Guild Wars 2

In reality, college/university is basically just a test of your time management skills and personality. If you can set aside time to study with 100% focus 2-4 hours a day, go to class, and not go looking around for “fun” at night every other day, you can easily do well, cook good food, workout, and still play tons of games.

I wouldn’t say a part-time job of 20 hours or so a week is possible if you want everything, but I’ve seen it done for those who are really hardcore.

Okay thanks! Also thank you for the quick response, it has greatly helped me plan stuff out.

Oh kitten seems like I fell from #14 to #21. #ouchmyfeelings #maybenexttime

Would those who make it to the quals finish earlier like tol2?

So basically I’m trying to get some stuff sorted out this weekend and it would be of so much help if Blu/Grouch/DPS could give a good and realistic estimate (within half an hour) on when ToG will end on Sunday. If one of them could respond ASAP that would be great.

Thanks!

Have you tried infiltrators signet or shadowstep? and with Larcenous or Heartseeker?

it’s still not working. The problem is that if you are outside 900 range and use a skill immediately before steal in order to get to the target, it sends you back. Although it doesn’t affect hotjoin/pve very much, it does have a noticeable effect on tpvp.

So yes, if you use a movement skill and then steal, the steal will land. However, if you are above steal’s range and attempt to use a movement skill+infiltrator/shadowstep+steal, it will still bug out and steal will miss. This did not occur prior to the patch.

Thief

twitch.tv/aeroxe

Awaiting a new comp/adjusting setting before I start streaming again.

First Qualifier: Hashtag Believe and Sharks with Lazers

3rd and 4th match with June and Team Teamwork, with Team Teamwork coming 3rd.

Round of 8: Hastag Believe, Sharks with Lazers, Europe and Asia, June, Team Mini Llama, Team Starfleet Dental, Team Teamwork, Dhuums Crusaders

Round of 16: Hashtag Believe, Unnur, Ping Pong, June, Europe and Asia, Nonverbal, Llama, Doomblade, Sharks, A Little Nauti, Team Starfleet Dental, Shinjiku Volts, Team Teamwork, We Built They Came, Dhuums Crusaders, Paws for Dramatic Effect

Second Qualifier: Cognitive Gaming and Absolute Business

3rd and 4th match with Radioactive and Evil Villians Love, with Radioactive coming 3rd

Round of 8: Radioactive, Cognitive, 69 FPS, Arkangles, Evil Villians, Illicit Activity, Absolute Business, Seraphs

Round of 16: Evil Villians Love, na parla la langue, Starfleet, IA, Absolute Business, Diablos, Seraphs, Pantheon, Cognitive, 69 FPS, Before the Storm, Arkangles, Ember Solace, Jyuken Club, Radioactive

Qualifier #3 looks really…packed.

Thrackit.2158:

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

I’d just like to add that Olrun is now also best Elementalist NA.

Can confirm ^

Okay I think I’ve gotten more than enough invites to teams. Also, for an update to teams that I’ve tried out at/still have yet to try out, I’ll let you know my decision in 2-3 days (If you’ve contacted me in someway at all, I plan to try out/talk it over).

Just a reminder that you should probably be trying out other people and not relying on me to join, as I can’t count on being on the team if I tried out (until I give the final call that is). Thanks guys, and see you in ToG!

still looking…pm me ingame

Heya, I just wanted to present an excellent and once-in-a-life-time opportunity for all you esphats pvpers this weekend! On Friday night, I will be in downtown Toronto (that’s right…downtown Toronto…no it’s not the capital of Canada…I don’t know where Seattle is actually) to visit some friends (in igloos and maybe by the Ranch). If you live nearby you should come on by to celebrate the victories of ToL2 and have a beer o-…err I mean have some lemonade, on me ofc (for you scrupulous 19 yearolds. Thats right, moral integrity in the true north slides down the hockey rink when you are 20!). I promise we will have a good time….I will pay for all bills and accidental attacks on beavers/polar bears, and rest assured no stabbing will occur.

If you dont live in Toronto, thats okay…I can call in my billion dollar private Esports chopper(personally signed by Josh Davis and co., and also piloted by Blu, Sireph, and Ender) to celebrate todays monumentous victory for all teams. Again, thank you to all teams…this ToL was a blast to watch and play in. I look forward to future tournies such as this.

Hi, (I posted in subforum but it wasn’t moved here, so I decided to repost. Sorry for the repost.)

