Hate to break it to you, but it’s never going to happen. If DoT conditions revealed the thief, there would be zero point in creating a condi-focused thief as it would be impossible for them to get stealth. Caltrops intentionally doesn’t reveal the thief. Oh, also for the person who is in the thread, please don’t complain about caltrops destroying your turret engie build (which you refuse to briefly step off of point for) – zero condi clear is just a weakness to turret engie. It’s a terrible build, which serves as a bad crutch to new players, anyway.
Engis are too complex to see a pattern only that they always use their elite first.
It really isn’t too complex. One of the main builds spike rotation is something like:
Magnet pull, prybar, overcharged shot, rifle 2 (net), throw nades (usually chill), throw wrench.
It doesn’t matter though. If you’re overly predictable, for any class, it can be punished.
This goes for any class: Think with your brain, not with your rotations.
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And this is the part where it, personally, gets a bit tougher…
Kiddies just need to grow up and realize this isn’t a favoritism game. It’s a childish argument that should just be ignored.
Eles are usually pretty predictable and have many pre-defined rotations, though.
Terrible eles push buttons like that. There are certain timing windows you need to hit if you want to play ele correctly – but this is true for any class.
I take it you are newer here. The channel skill has been like that since the game launched.
Seriously. This whole thread is a l2p issue. People Shouldn’t mindlessly spam their stealth. Headshot the rapid fire, dodge it, line of sight it, evade it. Seriously, people need to think with their head and not with their rotations.
Rock Dog is op. Use ogre.
Let’s be actually real here. You are talking specifically about D/D. I cannot agree more and I consider this setup is a 1-trick-pony for the very reasons you mentioned. However not every thief set functions like D/D.
I originally thought the same thing about S/D, it being a 1-trick-pony, but the more I see people like sizer play it, the less I feel that way.
Be patient when fighting shatter. If you’re dp, you have more stealth than they do. If you’re sd, you have more ports.
Dodge at the right times. Remember, they can pull off a 10k combo by using a short range mirror blade, shatter, mind stab – that’s it. No other requirements needed other than get into your face.
You should be able to beat shatter as a thief.
Auto attack to victory my friend. Screw playing around with different weapon / profession systems and learning as you go. Anet has dictated that it is too hard and complicated for you to do. So stand still and auto attack to victory. Feel the arduous grind – Anet wants you to do busy work.
Seriously, a very well written post. Opinionated, but fairly recognizing it as such. Thanks for this Bitty; as it’s a rarity on the forums. Well done.
For anyone interested, this is a more refined description of a cripshot ranger than I could write, given character limits. It’s my roots from guild wars 1, and in my eyes there is not a single class remotely similar to cripshot ranger other than d/p trickery thief. It’s why I love d/p trickery so much.
I’m also not a Thief main and maybe those that are really enjoy this playstyle.
Good thieves enjoy the class because it requires you to think about what you are doing and what skill is appropriate for any given situation in a blink of an eye. Many try different things – even if it’s not the most optimal – because unpredictability is crucial. Thieves don’t get cooldowns on our weapon skills, however thieves most reliable source of damage is melee range and they get killed by two to three good hits. Play S/D Shortbow Survival Ranger and you have comparable dodge potential, have cooldowns, but are incredibly tanky compared to thieves, have good base health, and regen up the butt. On the other hand, you have to be able to micromanage your pet. There are tradeoffs for everything.
Fighting a Thief that constantly uses the same sequence of skills (again, not their fault, the game forces it) isn’t nearly as engaging.
So punish these terrible thieves for being so predictable like you would punish greatsword guardians for being so predictable. People need to use their brain instead of their rotations.
In addition, on other classes you are swapping weapon/kits/elements so you are seeing at least 2 different fighting styles.
Good thieves do the exact same thing.
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When you nailed that full chain on someone, it felt like you just did something impressive.
It felt like landing your 1-trick-pony. Congratulations. You were able to successfully press 1, then 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 to deal damage and not miss. Now you have to wait 20 to 30 seconds before you can do anything else. A simple ele who had an ounce of situational awareness could make you a deadweight on the team by simply pressing blinding flash while you do your combo.
