Guild Wars 2

I disagree on points 2 and 4. I run almost exclusively melee in dungeons and normal PvE with S/P, speccing in serious survivability in traits (mostly stealths and condition removal) while using gear for damage and conditions. The balance is perfect. I’ve had multiple compliments in terms of how useful I am to a 5-man team, not even necessarily in terms of damage. Support comes second nature, and damage is still commendable (I am able to maintain 10-20 stacks of might just by fighting normally, pretty much negating the need for any offensive trait speccing).

As for point 4, have you ever used the spear skills 3 and 5? Infinite blocks, dodges and huge AoE damage. You’re a total machine underwater. There could be more variation in skill usage and capabilities, but they’re definitely not useless. They DESTROY.

If you want to know what my build is, just say the word.

Tripwire in WvW is the greatest. Against a single opponent approaching, I’ll place it and just wait. Most of the time it’s usually a warrior rushing to get the first hit for his burst or another Thief being kitteny and skipping the whole “get the jump on your opponent” thing. They come anywhere near and… floored. 3 free seconds to rail in to him and I’ve won already.

What I also like to do is go in to stealth, put Ambush directly on the enemy feet to immediately trigger it and then hit Thieves Guild (while still in stealth, using C+D if it breaks at any point). Suddenly, the opponent has 3 thieves to deal with, and no sign of the leader. Then, backstab or PW just for lulz, depends what weapon swap combos I have (usually S/P + D/D)

So you don’t notice the MASSIVE leap that he does before his main attack lands? Dodge is your friend. Call the Knight as a target for your party and nail him in a group effort before taking the small fry.

The forward-forward path has 3 knights and a boss in a single encounter. Our guild party regularly steamroll it just by keeping our heads screwed on and using lots of CC.

All that needs to be said. It’s nothing but QQing, raging, arguments and the like.

I’m beginning to think Arenanet will just delete the Thief profession and let us re-roll as the fat kid playing Star Wars with a stick in that popular internet video. That would satisfy everyone that isn’t a Thief, because obviously Thieves don’t matter.

>Assign someone to hit the console the first 3 times
>Spam all attacks on console area to wipe the bomb bots
>Kill big golems that spawn
>Repeat until 3/5 hacks are done
>Assign a second player to hit the console with the first, so 4/5 and 5/5 are done at once
>Spam attacks on bomb bots again

This is the easiest part of the whole dungeon.

I spam it out of habit. I can’t help it.

My eventual warrior alt would love it

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm150/Auesis/gw2.png

Why not, eh? Your generosity is insane. Thanks for running the contest!

Agreed. My thief is a beast on land but feels completely rooted and worthless underwater. Literally the only skills I use are 3rd and 5th spear skills and the harpoon auto + skill 2. Those are the only ones that are even remotely useful in an underwater encounter.

Why does anybody even bother running glass cannon? I’m specced in traits for survival and gear for damage, and it’s a perfect balance. I can keep an entire zerg busy for a short while and take groups of 3-5 by myself if something doesn’t jump me and ruin my flow.

I can see where you’re coming from flipside, but in at least everywhere else, I find this isn’t the case. If I hit all stealths, I can maintain constant stealth for close to 30 seconds without getting aggro from any nearby mobs (I use this to mine ore veins in peace and then teleport away without getting in to combat). It works flawlessly even up to the last split-second with super-long stealths, and this is the only exception. That’s why I was wondering if it had a special mechanic unlike other areas.

Don’t want one? Don’t get one. Makes no difference to you or me.

Personally, I’m going for Bolt. Nearly there.

Am I missing something here? In the Path 1 event where you have to disable the alarms via the console, my immediate thought as a Thief was “perfect”. As I run up to the console, the rest of my party have pretty much managed to pull the entire room in their direction, so I have free reign towards the console. For extra measure, I pop all of my stealth CDs and a refuge directly on top of the console. Keep in mind that my aggro is completely broken away before I’ve even entered stealth.

