Guild Wars 2

If you are condi with 100% poison duration, you can pretty brainlessly take out most enemies that rely on melee only. Even ones with access to resistance if you slot sigil of absorption.

It’s not a good main choice if your opponent has any ranged/kiting pressure, though.

Pifil.5193:

So will we still be able to earn proofs of heroics? Like convert the new currency to proofs of heroics somehow?

Good question! I would like to know as well, for throwing together future builds that incorporate things like Durability Runes or Leadership Runes, etc.

Cronos.6532:

Thank you for not updating the existing chests. I hate when people who hold on to unopened chests are rewarded; keep doing this in the future.

I’m only holding onto my ~250 chests because I’m indecisive and can’t figure out if I want to be helpful to my server/guild and get siege/tactics, or be selfish and spend them all on unidentified dyes.

Sly.9518:

Lulz you won one duel out of 4, 3 of which you had less than 5% health and I had over 50% health, And those 3 duels were interrupted by a random Thief in the lobby. #funfacts

I showed up in a Da/Tri/Sa build because I was queuing up as that in unranked, I didn’t even use that build against you lulz. you say you don’t play Thief but everyone you are logged in you are on Thief in WvW. Funny how that works.

You mean the Duel where you Shadowshot Spammed the whole fight lol wooo you wouldn’t duel again after that last one.

Lulz.

You didn’t want to duel in the first place and only wanted me to sit and let Condis tick for you to prove how Op they are.

This reply sounds pretty far-fetched, especially adding in the “lulz.” I wouldn’t have believed you regardless, since you haven’t been actually replying to any of the tactics I’ve plainly layed out – but this kind of response probably won’t sit well with the rest of the readers here.

You haven’t proved anything, and since you, a thief main it seems, have lost to a non-thief main using this build – have only further strengthened our arguments of the build over performing.

Again, this conversation isn’t a Thief v. Thief conversation. Its about one thief build and how easy it is to play – vs all professions. Have you tried fighting against this build as one of the Thief’s usual counters? Such as Hammer Scrapper or Power DH? Try that and tell me how much they counter thief now.

Sly.9518:

Turk.5460:

Fat Disgrace.4275:

Why are people blaming s/d on a set that has 1 condi tick, torment from dancing dagger.

Its statements like this that make me wonder if many of the people on this forum even play Thief.

You use sword, which immobilizes (and adds 2 poison – 3 if using venom)
Immobilize prevents your enemy from dodging
You dodge immediately – while they are immobilized (and add 1 cripple, 1 torment, 2 bleeds – +4 poison if using venom)

If you land sword 2, the immobilize will much more than likely not be cleansed by the time you dodge.

-No, this build is not overpowered. It is, however, overperforming.
-Pistol mainhand cannot do the same as this, as its immobilize is A) not instant, not a shadowstep and C) a projectile.

The immobilize only lands on S2 damage being applied which has a Animation time (not instant) which is completely separate from the Shadowstep portion, almost any moving player won’t get immob’ed, the only time the Immob lands every single time is against stationary targets, and as was shown from someone in this thread when I dueled them they messed up the S2 quite a bit and dodged before the attack portion of S2 which means no Immob which also meant no poison.

Most claims made about the Build being OP/over performing try to make the claims as if the defending player is standing still and not actively fighting/cleansing/blocking/moving/ anything else a player does. Players aren’t Target Golems they move cleanse Dodge etc.

Your reference to the person who dueled you shows nothing but the inexperience or lack of mechanical skill of that player. S/D power is my main build for WvW roaming. I have zero troubles landing Infiltrator’s Strike. If I changed from power to condi, I’m not going to suddenly whiff all of my sword 2’s – and I don’t since my off-set go-to build is now S/D condi. Single targets don’t move any differently in WvW than they do in sPvP.

I’m also going to assume you were also on a thief? Yeah, Thief vs. Thief is not the end-all and be-all of comparing the effectiveness of a build. This mentality of “Well, META thief can beat this, so its obvious that nothing needs to change” needs to go.

Fat Disgrace.4275:

Why are people blaming s/d on a set that has 1 condi tick, torment from dancing dagger.

Its statements like this that make me wonder if many of the people on this forum even play Thief.