Currently looking for a long-term team/team for ToG in NA. I play a d/p thief, but can also play s/d if that is required. You can check out my stream below if you would like to see my play for consideration.
Here’s what I bring:
1) I have been playing since beta and have won multiple mistpedia weeklies with pug teams and got 5th-8th in the previous ToL.
2) If there’s anything that really stands out, it would be that I have a “good attitude” as some would say. I never rage, and I always try to see mistakes in my own actions before considering others. I treat others as equals, and never see myself as superior. Many people can attest to this.
3) I am from Canada, Eastern Time Zone
4) I will be playing this game for probably the next year or so, as in my circumstances this is the only videogame I can play at college.
5) Lately, I have been mostly playing for fun, but will attempt to go “esports” if I play with a team I can relate to. I’ll really start practicing and learning the game.

For more info, check out my stream again. You’ll find a lot more personal bio, and stuff like that.

Oh dam this is the wrong forum. Could I get this switched to looking for team subforum, under "Thief LF Team NA?

send me in game message if interested, or you can probably find me in fight club teamspeak at nights.

Hi,

Currently looking for a long-term team/team for ToG in NA. I play a d/p thief, but can also play s/d if that is required. You can check out my stream below if you would like to see my play for consideration.

Here’s what I bring:

1) I have been playing since beta and have won multiple mistpedia weeklies with pug teams and got 5th-8th in the previous ToL.
2) If there’s anything that really stands out, it would be that I have a “good attitude” as some would say. I never rage, and I always try to see mistakes in my own actions before considering others. I treat others as equals, and never see myself as superior. Many people can attest to this.
3) I am from Canada, Eastern Time Zone
4) I will be playing this game for probably the next year or so, as in my circumstances this is the only videogame I can play at college.
5) Lately, I have been mostly playing for fun, but will attempt to go “esports” if I play with a team I can relate to. I’ll really start practicing and learning the game.

For more info, check out my stream again. You’ll find a lot more personal bio, and stuff like that.

I’ve always thought that one factor that could really boost gw2 accessibility in not just pvp but also other areas would be a complete rework of tutorials on your first startup of the game. I’ve seen many new players and have had too many real life friends try this game out, but dismiss it almost immediately because there was just too many unexplained concepts and controls.

Speaking from experience, to become familiar with the many intricacies of this game such as dodging, free camera, combo fields, condis, boons, sheathing weapons, and cancelling skill channels took me at least half a year after the beta (even now I’m still learning, and honestly can’t tell you what every single leap finisher does in every single combo field). Granted, this may be because I did not play the game very often at the time or due to my unfamiliarity with PC console MMOs, but there was just too much with such little explanation. It could’ve (and should’ve) only taken a good tutorial worth one hour or so to have saved myself from this confusion at that time. Maybe even the personal story could be reworked so that it incorporated some tutorial.

I’ve always thought that the tutorials from guild wars 1 were a pretty good example of teaching new players how the game worked. I think gw2 should adopt a tutorial based around gw1, and other common console role-playing/adventure games. It shouldn’t be just a bumrush into a mega-huge-boss and then an immediate expansive world after that.

If I were to structure the tutorial, it would be forced upon initial purchase of the game and creation of the first character (to decline it would be a warning), and future tutorials would be optional. NPCs would each explain a separate concept, then demonstrate it, and followed by the player attempting it. A possible layout might be:

1)Movement, camera, and basic interface
As soon as you create that character, explanations with arrows pointing to different parts of the screen show up. Basic explanations of where the minimap is, movement (with wasd or mouse), etc. would appear. The game would then prompt the player to move to the next NPC in front of them, and showing how to interact with the NPC.
2)Skills, Targetting
This next NPC would explain the skill bar, and explain/demonstrate/prompt the player to use a skill against a training golem.
3)HP bar, downstate, fully dead, resurrection, waypoints
The next NPC would show what happens when each of these states happen, and how to ressurect.
4)Dodging
The next NPC would explain/demonstrate/prompt the player to dodge an attack by the NPC
4)Equipment
5)More Interface (equipment, how to change controls…etc)
5)Combos+Combo fields
6)Class specific mechanics
7)“Advanced” Stuff
From here, it is up to the player to be done with the tutorial or continue to this section. In this section, players could learn about WvW, PvP, and such, or things such as sheathing a weapon or turning around quickly.

Nice.

