Guild Wars 2

Do you have a screen shot of your stats?

I’ll give you my run down.

Head/Chest/Legs – Knights + Beryl Orb
Hands/Shoulder/Boots – Valkyrie + Beryl
Emerald jewelry + Ruby gems.
Beserker Weapon + <whatever you want, I have Beryl Orb>
Back is the Soldier Spineguard + Crest of the Soldier.

Couple the 0/15/30/20/5 build with your food and oil and you get some pretty decent stats. Close to 3k attk, 3k defense, 15k+ health, around 50%+ crit and about 75% crit dmg.

korelg.7862:

i think the best stat combo is power/vit/tough armor and Vit/crit/heal-pow trinkets + back slot, weapons can be Knight or vit/crit/heal-pow, whatever works for you.

this is what gave me the best results, 18k hp, about 3k armor and 1k+ Healing power, also pick up a +10 prec on kill sigil for a nice boost on crit chance

well this is because, while it is true that heal pow goes well with toughness, you still need some vitality, cause our base hp is way too low

Thanks for the idea. I’ve been looking at a frontline sponge build that can take hits and pressure the enemies back or scatter. If only I had more control than hammer or binding blade. ..

Look up on wiki why you shouldnt mix healing power with AH. Wait, I’ll save you the trip. AH takes advantage of 1% of your healing power. Food for thought.

I would not recommend this on a guardian.

tanshiniza.8629:

I wear full knights gear for armour and use berserker weapons.
I have 2 ascended rings as well as the ascended back piece all berserker.
I use Emerald jewellery with emeralds or berserker/beryl in the extra slots.

With regards to food I decided to pick up some lower level stuff that gave me 60 vit and 80 precision which took me to 16,300 HP and 53% crit though for actual WvW etc I take the food that improves my endurance regen rate which is why I gave you may stats without food.

If anyone would like me to I will post my exact stats down to the last decimal point this evening when I can get online

Any luck with a screenshot or a list of your gear so we can see ways to get the most out of our items?

bri.2359:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

@Bri, I like where you are going with this. What were your end stats?

ok, here are my stats with 2H equipped ( berserker greatsword)

power: 1802
precision: 1506
toughness: 1523
vitality: 1638
attack: 2902
crit chance: 32%
crit damage: 69%
armour: 2734
health: 18025

If you go with my suggestion up above, You lose about 1k health and 2% crit but gain a good amount of attack, defense, and crit damage. Up to you.

Appreciate the replies everyone!

@Tanshiniza, Yes please. Screenshot works too. I can get close to your numbers but I am short on the crit, crit dmg and power side. Only by a few. Probably because I am only in exotics.

@Bri, I like where you are going with this. What were your end stats? I have a spreadsheet I was going to try for my thief using similar items (Knights Head, Chest, Legs + Valk boots, hands, shoulder + beryl orbs)/ (Emmy trinkets + beryl gems)/(Valk weapons + beryl orbs)

He has 3266 attk, 2557 defense, 15k health and 37% crit with 77 crit dmg. He does well enough for the 25/30/0/0/15 build. I haven’t found any builds yet that allow me to be more a toe to toe fighter. Long duration fights = thief loses.

If I use that same setup for my guardian though with the 0/15/30/20/5 and a 2h hammer (valk + beryl orb) I have 2995 attk, 3004 defense, 16815 health and about 30% crit chance @ 74% crit dmg.

I’m too poor for food and oil…

Hey guys, been trying to do my own math on a spreadsheet and before I dive in and buy a full suit I figured I’d ask if anyone else out there has been successful. I’m looking at a full arsenal of PVT (armor, trinkets, weapons, crests, and soldier runes 6/6) or should I go PvT armor + Soldier runes, emerald crystals+emerald gems, and a PVT weapon.

I’m weighing whether the 12% crit and almost 100 armor difference I am seeing is worth the drop in 2k health and almost 100 power. Build is the 0/15/30/20/5 but I’d like to go 0/0/30/20/20 for a cleansing machine.

Weapon I might use is hammer since I won’t be shooting for crit but heavy hits and CC.

Toss me your thoughts. Just looking for a sturdy front line fighter that can take some hits and return them. More balanced than a glass cannon or a bunker.

