Guild Wars 2

Smokescale Smoke Cloud + SotP + Whirling Defense + Quickening Zephyr…

Holy burst dps batman

Anomaly.7612:

I’m currently running Pack runes with valk gear, zerker+valk trinks with zerk weps and back. Would Defender be a better option?

Depends if you’re running Thrill of the Crime. If you’re running Totc then Pack runes aren’t as necessary (but still one of the strongest choices). But if you’re running Defender runes, it’s best to take Bandits Defence instead of Roll4Initiative.

Personally, I’m not a fan of Bandits Defence because of all the unblockable skills floating around but it can still work vs a lot of match-ups.

My best advice would be to experiment and find what works best for you with all this info in the thread.

Take Remove Condi on Evade, Dash and Trickster

Use Roll4Initiative, Shadowstep, Agi Signet and Withdraw

Laugh at condi builds.

As a S/D WvW Roamer main, I disagree. This is, of course, my own opinion but I personally think S/D is better than Staff in most ways except damage. But still with my S/D I’m pumping out 4-6k crits with 1-chain swings.

S/D with the right build for it can out perform Staff in many ways. Staff excels in AOE damage and instant burst damage (Weakening Charge + Steal Bug)

I’ve never once died and though: “Man, if only I was using a staff – I could’ve won that fight”.

DH and Scrappers are the same for 90% of Thief builds. They’re simply just our hard counters.

Revenants… Mhmm, nah. I’ve never had any issues with Revs, minus one really good one.

Yeah.

I use this build

You can sub out Impact Strike for Basi Venom or Dagger Storm

And you can swap Weakening Strikes for Havoc Mastery.

You gotta make good use of Shortbow to be really successful with S/D.

Just slowly dps and when they’re open or channelling something go for a burst chain with Larcenous strike + steal, weap swap and shortbow 2 spam

I like the passive, but it’s a bit… Lacking

How about:

Passive: Your critical attacks apply 2 stacks of vulnerability.

This way, the passive is strong enough to make you consider not using it instead of reveal reset in some circumstances.

And removing the reveal is strong but 60s sounds quite harsh. Maybe 45ish. This way you’d get to use it twice in a drawn out fight, but a quick burst-off you wouldn’t.

But I’d have to say, I’d prefer a nice fully defensive skill like Invulnerability for 3 seconds and making yourself a mobile dark-field for the active.

You should give bound+steal combo with Basi venom into backstab (or frontstab – doesnt matter). A lot more damage if you’re successful. Take Agi Signet or Channeled Vigor so you can use dodges inplace of HS.

But in general, if you find yourself in a situation where your combo fails then just shadow shot and spam 1. The idea is to get them to go defensive and use that time to restealth and try again. Remember to Shadow Shot → Backstab before the shot reaches the enemy.

Just never, ever stand still not knowing what to do. Always be either in their face, laying down DPS or be restealthing or preparing to combo-burst.

S/D is a weapon set which is only as good as the players ability.
D/P is kinda 50/50.
Staff is ez mode, very little skill involved. (Personal Opinion)

S/D is amazingly strong if your Thief gamesense, general gamesense/knowledge are on point along side good ping/ms and reaction speeds.

I’ve played it as my main weapon set for almost a year and I’ve gotten it pretty much on point…

Just can’t really beat Scrappers or DH’s but those classes/builds don’t take too much to play effectively.

Certainly looks interesting but I see this build falling flat on its kitten against perma-stability or high uptime stability classes and builds.

I’d have to try it myself but I dunno… I just don’t feel it.

Decent players/roamers will counter you super hard if they catch wind of your build before a fight. Fake casting by drawing/sheathing weapons, ect, ect.

Low toughness so you’ll get almost one burst by Thieves/chainsaw simulator, Mesmers from stealth if you’re not quick enough on the Shadowstep stunbreak.

