Guild Wars 2

S/D. Keep Infiltrator’s Strike/Shadow Return up at all times. Dodge his stuns (if you can) with the high uptime of vigor and endurance regeneration. Use FS and LS as much as possible to avoid stuns and strip boons.

bobross.5034:

thief support-
stealth to save allies on low health and stealth res
with trait, stealth grants regen.
with traits, stealing can give 10s fury/swiftness/might in aoe and gives vigor and strips/shares two boons on steal (min 21 second cd)
blast finishers from shortbow are spammable, thief can’t put out the fields, but they are the best at blasting them. Thief + staff ele = might stacking/swift stacking / aoe heals.
venom share – thief venoms are shared with 5 ppl in small aoe with traits they can give might, chill/immobilize/poison/torment/stone on attack, steal health on attack (this is fairly strong).
I think thats about it…note they are all not easy to achieve in one build.

This pretty much sums it all up. Only thing you left out was a poison field from the SB and area weakness with use of a blast finisher.

Divinity or Lysaa are your two best bets, though my personal preference is Divinity.

Thieves basically have two ways to survive: evasion and stealth. D/P relies on stealth for damage/survivability, and S/D relies on being incredibly mobile and evasive to stay alive. D/P and S/D are our best two weapon sets along with Shortbow.

However, D/P still relies somewhat on evasion and S/D uses a very small amount of stealth. It’s just part and parcel of the Thief.
Thieves are squishy. There is just about no way to get around that. What Thieves are is the slipperiest class in the game, bar none. If you don’t want to die, you won’t, unless you get heavily CCed.

Playing a Thief is much different than any other class. I’ve played them all (except Necro) and Thief, once you get used to it, is the most fun and most challenging because if you get caught you are dead.

Here’s a S/D build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYmCO3eS6E/5Ex2jeKUe6VgsdP4a8rKA-TsAg0CoIqRVjrGTNyas1M+Y9xECA
Feel free to change it up a little but that’s the basics of the build.
I can’t help you with D/P as I’m not familiar enough with it to offer the best build.

Good luck!

1. Just left it on. Never bothered to turn it off.
2. My dodge key is space bar. I find it very easy to use and strongly encourage it.
3. I don’t have any special gaming equipment so no, every keybind is on the keyboard.
4. Use mouse to turn and to move.
5. Looks fine. Only thing I would recommend is having dodge on space bar and jump on shift.

Am I the only one that has difficulty in defeating skilled Mesmers with S/D? Basically any other profession is mincemeat except for Mesmers.

Anyone have tips?

I’d like to see a two-handed spear or staff of some sort, along with a rifle for long range.
Offhand sword, torch, and maybe even a buckler (a small shield) would all be pretty cool. Only problem with some of those is that Anet would have to introduce a whole new weapon set, make new skins, put them as options in quests, etc.

Buddah.2903:

Im currently leveling my thief mainly through wvw and Ive watched a couple youtube videos and notice that when people use shadow step they dont seem to have to target the ground. Ive tried shadow step but disliked it cause i dont like the ground targeting before you can cast it. Is there a setting im missing?

There is an option somewhere under the Settings section (?) that disables the ground targeting thing for AoE’s or teleport like things. So when you click the button it casts wherever your cursor is.

Hope that made sense.

bluehawk.8369:

Hello everyone!

I just hit 80 and I was doing some sPvP, i got to rank 9 rabbit. I was wondering if it were possible to get better gear by leveling up ranks? If not, what is the point of sPvP?

Everyone has access to equal gear, there technically is no “better” gear. Admittedly, you can find better looking gear as you rank up, but that’s about it.

The “point” of sPvP is to get better, collect cool gear, and crush your opponents.

Gwalchgwn.1659:

Daecollo.9578:

So you used 20 initiative… um… you realize we only get 12 right?

This was obviously over a long period of time, the guardian had plenty chance to react. In fact from how many attacks you did, you had many chances to react. Why didn’t you dodge? Why didn’t you use any of your invulnerabilities/shelter? You know a thief can’t hurt you when his initiative is down right?

Sorry, but this is a learn to play issue.

The sequence can be done right after eachother with the right spec. I don’t run S/D myself but just tested it with my current trait build (which relies on initiative gain)
Infiltrator’s signet + quick recovery should already be enough to keep your initiative up for the entire sequence beside the last heartseeker. I can bypass this by using steal midplay (if I have 5 points in trickery) or my infiltrator’s signet if using Signet Use trait

But besides the fact you can pull this entire sequence off in a chain, it’s still a very long sequence. So the rest of your post still applies.

Infiltrator’s Signet, Preparedness, and Quick Recovery are more than enough to have 20 initiative over the course of several seconds. Just saying. Quick Recovery would just be icing on the cake.

