Guild Wars 2

Did this on a Carrion Thief against Strugar and Chomper and Doobroosh (Crowd Favourite).

Thief. Did the 3 orb and 8 orb version with 2 slightly different builds.

Both Full Carrion with Sigil of Energy + Agony P/x + x/D:

3 orb
10/0/20/20/20
Signet of Malice, Caltrops, Refuge, Signet of Agility, Thieves Guild

8 orb
0/0/30/20/20
Withdraw, Caltrops, Scorpion Wire, Blinding Powder, Thieves Guild

Took me about 20 tries for each version of the fight, took me a while to get used to a rhythm.

I’d like more fights like this.

Yes, only part of the fight. She isn’t even a threat until you expose her with 3 orbs – her auto attack isn’t that strong and simply strafing repeatedly will stop it ever hitting you. The AoE always attacks a specific quadrant, and never the same place twice. The clones are incredibly slow and easy to kite, and if too many start spawning during the second phase, you can kite towards white lights to dispose of them. Just a small amount of situational awareness will guarantee you up to phase 2, where the same principle applies, only with someone actually attacking you in a threatening manner. Then, she isn’t invulnerable to CC and interrupts.

Phase 1 is the phase nobody should be worried about. Phase 2 is when a slip-up will leave you with a huge amount of Weakness, and if you can’t cleanse it, you’ll be in trouble.

Quarktastic.1027:

If all the instakill dross happening around the arena was part of the boss herself, I would agree with you. But it isn’t. You spend the entire fight battling the environment, rather than the boss.

Am I proud that I defeated her? Yes.

Do I wish the fight was more about the boss and less about fighting environmental effects? Yes.

Disagree. The “environment” is a direct form of attack from the boss herself. Everything you are competing against is the boss.

If the entire fight was focused around her person alone, she’d probably end up with Defiant stacks. I like the back-and-forth nature of this kind of fight.

Nilkemia.8507:

Heizero.9183:

Nilkemia.8507:

Troll detected. Containment procedures recommended.

Why do you say that? Myself, as well as a few of my RL friends 100% agree with OP’s statement.

Well, I disagree. I think that Queen’s Gauntlet was a good idea done horribly wrong and that anyone who claims that Liadri was well designed or a good challenge is lying, trolling, or insane, but that’s just my opinion, what would I know?

If this is a preview of what’s to come, things seem to be going downhill. One hit kills and gimmicky invulnerability on bosses are not fun and interesting, just cheap ways to kill and frustrate the player.

The OHKO attacks are only part of the fight, and are very systematic. I had more trouble sustaining my Thief against the constant Weakness and multitudes of smaller hits once she was exposed, to be honest.

She’s a great challenge. Once you know what to do, it’s fairly smooth sailing, barring a few issues with the camera in that arena.

I’ve done both metas too.

Where’s my giant plate of cookies with complementary cries of “BS” and hateful drivel?

Kite them both with Shortbow, Infiltrator’s Arrow to the food. Works every time.

Did it on Thief with S/P. Stood in the middle of them all and cleaved like crazy.

Somehow, I only killed the big ooze. Don’t ask how.

gurugeorge.9857:

Auesis.7301:

gurugeorge.9857:

I also voted against RNG. If the developers had wanted the cooler content developed, they should have put it on the anti-RNG ticket.

No, you didn’t. If you legitimately think your vote against Evon made any difference on the RNG front, you are seriously over-inflating the value of your decision and the impact it will have.

I think you’re being a bit naive. RNG boxes are a big thing in f2p MMOs, and some developers rely on them a lot. It seems to me that (apart from the many other reasons for having the event, most of them cool) there was a bit of a trial balloon being floated by the devs. They wanted to gauge the playerbase’s interest in the lockboxes, and thereby to see whether going further in the RNG direction would be acceptable to the players. The playerbase has sent a resounding NO WE ARE NOT ALL THAT INTERESTED IN LOCKBOXES message.

Even when the deal was sweetened by what would have been, lore-wise, a much more interesting Fractal, still the answer was NO.

Hopefully the message is clear and Anet wont flirt any more with RNG than they are doing already. It’s ok that lockboxes are in the game, some people like to gamble and that’s fine; but if they were to have more of a presence than they do (like for instance they do in the Cryptic f2p games), it would degrade the GW2 experience.

Your message was not resounding. The vote was almost 50/50 split.

When next month or the month after that rolls around and more RNG boxes are put in place, using the BL Tickets that have literally only just been implemented for this very purpose, I won’t even bother to entertain the inevitable salty tears from people who feel “betrayed” or something ridiculous like that.

Asomal.6453:

Lucius.2140:

I love it, one shotting means you cant fail, and i love it that way (and that it happens often). Also she do normal atacks.

