Guild Wars 2

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZEQJAVWn8MB9OhVOBGOBkmildCbLAUbOQdvlZwPYOB2ArgA-TxiFABU/AASSZAd6KW7CAoo6A8pEMSVeyZ/BAOCAHp0TgDBApAKXnF-e

Great Job Karl. If you would please just make ONE additional change it would be to remove the damage component from impaling lotus grand master trait or prevent that damage from breaking stealth.
I’ve lost count how many times I’ve lost stealth because I dodged too close to an enemy.

Also the 7% havoc master should affect condition damage to keep things fair!

Karl how about instead of increasing the effectiveness, just give us protection and keep them with the standard weakness. Or maybe stability.
I do agree though that condi DD thieves need to be a little stronger and the additional condition damage would be very appreciated.

Karl for the record I think you should give both on weaken. Condition damage does such little damage compared to white damage. It’s more challenging to deal full damage in pve AND pvp. Cond damage that’s not removed SHOULD deal more damage than white damage. Or maybe have ferocity affect Condition damage crits?

Oh, how about instead of those projectiles on the GM Daredevil dodge we are given a random venom or two with max charges? That would synergize nicely with a shadow specialization!

I really enjoyed playing a balanced condition thief over this last BWE. My build was Trickery/Acro/DD with weapons being dagger/dagger x2 with end on swap, carrion spvp set, rune of krait, sigils of agony.
Utilities were poison, shield block skill, that 60s evasive initiative gain skill, and the new elite skill. and signet healing skill.

I found that in duels I annoyed a lot of opponents because I was evading a lot between a mix of d/d #3 skill and dodge (basically the same thing) while stacking conditions.
UNFortunately I can’t say I was overpowered as there seems to be incredibly high condi removals and healing from the other classes.

I could survive against 2 people for a short amount of time but lost a lot of my escapability because I would usually dodge after using cloak and dagger. Unfortunately with the new lotus dodge, it breaks stealth.
I would think it might be overpowered to increase evasive on #3 d/d skill but I think it would be nice to not lose stealth when dodging. Problem is I really enjoy the extra healing that 3 hit damage gives on my healing signet. It’s kind of a trade off. I would say if anet moved that damage to condition damage it might be a fair tradeoff. Maybe anet can introduce a new condition that is fairly useless on its own but takes precedence on condition removal so like it is removed instead of a more valuable condition you’re trying to stack on the opponent. That’d be nice to help be atleast a little effective against condi removal bunker builds.

Also, beserker warriors consistently critting for 14k destroyed my balance spec despite all my dodging and evading. The ranger also is nearly unkillable in 1v1 duels with their very strong healing capabilities. I literally dueled this ranger for 30 minutes straight until my hands cramped up. I also lost consistently to the new engineer.

So in 1v1s I was fairly middle ground even as balance spec I was being completely owned by some classes where I faired decently balanced against others. In SPvP I seemed to have an easier time than duels.
I believe that endurance thief should actually steal an opponent’s endurance. Maybe set it to 25 endurance + whatever the opponent has up to 50 (so maximum 75)
I think 1 evasion every 3 seconds for a grandmaster trait is not good enough, maybe bumping it down to 2 second cooldown would be a bit more balanced against the rest.
I also agree that the new elite is too difficult to fully complete. I’d give up the 2 second daze for maybe a stun or just add a root component to the daze. or maybe start with the knock up into the air.
Lastly, I think it’s time to bring Dire gear into SPvP as condition damage still seems to be generally underwhelming still.

I didn’t so much enjoy that I had to crit in order to proc weakness, It seems like the 1st line of traits don’t generally help condi builds very much.
I hope this feedback helps.

The real question is whether it stacks with sigil of paralyzation. If so then we’re looking at over 3 seconds of tactical strike…

Domey, I’m sorry, so one sigil of paralyzation will round the stun to 3 seconds for tactical strike in wvw? is that correct? I saw a patch note around oct 15th of 2013 said daze durations were fixed or something and I wasn’t sure how it applies to us.

