Guild Wars 2

Deceiver had it spot on, shadow shot > backstab almost always in PvP. In Wvw it could be argued both ways however imo. The cost of a backstab is absurd, when compared per ini used.

Just found out about this system myself, as I’m a returning player from about 6 months back. Really disappointing change, I tend to ignore ranked to play unranked with friends when they’re on. What gets me, is matchmaking isn’t better due to this change, just as many lopsided, unfair blowouts as before from my exp at least. Oh well I guess, happy hunting all.

Blinding powder probably, its a stealth utility AND a blast finisher so it stacks a nice chunk of stealth.

Im with Strider you knew they could glide and you were in there territory how was that a smart move to start? You did it to yourself, the same ole isnt gonna work anymore thats what i love about gliding being added, switch things up.

Plus hows entering combat 1500 range in the air fair? just plop to your death, even with reduction traits itd stil lbe slanted in the ground forces favor immensly while your on there turf…….. there would be no point in gliding to begin with in that case.

Play smart, get outta your box.

Anet……. Thank you, iv been trashing people with my hands down fav set in the entire game S/D. Breath of fresh air woooo!

Condi’s carry scrubs. End. Of. Story. Stop covering it up like its some super skillfull talented way to play the game. Its a autistic kids dream build, smash keys in the general direction of your foe. WHAT?!? he blocked? who cares fart out another set of condis all over the place its not like you ever actually run out of applicication. So if we play power should our whole build be condi removal? cause thats the only argument im hearing here at all. Thats all i got for this, im sure the condi pros are on the way to defend there pro status!!! Happy hunting folks!

Ill toss my 2 cents in, this may sound dumb but the biggest tip i got is dont rush your burst, dont think just because you spent CD’s or ini to stealth you need to burst from it. There is a kittened amount of blocks/invulns/aegis ect out there and people pop them on you stealthing normally. Missing a steal puts you at a disadvantage, do your best to always land your steal. And i know your aiming to WvW, but dont forget pvp has some decent practice dummies for you to get your combos down to a T. The AI is super predictable however itll give you a solid sense of doing shadowshot backstabs, and other theif combos without having to think about it, you just see your opening and do it naturally. Outside of that the poster above me really nailed the heart of playing thief its really about knowing the limitation of the class and when you need to push/pull your enemy.

^ Vornollo nailed it, i played a thief completely viable in wvw running around 14-15k ( sometimes as low as 13k) depending on the food n such i ran, marauder just gave a better stat range to play with allowing me to freely choose what runes/sigils to run without feeling limited. Dont forget thief is about avoiding dmg not tanking it, the extra vit for me is just more defense against conids that melted me so much faster before. Now i get a few more seconds to counter/combo dealing with that burst, which can mean the difference between winning or losing, thats how i see it at least. At least thats how i feel im no pro by any means but i notice the differnce in the few thousand HP i get.

I ran valk a long time before mara was released, and then swapped to mara after, and never looked back. Mara just had a very nice stat spread on it, valk I always felt…. is limited with sigil/tune setup due to the lower precision. Just my 2 cents though

Id happily help out with guild missions, id also like a invite if possible

Above poster is pretty spot on, keep in mind when taking shadow arts though that rev/engi/ranger have reliable reveals which negate the entire line, and yoy cannot cap in stealth, see allot of them on the other team just swap the line for CS or my preferred is acro for hard to catch and the gm trait that negates soft cc.

Im pretty new as well with mesmer but have been having allot of success with chrono. Iv beeen pairing it with Chaos and swapping around dom/dueling. I take chaos mainly due to playing a interupt build and i love CI. Cant recall my chrono traits but my main one is quickness on shatter for fast rez/stomp. I run in pretty much all zerker gear, however id steer away from offhand sword, it looks good on paper with a block and range phantasm but i could never get it to work right for me in practice. Id suggest running either pistol or my fav shield with your sword. Start in GS to kite and widdle down hp, swap to sword/offhand for control with your offhand (sheild of pistol stuns) and burst with sword when you shatter.

I’d go tools personally myself as well like the previous poster, low level dmg isn’t to big off a issue, but having permanent swiftness to travel map with speedy kits is always nice

Personally i play power, but thats just because i LOVE the hammer on engi its to much fun. However condi engi is highest dps in pve at the moment, its a viper/sinister gear mix focusing on burning. I dont know how long ago you stopped playing but burning does ridiculous damage now, as it stacks instead of extending the duration.

