Guild Wars 2

Volrath.1473:

2s for each hit and it has 2 charges, do the math

The two charges do not stack, they refresh. If you hit the opponent twice in rapid succession, you would get something like 2.5s total immobilisation without any condition duration bonuses.

I think they just meant the Signets with statistical bonuses ie. Power/Precision etc. SoM doesn’t really apply there. Same with SoS. I’d eat my hat if it became 50% passive speed…

I don’t get what you’re complaining about. If you can’t see the “miss”, “block”, “invulnerable” or “damage number here” and respond to it accordingly, I don’t really know what to say. The concept is not difficult.

XII.9401:

The fix is very simple..Thieves getting attack should be revealed. Like every other game in the multiverse. It was a grave oversight and should be corrected.

You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, and you should leave this thread immediately. That, or perhaps develop a modicum of skill. Thieves are not hard to counter. There’s a reason they’re about as popular in tPvP as herpes.

From what I gathered, the boon steal is now on the second part. It’s not both a strip and a steal.

It also takes all the stacks + duration, so if someone stacked Might to 20+, it’s all yours.

Hoping to eventually be able to share it, as they mentioned.

knight.8926:

So they fix confusion but they don’t fix BACKSTAB? I see favoritism.

Mug can no longer crit.

You don’t see kitten.

I don’t care what it’s replaced with, as long as it’s gone. Mesmers get to CHOOSE if they want a stupid trait like this, why can’t we? I would say that out of the current 6 Adept traits, IoS does fit the spot the most. Either that or the mediocre III regen (which would also kinda fit since it’s also a Healing tree).

The less you needlessly complain, the more time you can spend reverting the mistakes that you and you alone made.

I found Thief the easiest and the most fun in PvE out of every class that I’ve got to 80 (all except Necromancer and Engineer).

I’ll show myself out.

Last man standing means nothing, never has. It is true that I am usually the last man standing in a bad group, but this is just a natural occurrence due to speccing my Thief in to high evasion capabilities, so if a situation was so hairy that it ends up killing my group, I’ve somehow got enough evades to escape. However, that doesn’t somehow make me better than anyone else. If you’re the last man standing and then perform feats of incredible finesse, perhaps saving your group in the process, THEN perhaps you can say something about being a better player. Apart from that, simply being alive the longest is meaningless.

Although, I don’t take kindly to saying that Malrona should only be ranged. She only has two attacks, one of which fires directly in front of her and the other can be easily dodged through with proper timing. I, and many others in groups I’ve played with, melee her without a problem.

That happens when one or two mobs get stuck in the ceiling. You can easily track them and smack them around, and as soon as they are dead, you can open the cage. It’s nothing to do with scripts.

Faereilos.5106:

Auesis.7301:

Got a few Wooden chests and one or two Steel chests in the past few weeks.

What’s the difference between wooden and steel chests?

No idea. I got terrible loot from the steel chests too.

Yes, you will get a mail every 10 levels starting from 30, explaining a little about the Story mode content of the dungeon that has just unlocked for you (30,40,50,60,70,75,78,80 are the dungeon story levels I believe). There will be a button at the bottom of the mail called “Show Me”, which will point you to the location of the dungeon on the map for you. You then just have to walk to that location when you want to start it. There will be a little dungeon door icon on the map once it has unlocked in case you delete the mail, so it’s just a matter of quickly zooming out of the World Map and checking where they are.

Good luck!

With the incredibly slow approach the devs have with this sort of stuff, we will see some hardcore damage nerfs (since they want to reduce damage but enhance mobility and utility), and we’ll be in worse shape for at least a few months from then on. When the buffs arrive, they will most likely be mediocre and not solve the inherent problems they were put in to fix. Such is the life of the MMO rogue archetype.

Yay!

The first dungeon is Ascalonian Catacombs in Plains of Ashford – the story mode is level 30, so that’s when you can start. Explorable mode is the mode that unlocks after you complete Story mode (but if a friend already has done it, you can just join in with them).

