Guild Wars 2

I never used runes like other people in my armor. For the 6 pieces of armor I used “Ruby Orb” because I got the ferocity.

Ruby Orb
Power = +120
Precision = +84
Ferocity = +84
Minotaur Steak
Precision = +60 Ferocity = +50
Superior Sharpening Stone
Power = 6% of Toughness
Power = 4% of Vitality.
Assassin’s Signet
Signet of Agility

Side note. I also traited Deadly Arts to Executioner for the +20% Damage if opponent under 50% health. Major pew pew. In a blob fight, I always cycled to start with someone near 50% health to make sure I got the additional damage.

It’s been a while since I ran the build, but it was deadly. I once jumped in-between 5 stacked enemies and downed 3 in as many seconds with dagger storm.

“Edit” What is really funny, is this is the build I figured out how to solo the eye of zhaitan with. All done with shortbow. So easy to be mush if you get hit, but you melt anyone you hit.

Kusa.6438:

Same with Mesmer, the condition cleanse on Mesmer sucks.

Maybe they need to use it properly.

I play condi thief. My condi removal is just 1 condi when i use withdraw.

When i burst, i will put poison, bleed, and torment in someone. If a mesmer were to use arcane thievery, they could send them all back to me. But they don’t, so i kill them all the time. Their problem. So i would not say their skills suck. The condi removal skills just need to be used.

My post is based upon wvw damage when i was full glass.

No, not lowest ranged damage. Before i changed my spec i was critting 80%plus for up to 3500 damage with just my auto attack. The auto attack also hits up to 3 people. If you get 3 crits ( and with my crit chance it happened a lot) that is like 10500 damage in one auto attack. Some mitigating factors may change it a little, but overall damage is decent.

N/m. not a bug. Just some ridiculous anti thief ability I had not seen before. Sic’ Em.

N/m. not a bug. Just some ridiculous anti thief ability I had not seen before. Sic’ Em.

In WvW.

I am plainly visible and not even attempting stealth, but in about 15 minutes time (going by my food buff timer) I have gotten in 3 fights with rangers. 2 of them put me into a revealed state while I Was fully visible and had not used any skill for stealth.

Joy for anyone in WvW, because this will be abused and anet will do nothing about it for months.

Not sure the skill being used but rangers are putting me into a reveal state when I have not even attempted any stealth and am fully visible.

This another deliberate way to screw’ thieves over? Rangers can spec more stealth, mesmers can spec more stealth, even engineers can stealth.

All the reveals that exist are used easily and almost exclusively on thieves. So being put into a reveal state when I am already visible is f’ing ridiculous.

DeWolfe.2174:

So when is a condi nerf coming? Seriously, was just hit with 2.5k confusion ticks from a one Mesmer skill. 4.6k Burns from one Engi skill. One skill did 18k worth of condition damage by the time it wore off. Give me flipping break dev’s, how is that supposed to be “fun” to play against? It’s been several weeks now and no balancing fixes for this.

Dev’s how about you come into WvW and play instead of ignoring the game modes balancing?

You do realize that direct dps classes can double that amount of damage?

Backstab thieves. If I were to go back to being a backstab thief, I could get you with 22k damage in 6 seconds. 8 seconds if you use an evasive move. No condition damage can do the same.

I probably do about 2k per tick (condi burst) for 8 seconds on a 25 second rotation, dropping down to 1k per tick for the remainder.

So in 8 seconds I will do average 16k damage, while in a matter of 3-4 seconds, a glass thief will hit me for 16k tops. Their burst is based upon reveal, while mine is based upon time. In 8 seconds, they have the potential to do 32k damage.

I have had a Mesmer do almost the same damage and their damage burst is based upon clones. With my Mesmer I will use mimic just so I can get 2 full shatters in as fast as possible. In the same amount of time it takes me to do 16k Condi Damage, my Mesmer will do 20k plus.

Odds are they will never reach their full damage potential, but the fact remains, glass can do, per second, up to double the damage a full condi build can do.

ALSO… you can evade/blind/interrupt to lessen my damage as well as “CONDI CLEAR”. One condi clear removes a full stack of damage and lessens the condi damage greatly.

If I sneak attack, it puts 636 bleed per tick for 5.5 seconds. If you use a condi clear it does 636 damage in total. Not much damage is it? All of my condition appliers are subject to this.

There is nothing “special” like a condi clear that I have which will lower direct damage in such a way.

So in reality. Condition damage is underpowered, but because people refuse to spec to fight it, they take full condition damage. Your fault if you refuse to use a condi skill.

Serious folks. Since the beginning, Anet has made wvw a backburner task… meaning… they don’t care so much about us.

This golem week proved it more so, when we complained, they ignored. Even ignored the golem buff bug.

THEY IGNORED THE FACT THAT EXPLOITERS WERE RUINING THE GAME PLAY OF THOSE WHO DO NOT EXPLOIT. I should not have had to type that in caps, but everyone is forgetting so fast.

They still haven’t banned the blacktide hacker, even though they have gotten real time information and should have been able to stop that fellow from ruinging people’s game play.

NOW, they say they are going to make changes to populations, BUT, no change to transfer costs.

Seriously folks. Man up. Anet has ignored wvw almost exclusively for three years, made no real attempts to balance population balances, and forced us to pay for transfers out of our own pockets to try and improve our chances to have fun in the game.

For F sakes guys. This is so maddening. They milk wvw players more then anyone else (we are the only ones who pay for transfers), and even though the responsibility is for them to make the wvw balanced and us somewhat happy, they still want us to keep paying for extremely late changes.

You actually think, that after so long, they are going to get something right? Won’t happen. it is all about draining the sheep of money.

And again. This one of the reasons anet has no integrity and why I am not buyuing the expansion. I’m going to play for free because I would not pay for this drivel.

You guys purchase if you like.

Buy one for me as well.
The lack of communication and integrity fron anet is the reason.

Ok, so I read in a different post where someone said that WvW’rs do not buy gems where pve did.