One shot also means your build is unimportant. Why run something like toughness/vitality/condition damage if you are going to die regardless? It’s all zerk or nothing (also there’s the timer, to screw condition specs even more).

Actually, the extra vitality and toughness from my gear helped keep me all clean and shiny during Phase 1, easing some pressure from Phase 2.

That’s the passive of Signet of Rage, and it has been in the game since launch. I cannot even fathom how you haven’t noticed it before.

Travlane.5948:

p/d has 0 skills to break rifts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

C+D it, or if you have any DA, Mug it.

Anubarak.3012:

I had no time to fight her so pls forgive me this question: is she only vulnerable to conditions or why did you use the worst weapon set in PvE with a trash build?
I’ll try my luck with 30-30-10-0-0 (or 25-30-0-15-0 if I die to often) and dagger/dagger

Because she will totally and utterly annihilate you the instant you spawn if you spec totally glass with no extra evasion or defensive capabilities. It’s not like any other walkover part of PvE (and pretty much all of it IS walkover, even 48 Fractals to some extent). There’s a good reason most of the forum is crying.

And yes, P/D is the worst set in PvE for everywhere except this encounter. This build is absolutely AWFUL for any content except this encounter. In fact, this is the only time I’ve EVER used it or the weapon set in PvE, and I never will again.

Azraelle.1683:

>To combat all of this, I went for
Not challenging. I completed whole gauntlet with my default s/d build with out foodbuffs.

Good for you. Step two would be to post something constructive that would actually help other people, like I tried to do. Until you do that, you’re just being a braggart.

Andele.1306:

TwoBit.5903:

Auesis.7301:

bosgaurus.7408:

Thanks to people like you, encouraging this thing, many hunderds of normal folks have to suffer from frustration and time waste.

I’m sorry you can’t faceroll it like you’re not even playing the game, but some people like challenge. It’s good thing we have an entirely separate achievement section and arenas separated from the main meaty content…

Oh wait, you all still complain.

Keep at it, Anet.

Challenge = using your wits/reaction to solve a problem.

Difficulty = making the actual process of solving the problem difficult.

Think how fun Mario would be if instead of fun and interesting jumping levels, the goal is right in front of you but you the process of moving and jumping itself is difficult and you can’t really tell exactly where you need to jump. You also aren’t exactly sure if what you think is happening is really happening or if it’s something else altogether. And if you move just slightly wrong, you die. That’s what the boss is, difficulty disguised as challenge.

You did actually describe the older mario games http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NintendoHard

Something that is difficult is still difficult. If you have a hard time, regardless of the why, that’s the point.

bosgaurus.7408:

Thanks to people like you, encouraging this thing, many hunderds of normal folks have to suffer from frustration and time waste.

I’m sorry you can’t faceroll it like you’re not even playing the game, but some people like challenge. It’s a good thing we have an entirely separate achievement section and arenas separated from the main meaty content…

Oh wait, you all still complain.

Keep at it, Anet.

There is no anti-stealth gambit. That’s just a hideous bug.

Just finished the gauntlet myself, no problems with stealthing.

Already posted it on reddit, just thought I’d give it out here, too.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1jtwik/beating_liadri_on_thief/

Quick word of warning as some people didn’t quite get it: Anywhere else in the game, this build is TERRIBLE. This is tailored only for Liadri.

Just successfully did it on Thief. My advice for most people is to run condition builds – I found that being able to have her tick for damage while not physically attacking her worked wonders in keeping me aware and alive.

Running Liadri on Thief now. It’s definitely doable, I just made some mistakes.

No dagger, but I do have this.

gurugeorge.9857:

I also voted against RNG. If the developers had wanted the cooler content developed, they should have put it on the anti-RNG ticket.

No, you didn’t. If you legitimately think your vote against Evon made any difference on the RNG front, you are seriously over-inflating the value of your decision and the impact it will have.

Slightly updated my armor.

I relish Thieves on my Warrior in WvW. Depending on the approach, I have an idea of what kind of Thief they are going to be (attempt an initial burst or sustained condi). I’m prepared for both kinds.

A ton of ways to block or otherwise stop the initial burst and proceed to shut them down, and my build reduces the punishment from conditions by a large amount. Since I’m also specced highly defensively along with all the active defensive skills, D/P hybrids that try and balance damage and sustainability are a waste of time. They tickle. Like ants.

Don’t get me started on the ones that try and spam HS. That is just hilarious. By the time 25% of my HP or so has been taken, they’re out of juice.

It rounds up to 3 seconds in PvE/WvW, 2 seconds in PvP. PW is barely noticable.

shimmerless.4560:

sword thief is already barely credible (a sword, really?), dual swords is just silly

Warriors could use Scepters in GW1. Think of any totally insane combination, and GW1 allowed it.

What I find hilarious is people thinking that voting against Evon will do ANYTHING about RNG boxes. Get over yourselves. I’ve never seen such over-inflation of impact that people seem to think they have.