I would like to see them remove the thief class all together and give me a kind of swashbuckler type class that deals with light armor but is more weapon focused and dabbles with evasive abilities and CC. Every MMO I have played from DAoC till now I have had a stealth class and it’s by far my favorite class to play but GW2 still needs to work on their outlook of what a thief is (along with that kitten culling issue) and come to the realization that “yeah we kittened up and we need to fix this.”

While I’m here, can we get guns range to 1200 or dual sword? Would love to see D/S combos where D/S gave a parry or deflect ability for the dual (attempt to parry next attack for 4 seconds and daze your target for 1 second while dealing damage).

Please update title to say “Requesting SB Specs” Just helps us assist you better.

I use this one: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAV8alYm6Oncy9E95Ey2jKUn4JPFfVX1pgrsKA;TIAg0CnA

I use a mix of Zerk/Valk armor and trinkets, Zerk weapons, and my auto attack crits for 2-4k. A lot of ways to keep away from your targets. When you heal every 15 seconds you gain vigor for 10 seconds. You almost never run out of dodges.

You can change your elite and SR for something of your preference but I like SR because I can get away from fights I will probably die in.

Cheers mate.

I hope this is what I am looking for to min/max my dps output.

Let’s be honest, almost anyone that plays a Thief can come up with a better ability for Flanking Strike. I would take a Vampiric Strike that steals health and has a damage modifier based on healing power (or just increases life drained).

Doesn’t matter the name honestly, just get rid of Flanking Strike.

Any mathematicians have a good formula that can calculate effective damage so I can figure out how much crit damage I should roll with based on crit and power?

Here is what I really want to know: What is the best/most effective combination of Power, Precision, and Crit Damage I should shoot for?

We know too much crit dmg does little if we have low crit and crits alone are terrible if we don’t have enough power backing it up… so what is a good balance?

Thanks for the feedback. I played around with it in spvp using cleric neck + rampager gem and I had about 24 crit which felt like enough. Sometimes I felt like my guardian’s AH build. Thanks for the link Adaneshade I will look into that soon. Was hoping I found a rare build that could be viable. Ill keep crunching numbers and see how it pans out. Poor Giit, it’s ok Giit we understand why you troll the thief forums.

Hey guys,

Trying to get away from the glass cannon thief and do something different. Something more tanky and that can stand toe to toe with another player(s) while not suffering too much on damage. Just looking for an alternative to backstab thief.

My thoughts so far.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVlcmCNXay9E+5Ey2jeqCJKuHJFU1UdFwKA (Copy and paste to browser)

Armor and weapons is the question. I thought maybe Cleric since we have a lot of abilities that scale well with healing power but how much precision would we have to sacrifice for that more healing sustained?

My weapon of choice was D/D for backstab and Hidden Killer for 100% crits but you can swap out D/D for S/D and get Executioner for more dmg output. Luckily, I believe this build can work with any weapon combination. S/P and P/P will have the multi-hit attacks that take advantage of SoM’s passive healing but it’s totally up to your playstyle.

All from GW2 Wiki:

Leeching Venoms – Heals for 325 plus 0.2 x Healing Power.
Shadow’s Rejuvenation – Does not grant the boon regeneration. Instead, pulses a heal when you enter stealth and every second you remain in stealth.
Each pulse heals for 293 + 0.1 * Healing Power at 80.
Shadow Refuge – Each pulse heals for 355 + 0.18 * Healing Power at 80. (Pulses five times over four seconds, once as it’s cast and then once each second.)
Signet of Malice – The passive gains 5% benefit from Healing Power.
The active gains 50% benefit from Healing Power, though this is not shown in the tooltip. (100 + 0.05 * Healing Power for passive) or (3275 + 0.5 * healing power for active).

I didn’t pick up Assassin’s Reward but you could go for this instead of so much down Critical Strikes. Here is the formula: At level 80, this heals you for 69 + (0.035 x healing power) per point of initiative spent.

Just a demonstration though, we take 1000 Healing Power and add it to all your abilities.