/15char

daltondeguzman.9182:

just rename it to the basic of d/p bro, really lol

Not sure how to change the thread name. I can see why this might be really misleading and might annoy some people looking for a complete guide. If any dev reads this post, changing the thread name to “Aeroxe’s basics of D/p” would be sufficient.

Zirith.6429:

Guide has too many filler words, not enough pictures and no videos. also title should be the basics of d/p because this barely scratches the surface :/

Needs: Matchups, more tips, teleport spots, more tricks, rune/sigil variety

Also : “I would like to thank again the overwhelming amount of support I have received from players these past two years, and especially these thieves whose skills are really unparalleled and have inspired this guide. Without their efforts and ingenuity, most of this guide would not have been written.” is really corny since the guide isnt even 2000 words (and the majority of those words are headers and filler!)

moar

I guess I can try editing some stuff out. I can see why fillers might bother some people, and looking it over it is a bit fluffed out. I was just writing whatever came to my head with little filter.
I will also add some sigil stuff and more tips.

If there is something you guys wish for me to write about, reply down below. Still in the process of considering whether videos of duels against certain matchups are necessary.

Updated. Will be updated more hopefully with videos of certain guest stars. Maybe.

Narcarsis.5739:

I wouldn’t call this comprehensive but nevertheless it has decent information and is useful for newer players.

It was my initial intention to make a complete guide, but I don’t think I have the knowledge, skill and moreso patience to create one.

hihey.1075:

Pretty basic stuff here.
I’d write more about the shortbow though. What really defines a thief’s combat skill is the use of SB IMHO. Not many use it, and not many use it correctly.

I will add more about sb, but keep in mind that this is to help thieves who have a basic knowledge of the class and nothing more.

December.3946:

Try clearing out your in game mailbox, Aeroxe.

I still have not received anything.

I will consider a video guide, but as of now, I’m on a small hiatus from gw2. I’ll probably be back in a week or so though once mistpedia and ToL or something starts.

Even then, watch dogs comes on the 27th :P. We will have to see.

For those who wish to rock and roll (d/p), we salute you. Reserved.

Amulet: Beserker’s.

Rune Varieties:

1) Scholar’s-Personally, this is my favourite alternative and is the one I use. However, keep in mind that most thieves use other runes, and for good reason too. Though I find that scholar’s is extremely good in team fights, beause often the 10% damage can come through and spike someone quickly down when entering a fight (which is what you do as a roamer).
2) Ogre’s-Great for 1v1s, which somewhat covers a lack of 1v1 potency that thief has. Great runes overall…would probably recommend this over others.
3) Strength-A cool alternative that came up with the most recent patch. Great if you are playing an alternative thief build that has might stacking, or you are using strength sigils.

Sigil Varieties:
Again, with the recent patch there is a lot of variety, but these are the sigils I use personally. Feel free to critique and such if there are any problems. I will also try going over stuff that are used by other thieves.

Sigil Varietes of Dagger/Pistol:
1) Sigil of Air: Greatly adds to dps.
2) Sigil of Force:…Again greatly adds to dps
Alts:
1) Sigil of Fire in place of Sigil of Force: The reason why I use force over air is that force is a guaranteed increase on your spike damage, whereas fire is sort of RNG.
2) Sigil of Intelligence over Sigil of Force: A great alternative that has recently shown play. I would use this sigil a lot, however…. the sigil does not proc when starting out of combat and entering fights/needing to spike someone down. Again however, this is still an amazing alternative that I would highly recommend.

Sigil Varietes of Shortbow:
1) Sigil of Fire
2) Sigil of Strength: Helps increase d/p spike damage in team fights.
Alts:
1) Sigil Air for Sigil of Strength: Great with shortbow clusterbombs. Recommended, but I find it a bit too much RNG, and just prefer the general playstyle of sigil of strenght more. However, again that’s up to you.
2) Sigil of Generosity for Sigil of Strength: This is a very interesting and often used alternative, that covers up some of thief’s vulnerability to conditions. Great for 1v1s against condi classes.

“So I read this guide, and now what do I do?”

Unfortunately, there is no “magic guide” that can help you improve your play instantaneously. Like all things in life, sucking at something is the first step to be…sorta good at something. Practice makes perfect.