For the record. I bought the game only for WvW = Cash Dispense #1

I started in Dr but made transfers all via gem purchases.
Dr to (can’t recall second server name) = Cash Dispense #2

Transfer from second server to SBI = Cash Dispense #3
Transfer from SBI back to Dr = Cash Dispense #4
Transfer from Dr to HoD = Cash Dispense #5

In support of the game I was willing to purchase gems for quite a few additions to baggage slots for my inventory.
In support of the game I was willing to purchase gems for some of the outfits.
In support of the game I was willing to purchase gems to increase my bank slots.
In support of the game I purchased gems in order to increase my ability to store collectibles to the max of 1500.

So Anet can say that some pve players do the same and there are more of them.

Question to you…. how many PvE players pay to transfer servers just to find decent WvW? BIG BLOODY ZERO. They don’t have to because Anet made the mega servers so all you pve people can have easier lives.

HEY ANET grab some brains. When you look at the amount of gems purchased per group (pve vs wvw) WvW, per person is actually giving you more money then pve per person. I know people who have purchased gems to do as many or more transfers for WvW. No pve person has done anything of the sort.

So how is this fair? WvW GETS HAS THE WORST ABILITY TO MAKE MONEY, YET WE ARE THE ONES SPENDING MORE ACTUAL CASH PER PERSON TO TRY AND FIND BETTER WvW solutions WHEN Pve has no such issue.

I would really love to see the numbers of WvW gem purchase per person in relation to gem purchase per person to pve.

Long story short. Anet has given so little to WvW, yet they take more per person from us. Good bloody job.

We get it and actually understand it.

The players who abuse it have deliberately made the choice to ruin the enjoyment of the game for other people. It is the same childish act a spoiled child does.

Each person has a limited amount of time to play the game doing what they find most enjoyable. The moment some idiot takes that away for some childish amusement that idiot should be banned. If not, then anet, via silence, says it is ok for people to be kittens.

Random.4691:

Is it a bug ?

We have not been informed it’s a bug, as far as we know it’s part of the event to bring those that can’t afford Golems on par with those that can afford them.

Show me where Anet has stated that this is a bug.

This is the stupid logic of people who abuse the system.

Question for you. Where does it say anet has to respond to is on anything at any time?

I do a lot of trolling, both in game and forums. It’s fun, and I know a lot of other people do it as well. This golem crap still going on is not fun, not smart, and an example of how anet has no integrity nor ability to promote customer satisfaction.

First. What is integrity? From Google Search “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.”

Anet has shown itself to be the opposite.

Let me explain. And The Guys and Gals who work in the service industry know this information all to well.

1) Aside from all things, this game belongs to an industry that provides a service. There may be a difference of definitions of what sort of service players are looking for, but it is always a service.

2) To provide a proper service to the customers, there has to be something called customer service. Customer service is (definition from wiki)“is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase”

Some of us have actually not only purchased the game, but supported it via gem purchases. So by rights, we expect and deserve a level of customer support, for not only us but everyone.

3) We know you want to bring more pve people into wvw. Guess what… The people you need to ask how to do it are those who actually play the game. Not some less then average IQ person who works for you and who has no idea what people want.

So let’s ask Anet. What is the exact customer service you are offering your player WvW player base?

The game is free? NO Not to many of us who were supporting it via gem purchases. I know one fellow who quit already who purchased enough gems for his 4 legendaries.

The game listens to the WvW players? NO The forums are full of people who hate the golem week. The game listens to some idiot who has no clue on what wvw players want and what customer service actually is.

The game supports the WvW player base? NO I do not cheat. I do not hack. I do not use any exploit what so ever; yet I see photos and videos of people who do cheat/hack/exploit and have not been banned. Example…. that video on youtube of people duplicating golems. Have they been banned yet? The game supports the cheating/hacking/exploiting player base more then the honest players. How do I know this? Because those who abuse the system are allowed to keep on abusing the system over and over and over and over and over. Get the picture.

Anet.. word of advice. Being silent and waiting for everything to go away is the stupidest thing. Anyone advocating this should be fired on the spot. You may throw in something exciting and people may be distracted for a moment BUT no-one ever forgets the wrong you do. It may sit silent, but the next time you do something this stupid, it will come out again, and the negative attitudes towards you folks will be stronger each time.

You want to bring people into WvW? Guess what. A lot of people do not want anything to do with WvW. However, if you add tokens with camp/tower/keep victories you might get some trying it out. Try something like that, where it benefits their pve goals. Not by ruining the game play of the majority of actual WvW players.

I for one, as someone who only wants WvW will never forget your insult and lack of consideration to those of us who play WvW even with the worst economic valued loot in the game.

Cool thing… I wont buy your expansion. From what I reaed, your new bl is useless to actual WvW players.

You can let the cheaters play, the hackers hack, exploiters exploit. Let them pay for your “kitten” game while I use my money for things I like to do. I just hope you lose more people. The abusers though… they like your silence and your support for them.

I mowed my lawns. Did some grass re-seeding. Ate healthier and exercised more with all this spare time.

I even “Gasp” had a conversation with my wife.

I play only for WvW. I hate pve but have to do it to fund wvw.

Just a piece of advice. If you try to force people to play a type of wvw they don’t like…. those negative feelings will spread into wvw as a whole. It is common sense.

I know i am not the only one who is thinking of quitting right out and you are making it very easy.

Choice 1) play wvw when i don’t like it.
Choice 2) do something i like.

Only an idiot goes on camera and says people don’t just wvw when it is that idiot who is forcing people to pve. Maybe give better rewards in wvw.

Ahhh. You guys amuse me so much.
I haven’t played from start, but more then 2 years as a thief.

What I find the most amusing, is I am asking for a change to make a build “I Used to Play” become more balanced, yet people think I m complaining for my own sake.

Learn to read and learn to identify what is actually being said.

Here is this posting line in a nutshell.

Me ==> I can do things that are unfair to most other wvw classes. Can we change it so non thieves can have a fighting chance.
You Folks ==> No don’t. (good job at arguing).
Me ==> I stopped playing the build because it is far too powerful and I would rather risk losing a fight then ruin someone’s fun.
You Folks ==> rabble rabble rabble, you are wrong we are right.
Me ==> I actually posted conservative damages and how I used the build to destroy anyone I fought.
You Folks ==> We have no facts but you are wrong and we are right.

