Guild Wars 2

If they ever fix P/P, I could go for a Rifle and P/P thief. Force Recon ftw.

the problem with F2P is that as long as there are kittenes willing to pay for fancy coats, they don’t give a kitten about anyone else.

don’t use that language unless its tic tac toe. as we all know, the only way to win is not to play

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Stealth

Lettuce.2945:

Black Frog.9274:

Lettuce.2945:

Feel free to duel me on a dueling server and I’ll be more than glad to demonstrate a p/p build to you. And I’ll gladly humiliate you. Hit me up when you are interested.

So you’ve got no P/P build? Your videos have no P/P. You aren’t posting any builds. You aren’t criticizing or approving the OP’s build. You aren’t answering anything. I’ve told you, I SUCK. SO TRAIN ME OH GOD OF P/P. OR STOP RUNNING YOUR kittenING MOUTH.

If you actually read my whole post, I actually did share 2 p/p builds. Gasps! Holy moly! Learn 2 read. Kkthxbai. Hit me up if you want a demonstration.

My old eyes didn’t catch them. Could you please, for the sake of an old, old creaky man, link the builds directly? I hear there are build sites and links and everything. You don’t got jack. kthxbyenmorememetypekidspeak

Lettuce.2945:

Feel free to duel me on a dueling server and I’ll be more than glad to demonstrate a p/p build to you. And I’ll gladly humiliate you. Hit me up when you are interested.

So you’ve got no P/P build? Your videos have no P/P. You aren’t posting any builds. You aren’t criticizing or approving the OP’s build. You aren’t answering anything. I’ve told you, I SUCK. SO TRAIN ME OH GOD OF P/P. OR STOP RUNNING YOUR kittenING MOUTH.

Soooooo…. share the spot?

At no point in these videos are you wielding P/P. Maybe my eyes are weak with old age and I missed it. Can you point to a time stamp in the videos where you are using P/P so that I can focus my addled and weak mind? Your vs 8 appears to be mainly npcs. Or have my weak eyes deceived me? While you’re at it, could you just link your build rather than making vague statements? Also, could you address the point of thread? Please evaluate the OP’s build. Have you used it in WvW?

I run on Blackgate. Except for EotM, there are no karma trains running. We’re too busy fighting against two server pile ons to run around collecting karma.

By no means do I consider myself an expert or even knowledgeable. Anyone who reads my posts (all the way through) can easily see that. Even the post that you couldn’t bring yourself to complete clearly states that. There is ONE thing I kind of know in GW2 and that’s P/P in WvW. I’ve used nothing but it since I started. It’s terrible. I’m terrible. The combination is awful. But I’ve never seen anyone do it better (not that I do it well). When I do, I’m totally going to copy that guy. If YOU’RE that guy with the awesome P/P build and play style that totally works, I’m going to kiss your kitten and praise your name. I’ll even tickle your nuts and call you daddy. But what I see in your videos, well someone’s videos that don’t actually show your side of things, is a D/P thief fighting against small groups or even outnumbered players and NPCs.

If you think the OP’s build is great, why aren’t you running it?

I stand by my criticism of the OP’s build for WvW, though he has made it clear that he is using it for PvP. OP, if this works in PvP, good for you! I’m 100% behind anyone trying to make P/P work. Any P/P builds that work are a good thing. But if you bring it to WvW, don’t be surprised if you’re either limited to running camp take downs or getting your kitten handed to you in larger engagements.

I can’t seem to find any legitimate way up there if you aren’t on the home server. Anyone have any feedback at all?

interesting suggestions

I’m curious how an enemy could get to this area:

rickysway.2460:

My build is for small group fights. Not those boring kitten 50v50 fights where health doesnt matter anyways

They are indeed different applications. Which is why I limited myself to WvW commentary. But even at 10 or 15 vs 10 or 15, the condis are a serious problem to consider.

Lettuce.2945:

Stopped reading after “zerg does the work for me” part.

I guess I can understand how mass cast swiftness and horn boons could evade your understanding. It totally makes more sense to extend the 60 secs of swiftness that never dissipates with some more runes. It’s probably better you don’t post. I’m sure you’ve got more forum warrior-ing and theory crafting to do; winning interwebz arguments is srs bizness.