Leeching Venoms: Each strike with poison will heal for 525 (8 poison attacks available = 4200 health).
Shadow’s Rejuvenation (letting stealth last at least 3 of 4 seconds): When you first enter stealth and for 3 seconds after you gain 1572 health (per description).
Shadow’s Refuge(may be incorrect, have not tested): 2675 (5 pulses) + 4323 (10 seconds of stealth + when entering stealth).
SoM per hit: 150 per attack.
Assassin’s Reward: 1248(104 health per 1 initiative) healing for 12 initiative spent. That’s it. Hence why I did not pick it up.

This build gets even more ridiculous if you throw in life stealing food and god knows what else I haven’t thought of… Sorry for the wall of text.

TLDR: Option for giving yourself sustaining health through doing damage and stealth.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVlUmKO3ey5E/5Ex2DfqTe6fgs6MoZLB;TIAg0CnA (copy and paste into browser)

Go full Beserker in everything. If you want a little more health put Beryl Orbs in armor but everything needs to be zerker.

TLDR….

80 thief here and I agree with the 6 second reveal debuff increase and fix culling issue before any “balancing” can occur on the thief.

-Artemis the Shade – SoS – The Industry

Daendur.2357:

i’m fine with it.
it could also be changed in a nerfed Defy Pain (maybe 2 sec instead of 5)

lol Cheat Death anyone? Procs at 10% health but reduces damage taken by 90% for 3 seconds…

Adane, what are your stats?

Very cool. Once I gather some gold I will definitely check this out.

If you run S/D what armor and stats are you using? I’m a D/D thief and looking for other options out there. I can’t seem to find a good fit for my thief that can stand toe to toe with enemies and make it out alive. Medium armor + high toughness doesn’t seem to make much a difference. Even with Toughness/Vitality/Power gear I am still squishy it seems.

I was actually running Beserker armor/weapons + Ruby Orbs and Valkyrie trinkets. I just lacked the crit for backstab w/ Executioner. I could probably run full Valkyrie armor if I use Hidden Killer but then I drop +20% dmg at <50% health.

I play the glass cannon right now but people sneeze at me and I get torn apart. Anyone tried other gear or trait configurations and are successful?

Shoot me your ideas and success stories.

I carry my Knights set and Clerics set and just play how I feel. Knights set is built for my terminator style gameplay with a group or roaming. If I roam I use meditations. If I am in a group i use shouts. My builds range from the known 0/15/30/20/5 to 0/0/30/30/10 or cleric’s 0/0/10/30/30 for passive VoR and symbols healing.

I wish there was a more effective way to heal my group but it is what it is.

Kreoss.8419:

Honestly, the elites are realistically fine but I won’t lie and say that I am happy with them. When talking about the elites, its a practicality issue rather than a power issue.

Tomes
Most of the time your not really able to maximise the power of the tomes in combat and the fact that they don’t really interact with any traits and remove your utility skills makes them very difficult to optimise and build around. They fail to play a role as an “oh crap” button and have poor synergy with pretty much everything. If you can stand off to the side, undisturbed then your opponents deserve the tide turning that they bring but the glowing books are hard to miss.

Renewed Focus
With a fully spec’d virtue tree this can be pretty beefy but realistically the main part of this ability is the resetting of the virtues. Being invulnerable for 3s does nothing when you can’t move away from the threat and even if you could move guardians tend to fail at escaping but at least you’d have a chance.

Suggestion
Just give 3 practical elites that interact with traits and are more useful in more scenarios.

Virtues Call (Shout, 180s recharge) – applies all effects as if all 3 virtues had been activated – this gives the same benefits as renewed focus in a singular button that is instant and adds few more benefits if traits for shouts are spec’d

Light of Deliverance (Mediation, 180s recharge) – doesn’t have to be a full heal, a 9000 heal + 1.5 points : 1 +healing is probably right for an elite – honestly this is what people want to cast, having to cast the tome then cast the spell makes it an insanely long cast, making it a mediation gives you the ability to make it instant and having mediations heal will add some extra points of healing to it.

Symbol of Radiance (Symbol, 180s recharge) – give it a large base area, 4s, placeable template, wrath like damage, applies 1s burning and blind each second to enemies in the area – honestly with the amount of symbol buffs you can get (larger area, longer, heals, more damage, vulnerable) I am surprised there isn’t an elite symbol.