Seriously now. At one point my crit was over 80%. I was killing people just by using “shadow shot” to teleport to them and blind, dagger strike. I recall one poor fellow, a ranger dead in 3 hits, and with the use of blind he was lucky to hit me once.

Or, Shadow shot/ dagger strike/blind weapon swap to d/d. Cloak and dagger then basilisk venom. Backstab then 2 auto attack and death for my opponent. If he happened to have an escape ability, all I did was use steal to get back into melee range.

I used withdraw as a heal. So if my target hit me a good shot, I’d withdraw, then either steal back or use shadow shot (depending if I had weapon swapped yet).

So question. Who is most likely to be telling the truth? The person who says he changed his wvw build because it was far too powerful, or those who say it is fine?

I’ll happily say I’ve been the best thief on every bl I have played on. However, with all your arguing, the only conclusion to be had is I am just so much better at thief then you all, that my tactics are beyond your understanding of reality. There is no other logical conclusion to your fact-less denials. I wish I had the time to train you all the leet skill set for thief.

Oh well. I’ll go mess with people in game. If I win the lottery I’ll run a thief 101 class for you all. You all made a logical post too long for anet to read. So nice work at hiding the truth.

Toodles

TJgalon.5012:

Except a new map and a bunch of new updates are coming soon. They are being worked on, and released when ever. For now we get a fun event for the week.

I like to run around while not being in a golem as do many many others. So explain to us how this event is fun?

Cyninja.2954:

I main mesmer, so I sure have no love for thiefs, but you might want to let anet add in elite specialisations first and let things settle down.

Thiefs are good at the things they do, which is pick fights on their own terms and punish all damage setups that are unprepaired.

Going by your posting history you’ve taken a substancial break from the game only to come back and complain about others not playing the way you want.

Stealth has already been hit with the nerfbat in the past by disallowing restealth for a period of time if used offensively. Gutting the mechanic even more would leave thief in a very bad spot.

I’ve never taken a break. I’ve only moved from a build (like the one I am talking about) to a build where my opponent has a fair chance.

Thieves don’t need to go through a reveal stage. Like something I did before changing builds.

Initial run black powder/heartseeker into stealth plus Basilisk venom so the enemy cannot go through his defensive moves right away.
—-Backstab of 9k (I’ve been hit with 11k but that is extremely rare)
—-I have now done 9k plus 6k for a total of 14k damage.

Because I have used the 2 attacks of basilisk venom, my opponent has been hit with 2 seconds of stun, which means I can actually have a reveal stage where the enemy can hit me of only 2 seconds. Dodge roll dodge roll, black powder/ heartseeker into stealth.

The enemy heal will not cover my huge damage against him.
I wait till the stealth drops then do another cloak and dagger. Up to 5k damage. This time though, I have my devourer venom on. So it goes C&D, imob, backstab, Imob, auto attack imob.

If he doesn’t die and tries to flee, my steal is still up, so I can do the C&D/steal/backstab combo right away.

Very low risk for me and death for my enemy. Easy as pie rotations and takes little skill.

Vieux P.1238:

I said it before. Make thief players, better players. there! f

I like this. Make them better players. Let the op builds work a little instead of the low risk high rewards.

Draknar.5748:

Haze.9075:

So you would like to kill the only meta-viable thief available because you had someone backstab you for “INSANE” amounts of damage?

Please, reconsider your post after playing a thief extensively for yourself. Why do you think all thieves you see are rabbit holed into using remove condi on stealth? Why do you think it’s okay to not be able to kill a diamond ele but you deserve the right to remove the only survival option for thieves? Is this a game of morals? are thieves supposed to do ‘good deeds’ and not stealth as much?

I have no idea what your point is on this topic. Please don’t take out your frustrations on a forum post saying ‘nerf xyz, I can’t deal with it’.

I’d re-read his post, he clearly states he has no problem with the burst damage, but rather the ability for them to be able to do giant burst damage in addition to their godmode stealth healing/condi removal.

I don’t care either way about the burst, in my mind thieves are assassins. If you are wandering around in WvW alone, you open yourself up to being “assassinated”. That’s their entire play-style.

What I personally dislike about the build OP is talking about is that it removes the risk vs. reward. You wanna do devastating burst damage? No problem, but if you fail for whatever reason you should pretty much be SOL, or at least at an extreme disadvantage. You shouldn’t be able to go “whoops, missed my skills haha, let me just disappear and try again.” Thieves in this game are sadly very low risk very high reward.

Every other class in the game, if you miss your skill rotations or simply don’t land some, you pretty much don’t recover.

But that’s why I solo roam with a Guardian, so I don’t have to deal with all of that.

This is the one guy who actually understood my post, and rewrote it for better understanding. I appreciate that.

Einlanzer.1627:

Thieves are not in a good place right now. Asking for nerfs is insane. They have middle of the road burst with worse condi removal than most classes and basically die in one hit from anything.

Mesmers are for more OP than Thieves right now.

Getting hit with a steal/cloak and dagger hit to backstab of 16k total is a modest burst? What about the 2 auto attacks of up to 4k that come right after?

Having the ability to remove all conditions and heal to full health while your opponent cannot and has to sit in plain view is in a bad place?

So 20k damage in such a short time is modest. My ascended zerk Mesmer won’t do that damage. Close, but not that high.
Backstab can be used again in another 5 seconds after reveal is over. So another 5k cloak and dagger into another 9k backstab or they hit heart seeker repeatedly for the huge damage there.

You guys want your cake and eat it too. To do insane damage with as little risk as possible. It is a childish mentality. It isn’t right and unlike my build, a lot of the other professions cannot get away.

What I am starting to think is that the regular masses who play fairly do not know the forums exist, but the ones who play in a fashion where there is no fair play are the ones using the forums. Just to try to distract anet from the truth.

Einlanzer.1627:

Thieves are not in a good place right now. Asking for nerfs is insane. They have middle of the road burst with worse condi removal than most classes and basically die in one hit from anything.

Mesmers are for more OP than Thieves right now.

I only play for WvW. My favorite is thief, my second favorite is Mesmer (and I mean from before this stealth fiasco).

