Guild Wars 2

You…do realize that almost every thief has a shortbow as a swap weapon 90% of the time, right? It’s one of our strongest weapons, hands-down, even if we don’t use it as a primary weapon.

If that improvisation change goes through, I will actually give a venom/condi build a decent shot. With 5 venoms and 30 in trickery, you could use the venom heal and elite every 20 seconds. I’m not sure of runes/sigils yet, but this is probably what I would go for:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqYVnkE1aaoJmmwfaChrgT59gsGLzS7xN1gxEA-TkAgyCrIaS1krJTTymsNNXA

Sword AutoAttack Chain – It’s about time they addressed these terrible mechanics.

Heal as One – Possibly one of the most boring healing skills in the game gets a buff. Hooray?

Lightning Reflexes – This change was way, way, way overdue.

Keen Edge – Good change since this condi dmg skill didn’t belong in a power tree. Still, why aren’t traps under a condi tree??

Eagle Eye – Good if this is in addition to the current effects. However, the internal cooldown (if any) will determine how much of a difference this makes.

Honed Axes – Good change.

Moment of Clarity – Good change since this skill encourages skillful timing of stuns/dazes and use of burst skills.

Martial Mastery – Good that they moved the GS stuff, but I don’t think 1 sec vigor on sword evade will make this worth taking.

Bark Skin – Good change…although I’m not sure how well this will fit into a viable build.

Two-Hand Training – Good change if this is combined with the current effect.

Bottom Line
Overall, there’s lots of small good changes, but I don’t think this will make much of a difference in the current meta. It’s possible a GS stun/burst build may become viable, but I foresee spirit rangers still being the go-to for any team willing to take a ranger in sPvP. I doubt power rangers will be as viable as ANet said they would be. In WvW, rangers will still be the weakest link. In PvE, there aren’t any big changes, but at least using a Sword build won’t be as painful.

Tatsuo.1478:

Dahkeus.8243:

Tatsuo.1478:

I don’t get it why leaderboards are done in such a weird way? First you can’t see it ingame, for some reason you need to go to website.. Second you can’t just see in what position you are if you are not in 1000 ranking or so. Does anyone find such crappy leaderboard good?..

Why Anet can’t make it normal and be able to see your position, does not matter what it is? And be able to see it ingame? Or I don’t know something here maybe?

I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s not hard to just go to the website. Yes, it’s not updated realtime, but that’s because it would suck up way more resources than is necessary for something like this.

And if you’re under the top 1000, you can still see your rank. It’s just shown as a percent instead of an exact position.

So what does that percentage mean? higher percentage, higher ranking or lower ranking? It is really weird, why can’t they make you see real number in position you are..
It’s like Anet is trying to be different for the sake to be different.

Higher percentage, higher ranking.

Tatsuo.1478:

I don’t get it why leaderboards are done in such a weird way? First you can’t see it ingame, for some reason you need to go to website.. Second you can’t just see in what position you are if you are not in 1000 ranking or so. Does anyone find such crappy leaderboard good?..

Why Anet can’t make it normal and be able to see your position, does not matter what it is? And be able to see it ingame? Or I don’t know something here maybe?

I don’t see what the big deal is. It’s not hard to just go to the website. Yes, it’s not updated realtime, but that’s because it would suck up way more resources than is necessary for something like this.

And if you’re under the top 1000, you can still see your rank. It’s just shown as a percent instead of an exact position.

Wintel.4873:

style.6173:

Prediction: after ele buffs, this type of class is going to become insane.

Alright, lets see upcoming Ele buffs:

- Resto Signet buff – most eles will still use Ether Renewal
- Armor of Earth CD reduction to 75s – slot skill, not specific to staff ele
- Water Trident giving 3s regen to allies – not a staff ability
- Burning Speed evade frames – not a staff ability
- Frozen Burst blast finisher – not a staff ability

Define “going to become insane”.
ANet’s goal with this patch seems to be all about buffing D/D and leaving everything else as it is. That godawful RTL cd, stupidly long attumenet cds and unchanged base health / armor.

Those aren’t all the changes and those changes aren’t even set in stone.

However, I’ll quote Tyler Chapman on something he said about their internal testing for the next balance patch:

Tyler Chapman.1832:

I’ll say that internally staff Ele has turned out to be strong, scary strong against condi meta.

