Guild Wars 2

ariel.7614:

Dahkeus.8243:

Hmm, never heard of Zoe L before. I’m curious what her D/D build looks like, but the one linked on her twitch has no talents. Guess I’ll have to watch some vids to try and figure it out. =P

Oh so you mean that you saw every videos in just 10minutes lol

What? No, I hadn’t seen a single vid when I posted that.

She has a link to her build on the main twitch page though, but it doesn’t have any talent points invested.

Hmm, never heard of Zoe L before. I’m curious what her D/D build looks like, but the one linked on her twitch has no talents. Guess I’ll have to watch some vids to try and figure it out. =P

notebene.3190:

Taygus.4571:

well at 400 gems it better \=

It’s terribly inconsistent, which is why I wanted to know.

The plush griffon used to, then it couldn’t, with a developer saying it was “immersion breaking”, which aside from being a great pun, is just plain silly. It’s laziness.

The mini black bear, lion and white kitten from last March’s “here’s a pet a week, hope you all go broke” event all swim.

The awesome puppy (was that from around the holiday? I forget.) does ‘not’ swim. He’s basically the same frame as the lion cub. What is up with that?

So thus my question, and hope for proof, before I get the pet.

That’s funny considering that I can do deep sea combat with a cat at my side when playing ranger.

While I don’t think that it makes sense for a dog to go scuba diving either, it’s just plain bizarre that the designers find it perfectly rational for the cat to be totally water friendly, while the dog is totally hydrophobic.

But yea, a mini pet being able to follow you underwater would totally break immersion. (sarcasm)

On a side note: The terrible minipet mechanics are one of the main reasons I have never cared about them. Even if I liked any of the minis that I’ve been awarded for various achievements, there’s no way I’m going to open my bags and re-activate it every time I switch zones or go in/out of water.

What is WvW to me? It’s a pointless game mode that doesn’t seem to have any relevance. It’s something I hop into occaisionally to mess around with random open-world PvP or force myself to grind through for achievements.

The games take too long for win/loss conditions to really feel like they matter.

The map is too big for individual contribution to really feel like it has any sway.

Ultimately, it just feels like a random open PvP map with an arbitrary outcome since it really just boils down to who has the most active people on their server that feel like running around in a blob that hopes to outnumber the other enemy blobs.

There’s potential in WvW, but the size is so big that any strategy is just too watered down by the influence of who has the largest population of people that actually care about the objectives.

If you’re running deep trickery, then mug is great.
It’s an extra bit of burst during your daze that can help edge out a kill. It’s a bit of hp to keep you up while you jump into the fray to prevent a stomp.

If you’re not, then it’s meh.

hooma.9642:

@dahkeus
positioning means nothing in this game with all that stealth and port and even z-axis ports! so having a longbow ranger sitting out of supportrange to pew pew begs for an easy stomp for thiefs or mesmers. at this point this place is a burden for the team.

another important fact. your build provides nothing to the team and with your positioning u gain nothing.

A ) Just because classes that generally fill the roamer role can port to a ranger doesn’t mean that the ranger is helpless against them.

B ) Rangers give knockbacks, cripple, immobilize and vuln from range. Wolves also provide fear and you can easily step in for a stability stomp when RaO is up. In other words, you can easily knock enemies off point and keep them there while also being able to prevent stomps/rezes.

C) The gain of the positioning is negating the AoE conditions/CC that many of the meta builds are currently spamming.

Longbow Survival of the Fittest power builds actually seem pretty good for team fights in sPvP.

I know it sounds counter-intuitive for an sPvP build to be based around ranged damage, but when you’re coordinated in your team fights, you don’t need everyone sitting on a point. As long as you have one person contesting the point, having your team spread to some degree protects you from AoE spam and overall having something like a longbow ranger is a great counter to necros and engineers in team encounters.

Liewec.2896:

also note that the treb has a huge hit box so aoe skills like meteor shower will be extremely effective, also using charge skills directly in to it can deal massive damage,
a necro with flesh golem for example can take off a massive amount of its health.

since it cannot be crit and takes less than normal damage you shouldn’t even think about sending a bunker or condi spec to deal with it, they’ll be there several minutes.

A bunker is very slow to kill a treb, but they can still be relatively reliable to take down the treb in a pinch since they can just tank the player damage while whittling down the treb.