Be realistic. OH Sword is a natural progression if any new skills are added. It’s a weapon we already have in MH, thus doubling it up isn’t that unnatural. Introducing martial staff means entirely new combat concepts have to be brought in (an immense amount of animation work to make it look in any way realistic due to the top-heavy nature of all of the current staves), I can’t see an Axe in any form being used, both claws and whip would have to be applied to other professions as well AND would require skins created from scratch (tons of them), as well as new legendary designs for those types. OH Light and OH Sword are the most likely above anything else.

And how would you know that a light MH and heavy OH would be awkward? A Sc/S Mesmer is far worse.

I’m just going to link my version in every one of these threads:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Off-Hand-Sword-Ideas/first#post2503971

Mine:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Off-Hand-Sword-Ideas/first#post2503971

Currently using two DPS-focused builds that utilise boons in this way.

Pure DPS:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYmiOXcS4E+5Ex2jeuTe69gsj1saFwJA-jgyAYLioRCSiICgUBMCBQyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER127ioVLFQEjBA-e

Reduced DPS for more versatility:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYmiOXcS4E+5Ex2jeuTe6zgsjt/AXB-jgyAYLioRCSiICgUBMCBQyvIasVtioxqrxUuER127ioVLFQEjBA-e

Both builds have high Fury uptime (the main boon I care about besides Vigor). The reduced build sacrifices the Daze and a slightly larger Steal CD for much higher dodging capabilities (perma-Vigor and endurance return), something that I find ends up being very useful in Fractal 48 runs to smooth things out. I find it much more versatile than build 1, though build 1 is better for guild speed runs.

8/10 – like the theme, but I’ve never liked Asura aesthetic that much, nothing against you

Updated my Ele ^^

Just finished all the dye jobs.

So how was I wrong? There’s 30 Trickery, there’s + boon duration%.

I’m being negative because my genuine first impression was that it’s a build anyone could have conjured up if they cared enough about the traited boons. There are all sorts of Runes and consumables to facilitate them. Feel free to message me and prove me wrong.

Very stylish – 9/10!

Ele, Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer and Thief.

Doesn’t sound like anything particularly special. 30 Trickery and enough +boon duration % to overlap applications, throw in Signets of Power if you want to and boom, done.

-1

The slight durability increase won’t do jack. Survivability for Thieves comes from evasiveness, correct positioning and proper use of abilities eg. interrupts, Stealths, blinds.

Warriors have immense HP pools (with recently buffed healing skills to go along with it) and Guardians have immense access to defensive boons and tons of various small and large heals to keep the smaller HP pool at maximum.

The armor itself means nothing. Just having it won’t do anything to increase overall survivability for the profession. If you want more to increase durability for Thieves on a wide scale, then abilities themselves would need improvement eg. increasing radii of blind fields, extending benefits of Stealth, buffing viability of Venom builds, increasing damage co-efficients to allow more investment in Acrobatics or SA while not gimping DPS.

You’re not supposed to be sponging attacks. You can’t expect to just go and stand alongside Warriors and Guardians just because you picked up some shiny plate.

Everyone is seriously over-inflating the value of the Achievement chest rewards. You can make infinitely more gold, badges etc. by just playing the game and not concerning yourself with achievements at all.

10k Achievement points for 30g is laughable. If I really forced myself, I could make 30g in a day by farming dungeons. In doing so, I might end up with a whopping 2 or 3 more AP from occasional Daily overlaps or something. Same goes with Gems (conversion from Gold) and Laurels are not that difficult to come by. 500AP for 1 Laurel and 1000AP for 2 Laurels…Daily and Monthly Laurels accelerate WAY past that.

People have been spoiled by getting a chest every day and now they want it to be the norm. The chests are a tiny little bonus to say “well done, now go outside for a bit”. They’re hardly rewarding in any big sense of the word.

The power/condition split is unnecessary and is cutting too much in to your direct damage, which is infinitely more powerful than conditions. I am totally Berserker and I use the exact same trait point setup, but with Furious Retaliation instead of Ankle Shots and the Shadow Arts slot always changes. Sometimes Deception reduction, sometimes condition removal, sometimes blind, sometimes 2 initiative upon Stealth to supplement Lead Attacks as well as First Strikes.

I use D/D, S/P, S/D, whatever fits the situation, but never P/x, ever. The only exception is P/P against the Dredge Suit, simply because you have to kite him around the room and the single-target DPS is better than Shortbow.

There is no need to cut your own DPS for offensive group support. None of the support this build gives requires you to reduce your damage. The only build that exceeds the strength of this one is 10/30/0/0/30 for the extra initial Power before the initiative drops a little or, above that, the famous Signets of Power build that has no support whatsoever.

SoM is my main heal for pretty much any dungeon except ones with lots of slowing conditions, when I use Withdraw.

