Guild Wars 2

Arken.3725:

Dahkeus.8243:

Just be aware that it may be a bit of an uphill transition, depending on the profession you move to. Guardian may be balanced, but it’s also a relatively simple profession to play (particularly as bunker). I’ve been transitioning off my bunker guard lately to put more focus on thief and it’s had a pretty heavy impact on my win ratio while I get back in the swing of being a total squishy role with a very heavy active defense, lol.

I don’t entirely agree with this only because as I’ve stated before, without any sort of meaningful rng/passive defenses, it’s very difficult to play the Guardian properly since you can’t rely on rng. Screwing up a long cd skill really takes its toll. Now I do agree it’ll be an uphill transition due to the change in mechanics.

Eh, you have a much larger room for error on when you activate those cooldowns. Yea, blowing SYG at the wrong time will screw you over, but missing a single blind on thief will do the same and that’s something that can happen many times over the course of a short fight. You also don’t need to be nearly as nimble with your character movement since you don’t need to worry about landing attacks on the back of enemies and you don’t have to aim teleports.

Either way, I wish you luck on your transition. =)

…not account bound?

I’m kinda at a loss at learning this. This was supposed to be THE PvP-specific skin, but apparently any PvE/WvW player with a bit of extra gold can get this faster than most PvPers will.

And yea, it’s 60g now, but you can expect that price to drop FAST. As someone who often has limited time to play PvP, this will probably be something I can buy for a few gold before I can earn it from the PvP achievement. So sad…

Just be aware that it may be a bit of an uphill transition, depending on the profession you move to. Guardian may be balanced, but it’s also a relatively simple profession to play (particularly as bunker). I’ve been transitioning off my bunker guard lately to put more focus on thief and it’s had a pretty heavy impact on my win ratio while I get back in the swing of being a total squishy role with a very heavy active defense, lol.

The trait Critical Haste won’t drain your endurance like Haste will, so I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to take that trait.

Min/Max for D/D:
6 DA – Sundering Strikes, Dagger Training, Revealed Training (or Improvisation if you’re going to be using conjured weapons from an ele in the group)
6 CS – Side Strikes, Critical Haste or Signet Use if you still don’t want Critical Haste for some reason, Executioner
2 Tr – Flanking Strikes or Thrill of the Crime if your team needs the boons

Min/Max for S/P:
6 DA – Sundering Strikes, Combined Training, Mug (or Improvisation if you’re going to be using conjured weapons from an ele in the group)
6 CS – Side Strikes, Combo Critical Chance, Executioner
2 Tr – Flanking Strikes or Thrill of the Crime if your team needs the boons

Min/Max for P/P:
6 DA – Sundering Strikes, Combined Training, Mug (or Improvisation if you’re going to be using conjured weapons from an ele in the group)
6 CS – Pistol Mastery, Combo Critical Chance, Executioner
2 Tr – Flanking Strikes or Thrill of the Crime if your team needs the boons

8v8 was terrible. Every fight turned into an AoE zergfest.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Like I said, Thief is only weak because the player controlling them is weak.

Yea, we get it. You can stop thumping your chest now.

I’m running the same ol’ 2/6/0/0/6 D/P build, but I swapped in Runes of the Traveler. I still believe that mobility is one of the Thief’s biggest strengths, so this helps boost map travel a bit.

I’m also considering making Sigil of Generosity one of my sigils with the abundance of condis going around.

I may give S/D another shot. Not sure what I think about using it with a Trickery build, but it may be a nice change of pace, if nothing else. I guess the additional condi removal on Sw 2 may be good right now.

Chilli.2976:

Dahkeus.8243:

I really don’t understand what the big disappointment is all about.

Have you seen the rank 60 shark and rank 70 phoenix emotes? They are 200% better in design and animation.

Yea, the shark has the same animation effects as the bear/wolf/cat/deer/rabbit and only really differs by its size.

The phoenix isn’t far off from the dragon finisher. Both take up about the same size, last about the same amount of time, and have unique color/textures.

If there’s something that seriously merits trash talking it on the forums like some spoiled rich white high school kid, then I’m just not seeing it.

Belzebu.3912:

Cloudwalkernz.1328:

Hopefully with this patch will end all the zerker only lfg.

I wish …

Cloudwalkernz.1328:

power using non zerker gears is now much better.

Nope, now they are less worse

Cloudwalkernz.1328:

Even with warrior I notice with zerker gears I have lost more than 10% damage. I find using Knight now offer better Survivability without losing much damage.

