Guild Wars 2

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoaVl0MhSnY3TwwJw/ELwEmXY4M0Gm7gnwWoWCIAsbA-TZBFABiXGggTAQbHCAd2fAgnAAA

It does reveal, but after a 2-3 second delay, you can test it on a buddy teef sitting in shadow refuge. It is bugged either way.

nearlight.3064:

Jekkt.6045:

valk gives me no precision and is too squishy. 70% crit chance on celestial is insane damage.

I think you should try it before you knock it. 44% crit with fury should be enough considering it’s so much more power. Also with all that health and good access to protection, valk shouldn’t be squishy, I don’t feel squishy at all on carrion.

I took your suggestion and have been trying Valkyrie amulet the last few games, and I am a fan so far. The constant fury application and fury buff compensates for the lack of precision, and the huge amount of vitality helps a lot with the lack of condi clears. Btw, I don’t run condi clear on legend swap, but the fury on heal trait. Not to mention the extra power from Valk helps make up for the lack of precision as well. I feel like I’m doing the same damage as before as long as I rotate correctly so I can keep fury up.

Honestly, the missing healing and toughness kinda sucks, but then again, this Revenant build has a lot of ways to avoid physical damage.

Sword 3
Shield 5
Staff 3
Staff 5
Glint heal
Shiro stun break/dodge

I’m gonna continue testing, but so far so good.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsemnvN2gS6JvQRVlbosryPUYW5IKYs8EllNFidMnZNtB4APwOgHchA-TpBGwABOBAh2fAwDAI9hA4wRAgZZAA

I’ve been having a lot of success with this build, it is doing very well against a lot of standard specs, like DD cele ele, reapers, thieves. Essentially a 1v1 machine while providing team boons and is a a really good +1 class with Shiro’s Phase Traversal and the burst combo.

I run Facet of Nature, Elements and Strength between fights and roaming from point to point.

When I’m about initiate, I drop One with Nature, Elemental Blast and sometimes Burst of Strength. Swap to Shiro, Enchanted Daggers (Shiro Heal) and Unrelenting Assault. It does A LOT of damage, and at the end of it you’ll have 25 might on yourself for about 3-4 seconds to continue pressure.

Obvious issues with this build is severe lack of condi clear, which is why I run staff and Generosity sigil on it. A tanky chronomancer will be difficult to kill, MM necros have an advantage because of how Unrelenting Assault spreads damage over nearby enemies, and well played burn guardians can be problematic if they time their blocks/invuln for your burst.

Lots of stun breaks, don’t forget Gaze of Darkness on Glint is a stun break/reveal. Impossible Odds is super useful for downed pressure, stomping, and just pressure in general. Also is great for rezzing in conjunction with the Glint heal.

My favorite moments so far are straight up 100-0’ing thieves that aren’t running vamp runes, being a kitten decent on point team fighter when rotating my skills appropriately and there’s not a lot of condis, and watching Unrelenting Assault follow Thieves and Mesmers through their blinks and shadow steps. And yes, it will follow Mesmers through Portal.

OreoWolf.9564:

But saying each class has a designated “burst” weapon is exactly the problem. What about s/p thieves? Or s/d thieves even? Should they get shafted just because daggers exist? This is exactly why mesmer is extremely boring to play now. Go greatsword or go home, cuz all of your other options are terrible in comparison.

Greatsword is also the go-to weapon for interrupt builds now as well. So does that not contradict it being a burst weapon, instead of support? I can’t see greatsword being a burst weapon, when it outperforms every single other weapon option in power builds regardless if it’s burst or not. Play a staff/sword+pistol mesmer without confounding suggestions. See how much of a difference it plays.

Nerfing shatter damage kills our build diversity even more than it already is. The problem is greatsword + confounding suggestions, not shatter damage. 4-5 hours of using staff instead of greatsword proves this point.

I completely agree that shatter mesmer is over the top, but I don’t agree that nerfing every other shatter build who does not abuse greatsword/confounding suggestions would fix anything. It’s like necros with dumbfire. Burn is broken, so let’s nerf bleed output.

