Guild Wars 2

Wow that’s an awesome build. Seems super tanky but can dish out the damage!

Nova Stiker.8396:

Anomaly.7612:

vlad.4871:

what feedback?they are just complains from people who maybe don t have a clue about the game.

Sorry, but this has been happening since beta. No joke. Players have tried to tell Anet what good changes they can make, and nothing ever happens.

To be fair, ArenaNet has done a lot of right things. The 3 split traitlines was a good thing and in my opinion well implemented.

Removing the condi-limit was a much needed change since beta, sure, it took years for them to realize they need to up the limit but meh, at least it was done.

They have done a lot of things right.

---

Then you got the complete bombs.

Stupid crap like Dhuumfire on release that just utterly ruins the fun of the game, stun bug, immobilize buff, all stuff that should have never, ever happened.

It gets even worse for PvP, WvW and PvE.

• Raids is an utter failure of combat design, I was fighting the Vale Guardian and my friend was laughing that the most dangerous thing of the raid boss was a green circle people had to stand in.
• WvW rewards is bare bone, like, where is the WvW gear? Why are you not encouraging people to kill eachother? We don’t want rare, expensive materials, we want awesome loot!
• And here we are in PvP with even less viable classes that the previous meta. How can you fail so epicly?

Developers just… How? Is there no one there going, “oh, guys, I know what can make this much better and so much more fun.” Is there a person at ArenaNet that leveled a necromancer from 1 to 80 ONLY using necro staff? No one looked at some of the boring and bad designs and go, “We should take this to the drawing board.”

Now where are the other legendary weapons? Are they really have trouble coming up with designs? Have you never played other video games for inspiration?

It’s like they are guessing whats fun.

I agree wholeheartedly. Thank you for saying it.

I got into a match against two members of PZ. Got stomped. Does me getting matched with them mean I’m almost as good as them? Because that’d be awesome. xD

(Though I know I’m not).

Wolfric.9380:

passive builds that are not too competative are fine especially when they can carry bad players a bit. This is important for player motivation. The problem araises when a heavy passive build gets a meta place …. If you need not take care of positioning and reactive play then something is realy bad. If it eases mashing buttons so you don´t need superior training then its actally good.

I do agree with this. It’s good to have builds that help new players ease into the game/profession.

Honestly, Necros counter all the boons that guards toss on themselves like a fat kid’s cupcakes in a sweets shop. It’s no wonder why you’re having a hard time. Also, use your light fields and projectile finishers to clear condi’s from yourself as well as meditations. I’ve played both DH and Necro and I do gotta say, DH is countered pretty hard by Necro.

Just as it’s been for a long time now. Marks for condi’s are unblockable, which counter all that Aegis. Poison counters your healing. Boon conversion counters all the boons guards rely on. Go play a Thief and rip Necro’s apart like I do. Ez pz.

Jana.6831:

Anomaly.7612:

Jugglemonkey.8741:

Honestly, the devs want to cater for the casual crowd and to get in more players as time goes on. That means the combat system gets simpler and less skill based as time passes, and the people who have been here a while get fed up of it. Not advocating this as a good idea, it’s just a logical result of the way they seem to want the game to develop, sadly.

A friend of mine (who I’m sitting next to currently) said this exact thing hours ago. Here’s a nail. You hit its head.

Problem with that: These guys won’t stick. And if the next tournaments are just like the last, GW2 as a whole becomes a joke.

ETA: Oh, it already is..

ETA²: I mean if a middle aged woman (me) can pull D/D thief off – then it is kind of sad that all of you want an easier game.

I want skill back. That’s what this game advertises. Can we get a refund for false marketing?

I agree, Deceiver. The power creep is real, and everything needs to be toned backwards. It’s a sad day when pressing 3>1 yields better results than 5>2>F1>(move behind target)1.

DeceiverX.8361:

I can’t speak for elementalist because it’s far from my best profession and the removal of the celestial amulet has thrown a lot of the “best” builds completely out of whack. I thought D/D cele ele was incredibly boring since it was just rotation-based. Engaging, maybe to some, but not my cup of tea (also it was really OP). I really like quick decision-making.

Reaper’s fun but condi reaper is OP. Power GS is enjoyable and pretty balanced overall if you play DPS.

Most of the combat unfortunately has backpedaled pretty substantially. I don’t recommend trying WoW or a WoW-clone, again, though. The combat feels horribly clunky compared to what GW2 offers. I tried recently to play a WoW-clone and was offline in less than a half hour.