Story mode follows you and Destiny’s Edge in a complement to the development of the Personal Story. It’s more for the storytelling and less about being difficult. That said, they can get quite challenging, so I recommend starting off with at least Masterwork items, or perhaps even Rare items if you can afford them, to your level. You certainly don’t have to be level 80, although level 80 characters have access to more traits and thus can find the content easier. However, if you work well within the 5-man team, level shouldn’t be a problem if you’re willing to learn and adapt to what is required of you within the instances.

Explorable mode is the stuff that most people will be playing regularly – these unlock after Story mode is complete, and are usually a few levels above the Story mode level. They are split in to a few paths you can choose from with different objectives, usually 3 or more. These can be very challenging for someone that hasn’t run them before, so I advise you perhaps read up a guide or two on them before you run them, and gear/trait up properly. Again, you don’t have to be level 80 for the dungeons that aren’t level 80, it’s just a matter of adapting and playing well with your team. I’d much rather bring a level 35 to AC who knows what he’s doing and what his strengths are, rather than a clueless level 80.

Completing explorable mode paths rewards you with tokens, which you can buy level 80 exotic armor and weapons with. There are usually a few different versions with different stats for each dungeon vendor (the vendors are in LA, at Fort Marriner so you can take a look for yourself). These aren’t necessary, however, as you can just buy some exotic armor and weapons from the Trading Post, or craft them yourself. It just depends what stats you want.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

Got a few Wooden chests and one or two Steel chests in the past few weeks.

I’m still wondering whether Infusion of Shadow is working as intended.

“Gain 2 initiative when using a skill that stealths you.”

It’s true that using a skill (Leap, Blast) in a Smoke field results in you going in to stealth, so the trait description might just be ambiguous. However, I was initially under the impression that it only applied on using skills that actually had a stealth effect attached ie. HiS, C+D, BP, SR. I think that perhaps this wasn’t supposed to extend to combo fields, because the stealth/initiative sustainability of D/P is just so far ahead and beyond everything else due to this one trait that it’s almost nonsensical.

Indeed.

/15char

Scootabuser.4915:

Auesis.7301:

Is this meant to be applicable everywhere in the game? I’ve played Thief in to the quadruple digits in terms of hours and consider myself extremely proficient with the class in PvE, but I can’t see myself landing maximum DPS in this way 100% of the time in, say, Urban Battleground Fractal at 40+ without getting splattered all over the pavement within nanoseconds by the armies of Warriors and Mages. I could definitely run this build in any of the regular dungeons with little worry, but I have my doubts that it would work in every nook and cranny of end-game content, like the example I gave. But then, I pug a lot, so depending on group setup, I guess…

Why would you be using daggers for that? Guardian wall of you shall not pass + shortbow or Sword/Pistol if your feeling lucky.

You don’t use d/d for trash. That’s why you carry a 25 stack sigil on your other weaponset which is designed for AoE trashpulls.

That’s exactly what I meant. I got the impression that you were literally just using D/D everywhere and for everything, and I almost wanted to punch a wall. Thank god you don’t.

Is this meant to be applicable everywhere in the game? I’ve played Thief in to the quadruple digits in terms of hours and consider myself extremely proficient with the class in PvE, but I can’t see myself landing maximum DPS in this way 100% of the time in, say, Urban Battleground Fractal at 40+ without getting splattered all over the pavement within nanoseconds by the armies of Warriors and Mages. I could definitely run this build in any of the regular dungeons with little worry, but I have my doubts that it would work in every nook and cranny of end-game content, like the example I gave. But then, I pug a lot, so depending on group setup, I guess…

Essence Snow.3194:

Auesis.7301:

Essence Snow.3194:

Auesis.7301:

No, it’s in a better state because it is in a better state, period.

Very convincing stance there………..

It’s not my fault that you failed to understand the initial explanation and put asinine statements in my mouth for me. I’m not repeating myself.