In contrast, let’s look at Shock Axe Warrior. It’s in charge of setting up spikes with shock (which could interrupt skills) or bulls charge (which required you to time it correctly because it was only effective on moving targets). It could interrupt skills with a well timed disrupting chop (usually when the target got up after a knockdown). You had to know when to use fury or rush. Fury made you 50% weaker to attacks, but could be canceled by using rush if they focused you (which allowed you to catch fleeing foes or run away). You could prevent spikes (and counterspike) by using your bulls charge or shock ability. You could split push with a ranger. Help prepare for VoD if their base defender goes back to defend. Ultimately, you were THE guy on the team to set up damage because your high armor levels and knockdowns allowed you to push their mid to backline safely. You didn’t have to wait 20 to 30 seconds to be effective again.
Let’s also look at Cripshot Ranger. Quite literally, they are the epitome of a necessary class for virtually all teams – their roles were so many, given on what the team needed. However a good cripshot ranger – even in such high demand – was always hard to find. It’s a spec focused on spreading poison around on enemies to pressure the monks, can split push, help prepare for VoD, can flag run in a pinch, can prevent and support nukes with crippling shot + a well timed savage shot, is a critical class in attempting to interrupt important skills like diversion or guardian to be successful (on top of focusing on many other classes to spread the poison around and prevent/support spikes).
If anything, the thief class is more comparable to a cripshot ranger than the Assassin class. To many on the forums, they would probably consider cripshot ranger as an op spec – then claim that gw1 longbow ranger spike took real skill to play.
The problem is, it might be far too late to change Thieves so that the damage is spread out among multiple skills so that it encourages chaining them.
As I said before, Thieves already do this. Another example, there is a reason why people use hide in shadows over the no-brainer withdraw on d/p. The fundamental reason is because shortbow stealth attack sets up so much stuff to help support the team with a 2 sec immob and to land your steal item skills, and having access to at least 2 sources of stealth outside of your weapon set allows you to pull off some advanced and effective combos. One way a thief can deal with an engineer is to land immob, throw gunk, cast bassi venom, bassi venom will trigger on gunk, then you can choose to weaponswap into shadowshot for a blind into followup damage, or you can clusterbomb for the chaos armor. The end result is overloading the engie with conditions and significantly tearing into them with your melee attacks while they try to deal. On the plus side, you might have just saved your teammate getting trained down with this. Granted, most of the time though, all you need is the immob into gunk into shadow shot to help a player. Another way to deal with engies is to pop bassi venom, blink + blackpowder shot to bait out the possible protection injection, then rip it off with a classic heartseeker steal backstab combo.
Other examples:
When fighting against a -good- warrior, it’s pretty critical to land your interrupt on combustive shot. Save whirling blades for when he enters longbow and pop down a blackpowder field at his feet with a blink or a prepped immob/bassi venom with a blink before you do.
When fighting a d/d ele, you need to focus on stripping their protection when they exit out of earth attunement, avoid their damage when in fire, save ice shard when they exit water attunement (which requires an immob from shortbow stealth or bassi venom to land against good d/d’s) and avoid their cc from air.
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Warning, long post:
Let me open by saying this is not a “teef op nerf pls” post. I am well aware that the class has received a number of nerfs recently (although I still hate them because they hard counter my Mes if I don’t get the jump on them). This post is about what I dislike about the class’s design and why I find it inferior to the Assassin’s in GW1.
The Assassin, as well (but to a much lesser extent) with the Ritualist, were regarded as one-trick-pony classes by many who played competitively. The Assassin was cheese incarnate. They were hated just as much in gw1, so whenever someone said it was a valuable and rewarding class, my ears perk up and my brow furrows because i suspect shenanigans. They were incredibly strong against newer players, and near useless but still hated for the competitive scene for their ports. Their skills, and the combo system, were too restrictive (every single skill on their bar was typically some type of an attack) and their ports (of which most people only used one really good port; because they needed so many attacks) were incredibly powerful for the original gw game and its format.
I have a level 80 Thief…but I honestly despise playing it. This is because the combination of the initiative system and weapon attack designs make the class feel “spammy.” Not matter what weapon set, the pattern is generally that one or two skills deal the damage and the rest are situational. Most builds you see generally stick in one weapon set and then have a shortbow for emergencies.