Yeah, it’s a shame. I used to play a Rogue in WoW because they were so engaging. They kiiiiiiiiind of still are when I played last, but not as much as BC era. /sigh

Where have all the good games gone?

Jugglemonkey.8741:

Honestly, the devs want to cater for the casual crowd and to get in more players as time goes on. That means the combat system gets simpler and less skill based as time passes, and the people who have been here a while get fed up of it. Not advocating this as a good idea, it’s just a logical result of the way they seem to want the game to develop, sadly.

A friend of mine (who I’m sitting next to currently) said this exact thing hours ago. Here’s a nail. You hit its head.

Hexalot.8194:

Anomaly.7612:

DeceiverX.8361:

Most new decisions regarding gameplay and balance seem to push towards trivializing combat and reducing the dependency on skilled gameplay as a whole. People seem to be relishing the power creep and easy gameplay, so I feel like such a request is “out of line” with “popular opinion.”

kitten shame, really.

I’ve been a Thief since beta, and this makes me want to just quit the game entirely. :‘( I liked Thief due to how much skill they needed and quick decisions. I don’t want to just press 3 and 1. Might as well play LoL though I hate that game.

The changes have made you want to quit the game sure. But at the same time I haven’t seen this many thieves running around since beta, as everyone and their dog brings the class out of mothballs and have started playing it again. So yes, you’re in a small (elitist) minority here.

I completely agree with you. I played Thief because it was hard mode. I start new games on hard because I’m masochistic that way, I suppose. xD

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Anomaly.7612:

OK, so I see a lot of you saying that the Ele is just that bad, which may in fact be true, but what is also true is how passive “meta” builds have become. There’s no defending that.

Sure there is. The build he described using is nowhere close to “meta.” It’s actually pretty terrible to to an utter lack of synergy.

If you really look at the meta builds right now, very little is “passive” about them. There might be “when you do X, also get Y,” but there really isn’t much that’s passive.

But the fact that his build can even exist in the first place points to a larger problem. Just like OP said, it should be, “when you do X, you also get Y if you use Z.”

That would be much more active/reactive play than simply just proccing something that does an action for you. Better yet, there could be a procc that gives you the choice of using an ability that you must press. Anything would be better than passive play at this point.

Take Thief for example. I main one, and it’s frustrating how the initiative and damage return from a Black Powder>Heartseeker>Steal>Backstab combo, which is easily countered and heavy on ini use, is less efficient damage wise than just doing a Shadow Shot and auto attacking while eating a sandwich.

It’s this kind of gameplay that’s braindead and not rewarding at all to play.

vlad.4871:

Nova Stiker.8396:

vlad.4871:

what feedback?they are just complains from people who maybe don t have a clue about the game.

Who knows nothing about the game? The players or ArenaNet? Or both?

Also, don’t even bother with suggestions and possible improvements.

90% Of the people who complain on forum and devs 100%

Sorry, bud. But a lot of pro players who have been playing from beta day one have tried to give mounds of feedback, yet nothing happens. Not everyone who has positive changes in mind are just noob whiners.

There’s a difference between suggesting positive changes and just whining. They don’t listen to either.

vlad.4871:

what feedback?they are just complains from people who maybe don t have a clue about the game.

Sorry, but this has been happening since beta. No joke. Players have tried to tell Anet what good changes they can make, and nothing ever happens.

So will we still see 3 necros in one team still? Because that needs to not happen. Ever.

OK, so I see a lot of you saying that the Ele is just that bad, which may in fact be true, but what is also true is how passive “meta” builds have become. There’s no defending that.

DeceiverX.8361:

Anomaly.7612:

meepeY.2867:

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.

How do you shadow shot into a back stab without it revealing you?

Cast the animation for backstab during the projectile of Shadow Shot. The projectile will land mid-stab animation and since all attacks in the game are hitboxed, the stab will land.

Unless you run bound, you get higher damage just spamming Shadow Shot, though; two Shadow Shots costs the same amount of initiative as BP + HS, and offers substantially more damage on top of blinds and the double teleport.

Anomaly.7612:

Straegen.2938:

As others noted hit Shadow Shot and spam the AA. That combo is better than Backstab and HS which IMO is a bit sad.

Yeah, that really makes me sad. =\ It just seems so faceroll and cheesy. I don’t like that Thief seems to have become a one button spamming prof with the shadow shot and AA being a higher DPS value.