Again, like all things in life, to key to improving your play is in progressions. If you focus on getting good at everything at once, then you will be too overwhelmed. Focus on one thing, get that skill down pat in a few solo ques, and then work on the next thing. For instance, if I was practicing the d/p bread and butter combo, I would work on getting that down first, and then work on a specific teleport spot on Khylo.

Often overlooked are duels. The most important duel that every thief should practice is thief vs thief. This is an incredibly important duel to practice, especially due to the fact that one of your main jobs in high level tpvp is to take out the other thief. Additionally, dueling against another thief will reveal some of their skills and secrets that you might want to hone later on.

Watching streams are also essential. I would take a look at a variety of thieves that stream, and watch their vods for an hour or so. Pick up on a few things, but remember to practice one skill at a time.

Conclusion

I would like to thank again the overwhelming amount of support I have received from players these past two years, and especially these thieves whose skills are really unparalleled and have inspired this guide:

Cruuk
Caed
Magic Toker
Ben Zy
Steb
Reikou
Falchii

(if you don’t want your name mentioned, again…message me)

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. This guide will continue to be updated probably when I feel like it, but I thought a conclusion would help sum things up a bit.

Video of certain class matchups will probably be put in soon too. Maybe.

Random Tips/Advice

1)Landing steal is incredibly important. A good technqiue is to wait for a dodge right after you land basilisk (rarely basilisk and steal should be used together, unless for a sure spike), and then press steal. This way, your steal is almost gauranteed to hit.

2)You really shouldn’t be going for that many stomps in tpvp. Your team should be performing stomps.

3)In high level tpvp, your biggest enemy is the other team’s thief or glass cannon. It is your job to kill this thief, and should be your priority throughout the entire game.

4)Going for a back cap or not really relies on experience. In general, you should only go if you are certain that it is empty, or that the team fight is won/lost (not when it’s even).

5)Shadowshot+backstab gives you a blinding backstab

6)Shadowstep stomp: Stomp, and then during the stomp cast shadowstep away, and, then shadow step back. Notice how all your other TS are still available at this time (daze a resser with steal perhaps?)

7)For steal to land, you must be in the line of sight.

8) It is possible to get 4 heartseekers in a blackpowder blind field. Invert your camera so that you have a bird’s eye view, and then proceed to heartseeker.

Using Shortbow

Probably one of the harder aspects to grasp of playing d/p thief is realizing that…well…you really for the most part shouldn’t be stuck on d/p most of the time. In fact, you should really be on shortbow about 70% of the time, but this really depends on what you are fighting. In 1v1s, you should be using d/p more, but still not to the level of using sb. For spiking however, daggers are unparalleled.

1) One of the things you have to practice is landing cluster bombs. Play engineer nades for a bit. Another good tactic to landing cluster bombs is that right after you are sure a surprise shot (immobolize shot from stealth) is about to hit or you have used a basi+some skill, immediately use a cluster bomb.

2)When should you detonate cluster bomb? Well, detonating is very good for getting a sigil prot to occur. Know when your sigil ICD has run out, so that you can proc it. Detonating should also be done if you know that all the small explosions will hit (your cluster bomb was right on top of target…may be due to good aim or for cleave)

3)Shortbow #3 is an instant evade. This means that right after a dodge, you can shortbow #3, giving you a longer, continuous evade (people can’t hit you in between dodge and #3). Keep in mind, however, that there is a vulnerable period right after #3.

4)Although very minimal, shortbow#4 and then blastfinisher clusterbomb is very good for spreading weakness and can alleviate some of the pressure on teammates. Use in teamfights mostly.

5) Strafing. While using sb, an important technique is strafing (moving left to right quickly and repeatedly). This will alleviate some damage, especially from trick shots and warrior longbow. Can be done by using the strafe keys or holding the camera (right click) while pressing move left and right repeatedly.

Bundles (skills) gained from steal

The first thing you should get in your head is that bundles are actually really really good (with the exception of a few such as maybe the ele chill one). Don’t waste em in order to get steal up unless you must.

Thief-Get stealth. Does what it needs to do. Good.
Ranger-Water field. Really good. Blast finisher it hard.
Engi-Throw gunk. Sort of mediocre, but can be used to land basilisk venom.
Warrior-Spin is really good (cleave especially) and reflect projectiles. Can also evade during the spin.
Mesmer-All boons is really good.
Necromancer-Fear. Decent….can use TS to help land this.
Guard-really really long daze. Sorta hard to hit…using te skill right after you steal may help.
Ele-Chill is great if you land it, but with so much condi cleanse in the current meta it is most of the time just a passing condition.