But you still lose damage compared to the current zerker, if you kept the zerker you wouldn’t need the knights survivability.

Don’t get me wrong, I always played as a condition trapper ranger on PvE and it is still my favorite build (but not my current build), after playing with other classes I realized that DPS is the only way to go in PvE and you don’t need anything else, if you do is because you are doing something wrong.

^ Pretty much this. It’ll take a lot more than a crit damage nerf to change the PvE dungeon meta to be something other than ZOMFGBERZERKERGOGODPSSTACKSTACKDPSGOGOSKIPALLTHEMOBSSSS!!!!

Kind of a misleading title, but yea, I get what you’re saying.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Survival_skills

Interceptor.2653:

Dahkeus.8243:

It’s a PvE trait that is a minor passive boost to the min/max DPS glass cannon build and it’s the only worthwhile trait in any circumstance out of all the new GM traits.

What kind of “circumstance” could this possibly be true under? PvP only, no consumables, Final Destination? You’re out of your tree if you think that Resilience of Shadows doesn’t have a place in WvW, or that Bewildering Ambush isn’t a great pick for a P/D condi.

Well..I did say it’s a PvE trait, so the circumstance is PvE, lol.
I think you’re confused because I’m not arguing for this trait in PvP, nor am I saying that any of the new traits are best for any PvP.

Still running the standard trickery D/P build in sPvP.

If I touch WvW again, I may give S/D a shot since the crit nerf has hit dagger burst quite a bit, but I’m kinda sick of that place.

Honestly, I don’t see any of the new traits as appealing for PvP.

1. The extra damage on revealed doesn’t justify a deep DA build.
2. The healing from the crit trait isn’t near enough to outweigh the loss of Executioner
3. Defense in stealth only helps in WvW where you sit in stealth and even then, I’m not convinced that it’s any better than just dodging the damage and healing up with Shadow’s Rejuv
4. Stealth builds just don’t synergize well with the acro tree, so I don’t see a 1.25 second stability as justified for a full GM investment there.
5. Sleight of Hand is just too good to pass up if you’re going down the trickery line. It stops stability stomps and shuts down enemies when you’re stunned. Even if you’re running a condi build, I don’t think that an extra bit of confusion outweighs the loss of that utility.

Westside.7213:

Yishis! Yishis Gaming is by far the best Thief Youtube video channel!

The guy goes like 1v5 without a problem x)

Deffo check that out.

His last vid was 5 months ago and the vid before that was 5 months ago.

Jumper is another popular high level thief, but it doesn’t look like he’s posted anything in a long time. I’m not sure if he even plays GW2 anymore, lol.

Caed had something posted a month ago, but I don’t think there’s been any word if he runs anything different now. As the other poster said, many people are still testing things out since it’s less than 24 hours since the patch even came out.

However, I wouldn’t be surprised if many thieves stick with what they were running before or reroll to another profession.

Zomaarwat.3912:

Its the forums. What did you expect?

Decent human beings.

It’s a giant kittening dragon shooting lightning onto the corpse before flying away with a roar. Wtf did you expect?

I really don’t understand what the big disappointment is all about.

Pyriall.1683:

Why am I being told that I am not due for a refund for character slot purchases? I’m being told to be more careful when I purchase items with gems. I purchased character slots based on the information which A-net provided, which was:

“The addition of new skills and traits on a regular basis will of course mean expanded variety of abilities, builds, and tactics in PvP as well. As these additional skills and traits are added, they’ll be automatically unlocked and available for competitive PvP just like all existing skills/traits work today.”

I have no intention of unlocking traits on all 30 plus of my characters nor am I willing to purchases charges to transmute into wardrobe gear for those characters that I already spent the time to unlock. Please remedy this.

They said that they will be unlocked for PvP, but they didn’t say anything about that unlock being account bound. If there’s another quote somewhere where they said that, feel free to correct me, but the quote you cited doesn’t hold up your argument, unfortunately.

Interceptor.2653:

Just in case this is a serious question, you’d want to soak up CC with Stability when you:

1. can’t evade the CC (Static Field cannot be evaded)
2. aren’t able to dodge (no endurance, immobilized, or don’t see the hit coming)
3. want to keep dealing damage (can’t be using skills during a manual dodge)

The problem is that 1.25 seconds is nothing. However, making a full investment to the acro tree is a pretty substantial reduction to your potential damage output with very little return in utility.

