Guild Wars 2

Believe what you wish…. There are plenty who would vouch for the accuracy of my claims.

Kincaidia.3192:

Adaneshade.2409:

I run a S/D + SB ranger. I’m only level 20 atm but feel very confident even roaming solo in WvW. They are a solid class.

Lolzers in my trousers.

Ranger is a bad class to start out on. It’s lacking self-synergy, and it’s an uphill battle all the way.

But if you like pain, go for it.

Speaking as an 80 ranger with 150+ skill points from wvw and an 80 thief with 50+ skill points.

I also have a thief with over 1000 current hours played on it. A s/d ranger will give any thief a run for their money if played properly. The highly evasive nature of the build causes a ton of initiative wasting for the thief. Don’t build glass cannon, stack toughness, condition damage, and vitality. Currently the only class I’ve not beaten in 1v1 vs 80s on a regular basis is mesmers.

I run a S/D + SB ranger. I’m only level 20 atm but feel very confident even roaming solo in WvW. They are a solid class.

It simply applies a blind. Blinds are used up with one attempt to hit you. The debuff lasts 2 secs but could be used up practically instantly if mobs are spamming a high speed attack.

Any game with as high a skill cap as this will have a disparity. Anyone can beat anyone else there is no class/build that will always win a 1v1 vs every other class/build. Been proving this fact over and over with my melee ranger…..

Dee Jay.2460:

Thieves really aren’t particularly attractive group mates. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do all the content.

But looking at support, just compare the effectiveness of our only real support abilities Shadow Refuge and Smoke Screen with the entire arsenal of a Guardian, the combo fields of an Elementalist or the Shouts of a Warrior.

Thieves seem to be designed in a very “selfish” fashion. Even if we want to build for support our tool-set is very limited.

Add to that that Thieves are probably your most frequently “downed” class in PvE and I get why people would skip them.

Except S/P tank builds. I out facetank guardians with it lol.

^^^This…

I’ve been running around solo today on a level 15 (well is 18 now) ranger, full melee spec and actually doing fairly well. Killed way more 80s than I would have ever expected to ^.^

frans.8092:

Kain Francois.4328:

A good profession to duo with thief in PvE is ranger,

Really? They have the uncanny ability and a sixth sense which lets them use their pushback skill the moment I want to C&D. >:(

Try running with a melee ranger….they are better in a skirmish anyway.

Why do you want map completion? For legendary? Anet obviously wants you to have to do some WvW to get it with the badge requirement and POIs/Vistas. Mastery of PvE(exploration), Crafting, and PvP(Badges).

The legendary is a symbol of mastery in all aspects of the game.

The people who post on the forums are a tiny percentage of the players. In all the time I’ve spent as a roamer in 1v1. I’ve met like 3 people who actually post on forums and dozens who have never posted. I like the current implementation. Party requests are great! It gives the option to decline if the person on the other server does not wish to chat.

Yeah, daze does not prevent casting of utility slot skills.

leashmaygoss.2140:

Fix the flawed mechanic pre cast backstab + steal. nuff said.

Apparently, this is intentional as stated by devs in a thread here on these forums…..can’t find the thread atm to link. They want you to be able to cast any instant during the casting animation of an ability with a cast time.

Plus, I disagree 100% with the unbalanced. Most people just fail at PvP. If I can kill a level 80 P/D thief on a level 14 melee ranger in 1v1 (strongest vs what ppl argue to be weakest 1v1 classes) then, yes, it is indeed a skill problem.

Static.9841:

In WvW, you can’t expect people to have the same respectful attitude as you do during duels, some people will also wander by and just see the enemy first and attack like they normally would.

I would also like to point out that there doesn’t necessarily have to be a victor to have a great duel, I found that last night against an SoR thief – we were going at it for the best part of 20-25 minutes, in the end, we both saluted/bowed and went our seperate ways. We had some interruptions, but I was glad that the guy was able to always escape them laughably easily and come straight back to what became our staging area. During this, we had a spectator who had the sense to ask me if I was dueling and so he didn’t get involved – unfortunately that can’t be said for everyone who came by.

If I see a duel, I won’t get involved whatsoever, if anyone else decides to jump in, I’ll go for them first and then pull back if the duel is still in session after said interruption. If the player on my team is downed, I still will do nothing – I find it in rather poor taste to watch a duel and then throw away that sign of respect by just ganking them after downing the player on my own team, if you’re going to just do that, then there’s very little point allowing the duel to continue if you’re just going to steal their kill right at the end – that’s not showing respect for the duel.

This, but I take it one step beyond. If i see any 1v1, duel or not, I don’t interfere. If the player on my team isn’t good enough to beat the enemy, then they simply deserve to lose and learn from mistakes. If we step in and rescue the people who can’t stand on their own, how will they ever learn to?

DaliIndica.9041:

Yeah we are really bad, which is why I said go into hotjoin (or free tournys if you wish. I would say paids but expect long q times), and look at how many thieves are in the game.

Ignore everything I said, ignore every thief complain thread (even though most threads are about them, so must all be bads), ignore reason and logic. And still, notice how every game has loads of thieves in them. The clue is in how often they are used. At least 4 EVERY SINGLE GAME.