I think the build kinda leans to oneside of destroying classes with low stability and telegraphed skills (Necro) and being terrible against classes with perma or almost perma stability (Scrapper/ Warriors with Dolly Signet or Balanced stance)

I don’t have the resources myself to try the build unfortunately – maybe in a few weeks I’ll give it a go.

Thief, for me, is the only class which consistently flows and weaves. The fluid play style, teleports, burst combo’s and being able to slip into stealth at the drop of a hat.

It’s just so enjoyable…

It’s a shame we die so easily to random AOE spam.

I got oneshot by a Glass Staff Roamer whilst I was streaming this afternoon,

So for a bit of a joke, I changed my stream title to #STAFFPRODAREDEVIL and ran the same build and got the same results for most classes, minus Necro/RIPer.

Here’s a little highlight with no audio due to copyright music

And here’s the build I ended up using – Be careful, you’ll be oneshot very easily.

After the random Staff damage buffs, you can just run around people in circles spamming 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,…

I got a 10k Total crit from Staff 1 Punishing Strikes

This is hilarious.

Spend 10 minutes reading the threads on some of the other Sub-forums and take popcorn with you.

We don’t even know the exact full patchnotes coming out. All we’ve seen is a base review and some of these things will probably be tweaked and changed.

Mesmers are singing the doom of their beloved Chronotank and crying they’re now defenceless against Thieves.

We’ve not even been buffed yet and people are already crying out for our nerf.

It’s like people forget Basi Venom has a f’ing cast time of ONE SECOND, can be interrupted and all you need to do is blind us or dodge roll.

It’s a counterable mechanic.

People have been using Signet of Might + Gun Flame (with Quickness) since HoT dropped and I don’t see any complaints about that.

The only OP thing is you can share it with allies – but you have to sacrifice one of the best traits a Thief can get, which is Shadow Rejuvenation.

Thief finally gets some okay/decent buffs and now we’re magically OP.

Hmm

Acro changes are good – but not good enough to sway me away from DD.

Trick still needed for 95% of all builds.
DA’s utility still outclasses Acro, even with these changes.
DD beats Acro for survivability.

The DPS increases for Sword and Dagger mainhand is awesome.
Clean-up on animations too…

The Bandits Defence “fix” will be interesting – a bit vague but I hope it means the skill is now a flip-skill and doesn’t auto kick >: |. The amount of times I’ve blocked a Shield Bash, only to be Eviscerated during the kick animation… Arghh!

I’m more happy with the nerfs being handed out to the FOTM OP BS builds. Screw you Chronotank. You block? I Basi Venom.

Logged in for the first time in months to say that; if this kind of stuff is added to the game then I might come bask.

I quit this game months ago to go play WoW and I’m much happier playing that, than playing a Thief on GW2.

This post is very well thought out, interesting and with enough work, balanced. Awesome work OP.

S/D was my favourite weapon set. 2+Steal was an amazing opener.

Obviously a bi-product of the steal nerf.

After testing it out, you can’t quick cast it in one fluid motion. You have to cast 2 wait half a second, then steal.

It’s a bit slow and somewhat janky.

In other news, sword swing seems fixed. Doesn’t seem to delay itself randomly.

This is a nerf. No two ways about it.

It’s flat out removed two useful tricks Thief utilised in different situations. Panic Stealth and effective Boon sharing.

“It’s a buff because now you can’t miss steal” – Doesn’t really work like that. If you’re outside of the range, it’ll still put it on a 4s cooldown for a failed cast. Same with a stealthing target.

Yup, almost every projectile is now going through walls since the last patch. Used to be just Rev Hammer, and now they’ve changed something.

I had a serious rage moment this afternoon. Being shot through SM’s walls by a ranger.
I’ll admit to being super salty but c’mon, it’s so dumb. I got so kittened off.