With the whole “new weapons/skills etc.” thing still lingering in the back of my mind, I decided to revive some old ideas I had for OH Sword. If we get any extra weapon skills, I would want that to be first. I tried to go for styles that reduced reliance on Stealth and focused instead on other Thief attributes.

In concept:

S/S would be a swashbuckler style – all about the positional mobility and the power across multiple ends, with a dual skill flair.

D/S would be less swashbuckler, more duelist – more capable of dancing menacingly in close combat with a single target and with more evasiveness to that end.

P/S would be a condition set at heart (in an ideal world where Vital Shot isn’t awful), with the off-hand mobility/utility and dual skill granting different ways to safely put varying conditions down range.

Not much thought went in to numbers, those are just placeholders.

These are just my ideas – let me know what you would want as skills for OH sword and MH counterparts!

4) – Riposte (4 initiative)
Block the next attack and retaliate with a weighty slash, weakening foes in front of you. Regain initiative if not attacked.
Damage: ~600
Weakness: 6s
Range: 150

5) – Javelin (3 initiative)
Hurl your sword to the target location with increasing velocity, crippling foes it passes through before it hits the destination. Deals more damage to targets further along the trajectory. Cripples for longer further along the trajectory.
Damage < 300: 400
Damage 300-600: 450
Damage 600-900: 500
Damage > 900: 550
Cripple < 300: 3s
Cripple 300-900: 5s
Cripple > 900: 7s
Combo Finisher: Projectile
Range: 1,200

-> Flashing Blades (3 initiative)
Shadowstep to the thrown sword, blinding foes at the origin and destination.
Blind: 5s
Radius: 120
Range: 1,200
Breaks stun

Sword MH:

Eagle Eye (5 initiative)

Twirl and evade, attacking in rapid succession at foes around you while reflecting projectiles.

Damage (4x): 900
Combo Finisher: Whirl
Evade: 1/2s
Range: 130

Dagger MH:

Float (2 initiative)
Bounce back, evading attacks.

Evade: 1/2s
Combo Finisher: Leap

-> Sting (3 initiative)
Pounce forward, dealing heavy damage with both weapons at once to adjacent foes to your target. Each hit returns some endurance.
Damage (2x): 800
Endurance gain (2x): 10
Combo Finisher: Leap
Range: 450

Pistol MH:

Explosive Powder (4 initiative)
Leap backwards and fire a large cone of explosive shot over your prepped sword that burns foes in front of you. Parry incoming attacks.
Damage: 250
Burning: 3s
Block: 1/2s
Range: 450

Larcenous Strike takes all stacks + duration, so does Arcane Thievery. By extension, I would assume that Bountiful Theft should do it too.

Finished my Ele.

Like Rissou said, make Unload evasive. I imagine a directional flip while firing, and slightly speed up the firing rate. Not only would it look awesome, it would mean you’re not just a total sitting duck. Not sure what to say about the damage, but you COULD also reduce the initiative cost to 4, as the big problem with P/P is how much it starves your initiative just for passable DPS.

I would prefer to see it on Withdraw. It may be a DoT, but it’s a condition that encourages inhibiting movement, something that WD is supposed to clear.

Mostly personal bias on my part, though. I love WD.

Now, my Guardian, Ranger, Warrior and Mesmer. Elementalist hasn’t been finalised yet.

First up, here’s my main character.

Artist for final image is Tyler Chow. tcloreart.com

> “Minor nerf”
>Completely ruins D/D condition builds, Pistol Whip builds, Unload builds, boon strippers, Cluster Bombers, almost all PvE playstyles and much more, despite STILL having a resource management system on top.
>Thinks spamming 2 can get anyone anywhere in any competent environment

Yeah, you have no idea what you’re talking about. I am physically repulsed by your ignorance.

I couldn’t decide either. So I got all 4 land ones. If one day Sword gets off-hand, I’ll get another Bolt, or perhaps wait for a new Legendary Sword.

Thieves Guild (2s cast time, 240s cooldown):

Contact. Call more Thieves to support you in combat.

Duration: 30 seconds

This elite now summons the Thieves from Ambush, Swindler and Duelist, and they last longer. No secondary effects (chains), obviously.

So those are the sort of skills I’m thinking of. What about traits? Where would they go? I leave that sort of thing up to someone else. However, I think traits like these would fit well for the utility set:

Fine Print: Contacts will hang around for longer (10 seconds more), and cooldowns are reduced by 20%. (Master or Grandmaster I would imagine)

Mob Mentality: Endurance regeneration increased by 50% for all nearby allies while a Contact is active

Security: Contacts have increased health and armor by (insert value)%.

And other traits in the same vein.

So remember, numbers are totally placeholder – not much consideration at all has gone in to them. Think on the concept level. Thanks for reading if you got this far.