Guild Wars 2

Pawstruck.9708:

I tried this out, and I can’t make it work. Call me bad if you like, but I just don’t think it’s that great.

Improv. is incredibly risky, as has already been said. I’d much rather have a lower cooldown on those venoms we so regularly use in this build.

Stealth, while quite powerful, is at a very weak point right now, I feel. Everyone knows to just spam stuff while you’re in stealth, and odds are you’re going to take damage inside it no matter what. The condition cleanse (Shadow’s Embrace) is also WAY too slow-ticking to be of value to me. Condition classes (Necro’s, Engi’s, even Rangers and Mesmers) can load up so quickly on those condi’s —- and reload them back when you cleanse them —- that one every 3 seconds just isn’t worth it. Not to mention the initiative (init = damage) costs of going in and out of stealth!

I would much rather put the points from SA into Acro. Vigorous Recovery + Withdraw = almost unlimited endurance. Tier 2 of Acro is admittedly limited, but there’s nothing else do spend the points on if you want Feline Grace, which is OP as hell. Finally, I use D/D for Death Blossom bleed stacks, giving 2 sources of major condition damage instead of just one (poison).

I have a feeling you’ll just say “You’re not playing it right, I have 139804289 hours, 1v1 me” and everything you’ve already said in this thread… Which I don’t really get. I mean, you post a build for others to use, right? When we use it and dislike it, you come back at us with “You’re not that good, 1v1 me”? I dunno. Seems like a waste of your time to me.

Send me an Ingame message, I can show you the usefulness of everything I picked. So yes, a 1v1 request. It’s not a waste of time, If played right you are very hard to kill and target. Yes i have over 3.7k hours, yes I asked for a 1v1. Yes I am a high tiered Thief. Allow me to show you the strength of this build. Because quite honestly, you actually may not have played it to full potential, and are new to Thief. This is not an easy face roll kind of spec, You need to be comfortable switching weapons and using both sets to full potential. Which is also why I don’t have any OP runes on there as well, due to the fact that if played correctly the build highlights the skill not the rune.

Cheese and Swiss

I guess I shall be the first to comment.

I loved how you send me a skype message telling me about this video man haha :p, Very well done. Really showcases your skill, and your very calm and precise thought process. With that necro and thief that was the greatest bit of footage i’d have to say in Thief history. Average players would panic at the sight of a D/P heavy damage and a NECRO at the same time. But you calmly structured a plan, and swiftly switched targets to the higher damage dealing and lethal one which was the Thief. Very well played. You know what it takes “To be a Thief” (one of my threads)
~On a side note, I liked the last clip with you and Ho Nutha Levul, i’m sure he was raged at that fight. You and your no shadow refuge and all.

EDIT: One of the flaws I observed in your Thief v. Mesmer fight. You kind of got a bit excited and lost focus a bit, you wasted a bit of initiative just when the mesmer was stealthed which by then I had already predicted (correctly) when you would use RFI utility.

Mordecai.6318:

AikijinX.6258:

Amonatory.2453:

The only 2 things I hated about fighting this is the weakness and you camping the Bp intelligently so my sword couldn’t cleave. It’s a good build, but then again I had very little condi cleanse aha.

<3 <3 Atleast you’re not mad at me anymore

We’ve all experienced it.

It was a good experience

Reikou.7068:

AikijinX.6258:

2nd. I remember your warrior, and as I said I wasn’t running that spec, but rather S/D- SB.

3rd this thread is about promoting and sharing a build, and whether you have enough skill to play it or not decides whether or not it would be viable for you yourself. This is why I don’t pick any cheese runes, although I know with rune of nightmare/strength/pirate etc, this build will be over the top borderline unbeatable. So it’s nice of you to voice your opinion; however you can justify anything due to the fact you haven’t dueled me with it, and just to digress. You refuse to duel amonatory as well from what I hear.

Actually, you’re right. You were running S/D X, sorry for the mistake. I withdraw my previous statements.

That said, you do admit that running strength runes (or similar) would make the build stronger.

I also haven’t seen amonatory for a long time, so by your logic, he refuses to duel me as well. Better get on his case. (Honestly curious why you even bring something like this up like its even relevant in the current discussion.)

Forget that last comment, it’s not relevant at all. I’m sorry.

Reikou.7068:

AikijinX.6258:

Quite honestly I don’t remember, I fight a lot of warriors and thieves. And the build i was probably using probably wasn’t this one, If i was dueling you in O.S as you say. But i do remember fighting and beating your thief with my critical strikes version of my life steal spec. And as I said below in the post, I utilize skill not the rune. Everyone is free to make modifications as they please, but" might" is easily stripped on steal. And I would like to know what in my shadow arts tree makes this build “annoying”? There is no shadow rejuvenation, nor shadow protector. I’d be happy to show you in a duel what this spec can do. Just message me in game.

