Guild Wars 2

Arctarius.2649:

Remaking the skill dust strike completely would be awesome, it is rarely ever used.

No… Just no. Dust strike is easily my second favourite staff skill by far. Fast cast time, with decent damage and a cone AOE blind.

Personally, I’m a fan of the 3>4>5>dodge combo with my staff in WvW. Leave Dust strike alone!!!!

I agree on the animations though, and with a good animation and improved mechanics, Weakening Charge could be a great staff skill.

Nope, unfortunately only part 3 of the auto-attack has reflect. Personally, I think the entire auto-attack should have reflect considering how god awfully low the DPS is on it.

Yep, sick of it. Low skill scrubs running around thinking they’re awesomesauce because they can run auto-tank faceroll builds with super easy rotations…

Unfortunately huge portions of this god awful community will claim “is balanced bruh” and the super-scrub army will join forces to prevent nerfs to their FOTM crutch build.

All while claiming thief OP

Without going into too much detail in regards to trait line comparisons like a lot of people are doing, I’ll say that I think DD is a definite upgrade to any sword or pistol related build, as DD offers great synergy with them.

However, I feel that if you were a very good D/D or D/P Thief before HoT, you can still be highly effective post-HoT without the need for DD (I’m talking pure power builds here btw, not gimmicky condi builds).

Personally I have a man crush on Staff… It’s my favourite weapon by a country mile and I can wreck face in 1v1s and even occasional 1v2/1v3s just fine running it (In WvW).

I’m about 400k mastery XP away from having my pretty Bo Staff! Woop Woop!

Want to go to LA and rally the troops without letting everyone else know? Simple solution…

Server chat

Alliances was a feature of the original Guild Wars… One that I liked a lot. I’m all for it personally.

EazyPanda.6419:

Hitsuke.5304:

I prefer Staff!

This. Ironically, good DP thieves pretty much counter staff thieves though. You can’t dodge what you can’t see after all.

Indeed. D/P Thieves are a pain in the bum but they aren’t guaranteed a win. A lot comes down to prediction of what they’re going to do. I’ve managed to catch a few out with Impairing Daggers and a few well timed Vaults. Not an easy fight at all though.

Personally I feel as though Staff is somewhat competitive in the current meta. There’s very little you can’t have a good old bust up with. It’s still nowhere near as strong as other class meta builds of course, but it is capable.

I’m having a lot of joy with my current roaming build and with the exception of the odd bunker condi spammer scrub I’m able to handle most fights without too much hassle. I certainly win more 1v1s than I lose. My experience is based on WvW so I can’t speak for sPvP personally.

Great survivability & good (but not top end) damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn8lCdmilOBGOBkmiFqiyLE+gSornCggcO73+yH-TVCBQBBc/h0oEUCXAAvoEDAPBA9pLILKPYwhAQhq/EAAB4m3MbezAH9oH9oH9odzbe0be0bWKAB1ZB-w

Zaerah.1630:

So your crusade for justifying rifle thief continues.

The first point is still a real problem, no matter how hard you try to downplay it.

I agree with the OP on this point… I don’t see how it would be a “real problem” at all. All they would have to do is give the Rifle ZERO mobility options, so you would be forced to take SB as your secondary for genuine mobility, leaving you vulnerable to melee. You could take D/P as secondary, but you’d still be lacking in mobility.

Nope, there’s no solid reason why a 1200 ranged weapon shouldn’t be an option for Thief.

I prefer Staff!

Iohanna.4863:

Anymoify.8132:

U will never win a mid fight.

Why is that necessary for winning the match?

Because the Hipsters say so… They used to fight at mid before it was mainstream.

Rifle on thief would mean that ANet have to give us a 1200+ range weapon, and they obviously feel that would be somehow unfair… Because… Stuff

It doesn’t bother me during non-peak hours when there’s literally 5 people on the map as it’s not exactly doing any harm then. However during peak times when the map is busy they should do one to Obsidian Sanctum like others have said.