You’re not alone, everyone says this, but it’s incorrect. Everything is situational on the thief bar. This is why thief is a better designed class than the Assassin – thieves are not one-trick-ponies. As an example, many thieves and other less experienced players think shortbow is only a utility weapon and the only way thieves do damage is through backstab. “So don’t nerf their crit dmg; they’ll be useless!” or “So they’re spammy op class!” pop up often as a result. Every one of these players is bad and doesn’t understand what the thief can do. I’m dead serious on this – even the thieves who say this are bad. The biggest strength to the thief, when you learn how to play them well, is their ability to be incredibly unpredictable. Shortbow is an incredibly good weapon (not just for its 5 ability), and in the end you are not just spamming 222 or 333 when you play thief well.
Some builds were more “spammable” where you only had a few attack skills and more utility.
They were awful builds. The only builds accepted amongst the competitive scene involved 5 to 6 weapon skills, a defensive stance, and a port this is an example.
Necro is very good in tpvp (the current NA team comp to beat involves a necro in their composition because they are very good in skirmish fights). Okay in WvW. And not very good in PvE.
I specifically wanna talk about the Bunker Guardian thing, but before I do I want to make sure I have my facts straight on what a bunker guard and bring and what a bunker Mes can bring.
Well the list of priorities, from best to least (but certainly not negligible), a bunker guard can do are the following:
They are the go-to person to stomp and res, and can give everyone else the ability to stomp/res in a pinch.
They provide mass condition clear.
They provide sustain for the whole team through heals and regeneration (staff empower + virtue of resolve is a 1.2k range AoE 5k heal).
They protect others by peeling for them with skills like shield 5, staff 3 & 5, mace 3, focus 4, etc.
They can stand on a point and have a tough time dieing.
Tbh though, I like the double portal zerg point idea.
This would allow you to move around inside the symbol (which you can’t do with the dome), do other things while the symbol persists (which you can’t do with the dome), and trait the symbol to be more effective (which you can’t do with the dome).
Currently you can use the bubble, cancel the cast time, and still move around while the bubble persists. It’s bugged now though to only last 2 seconds instead of its natural 4. The only benefit from going the full channel is having the option of popping it for the heal (which is rarely used as mobility and a dome that prevents damage is far superior to a 1.2k heal).
Rat?
In dota 2, there is a strategy called rat dota. The fundamental basis of it is to avoid large teamfights usually at all costs and instead push multiple lanes at the same time. If a few people die due to stupid actions or whatever, it’s okay because in another lane (there are 3 of them) the team is getting more control via the rat. At any point in time, if anyone tries to take back control of the lane with overwhelming numbers, the “rat” will flee back to base and attempt to push another lane.
Basically how I understood you was: Skirmish comps will avoid teamfights they know are not advantageous for them and instead attempt to disengage and spread out to other points on the map so they will always attempt to have at least a 2 cap. Celestial gear allows them to at least hold out long enough in a +1 outnumbered fight so that they can eventually get reinforcements. They basically use disengage mechanics to establish some type of a lead.
So basically what you’re saying is we’re playing rat GW2 here when fighting a skirmish comp. Fantastic; it has to spread to gw2 as well(I meant that sarcastically).
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This is for anyone who would like to answer it:
One thing that has always been itching me is why, if you’re facing a skirmish-focused comp, people don’t try and force a teamfight? I mean it’s not like we’re facing extreme out-rotators here like a thief/mes comp which can force multiple people to go afk on point for at minimum 15-20 secs (shadow refuge) and at max 60 (mesmer portal) so they can +1 somewhere else on the map without worry of generating a -1 for their own team. At most, they have 1 thief. This comes off as common sense to me.
Say 1 – 2 – 2 split comes from a skirmish comp. Why not send four people to obliterate the 2 going far, then steamroll mid while they’re on death counter? Skirmish builds are builds that are so focused on establishing extremely early momentum (the dreaded 3 cap). People SAY it’s a big no-no to over-commit to a point (and it usually is), but the skirmish comp depends on that momentum. If they can’t establish it early, it’s extremely hard to re-gain it again.
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Would you say it’s still viable if I use the 20% more mindwrack damage trait over the trait that inflicts 600 damage upon interrupting a foe?
Halting strike also works very well with a co-ordinated burst, but I think 20% more mindwrack is still very good. If you play soloque a lot, you might want to try using it over halting. I’d also consider going double energy sigil and lyssa runes for soloque, since you’re not guaranteed good peels or a support on your team.
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I firmly believe that the direction Anet went, in terms of developing the mechanics of gw2, was fundamentally driven by their experiences with the first game.
