Guild Wars 2

jportell.2197:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Lets say one day Deceptive Evasion is nerfed to the following, “Create a clone at your current position when you dodge (cooldown 10 seconds)”. Would that make your rage quit the class or the whole game?

Whole game… I don’t think anyone has their on dodge trait with a cooldown regardless of what it does… And Guards can heal for quite a lot with theirs… Thieves have 3 separate on dodge traits that are quite powerful (if they do it right) and ele Evasive Arcana is more OP than DE… SO yes that would make me ragequit considering the bonuses that some other classes get from their on dodge traits, WITH no cooldown.

Actually, thief acro VII has a cooldown on it.

The build looks nice, but why do you need Feedback? c;

Fair enough, I suppose I can find most of that, at the very least, agreeable.

Ursan.7846:

So Anet is selling a box with random cosmetic/luxury items. They clearly stated that this was random. A consenting customer purchased this box with random goodies.

If you think this is unethical, by gods I hope you don’t play Magic the Gathering.

Basically this.

As somebody who used to play those kinds of card games a long time ago, I second your comment there.

Also- and I mean no offense to random FF- but the 10/30/20/0/10 build, while nice, does lack a lot of really important stuff. For one thing, it lacks good dodging traits, meaning less mobility and damage avoidance. It also isn’t very defense-heavy, meaning that he runs a very crit-based build with his traits, but his gear makes this even more lopsided. Sure, it’s not necessarily bad or anything, but if you mess up once, you could find yourself dead in seconds.

Also, if you’re looking for init regeneration and such, there are a lot of better options that you could choose. For example, a good bunker/balance build regens initiative like crazy, if you spec it to do so.

RFF also makes the point of basically saying that a good defense is a good offense- which I totally agree with. However, there are a few problems with that. For one thing, from my experience, going all-out aggressive often leaves you too exposed to enemies, meaning that they can simply go just as aggressive on you and beat you down pretty easily. I think a good example might be (and bear with me here) to compare it to my chess experiences (mostly because I’m a huge chess player). Now, on the one hand, you can leave your king completely safe and sound, but what ends up happening is an extremely boring game that will most likely end in a draw; if you decide to play all-out defensively, then you can’t win. On the other hand, you can leave your king exposed, but instead take initiative (no pun intended) and attack the enemy with your army. Now, this has the benefit of utilizing your resources more efficiently than playing 100% defensive, where you don’t use your resources at all. It also gives you a shot at winning, unlike playing defensively. Where this falls apart, however, is at the assumption that all defenses are going to be strictly defensive. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, and a good player will be flexible with their defenses. The next thing you know, a pawn that had served a more defensive purpose beforehand could be thrust down your throat by your enemy. Since you have no defense to protect against these types of counter-threats, you will simply lose against a good player.

This is pretty much the same in GW2. If you have absolutely no defense, your opponent can flip the tables on you, turning their defensive position into an offensive position, with you having no defense. To make up for this, you have to further deplete your resources by being even more aggressive, which, of course, demolishes your defense even further. There comes a point where you can’t continue being even more aggressive, and, at that point, you will finally snap in half.

It’s a nice idea to be completely aggressive, in theory, but, in practice, the more aggressive you want to be, the more resources you have to use up in order to be more aggressive. To a mes with 14K health and 1860 armor, +1 toughness would be much more valuable than +1 toughness when you already have 3000 armor. On the other hand, for a mes with 3000 armor, +1 power could turn out to be extremely useful. The point is that, the more you engage in an action, the less you’ll gain out of it. If you use a strictly aggressive build, the more aggressive you try to get, the less benefit you’ll gain out of that aggression, while having to give up things like toughness and vits that you really need.

tl;dr: the “go all-out aggressive” strategy, in theory, is very nice, but your opponents can punish you for using it by first playing defensively, and then using the overextension of your resources to their advantage, eventually turning the tables and having to put you on the defensive.

Taril.8619:

• Condition builds That use either Dagger/Dagger (#3 Death Blossom skill) or Pistol/Dagger (#5 Cloak and Dagger into #1 Sneak Attack) and focus on stacking up bleed damage will be looking at focusing on Condition Damage and also Condition Duration to enhance damage.