So where’s that awesome P/P build you’ve developed?

Lettuce.2945:

Couple things. You are criticizing the OP for his build but your build is not even good. One, you have no condi cleanse. Two, you aren’t utilizing p/p to its maximum potential by not taking more access to stealth skills like smokescreen or using d/p instead of short bow. The reason is for the combo field with unload or the auto on pistol. You honestly don’t need that much crit rate especially with fury. Why divinity runes? Why not pack, it would definitely add to your build more…? You have no refuge…Which is absolutely essential in wvw and even more so when you use p/p and short bow…If you try to argue that you blast your blind field with short bow…That’s just asking to get revealed. And signet of malice heal? What? This isn’t pve. So…Your build makes zero sense to me. Just saying. Any decent player would eat your thief alive. Care to explain? Kk, thanks.

It does have condi cleanse. It’s got two. I’ll let you click around and find it. I specifically put up this version of my build, because its the version with SoM, so that the OP could see a version that has it. But here’s how I actually use the build: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Just-for-fun-P-P/first#post4700970

Some thieves are obsessed with stealth. It has its uses and I often skill that way (see link above), but it’s not the end all be all. Especially not the way I use this build, which is as a WvW zerg thief. I detail all of that and the condi issue in the other post. You’ll recognize the language I use there, because I basically reproduced it here. I don’t blast the field, I just don’t stealth. The S/B is a movement tool, wall shooter, and life saver (18k plus health, a gap creator, plus a condi cleanse <—- hint here’s one of the cleanses). I rarely use it for offensive purposes.

Fury is great, but it’s very short lived on the thief unless you’re using runes and that would be a waste of rune slots for a few extra seconds. The only reason I use thrill is because there’s nothing better at that level for the slot for what I do. Mostly I use it for swiftness when I stray from the zerg and need to get back to it. Relying on it would be foolish for the build and using it in large scale combat would require untargeting or actually gap closing into the enemy zerg, which is bad for squishy thief.

The zerg provides all the speed I could ever use, swiftness runes are a waste of space/money. I’ve tried a variety of runes. For what I do, divinity is the best overall. Pull up the build and work your way through rune sets. I opted for a less squishy thief than for 5% more in one or two stats plus a special ability.

Combo fields are great and P/P can make good use of them, but in the zerg, blinds are not as effective as one might hope. Everyone is spamming AAs, mass cleansing, and blinding 3 to 5 people out of a group of 30 to 50 is the definition of useless.

Yes, MANY decent players eat me alive. I’m a P/P thief!! As soon as you choose those weapons, you’ve kitten your build! I don’t do PvP, and I wouldn’t dare to bring it to PvP, but it’s for WvW zerg/large scale. I don’t pretend to be a good player at all! If you read through my posts, you’ll see that I fully admit my cluelessness. If you’ve got a P/P WvW build that you actually USE, not just theory craft. I’d like to see it.

I confined my comments to WvW criticisms. I can’t speak to PvP. If OP is limiting himself to PvP, then my comments mean nothing. I’m curious why you focused on me instead of OP? Do you think it’s a good build for WvW? PvP?

Put it to the test. I’m not familiar with PvP, but in WvW you are sure to die. It is not uncommon to be hit with 4 or 5 condis in short order. To even make use of IP and SoM, you must have a target, you must fire, and you must hit. All your healing is tied up in an active offensive action. You cannot simultaneously hide and attack with P/P once you start firing. Your deception skills are 48 sec and 24 sec with the bonus from stealth line, neither of which does you much good once your first stealth use runs out. Even if you manage to duck and hide from an initial onslaught, if you are targeted by another thief or mesmer, you’re dead for sure if you’re dazed or interrupted even once.

Like I said, if it works, I’d love to hear how. Or see how, even better. 10k health and no condi cleanse is almost sure death.

