Guild Wars 2

I main Thief and started playing around in PvP with Daredevil yesterday, I think with Chronomancer and all the new elites its just a matter of getting used to play against them, yesterday one stunned me and killed me in like 2s and I was like WTF,
next time I just broke stun and I was fine.
The fact that someone can kill you fast doesn’t mean (necessarily) that his class is overpowered, if someone can kill you fast AND without any counters, then its OP.

I love how ANet claims that their Community is the friendliest and every time Thieves ask for some kind of buff (for years now) a lot of people start trolling around asking for the exact opposite. :P

So, if a Mission says “The Guild already received rewards from this mission” but I can start the mission again does that mean when completed (for the 2nd time) the Guild won’t receive Favor?

Shadowstep.6049:

Well i main thief, so short answer: no. Anet literary deleted this class from pvp.

Tried revenant, too faceroll.

Do not enjoy skyhammer and co. WTB ranked back.

I main thief as well and got the same feeling, thieves are gone.
So obviously I’m not having fun, I’ll have to reroll even tho I like the Thief.

Is there a way to set a different finisher other than the Basic one to display when using Finishing Blow?

This happened to me once in like 20-25 plays,
instead of being properly teleported to the beggining of the puzzle I appeared on water (?) (I was swimming..) and could see the Clocktower far at the distance.
Also I was spinning like the Tower does, no idea why this happened.

There is absolutely no way for a f2p player to send gold to another player?
I’m on a small guild with mostly f2p players and we want to know if there is a way for them to send gold to the leader to help pay the Guild Hall.

Its been the same for me this past 2 days, 10 matches lost in a row.

I’m not high rank (Rank 38) but I would expect at least to see players that know the basics of the game by this point, seeing people just fighting in the middle of nowhere for the entire match makes me so mad..
I main Thief and when I try to help on the group fights (3v3 or 4v4) I’m always the last one to die, I just can’t understand how people on my Team dies that easy.. well I kinda do, they stand in the middle of the AoEs and don’t even move when they fight.. but yeah.. I can’t even try to decap, because most of the time at least 2 of the people on my Team are dead, and the other Team can easily afford sending someone to a contested cap and kill me.

That and the fact that 4 of the 5 people on the other Teams has Dragon Finishers implying they have way more experience that the people on our Team (at least me, and the ones that don’t even know how to play).

I’m going crazy right now with the current state of MMR, I’m hoping this will be addressed soon as I don’t even want to play PvP anymore (it’s no fun if you know you’ll loose almost every match), at least we are getting HoT now so I’ll have something to do.

I really really want to play SAB again u.u

In the current state of the class, it is definitely not a good or easy to pick class.
But, it is not as bad as everyone says, the problem is the vast majority of thieves suck, but you can win fights, survive more than 2 seconds and be useful to your team with some practice, just try harder.
You’ll be much more useful on a pre-made team with strategy tho,
playing with random players can be a pain when you are a Thief.

I main Thief and play Elementalist when there’s another Thief on the Team or when needed.

Any way, limiting just Thieves sounds ridiculous to me, maybe they should limit all classes to allow only 2 of the same class on a Team (that would make more sense to me, instead of limit just one class to a limit of 1), if the problem here is that Thieves are not good enough on PvP then ANet should work on making Thief a more viable class instead of adding limitations to the class.

Any way, copies are not a common thing, I’ve played against a Team of 5 Guardians (they lost), that was way more ridiculous than a Team with 2 thieves. That was the strangest Team I’ve faced in the past 200 matches.

Hey all,
I’m trying to make a decent build for my new ele and I thought you could help me out a lot, so here it goes..

I’m mostly interested in being some kind of supporter (?) like for dungeons and stuff.
Grant healing and buffs to my party sounds fun.
I was inclined for Staff since I like all the AoE options, water has a lot of healing stuff, air has stuns, fire some dps AoE, I kinda like that style.

So what should I get for a good Staff Supporter for PvE content like Dungeons?
I mean stuff like what armor/trinkets/weapons stats, which traitlines, runes, sigils, etc.

Use valkyrie if you don’t want to die on one hit.

Serind.4390:

Hey! I don’t want to create a new threat so i will write down here. I’ve played thief for around 150 hours or so fully pve. Some time ago i decided to try out this gw2 (preiously g1 pvp and wow) but before I wanted to figure out how the game works. Thief class of course fits me very good and after playing 10 matches of conquest pvp (S/D build) i really liked training this class. Here is my question what build would you recommend for me D/P + shortbow (DA, Trick and SA) or S/D + shortbow(DA, Trick and acro) What should I focus first? I found these build in metabattle. Im too new in gw2 to try pvp for myself and i didn’t want to ruin matches for others by my uselessness… that much.

