Guild Wars 2

I think we’ll need a proper explanation of how corruption works/is made of because we have contrasting theories: Dragon magic was presented as a completely different form of magic (Asuran PS), not a single spectrum of it.
How does corruption work? It radiates just fine from powerful minions alone or they act like amplifiers for the Elder Dragon? How is corruption “undone” (Pale Tree, Glint)?
If corruption is a stronger part of the spectrum, as spheres of influence, coudn’t Six Gods “corrupt” as well? How come corruption doesn’t work on/empower already corrupted individuals but can be used to empower when absorbed by the dragon, isn’t this the principle on which Gorr’s Vacuumagic Polarizer was supposed to work on Zhaitan?
I think until Anet gives us more information linking these answers together is pure guessing.

vectorfox.6894:

I still struggle to find a reason to why the armour looks a bit similar to mursaat.

Both wear armor, but that’s as far as you can go with similarities: their serpertine aspect actually might be a hint at the Forgotten themselves, who created them as alas Mursaat have a much more rigid stance and pointy armor (also, have feet).

I’m not even sure they already plan on what will happen after mordy storywise, it might even take more than this exp just to deal with mordr.
We might be probably getting multiple dragon threats next, like you said Primordius (as he manages to push through dwarves) and Jormag (kittenumes his assault in Tyria.. and in the Mists..), Kralk will certainly be pushed later still, as an Elona expans will probably have us fighting against Palawa Joko as well.
Selbbub will probably be one of the last to be revealed, due it’s secret nature, bits will probably revealed as time will pass.

With all that said, I’m much more curious about what the game has to say about Glint’s egg. It might not be the egg but I’m fairly confident this exp might tell us more about the nature of Elder Dragons and perhaps relationship with Human Gods…

hennrick.4623:

1) Specialization is the generic name for trait lines. Elite specialization is what we called specialization few time ago, like Reaper and chronomancer.

2) Weapons are just an example of that, anything that restricts power is part of the problem if overused/misused.
The case you quoted about unlocking new weapons ( and skills) is not a problem at all since it’ s part of a massive bulk of stuff unlocked, and since its power is not necessarly higher that core stuff you may ignore it and focus on something else, always keeping in mind that it’ s a choice you paid for obviously.
So yeah, i agree that on this last matter the problem is not that big, but the focus was an other totally.

For 1:
I know, it’s simply that spelling “elite specialization” everytime would tire me out, so tried to cut it up hoping you’d understand. Since nothing is going to change our trait system radically (3 minor, 3 major traits), I casually adressed elite specs like that.

As I believe to understand your point now, that although we do gain more skills available to us, it’s likely to be less builds with perhaps slightly more variations, as builds with strongest synergy will be on top while builds that had points allocated across several trees will be no more.
If that’s the case I would disagree as I believe it was stated somewhere that the very design of these 3 locked specializations was also meant to adress balance issues more effectively. Although we have yet to see how specializations will effectively vary.

It will be easier to buff/nerf/reallocate traits this way without necessarily crippling the whole class because of a single build.

What you’re mainly clinging to (from what I understood) is that a weapon choice shouldn’t dictate my build I need for my gameplay, for that, I couldn’t agree more but the issue would just be that part of the main point of specializations themselves is to unlock new weapons..

I could use Chronomancer spec and still not use a shield, that’s a free option, but if I wanted to use a shield with, say, Dom/Dueling/Illusions I won’t be able to do that, as I’d be bound to use Chronomancer spec just for the shield…
Similarly, I don’t want my focus traits being bound to Inspiration (because I want focus reflections, but can’t afford to use Feedback all the time), Staff to Chaos or Sword/Pistol in Dueling.

I’m not a fan of such “bottlenecks” myself, but I think it’ll be more manageble as new specializations will come out. Time ago someone pointed out something like this and said that the expansion should’ve covered 2 elite specs for each class if weapons were to be bound to the elite specs..
I still think that we should be allowed to, say, a single major-master/adept trait from other specs that we didn’t pick from, like a weapon mastery or a specific trait that’d give us a missing synergy, but that might give a broken edge to some classes, so we’re probably going to suck it up either way.

Zerk isn’t going off meta by any means, they might be able to make mobs apply more anti-zerk conditions like weakness/slow/chill, make them more vulnerable to conditions (like more active moving mobs, so torment may actually work in pve) or a combo of both.
I don’t expect a condi class become meta for anything, but it still could tweak its way out there.

Imo, people are trying to give condition damage a role that turns out to not exist.
In pvp, fixing condition damage is a real hassle, some classes have easy time applying hardhitting/stacking conditions (mesmers, necros, engis), others have builds to become virtually immune to conditions (ele, war).

The thing is, I think Anet will work on making people realize that condi is not meant to work as a main source of dmg, as our stats will be adjusted due to the trait stat removal.
The +condition dmg on gear, Imo, should be reworked to work differently, perhaps as a modifier for the duration other than just a oddly-scaled damage increase.
(With perhaps for healing power for boon duration too, sorry Giver’s Gear, but if it’s not going to happen that way, you’re going to be useless anyway)
Right now, condition and healing power as stats don’t make sense to me.
Some classes like Engi and Ele recieve enourmous benefits from Celestial gear because that’s a lot of stats that they can use one way or another.
Mesmer’s Warlock on staff scales greatly with power (for all those who directly associate Mesmer’s Staff with condition builds), and Mesmer’s Scepter scales amazingly with power as well.
(Go try a zerk Mesmer with Staff and Scepter in pvp, much defense, tons of wreck)

As I saw an increase of “weakness” condition among the specialization teasers I suspect the same to happen with monsters. Anet will probably try to hinder players making exclusive use of zerk gear towards more balanced sets where stacking condition damage may be more useful than stacking ferocity.

