Guild Wars 2

So today i went into the Spvp and played 5 matches. 2 games where my team was down to 2-3 members only. 1 game where we were losing considerably but all of a sudden was winning because the enemy team was down to 3 members. This is happening in unranked and ranked games and its killing the competition when you cant have a honest match-up.

And i too have noticed that a que will pop mid game actually which i decline but im sure there are those who take it and get thrown into a different match.

Please fix asap

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Cronicle.5691:

Im not letting LR dictate when i disengage. I’m letting my knowledge of my health pool that it WILL trigger if i hit 3,876 health which is practically 1 hit away, (1 critical auto attack) from killing you.

That knowledge is worthless since if 25% is 1 hit away, 50% is 2hits away and 75% is 3hits away — meaning the Thief shouldn’t even engage in the first place.

IF you have condition on you, you are most likely going down. Yes i have won with a low health pool before, ive had close encounters. I have died to getting revealed to last refuge before. Nobody can play perfect and everybody makes mistakes eventually.

The problem is, LR triggering that caused your death isn’t a mistake.

But to put blame on an ability which is an Anti burst defence trait for 1 minor point that will give you free stealth and blind is a win.

LR is not an “anti-burst” — that’s a misconception. If it gives 90% damage reduction on trigger for 3s, then it is an anti-burst.

Had last refuge triggered if you hit 90% health pool… then yes i dont see its purpose. But as it stands right now i see it being a more positive trait for its minor point than it being negative.

It is both a positive and a negative trait depending on the play style.

That is horsekitty Vincent and you know that. 50% health is not 2 hits away. If you are sitting at 10k-13k health with 1.9k toughness then yea. A burst is not going to save your kitten if its a 3 hit combo that does 10k damage.

Also i disagree with you, it is my mistake if i misplay around Last refuge and end up getting the reveal debuff instead of the cloak which i wanted to be able to re-position and throw my enemy off of my placement.

Lastly, is it a misconception to say that a trait that can actually save you from going into downstate, heal up and reset the fight for your favor to call it an anti burst? Ok. sure, i can agree that it probably not an “anti-burst” because you are still taking the burst but that burst fails if they can’t down you and you escape to be regenerate the health back.

Im not letting LR dictate when i disengage. I’m letting my knowledge of my health pool that it WILL trigger if i hit 3,876 health which is practically 1 hit away, (1 critical auto attack) from killing you. IF you have condition on you, you are most likely going down. Yes i have won with a low health pool before, ive had close encounters. I have died to getting revealed to last refuge before. Nobody can play perfect and everybody makes mistakes eventually. But to put blame on an ability which is an Anti burst defence trait for 1 minor point that will give you free stealth and blind is a win.
Had last refuge triggered if you hit 90% health pool… then yes i dont see its purpose. But as it stands right now i see it being a more positive trait for its minor point than it being negative.

evilapprentice.6379:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Cronicle.5691:

evilapprentice.6379:

Oh, good. I’ll remember to stop attacking when I hit around 35% of my health, so as to not get screwed by LR.

I’m sure glad there’s a 1pt minor trait that dictates when I can and can’t attack, lest I take a penalty from a trait that’s supposed to be beneficial (and at its worse, should be neutral).

The fact that you think it’s perfectly acceptable for thieves to be forced to play around an unavoidable trait (if they go SA) or else take a penalty calls into question your qualifications concerning making suggestions on how we should all “stop sucking and start learning”.

So im presuming that you are one of the minority who complain about last refuge because you cant play with the mechanic which doesnt force you you stop attacking.

So lets be realistic about this. If you are dying because of a simple minor trait which actually has more defensive value (in my opinion) than anything then i can only judge you for being poor at thief (That is to say if you take the easy 6 points shadow arts route for a cheesy D/P build). If you got burst down, you would have died regardless. If your health DID reach 25% health and you still died in stealth, you died regardless. If you DIDN’T die, got away, and reset…. then you played smart. You cannot force a change of mechanic because you fail to utilize it correctly.

Ill take that free blinding powder 4 sec stealth and 6 sec blind for free, any day.

I agree with you, but it’s more complicated than that. The main issue is that we don’t have a choice to either take it or not. For those who knows how to take advantage of the trait, it’s a boon to their build. However for the rest of us who don’t want to deal with it should have an option not to take it.