You said……it’s in a better state and it’s only change is that it’s less pug friendly…..You then stated it is…b/c it is. If you consider your own statements asinine…well so be it. Pugs are a very significant portion of the population that has been alienated by the changes resulting in a less than popular instance, which…wait for it…….hardly makes for a “better state”.

Since you’re still not understanding:

It is in a better state because it is numerically easier (something that needs to be applied to all dungeons, because huge health pools and harder hits do not count as real difficulty, simply artificial inflations that give the illusion of difficulty), but cognitively more challenging than before (due to the need for teams to actually work together to complete various objectives, instead of silently pushing ahead as nothing more than faceless, expendable DPSers). This means that it is less of a DPS race and more of an actual end-game explorable dungeon that has mechanics besides health, damage and damage mitigation. It’s not anything special, but it’s progress from what it was before. It is now closer to what was intended (explorable dungeons were intended to be the creme de la creme, challenging end-game content that made your team properly co-ordinate to reach the end goal).

It is not in a better state “because” of lower amounts of runners, which is what you seem to think I’m saying. That is nothing more than a side-effect and is heavily influenced by moronic forum-goers with big mouths that complain the dungeon is impossible because they cannot act in the same way they did before (DPSDPSDPSDPSDPSDPS -> collect reward). The slightest hint of challenge and requirement for a 5-man team to actually act as a team made a few louder members of the community mouth off about it and drive away potential dungeon runners who might have given it a go and found it was actually a better team experience, but they never bother because they unfortunately listened to the drones that cannot stand that everything isn’t delivered to them personally on a silver platter. Most, if not all of this “alienation” is caused by hyberbole of the highest order.

Essence Snow.3194:

Auesis.7301:

No, it’s in a better state because it is in a better state, period.

Very convincing stance there………..

It’s not my fault that you failed to understand the initial explanation and put asinine statements in my mouth for me. I’m not repeating myself.

Sounds great. Still trying to think of what the others could be.

Warrior: Each step gives a lesser Stomp effect (appearance only), making you extremely imposing and intimidating with every move you make. Attacks have the Quickness-esque trailing that depicts extreme strength and speed and Burst skills intensify the effect as well as have a powerful windy noise during the skill’s charge up (excluding the Longbow skill perhaps, as that would look kind of silly).

Guardian: Boons, Virtues and skills display powerful blue auras around the character based on what activates eg. Aegis erupts in to a thin blue film that coats the Guardian while it’s active and shatters violently when broken. Virtue of Justice conjures a brilliant blue flame around the Guardian’s main weapon that (instead of just having blue burning effects), slowly spreads across the enemy’s body on hit with powerful, prominent sound effects from the flames.

Thief: Shadowsteps from utilities or weapon skills leave a black, misty trail from the origin that lingers as the Thief moves around for a few seconds afterwards. Going in to stealth becomes an animation where shadow engulfs the character and the shadow shrinks, leaving nothing but the transparent form (this would change nothing about how stealth works (you would still go invisible instantly to mobs and to other players in PvP/WvW, but you will always see this effect, as will other players in PvE)). Auto-attacks also use the trailing effect (following dagger/sword/pistol/arrow movement) to a very small degree, but mainly, the flamboyant skills like HS, DB, DD, FS, C+D, PW, CB have a more prominent and impressive-looking trail.

Necromancer: Have no idea. Struggling to think of something that is cool, thematic and makes sense.

Essence Snow.3194:

Auesis.7301:

AC is in a better state than before. The only difference is that it’s less friendly towards PUGs, because in general, unfortunately, PUGs are dumb. They expect to be able to whiz through content with no concern for communication, teamwork or really any cognitive involvement.

The only reason AC has now dropped in popularity so much is because it’s now not so much of a bland faceroll with boring mechanics that don’t really require much input or reaction. It’s now less numerically demanding, but slightly more cognitively demanding, and this is apparently the end of the world to some people.