I agree for weapons tweaks, especially as pistols are horribly weak unless traited with pierce.
Kits are rather strong on their own, flamethrower AA should keep its proc strength and weakness to retaliation, the bombs however could indeed use a faster cast.
—- Elixir H: default 1 cleanse
//I disagree, Cleansing formula 409 does plenty if you’re going into elixirs, and if anything, Healing Turret should have a CD nerf.
—- InstaCast AED
//I don’t think so, it wouldn’t be a risk/reward skill or counterable, however, it should have a reduced cd.
—- Elixir U fix
//Devs should just add a 1/2 or 1/4 cast time, like with necro’s well of power, like with all elixirs. Then again, nobody uses quickness utilities after the nerf, they should be reworked.
—- Elixir S’s resistance
//It’s pointless to bring HoT out when things are so prone to change, it was always about what Anet thinks what players want, the feedback part always came later.
- Rocket targeting
Imho it should just be a slow kitten projectile that nukes the whole area sky high, but that’s probably just me.
—- Remove Rocket Boots’ roll
//If you mean it to behave more like Rifle 5 leap, I’m all for it.
—- Toss Elixir S trait damage remove
//I disagree, players should be allowed to use it offensively and difensively.
It helps spot cloaked people, and it will still cloak allies on need, cloaking yourself in midst of the battle should still be thief’s and mesmer speciality.
—- Bunker Down for Synaptic Overload
//I agree, Bunker Down belong to those “softer” GMaster traits of Explosives, I can see use of SO in more builds in Firearms.
—- LHR at 75%
//Absolutely no, it wouldn’t justify nor the name nor the fact that it’d be a copy of mesmer’s Chaos Minor Adept trait on a 1/3 of the coooldown.
—- Protective Shield on 10s CD
//No, maybe 12-15, but with 10sec is just too low and reliable, as any offensive build has some crit-based procs.
—- Cloaking Device’ immobilize remove
//Should be as it is, it’s a strong trait, it’s just wasted on people who don’t use immobilize.
Which pretty much sums up the utility of the Adept Inventions traits.
—- Elixir Infused Bombs for Experimental Turrets
//I’m all for it.
—- Kit Refiniment not proc ooc
//I agree, personally I’d love it on per-kit cd of 10 seconds like Evasive Arcana and not global, then put it on GrandMaster Trait, swap Adrenal Implant on Master and Leg Mods to Adept.
—- Gatgeteer for Kit Refiniment
//I somewhat disagree (for the point above), but the Boons could be longer, considering the long cd that Gadgets have, also, swiftness for Slick Shoes.
Additionally I’d expect Rocket Kick to knockdown when used, as you’re basically helpless when using it.
—- Healing Turret not “turret”
//It should be as it is now, just on a longer cooldown (to 25 perhaps), it’s OP as a base healing skill.

Cool stuff!
I’d however imagine it as an another dungeon on the other side of Orr map which still isn’t explorable, where you get even more harder content perhaps without waypoints, (for example, you can get access to the zone only when all temples are uncontested => making the entrance epic with many people joining you compared to the desolation of previous areas) and challenging group events, harder but more rewarding compared to the normal areas (like the fights for temples or dragon fights, easier, more frequent, similar to Tequatl).
Once there you join Caithe/Zojja&Eir/Logan&Rytlock as different paths in order to clean your path toward Zhaitan.
Once a player has completed all three of those he can access to the forth path including the fight with Zhaitan himself with Divinity’s Edge.
Personally I think your idea (the fight) would be simply too much challenging for a lore fight (it would need to be sort of repetitive and hard which sort of the the story of arah actually is), fractals were mainly made for that kind of team-challenging content.

Allelya.6830:

Mimir.4690:

This has been talked about… a lot.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Change-race-order-facility/first

Personally, I’m against it.

It supports the game through gem purchases, so im for it. They would be making SOOO much money on this.

And yet it’s basically spitting at GW2’s racial lore and dev’s work to make all the “personal story” thing.
It’s stupid to make something like because of some lazy people.
They won’t get much more profit than thay did with southsun crates or (in my opinion) scary backpacks. If people have enough money to throw them at the screen, they’ll do it anyway.

Most classes have their own utility, mostly Eles and Necro viable as a replacement, not exactly a necessity for a group.

And then there is bear class with a ranger pet that can summon spirits for mostly timekilling/masochistic purposes.

Is there any reason/explanation bihind the nerf of pets in PvE too? Pets like Moa and others? Nerf SB range? So much for a -RANGE-d class? You can trait LB to 1500 range, but what about SB?

Why?

just.. why?

I could rant about other classes too, but ranger now has like… lost a limb, or two.
Do you hate Ranger so much?

bye bye WvW/sPvP shortbow.

Hello zerker longbow builds.

Ohoni.6057:

I don’t think it makes a huge difference, just because to get the most out of SB you have to circle strafe at short-mid range. If you were standing at 1200 with a SB you were doing it wrong anyway.

To get the most out of it, yes, which is why most people would choose not to be at that max range most of the time, but having the choice is important, because sometimes you do want to start attacking things from 1200 away, rather than closing to 900 first. They should have left in at least a few of the attacks at 1200 distance, not enough that you would really want to stay at that distance, but enough that you could start the fight from out there and then move in.

Most people that say “who cares about SB range, I always use it melee” crap are people that either only do dungeons/mob farming or are simply trolling.
Having 300 range difference means a lot in WvW and sPvP especially when ranger doesn’t have the same mobility of a thief/mesmer/ele/warrior (especially when you’re not running GS with mobility signet, like trap ranger), to counter those classes running away you need every inch of your range to pull off that cripple/daze/bleeding stack that makes difference between success and failure.
While SB is a better choice for dps right now, if the leaked notes are true, SB will be forgotten in WvW mostly because SB won’t be capable of covering LB’s range anymore.

