Guild Wars 2

R41 Champion Thief here.
Having tried many different, I’m currently rocking Caed’s burst build.
I win almost every 1v1, with the exception of some engineers and necros of they catch me off-guard.
Engineers are definitely my worst match, between their. Onditions, confusions, blinds, tons of healing and cc…there’s not much you can do.
Again, it depends on the player.
Some sun-lock warriors absulotely destroy me…but for the most part I have the most trouble vs engineers and outnumbered fights.
But I’m an advanced player, most hotjoin thieves are noobs and if you play well, you should be able to have o trouble destroying them with any class you choose.
But again, if I had to choose an anti-thief class, I’d take an engineer.

So, how exactly does Stealth blend in GW2 PVP normally?
It’s thanks to this one golden rule,this is a big one guys.
In fact, it is so big that if you fully grasp the idea behind it, you can abuse it to make the Thief lose and be a hindrance to his whole team.
So pay attention guys here it is: “Every second that the thief is abusing Stealth, is a second he will not attack or capture nodes.
In other words, he’s not helping his team AT ALL, while occupying  a Player slot in their team”.
In PVP, a stealthed thief is a dead thief (well, up to the moment he la da that nasty Backstab combo on you).
If it was WvW, if the Thief stealthed away from you it sucks because you get no lootbag/exp and he continues with his camp slaughter rampage.
However, if a Thief stealths away from you in PVP, it works to your advantage!
Every second that the thief is hidden and thinking “oh, he won’t see this one coming, I’m gonna get you…” Nd almost every thief thinks like that, because this is what we like about being a thief the mos . It is our joy, you are buying time for your team, the node ticks more points and your team has the upper hand.
So next time you almost kill a thief and he stealths away and comes back 20 seconds later with full hp and tries to assault your node again, remember you just WON your team 20 points! 
That’s just how the game works.
So you see, Stealth is counter-productive, a true hidden killer.
Stealth is only useful when used tactically to gain the upper hand in a fight,or save your life,but it is still killing time in every sense of the word.

So you want to know how to counter any stealth Thief? 
First, make sure your build has a wY to negate our burst.
For anwarrior, it could be Shield Stance, for a Necro its Death Shroud.
Other than that,here’s a list of our most hated tricks:
1)Conditions (Guess what? They tick when we’re stealthed too! Not every thief has Shadows Embrace)
2)Immobolize + spamming attacks
3)CC
4)AoE
5)push/pull/knockback out of a refuge for a sweet free kill!

Last word of advice inwould give you would be, pay attention when your health drops below 50%…a hidden thief might be a second away from his dance of death with you.
 Thank you for reading, see you in game!

~Nit Shade from Whiteside Ridge

Greetings, people of the mist!
I have come here to this beloved forum to say out loud my opinion about us fellow thieves, our strengths, our weaknesses, and the common reactions from you, the rest of the community

First, about myself; I am a Rank 40 Sylvari thief, rocking the Steal burst build by Caed.
Throught my carieer as a Tpvp thief I have experienced with almost every build possible EXCEPT of S/d evasion build.
outside of pvp my thief is lvl 80 with all exotic/ascended items.
I also have a lvl 80 Mesmer with similar items.
I used to spend most of time roaming wvw and 1vXing like crazy
I admit, Thieves are elite roamers… They are deadly assassins of the night that you should never let catch you off guard (well,at least some are).
But this is not about WvW, this letter is addressed to you, my pvp loving friends, so pay attention!

So what’s it like being a Thief in this heavy condi/bunker meta pvp,you ask?
Well, it’s different.
You do not have the tools to to scatter aoe dmg and tank hits from 3+ foes.
You can’t stun lock an enemy and let your passive health regen sustain you.
You cannot apply massive amounts of conditions in a quick burst (you CAN play a condition build and be perfectly viable though, it’s just that you’re. Ot as good at it as say,engirs or necros).
What you can do however,is apply the most spikey burst to an enemy and thus apply massive pressure to him, forcing him to stop whatever he was doing a second ago and take massive action countering this barrage of Heartseekers!
That’s pretty much how a Thief plays.
He selects the most “glassy” target in sight and quickly takes care of it.
If it plays well, the target is now downed and the Thief would either try to down or finish his target with dmg.
The Thief would then retreat, either fully to let his hp back up, or partially, attacking from a distance with his SB.
Those traited deep into Shadow Arts, with the GM trait “shadow Rejuvanation” would probably go into a shadow refuge or just prolonged stealth to gain their HP back for another rotation.
That is the most typical role that a burst thief will take in a group, and in a nutshell, his rotation.