Frankly I get sick of complete clown shoes whining because you interrupted their “Duel” which they decided to partake in slap bang outside a keep or tower… Sorry, but the red guy is getting minced and you are getting chewed out for being a complete moron.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

Dagger storm and aa stage 3 on staff reflects. The new heal is pretty cool and withdraw is (would be if was 10% more healing like anet said)

Out side of s/d, bountiful theft is only good for burst, I mean the amount of eles I have killed or help kill by stripping protection of them is a lot. But yeah, the rest sums up thief alright lol

Agreed, the new heal is one of the best in game imho. It’s pretty fast and should you have full End you’ll be getting a near 8k heal on a short CD… It’s sweet. It would be nice if all staff 1 animations had reflect though, we would be like Jedi reflecting rapid shot back in the face of Rangers lol (I’m asking too much I know)

Yes… He looks extra-ordinarily awesome!

Inspired in some part by Kilik from Soul Calibur.

luzt.7692:

15% dmg increase on Heartseeker isn’t even that much, you act like its 150% dmg increase. Are you heartseeking for 10k everytime or something?
Auto-attack is almost as strong as heartseeking above 50%
I’m only heartseeking around 5k at the golem below 25%
15% increase would be a wooping 750 dmg extra

Too OP!!

“I’m only heartseeking around 5k at the golem below 25%”

Only… Considering that most targets are below 50% HP after a well executed Backstab, Heartseeker is already more than fine as it is now. It’s a spammable skill with a fast execution time that hits like a truck, it also has its “homing” effect and ground targeting isn’t needed… And it’s not even a D/D Thiefs primary source of damage! Heartseeker doesn’t need buffs and anyone who thinks even a 15% dmg buff is fine, is a complete moron.

There isn’t a single skill on the D/D set that needs a damage buff. The only change that’s considerable is adding blind to C&D. It’s the traitlines that need changing to get D/D competitive again.

And yes… We all know True Shot is broken as sin. ANet <3 their Guards & Messies though don’t they.

Edit: Sorry if I come across as douchy, but I’m just sick of hearing people whine about Vault. I’m assuming were all loyal Thieves here so I find it bemusing how anyone could want to see a skill of ours potentially nerfed (I’ve actually seen other thieves suggest as much through jealousy). D/D itself is a great weapon set, it’s just a shame they have screwed the trait lines over that much that its become a pale imitation of its former self… They could rollback Thief to what it once was and it still wouldn’t be as strong as some of the current meta builds on other classes. That’s how far behind we’ve been left.

Love this… Pre-HoT I never used to see anyone complain about Backstab, yet now we have a skill that actually competes with it for damage (Even though Vault still hits with less oomph) you’re all on here whining.

Does Backstab still hit like a truck? Yes
Is it still exceptionally hard to avoid? Yes
Does it chain well with other skills? Yes

Frankly, some of the suggestions on show here are absolutely idiotic. Especially the ones on offer from alchemyst… I’d have to ask if he’s on hard drugs. 4k DBs? Heartseeker 15% dmg boost? Put the pipe down, seriously.

C&D gaining a blind effect is fine and is something I advocate, but that would be it.

Nevermind improving the class with buffs etc… More of this IE Bug fixes and small quality of life improvements would be a huge start in getting people back onto the class.

10% Withdraw missing – Cmon ANet, this is long overdue and isn’t exactly world changing so why are we still waiting? Please just get it done…

FS cooldown with Trickster – Again, this is small overall, but would make a huge difference for a lot of people…

Just two examples of relatively small bug fixes that would make a huge difference to a lot of players, and would go some way to restoring some faith!

Impact.2780:

It’s nice that thief can pump out decent AoE damage. But the way it was given is bad. Spam one skill over and over, that does more damage than other skills that are single target, require positioning, are not evades, and require setting up to use? The risk vs. reward is unbalanced there, drastically.

You say with vault nerfed staff would be worthless? Well that’s a problem with staff as a whole, not one skill. One unbalanced or even broken aspect should not justify unbalancing or breaking something else. I hold the same opinion for true shot as well. Pierces up to 3 targets, 4s cool down, hits higher than back stab, 1.2k range. Unbalanced.