As much as I would love more build diversity, like most people here seem to want, balancing all of the professions and all of their weapons and all of their talents is a mountain of work I imagine, and really isn’t necessary for a successful PvP game. For instance, look at the most successful PvP game, League of Legends, and how they essentially shoehorn champions into certain roles and specific item builds. Sure there is some room to play, but in the end the meta will determine what is best.

So as far as I am concerned, your argument about Mesmers being “forced” to run greatsword is a moot point, as it is simply the best designed PvP weapon for them and for the role they fulfill best. I would love to see more diversity, but I simply think its not reasonable to expect ANET to make that a reality on the level some players expect. Min/maxxing will always be a thing with competitive games.

So basically when I made my case about certain weapons fulfilling certain roles, I tried to look at it as a developer, and I believe ANET wants certain weapons to perform certain roles, and the same goes for professions in respect to PvP. It’s much easier to balance that way, and I don’t think they’ll change that much.

That being said, what would YOU like to see changed for Mesmers?

OreoWolf.9564:

If you nerf the base shatter damage, you are nerfing shatter mesmer as a whole. This forces mesmer to use greatsword even more than it’s current state, and kills what little build diversity there is left. The only broken shatter damage comes out of greatsword’s mirrorblade. No one is complaining about ileap shatters or scepter/staff shatters, so why should they suffer? Nerf the greatsword since it is what makes shatter mesmers over the top.

Also, I really don’t think mantra’s need to be changed. Mantras used to start their cooldown after the last charge was used, and it pretty much killed the style of play outside of distraction mantra. Again, if you nerf the cooldown, it nerfs the entire playstyle and makes it obsolete. There are better ways to go about it.

Make confounding suggestions only stun on interrupt, and possibly increase it to a 10 second icd.

Vulnerability is fine overall, because it’s what we have to offer to the team when going full on damage. We’re one of the very few classes who can keep 15+ vuln stacks up reliably which makes us amazing for countering bruiser/bunker builds.

~Mesmer who is bored of how easy greatsword shatter currently is.

Yes, nerfing shatter Mesmers as a whole is kind of the idea though, as they are one of the biggest outliers of balance.

About Mantras, I added the addendum to keep the current cool down as is IF they spec for Mantras. I think that’s pretty fair, given how they work and with the new traits that affect them (Power Cleanse, Restorative Mantras). Though on second thought, it’s not so much a problem with Mantras in general, and more of a problem with Mantra of Distraction. It’s simply too good with Domination traits.

You also make a good point about shatter combos with greatsword. But then, each weapon should have it’s niche I think. If you want burst as a Thief, you take dagger. If you want CC as a Warrior, you take hammer. If you want team support as a Guardian, you take staff.

Greatsword on Mesmer is for bursting, and so is speccing for shatter, so those two will go hand in hand. It could be toned down, like reducing Mirror Blade damage or the Might/Vuln it stacks, but I simply think the 30% multiplier is too much for shattering in general. Again, though, this is exacerbated by how strong Mantra of Distraction is.

I suppose a lot of my complaints could be boiled down to “nerf Mantra of Distraction, or nerf the traits that affect it”.

Things that immediately come to mind for me, granted I’m not a mesmer main but have experience:

-Blinding Dissipation should be able to be dodged

-Mental Anguish should have its damage decreased to 10% (from 15%) generally, and to 20% (from 30%) against inactive targets. That’s a conservative “shaving” change I think. This trait is simply overwhelmingly strong as is, especially when coupled with Mantra of Distraction.

-The Dazzling minor trait in needs to be toned down or changed. The Vulnerability that can be stacked with that trait, Illusion of Vulnerability minor trait, and Mirror Blade is ridiculous, in much the same way that D/F fire traited Ele’s Might stacking is. Also, why is Dazzling 5 vuln stacks for 8 seconds vs Illusion of Vulneribility 3 stacks for seconds, when the latter requires interrupting the target? As it stands, I get rewarded more for simply hitting F3 or Mantra of Distraction rather than timing an interrupt.