Vincent, you’re generally a person I can trust to have an honest conversation with lacking any condescension, so I’ll direct this at you.

Let’s ignore the fact that you feel that thieves should have the option not to take LR. That would be great, but that would leave LR poorly designed.

Players should be making the best choice for the situation at hand – sometimes that means going for the kill/interrupt while hovering dangerously close to LR trigger range. Why should thieves who choose to play aggressively be potentially afflicted with 4s of reveal from a trait that’s designed to be beneficial (and again, neutral at worst).

Why should a 1pt trait force anyone to change their playstyle or be potentially penalized?

If you have that option to make that split decision whether you want to risk it or not while being excessively low to LR trigger then why the hell would you even want to take the risk that you know you cannot live through? With that low health to begin with you should regen/reset. If you die regardless your useless.

And yes i see the point that it is a bit more complicated as you say but i generally feel that those who complain about this minor trait which i do feel belongs there, have such a narrow view that you can only build thief to a specific meta which is why we have people complaining about various skills they don’t understand.

evilapprentice.6379:

Oh, good. I’ll remember to stop attacking when I hit around 35% of my health, so as to not get screwed by LR.

I’m sure glad there’s a 1pt minor trait that dictates when I can and can’t attack, lest I take a penalty from a trait that’s supposed to be beneficial (and at its worse, should be neutral).

The fact that you think it’s perfectly acceptable for thieves to be forced to play around an unavoidable trait (if they go SA) or else take a penalty calls into question your qualifications concerning making suggestions on how we should all “stop sucking and start learning”.

So im presuming that you are one of the minority who complain about last refuge because you cant play with the mechanic which doesnt force you you stop attacking.

So lets be realistic about this. If you are dying because of a simple minor trait which actually has more defensive value (in my opinion) than anything then i can only judge you for being poor at thief (That is to say if you take the easy 6 points shadow arts route for a cheesy D/P build). If you got burst down, you would have died regardless. If your health DID reach 25% health and you still died in stealth, you died regardless. If you DIDN’T die, got away, and reset…. then you played smart. You cannot force a change of mechanic because you fail to utilize it correctly.

Ill take that free blinding powder 4 sec stealth and 6 sec blind for free, any day.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Tengu.5267:

you can with shortbow #3 as well.

And S/D #3

And S/P #3

Seriously… the latest patch has now also added an extra detail to when ever it mentions health threshold.

Now you lazy people can see when last refuge will trigger so start playing while remembering this knowledge.

Last refuge has saved me multiple times from burst before as that cloak and blind it gives allows me that split reaction time i need to gtfo. Now stop sucking and start learning.

I notice one thing which is the reason your not getting higher than 6k… Your not running assassins signet. That there my friend is your 9k backstab booster.

You have to remember that Assassins signet boosts your next 5 attacks by 15%.

If you have built your Thief right to be an assassin and do burst damage. Then you would most likely have built it 5/6/0/0/3 taking all the damaging traits like Dagger training, mug, furious retaliation, Executioner etc. So the damage increase alone is 10% when your opponent has a condition (Steal applies poison and poison applies weakness), 10% when initiative is above 6 (You have 15 initiative from trickery so its not a problem. and 20% extra damage when target is below 50% health. That there alone is a killer boost in damage and when fighting beserker players you are going to hit them hard when you pop that Assassins signet.

It boosts your Steal damage, your cloak and dagger damage, and your backstab. Steal and backstab alone combined with sigils of air and fire should be enough to put your opponent to 50% health where executioner is going into play with the extra 15% from assassins signet which is a whooping total of 60% increased damage on that backstab which will melt your opponent. Now the tricky part is of course to set it up and then finish off your opponent because most classes and players now know how to counter or play around it so it just comes down to the better player in reality.

Yes D/D is viable. What you have to remember is that D/D doesnt have the same playstyle as other weapon combinations. So you will have to build accordingly to that weapon set that you choose

Doggie.3184:

Venoms need to be as diverse as Meditations to truely be fun/viable in all content. They also require far too many traits that could easilly just be applied to the venoms themselves, like Potent Venoms and Cooldown reduce. Then maybe people can use one of them without having to load tons of traits which is 6 points into 2 lines: Crazy.

To use an entire bar of Venoms, like Guards can do with Meditations we need some form of Stun Removal and Condition Removal.

