Guild Wars 2

Valik Shin.9027:

ps war, rev, crono and druid are in 99% of comps for every raid boss (usally only 1 of each). Ele or thief are in most comps. Other than gorsaval, ele and thief are almost dead even in dps but thief gets the edge in VG for its far greater survivability. necro and engi both fill the condi role well it just depends on which utility you need. necro has the edge as they are easier to play and more useful in more fights. DH is ok but situational. their dps trails off in movment fight and most of what they bring can be got from other classes. that being said they are still a solid option for most comps

who wins out in Gorsaval between ele and thief?

Thanks for the reply

Hornet.6357:

Alot of questions… There is no “team meta” as encounters have different optimal teams. Burnzerkers were nerfed HARD, I think their DPS is lower then most other condi classes. There is a Might stacking Burnzerker build, but dunno how optimal it is.

Generally speaking

Tempests are always in demand, since DPS matters. Rev ,Thief, and Engineer seem to be shunned currently. Rev can be made irrelevant with 100% boon duration chrono builds, Why take a thief when an ele does more damage and has better utility? Engineer’s slick shoes nerf basically made it lose raid viability… Having a 2nd condi necros to bounce condi’s with epidemic is far better. DH is situationally taken, but isn’t a must have.

Glass ele is meta, if you can’t handle the heat get out of the pan. If your lucky you’ll find videos from DEKeyz2Chaos about a raid encounter (ele main). https://www.youtube.com/user/DEKeyz2Chaos/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=1

Ah, that makes sense.. thanks for the reply! Looks like I’ll bring my ele in and give it a shot since I’m already pretty good with the class and it’s fully geared.

Open to any other suggestions/comments too !

Hi,

I am new to raids and I was wondering what is the current meta?

I am looking to make a raid character but not sure what to go with. Are burnzerkers totally crap now? I’ve got a glass ele in full ascended, should I just stay with that? What’s the most unwanted class and which is the most wanted? I heard you only need 1 chrono and 1 druid.

Cheers

been using axe lately, and its working great, most people dont expect it so it catches them by surprise for some extra damage. Play well and position urself properly and you should be able to do fine without shield. I’ve lost count to how many times guards or other revs use shield for that desperate heal only for my axe #4 to down them (unblockables ftw), and the low CD axe 5 is great for team fights too.

I did try sword initially, and I think its great (imho, rev sword OH shouldve been given to thief) but sword 5 was a bit lackluster in pvp, it does better in 1v1 in wvw or something. Also Axe 4 does more dmg than sword 5.

Hi all,

Sorry if this has been discussed before, but i was wondering which is better for high lvl fractals/raids?? i know burnzerkers could do 25k burn ticks, but how much can rangers do? How does their damage compare?

Cheers

So the current mastery cap is 161.

How come Anet didn’t cap off the masteries at lvl 100 or something? But i don’t mean cap as in you cannot progress anymore, the whole mastery system is about end game progression, and they can keep that notion by still allowing people to farm/earn all the masteries, but only have 100 points worth of masteries at any given time. You don’t really use all your masteries at the same time, so you can select which masteries you want to run depending on the content you are playing. This can lead into the concept of “Mastery Builds” and would reflect the core game’s skill system better than the current mastery system where you keep grinding to have that super high bragging number (cmon, I’m pretty sure thats what 90% of the people grind it for).

When new mastery lines get released in future updates, players will wound up with absurdly high numbers next to their names like 256, 430, 500 etc. which look kinda weird imo. So why not cap off the mastery to a nice round number but still keep the same functionality and system of end game progression. Ever since HoT hit, the game just became a grindfest and kind of lost that unique skill system the core game created.

You lose out on a bit of crit damage so I don’t think it’s worth it for PvE. For WvW, it’ll be more desirable since the nerf to guard stacks.

We have members focusing on a plethora of activities with lots of experience running: Silverwastes, Dungeons, Fractals, WvW (Both roaming, small group fights, and larger zerg groups).

We’re a super friendly group who won’t think twice bout helping you out.

Tarkan.5609:

Lygon.4896:

got one for ya:

If you heartseeker INTO a black powder (pistol no.5) you will proc the stealth combo but you will not actually gain stealth. Doesn’t happen if you leap OUT of the field though, or through it. Only happens when you leap from inside to outside the field.

Thanks, added it.
Guess you meant “Only happens when you leap from outside to inside the field.” though in your last sentence right?

yes :P

got one for ya:

If you heartseeker INTO a black powder (pistol no.5) you will proc the stealth combo but you will not actually gain stealth. Doesn’t happen if you leap OUT of the field though, or through it. Only happens when you leap from inside to outside the field.

Hi all,

Long time thief player here and recently i’ve noticed if you heartseeker INTO (not out of) a black powder, it doesn’t give you stealth, even though it says it has triggered the stealth leap combo. It works if you heartseeker out of the field, but not into (but it use to). Can anyone else verify this as well?