However, the best thing to do if you ever have a bunker attack your treb is to just ditch it and help your team. Trying to kill the bunker will be a waste of time, but leaving the bunker to plink away at a treb while you help win team fights transfers the waste of time to them. =P

If you do Solo Q, then go with guard since you can handle the cheese with knockbacks and stability.

Outside of this, either are fine. Guard fits into teams easier, but both are really simple builds to play that don’t take long to learn. Feel free to bounce back and forth as you see fit.

Having a good bunker guard with knockbacks that knows how to dodge a treb can really help on the midpoint.

Because of the way the mid point is designed, knockbacks are extremely effective for decapping or just taking an enemy out of the fight for a bit since you can knock them out of line-of-sight.

Also, while taking out the enemy treb is important, learning how to multi-task dodging a treb attack while fighting is very important. Generally, when you’re on clocktower, you can count to about 4 after hearing the announcement of incoming treb and dodge, but ideally, you will want to look up with your camera to make sure.

Oh, also, mesmers with blink or thieves with short bow are good candidates to jumping on your trep since they can port to the treb almost instantly instead of running around the base. If they port, then tap the treb attack skill as soon as they get to the treb, they can get the roof knocked off the clocktower within a few seconds of the game start so that they can start landing trebs on mid as soon as the enemies reach that point.

Awesome list! Definitely the best compilation of meta builds I’ve seen since back when IntoTheMists.com forums were active.

I swear, I lose brain cells every time I see one of these ‘pay to win’ threads in Dress Up Wars 2 forums.

Xbon.9086:

Lue.6538:

Like I said: Rotating the boxes solves this issue, you would earn 3 armor pieces per weapon instead of the opposite, which is far more logical as you need less weapons than armorpieces.

incorrect, there’s more weapons than armor.

Technically, yes, there are 19 weapons and 18 armor pieces, but realistically, that doesn’t reflect how many weapons a player needs vs how many armor pieces they need.

You only need 1-4 weapons (depending on profession and 1h vs 2h weapons used) and 6 armor pieces per character.

Even if you do want every weapon available for your character, you’ll still fill up on weapons before armor since it takes so much more to get an armor piece than a weapon.

One of the biggest keys to beating a D/P thief is being able to stand just far enough outside blind fields to avoid the blind, while still being able to reach your target.

TheGaryTh.1649:

Purplish black with rose pink squiggly things

^ Yea, I agree with this one. The base is black/dark purple, but the particle effects range from light purple to a pinkish color.

Yes, playing a bunker and just sitting on a point is very effective, but killing players is far from pointless because:

- You send the player to respawn, which prevents you and your teammate from being killed by that enemy
– You force that player to waste a bunch of time waiting for the respawn, then travelling across the map instead of sitting on a point or killing your team
– You prevent that player from knocking you off the point or shutting you down so that another person can knock you off the point
– And of course, you get 5 points too. =P

johnpoc.8732:

Agreed, power thieves have been hit really hard. Condi P/D thieves are still OP tho, that might be the new source of hate lol

I’ll have to give condi a try eventually…I’ve heard it talked up a bit recently, but I’ve never seen condi thieves as particularly threatening. However, they do seem to be pretty few and far between.

Yea, agreed with OP. I played a bunker guardian for a good while and shot up my spot on leaderboards. However, I’ve since switched back to my thief and it’s been an uphill battle.

When playing guardian, I didn’t have to work too hard to pull anything off and the overall speed of play was much slower. However, one small mistake on my thief can easily end up in me going down in just a second or two.

I think thief is just an easy class to blame when you don’t understand the mechanics. I remember before I rolled a thief that I had a lot of trouble fighting them as well, but once you realize that you can still burn a thief down even when they’re stealthed and other similar strategies, the fights became a lot easier.

This is pretty much Yishis’ exact build, except for 10 in DA instead of Acro. I know he had a lot of success with this before 4/15 and I played it to a good extent as well, but I’m not sure how well it fares now with the critical damage nerf in WvW.

Team PvP is easily the most fun…I just wish my RL schedule allowed me to play for a steady amount of time during the same periods when my friends are able to do games.

Solstice.1097:

Phaeton.9582:

+1

how u no 15 char?

anyway +1 from me too

Spacebar =P

If you go PvT and use dolyak runes, you’ll hit like a wet noodle. If you’re really having that much trouble surviving, you’re better off just sticking back with P/P or short bow using your berserker gear. You’ll deal more damage and will stand out of harm’s way. =P

1) Yes, there is a perfect min/max build for DPS, but there are some variations that you can use if you feel that you need more sustain.
2) Sword/Pistol is your default trash weapon. It cleaves, does good DPS, and gives you a spammable blind field to protect allies.
3) Your utilities will vary a bit, but you can’t really go wrong with signets.