You dont “have” to fill the entire bar like Mesmers and Guardians can do with their mantras and meditation. We arnt like them. But we can have 3 very viable Venoms on at all time. 1 Healing, 1 utility, 1 elite which are pretty much the core for a venom traited build. I would suggest aiming for Celestial stats if doing Venoms as you benifit the most of the stat distribution. The 2 last utility skills you can choose accordingly to playstyle whether you pick 1 more venom and 1 stun break like shadow step which is probably the most versatile utility skill we have which acts as a double stun break and condi clear.

I run 2 variations of a venom build. 1 where i build 6,0,6,0,2 when playing with an organized team that can give me support when i get targeted. and a 6,0,4,0,4 if im roaming or solo queing. What a lot dont recognize is how potent leeching venom is for sustainability when played the correct way. It can be used in either Offensivly or for Defensive purposes. Like triple meditation guardians, their meditations are either used to heal themselves or to do a kitten amount of damage. While instead venoms dont HEAL as much they provide cc or condi which is what you want on a thief. Locking down your opponent to where they cant dodge because of Devour venom, or their rotation is disrupted because of a 5 second Chill?

Venoms dont really need any major buffs or overhauls, perhaps a few trait lines can be improved upon but the way ive played it, Thieves dont really trait harder into something compaired to the the other classes. Just start learning how to play thief without relying on stealth as much. Venom thief is a totally different play style from any dodge/stealth meta.

Waldir.2571:

Cronicle.5691:

Its been stuck in “initializing” for well over 20 mins now.

I’ve tried closing client completely, didn’t help. Tried restarting my computer, didn’t help.
What is up with this patch`? I live in the EU and this is broken. I cant play the game i want to play.

I was having the same problem but than i started clicking around the white space on the gw window, it looks like the “Play” button is there but not visible, once i hit it by accident the game started, try clicking around it, at one point it even took me to the reset password page.

YOU KITTINGING ME?

(it worked)

BUT SERIOUSLY ANET???? WHAT THE KITTEN IS THIS!!!!!!

Leeching venom is already great for solo. I use it in my hybrid build. What i would rather want to see is spider venom perhaps being changed into a venom which swaps conditions onto the target since the poison is redundant in the current meta. We already have ways of applying poison to our target through steal, and dagger auto attack. Venomous strength should could also use a buff where it also buffs the duration of the conditions applied by venoms when traited as well as the 2 might stacks it grants. Food for thought that would help us want to take other traits over the all mighty mug trait.

Its been stuck in “initializing” for well over 20 mins now.

I’ve tried closing client completely, didn’t help. Tried restarting my computer, didn’t help.
What is up with this patch`? I live in the EU and this is broken. I cant play the game i want to play.

Yes please. I’m not buying this bullnuts about great sword is not “assassin enough” blah blah because they are heavy. Oh please… if you specialize wouldn’t that mean that the character would have “practiced” the arts of wielding a great sword? Using shadow arts to fight

What ever the weapon we unlock to use for our specialization… i would much rather see a great sword and sword offhand than a rifle…

Loving it.

Combined with Leeching venom… it makes DD so much more fun and viable. The heal is too strong

And now, Finally on to the burst portion. This is what makes this build fun and rewarding at least, to my opinion. This is purely on my play style theory crafting that i have put together to make this a very fun and effective.

The burst requires 3 factors to be in play before it is effective. 1; your enemy must have less than 50% health, 2; your own health must be close to around 50% health. 3; your 1 or both venoms must be available as well as steal.

Fulfilling these three factors will allow you to effectively burst taking into consideration of course that you are successful in doing so. Basically, your burst consists of

-cast Venom of choice
-pre cast CnD
-steal
-backstab
-auto attack.

Standard burst however the burst looks more like this in numbers. approximately. This is without critical hits or power boons applied:
*Cast Venom of choice:
Pre cast CnD
Steal (1.1k + 388 life steal)
CnD (1.1k + 388 life steal)
Backstab ( 2.6k + 388 life steal)
Auto attack chain ( 2k)
Total 7.9k damage *

Now this is an approximate damage based on testing on medium armored golems. The damage varies but this is approximately what we are expecting without critical hits. Life steal bypasses armor so it will always be 388 damage regardless of how much toughness the enemy has. You can also switch Devour Venom out for Ice Drake Venom which adds an extra 388 damage to our formula and chill to our opponent.

