Guild Wars 2

@Zypher

I agree with some of your points. Game don’t feel like a grind to me. I don’t think the complaints about ascended gear is valid. Very easy vertical progression if any compared to top pool of MMOs.

LS does make financial sense as it makes their average log-in numbers look good to the decision-makers. And skins are rewards because people love buying skins. The micro-transactions are probably making them a hefty profit much more than a subscription would.

But I’m not their accountant or their executive. Spoken in extremity, I sit here playing their product and I am simply demanding better quality content. Not just something shoved to make cash and statements look good.

True that forums are a place to “complain”. But I try to be impartial aside from reasoning my own opinion of what would make the game more fun. I’m not here to flame anything or anyone. I want more gameplay additions. Skills, weapon types, utilities. More challenging stuff, new fractures looks great. And so on.

And yes it’s not going to matter much as I’ve initially stated. But I still get some satisfaction that others may agree with me, or insight on why they’d disagree. Fancy way of killing time. Not hoping to impact the game much.

The suggestion posts have died out over time too. Not sure if they’d do any good after all its only our opinion. Game is going its way pretty solid so far.

I’ve made more than one before. The usual stuff.

-More gameplay changes (skills, systems, traits additions which they’ve promised).

-More permanent challenging content (take one week to grind and beat an easy NPC is hardly rewarding), like the pile of dungeons and paths they have, sure be nice if people actually ran them or had a reason to.

-Rewards besides skins. What do I have in mind? The things above would be cool.

-Content that proves the game has progressed. This is a game not a episodic TV show, I don’t get excited anticipating which new villain will pop up, harshly spoken, the story just won’t be as good as House or GoT. I get excited if I have 5 new ways (skills/wpns) to dispatch those villains. You know, new ways to play the game.

-PvP. I love PvP. I’m sad PvP feels like separate game. No rewards no progression. Need to tie in PvP characters to our “actual” characters. I hope it’s not considered a minigame.

Again just my opinion. Not bashing on folks who enjoy the game. I made the post to see what everyone thinks.

I played GW2 since release to about summer. Got “been there done that” and amassed as much skins as I could. I loved the game then but I find there is little to return to.

It’s not that I feel like I am missing out on the temporary content. Not too excited about having to kill an NPC with a background story slapped on, using the same old traits and skills that I can recite on the spot (attacks unlocked since lv 10 maybe). Or spend more time farming gold and punching in credit card info for new skins.

Where is the progression? What impact is there on my character if I complete LS after LS? From what I’ve caught up to on the update notes, the answer is skins.

The ultimate reward you get by playing Guild Wars 2 is skins. Skin Wars 2 is an old joke but more literal as time proved.

I guess I’m here because the game showed so much potential. Such smooth combat flow and systems in place, hitbox and projectile detection, etc. But it just feels like the same game one year ago. Couple moderate trait shifts and balances (does a 5% dmg increase on a trait really makes you want to use pistols more?), NPCs came and gone, just you know, more skins.

And what ever happened PvP? A big part of online gaming as it has highest replayability and each fight would feel different. Content aside, what progression awaits there? Skins.

A fart in the wind, be that as it may, what does everyone feel about the direction of the game and updates?

Hello everyone, haven’t checked my wvw in a while and noticed I have three bonus chests remaining.

What are these? What do they contain? How to I get them / get more of them?

I tried looking for answers myself but the wiki and google did not show me much. Any info would be much appreciated!

Looking back at Guild Wars 1, here’s my favorite method in delivering new weapon skins.

For those of you who don’t know: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Bonus_Mission_Pack

Those missions were tailored to cover scenic, story, and reward elements into four separate packs relating to historic events of the Guild Wars universe.

Retail Price: us$9.99 / €8.99 / £5.99 for all the missions, came with awesome gameplay experiences as well as unlimited repetition rewards of 4 different skin packs for all the weapons.

Now that GW2 might be at a different financial state, costlier development reasonably needs a higher price tag. Still it would be pretty awesome to review some of the old practices of the micro-transactions store.

lordkrall.7241:

I would suggest people read before actually going in spending money and then whining about not reading/understanding what they have spent money on.

ArenaNet have never even implied that the scraps would be almost guaranteed drops. Quite the contrary, they made it quite clear that a big part of the Key drops would be replaced by the scrap drops.
The keys had around 25% drop-rate based on research. Lets say they move that down to 10%, which would give the scraps about 15% chance to drop. Lets then add a few extra % since one can assume that it was not only the removed key % that was given as a chance for scraps.

That would mean it would probably be something around 20%, which is more or less 1 in 5 and that does seems to be quite close to what people have reported since the release, and that would most likely be considered common.