I think it’ll be an interesting idea if you can no longer enter a keep/tower portal if you are in combat. This means that if you go outside to poke someone, you can’t just run back into safety, you have to commit. Likewise with zergs, if the commander decides to push, he has to commit as there is no safety net of running back inside a tower/keep for safety.

I know there are some downsides to this but it can make for some interesting tactics.

What do you guys think??

Einlanzer.1627:

Remix.2086:

So I’ve played Warrior and Thief pretty much exclusively since launch.

Warrior post patch has stupid damages, Running the norm setup for gs, axe/sh. My Rushes (GS#5) hits like a truck, I have seen 8k, consistantly 6k, My eviscerates have never hit less than 8k. my warrior has shield 5 and 2 endure pains, and access to an elite that is like an instant win. I also get quickness every 15s when my opponent is under 50%. Super high healthpool and condi’s dont matter anymore thanks to brawlers recovery.

Thief post patch has higher power, higher ferocity, 100% crit in stealth for backstabs and does 20% more damage to opponents under certain health (forgot the percentage). My thief cannot backstab over 6k to save its life… I mean I’m rockin’ ferocity in everything.. My thief also gets 1 banged by a basic mesmer combo now aswell. when my warrior would atleast pop endure pain at 25%. thief is practically unplayable atm lol. 6k is nothing when I’m revealed for 3s and literally get to stand there with my wang in my hand. lol.

All I’m saying is, thief is super low health pool, only defense they have is stealth.. and their burst damage is comparable to my warrior axe auto-attacks? lol.

this kitten is ridic. Im gonna get banned because i got tired of guilds chasing down 1 solo raomer. rofl im in t2 and guilds are so kittening bored on this game they chase solo raomers now.

kittengame kitten dev’s kitten support. ban me pl0x

Yeah it’s always been this way. All classes have similar offensive potential while being very unequal defensively.

Arenanet just isn’t good at balance.

“All classes have similar offensive potential while being very unequal defensively.” omg nothing sums up gw2 better than this. THIS.

D/D has great initial burst (Steal —> CnD —> Backstab) but its #4 and #3 skills are rarely used, sure you can do a clutch evade or throw a dagger at someone with 5% trying to run, but mostly they’re seldom used.

D/P finds a use for every skill. You also get stealth on demand like others have said, and #5 is a smoke field so you can blast it for aoe stealth, or if you have the black powder utility skill you can lay down #5 then black powder and then heartseeker for instant 9secs of stealth if you don’t have the initiative or time to leap through the field 3-4 times.
The ondemand interupt is also good to stop people from stomping/ressing/getting off high damage skills. You can even use it to counter other thieves if they try to leap through their own blinding powder.

I’ve been able to land 5k cloak and daggers and 6k larcenous strikes, and I run shadow arts instead of Critical Strikes. U need more critical chance, 30% is not really enough (50% with fury). I have a base crit chance of 54% after all the item stat buffs, and with food I get about 58%, so I get 78% with fury and with pack runes, i have a high fury uptime. I am able to down a squishy mes/ele/thief with my initial opening + 1 auto attack chain, so damage is really still there if not better.

since the nerf to black powder, u dont need to be afraid to get in close and do an auto attack then CnD to stealth and blind (if in SA) him

I’ve mained thief almost since the start and before that I mained ele who became on and off for 2 years. I now play a bit of medi guard.

I think the damage output for thieves is fine, like a few others have said it is the Celestial bunker builds that are the problem. Warriors are able to output similar damage whilst having great sustain and bunker levels of defense. So really, these kinds of bunker builds shouldn’t be able to do that much damage.

My medi guard can output higher burst than my thief whilst having better sustain, I have a much easier time 1v1ing the bunker builds with my guard than with my thief.

When we disengage from a fight in stealth, to replenish ourselves, it usually allows the opponent to also replenish to full and reset their skill cooldowns so it’s not like we become 100% whilst the opponent are stuck on 40% from the previous fight. All while they hold the point and up their score.

TLDR; Thief is fine, nerf celestial.

Ah Peow Peow; great post that put a smile to my face!

BIRDPUNCHER seems to be on the dot. and Shanks also; with an offhand the #3 skills are just buffed up versions of their no-offhand counterparts. You get a lame spin attack for dagger #3 which is replaced by death blossom (twirl + evade). Sword #3 is just a stab which is a lamer version of Flanking Strikes + Larcenous Strike (stab and steals boons)

Not all thieves wear t3 underboob:

how bout instead of coming to the thief forums to complain, you go to your own class’s forum and learn how to fight thieves and get tips.

