Guild Wars 2

Nope, just that we have no meaningful utility.
A ele can get DPS just under ours, but also has healing, Prot/Stab, Might, and plenty of auras, all of which makes them a better choice than just pure DPS.

Sarnax.8357:

Thanks I’ll take a look. I was playing around with rev condi last night and had a lot of fun. Its a completely different play style then I’m used to which I’m loving actually. I did manage to get ascended vipers on all armor and switched to that stat on my legendaries, but I’m struggling finding the ascended Sinister trinkets. I have an amulet and will need to grind badges in SW for a ring, but outside of that what is the best avenue to get those trinkets? Are there Viper ascended outside of raids I could grind for?

Viper ascended comes from HoT raids I think. I’d recommend crafting some exotic sinister gear (if you can) and then grinding out the Sinister trinkets.

Glad I helped

Having the same problem, a fix would be much appreciated.

Aihao.5824:

ok,i’ll try) but what advantages has sw/sw over sw/sh?
I had thought about taking retri instead of invo, but I like that stun break.

Yeah, the stunbreak is amazing, but swapping to Shiro and hitting Phase Traversal is still a pretty consistent stunbreaker.

Glad to have helped

Have you tried a trap build with scorpion’s wire, that is where the real fun is at.
Anet pls nerf Bunker Thieves

Blaqatak.1395:

Has anyone found a moderately successful strategy for DHs’ traps (as power D/P)?

I reflexively pop Bandit’s Defense, which is invariably a mistake – kitten you unblockable CC!

I don’t know how effective blinds are against traps, but could shadowshotting in be useful at all? Afterwards, evading or shadowstepping out? (I don’t know the impacts of any of these.)

If they’re a GS trapper use Shadowshot a lot, the blinds help a ton. Bound absolutely destroys DHs in my experience. As for shadowstepping; you want to dodge out of Test of Faith’s circle, and then shadowstep away.

Dunno if they’ll work for you, but these tricks(?) let me kitten the crap out of almost any DH I come across.

Happy Thieving

I want Ricochet back, but I also want a big nerf to Unload’s damage, it’s way too much currently. But it did make Shadow Shot like spinning a slot machine. My question is: why not just change it for shadow shot and leave it the same for the others?

First off, I play Staff/Sword-Sword. That’s my viewpoint.

To live long, you need to dodge the condi bombs and kite when you have like 4+ condis on you. As for DH traps, they mostly use Test of Faith, which you can dodge out of, or Procession of Blades, which you can walk out of with minimal damage. Don’t freak out when you see all the traps, that’ll help you live much longer. Revenant’s role is party buffing and nuking the team’s backline. Just use Glint to buff, and Shiro to mostly fight. Use Staff #5 a lot. It drops a stupidly high amount of burst as long as you aim it right, and it shreds up to 8 stacks of stability, as well as giving an evade. For thieves, you want to block or dodge Backstab (start blocking ~1-2 seconds after they enter stealth). Also, if CC is a recurring problem for you, I’d recommend dropping the meta Invocation for Retribution and changing Elder’s Force to Enhanced Bulwark, the difference in survivability is night and day and feels better when you’re just getting into rev.

Hope this helps

There are viable Glint/Mallyx builds, but the problem is that a power rev can put out much more DPS and boons and that the main condition of mallyx and mace is Torment.
Many big pve enemies don’t move, or barely move, meaning torment provides sub-par damage, made even larger with the boon disparity. However, there is still hope for PvE condi rev because of Banish Enchantment, which applies 3 stacks of confusion.
Here is my condi build for PvE and Fractals ~ http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQRApX8unfN2gSuJvQRHlboskyPU4S5IKor8ElFUlJNgDSQ9iOGxO92jH-TxxBQBeU53CV/Zf6Hg2+DA4BAsSlgC4EA0NYAwd3dXjIiIkCAidVA-e
Wierd build, I know, but it works well. Feel welcome to trade Shamans for more damage or tank, it’s your preference.
Hope this helps

BrokenGlass.9356:

You’ll have to pardon my ignorance then, what exactly is different beyond other player’s twitch reaction speed at high level pvp? I’ve watched endless hours of youtube of top end players, and much of the time I find myself thinking… “why did he do that? wouldn’t that moment have been better served doing X or Y?” or “why that trait choice?” and while I admit that I’m by no means at that level of twitch reactions… when watching the video’s I’ve got all the time in the world to analyze… and it feels like its just ‘faster’ than what I do on a daily basis.

