Guild Wars 2

The passed couple of days I’ve started running 6/0/2/6/0 with a mixture of zerkers/knights/and a couple of pieces of soldiers (which I’m slowly replacing with knights)…. superior rune of lyssa, and heal as one, lightening reflexes, muddy terrain, and food that lets me remove a condi on heal, means I can succesfully run with my guardian friend 2vX… we’ve won several 2v3 and 2v4, and even when we do lose the fight, we last quite a long time….

This isn’t optimal by any means, but I’ve found this build has good synergy without losing all dmg (as I said, only a couple of days, once I get good, I may start uploading videos on my youtube channel/twitch)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YjUq0xaLLGsQ1agAha9AEAbdrSw9TkDhdKjqCtxA-TlTAwAaOIAJVi85IA8T1CwKNycBAm8AA2qMi4+DAMBtTFljqBwSHzFlgECA7YA-w

messiah.1908:

feedback
show what it take from you to handle 1vX situation and what are the risks
as everyone hate thieves because they think its easy play
show short clips , fun, tutorial, unique moments etc
show special weapon set uses , and builds uses which are not common
show group play (most video out there are 1vx which is getting boring after 5 min)
show moments of failure etc

Thank you for taking the time to write this out! That’s well substantiated feedback I can work with

I tend to primarily use D/D (love the feel lol) – what sort of tutorials were you thinking of? Just a basic build tutorial? My build is basically Yishis’ adapted for the crit damage nerf (hence stacking sigils and lifesteal food – longer fights are inevitable and more power is more important than more crit dmg – yishis has some cavaliers in his later renditions, I don’t)

I would be interested in your opinion of an idea I’ve had though…
A D/D thief WvW guide to fighting each class – from basic to specific meta/common builds…
E.G. how to play D/D thief versus mesmers in general, with specific tips for fighting verse condi, pu, shatter, phant, etc…
Do you think there might be an audience for that? as far as I know there aren’t any specific thief guides like that….

Sorry, I’ve been out of town without decent internet beyond my phone lol :-)
I suppose for every two nice comments its only reasonable to expect some critical ones

@MrSimpleMan – thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m currently experimenting a bit with consumables and sigils, but I’m running http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZEQNAoYVlsMp0plPx7J0PNRPBtdAi9D4eEZIEdlCA-TVSDwA53f4wDA4pyvEHBQJ4iDBAI9BAMBN4EAET9HCBUeLA-w

@Yamsandjams – you’re close, but I drop some of the tankiness your build suggests – good spot on the food though :-) yeah, stealth traps suck :P

@Evalia – awww, aren’t you sweet :P The answer is no, fort aspen wood is currently ranked 7: https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/na/wvw
Also, you’re quite correct, thieves can perma-stealth with the right set up – however, if you notice, at no point in that fight did I have more than a few seconds out of combat… Furthermore, I was not running D/P or Smokescreen, so I could only stealth using CnD. Since the changes to thief init regen a few months ago, it is now standard (and advisable) for a thief to change infusion of shadow for shadow’s embrace. Since I was not receving 2 init return on stealth – and had no other source of extra initative outside critical strikes (which is insufficient init sustain for these purposes); it is actually IMPOSSIBLE, for CnD spam to keep you PERMANENTLY in stealth – you can manage 2-3 in a row before you’re out of iniative, if you don’t do “something” in the meantime. You’re right, if there had been any forethought to this (which if you read my intro text, there genuinely wasn’t ) I could have done it quite easily, but there wasn’t!