Landing a kill in the first game was a huge deal. So much so that it was virtually mandatory to bring some type of resurrection skill in order to not lose any ground. This significantly restricted certain skillbars. So in response, it seems like they just implemented it as sort of like a “phase” that you have to work around when someone dies, but everyone has the potential to res a person naturally.
Another problem was the “build wars” mentality that the first game developed, and even further strengthened, in its later years. One of the most effective ways to deal with one-trick-pony builds was to effectively split push. I think they realized this and tried to run with it. I think it lead to them enforcing smaller-sized teams (5 man teams instead of 8 man teams) and a focus on capture points.
Another problem was how long the games were. Victory or Death, if I remember correctly, wasn’t in the original incarnation of the game. Victory or Death is a situation when, at a certain time in a GvG, all the npc’s that are in each teams base would make a dash for the center of the map. Then the guild lord would follow suit, slowly marching to the middle of the map. The first team who got overwhelmed, and had their guild lord killed, lost. It was brought about because people could be in a match for literally 45 mins to an hour not making any headway at all. There were legit complaints about aegis stacking by monks (an enchantment spell that granted everyone on the team about 10 seconds of 50% chance to block, each monk would take aegis and just alternate it between the two). It lead to things like burning arrow ranger becoming popular because the ranger was known to split push the enemy base to quickly burn down npcs. This would prepare for Victory or Death (less NPC’s on the other team means advantage). In any case, since the matches lasted so long, I’m sure this persuaded them to try a “point-ticker” type system, and now we have games which rarely last 15 mins.
So, ironically enough (whether they were successful with it or not), they probably developed and tried to improve upon the last game due to what they knew where the problems/complaints.
So when did 6/0/2/0/6 become new meta for thief?
Since people realized that panic strike with a mesmer works really well together. It’s mainly an EU build.
If you are sick of fighting condition, or cele rifle engineers and want to beat them, I suggest running condi necro or survival condi ranger.
Against turret engineers, if they are sitting on their home point, with no one around, leave them there. Use it to your advantage to secure a really strong grasp on your home and mid point nodes while you outnumber your enemy.
This is all good advice. In general I tend to think that anything that can function at least marginally well as a point defender does great in solo-que. A lot of condition-focused classes usually fall in line with this logic as they tend to be proficient in 1v1 situations but also can contribute to larger scale fights.
The second part is a big deal, and if only everybody you played with knew it turret engie build would be in the dumpster. Unfortunately, you usually end up with at least one person pushing the turret engie node all game and dieing to it.
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Since you’ve resorted to name-calling…
You aren’t refuting any of my claims about rangers, and are instead attributing what I see as overpowered as my lack of understanding game mechanics.
You have made zero claims about rangers other than they can deal damage from 1300 range away. Which is rather an empty statement – nobody cares. A thief jumps onto a target with a full force burst (if a target is at 50% health, no matter how much armor you have, you’re going to die to it) using infiltrator signet and steal for an 1800 range teleport that literally cannot be spotted if you don’t have good positioning. A Mesmer can unload 15 to 20 stacks of vulnerabilty, generate an around an additional 6 mightstacks to the person you’re fighting, boonstrip 2 to 4 boons, has a 1200 range spike similar to Ranger (only with added cleave damage and less projectiles) in virtually an instant. An Engineer can unload all of his grenades from a max range of 1500 and use magnet pull for a burst (the best pull in the game) from 1200 range. A warrior can set up his CC burst from a 1200 range pindown immob that lasts 3 seconds. A necromancer can strip virtually all boons and unload a condi burst without any projectile warning from 1200 range away. The most valuable take away from your post for everyone here was the fact that people tend to spike when people are paying attention to something else. There are ways to prevent this from happening, and the best way to stop this is to just pay attention. So yes, instead of looking at yourself and what you can be doing better (which is what everyone should do constantly), you decided to go onto the forums and complain about what you’re having trouble against.
Then you go on a random tangent and talk about how it’s only one example on why Power Ranger is “op”. And we are supposed to read your mind on whatever THAT thing is.
I’m honestly not going to argue with you about any of this any more.
Lol okay bud.
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Nothing like fighting someone for a point and suddenly having a back full of arrows from 1300 range.
You have already absorbed all the damage before you even realize a ranger has decided to join the skirmish.It is cheap, skill-less, and outright abused in spvp atm.
You are reading text between the lines that simply isn’t there.