Source:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Ele-in-Dev-live-stream-scrimages/first#post3655438

I love this idea…but just imagine the outrage of players who are now desperately trying to burn through these things since the devs told us they would be useless only to find out that you can actually use them for something better than earning glory.

I think the window of opportunity for ANet to do this has passed. The best thing they can do now is to calculate out an estimate of how much extra glory people who play for an hour would have gained if they were to use a booster (using a very conservative estimate) and then just change them to simply grant that much glory instead. This gives players who aren’t able to use up their boosters a decent consolidation without offering something more valuable than what these will currently give.

Roster not found pops up for me from time to time too, but I’ve never lost a reward because of it. If you haven’t yet, try zoning into the mists if you’re not there already or zone out then back in.

Karolis.4261:

Dahkeus.8243:

WvW really plays to a thief’s strengths since there is no penalty for stealth (you can’t cap points in stealth in sPvP) and there’s a lot more room to teleport for mobility or escape.

However, thieves still do well in sPvP since their mobility makes them excel at roaming around to cap/decap points behind big fights. Their high burst and blinds also keep them as viable in fights.

You cant cap points in stealth in www too. In fact stealth capping was removed because of www because stealthed thieves were preventing zergs from capping camps. Oh w8, numbers always win the cap progression. Was just another thief nerf to prevent stealth builds from defending camps.

True, although that’s not nearly as much of an issue in WvW since capping points isn’t as crucial and also since capture points are large enough for a thief to simply back off without needing to stealth.

WvW really plays to a thief’s strengths since there is no penalty for stealth (you can’t cap points in stealth in sPvP) and there’s a lot more room to teleport for mobility or escape.

However, thieves still do well in sPvP since their mobility makes them excel at roaming around to cap/decap points behind big fights. Their high burst and blinds also keep them as viable in fights.

The shadowstep mechanic works for any situation where there is a path to a point within the radius of your skill. Because of this, you can get up there if you stand in a spot where there is a route up to that point. Woodenpotatoes put up a video that explains shadowstep really well and he shows how this works on that map. Check out the vid below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=35ozCg25--E#t=460

Luxorflip.5243:

So I was a huge theif player a year ago, loved it, school made me quit for a while….

However is my gear still solid? Am i going to be behind? Or do I need to grind back up again?

Also, how is the state of Theif at the moment?

Thanks everyone!

You can grind for ascended gear if you want, but you’re fine in exotics since the difference is pretty small.

As for the state of the thief, we’re still pretty middle of the line, depending on what aspect you focus on. In sPvP, we’re still great as roamers. In WvW, it’s the same. In PvE, we’re really squishy, bring decent DPS and very little utility outside of stealth for skipping trash.

Mordecai.6318:

I’m kind of upset everyone feels this is innovative or new.

Honestly, I’ve been lurking thief forums for a long time and I haven’t seen a good case for a power P/D build that I can think of. If someone has posted about it, they certainly didn’t present it as well as in this post.

@ OP: Great vid. I was a bit skeptical, but this looks like a solid variation for WvW roaming. Too bad you lose the poison that a dagger mainhand has since that can play such a big role against a lot of classes or else this could be decent in sPvP as well.

Cynic.9327:

Hello all, let me start by saying I’m Rod and I’ve played guild wars 2 for a good amount of time now ( lvl 80 warrior, mesmer and 70 guardian ) and now feel like making a thief for several reasons.

So after abit of messing around with the build maker website I came up with this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVlUmiO3cy4E+5Ey2DfqCJKuHGlT1UeF+KA-jQyAYOBRiCAJCiKAmILiGbxtIasqFMVJRUt7oIa1RBERA-e

It uses the dagger/dagger and shortbow combo which I seem to like most out of all the weapons available for a thief, and is focused on staying in stealth as long as possible, true assassin style-ish xD.

I was just wondering if this would be a viable build, I know it’s not the toughest but I have made my mesmer full zerker aswell and I did absolutely fine on her, infact I never seem to really die on her unless I don’t pay attention and a zerg sneaks up from behind me and even then I sometimes escape. So having said that I don’t mind and even prefer the more glassy cannon builds like the one above I came up with, just need to know if it’s viable or not.

One thing that’s bothering me is the lack of Shadow Refuge, but I don’t want to give up any of the 3 utilities or any of my runes to try and replace the 25% movement signet. Any advice ?