Here’s my build: http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?fZQQNAqaVl8Mp8pFOxxJ0PNxLBt9Ia+G8cNnRzJEAA-T1iFABTfIA+Y/BHOBAJp0gO9AIpMzKlgkoJIS1fA4BAkwRAIAACgje0je0je0uuR35R35RLFggCjA-w

Kodan would be cool

When you’re out of initiative, you’re dead. 10k HP? No condi cleanse of any kind? 5 seconds with 2 condi’s active will kill you outright. One stealth ability and 2 points in stealth line? If you use it to good effect, I’d love to hear how you did it.

Well that would explain it! I don’t keep combat notifications in my chat tabs, but I turned it on for this. It worked as you describe. You are right and I am wrong, and disappointed that my beloved P/P doesn’t have secret damage.

The tone of that last paragraph is a little peevish. As I mentioned, I never even noticed that the number went up until recently. I just mash butans. It is, apparently, hard for some people to believe in the possibility of confusion. How could anyone think that that the damage number displayed prominently in the middle of the screen each time you hit something doesn’t actually indicate per hit damage?

Thanks for the education, though.

LW first. Your total stat benefits are greater than per weapon

wall o text inbound:

The only way to get bleeds on the P/P setup is #1 or the sigil. The cooldown on the sigil doesn’t dovetail well with Unload. I suspect that the designer’s intent for condi P/P was with poison and venomshare, which is a nice idea but functionally impractical in most WvW settings. The middle of the zerg is a bad place for thieves.

The perplexity build is deep into something I feel (and I suck btw) is way off the P/P Unload path. For 1v1 or PvP, maybe, but in general WvW, blinds and interrupts are useless in large scale combat and single target condi pressure is only good on the fringes of the swarm. Good luck reading telegraphed moves to interrupt in the middle of the swarm. And good luck blinding people who are spamming AAs en masse.

As mentioned, the bane of the P/P zerg thief is being focused or caught in wide scale AoE effects (where they put down AoEs side by side or slightly overlapping). I have been tweaking for months on end now, and I’ve been using Blinding Powder a lot when I realize I’m primaried. I then switch to S/B (my second set) and step away if I can. I’m also not quite as squishy as people think, so if they don’t stay focused, I can slip away. I really wish I was paired up with a guardian. I think that could work really well.

The whole P/P thief in WvW problem revolves around being within other characters’ range envelope while they can stay outside of yours. Squishy thieves can’t stay close in large scale combat, but they can’t stay far if they’re ranged. It’s kind of an irresolvable problem without a buff to range.

That brings me to Ricochet. I didn’t trait it before the range increase. It was nice and all, but staying alive was so much harder. I ran various builds, but 4 in acro really worked well for staying alive. In particular, fleet of foot is the P/P thief’s best friend. Being able to shrug off mobility limitations made exiting ranged AoEs much, much easier. The only thing I’m really using from the Trickery line is Ricochet and the 3 init. I like Thrill for the fury/speed, but the truth is I don’t need speed with acro’s bonus, and I’ve got pretty kitten high crit without fury (I don’t even factor it into my thinking; it’s just bonus crit. In reality, I need the speed more).

edit: corrected by much smarter person

armor is leather, so leather worker

None of them are really all that great. You won’t end up using them much. Just choose one. I’d probably go with torment, then chill.

And yet I do. I kill more than I die and my weakest situations are the ones that are most out of control with the most fast movement and repositioning and pure 1v1’s (though i recently took down a guardian and a warrior 1v1).

If they were to improve the range of the pistols, I would be in a good place.

Those of you who live in min/max land need to come down to earth. Play one character, for better or worse, and do your best. That’s a real challenge.

probably related to the other forum and server response issues they’re having

I’m not any kind of good WvW player. But, I run P/P 100% of the time. I’ve got 4k+ kills. It’s a great DPS add on. When I run with 10 to 15 man groups (or larger, but counter zergs of similar size limit my usefulness), I can burn down anyone, absolutely anyone, who gets into trouble with the rest of my group. If you can’t get out of range, if you get downed while the rest of the group moves forward, if you are stalled, delayed, crippled, or slowed, I will burn you down. With ricochet, high crit, and crit triggered abilites, I can do some real damage, most of which no one realizes until their builds don’t function quite like they think they will.

I’ve watched groups notice I’m a thief, see I’m P/P, discount me, and then die in a fire while I burned them down with their focus on someone else.

