Guild Wars 2

nah I had before, back when the cost of dye was much higher than it is now.

While finding many of the colors of dye at my disposal, I had decided to try out a pack of this. from what I had discovered with this if from list of 25 options of dye that can be obtained from this, 6 are the new set and the other 19 seem to be a very common selection of dye.

This is either common quality dye or a selection of what is the very common options of rare dye (that are worth at most of 1.5g each from the trading post). This available selection has made this the first item off of the “Black Lion Trading Company” that I feel like I was robbed by.

For $10 or 65-70g for 400 Diamonds, this makes an investment for this dye very expensive. So expensive that at the very least, common dye from this is not what one would expect to receive from this. In addition to this, unidentified dye often hovers around .5g each, allowing one to buy 167 unidentified dye for the price of 5 on the black lion trading post.

Overall this selection of dye needs a very large overhaul to keep up with the standards of the rest of the items available on the BLTC. Without it, the only thing Holiday about this exclusive item is Holiday disappointment, much like receiving a pair of socks in an over sized box for Christmas.

I am curious about joining your guild, is there anyone that can contact me in game and answer a few questions?

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/free-transfers-to-medium-populations-worlds/

Has Sorrow’s Furnace listed as one of six North American servers to transfer to.

I have this same problem as well and want to move to the same server also.

I enjoy the game still but am starting to get a little bit bored myself with it. Right now, I am making new characters once one hits level 80 due to the major lack there of content at the end of the time. Right now the end game content includes kill 3 dragons, do a couple of dungeons, or do one of the few non broken meta events in the orr maps, followed by sitting on your hands until they all reset. There is more end game content from completing a final fantasy game.

Also while each patch fixes one broken event, it seems to break 1-2 more and from this has no progressed much of anywhere since the day of release.

All I’m saying is, complaining doesn’t get us anywhere, so spend the time you would have complaining trying to master your class. If mastering your class and attunement dancing is too hard for you, I’m afraid it’s time for you to re-roll. I’m not saying this to be hard, but to end your misery.
If elementalists get buffed in a year or w/e from now, then you can move back ^^

The problem is while most are far from mastering one of the most complex professions in the game, some of the very high impact in regards to what specific play styles are all forced had just taken some heavy alterations in a detrimental way.

It is not the fact that everyone would like to use whirlpool, its the fact that there is nothing else that is available to use and while all of the normal attacks and other Utility abilities while under water either do not scale well or at all, one of those few that had a fairly reasonable cooldown still offered a reasonable amount of damage, dispute the fact that you are forced into it in the first place.

One of the other abilities that I myself playing as a support based Elementalist have a bit of a problem with is the glyph of renewal, while before this was only useful if I was unable to keep people up when they had gone down (most of the time from careless actions like standing in fire) I could use this to pick them back up. Well this is no longer the case so while I am limited to only 3 abilities that I can choose from in the first place for support (Glyph of attunement, storms, and arcane wave for the water combo effect), I am now limited to 2, while it may not seem that this is that big of a deal to most people, it is very heavily detrimental on how a support Elementalist plays.

While some of these nerfs may be justified in some cases, most of them being in comparison to other Elementalist’s abilities, at this time it is very unnecessary and poorly thought out. With how the class is currently laid out, it needs more repairs than any other profession that I have played so far now (I am working on my 6th level 80, with warrior and necromancer as the last 2).

Breaking a profession that is already nothing but a combinations of dysfunctional abilities/traits, an over use or abusing the few that do work, and some people in many cases exploiting the few bugs with the class to make an advantage for themselves is only from what I can see as, done by very poor management within ArenaNet themselves (From how it appears, there is no team working on this profession, while the rest of the professions have a dedicated team). The current removal of key features that the profession had will only drive away the few who play the profession as it should be played and not abusing portions of it and/or exploits.

The problem is that there are little to no meta events right now and the few that are in the game cycle between which are working and which are broken during each patch, so people are often stuck in a chain on which few dynamic events do work.

Once there are more meta events and people cannot do each of them and they sit on their hands for a few hours until they reset to redo the cycle. But instead have to choose which ones they can do because there are several happening at once, a stronger community will be built. But until then they only community right now is very small and often around the instances for people who do them all day every day, or in guilds.