Also, you should at least check out Brazil’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoD6aOhzu7M

Chase also has a really good guide that is a bit more comprehensive: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/87167-a-guide-to-the-thief-meta/

attrail.8613:

I think its pointless on d/d build. What are you going to do heartseeker faster?

Well, you still get the benefit on the autoattack, which hits harder than a lot of people give credit for (higher DPS than sword on single target).

But yea, you just have better options for your CS investment such as Signet Use, Side Strike, Furious Retalliation, and Practiced Tolerance. If you’re using S/D or S/P, then there’s also Combo Critical Chance.

Saint.5647:

23 years lived. 0 winning lottery tickets. Why keep living?

^ Brilliant.

The Play Now button is what makes custom arenas so convenient and convenience is half the reason I ever step foot in hot join.

Is a precursor seriously the only reason you play?

If you can’t get a drop, just buy one kitten .

I’d spend gems on that.

Something a lot of people don’t realize with Traveler runes: You will run significantly faster while carrying the orb in Spirit Rise.

Lamuness.3570:

Dahkeus.8243:

Yes, but D/P is also a lot more dynamic than builds like S/D since the way you use the weapon changes so much depending on circumstance. However, there’s still a lot of thieves out there that don’t use D/P beyond just dropping blind fields and leap/backstabbing (hence why you see people argue that it’s an “easy” weaponset).

Wait, there’s other things I can do on D/P other than 5, 2? I mean it in a sarcastic, but not really sarcastic way. Because there’s not really much you can do outside of a well timed headshot. Maybe 3 -> 1 backstab. I find that when I 1v1 in sPvP thieves that play S/P do 2, 3, you stun break it, 2, 3 again. I only have so many breaks!

Every weaponset seems to be spammy if you wanna put it that way.

If you’re playing D/P like D/D (stealth → backstab until heartseeker at low hp) with the occaisional headshot, then you’re really not doing the set justice. There shouldn’t be any skill that you spam on D/P outside of hitting HS a few times against someone at low HP and is out of endurance/survival cooldowns.

Ultimately, what sets a good thief apart from a mediocre one when it comes to D/P is how they use the set in team settings and not simply how they fight in a 1 v 1.

Immune to stun stuff is for professions that tank damage. Thieves avoid damage. Yea, it sucks that this trait is pretty worthless, but you can still prevent stuns with evades/blinds well enough.

High level Fractals is the only place I would consider this trait.

hihey.1075:

Athelfirth.6308:

hihey.1075:

D/P trickery is, by far, the hardest spec to play in sPvP.

Is this a troll? Because only in some weirdo fourth dimension is D/P trickery the hardest thief build to be effective on. On-demand stealth + perma-blind? Please.

Between S/D, D/P and S/P, D/P is definitely the hardest.
S/D and S/P have evade frames AND condi clear. D/P only has stealth (which, against good players, doesnt matter much).
I know you’re not a good player, so I accept your mistaken opinion.

Yes, but D/P is also a lot more dynamic than builds like S/D since the way you use the weapon changes so much depending on circumstance. However, there’s still a lot of thieves out there that don’t use D/P beyond just dropping blind fields and leap/backstabbing (hence why you see people argue that it’s an “easy” weaponset).

If you have an ele in your group dropping Fiery Greatsword or Ice Bow, then it’s an awesome trait. Swap it in and do more DPS.

What?? Sounds like I need to open another ticket for a refund…

It’s like ANet is trying so hard to give me back all the gems I spent on this game.

Yargesh.4965:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Surprised no one has said anything in GD about the new Lawless Armor. (And/or the new Dyes.)

Not really my thing, but I am sure some will appreciate it. =)

The helm was very….. unusual. The shoulders look like about 5 others in game already. Maybe going for the bull lovers out there.

Yea, the helm just makes no sense to me. I can only imagine the discussion that took place for it during the design phase:

Designer 1: LET’S MAKE A HELM WITH BULL HORNS!
Designer 2: BRILLIANT!
Designer 1: BRILLIANT!
Designer 2: Should we put the bull horns on top of the head?
Designer 1: That’s just rubbish! Of course not!
Designer 2: Where do we put the horns then?
Designer 1: Right over the players eyes of course!!
Designer 2: …BRILLIANT!
Designer 1: BRILLIANT!