Add Lightning strike and life leech into that formula and we are looking well close to 9k burst.
And now, enemy is either dead or very low, poisoned, Immobalized, weakened, and panicking and we still should have 1 cloak heal and 1 venom to our disposal if we so wish to desire.

To summarize this build:
I found this build to be a lot of fun to play as the enemy suspects a certain type of builds. s/d evade for days, full glass cannon burst d/d burst, or condi p/d . Most of my enemies when seeing the d/d think im going to CnD steal to them so they dodge a lot more often while close the distance with both heart seeker and dancing dagger combo. (Dancing dagger first, then heart seek in for damaging same time).
Also most ignore calltraps as they just want to jump in and either burst me down as they think im squishy. lastly, nobody suspects the burst when i am low on health. The best is when i am put into mist form and my Steal and Devour venom comes out of cooldown during and i can manage to steal in to gain health and then burst down with CnD backstab combo. Generally i go from 1k health or less to 6k health so that i can live long enough to hide and shadows back up in health and continue the fight. This something else of a play style which, if you are looking for something deadly yet able to stay in fights longer instead of having to wait for cooldowns to pop back in. Then i can suggest you give it a try.

Whether or not you succeed in using this comes down to how good you are at reading your opponents moves and style. Many players have a fixed rotation which you can make into your advantage. Timing your dodges and Death blossom evades have saved me many deathly encounters with backstab thieves, Knock down Long bow rangers and other high damage potential specs.

Hope you like it.

Ok now that i have explained the choice behind the traits. Let me break it down to the skills. And yes, you want to use all of them. Why? Because why not.

I use this build to apply a lot of pressure and to force my enemy to make a mistake. With 50% chance to life leech and lightning strike on crit makes the damage noticeable. Now you wont see it as much, as you will have 35% crit chance and no means of getting fury. It does not matter. Its not about the really high numbers, its about making a presence. Thieves are very deadly when they can stay in a fight without having to retreat far away to reset health and give up a capture point. No, we want our enemy to know that as long as we are around, we are a constant threat to them and its going to hurt.

The barbarian amulet gives a good amount of Power, prec, and Vitality. With 21k health. We wont get burst down, and we will be able to stand condition specced enemies better as we have both ways and means to deal with them.
Use hide in shadows and Shadow step to remove conditions if needed otherwise go ahead to use them for re-positioning.

*So how much sustain do we have?
Hide in shadows = 5490
Regeneration = 644 (total of 4.5 seconds)
Life leech on next attack on heal = 974 (Applied from rune on heal)
Devour Venom heal x3 = 1125
Basalisk venom Heal x2 = 750
Total amount of health regained = 8983 every 32 seconds. *

Now that does not include the rune of Vampirism 3rd bonus set. Rune of vampirism adds to our power, but also grants a nice new play style utilizing its bonus set. 15% when struck to gain life leech (another 974 health and damage). Additionally, its 6th bonus set that changes the game really well. When struck health below 20% we gain essentially mist form Immune to all damage and conditions for 3 seconds. Blinding powder and mist can trigger simultaneously, granting stealth and invul for 3 seconds. So basically around 4200 health, it will trigger.
What this allows us to do is to either buy us that extra time for our cooldowns. Plus, while in mist form, you can use what ever stolen bundle and apply vennoms granting you the ability to quickly gain health the second you get out of mist to steal, get health, cloak and dagger, Hide in shadows!

Now that i have talked about the “Sustainability” part of this build, lets move on to why this is practically living up to its name of deadly arts.

Firstly, Calltraps provide extra damage and crowd control in the field your engaging on because that is what we want. Catch an enemy into the calltrop, or force him into engaging into it. Either way. They either avoid it or try their luck. Now the bleed isnt what is dangerous, its the cripple. By limiting the speed of our opponent, we limit their leaping capability and kiting ability. The bleed is still nice damage but its not what we are betting our money on. By crippling our enemy, we can kite better in positioning dodging and apply pressure through our attacks. If i can force the enemy to burn their cooldowns on removing cripple or conditions, the better for me as i have a better chance at applying my venomous burst.