I like where you are going with this too. I wish they would increase symbols radius to what is talented and increase it more with Writ of Exaltation. It’s stationary so it can cause the enemy to make a choice. Fight in the symbol or run out.

Consecration – “Insert Corny Name Here” – 3 Second cast (180 second cd) – Combine all the consecrations into one for 10 seconds. Gain stability, cleanse conditions, gain regen for 1 second refreshing every second, reflect projectiles, and burn for 1 second refreshing every 1 second on enemies that walk into the bubble.

alemfi.5107:

While they aren’t BAD per-se, I do feel that there is some missing potential with the elites. As mentioned by others, abilities 3 of the abilities per tome are often unused. What I’m thinking is that Anet should probably just merge the tomes into one.

1 & 2 would be the respective 1’s of each tome.
3 could be a mass stun, as it is present in both books.
4 could be the mass quickness in tome of wrath
5 is the mass area heal.

That way we combine what (imo) are the good and used parts of the books, and than we have room for another elite skill.

Just my two cents, granted there might need to be some balancing rework, b/c I would feel like a god with this book.

I actually really like this idea. I think I would be ok with combining the #1’s as one so where you cast the heal it also damages enemies. #2 should blind, cripple, and weaken targets in a cone for 5 seconds. #3 could be based of proximity to the guardian. <600 you get stunned for 2 seconds. >600 you get dazed for 2 seconds. #4 – The buffs are the tricky one to balance. You could just give all buffs to closest 5 allies for 10 seconds (like a Save Yourself) I suppose. That might need tweaking. #5 Would be a full heal to 5 allies (healing the lowest health players first) and a knockdown for 2 seconds.

All in all, no matter what they did, I would be satisfied with combining the tomes into one. Would be worth it then for being a 3 minute cool down.

The question is…what would we use as our third elite?

I would agree with Symbols being perceived as an aura that follows us around. Give a hard 1 second duration for boon from aura and make the aura tick every second to refresh the boon (non-stacking and unaffected by boon bonus duration). I really wish they would change up the combo fields for the symbols we have. Symbol of Wrath would be best as a fire combo field. Symbol of Swiftness would be combo field lightning. Symbol of Protection would be combo field ice. Symbol of Faith would be combo field water. And please create Smite as a symbol with combo field light (reason being that it’s a ranged aoe and other range would be shooting through or into it).

Having these symbols changed to something besides light will add a little more variety in our combo finishers. Right now the Guardian only as access to 2 combo fields and 5 combo finishers out of all of our weapons(GS x3, Hammer x1, and focus x1). Scepter isn’t even a projectile finisher… There is plenty of work that could be done to the class to make it stronger. For now we have to be patient and just voice our suggestions and concerns.

Azunai.1065:

jesus.. its about 2 rings atm, so why would actualy start to QQ about them not beeing obtainable in WvW atm
its not like your power gets to >9000 cause you have one

9000?!

Doesn’t work. Video was removed by user on youtube.

I AM.2186:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Alsonia.4753:

PRX carry SoS so hard. Good to see HoD back on top.

PRX was on EB duty this week. They did a great job but you can’t expect people to actually believe that PRX is carrying SoS. Sea of Sorrows is carrying Sea of Sorrows. Go back to Blackgate and work on your tactics.

Thank you.

PRX was actually “assigned” to JQ BL this week… Just sayin.

“CarelessKrow.8032
As an EB regular, I didn’t see much PRX this week. Can’t really say they were “assigned to duty” there.”

Sorry, this was what I was told at the beginning of the week when I asked what BL we (my guild) were in. PRX may have moved to another BL possible. I’m not on the mumble for the guild leaders so they could have switched.

The Industry was in SoS BL though and where we primarily stayed.

Alsonia.4753:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Alsonia.4753:

PRX carry SoS so hard. Good to see HoD back on top.

PRX was on EB duty this week. They did a great job but you can’t expect people to actually believe that PRX is carrying SoS. Sea of Sorrows is carrying Sea of Sorrows. Go back to Blackgate and work on your tactics.

Thank you.