I believe the main focus of the thread is one issue. I wouldn’t argue if gem store is or is not a form of gambling because all the points are fruitless. You pay for something (a meal), you have fun (without knowing if it tastes good beforehand). It’s all fine and good in that sense. Any further cases just begs the question… so what?

The problem I have with the “common” label is the price behind it. Math done many times above, one Aetherized weapon skin = around $56 dollars and that is being optimistic for the average dice roller. In the near future it would take 5 times as much to get one skin so that’s $ 56 × 5... You get the idea.

In full support of the game, whether it is the “buy it or don’t” perspective, I wish to buy it because the skins are cool and it pleases my vanity. The price on the other hand is a bit nuts, and more so to hide it behind the chances spread on scraps then calling it common.

Jae.5138:

I don’t really understand why this is such a shock to everyone.

Not everyone in the game is meant to receive every skin that comes out, ever.

If it is a common, sure, many people will eventually get’em. If it’s stated as rare, it means RARE.

Adjective

(of an event, situation, or condition) Not occurring very often.

As in, not everyone should have it. If you decide to take the chance and throw whole bunch of money at it, and then don’t get it, why would you blame ANet for it?

The topic of this thread is exactly that. As stated in the patch notes the scraps should be common, not rare.

Thanks to our fellow contributors above, the term common meant 1 scrap in every 5 chests. (Though in my case I got none from 10 chests.) With that more positive/fair outlook, 10 scraps = 50 chests = 4500 gems = $56.

I love the game and have bought large amounts of gem to support it, the biweekly efforts are very reassuring and fun. With that said, $56 buys a new well-funded game – here, $56 gets a weapon skin that is in essence still chance based, and the chances are split into scraps and then labeled common: honestly, that in itself seems a tad too misleading.

Some might say, “don’t but it then”. I believe the issue is from the distributor, it is beside my point whether if people continue to purchase or not.

Although the amount of numbers so far doesn’t really say much about the statistics. But my biased kitten opinion is that the notes should really say the chance of getting scraps are “uncommon”.

Hello everyone,

Saw the patch notes today and the troubling need to collect weapons (skin) kicked in.

Patched the game up to date, the new system of scraps for the not-so-lucky looked promising and the notes read:

“The Black Lion Chest now has a common chance to drop Black Lion Ticket Scraps and a rare chance to drop Black Lion Claim Tickets, which can be redeemed for Aetherblade weapon skins.”

Key word here is common. So I bought 10 keys and tried my luck, thinking scraps should be at least common enough that at worst I’d have to get 20 keys.

But 10 chests opened, 0 scraps received. Now I know 10 chests isn’t too much, but it really scared me into buying more due to the fact I haven’t gotten a single scrap.

Are the scraps really common? Do I have terrible luck today? I’d like to ask my fellow dice rollers to see if there’s a possible issue here besides my luck.

Quoting from the Cutthroat Politics New Features section:

“New World vs. World Ability Line – Catapult Mastery
This month’s World vs. World ability line addition is Catapult Mastery! Invest points in Catapult Mastery to increase damage done to walls, extra damage against other siege, increase your attack radius, and unlock a new, powerful skill.”

…and unlock a new, power skill.

Are the new skill batch coming out already and related to the Catapult Mastery somehow? Maybe it is just typo (or my reading comprehension sucks).

Great post on a topic that seems to be often overlooked as of now.

What makes a great game that’s tons of fun to play even when repeating old content? Gameplay, depth, and control. GW2 does have those factors down to a pretty solid degree. It is just that for us players who have played “too much” and explored all the game’s capabilities, the new content focused on zones and events seem more stale than it really is.

Simply put, I feel veteran players need more toys to play with rather than places to go. More ways to expand our characters other than 5% stats upgrades or new skins.

Skills and weapons are additions that will most probably be enjoyed by everyone (and adding flavor to some of the more bland skills: shoot arrows/gun/attack 5 times in a row is bland after a while). But hey “save something for expansions”.

It’s clear issues like this occurs when you have played too much.

You’ve beaten the game, seen this done that, but still linger for some sense of attachment or boredom otherwise. You hope to find some nonexistent new thing that you haven’t done but there are only so much.

So now you wait for updates eagerly thinking, hey maybe they’ll add new skills or new maps or change something about the gameplay, but alas such are reserved for expansions and take a considerable amount of work to create, test, and establish. In the mean time you can enjoy the beautiful fireworks. I’ll be right beside ya.

Awesome idea. Would love to have more interactions with members of the chosen order, as some interesting characters are only met once or twice and discarded. Be great if we’re able to climb our “cooperate ladder” and get to know the leadership on missions and such (*cough charm of Skyrim). And have some inter-order relations with other players for jolly cooperation.