Class matchups:….to be covered soon

in progress…

Introduction

My name is Aeroxe, and I have been playing d/p thief since beta. I used to main elementalist, but that was only for a few months. I would definitely say I’m not as good as the more well known thieves, but I have played on various teams, including team elusive (fifth place in ToL). Nevertheless, my goal here today is to provide a comprehensive guide that is easy to understand and pickup.

Why…?

Mostly to kill time, but…
I understand that there is a lack of d/p thieves, and that is mostly because NA players tend to play what is meta (s/d). Yes, I agree s/d might be better in this meta, but d/p is just so much fun. More people should give it a shot before jumping the gun and saying that it’s obsolete based on tournaments.

What you need….

-Know what each skill does. I assume you know the skill of thief on the level of a hotjoin or pve hero. For instance, if I say blackpowder (bp), you should know what wep set that is on and what it does.

-Know the basic mechanics. You should know that a backstab can only be performed when you are in stealth.

-A general knowledge of tpvp. You should know that you need 500 points to win, and should know what home, mid, and far are.

-You should know the standard trickery d/p build. You can find it on various streams (ostrich eggs)…google it if you have to.

Mindset/Rotations

A d/p thief plays the role of a roamer. You assist small fights that have already started, and are in charge of keeping far node in check (backcaps). Your team fight capability is very limited, but it can be worse.

With d/p, it is hardly favourable to initiate 1v1s, especially if the person you wish to fight is on a captured node in the other team’s favour. You should be looking at the mini map constantly, noting which fights are being lost and being won, assisting with those that appear to be even (thereby making them in your favour).
Once you become more familiar with d/p, you can initiate 1v1s (don’t fight engis, necros with full life force, when you have no cds, players you know you will die to…use your best judgement). Still, remember that often you must outplay your opponent hard and not make a mistake (learn to dodge basically).

Combos

The best way to think of d/p combos is to understand that instant cast skills such as steal, shadowstep, and infiltrators can be used during the cast time of a skill, resulting in you shadowstepping to your opponent and have the skill cast at that location. If your opponent is far away, you may need two of these instant skills to get near them.

Let’s call these skills TS (teleport skills), and if they are ever referred to, it means you use the skill during the cast time of the previous skill mentioned. You may use 2 TS, or even 3 TS, if that is what you need to get to your opponent.

When you think of the number of weapon/heal skills that have a cast time that a TS can be used, the # of combos are truly endless. Often, what separates a good thief and a so-so thief is their ability to understand this and mix up their TS with these various weapon skills, utilizing a dizzying array of combos. In any case, I will list a few of the common combos. Pre-casted basilisk venom is optional, but a good idea for spikes and an opener.

1) Blackpowder->Heartseeker->TS->backstab
Bread and butter. Good spike. Use in team fights, and sometimes in the midst of a 1v1.

2) Blackpowder->TS
Great for putting a blind field on your opponent. Great for initiating a 1v1. Good with infiltrator’s signet and basilisk.

3)Heartseeker->TS
Somewhat okay spike. Use in teamfights, and sometimes in the midst of a 1v1. Use when initative is low or when you need that spike now.

4) Clusterbomb->TS
Somewhat okay spike. Use when in shortbow and need that spike now if weapon swap is on cd, or when you are low in health and need to use disabling shot quickly afterwards.

5) (in stealth)…Backstab->TS
Great combo for landing steal. Good (though not the best) for initiating/in the middle of team fights, 1v1s…almost everything.

Teleporting

The best way to get the hang of teleporting with shadowstep or infilitrator shot (sb #5) is watching streamers, and then practicing in an empty server a specified telespot for about 10 minutes. Afterwards, go to a solo que, and instead of trying to win a game, focus on trying to use that telespot strategically.

I have not received any rewards yet for ToL (team elusive). Furthermore, my team has also not received gems from mistpedia which took place about 2 months ago, and according to blu, the request was sent a long time ago so this is not due to the tournament organizers.

this is so cute

Blood Lord.5687:

responding to aeoroxe….