Now, to the part that drove me to write all this: the complaints!
Now, let me start by saying that complaining is normal! Players will always find SOMETHING to complain about, anything. I don’t mind that.
BUT, and this is a big but,when too many people complain about something specific it escalates and escalates, to the point where it distorts the facts!
I’m talking about you, Stealth!
Oh, our good old stealth!
It’s easy to think stealth is a terribly overpowered mechanic in GW2 that ruins the whole balance in the entire game!
After all, it’s invisibility man…this DOES give the player tremendous advantages and wonderful escape plans.
Do I think Stealth is a mechanic so strong that it’s game changing? Absulotely,but it is the exact OPPOSITE of game breaking.
In fact, it may be the one Mechanic that adds the MOST strategy amd tactical play to a class.
It is beautiful, it’s what defines a thief and makes him what he his, and I think Anet deserve a big applause for the implementation of such a complicated qnd unique mechanic.

Here’s how you win spirit rangers 100% of the time:
Signer of Malice + Daggerstorm + Pistol Whip spam.
To really turn things around, use the steal abillity from the ranger.
This creates a regen pulsing water field that cleanses those pesky conditions the Ranger might apply to you.
There’s literally nothing they can do but run away/call for help.
As for engies…I just try to burst them down as hard as I can and try to avoid their conditions.
Hope that helps!

Daggerstorm + some Cluster Bombs and bye bye spirits.
The ranger will also be suffering heavy dmg and bleeding

Bumping for some more opinions perhaps?

Is this month’s big balance patch tommorow? Or Is it just going to be the Dragon Bash event?

People hate to lose, and there’s no lack of idiots in this game to insult their own teammates.
It doesn’t have to do with you being a warrior,and while it is true warriors are in a bad place RIGHT NOW, Anet has promised many times to vastly improve the warrior class over time and make this game universally balanced.
You should really look forward to the next patch

Doesn’t sound very exciting,you can just spend the points you get from wexp in any line youvwant and “make” your own role anyway.
Plus,Arenanet seem to dislike setting “roles” their philosophy is to allow ever lasting freedom to choose your own role, which may always change, and your idea goes very much against that principle.

swinsk.6410:

Forgot about shortbow nerf. That one hurt a lot in spvp. I still use shortbow tho because its still out best aoe weapon.

Honestly I’m perfectly fine wih the sb nerf, it’s not what’s bothering me about thief

google.3709:

I might be wrong but… D/D rotation wasn’t truly “viable” in tPvP. dancing around a target trying to finish an auto attack chain without dodges/blinds at melee range was suicide in most cases.

the D/D rotation that used to be popular was CnD > BS > 222222. the one you’re talking about is a PvE rotation used against mobs who won’t properly react to most attacks.

the falling on d/d on PvP had nothing to do with the 4s revealed. it simply doesn’t bring anything to the table.

D/D: needs to be close and hit to stealth, no cc, mobility

D/P
-Perma Stealth
-Lots of Regen
-Condi removal
-Gap Closers
-Dazes
-Blind finishers

S/D
- Unlimited Evades
- Tele in/out
-Condi Removal
-Stun breaker
- Immobalize
- Daze
- Stealth

Dagger auto attack chain is very quick and in conjuction with cloacked in shadow +dodge rolls it can be very difficult to melee the thief.
However…revealed at 4s does not allow it in pvp…which is very saddening to me

Not if they’re specifically pvp oriented threads.