It was a tourney match, not a “duel.” It just so happened you tried to 1v1 my warrior in it.

The build is annoying to target in a teamfight because you can stay in stealth pretty much forever. That said, while you’re in stealth you’re not really doing anything for your team.

Also, this thread is about a build. “Skill” is irrelevant in the discussion.

tl;dr I wouldn’t run this build in PvP. It simply doesn’t do enough to warrant a spot in the team. Its a wannabe Celestial Engineer build without the damage or the cleave or the conditions or the CC. The only thing I can see it having any sort of major advantage is through 20s Steal + Improv synergy allowing lots of Shadow Refuge plays.

Well 1st. I wouldn’t run this build in tpvp, that is why I said and stated this is top tier 1v1 dueling spec. This is no where near viable to play in tpvp nor would i ever recommend it.
2nd. I remember your warrior, and as I said I wasn’t running that spec, but rather S/D- SB.
3rd this thread is about promoting and sharing a build, and whether you have enough skill to play it or not decides whether or not it would be viable for you yourself. This is why I don’t pick any cheese runes, although I know with rune of nightmare/strength/pirate etc, this build will be over the top borderline unbeatable. So it’s nice of you to voice your opinion; however you can justify anything due to the fact you haven’t dueled me with it, and just to digress. You refuse to duel amonatory as well from what I hear.

When you start fantasizing about stealth

Amonatory.2453:

The only 2 things I hated about fighting this is the weakness and you camping the Bp intelligently so my sword couldn’t cleave. It’s a good build, but then again I had very little condi cleanse aha.

<3 <3 Atleast you’re not mad at me anymore

Splatter Paw.7238:

Always love running your builds (slightly variant fir my taste of course) nice to see a working pvp one, I’ll have to give it a shot. The wvw one you use is awesome, love roaming battle grounds with you. Keep up the good work :-)

It’s always good giving back to this community, there are many innovators and build creators that don’t like to share what they’re sitting on. I’ve gotten about 6 guild wars 2 forums private messages thanking me on releasing this. I love to help where I can.

panicbutton.1053:

Sorry, maybe my post came off as more hostile than I meant it. I highlighted WvW because your build is specifically a PvP build as to differentiate it, so I meant no competition. I meant no attack on you, and I’m sure you’re build does great

I’m trying to understand how the build works. You’re picking up Improvisation for you’re utilities which are split into two categories, deception and venom. That means you have a 20% chance of triggering either, or 40% total, every 20 seconds. I’m sure it saves you but what about all the times that it doesn’t… because probability is against you, right?

Have you played around with dumping those points instead into CS, or finishing off the SA tree? I imagine blinding on stealth or even reducing damage done to you coming out of stealth could be pretty nifty for a leeching build, instead of throwing a weighted dice.

Ahh no worries my man, ^^ i’m sorry i reacted as I did, but even though improv is a risky trait to choose and hinder your bursts and survival on, it really does the trick for me about 90% of the time, and the other 10% My rotation is perfect so I don’t really need to rely on it as much. I wouldn’t choose improv over anything else in tier 2 DA.
~This build has much more sustainability when done with the traits 10/0/30/0/30. Same concept, just lose the improv, and gain rejuvenation. I also have another build that works with Critical strikes, 0 30/20/0/20. Very heavy hitting, but then again you lose sleight of hand and mug trait, which in this current Thief pvp meta, if you are not equipped with at least one of those GM’s you’re less likely to win in my opinion. I use that critical strikes build when I am roaming in WvW, it’s very effective, and risky. But it all comes down to how you play. I play very well, so i can handle the risk, because my reward is always greater than the risk I put in. I was anticipating invigorating precision new C.S grand master trait would help the build out, but unfortunately it didn’t do as well as I had hoped, and losing executioner over that new trait isn’t worth it in my final conclusion.

ShadowNinja.1238:

AikijinX.6258:

ShadowNinja.1238:

I beat your build when you didn’t use 30 SA and i used 30 SA I think you shoul use 30 SA cause I’m bad and I won against non SA. I understand that 30 SA is cheesy but if I was pro I wouldn’t use it but 30 SA is really noob friendly.

Anyway nice build it’s really good especially the condi burst.

We never dueled in pvp, and When we did duel i wasn’t fighting you with this build, plus i think you were using perplexity.

We did duel and I wasn’t using perplexity im the guy who calls you cankles and maybe u were running one of ur other builds. U said since I was running 30 SA I was running cheese.

