Guild Wars 2

I have tanked Gors and VG as rev, you can still keep up fury / prot / FoN while tanking. I just ran this build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsemnXN2gSqJvQR/kbosgyPU4Q5IKYr8ElFNFqdABoB2FMhNkdMppNA-TBCBQBVS9HAcGA83+D5RfQGV6pFlBB4RAkGlgAA-e

You have blocks on shield and staff, plus 50% damage reduction if needed from Dwarf Ulti, Glint heal is a full heal if timed right. No need to use sword 3.

Im at work and can’t really tell from the patch notes. Did Roy make any meaningful changes to VentariIm before release?

Got my legendary hammer crafted last night. First legendary after 3 years and it is sitting waiting for my Rev :-)

Haha your spell checker must be malfunctioning, stinky Charr!

The only answer to any question like this is Asura!

Asura master race.

I would be happy if the radius was a bit bigger and the move tablet skill made instacast so I can use it while stomping.

Quite similar as far as traits go, but you took Steadfast Rejuvination over Reflxive Summon. I find that the heal from SR isn’t that great and only works out at about 125HPS, but the weakness from the reflective summon for me felt like it made big difference.

I like the idea of the flock rune set and I think you made the right choice over Dwayna runes, because more regen is pointless as this build already pretty much has perma regen.

I see a lot of shiro/glint builds, but has anyone else had any success with a bunker build this weekend?

This is the build I used, I am sure there is room for improvement but it seemed to work quite well. Still quite susceptible to conditions when ventari is on cool down, but staff 4 helps a bit there also.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAW8un3gmNSuQzJRboNlsP0oS4I6UJ4ENsklZlRNgDaY9iOKxO6q7G-TJxHwACuIAILDca/BAPBAA

Marduh.4603:

Oh my God, they killed PVP.

You Kittens!

Wasn’t the dredge gear only available for a limited time during one of the old living story events?

Korasi.9140:

well dont know why it important where is he from. If he is from mars and hes good player and practice hard, i dont see what the problem is

It is a legal issue

This was always my worry, I never thought the game’s pvp population was big enough for two queues. I wonder if that is why arena net made it join-able from outside the mists?

Not seen one lfg shout for a team tonight in map chat either

stof.9341:

Confusion isn’t much of a problem really. PW is a high damage move and Confusion only procs once per skill usage, not per hit. Short of condition removal skills, PW is one of the best skills to use when you are affected by this condition.

Ah sorry I dont use PW enough to notice, I just assumed confusion was for each slice. Still remains that retaliation completely destroys PW and it no way hits hard enough, it is not much more (maybe less) than the AA chain.

Edit: When retaliation is up you pretty much do more damage to yourself than the enemy.

Looking at this build I think you would be better with the standard s/d build with 30 in crit strikes. I don’t think that trickery offers enough to the s/d build, which already has enough boon removal as it is, the crit strikes tree offers so much more to you here. I think you could probably still run the Valkyrie amulet if you wanted to.

Kyrion.2749:

Geiir.7603:

It show 9 hits (with the daze) in the combat log, but the animation show four hits.

Ahh, so that’s why… Thanks, it was driving me mad. So double punishment from retaliation, amongst other things… No wonder why people is upset wit it.

Yeah I played with s/p for a few games last night, in one fight I took 10k retaliation damage. Yes I know I should have avoided using pistol whip when retaliation is up, but it is up 99% of the time on guardian

I think pistol whips damage should be reverted, it is a high risk skill with so much retal and confusion around, so it should be high reward. Currently it’s damage is ok at best, great for trying to prevent revives with the stun and cleave, but that’s about it

Skyhammer belongs with Capricorn in hotjoin

lol @ underwater nerf.

Speargun 5 get out of water, kill if followed :P

Delta Blues.8507:

while I do see how it can still be kind of usefull I have to say i don’t see it that popular anymore, as good players will still stunbreak out of it quickly making it valuable only versus less good enemies to be honest.

I have tried it in the last few days and in the competitive scene it really ends up being wasted most of the times, because it’s both easy to predict/evade and to break out of, especially considering that as a thief you are pretty much forced to carry determined utility skills and you don’t have many long duration stuns so everyone will simply have a stunbreaker available just for that. Which, as fair as it is, still doesnt change that fact that it makes it a skill only good for noobstomping that is not gonna bring that much into the fight anyway.