From attacking you want to do a full Auto attack chain, then cloak and dagger if you see an opening to gain stealth and that backstab. Backstab is a huge portion of your damage potential and pressure. Its not considered burst in this spec as your probably looking at around 3.4k backstab damage on most targets.

Use heartseaker only to close the gap if you find your self out of auto attack range. Don’t spam it as even though the initiative cost is fairly low… by using all your initiative your leaving your self vulnerable.

Death blossom when your opponent is crippled. While the damage isn’t awesome, the bleeds and free evade is. bleeds last 10 seconds if you manage to get all 3 hits in your looking at more damage pressure.

Dancing dagger your enemy to initiate a fight and/or when target is out of auto range. Cripple him/her and gain the kiting advantage.

Cloak and dagger. Well… this is your mind game skill as well as damage potential.

Warning long post: This is a SPvP build and this is primarily my build. This is ideally my thoughts alone and if you have any suggestions, constructive critique and feedback, i happily welcome it. Also this is purely on based on play style. If this does not fit for you, something else maybe will. But this, is what i’m happy to go into ranked with.

Hi guys. I have been playing a lot with various builds and i wanted to do something a lot different, just like many others when it comes to build viability and enjoying something different. This build is built around the general concept of the thief being “deadly” and deceptive with tricks and poisonous Venoms. I primarily wrote this post aiming for people who are not as knowledgeable about individual skills etc. but i hope veterans like my self find something new in this and perhaps give it a try. Plus, i have not seen any thieves use venoms as a part of their “burst” or sustain. Ive only seen few venom share builds primarily focusing conditions but they died out since p/d became a thing with bleeds only.

Now you may be thinking, “Wait, hang on… Venom builds have been done before and condition thief is just p/d?”

Well what if i told you that Thief can be deadly without being Condi specced or super high burst specced to survive and still bring a lot to the team play as well as 1v1?
First i would like to explain to you that this build ive been running and have been having great success with is not burst, nor bunker with lots of conditions. It is the kind of build that makes your enemy angry as you generally duel then in their face

I call it, Venomous Life Leeching Daggers build.

Wait now, hang on. Don’t hate it already. Let me tell you how this works.
6/0/5/3/0

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoYVlsMp5plOxrJ8PNRMhw7ufafYRg+aC-TpBFwACOCAOOEAEeAAYLDob/BAnAAA

If you are a D/D fan and don’t know what your death blossom is for? then you are going to love this as you will be using all your skills. Yes i agree with you that DeathBlossom is a mediocre skill and that i perhaps should be changed into something else but i for one enjoyed it the past month now.

The core of the build are the venoms. They give you extra damage, extra sustain, extra control. As we want to be all about controlling the fight, not enemies with fears and knock downs. No, this is OUR battlefield.

Breaking down the traits:
Deadly Arts:
1) Mug = 1k damage + 2.1k heal (applies poison of 1k damage and heal reduction by 33% for 13s)

Poison applies weakness, 50% chance for enemy to do glancing blows (Endurance regeneration and Damage dealt is decreased by 50%) = Awesome.

2) Quick Venoms = More uptime on venoms = more uptime on heals + damage + control.

Deal 10% more damage to enemies with a condition. (they will constantly have a condition on them regardless).

4) Residual venom: Your venoms have an additional strike. Let me break it down to you why this is so good in this build. First of, Basalisk venom is granted 2 additional strikes which means if your back stab or cnd gets missed or blocked… you have an extra. The duration does not stack, but thats not the point. We want to eliminate the chance of us missing our opening by our enemy being defensive with blocks, blinds and evades. Secondly, devour venom immobalize does stack. With 3 strikes, you are sure to keep your target well in place for 7 seconds for cnd, backstabs, auto attacks. Lastly, your venoms are part of your sustain and damage now. Partially meaning you can still burst your target.

Shadow arts:
1) Cloak in shadows: Blind enemies when entering stealth. Great after CnD. If not remove before you backstab, you a have a little less damage for them to miss with.

Stealth last 1 second long to max 4 seconds. Plenty of time to re-position

2) Leeching venoms: Your venoms do approx 388 damage to your target. This damage is not affected by armor basically free 388 damage to add to what ever skill you use. Heals you for 375 per hit.

Gain might on stealth: nice addition, more damage to our base attacks, more condition damage for our conditions.