The hell with the pact, times at spent with the orders were much more fun for me. It’s adventurous and new (investigations, aiding other species, political assignments), instead of having the same – we’re under attack by the undead – themed lead by none other than our favorite hero Trahearne.

I couldn’t find the posts regarding this. But I just tested it myself, unable to drag soulbound items from bank to another character’s bag.

Anyone know any info on the topic of whether living story skins will make a return at some point?

All the legendary could use more integrated skill effects per class, but that demands work. Work that is used else where at the moment.

Bolt still has that bug where you get two of it stacked above one another after each swing.

But sure be sweet if the currently legendaries are updated again. If it is in the plans at all =p

I really liked Braham’s Shield and Rox’s Quiver. I bought only a single set as I relied on the transmutation method of switching them between characters, though that turned out to be an unintended bug.

Now on my alt I really wish I had those skins too. Will we ever see a return of past Living Story skins?

>Ryuujin.8236

Maybe I should stay off class specifics as I do not intend to downplay the complexity of the situation you might be in. High fractals or PvP, I could list too exactly how to opperate a class but what I want to question is that wouldn’t you too want more out of skills and a higher skill cap? No matter how you spin it after a while the skills are bland in my opinion, let alone being locked to weapons.

I’m built to burst therefore I engage to summon clones that are copies of other professions abilities with the same animations, if offensively favorable I jump in root and flurry + wreck. Or I stack in the back and kite and clone and shield and run. I build support and bunker so I aoe cap points and run around not dying while doing some buff and debuff and try to be useful.

Build determines what you do, regardless of what your enemy does most of the time. Profession vs profession it really doesn’t matter what your enemy is, they either fall into, burst, bunker, cond, or support. Do whats limited in your build to do your own role and clash.

Sure there are team strategies, I just want to exaggerate a little to prove a point. Point being that skill usage just isn’t gratifying enough. So what if I poison my foes with arrows, do I care even what condition to do when? They might remove it or not I might as well stack up as much as often as possible = mindless. I have dps? spam it or fake it let the gods decide when they dodge, and wait for cooldowns to repeat. I’m in trouble? disengage and go elsewhere and await another chance.

Why can’t we have access to a bit of everything so that builds aren’t such burdens but more specializations. As a thief with 30 shadow arts and crit my bleeds don’t do jack. Why even have that key on my weapons bar. Most poisons are just out-shined by stealth and step. Skills should be impactful, rather than a convenience.

>Tauril.8504

I do believe that PvE tends to get the short end of the stick in terms of full build exploration and further limits skill usage. Though its natural to have to try harder to fight other players in PvP. All your points are valid in terms of betterment of the game but that would be another discussion all together.

>Goorman.7916

I think that you really nailed the issue. It is true that keeping pressure and coming out on top is the key to good combat. Yet the current system saves no reason to not use any of the skills on your bar (for certain classes more than others).

There’s no reason to save your skills, use it asap. Sure you can hold on to your blind, or knockdown, or slow, and wait for a better chance to block a important hit but honestly it is not totally dependent on what your opponent does. Instead most cc’s are used instantly to apply pressure and wait for cd, otherwise you are just wasting good cc since they’ll be up again, quantity over quality.

This is not true in all cases of course but even skills that does cond or dmg still suffer from this.

• Mesmers just build up clones and either detonate or not dependent on build. The confusion of clones are kinda built in so more is always better. Usually not much of a reason to really keep watch what your foe is up to.

• Rangers just blast the poisons and cripples and back to auto with an optional aoe. I don’t use my poison to stop someone from healing its just there, up as much as possible and does some dot with the heal debuff doing its passive thing. No reason to ever hold on to cripple again just asap.

• Warriors are rally facerolly at times. Jump in bash, stun, dodge, hit, switch, bash, die or get killed. You can say that targeting are position are skillful as well as expecting dodge, but honestly it doesn’t factor in much in terms of holding on to your skills.

I could list more but if there’s insightful disagreement to convince me I’m not doing it right I’m always happy to learn.

>Deathless.8175

I agree with you on all the class plays very differently, perhaps I’m not clear enough on that in original post.

I also do main thief and in these 8 months or so I’ve done all the builds and all the pvp and pve content. Thief is a unique class with no cooldowns and so are each other class with its own unique mechanics (which I’ve also played most builds if not all). Some I like more than others, that is preference.

However the issue remains, I’m sure you know, that thieves spend initiative solely on needed skills. That each build one or two of the buttons unpushed. Blossom only for cond, before flankingstrike was bad until recently, p/d 3 skill is always underutilized, dont have to switch weapons at all unless escape or ranged to finish.

