Theif’s still awesome.
It sucks to lose when you gamble, but if you lost because you gambled, don’t blame the game.
/my 2 cents
Technically, yes…but I’m not really a fan of the way GW2 has done most of it’s steampunk stylization.
There’s lots of random placements of gears in spots that make no sense (ex: Heavy Aetherblade shoulders) and very little of the classy stylized look that tends to be more common in steampunk (i.e. no tophats).
Combine this with the drastically over-the-top weapon design and unfortunately, the result is very lackluster.
/my 2 cents
0/0/20/30/10 + 15% boon duration from runes (Water, Alturism, Monk)
Warhorn + guard.will grant 100% swiftness uptime
Or just Runes of the Centaur with warhorn. Either works.
Unless you’re running a pure condition trap build or a cleric’s build, centaur runes should work just fine.
It’s definitely a great thing to see rangers doing well in a CoF speed run, but as others have said, it’s not necessarily emblematic of how they perform elsewhere, especially when spirits often don’t hold up as well in a lot of other places like they do in CoF. High movement fights and high AoE fights can still take away a lot of the initial advantages of having a spirit around.
So, my first gut instinct after reading the patch notes was to see Remorseless as an easy choice for any serious Longbow build. However, while it’s a good trait, the cost of taking this trait is pretty high since there are so many other good traits in the Marks tree:
Grandmaster Choices
Signet of the Beastmaster – With the last buff to signets, this is a pretty awesome talent. This is clearly superior if you want more defensive options, but depending which signets you use, it also may potentially increase your dps more than Remorseless does, especially if you already have a very high crit percentage.
Master Choices
(Even though you can get these in your Master trait slot, they are good enough to consider picking up one for your Master slot and one for your Grandmaster slot)
Eagle Eye – Again, depending on what your crit percentage is, this could potentially deal more dps than Remorseless would, although you lose the group benefit of vuln.
Spotter – One of the few ways a ranger can bring strong, useful group utility
Piercing Arrows – Depending on the situation, this can be the biggest dps increases that you can gain from traits. If the new vulnerability from Rapid Fire applies to each target hit, then this talent is even better than before.
Personally, I love Skritt and would be all for it, but since Skritt are so reliant on being in large numbers to maintain high intelligence function, there would have to be a ton of Skritt that moved into LA (read more on Skritt lore at the wikipedia page if you’re not familiar with this).
This would be a plus for me, but others may not be so happy with it.
I haven’t bought the flute yet because of my bad experience with the Mariner’s Horn. On the horn, if you tap the same note twice, it doesn’t play the note twice in a row. Is this how the flute is working?
Well, there’s not a single item that appeals to me in the slightest. I’d be disappointed, but I’m actually pretty glad that I’m not tempted into buying RNG boxes from the gemstore.
I’m sure there are people who may like these skins, but here’s some constructive advice for ANet if they want me to spend more of my $ in the gem store:
– Make weapons less over the top. A classic looking rapier, as others mentioned here, appeals to me much more than this kind of stuff.
– Add more items like the Flute or add something that gives our characters the ability to perform a dance emote of another race.
– Bring player/guild housing in the mix. I’d throw cakitten you by the handfuls to deck out my own instanced house/guild house. This would also open up tons of potential items to sell, such as NPCs, decorative items, etc.
Here are some great ways to utilize the stealth:
Stealth → Stomp (as mentioned above)
Stealth → Start Barrage cast (mentioned by Jon Peters)
Stealth → Attack frequently when specced for Remorseless (as mentioned above)
Stealth → Rez ally
Stealth → Commune with place of power for skill point
Stealth → Drop aggro onto pet
Stealth → Kill time until you can rez pet while solo fighting tough mobs
Stealth → Stand around and heal from any regen ticks you have up
Stealth → Cast rez without worry of being interrupted
Stealth → Run away like Sir Robin
Stealth → Get in range to cast Entangle without interruption
I would love the axe mainhand to be a power-based weapon so that it could pair well with an axe offhand, but if they did that then there wouldn’t really be a really good mainhand option for a condition build.
