Guild Wars 2

I agree. I won’t say poor design. I just think that it is hard to understand the intention of what is supposed to happen here. I could have understood if it were something similar to path 1, where there are Elites mixed with Normal mobs, but that is not the case. I am interested to see replies to this is far as maybe other strategies people have tried that isn’t kiting and dying rotations.

Isabis.9561:

obtuse.8291:

I’m not sure it has a strength. at least for thief. There’s no sustained damage possible via conditions only. at best you could have a mixed approach with some condition damage and some power, leaving neither weak. Trying to be a superspecialist could be a mistake in this game. Hybrids may end up most viable

Well, sadly there is no such thing as hybrid as a thief.
If you take power/vitality/condi amulet, your main ability should be death blossom. The direct dmg you will do with blossom is laughable, so the only way your power can shine is by autoattacking, but you don’t really want to autoattack much as a thief, do you? You will get absolutely stomped.

Also, traits which remove conds pulse every 10secs, you can’t know when it is gonna pulse. And poison, poison lasts 2 sec and requires you to keep autohitting. What are the odds you will apply 2sec poison which requires autohitting when the condi clear pulses? Very low imo.

Your Lotus Strike is a 2sec Poison. Don’t forget that you have Spider Venom which is 7sec, 5 strike debuff that will last up to 30. With Lotus strike you can keep it applied. You also have Skale Venom which is about 20 sec w/ Vulnerability and Weakness. Literally “Pick your poison”, you can maintain certain condition as you wish.

As for the argument of Condition based Theives. I think this goes back to your counter base and your play style. Regardless of the Glass Canon “Infiltrator” Build, to the Tough “Bruiser” build. Also, Pistols only have 3sec bleed effects, so there dmg will happen quite faster than the “3.6k” from DB (12sec). Along with that If you are doing DB stacks → Stealth → Sneak Attack. You can throw in trash debuffs with Body Shots.

All in all, its how you utilize your skills and how you prefer to play. Kitten, kittened, or not.

I would agree its a fair exchange. Also, you can apply Poison. So with my peoples skills being 1 condition based removals, Stacking the bleeds then adding the poison would always just make the poison removed and just continue to reapply Bleed→Poison the dmg would still be sustained. However, for professions like Guardians and Necros that steal people Conditions to themselves and have the ability to apply them as boons to themselves or conditions onto you, could get frustrating. Though I feel that is mostly where the strategy would come in for counter build and your specific attack group. There will always be a bane.

I’m not sure I oversighted it, but no one here mention the damage output of CnD vs. BP→HS. You lose almost over half the damage on a single target along with the blow of initiative. CnD>BP→HS. I do concur, however, of the utility of BP. Having a smoke cloud for a down player. Using Shadow Refuge is a better option (IMO) to remove the aggression from yourself and down players (PvE and PvP). The things I “think/feel” holds value with an offhand pistol is Headshot. Interupts are huge in many situation and can mitigate a lot of unecessary damage (PvE and PvP). And the ability to mostly keep a blind debuff at most times between the powder and re-entering stealth(Cloaked In Shadow). Again all things default to playstyle and what you are trying to counter/support.

Nefarious.2014:

Mix in Valkyrie items in your trinkets (power, vitality, crit damage)

I am all berserkers with 3-4 valkyrie items. i hit like a truck and have 16.5k hp.

I have no problems in dungeons – in fact, our mobility and stealth makes it so I typically die less than other classes

I concur. So much survivability comes from our utility, mobility, and stealth. I know I usually am eaten alive by conditions, which would make vitality more keen.

Shizzlenit.7648:

Vexus.5423:

It may be on a proc-on-crit chance. It’s hard to tell, but I am interested and will check it out later, do some testing and let you guys know. Also, some mobs in the world don’t take affects from stuff. Try using it against the testing dummies in the Mist.

i played around a bit with it

it adds weakness and vuln on the enemy for 2 seconds. It also procs on non critical hits. Its pretty sick actually since Weakness is a very nice debuff in WvW especially on non prec builded opponents. It also procs fairly often.

I played around with it as well now. I notice that it seems to be on a cooldown as to how often it will proc. I want to say like 30sec, but I cant say for sure.

I guess the mist woul dhave worked if I could consume it there.

Vexus.5423:

It may be on a proc-on-crit chance. It’s hard to tell, but I am interested and will check it out later, do some testing and let you guys know. Also, some mobs in the world don’t take affects from stuff. Try using it against the testing dummies in the Mist.

I think I’ll give it a go in the mists as well. I might be missing something.

I must be having issues because I get nothing with the consumable. Not sure whats happening there. All my trait debuffs stick, but nothing from this.

Not entirely sure. I stumbled upon it while it was happening. I know he goes allong the walls with 2 others then stops the skelk from putting the stones back onto land.

As for the debuff. I did nothing of the sort of 3 stacks of weakness/vuln. Thats why I am curious if it is just me, maybe its buged? Does it even work like how our venom does, etc. I was excited to see it. It sold for 16copper. I thought I maybe found on open slot for my utilities.

With events. I mean escorting an NPC that patrols to the lake and then end with killing skelk throwing boulder chunks back onto the surface.

The vendor is located in Iron Marches near Bloodfin Lake (South Eastern of map). The consumable applies Skale Venom for 10 minutes. Not much else I can say, it doesnt explain much either. I hadn’t notice it working as I had “thought”. I got it from one of the merchants that hosts the events down there.

I recently stumbled upon a Merchant that sells Consumable Skale Venom. However, I have not figured out how the mechanics work. I thought it would have the same application effect as my own Thief Skale Venom, but this is not the case. At least not for me. I was wondering if anyone would possibly have any more insight on how it work. Thanks

I would try my chances if I knew I had them. Yes, rallying can be easy at times, but others you just want it all to end and get out of the cave that has a respawns that are nonstop. I’ve had that happen on several occasion. I’ve even had friends tell me that this should be an option rather than trying to be “herioc” and survive.

I think adding some type of LFG for the “puggers”. Try to keep Map chat a little cleaner from spamming would be nice.