You use sword, which immobilizes (and adds 2 poison – 3 if using venom)
Immobilize prevents your enemy from dodging
You dodge immediately – while they are immobilized (and add 1 cripple, 1 torment, 2 bleeds – +4 poison if using venom)

If you land sword 2, the immobilize will much more than likely not be cleansed by the time you dodge.

-No, this build is not overpowered. It is, however, overperforming.
-Pistol mainhand cannot do the same as this, as its immobilize is A) not instant, B) not a shadowstep and C) a projectile.

No. GW2 was advertised as a game geared equally towards hardcore players and casual players. Lots of my WvW guildmates are casual players and will go play something else for a few months, then return and enjoy WvW for a while, rinse repeat. This would not be fair to them. And if you don’t like playing against stacked servers, just transfer off of the stacked one you are most likely on (in order to be facing the others) and to a lower tier. The fights are better outside T1, the lag is less prevalent outside T1, and from what I’ve seen, the individual player skill is far better outside of T1.

Yes, we are not claiming this to be over powered, just over-performing for how incredibly simple it is to be effective.

I 1v3’d in WvW yesterday with this, then killed a 4th while the last of the three was still downed. Two of those players were decent, I could see that I had better reaction timing/knew my profession more than they knew theirs. And the other two were potatoes. I didn’t get downed, didn’t reset, nor did I even fall below half hp.

Could I have done that playing power S/D? Probably, considering I could see I was easily more experienced at roaming than them, but it would have been much more difficult and would have required me to be much more careful with my engages/disengages, timing, dodges/boonstrips and utility use.

MrForz.1953:

Most of Thieves got enough edgelordism within them to go “Nothing personnel kid” without the actual teleport.

I mainly just say my own name when talking in game. “Jekkies!”

OP is right about one thing, and that is that his post is pure salt.

-Every profession has builds they can successfully roam with. Change it up, get different gear. Just because you want your current gear/zerg build to work with roaming doesn’t mean it should. The complainer’s have probably never even seen Cavalier or Knights stats…
-Not every profession can successfully juke a zerg if the zerg feels like wasting time on that roamer. Learn to not travel using the road if you are not confident in your escape abilities.
-Every profession/build has a counter in the form of a different profession/build. Most roamers keep multiple sets of gear on them in case they are coming across more enemy roamers that counter them than they usually see.

The counter-options you described are limited per profession, easily dodged, and LoS’d. Its obvious which party is putting forth much more effort…

At least vs. myself – engi, mesmer, and druid stealth were laughably ineffective.
Traps were also ineffective, as their placement tells are incredibly obvious.

I didn’t encounter an issue with your theoretical “wait for IS and time a stun” – as that isn’t a reflexive action. That would be random, because IS isn’t something that has a tell, nor can you react fast enough use a non-instant stun before I lotus evade. The only stuns that were able to get me on my engage were ele static auras. And Ele doesn’t have a kit capable of causing enough damage to stop my rotation while static stunned.

I have a feeling you haven’t even tried using this build. Please give it a go, it is very fun, very trolly. But as I said before, as much fun as I have playing it, it is too forgiving, too easy, and has a lower skill floor than even power DH.

The effort is minimal with this spec. There is no logical reason for you to doubt this. Please have an open mind and look at this from a perspective other than Thief vs. Thief. We know that other thieves don’t usually have a problem with this spec. That is not canon. I haven’t lost to anyone but other thieves in this build. And the amount of kills I am getting just keep getting higher and higher. The sheer chances that every encounter I have is with some sort of potato that managed to get to Gold/Mithril/Diamond is incredibly unlikely. This is how easy it is, and dodging only works against this if you are doing it randomly, otherwise I will take that as you believe dodging headshot is just as easy:

Spider Venom – IS – dodge – IR (6 Conditions)

wait, juke – very easy from the range of IR. At this time either condis are ticking damage or they have used a cleanse. Either way, the 5 initiative you spent is either all back or almost all back.

IS – dodge – IR (5 Conditions)

wait, juke. Did they use another cleanse? Another cooldown used from them, or they are ticking health down more. Your initiative is still full or almost full.

IS – dodge – IR (5 Conditions)

wait, juke. Did they use another cleanse (how are they cleansing 3+ conditions with each skill!?). Oh no! They used resistance! What do we do next will shock you!