This is one of the big reasons I switched to Thief as main. 1h sword on thief is much more fun to play than ranger 1h sword imo.
I have nothing against “high risk, high reward”, but the mechanics just feel clunky and unnaturally restrictive. Even if it is working as intended, it still feels like a bugged weapon.
As much as I love the idea of playing a 1h sword build on my ranger, the execution just feels wrong to me. =(
Here are the reasons, I believe stealth went on the longbow:
A ) The longbow needed some love much more than the short bow.
B ) Logistically, it makes sense that it would be easy to hide from your target when you’re far away from them.
C ) This serves as a fix to the Opening Strike mechanic by working in tandem with Remorseless.
I know remorseless was reported as very buggy before…it sounds like that still may be the case. That’s disappointing.
Hopefully we see a hotfix soon to address this.
Eh, at least your weak bleed won’t get in the way of the engineer/necro that is already bleed capping the target with a full condition damage spec/gearset anymore.
~snip~
Please also give rangers a utility stealth and sniper shot (shot from stealth)
Since remorseless was changed to reapply opening strike whenever a ranger stealths, any attack used during or after stealth is essentially the same as a stealth shot since they get a 100% crit plus application of vuln.
Hiya, Mhojo! Gaming couples are awesome — Dahkeus and I are a gaming couple, and it’s just a lot of fun to spend quality time together running a dungeon or popping into WvW, etc. =)
<3 <3 <3
Yup, if you burn all your ini and spend your time jumping back and forth through combo fields, you can stay stealthed a long time.
The stealth duration sounds OP in theory until you consider:
A) You have to continuously jump through blind fields, which prevents you from really chasing anyone.
B) You burn all your initiative to stay stealthed, leaving you with less combat options when you come out of stealth.
C) Using your heal to stay stealthed reduces your survival, particularly since Hide in Shadows has the longest cooldown of all our heals.
Sword-specific traits mean traits that are useless when you swap to your short bow.
Keep traits as they are. The weapon versatility is a benefit, not a drawback.
That’s my 2 cents at least. =P
(edited by Dahkeus.8243)
1) Shadowsteps and shadow returns works properly….does not clip against objects. Using infiltrator’s arrow works 100% of the time to get you places, ie can be used for jumping puzzles
2) put back the stunbreaker on shadow return and revert lotus poison nerf oh and put back cluster bomb to 1200 range.
Agreed with 1, but for 2, I’d probably have change Last Refuge changed so that it only blinds nearby enemies when hp reaches 25%, but doesn’t stealth you (so you don’t trigger revealed).
I think that would be fair.
Hey Goodman,
You should check out Remnants of Hope! We’re a PvX guild on Tarnished Coast that host events in all aspects of the game, including WvW and RP (both in game RP and forum RP). If you would like to learn more, check out our recruitment post (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/guilds/recruitment/TC-Remnants-of-Hope-PvX-WvW-RP-2/) or check out our website/forums (http://remnantsofhope.com/boards/). You can also PM me with any questions and I’d be happy to discuss anything you want to know about the guild!
Attachments:
Hey Hockeymom,
You may want to check out Remnants of Hope as we sound like a good fit for you. We have an event calendar with regularly scheduled events for all levels that are planned in EST.
We are also a PvX guild and join together in all aspects of the game from PvE dungeons, Living Story, Jumping Puzzles, WvW, sPvP/tPvP, and even RP! We are located on Tarnished Coast, so you will often find members who enjoy roleplay, but it is never required of any members.
You will also want to check us out for our awesome community. We are a cross-platform guild that has a SWTOR side and a GW2 side. This gives us a very active community, particularly on our forums. In addition to this, we also have cross-platform events where we get a chance to socialize together with events like Pictionary night, karaoke, League of Legends, and other random events such as a Poker night we have coming up.
