’s embrace looking like it will being ineffective with short duration stealth). When a thief sits in stealth, they aren’t killing anything. Its only good at small scale roaming. And even then it is outclassed by other professions.

It all boils down to one thing to me: people are just annoyed by it. A dodging player who knows how to keep his back away from you sure as hell already makes it a pain to get a good backstab in with only 4-5 seconds to position behind someone’s back(Excluding you do a steal/shadowstep backstab, in which case time is not of an essence).

So does all it take is a whining population to nerf something that’s marginally annoying? Play a level 80 thief for a day or two. You’ll realize how ineffective you can make other thieves vs you in the short windows they have to get at your back in stealth.

I laugh at this idea that s/d evasion spam is somehow more talented/honorable. Spamming my dodge key is a lot easier than stealth spam. And on top of that, the stealth spam with s/d is still really easy. An on command shadow return on top of that. I realize s/d is getting nerfed, but it is not getting a ground breaking nerf like d/p.

After all is said and done, people will kitten about all the d/d thieves running around and still staying in stealth. But somehow, d/p stealth is this shunned idea. I can’t find a good argument anywhere for it. Sound like a bunch of women not using logic. In fact, it’s a little easier to stay in stealth(d/d) with pve mobs and groups of players with their pets/illusions.

The only way to sustain very long durations with JUST heartseeker/black powder combo is to pan your camera and get 4 heart seekers off(not easy to do continuously). If you can’t stop a thief doing that while he can’t even see you coming because of your over-head camera angle, you really are bad.

If you really are obsessed with stopping stealth duration with that trait, try a small change first. 2 initiative when entering stealth, 1 initiative returned while already in stealth.

Let the flaming begin by a bunch of fanboy s/d elitists(a far more effective and unbalanced build when played correctly) and people who don’t have a clue about countering stealth.

And its not like it was op 1v1. anyone who plays a thief knows how to make it difficult to get backstabbed.

Disclaimer: i play s/d and d/d. Im just confused as to the pistol nerf. Because it was annoying? Warriors can travel half way across the kitten map to escape bad situations.

So you sat in stealth….you didnt kill anything. d/p sucks in zergs, its sub-optimal in spvp/tpvp. I can understand the full init regain in SR….but the heartseeker/powder combo is easily countered: knock them out, interrupt, stand in the circle,etc. Seems a bunch of QQing non-thieves(or actual thieves that say an evasion spam thief is somehow more respectable…I fail to make that connection)kittened and whined enough to get their way. Anyone worth their salt as a pvper can stop a thief from spamming stealth if he chooses to stay in the area near you(relatively).

Game changing alterations like this one destroy builds. Perhaps minor changes instead of drastic ones at first. Perhaps gain 1 init on an ability that stealths while you are stealthed? That would drain your init sufficiently so you couldnt “perma” spam stealth(quotations because if any thief is allowed to stack 4 heartseekers around you…youre an idiot if you see that circle)

The death of d/p build. That build will absolutely get trounced by anything 1v1. its defense was stealth. it was a bit troll like to be able to hide from a zerg..but did that impact balance? seems not a whole hell of a lot different than walking around CnDing to stay in stealth. A shred more skill to land it.

I don’t know what moron everyone took after to use the word kitten, but please stop. It’s making you sound like a 4th grader.

Note: I posted this here because I thought I’d reach the biggest audience with the amount of whiny kids complaining about thieves. That and I didn’t see just a general section. I debated the suggestion section, but figured this was the best spot to stop this plague of poor vocabulary.

Here is my apocalyptic end of the world looking thief. Out on the road scavenging for supplies.

Suppressed pistols to remain hidden
Gas mask for the poisonous fumes in the air.