Guild Wars 2

OpTIXy.6597:

I can donate 1 HoT key. PM me with a reason why should you receive it. Add a screenshot. Anything. I will chose on Sunday. I might give 2 if you surprise me.

StinVec.3621:

—This Is Not A Desire Post—

As for me, I’ve managed to again get some in-game time due to most family health concerns having passed for now. Once I clean up the huge mess I left my TP orders in, as well as take inventory (bad memory is bad), I will go back through these new pages and help with desires where I am able before going back to older ones. (As I am still without HoT, I regret that I cannot help with the many desires related to it. My apologies on that.) One thing I am happy to help with any time I am on is that I have also returned to helping provide ports in the Southsun JP and for anything needed within the Not So Secret Aetherblade JP. If anyone is need of assistance with those, just message me in-game.

Happy and safe adventuring, both in-game and out, to you all!
:)

Seems like that HoT key has a deserving recipient…

I’m going to start from the bottom of the list and go up.

-Cash Shop
Most games I’ve played don’t even have transmog charges. Increasing bank storage, more character slots; these are characteristics not of F2P games, but MMO games in general. It’s not only F2P games that have these items in cash shops. Most MMO games run cash shops in a similar manner. The cash shop is perfectly fine as is.

-Item Skins
Yes, many skins exist. Yes, the skins don’t really change much when you’re looking at masterwork weapons. One possible reason is because Arena Net wants to make you work for certain skins that you want. Giving you all the cool skins during your 1-80 experience, which is arguably an extended tutorial, would really reduce the amount of play time the game got. That’s one reason among many others for not having the skins change too much during the 1-80 experience.

-Gathering Tools
The permanent ones don’t use copper. So you’re flat out wrong there… lame. I imagine ArenaNet makes a small fortune off of those permanent tools; in the recent shared inventory slot sale, many people were asking for recommendations for what to store in these slots. It seems that certain permanent gathering tools from the cash shop were recommended fairly often. As you say in your last point, the Devs still have to make money, and the permanent gathering tools are a great way that a majority of the community has no problem with.

-Traveling
Navigating in the new zones can be particularly painful, especially if you are going from point A to point B for the first time, but ArenaNet had to strike a balance somewhere. These maps are more complex than the base game maps, and were meant to encourage exploration, and also made to make the jungle feel more threatening. The jungle is huge; in the base game, its easy for the character to thing themselves powerful, especially because everything is a walk in the park. These newer maps present huge maps with threatening verticality. The developers really wanted these maps to feel dangerous, and I don’t think many would deny that the first steps into these maps were fearful and exhilarating.

-Mounts
These maps aren’t big enough to warrant mounts, especially with how common way points are, and considering the amount of speed boost that every class has access to in form of weapon, utility, or trait. In fact, it’s ironic that you mention the word “boon” in a post that you complain about speed, because there is literally a boon dedicated to increasing a character’s movement speed.

-Traps
You seem to have this idea that wasting time is not fun. There are some people playing this game that like to stop and smell the roses. There are some people in this game that enjoy being challenged, instead of face rolling over all the content. There are some people in this game that want exploration that is actually risky and time consuming. If wasting time isn’t fun for you, perhaps video games are not the best use of your time.

Oh, and if traps are taking your group so long to complete that its frustrating, either there’s some miscommunication going on, or, as they say… “get gud”. I’ve never seen a trap in this game that was actually frustrating, unless it was part of a jumping puzzle, which aren’t huge parts of the game.

-Damage
Yeah, core Tyria let us roll over everything without any effort. Things practically rolled over at the sign of a breeze. Even the event bosses were “stand still and press 1 with a ranged weapon”. It was about time that I met enemies that actually posed a threat to me, rather than enemies that are just hanging around the environment just so I can hit them to appease to my hypermasculine need to hit things all the time.

This post came off a little saltier than I had hoped, but I’m fine with that. Your original post expresses opinions that are largely based on incorrect premises, so your induction for your conclusions fail you. Most of your reasoning is “wasted time is not fun” which is seriously ironic considering that this is a video game forum. It really just seems like you played this game for a month and started off searching for reasons to dislike it, because some of the items you present can be explained or understood with fairly little research and just some slight amount of mental energy on your part.

The worst part for me is you labelled these things as “glaring mistakes” instead of “your opinions”. 2+2 = -36 <- That’s a glaring mistake. What you have are opinions on ANet’s design decisions, not an answer sheet of all the mistakes they made.

A genuine question that I have- has the difficulty always been a concern? I remember completing the last mission fairly quickly after running through the story the first time, when HoT first came out. Found a full party, went in, did it and left. Never really seemed excessively challenging outside of the one or two times we had to reset, but we completed it and were happy with it.

I’m asking because it seems that the complaints have increased substantially in the past month. Perhaps I’ve just never noticed posts complaining about it, but it seems like a fairly recent development to me. Are the bugs that are always being mentioned a recent development?

People do dungeons daily because the achievement gives 5 gold for every 8 unique runs. If you want to run it, you should post to LFG and wait for a bit. Or you could join a guild aimed for newer players, or advertise themselves as a dungeon guild. People definitely still do dungeons.