Last offtopic question. Which armor / weapon skins would look best on a human rogue ? I got the holographic wings to go with her ( I LOVE them ), but need some cheap ( if possible ) skins to go with her armor and daggers. Armor for me would be nescessary because the crafted emblazoned armor looks like ******* xD.

Thanks for the replies in advance,

-Rod.

1) Change V to VI to blind on stealth. Since the last initiative changes, you should be fine without ini on stealth. Also, blind on stealth not only makes a big difference for survival, but it allows you to land stomps reliably.

2) Be aware that in sPvP, one of your biggest disadvantages is that this build relies heavily on stealth, which doesn’t contest points.

Wyrden.4713:

this is what i use, i swap the dagger offhand to focus half of the time , dagger if u want high numbers, focus if u wanna survive longer or if u r fighting bearbows

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhEmmblxzgjDIEFogJIeYBOAHWUkDzAA-ToAg0CnIQShkDJDSSksIN+YWA

on battle of khylo i use fgs elite for the trebuchets

FGS also tears down walls in Legacy of the Foefire. Un-target everything, press 4, press 3, walk through the door.

Yea, having a glory-to-gold conversion was amazing. I just wish I could have traded in some of my glory boosters for something worth gold too, lol.

ITM is better if you’re going to write up a full guide for a build you’re sharing.

GW2Skills is better for everything else.

/my2copper

And yes…unfortunately, the ITM forum stuff is dead. =(

azizul.8469:

pic of my daughter doing her baby finisher !

*old pic

I’d buy that from the gem store. Cuter than a quaggan. =)

bhagwad.4281:

As I get better, I get matched against better opponents, but the rewards remain the same and I win 50% and lose 50%. Basically everyone gains rank points at pretty much the same rate regardless of skill which I think is completely ridiculous. The better you are, the more Rank Points you should get IMHO.

Anyhoo be that as it may I have a target of a certain number of rank points to reach and I want to reach it as fast as possible. For that, I need to drop down several tiers. Is there any way to do that efficiently and quickly?

1) If you want rewards, go PvE. Rewards in PvP are pretty weak.

2) What’s the point in PvP if you’re not going to be competitive? The best PvP games are where you fight challenging opponents, learn, and improve. If you just want to stomp people, run hot joins.

Eh, idk. I respect that some people like revealing armor like this, but I also respect that armor like this also can have a very negative cultural effect for women since it furthers the perspective of women as sex objects rather than people.

However, I’m at least happy that the male armor is really revealing as well and I like that there are options for female characters to have non-sexualized armor sets. In the end, there should be choices and I’m glad that GW2 makes those available. Still, it would be nice to see more non-sexualized options available.

Nick.6972:

Thank you Arena Net.
Now, how about adding a new armor set that is acquirable without gem store or long grind?

So…you’re asking for the devs to give you an exclusive new armor set, but with little to no effort or contribution to the game’s financial well-being?

=/

I’ve recently been part of starting a new guild from the ground up. We started with 3 members (one of which, I’m married to) and we now, about 2-3 months later, have close to 40. Here’s what’s worked for us:

- Your guild should stand out for a reason. For our guild, we built our guild on the foundation of having a safe space for people, regardless of identity, so that people who are LGBT, international, with disability, etc. can all be part of a community that doesn’t discriminate against them or make them the butt of a joke.

- Respond to people in the Looking for Guild forums like a real human being. Don’t just spam people with some copy-pasted response. Read the posts that people make and if you think they would be a good fit for their guild, tell them why you think this in your response. Tell them why your guild matches their specific goals.

There’s of course a lot more, but I believe those were the two biggest reasons for why our guild took off. Just be aware that you may fail abysmally starting off. It’s harder to get people when you don’t have people, so don’t get discouraged if everyone leaves your guild because it’s not ‘active’ enough. Keep at it.

Good luck!

Thief gameplay and mechanics are all-around more fun, particularly if you like high-movement classes.

However, thief performance in PvE dungeons is pretty underwhelming compared to a warrior since damage is on par at best, while surviving is much, much more difficult.

For this reason, many people prefer to take warriors in their groups since they are less likely to be a liability.

sPvP is a good place to learn small fights really well, but also consider dueling. It’s pretty common to find players dueling in Obsidian Sanctum in the large arena area.

The benefit of this is that you can get a good feel for your durability/damage potential since you’ll be playing in your WvW gear instead of sPvP gear.

Class icon is probably the easiest way to know for sure, but noticing specific boons or spell effects will also tell you what class they are.