• Direct damage builds Will be looking at getting high amounts of Power, Precision and Critical Damage.

• Balanced builds Will want to get a mix of Power, Precision, Critical Damage, Vitality and Toughness. At the higher levels there are sets of gear that provide Power + Precision + Critical Damage (Berserker) and also gear that provides Power + Vitality + Critical Damage (Valkyrie) that are often combined to provide good damage and survivability.

• Hybrid builds Will focus on gaining a mix of Condition Damage, Power and Precision to ensure high direct damage with high condition damage through bleeds that can be applied.

Basically this. I’ll help explain a bit more.

Basically, Condition Damage and Direct Damage builds have been the norm in the past (although CD seems to be fading). Your direct damage builds are going to be your stereotypical thief builds, which basically means that you’ll be using HS, CnD, and Backstab often.

The next two build types are a bit less common. I usually call balanced builds, in the realm of the thief, “bunker builds”, because, relative to other types of builds (particularly the direct damage ones), these builds are extremely survivable. Personally, this is the camp that I fall in to. This will give you a good bit of stealth and mobility via SA and Acro. They also deal surprisingly good damage for how their trait points are distributed. An example of an old balanced/bunker build is in my sig at the bottom (the D/P build). I don’t play that build any more, but it’s a perfectly viable build, and is really trustworthy. Anyhow, if you’re looking for somewhat “average” damage (relative to, say, critty thieves), but good survivability, then this might be the build set you’re aiming for. Also, being one of the more uncommon types of builds in use (although I’m beginning to see them pop up increasingly more and more often, and I was, quite frankly, surprised to see them even mentioned in Taril’s comment), bunker/balanced thief builds are a great way to contribute to developing new builds for the thief community, if you’re into that kind of thing.

Finally, Hybrid builds… Are kinda weird. I don’t have much to say about them, although I have meddled with them a bit in the past (see the P/P build in my sig). I think that this is a build type that you’re either going to love, or that you’re absolutely going to hate. Personally, I think that although they sound kinda cool at first, they fail in that they lack very good consistency, or aim towards goals that, while perfectly viable, do fail in that they’ll mean that you have no stealth, not enough damage… Whatever.

So, really, the main differences between builds vary based on what you envision your role as a thief being, as well as how you want to kill your opponents.

I have to wonder, though…

… Are we the only community that actually goes to the other forums to tell people how to counter us, and then praises people who give correct advice on how to counter us? :P just a side effect of being one of/the most hate profession in the game, I suppose.

Good guy Robert Hrouda:

Even when everybody else is complaining about how “OP” thieves are, he manages to prove them wrong.

Vash.9183:

Attachment:

I swear, I didn’t even read that wall of text, I just saw that gif while I was scrolling… Lol. Love it.

Fans.5462:

Flipping is buying low and selling normal, anyone selling high isn’t doing it right.

Flipping is also entirely harmless, in fact it’s marginally helpful. To acquire items to flip you need to be paying the most for it, which benefits anyone selling. To sell those items you need to have the lowest price, which benefits anyone buying.

At no point is anyone hurt by flipping. I can only buy and sell at what people are willing to accept.

+1 This is good.

I’d also like to add that flippers are essential in making the market trend towards equilibrium prices and quantities. Whenever an anomaly in the economy occurs, flippers can flock to the item in question, flip by buying higher than the others and selling lower than the other sellers, and, eventually, this helps to bring the market back to equilibrium price, making it easier for buyers and sellers to find a good transaction price.

I always like Cubes a Cube from my days on GoM. He was organized and had some really brilliant tactical plans. I especially love bunkering down in Durios with him and a bunch of other guys from my server, and basically being the biggest thorn in our enemies’ sides as was physically possible.