Then, the next swarm directly approach the console (I am still stealthed and my teammates are on the opposite side of the room and still supposedly have all the aggro), sit right on top of me and stare at me as the bombs count down to explode in my face. There is no physical way I could have been found unless a sci-fi-esque explanation is given. Is this an ability of the golems eg. heat vision? I would like it to be specified on the mobs at least. Otherwise, I’m wasting my time trying to be sneaky.

This entire event is almost broken at a design level. Teleporting around is fine and dandy, but when each teleport is an almost guaranteed TOTAL RESET, there’s something wrong. You can argue that you must station yourselves around the area to catch his teleports, but in what universe is it justifiable to have him reset back to full HP as if we suddenly don’t exist anymore because we’re not on the platform he runs to? The whole “walk away and reset on combat exit” thing that goes on globally within the game is perfectly fine in 95% of scenarios, but when a boss’s mechanic sends him out of your range by a significant portion, it’s not at all justifiable. You try fighting this champion with a group of 5. The scaling works just fine, but when you don’t have enough men to be everywhere at once, it is literally impossible. This doesn’t even make the fight more difficult. It just makes it tedious and annoying.

MajorKong.8095:

Funny thing about that skill is that given all the rending issues it actually makes the opponents more “visible”. There’s nothing like spamming aoes into shadows refuge and picking off low HP thieves that I can’t see regardless of the situation.

Exactly. There is always a counter. If you stand around like a lemon when stealth is popped, your death is your own fault. Likewise, if you just wait for someone to leave a Refuge without taking action, your disadvantage at that point is your own fault. If you don’t keep your eyes open, ordinary stealth or refuge stealth, your death is your own fault.

I often go one step ahead and stealth with HiS and pop a refuge somewhere else. With a second extra stealth time, this means that I can usually get behind an opponent while he attacks in what he thinks is a “free kill” circle. I’ve been tricked in this way by other classes eg. eles switching attunement at crucial moments and throwing me off.

It’s called tactics. 95% of people don’t seem to understand that concept.

Really? People are actually suggesting that any damage should break stealth? That is quite literally the same as “hey, can we break this element of the game and remove it entirely, please? Oh, and delete the Thief profession, too.”

There are PLENTY of options to counter stealth. Hell, I pop a Shadow Refuge and smart enemy players will pop all their AoE within the Refuge to continue damaging me. If I stealth a considerable distance away, some smart players will pop some PB CC skills after a short delay or attack by prediction of movement after I’ve vanished (a few warriors have landed some amazingly accurate GS swings right through where I was running). Some will make it extremely awkward for me to backstab by erratically moving around and making themselves a difficult target. Some will pop Vigor and keep dodging around until I’ve re-appeared. Some will watch their channelling skills to see where I’ve gone (yes, channelling skills still track us in stealth). Also remember that as soon as I’ve done any action and broken stealth from it, I can’t re-enter it for another few seconds. You have many different windows of opportunity to damage me. I’m not exactly a tank. I play smart, so you play smart.

If you can’t adapt to fight someone with stealth, then that’s your fault and yours alone.

I think this is a brilliant idea if it’s not in practise already. DR is nothing but an inconvenience, but IR would really convince me to explore the map on a regular basis.

I’m a support thief that deals decent damage to back it up. Any gear with power/prec will do, but your traits are what define you.

30 Shadow Arts
30 Acrobatics
10 Trickery

In Shadow Arts, I have Infusion of Shadow, Cloaked in Shadow and Shadow Protector. This means that going stealth blinds nearby foes, gives me initiative back AND gives allies (including myself) regen. Minor traits are also great (automatic stealth and blind at 25% HP and gaining might on stealth, which also lasts a second longer).

In Acrobatics, I have Power of Inertia, Pain Response and Quick Recovery. Combined with minors, this means that I can be on the move continuously and using weapon skills almost constantly. The extra mobility and survivability is handy for staying around allies. Staying close to allies is important to be a good asset, as most of your blinds and stealths are close-range support.

In 10 Trickery, I went for Instinctual Response for a little extra support for myself, but in situations that call for it, I switch out for Thrill of the Crime.