Sadly, so many people get so caught up in getting the perfect group composition for a fast run, they fail to realize that they wasted a ton of time just getting exactly who they want.

Because of this, I’ve seen plenty of mixed build/prof groups clear through dungeons faster than perfectionist speed run group leaders.

SotF Longbow rangers seem to be good to have for team fights right now since they can stay out of range of the AoE while providing strong damage and CC. When they do get focused, they also have the tools to survive condi builds pretty decently. They’re highly reliant on sticking with teammates that will stand on a point to keep it contested, of course, but I could see this build working well for organized team PvP.

Dagger/Dagger is the highest DPS single target weapon sets a thief has, making it one of the best PvE sets.

Dagger/Pistol is one of the weakest options for PvE since Sword/Pistol will do higher DPS while also cleaving and it can drop a blind field just as well.

For a full PvE guide and breakdown of the various weaponsets, check out Chase’s guide on GuildWars2Guru.com.

Still works. It’s brought down a notch in WvW from what it used to be, but it still works. In sPvP, it’s still fine.

Mordecai.6318:

Amonatory.2453:

I seen caed duel in a tourny a couple weeks ago, he is way overhyped I was not impressed at all.

I’d agree he’s over hyped, but hes actually really good and plays thief with the highest skill cap possible.

If he’s overhyped, it’s definitely not happening in this thread, lol. People are either saying that he’s one of the best with his accomplishments used as proof or they’re saying that he’s really terrible/bad/etc. without saying who is better.

Look, he’s not the only good thief and he’s definitely not perfect, but he’s at least one of the most accomplished thieves in the game and aside from random anectdotal arguments otherwise, this shows him AT LEAST as one of the top thieves.

But as soon as you name someone on top, you’ll always get hordes of people trying to tear them down. (especially on forums, lol)

- Notifications about things that are broken, which are scheduled to be fixed
– Upcoming events like the Ready Up
– Announcements about upcoming balance changes
– Clarifications on ambiguous announcements

Aidan Savage.2078:

Dahkeus.8243:

I really wish ANet would get an organized channel of communication

Dev Tracker at the top of the forum index. Lists every post made by an Anet staff member.

Yea, it’s on the forums and the only organization is by date. It also includes all dev responses on tech issue posts, which are almost never relevant to anyone beyond people having specific tech problems.

So unless you dig through the dev tracker on a daily basis, you won’t keep up with this kinda stuff.

Kodan. I could care less about the other races.

edit maybe centaur.

Garrisyl.7402:

This has been discussed to no end already in the pvp-subsection, with Dev-answers.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Arah-Path-Armor-Box-Answered/first

Ahh, so it’s another piece of official information stuck deep in the forums.

I really wish ANet would get an organized channel of communication linked to the game so that you didn’t have to dig through forum posts or rely on people who have the patience to wade through the forum mess to get official info.

This is the kinda stuff that should be listed on the launcher before you load the game…but we can’t even get patch notes that way unfortunately. =/

AlbertoUlkesh.4517:

Like this?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/rank-2

That wouldn’t include non-rank-based finishers like Quaggan, Ascalon, etc.

@ OP: I like this idea. However, I’m worried this could cause a lot of animation spam in towns.

Chilli.2976:

silvermember.8941:

Do you just create topics for whenever you have a thought?

Yup, problem?

Yea, you’re wasting forum space with random QQ that’s already been said in a bunch of other threads.

1) Dagger auto does more DPS
2) It takes much longer to do a full pistol whip than it does to do a single backstab
3) Cloak and Dagger also hits pretty hard
4) There isn’t much of a difference in vuln stacking when using Sundering Strikes since Cloak and Dagger puts up 3 stacks.

If you’re fighting multiple enemies, then of course, use pistol whip. D/D beats S/P easily on any single target fight though.

I’m trying psych myself up to roll a necro since it’s the profession I have the least experience with.

It’s just tough because necros are so weak in PvE compared to other professions and in PvP, they just feel so…slow. I main a thief, so the high-passive defense and low mobility of necro is the polar opposite of what I generally enjoy in PvP.

Well, it took them a few days to realize that the Balth back item was account bound in error, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an error that they need to fix too.