Acrobatics:
Well… this one is about the dodge. You can choose your self whether you want vigor on heal, power on dodge, or faster movement in stealth. These are optional as they both add to your suitability depending on your play style. Your still getting 50 Endurance back per dodge, plus 10 per Wildstrike.

Shortbow #3 still doesnt feel like its working as intended as it ports me back and forth when i use it and isnt as smooth

Solely for WvW.
After the patch ive wanted to use these new traits at least the one in DA since ive felt i always found DA GM traits before to be so bad. I’m giving a full glass build a go with d/d + sb 6/6/0/0/2

DA:
Mug
Dagger training
Revealed training

CS:
Practiced Tolerance
Critical Haste
Executioner

Trickery:
Thrill of the crime

Since sigil of intelligence got buffed on weapon swap, the next 3 attacks is a 100% crit chance which means that i now can plan and combo for sure that i can land a guaranteed crit with CnD + backstab combo combined with +20% executioner, +5% dagger training, +6% superior runes of eagle, +10% exposed weakness, +10% first strike (and finally), +15% signet of Power.

Sitting with 222% crit damage… numbers is huge and i can once again feel satisfied with downing tanky condition warriors and guardians.

So far the build has been a blast to use and i can really feel the damage dealt when Revealed training kicks in as a steroid booster to finish off the player before they can heal up when Basilisk venom wears off. On a good burst, critical haste kicks in frequently and i can down a warrior before he can pop anything in retaliation.

However, this is a hit and run build and AOE is my counter if i dont play the stealth mind game properly. But i always start off with Sb to wear my opponent down to where i can execute them.

I do think though that the change to the sigils is what has really made it possible to experiment in combination to our own traits.

that was the most beautiful thing ever.

counter to stealth = Stealth trap (30 second reveal)

Have fun laughing at thieves when they walk on the trap.

the guild is not a 100% represent guild. Its more of a community of thieves that join or added to do these havoc squads, share builds, tips, etc.

It is not required to have Teamspeak but it is nice to be able to use it at times when you really want to organize ganks.

The way we do it right now is you just whisper any of the members that are online in the roster if they want to join you in a roam or havoc squad. Your very easily going to make a 5 man squad quickly :P

I think almost every thief on this forum thinks right now this was them thats being posted about… am i right? :P

But yea… Elementalists and Warriors have just as much survivability as a thief… only difference being that a thief has the potential of being able to stay in the battle zone longer. Warriors just GS the kitten out of the place. Ive seen a fair good amount of players on almost all classes now where when played right, are just as OP as a thief is.

Simonoly.4352:

F1 – steal
F2 – 1st stolen item
F3 – 2nd stolen item
F4 – 3rd stolen item

That’s kind of what I was expecting when the game was released. More emphasis on stolen item acquisition and use would certainly make the class more interesting. Would obviously need some rebalancing to prevent some ridiculous combinations, but I’d honestly love to feel like my Thief was actually carrying around a bad of swag, albeit without anything of monetary value

Meh i would much rather have f2 -f4 skills be venoms instead.

There are so many other ways of stomping players that stealth isnt your only issue. teleport stomping, blind stomping and stability stomping will do the job just as fine. If you get stomped while a thief is stealthed and you have players nearby you its their mistake for not realizing the danger a thief poses on a downed players. Then again, Mesmers are just as dangerous when it comes to stomping

on Blackgate you can join DTG (Downtown Tyria Gangsters) which is an all thief roaming/havoc guild which soul goal is to make the enemy team lose all camps, back lines, and bloodlust.

You can contact Cronicle.5691 for invite

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Are you kidding, Dredge are OP. And also my favorite race in the game, lol. They must be some of the strongest enemies especially in groups, blindness immunity and all those boons make them tanky as hell.

^This

There is a reason why people hate the dredge mine fractal and always skip it if its the first one they get -.-

From what i read it seems you’re all scared that its only CS that’s getting the GM trait?
With 40 new GM traits being released and 8 profession its already safe to say that each profession is going to get 1 new GM trait in all 5 trait lines.

Which means 1 new for Deadly Arts which is the one im really keeping my fingers crossed for that is more worth while and actually “Deadly”, I want to see Impale back.

My two level 80 thieves. My sylvari toon was the first character i created and played to lvl 80. It wasnt until 1.5 years later i decided to make another thief toon and play the Human story line through. Love em both. My human character loves flowers.