@messiah.1908 – I’ll be entirely frank with you, I’ve only just started streaming/recording, and this is only the second video I’ve recorded and then properly edited for youtube. Someone in my guild heard about this fight, and said I should put it on youtube on the understanding that somebody somewhere would enjoy it :-) So I took it as an chance to experiment with some editing features. Please let me know what sort of content you’d rather see. And yes, I had fun for the first few minutes of the fight, then it began to get boring. What you may notice though, is that in the early part of the fight I DIDN’T just harrass with CnD, however, due to the AoE nature of many D/D elementalist attacks, it became increasingly difficult for me to have an open window to attack, so the latter portion of the video is far more defensive than the earlier portion…

TL;DR
@MrSimpleMan – thank you kindly!
@Yamsandjams – pretty much – just a little squishier – stealth traps suck :-)
@Evalia – aww, you’re sweet -_-
@messiah.1908 – give me some feedback I can actually work with :P it was fun though :-)

P.S. Excuse my typos, I’m exhausted lol, long few days irl

So my current goal in GW2 is to solo a tower as a D/D thief from the inside…. While I was streaming a few days ago, I saw an opportunity to follow the enemy zerg into their tower. The zerg got bored, and left me in the tower, but a pair of bunkers decided to try and kill me – it resulted in a 16 minute 1v2 fight.

I’ve taken the footage, fast forwarded the boring bits, added some music and captions; I’m not trying to claim this is an example of great thief play – but I figure someone might get a kick out of watching a D/D thief trolling in an enemy tower :-)

Also – ArenaNet’s sound cloud has some awesome music lol

Just to clarify something – solo players and small groups are far from useless… you just have to avoid going toe-to-toe with a zerg!

You can cap a tower with 4+ people if you work fast and cooperate, and a single player can easily cap a camp solo :-)

The new LB rangers are a pain… with read the wind you can’t just side step rapid fire, and it follows you in stealth… caught me off guard a couple of times… its 75% hp of my health gone, or all my dodges

Omnitek.3876:

Mice.8921:

godz raiden.2631:

I suggest running a venom share build of some sort, otherwise pick a different class to lead on. I generally hop on a heavier class when leading my havoc squad, but I’ve used a venom share build in the past with dire gear and it worked very well.

Cool, thanks :-)

I don’t actually have a heavy have all other classes but ranger at lvl 80 and geared in exotics… but no heavies lol :-)

Necros are considered heavy, but a team build like venom share would be best for a smaller group.

My necro is my third most played character after mesmer and thief (thief most atm, mesmer most in total)… I just find the lack of movement abilities (escape) makes it difficult to lead a small mobile group like ours… We get zerged a lot in Fort Aspenwood, so stealth and/or running for your life is basically a necessary skill in havoc squading :-)

I’ll try out venom share at some point then
y’all rock

great replies, thanks

godz raiden.2631:

I suggest running a venom share build of some sort, otherwise pick a different class to lead on. I generally hop on a heavier class when leading my havoc squad, but I’ve used a venom share build in the past with dire gear and it worked very well.

Cool, thanks :-)

I don’t actually have a heavy have all other classes but ranger at lvl 80 and geared in exotics… but no heavies lol :-)

alchemyst.2165:

Ive never led a group before, but you should be killing the squishy backlines as a thief (burst, at least). You don’t need as much cavalier gear as you did before because of the crit dmg nerf. I was running cavalier before with 2.7k armor, now I have 2.4k armor with only the chest and exotic backpiece. Im running Valkyrie/Zerker mix.

Thieves shouldn’t really be in the frontlines, just kill high priority targets on the side or back. You can also blast with shortbow for AoE if you want to weaken everybody you’re fighting. If you’re burst, though, it’s quicker to just kill. Watch IamMugi’s videos on youtube. Mugi handles group and outnumbered fights very well.

I appreciate it, unfortunately you’ve very specifically given me the information I said I wasn’t asking for I’ve watched all of mugi’s videos, yishis videos, and many sPvP players as well; and I’m quite experienced at backlining in ZvZ, small fights, and 1vX roaming…

However, recently, as I said, I’ve been commanding my guild’s havoc squad, I’m trying to find out what kind of build I should be running for that :-)

Thank you for answering though

So I’ve tried to lead my guild’s 5-10 man havoc squad a couple of times, and with all zerker gear except for valk head/chest/legs and traveler runes (standard D/D 0/30/30/10/0) I’ve found I’m a little on the squishy side for standing in front (usually I run along side the group and engage straight onto their backline)….
I’ve been thinking of getting valkyrie pieces for all my armor slots (keeping runes of the traveler) and buying cavalier trinkets, assumeing I continue to run 100% crit chance in stealth, do you think this could be a viable way for me to give me a good chance of surviving our havoc squad fights (think 10v10-20, not ZvZ)?