Astralporing.1957:

Jubilant.7280:

The raiding community is more than willing to help Casuals get into raids, but they have to put in the effort and time to learn in order to become a better gamer.

Yes, that’s the core of the problem. You’re willing to help casuals, but only if that means they will stop being casuals.

You ask casuals to stay away from you, but in the end it’s you that should be kept away from them. Which, in the end, is not what this game should be all about. What you’re talking about is creating a split in the community. Any such split can only poison the game.

In the end, what really needs to happen is the exact opposite. We need to seek ways to make raiders and casuals to be able to coexist together without one side trying to force the other one to change.

I really don’t see that as the core of the problem. You’re saying that just because one is expected to learn something about the game, they are no longer casual? It makes perfect sense that to do raids, people who have no experience still have to learn it.
Raids are supposed to be challenging content, and anyone who walks into a raid and refuses to learn it is wasting everyone’s time or asking to get carried through it.

There’s nothing wrong with helping casual players become better at the game, assuming these casual players want to raid. If you don’t want to become better at the game and challenge yourself, then don’t raid. If you want to raid, you’d be willing to dedicate a certain amount of your time to learning these raids, and there will be resource like raid trainers who would very willingly and kindly help you with becoming a better player so you can finish the raids.

I haven’t looked too much into the new zones outside of doing the story, mostly because I’m not focused on them (working on finishing Bolt at the moment). However, I am extremely happy that it seems that ANet is able to learn from the complaints of HoT. For example, it seems that mobs are much more manageable than the Heart of Thorns maps, and these new maps are also much more manageable.

I’m also happy they were able to keep the flavor of their maps consistent; something I feel a lot of people miss is the fact that the story is never about us. The player character, from the start, has always been another character in the world of Tyria. Heart of Thorns maps were designed to show us how truly small we are, and how we really aren’t any sort of excessively powerful hero, and that many things in the world are bigger than us. The maps were beautifully designed to convey this idea. I think these new maps keep flavor very well in their own ways.

I feel that ArenaNet, although many people argue they were unable to deliver on what they promised, have delivered what they promised with HoT. People keep comparing LS3 to HoT, as if they are separate stories, but this is part of the expansion. Purchasing HoT purchases the continued living story updates, whereas someone who has not purchased the expansion will not have access to the new raids OR to LS3. What does this mean? Everything we are playing now, is still part of the HoT expansion, simply due to the fact that people who do not own the expansion are not able to play LS3.

For example, if I played the free game today, and decided to purchase Heart of Thorns, I would find it a remarkable amount of content! Many new legendaries, 8 new maps, several different raids, and so many masteries. It seems that they have at this point, the expansion is definitely worth the money, especially because of what it promises.

Comparing this game to other games strikes me as unfair, simply because ArenaNet’s design philosophies are so different from the philosophies of other games that currently exist. Lack of a gear treadmill, consistent story releases every three months that comes with a host of content and game updates, and consistently new raids and legendaries being added; this has always been the design philosophy of ArenaNet in Guild Wars 2, and I have no idea what other games have successfully followed a similar philosophy. Every other game I can think of follows a much more money-gated expansion mentality that releases huge amounts of content and then slowly dies down in activity, with spare patches in between to keep some semblance of relevance in the market.

Despite what quarterly reports say, I refuse to believe that ArenaNet is sitting on or has exceeded a Point of No Return, and I think they will find it in themselves to do well again, even if it takes another expansion.

If something like that jumping puzzle has “completely ruined your game experience”, I shudder to think what some of the harder jumping puzzles, like Not-So-Secret Aetherblade Jumping Puzzle will do for your gaming experience.

Jumping puzzles are really a thing you shouldn’t do when you get frustrated with them. If you find yourself frustrated try again some other time. I tried to do the mistlock observatory jumping puzzle a few days ago, got frustrated, gave up. Yesterday, I decided to attempt while waiting for a 40 farm to fill up, and got it first try.

I think it’s a brilliant idea for them to include hard raids. I enjoy pushing myself, and I think raids will be great for the game.

If you don’t enjoy hardcore content, don’t play it. That’s totally fine. If you want the armor then you’ll have to suck it up. It’s not like I remotely wanted to do map completion for a legendary weapon, but I kinda have to if I want one. It’s not like I want to want to spend time leveling this guardian to 80, but if I want to use him in WvW or PvE then I’ll just have to suck it up and do it, and find the way that makes it most fun.

Raiding won’t be as hardcore in this game as it might be in some other games, but it’ll be a good step for the game.

WvW people got changes in HoT. PvP players got changes in HoT. Casual PvE players got changes with fractals in HoT. Now, the players that are “hardcore” PvE can enjoy something a little more challenging instead of playing the game and then moving on due to the lack of challenging endgame content.

