Guild Wars 2

Thank you for such a positive presence in the Rev community man! It really does make a difference. Your video’s are really great. Keep em comin please!!

first of all Ive never seen a rune set be even a fifth of the current price of herald runes….so i have a few questions.
a) are they that great? (if you have the money to spend)

b) what type of build would you be working toward with those runes…suport tank?

Just looking at the stats on this set up; is this not the “tailor made” perfect set up for an auramancer support tank. Boon duration, tuffness, vitality, and healing power…and to boot the name on this ascended set is Maklain’s minstrel insignia….I feel like Karl is trying to help us out here ; )

What I’m seeing is increased uptime of 40% damage mitigation for your allies with added uptime of regen vigor and might(boons we share in abundance with aurashare). Aura’s are going to heal significantly with the healing power as well. Then not to mention obviously the mandatory tuffness and vitality stats.

I don’t have a lot of experience in the raid and am looking to fill a support role with my auramancer, does this seem viable guys?

Hey Neko, I’m about to craft full ascended gear set for my D/F tempest. I want to be an effective support member that can still dish some damage. Cele? Zerk? Or viper? I’m planning on running tempest earth and water for the aura share and healing on aura not to mention the protection uptime it offers.
Thoughts?

I hate how I can’t “break out” of the third attack in staff auto. It kinda roots me and if I see an attack coming, and I want to use staff three for the evade, It won’t let me until the auto animation is finished. Is this intended?

Runes of the tempest im finding to be great. Everyone hates these runes so much but I don’t understand why. Isn’t it just mimicking a celestial approach, with some extra healing when you get cc’d?
I also find it encourages holding on to your overload until the player wastes his cc. Then you break stun, start your overload and get a little heal out of it?

I’m actually very interested in a argument to this so that I can learn. Anyone?

I feel like people come here, say they main a thief, an then talk about how thief is perfectly balanced and the reveal is fine… I’m calling bullkitten. You main a burn guard for sure haha
I totally disagree, I think from a dev standpoint it has nothing to do with mitigating stealth skills and is completely about needing counterplay. U can’t counterplay what you can’t see. Yes, damage reveals you but this is just so people arent able to double backstab. Having this new style of reveal would be amazing. It wouldn’t completely hard counter our burst but it would provide people a chance to see it coming and effectively have a chance to get out of the way.

I just switched out My pack runes for the DD runes. I’m loving it. My reasoning was similar (decreased need for swiftness). I’m def noticing the toughness which is amazing and the precision percentage loss was only 7 percent. The fact that I can guarantee what skill will crit after my dodge roll makes vault even more ridiculous. DD is a kittening beast. I’m running assassin signet, precision signet, and the interrupt daggers for break bars, as well as the DD elite. I can’t quite break bosses alone like I can with my rev staff 5 but it’s pretty close.

it wouldn’t be game breaking at all. It would procure on skills that u have not used as well. Just the slot itself would activate, meaning if the skill isn’t on cooldown, you don’t see a benefit. If you slot all venoms (which is dumb) at most you would yolo burst and then get guaranteed access to one more venom. And yes if it produces to much condi pressure and your opponent dies, SO BE IT! It’s supposed to be a “grandmaster” trait. It should feel strong. With the state of other classes at this point I get so confused as to why people post stuff like “um I think it might be a bit much”. Yeah dude! Thieves need “a bit much” right now.

Just purchased this weapon (berserker lightwards battlestaff of agate) from BLTC. once epuiped I couldnt help but notice it was doing 0 damage. actually zero. when i looked at the weapon strength it says 0-0. this weapon cost me 500g which is more than i have ever considered spending but in the light of HOT i splurged. Please help me fix this

This^^^^^^^^^^^

Best thread going right now. I have to admit, when I first figured out it was gonna take some time to unlock my daredevil I was pretty disappointed. Simply because I love the idea of that elite spec so much I just wanted to use him right away. But then I remembered that this is an adventure game, and a multiplayer one at that. So I CHOSE to just ENJOY the experience and enjoy hooking up with other players to thrash the mordrem. The world that they have put together is nothing short of wondrous and incredibly fun (and tuff as heel) If you can, just enjoy the ride. The elite spec will come. And you know what else is 100% true, stuff that you just…get….gets old quick.
I can’t wait to get a fully traited Daredevil, but I’m gonna have a kittenload of fun getting there.
Thanks Anet, the quality and just the amount of content you have put together for Heart of thorns is astounding and incredibly fun.
Count me as a fully satisfied customer : )

Thanks guys, thats exactly what i was looking for

hey guys, im trying to get a better understanding of the weapon sets. what is it about d/f and s/f that makes air the better choice, yet when playing d/d it seems the fire line is more desireable. i personally love trating in air but also love the skill set of daggers. is anyone out there running fresh air daggers?