My sylvari inspiration basically came from this image
https://d1nneesl1sywb9.cloudfront.net/global/includes/images/hero-thief.jpg

GW2 has great combat and mind game capable tactics. like op mentioned, i too find it harder to go back to static combat like Swtor. Its my opinion but the fact that i dont have to a full screen of skills and keybind 30 keys to 50 skills for my 10 fingers to press… the 8 skill combat and implementation of combo fields and combo finishers gives a nice taste to combat tactics with implementation of weapon swapping giving an additional 5 skills to use.

I think the variety is good but i can agree that more weapon sets and utility / elite skills can help spice up combat and builds.

i can spam unload more

Some as regular calltrops and poisen field on shortbow 4 all apply conditions and can be used in stealth without revealing. They do not apply initial damage on hit but apply conditions.

Take clusterbomb as example which does damage “and” apply conditions. That direct damage done from cluster bomb is what reveals.

they should make HtC where all CC and stuns duration is reduced my 33% and blind nearby enemies when hit with cripple, stun, daze and fear.

thats what i would like to see instead of the instant Random teleporting.

One thing about thief is control and the ability to control positioning. If we cant control where we go we make it harder for selves and orientating. I want to confuse my enemy, not myself of where i am.

We haven’t forgotten it.

Any update or insight to the development of the Thaumanova Reactor Fractal?

I wouldn’t like to see d/d 3 getting reworked as the Deathblossom can add a nice juke/evade at cost of initiative but i found that regardless of the low damage, by managing to apply bleeds even as a power/crit build, it puts extra pressure on my target.

I don’t know why but i get the feeling that people using the argument of “initiative waste” for a skill really don’t realize that because by having 15 points into critical strikes you have “Opportunist” which really, for a fast hitting crit build, will regain you initiative back quick as long as you can stay on your target. If your still having trouble managing initative by using skills such as deathblossom, heartseaker i would suggest running it in par with Infiltrator’s Signet to add that extra ini regen.

What i would consider a wasted initiative is when you use a skill that is dodged or doesnt connect. Much like i find spamming #2 to be a waste of initiative and a death sentence to any thief that tries to HS me to death as all i have to do is evade, Deathblossom, evade, see when he stops and counter strike him with.

In conjunction to deathblossom, using p/p as your secondary weapon set with sigil of earth on 1 pistol, can really stack up bleeds on your target only for that extra pressure with no effort. Using conditions on a Power/crit build isnt really wasted since the damage is still fairly decent (but remember, its not your main damage source).

When i think dps, i think constant damage pressure. Regardless of damage source, as long as i can apply some damage on my opponent which could preasure him into making mistakes i have the advantage, since they rely on cooldowns, and i only need to manage critting for the initiative regen :P

or combo p/p with another weapon set that can take advantage of its utility. I like to weapon swap mid combat when i use blackpowder as a damage mitigation then heartseeker for a free stealth backstab initiation.

that immobalise just opened up a door of weapon swap combination opportunities that i before thought were not worth or useless. At least now i can kite succesfully, drain my enemies health and go for the opening burst

I still see improvisation in Deadly arts and that is one trait that bugs the kitten out of me. Why? Because its cool in theory, useless in reality. that 10% damage when wielding a “non stolen” item bundle is really kitten bad since in pvp /wvw, there are no bundles to use lying around that damages our opponents.

Quite the opposite i find. Although 4 initiative is costly, i would still use it.

I ran d/d + p/p setup last night trying out a new way of playing thief instead of the stealth spec, running 0/30/0/20/20 traiting into

Furious Retaliation, Signets of Power, Executioner in Critical strike,
Power of Inertia and Pain Response in Acrobatics
Uncatchable and Bountiful Theft in Trickery.

(Utilities a liked to run is Shadow trap, shadow step, signet of agility).

by using pistol 2 followed up by 2 unloads, i forced my opponent to use his/her condition removal utilities and other cooldowns to keep their health up. The 5 stacks of vulnerability still hurt and unload now can crit up to 9k (Heavy armor) on a good unload. After 2 unloads i follow up with a few auto attacks applying some bleeds (im not condi specced but they still add to the damage) putting pressure on my opponent. Once i got my enemy to under 50% health, and i got over 8 initiative, i do this combo.