I came to reply to a certain debate in this thread, but it seems we’re well past that, so I’ll contribute some more to the current convo. Another tip I have against guardians is to watch the big skills. Medi guards are slow, and their gap closers are on long cool downs. It doesn’t matter if it’s a duel or roaming, using the terrain (or lack of) is a strong tactic. Most medi guards run two or three gap closers, and perhaps one pull and one snare. I’m thinking of the Gs sword/focus. Create distance when he uses a gap closer,
Or else he’ll get his burst off. Always bait out his cool downs before you attack him. If aegis is a problem, don’t go into meleeto remove it, use dagger 4 to remove it before using CnD +steal/infiltrator signet for a guaranteed stealth. Don’t rush the backstab either. Wait for a good moment, you don’t want to do it right as he gets a dodge off, but you don’t want to wait too long, or else his cool downs will be back up. Patience is just as importance as speed and efficiency, especially against guardians. Once he pops renewed focus (you’ll know this from his invulnerability), it means you’ve got him worried.

Another point that might be helpful is that as a thief, you have to be very unpredictable. Once you go into stealth, don’t wait the same amount of time everytim before you backstab; switch it up. You don’t have to use CnD every time you get close; sometimes, if you run him he might use a block or dodge, thinking you were going to stealth off of him. Forcing these skills puts you at a great advantage. Guardians tend to use their skills on cd, and they tend to have rotations. I play guardian often, medi gs sword/focus, my rotation goes something like leap in with gs3 and JI, use gs2 and gs4, use smite condition if I have a condition on me, use gs5 to pull enemy towards me, switch to s/f for sword 3 / focus blocking, and auto attacks until my great sword is off cool down. My greats word cool downs are usually off by the time I switch back, although the leap takes a little longer. If you can avoid the gs2 and sword 3, you’ve avoided all the heavy hitters.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

I commend Dahkeus for the tip on how to deal with Guardians, but that is not the problem here.

To improve your skill, you need to pay more attention on what you’re doing than what your opponent is doing because unlike the other professions, you make a mistake as a Thief…it’s over.

So let’s not focus on what the Guardian was doing, but instead, tell us what you were doing, what build were you running and what is your playstyle?

If you master the Thief profession, it doesn’t really matter who your opponent is.

I don’t agree with the idea that he should be more focused on what he is doing and less focused on the opponent. Also, he already indicated his build: d/d sb, 5/6/0/3/0. I agree, if you master the thief profession, it wont matter who are playing, but you have to outplay your opponent, and have knowledge of you opponent, otherwise you’ll get roflstomped. The advice given about guardians is exactly what the OP wanted, and included what he could do and what he can pay attention to about his playstyle WITH REGARDS to what the guardian is doing. Knowing a rotation and play style won’t mean a thing if the guardian blocks all your attacks and you don’t realize it because you are focused on what you are doing, and not what your opponent is doing.

In one thread, we see someone complaining about thieves being overpowered and having high survivability and damage. In another, we see people complaining about how thieves can’t stay alive. Oh, the joy of forums.

I guess I’m among the few that are looking forward to s/d when specs come out. Trickster looks so yummy. Guarded initiation with assassins reward also seems fun. I’m just worried about PvE, as it seems like all classes are getting super buffed. In fact, giving thief access to Mug, panic strike, and executioner in one line makes me excited by itself. Even after reading this, I honestly see no problems with the coming s/d thief, bunch of people overreacting and whining is pretty much what I see.

DarkSyze.8627:

Dave.6819:

Peow peow.2189:

@Klowdge, @ Davee

First of all, there is more then one build that gaurantees win on thief.

As an experiment myself and 4 friends all qued up in spvp kitten d/d thiefs. We roamed the map in groups of 2 with 1 guy holding home and literally 1sec comboed the enemiy team. Players were disconnecting because what we were doing was unstoppable, and simply overpowered.

Sure at the moment you dont see thief picked up in every battle, but give it a month and people will start noticing how strongly buffed the class has become in comparison to others, over the last few patches.

The first thing that must be done if we wish to have a good game, is to cut all weapon evades from the thief class, as they currently have enough evades through dodge rolls and utilities, as well as vigor.

The second step to making a more balanced thief, is to give each class that isn’t a thief a new ability. This ability will counter stealth for a few seconds. Lets say the thief is DP and spamming powder/heart seeker or DD with CnD. Well stealth lasts up to 5 – 10 sec, therefore we make a skill that reveals invisible units for 4 seconds on a 20 second cooldown. This skill will be called eye seeker and a hard counter to perm stealth builds. Every class but thief will have this as an optional utility.

The last step to rid the game of this Overpowerd character and to balance the class, would be to scale attack speed according to enemy armour. The thief currently puts out to much damage to fast, with a quick attack speed and 100% crits with hidden killer. If an enemy has high armour, the thief will then be dealt a frost effect after hitting from stealth, this effect would reduce attack speed per strike. The effect will stack up to 4 times, reducing attack speed by 25% each stack.

With these changes made, we have a more balanced meta with thiefs becoming a more challenging class to play, instead of the insta-win they are at the moment.