Right now I would not mind much of any of this aside from the permanent history changing events, while events that would change the world or a full map based on what happens for a long amount of time, I would not mind. The flaw of this is each server would have its separate results, so if you want to see an alteration to what has already changed, you need to move servers.

Although if you mean that it only has one way of it happening, than its really not that exciting, basically it would turn into a 1 time deal just as leveling is and lose the excitement within a week. I would suggest instead of this concept, move into a 1 day, 3 day, 1 week, 2 weeks and 1 month events that alter the world based on the results, this will make the cycle of maps and the world feel like it is always flowing if each major event such as this can create a completely different experience each time you run through the world. What I mean by this is, you can create more than one character of the same exact story, race and profession and go through the same zones and it will feel different each time that you experience it.

I just see whats in the game stretched so far already most of the time that it is fairly hard for me to call it something reliable to work with in order to find out some of the questions like this. For example 5 random people make the difference in a fight with an elder dragon… 5 random people… but basically to the point where the dead have to die and a very small force taking on an elder dragon, but they both still have to die for the game to continue on.

Once more this is why I am asking for some lore information on them, I can see how they seem to work myself in the game, however this is not always the case on how they are supposed to work in the games. If it is in the game and it is hostile you need to feel that you can kill it somehow, otherwise it would make people very upset.

This is however not what I am asking about, I am trying to find out how it lore-wise supposed to be, this is why I am posting in the lore sub-forums and not the general forums.

arcqe.6734:

I have never seen any information stating that the only ways to kill a troll is to burn them.

I’ve also never seen any information stating they’ll fully regenerate into a new troll if you dismember them.

Like Tuo said, they just regenerate slightly faster than other races. Beside that, nothing special has been stated about them to my knowledge.

That is common troll knowledge as in basically what R.A. Salvador defined for them (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Troll) This is why I am asking for lore behind them, if there is none (like right now) than its what I have to go by. Yes, the forgotten realms trolls are not the same trolls in this game, however it is the “common” lore for the species and how it works if there is none that exists currently. This is why I am asking for some source of info on this.

(also, I’d like to point out regarding your sig the class is ranger, not hunter)

I had not noticed this, ill change this now =), thanks!

You you expect him to be made from living dragon parts?. I for one don’t really expect to see Primordus walk up to Zhiatan and say “Here take my arm, ooh by the way don’t lose it.”.

Unless Arena decides to go reconfirm if the concept for the art is not the concept for the dragon and art, we may never have a clear picture.

There was a female NPC in Snowden Drifts running around in short shorts a T-shirt and no sloes on while in the middle of a archery range… that one left me speechless for a good while.

Aye in that personal storyline mission, they had been Zhaitan’s risen trolls, but i dont understand how he could raise them if when they are dead they should be nothing left to actually raise, save ash and bones.

http://www.arena.net/blog/inside-the-collectors-edition-making-of-gw2-book

The last picture on this page talks about Zhaitan being made up of other massive dragon parts. While this is the idea for the concept art, it was still the concept that the art that was modeled for Zhaitan.

It used to be on the wiki for a while but has since been removed, ill see if i can find one of the interviews that had it.

Zhaitan was supposed to be made from dead dragon parts, so I’m not terribly sure if it is the real Zhaitan you fight considering what you do fight was never alive in the first place or if we even fight the real Elder Dragon or just a shell. if there are more than 4 expansion for this game that come out, I’m sure that Zhaitan will be the next, the fight for him seems to me like it is very misleading as what the Elder Dragon actually may be.

I am thinking that Zhaitan is a small dragon that manipulates the parts from risen dragons to form the body that you had fought. No one stated that the Risen Elder Dragon has to be as big as what you fight.

Tuomir.1830:

They’re big, they smell bad and they have faster regenerative capabilities than humans do. That’s about it.

I know about big, small bad, and fast regeneration. Also if you put burning on them they die much faster than normal things with burning on them (seems to cancel out healing and do 2-3 times damage when it is on them). So as i said before, I would really like to see the lore behind them, if its the common troll knowledge or something else entirely.