-Confounding Suggestions should activate the stun upon interrupt much like Power Block applies damage upon interrupt. Also, why would the trait have the description of “Chance to inflict stun” when that chance is 100%? Semantics, I know, but seems silly or an oversight.

-Mantras should begin their cool down when the last Mantra charge is used. Or, roll the current Mantra cool down into the Harmonious Mantras trait.

-Mantra of Distraction should have its charge cool down increased to 10 seconds, at 5 seconds its currently too strong coupled with Confounding Suggestions and Power Block, especially considering that it’s 1200 range, instant, and AoE.

The Domination specialization is simply too strong at the moment.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-g3RV;1Vwk0-J5V-Fd0;9;4IKM;0147238237;4INl3h;1IBl3IBl35a

That would be my preferred build for thief sPvP, substitute berserker amulet for maurader, intothemists doesn’t have the new amulets quite yet.

Team basilisk venom with a panic strike/trickery build has a lot of potential I think, and the more coordinated your team, the more useful it is.

For pugging solo Q, it will probably turn out that shadow rejuvenation is better than venom share. Especially if you’re facing a lot of condi pressure. If that is the case, infiltrator signet can be swapped for blinding powder for on demand condi cleanse, and subbing withdraw for hide in shadows will also help. If you’re lacking damage, swap improvisation for executioner.

I will be testing flanking strikes and see how it measures up against thrill of the crime.

Enjoy.

So far for me, it seems to just be Back Stab that is causing reveal. Very easy to test and very consistent so far.

Stealthing then back stabbing nothing causes reveal.

I’ve never understood why we have pvp amulets that give ferocity without precision.

And now, with the removal of precision stat from your trait lines, those amulets look even sillier. Do they assume people running those amulets will have perma fury? Even then, seems like wasted potential.

Better yet, use shadow arts spec, stealth for 4 seconds, backstab, wait 3 seconds, shadow’s embrace removes revealed, backstab again.

Seems legit.

MarkPhilips.5169:

Lock on and speedy kit are on the same master trait so it’s a good trade off.

No one would get speedy kit with 10s speed. Now with 20s is always a very good option.

It was fine as it was, I’m of the opinion that permanent swiftness without using cool downs to obtain was never a good design. It’s a good part of the reason why engi’s are so common.

The bigger problem for me is the disparity in developer response.

I enjoy playing engi, but this honestly is disappointing to see. It really seems like there’s some favoritism going on, and not just with profession balance, but with addressing community concerns regarding professions.

Still hanging on to my 50 bucks.

It’s really gonna depend on how the meta changes and how much damage is flying around, but as it is now, I’m definitely going Venom Share > Shadow Rejuvenation. Sharing basilisk could potentially be HUGE, especially the more coordinated your team is.

I could also see Shadow Rejuvenation having a lot of use because of Stronghold though, , where holding points and staying out of stealth is less important. Time will certainly tell, but generally speaking I would prefer team utility over self sustain.

When attempting to break the ceiling with the mortar in the Font of Rhand in Diessa Plateau (to access the Water of Rhand, for instance), it fails. Mortar animation goes off, but the ceiling remains and the water cannot be accessed. After the first fail, the mortar is then unable to be interacted with. This has happened to me four times since the patch today.

So I’ve been watchin the Stronghold streams on the GW2 twitch channel ( http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2 ), and a couple things came to mind while watching it.

Is the blue flame effect from the Hero buff really necessary? I think many people still have problems with effect spam cluttering your vision. I think just the buff on your boon/condition bar and the ground circle letting you know the radius of effect should be enough.

Also, I’m gonna assume a lot of team fights are going to happen around the Hero. I’m not sure if this is already a thing, but if you’re able to stun the Hero, what if the buff he gives is turned off for the duration of the stun? Gives a bit of counter play options for the defending team. Stun the Hero, attempt to spike the other team while they don’t have the buff?

Does anyone else have some ideas from what they’ve seen so far?