Thief and Mesmer is already the most challenging classes. (i tried every class and all of em were easy mode compared to these two). so yeea….. make it more challenging. ruin the game and make all thieves roll some cheesy rangers. u all just hate thieves so bad that u want em nerfed that no1 would even play it. oh and btw about ur “dd thief team”. any classes paired with 2 are unstopabble. i tried that on medi guard. and i had a friend with same build medi guard also. guess what? we could 2v3/4. so of course… 2 players paired are quite OP. anyway whatever. i just hope devs wont listen to you cuz its the only class that is still fun (but if devs will nerf it thnx to such trolls like you then there wont be anythin left in GW to enjoy). all other classes in GW are easy and boring mode. dont even understand how people can play Guard/Warr/Ranger. i fall asleep on those.

PS. in general – stop complaining bout classes. its MMO. hard/easy counters are nature. have some respect for other classes. and instead of moaning learn your class or make such build that you would be a very successful on it (every class has that). im out. sick of these QQ/omg/OP posts. l2p or gtfo instead of cryin.. >_>

Did you read this?

http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/guild-wars-2-are-thieves-and-mesmers-cause-meta

I’ve read it Before. For some reason people who call for thief nerfs seem to think thieves are immune to damage in stealth. Anyway, stealth can’t cap points. I was planning on saying a bunch of other stuff, but it’s all been said, so just refer to some post about the weaknesses of stealth, because contrary to popular belief, damage applies to us in stealth.

Omocha.4931:

The high burst isn’t something only thieves can do – roughly all classes having this. The mobility isn’t, again, a thieves-only perk, but the low survivability and vulnerability to conditions are.

A D/P thief would spend 8 ini to gain stealth from combo, a S/- needs 5 for the infiltrator’s chain and so on. With a pretty low ini regain (even with the Crit Strikes trait), First Strikes really favors the auto-attack/Backstab spamming.

Now, in PvE you kinda know what conditions you might get: all. Among the most annoying being torment and confusion, which no trait or heal can remove (leaving you with stealth option or the weak skills). And while /D might be an option to gain stealth and clear some condi pressure, I find myself “forced” out of any weapon combo like that (simply because P/P or bow and the S/P both offer a much better dps output).

Now if we look at all classes, they’re quite proficient in removing conditions. And they don’t lack mobility (shadowsteps, weapon skills, speed buffs, etc). Nor damage – be it from condi builds (which thieves also lack) or sheer damage (with lots of weapon skills for happy-spamming).

With all these in mind I’m not so sure that there’s a fair trade-off for thieves (glass-cannon type profession is fair, but not when all other classes can achieve a more sturdy cannon setup). Hence, upgrading a minor trait that we’re quite sure to use at all times could add some more versatility in the builds setup while slightly improving the odds of survival for the class. So a First Strikes trait with “60% chance to clear 1 condition on critical hit” with some 3 seconds cd isn’t going to be a game-breaker, but will certainly help a lot.

On a side note, shouts heal, meditations heal, survival skills clear condi – they’re all traits that improve QoL for those classes (I’m pretty sure necros don’t lack condi removal and neither do engis – both having plenty survival options and high damage output).

The thing about balance is this: if it’s going to help a lot, it’s going to be a game breaker, unless equal compensation is given. Now, if we’re talking about PvE, most condition pressure is heavily telegraphed: burning in CoF, bleeds and poison in AC. Thief rewards high skill levels. There are many ways for one to Evade condi placement in the first place. If it’s not there, no need to clear it. Additionally, in optimal dungeon situations, you have a guardian or an ele bringing the condi clear. I have yet to find an encounter where conditions are constantly a problem, except for conditions that cannot be removed, like the claws blue ice. Also, d/d is the strongest single target thief weapon set for PvE. No need to clear damage, your job is to avoid it and dps.

In pvp, stealths and evades are very powerful for our defense. Most condition pressure I’ve experienced in pvp is from condi necro and engi. Just the other day, I remember a beautiful fight between me and a condi necro; I stayed out of his wells or condi cleared really well with sword 2, and used shortbow. I kept moving and dodging through the wells so my sword could hit him. In this case, he had no choice but spread out his wells everywhere because I was abusing my mobility against him. In the end, he hardly touched me and I stomped him.

Sure all classes have burst, but not all classes have THIS much burst. Today I was playing a guardian in pvp. I happily walked over to a point and saw a thief taking down my teams warrior, so I go to help. In an instant, my hp went from 15k to downed state. I was so confused, and then I realized what happened. I saw two thieves, and my thoughts were confirmed. Both stealthed through pistol. Either both back stabbed or one back stabbed and the other heartseekered. Either way, literally in the blink of an eye I was down. No time to react at all. No class can deal this burst in this time frame. I have never seen anything like this. To take me down to half with one attack, that’s the crazy stuff that defines a thief.

Tl;dr I think thieves are fine. High risk, high reward, if you want more condo cleanse, you need to sacrifice something else.

P.s new specialization a will have s trickery trait for thief, which clears one condition on a trick usage. Withdraw and dagger storm will be tricks, along with our current tricks. Plenty of condi cleanse.