It would be good to have some reliable CC as an ultimate but I still think that this could use a little improvement as it is now

Yeah but if you use it at the correct time you can almost always make it work. In a team fight, if your team is focus firing and you see the enemy use his stun breaks, now is the time to use it to ensure a kill.

It is not useful vs good players for opening a fight imo, which is why I think it would be good to be insta cast again so you can have more flexibility and even use it as an interrupt or quick control mid fight.

I think BV is fine for what it does (helps for burst combo), however once they made the stun breakable I think it should have gone back to being insta cast like other the venom skills.

Kyrion.2749:

Travlane.5948:

a good player only gets hit 2 times out of 8 swings on pistol whip. sometimes 3. i could go back and check but this im pretty sure on

Seriously people, pistol whip only swings 4 … FOUR… times. Since release.

I dont get why people keep insisting in that pistol whip hits 8 (even 9 I’ve seen once on this forum!!!) times.

Is it a mind trick? an optical illusion? a wishing hope? Warrior envy? … or what?

Edit: Well, if anything, that tells how much the skill is used by the thief community…

Really? I thought the animation showed 4(ish) swings, but I thought the combat log showed 8 hits, I am at work right now so I can’t double check.

I do agree though that a small damage buff would be nice, or just get rid of retaliation :P

pantsforbirds.9032:

Hey guys, I have decided to try and help out the community by writing some guides to some of my personal favorite thief playstyles! I’ll be using the guide function found on intothemists.com and will probably supplement some of the guides with some videos with commentary/breakdown of whats going on. I’ll make sure to keep updating this post with the guides as i make them! And feel free to pm me anytime im in game with any questions about thief!
IGN: Rand X Al Thor

Sword/Pistol T/SPVP: http://intothemists.com/guides/294-rand_x_al_thors_swordpistol_build

Edit: I’m not great at writing, so im hoping my video supplements will help out more with understanding the gameplay im trying to describe. Please feel free to leave constructive criticism, but try your best to actually keep it constructive.

I tried a very similar build previously, however the problem with PW is retaliation, you can pretty much kill yourself.

Something tells me shadow trap will be awful on the new map…

For S/P in sPvP, I am having a bit of luck with this build at the moment:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-cFRV;1Rwka07-sOFd0;9;49T;0T2;007A;446BLNV4;2G3G3G3G35BK

I don’t think this is a full viable tourney spec, but it is fun in solo queue. With the steal reduction / infiltraitor strike it is quite easy to stick on your target if you time the shadow steps well enough.

You can replace Haste with SR, I have haste on there for the times I port back to defend Home Point with shadow trap, as a surprise attack it is devastating.

Edit: The stuns from PW and the daze from steal do great work interrupting a lot of skills / heals / rezzes / Stomps. The boon steal also removes block and stability too meaning your stuns usually land if steal is used first.

Yeah shadow trap is unreliable, for example:

Forest Map
Place trap at Mine, run to keep, port back to Mine works
Place trap at Henge, run to keep, port back to Henge fails.

Travlane.5948:

so again as i said my math is right and so is theirs. the coding was done incorrectly. tis a bug and thats it.

EDIT: you guys that dont agree are just misreading/misinfering their kitten poor english/grammar

Either one of you could be right TBH, maybe the tool tip is wrong (not unheard of in this game) , then again maybe not…

Can anyone translate this into numbers for the horn?
http://tinyurl.com/pqobeza

rmBossa.4621:

I was gonna start my own thread but figured I could tac on here.

For SPVP ONLY: What elite skill do you guys run for S/D? Ive always preferred bask venom for obvious reasons when I ran D/D. But it also has such a short CD and was never a huge fan of the fire and forget style of Thieves Guild.

I was using Bask because I thought I would still use it in an opener. But now I always start fights with Infi Strike so I always have an escape up with the shadow return. So Ive found that I never really use my bask venom, since Im immobilizing them anyway.

Im wondering if ppl feel the same, or I am just missing good opportunities to utilize bask venom mid fight. (Prob the latter since Im still figuring out the whole S/D thing)

I still use basalisk but with runes of lyssa on armour – when you use an elite cure all conditions and gain all boons.

My s/d build at the mo is

0
30
10
30
0

Hot joins do not affect rating if that’s what you mean.

From the FAQ:

Q: Do matches in the PvP Browser affect my Rating?
A: Your rating is not based on public play matches, only tournament/ranked matches.