So in your opinion it’s in a better state now that less players play it? So by the same token the game would, as a whole be better if less people played it?

I contend that popularity is a rather confident gauge of “state” concerning mmos.

No, it’s in a better state because it is in a better state, period. The “unfortunate” consequence of that is that you can’t faceroll it with no concern whatsoever. God forbid a 5-man dungeon, originally designed to be challenging end-game content, be slightly challenging. It’s also not very popular anymore because of the risk->reward ratio. There’s no lodestones, the armor stats are meh (you can get PTV from karma, HotW and SE as well), the skins themselves are terrible and you can’t get ectos from 30-token rares. If there were more incentive to run it, I would run it more, as would a lot of people. The dungeon is fine. The reward for running it needs changing, but that is it.

Utilities and Elites are definitely lacking, but I disagree with weapon skills. I would say Thief is the best underwater fighter in the whole game. Spear #3 and #5 are absolutely ridiculous. Just using combinations of those 2 skills, I’ve been able to easily maintain the attention of the whole second pack in the underwater Fractal (the one with the Hypnoss mobs) at 40+ while dishing out nice #3 cleaves at opportune moments. Pack SoM, RFI, IS and something else, and you’re set for life with Spear. Hell, if I had skills like that on land, I’d use nothing else (and wouldn’t need anything else for that matter).

I run HotW and CoE almost every day if possible. I wouldn’t say CoE is that hard to find a group for. HotW P2 and P3 are a different story – P1 is quick and easy.

AC is in a better state than before. The only difference is that it’s less friendly towards PUGs, because in general, unfortunately, PUGs are dumb. They expect to be able to whiz through content with no concern for communication, teamwork or really any cognitive involvement.

The only reason AC has now dropped in popularity so much is because it’s now not so much of a bland faceroll with boring mechanics that don’t really require much input or reaction. It’s now less numerically demanding, but slightly more cognitively demanding, and this is apparently the end of the world to some people.

If I had the balls, I would probably do that to my sword or dagger. The reactions I would get when linking it…ha.

No. The only differences should be aesthetic. Animations could vary, but the actual effects should be EXACTLY the same. For them to become advantageous or for them to gain skill exclusivity would be completely and utterly unacceptable (coming from an owner of two of them).

Posted a long version of my HotW P1 Thief solo run, with minimal speedups so you can see the big fights in better detail. Whether you want to include it is up to you, it’s just an aesthetic difference really.

After receiving feedback in relation to how these runs are presented, I decided to post a second version of my solo of HotW P1 on my Thief. There are mob skips/traversals/travel times that have been sped up since there is nothing important there at all, but all the key fights throughout the dungeon have been reduced to a proper speed where you can watch how I handle them in proper detail the entire way through. It has ended up being reduced to 58-59 minutes, cutting roughly 20 minutes off of the full run. This was mainly due to the “slight” increase in combat speed that is barely noticeable.

After receiving feedback in relation to how these runs are presented, I decided to post a second version of my solo of HotW P1 on my Thief. There are mob skips/traversals/travel times that have been sped up since there is nothing important there at all, but all the key fights throughout the dungeon have been reduced to a proper speed where you can watch how I handle them in proper detail the entire way through. It has ended up being reduced to 58-59 minutes, cutting roughly 20 minutes off of the full run. This was mainly due to the “slight” increase in combat speed that is barely noticeable.

Not even close. There is no reason to wear anything OTHER than Berserker or equivalent condition sets. Almost all survival in high-end content comes from dodging, blinds, projectile absorption/reflection, blocks and other methods not related in any way to your natural defences. There is not enough risk to warrant giving yourself a pointless safety net.

Daecollo.9578:

Auesis.7301:

Daecollo.9578:

Auesis.7301:

Daecollo.9578:

Grimwolf.7163:

I’m confused. Signet of Malice is one of the most powerful PvE heals in the game already.

Why do I barely see thieves use it in PvE?