No I’m not; these are your words verbatim. You got shot in the back by a ranger because you were trying to pay attention to the fight on a node with another player. If there is any other point your trying to get across, you can’t expect me, or others, to be able to read your mind.
I gave a scenario about how absurdly overpowered longbow rangers are.
That scenario isn’t overpowered. Ganking is part of the game – no matter what the distance.
They don’t stop being overpowered in a 2v2 or a 3v3, but things get easier as players are free to leave the point and chase down the ranger as a teammate holds a cap/decap.
Bottom line is….. in a game type where you are forced to hold capture points, lb power rangers can stand at max range and essentially pelt players fighting on point with high damage attacks, (with absolutely no fear of losing a max range fight)
This is another issue entirely. You need to learn when it is okay and when it isn’t okay to stay on a point, and this includes determining if you should be actively fighting or not. I can assure you, between dieing and holding that decap for a few more seconds, or abandoning the point to stay alive. Almost always its better to abandon to stay alive.
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Again.
Nobody is saying anything about ganking.
Nothing like fighting someone for a point and suddenly having a back full of arrows from 1300 range.
You have already absorbed all the damage before you even realize a ranger has decided to join the skirmish.It is cheap, skill-less, and outright abused in spvp atm.
Actually you are specifically talking about ganking. +1’ing a fight that is already occurring is ganking. If you want to prevent that from happening, you need to stop tunnel-visioning, glance at the map, and position yourself better – plain and simple.
I am saying that, in your very specific example, if you do not want to be 1 shot by rangers like this, then you need to pay better attention to the map.
This type of stuff happens to me all the time, but I don’t blame the other class for it. I blame my forgetfulness.
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You can’t watch your back 100% of the time or else you will not be watching your foe.
You should know where the potential problem for you is on the map, plain and simple, and reposition yourself accordingly to better respond where they are going to be coming from. If you’re fighting on one point, you need to be aware that a gank CAN happen. If you can’t see the potential problem fighting on another node, you cannot simply deduce that you’re going to be safe. Nobody can merit being on a point and advocating players to be blissfully unaware of what is going on around them or tunnel-visioning on the guy they might be fighting. In other words, don’t push the lane and put yourself out of position if you think you’re going to get ganked.
Am I the only thief who feels that the outcome of a fight doesn’t rely on a traited steal landing?
I win fights all the time when steal misses or is on CD.
I lose fights/have to retreat all the time when steal hits.
That’s the thing. Most players who don’t play thief, or harbor irrational blind hatred for them (welcome to the forum community on any class ever), think, “Hurpa durp, all I have to do is hit steal and win gams.” When in reality it never works out like that for a multitude of reasons and will get you in downed state fast if you’re not careful. Is it critical for a thief to land their traited steal? Yes, but absolutely zero thieves just press it on cooldown as an “I win” button. They use it after they bait out dodges, and other defenses or when classes foolishly don’t cover their long cast times – just like every other class. It’s incredibly ridiculous to compare old pin down with steal. That being said, it probably should still have an los requirement on it but that’s all it really needs.
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It is cheap, skill-less, and outright abused in spvp atm.
I dare you to disagree.
If I had a cookie for every time I’ve heard how ganking other players is cheap and skill-less and abused, I’d be very fat because I love cookies.
It’s the dota equivalent of, “Mid is missing from his lane? Hurpa Durp, better push the lane.”
Learn to position yourself better.
i disagree with you no class should be able to one shot another especially when wearing defensive equipment
No, you got it wrong. No class should have enough armor to be able to completely abandon the need for dodging.
You have two options: Ether you rely on mobility and dodges to stay in a fight, or you rely on armor and dodges. You don’t get the choice of abandoning dodging at the right time.
Backpack is so shy! I didn’t expect this, ahah
He is also very disrespectful, but also very young.
Wonderful job blu. I think you did a great job leading the podcast. Looking forward to the next one.
I generally think staff is better in teamfights than sword. Sword 3 clone dies easily to cleave, and it can be very dangerous to try and rush in with sword to deal some heavy damage with it in a teamfight. Torch offers you that stealth so you can get those surprise ganks in, but you also get a crappy phantasm. Whereas staff, you can have presence in a fight by giving might and fury to allies in the area. The Warden can hit like a truck and doesnt die so easily (since range) – especially if other players are around to deal additional conditions. Chaos Storm is big in a teamfight. Finally you have the mobility on staff 2 to help you out in general.