It seems if the wall has HP then It can’t be shot through, unless they have piecing skills. Otherwise, all walls are fairgame for ranged attacks. I think if you can manage to detarget with stealth then you can’t be attacked, but so long as you’re targeted and in range, you can be attacked…

I got hit by a 12k Gun Flame and a 13k Arc Divider the otherday, one after the other. Does that mean Warriors are in a worse position than Thieves because they dealt less damage than the picture in OP?
Nah. Specific situations, specific circumstances. No amount of balance speculation can be made from a screenshot of your combat log.
Face a Thief vs every other class/build in the game 100 times each and then you have some okay results to form averages on.
It’s funny, really. When you look at the other forum sections for classes, the Thief subsection has the most amount of “buff us pls, we’re UP” posts. Whilst it doesn’t really correlate to a lot, it does shine some light on the situation as a whole.
Thieves being “Fine” or balanced is purely based on your experience as a player. Lots of none-thief players claim we’re fine or we’re balanced, lots of long-time veteran Thieves (we’re talking 2-3k+ hours played in WvW/PvP exclusively) have mixed views and seems to be 50/50.
The mid ground of Thieves generally believe the class is not in a good state right now and needs balance tweaks. No one likes being a +1/Decap bot in sPvP and in WvW, there are some builds a Thief just can not beat without the enemy going full potato and messing up catastrophically somehow.
I personally think Thief needs some minor balance changes, here or there. Along with the QoL changes it’s been needing a long time. Withdraw still missing 10%, Consume Plasma still doesn’t give all boons, Scorpion Wire still bugged but Magnet pull got fixed, ect.
Right now, the game is balanced all around sPvP. That’s PvE and WvW in the same basket for these changes. Plus, it’s balanced around the top 1% of sPvP because Anet wants the game to become more competitive/more of an Esport. Just like how League of Legends is balanced around the LCS or each regions variant. It’s kinda meh that way. I would love to see specific balance changes for sPvP/WvW and PvE, as all 3 have separate Traits/Utility bars and play out vastly different in each area of the game.

All we can do is close our eyes, put our hands together and hope that the Ranked Balance Patch gives Thieves buffs and not nerfs disguised as bug fixes.

I’ve stopped using Basi Venom in WvW. So many good roaming builds run loads of stability/insta stability/reflect/insta fear traits. You’ll only get use out of it in very specific situations and rare situations.

I run the Trickster trait with Dagger Storm (with Withdraw and Roll for Initiative) or Impact Strike for 1vX Insta stomps.

I’d love to see a buff to Basi venom to make it at least unblockable. I would love Basi venom if it didn’t take away stacks on all failed applications but that would be really OP.

I don’t really tend to watch the tournaments, sPvP isn’t really my thing.

GW2 Tournaments don’t really get many viewers as the comments above have pointed out pretty decently.

However, from my first impressions of a long-drawn out viewing session I can say one thing:

The casters – whilst they do a good job, you can’t deny them that – they don’t seem very… Excited. It’s very monotone, both EU and NA. It’s almost like they’re trying to be too professional. Several times there where situations where you could go absolutely HYPETRAIN mode on specific mini-plays, but all you get is a slightly louder “whoa~”. It’s not very engaging to me, the viewer. If the casters getting hyped, then I’ll start getting hyped.

Also, their style of commentating is okay, but it’s very bland. I’d suggest adding more play-by-play ability casting. Whilst making play-by-play ability casting isn’t everyones cup of tea, but it may add a little bit more to the flow of the game and increase hype. It works very well if you can speak clearly and fluidly (which the casters can already do) to keep up with one or two players or a 1v1 fight on an isolated capture node. Obviously you can’t PBP Cast a 4v4 teamfight, but the 1v1’s certainly.

It takes skill to cast a fast paced game like GW2, and the current casters certainly have the skill, but I believe it requires a much more hype-style of casting to keep the audience hooked. The majority of the viewers are most likely hardcore sPvPers and people who’ve stumbled across it from the “Browse Channels” page. I don’t think I could get my friends to watch the stream because it’s hard to follow, it’s hard to see the skill in the teamfights, it’s hard to understand the clustkitten going on. It’s on the casters to translate that to us.

fluidmonolith.3584:

I still disagree with a cooldown increase, but if CoR does turn out to be too powerful, then I would not be opposed to an increase in the energy cost. If it cost 10 energy instead of 5, then players who just mindlessly spammed it on cooldown would have little energy to do much else.