For this build i don’t think you have any offensive potential good survival anyway.

Lokipar hahaha… So thats you :p, you got banned from server btw. You’re a funny dude man. Always a pleasure smashing you in duels

Reikou.7068:

I’m going to be honest here and say I don’t think this build is very strong. It is annoying to target in teamfights (beacuse Shadowarts) it honestly doesn’t do much else.

I fought you 1v1 on my Warrior yesterday a few times during a match and won quite a few of the matchups (eventually losing to a 1v2.) It just doesn’t seem to have enough offensive potential to really be a threat, or defensive enough for PvP with celestial amulet.

If you look at many of the other celestial amulet builds, they augment their lack of offensive potential by might stacking and strength runes. Perhaps that could be something you could look into for this setup. Perhaps drop Improv for 5 in SA, and drop the D/P set for maybe P/P or even another P/D with sigil of battle.

Quite honestly I don’t remember, I fight a lot of warriors and thieves. And the build i was probably using probably wasn’t this one, If i was dueling you in O.S as you say. But i do remember fighting and beating your thief with my critical strikes version of my life steal spec. And as I said below in the post, I utilize skill not the rune. Everyone is free to make modifications as they please, but" might" is easily stripped on steal. And I would like to know what in my shadow arts tree makes this build “annoying”? There is no shadow rejuvenation, nor shadow protector. I’d be happy to show you in a duel what this spec can do. Just message me in game.

This food is bugged, It’s not working as intended

Jhughes.8341:

Already have you added! I was one of the people you tested your life absorb build on in OS. Same day that Amon told me my stats were kitten haha

Ahh ^^ hope it didnt hurt too much D;

panicbutton.1053:

Ewww, this build feels rushed. How do you rationalize investing into improvisation, and using travelers? You could easily drop it and invest in more damage, or more survival.

On the side note for any WvW builds, I was testing out Sigil of Blood + Omnomberry pie and it stomps Leeching Venoms. If you drop that you can utilize better survival, and be more “life-leechy”. You will have the sigil + omnom leeching on crits, withdraw, and shadow refuge(sneak attack right before SR ends so that you can leech MORE life). It works fantastic so far. Also, you dont need it but if you add Invigorating Precision or Signet of Malice, you have something that can face tank.

Lol, alright well how about you meet me in pvp and we can see who’s life leech spec is better? , Improvisation has saved me in so many ways, whether it be an extra shadow refuge, shadowstep, bassilick venom, spider venom. But yeah I am online right now, send me an in game PM. AikijinX

@RedSpectrum I chose Travelers runes because I wanted the extra little bit of stat coverage that it covers through out all the stats. I run travelers runes in WvW with my life leech build, and it works just as well. Yes i could run a different rune, but I utilize my skill not the rune, and yes this is another Hybrid.

ShadowNinja.1238:

I beat your build when you didn’t use 30 SA and i used 30 SA I think you shoul use 30 SA cause I’m bad and I won against non SA. I understand that 30 SA is cheesy but if I was pro I wouldn’t use it but 30 SA is really noob friendly.

Anyway nice build it’s really good especially the condi burst.

We never dueled in pvp, and When we did duel i wasn’t fighting you with this build, plus i think you were using perplexity.

A lot of people have been asking me about my build and what it was, etc.. so here peepz gotta give you what you need.

~This build is one of the builds that I will release tonight, I have a S/D-P/D build that I will put out in the future still running tests. Currently 1v1, this spec holds top tier for dueling spec if played correctly and effectively. It’s very hard to lose. (I didn’t say you couldn’t lose, but it’s very hard to), Despite the lack of 30 SA which means no rejuvenation, I gather my healing from the life steal I put out.

~I have done countless duels, and have won countless times.
~You may be called cheese
~If you want more sustain, and want to raise your cheese level to 9000, use 10/0/30/0/30

Pros and Cons
~Pros- 15 second heal, Life steal, Poison, Torment, Blind, Strong melee, and even Stronger ranged attack damage, Access to limitless stealth if done right, element of surprise via Long reach trait
~Cons- Interrupt Mesmer (swordsman builds), Full condition necromancer, and necromancers that transfer conditions back

Notes
~Depending on the class and build you’re going up against I switch my amulets between these 3 (Celestial, Rampager, Beserker)
~I would use Celestial for Warriors, other Thieves, or high damage dealing builds, Rampagers for Elementalists, or Mesmers, and Beserker for Guardians. But quite honestly I almost always stay with the Celestial amulet.
~It’s how you play the build that lets you benefit from it. So no you’re not going to get carried with shadow rejuvenation even though I myself do like it, just not for duels as much.