It’s kids like this; that embody why I left Sea of Sorrows. Overzealous chest pounders; that take advantage of every waking second they can do it. If you understood anything about BG; you would realize our coverage killed us more than anything.

But you’d rather run your mouth on the forums.

I’m not being overzealous, I’m just disagreeing with your opinion that PRX is carrying all the BL’s. It doesn’t make much sense. PRX is a great guild and I’m glad we have them. And I understand much about BG since I transferred out of that kitten hole about 6 weeks ago. Still have a friend’s guild there that I am still apart of, Righteous Kill. I remember playing Maguuma and HoD when TA was still around and they stomped us. I’m actually happy I didn’t have to experience the slow drop in morale then exploiting BG is sadly known for. Please spare me your assumptions.

Alsonia.4753:

PRX carry SoS so hard. Good to see HoD back on top.

PRX was on EB duty this week. They did a great job but you can’t expect people to actually believe that PRX is carrying SoS. Sea of Sorrows is carrying Sea of Sorrows. Go back to Blackgate and work on your tactics.

Thank you.

Magni.2835:

It will be interesting to see how things look in a couple weeks as it appears that the trend is for the top server to fizzle out at that point.

SoS has worked their kittens off to get to the top. I think once they reach their goal some may pump the brakes and take an earned break from WvW. Planetside 2 anyone?

Way to go SoS, keep up the good work! To my guildies….

DO WORK!

Hey all, I was just going through the forums and I didn’t notice any recent threads in regards to how guardians are able to support team mates with healing and boons efficiently. Are there any theorycrafting threads or theorycrafters out there that have done some research in regards to running mainly a support/heal build for maximum efficiency in healing/regen? I was wondering how much healing power is needed to really be able to heal effectively in WvW. I figured I’d be running Clerics/Knight but wasn’t sure which would be best. Any guidance, thread links, or direction is appreciated.

Typical glass cannon ele blowing all his utilities to kill one thief. Sounds familiar…

Hey guys, like most thieves I am running a backstab build, 0/30/30/10/0, and as far as gear goes I am in just rares and masterworks until I can afford the exotics. Currently have mixed Beserker/Ruby Orbs and Valkyrie/Beryl. I have about 39% crit(96% crit dmg), 2764 attack, 2170 armor, and 15k health. I’m sure if I had all exotics and food I would be running higher stats but I wanted to check all my options on gear before I buy/craft it all.

Anyways, I’m tired of being squishy and a one trick pony but I do not want to stray too far from backstab. Would it be viable to go Knights/Valkyrie set? I would like to know some good stats to stay in the fight longer and deal more backstabs with lesser crit damage compared to fewer backstabs crit’ing higher. Any advice is appreciated. With thieves having lowest health and pretty low armor/toughness I was trying to figure out if toughness is even worth picking up.

Are there any tanky builds out there that can deal good damage? Just looking for options right now besides glass cannon.

Looks like good stats. Crit damage will only improve this build. Knights + Valkyrie or Beserker is my suggestion. Warriors have high vitality already so by having high toughness you should do just fine.

I dig it man. I will give this a try myself. I wanted a warrior build that could incorporate Hammer/GS and you set that up perfectly for me. The only thing you lose out on is crit dmg but that stat is useless without 40%+ crit chance.

Nurvus.2891:

First off, if you build for simple straight-forward damage, you deserve to be beaten by simple straight-forward defense.

Onto the discussion: Bunker is a build that doesn’t do that much damage, and depends on boons.

A list of effective tools against Bunker:
- Poison (do damage and lower their healing)
- Chill (makes their skill cycle harder to perform)
- Interrupt (Heal)
- Remove Boon
- Convert Boons to Conditions (check-mate)

I disagree on the statement on how a defensive build should beat the offensive build each time. I think it should be a draw based on mistakes and interrupts. It should come down to the better player and class characteristics. It can’t be Guardian > All other classes too.

My suggestion? Bring a friend and what Nurvus said.