As far as leveling, flamethrower works well, so do nades. When i leveled i ran both with the elixer that grants swiftness/fury/might cant recall the name, and a rifle and didnt have much of a problem. And as far as condi vs power, dabble with both and choose the one you like more. Both are very viable and wanted for pve/wvw/raids, so at that point you minus well play something that fits you. Im very fresh myself on engineer i came from 3 yrs maining theif to playing a scrapper non stop since HoT release so if anyone on this forum contradicts what im saying id take there advice over mine =D

Im getting dc’d ALLOT, started off only in wvw, got kittened stopped playing and went to work. Come home and now its happens in pvp/pve/wvw, now its to the point i cant even log in for more than a min or two and the error pops. Am i the only one? if so mabye its on my end, but nothings change…..same router, computer ect, just acted up suddenly today and very quickly progressed to not being able to log at all….=( I put a ticket in but who knows how long thatll take

IGN: Slap N Tikle

Playstyle: Played pvp only first year, now im much more into wvw since i have more stats to play with =D

Server: Currently SBI

Experience with thief: Mained thief since about 4months after game release, went through all the sets too, started with s/d, did d/d for a LONG time, now i d/p with some s/p for fun, dabbled with condi but i just really wasnt feeling it at all, kinda boring. Since all my classes are 80 and geared i spend most my time roaming wvw / or helping out new players learn the tricks n trade of the class

initiative for me mostly – allows me to mix up my attack pattern. As opposed to seeing any other class where you basically know exactly what rotation to expect by the weapons in there hands.

Trickery – not the trait line ( although its amazing) but our ability through shadowsteps and stealth to really mess with a enemies orientation. Ya mesmers can do it to and extent, but blink just cant beat the trickery of shadowstep =D

Short Bow – need i say more?

Mained the class around 2 yrs now with the first 9 months playing nothing but thief, iv taken small breaks here or there to play with other class’s but its mostly to learn the class to fight against it. Just cant stay away from my good ole trusty teef

I run the same pvp build as you and use the exact same setup in WvW as well. Not claiming its the best or optimal, but i have no issue solo roaming 6/0/2/0/6, doing minor out numbered fights nothing to ridiculous, and taking camps. Only diff is my utilities between the two modes.

Played today for a little a bit scared, but I’m actually loving the changes so far, have not had a chance to toy with stability yet though. But not one hiccup in my steal or shadow step, no dumb rock blowing my portsi can get used to this

I use s/p as a backup weapon set in wvw at times, catches people off gaurd and helps against some certain classes. But if it’s your main weapon set I’d say take dagger. Boon steal, CnD for stealth access, on top of the evades what’s not to like?

Lol I’ll add yoy when I get home, still working at the moment and we can go mess stuff up thief style

Sure is press y by default I think. I changed allot of my bindings might be wrong, add me though I’ll come out and level with ya Wellcome to thief its a incredibly fun class

Lol awesome can’t wait to get with you in game I’ll be on quite a bit Sunday if you’re on, I’ll throw you in my list to. You will be cracking heads in no time =)

You can go either way, iv heard power p/d is pretty good never played it myself though and honestly have not fought one either. Most people go condi with the p/d set, thief as a condi class does not need much of a crit rate. Your damage is based off bleeds through sneak attack, your pistol stealth skill. Iv played condi thief for maybe a hour so I don’t know a whole lot, I play power builds only. However both are viable to my knowledge. If you go the power route add me in game I’d love to help out

Im no pro but i play a 100% zerk thief, at the moment i think im using ogre runes before i was using vamp. Its totally doable to run around at 13k hp and still hold your own, but i wouldn’t recommend starting there by anymeans it will be pretty frustrating.

Commonly you see mixes of valk and cav gear so your maintaining a high crit dmg, but sacrificing a little crit chance. But in all honesty it comes down to what set you wanna play with. I play d/p roamer in wvw, the blinds when used right is a awesome defense to my super low health and near no armor. However if i were to pick up d/d, at my skill level, id have to switch out some armor for my defensive stats a little.

For runesets youll get cookie cutter responses like holebrak, travlers and strength runes. I play the game to have fun not farm gold to afford these runesets (they are worth it if you can though make no mistake) If your ballin on a budget some iv used i liked are

-lyssa, allot of people dropped it after its nerf, but its still a good run set gives precision so if your using valk/cav at all it will help negate some of the lost crit chance but i love even more the random boon on heal (used with withdraw) it seems like its more often than not protection, if you run basi venom the 6th bonus still shines pretty well even after the nerf

-vamp runes, idk why i just liked them dirt cheap to, great for learning thief on as it does the whole mist form at 20% hp if i remember right to it triggers with last refuge so your stealthed ( i was runnin 6 SA at the time for the heal in stealth) getting 300+hp a second moving at the crazy mist form speed i used health steal food with it too was pretty fun

-ogre, what i just started using not to long ago its a straight dmg set, i used to hate on it but now that iv tried it the numbers i hit are awesome, the rockdog serves little purpose, but iv used it before to put between me and my enemy in the hopes channeled attacks or leaps will hit the dog before me

-wurm, ferocity and vitality, little more of a buffer against condis and you hit a bit harder on crits, this rune shines more if your using the acro line as a % of your vitality is converted to ferocity.