That’s why I’m saying “Either” and “Or”. It only needs 1 nerf, whether it be to Cooldown, cost or being double hit. One of those things needs to change.

As far as not being “double hit”, I suppose you could make it tag you with some form of status effect for 0.1 of a second to stop multi hits… However this could kittenover large scale blob vs blob Rev’s timing their CoR together if it’s not coded to be player/caster specific.

I used to have loads of issues with Revenant on release. After the PA nerf, they’re a lot more fair to deal with now, however:

My biggest Issues with CoR is that it can hit you twice. There’s no way to know whether it will hit you twice either – it’s a “sweet” spot in the ability. This “feature” will oneshot me 90% of the time. ~5-7k on the first hit and ~8-10k+ on the second.

It also has a 2 second cooldown, which is insane. The bad kind of insane. I believe CoR has the lowest cooldown : highest damage ratio in the game (for a single spell). Whilst it’s not exactly spammable, it’s always available to them if they see an opening to use it.

Now to the people saying “Just strafe out of it”, then you’re obviously suffering from OP Syndrome. Whilst Rev’s/CoR aren’t really OP, saying “strafe out of it nub l2p qq” isn’t a good answer, nor is it a good defence mechanism against it. If I’m inside the 2nd portion range of the skill – you’re too slow to get out of the area. If I’m in the 3rd portion range of the skill, I can just about get out of range, IF and I mean, IF I was already walking in that direction.

To boot, I have pretty bad eye sight, so if we’re fighting on a dark surface I can’t clearly see the particle effects on the floor, which makes dodging the damage a seriously difficult task.

Revenants right now are “okay”… I used to have a big grudge against Unrelenting Assault as it just burnt away dodge rolls but spamming Shortbow 3 seems to do the trick.

CoR right now is not exactly OP, but it could use some balance tweaks. Either, give it a 4s Cooldown like True Shot, double its energy cost or remove its ability to double-hit you.

As a personal change, I would like to see a brighter-easier to see outline for it’s max distance.

My experiences with Ranger/Druid are pretty limited, however I plan to try out this build later:

The build

The idea is to get boon share rolling with Call of the Wild x2 / Strength of the Pack and then healing with We Heal As One for instant 25 might stacks (when appropriate). Really high Healing Power, so we can effectively keep above 75% health unless we get mega-bursted. You can blast finish Sublime Conversion 3 times for around an 8k~ Heal. In times of desperation, you can switch to Celestial Form and heal for silly amounts as well…

Double Daze duration as well, so Celestial #3, Lunar Impact, Dazes for 6s and the Glyph for 4s.

Big DPS combos as well with the combo:

Signet of the Wild → [You can blast finish Smokescale F2 to be sneaky about this] → Celestial Form → Lunar Impact → Glyph of the Tides → Natural Convergence + Smokescale Unrelenting Assault/Bristleback F2 Skill.

A lot of other mini-combo’s too.

I’ve not really tried it out too much other than a few rounds of sPvP with a cele amulet. It was okay – I could tank 3 people going ham on me for about 20-30s. Went toe-to-toe with a d/d cele ele bunking a point. Didn’t really have the DPS to overcome his heals and he had the same problem with me…

Cele amulet doesn’t really work too well for it. to be honest. Having a selection of gear allows me to pick and choose the stats I needed. Nothing gets wasted by being spread out. My gear set keeps high power/precision and some ferocity.

I’d imagine in WvW it will have decent damage – long might stack uptime. Almost perma Regen/Fury/Swiftness. Jokingly, you can stack 20-25 Stability for about 7 or so seconds. It’ll be very hard to kill as well. Good Mobility with Staff#3/Sword#2, perma swiftness. High damage pets.

It’s more of a survivability gear set than an overwhelming power build.