I use it a lot in dungeons. It was a godsend when soloing Hotw P1.

That dungeon can be soloed even without it thanks to short bow. Its easy like CoF Path 1.

Indeed it can, and that’s all well and good. Melee is a different story.

I’d like to see you melee it now. I am talking post Omnomberry Pie Nerf.

Start to finish. Recorded on 15-17th April (the filenames are lying to me, so I don’t know what day it actually is).

Daecollo.9578:

Auesis.7301:

Daecollo.9578:

Grimwolf.7163:

I’m confused. Signet of Malice is one of the most powerful PvE heals in the game already.

Why do I barely see thieves use it in PvE?

I use it a lot in dungeons. It was a godsend when soloing Hotw P1.

That dungeon can be soloed even without it thanks to short bow. Its easy like CoF Path 1.

Indeed it can, and that’s all well and good. SoM makes it even easier, and makes melee a breeze.

Daecollo.9578:

Grimwolf.7163:

I’m confused. Signet of Malice is one of the most powerful PvE heals in the game already.

Why do I barely see thieves use it in PvE?

I use it a lot in dungeons. It was a godsend when soloing Hotw P1.

MrForz.1953:

Auesis.7301:

It’s more than that – Plague doubles your base power, QUADRUPLES your base Toughness and TRIPLES your base Vitality. At 80, that’s 916 power, 2748 toughness, and 1832 vitality.

And leaves you completly open for conditions.

Indeed it does. I fail to see how that has any relevance against a burst build, which was the topic of discussion.

Travlane.5948:

even if necros just use swarm elite…that is so devastating in spvp and so much extra hp….like double or more i heard. just the elite alone is great and also all the blinds …ice….dmg… poison etc. necros and do much more in SPVP than thieves.

It’s more than that – Plague doubles your base power, QUADRUPLES your base Toughness and TRIPLES your base Vitality. At 80, that’s 916 power, 2748 toughness, and 1832 vitality.

MrForz.1953:

So… to summarize: Everyone has no idea what they’re talking about?

Apparently so.

Moira Dryade.6498:

There ist NOTHING predictable! Because what you can’t see is unpredictable! And there is ZERO time to react. Almost in the same moment the thief appears I’m downed. There is no time to do anything!

So you can’t see the Thief, who has not stealthed because he has not hit C+D on you yet, running towards you in plain sight?

Should have gone to Specsavers. That, or you should avoid using hyperbole on the extreme level.

Thieves only instantly die in Arah if you don’t know how to properly use one. Got DM pre-Simin nerf on my Thief. It’s really not that bad. It just takes a bit longer.

It’s definitely not anything to do with circle size. The damage was going to occur in the middle, with the ice forming on the ground. You could have stood inside the bigger circle without any damage at all. I’ve done this fight enough times to know that the circles themselves don’t have anything iffy about them.

Looks like it was some sort of instantaneous lag problem or a legitimate bug somewhere, because that shouldn’t happen. That particular attack was going to be damaging the inner ring out of the two that formed, so you should have been perfectly fine, dodging or not. That said, I’ve done the exact same thing as this and have had no problem. Don’t know what’s going wrong :/

Moira Dryade.6498:

Humorless.1573:

Moira Dryade.6498:

Robert Hrouda.1327:

gimmethegepgun.1284:

So why is this not ok but thief burst is?

Because there is play in thief burst. There is play there, and that spike isn’t a single attack that’s 150% your max HP in damage. Thieves need to execute a series of skills in a row, in which at any time the victim has the potential to mitigate or have some sort of play to save themselves or stop the thief. You just don’t see that with the 100nades stuff, or its a window so narrow that we as devs weren’t happy with the play from both sides of the equation as attacker/defender.