Both builds are very good, and if you practice enough with them you won’t be useless.
Also you should adapt your build to your own playstyle, I think this will give you the most of the class. Some very good thieves swap acro for critical strikes on S/D just because they feel all the evades + utilities give you more then enough survivability, thats not a suggestion for you but a way to say that if you feel you can play better on a different way then by all means do it.

Some thieves like to play a bursty p/p too, for me its not as good as d/p or s/d as of now but it is a fun build and you can try it as well, with upcoming daredevil traitline p/p could be better and even a good competitive alternative.

To your original question, If you are only interested in those specific builds,
I would say go with d/p first as I feel it’s an easier to learn build.

thegreatbronk.6890:

Coronit.9432:

To your build:
Why sigil of force? If I´m right it does less damage overall than air/blood and most damage comes from the “burst” in connection to hard hitting attacks and sigil-procs.
I think there was someone doing the math for it.
I could be wrong though.
Same problems with sb. I just can´t get off from air/fire. Adds some burst to shortbow. I don´t think that force is usefull on shortbow. A lot of low hitting attacks (when you detonate the clusters) so proc-sigils are more useful imo.
Bloodlust is just…I don´t know…after some time you have the advantage of being fullstacked with guard-stacks and bloodlust and meet players without them. I can´t enjoy these fights then.
HiS? I´m not really a fan of it. While it provides stealth ad condiremove the cast time is terrible against good players. Together with the long cd and using vigorous recovery I would definitly stay with withdraw.
Sigil of infiltrator or agility is about what someone prefers. But I prefer last one atm. You have another stunbreak on 30sec cd through hard to catch and enough shadowsteap with S/D and sb.
Adding more valkyrie to the armor is a good move if you need or just want it. Was thinking about that myself, because my goal were always 50% and I´m far over it. Still sticking with full zerker though. To lazy to craft new things and it still works in WvW. ^^
I think I agree to the remaining.

I just want to say that sigils and utilities are pure preference and everyone has their own tastes and likes as well as preferences that they like in particular to a sigil or utility. My sigils/utility’s I like to use because they make up for what I lack in traits imo.

Why Sigil of Force?
Call me old fashioned but I’ve always loved the force/fire combo. I’ve tried Air/Fire in the past but I don’t see much of a damage increase. I don’t really like relying on sigil procs, I prefer the consistent damage bonus force offers fulltime. Especially since my build is focused on damage over time with sustain and not full burst 1 shot drop and get out because I’ll die if I don’t. It’s more balanced to drop people if they’re glass enough, and wear people down If they’re tanky. I’ve also never really liked Air. It may be slightly better than Fire, but I like seeing the Fire aoe flame blast when fighting people, especially on stealth enemies when they’re down and hiding. It’s a nice indicator to see if I happened to hit them when I can’t see them.

Why Bloodlust?
My build is not as bursty as other builds. It’s mainly built around perma Fury, Might and Swiftness. The consistent fury makes up for the lack in crit-chance that I lost when switching from full zerk to a bit of valk. The perma swiftness makes me very mobile and I can outrun most people when I need too. Bloodlust has always just been a given for me. I like the extra damage. I’m not one to run around looking for the full 25x before I fight, but I like the additional damage when I need it. I’ve beaten people when they had full stacks and I had none, it’s a disadvantage but it’s not impossible as people do it all the time. So if I have them I have them, if not I do without and just roll with guard stacks.

Shortbow
Shortbow is mainly for transportation, and kiting. It’s not a main source of damage for me. It stacks bloodlust and it allows me to kite until my steal is off cooldown and I can swap to S/D again and re-engage.

HiS
A lot of people don’t like HiS, but I couldn’t imagine not using it. I don’t like withdraw that much. I don’t like the movement of it, and it’s a small heal even though its cd is only 15 sec. Withdraw doesn’t cure conditions, it’s just an evade with a short cd. One would argue the removal of immob it offers is a bonus, but with Don’t Stop I don’t need that as I am pretty much immune to immob already. HiS has a longer cooldown and a long cast time, but it’s a free stealth, regen, condi clear (a big reason) and I can use it while in SR or wherever without rolling into a situation I did not want too (literally lol). I like utilities that serve multiple purposes and can be used for different things.