So if you go sword, you have to play with it more defensively in a teamfight otherwise you have to sacrifice your positioning to do some risky business. If you go with torch, you lose out on mobility for stealth access. However I do think the potential in skirmishes with sword is far superior to staff.
With all that being said, Sword/Focus fo lyfe for me. #bestmesmerset
+1 them in a fight.
In all seriousness, it’s a very difficult matchup.
If the engie is using protection injection, you can try to pull it out with a bassied black powder + port into autos until you want to heartseeker into backstab. Another option is to try and condi overload him with goop, but that is hard to pull off. Gear shield will be the worst thing ever for you. If you use ogre runes, you can try to get the incendiary powder to proc on the dog – again very hard to do as it dies to cleave so fast. The best option by far is to shortbow them though for as much as possible and avoid straight up 1v1’ing them, imo.
Edit: I am down with increasing the limitations of Steal though, but I don’t agree with introducing counterplay by allowing good players to rofl-dodge it. Respecting the rules of LOS would be fair.
Basically this. It needs to have a los requirement.
Before we laugh at the rediculousness of gw2 being an esport. Can we first laugh at the rediculousness of esports within itself.
Dota 2 International is like the Super Bowl/World Cup for nerds.
Yeah. Until the glass panels are removed, the map will always be unplayable.
I don’t think they need to be removed, however I think it would have been best if they put a second level on the side points below where the plates are. It makes it punishing to fall through, but it doesn’t outright kill you. You might get a decap, but you’re still going to have to deal with the threat through fighting.
I think one of the biggest problems with the map is the confined space around the side nodes. It is way too easy to jump someone through teleports on that map – there is very little you can do to position yourself so that you don’t get jumped easily. Every other map there are ways to position yourself around the point so that you can prevent, as much as possible, easy +1’s. Skyhammer is the only map where this really isn’t the case. Unfortunately, I don’t think this will ever change as it would require a serious change.
The only match-up anyone has a legit reason for kittening, imo, is Necro vs Engie. Even then, that match-up probably won’t -and most likely shouldn’t- change. All other complaints about other match-ups are nowhere near the level of hard-counter necro vs engie is.
OP, your problem is Soloque-itis. Everyone wants to play THEIR class, and doesn’t really want to play for the team. It’s tough luck, and you will most likely get verbal abuse by windbags who ride on the tailwind of others when you try to convince your teammates to switch their class.
Hi and thank you for good intentions but this is basic stuff that is straightforward and doesn’t help at all.
Baiting dodges on the other hand is a somehow advanced mechanic that I’m interested in. I’ve been doing it myself but I think there’s much more to learn in that aspect. Mind going deep into it?
Well there really won’t be any type of a “guide.” Besides, no guide is truly going to help you. You just need to play. So while some suggestions might be basic, that’s the best we’re going to do for you as “basic” helps you apply the core concepts to a broader perspective.
As an example, know the effective ranges (not necessarily the printed range on the skill), cooldowns, and purpose of all skills (does it deal damage? does it prevent damage like a cc? how many different forms of cc does a weapon have? these types of things) and you will then start to understand what someone would consider a “good build” or a bad one.
Many people will say that turret engie is really good right now, but it’s not. Fundamentally its because it depends on you going afk on point and trying to 1v1 anything that comes your way – it’s very one-track minded. The problem with it is that turrets die to cleave very easily, it is a static build (they have trouble moving around on the map), and they die to a 2v1 pressure way too quickly. So you have a build that is useless in teamfights (where there is a lot of cleave), and afk’s on node (which means that there is a +1 advantage for the enemy team somewhere else on the map) the enemy team just out-rotated you as a turret engie without ever having to rotate. You need to be able to understand these qualities of every build.
Now lets look at another example of an engie: the toolkit, nade, elixir s engie. You have a stable defensive structure – gear shield is the best 3 second block in the game. You’re able to significantly contribute to teamfights and skirmishes as well. You have a lot of reliable damage, and a variety of ways to help protect your teammates. Toolkit magnet basically allows you to not sacrifice your positioning (infact pulls an enemy out of position) in a teamfight and still be able to have access to your secondary source of burning (besides incendary powder). Nades allows you to apply incredible cleave pressure. And in a skirmish, you do a kitten job as well (since engies are really good at that sort of thing naturally). Elixir S allows you to prevent yourself getting pincered by the enemy, and is a reliable stunbreak in general (say a thief approaches mid node from your home and jumps on you from behind – that’s a “pincer”). If you decided to bring bombs instead of toolkit, you -may- get more mileage out in skermishes, but you’re going to suffer significantly in teamfights because the best you can do is just chuck nades as you have to sacrifice your positioning to be able to lay a few bombs in cleave damage land. Above all, just try things out and see what works. The best builds are the ones that are able to contribute to the team in some meaningful way, require some level of coordination with the team, and the build can’t be “one track minded”.