Zenith.7301:

Scepter is not a dungeon weapon. It has the worst sustained damage out of the weapons (because its autoattacks suck and only air hits multiple targets). It has bigger numbers that might seem misleading. But when that Dragon Tooth that hits for 7-8k crits actually takes 2 seconds to deliver the damage on a stationary target, it’s pretty miserable — in 2 seconds autoattack crits from other classes already outdamage that, and for around one second longer 100 blades does nearly double the damage.

For WvW, you will use scepter strictly for roaming. It is not a team fight weapon as it has no aoe outside DT and air auto, with the odd Phoenix in between.

The build for scepter is 0/20/0/20/30. Arcane missile at least as one of your utilities, with one of the cantrips. The final utility is optional, either earth signet or arcane wave or a second cantrip.

Not too sure about that, main hand Dagger’s autoattacks definitely outdamage Scepter but that’s not the point, because Scepter doesn’t rely on instant-cast skills and is more about sinergy with the off-hand dagger and scepter’s 2nd and 3rd skills are more likely userful than mh dagger which makes them spammable and not forcing you to use the autoattacks that as you are right to say, suck (except Air’s, that actually hits pretty hard, not strong enough to spam it but very nice to use between the swaps)
Fire: DR+aoe combo finisher with vigor
Water: aoe+heal
Air: instant damage+blind
Earth: armor+blindness in line
on the other hand D/D has slow channeling (fire&water 2), and the rest is mostly about CC and positioning (which obviosly make him an excellent roamer), but the main damage ARE autoattacks alone (if not the off-hand dagger kiting itself).

And Dragon’s Tooth, dispite being actually the strongest scepter skill, Phoenix, Shatterstone and Lightning Strike all do considerable damage. Not to mention that easy might-stacking that allows higher dps, not only power-based but condition-based too which is a better sinergy with off-hand Dagger burn and bleeding (RoF and CE). 2 seconds of DR ain’t cast time :\ , it lands after 2 seconds allowing you to use -other- skills before it lands.
Dispite being mostly on-ground target scepter skills have a very short cast time.
As for 100b, only Mesmer and Thief can pull something close to that and all melee weapons deal more damage than ranged weapons.

I even gave a few tries in the mist recording times to kill a heavy golem with zerk stats and no traits.
Without the Off-Hand Dagger, Mh dagger can outclass scepter at killing heavy golems with auto attacks (with fire/air auto attacks only..) easily by 5+ seconds, but with off-hand dagger the killing time is just the same, since Mh dagger has only (fire)autoattacks as strong reliable damage and adding an off-hand dagger to it makes no difference. (Staff instead is around 3-5 seconds slower than Mh Dagger)
Not to mention that with scepter you can actually run around while d/d has to hug the enemy. I know that golems ain’t players and still scepter isn’t better than D/D for roaming or than Staff at sieging but that does show that Scepter is actually reliable in dungeons.

I don’t pretend to know better than you, I’m just showing my reasons for using scepter over dagger, at least in PvE context.

Knox.3748:

Shame that my Ele is an asura XD Anet could put a race change available with Gems :P

They very likely won’t because it would mess up with your character’s personal story

Hello everyone.

I’ve been trying to set up a new build for my ele, something all-around for dungeon and for some WvW too.

Until now I’ve been running a soldier/carrion build with 30/0/10/0/30

Recently I’ve been trying for few hours to make a new build, the best I came up with is this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEQQJArYhEmOblR2gjDAhHEwwBiCWUeETO2A-j0yAorASQAJRAZvioxW6CbBMIl3opewUlJV7KI7NUWBA-w

My goal is to set up an Ele that isn’t completely zerk, but could keep up with the damage.
I realized that if I wanted to min-max an ele, condition damage is pretty much pointless, because you need to stack up a lot of it to notice a relevant increase of dmg.
One of the reasons I picked an S/D ele is because of the ability to stack might in a relatively easy/fast way (2 blast finishers with fire, 2 with earth, 1 from trait and utility=6×3=18 might stacks).
Boon duration runes are necessary for fury (from 2 to 3 on att swap), vigor (trait+fire3) and swift (air5).
Now however my doubt is: will I be able to stack up 25 stacks of might without too much effort like before? Or will I need still Pyromancer’s Puissance?
Any other suggestion about traits/stats/utilities?

Magnetron.5823:

Close all the events Arena Net and hire a beta test crew, don’t let players beta test.

This. Infinite amount of times.

Spent enough gold to get around 120 crates. (And I was saving up for a legendary)
No dagger skin for the necro even after farming some crates from karkas/skelks.
Really a sad panda. As probably most people who wanted a ticket and haven’t got any, even more people who actually spend real money.
If I really wanted karka shells I could’ve just go and farm then in Crab Toss.

Rare is rare, ok but is it fine that people that couldn’t possibly care about weapon skins are stuck with them and others, even those who threw money on their screens, got nothing?

Aside allowing tickets to a different use as some more meaningful purpose for those who don’t want them (like a random exotic with a high precursor chance for example: because that’s rarity level pretty much), allow it as a permanent addition or increase the droprates, because as it is, it’s very annoying(and frustrating for who try) to have such -low droprates-, especially from Gem Boxes from what I saw, to get something that exists only for a -limited period of time-.

Vashoom.8512:

1.) if attack’s don’t bounce from clones, people will complain it’s too easy to spot the non clones (players)

Sure, because when you fight a mesmer you most look out for where the bounces go, not the movement/skills/animations/health that only a player can have, duh!