Why is anybody helping this guy? Like buttski stated, if you’re part of a “professional esports group”, you should at least know how to search the internet for a good build without having to ask anybody for one. Failing that, you could always ask your teammates. And neither of these should even be necessary, anyways. I create nearly all of my builds myself, not by asking people for new builds. Sure, I’ll ask people for opinions of my build after I’ve created… But the original idea is still mine, and the critiques are simply suggestions that can be used to change the build. I’ve decided to quite posting my own builds up on these forums, mostly because of the “thieves are so OP” crowds, as well as all the noobs on these forums who honestly have no idea what they’re doing as a thief.

Not only that, but Baze’s comments have been surprisingly rude.

Still I was asking for a really good WvW build and no one seems to really know of one. I feel like the thief community kinda died due to the nerf bat over and over.

I don’t recall ever being obligated to responding to your question, Baze. If you’re going to start going around our community asking for advice, then please, please do not try to give us the “superiority card”, which is what you seem to be doing here. The entire post seem rather naive, anyhow- do you really believe there to be a top WvW thief “BUild”? The best builds are based on the players, and not on some other arbitrary standard of “best”.

This entire post came across to me as being rather arrogant and rude, as well as overly demanding. I’ll just end with this:

DanH.5879:

why should we help you ???

just my advice: if you find a good build please keep it for yourself and don’t share with anyone unless you want it to be nerfed

I like the wildlife. They give another tactical opportunity for players.

For example, when the Wintersday event was going on, and there were those exploding present boxes with enemies inside of them everywhere (including WvW), I would use those boxes to disrupt enemy NPCs, and take them out while staying away from the present box NPCs all the while. By the time all of the present box NPCs were dead, due to my efforts and theirs, there would only be (maybe) a single guard left and the Supervisor at camps. I did this multiple times at camps (there were a few camps that had present boxes that spawned practically within the dead center of them). Made capping them with small numbers a heck of a lot easier.

Mystic.5934:

Sorry, Hickeroar, but I don’t agree that 30 salvages is conclusive. with some things, such as melting points, this is probably enough. But in those cases, the variation is not very much (98 to 102). In salvaging, it’s 0-3.
An example to why this doesn’t always apply: the lottery. take 30 random lottery tickets and tell me with precision the average return for the cost, WITHOUT knowing the chances of each number being drawn. I can tell you I’ve purchased 40 lottery tickets for $40 before, and won $12 from it. with those $12 I purchased more and won $2. with that $2 I purchased more and won $0.

Actually, it is because the variation is so small that 30 salvages can be conclusive. Because of such low variation, it becomes easy to predict the mean number of ectos salvaged just from a sample size of n>30.

On the other hand, the lottery has huge variation, making it extremely difficult to provide accurate results due to outliers.

I’m actually… Going to agree with this. I’ll leave the builds in my sig open for all to see (if they want to), but I’m not releasing any more information about my builds, personally. I created a very nice build recently that I’m absolutely loving… Don’t plan on sharing it, though. Not with some of these crowds.

Zenith.7301:

Fenrir.4237:

Grimwolf.7163:

Fenrir.4237:

Annoying to fight isn’t limited to Thief, stop being biased.

I hope to God you weren’t dumb enough to just say I’m biased against the Thief. Thief is my main, and anyone who spends much time on the forums should know that much.
I have an entire site dedicated to the Thief class.

Doesn’t mean you’re not biased towards your own class. I don’t find Thieves annoying to fight against at all, I actually like fighting them out of all classes. I find it way more annoying to fight Ele, Mesmer or Guardian than a Thief, by a longshot. Idk about you.

Zenith.7301:

LOL, necro, “tons of dps”. That’s just too cute by half.

Know what’s even cuter? This right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4gXKLbrvMk
Learn your kitten bro before even trying to make fun of me.

Just wanted to say that this discussion is going to start to go off-topic. Stop picking the nitty gritties, seriously, this is a discussion about “Why idiots think Thief is OP” not about wether Thief is annoying or wether or not Necro having tons of DPS is right.

You consider rooting some noob who didn’t dodge dark pact — with an obvious cast time and animation-- on a well and spamming a supposedly “strong” autoattack “tons of DPS”?

I’d love to have some of what you’re having.

Where the hell are all those “LF Necromancer” posts in dungeon speed runs? Because I see none.

What about the “LF Thief” posts? In fact, a significant proportion of the GW2 community believes that thieves are extremely weak in dungeons.