I think this is an awesome idea. Would really help in terms of giving us a bit more awareness amid the chaos of big fights.

Hey man, yeah I run full zerker gear but I also run precision/vitality/x trinkets to bring my health pool up. I also try to fill up infusion slots with vitality infusion as well

Im very confused by some of these reply’s. It seems like many people on this forum specifically are so concerned with not becoming overpowered and policing our skills….are you not seeing what is happening with the current meta? in order for DD to be viable something small like heartseeker targeting on staff 2 would be a step in the right direction. all this “too easy to land” stuff makes me laugh. just a heads up, the other classes arent out there like, “oh maybe bruning needs to be cut down, and while youre at it, nerf our water traits a bit to make it fair”

oh and before you say it let me guess, I need to learn to play right. kittenin rediculous

daredevil feedback/suggestions:

I love thief and i think we’re on the right track with the evasion/martial arts playstyle.
Staff needs to be a strong weapon for thief based on the classes current build options….which is 1.

Staff auto attack needs to be FASTer. Im finding that if i try to stay in the pocket and get my vuln stacks im eating to much damage for it to be worth it.

To stay in the pocket, blind is our bread and butter. the DUST STRIKE needs a shorter animation. it needs to be almost instant. DO NOT SAY THIS IS OP WHEN PEOPLE ARE BURNING YOU FOR 50,000…

Obviously the dodge animations need to feel more fluid, especially since this is our Grandmaster trait and what defines this ELITE spec.

It would be really nice to have a bit more opponent control. Typically in martial arts the staff is a speed/control weapon. Getting a SHORT DAZE/INTERUPT on one of the staff skills would go a long way to be able to stay in the pocket, deliver damage, and then dodge out. I think this final point is crucial to making daredevil able to compete with the current state of classes such as mesmer, burn guard, DD ele, signet necro

+1
I love this idea. Please push this

I can get behind this.

Lookin’ good K Mac!

Anyone think this could be something they would be interested in seeing in game.?
Imagine, light sabre style grip stored on the back of you’re character, when you grab it, the staff elongates on both sides… Darth Maul style. Maybe without the light sabre laser effect, since we’re more blunt trauma.

A lot of the staff skins are for casters right now so I think if enough people got on board Anet could totally make this happen.

@Zero Day HOLY PATRONIZING…..I’m not even mad, that’s just impressive haha

yeah man, I know the Acro nerfs hurt. From where im standing, this Elite spec is an honest attempt at getting the thief to where we want it. Im excited and I dont think its right that people are getting so negative about it when it hasn’t even been released. That’s all.

This game is indeed amazing, if you don’t like it, go lvl up to 110 with WoW.

love it.

Thieves Guild for life boys,

and to guys out there like yolo who I know have been around forever and have a lot of experience and love for this class, I guarentee youre gonna be able to theory craft some crazy stuff with these new specs so that we can all get back to what we love
SMASHING MESMERS hahaha

I mean look the DH , it’s probably the most “different” spec compare to the original concept and just feel weird and have a total lack of synergy across new and old traits. Personally, I think that “something different” should maintain the core concept of the class.

I couldn’t agree more with this ^

title says it all. Im super excited about the spec and think it looks awesome. There was so much complaining about how thief needed another playstyle to be viable. for all intents and purposes it looks like that is what the devs have come up with. A bad kitten martial arts spec that doesnt rely on stealth. It looks to rely on movement speed, agility and timing. If you wanted something completely different that is way overpowered run a Mesmer and stop bringing the rest of us who love thief down.