Healing is obviously Hide in Shadows, and my first two utilities are always Blinding Powder and Shadow Refuge (Shadow Refuge is the shining beacon of your support abilities). My last utility varies all the time. Sometimes I use Shadow Trap on blind spots near allies to keep them protected and be at the scene in an instant. Sometimes I use Infiltrator’s Signet to jump in to the thick of a battle and hit stealth skills, and have some extra initiative to work with myself when I don’t use it. Sometimes I use Caltrops to slow down enemies and relieve pressure on teammates, while doing good bleeding damage (I use Rampager gear and my condition damage is still formidable alongside my direct damage). Elite is Dagger Storm for packed rooms and Thieves Guild for smaller battles that are easier to comprehend (I know when to hit it to distract and avert aggro from teammates, as in huge packs, the two thieves get wiped and it’s wasted).

Weapons are up to you. I like sticking with sword/pistol + shortbow, and using the stealths when my team need them (I can hold the line pretty well on my own with S/P + SB while dealing formidable damage, so I don’t need extra stealths from C+D or BP + HS for myself).

That’s just what I’m running right now. Hope you get something out of it!

I run sword/pistol + dagger/dagger, switching to shortbow if necessary (big fight coming up etc).

30 Shadow Arts
30 Acrobatics
10 Trickery

I base the whole thing around stealth (gaining initiative/regen/blinding) + getting initiative back (quick recovery). Everything that relates to stealth, blinds, regen etc. like Pain Response or Instinctive Response, I use it, and wear power/prec gear to keep the pools up. I start off with s/p, using a gap closer like IS or Steal, and pistol whipping as many times as I dare. Usually, this will give the opponent an idea of what sort of Thief I am, so they’ll be watching out for Haste or Headshot etc. That’s when I hit Blinding Powder, switch to d/d and start going nuts with C+D, backstab and any other skill I deem necessary. Basically, s/p starts it off, and d/d finishes it off. It’s worked flawlessly, and I can take groups of 4-5 by myself with it. I simply refuse to die when I have this build active. I’m too hard to catch.

What our group does is:

-Nuke the crap out of the first smokelord and take down the 2 shadowblades if possible
-Fight the next wave as well as we can
-Start kiting in later stages

I’ve run two different builds for this, signets and stealths

With Critical Strikes traits for signets, you can have your entire hotbar loaded with signets (the heal and 3 utilities) and keep your initiative pool high (especially if you have a good crit rate, as you get 1 back for a crit 20% of the time). Stay at a decent range with a shortbow, and as soon as you see tells for an attack, hit Disabling Shot. You can keep your evasion up potentially for AGES, especially if you also have 5 Trickery as well. You could keep Shadow Refuge for if things get a little messy.

With stealths, I simply run the initiative for stealth equivalent to Critical Strikes in Shadow Arts and max out my Acrobatics as well, and use a lot of C+D to remove aggro and quickly regain it again with a BS. Blinding Powder, Shadow Refuge and Shadow Trap are what I use for this. You can keep Magg and yourself safe extremely well with this setup.

I’m a fairly rooted s/p thief with a survivability build, and melee is fine by me. I run most dungeons by melee alone until bigger groups require some shortbow control.

Once you have tells and keep your head screwed on during a frantic fight, you’ll be fine in both range and melee.

Ravenmoon.5318:

That is why you have fire extinguishers for no ? o.o
I’m not very good, I was crying that path 1 is too hard, don’t get me wrong, but that lava field IMO is one of the easiest parts for me in that path, and maybe the bombs, but it’s fun because in some pugs we manage to fail it because of the countdown ^^" or someone “decides” to DC at that moment and it’s kind of bad :p

But originally you should make sure he follows you and clear the path then have some of your party to remove the extinguishers and fight it out

I don’t think you understand what I mean. He will run back in to the fire, and we will extinguish it. He will then proceed to not move. No matter what we do, he finds that spot comfortable, and waits for mobs to come near and proceeds to shoot at them while still standing in the fire spawn. We kill the mobs, and he still refuses to budge from the fire until the mobs respawn and it ends up in a vicious cycle, and we have to let him die and reset it.