Anyways, that’s not a good measure of how good necros are in dungeons. For example- perhaps nobody wants necros in their groups because of people like you, who say that necros must be bad in dungeon groups because nobody wants them in their dungeon groups. They see your comment, think “oh, well, necros must be bad”, and then try to keep them out of their groups, creating a self-perpetuating bias.

Rather, I like to look at necros from a more theoretical point of view. Necros are easily the second most survivable class, the first being guardians. Then, necros provide tons of mitigation via cripples, chills, fears, and blinds. On top of that, they can apply these conditions in an AoE, making necros even more powerful as a profession that can control the battlefield. Being so easily able to apply conditions, they necros can also mitigate enemy healing via poison, and do damage throughout lulls in fighting via DoT. On top of this, Minion Masters give NPCs a distraction that give others a chance to attack an open enemy. With Plague Signet, necros provide a way to remove conditions from friends, which they can use to heal themselves for more, or even to transfer them to enemies, which, with Epidemic, causes a mass of conditions that can easily overcome a mob.

No, necros don’t have the highest DPS, but they have the best DoT, control, and the second best tanking.

Compared to some other pulls (the example mentioned was Necro’s “Necrotic Grasp”), it’s really not that great; however, it definitely is pretty useful. The time you’re going to use it most is when you’re attacking a tower on WvW. Just pull enemies down from above, and they’ll pretty much die instantly under your army.

D/D is a perfectly fine weaponset that still works just as well post-patch, but I, for one, have never been a fan of it. I feel that it’s just a weak set to bring; you only use 2-3 of your skills- auto attack, HS (and not even HS in some builds), and C&D. C&D itself is a very weak attack that’s predictable, gives only a very short stealth, and is extremely costly. An avoided C&D can turn into a disaster. Even if you do manage to get down C&D well, you still have to hope that your opponent isn’t good enough to avoid your backstab (or punish you for it), otherwise all of your efforts will be for nought. I just can’t bring myself around to believe that the high damage given by the D/D spec is worth it, given everything that you have to give up for it.

Personally, IMHO: run D/P. It’s basically D/D’s older brother, except that you can use all of your attacks (which are all wonderful). The only possible benefit D/D gives over D/P is C&D, but I can’t bring myself around to believe that that’s worth giving up a ranged interrupt, blind+shadowstep+high damage, and black powder (which also allows you to stealth anyways).

^ Adding to that: for many thieves, movement patterns in stealth are highly predictable. I mean, we’re only human. There’s no reason to believe that we can’t act in a predictable manner.

greyblue.4962:

So lately the WvW meta on my server seems to involve stacking 50-80 people on a single spot, and then moving them around in short hops with portals (no one walks, ever). I’ve watched turtle groups like this shrug off 5 arrow carts, so siege seems totally ineffective. Currently there are two ways I know of to counter:

1. Have your own turtle, and see who gets bored first.
2. Glamour mesmers

With the upcoming PVE/WvW skill split, there seems to be an expectation that confusion will be made harmless in WvW, which would remove option #2. I’m concerned this will further cement the turtle meta. The consensus I’ve been hearing even from people who participate in turtles is that no one has much fun doing this, it’s just the most effective route to victory.

What’s everyone’s take on this? I would argue that the most successful way to play WvW shouldn’t be soul-crushingly dull like turtles are. Success should not oppose fun in a game.

Should we kill the turtle? If so, how?

It’s simple:
We kill the Mesmer. :P

No, but outside from killing the mes that’s about to lay down the portal, remember that the portal very much acts as a bottleneck on groups. If you can guess where a portal is about to be thrown down, then you could be doing 10-15K DPS (across all enemies) on your character just by AoEing the portal.

Fenrir.4237:

Know what’s even cuter? This right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4gXKLbrvMk
Learn your kitten bro before even trying to make fun of me.

Just wanted to say that this discussion is going to start to go off-topic. Stop picking the nitty gritties, seriously, this is a discussion about “Why idiots think Thief is OP” not about wether Thief is annoying or wether or not Necro having tons of DPS is right.