Basilisk Venom, Spider Venom, Flanking Strike, Steal, Larcenous Strike, IS, Dodge, IR. – If the steal missed for some reason, more often than not Larcenous Strike will land.

I’ve been playing this build in WvW. 100% poison duration, rune of thorns, etc. It’s very fun! And I know I can beat the build itself on my normal thief build. But not everything is thief v. thief.

And this build is far overstacked and overtuned, regardless of how fun it is. It is incredibly potent in 1v1 and small scale roaming. I effortlessly killed a number of opponents who are normally a Thief’s soft and hard-counter. And these weren’t potatoes, they were competent roamers from established roaming guilds. A diamond ranked player gave me the best salt whispers I’ve seen in weeks!

I’m going to continue playing this build for a while, because again, its very fun, and its a nice change of pace from power S/D – but even so, I hope something gets changed, be it poison application or lotus cover condis. It should not be this easy.

(not sure why this got moved OUT of the Thief forums and into GW2 discussion…?)

I’ve never heard of a roamer or zerg player complain about duelers. The only time it dueling seems to be brought up in a negative light in say or map chat is when the duelers childishly complain about their duel that was ruined. Which prompts the rest of the map to tell them to find somewhere else to go (as a response to the dueler’s whines).

Jayne.9251:

Here’s an idea. Why not let people play the game the way they’d like?

Give respect, get respect.

So true! I like to disrupt “duels” that take place in incredibly well-traveled areas. I hope these “duelers” stop whispering me after I kill them, their opponent, or both and let me play the game the way I like to.

Dueling is a non-issue. Disrupting their duels is also a non-issue. They know the risks when dueling in front of south camp on ABL. They also know that they can go anywhere else on the map if they don’t want to run the risk of WvW’ers doing …WvW.

Sly.9518:

…and knowing how the V key works.

The “V” key can’t save you from immobilize. Unless you’re talking about dodging the actual attack of Infiltrator’s Strike, which is instant. It can also be spammed more than the amount of dodges and cleanses pretty much anyone besides support ele has. I’m not sure you know the playstyle of which the OP is speaking.

This is what he means:
-Condition based, can be successful in dire, trailblazers, rabid, vipers…anything with condi as primary stat.
-Infiltrator’s strike – immobilizes (adds 2 stacks of poison)
-Dodge on top of victim after IS (caltrops is dropped, torment, cripple, and another bleed from lotus training)
-Infiltrator’s Return to avoid trading damage.
-Rinse, repeat.

That has very little to do with build/profession balance, if even at all.

Doug.4930:

…when builds were (somewhat) balanced around 1v1, a good roamer could pull off a 2v1 or 3v1 against somewhat competent players.

This is the antithesis of balance.
….wat

Malerian.8435:

CrashTheGrey.1492:

Malerian.8435:

Kovu.7560:

The place is cancer. Transfer to Maguuma.

~ Kovu

When was FA not Cancer? Maybe like 3 years ago? And from what I heard last night (4 people that are on FA) it has got even worse int he past couple of months…

Curious as to examples of why? We talking Team Chat? Prevalent community members?

All of the above. It was at one time a great community. But it was very toxic when I left. And I have heard it has gotten a lot worse. People I know there have expressed this several times as of late. This is of course my experience with FA. Maybe others do not see it that way. Anyway much happier and have much better fights where my guild is now.

I see the same 5 or 6 names in Team Chat talking nonsense. If you put those people on an ignore list, the team/map chat is filled with scouting, callouts, requests for help/tags, general friendly chatter, etc. But I assume this is the same on every server.

Straegen.2938:

GW2 classes are better balanced than any RvR game I have played. I think a lot of people are forgetting just how unbalanced ESO, DAoC and WAR were. There is no class in GW2 that isn’t viable. Sure some dominate the landscape (cough… Guardians/DH… cough…) but they aren’t so OP that a player feels like they cannot win regardless of the skill gap.

Very true, but unfortunately some people are still living in the past and can’t handle change.

Bragging rights are unhealthy and toxic for any gaming community. You wouldn’t believe how many people didn’t care. I read the herald for news, not for who mez/PBAE’d the most or Crit Shotted/ zephyr’d the most people that week. You cannot argue that class and skill balance in DAoC was absolutely awful compared to today’s standards.