I once accidentally went to Obsidian Sanctum

I report but don’t block, just to see how long it takes them to get taken down. I never get more than two messages in a row. Never see them again.

Llethlin Dowr.3416:

OK, not sure where you got 145, because I am sure I definitely salvaged a whole stack (250) and got c. 270 dust, then I did a few more with a standard kit and got a low yield (1.2x, but not large enough sample size). I stopped at that point and didn’t do the rest of the 2500, but I did do another stack (250) now and got a normal result. Not sure what is going on, but problem is fixed.

Experience also looks normal again, almost 26K

Thanks for caring

lol

and yet you let an entire thread march on using the 2500 number. That’s pretty much intentionally misleading

why would I lie?

Who knows? Not every lie is malicious. Sometimes its just overstatement

John Smith.4610:

As an addendum OP, you salvaged 145 ectos for 279 dust.

lmao

I’m curious to know if you’re back in PvP. If so, do you still play thief? If so, what build? Is it not working?

official.7362:

haha clearly my trash taking has paid off for me in this game look at all these bias players

sry u guys got kitten on by me or made fun of by me in the past but none of that has anything to do with what im talking about here black power was counterable with every 3rd hit and no matter what stupid kitten u think up it wont change that fact that you could still hit the thief outsit the ring of the circle

sry that your all terrible and dont know how to move out of a kittening circle maybe you should go back to pve where mobs dont move

why do you guys even come here when u just started playing thief you clearly dont have any understand of thief. Ive got over 10k tourny games and r1 solo and team q on thief alone. And to everyone here who thinks i only played SA is kittening wrong ive tested a kittenton more hours on thief then anyone here so unless uve got something better to say than something about me or my builds which have nothing to do with this forum post and clearly your bias towards then just leave cause no matter how much but hurt you have agasint me your only hurting urselves

u morons act like SA is something cheese when its really only cheese in pve and wvw were you dont have to worry about sitting in stealth forever but in pvp where im sure none of u have even set foot you actually have to put pressure on far to the other team and thats exactly what i did better than anyone else which is why all of u morons even know my name cause i kitten on u with a build that clearly no one understood or knew how to play it. Sry that i learned that the thief was more about setting up outnumberd fights then it is fighting in them

so plz continue ur bias against me it feeds me and ill continue to kitten on u with bad cheesy builds as u like to call it

ps plz setup the fourms in a way that seperates thief chat with pvers and pvpers its just causing arguements over different game modes that clearly are much much different

You sure do like kittens!

Who would try her, where, and under what code? Is the code published? Known? Is she beholden to said code? Did she swear an oath to uphold said code? Was it just assumed? Will she also stand trial for killing another Sylvari? Is assisted suicide illegal?

No courtroom dramas in my gaming, please.

Seera.5916:

Black Frog.9274:

2500 is a large sample size and statistically significant. Whether or not you can flip heads 900 times irrelevant. That’s the purpose of a large sample size, to reduce statistical variability. If you don’t agree that 2500 is enough or you’re stuck on the idea that, for whatever reason, he just can’t be right, please suggest a sample size that would satisfy you. Using market trends as proof that he’s wrong is sketchy at best.

To clarify, I don’t agree or disagree (or care really). As often as I see this same sort of back and forth about statistics go on, rarely does someone provide the number that they think would satisfactorily provide statistical validity for a conclusion.

Well, in a situation like flipping a coin, 2500 flips is only enough to say that with ~68% confidence that there is no more than a 0.01 margin of error.

You would need 10,000 flips to be 95% confident. And 27,225 flips to be 99.9% confident.

Given that ecto salvage isn’t a direct you get 1 or 0, the numbers would likely change, but I doubt it’s enough for a 99.9% confidence level.

Definitely enough to warrant a post asking if it got changed. The OP shouldn’t have worded it as a certainty, not with his sample size, but the sample size is high enough to warrant asking.

Sounds good! Though now I’m wondering why polling is generally considered solid with around 1500 people responding.