If not, what sort of builds do thieves normally run when commanding? I know its possible, there’s at least two thief commanders on my server (Fort Aspendwood) :-)

TLDR; Thief, commanding, what gear?

P.S. should I bite the bullet and just get dire?

EDIT: I hate spotting typos as I click post…

Omri.8196:

It’s one of the best traits in Deadly arts, you forgot to mention that it increases your damage by 10% after you steal, as long as you keep the stolen ability.

Most people overlook it because they can’t control it, but its really worth it when you basilik venom twice, or get two shadow refuges.

According to the wiki you are wrong :-(

“Steal is not a bundle; the damage bonus from this trait affects found items that replace the weapon skill bar such as Conjures and Banners.”

Otherwise it would be awesome…. :-D

Leeto.1570:

Im not saying that i have problems with thiefs or something im saying that they just destroy the PVP they just make you play completely different way and unbalances whole game.

I’m puzzled how you can simultaneously find them op, yet not have problems with them… If you can do it, maybe its just general l2p?

mompen.7952:

Do you think this will work with a mixed zerk/valk armor set?

I was thinking of using head, chest, pants valk, and the rest zerker, or do I loose out on a lot of defense that way?

that’s exactly what I ran (and still do) with traveler’s runes and sigils of fire/force…

I’m thinking of changing my gear up a bit now though as I think I might need a little more defense than that…

I find although I’ve lost of initial damage on my thief for WvW roaming, the new bloodlust sigil is pretty sweet and I’ve thrown in a sigil of blood…

I never had the patience for stacking bloodlust, but now with 5 stacks per player kill, its quite sweet…

Blood gives you extra dps but also….
Assuming you spend 3 seconds in reveal and 2 seconds in stealth to position a backstab in a normal fight… XI in shadow arts is giving you 600 hp (from 2 seconds in stealth) which is the same as 120 hp/second… Sigil of blood (with 300 healing power from shadow arts) heals for 480 and with the new power scaling hits for 453 + 7.5% of your power (pretty substantial)…
As it triggers once every 5 seconds its adding 88 hp/s to your rotation…. it make’s a difference…

I think with the crit dmg nerf, there isn’t going to be a “standard” thief build for a while now…

I run dungeons with S/P and 100% crit chance and signet of malice and on crit life steal food… this looks like a good way to survive some of the tougher bosses with a PuG group…. Side note: I’m planning to start using sigil of strength with my 100% crit chance S/P….

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

You have not mentioned that duel sigils can now be used and won’t have the same internal cooldown. If a duel dagger thief took superior fire and air the resulting additional damage that will proc because they now both don’t force internal cooldowns on each other results in thief’s and greatsword warriors or duel axe’s now producing more damage potentially if the sigils aren’t balanced nicely. To balance these sigils they will have their damage reduced or proc percentage reduced. This could create situations of where players outside of playing spike/burst damage builds now gets reduced effects from the sigils they use on their non crit based builds. The prime example of this is 30% group healing on crit on a non crit based healway guardian. The notion of taking guardian skills/traits that increase crit chance even though it is not doing any viable damage and only there to provide the AoE 30% group heal will potentially struggle. The result is to increase the proc chance on this sigil now..which in turn favors high crit chance builds to use it as one of the sigils as they are almost now guaranteed additional healing without the sigils internal cooldown being reset by any other sigils they using on their main/offhand weapons. On the guardian the proc heal will appear balanced..on a thief/warrior running healing signet or the heals on attack it will appear strong as they will be generating a lot of proc heals off their already existing continuous healing skill selection..not too much what a mediation based guadrian with lith healing could achieve with this. I think mst ppl are so focused on what will happen to dmg they’re not looking far enough down the line to see aspects outside of dmg changing potentially quite dramatically.

Support based on-crit sigils are becoming on-hit – solved I guess

Pyroathiest.4168:

Lol no he didn’t. April fools.