So does this mean you will now put a better rotation in the 2 team tournament? One map for several days isn’t all that great!

Okamakiri.8746:

JonPeters.5630:

As we played with the stealth changed mentioned in the SotG, we recognized that in conjunction with the change to culling this was an unpredictable change to make. We also felt that it was too big of a hit to these stealth professions, so we ended up pulling that change in favor of just increasing revealed duration by 1 second.

Congratulations on completely destroying the PVE D/D rotation. I can tell this game doesn’t give two kittens about PVE, and PVP is the only priority.

^^This.

D/D pve just took a HUGE nerf. Previously you could CnD / BS / AutioAttack rotaion, and it all fitted in perfectly and felt seamless. Now it feels sluggish and over a long fight that is a lot of lost damage.

mbh.8301:

Gems can never be rewarded as a prize for a tournament.
Anet policy is that anything which doesn’t come as a result of random chance must be account bound.
Rephrase: any reward that you can expect upon completion of a task must be account bound.

This will never change, although now that they’ve cemented this policy they can probably fire the in game economists.

Yeah I would not expect to see games as a prize again.

But this does not hide the fact that currently 3 team tournaments are underplayed and it takes so long to get a pop, which leaves us in the situation of playing one map OVER and OVER

There needs to be a reason for people to either play 8 team tournies OR build the tech to randomize the map for 2 team tournies.

Kneru.8014:

Atticus.7194:

This one is pretty simple, everything should have some means of a counter and atm stealth finishers have none so unless ArenaNet is willing to add a new downed skill to all classes to prevent thieves from finishing you off with impudence then they need to remove this. Thieves shouldn’t be the only class that can negate all other classes downed abilities simply because they have one ability that trumps all others.

Thanks for your time

You can’t do anything if a Mesmer stealth stomps you either. You’re really screwed if they time warp their entire team to haste stomp you. You’re also screwed if they mass invis their team and stomp you.

You can’t do anything if an Engi happens to get stealth and stomps you either. You can’t do anything if they get stability instead and stomp you. You cant do anything if they pop Elixer S and stomp you.

You can’t do anything if a Guardian pops “Stand Your Ground!” and stomps you either… Hell, I could pop Virtue of Courage, grant Aegis to myself and allies, and we can all stomp you at the same time. Regardless of your counter.

And that’s just a couple of the classes. We could go on about Mist Form, etc. But no. Let’s just direct our hate at thieves. In which, if I’m on my Thief, I’ll just pop Signet of Shadows before your hammer, aoe shield, aoe daze, etc goes off. Or Shadowstep off to the side, wait for the knockback, hammer, grappling line, etc, and Shadow Return back causing you to miss anyways.

The point is, if someone skilled/smart enough to counter wants to stomp you, well you’re just gonna get stomped. Now let’s stop all of the hate directed just at thieves, shall we?

PS: Black Powder always works great for stomping. Watching every little downed attack miss makes me chuckle. xD

/end thread

Are there any plans from Arena Net to get people playing 8 team tournaments again? There are so few people queuing for these I have waited 45mins+ for a pop before at prime time! I much prefer the 8 team format, but there seems very little incentive for people to play it, especially as players can farm glory in two team tournies so easily.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but playing one map for 3 days is not exactly fun.

I don’t know how they could promote 8 team tourney, maybe boost the glory for winning, or maybe offer some new rewards, anything to avoid farming the same map over and over

Dual.8953:

General

Shadow Shot: This ability now allows the player to move while executing dagger strike portion of the ability.

Finally!

Aervius.2016:

I completely agree, in the context of an encounter that you are familiar with P/P is a far better choice than SB, especially for Fractals.
For Exotic Farm Dungeons, P/P > SB for bosses, SB > P/P for “trash clusters” IMO.

This is exactly why I always carry all available weapon sets
Melee Single Target = Dagger/X
Melee Aoe = Sword/X
Ranged Single = Pistol/Pistol
Ranged Aoe = ShortBow

Each are great at their respective roles.

As others have said, shadows embrace is key here

Shooopa.5632:

Tolfast.6289:

Number 3 skill is nothing like unload, it strikes the target and shadow steps you away, giving you an extra way to evade attacks
Maybe you don’t know how to play this spec, but some people are very successful with it.

The descriptions of number 3 don’t say anything about shadow stepping. That would make it substantially more useful.