Ultimately, the acro tree overall is a very awkward fit for a stealth build.

sPvP may not be a half bad to profit if you’re good at it. It won’t beat the old champ farm runs, but it’s a hell of a lot more fun. =P

RedSpectrum.1975:

Dahkeus.8243:

Why is this in the thief forum?

What the hell are you holding? A soda can?

Why the hell is this expansion leak coming from a soda can?

Where the hell did this come from?

Why should we believe you?

Wtf?

Dahkeus I think Bewildering Ambush backfired on you I’d lay down for a bit.

Pfft, I’m not even going to bother picking up that trait, let alone using it.

Also, I just realized where the can is from. Still don’t understand what this has to do with Thief.

Renny.6571:

Step 1: Trait mug
Step 2: Precast backstab then steal
???
+200 power backstab. You guys don’t even know how to abuse your own class’ mechanics properly.

If we’re talking PvE, then doing this means you drop Dagger Training or Sundering Strikes for a +200 on your backstab only when steal is available. Doing this will reduce your overall DPS.

If we’re talking PvP, this still isn’t enough to make a deep DA build viable.

Nothing’s changed. S/P is slightly nerfed for sPvP, but that’s about it.

Some people are talking about using the confusion on steal for WvW, but if you do this, you lose out on Sleight of Hand (a daze that goes through stability). I guess if you’re playing absolutely solo with a condi build, that’s ok, but in any serious team setting, that daze is clutch for preventing stomps. It’s also a way to prevent burst when you get stunned without a stunbreaker available.

Actually, if you want something different, consider runes of the traveler. They’re decent for mobility since Lyssa is nerfed.

Why is this in the thief forum?

What the hell are you holding? A soda can?

Why the hell is this expansion leak coming from a soda can?

Where the hell did this come from?

Why should we believe you?

Wtf?

urdriel.8496:

awge.3852:

I think we should have traps that allow us to use more varied effects. You could have blast traps that would do things like apply confusion damage and daze 5 enemies in a 350 radius of it. Or a putrid trap that would create blindness and poison enemies at the same time OR cause vulnerability and weakness at the same time? (did we not learn anything from Orr). If you want to go more ‘nature’ oriented, then how about a spider web trap that would fear enemies and remove an boons on them?

You already have to sacrifice a lot to be a trapper (especially condition removal) so why not give people more options?

Something like this, sigh….

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/File:Smoke_Trap.jpg

Smoke trap definitely needs to make a comeback. When/if they release new elites, I seriously hope this is what they bring to Rangers.

The stats on all your PvE armor and weapons have no significance at all in sPvP. And yes, the jewel was combined with the amulet.

Uhtameit.2413:

In their defense, there was nothing In-game. ArenaNet really is bad at communicating.

Yea, there really needs to be something as simple as a window showing patch notes at the launcher. Unless you follow forums, facebook, or twitter, you’ll miss out on a ton of official info.

Korimor.2406:

I really like Bewildering Ambush. Just substitute it in the normal S/D P/D build and you get this monster – > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqA2xnUJPaM&feature=share&list=UUXlH2J5oC5CIr2Ewi_PRzWA

Sleight of Hand is still better.

Pawstruck.9708:

If that’s true, then why take it at all? Stealth builds all rely on their in-stealth “1” attack for a huge portion of their damage. They might as well have just not added anything in Deadly Arts.

Because you still attack after your stealth attack?

It’s a PvE trait that is a minor passive boost to the min/max DPS glass cannon build and it’s the only worthwhile trait in any circumstance out of all the new GM traits.

So, I’ve never had a ton of luck at investing in items before patches, but I thought I knew a decent item to flip: Sigil of Air.

Before the patch, it was a pretty lackluster sigil since it did near the same damage as Fire, but only single target with the same internal cooldown. After the patch, it now has a 3 second internal cooldown, which should make this a solid choice for people who are min/maxing DPS for boss fights, especially now that they have an extra sigil spot on 2h weapons…

…but the price plummeted after the patch. Ugh.

Yea, they definitely seem to hit harder now.

A lot of people are more concerned about testing out new builds than winning games. Give it a few days/weeks and it’ll settle down.

The ranger traits at least shake things up a bit. They may not all the most impressive thing ever, but it could be worse. I mean, look at the new traits for Thieves, lol.

Eh, not to sure about the patch yet. I mean, it’s nothing terrible or anything, but it just seems like ANet sunk a ton of time into a patch that’s only really worked out to be a minor quality of life change for me, for the most part.