And I just won’t use bound. I’ve tried it and I hate the lack of mobility. Just doesn’t seem worth not having the condi clear/mobility/damage reduc from UC.

Such is the state of the game in general now. Most combat has been trivialized through power creeped damage/durability and passive effects, or very spammy, unskillful and rewarding abilities.

EDIT: (sorry if this is a little off-topic).

I used to play WoW until GW2 came out. Played Thief in the beta and was hooked ever since. Now I’m curious what PvP is like over there again. I’ll always come back to GW2, but this new super easy mode combat is just not engaging at all.

Is there a different profession that has a more engaging style? I’ve tried Necro (pretty alright, the new reaper shroud is fun) boon corrupting is a fun mini game. DH: Really boring. Just lay traps and laugh. Rev: Sit in glint and UA/AA to victory while eating a sandwich.

Is DD Ele even viable? I dueled one today who was using a Sage ammy and he was pretty great, but again, it was a duel. I used to play Ele alongside my Thief when Cele was a thing.

DeceiverX.8361:

Most new decisions regarding gameplay and balance seem to push towards trivializing combat and reducing the dependency on skilled gameplay as a whole. People seem to be relishing the power creep and easy gameplay, so I feel like such a request is “out of line” with “popular opinion.”

kitten shame, really.

I’ve been a Thief since beta, and this makes me want to just quit the game entirely. :‘( I liked Thief due to how much skill they needed and quick decisions. I don’t want to just press 3 and 1. Might as well play LoL though I hate that game.

Straegen.2938:

As others noted hit Shadow Shot and spam the AA. That combo is better than Backstab and HS which IMO is a bit sad.

Yeah, that really makes me sad. =\ It just seems so faceroll and cheesy. I don’t like that Thief seems to have become a one button spamming prof with the shadow shot and AA being a higher DPS value.

And I just won’t use bound. I’ve tried it and I hate the lack of mobility. Just doesn’t seem worth not having the condi clear/mobility/damage reduc from UC.

meepeY.2867:

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.

How do you shadow shot into a back stab without it revealing you?

Veteran Oakheart.4035:

Get a belt and spam shadow shot AA for pressure, backstab is overated.

Haha, when I read “get a belt,” I was like, “wait….What do they mean?” Then remembered that my pants are down! xD

Hmm, ok. So if I fail at the stab, just start in with SS and AA pressure? Do most thieves not try for stabs much anymore?

So all too often I find that if I try and go for a BP>HS>Steal>BS combo, my enemies usually see it coming when they see the initial damage hit, then just dodge backwards, completely negating my ability to backstab. Usually results in me not being in range at all. Stealth times out, then I’m caught with my pants down.

What are some good tips that other Thieves have for dealing with this scenario? I’ve been having a really hard time getting stabs off lately unless my basi venom is up.

Thanks~

rylark.3418:

Azukas.1426:

vox.9027:

Azukas.1426:

No

/15 chars needed

Let me guess you’re an l2p forum hero?

No I’m a “WTF are you thinking making a spammable interrupt that can spec in Impacting Disruption+Pressure Striking hit multiple targets!!??!!” forum hero

This is perhaps the worst idea I’ve read since 2014 on these forums.

The interrupt could just be applied to the actual target. Dealing minimum collateral damage on multiple targets and applying the daze to the actual target would be fine imo, I too feel OP’s issues. Specially vs necros with 5 pets, it’s almost impossible to interrupt him with Headshot.

This is what I was thinking. Not hitting all of the enemies in the path, but just the one.

yolo swaggins.2570:

Surprise Shot – Decent for immobilize but otherwise does not provide enough impact to justify spending resources on stealthing.

Cluster Bomb – As good as it might be for a power skill, the fact that it moves slow makes using it from a distance pointless.

Disabling Shot – Tiny damage, tiny cripple, tiny evade distance and tiny evade window. Initiative cost of 4. Not really worth using sept for clutch evade.

Choking Gas – The 2s duration was needed when poison timer could be easily stacked above a minute. Now that poison stacks intensity, it is time to remove the nerf.

These are just the issue I see with them.

Completely agree. 4 is really only useful for tossing it on a downed enemy and that’s about it. 2 is really only good for blasting fields. AoE weakness from 4 and 2 is pretty good. Trickshot should do more damage if there’s only one target. The AA damage is just laughable. 5 is really the only reason why we take it.

I feel this way about backstab as well. So sick of minions/pets/etc getting in my way when try to land one. Pretty much have to be glued to the enemy to hit just them.