P.S. I’m by no means an MMO veteran, but from what ive heard, to get an expansion where every class gets a brand new spec line and playstyle with new animations, new maps, new leagues, new PVE content, new skins….dude…..This is a great game and im sure Theives that put in the time will be able to smash with this new spec

I can get behind that : )

@PopeUrban
I respect your post, and I also can see merit in the ideas you have proposed. You have the same hang ups over my idea that I see time and time again, which seems to be in the name of the trait. “Improvisation”. Now I do realize that trait names have a special place in the hearts of guildwars players. They do capture the essence of the trait and its intended “feel” really well. Two things: A) the playstyle of my suggested trait still has the element of improvisation in the sense that at times you will improvise your skill usage based around what your current needs are/steal uptime. B ) I would hate to think that we would not make positive changes to a trait because it may not speak quite as well to the definition of the trait name even if it ads to the fun and viability of the class.

The idea of being able to reset a random skill type is very fun/engaging and really empowers the steal mechanic. BUT, I think that a slight Change could make this trait so much more fun to play. Reset one of your skills (not skill types…just one of you equipped skills) currently on cooldown. Before everyone panics this is my logic. I realize that this would allow a thief to plan what skill would proc, like a double heal perhaps – but with the current state of burst damage and insane condition damage in gw2, giving thief the opportunity to double heal, is no more “OP” than the current state of DD ele, or every class going invuln, or guardian perma blocking/elite heal. And finally, Necro’s 2 health pools. All of these classes are hitting just as hard as thief. To me having a bit more control over your proc’d skill would do wonders for thief survivability and would not break the game.
Thoughts?

Awesome video man!! Thanks for posting! Ive watched it over and over, music is awesome too. just curious what video card youère running cause it looks REALLY good.

I love how you added in that you never lose to this “god mode” thief you’re so concerned about . This post was hilarious. Thanks man.

Awesome post man!! These are great questions and the top 3 hardest trait choices

Exe all day- I wanted to love improv. But truth be told I’m finding it’s too much of a dice role. With the thief we are often so close to being downed that I need predictability. Exe is always there. There were a few times using improv that my steals weren’t yeilding any resets and when your counting on that, it hurts bad when you don’t get it.

Flanking strike- what a beauty when paired with steath on steal. If the cool down goes up it’s gone.

Trickster. I find it way harder to survive without that cooldown on withdraw, and the condi cleanse is nice

I love the DD ele. I’ve also got a thing for the air magic line. I keep seeing Earth Water Arcana as the #1 spec for DD. Is there a spec just as effective that uses AIR or should I just run the traditional E-W-A

I have now logged about 100 games on my thief since the patch came out. If you engage from the right angles, at the right time, NO ONE can touch the thief. First of all, shadow arts is a thing of Beauty. But you can’t stand in the middle of a team fight cloaked and not expect to get roasted.. There is to much AOE and it will melt you. Getting the added benefit of stealth on res really helps the team, and stealthing off of every steal with quickness….man it’s soooooo fun. Stealthing for a significant 3 sec off of every black powder heart seeker really helps to keep you elusive in 1v1s , and still having trickster AND exe….

I just wanted to add this in here for any thief like myself who was getting a bit depressed with all the doom and gloom on the forums. Are we forced to be more tactical then our enemies with this new patch. Yes. Are we forced into a fairly specific bursty play style? Maybe, but that play style just so happens to be a killer who ends people before they even know they are in danger. I’m not that mad about that.

The game will continue to need balancing as any game does after a huge overhaul, but to me the essence of the thief is intact and I’m having a TON of fun playing it now that I’ve put some time in. I hope others are having the same experience as me.

Concerning PvP,What do you think is the best trait line to run if you’re trying to pull off deadly arts and crit strikes with marauders?

1. The combination of lines was well done, IMO. It feels like traits are in the line they belong, and weaker traits were rolled into more powerful ones to create traits actually worth taking…for the most part at least. There are some real stinkers, but that’s a separate discussion.

