Guild Wars 2

^ you had absolutely zero toughness or vitality, and the thief was a full glass full signet build using signets of power. Aka pop all signets for might and try to oneshot. The whole thing is mitigated entirely by one dodge, even on the glassier character. This build also has no way to escape or flee since every utility is a signet. QQ harder

Welcome to pvp

rabidsmiles.5926:

Would it look good on one of the others?

Max size male norn, ofc

style.6173:

As I’ve said before, there are a number of specs that need to be toned down in this game. Hambow is one of them. The other problem specs are:

decap engi, spirit ranger, mm necro, pu mesmer, s/p thief, bunker guardian.

And then after all those things are nerfed, whats left? All these crappy “i play how i want” builds that are deemed “fair” and “not OP” by some magical mysterious force? Im sorry you can’t beat me with your condi guardian :/

TL;DR

Read this https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sirlin.net%2Farticles%2Fplaying-to-win-part-1.html

Karolis.4261:

Carpboy.7145:

Sunt.6835:

NinjaEd.3946:

1 second makes little to no difference in wvw. Pvp maybe, things tend to be close quarters and often quick but wvw is open and unpredictable.

Thief isn’t op, OP. It’s a learning curve that people are either lazy or selfish to learn. When playing against other players there are multiple things to learn.

Too many conditions? Bring condi clear/negation.
Too many stuns? Bring a stun breaker.
Too many evasions? Bring lock-down abilities like immobilize, and cc.
Too much damage? They prolly die in seconds, out smart them.
Too much stealth? WELL, you could, _______ (multiple suggestions, varies by profession and build).

Problem is stealth counters aren’t obvious, they are learned by playing the game. Most people rather just get a 1200 aoe reveal for 20 seconds and call that a fair buff to their class to deal with thieves, because they don’t care to L2P. It’s a sad truth, most people aren’t interested in working on kills. I can bet that atleast 80% or more of main-thieves rarely run into troubles when playing against other thieves. Why? Because they know what to expect and how their things work.

Thief isn’t broken, and stealth isn’t broken (which btw Mesmer has). It’s the ability to ask questions and learn that is absent.

Stealth is not broken. 30 shadow arts is broken
They ban SA and PU in touney for a reason

Yes in tpvp SA is extremely broken. i forgot about that gm SA trait that allows you to decap points while stealthed. Good thing its banned in tournaments or this’d be OP.

And what trait might that be, doc?

I think its called sarcasm or something :/

So how about whenever someone posts some ridiculous QQ topic we just link this article?

Sunt.6835:

NinjaEd.3946:

1 second makes little to no difference in wvw. Pvp maybe, things tend to be close quarters and often quick but wvw is open and unpredictable.

Thief isn’t op, OP. It’s a learning curve that people are either lazy or selfish to learn. When playing against other players there are multiple things to learn.

Too many conditions? Bring condi clear/negation.
Too many stuns? Bring a stun breaker.
Too many evasions? Bring lock-down abilities like immobilize, and cc.
Too much damage? They prolly die in seconds, out smart them.
Too much stealth? WELL, you could, _______ (multiple suggestions, varies by profession and build).

Problem is stealth counters aren’t obvious, they are learned by playing the game. Most people rather just get a 1200 aoe reveal for 20 seconds and call that a fair buff to their class to deal with thieves, because they don’t care to L2P. It’s a sad truth, most people aren’t interested in working on kills. I can bet that atleast 80% or more of main-thieves rarely run into troubles when playing against other thieves. Why? Because they know what to expect and how their things work.

Thief isn’t broken, and stealth isn’t broken (which btw Mesmer has). It’s the ability to ask questions and learn that is absent.

Stealth is not broken. 30 shadow arts is broken
They ban SA and PU in touney for a reason

Yes in tpvp SA is extremely broken. i forgot about that gm SA trait that allows you to decap points while stealthed. Good thing its banned in tournaments or this’d be OP.