2500 is a large sample size and statistically significant. Whether or not you can flip heads 900 times irrelevant. That’s the purpose of a large sample size, to reduce statistical variability. If you don’t agree that 2500 is enough or you’re stuck on the idea that, for whatever reason, he just can’t be right, please suggest a sample size that would satisfy you. Using market trends as proof that he’s wrong is sketchy at best.

To clarify, I don’t agree or disagree (or care really). As often as I see this same sort of back and forth about statistics go on, rarely does someone provide the number that they think would satisfactorily provide statistical validity for a conclusion.

Ayrilana.1396:

Black Frog.9274:

Ayrilana.1396:

Black Frog.9274:

Ayrilana.1396:

Farzo.8410:

What annoys me more is people throwing the word “racism” around at everything that just doesn’t seem “fair”

Either people are using it more often nowadays because it’s the new catchword to grab attention or they have absolutely no idea what it means.

Blame it on ANET for defining “races” instead of “species,” which would actually be the correct term. Within the confines of the game, his use of “racism” isn’t incorrect. Not terribly well applied, but not wrong.

Maybe you shouldn’t bring your prejudices into the game, hmmm? (giggle)

Take a look at what the word means and how it’s used. It does not mean that if a race does have something that others have that it is racist. Using the meaning that both if you have would make a ton of things in the game and IRL be racist.

The racist entity in this (poorly constructed) analogy would be ANET for preferring one race over another. The “races” (species) have different things because ANET makes the choices, not simply as matter of random circumstance (as might be applied to real life conversations of this nature). Preferential treatment on the basis of race would meet the definition of racism.

But none of this is really the point of the thread, why do some home instances have merchants and others don’t? Flavor? The home portal stone implies utility, so perhaps the OP is right and adjustments should be made.

The Asura home instance is a lab and the Sylvari’s is a house inside a tree. This was not ever an issue until the home portal stone was released. Nobody cared.

And now the home portal stone is a thing, so people care.

Vargamonth.2047:

excellent information

Thank you, that was fantastic information.

Ayrilana.1396:

I never had an issue. You can also just dodge through the circle to get the buff.

Of course you didn’t, you’re a gaming god. Please post another time about how nothing was difficult for you, so, therefore, should not have been difficult for anyone else.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Zero Day.2594:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Zero Day.2594:

This can’t be real.
2nd patch in a row with only buffs…
Perhaps, with the coming of HoT there has been some major organizational restructuring… firing/hiring employees type of deal.
Or… they realized that the thief forum hasn’t been receiving enough QQ’s lately and are attempting to promote QQ’ing on here…
Or… it will get reworked before release

Typical Thief life cyle riding on the ArenaNet wheel to changes.

Sometimes we’re on top of the wheel, other times we’re crushed at the bottom while the driver engages the parking break.

o.O there’s a cycle? I thought it was just getting crushed at the bottom.

I didn’t believe it either…until today.

It’s more of an epoch/era thing

Ayrilana.1396:

Black Frog.9274:

Ayrilana.1396:

Farzo.8410:

What annoys me more is people throwing the word “racism” around at everything that just doesn’t seem “fair”

Either people are using it more often nowadays because it’s the new catchword to grab attention or they have absolutely no idea what it means.

Blame it on ANET for defining “races” instead of “species,” which would actually be the correct term. Within the confines of the game, his use of “racism” isn’t incorrect. Not terribly well applied, but not wrong.

Maybe you shouldn’t bring your prejudices into the game, hmmm? (giggle)

Take a look at what the word means and how it’s used. It does not mean that if a race does have something that others have that it is racist. Using the meaning that both if you have would make a ton of things in the game and IRL be racist.

The racist entity in this (poorly constructed) analogy would be ANET for preferring one race over another. The “races” (species) have different things because ANET makes the choices, not simply as matter of random circumstance (as might be applied to real life conversations of this nature). Preferential treatment on the basis of race would meet the definition of racism.

But none of this is really the point of the thread, why do some home instances have merchants and others don’t? Flavor? The home portal stone implies utility, so perhaps the OP is right and adjustments should be made.

Ayrilana.1396:

Farzo.8410:

What annoys me more is people throwing the word “racism” around at everything that just doesn’t seem “fair”

Either people are using it more often nowadays because it’s the new catchword to grab attention or they have absolutely no idea what it means.