Check out our website at http://remnantsofhope.com/boards/ and if you have any questions, let me know. =)
I love 10/30/0/0/30 for WvW…but I’ve been running it with the S/P direct damage build that Tessa Avery posted in the GuildWars2Guru.com forums. So far, I’ve really liked it:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83957-tessa-averys-swordpistol-shortbow-daze-burst-build/
My wife and I are experiencing a bug where we can’t whisper anyone (including eachother). After a while, someone was able to whisper hir, then could whisper back to them but I still can’t be whispered, nor can I whisper hir.
edit
Randomly, it’s working again…strange
(edited by Dahkeus.8243)
Increase projectile speed and it’s good. As it stands, it’s not the worst utility we have, but it’s really situational (i.e. Skyhammer, jumping puzzles, and a few rare PvE fights).
I’d go d/p and not use s/d. It got nerfed too hard.
There was a 1 ini increase to a skill that costs 1 ini and while the shadow return doesn’t break stun anylonger, it still ports you back. As long as you’re smart with where you cast IS from, there’s really not much of a difference.
Yea, I ran into a thief once that started throwing bears at me. It wouldn’t have been so bad except for the lazerbeam eyes.
I think he was hacking.
Then no one would use anything other than pistols in PvE.
Until ANet changes its stance on dps of ranged weapons compared to melee, don’t expect to ever see a ranged weapon be on par or ahead of a melee weapon (well, outside of engineer grenades).
In PvP, this wouldn’t matter much since the problems with P/P aren’t really related to damage.
Devon is right on the money with this one.
Part of PvP is organizing a group large enough to take on your enemy. If you’re outnumbered at your spawn point, get some friends.
The skill involved to be successful at PvP is often mistaken as being restricted to how well you can manipulate your character to kill another player. However, people that can rally a group, attract talented players, and find the right players can often dominate without having to know the first thing about landing an attack.
And a tip for anyone that feels outnumbered at the spawn point: Get a thief friend to stealth you with Shadow’s Refuge and/or blast finishers in a blinding powder combo field. After that, run directly to the stealth buff in the JP. If you don’t know where the stealth buffs in WvW are, do some google research.
It depends on what you go against. If you’re talking about leveling, then S/P is a solid choice since you can drop the blind field from skill #5 on an enemy, then just auto-attack and kill them.
Leveling in general can be a bit rough on survival since thieves are super-squishy below level 80 (still squishy after that, but not as much). Here’s a quick breakdown of the weapons that may help you choose what to go with though:
S/D – Sword is a great weapon in general for anywhere that you suffer conditions. The S/D combo is also great for boon stealing or for just giving you another evade. Cloak and Dagger can allow you to easily get stealthed, but this isn’t always a big deal for sword mainhand as the stealthed ability is a great cc, but low in damage.
S/P – As mentioned, the blind field makes it great for blind tanking enemies, as long as they aren’t a boss (since blind is weak against them). Pistol whip is also a solid dps ability with a stun that helps to cc.
D/D – This is the go-to weapon set for maximum single target dps in dungeons, but you’re very squishy while using this. I would advise against this while leveling since the damage doesn’t become great until you hit 80 and it relies heavily on being behind your target. Also, this is a great weaponset for PvP, although many consider D/P to be stronger.
D/P – This suffers from the same weaknesses as D/D in leveling for the most part, but the blind field does help a bit. For dungeons, D/D is an all around better choice, but many argue this to be one of the best PvP weaponsets.
P/P – While this isn’t great for solo play, it’s probably what I would recommend for doing dungeons at low level, especially if you’re new to the game. Learning fights is huge to surviving as melee in dungeons and playing as ranged early on allows you to watch a fight without spending the whole time on your back. Pistols also do decent damage with the right build, particularly if you pick up the Ricochet talent in Trickery.
P/D – This is a very unpopular weapon combo, but I found that it’s actually not bad for soloing difficult content since you can stealth with cloak and dagger, then unleash the stealth attack from the pistol without having to be behind or close to your enemy.
Shortbow – This is the secondary weapon to almost every build and one of the biggest mistakes most thieves make is not utilizing it enough. The damage is great and throwing cluster bombs into combo fields is a great way to help out allies.