Hi Guys, So I’ve been out a whole year and have come back. I see that my S/D build has been largely unchanged but I’ve been hearing about changes to Daze duration so I’d like the straight answer from today’s standard.
1. Does Tactical Strike still last 2s in WvW?
2. Does Tactical Strike still round to 3s in WvW with Sigil of Paralyzation? does Sigil of paralyzation still even affect daze?
3. If no to #2, does rune of mesmer work then for tactical strike? Does it round up to 3s?

I appreciate it!
Thanks

I agree in that mug is too strong. At the very least it should be a t3 major trait or make it non-crit damage.
I also agree flanking strike needs a buff and a fix. Heart seeker is fine as is. I would agree with the dancing dagger change is damage was tuned to compensate so that it becomes more of a utility. Body shot should be a pboe and aoe blast effect.
Venom charges should go back to only using one charge per attack which will allow multiple applications through cleave pierce and bounce for only 1 charge.

0/20/30/20/0 is my flavor s/d. Lose a good bit of damage but your attrition value goes through the roof.
I too have been s/d since the beginning.

Karl McLain.5604:

The charges are actually no longer reduced if you receive a ‘Miss’ notification or are just swinging your weapon out of range. They’re still removed if you’re blocked/evaded/obstructed (combat misses, essentially). They also used to remove if they were on a projectile that lasted too long, or on non-attack skills such as Caltrops or Smoke Bomb. All in all, venoms and other charge-based attack bonuses have been improved and made much more reliable.
-Karl

I’m sorry Karl but I heartily disagree. Before, each bounce from my shortbow would only use one charge. Allowing me to really maintain good CC especially since DURATIONS don’t stack on certain venoms. Now arenanet has made it so a charge is used per bounce, severely reducing the amount of applications of venom. This MIGHT have been acceptable if durations stacked (i realize spider and skale do stack in duration) AND if the venom share range was increased but now you’ve effectively removed any incentive from using a venom share support build. P.S. I know you also fixed the whole venom share on gates/invuln supervisors trick.

There is only one build left for me now with my thief that hasn’t been nerfed into uselessness and even then the #3 ability has been broken in forever.

I would suggest if you have a problem with mass duration stacking on CC abilities, don’t make them charges of on next hit as opposed to a buff that has a chance to proc on next hit and let us have multiple venoms up at a time.

Make venoms provide a passive chance to proc on hit (say, 16% for drake and snake, 8% for devourer, 4% for basilisk, 32% for Spider when traited) with no icd. This way we can benefit more but randomly from cc venoms without constantly renewing duration but also not stacking it rediculously long in burst. Increase aura range to 900. Reduce base venom leach but increase power coefficient so its weaker when lower power but stronger with higher power. Deadly arts t1 trait applies 4s might per proc.

No change to revealed buff.
Make back stab a double hit so toughness applies twice. Same for CD

Reduce init cost on #4 skill for all weapons by 1 unit but reduce damage to compensate.
Allow for trait that increases short bow range to 1200 (t1 shadow arts)

Make mug non critable or reduce damage. Make steal a stun breaker but don’t allow it to be used while channeling.

Buff pistol main hands. Make body shot a blast effect centering you and or ur target.
Fix or replace flanking strike.

P.s. check out our latest Christmas wvw videos in our forum thread

Should make basilisk also steal a boon and make it unblock able.

Honestly I’d be happier if they increased the range, nerf the duration .5 seconds on each but made the durations stackable on all venoms. Would also be nice if I could process life leach on more than one poison at a time. Would be nice if we had a heal that counted as a venom too.
But mostly I’d be happy with increased share range.

Li disagree. Most would say they avoid venom share builds because of the range. So in order to maintain build balance among thieves best to make it viable with increased raNGE.

Or since basilisk is weak by itself in comparison with say Moa. Add a boon removal to it.

I agree. I would be very content if it was a 900-1200 range like most other support buffs. It would provide incentive for more thieves to go support instead of GC burst thereby reducing thief OP QQ.
I would also like to see them fix it so venoms scaled on power like they actually stated and would like to see venom durations stack better.
I understand the issue with that though because that’s a lot of duration with shared poisons so let’s switch basilisk to 4 or 5 charges of a random condition. (Blind, immob, weakness, chill, cripple, all the non dmging ones or make them all dmging ones like bleed,fire, confusion.)