Blame it on ANET for defining “races” instead of “species,” which would actually be the correct term. Within the confines of the game, his use of “racism” isn’t incorrect. Not terribly well applied, but not wrong.

Maybe you shouldn’t bring your prejudices into the game, hmmm? (giggle)

I can understand wanting more evades, but on unload with P/P that can be counter productive. With 900-1050 range, doing anything that puts you farther away from your target is bad. If you’re working at range, to close the gap you’ll have to skill with SS or SoI or rely on your steal. You’ve got no weapon-based gap close/mobility to catch back up to your target. If he was already trying to get away, he’s now get a bigger lead. That’s why, though I love RfI, I stopped using it. The stun break was awesome, but I got a lot less use out of it than I expected because it kept taking me out of pistol range AND steal range.

In WvW the range issue comes up a lot with all the group movement going on. That and targeting. Tabbing through targets is useless with such large groups, roughly the same goes for click targeting. When people are constantly moving forward and backward or repositioning as part of a zerg, you’re getting nothing but Out of Range. Also with so many cleanses in a zerg, even mobility reduction like cripple, immob aren’t terribly reliable or effective.

I’d like to be able to break melee contact without being forced to move during my prime DPS time.

glock.6590:

P/P is already OP . Pls

lolwut. trololol

Please show me your build. I too want to be an OP P/P thief.

We get it. We totally do. Some of you are gaming gods and the rest of us are noobs who should never voice our opinion because CLEARLY there’s no issue. Except of course for all the people who say they had an issue with it and the many, many more who don’t post to the forums but felt the same way. I can’t help but wonder how many of the people who “had no issue” also used tips and tricks from other sources. No need to post yet again that it wasn’t hard for YOU.

The running theme between those who had an issue and those who didn’t generally falls into 3 categories: difficult to figure out the mechanics while being repeatedly downed; running a class that could absorb the abuse easily vs. low hp classes; getting the shadow hint.

This is the only fight in the entire game that I’ve had significant trouble with, yet I still completed on my first entrance. The first version of this fight at Pale Tree was annoying, but there were places to stand long enough to get a sense of the flow of the fight. For me personally, this seemed to be another case of the Asura camera angle problem (a frequent jump puzzle aggravation) combined with not receiving the hints (I’m deaf, so no audio, and I play with a chat tab that doesn’t include combat info).

In all the back and forth, I haven’t seen anyone who explained or experienced the same issue I did with trying to light a fire—being continually interrupted (as many as 6 times in a row), which doesn’t seem to fit the pattern mentioned above.

Here’s what I run in WvW, mainly as a zerg follower:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZQQNAqaVl8Mp8pFOxxJ0PNxLBt9Ia+G8cNnRzJEAA-T1iFABTfIA+Y/BHOBAJp0gO9AIpMzKlgkoJIS1fA4BAkwRAIAACgje0je0je0uuR35R35RLFggCjA-w

The 6-0 skills vary a lot. In small groups or solo scouting, I put in another stealth skill and the speed signet and drop the power and precision signets. I swap signet of malice for hide in shadows often.

The whole crit/damage your way to health thing works very well on this setup, but once your initiative is spent, you’ve got issues. Also a limited amount of condi removal no matter what you do. When the condi chances are higher or the enemy seems to have a lot of them, I go HiS and precision signet. In pure zerg, where I can lean on some group cleanses and getting lost in the crowd, I go SoM. I use other skills for specific purposes, like the radiation field when defending from a wall and shadowstep in smaller groups (where I’m also using more stealth).

I find that this build is always nice for zerg wars, except in the pure open field, non-stop movement style. In those cases, keeping anyone in range long enough to burn them down is incredibly hard and it leaves you inside their ranged envelope. Along walls, in closed spaces, or in spaces where enemy movement is more constrained, ricochet and proc’d crits can have a very nice effect. The remove boon sigil is highly underrated in most cases, but can be very effective in group situations. It’s new to my build, so I haven’t really figured out just how effective it is. (I almost never attempt solo, but I had my first solo guardian kill with this build. IMO it was the boon stripping that did the job.) If I didn’t suck so hard, I would change SB for D/P for better small group combat.