Hope that helps! Welcome to the thief class. =)
P.s. A word of advice: if you want really helpful info from a thief forum, check out GuildWars2Guru.com. There are some really cool people with lots of productive discussions, at least in thief sections.
If I was a designer, I’d set up a pop-up box to show for all members after a leader leaves that requests the remaining players to volunteer as leader. First person to accept is made leader. If no one accepts before the timer runs out (30-60 seconds maybe?), then the group is disbanded.
I dont pvp tho i may well do, so I’ve not heard of the PvP locker, would that enable say my mesmer to use the items even tho bound to my ranger?
And thanks faceless I had’nt thought of the forge, still disapointed with the lack of thought gone into the chests tho.
Yes, anything that can be placed in your PvP locker can be used by any character on your account (assuming it’s the right armor/weapon type). That being said, if you want your mesmer to use it, they’ll only be able to use it in sPvP since PvP items that go in the PvP locker are for PvP only.
You’re missing some things:
- Mob blinding: Dropping blind fields on mobs makes a lot of areas a lot easier to get through, especially since you can just group up a bunch of enemies and blind-tank them.
– Stunning/dazing: S/D and S/P thieves are great at stunlocking enemies to control and prevent damage.
– Projectile blocking/reflecting: Sure, we’re not as strong as mesmers on this, but we’re not far off. Smoke screen protects your allies from projectiles while blinding melee enemies. Dagger storm is also a great reflect. It has a long cooldown, but it also has a long duration (longer than Feedback).
– Boon stripping: S/D does this without talents, but any deep trickery build can easily pull this off with Bountiful Theft
If you need a good build that provides this type of utility, consider one of the following:
S/D and/or S/P
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAcFmI2esTdyTfGkds9HuKA
or
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAcFmI2esTdyTvHkdsmVrANB
The advantage of these builds is also that you can swap III and X in CS for V and IX, then swap IV for X in Trickery mid-dungeon, then equip P/P to have a great ranged build for fights that aren’t melee friendly.
Lead Attacks is what allows these builds to do strong competitive dps while getting you the utility from the Trickery tree. The sword gets its dps from the auto-attack, so you can keep full ini and when using P/P, just wait for ini to regen between Unload casts to maximize dps.
You may want to consider S/P. Tessa Avery has a really good writeup for a solid build on the GuildWars2Guru forums:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83957-tessa-averys-swordpistol-shortbow-daze-burst-build/
Keep telling yourself that, wimps. If you run, you are useless and might as well be doing PvE, at least then you don’t take up a spot from someone that will actually be useful on your team. If you are dedicating too many utilities/traits/weaponsets for fleeing, you are not dedicating those utilities/traits/weaponsets for being useful.
Of course it is different if you have alternate objectives in mind. Perhaps you know you cannot defeat this one particular guy (of group), but you report in /team their position and intention of taking the camp they were headed towards… then you play bait and simply distract them while reinforcements, or the next point tally approaches. That is one case where running away while not taking objectives is actually a win for you, otherwise you are being utterly useless and are a burden to your team.
Sure in your personal justification you might be telling yourself that you didn’t get defeated, but when you are the guy that no one wants on their team, that is the worst defeat of all.
lol, internet tough guys. Go roll a warrior.
The overwhelming majority of players choose to do WvW and not sPvP.
Don’t take this the wrong way, but honestly that sounds like more reason for sPvP to get some love so that it stays active and alive. WvW seems to be doing just fine relatively.
Black Lion Chests now have a rare chance to drop a Tome of Knowledge, a one-use item that will grant your character a level! Black Lion Chests drop from monsters all over Tyria, and you can find the keys to unlock them in the Gem Store.
Is this a pay to win item for rich people?
No. Go trade in-game gold for gems and get the same thing without ever spending a penny.
But considering how easy it is to zoom through leveling with crafting, I don’t think it matters much.