If Revealed is to last 10+ seconds, thief needs to do more damage, need to have more hp/armor and more dodges/CC/Stun

Power Precision (and after lvl 60; ferocity).. go for those combinations when u can. Sword Pistol is the best for pve.. Pistol skill #5 puts alot of blinds on mobs and sword does good damage from autoattack/pistol whip.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVl0Mp0pNOx7J0PNRPBtdAi9D4MCXwznEFA-TFDBABmqSAEnAgzUCKxRAALldA8IA8SpAOqqki+g80wg0+D6oGBA-w

I took your build and filled in the empty gear slots.. stats are respectable now for wvw roaming. although you might wanna consider shadows embrace for ur first trait in shadow arts.. condis are horrible

if u have steal traited for daze, u can also, when stomping someone and their ally tries to res, steal to that ally and daze them to complete ur stomp

condi thief in spvp.. you’re already teefing wrong.

in what universe do bull’s teleport?!

heartseeker —> shadowstep = 1200 range heartseeker. Same with backstab. you can also use it to port up walls etc.

you can also use it whilst chanelling skills like dagger storm.

Please dont theyre so uber cheesy. But if you want the build is 2/0/6/0/6 .. full dire gear with krait runes. Pistol/Dagger.

They are one of the most OP builds in the game and is really easy to play because of high hp/armor/stealth/regen/ranged..

Kagamiku got right to the point, Berserker (power, precision, ferocity) is the fastest at killing PvE Mobs. Condi is okay too, but slower since you need to build it up.

If you go for both it’ll still be slower than berserker but MIGHT be faster than condi since you dont have to wait for the condition damage to stack up.

Also its just easier to gear for full berserker or full condi and power gear is much easier to come by at the lower levels.

Use #3 to evade blind shots and CC from guards. #2 to shadowstep to the scouts, take them out and if you drop below 50%, use cloak and dagger to reset the fight a bit (wait for cooldowns etc). if the group of them starts catching ya, just infiltrators return back and have them chase u again. basically its a combination of shadowstepping back and forth, a bit of evades and a touch of stealth.

Ghostwolf summed it up nicely. Basically if you have 25% movement signet just spam heartseeker. If you dont, then infiltrators arrow

Here’s mine decided to go for something a bit different

for those who dunno how to counter backstab: count to 3 then dodge roll.

Thieves are now shoehorned into the class that has high risk/high learning curve and little rewards (if any). Only build where we get it easy is that cheesy P/D condi build and I hate having to bring out my condi set but all I ever see in wvw is condi class condi class condi class. Also why is P/D condi considered by many as super cheesy when theres condi engis/condi necros/pu mesmers?

I think a balanced way to buff thieves would be to give them more defense or defensive tools/options. People say stealth is too op, but any smart player doesn’t find stealth a problem because thieves can still be hit when theyre in stealth. and usually when we’re in stealth the enemy has no immediate threat since we’re not attacking.

Either raise defense or nerf condi’s in this game. (a condi cap limiting the amount of condis you can have on at one time for spvp/wvw) Make the condi builds have to choose their preferred damage method instead of just having it all

didnt open pre patch

post patch:

opened 7: lyssa

opened another 150~.. lyssa

then opened 650 .. 649 tokens 1 lyssa.

then now nothing after 500 chances.

heres mine, trying to go away from the rampant t3 thieves everywhere

If u don’t care about survivability and just want big numbers go: 6/6/0/0/2

The key here is in the power line the GM trait revealed training. Pair that with mug and when u stealth press back stab then steal up, mug will proc revealed giving you 200 more power for your backstab .

Scholar runes will let u see big numbers at the start but DPS drops as soon as u take damage. Try strength runes. Full zerker. Otherwise use valk/zerker/cavalier mix.

Works best with d/p since u can stealth on demand without using a port to guarantee it. I haven’t tried this in wvw since I don’t like d/p but in spvp I was able to hit 10k+ on medium armor classes.

SA is definitely needed for condi engi. U need to bait them away from their turrets or they’ll murder you .

As for warriors I find the most effective set is either s/d or d/p. Either evade their cheesy attacks or keep them blinded. Their passive heal out heals our DMG in the long run. (600 HP per sec)

Could be normal online delay depending on where your location is and how fast your connection is.

Do note infiltrator return has a .25 sec cast time.

Classic prepatch 2/6/6/0/0 build.

Use valk for head chest legs and rest zerker. Trinkets use mix of zerker/zerker + valk/2 cavaliers.

U should have 2500ish armor with 40% crit chance and around 215-220% crit dmg.

Works with both dd and dp.

With full stacks you should sit at around 17k hp

What about those that were running 10 (or 2) in deadly arts prepatch? Where we gonna get extra damage now. Point of traveler runes were to have an extra utility slot, now if u put another passive signet back in then you might as well just swap to strength runes or something for more bonuses.

Alas my traveler set must remain in storage for now

+1

If there was an F2 ability for Revealed, imagine all the Revealed Training builds..

Hope that link works, using my phone.

Basically u have to position the camera to a birds eye view over your character, and then hold a direction button like W (forward) and then press heartseekers whilst still holding w. It’ll bug out and u Dun go as far, so u can just keep heartseekering up to 4 times before the smoke field runs out. As of Dec 10 last year its no longer a preferred method, although viable.

Hope it helps.