Guild Wars 2

Thief has been on the decline for a very long time(or all other classes were on the incline perhapse), they were actually quite bad even prior to the expansion but I think good players and groups were pulling them along well enough that thief seemed decent for their mobility.

For a while all classes were getting damage buffs and getting ani-burst traits, like passive procing endure pain, the rangers version of endure pain(whatever its called), necros auto shadowform, engies shrinking potion, ele’s rock form thing + like 20 other skills, guardians multiple skills, etc. so it was inevitable that thief was going to become completely obsolete at some point.
I think arena net was trying to make spvp more accessible to new players which is fine by me and most people who are 100% spvpers (we like fresh meat) however it just got out of hand, and even more odd was that they started buffing survivability in general without ever going back to address the traits for passive invulnerability so now pretty much every class hits similar to a thief, but does it with aoe or range, and has more cc and way more survivability while doing all of that, so thief really doesn’t bring much to the table and is actually kind of a liability.

In the end thief is my favorite class by far and I enjoy the play style, I have played thief pretty much exclusively from beta to now pretty much exclusively in spvp as well. If you are the same you may have to just suck it up and practice dying for 8months before its fixed. But don’t hold you breath because something will be broken with every step to make a fix unfortunately.

Balance of the game was never 100% and it would be unfair to expect it to be, that being said it is quite poor at the moment and will remain that way for a while because as much as I want to love arena net they take forever to fix pvp and when they do its not in very constructive ways honestly. So you don’t need to sink time into the game to play at a high skill level, just play one of those classes/builds that’s super broken and you are fine. Granted even the best players still die from time to time, especially if they are not coordinating with a team so don’t think dying is = to sucking. High tier spvp is 60% teamwork, 30% class/build/comp, 10% skill.

I really love dual pistols and wish they were good but unfortunately they are not at all. They appear good if you shoot a squishy player with them but other than that pretty bad and its mostly due to the utility of p/p in addition to dumping initiative for maximum damage. But if you like em by all means play them I guess, whish I had the balls to.

Been playing thief in pvp since beta.

Virtual Communism is all I see

I dont mind the changes so far, I was happy with the change to laserous strike but it seems like a pretty terrible skill now for actual combat, (difficult to hit with & costs a lot of initiative for something that misses) unless you are just trying to evade troll which is stupid so idk.

Also I find it funny they buffed a bunch of skills that are completely garbage to start with, so they are still garbage… who would have thought.

BlackPowder honestly is where it should be imo now, it is still useful but not overbearing (which it certainly was b4) atleast if you happened to step in it and obviously it is easy to avoid but still.

Shared venom is the best thing to come out of this update and condi thief is where its at now for thief imo but I am enjoying destroying all the classes stronger than me with pistol whip and even though I get downed and cleaved to death with one click of rapid fire from a ranger so far ive still been winning. Of course it might be different against a competent player…

I’m kinda interested, I play worst thief NA but I look good atleast.

I don’t know if its all damage based but I do definitely get more loot as crit instead of condi and if the group is big enough I can’t get any no matter what, even with big/many hits as a thief. It is very frustrating especially since they are creating mega-servers with the intent of more players playing events. Should really be looked at, especially loot for support roles, buffers/healers are what make Tyria go round. Old topic still relevant…

I have mained thief since beta and have played 5000+ games on him in spvp alone.
I am really trying to wrap my head around all the thief complaints.

But I honestly cannot when I get bit by ranger pets for 4k, engie rocket turret for 4k, necro shadow bolt auto-attack thing for 4-5k(and I’m not talking about the team wiping litchform), warrior anything ~10k, mesmer whirlwind phantasm 6k, not to mention a single burn is enough to destroy my wapping 10k hp.
So Ill take more nerfs plz, and since im probably still going to win against the little children even with the nerfs might as well delete the class so everyone is happy.

Ill just go back to my warrior and be completely out of control with more damage and way way way more survivability, but atleast I dont stealth for 3 seconds holy jesus can you imagine…

wow that is not what I expected to read when clicking on this post…
when I think of how broken thief is it tends to be of how garbage they are, not so much how op they are, but whatever back to my 1v4 warrior !

I got to rank 51 in spvp on thief exclusively (~4000 games). I started playing warrior and necro in spvp when things started to go down hill with the meta shift but continued to play thief in tournaments. However I recently got on my thief to roll some face in hot-join; or so I thought, and found it is now the most garbage class ever(way more than I even realized after the most recent patch buffing all classes and nerfing thief… again). So I continue to play my warrior taking on 4 players and winning… good times.