Again planning is the fun part. Figuring out how powerful the stealth tree with its cond removal and blind/heals and such was a blast, sword dazing enemies is a blast, and getting away 90% of the time is a blast (for the thief). But all my core idea of the post is that execution isn’t. Positioning 20%, button buttons 20%, building 60%. It wasn’t hard to land c&d and then hilt bash and auto chain and repeat (now we get flanking too i suppose but just a good change direly needed), with some shadowstep and refugee shinangans once in while.

I just desire the game to fully utilize its already limited buttons in a fashion that fuses both sets of weapons. Lowering swap cd for more chance to operate my weapons. Other classes have some cooldowns built into them so switching only means that you need to push some buttons to do something not because you want to but because its better than autoing.

I appreciate the time taken to read my wall of text as well as providing intriguing feedback.

I am by no means trying to diminish the effort and thoughts poured into Guild Wars 2. The landscape and map design may be one of my favorite aspect. It was a beautiful experience to see each zone in all its glory.

However seeing the current system, which too is top class in smoothness and responsiveness between skill usage and movement, I can’t help but wish it to achieve further than it currently sits.

>Malleus Maleficarum.2603

I agree that all class have an unique identity and plays differently, but what I find staleness in is the similarities between them as I switch characters in PvP/PvE.

To be honest, my favorite part was always building the character: reading all the traits and skills and piecing them together in a manner that would seem fun for me.

Though just as your passage suggests, once I determine the optimal buttons to press (planning and accessing done!), I am left with the same 5 buttons since level 10 and all the way in PvP that leaves me thinking, “Boy I enjoyed making all these numbers and skills come together wonderfully (taking my sweet time) and seeing my build succeed, but playing it really didn’t feel as satisfying as I imagined.” Or perhaps the execution simply wasn’t as mindful as the planning.

Maybe I demand too much finger work. Something like 5,2,Switch,1,2,4,Switch,1,2,2,3,… You get the idea. Lower swap cooldowns and skill combos are a dream personally (perhaps this belongs in suggestion subforum.).

But more flashy impactful animations for us metals&tool classes are too far fetched =p Even Guild Wars 1 rangers had cool auras of spikes and sigils when they fired the skill “crossfire”.

>Biggest let down of GW2, shrinking the orginial elementalist phoenix skill (as seen in proessfions section) from a full sized terror into a chicken

Many of us Guild Wars 2 players had experienced the following scenario.

We started the game upon release with many friends, along with much anticipation and excitement to match the hype. Now somewhere in our guild tab sits an empty guild that were once created with such joy: you as its only highlighted member and current location known.

After many failed attempts to revitalize the group I’ve gathered why the game lacked appeal to them. It was never about the lack of things to do, but about the feel of the skill as it relay the game to the player.

• Weapon skills are unimaginative- Most classes that can use a ranged projectile gets an ability that channels and shoots fast consecutively for dps. Most classes melee skills consists of a leap, a control, a parry, or a throw. Of courses there are instances of unique skills that brings flavor but that flavor often comes from the class itself (traits, stats, F-keys, mechanics).

The collection of underwater weapon skills seem much more “pretty” than land ones and contained more function (Elementalist lightning cage, ice wall and spike burst, Guardian light spears/wall), wishing that it was combined with land skills.

Plus forcing a certain set of skills unto a weapon leaves a player thinking, “I want to make my opponent bleed in melee but I like axes… time to roll a ranger and throw them instead.”

• Animations are repetitive and lack impact- Chain slashing and stand-still-quick-multislash are seen from any class that can use a sword or greatsword, beam projectiles look more like gentle wa kitten of air and puffs of smoke rather than an impactful hit (Guardian scepter attacks, focus/elite lightbeams, Mesmer bolts, Thieve explosive arrows), most melee abilities that share a weapon type have exact animations just with different particles.

• Function vs Cooldown vs Satisfaction-Cramming much utility into combat skills then placing long cooldowns on them makes it feel as if we are, at times, simply using auto attacks for too long. The skills that serve as utility (7 8 9), are chosen from a pool with viability already eliminating a percentage, and the useful ones do not stray far from what the class already does with weapons or mechanics (stealth, teleport, crowdcontrol, clones, stunbreaker).

Much situations, with correct positioning, turn into spam all skills, switch weapon, and repeat. Sadly, such play-style is not too ineffective.

Most skill simply lack the satisfaction of pulling it off, all skills seem to work in tiny unison steps to achieve the goal with simplicity akittens core. Not much of a feel of combos, or “look what I just pulled!”

• Complexity and Dual-wielding- There are issues of computer performance and balance to keep in mind of any MMO, but I rather it wouldn’t come at a sacrafice of enjoyability. There will always be complaints of imbalances, might as well push each class to its full extent and let each set of weapons combo with one another as well as with itself. Lower the weapon swap cooldown and increase the complexity of skill mechanics will transform the 5 keys per weapon spam into 10 keys of constant thrilling mess with strategies of when to do what (immobilize with my blade into a shot from my bow?).