The Gates Assassin.9827:

A bit, I apologize. I really just want to get a feeling for what players are annoyed by with Power Rangers. Range definitely seems like a major issue, but if the damage wasn’t so high, would they still be annoyed by it? That’s all I was trying to get at.

Fair enough.

Personally, I think one problem is the risk/reward factor of longbow Rangers. They do more damage the farther away from danger they are. I understand that designing longbow for Rangers and great sword for Mesmers like that make them unique, but is that a good design philosophy with PvP in mind?

To be fair, power Rangers aren’t in a really strong spot as far as the competitive PvP meta is concerned, but it seems to be a source of frustration, in much the same way turret Engineers are.

How does ANET want Rangers to perform in sPvP? Are Rangers better off being a condi/melee point holder, or a zerker/long range burster? Which is potentially healthier for the Conquest, and soon Stronghold, game type?

Also, is there any merit to the complaint about Ranger longbow range being greater than 1500?

The Gates Assassin.9827:

I have an experiment for you guys. I suspect that a large part of what people have an issue with is the fire and air procs. Honestly, I can handle rapid fire. It’s easy to see, it’s obvious when they do it. But the auto attacks. WOW they hurt.

So try playing power ranger (6/6/2/0/0) without using fire and air. If you try it, tell me if you feel a difference. I might try that tonight and see what happens.

Fire and air procs are not exclusive to longbow rangers though. Every zerker build uses them, and they still play second fiddle to the celestial, sustain meta. Are you insinuating that fire/air sigils might be a problem?

This thread as been about the discrepancy between the advertised 1500 range of longbow Rangers and the actual range. This post seems a bit out of left field.

The team that wins more team fights is naturally going to push towards the lord and go for the kill. The end result will probably be the same, whether they kill the lord or accumulate more points. That is, unless, going for the lord kill puts them at a significant disadvantage, then they might stall the match out for 15 minutes and win by points.

Perhaps they’ll need to go more MOBA and increase respawn timers as the match goes on, and the match doesn’t end until the lord is killed.

I’m sure ANET is still tweaking stronghold, along with many things being introduced in the xpac. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.

Nerfs are generally specifically targeted, you’re a bit mistaken. If longbow rangers get nerfed, that will affect just them, same with turret engis. The question is not “if X gets nerfed, what else gets weaker”, it’s “if X gets nerfed, then what becomes more powerful?”

The nature of PvP (and PvE for that matter) means min/maxxing your build to be most effective. Certain classes and weapons are going to excel at certain things, which is why if you want to be competitive, you run a meta build. This phenomenon is not exclusive to GW2, you can see it everywhere from WoW raids to LoL tournaments.

“I dont want to play Meta builds. But how effective can I be with a niche build in SPvP.”

There are plenty of effective builds that aren’t considered meta. How effective are YOU at playing those builds? Are you an asset to your team? Are you getting rolled by the meta builds? If so, then why aren’t you fighting meta with meta? At what point does one stop trying to be a special snowflake and try their best to contribute to the team?

“with the small scale of the PvP battles in SPvP, its impossible to balance out all 9 classes for each other. But currently all balancing in the game is made off of the SPvP model, which has been proven in this genre not to be an effective point of reference for balance.”

No one is trying to balance all 9 (8) classes for each other, PvP is team oriented. Class inequalities will always exist within any game, it’s what makes them unique. And how exactly has sPvP PROVEN not to be an effective balancing point?

Bear and Bry.

Purely from an entertainment perspective.

Shiyo.3578:

No, there’s something with the way the game is designed that makes someone either play the game for 2 years straight and know everything, or be brand new to it. No middle ground. The only other games I’ve played like that were obscure f2p MMO’s with a tiny player base.

I think that from a player skill, profession knowledge and mechanical stand point, there is definitely a middle ground, and I see it a lot.

But in regards conquest “rotations” and playing the conquest game type, I can agree a bit. There are a lot of decent players out there who haven’t grasped how to properly rotate, and for the conquest game mode (and GI Joe), that’s half the battle. Many people I play with regularly fall into this category. And rotations are hard to teach someone.