I wish Anet could fix this within the month.

Same problem for me for the Wayandt’s Revenge puzzle, I died 3 times at the end in the same way. Even if I waited for like 30 seconds after falling in the water at the end, I’d just respawn upside and fall on groundside to death because I moved.
After those 3 tries I even died at the first fall (never happened before) because of the same thing.
I hope this gets fixed very soon.

Perma-stealth much?
I should be glad there is a cap already.

Taril.8619:

Only a 20% chance for that +1 initiative on crit, and it’s 1 initiative per 1.33 seconds.

20% chance is pretty high. 1.33 is roughly 1 sec. (As I did said).

It’s actually relatively easy for most people to burst down GC thieves. Heck, in my GC builds with 14k health and additional toughness from traits and such I can go 100-0% health from a single Illusionary Berserker from a Mesmer, other classes can do other burst like this and of course there’s little need to actually 1-2 shot the thief since even if they go stealth they can still take damage (If a class uses a cripple/chill/immobilize/knockdown/knockback/stun/daze before they go stealth then it should be a guarenteed win from that class)

Considering you to expect people to dodge a C&D’s halved cast with steal, Zerker Phantasm’s summoning and the whirl should be the among slowest things on the world. :\
Honestly tho, even a full whirl hardly can shot you down, unless you were running in the same direction of the phantasm. I was never 1-2 shot in pvp (all classes can spike me down quite easily, but only when I don’t have the stunbreaker[Shadowstep/RfI] on) , and I just have some extra vitality instead of a pure zerk. Also eating plasm from mesmers gives you stability and protection as well.

You know that HiS is a 30 second cooldown right? If they use it twice in a fight while being focused on (With 10k health and no defence, only some regen and heals from HiS) it doesn’t mean it’s a Thief problem, rather a playing against a thief problem.

Which is why thieves use it exclusively to escape. No thief would use it twice unless he has a perfect distance control over the other class, he’d rather run away, try to lure the enemy to himself and then retry the combo with HiS recharged.

-Cough- Shatter Mesmer -Cough-
Also Rifle Warrior (As I showed the math for, dealing more damage than a Ascended geared thief does in 2 skills while in just exotics)
100nades also had this (Though that got nerfed)

This is seriosly WRONG.
Mesmer with sword needs you to be in range 600 (not mentioning that if you fight on an inclined surface the clone won’t even reach you) in order to do that, and he doesn’t shadowstep instantly, he spawns an obvious clone leaping on you, easy to dodge, and even if you get caught because your endurance is more more important, you are not stunned, just immobilized, and especially thieves can use shortbow’s 3 to evade all the shatter and the sword combo standing on the very place.
Phantasms like duelist or berserker can be very annoying if let alive, however a mesmer who has either pistol or greatsword lacks a lot defense and can be kited hard with bow and finished with D/D.
Rifle warrior is like an open book, easy interruptable, almost no defense, no CC, no distance control except for whirwind, simple breakstuns. And by the time his supposed endure pain gets back from CD you could have already landed 3 bursts with your thief.
As I said before, maths alone don’t work. If such statament was right necros should be the most requisted class for tanking in FotM (highest vitality, death shroud, protection with wells), but apparently guardians have something that necros lack.
A shatter mesmer has to spawn at least 2 illusions, get you with sword 3 within 600 range and then his combo starts.
A thief burst same amount of dmg (stun included) in 1 or 2 flat seconds with an almost nonextistant setup that cannot be interrupted.

Dasorine.1964:

1.5s is hardly a while (specially with the abundance of stun breakers) and I still refute your claim that the thief can make mistakes, they can’t if they can and get away with it it will be because you fail to take advantage of that mistake rather than something inherent about them being able to get away with it. I won’t even touch on the supposed infinite initiative/utilities your hinting a thief has either.

I mean when your stating that they need to time moves MID cast of another to get of the ideal combo and then state that they can make mistakes it sounds a bit silly.

First off, as “mistakes” I meant not being able to land the combo on the target by own mistakes (making the combo too obvious to land and such) [I don’t want to fall into the discussion about thieves that even use macros to do that]
1 sec is more than enough to die unless you’re fully specced in toughness (Supposing you’re full health).
Thief has 12 initiative, +1 on crit every second traited and +1 every second (roughly), any thief with some brains wouldn’t spam initiative just to kite, only a skill on low initiative(3) then regain quicky with basic attacks. C&D requires 6 ini, by the time you use backstab (which doesn’t use any) you already know if the combo landed with success or not, then you can land free HSs. If it didn’t, you land another C&D, because even if you used one HS you already regain 1-2 initiative from crits +1 from time so you get 12 – 6 – 3 + 3=6.
Even if a thief has hard time managing his initiative, Roll for Initiative removes any cc condition and gives extra 6 initiative to escape with.

I do see people making mistakes a lot because they’re often amateurs (not that I’m much better myself). Yet it’s difficult to 1-2 shot a thief after the combo even with zerk equip (maybe shatter mesmer or warrior zerk), unless he’s running away from 2-3 people at the same time that look only for him, but hardly when escaping 1vs1.
This build’s thieves have escape success that hardly dipends on me at all (I do pull them when they use HiS, but since they’re still on 65-80% hp while doing that, only on order to escape, I hardly can burst enough dmg [I get them to 10-20%hp in that amount of time] into them to make them downed before they use HiS again). If they die it’s mostly because of them being newbies (running on plain sight with probably full initiative and not using it), but some thieves that I know personally escape with relative ease.

You fail to dodge/teleport/counter in that 1 moment=you’re dead
It’s the only class capable of doing that. (It used to be 100b, but that one was 100times easier to foresee even before the quickness nerf)
If combo fails he disengages, and normal weapon skills have already tons of mobility that other classes can’t reach even with traits, not even mentioning the utilities.