If you are still playing thief you are playing wrong.

im a pretty patient person, actually im very patient, far more than the average raging human being. but the new adventure box stuff makes me want to grab a grizzly bear and rip its head off with my hands then shove my fist down its neck rip out its spine find the nearest arenanet dev and cram it into their eye socket. Properly gift-wrapped of course, because like i said. im patient.

i really enjoy dying over and over and over and over and over and over while im grinding and grinding and grinding and grinding so i can get my item skin that means absolutely nothing. well done.

Actually one thing came to mind as I was thinking of how much I wouldn’t settle. I would probably appreciate sylvari more if I could be more like a tree, instead of pigeonholed into a generic house plant.

I petition for Kodan. I will not settle for less.

I have played thief in and after beta almost exclusively until now and with upcomming changes to magic find have been wondering the same thing. should i reroll crit or condi.
heres some wisdom i have endured to obtain:

Weapon: Opinion, Survivability, Damage, Utility & Synergy, Bonuses

in the eyes of Spvp/WvW:
P/D: very fun, very survivable(teleports/stealth), low condi, no crit, good synergy
P/P: fun, not survivable, no condi, ok crit, no synergy (needs some DEV love), empties initiative
D/P: fun, survivable(stealth), no condi, good crit, excellent utility & synergy
D/D: kinda fun, survivable(evades), best condi damage(which is low), ok crit, low synergy
S/P: fun, survivable(evades), no condi, ok crit, good utility & synergy, dazes
S/D: meh, survivable(evades), no condi, ok crit, ok utility & synergy, boon stripping
SB: fun, survivable(evades), good condi, good crit, good utility & excellent synergy, combofields

in the eyes of PvE:
P/D: survivable(teleports/stealth), lacking all damage, ok utility & synergy
P/P: survivable(blind), lacking all damage, very low utility & synergy, empties initiative
D/P: survivable(blind/stealth), good crit/no condi, lesser pve utility
D/D: survivable(evades/stealth), ok crit/best-ok condi(aoe), ok utility & synergy
S/P: very survivable(evades/blind), good crit(aoe)/no condi, good utility & synergy, dazes
S/D: survivable(evades/stealth), ok crit(aoe)/no condi, good utility & synergy, npc’s dont need boon stripped
SB: survivable(evades), good all damage(aoe), good utility & excellent synergy, combofields

Survivability is exceptionally important to keep in mind when playing thief. Know what weapons have access to and will limit you to. A direct hit in pve will kill a glass cannon, even more so in pvp.

what exactly is the purpose of SoloQ?
-better rewards and more strategy.
So that beggs the question, what is the purpose of hotjoin?
-no rewards and no strategy.
Why is there a hotjon at all?
-oh yea so we can duel, why do we duel, so we can figure out who to cry op about(which i enjoy just as much as you).

so now that we have caught up with our-selves just coming out of beta again whats next for spvp? tournaments with no rating probably. then a second hotjoin npc. and even more hp on the target golems

the best part on the stream was when none of the 3 people demo-ing had ever stepped into the mists. i dont blame them individually but as a whole, now i see why spvp is neglected.

I am happy about soloq button actually functioning now and the permanent finishers so i can waste more money on blacklion. Honestly tho that pve arena is looking sweet, now im scrambling for a reason to play spvp(like i was 6 months ago)

Since the dev said basically 2 one-handed on a two-handed wouldn’t function. Why isn’t there 2handed specific sigils, that are the same but with compensated effects? Of course not all of them need compensation due to scaling but some do.

And honestly id like to see a few more sigils either way, maby a chance on crit to daze or something.

I haven’t been able to wrap my brain around since beta when you get downed all condi’s drop off you however clones and phantasm’s who have a distinct condi type of mechanic continue to whirlwind you for 5k damage.
My brain is just too small for these advanced mechanics.

ensoriki.5789:

4s reveal isn’t degrading S/D to 3 spam.
Nor is it discouraging D/D or D/P.
To be frank I like it.

I wont be satisfied until its 48s reveal timer.
And auto kills the thief upon attempted use.

Daecollo.9578:

If you can fix that, can you also look at the speed of the thieves short-bow’s auto-attack as well? It should be around 0.25? (yeah it seems ridiculous, but it seems way to slow now that the projectiles don’t follow the target.) too.

if pistols were viable I would absolutely play them. (thief)

ensoriki.5789:

While I understand the decrease in efficiency and even the decrease in need of us as bursters.

This post still confused the hell out of me…

You should see my other post it would explain why you just killed my phantasm.

I’m going to PvP through the forums because the gameplay just doesn’t cut it anymore.
And it will be another 3 months before you nerf my OP to the ground.

Your health is now low you might want to heal.

Lordrosicky.5813:

This is a minor issue which epitomises what is wrong with things:

1, Stop trying to push this esports BS down our throats. The kittening shoutcaster programs that nobody even watches, the custom arenas nobody cares about, the spectator mode you dont even let us use outside of hotjoin.