I’d really like to see more game modes such as a capture the flag type mode.

Is the healing from Skelk given to allies increased by my healing power, or theirs?

Thank you all so much. I’ll have to modify the build and try it out. I’ll drop Deadly Arts for DD for more condi cleanse as it’s definitely eating me up. I took trickery so I’m able to give out more boons each time steal is up.

Nerfing one build doesn’t make others better. It just makes them all bad.

Moar buffs plox.

Hey all!

As the title reads, I’m trying to make a support build that focuses on healing/boon share/venom share/stealth to allies.

I used it once in PvP so far and I liked the mechanics of it, but I’ve been having a hard time with conditions melting me in seconds. I’d love any kind of feedback people would be willing to offer.

What do you think?

So I was wondering what build or strategies people are using when adventuring in HoT? I’ve been running the standard zerker staff build with the first couple traits from DD as I’m still working on more HP’s.

Does anyone have any helpful tips and tricks for a fellow Thief?
Thanks all.

I’d rather just see SA and Acro reworked to be on the same level as D/P. Nerfing bound wouldn’t bring more diversity, it’d be doing the exact opposite. I see where your mind is at though, and I really appreciate it.

We definitely do need more build diversity. I miss when S/D seemed to be as viable as D/P. Now, D/P seems to be the really the only competitively viable build. Other than those holding onto the dream of staff. =\

Yeah I just take the condi cleanse on dodge for added sustain due to so many condi’s just flying around now.

Rudydudy.7230:

Balance rly better now.
1 thing need nefr – dmg thief ~15%. And i think after this nerf, pvp will be good.
Anet did great job! GG

P.S and mb little buff shatter mesmer :P

Blanket buffs and nerfs to damage without a specific cause and effect aren’t helpful.

Galandil.9641:

Anomaly.7612:

Really great combo but is it worth using the dodge offensively when a heart seeker works just fine?

I suppose it’s a good backup when you know you can be more offensive and sacrifice a dodge.

Nope, for several reasons:

• HS can be interrupted, Bound can’t
• For targets with 50%+ HPs, HS has a coeff. of 1, Bound of 1.38
• After using Bound, you have a +10% dmg buff for 4s, thus increasing the dmg output of Backstab and one full chain of AA
• You don’t use 3 ini to complete the combo, just 50 endurance

That sounds great. I’ll have to try it out. Have you noticed your survivability dipping? The lack of UC’s damage reduction is hard to pass up with all the AoE flying around, but if bound can allow you to quickly kill a target and disengage, the sustain from UC may be moot.

Really great combo but is it worth using the dodge offensively when a heart seeker works just fine?

I suppose it’s a good backup when you know you can be more offensive and sacrifice a dodge.

Ha! Did you do a bug report on this and talk to a gm?

Ahhhh, fond frustrations of WoW’s blink.

Also, the change to basi venom will help a lot, I’m sure.

CrimsonNeonite.1048:

You can use short bow to kite and bait out traps, but I usually run into them using long bow, a bit tough to do that.

Eating their traps and burst with evades and SB 3 can help to line up a good burst window. I’ve found a nice headshot > BP+HS+Steal>Backstab>stolen skill>headshot>impactx3 can be really great at locking them down. The longer you can stop or interrupt them while getting some damage in the better.

Keep poison on them at all times and they’ll go down. Just be careful of their bursts.

It may just come down to play style. I’ve used both and can say that I’m more of a D/P kinda guy. Staff is great, but just seems like a one trick pony. I find D/P can really do all that staff does plus it’s has headshot which I’ve used so many times to deny stomps and rezzes. Shadow shot is much better for gap closing and blinding and black powder has many uses.

Backstab isn’t really all that hard to land after a while and I’ve found that vault can be tricky to land sometimes with the highly telegraphed animation making it even easier to dodge than a backstab. The timing to landing it can lead to error and a huge loss to initiative.

Just my own thoughts, but I’m sure if one were to use staff for a while they’d get really good with using vault and the other great utilities it offers. I’m curious to see how the sword and dagger changes go through because I’d love to play S/D again. I miss it so much!

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Dahkeus.8243:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Dahkeus.8243:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Dahkeus.8243:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Dahkeus.8243:

As for Venom Share, I’d say it’s viable to some extent. When you start getting to the higher leagues, however, it won’t work as well. Good players will know to focus venom thieves and since you have to load your utility bar with with venoms and offensive tools, you just don’t have the escape potential that something like a D/P thief would. However, until you get focused, it’ll feel godlike with all the immobs and condis that you can share.