This would also sum up a few things like when you “Kill” them, do you actually kill them or are they just down but not out?.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

It’s also mentioned in the sylvari storyline, level 22 vigil step. As well as various interviews and the like.

I had remembered this but was unable to remember which portion of the story this had happened in, I only remembered that it was another of my many play through Sylvari and had wanted to point that out, but was unable to remember which =).

But basically in a nutshell for anyone who had not heard what they said (many had not), the vigil Sylvari told the “other people” (will not specify who based on spoilers) to stand back because the Sylvari cannot be corrupted.

In the mission “Undead Detection” I came across a few risen trolls, now I would not mind this in most cases, however with the lack of lore around trolls I had been under the impression that they had used what is common troll lore of incineration was the only way to actually kill them, otherwise they will always regenerate themselves (otherwise if they are dismembered, a new troll will form from from the parts in addition to regenerating).

So if there are risen trolls, how exactly would they work and is there any additional information that I can find on trolls in this game?

Ryld.1340:

Team support utilities:

Glyph of Storms as earth I would also stick under this because of the AoE mass blinding it does.

I had not known this, had to run out and test this, it appears it is a chance based area of effect, Before I edit my post I want to verify if it is or is not chance based =).

Update – It appears it either proc based or else it has a set duration in which it will proc, however the time frame of what it works does not appear to be set so it looks like it may have a high proc chance.

Next I will move onto heals, while having so much group support from both the air and water builds, it is hard to imagine that there is no heal for anyone but yourself.

I have come across a very large gap of just about everything with utilities that every class I have played has some form of and this has none of.

Team support utilities: You have two abilities to choose from. Glyph of Renewal to revive allies once they go down and Glyph of Storms with earth attuned for sandstorm, this adds what appears as a proc based or time based blind.

Fun or Gimmick based abilities: You have lots of them, all of your conjured weapons are this. You also have an area of effect attack based on your element and an elemental and while they could help on occasion, they are still really just fun abilities to play with and that is all.

Note – Most experienced players wont pick up conjured weapons anymore because it hinders their build instead of helping them.

Inflict burning: on top of every weapon having 2 or more abilities that inflict burning with fire, the fire build causing critical strikes to have burning and additional burning from attacks/making conjured weapons. You also have 4 utilities that cause burning.
This much redundancy is unnecessary, if I want something to be burning it will be burning… and that is WITHOUT these abilities. With everything else that is already in place, I can already light things on fire just by looking at it, I do not need to try to light the fire… on fire, that is just pointless.

Time for elite skills, while they are amusing, they are just not very elite. All 3 of these abilities fall under the gimmick based abilities that I listed in the utility portion as well. But while some people may believe that running around yelling “I have a Flaming Sword!” is very helpful to a group, it really isn’t. In addition, the burning that you get while casting the conjured great sword is once more overly redundant and unnecessary.

Last is the traits, just about all other professions have a close range damage, long range damage, defense based, support, and general based tree, this profession does not.

Fire is based on all around damage with both ember’s might and burning rage that do the same thing.

Air focuses to much on mobility and while I do not mind having a lot of mobility, it is not useful for much else aside from this. It does however cause vulnerability on critical strikes so that helps.

Earth has both close range and defense based traits forcing you to try and build to much with to little.

Water is your main support tree with a lot of condition removal with boon damage increase and damage increase if your target has vulnerability. This is very far off the mark, not only does water not naturally cause vulnerability but you either have to build for air, or waste another slot so glyph and arcane abilities cause vulnerability.

Arcane is the general based trait tree that has something for everything… but itself. While it may reduce the cooldown of arcane abilities, it is the only trait tree that does not increase the damage of its own abilities…

There is no versatility on builds in this setup there is also little to no focus on weapon sets (aside from the arcane tree).

This is the majority of holes that I have discovered thus far on my Elementalist, I am sure that I’ll find much more pretty soon. I will still play my Elementalist and enjoy some of what it offers, but I also play mine as Sylvari in order to fill in some of the gaps with useful abilities.