Dual wielding simply doesn’t feel like dual wielding, more like “I hit you with this sword, and in 15 seconds I’ll hit you with my other one instead.” For animation, I’m by no means a tech guru, but is it possible to only see full animation of your own abilities and simplified versions of others in large encounters?

On an ending note, this thread is biased and at parts exaggerated. I just wish to generate discussion and let loose all my suppressed thoughts of an already excellent title.

I’ve read somewhere regarding legendaries update.
( Found link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/New-Legendaries-Rework )

It’s somewhat confirmed that yes we will be receiving new legendaries in the future, though no word was shed if the current ones will be updated any further.

Personally, as human male, I don’t like how Bolt shoots lightning out of my crotch and butt to the ground =p

I couldn’t agree more. While I appreciate and enjoy the new content, we are playing old builds in old ways. Key word here is play, meaning to figure something out as much as to explore. No matter how much new environments we get, the old abilities (let alone the less favored ones, for obvious reasons) will grow bland.

But save something for expansions I was told =p

The exotic level 80 Traveler’s Ceremonial Sabre, once equipped, leaves a very short (radius-wise) trail upon any attack animation. Half of that of a regular sword’s swing trail.

Pic related: http://i.imgur.com/5xEoKXi.jpg compared to http://i.imgur.com/efEAoDo.jpg

Too picky? Not when it comes to guild wars.

Should I wait till the patch is live on the 28th to complete my January monthly? (for the newly added laurels) Or will there be convertion of previously accomplished dailies/monthlies and others within reason? Or maybe non will be awarded this month.

Thanks for any info on this!

I think for s/d builds 10/30/30/0/0 is probably optimal. Same gear and damage as yours but 30 into shadow provides very high survivability (4k heal plus 2 condition removed per 4 seconds stealth from every CnD). The acrobat tree pales slightly in comparison for the purpose of killing through daze locking and autos while maintaining own hp pool to reappear out of stealth.

Aside from my opinion thanks for the cool vid and post!

OP wants to be able to flag himself as a non-pvp target in WvWvW

-To completely avoid combat, right? Maybe to do JP. JP is fun. There are lots in the Pve world. Denying some a kill when they hit you with a projectile isn’t fair though, especially in anenvironment specifically set for Pvp. You argument is out of convenience for yourself.

Or this is about class balance spearheaded at thieves?

-Many made the point above before me, but OP then drags it to class balance and advantages. Namely stealth. Is this what the post is about? If so, really, /thread and post a new one. (better yet, pick a favorite poster that articulated the same point, and give him/her your full support)

Eristina.5967:

Foehn.2489:

lvis.3824:

Eristina.5967:

The video was staged to show the bug, it’s not an actual in game footage, but thrust me it happened in paid tournament, that’s why we did research to know what was hapening.
I’ll make a resume of the video content because not everyone get it :
In a time windows of 1.5 seconds :
- 1.5 seconds is the duration of basilic venom’s stun.
- Thief is invisible (it’s ok for some class, but for necro, you can’t DS fear him and you’ll get an heartseeker with this exploit when other thief will be fear right after backstab).
- Does 4 skill in 1.5 seconds (clipping bug and haste make it possible).
- Does 17k damage to someone who has 3k1 armor.
- All this can be done using one macro, no skill required, high reward.

- Guard had no Aegis up which would have blocked at least 4k dmg
- Guard had several skills on cooldown and did not react at all, one dodge and ALL the attacks would have been avoided !
- C’n’d has a casting time, so you can see it
- if thief openes invis, he needs either his heal oder shadow refuge / blinding powder (3sec)
- if he stuns you he also used up his elite
- most likely he also used signet of shadows

so 2 utils + elite for 1 attack that can be AUTO blocked and dodged .. seems fair to me.

but thrust me it happened in paid tournament

-you should be aware of your surroundings, and your should communicate with your team to know where their thief is.

Legit answer, not trolling at all. Thief has to use elite and cast cnd to open. If first hit is blocked by aegis there goes the basilisk-poison elite. Like I said no class can bring another down in 1.5 seconds during 1v1 given equal player skills, let alone 5v5. This only happens during demonstration purposes (aka the video) or uneven player skill. Many many many decent players of all classes I’ve encountered can counter this if they know its coming. If they don’t then its usually a 2v1 ambush in which case they are helpless.

Again block-dodge-stunbreaker solves it completely. Climb the skill ladder.

Edit: I’m not necessarily saying it’s easy to counter, but given enough practice and awareness it is very much possible. Rendering the thief’s only the option is to escape and retry if not caught and killed, given how much he has to invest initially for that combo.