Keep in mind this is all from a wvw standpoint, pve is all zerk pistolwhip/blind spam to win. Please feel free to add me in game for any tips or pointers i love helping thiefs create salty enemy tears

Add me, love helping people learn the game, our re learn spend most my playtime doing so as is hour to see you in game soon

I roam wvw looking for duels, and run a 4/4/6 ci, never had so much fun with one build, brings a whole kitten nal of amazing tricks, condi pressure, bon strip and cc. Even fighting the same person repeatedly there’s no real must do rotation to predict, btw choas ty for your write up you did for lockdown builds, was all I needed to drop my thief and love my mesmer

I mained thief my first year and a half, it’s a hard matchup on the mesmers side, they are super predictable though, I have caps lock bound for closest target, when a thief stealths I wait a second or two, flurry (sword 2) and mash my closest target key till he pops followed by a immiediate shatter kinda one trick ponyish but it works.

Same offer to you though I’d love dueling you on my thief so you can get a grasp on it, I feel is the best learning tool, instead of just having random skirmishes you try to learn from

I’m pretty fresh on mesmer only like 4 months paying one at max, mainly pvp though. Feel free to add me in game I’d love to help by sparring and pointing out where and when are optimal to shatter. I kinda of base it off the class and what rotations I can expect. Took some practice but it pays off, nothing feels better than watching anecros fat health bar melt in a matter of seconds.

IGN: Slap N Tikle
Server: Sea Of Sorrows
Playstyle: PVX
Role: Scholar
Timezone: Pacific -8

GW1 my main for 4+ years was a lockdown style mes (backfire, ineptitude, the dreaded blackout) and i LOVED it. When i started gw2 i was pretty bummed at the new mes until these lockdown builds started to circulate. Started practicing as a shater ( being power based and “easier” than lockdown) to work my way to lockdown and im horrible at it. Tried a lockdown this last week and it just fits my playstyle so perfectly it just feels natural. So i wanna refine my skills with the cool little tricks the class comes with….

1. can i get a invite to OMFG pretty please =D

2. Iv only run sw/focus and GS as a lockdown, i saw another mesmer who was able to place the warding line and pull people into his freshly casted phantasm ( #5 on focus warden i think?) as part of a full burst and i pulled it off one or two times today but not definitely. is there any trick to telling where your line will pull people to? i feel like mines a little unpredictable but in mid combat honestly im not paying super close attention.

3. Love gs but im open to other things to switch it up, iv seen staff but what rotation would you do with it? Do you take the entire weapon just for a the AoE daze

4. I saw a video not to long ago (german fellow i think) based on a shatter build but had very very in depth tips on playing the class, i couldnt find anything myself if anyone could point me in the right direction thatd be sweet.

Ill jot my build down really quick so you have a reference its pretty cookie cutter though

4/4/6/0/0
halting strike / boon stip on shatter
far reaching manip/ deceptive evasion
debilitating dissapation/ bountiful interruption/ Chaotic Interruption

zerkerAND lyssa

thank you for any and all help you can offer, was getting super super bored of thief the last year and a half, this is a nice breathe of fresh air!

how do i join this!?

Not only are they getting torment, apparently scepter is so broken it’s gonna get TWO procs, totaling six seconds of torment per AA chain….. not only are or problems not being addressed this patch and others are, but our issues are ignored every patch. “Letz buff venoms again cause so many people loved it the last time we did and totally used it” to anet that went down as “thief buff” even after community feedback of how pointless it was….

I know, but its the only class i TRULY enjoyed, so i took a break till hopefully we got some love but its nerf bat this nerf bat that. While mesmers are now AA torment, wars are weapon swapping condis off ( the original description for warriors was a weakness to condi in the start) ect. And the game seems to favor AI heavily now, and auto trigger effects.

Dont get me wrong at the core i LOVED this game, the new spin it put to pve as opposed the standard get quest turn in quest rinse repeat. Even something as simple as the dodge mechanic. And even though im not much for pve play the rolling content they release was a amazing idea as well, at its base i love it. but over the last year or so the balance decisions have just been disappointing. Guess most of my gripe is i focus on pvp in games and one game mode for two years, and continually getting a nerf bat to the class i put time in on trying to master. I stopped cause it got to a point where i could still compete but had to work so much harder for a single kill than any of my alts that i didnt enjoy playing as much (alts mes,war,engi,guard).
-pve = love it in this game
-combat system = love it in this game
-even the weapon system = love it
Just wish we didnt get boned every…… single….. patch. Specially a while back when they said things like " we cant discuss it atm but trust us thiefs we got something cool in store" in stream, and the patch drops and we got…… nothing lol think it was the one with choking gas nerf not positive though.