Rifle warriors aren’t roamers, they need mobility from either sword/greatsword wich go on Cd later, and naturally have very weak condition removal (and they don’t hit often enough to proc sigil either), very vulnerable to stuns unless toughness/stability traited and almost no CC.
Zergs (or at least, organized ones) instead are full prejectile reflect, so they’re more likely to kill an ally with KS than the enemy. Or they might just sit in the back and wait for the zerg bypass the meteor shower and die. My guild would rather go with a ranger in WvW than with a warrior.

It depends on the way you play it.
I think that thief can pull out higher amount of dmg easily than a mesmer but it’s more situational.
Mesmer requires phantasms to deal a realiable amount of dmg. It’s easier to play with a mesmer against multiple enemies. Definitely higher survivability (=/= from thief mobility and stealth, unless dodger thief, which would instead expose teammates to danger, tho, Shadow Refuge is among the best things you can come up with), one of the best classes for reflicting proj (very useful on fractals).
Thieves are mostly good for overall damage and offensive support by giving boons like vigor/fury and blinding enemies (with shadow refuge allowing you to res an ally easily, if not on enemy aoe).
Mesmer has more sustained survivability and defensive/ hard cc(pulls, dazes immobilize or cripple) utility which most classes don’t have. (But that doesn’t mean they do less dmg than thieves, because on occasion they can do dmg while most of the party can’t)
I for example play Phantasm S/F and Staff build, full power/crit and boon duration.
I don’t excel at dmg like a Warrior, but I help a lot my teammates against proj with focus and feedback, I’m not required to keep hitting the boss because I just need to pop phantasms to deal dmg without exposing myself in danger, and kill adds meanwhile. Chaos storm gives excellent defensive boons to the whole team, my warlocks give regen to who’s ranged and warden to who’s melee and soak up aggro and dmg allowing my team sustain dmg easily. With staff I have perma-regen, vigor and protection on, so I don’t have to worry about myself and can take more care about my teammates.

Some builds can do more dmg than other. It depends on your playstyle too.

@Dasorine
This kind of thieves, ROAMS. They don’t do zergs and I was pretty sure I stated that earlier.
They usually run with 2-3 tanky players so they can easily finish someone off who is already ingaged. Stealth, like HiS makes them untargeted, making most people go for another target if it’s not a 1vs1.
@Taril (and Dasorine still)
Basilisk Venom lasts quite a while, I do realize he’s going to use for the combo OR to bluff me making me waste dodges/break stuns, still allowing him to make C&D + Steal and land the combo when I have no dodge. It sinergizes, but it’s not required.
Thieves use steal -while- casting C&D, experienced ones use steal while casting C&D instantly, meaning that by the time you see the thief raising his arms it’s already too late (hit by BV already from Mug). Another thing is that their shortbow cluster bomb deals nice amount of dmg, which they use make people waste their dodges (and most classes don’t have perma-vigor or swiftness) , I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t doll-stay on one place taking cluster bombs in face (they do it melee, where you can’t just walk away then they dodge or shortbow 3).
A simple break stun won’t help because you’d still get all the dmg, and as I already stated, additional immobilize can counter that too.
I’m also confident that failed bursts don’t expect heartseeker spam into nothing.
What you don’t waste in HS you use it in C&D after 4 seconds (which isn’t quite much, assuming you did hit with backstab) and add more stealth with HiS -> 6 second stealth, go figure where he could be after that.

I myself have no problems against the burst (phantasm mesmer zerker with staff) but too often I see thieves with this build escaping away easily (stealth+shadowstep and vice versa) which quite annoys me (I could kill them with GS, but then instead I’d be more likely a killable target since GS has no defensive skills aside 5), and I do have perma-swift on mine (considering myself lucky if they use shadow refuge, so I can focus-4-them-out easily).
But I hardly imagine fighting this thief with other classes (especially necro, without the fear build).

It’s a try-to-win where the thief can afford mistakes and you NOT. This is what I hate most. (Unless the thief clamorously wastes stealths and initiative, and I do see people doing that making me realize the range of players that have access to this build.)
Most classes have their INVUL skill last longer than the BV cd. (Warrior, Engi, luckily Mesmer and Ele have cheap teleports)
While it might be countered in a 1vs1, it’s almost impossible do that in a party fight (like in 3vs3 or slightly more).
Rifle warriors often panic when you get close to them and screw up easily. Thieves have high distance control. (Getting away with shortbow, getting close/away with D/D’s HS and stealth)

Leo G.4501:

Zenith.7301:

capuchinseven.8395:

Zenith.7301:

Several encounters which were cut away from. It’s a burst montage rather than a show of robust builds. He has no stun breaker so the moment he gets caught on a stun with a zerg he’s screwed. Same if he came across any thief that can land a mug/daze into basilisk. He had around 16k hp, probably very little toughness so after he blew signet of stone he could be bursted down in one sequence by a mesmer or thief.

The big burst buttons as well were long cooldowns like signet of the wild, and most of his opponents didn’t even dodge maul, which has a blatant animation before it lands.

What happens when the d/d ele mist forms/armor of eath through his signet cooldowns? He dies after.

Well ain’t you a ray of sunshine.

Why are you so defensive?

Hehe, I think you’re the one being defensive. You act like someone disagreed with your on the internet or something…

But you did come off pretty negative. You came in with a chip on your shoulder and took it upon yourself to ‘explain’ what people are seeing. Did you ask the OP about the build? Why he made the choices he did or the edits in the vid? Nah, you did something else though.