I always read what you post with respect for your knowledge of mesmers.. I will never be able to trust you again </3

Maugetarr.6823:

Mice.8921:

Maugetarr.6823:

So if you backstab for 6k you’ll heal 300 health? Wow, thats almost as good as the passive regen on HealSig post nerf (15th)! Oh, wait, its only almost as good if you can pump out 6k dps continuously :/

You ARE able to understand that this trait is in no way meant to be equivalent to a healing skill, right? It would, in my opinion, be stupidly overpowered if we were able to get the healing of healing signet in a trait and still use your healing skill!

The lengths people are willing to go just to complain about healing signet….

EDIT: It’s an interesting build OP, and one I’m curious to try with S/D so you can CnD to avoid burst, and still maintain health income through traits… while using your heal as additional back up healing….

Sorry. I guess I should have compared it to adrenal health, but there are so many sources of regen it’s easy to overlook some. Realistically it _ might_ be on par with adrenal health if you can keep the DPS constant, meaning that thieves just recieved a minor master level trait for a GM one, not a “godmode”.

In that regard I agree with you, it is a little underwhelming for a GM trait, BUT it is also important to remember that in no situation should you ever attempt class balance with cross-class comparisons that only take into account single aspects… For example, you cannot deny that thief would be very OP with a top tier hp pool and heavy armor like a warrior… Yet if you were to simply compare our innate defense with warriors, we (and every other class in the game) would be seriously underpowered. So, again, you can’t just compare our one GM trait with a trait from another class without taking into account other effects.

Its important to remember that if a trait gives you access to something that is a little out of the norm for your class it will be weaker. For example, the new elementalist air trait applies damage on interupt equivalent to the damage from a 10 point mesmer trait (according to clarification offered by a GM on the new trait)… If you assume that mesmers and elementalists should have exactly equivalent interrupt abilities, having a GM equivalent to a 10 point trait would be hilariously under powered…

As to this trait… if you assume signet of malice and this trait, using S/P you should be able to offer frequent stuns/dazes, higher hps than warrior healing signet, and huge evade uptime, before you even consider your utilities and other traits/runes/sigils/etc…

MATH: Warrior healing signet offers 393 hp/s… signet of malice is 133 hp/hit and this trait .05 * dps. Assuming pistol whip hits for 3k/dps you will be getting equivalent hp/s even assuming that pistol whip only hits once/second… 3k dps on pistol whip is probably impractically high, but hitting more than once a second is very possible which would compensate… Furthermore, you are ofc, evading and your target was stunned at the beginning… Both of which contribute to damage negation… Assuming your target is a warrior (b/c why not) and their usual DPS is 1k/seconds, the evade from pistol whip effectively adds 1k hp/s to your pistol whip (remember, you have to take in to account more than one factor)…

tldr; Class balance – in an interesting game – should never be as simple as 1:1, saying that it should be is effectively asking for the removal of the class system: removing distinguishing elements between classes….

Maugetarr.6823:

So if you backstab for 6k you’ll heal 300 health? Wow, thats almost as good as the passive regen on HealSig post nerf (15th)! Oh, wait, its only almost as good if you can pump out 6k dps continuously :/

You ARE able to understand that this trait is in no way meant to be equivalent to a healing skill, right? It would, in my opinion, be stupidly overpowered if we were able to get the healing of healing signet in a trait and still use your healing skill!

The lengths people are willing to go just to complain about healing signet….

EDIT: It’s an interesting build OP, and one I’m curious to try with S/D so you can CnD to avoid burst, and still maintain health income through traits… while using your heal as additional back up healing….

RedSpectrum.1975:

Let’s get down to business, to haaaave some funs

We as thieves use daggers, swords and booows, and guuuns

PvE unfortunately is the saddest spot, dungeon groups will usually hate you

How will I- make a thief- out of youuuuuuu
dun dun- dun dun- dun

To be a thief
You’ll use stealth as if it’s cleansing ire

To be a thief
You’ll need to able to steal some boons

To be a thief
Escape when your hp is but a sliver

And be prepared to face the wrath of the- QQQQQQQ’s

My hero… I can hear it in my head… well written…
If only I could sing I’d record it on the piano and listen to it while I play my thief

@OP: also, well-written

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

chuckle

So not only are we calling them incompetent in general….