I called this anti-meta, because the top end players tend to use the same 9 (or perhaps 11 if were being generous) builds. Just about 1 per class… and when you see X class, you know it has Y build on it… the counters are all fresh in your mind. If you were good enough to take your build into high end pvp, and do what they are not expecting… they will melt before they have any idea how to deal with it.. because they haven’t spend endless hours saying to themselves “now when i see them pop this move, interrupted with that skill..” and so on. Its a wrench in the works, so to speak.

Isn’t the attitude that no other build is viable just perpetuating an unnecessary stereotype?

Why assume my heal WILL get interrupted? Isn’t it possible that I lock down an enemy with fear to create a window… or start the cast while they are in a dodge-roll?

Some of the reasons that you listed as to why its bad, don’t hold water in my mind.

Can you explain why they do?

Again, I admit that I’m not some legendary pvper with my own youtube channel, but I have been playing since launch, and have more time spent playing necro than any other class… and I have every class leveled and geared.. multiples of my three favorites, just so I don’t have to swap builds. Perhaps that means little… but as a guitar player I can tell you, its not about how fast you hit the same notes as everyone else, but how elegantly you use them.

Help me out here, what am I not seeing?

Or is it just that the community overlords with youtube channels have spoken, and now everyone that visits metabattle have decided power necro is no good?

Don’t let anyone tell you power necro isn’t great.

But those high-end players can beat your build not because they’ve seen it, but because they know the animations, as well as how to perfectly evade them. They do this or that when they see class X do thing Y because in their experience, they know how to respond so that they can minimize damage to themselves while maximising damage to the enemy. For example, when they see a GS and spectral wall, they’ll think ‘oh, he’s probably about to pull me into it’ and can dodge appropriately.

As for assuming your heal will be interrupted, that is mostly the worst case scenario, but it is quite common, and as a Thief main, I can attest to that. Because almost all classes have some kind of insta-cast or on-demand CC (Head Shot, Test of Faith, Jade Winds, etc). But you are right when you assume to use fear or when they’re dodging. The best time is when they’re channeling.

Hope this helps

Kain Francois.4328:

Actually, I’m having issues with Nevermore. The trail disappears when I autoattack.

Put that up on the bug thread, that cold be an issue for others too. Maybe Anet will even remember that thief mains exist.

gavyne.6847:

Pretty much berserker necros haven’t been viable in PvP in a very long time.

Really? I play berserker necro in unranked and some ranked, and I haven’t found it to be bad enough to be considered not viable. Then again, it’s probably just a higher tier thing. just curious.

Have a nice day!

Quick thing for Infiltrator’s Arrow -
Aiming at the corner of a cliff will (most of the time) let you jump up the cliff.
Dunno if you get what I mean, but hope it helps!

This is worse than the Backstab Nerf.

RIP Teef

1 – Chill damage used to be much more than a bleed, it used to be its own condition, and it was possible to maintain almost perma-chill through some rotation (I dunno never played a lot of condi necro).
2 – Food does make a difference, but for Fractals it shouldn’t matter, for Raids however it does.
3 – For a condi build, there aren’t any major trait changes that I’d reccomend over the base build, but I find that Carrion trinkets make a world of difference when soloing as a condi build.

Hope this helps!

So. Escapist’s Absolution, a trait that gives all thieves hope that they might be able to cleanse condis.

Currently, It cleanses one condi per second if you evade something. I feel that this isn’t all too good because you rarely have to continuously dodge for more than a second or 2.

So the change: Make it cleanse 3 condis every 5 seconds (one evasion clears 3 on a 5-second cooldown)

This is technically a nerf, so Anet shouldn’t have a problem doing it, right?
On another note, it is sort of a buff since we get more burst condi cleanse.

So what do you guys think? Good? Bad? Please keep the responses constructive.
Happy Thieving

That trait only instakills Thieves with Sleight of Hand that jump you, no one else really dies from it.

While I think that the Weapon skills should have energy cost lowered or removed, but removing the energy cost from legend skills would make Rev completely OP, even with some cooldowns. Not to mention, most legend skills don’t have CDs, so good energy management is rewarded with more access to come boons or stun breaks.
And as Thief main, I know how bad it could get lol.
Have a Nice Day

These seem totally viable changes, and would definitely improve Thieves’ Guild, but I still wouldn’t take it over Basi Venom or Impact Strike. IMO, it needs a total overhaul for it to compete with all the other elites. But this is definitely a step in the right direction, as 180 sec is way too long for something of its magnitude.

Have a Nice Day!