As far as bursts go, it looks pretty effective while not requiring too much set up. I like it. I think comparatively though, it’s no mesmer shatter in terms of AoE. But maybe this’ll be Ranger’s turning point, where people quit the pity party and do some amazing stuff instead.

Context, read it.
He stated some facts, probably expecting the OP to clear them out or explain or even just make him admit that the facts are true. Since the OP clearly stated the he isn’t interested in further argumentation OP either agrees and/or doesn’t want to discuss, disappointing Zenith (and me).

Also, no zergs in the vid => Roamer build mostly. Hardly will work against an experienced player. Killing a guardian that used his heals mostly to kill the dolyak and fighting against a fail-thief were both painful to watch. It’s not the sort of thing you would expect in a serious build demonstration.

It seems there is a bug (or not!) that makes you channel skills longer if you have quickness finished WHILE channeling.
It’s a somewhat that I found out while channeling buffs in Temple of Silent Storm.
If your quickness doesn’t last long enough you’ll have to wait a little longer.
Since there was a quickness nerf, and pet-swap quickness is too short to make a finisher, you have to wait a little even if the animation ended.
Otherwise Quickening Zephyr works just fine.
Imo it should be as it is, insta-finishers every 15 sec aren’t for me.

@Taril
The overpowered thing it’s not the damage itself, it’s the WAY combined with the AMOUNT of damage the theif pulls out.
A couple of defensive abilites and a shortbow and the thief can easily get out of fight.
If you get stunned just use shadowstep or RfI and shortbow 3/5 away helping yourself out with withdraw or stealth.
Why do you think it’s common sense that following a thief is stupid and not a warrior?
Warrior’s kill shot and volley are very unlikely to kill you:
They are ranged projectiles, easily dodgable because of cast time, can be interrupted.
So unless you are a dolyak, a zerk rifle warrior hardly will kill you in WvW or even in sPvP unless he plays as hidden sniper.
Thief’s D/D burst:
You barely see it coming, if you don’t dodge (probably by luck, because you have like from 0.2sec to none reaction time when you realize he’s casting C&D) you will be stunned and as swinsk poited out extra immobilize can be used too and you are dead within few seconds (If you are built full toughness). Only teleports and invulnerabilty can save you. (Things that not all classes have easy access to)
You cannot interrupt him, if you are melee you have to get close but the thief will keep around 900 distance (likely with shortbow, or with stealth) until the burst. If you are ranged (and thief has D/D already), by the time you use the skill you will be already bursted. Also even if you manage to interrupt his D&C, he’ll immediatly retry the burst since his weapon skills don’t have cooldown but use initiative (unlike warrior who has to wait at LEAST 10 seconds for his Kill Shot if interrupted).

Also a warrior can’t just stealth or shadowstep away if he becomes a target.
He may pop up stability and endure pain(which bot have nice cooldowns) and pray God he won’t be immobilized, crippled or chilled to death.
Warrior used to rely on stun and 100b on quickness to pull out pretty much same amount of dmg in a similar way to D/D burst thief (even so it couldn’t be used in WvW but in sPvP only, why I guess?). Now 100b can’t finish the combo before the target gets up and dodges.

It’s not just about the damage mats. You should consider a lot more than that.

dooger.2640:

It will take Arena net atleast another year to figure out how easy this is, so we should be able to mop up the battle field no prob.

And another year to fix it.
Resulting probably with only pistol’s condition damage being nerfed.

avilo.1942:

And I hope you realize that if the thief made 1 mistake in their he’s dead too. Not as easy as you think, go play a thief yourself.

You may also want to consider this.

Yes, the thief literally relies on the stealth mechanic to have a chance in that type of situation. What would the non-thief be doing? He’s able to stand there and actually take hits out in the open or utilize their own special class mechanics.

So yeah, that thief can stealth and possibly live, but the part where your thought process is wrong is that you think it’s cheap or bad like a lot of other noobs, when instead you should realize stealth is essentially the way the thief is keeping their health pool around the same amount as other classes, considering thieves are usually very squishy.

So yeh, just think if you’re that 17-20k healthed person, the thief is at 10-15k HP (if they are berserker) so their stealth is basically making this “balanced.” They can try to burst you down (thief class is designed to do this..) but usually thieves cannot sustain a fight with just burst, and they’ll have to run or stealth which is your chance of course to kill them.

Too many noobs around here going “omg he got away, how imba!” when really the stealth is balancing out the situation otherwise the thief would have…ZERO PERCENT chance to do anything.

Too many people around here just want this game homogonized with every class being exactly the same. “Stealth omg QQ, omg shatter QQ, omg 100 blade QQ, omg death shroud QQ, omg ele mashing 20 button QQ”

-- maybe those people should go design their perfectly balanced game where all 6 classes are the Warrior. They don’t seem to be able to handle a game with asymmetrical balance ^^

The unbalanced thing isn’t the damage istelf, it’s being able to go full zerk because you can disengage ANYTIME! Theives don’t get zerg with people, they just roam around because if they happen to go under some heavy aoe, they’ll just explode.
Shatter mesmer is squishy as hell, and has 4 sec invulnerability (and he wastes clones doing that) and 3 sec stealth (and a teleport AT BEST). He doesn’t appear from nowhere, his combo takes time to setup, you can dodge his illusionary leap.
100b was dumped because quickness has been nerfed. Not that it had any defensive utilities anyway.
I don’t even see people complaining about death shroud, since necro has few stun breakers with insane cooldown, spirit walk being the only nice one, with their best CC being fear.
Full dmg eles too need time to take make up their combo, (by getting close to you too!). But they are even sqishier than thief, can go mist form but can’t really get way unless they manage to rush away with air-dagger 4. And they NEED a zerg to support themselves.
Thieves have stealth(either heal or dagger 5), shortbow 3(evade)-5(teleport), shadowstep.
Also being able to teleport with steal or at the end of the stealth gives a clear 100% first hit. BV holds the victim easily, unless you attack a disengaged Guardian or Mesmer, your worst choices.
I did try out this build in spvp (where I guess it’s weaker than in WvW?), it’s incredibly easy to attack and disengage on fail (And no, not against dummies).
(Imo, disgusting)
BV – AS – C&D charge – Steal – C&D end – BS – normal hits/HS
On fail use shadowstep to keep the enemy engaged with clusterbombs if alone or trick shot if he has minions/pets/illusions while keeping distance with shorbow 3.
If combo fails completely, disengage with shadowstep and go stealth with heal.
(then wait for BV get back up, since 45 seconds ain’t that much of a time, then retry)