2. I -love- the CS line, but there’s some conditions to that statement. No quarter is basically perfect – it’s unique, it gives the thief incentive to stay in combat, and it’s powerful as a GM trait should be. The minors are good, and the adept line has some choices, but the master line is an absolute joke – nothing competes with Practiced tolerance, that should be fixed. I also feel like part of CS’s strength is how underpowered SA is.
When everyone saw SA, they lost their minds, but they didn’t take into account how miniscule the healing of Shadow Rejuv is considering the new damage capacity across the board, the opportunity cost of sitting in stealth, and how useless Shadow’s embrace is if it doesn’t cleanse a condition on entering stealth. CS is basically a default because it adds MUCH more damage than SA adds sustain – if the 2 were more even, CS would still be good, but less attractive.

3. S/D is dead, there’s no doubt to that, even if your personal experience was positive. Acro is a joke in its current state. Ranger and Engineer get better dodge traits, which is strange considering those professions have actual access to protection and stability, blocks, immunity type skills, better condi cleanse, and better sustain across the board. The old S/D dodged like crazy, but because it needed to – no iteration of the thief class has ever had passive sustain or defenses. It’s always been active, and the current acro is basically worthless – 1 mistake means your death. Vigor uptime isn’t even viable without BT from trickery which locks you in two traitlines if you want to go S/D, and it doesn’t come anywhere close to pre-patch dodge capacity, and damage has gone through the roof! Less dodges for more damage doesn’t work.

4. I haven’t bothered with a condition spec. Burning is roughly triple the damage of any other condition, and thief has zero access to it. Their access to any condition that isn’t bleed is middling at best, and without consistent access to a variety of damaging conditions to beat all the cleanses flying around, it just doesn’t feel worth it. Pressure striking is in a weird place, since it looks like a great trait on paper, but has almost no practical use – what thief condi spec has access to interrupts? A condi spec wants bewildering ambush over SoH, and P/D is the only functioning condi spec thieves have (which means no interrupts from Sword MH or Pistol OH). The huge damage nerf to potent poisons was also disappointing – 10% increased damage and 33% increased duration doesn’t compete with improvisation in any spec or format.

5. Executioner, hands down. Improv isn’t a bad trait, it’s just that with damage the way it is currently, thieves don’t have the luxury of taking a trait that doesn’t either make them hit harder or 100% guarantees better survivability. If spec diversity ever opened up to allow a thief that wasn’t 100% focused on downing opponents, Improv might have a spot, but currently executioner is essentially a requirement for being effective.

6. No, BV always wins. Thieves only viable role is still that of the highly mobile roamer, and nothing DS or TG offers makes up for their CD’s in comparison to BV.

Thanks for posting this, I hope my input matters.

+1^

Really well put, thanks

I’m getting MURDERD! And I need better survival skills. The damage is amazing and we still have kept that essence of the art of surprise( panic strike and exe!!) but we desperately need more help from shadow arts. I can only speak for myself but i think the main complaint with thief right now is we are having a hard time staying alive. We just need a bit more from our survival lines to enable us to stay in the fight a little longer OR run successfully. I know the thief can’t be tanky and I wouldn’t want it to be, but I think the whole point to our sustain is tactical use of stealth and evades. I don’t see the danger in upping our damage resistance in stealth because as soon as we want to get offensive we lose stealth and therefore damage resistance. It really just allows for a safe retreat. Maybe I’m missing something, but that’s how I’m seeing things

ANET! There is no way a skill should be able to track through stealth. ESPECIALLY someone shooting BOATloads of arrows at something they can no longer see. Shadow arts is my line of choice for self sustain. But with no cure for immobilize in refuge I litterally can’t get away from any decent ranger.
PLEASE HELP US. If it’s not possible to stop the tracking of pre initiated abilities through stealth maybe a bit more protection while stealth would help mitigate some of the 0 skill kills rangers are getting by mashing # 2 from long range?

Oh wow, I didn’t realize flanking strike was a trick…can someone confirm if that cures a condi?
Oh and can anyone also confirm whether our heart seeker from black powder is supposed to stealth for one second longer from meld with shadows. Currently it isn’t?