What are some changes we can expect for thiefs in the next balance patch?
Just listened to the whole latest SoTG podcast, thief wasn’t even
mentioned,kinda disheartning
Because there are so many issues with it currently, and the devs just seem to ignore us.
The prolonged revealed duration( 4s instead of 3s), uselessness of offhand dagger, dual daggers,mainhand pistol,p/p, awful utilities like traps…
Going a little more into details,starting with d/d:
4s revealed feels very clunky to play with,especially with d/d as your rotaion is cnd > bs > auto attack chain >cnd > rinse and repeat.
3s was PERFECT for it, it gave you just enough time for a whole auto attCk chain and then you could immediately cast cnd and go into stealth again, which gives theif tremendous amounts of fluidity, which is so missed in pvp currently!
Offhand pistol alreDy has major advantages over OH dagger, and with the reveal nerf, there’s no room for consideration.
I mean,come on! We’re supposed to be an assassin class, d/d should be our trademark!
It should the most burst,or at least reward you for the risk of fighting from zero range,but it’s honestly as of now a hindrance compared to d/p!
D/D is very close to laughable in its current state.
Deathblosslm? For the considerable amount of int it costs it brings nothing to the table, awfully low direct dmg (even as GC), awful evade time, and very medicore bleeding dmg.
Dancing Dagger? While a cripple on demand sounds good on paper, it doesn’t do anything for the thief that’s worth wasting time and int using this skill (except for the occasional runner,but even then you have heartseeker…or IS,or shadow shot, which are all better for catching running foes).
CnD? Currently the sole reason a thief may consider taking an OH dagger, a stealth on demand that does dmg and inflicts vulnerability, however the prolonged revealed just ruins the viability of this gameplay…4s takes away all the fluidity from the comBo, as mentioned above.
Add to it the fact the dmg was nerfed by what? 10% or 30%…
Not viable…our trademark is a joke, it’s so frustrating! You’ll never see a d/d assassin in Tpvp for those exact reasons.

Mainhand Pistol:
Slow auto attack, body shot is completely and utterly a useless skill, no mobility or stealth for p/p which equals dead thief…that’s just how it is.

Traps:
I don’t even know what to write, other than the fact they’re so lacklaster and not worth a spot in my utility bar.

Can any dev throw us Thiefs a bone? Something to let us know these issues are being looked at…

ryston.7640:

5 Sig warrior buff, because warriors lack a viable tpvp build.
necromancer bug fix: we have reviewed all standing necromancer bugs and decided that they are working well. as such tooltips have been updated to more accurately describe ability behavior
new game mode: king of the hill, with varrying map mechanics. this should bring more diversity so people dont have to play capture and hold all of the time…

Source for king of the hill please? Or was that just sarcasm/troll?

Kharr.5746:

MightyMe.1356:

Kharr.5746:

Revealed was changed to 4s in PVP and 3s in PVE (not sure about WvW).

Again, not sure why this thread exists but it was imbalanced at 3s and is much more balanced at 4s in PVP.

The thing making stealth imbalanced at 3s revealed debuff is perhaps less so the fact that thieves are invisible, but the fact that stealth cleanses conditions, heals, restores initiative and guarantees the element of surprise + big damage. No other class has such a powerful mechanic on such a low cooldown.

Edit: Personally, I don’t care if revealed went back to 3s as long as all of the above was balanced accordingly. Less healing, less condition removal, less damage, more invisibility.

Stealth does not do all that, all it does is make you invisible.
You can trait in Shadow Arts which does give you a lot of benefits for steallthing,but not all you mentioned together.
You can choose only 3 perks.
And it’s not as good as it seems, the bonuses take a lot of time to have a big effect.
The healing from stealth is minor per second, 1 condition is cleansed every 3 seconds in stealth…just roll a thief and see for yourself.

30 Shadow Arts:
IV, V, XI = 4s+ of stealth, stack of might, 2 initiative, 1 condition cleansed, 4 × 323 hp = 1292+ hp healed (with 0 healing power from armor, 300 from shadow arts) every CnD unless you BS early.

Considering that this is all happening on top of being invisible.. yeah, it’s significant.

Edit: Let’s also not forget the synergy those passive bonuses have with shadow refuge and hide in shadows.

My friend, I can see why you’re jealous, but let’s not forget shadow arts is a thiefs only defense trait line.
All professions have defense trait lines that greatly outshines Shadow Arts.
That’s why you don’t hear of famous tanky thieves…we can’t take massive amounts of dmg and heal ourselves constantly,so we just poof into smoke.
It’s just how we roll, get used to it.
Saying thieves have it easy in pvp is just ludicrous.