But cloak and dagger on a ranged build isn’t that great of an idea because you have no really good way to follow it up – five bleeds is much easier to recover from than a back stab.

But you’re right I don’t know this spec extremely well. And I’m a bit biased against pure condition builds because I think they lack versatility which I believe is the thief’s greatest strength.

P/D is a melee / ranged hybrid, you can’t play it as pure ranged, the DoT’s you stack last about 5 sec but you can stack them insanely fast, it can really wear opponents down.

Don’t get me wrong I agree that it could be insanely OP which is why I was trying to come up with some preventative measures. It only effects me if I end up defending a node but that hardly ever happens as that is not my role and I understand that. It sucks for the other classes that have this problem too ofcourse, and there probably isn’t an easy way to stop this from being OP.
Doesn’t stop it from being annoying :P

Shooopa.5632:

It’s not a good setup at all is what it is.

Pistol in main hand for some reason is very poor at doing much of anything because those setups tend trying to do something very half-heartedly.

Pistol/dagger is one of the worst offenders on the list. The third skill is useless, it’s basically a kittened version of pistol/pistol’s Unload. And cloak and dagger is meaningless without back stab – which you can’t do without a dagger in your main hand.

Cloak & Dagger Stealth makes your number 1 skill stack 5 bleeds in quick succession it is integral to P/D build, traited correctly it can make you heal/remove conditions/blind enemies…
Number 3 skill is nothing like unload, it strikes the target and shadow steps you away, giving you an extra way to evade attacks
Maybe you don’t know how to play this spec, but some people are very successful with it.

@ Atlas (quote not working)

Because any other class fighting at a node means it can not be capped until the player is finished or out of the circle, why should this be different for a thief?

RE your line about using stealth as crutch:.
As my post stated I am running a condition P/D thief not a glass cannon, I use stealth synergized with traits for Stacking bleeds / Healing / Removing conditions / Blinding, not as a crutch but as an integral part of my build.

One Idea may be to make stealth work on nodes but only when in combat.

^^ Obviously….

I just happened to be at a node when we had three capped.

Edit: point is if we are defending a node as a team and I am the last one alive, I have no way of defending the node, bar running in circles, doing very little damage, while taking a beating because my main mitigation (stealth) is rendered useless.

I was thinking about this, this morning. I am currently running a pistol/dagger condition build, the problem I have is I must stealth in order to pop my auto attack and stack the conditions. So if I am sat at a node while I am fight it will slowly change hands. I am not doing anything wrong by stealthing, just playing the build how it needs to be played, but losing the node as a result.

However I understand the need for some sort of protection due to skills like shadow refuge. Maybe a compromise of not being able to cap in stealth but being able to prevent a neutralize if you are in the area?

Strange, I just tried it in the mists.

4sec = 4 ticks
4.25sec = 4 ticks
4.5sec = 5 ticks
4.75sec = 5 ticks.

It seems that >=.5 rounds up to an extra tick, < .5 rounds down.

P/D is a condition damage build, so anything with +condition damage / duration would be good

I don’t mind the change too much, I like the extra .5 sec, it is a good trade off as it has a quick CD (quicker than most stun breakers). My problem BV is the cast time. I try to use BV as an interrupt to stop stomps / heals, but the cast time makes this quite difficult.

This is my condition set up:
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/thief#10|3|2642|2788|6677|8743|11435|20|1738|1714|0|0|0|0|0|30|750|2198|751|5|0|0|0|15|786|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|49957|49957|49957|49957|53490|25903|48790|0|0|0|0

P/D, I get a lot of utility from stealth (blind / condition removal / heal) .

I use short bow on weapon swap for AoE / Blast Combos / Mobility

Happened to me about 5 times last night

Quote not working so @ Pimpslapper

Mesmers will teleport once when down, then the skill will be on CD. There will now be two mesmers, you kill the second one that popped, this one will also have a skull arrow above them.

Thanks for the response, I have all those, infact I think I may even have the flame dagger I am not sure (at work atm so I can’t check), it just looks a lot smaller on my asura.

I use this resource for forging my pvp weapons, you may find it useful:
http://blackrabbit2999.blogspot.com/2012/08/guild-wars-2-mystic-forge-recipes-guide.html

I saw someone in PvP the other day with a really cool flaming sword, though he said that was from r40 chests.

Even so that is a nice looking dagger, is that from the PvP mystic forge or random drop from a chest? If it is from the forge, what did you combine to get it?