Both are broken true But,
I always fight the Mesmer. I can and have the ability to kill the mesmers. The secret is the imob. I use two imobs, and mesmers rarely use 2 means to remove imobs. The thief build I just do not fight because it is pointless.

Nivik.2961:

I love how you added in that you never lose to this “god mode” thief you’re so concerned about . This post was hilarious. Thanks man.

How could I lose to them? I removed my auto attack so I could use stealth on steal. I run basilisk poison and my posion which imobs.

So he hits me, I open with steal (turns them to stone) and sneak attack. Then shadow strike away into my heal skill. His next moves tell me what build he is running. If he black powder/heartseekers, he is always stays invisible till he comes back at full health. Then does a huge burst again. By this time I have my imob poison on, so I get that off, blinding powder, dodge roll into a shadow refuge.

From shadow refuge I move along my merry way and don’t continue the fight just so I can die. See. Easy as pie to live.

Woops. I forgot. concept gave these examples for dashes.
“Inflitrators Arrow
Infiltrators Strike
Heartseeker”

Those are not dashes.
Infiltrators arrow… never seen anyone use it as a closer. Not worth wasting a weapon swap, and most thieves I see nowadays do not run shortbow.

Infiltrators strike. It is a teleport of 600 range. So it is situational and not an ability to close long distances like you were implying when yo usaid “dash”.

Heartseeker? hahahahahahahahahahahah 450 range. It barely allows you to pass people running at 33% speed increase. Truth be told. Any actually good thief who sees someone heartseeker spamming and wasting initiative points laughs or says “what an idiot”
I guess I can believe you included heartseeker as a dash. You don’t play gw2 so how would you understand its basic limitations. Only 1 of your examples has half a merit. not a full merit point.

DeceiverX.8361:

DeWolfe.2174:

All the thieves thinking we’re talking about them. Sorry, most of us are talking about Mesmer’s abusing stealth now.

A thief without backstab in many instances completely useless and potentially even less helpful than an uplevel in regards to damage dealt, utility, and possibly even durability.

Totally wrong when it comes to no backstab. They don’t need backstab. Try this (what happens on medium armor)….
Never attack when under the affects of stealth. When it drops, your first 2 auto attacks can give around 4k damage, then a cloak and dagger for up to 5k damage for stealth. Defensive moves till stealth drops. Rinse and repeat. I’ve seen thieves avoid a full havoc while downing people at will.

Conncept.7638:

Jitters.9401:

All you did was read every trait line and pretended a thief had access to all traits at the same time. I have zero movement speed.

Yes I have read every trait line, maybe you should try it sometime and you might actually have something worth contributing instead of proving yourself a fool by denying blatantly obvious fact concerning a subject you “claim” to be an expert on.

Jitters.9401:

You need to l2p and l2read before posting such garbage

You need to learn to spell. And make your own intelligible arguments while you’re at it, as evidenced by your following statements.

Jitters.9401:

Watch this. It is a link to a fight where my group was outnumbered. Near the end when i shadow refuge you will see how much aoe hits us and how big an aoe radius can be. Ps. The voice isn’t mine. My buddy who was on ts.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_r-e6ixUMCc.

Watch this video. A zerg stops my taking of stone mist. When i shadow refuge you can see how much damage i take. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_poGo6mWygc

Shadow refuge is just a big target sign saying hit here. But it can still be useful.
Cool thing huh? I can refute your false statements with video.

Seriously? So you should be able to fight or escape five times your numbers because of one stealth skill? That is your standard for balanced? Your opinion on balance is null and void after such a statement. And once again, one single skill out of a half dozen that give stealth. No other example of stealth has any such counter, as such you still have failed to provide one single thing that directly counters stealth as a game mechanic.

Jitters.9401:

However, the black powder heart seeker combo should give 4 seconds of stealth then 4 seconds of reveal even if no attack was made. That is the one thing that should be implemented for that one skill. If done right, i can remove all conditions and be full health every time i decide to de stealth and attack.

Once again, poor, misinformed, short sighted game design. Mechanics need clearly designed responses, not individual skills. The game will blow up in to a convoluted mess where victory or defeat is decided by build instead of play if they design counterplay on a skill by skill rather than mechanic by mechanic basis.

Jitters.9401:

Pps. Stealth on steal is broken and has been broken for a long time. So like I said. Only 2 reliable stealth skills.

The mechanic is broken, anyone with a modicum of design sense, heck anyone with a modicum of common sense, can see that.

You pointed out I made a spelling error. You are so funny. I like to be amused by you.
Dhe moment someone points out a pspelling eror it meens that dhey know dhey are wrong and ar trying to reech for ways to discredit someone who is corekt. You must be a politician. Not a good one… but must be.

Sooooo… you said I failed to provide any single thing that counters stealth.
1) AOE. I had an ele firestorm my shadow refuge spot. The crits came close to smooshing me.
2) Fear Necros and the ranger wolf has this.
3) Push/knock back abilities (there are quite a few)
4) Pull abilities (guardians have a real good one that pulls me out of shadow refuge a fair amount of the time.
5) Rangers can spec to reveal
6) Engis can spec to reveal.
Are you sure you play gw2 and are on the correct game forum? Or do I need to spell it out for you… Wait.. I just did.

Now you said
“poor, misinformed, short sighted game design. Mechanics need clearly designed responses, not individual skills”

If you were as smurt as yu tink yu ar, you would realize that sometimes a large issue can be cause by one simple thing. I made a post a moment ago about stealth and how to get rid of many complaints. We have all seen (except you since you don’t actually play gw2) people complain about “that thief” who seems to always be stealthed. It is because of 1 small skill. Not a whole game design failure.

Tell you what. When you decide to actually play the game, I can teach you a few things. Or are you still kitten?

You need to remove stealth gained via blackpowder and heartseeker.

1) Basilisk Venom Steal/cloak and dagger for stealth = dmge up to 7k
2) Backstab = damage up to 9k
3) Dodge/evade till reveal is over.
4) Attempt to Stealth with either cloak and dagger or
5) blackpowder/heartseeker for stealth/healing/condi clear.