Realm rank abilities was a flaw, not a feature. There is no reason that someone playing longer should be more powerful than people just getting into it. Titles are for prestige, Realm rank abilities were unfair.

Darkness Falls was like the frontiers, PvE and a vast majority untouched for RvR, the remainder being a coordinated group ganking lowbies (for no realm points) at their entrance portal.

Alliances did nothing for the game other than being a slightly more exclusive LFG tool.

Guard Notifications were cool, yes, but GW2’s version of that is swords. And that is enough for anyone who cares to defend.

Climbing walls? Who would you like to have climb walls in GW2? Thieves? Sure, lets see how well that blows over :p

You see, you’re just like the other posters rating DAoC RvR as the best thing ever. Looking back at the nostalgia with rose-tinted glasses. Yes, it was so much fun! I know! I had incredible amounts of fun, I was a Warden on Guinevere, and then when the classic servers came out – a diehard Ranger soloist on Gareth. I was reknowned in Liervik to the point of 20 Albs camping my corpse for the entire auto-release timer when I hit level 40 outside their spawn (before you could turn off xp). The memories are fond and grand, but the game was not so much when you see what was built upon it.

Kitty.1502:

Lots of good RvR experiences if you can get past the often lower game quality. Most of the issues of these games were due to lack of game budget but here is my list in terms of most fun RvR:

1. Dark Age of Camelot
2. Star Wars Galaxies
3. Mortal Online
4. Darkfall
5. Guild Wars 2

You really think DAoC did RvR better than GW2? Whenever I see this I can’t help but think the poster is looking at the past with ultra-nostalgic rose-tinted glasses. I understand Mythic pioneered the game-mode, and it was incredibly fun at the time, but GW2 improved upon every aspect.

-DAoC 1v1 and small scale balance was 10 times worse than GW2.
-Its zerg v. zerg was simply Mez PBAoE/Melee Train vs. zombies standing there unable to react.
-90% of the action was either in Emain or the 20-24 BG (Thidranki).
-Have fun being PA’d out of the frontier keep.
-The RvR maps were far larger than GW2’s DBL, like over 4 times larger, and only a fraction ever saw anyone step foot on outside of people PvEing.
-buffbots – you were a coward if you used this “tactic”
-ToA gear stat modifiers making mage-classes obliterate you in less than 3 seconds
-ToA gear in general…

I loved that game. I spent so many years loving that game. It died, better games came along each step of the way. And even though those better games didn’t provide as much fun as I remember DAoC did, I can at least look back and realize just how terrible RvR was in comparison to WvW.

I’m a FA solo-roamer mostly, but I’ll support my WvW guild activities when I can. There are lots of friendly WvW guilds available to join for various timezones who will run anything from “GvG” to havoc, to small man roamer teams.

I can also count on other FA roamers to hold their own and be effective in a brawl more often than not.

I feel like the dagger damage was a little lackluster, but overall it was a solid fun time in WvW solo-roaming. Didn’t really compare to the power-holosmith in terms of effectiveness though.

Its true! It is so face-rolly and spammy and easy to play. I had immense fun playing it, and will definitely pick it as my first PoF elite spec. I wanted Deadeye to be great and take that, being a Thief main, but Holosmith is just way more powerful.

It will probably be nerfed damage-wise, and justly so, but I’m going to have fun with it before it is!

Edit for clarification: WvW

I enjoyed it, excited to see what tweaks they will make based off this weekend’s feedback. Even if it’s just the QOL change of making jump cancel kneel.

Had loads of fun fighting as and against Deadeye in WvW this weekend.

You were not. Considering both can only be activated on the bottom traitline row.

BoX Legend.4027:

Are you a world boss? I just don’t understand how you managed to get hit by that ability. Also, spammable? It takes a deadeye at the least 10 seconds to charge up that shot, and forces them to be rooted in place for its duration. If they somehow have full initiative, they will get to shoot twice. If they want to guarantee a crit, they can only fire once. This is the buildup shot, the all or nothing ability. If they miss, you can kill them. If you die to this it’s because either A: the thief has outplayed you, using other high dodge chance skills (kneeling rifle 3) to blow your dodges, you have exhausted your blocks on his other attacks, you no longer have any gap closers as you’ve used them only to be evaded, and all of your stun breaks are on cc just as he locks you down and fires, emptying his initiative bar for the kill. Or, more likely, B: you didn’t dodge it and died. Maybe you were in a fight with someone else, or maybe you just aren’t too great at watching for tells.