… we’re also now saying that they can’t do math…..

kitten it, I’m out of popcorn.

This comment made my morning…. Kudos mate

jarthur.3649:

for why I took the healing seed, it is that it grants regen once a second and if I’m at the back of the zerg the healing seed has a decent chance to survive the full thirty second meaning I end up with at least a 30 second long regen to give to everyone near me. if this isn’t feasible please tell me.

Think of it like this. Much of the damage in a zerg is AoE. If your healing seed can survive, the people near it didn’t need regen anyway. If you took a shorter cd heal, then you could apply more fury, and still keep yourself alive. I personally like the idea of your build, but healing seed isn’t a good idea in most (if not all) situations.

Alissah.9281:

/insert advertisement here

Youtube bugged the video, making a part of it completely black. I decided to remove all links here, because I don’t want to show you something unfinished. There’s no way to remove a thread, so I’ll just type this. It’ll be up without bugs tomorrow (28th march)

---

Update 1: I may have overdone this a little.
Update 2: My heart is racing :o
Update 3: for some reason at 8:19 is a huge black part, I’ll fix it tomorrow :‘( It’s the 4th time I’ve rendered it, and this issue wasn’t in the previous 3 versions O.o

I want to watch your video :-) your videos are awesome!

You’re thinking of it the wrong way. You’re a thief. Steal every single chance you have to get an advantage (pun intended). If you’re trying to find a way to fight honorably as a thief, you’re stuck, its not gonna happen It’s in the class design (and its awesome).

thefantasticg.3984:

Mice.8921:

[Ranger]
A little longbow love never hurts

It does hurt when it is at the expense of other, better, traits…

So far, the only thing I see to be excited about is LR getting remove immob.

No. It doesn’t hurt. Something that hurts is something negative. You’re not losing the current traits. you’re not being forced to change your current build. It is not a loss.

Even its a little lackluster

Tetsuyja.7805:

LOVE NEW TRAITS – just wanna say ;D

and

LOVE new SIGILS AND RUNES – also just wanna say

I agree. Totally :-)

tetrodoxin.2134:

What’s wrong with you, OP? You can’t just go into the official forums and like stuff the dev team announced. That’s not how it works, srsly.

…

…but yeah, I’m also excited for some of them! ;D

Haha, noted…
To the pessimists I will say this though…
Guild Wars 2 is (believe it or not) first and foremost, a game.
It is your responsibility – not Arena Net’s – to decide whether or not you will enjoy this game. In other words, you can sulk and whine that Arena Net didn’t make your class overpowered (a.k.a. balanced for you), or you can appreciate the good things… Stagnation never fixed anything (except perhaps the common cold) and so even if they’re not changes you like, they are changes; focus on the positive, Guild Wars 2 is a great game, and if nothing else, with the last few Living Story installments, and these patch previews, Arena Net has shown they’re certainly not going to let the game become stagnant.
tl;dr its a game… you could always choose to enjoy it… stagnation isn’t a solution..

Bryzy.2719:

Well, actually it does matter when the only profession getting shafted once again is the Ranger, even after a huge “collaborative” development thread.

Look on the class forums for each class… whilst I do think the ranger traits were perhaps a little lackluster… everyone always feels their class was shafted…

Its the advantage of having multiple classes you play ;-)

Me Games Ma.8426:

Torment on shatter…
I’ve waited so long for something like this. Although I have to kick out Illusionary Persona I love it <3

Nice to see someone doing something other than complain :-)

I agree, the mesmer changes were particularly nice, though personally I wasn’t quite as excited by the chaos trait as I am the rest

Thank you Arena Net
I know the forums are basically chock-full of complaints and dislike for the new traits and trait system, but I must say I love it. I agree with people when they say the traits aren’t all equal, but frankly, I don’t think it matters…

Traits can be changed and balanced after release if necessary, but in the meantime, many of these new traits are taking steps in awesome directions…

For example, for some of the classes I play…
[Thief]
I kinda love all of these
[Ranger]
A little longbow love never hurts
[Necromancer]
So excited for being able to add more sustain with my condi build and scavengers runes
[Mesmer]
LOCKDOWN!