And for the poxy record, I have no trouble with staff thieves as D/P. There’s a frame during vault where they can be hit, and if 1v1, I just stealth a couple of times and wait while they blow everything trying to hit me and not get hit themselves, then attack when they’re low on resources, and usually right after stealth wears off so I don’t get reveal.

So you admit that without Vault being strong, that staff would be worthless!?!? So how would increasing the ini cost or lowering the damage help in any way at all? All it would do is give the thief yet ANOTHER redundant weapon set. The weapon probably does need a balance pass with some animations being cleaned up (after animations and an evade frame added to S2) and the damage being spread out a bit amongst the skills.

I’m just baffled by the entire stupid concept of nerfing yet another thief skill because dagger users want Backstab to be the creme de la creme of thief damage skills…

MithranArkanere.8957:

BFMV.3198:

Thief was meant to be a shadow class, get in, get out high damage.
Lets bring that back with a starting change by having backstab hit a lot harder.

But daredevil is meant to jump around and evade a lot. Less stealth, more evade, less Shadow Arts, more Acrobatics.

I do think staff 5 does a bit too much damage, though, even if it’s much easier to avoid, it has quite the range, and it can be used quite more than it can be evaded, specially paired with additional sources of initiative gain. Not to mention it’s an evade itself.

Maybe its cost should be increased to 6 or 7.

We would not have these annoyances if weapon recharge had not been take out of the picture for thief weapons. If it simply had a very short recharge, something like 5seconds, Vault would be perfectly fine.

Why? Why should the ini cost be increased? It is quite literally the ONLY decent hitting skill on the Staff. If you want Vault to be nerfed then they can kitten well nerf Heartseeker again then right? I mean why should the D/D or D/P sets get TWO high damaging skills when the Staff only has one… /sarc

Nerf Vault in any way, shape or form and it will make staff COMPLETELY worthless and it’s just about passable as things stand now lol.

It seems to me as though there’s quite a few kitten D/D & D/P thieves on this thread who came up against a Staff thief and got smacked around a bit, then came here to whine. Can’t you scrubs just be happy that we have something that’s finally half decent on one of our weapon sets?

Seriously…

It’s yet another staff with an uneven balance as the staff head is much larger. It would be pretty poor for a staff thief thematically. There’s literally 3 or 4 staff skins atm that fit the battlestaff/Bo theme.

EvilSardine.9635:

Vault needs a nerf and backstab might need a buff.

Vault is not “hard to land” and being able to spam 10k AOE damage back to back is a bit much especially since it requires ZERO setup compared to backstab.

Posts like this one expose some real hypocrites in this thread. I have to laugh when D/D or D/P Thieves call Staff Thieves spammers…

Average D/D rotation: Steal+CnD > Backstab > Heartseeker > Heartseeker > Heartseeker and repeat until enemy is dead or you run out of ini. D/P can’t spam HS quite as much but you still see it.

It’s laughable when you see people talking about nerfing thief skills while there’s Reapers running around doing 15k hits every 2 seconds and DH’s with their OTT bow & trap combos… Give your heads a wobble, seriously.

Ananeos.4587:

It’s Superior Rune of the Earth. It’s been bugged for over a month. Don’t worry about it too much, the over inflated price is because of the novelty of having no text on your rune.

Nah it’s ok. Thanks for finally letting me know the name of em… it’s been annoying me to no end not knowing what they were.

This is it. Is it a localized thing for me? I honestly dunno…

Does anyone know anything about it? Has anything been datamined? If anyone knows any info about them it would be greatly appreciated, as I’ve searched near enough everywhere for some kind of definitive answer.

I’m just too good… Bow down mere mortals.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZEQJAWVn0MBFmilOBGOBkmiFfCzrJUFiCbBgXzZaOAmAjgA-TBCBQBaR53B3fACXQg0oEEAPpA9prhBHCBFq+TAAEgduz05OTn7cn78QH6QH6QHa7cnDdnDdnlCIidWA-e

Oh dear… Oh dear, oh dear. The only thing I would even consider being a legit buff for BS would be a 10-15% damage increase at the very most. I mean hey, why don’t you ask them to reduce the ini requirement for heartseeker too, so all you HS spamming pro’s can look godlike again…

I do agree to an extent OP. People talking about utility skills are kind of missing the point. Near enough all the other classes have grabbed themselves some seriously OP stuff… We get three dodges, a decent new weapon and a few decent utility skills.