But other than that, everything Daecollo said was right.

The issue with any class being “too difficult to fight” or “anti-fun” is not understanding how that class works. You lose against Thieves and Mesmers because of IGNORANCE, not because of Clones, Stealth, a “forgiving” tool kit or whatever. Roll one of each and figure out how they fight. Learn some common builds and strategies. Learn their weaknesses. I have a Thief and a Mesmer, but also an Elementalist, a Warrior, and a Guardian. I have absoluetly no trouble fighting all but the best Mesmers or Thieves.

Thats because I have extensively played both of them. Get inside their head and figure out how they fight.

scratchy.9528:

“Been Awhile- Anything Changed?”

yeah, there’s no one to play against anymore.

Wasn’t a whole lot when I left. 300+ servers, less than 30 full ones. Paid Ques took forever and frees took upwards of 30 minutes to an hour.

evilapprentice.6379:

Adaneshade.2409:

evilapprentice.6379:

I still don’t see the point of S/D tbh. It has all the positional requirements of a Dagger spec with none of the burst, subpar damage overall, and not enough survivability to make up for it.

As for new things, venom triggers no longer deplete on missed swings (but still do on block/evade/blind/etc..) which is kind of nice, and Shadowshot finally doesn’t root on hit (which is awesome) – it’s helped to make D/P the defacto choice more or less atm.

That’s because you take a simple minded approach to pvp (MOAR DPS OR IT SUCKS)….S/D is about CC and does extremely well at it’s job. A good S/D thief is a D/D thief’s worst nightmare with the immobilizes and snares.

You’re trading great burst, lots of blind, a gap closer with better range,damage and a blind attached, and on demand stealth for…. a 1.5s daze (That does less than a front stab), a broken AND poorly designed dual skill, and the awesomeness that is IS. That’s a very big tradeoff for IS.

This is what I was getting it. S/D HAD exceptional mobility, damage, CC, and slows (back when DD was worth using.) Just wondering if anything had been changed. Guess not.
S/D was a case of “You’re dazed for 3 seconds, here, eat 10k damage worth of autoattack. Your daze is almost up? Let me do it again!” Since the revealed debuff lasts 3 seconds, you could almost permadaze someone while not taking a hit yourself. Combine that with condi removal and healing while in stealth and I guess ANET thought it was too strong.

evilapprentice.6379:

I still don’t see the point of S/D tbh. It has all the positional requirements of a Dagger spec with none of the burst, subpar damage overall, and not enough survivability to make up for it.

As for new things, venom triggers no longer deplete on missed swings (but still do on block/evade/blind/etc..) which is kind of nice, and Shadowshot finally doesn’t root on hit (which is awesome) – it’s helped to make D/P the defacto choice more or less atm.

Well…. that sucks. Before November S/D was the best dueling spec a Thief had.

It had burst, consistent damage, and more tankyness than other Thief builds. The final swing in the Sword 1 chain consistently crit for 3.5k. The other ones hit for around 3k. Tactical strike also dazed (with appropriate runes) for 2.5-3 seconds.

Sad to hear not much has changed.

Hey all

Some of you may remember me, some may not. I was a BETA tester and early player of GW2 through half of December but haven’t been on since then. I was really disgusted with the S/D nerfs in November and experimented with other classes for a month before leaving.

My question, then, is has anything changed since mid-December affecting the power level of various Thief builds? I browsed the first few threads here and a lot of people mentioned S/D. When I left it was the least played spec out there.

Thanks

nerva.7940:

faceroll low skillcap build, getting nerfed, etc etc. not clicking.

Did…..did you just say that d/d was a low skillcap build?
I’m speechless…

Jumper.9482:

Overpowered support profession? Ele.
As much mobility (non-vertically) as a thief, the survivability of a guardian, the CC of a hammer warrior, the condi clear and combo fields of…well,… a god.

Now Jumper, you’re not talking about a support Ele. You’re talking about a D/D Ele, which has decent support (little group condi removal + heals, maybe some boons) A staff Ele will not have the mobility of the Thief, or the CC of a Hammer Warrior. He will have godly combo fields though

@Op
Sounds like a Guardian to me. They make the best bunker and have great team support. They won’t be killing anything but stupid glass cannons though.
Though as Jumper said, an Elementalist is a valid alrernative. They require a bit more effort on your part though.

HappinessFactory gets it.
@Wise
It’s not about nerfing Mesmers. It’s the fact that a team HAS to have a Mesmer to do well. They excel at everything. They’re amazing duelists, they provide great team support and utility, and are the best sidepoint holder in the game. They can’t roam as well as most classes, and that’s their only weakness.
I don’t want to nerf Mesmers (fixing shatter bugs is another matter). I’m all for buffing underplayed specs and worthless traits, yet the fact that teams are almost required to have a Mesmer is not good. This goes for any other profession as well.
If you have an idea to make Mesmers less mandatory without breaking the class, by all means, please share it.
Also, this skill is fine in PvE and doesn’t need to be changed. I’m only talking about PvP here.