>> Like I said no class can bring another down in 1.5 seconds during 1v1 given equal player skills, let alone 5v5. <<
So, let’s take some examples from yesterday.
http://www.twitch.tv/ooeristina/b/351315942
Vod of paid tournament that I made yesterday.

Vs Super Squad (one of the top team in EU) :
2:52:57 we’re 2v2, one in down state in each side. Look how our thief kill the guardian in less than 1.5 (you can see that he is stun in middle air and he die before the stun duration end).
(The thief don’t use macro, only quickness and spam skill).

5:25:45 The opponent thief is far away, he shadowstep and steal (close gaps in less than half a sec).
The steal combo begin at 47 sec, purie (first player in QP in EU) is killed 1.5 sec later, I try to rez and he tries to fear, he is stomped before at 49.
The thief took 2.5 sec ~to kill and stomp.

Is it a problem of skilled player or a problem of design ? You have to do the same or you can’t stay at the top in EU (while in NA player complain about guardian …).

The real problem is that we need mesmer and thief to kill broken spec like ele tank or ranger.

I appreciate the video and your analysis of the fights are spot on. While I agree that the current meta is stuck on some specs (as with all games people tend to find the optimal) I would still like to add something.

Situation would be key. Those situations are exactly what good thief players look for, especially with the all out haste combo spec. A cooldown-blown mid-fight to quickly execute your own cooldowns and kill a weakened player. Done successfully as your video has shown.

But given that a 2v2 where folks are fighting over a point, renewed and ready, it would be best for the thief to wait for a opportunity to strike or risky failure by initiating. Against many capable escape or tanky classes the thief would most likely fail and has to forfeit point.

The name of the game is to hold points and move between them. Sure ele can RTL away and mesmer can clone and run, but it is a defeat in that sense already. Same with thief, can’t kill = lose points, therefore to maximize that killing potential wait for the key situation to occur and feel overpowered otherwise just roam elsewhere.

Not at all saying that current state is perfect, but I try to understand why it is there. Give our beloved game some time, meta will shift and adapting to each one is the fun part.

lvis.3824:

Eristina.5967:

The video was staged to show the bug, it’s not an actual in game footage, but thrust me it happened in paid tournament, that’s why we did research to know what was hapening.
I’ll make a resume of the video content because not everyone get it :
In a time windows of 1.5 seconds :
- 1.5 seconds is the duration of basilic venom’s stun.
- Thief is invisible (it’s ok for some class, but for necro, you can’t DS fear him and you’ll get an heartseeker with this exploit when other thief will be fear right after backstab).
- Does 4 skill in 1.5 seconds (clipping bug and haste make it possible).
- Does 17k damage to someone who has 3k1 armor.
- All this can be done using one macro, no skill required, high reward.

- Guard had no Aegis up which would have blocked at least 4k dmg
- Guard had several skills on cooldown and did not react at all, one dodge and ALL the attacks would have been avoided !
- C’n’d has a casting time, so you can see it
- if thief openes invis, he needs either his heal oder shadow refuge / blinding powder (3sec)
- if he stuns you he also used up his elite
- most likely he also used signet of shadows

so 2 utils + elite for 1 attack that can be AUTO blocked and dodged .. seems fair to me.

but thrust me it happened in paid tournament

-you should be aware of your surroundings, and your should communicate with your team to know where their thief is.

Legit answer, not trolling at all. Thief has to use elite and cast cnd to open. If first hit is blocked by aegis there goes the basilisk-poison elite. Like I said no class can bring another down in 1.5 seconds during 1v1 given equal player skills, let alone 5v5. This only happens during demonstration purposes (aka the video) or uneven player skill. Many many many decent players of all classes I’ve encountered can counter this if they know its coming. If they don’t then its usually a 2v1 ambush in which case they are helpless.

Again block-dodge-stunbreaker solves it completely. Climb the skill ladder.

Edit: I’m not necessarily saying it’s easy to counter, but given enough practice and awareness it is very much possible. Rendering the thief’s only the option is to escape and retry if not caught and killed, given how much he has to invest initially for that combo.

ZLE.8293:

Yes you can but if you don’t have Mug.
Also it will BS right after you Steal,so you cannot position yourself from behind.That is if you have auto-attack on.

Im sorry but I did not understand parts of the answer. So it works if I do or don’t have mug? Is it affected my toggling auto buttons?

Say, you are in stealth with C&D, is it possible to hit steal first and still get off a backstab? When I did on dummies it cancels the stealth after stealing and moves on to double strike from auto. Which is odd as I remember it working for hilt bash.

Also wondering if having mug affects it. Thanks!

That’s an entertaining way to put it my friend. It’s like saying 100b warriors hit too hard, or mesmers have too much clones and shatter too hard, or ele is too hard to catch… the list goes.