My Background
I have been playing Thief since release. This is actually my 2nd account, my first account unfortunately had gotten terminated for blah blah… Currently I have over 3.7k hours on this Thief It would have been more but that termination on 1st account messed that up. I have put a lot of time, work and effort into this class. I am knowledgeable, and am willing to help anyone in need of a little assistance. Feel free to contact me in game- AikijinX.6258

Bah bye for now~~

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQRAqY4al0Mp7plOxoJ8PNBNBxZNyh3j5LlRzAMbA-TpBFwANOBAOOIAIeAAy3fAaZAAHBAA

WvW Life Absorb Thread

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Aikijinx-s-Life-Absorb-Build-Pictures/first#post3893483

I would love to spar with you abit, my IGN . AikijinX.6258

Invigorating precision disappointed me, I had thought it would have made my build better with the 3rd version to it, but it’s not worth losing executioner GM.

We’re worse than Rangers.

Mooncow.6847:

full dire is so much better and cheaper

You must think this build concentrates on condition. That’s where you are wrong. Look at the build description. This is hybrid.

Full ascended Celestial gear, My Hybrid build.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Aikijinx-s-Life-Absorb-Build-Pictures/first#post3812295

Amonatory.2453:

AikijinX.6258:

There already is a global wide Thieves guild. The thing is you need to be highly skilled to join.

Wut…… I’ve never seen a skilled thief from this guild, I’ve only ever been ganked in OS by them..

I’m talking about Tessa Avery’s guild. Not DTG or what ever that guild’s name is

SoulSin.5682:

AikijinX.6258:

There already is a global wide Thieves guild. The thing is you need to be highly skilled to join.

Tell me more about it

Contact: Tessa Avery in game. He will kitten you. Or contact me in game. We can do some duels. and I can do the assessing. -IGN: AikijinX

There already is a global wide Thieves guild. The thing is you need to be highly skilled to join.

Malforo.6391:

Snuffles 100000000000 times better than you

Better at stealth wars

Troll wars 2… The troll is strong in this one.. Gotta love Thief community <3

Coloxeus.3480:

you’re absolutely right Aikijin! i feel the same way but i can’t express it in english like the way you did cuz im bad @ english not my main language

Yeah this is typically how I feel and think Thief-wise.

I love the high level game play +1

You can no longer permanent stealth. The “infusion of shadows” trait has been fixed. You gain 2 ini when ENTERING stealth. You don’t keep regaining ini when you’re in stealth doing stealth stacking.

jihm.2315:

two thiefs killed me today and started jumping on my corpse, thats the psychology of an average thief

Unfortunately the Thief class is one of the classes that holds in high competition and rivalry with other Thieves. You want to be the best there is. That’s the mind set of a Thief. And you are never satisfied until you get your name across.

Thank you guys for taking a look and providing your thoughts on my *Into the mind of a Thief" thread.

BobbyT.7192:

To be a thief, you need to be able to take the nerf bat to the face and keep going, I say thief is more durable then a warrior in that respect.

Great Ideology ^^

There is a Psychology behind the Thief class

~ Newer Thieves often wonder why or how higher tiered thieves can “see them through stealth” and know where they are. It’s often not the fact that we can see them, it’s that we played well and long enough to be able to accurately predict your movements.
~I know when I fight Thieves, and very much often.. chase them down I delve into the psychology of that Thief. I look at how they fight, I look at how they engage and disengage, I watch their motions determine whether or not they are a fight or flight kind of Thief. I look at my surroundings, and environment, I look at the exit possibilities. I take everything into account, Ambient creatures, near by animals, hittable Tower/Keeps (To CnD).

~We were once all new to Thief class. And we all had that question pertaining to how he/she knew I was there? The answer I’ve come up with is simply to Reverse roles and think what would you do, where would you go? If you can remember that and take that into consideration then you will be able to catch 90% of Thieves in this game. The last 10% know how to mask their tracks very well, and know their environment and shadowstep and porting abilities very well. So those unfortunately are the higher tiered Thieves advantage.

~Shadow Refuge- Yes this skill may be the one thing that decides whether or not you live or die in a fight, and 9/10 you’re saved. But that last 1/10 could be your day to meet death. When you’re inside shadow refuge, it’s not enough to pop the skill and just stand there. Any body can do that, to use shadow refuge to full affect and make sure that you’re actually safe while in it, do a dodge roll or 2 to guarantee safety. A lot of mesmers like to run greatsword and #5 ability knocks us out of refuge which is a buzz kill.. (Personal pet peeve— I hate getting knocked back whether it be mesmer GS, Ranger LB, Engineer Rifle, etc..) So make sure to dodge. And if your foe is visible and you have no dodges left, and they’re meleeing (Not aoeing) try to walk on the circumference of the refuge, and clockwise against their movements.