Ok here we go… You clearly made a list, good for you.To which is how should I put it, word of the week. Kitten. You forgot I was replying to ender, since after all he was the one who created this post. So therefore I was speaking to him directly, So if he was singled out, oh well.
When I main Mesmer, of course I would be paying attention to the player who so happens to be playing Mesmer, its like the quarterback of a football team watching a game on tv, he’s not gonna be watching the line backers movements. He’s going to be watching The quarterback and see what he was doing.
And then you expect someone to remember who you are? as if you matter dude, you are the thief from the losing team. No one is going to remember you. Funny how tourneys are huh? You can stay mad though, doesn’t bother me much.
I mean you can lead hoarse to water, doesn’t mean the beast will drink it. Helping someone and enlightening someone is two different things. Which by the way how your teammates respond to my posts, seems like they would rather starve themselves from good advice. So be it.
Furthermore Regardless of the last few pages of people attempting to clear the air on whether or not this is a QQ post. IT still is, Loser of a losing team right after a tourney complains about a team comp he couldn’t beat. So classic. sigh… then you are over there trying to defend ender and your team mates. Which is understandable and more to power to you. I’m fully aware its a team game and you guys chose a glass Mesmer as you thought it might be able to defeat apex. But like I’ve said, it didn’t. To which I gave various other ways of Mesmer. Shatter isn’t the only thing a Mesmer is good for. And the Mesmer isn’t the problem with the comp, which THEN You expected me to deconstruct you team comp, to which you did it for yourself. 2 engis… Idgaf about your engis dude. I’m the Mesmer. kitten
Lastly Warriors are frontline, They certainly aren’t backline. The fact that you are trying to disagree with me shows your incompetence as a MMMORPG player. and just shows how little you really understand this game. Every game has frontline, if you decide to not believe in that crucial and ever so real part of the game then your screwing yourself over. Which you did. luls.
Mesmer’s are scholar classes, hence known as a mage, mages have the option todo many a things, mainly being a source of extrememe dmg output, crowd control and or incredible support abilities. The fact that you continue to try and argue with me, again shows your ignorance.
Dude you have embarrassed yourself, so I wont say you reflect your guild. Because your the one responding with such nonsense. Your response shows no real logical or thought pattern to the game at hand. You are a soloq hero who thinks they know tpvp. From til this point, didn’t even know this game had a thing called frontline. You think one comp is going to win the game, you should learn to adapt to the game at hand. The meta is always changing, the fact you hump that $%*! like white on rice baffles me more.. Dude just stop while your ahead. Your getting absolutely no where with your irrational responses. L2P that’s is all from me! stay “kitten”

It’s pretty clear that you are immune to everything except your own voice, and will only stand by your own interpretations. You severely lack empathy by sticking only to how you see the world, and even more sadly, you lack just overall maturity. You need to calm down and grow up.

I agree however that you do have a point concerning singling out Ender because you main mesmer and I know some people turn off Blu’s casting. I did not consider this and thus apologize.

I’m taking my leave.

d) You are just trying to defend Apex. You lack any true knowledge of tPvP, and I can tell by looking at these particular things you said. I’m sure even your own guildies would be baffled and disagree:
1)2 Warriors are essential to be a “frontline” in every game mode
2)Mesmers are “mages” like eles, and thus have great support
3)Warriors are no longer tanky because of the massive healing signet nerf

e) You are extremely patriotic to Apex. You claim Apex was the first team to use staff ele and take great pride in that. You also claim that we were just “outplayed and focused” and that Apex was very smart. I’m not denying these things, but you really emphasize these points, showing that you desire to defend your guild merely because you represent it.

f) You mention Ender at least 10 times in your post, and never mention the team except for our comp one time at the end. Other than that, the whole post itself is directed against Ender and puts blame on him.

g)You claim to me that you you are extremely fluent with mesmer because you know the basic utilities (lol), and that I lack any basic knowledge of the class. I don’t understand where you came up with that, other than your own personal bias. Therefore, a possible reason why you are hating on ender is to again, boost your own ego.

That sums up some of the stuff. I can add more if you like, but you would be an idiot to not see that this is enough. For future Apex members coming into this forum, just keep in mind that this not a post directed against Apex.

Blood Lord.5687:

Aeroxe.8140:

There’s just so much ignorance, malice, and general stupidity in this post that I don’t even know where to start. This is a team game, and Ender was playing well in the tournament of legends. You cannot single him out and place Elusive’s loss on his behalf. Honestly, it seems like you are trolling, because I refuse to believe that really anyone can be this…well….I’ll just pretend I didn’t read this.