Came back after not playing for some time to see what changes were made, and….. well…. omg im glad i threw this game in the trash a while ago, was REALLY hoping for some cool changes. Just astounding…….. looking for a new game guys sept 14th Archage, looks dope, f2p, hopefully you see this before anet deletes it, worth a peek

LOVED gw1 (5yrs no breaks) and gw2 has been nothing but a spiral downhill since release, its to bad =/ makes me chuckle they thought esports was ever a reality.

Pvp gets stale quick, since theres only one game mode its basicly AI, aoe, spam like builds that just bunker to a point and sit there. If something needs major balancing as others have mentioned expect a 6 month wait before anything happens, while they claim there “discussing it internally”. It was super fun for about 6 -8 months, then it drops off……..fast

Distaste kinda nails it on the head overall though, youll see class “a” with a certain weapon type, and immediately know everything thats about to happen not allot of diversity to it.

quests/story grind dosnt make a game, gw1 had much more implemented much quicker that kept it interesting and fun. Gw2 story lines not even worth listening to, and all that matters is the living story content. Pvp is nothing but a joke now 2 yrs and we still have ONE game mode, e sports is out the window. The only real additions was a single release of mostly horride gm traits, even wvw is dwindling because all aspects other than pve living story is mostly unchanged since launch, and after 2 years honestly just boring. The biggest change this games seen is the april 15th patch which isnt saying much.

As far as dynamic events, following timers isnt fun for me. Its the same events, on the same timers, every day. Itd be no different if every quest in gw1 was repeatable, and the same issue at that point occurs, it get old quick, unless the reward is worth it which in the case of dynamic events isnt even true.

What sucks the most is this game has awesome potential with its setup and mechanics. I just feel like its allot of wasted potential that i keep hoping for but never rewards my patience….. oh well, maybe ill see if gw1 has at least enough ppl to make a RA match ;D

you could always ninja nurse…. lol but closest i do to zerg play i get is hanging out on the edges of my server zerg and spiking eles and such on the enemy zerg brave enough be on the outskirts. Other than that SB is gonna be your best option, hits hard pwr/crit with cluster too.

I thought thats how it always worked? I may be wrong though i never use hidden thief much at all.

PvP is so boring after a year and a half pretty much the same maps, and one mode. Idc what they add just add something already, is so dull playing circle wars. Got the game expecting pvp varied at least to the extent of gw1 and has been pretty disappointing.

I love LR but only because on my vamparic runes, outside of that it can get on my nerves.

Iv seen thieves use sb as a main weapon but not in a archer type way. They steal (with sleight of hand) and shotgun down the opponent point blank.
On my Condi p/d, I used sb allot and worked well dropping 1vx while still staying alive, I had some apothecary but even then I didn’t use it in a archer style.

I’d be more than happy to spare with you, point out where you could improve and how, a very kind thief did this for me when I was struggling on thief and it really turned tables for me, msg/mail me in game

A quick tip on the trap part for you guys, make sure your standing in one. Often on my thief a ranger will drop traps and continue backing up past them ( leaving the traps between the two of us) The second he steps outta the circle, I steal/step to him bypassing all his defense which is now on cooldown. Another quick one off the top of my head is barrage is NOT a deterrent at least for me (even as a full glass teef) The dmg i take compared to the dmg i can do you in that time frame is tipped way in my favor, however i see allot of rangers do it none the less. Any ranger wants a thief to spare against please hit me up in game, ill guide you through my defenses the best i can to help you out.

So glad i clicked on this lol good chuckle before bed, any class can make you “waste” your stance. For example 2 warriors, 1 pops stance the other swaps GS and leaves and comes back, you just wasted a stance and he didnt even need to stealth.

Not like it matters though i jumped on the warrior train anyway a bit myself, did you know my backstab on my fully ascended thief MAYBE hits 7-8k. My warrior in exotics just hit 80 a week ago can gain enough adrenaline in 3 sec to one shot glass specs with a easy 10k+ evis, which i can unleash whenever i want, there is no prereq to it. I feel bad when i come across thieves……. poor guys, iv been on the other end of that axe….

I can’t see the details on this phone like traits you took, one thing I see right of the bat though is your hp 10k even with the defense you have is just not a lot of hp. Wvw is riddled with Condi builds, so vitality is always a plus, and pays off.

It’s not hard to kill a stealth thief, I can CnD and backstab a thief WHILE he’s invisible pretty reliably. So what’s the issue?

It works perfect with my vamp runes, keep it around i dont mind.

Never done it in wvw as i just hit 80, but i run a celestial build in pvp that works wonders. Based around DS trait, hits hard physically and the confusion damage isnt anything to scoff at.

Great video, some beastmode engi skills. Id hate to see how mean your thief is, props from a fellow teef.