Revealed must be reverted back to 3 seconds in pvp.
4 seconds revealed makes d/d feel horribly clunky

Kharr.5746:

Revealed was changed to 4s in PVP and 3s in PVE (not sure about WvW).

Again, not sure why this thread exists but it was imbalanced at 3s and is much more balanced at 4s in PVP.

The thing making stealth imbalanced at 3s revealed debuff is perhaps less so the fact that thieves are invisible, but the fact that stealth cleanses conditions, heals, restores initiative and guarantees the element of surprise + big damage. No other class has such a powerful mechanic on such a low cooldown.

Edit: Personally, I don’t care if revealed went back to 3s as long as all of the above was balanced accordingly. Less healing, less condition removal, less damage, more invisibility.

Stealth does not do all that, all it does is make you invisible.
You can trait in Shadow Arts which does give you a lot of benefits for steallthing,but not all you mentioned together.
You can choose only 3 perks.
And it’s not as good as it seems, the bonuses take a lot of time to have a big effect.
The healing from stealth is minor per second, 1 condition is cleansed every 3 seconds in stealth…just roll a thief and see for yourself.

Can we get an answer from a dev about your guys plans for revealed? If you have any (hopefully!)

Asomal.6453:

The Assassin set can be crafted using:

Arcane Crystal + Free Tournament Token

Thats it?
Seems way too easy.
Is it random chance to craft it? If it is,is it low?

<3 to you Osicat!

Currently baddies can post stupid threads in the forums along with the ability to whine about something and hope Anet nerfs it,with impunity. It feels really overpowered.
L2p noob.

/end thread

Currently Rangers have barrage and are able to do alot of dmg from range constantly along with the ability to use their pets and spirits for alot of dmg and buffs. It feels really overpowered

lowfreq.3674:

currently thieves are able to hop in and out of stealth constantly along with the ability to teleport. it feels really overpowered.

Currently Necromancers are able to stack bleeding + poison + dmg on fear with their marks constantly along with the ability to have another hp bar and use plauge for massive dmg. it feels really overpowered.

Arganthium.5638:

MightyMe.1356:

Anet balance team, as a Thief pvp player,relying on stealth,I’m fine with all the nerf to our burst,honestly.
But there’s one thing that really hampers my sustainability,and that’s the 4s revealed.
It takes away the fluidity of the d/d stealth builds, and it’s such aong duration where I’m utterly defenseless (due to my defense trait line being revolved around stealth), that I’m AFRAID to backstab.
I literally feel afraid of that revealed…it shouldn’t be like that.
So my only request os that younrevert revealed back to 3s in pvp, just like in wvw.
3s revealed is just right, the enemy has enough time to catch me, and I don’t feel like I’m running around screaming “I’m right here! Kill me! Please!”

I thought this died two months ago. o.O

I’m tryig to adapt to it, but I just can’t.
D/d in its current state brings nothing to the table, yet it’s still my weaponset of choice.
I understand why they reduced our burst, it was too strong (arguebly), yet without a reduce to reveal d/d becomes wet noodles…we have to stay in melee range to fight, but everytime we backstab we get revealed for 4 whole seconds, which is ALOT for any plYer to shut us down, let alone 2 or 3.
You end up running around doing nothing scouting enemies that have very low hp to finish them off.

Anet balance team, as a Thief pvp player,relying on stealth,I’m fine with all the nerf to our burst,honestly.
But there’s one thing that really hampers my sustainability,and that’s the 4s revealed.
It takes away the fluidity of the d/d stealth builds, and it’s such aong duration where I’m utterly defenseless (due to my defense trait line being revolved around stealth), that I’m AFRAID to backstab.
I literally feel afraid of that revealed…it shouldn’t be like that.
So my only request os that younrevert revealed back to 3s in pvp, just like in wvw.
3s revealed is just right, the enemy has enough time to catch me, and I don’t feel like I’m running around screaming “I’m right here! Kill me! Please!”

Argue all you want, being able to teleport back so far away to the pointthat you actually need to let a loading screen commence is just too powerful.
No player should have the ability to do that, it was a bug.
So wipe away your tears and get over it.
Furthermore,just because this patch did not include addition of mobility to the class does not mean its never going to happen.
Anet said on SoTG that they are working on something for thiefs mobility, and this patch was about bug fixing,not about balance.