1st off who are You? troll? oh. Just OH. Secondly, I had to grab a tissue or two because I simply could not contain the tears rolling down my face from reading your post. Absolutely hysterical.
Your failed attempt to not only criticize my post which was meant to enlighten Ender on other aspects of Mesmer gameplay as I was merely responding to his QQ post about the false accusation of bunker classes in the ToL, not to single him out and make it seem like he was the sole reason why Team Elusive lost. Because he isn’t the reason they lost, it was their comp and frankly being outplayed. But you, whoever you are, took it so far as to try and belittle me. But let me assure you, you are the ignorant individual here. You lack basic knowledge on the Mesmer class in its entirety. Furthermore giving out detailed utility information and trait options just shows how fluent(for the lack of a better word) I am in the class. So ignorance and stupidity is more so on your end.. You speak of malice which derives from attempting to do harm to another. Which again, I can assure you was not the intention. & to be fair, I’ll just pretend I never took the time to actually explain and respond to you. #donions

Well, here we go….

I’ll be extremely clear. I understand that this person is not representative of Apex and thus I will still hold Apex in a high regard. Anyways, here’s what I think of your thread Blood Lord:

1) You are singling Ender out and trying to belittle him. As much as you deny so, I still 100% believe that you are targeting Ender.
2) You are trying to defend Apex because you represent Apex. (lol…)

Now here is why I think these are so:

a) You believe that this thread is personally against apex because it gives off the impression it is a qq post. This is actually understandable, considering this post was made after a loss in the tourney and thus seems like a qq post. But if you actually took the time to read the last few pages in this thread, Apex and Elusive have settled that this is not a qq post. Either you are ignorant of the past few pages, or just stupid. This reason is by far the most probable

b) To a lesser extent, you didn’t even know who I was. Because you didn’t even know that I was the thief who played for team Elusive (I was mentioned many times by Blu and Sireph during the shoutcast), you have shown that you were solely focused on Ender during the matches. That may be due to the twitch chat (which is as we all know is 100% correct in all regards), or your own personal desire to boost your own ego as a mesmer.

c) You mention Ender not bringing out other utilities to help him sustain himself and any team support because he wanted to have “fun”. Understand that builds are not selected individually, but as a team altogether. We decided to have Ender go full burst because we believed that to beat Apex, we needed to go full burst. However, the true mistake was still having our 2 engis run condi. The fact that you ignored this whole team aspect and based it all on Ender really goes to show that you have something against the guy.

Also, you cannot base Ender’s choice on build because he wanted to have “fun”. You have no premise or logical reasoning towards that other than your own personal opinion. Therefore, you are trying to trash on Ender.

Blood Lord.5687:

Let me be the 1st to say and certainly not the last, IF I may say so myself, Ender you are the epitome of an excellent Shatter Mesmer worth being called a Champion Illusionist. You excel above and beyond many others, BUT after your performance in that tourney , it was sub par to say the least. You want to call yourself an illusionist, you have so many utility skills and traits at your disposal. For starters; null field, staff instead of GS, mantra of resolve, mantra of concentration, mirror of anguish trait, healing phantasms, healing mantras, time warp, feedback. But instead You chose the glassiest spec possible. Playing shatter is fun and it deals great bursts.
I know off hand not being able to just burst someone can be frustrating but that doesn’t mean your enemy is cheesing because they chose more survivability than you did. They played it smart as you didn’t. You took blink decoy and portal and moa(which when you did use your elite[which seemed out of panic], your team failed to capitalize on that skill) which is, lets face it, extremely standard. The spec you ran allows you be hard to catch while still maintaining consistent damage, but when that damage is mitigated how did that work for you?
Being a champion (anything) means soo much more than just being able to play high skill cap (blank), you could’ve easily Retraited/Respec’d between matches or even before the match itself to allow yourself more survivability. Granit the match might not be as “Fun” because you didn’t 80-0 someone…. But rewards/stakes were high and some people chose a much safer approach. AND nothing is wrong with that.
Being a tpvp player yourself, you should’ve picked up on what others were doing, playing it safe. You lacked personal condition clear for 1 and you basically brought nothing to team fights, other than boonstrips because people were a bit tankier than you had anticipated.

Furthermore…

For a long time Ele in general was and has been swept under the rug, no tpvp teams even touched Ele besides ApeX. This game lacks a dedicated support class, so Anet broke support amongst all the classes which are favored between Guardian and Staff Ele. Staff ele isn’t cheese, it has an extremely high skill cap to master and this tourney just proves the “viableness” of a good ele in all its forms. Mesmer is a mage too and has great support utility as well. You chose not to use those utilities which is a click away.