Personally I think it’s a matter of time before they go and look at underwater content. They will have to eventually, especially if they stand behind the statement they previously stated about the deep sea dragon. Probably a future expansion, and I hope they incorporate multiple dragons into a story line, otherwise it’ll just be the Pact taking on one dragon, then the next, and so on. Very linear, very boring. The guild wars universe is built upon the rich story, lore, history, I’m sure they could do better than a super linear story. I expect a game of thrones level storytelling from them, and so far, they’ve been pretty solid with that. Hopefully with a deep sea dragon some weapons will go from water to land and vice versa. Underwater is a mechanic very rarely well done; if they get it right, they’ll certainly make a name for themselves.

I think glint will be the elite spec, with sword being the weapon. Why? Rytlock uses an ability that takes the form of a dragon in one of the cutscenes, and he uses a sword. necromancer npcs got great sword. Revenant npc is using glint and has a sword. At least that’s what I’m thinking. Aoe damage and cc.

babazhook.6805:

alchemyst.2165:

gin.7158:

Condi removal seems a pretty common problem for thieves. The only reliable source of condi removal is heal skill in my opinion (if you know what condi you will get).

But in the specialization trait change, thieves will get “trickster”.
“20% cooldown reduction on trick, trick will remove 1 condition” and withdraw and dagger storm will be tricks. So I guess if you take withdraw with trickster trait, you will get 12s condi removal (+ also cure movement impairment condi). I think it will help a lot, at least in PvE context

The problem with trickster is that you have to give up bountiful theft for it. You lose a lot of good utility with that. It’s part of the reason trickery is so good.
You lose out on a lot just for condi removal.

Oh I think withdraw on a 12 second cooldown using trickster wherein a thief traits virtually all tricks in the utility bar (withdraw/RFI/Scorpion rite/Caltrops/daggerstrom are all nice skills) is going to be very effective,

In fact I really think an ALL trick build would be very good especially when you couple Withdraw with a runeset that provides a bonus on a heal. As example Runes of the adventurer giving back half endurance every 12 seconds.

Your on heal trait out of acrobatics is then 5 secs vigor base on a 12 second cooldown and you can leverage that on heal even more to get 4 ini back off hastened replenishment which would work great in high INI use builds like p/p.

In acrobatics you can take Guarderd Ini . If guarded ini can be maintained long enough you might have all the condi removal you need from those tricks. Yes just like bountiful theft that new hard to catch is hard to ignore but that a GOOD thing as either choice will work and IMHO work well which will provide for very different builds.

With 5 seconds base on both the Vigor on heal trait and Guarded Ini a 20 percent boon duration increase will get one full second more off each which i feel will go a long ways towards keeping close to full vigor uptime WITHOUT bountiful theft meaning the vigor off bountiful theft becomes moot.

What are your thoughts on replacing the utility of shadow step and shadow refuge In exchange for the tricks? Shadow refuge already instantly removes three conditions, and SR is almost vital for the party support it provides, as well as the helpful long stealth duration. Since I plan on running Da/Acro/trickery with trickster and guarded initiation, I figured I could drop shadow refuge and take RfI, scorpion wire, and shadow step. This maintains plenty of condi clear, and scorpion wire is good for party support in the sense that it helps prevent foes from stomps and interrupts them. And if not, daze on steal would work. I personally love SR. and SS but other utilities may become more viable and fun with trickster traited. And withdraw is gonna be fantastic.

Drennon.7190:

Darksyze, I have a seriously unhealthy obsession with hating every word you say. Can you pitch it towards my shrink?

Agreed. Every profession has people screaming they are overpowered, and outside of stealth I find myself doing some of the highest damage in my parties. Additionally, i find thieves are the ones selling dungeon runs and soloing boss fractals the most, just the other day, my party wiped in Mai Trin and our other thief solo’d it from half health. It was a beautiful sight, such elegant gameplay. As for Darksyze’s philosophical points… he sounds like the neighbor of a man who tries to play wise man.

alchemyst.2165:

gin.7158:

Condi removal seems a pretty common problem for thieves. The only reliable source of condi removal is heal skill in my opinion (if you know what condi you will get).

But in the specialization trait change, thieves will get “trickster”.
“20% cooldown reduction on trick, trick will remove 1 condition” and withdraw and dagger storm will be tricks. So I guess if you take withdraw with trickster trait, you will get 12s condi removal (+ also cure movement impairment condi). I think it will help a lot, at least in PvE context

The problem with trickster is that you have to give up bountiful theft for it. You lose a lot of good utility with that. It’s part of the reason trickery is so good.
You lose out on a lot just for condi removal.

I don’t see much of a problem with giving up bountiful theft to run trickster. As it is now, there must be a reason why every top tier team has a thief. If they really succumbed THAT easily to condo pressure and were rendered useless by it, then we wouldn’t see as much of it. For people who want stronger condo removel, it’s only right that you exchange an equally strong trait out for it. The condi clear we have right now doesn’t seem like much, but that’s something we have to trade for our superior damage, both burst and sustained. Besides, bountiful theft can be replaced with two uses of flanking strike, especially if you know how to use it. I see many s/d thieves spam it, here’s a trick, use either the first or second part with steal. Works well.