I just wanted to say- I have major respect for necros. They’re a highly underused and underrated class that I think has a lot of potential.

As for the topic… Probably because they simply haven’t learned how to play against one yet. Honestly, a lot of the thieves that I see are one-trick ponies; once you avoid their first wave of attacks, you’ve pretty much won. The only reason, I imagine, that this works is because people just don’t understand thief tactics. Maybe they haven’t played a thief themselves. Once you understand the thief’s mobility and stealth, you are guaranteed to have at least equal ground to decent thieves, you’ll overpower weak GC thieves, and, with the best thieves… It’ll be a very difficult but very fascinating battle.

Bas.7406:

Thizz.3970:

what’s a terrormancer?

It’s essentially similar to a condition mancer except they pickup Terror and the 50 percent longer time on fear along with Fear duration runes. It’s a fun and interesting way to play. A really good terror build can control a fight. Their problem is along the lines of they are really bad if you are focused on, but that’s true with a majority of our builds.

Edit: That’s true with a majority of builds. :P

I’ve always been interested in necros, I’ll go try this build out as soon as I can.

I’ll be doing some edits later.

drongas.4189:

if u like be a coward, ur choise is thief or ele. just see if they can beat some1 in 1v1, they just run away. 0 respect for enemy
if u like be a real true man!!!oneone!!!! pick prof without good escape skill. like mesmer, it real chalenge when u cant escape. but in battle u can learn how to be a good player and kill 2 or 3 against u

That’s not being a “real true man”, that’s just being ridiculous.

“lol better face an entire army with my profession that’ll die within the first 5 seconds of combat!”

Check the D/P build in my sig.

More explanation of the build can be found here.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/any-news-for-competitive-thief/first#post1815612

iNaddict.8021:

Hey Arg,

your build looks interesting.. how is the burst and sustained dmg though..? without traits in the crit + power lines.. im reluctant to try it.

i have always been lazy in switching traits back and forth.. preferably i want a build i can use for PVP and PVE… (even if it costs pve dps a little)

One of the things that I make sure to include with my build, for PvP, is zerker amulet. That means that I’m getting Toughness, Healing, and Vits from traits, and power and prec from gear. That’s PvP. For WvW/PvE, I usually run all zerker except for one or two items (typically, a heal/toughness-type coat and something else- your decision). For example, in my current build, I run

- Zerker Helmet
- Zerker pants
- Zho’s Coat (+Power, +Healing, +Toughness)
- Ascended Amulet (can’t find it on wiki, but it basically gives you the same buffs that zerker gear gives you)
- Zerker shoulders

And then some underleveled kitten that I only have because I can’t afford anything else. :P anyways, the build works absolutely spectacularly; I love it. So, to balance out the build, I run full zerker with a bit of Toughness and Healing thrown in every once in a while. The result? Very nice damage that still maintains the same survivability from before.

Gear that you’ll want to look at includes Zerker, Valkyrie, Knight, and Cavalier. Preferably Zerker and Knight, and something that gives you some Healing Power.

None of them. There’s no requirement for having at least one “OP” class at all times in GW2.

Einlanzer.1627:

Arganthium.5638:

Dasorine.1964:

Arganthium.5638:

Einlanzer.1627:

It really has little to do with your build; it’s exactly like Dasorine said above:

Thieves are exceptionally weak defensively, and that’s about it. They are at or near average everywhere else.

/sigh

That’s completely wrong. It’s like telling me that a bunker guardian has the same defensive capabilities as a GC guardian, that a Minion Master Necro has the same defense as any other necro. It’s just not true, not in the least bit, and if you believe otherwise, then you simply have not played a defense-based thief build yet.

While someone built to bunker will have more defense than someone of the same profession that isn’t built to bunker they will both have access to the same defensive measures in general (GC guardian get access to protection and aegis just like a bunker one) the difference being the amount between them.

That doesn’t change the fact that those defensive measures are much sturdier and more reliable, specially in high end competitive play, than say stealth, blinds and evasions.

Sure, both have the same initial base resources to them, I just think it’s wrong to classify thieves overall as having low toughness; many thieves focus specifically on more “bunker-type” builds.