Eh, the changes were understandable. This nerfs thieves for sure, but it’ll take a lot more to keep them from being awesome roamers in sPvP and WvW.

I just wish we got some decent GM traits that would make new builds viable (and no, switching out a trait for PvE D/D builds that is just a passive damage boost doesn’t count). It’s kinda depressing to log in after a huge patch with new traits and balance changes only to realize that there’s not much reason to run anything different than before (unless you were S/P in sPvP).

Kilger.5490:

I’m missing EB a little but probably because Im so used to not thinking about condition managing. Got hit with a >10 sec cripple, didnt know they went that long :p

Yea, if you’ve been running EB for a long time, it’s going to take a good bit of getting used to.

@ Atherakhia: Yea, it’s a bit awkward managing LR as a condition removal when it’s such a clutch ability for snares, but I found that MT generally works well enough on its own. QZ I still used primarily for burst or fast rezes, but syncing up a burst with a time when you have a condi on you isn’t too bad.

Eh, it’s a fair change, but no, it does make the thief ‘trash’ (facepalm).

It’s a quick single evade, which is fair, but it’s not the evasion spam it used to be.

Either way, it’s not a huge change except for lolevasionbunker.

I tried out a power build with the new Nature Magic GM trait and I’m a bit optimistic about it now. Here’s what I ran:

Longbow/Sw&horn
Marks – III (Keen Edge)
Skirm – I (Pet’s Prowess), X (Quick Draw)
WS – VI (Wilderness Knowledge)
NM – VI (Nature’s Protection), VIII (Evasive Purity), and XIII (Survival of the Fittest)
Berserker Amulet
Rune of the Ranger (since it was buffed)

Air/Bloodlust on bow
Fire/Bloodlust on Sw/W

Anyone else played around with this trait yet?

Adam.4103:

Good.

Agreed. This mindless zerg train deserved to die!

So, I destroyed this item, just like the patch notes said, but the skin didn’t unlock. When I looked for it, I also realized that there is no spot for this item in the wardrobe anyways.

I opened a ticket for this already, but to anyone else who has this skin, don’t delete it.

Nick.6972:

Are you ready?
Because who needs new armor obtainable in game via playing the game ithout using the gem store.

or, you know, obtain it in game by converting gold to gems.

^ Good advice.

Also, if you do go melee on trash mobs, then Sword/Pistol is a great option since it gives you cleave to AoE while also allowing you to drop blind fields, which essentially allow you to facetank anything standing in the field. Just remember that this doesn’t work on Champions or anything above (blind is only a 10% chance to make an attack miss on them).

Ardid.7203:

Where are Anet offices? Texas, aren’t them?

I wish, but they’re in Seattle, WA.

Visual effect should be the same as a flashbang grenade from Counter Strike.

Funny how so many people are acting like the entire class of thief is OP by taking a look at a single, fully traited ability, then ignoring all other aspects of thief as well as how it fits in the current meta. =P

clint.5681:

Why do we have to pay for things that was free before

They weren’t free before because they weren’t available before.

Also, people are forgetting that not only do you earn gold in sPvP, but you’ll also be getting loot bag stuff including things like crafting mats that can be sold for gold, so pure sPvPers will be earning more gold than before.

Yep, one of the perks of playing GW2 is not having those huge maintenance downtimes that many other MMOs have so regularly. =)

Yea, thief is pretty squishy, so it’s not a bad idea to just stick to Pistol/Pistol and/or
Short Bow as your weapons of choice while you learn the encounters.

As for condition removal, you shouldn’t need too much. Hide in Shadows is a good heal for when you’re facing a lot of conditions and the stealth will synergize well with pistols since they have a solid stealth attack. Outside of that, Signet of Agility is your best bet.

Technically, you could take at least 10 points (or after the patch today, 2 points) into Shadow Arts for the condition removal on stealth, but that’s generally more of a PvP trait.

Really, your best defense against conditions is avoiding them in the first place with dodges/evades/etc. or having party members with condi cleanse.

in before someone rages and uses this as a jumping off point to spout cynical views about how ANet messes up everything up and ruins peoples lives, lol!

=P

People still buy computer games in boxes from actual, walk-in stores?

o.o

With the crit damage nerf, I’m seriously considering moving to a sword build over a dagger build for WvW.

Course, now that I have the WvW meta done, I’m not sure I’ll bother stepping back into WvW. While the open PvP can be fun at times, overall, it feels like a pointless zergfest that I prefer to avoid. =P