I seem to do best in the ~15 man group format. I’m not sure why that is. If there isn’t a zerg to burn me down immediately, or I’m outnumbered and focused, I rarely die and my burst DPS seems to be very helpful.

evilunderling.9265:

Different people have different perspectives. Earlier in this thread, you’ll find someone mentioning that they had to ‘retrait’, as if shuffling a few trait points was some massive step and not something you consider as a matter of course if content starts giving you trouble.

I specifically mentioned retraiting so that others who read the thread will have as much information as possible for solving their problem. The “as if” part of your statement is your imagination.

I don’t consider content that requires trial and error “challenging.” Test my skills, not my patience.

Seriously, stop it. Stop thinking of alien races as though they were human genders. JUST STOP IT. They’re not furries fulfilling Rule 34 for you. They are imaginary beings with a society and physiology about which you know nothing.

Generally, people use boss in the third person. Calling someone boss to their face is not something most people would consider respectful, unless you’ve got a joking sort of relationship with your boss. It also holds a connotation of rule by force or the overt display of power. Still, I think they should call us El Jefe.

I solo’d this on my first pass through, but it was incredibly annoying, cost me a repair canister (almost 2), and took forever. I play thief exclusively. I had to retrait to get this done. None of my traits was really worth anything, but the Acro line, signet of agility, and Fleet of Foot gave me a fighting chance. If you have a chance to equip before hand, consider going full PTV or TVC.

Chief among the obstacles was the camera, which is completely obscured by the “walls” of the circle of plants and the divine fires if you got your camera angle caught behind them. I died multiple times this way because you can’t see the color of the AoE fields when your vision is blocked. Even 1 or 2 seconds of blockage could get you locked into a cycle of AoE spams.

Another significant obstacle was the targeting of the dragon (check your settings before you start, turn auto target off or turn promote on). I probably did 2 or 3 more cycles of this than were necessary because the smotherers were soaking up damage instead of the dragon.

There appears to be some randomness when you respawn from the checkpoint. On several occasions, I didn’t even have time to react before getting caught in a chain of AoE spam. Running the rest of it with 3k health left no margin for error and, realistically, you’re going to take some damage no matter what. When that didn’t happen, I had a better shot of at least getting clear of the spam long enough to get my bearings and try to figure things out.

There is so much AoE spam that getting a handle on the mechanics is difficult. As mentioned, you can keep the smotherers from killing your progress, but if you can’t get to the divine fire, you can’t kill them either. I watched several passes of the fire happen in thick fields of AoE spam. Don’t know what the issue was, but there was simply no way to get at the fire field.

There were many times that I would try to light a fire, but no matter what, the area was targeted over and over and over with AoEs. It’s possible that you’re supposed to move in a particular order or there is some particular indicator of which one you should be working on. It might be that the falling rocks (or whatever they are) may be an indicator of where you should be placing yourself (perpendicular to its line?).

There were sometimes when the field(s?) that blow you into the air actually blow you straight up and you land on your feet. Don’t know how I managed to do that.

Overall, probably my single most hated encounter in this game. There’s nothing I hate more than being a victim of that kitten camera except deliberately confusing and overwhelming scenarios designed to sell new monitors (because you just punched through yours). Even the crystal thing of the last one, which was frustrating to solo, didn’t come close to being as aggravating.

By the way, why does the NPC tell you to ignore the minions? That seemed like deliberately misleading advice. Perhaps I missed something?

twice now i’ve used the shortcut mote, spawned, been smacked before i could count to 1, landed in an aoe that smashed me, then had multiple aoes cover me before i’m even up off the ground, manage to get to fire circle, only to be cut down while trying to light fire by claw.

if i could kick the designer in the nuts, i surely would

Nephrite.6954:

Yeah but it doesn’t it bother you that it says assassin with almost every trait you use as a thief? Lol

Except Executioner. So where’s my axe!?

rhapsody.3615:

There’s a very easy way to find nodes: gw2nodes.com

You use the ip address of your map and players update the site with node locations.

Which proves the randomness is no deterrence to bots and that knowing where to go is something many people want.

This is a reasonable suggestion.