Side note – the other 4 level 80s I have right now are Guardian, Thief, Engineer, and Mesmer.

So this is now my fifth level 80 character ankittenep noticing that there is a great deal missing from it in comparison to all of the other level professions that I have at level cap right now.

So what I have found was that this profession doesn’t actually go through with any of the build play styles. What you have for weapon sets do not mesh well together and there is always one element that is significantly off with the design of the rest I will list more details on this as well.

Dagger Main hand:
Fire: Rush in and lots of melee based fire damage low cooldowns and fire field works well with itself.
Air: Short range, semi-fast main attack, blind and defense based shield to stun while hit.
Water: Long range main attack with short range cone based heal and short ranged area of effect attack.
Earth: Rush in and lots of melee based earth area of effect attacks causing bleeds.

Water is the only elemental base with a long ranged attack.

Air has a defense based ability that is designed to take hits and damage from the hits, however air is not built for defense and instead for both avoidance and mobility so this is a very contradicting ability in general.

Dagger Off-hand: (Short range)
Fire: Short range combo field with short range long cooldown burst.
Air: Distance closer and distance maker… Lots of mobility…
Water: Both defense and area based heal with a cleanse.
Earth: Area of effect stun and very heavy damage area of effect attack, both short range.

Water is the main one off here, while the rest still focus on closer range, water doesn’t focus on any range.

Focus off-hand: (Defense)
Fire: Combo field with short range area of effect (fire shield).
Air: Projectile shield and knockdown.
Water: Area of effect attack as a combo finisher and a chilling based attack.
Earth: Projectile shield, cures conditions and damage immunity.

Water is very far off on this one, it is the only set on the focus that is designed purely for damage. While I do not mind having one weapon build for it, making all other elements into utility or defense based skill sets is a little bit from the mark.

Fire as well has the only short range ability of this weapon set.

No Ranged based off hand. A flaming stick (torch) is to complicated for both an Elementalist and a Warrior to use…

Scepter Main Hand:
Fire: Ranged area of effect, boomerang area of effect and non projectile normal attack.
Air: Channeled rapid attack with a blind and secondary attack that do not break the channel.
Water: Area of effect heal/attack, second area of effect attack and rapid attack normal hits.
Earth: In a line based blind, armor booster that also attacks and rapid attack normal attacks.

This set is pretty decent, if anything fire is the one that is a little off on this, it is the only normal attack that has no rapid fire. It does however cause burning.

Staff:
Fire: Every attack has a lot of area of effect damage. A distance maker with an area of effect at the end as well.
Air: Multi-hit main attack, 3 control based abilities (blind, stun, and knockback), area of effect damage and stun. Area of effect swiftness boon to party (in range).
Water: Area of effect heals and attack with area of effect chill.
Earth: Area of effect damage attack, reflect projectiles, area cripple and immobilize.

For the most part the staff is not bad the earth ability to reflect projectiles is not bad to have at times but just doesn’t fit the build.

RakaNishoo.6071:

I have seen many posts that elem’s don’t do damage, or they are complicated to play.
I decided to make a test. I created an elementalist, went to PVP, chose traits and equipment. I decided to kill Svanir without using any evades, standing still and just pressing skills. What is more I decided to not use elite skill, nor any minions that would absorb damage. I decided to make this warrior-style.
Then, I decided to limit the elementalist to just 2 elements because that what warriors have available -> 2 weapon sets.

In the below screenshot you can see that:
1) elem deals damage (probably has even better dps than warrior)
2) elem doesn’t have to switch attunements to be effective
3) elem is not hard to play. (I just pressed few buttons while standing still -> doesn’t seem hard to me) (Granted -> it is hard to master, but any proffession is.)

How are you actually trying to call this reliant data for any sort of a test?. You realize that around 99% of the fights, nothing is actually standing still right?.

An Elementalist has trouble dealing damage due to the fire abilities dealing damage in a specific location when the target just walks out of it, so a 10 second AoE will generally get 2-3 seconds of damage on the target.

On top of that, the Earth (aside from bleeds not setup as individual stacking) is designed around AoE bursts, where the heavy damage abilities, your target just walks out of it as well.