If you want to guarantee a crit, all you have to do is Mark them and fire. Any thief worth his weight in salty tears will have at least a 60% crit chance. Fury adds 20% more, and kneeling adds another 20%

I like it. It’s not supposed to be mobile. Stop trying to make it a daredevil with long range damage. Some things need QoL improvements, but the general design is good for what it is supposed to be.

1) Kneeling should give stealth without being traited.
2) Projectile speed too slow.
3) Heal cool down far too long for how squishy thieves are.
4) Mark should be instant.
5) Stop balancing initiative cost around the assumption that Trickery line is traited.

aerodynamique.5267:

Are you actually ego tripping on an internet forum? Wtf LMAO

Jesus christ calm down son

Isn’t that standard internet end-game content?

What level are you, Imperadordf? And what server are you on? (for WvW purposes, lots of WvW guilds offer gearing and training to new members, such as UNIV on Fort Aspenwood)

Because it forces interaction between current builds with the new elite specs. It’s how ANET can gather the data to try to bring things in line before launch, I’m sure there are a crapload of things that are way overtuned/undertuned that will be changed before launch thanks to this test.

Its only one weekend. This isn’t going to be the only weekend you’ll ever be able to play GW2 WvW Ever and Forever 1000 years www.wvwweekend.com 100 years

Being on live is good. This is how we get balance before launch, as it will show interactions between people who want to play their current builds, and people who want to play nothing but new elites.

If it was private, it would just be PoF elites vs. PoF elites.

If you are still levelling up in PvE, I suggest you unlock everything for Deadly Arts first if you are enjoying conditions. The first trait for deadly arts gives you a 33% chance to apply poison on any dagger hit. So if you are Dagger/Dagger you should really only get use out of 1, 3, and sometimes 4, and all of these may apply additional poison stacks from that trait.

Keep an eye on your gear, too. If you’re putting all of your traits into condition damage, make sure your armor and weapons at least have some +condition stats. As you explore and level up more, try to get gear that has both +power and +conditions on it – the armor would say “Potent” if it is two stat armor. There are more variations you’ll find as you level up and acquire 3 stat armor.

Acro (up/mid/mid), Trickery (mid or down/up/mid), DrD (down/mid/mid) is working very well for me right now against everything except D/P Thieves. I’ve been able to take out a few D/P Thieves, but the majority of the time I’ll lose or have to escape. Everything else I’ve won all 1v1’s except for one bunker s/d + sb druid (stalemate).

-Marauder Armor/Amulet, Zerk-Valk Backpiece, Zerk Trinkets.
-Runes of the Pack
-Sigils of Rage/Air on Sword/Dagger
-Sigils of Hydromancy/Bloodlust on Shortbow
-CV Heal, BD, ShStep, SoA, Impact Strike
-Oysters w/kittentail Sauce (10% Reduced Damage, 70 Precision)
-Superior Sharpening Stone

I swap back and forth between Burst of Agility and Thrill of the Crime in Trickery. I like them both for this build, but can’t settle on one. The condi clear on evade + Infiltrator’s Return is enough to stay alive vs damaging condi’s, as long as you clear the cover soft cc’s with a regular dodge. Some fights are long, but they are all extremely fun and engaging.

Erzian.5218:

Turk.5460:

You’re delusional if you think a Necro in Soldier’s gear with traits built for power is anywhere near the damage of a Necro in Dire gear with traits built for condi. Pick any other profession, the result will be the same.

In WvW you’re not fighting a golem that stands still. Nor are you just auto attacking and using 1 additional weapon skill. Your “test” is terrible and provides zero support to your claim. Try it again using things like condi traps and weapon swapping, then let us know how you did. Please leave your PvE arguments to the PvE forums.

Keep believing that dire is op, I am glad it helps you feel better about losing to terrible.. erm I mean op dire builds

Come back when you’ve actually tried a power build that can’t stack toughness. Though you seem like that type of “path of least resistance” follower. It’s OK to be timid and afraid, you’ll get better with practice and experience! Good luck out there if you ever do decide to give it a try!