Regardless, I have come to a realization that it is crucial to have some crit and some crit damage. 20-50% crit dmg is a must for thieves. Sure you can get that from traits but it’s definitely needed. About 20-40% crit is about right too. If you can achieve some those stats via traits and maybe a few gems then go bananas on Power/Vit/Tough. I was trying to come up with a decent Cleric/Valkyrie combination and going 30 into CS. That gives you 18% crit and 30% crit dmg. I go Hidden Killer in the CS tree for 100% crits with backstab. If you go a stealth build + healing power you can give yourself some health back during those invis times but I think you’re better off with Signet of Malice for health regen.

Spvp or WvW or PvE?

Maybe Anet needs to put a .5-1 second global cooldown on the whole action bar?

That was awesome! Made me giggle. Thanks a lot!

There is actually so much misinformation in this thread that I’ve lost interested in hearing the people that don’t understand the class, its mechanics, or how their traits and stealth work.

Please educate yourselves about the thief before you come in here and try to make a statement on how the thief is OP and should be changed.

Thank you.

My two cents on how to make backstab more efficient for everyone. Make backstab a powerful attack but make it very situational. Can only be used if behind the player. The rear damage is around 2k dmg on the tooltip but maybe reduce this damage to deal around 1250-1400 but let backstab give off a condition. Bleed or vulnerability or something. Get creative. It’s backstab so you can say it leaves a mortal wound bleeding the target for 3k damage over 20 seconds or exposing the enemies weakness applies a 5% vulnerability condition. Whatever. How can we nerf the burst of this attack and still make it viable to use without really killing the dmg output of it?

Fitz.7169:

BabelFish.7234:

Fitz.7169:

I have an 80 Thief, and an 80 Warrior, you are DELUSIONAL if you dont think Thiefs are getting nerfed soon.

I think that bar CnD there’s nothing that deserves a nerf but we can’t even be sure if CnD is actually worth addressing because we have a render issue making the matter convoluted.

The fact that you can do a 5k mug, 5k CnD, 8k Backstab, 6k HS in the span of 2 seconds is what needs to get nerfed. No class should be able to instagib anyone like that. It’s been shown that no amount of toughness really matters against stuff like this.

Would applying a global cool down(0.5-1 second) between action #2-10 be a viable way to help slow thieve’s burst damage down without having to really nerf anything?

SKuDDer.1860:

You would know that the base health of a guardian is the lowest in the game. Unlike other professions in the game, if we do not put power into our builds we do almost no damage.

Actually, you have the same amount of health of a thief. Guardians just get to wear heavy armor so their total armor is greater. Regardless, I do agree that guardians could use a bump in vitality.

I roll with a mix of zerker and valkyrie gear in WvW to add Vitality but I suffer some precision. I’m not even full decked out in exotics because I’m a poor kitten. Running greens and yellow weapons. My vitality is about 16k and about 34% crit with…I forget it’s like 72-78% crit dmg. I think once my gear comes into play and I’m fully orbed up I’ll be packing a punch.

SKuDDer.1860:

Here is my suggestion. Conditions should remove/pop stealth, problem solved.

I have more of an issue with thieves being able to say, “hey this isn’t going well”, time to stealth to the other side of the map. (heartseaker/teleport/speed/stealth/etc)

If you are going to have the damage, you shouldn’t also have the survivability.

1. Then I want something that removes all conditions, like a Cloak of Shadows. Every kitten and their mother is able to put some kind of condition me someone that does damage. (Burning, Bleeding, Poison, and Immobilze-though does no damage holds me in place so a smart player and blindly attack me).

2.After a battle, let’s say a thief somehow has 12-15 initiative left over. They can heartseeker 4-5 times and the range is 450 each. That’s 1800-2250 range in a few seconds. Now he is out of initiative…completely. Then let’s say this thief has Shadowstep! 1200 Range, 50 second CD. And for grins and giggles, when he dodges he gets 2 seconds of swiftness so there is 4 seconds of swiftness and heck, let’s just throw in the signet of shadows for 25% movement speed increase outside of combat. Congrats rogue. You used 1 utility to teleport away, 1 passive utility that helps you only outside of combat and you walked away from a fight where he may have dropped 1 person before someone caught on. Too bad to pull that off again, he has to wait 50 seconds.

We hit and we run because if we stuck around we’re screwed.

3. LOL what? Ok, give me the damage but give me things that help me survive toe to toe and not mobility. Survivability to a thief is mobility.