Signets can also give you a quick identifier since they are generally colored specific to a class (grey for thief, blue for guard, red for war, etc.). To see a full list of signet icons, check out the wiki:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet

Thieves also have a unique blurred-animation when they dodge.

I would love to see something like this. While it’s great that we have the ability to watch PvP matches, it’s really a shame to see this feature squandered on hot join.

Putting in something like this so that we could watch high end PvP matches would really help get the community engaged in PvP.

Just google the word Seattle and you get the current time of the city on the left. I’m sure even international customers can pull that off. =P

http://tinyurl.com/apw5yp

Abyss is as good as it gets. Some materials, unfortunately, just look washed out no matter what dye you use.

Amstel Steel.2058:

Dahkeus.8243:

I don’t think anyone really expected to get a ton of glory from these things. Convert them into 25 glory each and I would be happy.

That is a fair point. I just don’t know how cost efficient it would be to code a one time thing like this and how it would effect their current timetable. If they were to invest resources into compensation it may take away or push back from what they had planned.

How much is player trust worth?

Pyriall.5027:

Wyrden.4713:

Pyriall.5027:

Wyrden.4713:

guard has it easiet w fgs to teleport to target

If you port with a target up it does not work.

fgs4, target enemy, pop teleport

target enemy w target button :p

did several times, pretty easy, in pvp at small points extremely awesome

Ports with targets didn’t work, though I didn’t test the guardian port. Will do it later, but as of last night all the ports from thief or targeted ports (with a target selected) just ported to the target with one hit. It did not hit 38 plus times that it would otherwise.

I believe he means that you target after the skill is cast. If you target first for port and hit 4 and port, then you won’t get the trail and it won’t work.

I don’t think anyone really expected to get a ton of glory from these things. Convert them into 25 glory each and I would be happy.

emikochan.8504:

Neotko.3492:

Allie Murdock.8152:

No, the glory boosters will not be replaced, but they will be removed. The new rewards system is going to be awesome, so it should balance out. I realize that’s less than ideal, but it had to be done.

Ok PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS!:

I have been PAYING CASH for gems ONCE a month (because I like to support the game)

This that PAYED CASH I bough keys for Black Lion Chests

That PAYED CASH USED on keys returned me arround 200+ Glory Boosters

NOW YOU TELL ME THAT THAT ‘PAYED CASH’ or that PAYED GEMS, or that PAYED GEMS TRANSFORMED IN KEYS USED IN CHESTS THAT RETURNED X ITEMS and some of that items are Glory Boosters that will just DISAPPEAR?

SO… My cash, that you got for my ‘support’ to the game, will be returned to me on LESS ITEMS ?

In what world is that even possible?

You got some consumables, maybe you should have.. you know.. consumed them?

Because maybe he either didn’t want to use them yet or hasn’t had the chance to use them yet?

There was no expiration date put on the boosters in the store.

Pyriall.5027:

Wyrden.4713:

guard has it easiet w fgs to teleport to target

If you port with a target up it does not work.

What about Merciful Intervention? It teleports to nearest ally…but I guess even if they are in melee, you could still miss. Never tested this though.

Allie Murdock.8152:

That is correct, Hellmasker.1649.

That sucks….

I love this game, but that’s a kick in the gut.

I really feel like I can’t trust any items in this game. It really feels like the stuff I have can just magically be taken away at any time.

…losing trust in this company… =/

Yea, they’ve been leaving us in the dark with patch stuff lately, but this one will almost certainly be totally PvE focused with the whole LA being destroyed stuff.

The spamming of the loot button doesn’t bother me…but dying with a loot bag/chest lying next to me and not being able to loot it suuuuuuuuucks!

The style of thief is a ton of fun, but the performance of thief in PvE is so lackluster that it really spoils the experience.

Warrior is a rather dull class, but it’s hard to argue what works…

Yea, I really wish I could have known a bit more ahead of time so that I could have adjusted my schedule a bit. =/

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Dahkeus.8243:

Arcane Brilliance is probably the only healing skill out of all the new healing skills released that I actually like.

(well, the mesmer one sounds solid too, but I don’t really play my mesmer anymore.)