If you think playing 1 way of a class will guarantee you a win, you are dead wrong & if you think because that spec didn’t work it’s automatically other peoples fault, your wrong again.

2 warriors is front line, which is an important aspect of the game, for PvE, WvW and PvP. The healing signit was previously nerfed, so they aren’t bunker. celestial amulet, Zerker amulet and soldier. You got focused and outplayed, you didn’t have the sustain to keep on fighting. You Chose a glass spec. Lastly Instead of saying another comp is cheese cause they beat you to the punch line through well played fights. Instead of trying to deconstruct the winners comp, maybe you should look at your own teams comp and therein lies the problem(s).

There’s just so much ignorance, malice, and general stupidity in this post that I don’t even know where to start. This is a team game, and Ender was playing well in the tournament of legends. You cannot single him out and place Elusive’s loss on his behalf. Honestly, it seems like you are trolling, because I refuse to believe that really anyone can be this…well….I’ll just pretend I didn’t read this.

Apex Prime has not broken any rules in the tourney. They want to win, and thus play to win, even at the cost of possibly a more enjoyable game and their reputation in the community. It’s their choice, and if we can’t beat them and refuse to play such a comp at those costs, then that lies on us.

I’m not defending Apex. I too am really quite frustrated at playing such a bunker comp. Believe me, 2k back stabs were just heartbreaking to watch. I hope anet takes a look at this tourney and possibly make some changes based off these results in the next patch.

My point is…we can’t blame Apex for using a composition or exploiting supposed bugs. They aren’t breaking any rules…bugs are really on anet’s end and there was no mention of that on Blu’s end. I hope and believe this is what my teammates ender and physics are trying to say.

If any of you have played starcraft 2 in WoL, there seems to be this resemblance between terran and thief concerning skill cap. Sure, terran/thief has a higher skill cap and thus higher potential, but really, when is this “maximum” or god-tier potential ever reached? When are absolutely perfect marine splits achieved? Hardly.

I think if people are going to argue imbalance, one needs to define it. Do you mean unbalanced as when two players of equal skill level play the two classes and one class clearly comes out on top, or unbalanced as in one class has a higher skill cap than the other?

can i still sign up for summer camp

Nice! Thanks for the share. Yeah, clearly this is a class balance issue and needs to be looked at.

Whit.2385:

Acandis.3250:

Let’s pretend for a second that the people that make these decisions frequent this forum and care about what any of you have to say…

LOLOL – how long did you last before you started giggling uncontrollably? Didn’t take long for me, what a fun game!

This really isn’t going to end up well if this is implemented. Of course, we don’t know 100% because we have not taken into consideration all other balance changes, but there seems to be an excruciatingly high likelihood of this set failing on paper, and the last thing we need is more condition specs.

Just a suggestion, but it would be a great idea from a sales-point of view to sell town clothes in the black lion store (you can even sell it overpriced) once the patch hits. I would throw money at the screen to buy a hoodie and shorts.

inb4 thread being moved

Decent, if not the epitome of esports.

I’m pretty sure there is no one left, and everyone is just playing super casually. That might just be my perspective though.

I might be playing it wrong, but decap engineers running an incendiary powder variant are becoming increasingly difficult to handle as a d/p thief. The burning, even running full bunker, does a hefty amount of damage if not cleansed, and if you do wish to cleanse it, it requires hide in shadows (puts you in stealth→decap) or shadow return.

Decap engis are also becoming smarter, using box of nails when blackpowder is dropped.

The “hardness” on the aforementioned players is very justified. Take the following explanation literally or…metaphorically (in which case, this post becomes a lolfest, which I think is pretty amazing how it turned out).

People feel that they can be “hard” on one another because it’s the internet, and over the internet people feel incredibly deindividuated (look it up if you don’t know what that means). Thus, people believe that they can be really “hard” on one another and be free from normal societal consequences. It’s not so much a belief either…it’s the truth and many, many people take advantage of that. You usually don’t go up to random strangers in public and rage/call them out.

So…
New game modes are not going to change the toxicity of some people in the NA community. I hear the EU community is much nicer though. We also probably shouldn’t have threads that point out to certain players because that will just result in more edrama, considering the high level of esports in gw2. Thread should omit player names.