In addition to these as well, most of the high damage fire and earth builds (D/D or S/D) you have to be in a relatively close proximity in order to use them. In some cases this is not a issue, but others you may die before you can ever use one of the abilities in that close of a range.

If you had actually has tried to level up your Elementalist you would see where the majority of the major problems are. You have many location based attacks but no way to keep your target in the location. You have great Utility attachments in concept… but don’t actually work really well in play. Almost all of the Utility slots are gimmicky with to many traits that cause burning/slow etc. stacked with on use utilities doing the same thing…. When most of the abilities on these attachments do this already. Not only do you have enough conjured weapons to supply a full team with their own weapon… but you do this while only using half of the options of conjured weapons available!.

When a Warrior as the other comparison of your test goes only has to hit a couple of buttons and the target either cant get away or has to dodge/CD. This does not apply to an Elementalist when your target can just simply…. walk out of your attack. This is why the damage is not so great and this is why they are hard to play.

There are 2 problems I see with it so far, first off its a bad link if you just click on it (need to copy&paste to go there). Seconds, there is a staff and sword/pistol.

But really the build doesn’t look to bad, I would suggest that you put points into Domination as opposed to Chaos this is for the 15% increased Illusion damage. The damage reduction is not bad, but your build is based around phantasms dealing damage and taking damage so the damage reduction on yourself is not as useful as you expect.

I dont find mounts to be a great idea, where I would like to have a speed bonus, I can never find it making any sense that there are more mounts than people in the world. From an RP perspective it kills the realism if everyone can have a mount. But I don’t care much for the RP based myself, to me it still kills most of the feel that the game has of the game if everyone can ride around on a mount.

The end game is based on very large scale dynamic events and the zones themselves being difficult to traverse through so it is often done with a team of people instead of one person on a mount.

Ok, so here is what I have come across many time with both Healing over time (HOTs) and Damage over time effects (DOTs).

Damage over time effects

Bleeds stacking damage: These work fairly well, aside from one major problem with them. The stack is total for all players, meaning that you can run an dungeon with a total of 2 engineers or 2 rogues and meet the bleed cap very easily on just about all fights. This also makes bleed damage a poor choice to build for with world bosses because you will just about never get your stacks of bleeds on the target.

Proposed Fix: Allow each player to have their own stacking effect of this or greatly increase the maximum stacks well past 25.

Poison stack duration: This doesn’t work well at all. If more than one player has a poison in their build (most building for condition damage do) the DOT effect will only affect the one person who applied it first on the target. In addition to this, the higher condition damage only affects the first person who applies this, so more than one person in a group who build for condition damage will not benefit this condition.

Proposed fix for stack duration: Add a stacking feature such as bleeds stacking or increase damage with its duration stacking also allow each player to have their own stack as well.

While this does work well for some builds on some professions, play styles such as the Thief’s dagger builds with venom do not well with this at all and often turn away people from using any venom (this as a problem as many others). This also significantly hurts the engineer’s elixir gun build for its very few damage abilities as well.

Burning stack duration: This also doesn’t work well for the same reasons that the poison does not work well.

Proposed fix for stack duration: Add a stacking feature such as bleeds stacking, while this does work well for some builds on some professions, play styles such as the Thief’s dagger builds with venom do not well with this at all and often turn away people from using any venom (this as a problem as many others). This also significantly hurts the engineer’s elixir gun and pistol build for its very few damage abilities as well.

[/b]Proposed fix for stack duration:[/b] Add a stacking feature such as bleeds stacking or increase damage with its duration stacking also allow each player to have their own stack as well.

Just like the poison, this may work with some builds, however the elemental takes a major hit with this build with just about all fire weapon sets.

Healing Over Time Effects

Regeneration: It has the same problem as the Damage over time effects but it is much worse. The scaling is terrible on this ability, it is a very slow healing pulse and the more health you have the less effective it becomes. In general it is not reliable for most support builds to revolve around this.

Every class has a support build that applies this to all party members and it does scale off of Healing. However it is a stacking duration so the first person who applies it, it will stack from that. so the person in the group who is built for more healing will have to apply it first otherwise it is not effective.