Try to keep this thread positive please…

Don’t misunderstand me, like every class, mesmer can be set up to PvE “roam” well using traveler runes, lining up the GS, etc… BUT I understood that op was looking for a good class for tagging, and mesmer just isn’t his best bet… ofc if you want to play mesmer, they’re more than viable, and they’re amazing in dungeons…

I’ve played mesmer since beta… believe me if you want a class that can run around well mesmers are a bad choice. If you want a class that can tag well, mesmers are a bad choice…

Seriously… mesmers are (imho) the worst taggers in the game…

Domey.9804:

….
3.The thief knew stealth =/= invulerability, you can also predict their postition in stealth

That’s the key to beating thieves on any class right there.. Every good thief player (its one of my mains, but recently I’ve been leveling a ranger) can count stealth time and reveal times in their head… they’re also good at guessing your position in stealth…
Now, as a WvW solo/small group D/D thief, let me give some suggestions real quick…

If a thief enters stealth at low health or with multiple conditions, they will try to stay in it for the full duration (or at least 3 of 4 seconds to trigger 2 not 1 condi remove), therefore, you’re best bet is activating your defensive skills after 2-2.5 seconds (Gs 4 for example)
IF YOU THINK YOU CAN PREDICT THEIR BACKSTAB TIME do not, in ANY circumstance, dodge forwards… never EVER dodge forwards against a thief, it will NOT work… EVER… dodge backwards always…
its important to remember that thieves want to be behind you, if they’re in front of you, backstab tickles at best…
when you want to avoid a backstab, roll backwards not forwards so they have to reposition rather than just stepping forwards

When at thief enters stealth, run a small circle, while changing which direction you’re facing to make it hard for them get behind you…

If its not a D/P thief, back against a wall so they can’t backstab you at all (beware a D/P will just perma-blind you if you do this)
If you want to use a CC from outside of black powder to stop a heart seeker, fire one basic attack followed immediately by what you want to hit… It doesn’t matter if you have blind when you launch the cc, provided your basic attack hits first… most people launch an attack, and then WAIT for the blind condition to be removed by the hit, and THEN they do their cc… just fire basic attack and cc one after the other, with practice you’ll land the cc straight after the basic attack and it will be as if you weren’t blinded (important for LB users)

If they enter stealth at low health and you’re at high health and can take a hit, that’s when you use your AoE dmg that roots you… otherwise, stay away from staying still no matter what

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

#1, anything over 100% condition duration is wasted. Lingering Curse is the sole exception in the game.

Rare Veggie Pizza counters Lemongrass and Poultry Soup nicely.

As for which is better, it depends on if you are roaming or zerging. Zergs are where condition duration isn’t worth investing in at all, so you should make what ticks you do get hit for as hard as possible.

I always use koi cake, and almost always have 30 in spite (dhuummfire terrormancer op )
I then either use toxic tuning crystal or master tuning crystal (with dire master gets slightly more dmg, toxic gets 10% more duration putting me at 80%)

I don’t always use lingering curses…

Usually in WvW I run a terrormancer with 100% condition duration increase (115% for bleeds) in rabid armor/weapons and dire/rabid trinkets…
I’ve just got a set of dire armor with scavenging runes instead of duration that gives me more condi dmg
I’ve assumed that condi dmg > duration in WvW as its better verse condi removes (duration doesn’t help if it gets removed)
but then I saw a post saying that condition duration is nice because it counters lemongrass/melandrus by negation of the effect…

Which is better? (note with dire I can still get 70-80% duration increase)

I have 5 level 80’s, 4 of which I’ve used quite a bit solo or small group roaming in WvW. I have a rabid engi, rabid/dire necro, D/D (almost entirely zerker) thief, and a knights/cavaliers/zerker shatter/PU-Shatter mesmer…
I consider mesmer and thief my mains, and most of my good gear and gold goes towards my thief – who is by far my favorite…