2, Same old kitten – in entertainment I find the same old kitten to be dull, boring and lame. The same map 4 days in a row. Boring. Same game mode. Boring. Same ai dominated builds time after time. Boring. Same tiny asura models you cant see anything of. Boring. And now you are skipping a map we havent seen for ages for another 4 days of one we just had last week. Its crazy

3, And all this bs is for an esports scene which doesnt exist. How many regular teams are there? Like 4 in eu and na? There are only that many people who take this game seriously enough that it is everything to them to the point where they schedule around it as a group. So maybe 40 people and you pander to these people with the BS features and ideas they have but you forget about the other 3.9 million people who bought your game WHO JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN.

Stop trying to run before you can walk. Give us fun and variety. And stop working on kitten like custom arenas, spec mode and tournaments when the scene doesnt exist and nobody watches that bs.

Seriously. It is getting too much. Great game. Wrong priorities

HEY FOOL I TAKE THIS eSPORT POOP SERIOUSLY o wait that was 6 months ago nvm

So I’ve play thief almost exclusively since beta and am r50 in pvp and have not played more than 100 games (probably even added) of other classes and I have to say

I used to own face with the best of them(players not professions) but now I can hardly hold my own in a hotjoin of rank <20’s.

Ofcourse the simple solution here is go troll spec since I cant even kill a Mesmer clone at this point.
Infini roll or stealth spam.

But I was told I can play whatever class with whatever weapon I want when I bought this game so that’s what I plan to do.

I recommend you Nerf me now before I get the best of you, because when you think about it why nerf after you’ve died when you can save yourself a death now?

I must have really, really lost it, despite consistent play since beta to not be able to win a fight against hardly anyone with any weapon.

I can burst you, I can outplay you by the touch of a headshot to your heal, burst and or stomp and yet I just loose to your lack of pvp knowledge.

So I started playing necro recently and have fallen in love with pvp once again… (not even joking…)

Oh and I agree the current meta is by far the worst I’ve seen either. It was enough to make me PvE. Now that is significant.

Reevz.2617:

I think some sort of way to deal with stealth would be great, though obviously they would need to be careful about how they approach it as to not also shaft thieves.

An anti-stealth thing would be fine by me who has played thief exclusively to rank 50 and is my one true love. But keep in mind its more of the stealth abusing specs that need toned down(you know those thieves that backstab-heartseeker-heartseeker-stealth-backstab-heartseeker-heartseeker-stealth…)

Also you/they must keep in mind the reason thives are playing those specs is because all other specs suck nuts, the classic backstab spec, pistol whip, pistols, condi specs are all now pretty garbage, worse than warriors before their most recent buff SO that leaves being a troll and only a troll for thief to do anything other than die.

I feel skyhammer just as everyone else seems to believe, is just too much cheesy kills, any class that cant knockback or fear is essentially useless on this map, as a thief who already feels undesireable on teams this map does no favors, and before anyone says I don’t know how to play since thief does have ONE pull, fear IF stolen and numerous disables that’s just not really how I want to play, granted occasional areas like this would be very interesting, just not the whole map.

Another thing I’m not sure anyone has noticed yet since the falling to death and the cannon are so powerful is that ranged classes/weapons on this map is going to take the cake, there are spots that could make a glass cannon ranged DPS a excellent point holder, not that I’m complaining about that just want to point it out.
Also teleports very often break on the terrain.

And maybe above all, I really don’t like the loading screen lolcakes, did you fire your excellent artists that did the rest of the game? Looks more like wow’s Art. seriously. No disrespect intended, every other piece of art in the game is beautiful and this one is a different style completely.

Also the post missed the nerf to teleports. You know, the thing that made 10k hp and 0def acceptable

sorrow.2364:

In my opinion, all the nerfs were right. So are the buff (excluding FS).

1. Pistol Whip: it isn’t all about damage. Pistol Whip has also two utilities. It was able to deal the DPS of Hundred Blades (obviously considering its shorter duration) while having an evade and a stun in it. That skill pretty much had anything. They decided to nerf the damage while mantaining its utility. Now the damage of Pistol Whip isn’t amazing, just average, but the utilities make the difference. An all-in-one skill isn’t healthy in any skillbar.

2. Dancing Dagger: that skill was ridiculous prior nerf. A couple of DD thrown at someone ressing another player were able to completely wipe them both. They nerfed the damage to be consistent on what the skill was supposed to be: an utility, a snare.
It is pretty useful against the one who are running away, especially when you consider that D/D lacks any form of movement impariment skills. The fact that the damage is insignificant now doesn’t mean that the skill hasn’t it’s use.

3. Cloak and Dagger: pretty much what I’ve said about DD. It is an utility and dealt also amazing damage. It was also the skill present in the backstab combo. Considering that an UTILITY SKILL was able to deal 5k+ damage prior the nerf, the damage adjusting seems fair to me.