Don’t get me wrong that its not a bad skill, it just seems rather unfair and silly that a Melee based heal is better on a ranged weapon. I think given that Staff has TWO skills that are both better than the Water Heal from Dagger/Dagger that the D/D heal should be improved, Give it a Water Field that grants 3seconds of Regen every 1 second. Would seem fair considering the heal alone is weaker and has a longer cool down than the Staff heals

Everything is melee in GW2. Even when you’re using a “ranged” weapon, you should really be melee anyways since:

- Boons are shared within a 600 radius.
– Talents like Stone Splinters encourage being close.
– In sPvP, everyone clumps up anyways since the only gametype available is conquest, which evolves around standing on nodes.

This is why no one wants a ranger using a longbow in their group, lol.

So…I don’t understand…do people really think that an ele should be able to run from a thief? Even if that somehow makes sense to you, wouldn’t you rather have the ability to make thieves run from you instead?

This thread really boggles my mind right now.

Arcane Brilliance is probably the only healing skill out of all the new healing skills released that I actually like.

(well, the mesmer one sounds solid too, but I don’t really play my mesmer anymore.)

Agreed with what is posted here. There are so many stale characters and people with disabilities are always overlooked when it comes to stories, so Taimi is definitely a breath of fresh air.

Bring us more interesting characters like this please!

I really hope they don’t increase the level cap.

There’s a lot of cool things that come with expansions in MMOs, but the increased level cap was never one of them.

Dahkeus.8243

I can’t help but roll my eyes every time someone uses “slap in the face” in a thread that complains about something…

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

The whole PvP is a slap in the face

I can’t help but roll my eyes every time someone uses “slap in the face” in a thread that complains about something…

…but I do agree with the basic premise of this post. That being said, even if ANet did want to do something about this, there really isn’t any fix that could really make things right at this point since so many PvP players have burnt through their glory in preparation for it going away already.

Wintel.4873:

Blink should’ve been an Elementalist ability….I miss it sooo much back from WoW!
20 yard teleport in whichever direction you’re facing, 15 second cooldown, breaks stuns/immob. Heavenly.

Anyway back on topic, all they need to do is give RTL the 20sec cooldown back, that will fix mobility concerns because D/D and S/D are really the only sets that NEED that mobility.
As for survivability, I believe ANet just need to give Ele’s 15k base health and call it a day. I mean why the hell do Mesmers get 15k health + incredible survivability via clones/stealt/invuln + better mobility? What the hell were ANet thinking?

Lightning Flash pretty much is blink, but with the ability to aim wherever you want. I do wish they would add back in the stunbreak though.

Mobility for eles seems decent, but survivability is in a really poor spot. Eles are the squishiest class, but they have far less tools than something like a thief.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Dahkeus.8243:

The commentary reminds me a lot of Yishis’ videos, which awesome for anyone playing thief or engi in WvW: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCspfGg3_fCOuVxIMvWWBEOw

I took a lot of my inspiration from his videos. I just wish there was some way for me to give his kind of dialogue without pausing the video. There’s just too many skill drops to convey the message cleanly and quickly.

Yea, Yishis is able to talk through a lot of stuff in a fight without slowing/pausing much, but there’s nothing wrong with doing that to show what’s going on.

Nevertras was someone else who was great at making videos that explained gameplay. He used to make videos for WoW, which were both instructional and entertaining. Here’s an example from one of his more popular videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yU9xWoajir0#t=325

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Dahkeus.8243:

Btw, this is semi-off topic, but I checked out the staff sPvP build guides on your channel and they’re pretty awesome. You did a really great job of not just explaining the build, but the logic behind decisions in gameplay, which I really appreciate.

Thanks Dahkeus. If anyone’s wondering the video (I think) he’s talking about is this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDX7lo1xtak

I really enjoyed making that video. I even came up with content for a third, but I thought I’d wait until after the upcoming patch. I’m glad you found it useful

Yup, that one and the part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roANj4g0Skc

The commentary reminds me a lot of Yishis’ videos, which awesome for anyone playing thief or engi in WvW: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCspfGg3_fCOuVxIMvWWBEOw

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Why should you?

Seems like a valid question and a clear reason why the profession is so broken.

cheers.

…aaaaaaaand your thread is debunked. Good day, sir:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/If-the-devs-don-t-play-spvp-why-should-we/first#post3639782

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/what-characters-the-developers-play/first#post3631260

Yea, I spent every ounce of glory I had on presents and converted it to gold…

…which was great since it turns out that there wasn’t another good glory-to-gold conversion available after that went away.

However, it just doesn’t make sense to me that they took that away without putting anything in its place.