I’ll report back after playing it some more :P

Serious Thought.5394:

To be fair, D/d condi is VERY easy to outplay. A short dash out and you waste more init/evade/util/cooldowns than I. Advantage wins duels, and all of D/d condi advantage is frontloaded. If I just evade you a bit then you are far weaker than me, and I can murder you with serious impunity. It’s strong against melee and unobservant players, but a smart or ranged player will make you burn your advantages earlier.

Yeah… But you’re basing all of this on the assumption you’re better/the enemy who’s playing D/D sucks.

What happens when he’s an above average player or better than you? This build has so much potential to carry the user, as well.

Almost “infinite” dodge rolls, consistent condition application – It’s not really front loaded. The only thing which is, is Bewildering Ambushes Confusion, which isn’t a win-condition.

Properly timed Death blossom’s/dodge rolls and there’s nothing you can do – it’s all evaded whilst you receive a boatload of conditions.

“Well I’ll time my attacks to when your dodge roll ends”, yeah okay… But now you’re focusing on the offensive and not focusing on clearing conditions. You best make your attack count. I’m running R4I and Shadow Step so I have stun breaks and those condi’s are ticking.

Either way it’s all on paper and the real thing is much different. From my experiences playing D/D Condi was a complete jokey stomp.

I play Daredevil and I have a Dragon Hunter on the side for when I get bored/angry with my Thief, ect.

Speaking from a S/D Thief WvW perspective:

Base guardian is pretty easy for S/D & Shortbow. Apply Poison, use stolen skill to interrupt GS 2 or 5, abuse shortbow range, ect.

The problem is the Traps and Longbow from Dragon Hunter.

The Longbow skills are pretty telegraphed which is fine, the traps are not. You can see the animation of the trap being placed, but Fragments and Test of Faith are both instant casts which can be casted at the same time as other skills. This can sometimes cover up the animation of the trap being placed. If you get hit by Dragons Maw/Test of Faith combo, the fight is over.

I naturally run Dagger Storm because it has many more uses than Basi Venom and has a fair few more uses than Impact Strike. Dagger Storm absolutely trashes Longbow combos. If you see a DH kneel to cast True Shot, then cast Dagger Storm and Steal into their faces. Most DH run low vita, zerker gear and tend to take 6-8k damage from their own abilities. Longbow then becomes a hindrance to them, most will switch to GS or whatever other weapon they’re running.

When they’re using Greatsword, switch to shortbow and keep poison applied. They wont be able to heal through the plink damage Trick Shot does. Land Cluster Bombs to keep up okayish DPS. Infiltrators Arrow if they catch up.

But whatever you do, do NOT jump in without knowing if they’re running traps or have traps already placed. You can often bait traps with Infiltrator Strike → Flanking Strike → Evade away. If the traps placed after Infiltrators Strike, you’ll evade it with Flanking and if it’s Test of Faith, you evade through the ring.

DO NOT Shadowstep out of Test of Faith. You still take the damage for leaving the ring. Not sure if it’s a bug or intended feature – still dumb either way >_>

The only problem is when they use Judges Intervention + Trap combo’s. You have to be on your toes ready for this. It’s usually GS#2 → Judges Intervention → Test of Faith, which will burst you for 80-90% of your HP if you don’t react fast enough. The ONLY answer for this is to dodge roll away with Dash or risk teleporting through Test of Faith.

Most Dragon Hunters aren’t impossible… Just difficult.

Now what is impossible is a Fragments of Faith Perma Aegis, Virtues build 4Head. You kill yourself just by hitting them.

Here’s my Thief in his S/D armour.

Whispers Hood,
Forgemans Shoulders,
Carapace Chest Piece,
Sneak Thief gloves,
Falconers leggings,
Assassins Boots.

Your build is nice for some scenarios but I feel it would struggle quite heavily with Conditions.

Infiltrators Signet is kinda overkill as well because you already have lots of access to teleports. If you’re using it only for the stun break then there’s better choices.