I run 06053, no bountiful theft. I love it, because I do pretty sweet damage, and I don’t need to worry about steal being blocked or dodged or interrupted.

If you want something with high damage and plenty of condo clear, you could always play a meditation guardian. They hit like trucks, and they have a lot of condo clear and healing. However, very low mobility. Proper way to fight a guardian IMO is to constantly be disengaging and reengaging , And dodging to make sure they miss their big damage skills.

Tl;dr condi cleanse is fine IMO, any more and you need to remove an equally powerful aspect of thief

@Kamara today I played my greatsword sword/focus meditation build in conquest. In several of my games, I was able to 2v1 or 3v1 and get people down. In one match, I went 2v1 against two thieves, they got their Initial burst off, and I used my virtues and elite, then went through a normal rotation. Came up with 2 kills and capped point. Same game, I go 3v1 and down all three right before I get downed myself.

I think guardians can do pretty well on their own.

Impact.2780:

Absolutely.

Why indeed have level ups? New players should be able to instantly equip max level gear.
Why scale us down? How dare you try to let content designed for lower levels continue to be challenging to level 80s. This is not some game we play, we just want to insta-acquire everything.
Why would you ever put selfish personalities in the story?! People never put themselves above others, or try to take advantage of a terrible situation to strengthen or further their own position, or increase their wealth. During the wars, companies didn’t manufacture weapons and sell them to invading countries for profit at all!
Exactly! Why are we constantly evacuating civilians? Why not let them all be dead after the first iteration of the event? If players weren’t online and in the area immediately after the update that brought that event, they should not be able to play it. I mean seriously, what it this, a game?
And the different races being the same! It’s just terrible. I mean who of us knows anyone that picked a particular race for a particular class purely for styles or the animation differences?

(Tried to type serious response. Couldn’t do it. [This part isn’t sarcastic.])

I wanted to say all this, Impact did it better than I could ever have done it.

Well for me, I’d rather buy a physical copy. My debit card is still linked to my Dad’s card, and although all the money on that card is money that I MADE, he doesn’t like me spending it on games. So i’d rather withdraw the cash, go to a store, and buy the physical copy. Also, I want the box. i dont have the original box, but I want to get the HoT box. Bet it’ll come with some neat stuff, like a little booklet or something xD

So your suggestion is to create more legendaries? You realize more legendaries = harder to get the one you want, as theres a harder time getting a specific legendary from a random pool. Its really easy to pull something you want if its 1/3, and gets much harder when its 1/10, or 1/15, or 1/20.

I suspect one reason for having few legendaries is because it makes legendaries very recognizable. I look at Bolt and I’m like, “Wow, this player must have spent either a ton of time or money getting Bolt. Good for them. looks cool.” If there are more, I might look at a sword and think to myself, “That sword looks cool, wonder if its a legendary.” I wouldn’t know it on recognition if it were one out of 10 legendaries.

If you want weapon diversity, ask them for more skins, although there are already a HUGE amount in the game. If you want a super rare skin, then get one from the TP that’s like 3000 g and stick it on an ascended weapon. Works the same, except you dont get to swap traits, but in our meta just make Zojja’s weapon.

If you’ve ever played league, its like playing a Zed.

Having a mouse is definitely helpful, especially with camera turning. Camera turning is very helpful as well, because it allows you to react faster, especially if you have a mouse. I don’t think a great computer matters in spvp; I don’t think the effects ever get to the point where they slow framerate when there are only ten players in the map.

Just note that the advice isn’t exclusively for pvp; it extends to all combat portions of the game.

Really enjoyed the video, makes me want to build in a similar fashion.

Some people really don’t understand that sometimes, if you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say it. OP obviously was showcasing a video, not asking for opinions, and he received unnecessary negative attention.

I’d say practice your timing.

In all aspects of the game, whenever you fight, strive for perfect timing. I say this because thief is a very timing-reliant class. We have no CD’s on our weapon skills, but you have to time good usage or you will end up with no initiative. Time your dodges, time your stealths, time your movement, time when you will be in a certain position. Especially time your utility skills; the difference between a good and bad thief is a well-timed shadowstep and a poorly timed one.

Also, having knowledge of all classes and what they can potentially do is important in pvp and wvw, but that applies to all classes.

I agree with zengara,

At this point, the only thing the stealth line is useful for is venomsharing. The bug throws off all other traits in the line and seriously screws many shadow arts using thieves. I personally don’t use shadow arts, but the impact is insane in the PVE scenario; there’s really no reason to take a thief into PvE anymore, as the mass stealth was one of the staples of PvE. Thieves are typically sent to do the solo parts of dungeons, such as collecting scepter pieces in AC or getting the magmacyte (i think thats what its called) in CoF. This could happen because of long stealth durations from SR and the ability to move quickly without being noticed and quickly chain stealth. Also, the party wide stealth from SR and blasting several thief abilities were useful in places like CM.