Get over it, it was a bug that was never ment to be.
Stop whining like a baby…

More opinions guys?

frOst.2198:

Couldn’t you also just provide DE’s to players within owned keeps…which provide supply?

It seems like a much more refined idea.

You take a keep…
“Go get us supplies, "HERE""
You go “HERE”
You complete the objective and hope no one is going to stop you.
If they do, you PvP…which is the whole point of WvW

Yes,missions instead of the old events.

This is genius!
I like that idea alot.

Hi guys! Ive just created this thread in the suggestions forum, I would ry appreciate your support/opinions/ critisicsm about all of that.
So let’s discuss this here or in the actual thread, please let me know what’s crossing your
Ind as you read a that
Link to the thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Turning-WvW-into-a-truly-epic-fantasy-world/first#content

As a very competitive player, I enjoy WvW and pvp the most in this game,and spend my time doing these things the most.
I absolutely love wvw, the random encounters with enemies, the teamplay with your world and the small random events.

However, I think the current WvW does not display it’s potential as a game mode.
I think WvW can be a much bigger and content-packed game mode, that will encourage more players to play WvW.
It might also stop all the whining and crying over certain classes being the “best” at something,simply because there will be so much to do that every class will find it’s niche, a role that it does the best, so that everyone can feel that they’re the best player around.

My personal suggestions to the developers, why not make it so that the lords and guild supervisors and the commanders all have missions and tasks to give the players,like a lord of some tower needs assistance in maintaining the tower,or need food for the workers, or want to steal somethig from the other worlds towers/castles, or even want a certain enemy lord dead.
And as a reward the tower becomes stronger and the player gets rewards and rank points.
Also why not make bounty hunting? If a certain player or a group of players are causing a lot of trouble , make it so the castleords or some NPC offers a prize for defeating those players, and these players will show on the map as an event or something, as a premonition to where those players are going to strike next, which will introduce a better fashioned way to use and implement traps as a tactic.
It would also make room for achievements and ranks or titles such as “bounty hunter”, “uncatchble”, “Sheriff”.
Sowhy not make more random events that happen during your travels,like a villager needs help with taking care of some mobs…yes I said villager, wvw does not have to be just towers castles and camps with nothing between them..it can have
life…
That might even be a solution to the so called “Zerg wars” ,since players will have so much more to do other than taking tower,so that you’ll never see an entire world doing the same thing together…there will be alot of small or parties all doing something different for the benefit of their world.
So that a player really feels like he’s living a story,having an epic fantasy adventure that is nEver the same.
Because as much as like WvW as it is right now, it gets dull and boring vEry quickly.
You roam a little bit, maybe alone maybe with a group, take some camps kill some sentries, meet some enemies and have amazing battles with them (which is the mokittenn part,arguebly), or you either just go with the Zerg…and that’s it.
You’re only having some fun when you take amtower, which is maybe 20% of the actual play time since it takes so much more time traveling through the desolated wastes of wvw.
Nothing to strive for, nothing new, nothing surprising or fun or interesting…why?! The game has such a huge potential to be amazing, to be a hit!
WvW can be so much more that it currently is, that i feel it could almost be a game in itself.
Just some of my ideas, does anyone agree with me or would like to add more ideas to the concept?

Really curious how rangers are rated S,can anyone explain?
I know they have some very good bunker BM builds,but other than that the typical ranger is not that good in Tpvp…at least I always seem to better them,and that’s on mu thief,my Mesmer just eats them alive.
Again,not underestimating rangers, specifically BM bunker ones, these guys deserve the rank.

Sorry but it doesnt make muxh sense.
AOE won’t remove stealth,nor conditions,wells,symbols and so on…
So what will? Auto attack? In that case the change would have been expandble and poorly implemented.
I think reveal is balanced as it is right now, 3s is perfect as it gives the player a chance to take down the thief while still letting the thief maintain his fluidity.
It should be like that in pvp as well

By all means, bunker condition build,all carrion gear.
It’s perhaps the strongest build in the meta game if you play it smart.
See this video for example:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/P-D-gameplay-footage-in-WvW
And as a general fact, bunker condition builds are currently the best builds in outnumbered fights, among all classes not just thieves.
Simply because of how much dmg conditions cause in this game to the point where you can be completly dependant on them and still be highly invested in defense and survivablity

Buttercup.5871:

Confusion. Confusion. Confusion. To both the pet and the ranger.