I don’t mind the steps 1,2,3,4. I do not do much damage per hit, but I can still win even if I get hit for that initial 16k damage. Other classes can win even after the insane burst.

It is the blackpowder/heartseeker that is an issue. We see it all the time. Problem is, in the forums, no-one has specifically pointed out where the issue of thief stealth lies.

Fact
All the thieves who use this are running remove conditions on stealth and regen in stealth.
Fact
They use this skill to remove all condition damage and heal up to 100% while their opponent is sitting visible the entire time with no ability to heal more then a modest amount.
Fact
The balance is way off. I refuse to play this way just to win a fight.

It makes sense to not allow people the ability to nearly God Mode an aspect of the game.
1) I can’t kill diamond skin ele’s. I’m ok with that.
2) Some of the mesmers stealth so much I can’t kill them either. I’m ok with that.
3) A thief with good morals hits me for 16k (steps 1-3) total and I’m ok with that too.

I’m not ok with a god mode thief build. It ruins the game play and enjoyment of far more people then the number of idiots who use it.

If you remove the blackpowder/heartseeker stealth you will see far far less people complaining about thief stealth in the forums. The only people who will complain will be those who abuse the god mode just because they are bottom dwellers who feed off of ruining other people’s game play.

They will never kill me, but I am writing this post for those who can never escape a fight with a build that should never exist. As it stands, with issues like this, I have no inclination to buy your expansion.

[/quote]
with our survival nerfs a thief must be god like to compete with other professions.

[/quote]

Thank you for the compliment.

YesterdayI came across a necro ele. Ranger team taking sw camp in sbi. All that was left was 2 vet guards. I jumped in and took down the necro first as he is a necro and should die first. Took the ranger next and ele ran away during the second stomp. Each of those classes can easily solo a camp, so for me to take them on says that thief can have a big role to play in wvw.
The problem is to find that synergy with the class that best fits your own play style. I was even running a skill i had never used before, but things just fell into place.

I would say you can look at someone else’s theory crafting, but someone else’s may not be the best for you. That is why i have run only my own build creations,

Conncept.7638:

Timiok.1048:

I agree to what you mean, we need at least 2 skills that have reveal on each class.
However your example seems a bit overpowered.

Reveal is a binary mechanic that adds nothing whatsoever to combat and the very last thing we need is more of it.

We need a redesign of stealth that has some actual play to it between opponents.

starlinvf.1358:

Stealth counter…. every AOE damage ever

And this is possibly the dumbest statement on this subject, ever.

This works in other games, because they have costs for their abilities, usually mana, meaning they can have spammable AoEs metered. We have no such thing in Gw2, the biggest ‘spammable’ AoEs are piddly little 300 diameter autos like Lightning Whip, Greatsword Swing, and Fireball.

Meanwhile, the thief has the second highest movement speed in the game so long as they can maintain stealth, and dashes available on every single mainhand weapon which are just as wide as every AoE save Combustive Shot and Meteor Shower.

Yet, are they overpowered? No, in fact if anything thieves are a little weak as anything but worthless WvW roamers. But that is what happens when you get a year and a half long string of nerfs due to how poorly designed one single mechanic is.

And before anyone pulls more BS “U dnt play thief yer jus a hater”, I do play the thief, I have an 80 of every class in fact. And anyone who legitimately explores the thief class instead of just exploiting cheese builds can easily come to the conclusion that this class is never going to be as fulfilling to play, fun to play against, or balanced as it would be were stealth to be redesigned in to a mechanic with more give and take between opponents.

You HAVE a thief. You just don’t PLAY it. Big difference.

I play thief. At level 10 i went straight to wvw. I have 2 reliable stealth skills. Shadow refuge on 60 second cooldown. Blinding powder on 45 second cooldown. That isn’t a small amount of cooldown.

The comment of any aoe skill is kitten rights applicable. Shadow refuge shows everyone where you are. I’ve been hit with tons of aoe damage. The worst is when i get feared (necro fear. Ranger pet fear warrior fear) or knocked out (like the mesmer great sword knock back ) and into reveal with a 60 second skill on cooldown. A lot of melee weapons cleave or just hit multiple people.

I’ve also been revealed by engineers, and stealth ttraps. Wow. So many ways to hit me or reveal me from stealth.

Dashes on every main hand weapon? Hahahhahahaha.
Second highest movement speed? Hahahahahahaha
Like I said. You have a thief. You don’t play one.

All you did was read every trait line and pretended a thief had access to all traits at the same time. I have zero movement speed.

You need to l2p and l2read before posting such garbage.

Watch this. It is a link to a fight where my group was outnumbered. Near the end when i shadow refuge you will see how much aoe hits us and how big an aoe radius can be. Ps. The voice isn’t mine. My buddy who was on ts.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_r-e6ixUMCc

Watch this video. A zerg stops my taking of stone mist. When i shadow refuge you can see how much damage i take. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_poGo6mWygc

Shadow refuge is just a big target sign saying hit here. But it can still be useful.
Cool thing huh? I can refute your false statements with video.

However, the black powder heart seeker combo should give 4 seconds of stealth then 4 seconds of reveal even if no attack was made. That is the one thing that should be implemented for that one skill. If done right, i can remove all conditions and be full health every time i decide to de stealth and attack.

Pps. Stealth on steal is broken and has been broken for a long time. So like I said. Only 2 reliable stealth skills.

This is totally ridiculous.
I have no issue killing someone who uses burning. It is called playing smarter. Try it.

Tell you what though.
You let kill shot take 15 seconds to reach its target….
You let that macro’d cloak and dagger/steal/backstab take 15 seconds to complete.
You let that ranger volley that hit me for 12k in a few seconds take 15 seconds
You have the zerk shatter mesmers finish their sequence in 15 seconds instead of 3.

You need to realize for once, that the best condi damage out there does match the best direct damage out there when looking at damage per second.

Example. Zerk shatter mesmer can and has hit me for 15k in his 4 second rotation. In the same time i did maybe 5k damage. And you want to nerf condition damage. This is really a learn to play moment.
I took a remove condi skill. Try it.

Catchy Title Huh?

I had responded to a post below about anet being professional and not ignoring issues, and in doing so realized how much anet must hate thieves with stealth.