People want to pretend that slamming 10K in an instant is ok, that thats normal.

I am going to roll a thief and I already know I will utterly destroy anyone I go against. I may even make a video. Now if I am a “noob” with no skill, who doesnt play the class, I SHOULD do crap. Yet I have a feeling I will in fact destroy all others who come near me. But thats ok, a class that requires little skill, and has some of the most overpowered attacks and defense is perfectly fine.

Hot join sPvP is full of noobs… The D/D thief build is a noob build… The D/D thief build kills noobs… This is why there are so many of these thieves. Noobs killing noobs with the most noob friendly build they can find.

There is a cove near the river between the southern supply and the southeastern spawn. no aggressive mobs and no traffic. There is one behind the windmill at southern camp. There is a plateau near the eastern keep. There is a large area behind the southwest supply camp.

In short. There are plenty of places to duel where no one would have any reason to just wander by.

Sword/Pistol in PvE leveling. Use Signet of Malice to heal. Keep the blind field down like you have been but try to pull more than one mob into it. Keep in mind sword strikes hit up to 3 targets and the signet heals on every hit.

Vodka.3958:

Just because a dueling system wasn’t implemented, it doesn’t give someone the right to go into my WvW where 100+ players from each of the three sides are and expect me to walk past what I would see as a guaranteed bag drop. Really makes me wonder why you’re wondering why you got killed in an open pvp area. If dueling is what you want, then write an e-mail to A-net about it.

If people are foolish enough to duel in an area with traffic, then they have it coming lol. There are plenty of places on the map that are hidden away and have no objectives and don’t offer any reason for players to travel through.

Vodka.3958:

Here’s a question for ya… What the hell you dueling in my WvW for?

Refer to my post above for the answer to that…

Mumu.6203:

I always wondered wtf are duelists doing in WvWvW ? If I was a big duel fan I’d go sPvP all day long.

WvWvW is the exact opposite of fair fight in an “under control” environment, you never know what is going to happen.

Or maybe they’re not that good duelist versus 1vs1 specced players, so they come to WvWvW to duel support/team specced players ?

The issue with sPvP is it’s extremely limiting to your build options. Players can build literally hundreds of more ways in the WvW zones than they can in sPvP.

Dueling is about testing builds and your skill against players you know are at the top of their classes’ skill curves. It’s a better gauge of whether a build is only useful vs noobs or if it really can work vs a competent opponent.

Iohanna.4863:

Spectre.6452:

My longest teleports was so long I had to watch the wvw loading screen.

….seriously?

What about line-of-sight? Are there any limits to Shadow Return that you can think of? Because I’ve had Shadow Return fail me a few times.

Shadow return will not place you anywhere you couldn’t naturally run to. But it’ spretty lenient in that it doens’t require a straight run path in order to work. (Good example is the NW supply camp in the borderlands: You can place a shadow return up top and jump into the camp then return back. This works because it is possible to run back to that point, albeit a much longer path.)

Stiv.1820:

Adaneshade when you use FS do you drop target or keep it?

I keep my target. If my target is moving away from me, I overtake them (sword autoattack snare makes this easy) and as soon as I’m ahead of them with my back to them I hit the ability. If they are approaching, I point my character just to the right of them and this causes my spin to go into their avatar, making the second strike land.

Black powder will only apply blind once on initial attack, unless the target is enough of a fool to stand in it. That’s one missed attack. Stripping a 12 stack of might, or regeneration, or retaliation off your target is so much more potent.

Coldviper.6794:

World vs World, not 1 Player vs 1 Player. I see red, it dies.

Once again, I welcome the chance to prove to you why you should leave duelers alone. A non-dueler doesn’t stand a chance vs someone who practices hours a day in 1v1 combat vs a variety of classes/builds.

You will quickly find yourself outmatched and in a 1v1, because no dueler will assist someone who just added in on their fight.

TL:DR- Please, by all means, add in. ^.^

Terrahero.9358:

Hmm, how about a nice cup of No.

while youre in WvW to do your duels, farm, jumping puzzles, portal to lions arch, quick bank access, crafting and world completion. Maybe try doing some WvW once in a while aswell…

Sorry, until something which discourages zerging is put into place, I will not be participating in the “objectives”. Zerging creates lazy players, and bad PvPers. I will, however, be dueling it up at every opportunity as I like some challenge to my fights.

Blind is no where near as game changing as an unblockable strike, one that has a boon strip tied to it in addition.

Weapons can be bought be any race. Armor is race specific though.

By all means, keep adding in ^.^ We duelers need to make badges somehow, you stand pretty close to zero chance of successfully killing good duelers.

I tend roll in in such a way that my avatar is inside theirs, nothing short of a dodge roll will allow them to get out.

edit: Also, try turning your back to them as if you’re running and hit it. Seems to land like money when you’re facing away from the target and they tend to no expect it at that point.

Apologies, not sure why i was confusing HiS with Shadow’s Rejuvenation.

Most of your dps is from autoattack. The other 4 abilities are there for utility. There is no “rotation” or what have you; you simply have to choose the best ability for the moment.