Like everyone else said, go to Jana or DecieverX for D/D, but i figured I’d throw in my build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVn8lCFOhlOBGmC8PhFYCb+DWCbhephzQbQLBEAyAA-TViFQBL4IAgQlGC4EAUv9HqiSQ8p+DAeAAr5QAYElZbGCAYVlUARszC-w

You just wanna use the normal conbos, but for me this build felt good with scrapper runes instead of the usual pack ones.

Hope this helps!

Razor.9872:

Skills that pretty much all Druids use that you want to avoid/know:

• Smokescale (pet) “Smoke Assault” skill. This is likely to be the first attack the Smokescale uses. So it will happen right after the Druid swaps pets from Bristleback, or right after the Druid hits you with an attack while the Smokescale is out. The Smokescale will “revenant sword 3” and teleport around your position while hitting hard. Use blocks or a dodge to negate most of the damage.

• Bristleback (pet) Spike Barrage skill. This skill is manually activated by the Druid. You will see the Bristleback kinda do a “rear-back” animation, and then it will release a flurry of spikes in your direction that hit very hard. A single dodge should be enough to avoid this (tip: dodge toward the bristleback to avoid more spikes)

• Signet of Stone (utility). This signet passively increases the Druid’s toughness, but when activated it makes the Druid immune to direct damage for 6 seconds. Although, Druids are still susceptible to condi and CC during this time.

• Glyph of Equality (utility). This glyph is an insta-cast stunbreak and aoe daze, so there is not much in the way of avoiding it. However, you can predict what will follow well enough…

• Ancient Seeds (trait). This trait has an ICD of 10 seconds. It allows the Druid to summon immobilizing vines under you upon hitting you while you are CC’d. You will likely be hit with this after a GoE daze. Your best bet is to just have immob-breaking/clearing/transferring skills ready to negate its effects.

• Druidic Clarity (trait). This trait allows the druid to clear all conditions off of themselves and stunbreak upon entering Celectial Avatar form. Because of this trait, it is wise (when playing necro) to spare your condi-bomb until after they enter.

• Celestial Shadow (trait). This trait stealths and grants superspeed to the Druid and nearby allies (enemies) upon the Druid exiting Celectial Avatar form. While annoying, and making the Druid harder to kill, doing this will slowly tip the capture-point in your favor. Just be ready to re-target after the Druid enters CA form.

• Strength of the Pack (elite). Generally, this skill is used defensively as a stability-generator for 13 seconds. When playing a corruptionmancer, you can use this to your advantage to constantly corrupt their stability. In general, Druids are VERY weak to CC’s. They have a few stunbreaks, sure, but most of their skills are channels or come attached with 1-second cast times.

• Rejuvenating Tides (CA skill). Druids will often use this in CA form as one of their primary forms of group and self-healing. It is quite powerful in that regard — but easily interrupted. Stopping a cast or two of this will put most Druids in a panic.

• Natural Convergence (CA skill). Druids can use this when in celestial avatar form. They will bend down while pulsing out slow and cripple. It is hard to avoid this outright, but as long as you dodge the 3rd and final pulse, you will avoid half the damage and an immob.

• Seed of Life (CA (kinda) skill). Often this skill isn’t very prominently used, as most Druids will take Celestial Shadow for a trait and only use a couple skills in CA form, but some Druids will spam this. It is a small aoe that heals allies and blinds enemies. Try to avoid standing in them to not be blinded every 4 seconds.

Skills that some Druids use that you want to avoid/know:

• Point Blank Shot (skill). This is the Longbow’s 4th skill, it is a knockback that knockbacks more the closer you are to the Druid. It is important to learn to distinguish this animation from the rest of the Longbow’s shots. The Druid will tilt their bow sideways a bit, and white…wind? sprites? Well, white line-things will converge on the arrow before firing. Avoiding this will also be avoiding Ancient Seeds and a probable Spike Barrage + Rapid Fire (Longbow skill 2).

• Barrage (skill). This is the 5th skill on the longbow. It is the AoE that rangers stop moving to lay down. It actually is quite attrisive, but can be halted easily by CCing the Druid while in their shooting animation.

• Glyph of the Tides (utility). This glyph allows the druid to push enemies away from them. It claims to be insta-cast, but actually have a 1/2 second cast time tied to it and can be interrupted. This is too hard to interrupt, though, so just look for the Druid reaching their hand out in circles while a shinny symbol floats in front of them.

In summary – Interrupt channels, avoid pet dps-bursts, and have condi-clear ready after a CC.