Teef. Because rainbow pony assassin. Also pretty much EVERY thief build has a SB on swap. Ranger on the other hand only has a handful of SB builds

Awesome article you should read regarding “cheese”

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sirlin.net%2Farticles%2Fplaying-to-win-part-1.html

Forzani.2584:

Carpboy.7145:

If you want a condi build try this

Full dire or carrion. Carrion is a lot squishier bu you do more dmg. Dire is pretty much invincible. Traits go 10/0/30/0/30. Grab perplexity runes with sleight of hand, and scorpion wire
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY6YlUmiO3eS7E/5EB3DnaUo694rj1saFoJA-jkCB4iDimWAkkOQ0HwZqFRjtsuIasKZER1KlYmbDRzkL1CBsYNA-w
You can also use caltrops instead of scorpion wire or shadow refuge. I just prefer it the way it is

I like it. The same weapon set just to get endurance boost on swap?

was wondering about Leeching venom. There is only 1 Venom in the build. I’m not sure exactly how that works..ie how often it procs. Better than Shadows rejuvination?

No thats just to show what to use after you get full corruption stacks. Just use standard SB as swap. Hydromancy/geomancy are also good, however remember energy and vigor synergies great with uncatchable. It should be shadows rejuvenation. I think i messed up with the link or something

No offense, but that build sucks ^

Try this
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Roaming-thief-build

Np. I think its right after reset when it starts, but might want to ask around to make sure. My guild [EDGE] is one of the main organizers of it, in particular my guild leader, Bönz. So might wanna ask there

Azukas.1426:

thanks, I thought it looked solid on paper per say since its a condi clear every 20 seconds, but things don’t always work as prescribed.

Its a lot more than 1 every 20 sec. Thatd be incredibly weak. Its a phantasm that when summoned casts a spell similar to the staff auto that bounces between allies (curing conditions) and enemies (stealing boons). If no one notices it or doesnt take the time to kill it its pretty much GG against a condi build

If you want a condi build try this

Full dire or carrion. Carrion is a lot squishier bu you do more dmg. Dire is pretty much invincible. Traits go 10/0/30/0/30. Grab perplexity runes with sleight of hand, and scorpion wire
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY6YlUmiO3eS7E/5EB3DnaUo694rj1saFoJA-jkCB4iDimWAkkOQ0HwZqFRjtsuIasKZER1KlYmbDRzkL1CBsYNA-w
You can also use caltrops instead of scorpion wire or shadow refuge. I just prefer it the way it is

I know on my server (FC) we have a huge world boss train every night, and do a big temple train every weekend

Its the best condi clear. Plus it steals boons at the same time

Yes. Because s/p has way to much access to stealth

10/0/30/30/0 full PTV, Sw/Wh on swap. Soldier runes with vigorous shouts

Dont use this in pve

dubak.3042:

Carpboy.7145:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fen.gw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfYEQRAoY8YlUmiO3ey5E%2F5Ey2jdqCJKuHGVS1UdFiKA-jEzA4rBRTWCNRAiKAk8UWzeCiVtioxqrxUuCRa3UbvFkN4KrCBUeBA-w
Use d/d or d/p it doesn’t matter

hm, I’ll try it out, it seems good, the only question I have is, are runes a free choice, or superior runes of divinity are the best ones?

Divinity give the most effective power vs. effective health. However like splatter paw said travelers are good since they free up a utility slot. But with 5 in acrobatics just dodge and do 2heartseekers. Youll get around the map just as quick as if you had travelers. Scholar runes are also great with shadows rejuvenation and the on demand stealth of d/p

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fen.gw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfYEQRAoY8YlUmiO3ey5E%2F5Ey2jdqCJKuHGVS1UdFiKA-jEzA4rBRTWCNRAiKAk8UWzeCiVtioxqrxUuCRa3UbvFkN4KrCBUeBA-w

Use d/d or d/p it doesn’t matter

Signet of shadows

After march 18 both will proc. same with 2 on swap

Dire. The only benefit you get from rabid is a 3 sec bleed. Thats not worth 6k health. Not to mention with dire you get 30% crit chance, 40% with a sword, and 60% with fury.
Here is a sample of what you should aim for
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfIMQNAT8cjkOpwFPCPMxBCkCsUlzjkMFyrUMH7A-j0BBINCy0CQUHBOTtIasVTFRjVJjIqWpETKAIWDA-w
3.4k armor, 25k health, 30% crit chance, and 2k condi dmg is such a beast. You can easily get bleed ticks of 3k+, and burn, and torment for 1k+. Doom sigils with fast hands also means perma poison, so its a lot more difficult for people to heal back up

I want an offhand sword fo sho, and a torch, or something with burning. Make it so when you stealth with a torch equipped you instead get protection or something

Honestly if they just split it it would be much better. Pre hit PW, IS, PW→IR. youd get way more hits of it in than before.