Yes, and they’re worse at it than other professions due to game’s lowest health, medium armor, and a lack of compensatory skills. They don’t really get anything in return either.

Really? Let’s see:
-High DPS
-Best mobility in the game
-Second best versatility while in battle (next only to ele, of course)
-Best weapon system (initiative)
-Stealth
-Blinds left and right
-Some of the most diverse builds (something a class like the ele lacks, esp. with how commonplace X/X/X/30/30 is for them)
-Options for players who want to do either condition damage or direct damage, as well as good options for having a mix of the two
-Thief version of parkour (Shortbow’s Infiltrator’s Arrow allows you to fly up and down cliffs, weave like nobody’s business, blind with shadowstep to go right in your opponent’s face and mince them with your blades, jump across certain gaps, and so much more)
-Most aggressive profession in the game

Now, for the past few months, one of my jobs, as a thief, has been to discover some of the hardiest, craziest, most unique builds that are not only playable, but, I think, could become the new thief metagame. The past two/three months, I’ve been playing the D/P build listed in my signature almost exclusively, and, I have to say- to me, it’s like what the x/x/x/30/30 spec is to the ele. The build works with just about any weapon set, is crazy survivable, and brings together some of the best things about the thief and mashes them together into one solid build. It’s the 0/0/20/30/20 spec, which, with the proper gear (listed in previous comments), is extremely balanced and does substantially high damage. To me, it’s practically the version of the thief’s “bunker build”, giving it high survivability but still great damage. Actually, to me, it’s kind of like a standard DPS guardian on steroids. It has about the same survivability, but has some of the things that standard guards can never have, like higher damage, insane mobility, wonderful flexibility, and- of course- stealth.

The thief’s lack of defense is easily made up for by the right build, and as people shift away from extremely aggressive but somewhat weaker thief builds and move to more bunker-type builds, the thief will regain popularity and respect among all classes, and will be considered much more competitive than it currently is.

Jinks.2057:

Florgknight.1589:

So how do you plan to prove more people play WvW?

Enter the mists.

Goto server browser and add up all numbers.

Next go compare those numbers to JQs WvW population.

Thank you

Probably not a very good test to see which one is more popular, but the point still stands: WvW has almost certainly overtaken PvP in popularity. For me, the indicators of this are the fact that the PvP community is far, far more homogenous in its beliefs, while the WvW population has an extremely diverse set of beliefs that you would expect, coming from plenty of different servers and with all of these people who have different play experiences.

Personally, I love WvW; I really only use PvP to test out new builds. WvW is just… Epic. In every way.

Dasorine.1964:

Arganthium.5638:

Einlanzer.1627:

It really has little to do with your build; it’s exactly like Dasorine said above:

Thieves are exceptionally weak defensively, and that’s about it. They are at or near average everywhere else.

/sigh

That’s completely wrong. It’s like telling me that a bunker guardian has the same defensive capabilities as a GC guardian, that a Minion Master Necro has the same defense as any other necro. It’s just not true, not in the least bit, and if you believe otherwise, then you simply have not played a defense-based thief build yet.

While someone built to bunker will have more defense than someone of the same profession that isn’t built to bunker they will both have access to the same defensive measures in general (GC guardian get access to protection and aegis just like a bunker one) the difference being the amount between them.

That doesn’t change the fact that those defensive measures are much sturdier and more reliable, specially in high end competitive play, than say stealth, blinds and evasions.

Sure, both have the same initial base resources to them, I just think it’s wrong to classify thieves overall as having low toughness; many thieves focus specifically on more “bunker-type” builds.

Authority.6145:

Arganthium.5638:

Some interesting changes you made there. c: I kinda like them, actually. They’re not bad.

Well If I tell you why this is the new SPvP Killah Arena will definitely nerf it.

/facepalm.

On a serious note, the changes and switches I make over time are on par with my vision of a Thief’s role in groups; so specifically in SPvP. Whereas I would be overly aggressive with D/D, with D/P I had to compromise into what exactly I want to be and how my personal playstyle can contribute to group dynamics.