Here’s the build I’ve had lots of success with whilst Roaming in WvW:

The build

This build has almost 0 problems with conditions and is impossible to pin down with cripples, chills or immobilizes.

Withdraw and R4I effectively can clear 5 conditions each, a minimum of 1, and an average of 2 if you’re timing your usage properly.

Signet of Agility gives back 2 dodgerolls, which then clears a condition. The extra dodges can then be used to clear conditions & heal you with the minor.

Shadowstep is… Shadowstep. No usage guide is really needed.

- You can swap out Impact Strike for Dagger Storm

Impact Strike is very good for 1vX fights because it allows you to remove someone from the fight with an instant stomp.

Dagger Storm is very nice against Ranged opponents and decent against melee for kiting. Remember that it reflects ALL projectiles, so things like Bladetrail from Warriors GS#4 and Mesmer’s Mirror Blade from GS#2 will be reflected. You can also flash Dagger Storm for the instant 3 stacks of Stability to help defend against Hammer Warriors, ect.

- You can swap out Weakening Strikes for Havoc Mastery

Do you wanna deal more damage or take less damage? Personal preference.

I think taking Acro & DD is overkill in many situations. Acro does a good job of keeping you moving by preventing immobilize and reducing movement impairing conditions but Dash does a much better job than Don’t Stop.

The only saving grace in Acro is Hard to Catch for the stun-break and endurance refill. But in most cases, you’ll not get this endurance refill because people open up with stuns a lot.

Pain Response is overshadowed by Mug in the DA tree. Double the heal, which is instant. Condi clear on Pain Response is nice, but so is using a well timed dodgeroll.

Overall, using Deadly Arts over Acro ensures we have enough damage (and a lot of Utility) to break through annoying regen/sustain builds with. Steal Applies Poison to dampen heals and Weakness to boot. 10% increased damage if they have a condition on them and then Executioner to add an extra 20% damage.

S/D’s burst in WvW is awesome, so you’ll be dropping enemies down below 50% fairly quickly.

Also as a quick tip, don’t forget to pick up the First Aid Kits at Sentry posts for the free Swiftness on the #5 skill. Alternatively, you can keep ahold of the First Aid Kit, and use the #5 skill when you see someone you wanna kill because it gives Fury as well.

Pack is a good rune set for Thieves. Gives you a lot of the stats you need and a good T6 effect.

For sigils, you’ll want Fire/Air in your D/P and maybe Air/Energy in your pistols.

Discovered the Test of Faith – Shadowstep bs today the hard way>_>

The animation of him placing the trap is very obvious.

A large pillar of blue light spirals around him in a " ~ " fashion.

Keep your eyes out for that if they pre-emptively place them pre-fight.

If you’re playing sPvp and a DH is bunkering a point, then you’re pretty dumb if you don’t think there’s traps already placed.

Dodgerolls are your friend.
Teleport out of Test of Faith – do not walk through the edge or you’ll take 4-6k crits
Dragons Maw → Shadowstep.

Keep him blinded at all times if possible. DH’s are pretty immobile apart from their F2 ability so they’ll struggle to keep up if they’re using GS or Hammer.

vespers.1759:

Boy don’t we all miss the days when thieves could fight a zerg single handedly?

I mean… all these nerfs are so unjustified.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7OYniHrGqE

This video is a 5man group fighting a zerg, not just a single thief…

90% of the people in the video stood still or didnt even fight back.

Don’t you just love the way pulls interact with the terrain and landscape?

Here’s the full 10 minute fight – http://www.twitch.tv/meepeyplays/v/23664931

100% absolute glass cannon.

Scholar Runes, might stacking signets, the whole works.

1 Coalescence of Ruin/Unrelenting Assault would kill him.

(I think it’s pretty funny a Rev is complaining about Thief damage :P)

It’s not dead, but just a lot more tricky to use. A lot less forgiving and doesn’t do quite as much – but I wouldn’t say “dead”.