Merry Christmas from Unlimited! I am Nighthound, father of the supply camp cap prevention tactic. For all you potential recruits, that’s just one little piece (that’s since been fixed) in our arsenal of strategies and tactics that put us at the forefront of the metagame.
Do you have the skill and thirst for WvW EPIC fights that we do? Transfer to Fort Aspenwood and run with us to find out!
ugmrz.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54bkD-3Nr0

Simple balance adjustment. Make all p/p projectiles trigger off a combo field 100% that way VS has potential to be more powerful than just a damage buff and keeps the ArenaNet concern over spike DMG low, promotes teamwork for big numbers, and makes unload worth it in a hybrid sense over just pure white DMG. Condition thieves could rn p/p with the right combo fields go work off. Same goes for power builds with p/p.

P/t/v with 0/20/30/20/0 stats and s/d make for an awesome tank build for thieves if you build it right.

You can do amazing heals and support and damage with the proper venom share build.

Make body shot a target table aoe blast. This will create stealth viability for p/p that will make for great support builds and condition DMG builds without sacrificing the pure DMG from unload.

Here is a simple and effective solution. Make body shot a targetable blast that does DMG and 2 stacks of vulnerability. This will create stealth viability for p/p which allows for condition damage viability without touching unload which could make a great finisher.

Ignore “same” he has no clue what he’s talking about. I run a balanced s/d spec and murder everyone. Takes skill.

Particularly with this ability because it includes a melee attack. I find that 25% health stealth gets broken because I had been channeling cloak and dagger. So let’s make cloak and dagger hit but not renew stealth if you are currently stealthed.

Cheers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54bkD-3Nr0&feature=g-upl

Random Weirdness.6750:

Kitono.9152:

Karmagetti care to give details?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Perma-stealth
pretty much that in its entirety was what happened :p Although in our case, it wasn’t a prevention of a supply camp being taken, it was he was in the middle of all of us killing off our siege (he even blinded me once)

Just wanted to elaborate really. It’s been real fun the last week and last night’s battles were really fun and intense, much better than what we’ve had in the past

Cheers from Unlimited

Karmagetti care to give details?

Nighthounding TCers at supply camp in yak borderlands all night long.

Get rid of combo crit chance and damage

Merge slowed pulse with pain response trait. Merge fleet of foot with fleet shadow.

New trait: signets passive remain on use and activated signets provide stun breaker
Or:
Activating a signet provides 2s stealth instead of 2 init.

Replace random utility line being refreshed with using a utility from one line refreshes 1 or 2 random utilities from the next line. This may or may not include signet heal or basilisk poison

I love the increased short bow range

Regen for allies on stealth should be combined with condition removal on stealth.
Condition damage and duration should be one trait line and steal/power should be another.
Why have steal (melee) on a condition (ranged mostly) stat?
Regen o. Stealth should stack duration or at least renew duration.
Movement speed while stealth should combine with swiftness on kill.
Reduce cool down internal on stealth on falling DMG.
10% damage when over 6 initiative is pure crap. Suggest any replacement such as 5% of precision becomes vitality (this will also reduce glass cannons)
Blinding powder at 25% health can do more harm than good if it goes off as you channel cloak and dagger. Replace trait with tier 2 minor and make tier 2 minor give 2 init when using a stealth ability.
New trait idea: reduce all offhand initiative requirements by 1.
New trait idea: revealed also grants retaliation
Increased steal range should also decrease steal cool down by 5s and make it unblock able.
30pt acrobatic traits are lackluster.

Lol almost every single one of those response numbers is an opinion
Culling wasn’t spoken of and that’s a universal issue. AFAIK that is the only thing devas have promised to fix. Guess what? Even that wont stop me from doing what I do and that’s stopping 40+ zergs from capping supply camps. Its easy to count with coordinated gameplay and is what makes thieves useful in their own way in wvw. Just like mesmers with portals, guardians with walls/sanctuary, eles with aoes, etc etc.