Guardian, Mesmer, Eles (with mistform), can often neutralize your combo, but other classes like Necro, Engi, Ranger, Warriors (unless they trait with endure pain, which is often unlikely) just can’t (especially when already engaged) (other thieves RfI or Shadowstep away).

My solution would be to make steal fail during C&D cast (or when genereally casting abilities). That would incentivate a more thoughtful way to play thief as I think that Anet didn’t intend to let players go full zerk or full defense(and such thing doesn’t exist because every gear has at least power/condition dmg/precision in it), in PvP context especially. Also I’m also very happy with stealth being more balanced in the last patch.

I am being realistic, unlike 80% of these posts..
1) Tengu, several reasons, they are a more developed race, their homeland already exists between Lion’s Arch and Caledon Forest. They are best pick probably, once the dragons will become a bigger threat they will probably cooperate more with other races.
2) Kodan, dispite having the pre-requisites, they way Anet approached us to them is almost too direct to make me think of anything coming soon. Probably they will become playable once we will re-conquer Far Shiverpeaks from Jormag.
3) Largos, perhaps in a future expansion regarding DSD, however I hardly imagine any of Largos being a scholar class. (Not that a Mesmer Kodan is easier to concept, but well, there are Mesmer Charrs.. still, what about Largos Elementalist?).

Anyone that actually belives that Skritt/Quaggans/Centaurs should re-read their whole lore again and then think about the problems about their introduction inside the game (Centaurs leggins!? srly!?). People probably don’t realize that Tyria can’t have geared giants/ogres/jotuns/harpies running around either… Also these are all too primitive, don’t seem to have a reasonable homeland at all (Centaurs probably have it, but at this point I don’t see why not make Dredges playable too).
Dwarves are very unlikely, also knowing that females are hardly different from males already makes already con.

I am 20/0/30/20/0 (converting toughness in extra 100 power while keeping toughness and boon durations high) with D/Focus+Staff and Wells
I’ve been thinking about the A setup , with BiP/R’sMight
My gear is Soldier’s with Runes increasing boon and might durations.
I still didn’t try it in WvW or dungeons seriosly, but I think that overall might could be more useful than slightly higher power/toughness.

I think that Necro is a very tanky class already (In terms of taking damage, not like tank guardian who just keeps healing over or a mesmer crapping clones and phantasms to mitigate it), as you will die if you get too much focused anyway, I think dealing more damage by stacking might could be a better idea.
Little burst and lower survivability, but higher sustained and potential damage (and it increases dmg from bleeding from the staff too!)

The easiest way is to ask your guild or your group of friends to do it, especially if you’re a newbie, coordination among people the more/less know each other helps a lot even in easy paths like from CoF.
If you’re doing this for ach points/dungeon master title, there’s no need to rush anyway, if you’re going to farm tokens instead, or anything else, you can find party on lfg sites or in map, it might be a little hard if you’re not a warrior but shouldn’t be a problem (on your server or by guesting in highly populated servers).
If you’re going to do that only for the only sake of doing it.. go fractals instead.. seriosly.

Dispite the fact that I didn’t read your topic earlier, Konig, I had a similar idea about the court, NC Sylvari’s mind does seem to be corrupted but the fact that Sylvari cannot be corrupted (phisically) is a repetitively stated fact (As plants they aren’t living beings like those having bone and flesh, but they aren’t dead either, this paradox might keep them away from the corruption of other EDs). I thought too about NC’s Sylvari being “brainwashed”, since Sylvari are basically.. plants, and Mordremoth being related with the theme of nature… well he might be the only one to “corrupt” a Sylvari, with the Nightmare. Like Zhaitan that can create Risen from corpses Mordremoth can manifest his corruption in the form of Nightmare on plant-like creatures. The intro mission of Sylvari has an unknown dragon made of roots, Pale Tree only -suggests- it could be the wild hunt of defeating Zhaitan, but what if Pale Tree was wrong? What if the shadow of the dragon is actually a Mordremoth’s corruption and not Zhaitan’s champion manifestation?

I did think of this possibility but I never took it seriosly, seeing someone who did actually make so much research into that now makes me feel confident.
Other plants and related creatures (as other Pale Trees) might be corrupted in a similar way, because dispite not having a Dream of Dreams, they have something similar which is a deep bound with the nature that Sylvari -only- have inside the Dream. Ventari’s tablet is actually a strong resolve that allows Sylvari to fight the Nightmare.

Spiders, hounds and other “normal” Sylvari are “tamed” with the use of torture.
My only concern would be why Malyck was considered so much “dangerous”.
My only explanation could be that since he didn’t awake in the Dream, his Pale Tree actually severed the bound with nature, becoming immune to the Mordremoth’s nightmare corruption and therefore, MUST be destroyed.