I do agree it is easy to shaft beginner players as a thief, too easy to play does fit, but the point is that: something so simple to do can also be so darn simply countered.

I don’t believe in any 1v1 situation (let alone 5v5) that a class can kill another well under 10 seconds. Unless of course for the sole purpose of demonstration or clueless beginners that remain newbs as their only tact is to rage and complain :x

XiL.4318:

The only real issue is that Thief can kill anything in 1.5 seconds with 1 button.

But the Lead Balance Dev plays a Thief and that is what he considers “balanced”.

Enjoy Thief Wars.

I understand the frustration of being defeated and analyzing takes effort. But to do that ya need full offensive traits and gear, one elite, two 40sec avg cool downs, 9 to 15 initiatives (regens at 1.33 sec per one initiative). Only left with escapes and no endurance after whether successfully killed (more likely in 8v8 mess-fest) or not.

Hardly one button.

Know your limit, play within it.

*Please don’t sue for copyright

I think OP is just over-mystifying this thief video. The game is one key one action as macros are bannable. Given that there are only so many ways to mash steal-c&d-bs-hs with quickness somewhere in there.

Aside from that posting based solely upon your own experiences while using phrases like “all the thieves…” or “just one thief…” is bad reasoning to base a point off of. The point being thieves kill too fast, obviously they do. It’s not uncounterable and it comes with weaknesses. As a thief doing such combos against any well-played guardian is no easy task. I could go into details or we could play with one another. Prolly more constructive than this.

Archonis.7249:

Well. I am just going to reiterate what I put on your YT vid, plus some.

First off, you created a situation that was a perfect storm for the Thief to pull this off. If this was actual gameplay in a SPvP match, then you have a lot more to worry about than a Theif doing this combo. What I mean by that is you were just standing there, doing nothing. Not on the point and from what I can tell you were built as a bunker Gaurdian, where you should of been. You weren’t panning your camera, so awareness wasn’t to be had. Also your camera was tight on your character. So to me, this is all a set up. Especially seeing that your combat log was the only thing open in conjunction to all of the above.

With all that being said, that this is a setup. The reason that I am so negative on this is because. You can make any situation look OP or imbalanced. You can make an Assault rifle look OP to a Tank. Let the tank just sit there not moving and unloaded with the flap to the driver open as the person with the assault rifle unloads it into the compartment.

This combo has been around for ages, as one person in this thread has said. To say that Thieves in general aren’t aware of Heartseeker is just hilarious. Why has it been nerfed so many times and so much? (Though as a Thief I do agree with the nerf, it was slightly OP and benefited too much from spamming) It was nerfed because Thieves consistently used it and had tons of outcry. Also to the individual that said Heartseeker was channeling, that ability is an instant. Not a channel, as soon as you hit 2 the animation and damage normaly happens within about .5 secs and under the influence of Haste, it would be .25 secs.

Now after that TLDR that I made. I will get to the heart of this issue. What I think happened here (talking about the combo itself) is that every ability sans the Stealth animation was affected by haste. If the Stealth animation was tied into the haste, then you would of seen the Thief completely as he Heartseekered you and got you with the Coupe de Grace that put you in the down state.

Now, even more important. That fact that you couldn’t see the Thief because of the Stealth animation running at normal speed, didn’t mean that you were going to be any less dead. You were dead as soon as you got hit with the Basilisk Venom. The haste just sped that up is all. If the Thief didn’t use haste, then you could of easily avoided that opener. I personally think that Haste is the worst ability that they have in the game to be honest. I think that the ability makes strong openers too strong and it should be removed. After all that, even with the Thief using Haste. You could of still avoided this burst opener, simply by being aware of your surroundings and play more defensively. You have to make the Thief waste his burst (as a Gaurdian it is pretty easy) and if he has Haste, he has 0 endurance and you can follow up with a burst opener on him and 99% of the time kill him.

So many people play their builds outside of their roles and don’t take the time to understand thier builds strengths and weaknesses. They see a youtube video or see someone posting a build that they are really successful with and people copy/paste it to their character and expect the build to carry them without any thought of the meta involved. Also there is a lot of players that create the uber deeps and uber tank builds and get destroyed, because they are fighting their hard counters. Those people need to learn that composition of a team and also making a balanced build is much more important in PvP. This is prevelant in all professions.

70% of the players in this game have very low skill, about 20% have moderate skill, 8% have high skill and 2% are the elite. When you listen to the 70% in terms of balance, you will have a serverly imbalanced game. I hate to sound elitist, but you never hear of the higher skilled players complaining too much about balance. You always hear it from the people that are playing at a low skill level or those new to the game and finally people that are just playing FOTM builds.