Arenanet themselves said that zergs are actually the weaker strategy compared to separate squads running tactical missions while coordinating with other commanders.
You havent seen the ele bunker build? My comparison to other classes was to prove that we are not most OP if other classes can straight up beat us in 1v1

1. Every time you complain in the forums, a fairy dies.

2. Thieves are balanced until otherwise admitted by the devs. They too play this game in all aspects and so they don’t really need to hear your thoughts on what is and isn’t balanced. If you discover something that isn’t working right mechanically, submit a bug report.

3. Thieves have one of the lowest starting HP and stealth is our only real defensive ability. If your enemy is invisible then learn to fight blind. This is also a feat you can acquire in dungeons and dragons 3.5 edition.

4. Thieves are indeed most powerful when they catch an enemy unaware. The only time I can beat a well played guardian or Mesmer is by catching them by surprise.

5. If you are being blown up in pvp, try gearing and speccing more defensively. Glass cannons have no right to complain.

6. Wvw camp cap prevention is a viable tactic and should be highly encouraged to punish zerging and provide more benefit to coordinated and skillful play. I lost count on how many times i have prevented a cap to give my guild enough time to come wipe out the enenemy.

7. Please let’s stop the mass genocide of fairies!

Yeah every time I stealth I get 2k+ HP back not to mention extra heals from heal skill. I love my non burst thief build. It doesn’t reek of OP but almost always wins.

I highly encourage anybody on FA to roll with us unlimited [ULTD] some time for fun WvW using well developed tactics at the forefront of the meta game! Enjoying this weeks matchup, win or lose I hope to see Yaks again in the near future.

I’ve done this to smaller groups with 0 culling factored in.

Cheers from Unlimited
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54bkD-3Nr0

Cheers from Unlimited
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j54bkD-3Nr0

There are ways to counter the strategy so no need to make changes.

Dagger storm for big zerg PvP. Thieves guild for small PvP. Blinding powder is a good emergency stealth and initiative on regen signet is also a personal favorite. Just make sure you get that movement speed signet for wvw. Honestly defensive utilities are way more important.

Also nothing is easier than using cloak and dagger on your downed opponent and then stomping him. Not even blinding powder. I’ve got videos kitten d killing and stomping people in the middle of groups of 30+ in wvw. Got video of soloing 5v1. Even have video of ruining the day of some EB jumping puzzle campers after the dark room. I doubt you will find a thief more enthusiastic about the profession. Lol. I will be eventually be practicing other weapon sets so as to maintain flexibility but nothing makes me happier than S/D atm.

Bazel you will have a good time with sword dagger if you have skill. Its got mobility, condition removal, dazes, stun breakers, and cone aoe damage at the cost of the difference in back stab damage. That is why sword main is better than dagger main. Because it allows for better reacting to and controlling your opponent.
I laugh at p/p and D/d thieves and generally find p/d skilled thieves to be my only comparable competition.

MrBig. You’re wrong. I just tested in in Mists and my tests that I did before are still in effect. I even frapsed it, parsed it, stretched it out in slow motion. The size of my clips are conclusive.
There is a “Hard Cap” on the duration of the daze. Both the 33% increased daze duration and the 15% increased stun duration increase the duration of this daze attack to the maximum duration of the cooldown timer of stealth.
Essentially, that 18% more from rune of the mesmer is waisted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aik9kHFybM&feature=youtube_gdata

Mrbig you’re wrong about the sigil unless they just tested it. I ran tests on the sigil a couple weeks ago.

Op has the right idea Nd MrB build is OK although I WvW a lot so prefer reduced falling damage over mug. The only thing JD change from mrb build besides that are sigil of choice and rune sets.
I would go with rune set of divinity for more balanced stats and 15% stun duration on main hand with sigil of air, accuracy, fire, or rage on offhand. Utilities bigz use is alright for spvp but in wvw I have a big success with blinding powder, roll for init, and 25% MS Skgnet.
I too am nigh undefeatable most of the time even when outnumbered. Though I have a bit more balanced stats and get just as many kills.