You Sir, don’t know what you are talking about! A thief needs only 2 skills to kill a necro in 1 or 2 seconds. An ape can do this. I can avoid 100 nades by dodging but i can’t dodge a thief in stealth. Port-damage + 1 hit and thats it. Get it! Fix that op lame class and stop searching for excuses. And next time please play against a good thief with your ranger and you’ll see (or not) that you can’t even hit him because before you can aim at him he is back in stealth. Learn to balance a game and remove bugs and such overpowerness. BTW i play a thief by myself and i definitly know it’s op. So not so much a thief-hater but someone who uses his brain to recognize it’s just op.

A thief with 2 skills will do 0 damage to any necro that isn’t mentally impaired.

I mean, it’s either Steal (mug/stealth) to Backstab or CnD to backstab, both of which are easy to avoid… especially without a third skill called Basilisk Venom. And then you’re still doing kitten damage, because you need steal, CnD, backstab and basilisk to break 10k if everything crits. Another random bad player that knows nothing about thieves.

I don’t count steal as a skill. And i don’t count the stealth. A thief in stealth just needs 2 skills to kill a necro in less than 2 seconds. You don’t even have time to heal or remove conditions or whatever. If you say it’s possible make a video of it. I say it’s impossible and I play necro and thief so I know what i’m talking about.
Seems more like you don’t know anything about necros.

Well there’s problem number 1. You’re being approached by a burst that follows the same pattern every time (C+D pre-charge, Steal, Backstab), and your first instinct is not to dodge either the C+D or the Mug + C+D depending on how fast you act, effectively breaking the combo altogether, and/or use damage mitigation eg. Shroud, Well of Darkness and other inhibiting skills. You do not react to whether Basilisk Venom has been equipped on the Thief’s status bar, so you can quickly have your finger over an available stunbreaker should you fail to dodge, and do not make any quick preparation with aforementioned skills against the incoming damage if you do not have stunbreaker and BV is active. Your first instinct is to…use your heal? Remove conditions? I don’t even.

Struggling to find any sense of impossibility here. Either you are just far too slow, or you’re lagging terribly, because this combo is one of the most predictable and easy-to-counter combos in the game, pretty much only topped on the “please kill me”-o-meter by a Bull Charge/Bolas->100b whiz kid.

The trade-off is that 95% of the time, every other profession hates you.

Isn’t it lovely?

Kryshade.6075:

How does shadow shot not break stealth when it hits thus making it so you can’t backstab?

Because you can hit Backstab before the SS damage component (which occurs after the teleport and blind). Stealth only breaks on damage.

For PvE (when 3s Revealed was in place, so hopefully I can use this properly again soon) – 0/30/25/15/0, Orrian Truffle + Meat Stew, Sharpening Stone or Maintenance Oil depending how much crit you invested in your gear. Sigil of Para in the sword, Sigil of Force/Accuracy in Dagger.

2 Might per dodge, 2 Might per stealth, lots of dazes and blinds (from SA), lots of available dodges. Worked great for me for a long time.

WvW – 0/30/30/10/0, Truffle Ravioli + Maintenance Oil/Sharpening Stone. Same control aspects, more sustainable from health regen (I found that trait pointless in PvE when most survival there comes from dodging) and possible condition removal on stealth if traited for it instead of blind.

Running 0/30/10/20/10, PTV armor with Ruby Orbs and zerk trinkets, meleeing all bosses (except Dredge Suit/Ice Elemental for obvious kiting reasons) at 40+ just fine.

Stooperdale.3560:

Are you wanting this for PvE, WvW, sPvP?

I’d like to know this as well. I use (or used and soon will use again when 3s Revealed is back) one particular build for PvE and a slightly different version for WvW, and another version altogether in sPvP.

I have not been lagging in any way whatsoever and have had perfect connectivity pretty much all the time since launch. Only today, skills activate 1-2 seconds after I press them, dodging NEVER works (by the time an enemy has visibly attacked, I’ve already been hit by an invisible force) and teammates jump all over the place.

Please tell me I am not the only one having this problem and that it’s something to do with all these trials? This is CLEARLY server-side.