DH got ohhh peee traps, Reapers got 10k autoattacks, Chronomancers got demi-god style invincibility, Warriors got an Elite that gives them tonnes of great new damage build options… I could go on.

We get to dodge a bit more >.<

messiah.1908:

atm its just weakness which reduce dmg by 50% when attack is negated. also cannot crit

That’s Weakness itself. The tooltip does say “Weakened enemies deal less damage to you” rather than “Weakened enemies deal less damage to you 50% of the time”.

It does indeed imply that the trait lowers enemy damage in general while they’re under the effects of Weakness.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I accept the fact that Thief is horrible in 1v1 due to a lot of weaknesses, thus I will not build to win a 1v1 rather I would build a DPS and find myself a Druid partner and win a 2v2 instead. Many players are still in denial and still trying to make 1v1 work, thus the source of a lot of complaints.

To be honest, I’ve been making Staff work pretty kitten well in WvW. I’ve won more 1v1s than lost, against Scrappers, Druids, Zerkers, Tempests and their elite-less brethren. I’ve had a few stalemates here and there and had a few Chronos bail from fights. The only classes I’ve had any real trouble with are D/P Thieves, Reapers, Dragon Hunters & Revs… They give a really stiff challenge to a DD Staff wielder. You’d be surprised how stupid casters can be when they’re hitting a long cast skill while you vault them a couple of times and take 15k HP off them!

I’ll post my build when I get a chance.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Hitsuke.5304:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Nocta.5274:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I have one question:

What did you do to counter conditions BEFORE Escapist Absolution?

I think you’re relying on EA too much.

We used Shadow Arts.

Then if what the OP said is to be believed that DD has a flaw that can be exploited, then why choose a trait line with such flaw and not use SA?

If the OP is using staff (which I’m assuming he is) then it doesn’t take a theoretical physicist to work out why SA is useless.

That’s a trade-off, not a flaw. And if condition damage really is a problem, then perhaps Staff and DD are not good choices for the meta. It’s a high condition damage meta and you choose a build that has little or no way to deal with condition — and nobody see anything wrong with that?

I wouldn’t call it a trade off personally. A trade off is when you chose more damage over condi cleanse, dropping SA is a no brainer as Staff has zero stealth options. So it’s more or less a necessity, and all you are gaining is a different playstyle (over D/D or D/P).

I do agree to an extent that complaints about condi-cleanse are a bit silly when you can trait trickster and run withdraw. Cleansing two conditions every 14 seconds is easy using withdraw combined with EA.

The only time a trade off comes into the equation is when you have to choose between Trickster & Bountiful thieft… Choosing boon strips and the DD synergising vigor you get from it or going with Trickster/withdraw for low CD condi cleanse.

If ANet actually bothered their kitten s and added that all elusive 10% to Withdraw it would be a no brainer.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Nocta.5274:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I have one question:

What did you do to counter conditions BEFORE Escapist Absolution?

I think you’re relying on EA too much.

We used Shadow Arts.

Then if what the OP said is to be believed that DD has a flaw that can be exploited, then why choose a trait line with such flaw and not use SA?

If the OP is using staff (which I’m assuming he is) then it doesn’t take a theoretical physicist to work out why SA is useless.

Serious Thought.5394:

thank the anet gods for putting 60%-80% of Thief class power budget into a single skill.

I’m assuming you’re referring to BS. Try Vault… I’ve hit for 10k against light classes in WvW, it can be extremely lethal!

Exciton.8942:

Last but not least, mesmer/chronomancer is at a very balanced state in PvP. Stop crying for nerfs due to some of your pathetic WvW observation.

Ha… Hahahahaha. You were talking some sense until this statement. Spoken like a true bad who’s become reliant on the overtuned Mesmer to get by in a PvP environment.