When you’re new to thief, setting up and bursting targets can feel wonky, but the more you play, the more fluid it becomes. For settin up burst, it’s not only important to be 1) unpredictable, but 2) choose your burst set up method and positioning based on what your target is, what it’s doing, and how many cool downs it has up.

Yes, backstab can be precast and used in conjunction with infiltrator signet, steal, and shadow step. You can also pull off a backstab from a Shadow shot (DP #3), it’s pretty easy to do, though it is dependent on distance.

9 times out of 10 I am using one heart seeker out of black powder, but stacking stealth can be good in certain situations. If you’re having trouble landing backstabs and running out of stealth, then use your infiltrator signet more often, and practice the backstab > steal combo.

Don’t think that a DP thief is just a backstab machine. Dagger auto attack does a lot of damage, and shadow shot will help keep you alive and on top of your target. Sometimes it’s just as effective to harass a player that way, rather than constantly going for backstabs.

Initiative managements comes with experience and learning not to spam, but you are running 6 points in trickery, correct?

Shortbow should be used just as much as DP. Depending on the enemy team composition, you might end up in shortbow more than DP. Thieves should generally not be standing on points and in the thick of a team fight, but that’s a good opportunity to shortbow to spread some damage around. If there is a low health target or a squishy you can get to, then swap to DP and get on top of them.

Sigils can be up to preference, the meta DP build includes air/blood on DP set, and fire/generosity in shortbow. Blood can be swapped for fire, fire for air, generosity for energy, and it doesn’t really change much. Go with what you think works best for you.

A lot of your questions really come down to just having more experience with the thief class and maybe PvP in general. Hope this helped though.

I was watchin Nos’s stream last night, he was Q’ing ranked with most of the Abjured, and they did something similar, 600+ to 0. Was this unranked or ranked?

I want our specialization to be Gymnast, which lets us dual wield ribbons, and all our weapons skills are replaced by Death Blossom.

[/quote]

And despite all those nerfs you’re still OP as hell, that’s why WvW is full of your scum class and spvp hotjoin was polluted by you and warriors.

Now somebody isn’t a free kill anymore and you throw a tantrum.

[/quote]

Power rangers are a fad. There have been no legitimate complaints about them that I’ve seen so far while serving a berserker role in tPvP. Yes, they do too much damage from too far away, however:

They don’t have the mobility of a thief.

They don’t have the cleave of a scepter fresh air elementalist.

They don’t have the team utility of a shatter mesmer.

And as a heads up, as soon as you mention WvW in this forum and start calling professions “scum” like you have a personal vendetta against them, no one takes you seriously.

Too long, didn’t read.

Are players still AFKing on Skyhammer?

Is this for PvP? Why not just use Updraft on dagger or, even better, Gale on focus?

Most often, you will have to hit your Phoenix on a moving target. Dragons Tooth is mostly useful for forcing a dodge or cleaving on a downed player.

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can’t think of a way to fix this off the top of my head without plastering ground decals all over the place or somehow making streak effects better show the attack arc. Any other ideas?

I think it’s safe to say that this game doesn’t need more particles and effects cluttering it up. It’s already difficult enough to respond to asura’s with their size and the current effects in game.

TheThiefMaster.3812:

i’d love to see you use your so called smarter build against a perplexity terrormancer or a perplexity engi in WvW, then again you are just making things up as you simply wont win against those specs without SA unless the players are terrible , no ifs and buts it’s just the way it is :-).

That’s a pretty broad generalization to say that someone “simply wont win against those specs without SA”.

My argument is that a thief could be become a better player if he/she doesn’t use SA traits.

Your argument is that a thief player can’t get by without SA traits.

Which sounds more positive to you?

Though you may have a point, I play sPvP a lot more than I play WvW these days, and Perplexity runes don’t exist in sPvP. I wonder why that is?

XPGAMER.7324:

Don’t worry, plenty of times in OS their are thieves running 100% zerker gear with 2 6 0 0 6, I one shot em and they call d/d cheese and talk kitten about how bad WvW is lmao.