You’re delusional if you think a Necro in Soldier’s gear with traits built for power is anywhere near the damage of a Necro in Dire gear with traits built for condi. Pick any other profession, the result will be the same.

In WvW you’re not fighting a golem that stands still. Nor are you just auto attacking and using 1 additional weapon skill. Your “test” is terrible and provides zero support to your claim. Try it again using things like condi traps and weapon swapping, then let us know how you did. Please leave your PvE arguments to the PvE forums.

There are multiple points in the alpine borderlands where there is an invisible object that “takes damage.” The damage is not shown on your screen, yet you are revealed anyway. I can confirm that this happens when no enemies are around. There are tons of these points, but the only two that I can remember locations of right now are near Vale, one right outside the gate to the right. The other near the road where the edge of the hill connecting SW spawn and SWC starts to turn.

Another thing that will reveal you is dead Dolyaks. Once a Dolyak dies, its body will still be “attackable” for about a minute, even after it is dead and the corpse disappeared. (no damage shown, even if you are not stealthed, will keep you in combat) This invisible corpse will also reveal you if you bound or heartseeker into it from stealth.

You’ll notice you will also get “obstructed” when trying to shoot projectiles past invisible dead Dolyaks as well.

Famine.7915:

Turk.5460:

Famine.7915:

Turk.5460:

I’ve still yet to see a pro-condi argument that makes sense as to why Dire gear should continue to surpass Soldier’s gear in effectiveness tenfold – when they have the exact same amount of added defensive stats.

Or is it denial? So, anyone here who thinks everything is hunky dory and condi is fine, please answer this extremely simple question:

“Can someone in Soldier’s gear be as effective in dps as someone in Dire gear in small scale combat? (small scale being under 10 players)”

—The reason I didn’t include zerg v zerg is to deter answers from focusing only on that subject, which has never failed to skirt the initial question and never give a straight answer.

Ah, but that’s a trick question. In this case, they’re both useless.

Not a trick question – it is a simple yes or no question, and like all others before you, you are skirting the question as I even mentioned happens in my post. Shocker. Please answer the question with a yes or a no – or don’t reply to my post at all, thanks.

I will dumb it down for you. “No” to both. They will have a level of damage and effectiveness that will be negligible in a small scale fight. As far as I am concerned, their damage may as well be nothing.

Don’t make such quick whiney replies. My answer was as direct as it needed to be. They are both useless.

“No to both” is not a valid answer, as I only asked one question. So this shows that your reply really only means one of two things:

-You answered “No.” Which means you believe that Soldier’s cannot perform nearly as well as Dire.
-In your comically failed attempt to belittle me, you showed that you are incapable of understanding the most simplistic yes or no question.

Regardless, you’ve only made yourself look silly, and any future responses from you will now be cast aside as uneducated opinions. Thank you for the attempt.

Even though this is quite clearly a L2P issue, and I can guarantee this person lost 1v1, rather than “I saw them in a zerg” – I’ll humor it for a few of the more L2P points until I lose interest.

“-Vault using 5 initiative as an extra form of dodge. with Trickery used up to 3 times including dealing damage WHILE Evading (which is invulnerability)”
-No. It does not do damage while evading. It evades until the peak of the jump, then before landing and applying damage, it is vulnerable. Actually unable to do anything at that point except finish the attack. Can’t regular dodge, can’t steal, can’t even swap weapons. This is the only attack in the game that you cannot swap weapons/stow if I recall.

Same thing with Bounding Dodger. Damage not applied before evasion ends. For both of these cases, if the end of their dodge lands in some red circles, there is a high probability that those red circles will affect the Thief. If those red circles happen to be hard-CC fields – damage will not apply and the Thief will be hard-CC’d.

Bounding dodge isn’t a blast finisher. OK I’ve lost interest.

Famine.7915:

Turk.5460:

I’ve still yet to see a pro-condi argument that makes sense as to why Dire gear should continue to surpass Soldier’s gear in effectiveness tenfold – when they have the exact same amount of added defensive stats.