^this. If your team is willing to take that risk, then the build is fine. IMO, you’re sacrificing a lot of good traits and utility skills just to make Venom share work.

Holy crap…did we just agree on something? =P

Yeah, I think we did.

This must mean that venoms will turn out to be OP/meta and we’ll both be wrong, haha!

They’ve been trying to make this venom to work and it will never happen unless they redesign all venoms.

Yea, it’s not a true patch unless it’s got a useless buff to venoms, lol.

Get rid of the venom path, make all venom shareable without needing to trait to anything so that they can finally delete Venom Aura and add a new useful trait in its place. I rather see a shadowstep path in SA than venom path. But that’s just me.

I love this idea and it makes sense. Shadow arts is supposed to be about shadows, not venoms.

Ninja nurse would make a comeback! I’ve always wanted that build to be a thing.

Yeah I pretty much just avoid DH as much as I can. They hard counter us really hard. If we eat a trap we’re toast.

The only time I get good hits in is when they’re distracted an I’m just poking with short bow.

I’d love to see a venom share/evade tank spec where every time you dodge you gain armor/block. Utilizing lots of weakness/vulnerability. Anything, really.

Yeah I’ve been having a horrible time with facing really coordinated groups and having blowout matches in ranked. I’m done with this game for now. I have other things I need to focus on anyway. I’m just tired of the PvP and the game overall.

Hopefully they fix it soon. The MMR in this game is the worst of any game I’ve played.

Two ranked games in a row so far. Total blowouts. The other team was obviously vastly superior in coordination and composition.

What’s going on, did they turn off MMR or something? (If there was one to begin with)….

Yeah this has made life so much better and here I was afraid that my Thief was going to be dead.

Saiyan.1704:

Loboling.5293:

From what I’ve read there:

Teleports that require a target will no longer activate when the target is out of range.

This means inflitrator’s signet, and #2 with sword wont move you when out of range (reducing their ability to chase and play with range on sword) also steal wont go on cooldown when used out of range (I think)

Guardian are getting hit with this, 2 in sword and their teleport meditation wont allow them to move as easily.

Booms.3952:

as someone who mains sword medi guardian at top level pvp I can pretty much gurantee this will completely OBLITERATE this weapon set. Like literally unusable. I want to talk to a freaking anet dev before they do something like this because this is just making a rarely used weapon COMPLETLEY UNVIABLE and theres NO POINT in doing it. LIKE IM SERIOUSLY kittenG kittenED OFF.

This is the kind of reaction us Guardians have.

Not being able to teleport out of range will effect us the most. I’ve had several clutch plays where I targeted out of range to peel off. I don’t know why Guardians, PvP and WvW both, aren’t fighting against this particular change.

We’re not QQing about Virtical Ports. It’s the global removal of range teleports. It will have a HUGE effect on our Sword #2 skill weapon set, making its very limited range unusable.

Same with Thief sword 2. :’<

What’s a good way to engage them, then? I try to dodge through rapid fire and their knock backs, but the auto attacks are what really get me as well as the on procc sigils plus the pet. When they go sword, what should I do? Swap to to SB and use 3 to dodge most of that and lay down poison per usual?

And yes, I’m the usual Acro SD 2/0/0/6/6
I’ll definitely save my steal for rapid fire.

Rome.7124:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Bojoo.7819:

That would be fine if every thief weapon would have its own initiative pool.
Right now, it would brokenly broken thieves. Lets say you interrupt 5/6 initiative skill and thief loses 10/12 initiative because power block. You do what then as a thief? Die because someone used 1 skill?

If you interrupt not thief class skill it goes on double cd, he can use other skill who are not on cd, he can wep swap and still try to do something.

As a thief you would be left with nothing. Cant use most of skills because no initiative. Weapon swap and then what, AA? It’s stupid and it wouldn’t work.

Also, guess what? Initiative is not a cooldown. It’s a pool.

Hence I think interrupt causes a 5 seconds CD on thief skill is more reasonable than burning initiative. This makes thieves suffer the same consequences as other classes, no more, no less. But apparently some thieves can’t survive when one or two skills are disabled for 5 seconds, their defensive responses and play on words are hilarious to watch tbh. I can go into chill but our focus is on power block.

+1

Sadly, probably most Anet developers play thieves, that would explain why the extra treatments given to the class.

Can you please elaborate on these “extra treatments” please? I’d love to know what I have in my toolkit. Thanks.