Pistol 2# -> (weaponswap) -> steal + CnD -> backstab -> heartsearker (finisher)

the opponent is left with 8 stack vunerability + ripped boons and little to no health in all my encounters. Now i dont need to rely on having basilisk venom up all the time. Although i still use it in certain situations where i require an extra stun. i can now follow up quicker with the steal + cnd combo much more reliable once pistol 2# hits.

What i have noticed however with this new skill is that its buggy and some kitten reason gets obstructed easily like shortbows autoattack. So fighting on bulky terrain makes the skill tricky to land that immobalise.

soooo thief got a nerf and our other traits like improvisation wasnt touched??? kitten are you doing Anet!!!! I had my hopes that at least something would be done to boost some gameplay but all you did was tweak venoms and pistol mainhand.

Let the condition wars 2 game begin!

idea: New deception utility skill.

Skill: Shadow form
Use shadow art magic infusing yourself with shadows cannot be critical hit for 15 seconds, increasing movement speed by 15%, increasing initiative cost by 1 for all skills.

Cooldown: 60 seconds

crouze.3078:

Cronicle.5691:

its outdated trait. the RNG on the instacooldown is not worth and the 20% damge on bundle you will never notice because you will never ever pick up a bundle in a fight. Sure pve, but this skill sucks even for pve!

its not 20% but only 10% increased damage.
Only use would be elementalist weapons.

The funniest thing i saw done with this trait was a 5 summoned thief build.

• 1st from the prepared ambush trap
• 2nd from the ambush trap in fight
• 3rd from a lucky trap recharge with steal
• 4th and 5th with elite

but its a pure fun build and not viable for anything

woops sorry… meant 10%. But regardless it bugs the hell out of me when i see a trait in our already not so useful trait line just taking up a “could be” better trait. The idea that steal can reset cooldowns on a type of utility skill is good but the fact that its a rng makes it worthless in spvp, wvw and even PvE. I see that it can be fun to summon 6 thieves, however the chances of it resetting the trap when you need it, is low.

if ever, this trait isnt worth being a master trait but adept if anet does not agree with having this trait remade in general.

Bug: After several testing after my first notice on this signet, the active effect of the “signet of agility” does not cure more conditions per ally next to you as it says in the description. It will only cure 1 condition no matter the number of allies nearby.

its outdated trait. the RNG on the instacooldown is not worth and the 20% damge on bundle you will never notice because you will never ever pick up a bundle in a fight. Sure pve, but this skill sucks even for pve!

please devs. Fix or look at improvisation trait in thief deadly arts.

This has been a broken trait since beta and its time to get a remake with this october trait revamp.

To Devs.

Please look into Thief deadly arts master trait; “Improvisation”.

I’m very confused with the intention of this trait as 10% damage increase for using a “bundle” (note: it does not effect thieves steal skill bundles) is hardly worth taking it for and the rng is too unreliable of a trait to make it effective and a master like trait. This trait feels more outdated and forgotten since beta.

1st. The trait misinforms its actual function.
2nd. the Rng is unreliable. i can put 3 deception skills on my utility bar, non will recharge after 20 steals, or mix matching deception, tricks, and traps, still non instantly recharges.
3rd. something else could/should replace this trait

Katana (1 handed sword) and Kama (Axe?)

YES PLEASE!

For somebody who is new to the 5 point trait SA, will have a surprise when they don’t have the feeling for this trait.

It will take some to master but the more skirmishes you make the better you can see when that trait triggers when your health drops to 25% health.

I would say that trait has saved my life more times against backstabbing thieves that manage to catch me with basilisk venom. What you need to be aware off is a couple of things:
How bursty is the enemy im engaging?
Where is my 25% health mark?
How long is 30 seconds in fights?

Once you get the concept of these 3, you can really fully appreciate this trait as a free reset to give you some breathing air to get a grip of the battle. Sometimes so much can be going on on the screen thakittens hard to fully know the situation but a good thief should always be aware of his surrounding so he doesn’t get caught off guard.

Hope it helps a bit. I would say its more of a life saver than a killer

Venoms should be a F2 ability that can be selected like rangers select pets in my opinion. It would open up for some more utilities that can boost thieves overall play on the field.

Its it is right now Deception and Signets are the most used as they are the ones that bring the most to plays and combos for more diverse builds.