Did I give you the impression that I was worried?

Players are very often going to get upset when they lose, especially the bad ones. It falls to you to ignore them. Unfortunately, winning random duels against nameless players doesn’t do much for proving any of your points, other than “I can win sometimes, and make people mad!”

a t s e.9614:

Anyway , every viable build is faceroll in this game. I don’t think SA thief is worse than the other crap such as petting zoo necro/ranger , hambow warr , turret engi etc..

It’s not actually, all those builds are in the same vein of being “newbie friendly” and effective to a certain point. That point usually being competitve tPvP, because the general player skill and team coordination make those builds worthless.

The biggest difference of course is that all the other builds you listed, a t s e, can stand on a point during a fight and contest it, while an SA thief cannot.

I don’t begrudge those who want to play their SA thief in WvW, though I do believe its a “training wheels” spec, and they could be just as effective with a smarter build and play style.

I think players need to respect the difference in metas between WvW and sPvP. You WILL get flak by running your SA thief build in a teamQ environment and even in soloQ; it’s simply not as effective as the other meta thief builds.

You can choose to ignore that, of course, but then you sound kinda silly when you complain about people talking down to you for your WvW build used in sPvP.

Alas, gaze upon the precedent set forth, realize the wasted potential, and despair:

I would like to see a trickery D/P guide for sPvP made by Caed. Question, will it be a video or written guide? Or both?

I changed up a lot of my key bindings. My Steal [F1] key is bound to Z.

F2 – X
F3 – C
F4 – V

Dodge is my middle mouse button.

Heal – E
Utility 1 – Q
Utility 2 – F
Utility 3 – R
Elite – Shift+E

Interact/Loot/Stomp/Rez – G

Different strokes for different folks, though.

Top EU thief, Sizer, runs S/D acro:

http://www.twitch.tv/sizer2654

Top NA thief, Caed, runs D/P trickery:

http://www.twitch.tv/narcarsis

There are other good thief streamers, but those two are the most watched and most active. Unfortunately Sizer doesn’t save his past broadcasts so you’ll have to catch him live. Caed does save his, however, so you can start there.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVlsMp0pdPxyJ8PNBNBt9DGeE8OMfpMaFAA-TpRBwAROCAD3fg/hAgcZAAnAgHPAAA

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVl0MpwpdPxyJ8PNBNB5dY+SZ0KAdfko0XA-TZBFwACODAl2fo9hAoaZAAPAAA

There are your two popular meta builds.

Here is a personal favorite of mine.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVlsMp0pdPxyJ8PNBNBt9wbQE8OMfpMaFAA-TpBFwACOCAPOBA12fo9hAoaZAAPAAA

Lopez.7369:

It’s really not. A bunker guardian is completely different than a tanky warrior.

I think the celestial D/D ele fulfills a lot of the same rolls as a bunker guard though. While putting out more DPS.

Lopez.7369:

Bunkers aren’t tanky DPS. You’re thinking of bruisers.

The line between the two is so blurry with the advent of strength runes.

Well if the TOL is anything to go by … a comp with 3 bunker-ish warriors can beat an established, coordinated team.

Having soldier helm/chest/leggings with the rest being zerker is a great mix of offense and defense.

Having the right utilities, reaction time and positioning is much more important for surviving as a thief. We’re not meant to face tank damage, and if we build to do that, we don’t do enough damage to be of any use. For a power build anyway.

Best advice for thief outside of sPvP is to start a bit tanky, regardless of your build. As you become more comfortable, build for more damage.

In sPvP, go Berserker Amulet or go home.

There was a thread earlier where someone had done the math, by the gist was:

If you have a reliable way to stack might (5 point SA trait, Power of Inertia, or Sigil of Battle), Strength Runes were superior. Otherwise, Runes of the Pack were better. Not to mention cheaper.

Of course this is all different after the Strength Rune nerf.

In general, Strength, Pack, Ogre, and Pirate are all good DPS runes in a PvP environment. I’m sure there are more, but those four are the more common ‘meta’ runes used.