Infiltrator’s Signet
I used to use Signet of Agility a lot, but I find Infiltrator’s Signet to be WAY more useful offensively and defensively. Agility offers more dodges, but I have plenty of them. I’m all about making up for what my build lacks in traits with utilities and since I have more than enough dodges, SoA feels like a wasted slot to me. The stunbreak Infiltrator’s signet offers is definitely more valuable than 2 extra dodges. But it’s more than that, it serves multiple functions too. It can be a stunbreak as already known, but it can also be used as a gap closer to engage. You can travel so far when using SS > Infil Sig > Sword 2 > Steal! It can also be used as a gap creator to escape by targeting something and porting to it just for a bit of distance in those omg gtfo situations when you have nothing left to get away. Lastly, it grants another way to stomp enemies. If I’m stomping and an ele mistforms I can use SS, Steal or Infil Sig to spike him. Same for thief or Mesmer as well. You can even do combo’s too. If I SS away to stomp a thief and port back to finish it, but the thief moved, I can quickly press infil sig and port again to him to still land that much needed stomp in 1vX situations or group fights. It also is nicer to just use Infil Sig as a port stomp instead of wasting steal/SS for it as I value those things more for other uses. Also the extra initiative it grants is minor, but a nice touch. This signet is just too versatile for me to give up for 2 dodges with SoA.

Anyway, it’s all preference. Since you main D/P, I can see why SoA may be an appeal to you because of D/P’s lack of dodges and overall mobility. But with S/D SoA is not necessary imo. D/P is such a different play style than S/D.

I recently swapped Shortbow out for D/P to have a S/D + D/P combo and I really like the extra utility D/P gives me when I need it. Especially against D/P SA thieves that could always out stealth me in fights when I just had S/D. Shortbow is useless in stealth fights in most situations so the D/P was a nice touch. If I’m using S/D and I don’t manage to interrupt the thief’s D/P BP+HS combo to kill him, I’ll just swap to D/P to stealth out like he does, wait for the backstab and then swap back to S/D and continue doing what I do haha. D/P is a nice addition in gap closers too. Idk how many times I’m chasing people and I have nothing to get close to them. It’s kinda nice to swap to D/P and use that Shadow Shot for an additional gap closer when my Infil strike on Sword is on cd with Infil return. I mean, my build is a S/D build so I don’t focus on backstabs too much with D/P in hand because it’s mainly for stealth/gap closer/blinds and stuff, but I’m finding it to be more versatile than Shortbow ever was in a offense/defense way. Plus not many expect a S/D thief to swap to a D/P secondary set instead of Shortbow. I like doing things that other’s aren’t. Predictability is not good. It’s all preference though so whatever people like best is good for them in the end

Thanks for all the details, I’ll take your build as base for mine,
I’m already running valk armor with zerk trinkets,
I’ll test and adapt to my playstyle.

Let’s see how it does

I’m interested in making a build for solo roaming or two-man roaming,
I like S/D with Acrobatics traitline so I would like to build something around that.
What would you recommend in terms of stats, runes, sigils, etc?

Also I mostly play PvP so I’m not familiarized with foods for WvW,
can you guys recommend me some good foods to use as well?

RobotiClaw.7534:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ELKKJ5PjQA

So watch the vid, every time i lay a trap down and or caltrops, since i am invisible the guardian would only see the ticks, it will not show – Bronze legend did blah blah blah- that’s how it works. If anything the combat log is what is broken.

Could you share that build?

I’ve been searching for a good quality big size image of the Commander Tag,
I want to make some shirts with the Tag for me and my Friends but the Biggest Image I’ve found was 120×120px which is just too small.
Any idea where can I find a bigger one?

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Utility
Pick Scorpion Wire – Condition removal, interrupt
Pick Roll for Initiave – Condition removal, stun break
Blinding Powder is good – stay

Traits
Pick Practice Tolerance – Ankle Shot is crap.
Pick Thrill of a Crime – Flanking Strikes is crap.
Pick Trickster – Bountiful Theft is good, but it’s not a condition removal.

I would go Deadly Arts instead of Shadow Arts only because Improvisation is a must for P/P in my opinion — and against a Guardian, 2x mace head crack is priceless.

Agree on Ankle Shot, Pick Practice Tolerance.

I don’t agree on Thrill of a Crime over Flanking Strikes on p/p tho,
using Basilisk Venom → Unload → Steal → Unload you can Kill your foe before they can move because of Haste and Stun.
If build intended for long fights or more than 1v1 then yeah, pick Thrill of a Crime.

Also Trickster is a must if using Flanking Strikes as Haste is a Trick, meaning it will have lower cooldown + condition removal.

You’ve got a lot of achievements to get,
if you are interested in PvP then you got 80 more ranks to “level up”.
Also if you decide to craft ascended gear or even Legendary weapon,
that will take a lot of time.

You can craft a quiver in the Mystic Forge.