@Jumper
As Jimmy said, the idea was not to nerf Mesmers per se (just fix the shatter bug and they’re fine) just make them less required in teams. When one profession is mandatory to succeed, you know there’s a problem.
@Everyone concerned for PvE
I don’t really care how ANet handels Portal in PvE. If you/they think it’s fine as is, I don’t have a problem with it. Maybe the skills could be split between PvE and PvP.
@The people who want to remove Portal
I seriously doubt that will happen.
@OneArmedBandit
No, I don’t. I’m just thinking out loud here, and any comments/ideas would be welcome.
@Stin
That could work too. Extremely powerful skills need to have drawbacks.
And finally @Embolism
Swapping Portal with MI was just a quick idea so Mesmers would still have the same amount of Utility and Elite skills as the other professions.

Make Portal an Elite skill. Swap it with Mass Invisibility.

So, you can have portal or TimeWarp, but not both.

I’d like to hear people’s opinions on this. I don’t play Mesmer as much as other classes (Ele/Thief) so I may not realize exactly what this would do to the current meta.

Been 30 secs for as long as I can remember (BWE).

Yeah, happens to me too. The best way to break it is to use a movement skill. A teleport, leap, etc. Also, things like Blurred Frenzy free you as well.

So, instead of what we have now in hotjoin, a zergfest with capture points, you want a zergfest without capture points?
Don’t get me wrong, I really would love to see a TDM mode in place as well, but I don’t think Conquest should just be scrapped.
Duels/arenas might be a better idea than just standard TDM.

Don’t worry. Even if you did ramble a bit it made sense to me

Basically, you really like PvP, but are disappointed with the state of things as compared to PvE. You want GW2 to go big, but can’t see it happening now due to lack of certain things (everyone knows what I’m talking about).
I am in exactly the same boat as you. I’m also seriously considering buying Forge, which for $20 looks pretty good.

Combat:9/10
The combat is fun and interactive, and frankly the best of any MMO I’ve ever played.

Everything else: 3/10
The maps are stale, there’s no ladder/ranking, hotjoin is a zergfest, premades roll through free tournies, and paid ques take forever.

Final rating: 5/10
Needs new game modes (that are actually fun), ladder, ranking, new maps, and some way to draw casuals into PvP. No casuals = no viewers = no esport.

At least they put all that effort into Snowball Mayhem! I mean, it’s got better esport potential then most of the other maps!

Put Mist Form on your utility bar. When you take a large chunk of damage (you’ll also notice a distinct sound) push that button. Then press the “6” button. Then use Shocking Aura and kill that sonuvakitten.

Or if you’re fast enough, dodge.

I’m having similar issues and it’s not always even instant abilities, sometimes they’re channeled or have a cast time.
I hit the button, nothing happens, then I spam it 3-4 times and after about a second the skill finally starts activating.
It’s annoying as hell.

lyfe.5683:

I see…

Thank you for answering my questions

P.s. is there by chance any sort of PvP developers blog that is used to communicate upcoming changes to the system?

No problem man, even if the answers weren’t what you wanted

There are a couple old developers blogs but devs are somewhat random on when they spill information.
They are working on rankings/ladders though (being paired with players of equal skill) and is their number 1 priority.

Oohhh…. In actual scenarios, most likely the Mesmer. But with 30 in everything, the Thief. The extreme burst with 30DA and 30 CS coupled with the high survivability from Acro and SA would be incredibly difficult for the Mesmer to beat.

1. No
2. No (and this really stinks)
3. GW2Guru, and that’s about it.

Hope you find a game that holds your interest for a long time. I know I’m looking for one…

Jamaz.9837:

In either tPvP or WvW 1v1 without a control point. I always felt Elementalists are obscenely strong due to their boons, healing, mobility, cc, and small trade-offs for damage. They also wipe whatever conditions you place on them and it seems you can only fight them to a stalement using a bunker build. Do elementalists actually fear any class besides a backstab thief that kills them while they’re reading the forums?

Backstab Thief=free kill for D/D eles.

I fear 1 class and only 1;the class with lots of immobilizes, and a player that knows how to use it.

“I don’t care who you are, don’t ever go into a 3v1. That’s not a good idea.”

Literally 10 seconds later, he charges into a 3v1.

Fuzion.7613:

That shouldn’t ever happen.[/quote]

Which is why its in last place.