4. Caltrops: be serious. That skill allowed to wipe an entire group of enemies while staying in stealth. It was incredibly easy to play and incredibly effective plus, when traited, any thief would be able to mantain caltrops on the floor almost 100% uptime. Adding this with the uncatchable trait, any bleed thief would wipe you while not going out of stealth a single time. The nerf was needed and thank god it came.

5. Mug: that skill dealt 5k damage instantly. Coupled with the backstab combo, any thief would be capable to deal 11k+ damage in a fraction of a second and then finish the target spamming heartseeker. That was sick. While they did not made Mug useless (2k heal is useless?), they just decreased its offensive capability (which thief surely doesn’t lack) while giving some devensive use.

Now Flanking Strike is too much effective. It completely punish the use of ANY BOON in this game and some professions completely rely on them to be effective.
An S/D thief has more boons of a Guardian, an Ele and more might stacks than an HGH engi.

Nerfs are as needed as buffs. If ArenaNet left the game as it is, we would see only the same overperforming profession in both PvP, WvWvW and PvE, killing, in fact, any form of game variety.

So stop cry about nerfs and get used to play into a balanced environment.

You lost all credibility you might have had when you said Thief, overperforming and PvE all in one sentence.

Seems funny to me that phase retreat is such a hit to Mesmer’s, as a thief I feel I am no longer more mobile than any other prof and lost 90% of survivability. I really, really enjoy thief and this tele fix sounds great even to me in text but I cant play thief anymore. They should make stealth kill the person using it aswell

As of todays patch teleport was nerfed.
I cant speak for sword thieves but from shortbow : d/p we are as lethal and survivable as a piece of toilet paper unraveling from a roll

lowfreq.3674:

currently thieves are able to hop in and out of stealth constantly along with the ability to teleport. it feels really overpowered.

We no longer can effectively teleport as of todays patch so once they make stealth automatically kill the thief after going into it, it will be a fair fight…

I agree thief could use much fixing and enhancement but todays patch essentially broke thief almost if not completely.
Tele no longer goes through walls or onto objects… sounds like a fair nerf until you realize what it means or just try to play thief… I can no longer survive anything and no longer have superior mobility to any other class this might have been the straw that broke the camels back, I don’t feel any temptation to play pvp anymore. Maybe it sounds dramatic but it doesn’t feel that way, unless reverted a lot of rebalancing is going to have to happen over a long period of time, ill be back in 2yrs…

I have opened close to 400 tournie chests (that I would not have otherwise) to try to get the medium gloves, instead I got about 6 pairs of heavy and cloth…. still don’t have medium

I pretty much agree with you tcbear, I love Ostrich Eggs but if he’s the best engie NA then I am significantly better than I thought.

Back on point though, so 2 of my tournament teammates are ranked above me with less games played, less win% and all around lower pvp level… so I really cant understand how its ranking people…

Anvil Rock hotm chat is on fire with negative feedback.

Although the formula for the calculation of the leaderboards isn’t going to be released anytime soon I think it needs some revision.

Anvil Rock chat lit up in a very negative way at the sight of the leaderboards and although I thought it was funny at first after seeing my rank vs friends ranks there is definitely some significant flaws.
For example 10wins 0losses is better than 1000wins 1loss apparently.

I recommend trying Global Agenda double agent gamemode it is free and its on Steam.
Im not trying to advertise or anything just want people to know how much fun that dungeon gamemode is and how much more fun it would be in GuildWars2.

If you dont want or cant try it watch youtube videos!

A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away there was a game called Global Agenda, it had a game mode while in a dungeon called Double Agent where 8 people would que for the dungeon, 5 would head in as normal to complete the dungeon and obtain epic loots from the final boss. Meanwhile the 2 other ‘double agents’ would spawn at the end of the dungeon and help npc’s fight off the 5man group. Long enough for a scoreboard or timer to expire.

Now obviously this dungeon mode would be an option, maby even an 80 specific option but this game mode was far far more interesting and fun then i make it sound. And Guild Wars being a relativly strong PvP game, i feel this could be a gem to this game.
I enjoy good PvE now and again and enjoy PvP the majority of the time, something like this is a golden unicorn rainbow bridge between the two. Certain classes start to become significantly more relevant, builds begin to vary, and this great beautiful game can really begin to flourish.

Dear -ArenaNet-,

Paper is over powered, Scissors are ok.

Sincerely,
Rock

I feel like this might have been intended, and unfortunatly there is no really good debate for the capability to view other armor types other than your own. But im sure most players would agree it does make things just a touch more annoying.

But the reason for this reply is to mention back items dont seem to preview at all, which im sure is a bug.