Thanks TON for all the advice, it really helps me win against rangers, but the good ones still get me haha.
Have a Great Day/Night!

gavyne.6847:

For stunbreak most use spectral armor and/or plague signet.

As for stab, lack of stab is a necro issue. Reaper made it better with RS 3 and Chilled to the Bones, but Anet nerfed RS 3 so it isn’t as good as it used to be. Lack of stab is definitely an innate weakness that others exploit.

It’s also why power builds don’t work as well as condi builds in the current meta. Power requires you to be in middle of the fights in order to pump out dps, in doing so you’re prone to get cc’ed often. Condi allows you to operate more around the perimeter & kite.

Anyways good luck!

Ah I see, Thanks man, I’ll just try out some condi builds, and I’ll jsut try to dodge the stuns, as well as run spectral armor.

Have a Nice Day/Night!

@Cerby, the Assassin’s gear for crits is for more might through Forceful Greatsword, the Might on Crit trait, not just for more crits.
Have A Nice Day!

Agreed, and even as a Thief main, skillful play gets you past the traps and almost guarantees victory. I’ve just gotten into DH and it’s really fun wrecking noobs. While I’d still like to see minor nerfs to some traps, overall I’d say DH is in a perfect spot this season.

Hello ranger/druid community

I play a lot of sPvP, and you guys always manage to immobilize me and pump my face full of blue beams and arrows.

Please give me advice on how to beat you guys, (avoiding big skills, combos to watch for)

This is NOT a nerf ranger thread, but rather just one to find out weaknesses I might be able to play around and exploit.

Have A Nice Day/Night!

So, most of the time, as a power necro, I have one problem. Stability. I’m aware RS 3 gives you some and Chilled to Bone, gives plenty, but I was wondering if there were any runes/sigils that I could run to get some more.

Other than that, I have no idea what stunbreak to run (using Flesh Wurm atm) but it feels very inefficient and usually isn’t available when I get hit with the big stuns (i.e Headbutt or Basi Venom). Is there a better stunbreak? Or is there some trick or something that you experienced necro players use to avoid them?

I love playing necro, and these were my biggest problems, and I came here wondering if anyone could give me a few pointers.

Thanks, and I’m also aware it’s a bit of a L2P issue as well.

Get Assasin Earrings and Berserker everything else, that’ll get you at 96% crit chance (I think).
Then just faceroll all pve content.

I’m somewhat unsure, but I’d say that it reduced viability because the breakbar smashing (Sharing Basi Venom) is now baseline, so there is much less of a reason to invest in Venom Share. Now power thieves (which have a much easier optimal rotation) can just take basi for bar smashing.
I’m pretty sure this is why but, it might be wrong.

Upvoted for humor haha
10/10

So you want it to be insta cast? or is it that you can’t click fast enough?
Becuase if you can’t click quickly, I’d recommend turning on quick cast in the options.

If it was a click matter, hope I helped

Happy Thieving!

While I can’t give you a definite build, it sounds like he was running Carrion/Rabid Hybrid, probably with Mace/Shield & Longbow. Chances are he was also running Outrage (10sec CD Stun break) and Eternal Champion (1 stab every 3 sec) along with Balanced Stance (pulsing Stab).
If you want to counter this, you’ll want to kite and bait out all the Stun breakers and invulns, then burst him with power.
Please note that this is based on what I know and you provided, so it may not be the perfect response, but I hope it helps nonetheless.
Have a good day/night!

Hello, Thief community!

So, I’ve been running D/P and S/D mostly, and was wondering about some runes and sigils I saw.

1. Sigil of Absorption
This seems like a very good choice for D/P and S/D to some regard, but do you guys think losing fire sigil is worth it? Or should i drop Air after the nerfs?

2. Sigil of Generosity
This looks appealing, especially if you don’t run Escapist’s Absolution, but is the ICD too long or is it viable as an option for builds without EA?

3. Runes of Exuberance
These are pretty good for both builds, (from my experience), but again, is it worth the power/precision loss of taking away Pack runes?

I’m not a total noob to thief (~115 games) but these have been my biggest questions, which even after some testing, remain unanswered. If you do have an answer or recommendation, please leave a post, because I’m still very undecided about these.

Happy Thieving!

@emkelly I definitely see where you’re coming from, and I think my post was awkwardly worded, I’m not just saying that DrD is poorly designed, I’m also trying to say that we got less than other classes did in terms of elite specs.
Other than that, I completely agree with your position on the problems the elite specs bring, I honestly never noticed them until you pointed them out.
Thanks for the constructive response anyhow.