Thats highly applicable on my Mesmer, thanks.
Brw if you guys need some advice on dealing with thieves/mesmers – ask away, these are my two favorite lvl 80s

roadkill.3749:

Lol! Figure it out pro! I’m not telling you kitten.

Without even knowing what you play, I bet I could pwn you 1v1 any day.
Simply because the champs have nothing to hide, they know if their foe discovers a weakness to exploit, they will always think of a counter.
The response of players such ad yourself give away your skill level, sadly.
I wish you good luck nonetheless

lLobo.7960:

QQ in the forums 4x a day in different threads and different subforums (I recomend WvW, sPvP, your class forum, ranger class forum. But you can take it all the way to the suggestions or game discussions forums) untill they nerf the class or implement wvw traps to make it unable to use its mechanics for 30secs or more…

Ok, serious now…
Really depends on the ranger spec.
Check weapons and pets…
You need to know what pet hes using and what they do.
Ranger bunkers go heavy on healing. So poison is important.
If hes using shortbow, dont turn your back to him.
If he got no signets, he’s probably a trapper, get ready to avoid the area where he throws little bags.

I appreciate the advice, the signets cue is smart, noted!
Also,about poison, coming to think of it, on top of poison on auto attack, mu thief build has access to choking gas, a pulsing poison field.
I also have dagger storm, now if I combo these two together…
That’s whole 8 seconds of projectile reflection + poisonous daggers bouncing bleedig and crippling both the ranger and the pets and they bounce off of targets!
That for sure will give me a way to pressure the ranger enough and cripple his healing!
I’m gonna try that on the next bunker ranger i see.
Thanks, anything else to add?

Talek.6795:

noone smart will answer to you =)

In reality, the good players always look for a challange and they’re not afraid to give some tips since they’re confident of their skill in battle.
What about you?

Hi, I play shatter Mesmer/backstab thief and my Achilles heel seems to be bunker rangers.
No matter what i try i can’t break through their tankiness and hp, and they peck at me slowly with conditions untill I’m dead.
Is there a weakness to these kind of builds that i can expose?
Any advices?
Thanks

Welcome to the brotherhood!
Wish you the very best experience!
I remember when i started thief Steal looked awful too, but it ended up being one of those things that gets better and better as you go.
You have plenty of traits that empower Steal and encourage using, and the instant shadowstep makes it the best pvp opener.
Other than that,Cloak and Dagger my friend, Cloak and Dagger

Sorry but you have some terrible ideas here.
First off, a nerc to shDow rejuvenation would make it a useless grandmaster trait, you think that’s a strong healing source? Regen rangers say hi, so do d/d eles, guardians and who else…
Whi cares if other classes cry about it? They will always find something to cry over.
Heartseeker does not need a buff, backstab needs a nerf?! Are you mad? Do you even play pvp? The dmv is laughble, in wvw unless you obtain all exotic gear.

Your ideas sounds good but I would add follow things to you list:

Increase Revelation Debuff to 5 Sec; Increase Base sthealth time to 5 Sec, give the thief the baseHP from the engi/ranger/mesmer;
increase base dmg on single target weapon by 75%-100% ; reduce backstab to +50% instead +100%
Reduce Steal-CD on 30 sec

Not sure about this: Reduce Ini-Regeneration Time to 1,35 -1,5 sec

And the stupid comment of the thread award goes to you…
5sec revealed debuff? Have you ever played d/d? This would BREAK the class entirely.
We do not need a bigger health pool, but we absolutely need the abillity to re enter stealth as often as we can.
I mean, look at the Shadow Arts tree, all the traits there ENCOURAGE you to stealth, and what good will a 5 sec stealth do? We do not need that long…

My ideas for buffs:
Add some mobility to pistol mainhand
Revert the ridiculous 4 sec reveal back to 3 sec…
Give traps some love, nobody bothers to use them and they make a big part of our arsenal.