They broke hidden thief many months ago and have yet to fix it. They think it is fair that some of us have to waste valuable time hitting the “1” key manually now due to their lack of testing, while thousands of other people don’t have that issue. Imagine trying to run in a fight while having to continually press “1” “1” “1” “1” 1" “1” “1” 1". It hampers greatly the ability to enjoy and play wvw effectively.
“1” “1” “1” “1” “1” “1” “1”
If you want to disagree. Go to wvw and fight without auto attack on and run about pressing “1” on the “keyboard” and not macro anything.

Question is. Did they deliberately do it because it is an easy thing to revert but they won’t do it.

Why not?

1) Rangers can trait for more stealth then a thief and no reveal. Just saw a ranger doing that today . He would attack me from stealth then re-stealth right away. I stomped him, but we are talking about stealth. He was a dire /condi set up so had I not run any condi removal I would have lost. He did knock me out of shadow refuge and put that skill on a 60second cooldown. I have no way of doing that to anyone, so why is it allowed to have every class the ability to do it to me, on a 60second cooldown. Total Genius.

2) Mesmers now have easier to use stealth with better cooldowns.

Cloak and dagger= Useless in many cases. Affected by blinds and range to enemy. Mesmer have no such worries. Becomes situational and not reliable for most thief builds. If you use it, the enemy knows where you are and can still cause intense damage to the thief with aoe’s, cleaves’ etc. You are right beside them after all.

Mesmers also can do their invisibles from anywhere. No physical contact is needed.
Almost impossible to damage a mesmer who stealths at range

Thief: Blinding Powder 45seconds. Shadow Refuge 60 seconds, (hidden thief is broken to reveal you all the time if you have auto attack on, some of the time if you disabled auto attack)

Mesmer: The Prestige 30seconds Decoy 32seconds Mass Invisibility 90 seconds. (what I run). I love to stealth then pop blink, so when I appear, my enemy has to re-locate me while I hit him with Mirror Blade, Phantasmal Berserker, and Mind Stab. So, with crits, I can do 8k -12k damage easy, then shatter my clones for additional damage. Then in 4 seconds, stealth again and run to a different spot. Seems fair doesn’kitten I have been playing my mesmer as a main lately, and it is not fair.

And remember. A thief can be knocked out of a shadow refuge and revealed. Since mesmers have no visible location target (circle with a big hut over top), they are immune to this.

Effectively, a thief has 1 and only 1 stealth ability that cannot be “f’d”. That is blinding powder. A mesmer has 3.

So, even now, I am logged into the game on my mesmer.

krzygum.4028:

Anet is never ignoring problems. They are professionals

That pretty much blew any legitimacy you have out of the water.

First. The only reason they went after the guard bug for destroying walls with no seige was because whole servers were abusing it. Had only half of the servers abused it, the skill would never have been touched. True fact.

They broke hidden thief many months ago and have yet to fix it. Do you think it is fair that some of us have to keep hitting the “1” key manually now due to their lack of testing and screw up, while thousands of other people don’t have that issue.

Question is. Did they deliberately do it because it is an easy thing to revert but they won’t do it.

Yes they Did.

1) Rangers can trait for unlimited stealth and no reveal. Just saw a ranger doing that 2 minutes ago.
2) Mesmers now have crazy stealth with better cooldowns. As a thief, I have to cloak and dagger to go invisible. If I am blinded or stunned I am unable to do so. Mesmer have no such worries.
3) Classes now can reveal stealthed. Because of how a thief has to stealth, it is so easy to catch and reveal them. When I play my Mesmer, it is so easy to stealth and teleport and not be revealed. Ever.
4) Anyone can knock a thief out of a shadow refuge and reveal them. Since mesmers have no visible location target, they are immune to this.

So professional? No.
Not ignoring? They caused these issues.

That is why I do not support them financially anymore. They are not fixing their screw ups unless a whole server abuses it.

Another thought. I could give out in total, 66 seconds of poison in someone for 256 a tick with full food buffs, quality crystals, 25 condi stacks via my sigil, and 5 guard stacks.
All that build up for just under 17k damage over 66 seconds. A pure dps thief could hit me with that same amount of damage in 5 seconds. no misses because these thieves macro in the skills and use basilisk venom so i cannot dodge.

With the new condi stacking and lower damage calculations, I will do 15k over 9 seconds if every attack hits. 90% of the time i am evaded or blocked for some of those.

So in almost double the time i get hit for 17k damage, I will do 13-15k with conditions IF THEY HAVE ZERO CLEARS. 6k to 8k if they clear right away.

So explain how the old condi way was fair? My damage output is still less by a bit but i am pleased with not having to watch 66 seconds of tiny ticks that won’t kill a pve mob.

Massive nerf? Not likely and totally ridiculous.

You do realize the damage per tick has been reduced by 50%? Prior the patch, my 1 poison did 256 a tick. Now, my stack does 123.

What they did was give condi users the chance to work together. Before, 2 condi users were capped by how much damage they could do together while pure dps had no such restrictions.

Example… 2 backstab thieves. Each Steal/ cloak and dagger crit for 5k. Backstab for 9k. Total 28k damage.

2 condi thieves. Each Bleed damage from sneak attack 2k plus basic 1.5k pistol shots plus poison of 10k each. Total of … oh look. A nice high number of 27k. Almost the same right?
No. You can clear bleeds and poisons before time out for damage.

If you choose to run without proper clear that is your problem. Fact is. Conditions can be removed before total damage is reached while pure dps cannot.

I had a necro hit me with enough condis for 30k damage. I had them removed before i took 5k. So where is the balance?

[/quote]

I’m having a good time with the zerkers. My mes was killed by a barrage once so i logged onto my non zerk thief and haven’t died to a necro, engi, or miscellaneous since.

These zerk players all do the same moves at the same time. You should be killing them now.

I specifically target necros and engi’s in any large fight and they literally melt to my non zerk damage.[/quote]

So condi damage? My Necro would just LOVE to see that happen lmao.[/quote]

Ahh, you would think but No, no you wouldn’t. Necros are easy to beat. Whether power /condi/meta… who cares. I’d be embarrassed if i lost to one.