Yo guys,

I’ve stuck Pack runes on this build, but I’m not too sure whether they’re the right choice. The extra crit chance/damage is nice and fury/might/swiftness proc’s too, but I feel my build is lacking somewhat in the rune department.

What would be your suggestions (inb4 Traveler runes)?

The build

The build is for WvW roaming / 1vX fights.

Any criticism of the build is welcome as well.

Thanks,

Whilst Stealthed, shoot a shadowshot and then backstab whilst the projectile is in the air. Use this to gap close + insta backstab instead of blowing steal/inf signet.

Yo dudes,

Kinda new to the whole Dragonhunter business.

I accidentally did an MLG play vs a Thief earlier today. Shadow Shot me from stealth but I hit him and the projectile with Deflecting Shot.

Here’s the highlight http://www.twitch.tv/meepeyplays/v/23180592

Rewatched it several times to confirm it was shadow shot, not Infiltrators Arrow.

Solaris.9210:

How did you kill the first thief so fast when he was in the downed state? It looks like you just cleaved him a couple of times and then he just instant died as if you stomped.

The new Daredevil Elite skill is a 3-part chain combo. The last part of the chain will stomp downed players – If “Finishing Blow” knocks an enemy into the downed state, it will stomp them instantly as well.

Very, very useful in 1vX fights.

How long have you been playing thief? /age

Did you or do you play vs bad/potato players?

From your post, I don’t really think you’re qualified to call thieves balanced, op or up.

People here have 1000’s of hours playing Thief and they’re begging for a buff here or there. You’d think that with this entire subforum asking for buffs or complaining that Thief is lacking, that something is wrong with Thieves.

All Matters Fecal.9560:

Coronit.9432:

meepeY.2867:

Zodryn.4216:

I like the build, but what is the point of CiS when both sets have blind access? SRej would be so much more useful.

You don’t really spend too long in stealth. It just gives steal an extra blind in case they’ve got stability going. You can use both – it doesn’t make a massive difference.

Srej is generally more useful. But you should never underestimate CiS on D/P. Like meepeY said it triggers blind when you gain stealth through hidden thief. Furthermore when you get the pulses in refuge and, what is very interesting, with black powder + heartseeker – combo.
Lets say you lay down your black powder and blind the enemy the first time. He tries to stay out of the field and attacks you —> getting rid of the first blind. Now you heartseeker through it into him to make damage AND blind him again. Amazing if used correctly.
While its strong I think it definitly should go back to master ^^

Isn’t there a 40 sec cooldown on the proc for blind on stealth??

Regardless of cooldowns, It’s saved my kitten many times. Specifically vs Rifle Warriors who are kill shotting with Stability.

Zodryn.4216:

I like the build, but what is the point of CiS when both sets have blind access? SRej would be so much more useful.

You don’t really spend too long in stealth. It just gives steal an extra blind in case they’ve got stability going. You can use both – it doesn’t make a massive difference.

Yo guys,

here’s a highlight from my previous stream.

Daredevil vs 2 Daredevils

Here’s the build I was using

I’m really enjoying Daredevil. It has its ups, downs and some decent flaws but overall it’s pretty good in 1vX fights – Not just against 2 other Daredevils.

Thanks for quoting me, albeit a little out of context.

I’m relatively happy with the PT nerf because I’ve never been able to run away from a Rev, even using Shadowstep and sb5 spamming to get distance. They will always catch up. No amount of math can change that.

The math is great – don’t get me wrong – but it doesn’t factor in any practical situations which are usually the cause of using PT to chase.

PT twice for 2400 range and then use Hammer which also has a 1200 range. You have an effective chase range of 3600 and after a couple of seconds, you’ll be able to PT again. If I’m running away it’s most likely because I’m low health. Couple of hammer swings and I’ll die. Hammer 1 crits for like 4.5k on Thieves.

And remember we Thieves only have 12,000 base HP…

Unless I’m using a Stealth build to prevent the use of PT, I’ll easily get caught. Shame I love playing S/D or Staff Daredevil.