The only cases that regeneration will outlast a fight is on boss fights and when you get hit it is to hard for this to be useful. Where it is at right now, it makes most if not all support builds have a very limited utility to a team and worse as a solo.

Proposed fix: While the stacking duration can work in some cases on Damage over time builds, it will never work for regeneration. So my proposed fix is remove the stacking duration completely and make it into a stack similar to bleeds.

Almost all fights are far to short to make use of this and you often get a 30 stack regeneration on a fight that lasts for 5-10 seconds and while you may get a DOT on you during this, the regeneration effect is still to weak to even heal through the DOT effect due to its poor scaling.

Both Healing over time and Damage over time

Item sets: There are very few sets with either of these two or even both of these two.

Proposed fix: Add a build for Toughness/Healing/Vitality for players wanting to play as a tank/support playstyle. Also add a Condition Damage/Healing set as a build for hybrid players.

All Sigils: There are very few Sigils that benefit either HOT or DOT builds, the proc based Sigils will either proc off of hits or critical strikes, there are no Sigils that proc based off of Healing, HOT, or DOT ticks.

Proposed Fix: Simple, just add Healing, HOT and DOT sit based proc Sigils, also add more hit based Sigils as well so less people feel forced into playing Critical Strike based builds.

A correction, the +Power doesn’t seem to do much anymore (it did however at lower levels) now it is just +Condition Damage/Healing instead that affects turrets. I will have to test this will other builds as well to see if there is any change on the affect (The Rifled Turret Barrels doesn’t change the tooltip damage as well for example).

Turrets actually do scale with gear, they however do not scale with the damage of weapons, but do with the +Power, +Precision, and +Healing you have from gear. I am unsure if this is the case with +Toughness and +Vitality as well as I am unable to see my turret’s HP.

For the spec, go with Crit as the base, it is a good trait tree to build into mainly beacuse it has trait slots that are beneficial to all builds. You however cannot do much for your traits yet though, only 10 points into each tree limits you quite a bit right now.

There is no “Best” build for a Thief, there are builds that work better than others for specific reasons and there are also many that people tend to favor, such as a D/D Death Blossom playstyle. So for the time being, try out all the weapon sets to see which one(s) you mainly favor and then build for that thereafter. Also keep in mind that once you hit level 40 and buy the book, you will have a full respec from it as well.

Please keep in mind that the code of conduct specifically states this:

Do not submit “trolling” posts or threads. We define “trolling” as commenting in a manner intended to elicit overly strong negative and emotional responses for mere shock value, attempting to derail threads, persistently posting off-topic, or engaging in personal attacks on another forum member. Accounts made with the sole intent to “troll” will be terminated.

But also:

Do not spam. This includes bumping threads or making posts that lack content.

Deleting your prior post to repost it with no change is listed under the both of these.

The fact that the video was made to be a joke, he took is seriously, apparently believes every word that was said in the video…. Should be enough evidence that he really does not know what he is talking about, it also shows that he has no creditably in his initial post.

bwillb.2165:

First of all, that video was made before the heartseeker nerf. If the target itsn’t below 25% hp, it now does about as much damage as an autoattack.

Second, notice how often he’s missing? For every 5-6k attack there’s about 2-3 misses. That’s not efficient at all. It’s even worse on misses after the nerf.

Third, notice how he’s not alone? In every single one of those battles, someone else is doing most of the damage and some nice buffs and debuffs while he flounders around trying to LOOK OP.

That video is not proof of anything. It’s just some guy trying to be funny.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Don-t-post-suggestions-if-you-don-t-play-a-Thief/first#post180181

Right now my build is 0/30/0/20/20 .

I am running with a full Berserk set right now, I am working on my set with Power/Precision/Condition damage as well and my Magic find set. I have daggers for both builds and with each Sigil for damge that are in my inventory i swap with often as well and a Berserk Short bow / Sword also.

I swap my build/weapons around somewhat often depending what I feel like playing, but also my utilities depending on what I’m fighting and if I am in a party. But tend to stick with Shadow Refuge all the time however.

Right now my build is 0/30/0/20/20 .