Diamond skin eles. Those i cant kill.

tyboski.6172:

seems like everyone is running zerker 3 hits dead.i don’t know what happen to this game but they took all the fun out of it.i fill bad for the rangers.poor guys.thanks anet for this big pile of glass fest.its been over three years with no new skills.no new weps.and this is what u give us.even when hot comes out we get four new skills. wow I think I would stand in a long line not to play this game right now.

I’m having a good time with the zerkers. My mes was killed by a barrage once so i logged onto my non zerk thief and haven’t died to a necro, engi, or miscellaneous since.

These zerk players all do the same moves at the same time. You should be killing them now.

I specifically target necros and engi’s in any large fight and they literally melt to my non zerk damage.

Kadsik.9281:

Im still having a hard time as thief in pve, i tried getting some vital stat increase with armor and getting survivalbility in my traits, but my damage seemed reallly low, so i tired going glasscannon again, and not only do i watch other people outdo my backstabs, but of course i started dying easily again. This is for pve only pvp is ok becuase of amulets.
Is there something crucial im missing, and what is the average damage for a glasscannon these days, or am i just a perfectionist.

I play dire thief. Full condi.
I can solo camps
I can solo towers
I can solo keeps
I can solo Stone Mist
I can solo the eye of zhaitan. It’s insanely hard but doable.
I see no issue with damage. Analyze and adapt. Only way to survive.

Excludee.3850:

Jitters.9401:

Nivik.2961:

and stealthing off of every steal with quickness….man it’s soooooo fun.

This statement alone says you do not actually play a thief with any regularity. Stealth on steal has been broken for many months now. You go into instant reveal. you would know this if you had actually played thief with that skill in the last 5/6 months.

Only way the skill can work, is if you turn face so the opponent is behind you, then hit steal. If you land right, the auto attack won’t reveal you. More then 50% though, you are revealed.

Turn…
off…
autoattack…?
O_o?

You know how key presses work in game right? The game actually “stores” or “remembers” a key press. That’s why you can hit an ability very fast twice and the ability can fire the second time even, after your finger has moved on to a different key. Unless you are super slow in WvW, pressing that “1” key is going to get you revealed after a steal.

The only guarantee to not be revealed is if you are just entering combat and you have performed no other attack action before the steal.

Now Really? Why the hell should I have to keep my auto attack turned off in hopes of a good steal? It isn’t a fix. It actually slows things down to keep pressing the “1” key 1000 times, when every other person does not have to. It is detrimental.

Edited Here"
My post made me think. If I only double press the “1” key quickly then stop, I can interrupt the auto attack with a different ability and no stored key press will reveal me.

I just tested it out and want to make an apology. I still believe I should not have to turn off auto attack, but by pressing the “1” key twice only quickly, I can use the stealth on steal trait and not be revealed.

I appreciate that this post made me rethink how I did things.
And again. My apologies.

[/quote]
Could a thief solo a keep before or now? Probably not by their self no. [/quote]

I’d be embarrassed if i couldn’t take a keep. Solo, to kill the guards and Lord takes me between 7-8 minutes. Post patch. A little longer pre patch.

On one day last week I hid inside hills on two consecutive occasions and was easily taking it back but but our small zerg got inside to finish off the last 10%-15% of the lord. Both times.

Yesterday i hid inside gari and took it from sbi when they left. Second time i hid, a mesmer had died in the lords room, so i res’d him and he ported in three people. Game over.

A good condi thief can solo Stone Mist as well.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_poGo6mWygc

That link shows how i did it twice. I got recording software for the third time but that enemy zerg waylaid my plans.

Still, it shows how easy it can be done.

Vettexl.9726:

Yeah, I’m on SBI and just watched Mag melt inner gate and the lord in a matter of seconds with no siege. Too quick to get screenshots or video. I’m prepared for next time, though.

Funny thing.
I’m on HoD and we have been watching sbi super blobs do the same thing to our bl. 90% of the time we have crap for numbers so makes no sense why your zergs of 20-30 plus have to do it to our keeps with 5 defenders.

Nivik.2961:

and stealthing off of every steal with quickness….man it’s soooooo fun.

This statement alone says you do not actually play a thief with any regularity. Stealth on steal has been broken for many months now. You go into instant reveal. you would know this if you had actually played thief with that skill in the last 5/6 months.

Only way the skill can work, is if you turn face so the opponent is behind you, then hit steal. If you land right, the auto attack won’t reveal you. More then 50% though, you are revealed.

Think about it. My thief has a broken trait that has been broken for months and greatly affects my build and play style.

Expect the engi ability to last for months due to their inactivity and sloth work ethics. I will not be buying their upgrade or so called expansion.

Azure Prower.8701:

It’s not enough that thieves can’t kill you. Now you want them to be free kills with their already nerfed stealth and survivability?

This is totally untrue. I got in a fight with a another thief who was able to remain in stealth using black powder / heart seeker, longer then my shadow refuge. In fact, i could get him near death but he would weapon swap then perma invis till he was full health with heal on stealth. I assure you. Perma stealth is very good for surviving.

I don’t think playing perma stealth is fair so i refuse to do it, but to say thief stealth has been nerfed is ridiculous.

Not a complaint, but a question. The answer I already have come to says I cannot, which means your expansion is a no for me.

Over my play time I have purchased gems as my way of supporting the game, but unfortunately the support from you folks (anet) has been very underwhelming. I have heard other skills and such broken and not fixed, but I will be focusing on what has annoyed me the most.

1) You broke steal to where it won’t work on flat boardwalks in half the towers where there is a straight line and no change of elevation.

2) You broke steal to where half the time I cannot steal in a straight line on flat land from snow to dirt.

3) You broke hidden thief to where it won’t work unless you back is to the opponent. MUG actually has nothing to do with it alone. It is the auto attack which fires off right when MUG hits that causes the issue. With your back turned and you steal, your auto attack won’t fire off on an opponent behind you. I have already sent you guys this information months ago.

You might think this is minor, but, this does affect my ability to enjoy the game to its fullest. No-one in their right mind would pay to play something inadequate.