However again, that being said, you’re going to need to just play the game. A lot of the game revolves around certain matchups and what to look for in teamfights. This comes from playing the game.
How to bait dodges: You cancel cast (usually by pressing the stow weapon skill) an important skill to bait out a dodge. It’s a very useful tool that should be used at appropriate times.
As a general rule of thumb, you want to conserve your dodges as much as possible. You should rely more on your skills (weapon skills particularly) and positioning to help mitigate damage. You almost always want to have your defensive structure be incorporated into your offensive structure (i.e. use your skills to build momentum).
As an example of bad positioning, if you have bombs on your engie, you should pretty much consider it suicide to run into a large teamfight to try and lay them down. However, does this mean that you should never take risky actions? Of course not, because when you “do kitten” your force your opponent to “do kitten” too, and they might mess up giving you the advantage. So don’t be predictable – rotations are a bad habit to get into.
Long story short, dodge the stuff that hits like a truck, or dodge the stuff that sets up the skills that hit like a truck.
Also, learn how to bait dodges – it’s important. One of the best changes to the longbow as a warrior was the animation change on Pin Down. It’s a skill that people NEED to deal with (as it sets up damage that hits like a truck). Now a warrior can bait out a dodge with it as people will most likely try to dodge it. Skills that people know needs to be dealt with, should be used as a baiting mechanic. Engie magnet is another case.
I think there are many people in the same boat you are in Vee Wee. Adios.
The ability to control, at least, 1 more pet skill.
Part of me strongly disagrees with this. There is a lot of skill when it comes to knowing when to pull back your pet at the right time to setup a good “3rd skill” on pets. At the very LEAST , however, Rangers should see the cooldowns on their pet skills; they shouldn’t be shooting in the dark like they currently do. It’s asinine that rangers still, after 2 years, have to practically guess when their pet is doing certain actions.
Secondly, the pathing issues are a thing but I suspect that it is something which is unfix-able considering how they changed iLeap.
I would love to see pets be able to attack and move at the same time, but I don’t know if that is going too far (in terms of balance), or if it is even possible at all with the engine Anet is working with; it could be a better compromise if their attacks simply have better tracking capability.
I think certain pets should be pretty survivable in teamfights, namely bears and drakes, but again Rangers have no tell on when their bear is using their invulnerability period. All pets in general struggle in teamfight scenarios which is a shame.
Above all, at the very LEAST, Rangers should see the skill cooldowns of their pets.
Only NA nabs run bunker comps, EU is all about that roamer burst comp.
Cheese Mode has run celestial bunker comp since the patch. They haven’t lost a match yet with it. So no, EU does in fact run bunker comps.
NA is all about Necro + Engie and celestial setups to skirmish (i.e. force 2v2’s and 1v1’s all over the map). EU is all about bunker celestial comps atm.
To be honest I didn’t fully read this wall-of-text, but I’m getting a hint of a general thruline.
Above all, you don’t trash talk your teammates. If you want to take the game seriously, then you have to not act like a child when things go wrong. If a teammate is under-preforming, you put them on the “bench” and work with them in the spare time. Of course, this all requires your guildies to not act like children. Instead of trash talking the players who join the team and kicking them, you work with them.
The moment anyone trash talks their teammate is the moment they get put up on the proverbial chopping block, imo. Above all, team synergy is priority.
But this game will never have a class like that since its designed for players to be much more self sufficient unfortunately.
This is the biggest misconception in this game. There are reasons why in wvw and spvp support is actually valuable.
It is unfortunate that in PvE, the incentives are so skewed and distorted (blame Anet) that these roles have these kind of perceptions.
Don’t be lazy on your positioning. And don’t let your teammates tunnelvision and blow all their cooldowns. If your team can’t kill an S/D or D/P thief now, then the onus is on your team/the zerker spec; not the thief.