Stop running Shadow Arts traits.

Take off the training wheels.

Step into the light.

Problem solved.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAV8al0Mp7plOxyJ8PNBNBt9wbQE8OMfpMaFAA-TZRBwAReAAD3fQzFAAwBB4xRAAA

Here is / was the meta Pistol Whip build for sPvP.

A lot of WvW thieves seem to run Signet of Shadows. That’s fine for long distance running, but you will get a lot more mileage out of the other signets while actually in combat. It’s not that difficult to swap signets out before a fight either.

A big part of using S/P is learning to pre-cast Pistol Whip and Stealing/Infiltrator Signeting to your target to get that instant stun and follow up damage. It is very hard to avoid when used this way. Its the same concept as doing a mug/back stab.

D/P thieves have a natural advantage over really any other kind of thief, which means you have to out play them. Staying mobile with sword #2 and your Steal/Signet/Shadowstep plays a big part in avoiding a lot of back stabs. Dodging at the right times is important too. Really though, any Thief vs Thief fight comes down to reaction time and mechanics. If you have played D/P enough, you should be able to anticipate the stealths and back stabs and react accordingly.

I really recommend switching your traits up, you aren’t taking advantage of most of them with your weapons. Your 2 points in SA are wasted on a build that doesn’t stealth often. Vigorous Recovery is better when used with Withdraw, and Assassin’s Reward is overall a bad trait. If you want to run S/D, Acrobatics is a great trait line to complement it. For S/P however, I really recommend a Trickery build.

Also, use your Short Bow liberally. Too many thieves use it only for mobility or zerg fighting. It does good ranged dps, initiative free, and Cluster Bomb does REALLY good dps if you land them regularly. Especially at melee range.

In WvW, I run S/P nearly full zerker, with only my helm/chest/legs being soldier pieces.

Beginning last night, the Temple of the Silent Storm sPvP map has been having a lot connectivity issues with seemingly everyone. I myself have experienced an inordinate amount of lag, and have watched at least half of both teams disconnect throughout the match. All the while, people are complaining about the lag on that map.

As of this post, there are about four threads in the sPvP forums addressing this very issue. It is not an isolated incident, and has been going on for nearly 24 hours now.

Could someone please look into this matter?

Thanks in advance.

Disabling/enabling auto attack is weapon specific, you can have it on for one set and off for another. Just ctrl+right click the skill. This can also be done for utilities, a good candidate for this is “For Great Justice”. When on auto attack, it will activate on cool down as long as you are attacking something.

As Shikamaru said, thieves with auto attack can be at a disadvantage. I have at times AA’d out of stealth instead of backstabbed due to timing. Or you will Backstab immediately upon entering stealth and hit them in the face, doing less damage.

With weapons with long auto attack animations like sword, it can throw your timing off and your other skills will be delayed or not activate because you were in the middle of an attack animation. Disabling auto attack gives you greater control and you’re less likely to mess up your rotations, at the cost of pressing the one key more often.

I have short bow auto attack on. When you’re cluster bombing, having the auto shots going while you wait to detonate your bombs really ups your DPS. However, it might also pop you out of stealth if you’re timing is off. Also, retaliation/confusion is an issue too, especially for thieves.

I usually leave Melee auto attack off, unless I’m PvEing.

D/D is an inferior weapon set in sPvP. It can do just fine in WvW with traits invested in Shadow Arts.

You’re better off running D/P, S/P, or even S/D in sPvP. Preferably with meta trait and rune set ups.

Rewards are nice, but some players play PvP for the sake of PvP. It’s an aspect of many games that often doesn’t need a carrot on a stick; the reward is good gameplay, improving as a player and winning.

If everyone’s accounts we’re reset tomorrow and we all had to start from scratch, I would still come back and do PvP. I imagine a lot of the PvPers loyal to GW2 would as well and not really care that much.

How many PvE players would be ok with that though?

ITT: Players serious about introducing more hard counters, and balancing for WvW.

Stealth mechanics only seem overpowered when players don’t know how to deal with them. Learn more, complain less.