I would have actually purchased the 99$ game, not because I wanted the miniscule additional items, but to support a game that allows us to choose to provide money when we want to and can afford.

Unfortunately, the fact that your dev team has repeatedly broke traits and skills that once worked, yet have made no effort to fix each item has affected my resolve. Where I once had trust, I no longer do, and since I can choose to spend my disposable income where I please, it will not be here. Your unfixed mistakes have placed me at a state where I do not have trust in what you call an expansion (what others call a large update). So instead of taking the chance to get cheated out of money, I’ll be buying a new BBQ for my patio. Much appreciated how easy you made the decision for me (and yes, you did make that decision).

So I will be waiting like many other people and not purchase the so called “expansion”. The day you actually fix the things you break, like any properly mannered person would, I will once again support the game.

Cheers. I’m off to rearrange my patio.

Torgrim.3642:

SA thieves are the most boring to face and the sad part is that SA players actual thinks they are skilled players when using that, It’s really sad and quite laughable.

I play SA thief, but only use 2 stealth skills. Blinding powder and shadow refuge. My heal is withdraw. I prefer to fight visible and move a ton. Stealth only as last resort.

I prefer to fight 2 or more people just to see what I can do. I could care less if I lose. 95% I win 1v2. 75% 1v3. Last week I won a 1v6 against a pug havoc. Only using two stealth mechanics and evades.

So.. couple of things wrong with your post.

1) Knockbacks push me right out of the shadow refuge and into a reveal state. Most 1v2 fights, one of the enemies has a knockback, so my shadow refuge is usually null and void and I have only 1 stealth mechanic.

2) I do not have a condition removal skill. So I am vulnerable to condition damage AND running only 1 effective stealth mechanic.

Blinding powder is on a 40 second cooldown. So every 40 seconds I stealth once yet you say SA thieves are not skilled.

Someone like me must have killed you using 1 stealth mechanic and you are just too unhappy with your life to admit it. Would you have been in that group of 6 I killed? I think so. I was pretty thrilled I won, considering I attacked you guys just to see how good I could do before death.

I was with Saint. Every time the warrior did something we were stunned/dazed/ whatever you want to call it. I watched the warrior jump and stun my team mates, turn then do the exact same move and stun me as well. Same weapon.
I totally forgot about the headcrack, but the amount of time I Was not able to move just by the warrior alone was insane.

I just posted this in the bugs forum. Makes me think they hired second rate programmers for the game. I have seen developers and managers get fired for being this bad.

On any server borderland.

South East tower.
Pop over onto the woodwork ledge that runs just south of the tower lord room ( for reference the north is supply hut). So you are still in the tower on a place that was made useable.
Was fighting a Mesmer and warrior. I couldn’t use any skill that required a teleport on a perfectly flat area where I could walk.

I see too much of this where I am unable to use stepping skills when I totally capable of walking onto the spot. Real annoying.

These things have been going on too long so I have refused to support you anet by buying gems.

Like bad service in a restaurant. I do not tip which would promote poor workmanship. I would recommend all thieves do the same till the mechanics are fixed, otherwise we wait for 3 months like back when steal was broken to put us in the reveal state automatically. Unfortunately, it has been proven that money talks more then just forum posts.

I have worked with companies that fired managers for not testing the software before releasing it. Your step changes were obviously not tested by anyone qualified to even touch a computer.

Happens again and again.

On any server borderland.
South East tower.
Pop over onto the woodwork ledge that runs just south of the tower lord room ( for reference the north is supply hut). So you are still in the tower on a place that was made useable.
Was fighting a Mesmer and warrior. I couldn’t use any skill that required a teleport on a perfectly flat area where I could walk.

I see too much of this where I am unable to use stepping skills when I totally capable of walking onto the spot. Real annoying.

These things have been going on too long so I have refused to support you folks by buying gems. Like bad service in a restaurant. I do not tip which would promote poor workmanship.

p.s Yes I am annoyed to be nerfed due to lack of diligence.

This is actually a serious question.

The thief skill “Hidden Thief” has been broken for far too long for me to actually believe the developers are doing their jobs properly.

I see developers playing the game still… but funny enough… I have not seen one who plays a thief. Amusing.

Instead of obtaining stealth the trait puts me into a reveal state. From reading prior posts, I know that his issue had occurred before but was fixed. So how come it is not fixed after this incredibly long while?

Soooo… this leads me to believe lazy developers.

Of course I play a thief, but I play a thief style which does not like to stealth. Much more fun to be visible. However, once every 21.5 seconds, I do like to stealth when “Steal” recharges.

So a little advice to you devs. Obviously, you are not schooled in the arts of human interaction, so some advice. Just because you do not want to fix something does not mean it is not important. The longer you take to do a little task the more you take away the enjoyment of people who not only play, but support the game via gem purchases. And eventually they quit for more fun and quicker bug fixes.

I will not be supporting your lackluster attitudes anytime soon and would hope others follow suit for any class/profession/ broken skill that you will not touch.

Of course there will be negative and trolling posts, but really.. who cares? The internet is full of wanna be bad guys who need a fake world to do the things they would like to do in the real.
So go hard

Chewy.9263:

With the same reasoning, i can go afk in the field and come back 10 minute later and see a dead zerg at my feet?

Seriously though, stealth and evasion are the two core mechanics of thief gameplay so of course they are going to have access to it. Please leave your QQ elsewhere. This can go for pretty much everyone else that complain about thieves.

Thank you and good day sir!

You do realize I play a thief almost exclusively in wvw right? I spend most of my time roaming solo looking for solo roaming and dual roaming builds and kill them.

Yesterday I solo’d a necro/engi team, thief/engineer team, thief,ele,necro team, thief/necro team

and myself with a same thief build friend killed a team comprised of an engi/necro/ranger/warrior/ele and an upscale thief (which doesn’t count).

Edit “I did lose a fight to two shatter mesmers and a stun warrior”. That was definately a bad fight to get into.

What other profession has the capability to do such a thing? None.

I love to win, but going back to the character comment that one thief player made…. I am all for fair play, so compare me to someone like himself and others who want free wins. The lack of character is most assured not my problem.

Reveal should be changed to 6 seconds.