Of course, the changes don’t impact acro thieves too much, but SR is a staple in most, if not all thief builds. I’m fine without it, since I’ve taken to using the trickster trait and using scorpion wire/ Roll for I, or using triple signets for mightstacking and percent damage increase ( I hit 4k autos with this method). People tend to forget that thieves are based on shadowsteps and stealth (it literally says so on the thief page of the guild wars 2 official site), and breaking stealth has huge implications. This literally nerfs the class to the ground for anything other than acro s/d in spvp, and even then, it greatly nerfs the team utility of SR.

The largest impact for this change is in dungeons. Thieves found most usefulness in their utility, and more specifically in their stealth usage. Being able to stealth your entire party is a staple to many speed runs, something that changes with this bug, as shadow refuge does not work in the same fashion. I unfortunately found this during a dungeon, when I tried to stealth under shadow refuge but found that I was revealed 2s after my refuge ended. There are many places where stealth is a staple for speed running, and this change greatly impacts the usefulness of thieves in a dungeon- in a largely negative fashion.

Just here to state my opinions on the subject:

I don’t think the intention of arenanet was to make a game with no trinity, nor was that their statement. I think they always intended to make a game where different roles were necessary i.e. support, dps, tank(ish), with the condition that all classes could be run in a manner that would fulfill multiple of these roles (you can play a tanky guardian, a healer guardian or a dps guardian). We see this in dungeons when some of your party mates must run support utilities like condi clear and stealth, and in pvp when there are bunkers and thieves run around to decap and cap points (support role)

I dont really have anything in particular, I just wanted to say that I love the sig “Supporting rights to arm bears”

Hey guys,
I updated my build a little bit:

The build aims to have a high burst, and then kick into high gear after the person reaches sub-50% health. It helps finish uneven fights quickly, and allows you to move quickly around the map for such opportunities.

Re-traited for poison on steal: it really seems useful, especially for the purpose of this build. In exchange for this, I took a point out of acro because pain response and power of inertia really didn’t do what this build is meant to do. Practiced tolerance is meant to assist in survivability in exchange.

changed to Rune of the Eagle- more damage sub-50% and increases our crit chance, and ferosity.

The build relies heavily on critical hits for damage, and having high initial burst to get your opponent as close to 50% or past 50%, then hoping steal is up for the poison; then you go in for the kill. Still requires extensive testing, but its been working for me.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVl0MpwpVOx7J8PRBPBt9sHQA8MKPRn+CCA-TJBFwACOFAk2foaZAAPBAA

I used bountiful theft in the trickery trait line, so I can still rip boons from eles and guardians, i just dont daze from steal. The idea behind this is less reliance on steal for dazes, and more CS for ending fights quickly after the initial burst.

Gallant Pigeon.5807:

How are you finding the damage? I tried something similar, but found it a little meh after dropping one of the %damage increase traits from grand master minor.

What I use in WvW:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVl0MpwpVOx7J8PNBNBt9EGeE8OMfZLaFAA-TJBFwACOFAI3foaZAAPBAA

Not sure how well it translates to pvp though, I often just play the 20066 meta. I suspect the meta build is slightly better to CS varients in pvp as you can’t stack ferocity/ precision as high.

Yeah, I realized that losing two of the % damage traits in acrobatics and trickery in exchange for the one in CS would impact my overall damage output, but I found those two previous damage traits somewhat unreliable, whether it be the shifting initiative changing the damage modifier or the idea that I have to dodge to gain a damage increase. In exchange we pick up executioner, which greatly boosts the output at 50% health of the enemy.

I haven’t done much testing yet, and I’m also debating whether to keep berserkers or pick up something else, like assassins (which would boost crit chance greatly). Also considering picking up different runes, like eagle.

The build you posted doesnt have much traited survivability, as there are no points in SA or acro. How do you survive in a roaming environment with this build?

Woaden.9425:

Klowde,

I like the build! I’ve tried something very similar.

My one complaint is that it does not have any poison application outside of shortbow. That, in and of it’s self isn’t too bad, but the poison every ~21 seconds helped to deal with regen, which even boonrip builds often can’t clear fast enough since regen is often quickly reapplied.

I miss the heal from mug too, but that’s manageable. I just have to join a Muggers Anonymous group and talk through my feelings.

Overall though, I think it does take a lot of other advantages. It does more damage, no doubt about it. It also ends up with slightly more HP than 6 acro funny enough, due to practiced tolerance.

One thing I’d do, with two signets, is take one of the signet traits, or even both (at the sacrifice of HP obv), since you still get fury from steal. — Then again i’d probably be running pack instead of Hoelbrak. But looking at Hoelbrak I actually like that, it’s interesting. Might you be tempted to lose Pain Response in favor of Power of Inertia? That, combined with the might from signets and the rune passive, in a build like this, might take you even further in to crazy damage territory. I know Might’s not what it used to be, but with might runes, you can definitely take advantage — and power is power!

I like how this build still keeps all the boonrips and, as importantly, the vigor, of 20066 (or 20246 as well, my personal fav s/d build).

Great build!