It is easy. It’s extremely easy. It’s the easiest part of any dungeon I’ve ever played. However, Magg is such a moron that it’s unbearable, and smooth completion is erratic at best. We can clear it in seconds, but he will ruin it for us. Hell, half the time he runs in to the lava and refuses to leave until we reset the whole thing.

This isn’t a “nerf the kite stage” post.

I’d just like to point out that Magg is a complete and utter buffoon. His companion AI is absolutely horrific. There’s only one part of this path where our guild party gets annoyed at, and it’s the magmacyte field. We land a perfectly smooth run, putting out all the fires, dodging all the attacks and leaving a perfectly clean path for Magg to walk to the magmacyte. I even blind the mobs with some aoe utilities and put stealth down for him as we go across to the end. We all reach the magmacyte untouched.

Then Magg turns 180 degrees, walks over and stands in the rekindled fire behind us. He then forgets the use of his legs, finds the fire quite comfortable and dies without even thinking to budge.

Sort him out. Please.

http://uk.ign.com/builds/guild-wars-2?class=thief&d=00300400000000000000000100000000000000000003103403504405600000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000003000000000010700010800011303000000000012200012800012901000000000014

I run this with Rampager gear in PvE and WvW.

The gear keeps my power, crit chance and condition pools up so Death Blossom is worth it, but it’s all about C+D/backstab and staying alive. All the stealth skills work perfectly in tandem, and dropping Thieves Guild from within a Shadow Refuge and dropping in when they least expect it is amazing. I’ve taken groups of 4-5 by myself with this build. You survive incredibly well, and deal a decent amount of damage while doing it.

In WvW, the extra thieves are called “<servername> beast”, like a ranger pet, as far as I’ve seen. In combat, however, that can still be confusing to an enemy.

I agree whole-heartedly. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE stealth. My thief dominates in a survivability and stealth build in both PvE and PvP. However, attacks that continue to track after you stealth is just ridiculous. Hell, I even use the Shadow Arts trait to blind enemies after I stealth, and all manner of ranged PvE attacks continue to hit after the first miss. When your opponent has literally vanished and you no longer have a trackable target, explain how that works. It makes Risen Putrifiers THAT much more annoying. Stealth → logically, he will miss with no target plus the fact he’s undead so a bit dull as well → nope, pulled

This is why I love WvW puzzles as they are. A warrior guildie and I (Thief) love those skirmishes that pop up. The groups that camp up on the trap chains in EB are my favourite. They get all kitteny and stand at the edge, taunting me, and suddenly, Scorpion Wire.

So far my only problem with dungeons has been when things get heated and effects are blinding me. Particularly in CoE, there is so much crap happening on-screen that I can’t detect visual cues to dodge and I get gibbed.

He was fine with us. Those swords aren’t up for long. He has hammers and daggers as well, and they become much more manageable. 70-80% HP removes the swords, so split your party up to minimise AoE damage from the swords and Rozgar himself, and DPS him down full pelt until he whips out the hammers. Problem solved.

It’s possible, but unnecessarily overtuned. Our party was 1 Thief (me), 2 Warriors and 2 Guardians. You need to maintain a huge DPS on the mobs from the start so that they don’t overwhelm you. The Guardians would use their mass pull skills and the Warriors would smash their bursts while I spammed Cluster Bomb over the top and nuked as many as possible. When we got 70-80% of the way through, we’d be caught in a crowd on cooldown, so I’d use the rest of my initiative to maintain evasion while the rest kited normally until the event finished. Nobody got defeated, and I got knocked down once towards the end.

The only way that our group has managed to complete this section is to die multiple times and spawn at the waypoint in such an order that one of us is always in the room to kite the mobs. Killing them is NOT an option, as by the time you’re done with the Shadowblades and the smoker, an army is on top of you and trying to kill any of them will get you wiped in seconds. Kiting and dying is literally the only way I have ever found to do this. Being forced to die and wasting money on armor repairs is not an acceptable completion method. Dungeons are meant to be worthwhile, and CoF, in its current state with the overtuned Legendary Effigy and the apparently bugged Path 3, is not.