I am running with a full Berserk set right now, I am working on my set with Power/Precision/Condition damage as well and my Magic find set. I have daggers for both builds and with each Sigil for damge that are in my inventory i swap with often as well and a Berserk Short bow / Sword also.

I swap my build/weapons around somewhat often depending what I feel like playing, but also my utilities depending on what I’m fighting and if I am in a party. But tend to stick with Shadow Refuge all the time however.

I used the crit version and it would happen often, so I just put it on both of my weapon sets to fix that problem. If that problem was fixed by now I’m not sure, but it wasn’t working last week.

Also, I prefer the crit version of the sigil, it helps on getting my crit over 80%, so this way it will proc the lightning far more often.

The Thief has fairly poor scaling all around, it is one of the only profession that is unable to solo a Veteran Giant in Orr, but it does not mean that it is all that terrible; if played well it can still do fine, there are just a few things that you cannot do, but this also means it just means that it is one of the harder if not the hardest profession to play well.

On world bosses, most of the solo PvE specs don’t work well at all, this is due to bosses only having a 25 stack bleed counter and poisons not stacking as well (this also applies to dungeon runs with other people who stack bleeds.

You can also build for good single target damage or AoE damage but not both at the same time. Death blossom for D/D is good AoE damage but the targeting is so sporadic that it is often not reliable. Short bow has great AoE damage and a Poison Field, however its single target damage is terrible. You can build a P/D build for AoE (range and throw daggers) or a P/P (rapid fire) for AoE using a Flame Sigil, however it relies on both your crit and a chance after you do crit, so its not reliable itself.

One thing to also consider is, many people on this forum post claim that they can take on 2-4 mobs at a time and while this is true, keep in mind that so can every other profession.

Pistol: While going into stealth, if a bullet is in transit, you will be unstealthed when it hits the target.

Stealth: Needs a timer on its diminishing returns effect.

Flanking strike: If you have swiftness, you will dash further than desired.

Flanking Strike Description: “Stab your foe in the back” on the description dose not move you behind your target if you are already behind your target, instead it moves you in front of the target. Either the ability is working incorrectly or the description is incorrect on it.

Basilisk Venom: Will occasionally go through the crowd control counter on bosses and still stun them. It will also occasionally not trigger the cc counter down on bosses.

All Venom effects: Will occasionally not trigger any effect when used with rapid firing attacks such as the Pistol’s “Rapid Fire” or the Harpoon Gun’s “Deluge”.

1 Handed Weapon Description: Weapons “With off-hand light.” is a hard to understand description to understand with the name, nor is it using correct English in its description. Saying “With no off-hand.” both is correct English and is less confusing to understand.

Yes, they do. They also stack with other might giving effects such as Strength Sigils as well.

I did this build around a week ago, what I have found from this build is around a handful of problems; First off its a 10 second build, meaning that its the duration your initiative lasts for, so if you cannot kill something in that duration of time, there is no countermeasure. Second the damage bonus you get from First Strikes is next to never active. Third, the damage bonus on the bow is deactivated when I swapped weapons. Fourth, you can kill a few very under geared people and or mobs quickly but not many, you have next to no escape tool with this build as well, you can dodge 2 times and pop a speed bonus, but most people have more ways to catch you with their weapon set alone than you have to escape with (or run with if you are chasing). Fifth, you need your target to have the undivided attention of something before you attack a good majority of the time, otherwise you will die before you get the chance to attack.

Basically, its another build to play with, but don’t expect much from it; Anyone build for Toughness, Vitality, or both will turn this build inside out, anything that is a Veteran or higher in level 75+ zones you cannot solo either. This build has nice burst, but its a very short lived burst.

In a nutshell, It is a fun build at first, but not my style.

I completely disagree with all of these suggested ideas.

Cloak and Dagger is made to leave your opponent vulnerable so your next opener hits harder. If you build for Shadow Arts, you can get might from stealth to make this more effective, but you can also get might on dodge from the Acrobatic build as well. On top of these you can get might and vulnerability on critical attacks. With the way it is setup, you can use this ability and deal a lot more damage than you normally would with your followup opener.