My understanding is that thieves and mesmers both tend to own newbie players who can’t predict them… However, having played thief so much, stealth is actually laughably predictable.. and my mesmer has comfortably won 2v1 duels verse d/d and d/p thieves who were considered quite skilled. Aikinjinx can testify that I know how to fight verse thieves (we’ve dueled quite a few times)…

I’ve noticed that thieves tend to consider themselves balanced to weak (many I know quit their thieves), whereas most players consider thieves OP.
I think this happens because the lack of cds thieves have, coupled with evades and stealth, make them unpredictable. I believe this is a feature not a issue. However, this does mean they have a higher learning curve to fight against, and therefore are difficult for new players.
Good players, however, are able to predict thief stealth (I can count the times on both revealed and stealth in my head, and can figure out which traits a thief has after only a stealth or two).

I think this causes a divide between the perception of many players – whom can’t kill thieves – and people who play thieves, who compare themselves to other skilled players who can predict them…

I find my engi and my necro are the opposite. They’re good vs good players, but don’t have an inherent advantage verse bad players.
My mesmer has an inherent advantage against bad players as well (who can’t avoid phantasm/shatter attacks) but still has a sufficient variety of attacks and combos that I can keep good players guessing.
On my thief, verse good players, I constantly have to come up with more and more complicated and unpredictable combos (such as opening with a stealth skill at range, casting basilisk venom, using SB to land the venom after stealth ends, switching to D/D, CnD + steal into BS then back away and use dagger to cripple to stop the warrior hammering me into the ground… ETC)… Against a bad player its much simpler… Steal + CnD… BS… roll forwards (all bad players roll FORWARDS after a BS, idk why) then follow with a basic attack chain into heartseeker… that works against almost every glass cannon or new player… I think its that kind of high dmg combo that is too fast for most new players that spawns the thief hate

What is new flare?

[WvWvW]/[PvE]
Longbow..
1. Scaling damage with range is nice thematically, but it prevents longbow from being passable in dungeons with the current melee meta.
2. This skill does good damage, but having it spread over SO MANY hits makes it feel like I’m using a shortbow, not a longbow. It doesn’t feel right with the basic attack.
3. The stealth is nice, but rangers, when using Longbow, have such little movement potential, that it can be difficult to utilize the short stealth – prehaps give swiftness to the ranger as well?
4. Great skill, feels in line with the basic attack and suits the role.
5. I like this skill, but again, the fast rate of fire does not feel in line with the basic attack or the concept of the longbow. Prehaps give an effect that makes your basic attacks AoE and apply cripple for a short duration? This would allow the ranger to more effectively kite with their basic attack, and make the longbow more thematic.

Karolis.4261:

Mice.8921:

I’ve spent, literally, hundreds of hours solo roaming with my thief running Yishis’ old build (valk armor and zerker trinkets/weapons all wiht ruby orbs)
But I remember reading several times on the forums (Wish’s build too – that mix soldier zerker is better than all valk armor….
I really don’t want to know whether zerk is good for PvE… I already know that…
But rather than doing classic 0/30/30/10/0 build I’ve been doing some 0/30/25/15/0 or 0/0/20/20/30 builds wiht S/D + SB…

For a build not running 100% in stealth… valk armor costs too much precision – especially if you don’t run crit strikes… Soldier/zerk mix offers more precision than just valk…
So I was wondering if for a 30 in crit strikes d/d BS build, zerker/soldiers is superior like Wish says…

@Sir Vincent III – Thank you for giving an answer to my question rather than a lecture on PvE norms

3/3 zerker/soldier i superior then 6/6 valkyrie in overall DPS on not moving targets, thats the only thing what calculations can show you. People tend to take valkyrie to maximise backstab with hidden killer damage. What is better will only be determined of how much of your damage comes from backstabs and how much from other attacks, what is impossible to calculate due to different fight situations. 3/3 zerker/soldier will crit more often and 6/6 valkyrie will crit harder. In the end of the day, there is very minimal difference in which one you chose. I chose valkyrie for name, sue me.