~To Be A Thief you need to think Logically. To Be A Great Thief, you need to think Logically and Psychologically (Personal Opinion)<—-

Refer to, To Be A Thief ~ https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/To-Be-A-Thief-1/first#post3826058

Venomge.7142:

After Playing thief for almost a year, playing other classes (warrior, guardian, hunter, necromancer) seem really awkward, routine/not fun for me. This class really sticks if you get the hang of it <3

I totally agree Once you get the hang of being a Thief there is nothing you can’t do. And that is a true statement. Whether it be soloing dungeons, soloing keep lords, tower, camps. There is a plethora amount of things that can be done by just mastering this class.

Burnfall.9573:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5iqc8iG0qU

To be a Thief

LOL.. burnfall you never cease to amuse me.. haha

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Aikijinx-s-Life-Absorb-Build-Pictures/first#post3812295

UltraVylence.7320:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

The cost of acquiring all the items in this build prevents me from testing this myself.

First off, Aikijinx I really am enjoying this setup. The stat mix you put together sings with this build. I also could not invest in the Ascended Armor and Trav. Runes. I put together my own version of the build using pieces I had access to, I ended up with very comparable stats. Please let me know if you have any tweaks or recommendations to the changes I made.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAqYVlsMp0pFNx7J8PNRw9wpQtpePK7YNrWBaC-zkzAYLEkWAxaRjgARVwIMgEBAqASCsIasFzioxqqXUtmBTlC45DWAAEAazjezjmUAmLMC-w

Thank you my friend. Yes this build does come with quite a cost, but as long as you have money for atleast knights armor then you should be fine, the trinkets parts will only come with time. And yes the Trav runes are expensive as well that too will come with time, and your build is quite interesting, i will have to test this out myself.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Aikijinx-s-Life-Absorb-Build-Pictures/first#post3798399

Hybrid Life Absorb build

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Aikijinx-s-Life-Absorb-Build-Pictures/first#post3798399

They’ve taken away Our shadow protector Protection boon, Our Merciful Ambush extra Thief ally, I want those back pweez<3

I just hope Anet doesn’t put ICD afterwards in the future.. -_- trololol

I would have loved skelk venom heal, but the CD was very abit too much to handle.. Plus the stealth on HIS is unbelievably useful

Haha, Kinda funny how karma turned around. Don’t worry you warriors are still anet’s prized possession, you’ll be buffed up again in no time , just let the other classes have our moments right now.

The new GM traits are not that bad lol

FINALLY I CAN SPEAK.. Banned from forums .. again. 0_0.. Anet didn’t like me speaking about their Nike sponsored Warriors D; .. Anywho..
I think people are underestimating the power of theory crafting. I for one am excited about these new traits. I for one already have builds and sets to accommodate the new traits. They just need to be tested. I will post when and after i deem it suitable for WvW.

Thief is by far the best “roaming” class, and escape class. But the class that get sponsored by Nike footwear are Warriors.

I respect Thieves that make videos of them showing the reality of the game. And not just highlighting their endless amount of non deaths. People that can die in their video’s and put up a good fight earn my respect.

Edit: When 2 handed weapon sigil come around I will be rolling Superior Sigil of Blood, and Perception, as a combo. Not Leeching sigil.

I actually enjoyed this, very good cinematic editing. You are knowledgeable of Thief, and can time pretty well. There were things i myself would have done differently, but that’s just me. Good pivot turn and using your environment to your advantage on your brink of low hp running behind the wall making the guardian fall.

~On another note: I’m pretty sure I saw a Nike symbol on that Warriors Boots.

ryan.6217:

I just found out about this too… I just figured i had obtained special powers for being such a rad guy… anet can call it a bug all they want. they can even take it from me.. but i know what i had.

Hhhahahaha I loved my super powers too.. They will never take my OP experiences I had with it, with the constant crits, and dodging. raise fist.. I knew about this about 2-3 months ago.. Shows how long it takes anet to find these problems. Lets see if they know about the new exploit with golems ;p

LOL.. This is now being fixed.. kitten . I remember when i found out about it, and everybody wondered where my “superpowers” (vigor and fury) came from :p

Wow, I’m seeing some good clips lately. Good synergy, and targeting!, I can’t BELIEVE that zerg didn’t just turn around and just run you guys over. You guys killed quite a few. ^^ Well done.