What do you think about replacing the sigils on the weapons to air/ strength for more might on crit? That should push my might to crazy amounts. Pain response is there to help with conditions, as is the hoelbrak, although I may have too much condition removal when considering how much more damage i could be getting. I think that may be a great challenge: finding the balance between damage and survivability. And yes, the poison is a potential problem, but I have yet to see how regen plays a role in my battles. Thanks for the feedback!

Hello,

I wanted to create a build that still utilizes the strength of the boon stripping of the meta s/d 20066, but instead trait 6 into critical strikes to create a thief that basically relies on critical strikes to deal a majority of its damage. This build would be for pvp, and could be translated into wvw with some minor changes. What do you guys think? Any constructive criticism is welcome.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVl0MpwpVOx7J8PNBPBt9AmdA8MKPpzg0WA-TJBFwACOFAt2foaZAAPBAA

Thanks,
Klowde

Dadnir.5038:

If they end up giving a rifle to the thief, they will more likely restrain their access to stealth. Why? because the philosophie of this game is : low risk low reward. And range weapon are low risk low reward.

Anyway, like Kurow said : Only bad thieves are DYING for a 1200 ranged weapon…especially in PvE.

-Looks at ranger’s rapid fire-
Not completely true…but I get what you’re saying

Qaelyn.7612:

It’s an invasion. What were you expecting, organized duels? :P

Exactly my thinking. I’m not particularly sure what you guys are expecting. We are on the defensive and trying to rescue citizens wherever we can find them. It’s not like marionette where we are on the offensive and trying to destroy a super weapon before it can be used. We were completed obliterated this time around, the zerg mentality fits perfectly well. It’s a war, the main city just got demolished, everything is chaotic, you wouldn’t be wandering around the city alone in this scenario would you? Even if you were, you wouldn’t be foolish enough to tackle a large group of monsters alone.

I really like this addition to the living story. I like the idea that we aren’t fighting for Lion’s Arch, we are just trying to cut losses. It gives a sense that Scarlet is much stronger than we thought she would be. She literally wrecked all of us.

As for the actual event, I like how the main event is rescuing citizens around the city, and there are various subevents i COULD attend if I wanted to. It rewards the MMO style of playing. You could travel in small groups, you could zerg, you can run solo and find citizens. You aren’t forced to do anything.

I know one group I played with started to split in to many smaller groups and spread throughout the city to look for citizens, then regrouped when an event occurred. ANet did this very well. Props to them. And the ruined LA looks amazing.

It’s not that hard to waypoint to your nearest home city and grab the mats…
Very minor inconvenience.

Don’t the best rewards come from rescuing citizens?
In which case, its best to split up and find citizens around the city, and people obviously group up when events occur.
Of course we would group up; we’re waging war. This is a war with scarlet. This isn’t some small battle. I’ve never seen one person fight a war alone. If this were an instance, what would you have? You’d have NPC’s backing you instead of other players.

Honestly, I play an MMO for the interaction between players. The more interaction, the better. Zerging is fine in my book; I’m running around with a group and fighting with them. I can leave the group whenever I want, and face the consequences of playing alone in an MMO environment. If I wanted to play for story alone and reduced players, I’d play resident evil Co- op mode or something.

I’d say its because people take the good for granted?
Honestly, I just finished up a round of MMO hunting after I stopped playing mabinogi. I tried Aion, Tera Rising, Rift, Aura Kingdom, and Guild Wars 2. GW2 is the only one to keep me hooked. It does so many things right.

I find the personal story intriguing in that no matter how we start, we all end with the same idea of “saving the world from dragons.” That means I could make several characters and experience a somewhat different story each time.

I like the idea of events. In some cases, events DO change the world around us. If centaurs overrun a town, I won’t be able to use its waypoint or its stores or repair stations. I won’t even be able to walk in without being attacked by centaurs. I have to get rid of the centaurs first, and even that is an entire process or reclaiming the town.

The Living Story is a great idea. It’s just that, for a new player like me, I was really thrown off by it. I have no idea who Scarlet is, nor do I know what “Tengu” are. I feel like I’m missing so much lore, and I’m just fighting a giant puppet for no reason.

I wish the Personal story would incorporate the dungeons in them. I didn’t really know that I could enter dungeons until I hit level 50. And boy, those dungeons are so rewarding, yet so challenging. I like the fact that most of them can be done several ways. For example, today, I was doing CM p1, and we stealthed through a majority of the mobs, even though we could have killed them. It leaves a lot of room for choice.

WvW is amazing. At first, it looks like there is no tactic involved in zerging, and of course thats what people think if they aren’t in a guild. However, I am in a guild, listening to my commander on Mumble, and “zerging” actually does require a lot of tactics, mainly playing with the opponents’ heads. Even people not listening to our chat can somewhat get an idea of our plans. I recall on numerous occasions my commander telling us to join the main zerg group, attack, then back off into the castle portal, move to the otherside of the castle, jump off the wall, and flank the attackers.

I would love to assist you!
Unfortunately, I have no experience with running a forum (nor anything programming related for that matter). I’m willing to learn though.

Again, I’d like to assist in any way possible. Good luck!