I’ve started looking at because even though I often D/D solo roaming, for PvE I often use sword mainhand, I use my SB more, and I use P/P in some cases (yeah, I know lol)…

Recently, I’ve even tried using Sword for havoc squad roaming, and I found my crit was too low, hence I want to try 3/3

Thanks!

AikijinX.6258:

Haha I know both of you in game too ;D

I concur running sigil of fire/force would be a more suitable duo set for roamin/havoc purposes.
I for one am going to be running on P/D(Air/Bloodlust) SB(Bloodlust/Leeching sigil) Will work perfectly with my build synergy. And yes I love getting stacks and I often forget to switch to my weapon stacking set, if I only have 1 stacking sigil on a set. So i just put it on both ;D /gg

So when fire and air don’t share a cd, you don’t think it will be worth using both?

AikijinX.6258:

I main a build with rampager trinkets and weapons right now. It’s a life steal build. I still have yet to release, and put it on forums though. I’ve been so lazy.

I can testify that this build works… I was dueling him in WvWvW last night… vicious thief build… (Zonyx)

OIIIIIO.7825:

No worries!

I am glad I was able to assist in some way with providing Wish’s post. Wish and I have both gone over the stats at length comparing stat sets and I am glad that work is still able to be a benefit to others in the community.

I’ll have to check out your stream
Thanks again for the answer

OIIIIIO.7825:

If you had specified what game mode you needed help in I could have given you a more accurate answer. With an open ended question such as “Is this better?” It is difficult to give a straight answer since the question lacks critical information. (Game Mode)

I understand, and I wasn’t attempting to be rude, that was a mistake on my behalf. However, I had quite carefully not asked what people though was “best” – as I already know that answer – I was quite specifically interested in a comparison between those two items in general (Obviously not in sPvP as there you can’t choose specific armor pieces with regards to stats)

Forgive me if I offended you, your second post was much more helpful and on topic

I’ve spent, literally, hundreds of hours solo roaming with my thief running Yishis’ old build (valk armor and zerker trinkets/weapons all wiht ruby orbs)
But I remember reading several times on the forums (Wish’s build too – that mix soldier zerker is better than all valk armor….
I really don’t want to know whether zerk is good for PvE… I already know that…
But rather than doing classic 0/30/30/10/0 build I’ve been doing some 0/30/25/15/0 or 0/0/20/20/30 builds wiht S/D + SB…

For a build not running 100% in stealth… valk armor costs too much precision – especially if you don’t run crit strikes… Soldier/zerk mix offers more precision than just valk…
So I was wondering if for a 30 in crit strikes d/d BS build, zerker/soldiers is superior like Wish says…

@Sir Vincent III – Thank you for giving an answer to my question rather than a lecture on PvE norms

I’ve started roaming my necro over the last week watching your videos – they’re awesome

OIIIIIO.7825:

PvE -

1. Beserker Everything
2. This change hasn’t happened. Mob specific Sigil + Night/Force

PvP -

1. Beserker Everything
2. (Echo) – Sigils Force + Fire

1. Not what I asked, please read the question.
2. My bad, what about when it has happened?

Ekkilo.9825:

Thanks a lot

No problem… I think his forum user name is Rennoko as well if you want to bug him

1. Am I correct that running zerker trinkets with soldiers head/chest/legs and zerker rest (all with ruby orbs or traveler runes) is better than running valk armor (also with ruby orbs or traveler runes)?

2. Now that you can rune two on crit sigils… Is it better to run fire/air or fire/force? (Assume a second offhand for bloodlust – or prehaps bloodlust on the SB)

Rennoko is a very talented Necro roamer, several of his videos have links in the descriptions to builds he uses: http://www.youtube.com/user/Rennoko
For example, this is one of his recent builds: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjMat7pbeb87JEoHuHuAiRPKmghZoKUOA-jUCB4iCik3Bi0AMTtIasl1FRjVdDTHjIq2YWY2iORCBsYNA-w

Thanks for the good replies!