Dispite NC Sylvari having wild hunts similar to the “normal” ones of destroying the ED, their top priority is still to corrupt Pale Tree with nightmare and judging from their mind-sets they even be fine allying with an ED in order to achieve that.
My theory is still far away from even being plausible but the fact alone the Zone Green is related both with NC (Or at least, Husks) and Mordremoth should mean something as it is hardly something made by accident/randomly.

I belive that Sylvari (Or the seed[s] that became Pale Tree[s]) were some kind of experiment that was left incomplete by an ancient race meant to fight ED’s corruption. I find amusing that people just can’t accept that sylvari are immune to dragon’s corruption and need twisted theories to justify it.

Sylvari are a real menace for the EDs, however they are young and therefore a naive race. I would be very pleased if an ED realized that, Mordremoth for istance.
From various clues, mainly from CoE.
The distribution of dragons on the world alone should make you notice that. North=Jourmag
East(/South)=Kralkatorrik
South=DSD/Zhaitan
Undergound/Centre=Primordius
and West=?)

NC fights everything can menace Sylvari’s “potential freedom” (beliveng themselves superior, because nobody can or should tell them what to do) , so as long as EDs doesn’t attack NC they won’t fight back, and as for my regard, they might even ally with them as long as they’re in their favor.
Mordremoth then might be allied with them by trying to get NC on his side by supporting “brainwashing” kind of methods on them.
What would Mor gain: Wiping out a menace of a race immune to corruption, gaining allies immune other dragon’s corruption.
What would NC gain: Freedom from ethics, becoming an indipendent race with ED’s support against other races.

Probably but absolutely not what milo said, they might (and should) put up a training arena (no npcs, it’s dumb, fighting against AI that has slightly higher stats and few attacks doesn’t make it challangeble at all, especially when there are different builds per class) , so no people could join in, while some friends could have some fun at testing/improving without random people joining it and ruin it.
@milo That’s because some classes with certain builds are way too much of a counter to others. Like stealth-condition thief against a 100b warrior or a condition ranger against a water-traited ele.

It’s been bothering me for while that there are few/no posts regarding this (i.e. people don’t care). I don’t really complain about the size which is ok to be spotted with such a powerful form (aside camera issues) but having it female or at least not-so-clearly male would be VERY appreciated.

Personally something that really annoys me is that people can join via gw2lfg site and still have no clue of what to do with lupicus (Man! You found that site and could’t find a quick arah tutorial?!) . When you run dungeons first time like in first months of gw2 people reasonably could forgive anything because there was a lot to be discovered, but now it’s pretty unexcusable to join dungeons cluelessly with the amount of data people have at disposition (Either from guildies or youtube/wikia).
I do understand that there are some limits at “jerking” but there are some on being “uninformed” too (Playing bad is still another thing) . Anyone who started recently should follow Isslair’s advice. Really helps both sides a lot. Let it be running dungeons, WvWing or enjoying the game.
(Don’t join “huge” guilds or it’ll be the same thing as without one)

There actually are weapons that DO GLOW.
Ascalonian weapons are among the cheapest, then there are other, obtainable with karma or by mystic forge (not necessarily legendaries).
(However glows’ color cannot be changed and it’s default, like “light blue” for ascalonian set and “white” for others and so on)
Anyway I don’t see how dying weapons could be such a problem in the future, I think it shouldn’t take more than a year or two before being implemented.

Really funny and I really liked it!
(Except some mistakes like Masterful Reflection and some others already pointed out by Hildebert)
Really nice guide, you could put up some extra notes about general stuff, like having stun break for pistol or domination signet, Null Field or Feedback and Portal Entre.

The portal range is pretty much the range of your default minimap, it’s longer than the vertical side but it’s not as long as the horizontal one, with some practice, you’ll find it. (Just keep in mind where you left the portal on minimap, don’t overdo and you’ll be fine)
The cooldown is OK but it doesn’t seem to that the trait longer-lasting glamour skills affects it, I know because I use blink(30s CD) and it will always disappear upon the cooldown end of the 2nd blick. (Portal entre→Blink→30s CD→Blink→30s CD→Portal Dies).
What I would actually like is that besides an actual cooldown of portal entre I’d like to see an icon on minimap of it so I can track it easily. Because it’d actually take a lot of practice to learn the range and cooldown of it mentally.

The fact is that Staff is used either to get boons, give conditions or spam clones, damage is low so you basically use it for that, you’d mostly like, upgrade illusion/chaos/inspiration traits for it(or domination for condition duration).
Gratsword instead has only vulnerability on 2nd skill and cripple from berserker, does nice amount of damage with prec/critdmg too, for that you’d like stuff like dueling/domination/illusion(for shatter spec).
Imo making a shatter build with these weapons is kind of a waste: you are always ranged and it’s painful to shatter an userful phantasm like berserker.
I’d suggest you instead to use something like 20/20/20/10/0 or 20/15/20/15/0 with signet of illusion(however don’t put conditions into your stats, it’s kind of waste, roll just for vitality/power/precision/toughness[→Toughness just makes clones harder to kill so it’s optional]), more with a phantasm build theme, because berserker can actually deal some great damage over time and iWarlock scales with well with power too.
Said that, shatter builds sinergyze better with the main sword better because you’re melee and have a 2s distorsion combo and immobilize, which is pretty crazy for shattering imo.

They’d usually attack a mob that have myself targeted yet when I’m not targeting them or being in combat mode. (They’d also attack neutral mobs like rats or chickens, without me having them clearly targeted).
When rolling while the target dies the clone ends up spawning without a target but it doesn’t die either.

Happened pretty often to me. To get un-stuck (because I don’t want to waste silvers on that everytime) I have to use use phase reatreat again or blink, but it’s pretty hard because 90% of the times you are just like, underwater and can’t get un-stuck.
Happened many times, twice in a dungeon too (entrance stairs of AC).