Keep in mind that you spin to the right, and that you can move between the first and second strikes. After a while it just becomes muscle memory. You never want to face directly at your target.

I’m well aware of that. But even with a full audience, baddies will still rush in to add.

BTW, good duel night before last bunzy ^.^ Was the bunker Sword/Dagger thief at windmill.

There is no “luck” involved in flanking strike, it can be aimed to hit 100% of the time. Most people are just too bad to do it.

That’s because Shadow Protector is a boon and the other is just health regeneration as long as you are stealthed, not a boon.

Mrbig.8019:

Adaneshade.2409:

PvP is not all about dps. Flanking strike has use in it’s current implementation as an unblockable boon strip. If it were made easier to land it would simply be too OP, much like other abilities we have already are.

For instance: you are fighting a bunker class, lets say a warrior. He pops regeneration then goes into shield block. Thanks to us having one of the ONLY direct damage unblockable weapon skills from any class. We can still strip that regeneration off.

This would be completely OP if it were a guaranteed, easy to land ability. Because it requires some aiming, it’s currently balanced.

Yeah, that’s the reason why you see so many S/D thieves in tPvP.

Yeah it was also the reason why thief community was divided in tPvP ad high levels ( for direct damage, at least) almost equally into S/D and D/D , pre OH dagger nerf.

Oh wait…

Yeah, there actually are more S/D thieves in high level tPvP than D/D. D/D is easy mode, but really is weak comparably since it has such a low skill cap. If you have the skill, S/D blows D/D out of the water.

I don’t complain about it, usually the person adding in fails at PvP anyway so it’s no contest. Duelers just back off and let their opponent wreck the person adding in. So duelers still get badges ^.^

My point is that my style of gameplay is no less valid than someone who only cares about the objectives. I quite simply don’t care whether my server wins or loses this battle of zerglings.

You think duelers stomp each other? Why would they do that? The idea is to fight over and over improving your strategy vs theirs. you learn so much more about other classes vs your class this way.

Simonoly.4352:

Nope. I’m afraid if I see a 1v1 in WvW I will always step in unless the person from my server asks me not to.

If you really want to 1v1 uninterrupted do some sPVP or find a secluded area in WvW and invite some randoms passing by for a duel.

This is true to a point, there are places in the WvW maps that are really in the boonies with no objectives anywhere around. Yet ppl will roam around to those places and look for duelers with their 5-man. This is why it’s safer to organize a larger “fight night” so there are enough people standing there from each of the sides to wipe anyone who interrupts the duelers.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Yeah, it pisses me off when a third wheel pops up from somewhere as it often makes the fight trivial. When this happens, I just move away from the fight.

This typically, the person that adds will just get roflstomped by a practiced duelist anyway. I just let them die and rest the duel.

Bunzy.8674:

To be honest no one knows what is a duel and what isn’t.. don’t blame people for jumping in.

It’s pretty obvious when there are 10 people standing around from each server watching 2 fight in the middle that this is a duel.

Tenshi.3598:

If you people don’t want to be disturbed, think for a second. Maybe you should go somewhere where you will not be disturbed. Maybe your friendly PvP is better suited, not in WvW, but in PvP.

Many of us use duels to test new builds. your stat selection choices are very limited in sPvP. None of the builds I run can be made in sPvP, not even close.

PvP is not all about dps. Flanking strike has use in it’s current implementation as an unblockable boon strip. If it were made easier to land it would simply be too OP, much like other abilities we have already are.

For instance: you are fighting a bunker class, lets say a warrior. He pops regeneration then goes into shield block. Thanks to us having one of the ONLY direct damage unblockable weapon skills from any class. We can still strip that regeneration off.

This would be completely OP if it were a guaranteed, easy to land ability. Because it requires some aiming, it’s currently balanced.

How is any unblockable skill a bad thing? The point is to give you an option when a guardian or warrior turtles up. Strip their boons and still do decent dmg to them, making blocks useless.

swinsk.6410:

I used this ability once in wvw and it missed on both hits. I lol’d.

This is because Flanking Strike is one of the few abilities we have that actually takes skill to use. You have to aim it.

Sword/dagger and go at em hard….. remember they have no burst.

There are traits and signets when all used together can give you practically infinite initiative.

i.e. – Working as intended, not a bug.

The ultimate counter to these builds is to slot a stun breaker and run over 3k armor rating and 16k+ hp. Will prevent them from being capable of bursting you down so long as you are aware of surroundings.

Eggshen.2671:

I posted this on the “Thief Feedback” forum. At the risk of redundancy…

What’s up with Thieve’s weapon choices, or rather, lack thereof…

For me, the Thief’s biggest issue is weapon viability. Overall, it is 90% dagger/dagger. I would like to see the sword reworked to be a bit more effective, and have a benefit when used from stealth.

Also, using a sword in the offhand would be nifty too.

PS: Anyone use sword in a viable and fun build?

DO NOT touch sword. It is the weapon choice of pro thieves and separates the men from the boys. I would absolutely hate it if all the scrubs currently using D/D suddenly found sword builds playable.

WvW is really hard on your CPU, most people have more issue from CPU than GPU.