P/P is great for dungeons, particularly if you’re learning a new dungeon or if you’re anywhere that a pure dps race doesn’t make or break success, especially since they’ve buffed ricochet.
Personally, I often run 0/30/0/15/25 in dungeons since it works both for a pistol build or a sword build if you swap a few traits around. If I run pistols, this is what it looks like:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqaVlcmSO3ey4E+5Ex2DgmTe6zgsit/wVB
If I want to switch to using a sword for higher dps or to bring different utility (stuns, boon strip, etc.), then I use this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYmSO3ey4E+5Ex2jdqTe6zgsgt/wVB
Since so much of the damage comes from 25 in Trickery, you want to pace your unloads so that you don’t recast until your ini just ticks back to full or is 1 short of that unless you’re just spamming unload to heal from Signet of Malice.
Well, if I don’t get a kill and my objective was to get a kill, then I see the situations as a learning experience where I didn’t meet my expectations. If I just wanted to distract someone or get a dolyak gank off without getting killed, then mission accomplished.
It was too glitchy before because of terrain issues and still is. This makes no change for me. =/
the community. Seriously.
The design of this puzzle, particularly with the inclusion of the goggle dive left a lot of people actually attempting the puzzle rather than just getting ported from the start. It also left a lot of people dead, whether it was from missing a jump or hitting a pipe when attempting the dive. However, there were tons of friendly people who were constantly rezzing the fallen and giving portals to get people back to where they were on the puzzle.
Now, I play on Tarnished Coast, which I know is pretty well known for having a particularly friendly and mature playerbase, so I don’t know if this was the experience for everyone else, but the community, particularly during busy times/days was awesome. There was almost always a mesmer giving portals from the top of the blimp to the goggles for persistant players who were trying to get the dive just right and even when I died in the most akward spot, I never had to release to a waypoint.
I know there were some complaints as to whether the jumping puzzle was too hard or too easy, but one thing that ANet certainly got right with this puzzle was the dynamic that really got everyone involved with eachother:
– Players that fell to their deaths almost always fell next to other players who were lower on the puzzle which encouraged rezzing.
– Mesmers couldn’t just port straight to the end, so ports were often given to freshly rezzed players or to just help players who were re-attempting the dive so that they didn’t have to constantly get back to the top of a puzzle they had already completed.
It’s amazing how little most people know about thieves. Please people, roll a thief and learn their mechanics if you can’t fight against one. Putting up threads about how OP another class seems when you don’t understand how they work does nothing productive outside of showing your ignorance and poor attitude.
Honestly, I think haven’t seen a single skin I like. The only one that looks half-decent to me is the staff, but that’s not any help to a thief, lol.
Am I losing it, or is Mai now charging people, even when they are super close?
Biggest mistake most thiefs make is thinking that you should always play berserk D/D. There’s a time and a place for each weaponset, but don’t underestimate dual pistols:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqaVlUmSO3eS+E/5Ex2DgmTe6zgsit/wVB-jAyAYLioRySEpCCZJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVbvLiWtMAVLA-e
Yea, that’s a solid build. Personally, I like having 15 in acro for the might on dodge and extra dodges. Here’s what I run:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqaVlUmSO3eS+E/5Ex2DgmTe6zgsit/wVB-jAyAYLioRySEpCCZJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVbvLiWtMAVLA-e
The Ricochet buff has definitely made Trickery pistol builds really strong in PvE.
Make it move you through terrain like mesmer portal and then put a timer on duration and limit on distance (same distance as mesmer portal imo). Hell, take off the stun break if you want, just let me use it to get up terrain like a mesmer portal can.
Considering that splitblade does bit condition damage at point blank, the pull from axe offhand is actually an improvement.
That said, axe/axe has always been a rather poor weapon combo for rangers in PvE, PvP, and WvW. At least now sword/axe is in good shape.
Jumper, this was an awesome video with great commentary to explain the situation and your decisions.
Also, it’s sad that people have to come here and make desperate attempts to talk down on the video when it’s stuff like this that makes the PvP community better.