No hammer? Well, Unrelenting Assault follows Thieves through Shadowsteps and teleports.

You also cut off the rest of my quote, where I said the 5s cooldown was too much of a nerf and it should’ve gotten an energy increase of 10-15, but you wouldn’t have included that.

Edit: oh yeah, PT also deals 1-2k damage and makes your next 2 attacks unblockable… Kinda makes Bandits Defense useless.

Jekkt.6045:

because shortbow 5 has a cooldown right… facepalm.. very disappointed with this change.

You can’t really compare the two because Phase Traversal was/is far superior.

Infiltrator’s Arrow has a 900 Range, and a “flight time”. It costs 6 Initiative, so can only be used twice IF you’re using Trickery Traits and is an “AOE targeted spell”.

Phase Traversal has a 1200 Range, 0.5s Cast time, deals around 1k-2k damage, the next 2 attacks can’t be blocked, can be used realistically twice in a row and it’s targeted spell.

Inf Arrow is superior at fleeing. PT is superior in chasing, in a way so that Inf Arrow can’t even be used to flee.

A nerf was needed in some way.

To be fair, they shouldn’t of added a Cooldown, but upped it’s cost by an extra 10 or 15 Energy

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Ok I just noticed that they added 1/2 sec evade on Vault.

Do you guys found something in-game that were not part of the Release Notes nor in the Wiki?

It wasn’t in the Release notes as it was included in the Post-BWE3 Change list for Daredevil.

> Join WvW
> Spec for Acro, Trickery, DD for max Vigor# and Hard to Catch
> Equip Dash, Signet of Agility, New Heal
> Find a blob running between towers
> Run dead on into them
> Spam dodges all the way through 40+ people and out the otherside

So much fun!

kash.9213:

GinghamLion.3614:

This was my absolute favorite part of the entire daredevil specialization. That animation is perfect and I don’t want it going anywhere.

Pick bound if you don’t like it. I can’t get enough of how awesome it is.

I won’t pick bound, but I still don’t like this Dash animation. I need the modifiers from it but that animation is anti productive if you’re in the action a lot in WvW and I can’t imagine it’s any easier to not get yourself killed in sPvP the way those maps are designed where it’s already difficult enough to keep within your kill box or on a point.

The Dash Animation is perfectly fine. (Not related to your quote, but:) The wiggle does nothing to alter any distance you travel and is simply just an animation. If you’re upset that Dash is moving you too far away then don’t use it… Or use a weapon set which is good for re-engaging after you create this small distance. Shadow Shot or Infiltrators Strike.

To continue my point further, the whole point of “Dash” is so you create distance for a “bob and weave” style of gameplay; fast and fluid o_o

Yo dudes,

Here’s a 4~Minute duel I had vs a Warrior using a modified variant of my Defender Daredevil build (Shadow Rejuv -> Cloaked in Shadows)

Here is the highlight:
http://www.twitch.tv/meepeyplays/v/22382527

I admit I’m fairly rusty with Daredevil and I misuse my Bandits Defence quite often. I’ll learn how to properly use it over time but for now I’ll make do.

Hope you guys enjoy.

Karma Train in Eotm with a birthday booster, WvX booster and a WvW booster for 200% increased level gain gave me more hero points much faster than what I was gaining in HoT.

Each level gets you 2-5 coins which you can trade in for hero points at a 1:1 ratio. If you’ve got a good commander then you’ll get around 5-6 levels an hour.

These 5-6 levels translates into 10-20 hero points on average. However just doing Hero Point farming in the Vanilla game is almost as fast if you have Waypoints. Farming Hero Points in HoT is only worth it if you’ve got some masteries to gain access to the skill points.

I was relatively prepared for HoT and had 170 hero points saved up.

It’s pretty good. More of a side-grade in some departments. Dash dodge compliments the “free & fluid” movement you want with S/D. You gotta sacrifice DA or Acro for it which kinda sucks cause they’re both important in some aspects.