Mesmer in general is the most overtuned class in the game. Chronomancer has taken that up to 11 on the dial.

dkayl.6509:

i see this in another topic and i think is a good idea:

Thief:
->Shadow refuge: Add protection on activation and pulse blindness on shadow refuge (1 second pulse) increase healing to 3000.
->Pistol skill headshot: add knockdown duration 1 second

Protection and pulse blindness? lolnope. That would be ridiculous to be honest. All SR needs is the addition of stability for the duration of the field… That is literally all I’d change with it.

As for KD with headshot? Again lolnope… I’ts fine as it is.

I like it in WvW at least, which is some measure as to what it’s like in a PvP scenario. Sure, it lacks CC, but it has some other great utility. All 5 skills offer great mobility and utility and you can tie an opponent in knots. If you spec into high endurance regen through food and vigor you can dodge like crazy, and I’ve just made a Druid & DH angry by humiliating them in a 2v1 outside Mendons. So angry that they group invited me and offered me a 2v1 rematch lol.

Had some VERY good duels on EB with Scrappers, D/P thieves, Mesmers and Guardians… all without stealthing every 5 seconds. It just feels very agile and is great fun to play imho.

Reminds me of playing this guy on Soul Calibur!

They are simply a must for D/D builds now imho. You can now go back to the days of gearing less precision for extra tough/vit without needing to use Hidden Killer… D/D Thieves can now choose between Invigorating precision or No Quarter for bigger backstabs than they were getting before. Or they can even scrap the entire Crit Strikes line completely without sacrificing that 100% crit chance backstab.

Personally I’m running scrapper runes on my Staff/SD Thief. Scrapper runes + Unhindered Combatant Damage reduc + Weakening strikes/Weakening Charge and toughness from a few gear pieces mean I’m taking a LOT less damage. They’re nice!

I don’t think a lot of people have got onto how much DD runes have changed the landscape for thieves yet… Especially builds based around backstab.

Here’s what I would change due to the fact that you’re running a very offensive gear setup.

Hard to catch > Swindler’s equilibrium – You need more CC cleanse, it’s that simple. You are super squishy, so even 1 second locked down could see you dead. Plus the 100% endurance refill is beautiful in terms of synergy with DD. Have 3 all three bars of endurance back? Yes please!

Unhindered Combatant > Bounding Dodger – Same reason as above. Bear in mind, that you are choosing not to run shadowstep, so you need as much mobility & CC cleanse as possible. Infiltrator’s strike is not enough on its own.

Don’t Stop > Upper hand – Exactly the same reason again. S/P & your utility options lack stealth up ability, so mobility and the inability to lock you down are vital to your survival.

Shadow Step > Scorpion wire – Another stun break and escape mechanism? It goes hand in hand with any sword based thief build imho. You need as much mobility as possible.

Vigorous recovery > Pain response – Withdraw is on a very short CD due to you traiting trickster, so 7 seconds of vigor every 14 seconds is beautiful, especially considering it has 50% boosted effectiveness due to Endless stamina. More vigor = more dodges = more survivability & damage (If you switch to DD runes).

Escapists absolution > Impacting disruption – This trait gives withdraw the ability to cleanse TWO CONDITIONS every 14 seconds… and that’s not even taking into account the ability to cleanse a condition ONCE EVERY SECOND via evading.

You need high condi cleanse, high CC cleanse and high mobility if you’re going to run S/P with a full zerker setup. This trait setup & Utility setup will give you that. I’d keep the sigils of energy on your weapons and switch your runes to either DD runes for that extra critting after dodge OR Runes of Vampirism for the extra heals & escape option if you hit 20% HP.

It’d look something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQRAsa8an0MBlOhFmCGPBkmiFqiyLEShSoLCCggcu67+yH-TFSEABAcQA6Z/hBOBAIq+jWKBXS5Hb6Hc4JAEAABYn1ZdWnBH9oH9oH9otzde0de0dWKABVGB-w

I agree simply with the “untelegraphed” part. BIG hits should always have a tell, so people with low HP pools can have some kind of chance to react. Even if it’s a second or two warning… some kind of indication should be there.