I took me approximately two months (since I am indeed a slow learner) to feel comfortable with D/P and so I have been struggling until last week where I am feeling it.

I am personally not fond of long cooldowns in traits and I do not think that long cooldowns synergize well with a thief. I see it as a paradox. But that is my perception that has been reinforced from other MMOs and hasn’t changed at all with this one as well.

I would like to think that this build is an all around build for SPvP; I would like to think it is good enough to be called a DPS Roamer build. That is how I see my self right now and it might just be me who has that completed vision about how to maximize/utilize dps with roaming.

On another note, this is an old debate but

• 15 points on acrobatics could be spend on other trait lines; i.e Shadow I assume.
• Withdraw with vigor trait.
• If you see your self inclined to invest on might you might as well go full on it; might runes + possibly investing more on the damage trait.
• I had a brief discussion with someone about the whole boon strip way but I can’t remember what exactly was said but when I do I will add to it.

But like I said this is the way I see a thief or my self into a group for SPvP.

Interesting, I’ll try this out sometime.

Pfft. ANet discovers that we’ve created a new thief build? Time to nerf it!

This… This…

I don’t even want to think about the QQing that “thieves don’t have enough survivability!” that this build is going to cause.

Darkothe.1253:

The really funny thing about GoM is that if we get riled up enough…we’re dangerous. Keep kicking the hornets nest. We’ll rebound. We’ll regroup. We’re having fun, learning things and adapting. I think this week has been a great lesson for us. If anything, it’s showed us that we need to get hungry again, start recruiting, adjusting our tactics and play past all of the nay sayers and trolls.

It’s all good. Turn your backs on poor, little GoM. We promise we’re not going to be a threat. Really…

Want a cookie?

Being ex-GoM, I just want to say… You guys are great. Your server includes some of the friendliest people ever, and some really great commanders (CUBES FTW!). You guys are well-organized, and I look forward to seeing you guys leap up in the rankings some day.

Waffler.1257:

Arganthium.5638:

Waffler.1257:

Arganthium.5638:

Waffler.1257:

Kurojin.3495:

Stealth does barely anything

If you really believed this then you wouldn’t be posting on the forums to complain about it getting nerfed.

What he’s saying is that it’s ridiculous to nerf an already weak mechanic.

If you think stealth is a weak mechanic then you have no idea how to use it properly.

I didn’t say that. I just reiterated what he said.

I think stealth is very strong, but far from OP. On the other hand, the O kitten aying that stealth is weak. I didn’t say “What I’m saying”, I said “What he’s saying”.

I was using “you” in a general sense, not referring directly to you.

Oh. Lol. Touché.

Either way, this is somewhat irrelevant. I think that the OP might be wrong in some regards, but that he’s right in saying that it is far from impossible to counter stealthed thieves.

Waffler.1257:

Arganthium.5638:

Waffler.1257:

Kurojin.3495:

Stealth does barely anything

If you really believed this then you wouldn’t be posting on the forums to complain about it getting nerfed.

What he’s saying is that it’s ridiculous to nerf an already weak mechanic.

If you think stealth is a weak mechanic then you have no idea how to use it properly.

I didn’t say that. I just reiterated what he said.

I think stealth is very strong, but far from OP. On the other hand, the OP says that stealth is weak. I didn’t say “What I’m saying”, I said “What he’s saying”.

Lol, when warrs 100b while you’re stealthed…

It depends. How do you like to play?

Waffler.1257:

Kurojin.3495:

Stealth does barely anything

If you really believed this then you wouldn’t be posting on the forums to complain about it getting nerfed.

What he’s saying is that it’s ridiculous to nerf an already weak mechanic.

Welcome to the beliefs of 99% of the thief community. May I redirect you to the PvP section, where you can experience our latest news, including;
- Asura are OP
- Stealth is OP
- Classes that beat me are OP
- Thief is extremely weak, plz ban from our PvP
- Thieves OP
- Damage is OP

And more?

TallDan.6350:

I have been solo roaming my new mesmer and been having fun doing it. I don’t think it matters what class you have, they all have good and bad points, you should just pick the one you find most fun.