Flanking strike has a couple of pathing issues that do need to be fixed, I cannot argue that. But the ability itself is a more controlled dodge, if used correctly (this means timed correctly), you should never get hit. Also the damage from this hits more than 1 target at a time.

Shadow shot is a teleport with a blind and is spammable (The only spammable teleport in the game!). Between this and heartseeker your enemy can never get away from you. I dont see what is wrong with this ability, adding more to it would only make it to good.

Unload I find to be one of the best skills a Thief has. This hits 8 seperate times, each hit has a chance to crit and each hit has a chance to proc an on weapon sigil. If this ability had a high ability to bounce it would be extremely overpowered and the proc rate for the Thief on abilities would be nerfed.

Body shot is also fine, if you play alone it dosent work well and is the only ability for the Thief that is played like that. If you use this often, you will be playing a support build. A short build can also be used as a support weapon, however a shortbow is not useful on single targets such as bosses, so it is fine where it is at.

Shadow strike is the most effective escape ability in the game. It is a spammable, teleport from your target. On top of that, you also have Dancing Dagger and Cloak and Dagger. This is the icing on the cake for one of the best kiting skill sets in the game.

I enjoy my Thief and for the most part don’t see the problems that you have with it. I knew how it played and expected what I got when I started to play it.

I will however agree with you on some of the Venoms, with exception to Skale venom, they are not effective at all. Ice Drake and Devourer Venoms are setup for ranged abilities however dont last long enough to make them useful. Spider Venom applies a non-stacking poison venom 5 times….. Basilisk venom I have seen it go through the CC counter on bosses and still stun some of them, bit it is still a “Ultimate” slot ability and should justify itself for it. I also see the Venoms not apply frequently on multi-attack abilities (Such as the harpoon’s Deluge will not apply Basilisk venom most of the time).

P.S. PsionicDingo, The S/D build is a more evasive tanky build that is setup to also have the benefits from the Shadow arts trait tree.

You have a few ways of playing as a more tanky thief. These are setup as both weapon sets to compliment the builds and the builds themselves.

I’ll go over the weapon set initially before anything else:

Sword is very highly recommended, you can build for Sword/Dagger and have Both Flanking Strike to evade attacks and move around your target quickly evading attacks, but also have Cloak and Dagger to open up with an attack that either dazes or blinds your foe.

You can also build for Sword/Pistol and have a large amount of control against your foe; With Pistol Whip, you have a short ranged daze with a large range hitting attack after; With Headshot, you have a ranged Daze; and with Black Powder, you have an AoE blind. But keep in mind this build is not effective against bosses or more Veterans at end game zones (Also Black Powder is not effective against Dredge).

Double Daggers are not a great tanky build but still somewhat effective as well, With Death Blossom, you have a very small evasion window but hit very rapidly so it can make Signet of Malice not a bad choice as a healing skill. However, this skill is not effective against world bosses (Bleeds stack up to 25 times and your bleeds will fall off very quickly, so it will have to be reapplied very frequently).

Dagger/Pistol works slightly better for tanking, you can jump into the fray quickly with Shadow Shot and place down Black powder to blind nearby foes.

Next I Will go into builds;

One of the primary tanky builds is Acrobatics, this build is setup to have more health, health regeneration, initiation regeneration, and dodge frequency.

As a little bit of a surprise, Shadow arts is very helpful for a more tanky build. It builds for both health regeneration and damage prevention. Most of the build is setup to go in and out of stealth very often, However if you are trying to keep things in your general location stealth is only used for a very short time frame (Example: Stealth so you can blind or daze with your Sword).

Trickery can help in complimenting other trait categories with more initiative, a 7% chance to proc additional initiative, boons on stealing, and dropping caltrops on dodge.

Critical Strike can really just help with critical strikes giving back initiation, signet recharge rate and initiative.

Deadly Arts gives venom recharge rate and weakening foes on poison.

One thing you cannot is, even though you are more tanky, you have to play for preventing damage all together, if you get hit in later zones, it will still hurt very badly (a high health regeneration with toughness helps, but if you mess up some bosses will still 1-2 shot you).