Azraeel.1238:

The amount of backstab you do depends on your opponent’s armor, and whether they got protection boon up. Yishi does a large amount of backstab because he picks the right opponents at the right time. Oh, and you do even more damage to ascended people as they are squishy as heck.

Getting exotic gear will boost your damage up a lot. For starters you can reach 109% crit damage, and try to keep your crit chance as close to 50% as possible.

How do I get that much crit dmg? That would make a huge improvement to my backstab dmg.
Does exotic gear have more crit dmg on it?
Other than that how else can I get more crit dmg?

P/d heavy condition/ health regening thief is among the top builds in the entire game for wvw/pvp.
You’ll be able to roam like a God.
It’s just that burst is way more fun and engaging.

Hello guys, I have been playing thief since purchasing the game,it’s been always my class of choice.
I love being able to sneak around and feel like an assassin.
My former build was p/d all carrion gear and it was powerful beyond measure.
Nobody could stop me from roaming, it would take a big group of skilled players to take me down.
My routine was setting up caltrops + dogdetrops + poison fields while staying in stealth and regeninv health.
I still think its the most powerful pvp/wvw build in the game.
So powerful that it got boring very quickly so I rolled a Mesmer got it to lvl 80 and I love it.
However, Mesmer is just not exactly my type, not like Thief. A burst thief.
I know it’s inferrior to p/d cond build, it’s even inferior to my Mesmer, but it’s still my build of choice.

My question is, will it make for a viable w w roaming build?
In pvp it’s weak, I won’t deny it.
But in wvw, due to the more power you can accumulate from gear/food you can crit for a lot while maintaining your defenses.
I’m not talking about a GC thief, in talking about the squishy yet elusive/regen while in stealth thief.
Build looks like 0 30 30 0 10 with Valkyrie armor and berserker weapon/jewelry.
Just like Yishis build if you guys know who he is.
The thing is i seem to do much worse dmg than him.
My backstabs crit for 3k-5k while his seem to be 5k-8k.
I still don’t have enough money or karma to get exotic gear/weapons though,I’m using all blue gear and beryl orbs instead of divinity runes.
What does it take exactly to reach his dmg?
Currently my stats with food are a little over 1900 power, 1300 toughness 80 crit dmg and 41 crit chance.
Thanks for reading this far

I like it very much, great idea, great build, and nicely written
The Chaos Maestro, kitten has a nice ring to it.
Too bad I have berserker’s gear :s

Iavra.8510:

I assume you are a sPvP player then, so tell me: How many mesmers are running condition specs there? I honestly don’t know since i’m only playing WvW.

From my experience,none.
And I PVP alot!

Osicat.4139:

Just seen thru the changes to the class. Will have a deeper look later and when it hit I as always update my builds.

Sadly it seems like The Condition Shatter Cat getting hit harder than it deserve. As it look now if this go thru it will be unviable in wvwvw. As I aim on keep al my builds up to date Ic ant reccomend this build and if the confusion 50 nerf land I will delete it form the Shatter Cat Guide.

For signets, who know mabye a new build later will fill the condition builds slot Also, Moa seem to get a buff, will keep a eye at it.

/Osicat

Hello Osicat,
How will the confusion nerf affect shatter cat mist 2.0?
Will it make shatter 2 useless?
Cuz seeing your video your confusion ticks for some nice 1ks at times,though mostly 800s~
Also I notice in your rotation sometimes when you have 3 illusions up and you’re going for a burst,you get near your foe and then press f1,f2,f3, the last two shatters you do on air (thanks to Illusionary Persona), I always thought you do that for the extra confusion stacks.
So now after the nerf how will it affect your rotation?
Also,will you consider replacing mass invisibility with moa?
Cheers!

Ryn.6459:

put your warden over the temporal curtain

If I do just this,and then stand inside the protective bubble while the condition cleansing bolts effect kicks in will it work on me or would I have to stand outside of the bubble away from the Iwarden?
Also does it remove all conditions from you? And what about enemy’s boons? Does it strip them too?
Anyone tested this?

Awsome! Thank you Osi, can’t wait for the complete guide for 2.0