Its called pistol whip and black powder

Thieves dont have cooldowns on weapon skills. But if you interrupt something like a heal or shadow refuge then yes

The meta dungeon thief build is 25/30/0/0/15 or 25/30/0/15/0 for more survivability. Sw/P for trash, D/D for bosses. If you bring anything other than that, especially into Arah, youll get kicked. Full zerk, scholar etc.

Now what do you bring to the group? Well, perma blind and weakness for one. Shadow refuge for skipping and spammable blast finishers with a SB. You also have some of the highest DPS in the game, 2nd only to ele. Not to mention its also incredibly easy to stay alive. Perma blind and weakness for trash, and pistol whip evades if you need it as well. For bosses just stay behind them with the rotation of CnD→backstab→repeat.

Scholar runes maximize damage

This doesn’t make sense. You want warriors, including people who have never even touched a necro, to tell you that necros are OP and awesome? Wat?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Apher-on-WvW-Roaming-Build-Ham-GS

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/HGH-might-stacking-power-vs-condi

I’ve been running this same build for quite some time as well. However a few things

1. Condi reduction food without melandru or dogged march is only so good. Truffle steak(100 power, 70 prec) is much better.

2. Wtf why aren’t you using dogged march? The regen alone is wonderful. Stance mastery only adds 1 or 2 seconds to your stances.and if you take my advice youll only use one stance anyway.

3. Mobile strikes is meh to me. I use DotE. 6k earthshakers anyone?

4. With signet mastery, dolyak signet is almost the exact same thing as balanced stance, but with a passive increase to toughness when you don’t need it. I also use stamina signet for more dodges and complete condi wipe. Thats more personal preference tho.

5. You have the gear messed up. Full cavalier armor with full zerker trinkets will keep your armor at that 3k mark, but give you 100% crit dmg and a lot more power

Hey gw2 looks pretty cool installs game finishes downloading Pick your server “wow what a horrible game. I have to pick my server? I guess ill just randomly pick this one without doing any research on the consequences of wanting to transfer after” plays for an hour, gets to level 5 “man this server sucks (youre level 5, chill) im gonna transfer to another one. WHAT?!?!? I have to pay money to transfer?!?? Or delete my level 5 character that i spent 1 WHOLE kittening hour on?!?!? (An option most games dont even have) WTF worst game ive ever played. Im sorry i bought this kittenty game waste of my time”

Melanie.1240:

And isn’t the Perplexity rune only nice for PvP/WvW?

Everything mentioned in this thread is only for pvp/WvW. You should clarify what you’re talking about next time

Sw/p is great for leveling, just drop your blind field and use the cleaving auto attack. Mobs can’t touch you and you do awesome dmg.

Have you tried the short bow? The whole thing is AoE!

Warrior scaling with HP is absolutely horrendous (except for vigorous shouts). Its possible to never die, but trust me in that you will NEVER kill a single person with this build, and itll take like 10 minutes to solo a single camp. Its not worth it

Caltrops dont do any physical dmg, and gates can’t bleed

All that power is a waste without any precision or crit dmg. You have to at least use food as well, especially for condi builds. +40% condi duration is HUGE. Your build has no vigor or energy sigils, with the same amount of toughness as the average thief. Youll go down really fast. You’re only source of burn is fire bomb, thats not enough. You also have no mobility.

If you want to go the hybrid route, give this a read

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/HGH-might-stacking-power-vs-condi

The standard condi build for solo WvW is 30/10/20/10/0 P/S with rabid armor+rabid/dire trinkets. HT, nades, TK, and rocket boots

This thread explains why

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/WvW-Solo-Smallman-Roaming-Build

Your GS/ hammer knights build us useless as well

WvW/spvp or PVE?