DreamOfACure.4382:

Deep down. Most people want to be that dck who one-shots the opponent in the back before they can respond and run away before anyone can get revenge.

Too true, lol.

circuitnerd.5863:

So Ive got a couple chars but I’ve noticed when I play my ele in pvp I am the first target and often have the entire team on me. But other classes not. Whats up with this? Do people hate ele’s or somethin?

Because, in most people’s minds (and its usually true) clothie casters =very squishy.

Payneful.7934:

I use a simple 3 button mouse that cost me 15 bucks at wal-mart lol. I haven’t found a need for anything with more buttons.

This.

As others have said, I’m eternally grateful that there are no true ranged/melee classes in the game. Nothing sucks more than getting rooted and being shot full of holes because “you’re a melee class so you cant use ranged weapons.”

It also keeps you on your toes and encourages strategic gameplay.
Just got immobilized? Time to swap to range/whatever instead of well, I can use a rootbreaker, or sit here and die.

I much prefer the ability to have 2 weapons at the same time over just 1.

Tsubaki.2508:

The spvp unidentified dies used to be unbound :P Now they are account bound. I think anet noticed the increase in silver and changed it.

How does an unidentified dye be account bound? It would just be in one characters inventory.

Rinzler.8072:

I was pretty impressed. This thief instabgibbed my thief. Currently im running 20/30/0/20/0 w/15k health, all zerker exotic.

Basically, he came outta stealth, stole on me, cnd’d me and backstabbed = dead.

During the whole attack i couldnt use any of my weapon skills to escape (dazed perhaps?)
Im thinking 25/30/0/0/20…but ive run the same build b4, and i never saw those numbers on a level80 with full exotics.

Thoughts?

Wish I had 75 skill points…

But seriously, sounds like standard kitten Basilisk-CnD-Steal-Backstab, with a signet somewhere in there.

MaXi.3642:

Recently.1043:

sPvP unidentified dyes are account bound….. PvE unidentified dyes can obviously be purchased/sold on the TP.

i havent noticed it, thanks

They’re not account bound. But they should be.

I’m a player C and proud of it!

Screw those PvE carebears! Who needs ’em?

possante.8310:

copy the link reaglass and d/d ele is the worse mesmer nightmare

I’ve gotta disagree with this. D/D ele is very strong in just about any 1v1 situation, but if the Mesmer I’m fighting knows his stuff, its going to be a very challenging fight.

Bsquared.3421:

possante.8310:

please share with us your amazing d/d build.

0/10/0/30/30 or 0/0/10/30/30 is the D/D “bunker build.” And they’ll typically use Dwayna or Water runes to up healing power.

i cant stack 250 power? you must be play some strange tournaments were you do mostly 1vs1 -.-

A bunker build sitting on a point is not going to rack up 25 kills in a match…

20% recharge time on air skills why?

Becuase those points are far better spent in arcana or earth (for protection on aura, and/or auto-armor of earth).

You don’t need 25 kills. Only 5. 1 kill = 5 stacks.

To answer your question, yes, it is possible to kill a Mesmer 1v1, but it will most likely be your hardest fight as an Elementalist. Since most of them play shatter spec, they can be quite squishy, so D/D is fast enough to kill them.

The key to winning against a Memser is learning to avoid their Shatters, as it rips Boons, which are very important to the Ele. Also, try to avoid getting immobilized and Blurred Frenzied.

The biggest tip I can give you is to play one. You’ll figure out it’s strengths and weaknesses.

@Phoenixlord
That’s actually a really good idea. Obviously, numbers/effects would have to be tweaked, but the general idea is pretty solid.

Or it could be something like the Elementalists version of the Necros Lich.

I’m interested in trying out for this, as long as you don’t expect me to play 4 hours a day or something.

http://www.fantasynamegen.com/

Kurow.6973:

Clark Skinner.4902:

Even if this group of 7, was entirely lv 30, which is not at all likely. They should have been more than enough to take out a single lv 80 player. Let alone with an experienced lv 80 helping them. Some were in a guild. A guild who WvW together is not likely a bunch of lv 30s who have never done WvW before, and they had more members around the map as well, it’s a pretty big guild on our server.

There were people who started and though the thief died and they left while more came in to try to kill the thief when they saw him surrounded by our group. Is it likely that none of those people were better than totally useless?

Something I just remembered. We had him downed for a moment but then he popped back up and had no problems continuing the fight for quite a while. There was definitely no time to heal, and the only other way I know of to get back up is to kill something while downed. Is this a thief down skill?

This is sounding funnier and more like a fictional story now.

He could be hacking. On one of Daphoenix video’s he downed a thief literally 3 times and he instant rezzed to full HP each time phoenix went for the finish.

Or everyone in the group sucks. Just saying.