Thanks for the tips man. I haven’t tried the trapping stuff at all yet so I’ll give that a go.
Anyone else? ( trying not to sound desperate haha)

Hey so there’s been a lot of upset people around the thief forum, but I was wondering if we could share some of the positive things about thief that we have found. any new combos that are effective? Builds that people have been liking? I think this may help a lot of us start looking at the class more positively cause the truth is its not all bad. Three trait lines with thief is actually pretty wicked.
I’m running D/P with DA, trick, and Shadow Arts. I run withdraw and haste(tricks) SR and shadostep(deceptions) and basi. It’s a nice mix and I often get a recharge of really important utilities when I steal. Not to mention invisibility upon stealing for three seconds allows me a bit of time to take a look at what I have available. Cd on steal is abou 20 sec, with shadow refuge gives me a decent amount of invis. I found haste a nice option science running crit strikes makes me a bit too glassy. I’m still having a tuff time choosing between improv and executioner. Both traits are so good.
Anyway, constructive criticism would be awesome (I’m not exactly a veteran thief) and please feel free to post the things that are working for you!

;Azure Prower.8701:]Meanwhile mesmers are nuking the place and hiding with superior stealth.

This ^

Not to mention engi getting pocket sky hammers and healing like guardians…
Again, I think the ESSENCE of the thief is intact, just please do something about our SA and acro lines so we can burst and actually live to tell the tale ; )

I see what you’re trying to do here…and I can respect it, BUT, the truth is its really important for the community of thief players to be vocal about what they feel is not working or unfair. This is how these “changes to come” that you speak of come to be. We all love the class, and are paying customers so I think our concerns needs to be heard by the devs. And I think it will be.

T raw for president.

@T raw – this write up is really well put.
I think the reality is thief is not quite keeping up with the changes made to other classes. Bursting from the shadows is the essence of the class and why so many of us love it. That being said, with the buffs to other classes(signet of stone…stone heart..) we need waaaayyyyy better survivability to stay in the fight and continue to have a chance in the current game. With the vigor nerf I’m having a really hard time sustaining myself through the Acro line, and the shadow arts line is even less effective. With the amount of AOE damage most classes are now capable of, I’m usually just dying…lying on the ground invisible….thanks shadow arts.. I don’t see how, with the amount of damage other classes are capable of, %50 damage reduction while stealth couldn’t have been left alone. Especially with lock on. But heaven forbid other classes would have to outplay us to win fights hahaha

This trait is really fun to use, and as stated I think it’ll feel seamless with a bit of practice. It definitely takes a higher skill cap to use improv with double steal based on the mechanics and added options, but the rewards are there both in engaging play and results. Aaaaand if you don’t like it you can go executioner and crush people.

Man, see I feel like they could give us something like that back, after seeing what Mesmer and engi got. I’m not complaining. I still love my thief, but we definitely didn’t see the same love as a few other classes. A nerf like that doesn’t seem all that necessary…but hey, I dont have the big picture

K thanks : )

Why is it that sometimes when I steal I get the recharge on one of my utility skills and sometimes I dont. I thought it randomly recharged one of MY utility types randomly, but is it just any possible utility type even if I don’t have it up?

And I’m glad you brought up the decreased damage while your in stealth. I was VERY excited about that traits potential in stealth res situations, but if you’re brought out of stealth that isn’t a benefit you will see. Now of course their won’t necessarily be an engi following you around every time you’re trying to res, but I still am just confused as to why they would give traits and utilities for a very specific way to help you’re teammates , then turn around and give a hard counter that would punish it’s use??

I appreciate the feedback. I guess my concern is more centred around this : there is already inherent risk to reviving a downed teammate. We all know this. We accept that risk because it is an awesome coop mechanic and because of the benefits to your team. The thiefs ability to stealth res is a unique mechanic that adds usefulness in team settings. I’m confused as to why ANET would want to introduce a hard counter to this mechanic that has a chance to make thieves less apt to use it . (Due to the vulnerability stacks upon reveal).

I’m just curious as to why ANET would discourage such a cooperative support mechanic (stealth res) by giving engi’s such a HUGE hard counter to the thiefs main livelihood. They even trait for it in shadow arts (stealth you and ally on res) but then give an engineer the ability to not only reveal you but make you more susceptible to damage. I feel great when I can support a teammate by bringing them back with a utility that is so specific to my class…why make that more difficult? I’m really disappointed by this and hope they can see how this doesn’t aid cooperative play. In fact it hurts it

Thoughts?