Honestly, this is probably the best suggestion.
I think that some classes have better solo specs than others do, but your playstyle might make, say, your guardian a better roamer than an ele would be. Anyways, you should be playing to have fun. Pick which class you like most, and we can help you from there to develop a soloing build. c:

Personally, I’d like to see reduced times on both scepter and staff skills. For example, Scepter auto-attack; I would much rather see that give, say, 1 second of burn, and have instead a cast time of, say, between 1/2 and 3/4 seconds. Or Dragon’s Tooth; make it ground-targeted, so that it’s less easily avoidable. That kind of stuff.

Perfecthair.4190:

when you say a sword or greatsword do you mean that for a ranger?

Yes.

Scumbag Mawile.6384:

Going to have a rough time soloing camps underleveled.

^ also, this.

IMO, probably roll ranger or thief:
Ranger:
-Has long range :P
-A great ally
-Traps extremely useful for yaks and camps

Thief:
-Has stealth
-Best mobility in the game
-High damage
-Good defense (NOTE: only if spec’d right. Do not run a 25/30/X build and expect to have good defense)
-Has stealth
-Has stealth
-Has stealth

EDIT: also, as Ind said, ele is a great choice (NOT staff ele). I would probably put them in order as

Thief > Ele > Ranger

I’m really conflicted between thief and ele though… Ugh. Two great roaming classes. :P I think it’ll have to come down to which one you prefer.

Einlanzer.1627:

It really has little to do with your build; it’s exactly like Dasorine said above:

Thieves are exceptionally weak defensively, and that’s about it. They are at or near average everywhere else.

/sigh

That’s completely wrong. It’s like telling me that a bunker guardian has the same defensive capabilities as a GC guardian, that a Minion Master Necro has the same defense as any other necro. It’s just not true, not in the least bit, and if you believe otherwise, then you simply have not played a defense-based thief build yet.

How do you like the build, Das?

Here are my ideas:
-Boost pistol range to 3000
-Make “Body Shot” fire a harpoon that goes through the enemy for 5K damage and pulls them to you.
-Increase auto attack damage by 200%
-Make headshot blow the head off of your enemy if it’s the last hit that enemy takes before dying
-Make the autoattack fire paintballs that stay on enemy armor/skin permanently.
-When you use black powder, the entire field is covered in smoke for 10 seconds
-Shooting through black powder blinds enemy players.
-Vital shot’s bleeding (since the picture shows a foot) now adds 10s cripple.
-Bleeding from Vital Shot appears as blood gushing out of the enemy.
-When you get hit with headshot, your speakers make an extremely loud banging noise, followed by a constant ringing for the next three minutes
-For Unload, the player unloads both of his/her guns and throws them at his/her opponent. Instakill if attack hits.

Some interesting changes you made there. c: I kinda like them, actually. They’re not bad.

Authority.6145:

Arganthium.5638:

Authority.6145:

Arganthium.5638:

I’ll be trying out some purely SB-based builds when I can, probably add those under the “Ranged” section. I’ve tried a few before, they’re actually pretty good, although they rely on CB a lot. -_-

I am really against those because if you purely go for ranged builds then you might as well reroll to a ranger but that is my opinion.

I know what you mean, and while I partially agree, Rangers don’t have the stealth nor mobility that thieves have. Also, Rangers’ bows don’t give them a lot of versatility, whikitten n the thief is a highly flexible weapon. Still, overall, I might be inclined to agree with you.

Here is the final direct damage d/p.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAoalUmaPHdy5E/JFy2jKcnIK/DglWBaq/AWB

Editing, one sec.

Here, perhaps, is a bit of a more complete build:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.1|8.1g.a7.a.1g.a7|5.1g.a7|1n.a7.1g.a7.1n.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7|2s.d13.2s.d13.31j.d16.2s.d13.31j.d16.2v.d13|0.0.k15.u29a.k37|2e.0|57.5a.5b.5c.5w|e

I did BS some of the stuff, like food… But overall, I think that that should be a pretty good sketch of what the final build looks like.

(note that the coat and helmet are both knight’s, everything else in terms of armor is zerker)