Before anyone explodes, I’m not saying the 3 dodges are bad, but I feel Anet could’ve made something more unique than just adding a dodge. For example, look at the other classes, Warrior, Ranger, and Necro got new states, Rev got a new legend, Mesmer got a new shatter, etc. While I don’t know what Anet could’ve done,but, like I stated earlier, they could’ve given us something newer and more unique.

I also know this is really late, but I started after HoT was released and have been giving it a lot more thought lately with all the DHs running around.

Please, if you leave a suggestion or response, try to keep it constructive, because the purpose of this thread isn’t to hate on what we have, but rather wonder what we could’ve had.

Happy Thieving!

C’mon Anet, dyeing our energy would be awesome!

For those or you that are confused, when I say energy color, I mean the color of your abilities. (i.e Test of Faith’s color becomes what you dye your energy color, instead of the base blue)

So what do you guys think? Yes? No? Too hard to code? I’ve been curious to see what other people think about it, so please leave a constructive response.

No, it only heals for you, since it procs when YOU stunbreak and not your team.
As far as I’m aware
Hope this helps and happy Revving

So, in spvp, I used to run typical Power Shiro, but I decided to switch to Diviner’s Amulet and take Wurm runes (yes, they exist) to see how it went for a few games.

Holy crap. It’s pretty dang squishy, even with the Wurm runes, but if you know how to time your blocks and keep up protection (which Diviner’s makes easier) you can absolutely annihilate most people.

The only bad part are the base crit stats, ~30% Crit chance, and the surprisingly good ~200% multiplier.

All in all, I was just wondering if you guys think this is viable in ranked (I’ma run it anyway, but feedback on improvement is always accepted) and also wanted to recommend it to any revenant who wants to try something different.

I’m not asking for a buff to the heal (the heal is amazing) but the 1 & 1/4 sec cast time feels entirely too long and gets interrupted far too often.
Maybe reduce it to 1 second? I feel that would help a lot in terms of not getting interrupted.
But maybe I’m just doing something wrong, if I am, please do tell me, I’m open to just about any suggestions.

My teef’s final look <3

Only problem I see is that you can’t activate Back Step while downed, but maybe you just have to activate it before lol.
+1 to everthing else tho, pretty good stuff, just needs a few number tweaks

This thread is NOT meant to ask which one is viable, but rather ask which one you prefer when you run DD.
Personally, I prefer Bound, but I’m wondering about the rest of the teef community.
So please leave a non-cancerous response ^^

I love the warrior axe thing for the reflects and the insane dmg (usually forces the Endure Pain), and I like the Blinding Tuft for the on demand Backstabs.

IMO shroud necro is the best for soloing, but rangers and thieves can solo if you have the skill

No, since Condi isn’t even registered on the hitbox (as far as I’ve seen), you won’t get that extra damage on ticks. You’re better off with Aristocrat runes if you can afford them

Recently, i just finished gearing my thief in full exotics, ankitten ow looking for ways to get berserkers backpiece and accessories, since I haven’t yet found a vendor for lvl 80 accesories, and don’t have the crafting for backpiece

Thanks in advance!

I’d say necro all the way for that mix of DPS and survivability you’re looking for. Necro has all kinds of life steal great combos with all the wells and reaper is awsomely fun and allows you to face tank even in full berserker gear. Necro also has solo play capability, can you can usually solo most group events.

So all in all, I’d recommend necro, but like @Eros said, Rev and Warrior aren’t bad picks at all.

It’s probably bugged with the new patch, but maybe you took off Vital Persistence, since that has a huge factor in degeneration.
But hey, its probably a bug, not like Anet didn’t nerf enough stuff this patch

misterman.1530:

Might be with you all there. This has gotten ridiculous. Perma-stealth thieves and mesmers…and yet no real QoL for necros. No leap abilities, no port abilities, no real charge abilities except for Reaper Shroud skill 2. If we are in danger, we are screwed.

The fact that a necro doesn’t have some sort of stealth (Walk Through Shadows) is ridiculous.

I blame PvP for these changes. Nothing else makes sense.

As a Thief main, perma stealth just got thrown out the window with the new nerf

I cri ;-;

I don’t have the math here, but I still run with Force/Air as it doesn’t feel too different. But with the nerf, Fire or Blood might come out on top now.

Ah ok then, think i’ll just heart to 30 then dungeon from there, thanks for all of the advice guys