Or is it denial? So, anyone here who thinks everything is hunky dory and condi is fine, please answer this extremely simple question:

“Can someone in Soldier’s gear be as effective in dps as someone in Dire gear in small scale combat? (small scale being under 10 players)”

—The reason I didn’t include zerg v zerg is to deter answers from focusing only on that subject, which has never failed to skirt the initial question and never give a straight answer.

Ah, but that’s a trick question. In this case, they’re both useless.

Not a trick question – it is a simple yes or no question, and like all others before you, you are skirting the question as I even mentioned happens in my post. Shocker. Please answer the question with a yes or a no – or don’t reply to my post at all, thanks.

Yuffi.2430:

But since staff occupies a weapon slot as a support only tool now this is almost the same as Engi or Ele – one “effective” weapon slot. Do Guardian other skills make up for this in the same way that Ele attunement or Engi kits do?

This is a terrible argument comparing apples to oranges.
-No one is forcing you to use Staff on one of your two weapon slots.
-Support weapons are effective, otherwise you would have already been making this senseless argument before the change – I assume you gladly equipped staff before, and probably still do. Please learn how to use it if you want to slot it.

If staff 1 spam was what you initially picked that weapon for, you would have been more effective with pretty much any other weapon set anyway. This entire thread is just people sad that their lootstick is not as looty.

sorayuki.8906:

While we’re on the topic, could someone explain to me how a 15,528 critical Vault is possible ? ( See screen shot )

Might stacks is one way, along with all the damage modifiers.
Food
30% from DA for foes <50%
27% from Daredevil after a bounding dodge
5-15% from Trickery Lead attacks.

They also could be using full valk gear and the crit strikes traitline + daredevil runes.

What. You’re a thief, you should know this is the norm for power thieves.

I have Marauder Armor, Marauder Amulet, Zerk/Valk backpack, and zerk trinkets/rings. I have Runes of the Pack and use Agility Signet. That puts me at 74.5% crit before fury. If I am using Thrill of the Crime, or my Runes proc – I have a 94.5% crit chance due to Fury.

Though thanks for bringing this up, since I haven’t thought about stats like that in a while, I could probably swap some of my stats for less precision, as I don’t really need a 94.5% crit chance. I think 85% would be a nice place to sit.

Do you have Sigil of Hydromancy on your shortbow?

saerni.2584:

I’ve been running without Trickery and it can be done.

Yes, of course it can be done. But it will always be an uphill battle. Whatever build you’re using that can be done without Trickery, would most likely perform better with Trickery.

I’ve still yet to see a pro-condi argument that makes sense as to why Dire gear should continue to surpass Soldier’s gear in effectiveness tenfold – when they have the exact same amount of added defensive stats.

Or is it denial? So, anyone here who thinks everything is hunky dory and condi is fine, please answer this extremely simple question:

“Can someone in Soldier’s gear be as effective in dps as someone in Dire gear in small scale combat? (small scale being under 10 players)”

—The reason I didn’t include zerg v zerg is to deter answers from focusing only on that subject, which has never failed to skirt the initial question and never give a straight answer.

Ubi.4136:

Guessing it was a nerf to sell PoF (since there are new pets). The smokescale used to have 40k health, it now has 23k.

Yeah but its direct damage mitigation is through the roof. Pets just need a stat re-balance all around.

Trajan.4953:

OK Mag can move up or down whenever it wishes. Do you really, and I mean really, think this would actually change anything? This is one player doing what he does. Are you really bent out of shape that much or think his/her actions are going to affect a score that is, at best, arbitrary since the manual glicko adjustments?

Match manipulation is match manipulation. And since the loudmouth Mag players love throwing out their server’s KD/R left and right, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is happening elsewhere in other maps often.

Regardless, your argument advocating the ignoring of these actions is silly and shows a state of thinking that is unhealthy for this game mode. Its like saying that a big box store makes $100k a day, so why should the employees get bent out of shape if a cashier pockets $50 bucks from the till every day…

mompen.7952:

I was just thinking about this the other day, and was going to make a thread about it, but you beat me to it.

I’m also all in for making some (most) of the traitlines in trickery baseline, to provide more build diversity/more utilities if they add other options in trickery instead of those who will be baseline.

Please make a thread anyway voicing your concern. I’ve learned that Anet generally notices these things when there are a buttload of threads all talking about the same thing. E.G. Turret Engineer, Epidemic, sPvP tank meta, etc.