1. For weapons we have pistol/pistol, pistol/shield, and rifle. Pistols are pure condi, shield is very defensive with lots of interrupts (perplexity) and rifle is pure power. You use your weapon and kit skills as you need them. You don’t just say “im a pistol engineer!” And use all the skills off cool down then spam the autoattack. Itd probably work against mobs and bad players, but then you could swap to nades and use all those, then go back to pistol and use all those skills again. It a bit like ele in that you use what you need when you need it, especially since kits have no CD you can constantly bring swapping inbetween kits and your weapon skills.

2. If you l2p endgame is way fun on an engineer. Be it WvW or PVE you have to be constantly moving and on your toes. In PVE engis offer great might/vuln stacking, top tier DPS, condi cleanse, stealth for skipping if needed, water fields for area heals, and projectile reflection, all in the same build.

3. There is no capped amount if turrets you can use, but they do take up a utility slot so the max you can have is 4.

X/30/30/X/X is the standard d/p or d/d WvW build, with the last 10 points either in deadly arts for mug or fleet shadow/descent of shadow in acrobatics. Go into spvp and test it in a duel server to see how you like it and get the hang of it.

The meta dungeon thief build is 25/30/0/0/15 or 25/30/0/15/0 for more survivability. Sw/P for trash, D/D for bosses. If you bring anything other than that, especially into Arah, youll get kicked.

For dungeon armor everything full zerk, scholar runes, etc. for WvW at least for d/p you can do that as well, but here is how you can mix and match gear for a more balanced build.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Building-a-better-D-D-thief/first

You could probably use this in dungeons as well just dont be joining any “experienced only” or “zerk only” groups

I have an asuran female thief with a white ponytail and CoE/t3 armor. Its especially cool with s/d or s/p cus youre just this little blur rolling and jumping around. And if you go for a stealth build its really hard for people to see you right after you get revealed after a backstab. (Unless theyre good and tab target)

Mepheles.2087:

I don’t stick with the zerg often enough for the guard masteries. And I’d rather not have to farm mobs for stacks every time I die, which since I’m only slightly above average and because of bursty classes/getting smacked by a zerg, falling damage, etc. is quite often. I guess there is no use moping about it and I’ll continue to play the way I’ve been playing for the past 2 years.

If youd been playing WvW consistently for the past 2 years (games only been out 1 1/2 years) just solo roaming, with some dungeons and other stuff mixed in, playing 3 hours a day youd at least have one of the guard bonuses. Youd also know the coyote/wolf locations where you can get 10/15 sigil stacks in under a minute

P/d is a great condi or power set. P/P unfortunately is not. All your initiative goes into spamming unload, since thats the only way you can really do dmg. You can’t stealth with p/p and it does have built in defenses like evades or teleports. Its gott #5 for a blind field, but most if not all your initiative is already going into unload so youll rarely have the initiative to use that.

TL;DR make an HGH dual pistol engi for that gunslinger/cowboy look

Tokumaru.6370:

Thanks for the tips guys, you’ve already helped immensely! Digitalruse, that FT/EG guide you posted is great. Now that I’ve nailed down the basics of how end-game armor works, My biggest problem now is deciding which armor insignia(s) I’m going to choose. I’m decent, but not the best player, and since I’m planning on doing WvW I think I’ll probably need something to help keep my a little tankier than usual and a buff to damage as well.

With at FT/EG build, I’m assuming power would benefit me the most? I’m looking through the WvW armor vendor and am planning on getting a few pieces since I’ve saved up 502 Badges of Honor from my time leveling up.

Again, thanks for the help so far!

Just play with one of the build calculators until you end up with stats you desire. Dont dip below 2k power, or 2600 armor. Try and get good crit chance (30-55%) and crit dmg (70-100%). Make sure you have some kind of movement speed boost, be it from runes, power shoes, or speedy kits.

Lawful.5314:

Is there a list of T3 armors i can view for each race?

Make a lvl 1 of each race and go to the starting city. Or go into spvp and preview all the armor in the game with the locker