People need to take the time and learn from their mistakes and look critically at themselves before posting on the forums about this or that being OP. When I get beat. I look at what I did and then what the opponent did and see what I could of done differently to win. I check did I dodge effectively? Did I manage my initiative properly? Did I land abilities at crucial times? Is my build tight enough to help me deal with situations that I am weak against? If I am fine in all of those areas, then I come hear and constructively create a thread about it and either there is a bug or someone tips me off to something I didn’t know.

As most posts that catch momentum tend to be a harshly worded opinion piece, back and forth. Players like ya are why it is fun to be competitive. Be a shame if it were buried.

Flanking Strike is a pretty cool skill and I love the feel it adds to S/D, but in practice it fails to hit a moving target too often. Probably mostly due to the sidestep tracking. I understand that casting time is a big part of the skill balance and if the animation was sped up if would render the dodging part useless. I still hope that this could be looked into and updated (soon!), maybe with a shadowstep on the second part of the strike or a change to the horizontal movement of the dodge.

I noticed that since the Dec 3rd patch, the Incinerator’s look has been updated. Now there are magma flowing through the tubes and the points of the horn are also burning bright red.

http://i.imgur.com/uA6qp.jpg

I’m wondering if anyone else noticed changes on their legendaries. It’s pretty neat to see these updates Thanks Anet!

I am not 100% certain but since the patch today, the background of the menus (Hero menu, BLTC, etc.) look… a little displeasing. What used to be somewhat transparent (blue/brown/black?) is now a bright shade of rust with color streaks. Not to be ungrateful for new artistic update or to badmouth the design, but the color does remind me of puke slightly.

Perhaps it’s just me. Anyone else noticed the change? And does it work for you?

No the incinerator does not show footprints while stealth. I used shadow refuge in wvw at times and no one ever followed me.

I did some forum digging but most folks attribute this issue to the teleport timing or self-rooting after the teleport portion of the skill, either way the issue still persists.

After landing the first part of the shadow shot skill (with target well within range), the blind would hit but the following shadowstep dagger strike would miss more than half the time (tested on random world creatures as well as WvW players/creatures). Please make the skill hit when its suppose to otherwise D/P is not functional. Thanks!

I wondered too from their blog post – “You’ll also see more Legendary items in the future and an update to our existing Legendary weapons.”

Do they mean updates as in only the stats from exotic to ascended as mentioned, or visual/effects update as well.

I agree with the post earlier. As Thieves our steal should be more than a gap-closer/mug. I appreciate the current select of stolen abilities but I wish there were more ways I can interact with them (F1 to F4 maybe?). Otherwise feels like we are really just Assassins that has a steal.

I’m trying to understand the issue at hand.

-Fractals are fun. Play more of it and you get rewarded, akin to dungeons but with new shiny gear. Don’t like it? Go back to running dungeons for exotics, still takes time and effort. (-minor stat points)

-So why do people have issue with those players that are more dedicated to the game to receive an slight edge (mostly kitten) over the rest? In this case the gear is for PvE and WvW, do you ever hear anyone ask for a gear check?

-It’s just a sense of progression, like leveling to 80, or all the other tiers of gear, its there so you can do something in that aspect of the game. Play it for fun, not let such minimal reasons work up a storm in ya.

-They even have sPvP for complete fairness and play given to any account for free. I mean, is there any large MMO out there that gives you max level all class right off the bat with equal gear to do as you please against others?

I agree completely there needs to be fixes (MF) and other additions besides gear, but game is new and so far all the updates are exciting is has been a blast.

After playing through the fractals, simply felt the need to go on the forums and express that it is made of pure awesome. Great sense of exploration and really enjoyed the beauty of the landscape design as well as the content!

This issue still persists, with shadows on ultra when rotating the camera there are significant fps stutters. The issue did not occur until the patch before the halloween update.

Same issue with the shadows on ultra, very noticeable frame rate stutter (when turning camera) since the Oct-11-12 patch.

Does anyone know if the trait – Critical Haste (10% on crit for 2 sec quickness on 30cd)

stack with the sigil – Sigil of Rage (10% on crit for 3 sec quickness on 45cd)?

Tests on dummy in HotM points to that they do not stack, though others claim that those dummy provide inaccurate results. Need confirmation! Thanks in advance.

Server: Sorrow’s Furnace
Guild: Rendered Extremely Dangerous [RED]

I couldn’t access any of my guild upgrades (armor, bank, etc.) so I pressed on stand down hoping it would refresh, but after doing so I cannot re-represent my guild anymore as the button does nothing. Please help. Thanks in advance.

#120926-001840

Card approval failed. Tried Paypal as well and failed.
Confirmed with bank that card is functional, please assist! Thanks.