The big hits should stay though, it adds an element of challenge that any game needs.

Rangers can fill an important role in zerg fights, there’s no debating it. However, you need good situational awareness and you need to position well. A complete muppet running on Ranger can be as ineffective as a chocolate fire guard.

My two main objectives during zerg fights are:
1. Pressuring the enemy back line.
2. Protecting my back line.

We offer good, long range, single target DPS on a short CD. Ideally you should be keeping an eye out for those back liners who push too far forward on the flanks. You should be keeping an eye out for downed players, and you should be keeping a close eye out for thieves who decide they want to try ganking some of your back liners.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes all you can do is find a mass of bodies and spam Barrage & RF, because there’s no targets of opportunity in range. However… if that’s all you do constantly during zerg fights, then you are doing nothing but reinforce peoples opinion that Rangers are mindless 2 spammers.

Personally I think they need to offer a WvW equivalent of mist essences so we can craft ascended back items etc. I’m hoping this is it to be honest… It would be about time!

Only a WvW player will actively check wvwintel.com while he’s out for the day, in order to see how their server is getting on.

Only a WvW player truly knows how broken and unbalanced this game is.

Don’t worry, it’s not solely restricted to your server. We’ve been facing Augory Rock and Drakkar Lake this week (Aurora Glade) and AR is rife with teleporters & speed hackers. We’ve even seen a few from Drakkar as well.

This isn’t merely a case of one or two people seeing them either, there’s been 20 to 30 of us on Teamspeak laughing at them as they speed past us like Usain Bolt on amphetamine.

It’s getting ridiculous now tbh

Orpheal.8263:

• Condition Duration needs to get massively reduced for all condition skills of the whole Game. Condition Duration needs to become an overall attribute, into which Condition Players need to invest Attribute Points into to raise their overall Condition DPS. Condition players finally need to have to use more than just 1 single Attribute to maximize their DPS. They should need to have to use 3 Attibutes like Direct Damage Builds too.

This ^ So much this ^

Dire gear is a prime example of how broken condi is. You get to maximise condi damage while having ridiculous amounts of tough & Vit. There is literally no need to compromise on anything, you get the best of both worlds. Condition Duration + food should be removed and have Condi Duration added as an actual armour stat.

You raised some other good points, but this is the one I emphatically agree with.

Diku.2546:

As a solo camp capper…this would allow me to continue to play WvW with purpose.

This is the problem with the current camps imho. You SHOULD NOT be able to flip a fully upgraded camp that also has dredge, ogres or hyleks defending it like you can currently. It’s not even hard to do to be honest, and with supply being such an important resource in WvW that is just plain stupid.

Personally I’d upgrade the main camp guard to a Champion and increase the number of guards by five. Then it would at least take 3-5 people to clear it out within a reasonable amount of time.

Soloing maxed camps in under 2 minutes is silly

I’ve gotten into the habit of having eagle eyes for swords on camps. Far too many people fail to recognise the importance of keeping hold of them.

“Oh were running low on supps at Garri… who cares if a guy flips a fully upgraded camp”

Lazy.

I agree on camps. Even with Hyleks or Ogres added to a fully upgraded camp on EB, it’s still far too easy for two guys to flip inside of a minute. I’ve even seen PU condi mesmers & the odd thief flip fully upgraded (with Hyleks) camps on EB solo.

They need to turn the Veteran Guild dude into an Elite or Champion.

LtW is a generally more useful trait in anything other than a 1v1 imho (We’re talking WvW here). The ability to rapid fire into an enemy stack, doing 8-10k damage to 5 targets can’t be downplayed. If you position yourself well, the damage you deal out through piercing far outweighs the benefits that remorseless brings, especially when you take the 20% CD reduction into account as well.

I commented about this on TS the other week while capping SM. The exact thing you mentioned happened and I actually asked there and then if there was some new way to strip EP.

Puck.9612:

Who the heck wants to be a sea bass?

Is it an ill tempered sea bass?