Serious Thought.5394:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAqYVnMJClOhFNBONB8PhDYiyHGxxIy7hYYH0JQAUAA-TJxCABAcKAwb/hjfCAaVGAA

I’ve been killing Mesmers, Engis, Warriors, Fellow thieves, some weird Eles, and burn guards. Can’t touch Necros or Rangers because “oh my skillful, automatic, zero active play condi clear” (for rangers) and because necros are just condi gods.

Just one question, why Trickster?
I don’t see any Tricks on you Utilities, is there any other reason to use it?

I tried switching between Practiced Tolerance and Ankle Shot and just spam Skill 1 to Medium Golems on PvP Lobby, and I tend to do more damage (up to 1600) with Practiced Tolerance on Criticals (while around 1200 with Ankle Shot), funny thing is I tend to do more damage as well on non-critical hits, around 550 with Ankle Shot and 600 with Practiced Tolerance, which shouldn’t be the case as Practiced Tolerance just gives Ferocity right? And ferocity only affects Critical Hits, while Ankle Shot should affect Basic Hits as well.

So I believe there’s something wrong with Ankle Shot.
Now of course I only tested this with around 15-20 Medium Target Golems.

Is Ankle Shot working as intended?
I don’t really notice any more damage output using this trait.
(I know it only works when foe is crippled)

Should I just trust that I am indeed making more damage?

This is actually a good idea.

Runiir.6425:

From my understanding, only those with HoT can unlock it… or you can get help from non-guild to help unlock yours. Once unlocked, the freebies will be able to go there, but a lot of it they will not have direct access to/interact with. I do not know the specific limitations though.

This is what I was expecting,
there’s no specific information on this released yet?

Mega Skeleton.8259:

From what I understand. Free players will be required to buy HOT to continue playing once it is released.

No, free players will be able to continue playing the core game.

Will free players have restrictions regarding Guild Halls?
I’ve got a small Guild with mostly players with free accounts,
will they be able to access and help get the Guild Hall on HoT?

I agree with the OP, I understand there are high damage builds and tanky builds, but having both is plain unfair. “Balance” right now is kinda in-existent, there could be at least a cap of 2 of the same prof. per team or something, playing against 3 necros/reapers is just stupid.

RedSpectrum.1975:

I just am not a fan of how stiff the animation looks, but that’s not a major concern

Animations are not final, just placeholders for the real ones.
As Karl said.

Currently this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAqaVn8lClOhdPB+OBkmiFYCb7C8BGUzdwSYLULBEAyAA-TpBFABC8AAEvMAN7PQwRAotDBAAnAAA

Overall feels a lot better than the last beta,
so for that I want to thank you Mr. McLain,
now just some polish (animations, some range adjusts on skills that are not working as intended and what was promised before like the 10% on Withdraw) and I’ll be happy to play HoT.
Not saying Thieves will be the best prof. but at least It feels fun enough to keep using it.
So, good job

Staff still feels a little clunky but using p/p with daredevil/critical strike/deadly arts is actually very good on PvP, Dash is a great way to disengage a bit when necessary and the now buffed pistols have great dps.

As said before, Staff Vault range is not working correctly.

Also Finishing Blow would be cool with the actual finisher the player has selected.

I’m using something very similar, just sigil of fire instead of the 5% dmg,
is that better than fire+air in this case?

Wait.. witch hat is available again?

Alright, thanks.

Just a simple question,
does Pistol Whip count as a Pistol Skill? (Was it buffed on the patch?)

WOW this is seriously not cool Anet..
I too bought some finishers because they were supposed to be unavailable after,
now they cost 25g on TP?
Like, come on..

Driften.8716:

Karl McLain.5604:

Animation update: All dodge animations are in the process of being iterated on. With that being said, in the next Beta weekend each custom dodge ability has had its animation replaced with what is called a ‘stub’, or a placeholder.
These stubs aren’t necessarily what the final animation will look like and may not even resemble the final product remotely (Huge disclaimer: Everything’s subject to change). However, we needed to replace the previously existing animations due to issues that couldn’t be resolved otherwise (i.e. Lag).

We are looking forward to the new functionality, but there’s a few pains that we’re getting through. During the next beta weekend, you’ll find that the Leap combo finisher for Bounding Dodger only works if you land inside a field. This is not intended and we’re already working on the fix for it (it’s in testing now). For now, it’s going to be trickier to get your leap finisher from Black Powder. There’s also a bug in the skill facts that indicate that it delivers a blast finisher, but it in fact a leap and will remain as such.

Other stuff:
As I talked about last update, Channeled Vigor’s now being tested as a 0.75 second cast (down from 2.25 seconds). We’re also toying with the endurance/healing values. The role of this heal is shaping more toward being high spike healing for the thief.

-Karl

Thanks for the update. It is good to at least know these “stubs” will not be the final product and the animations are still going further development.

Channeled Vigor, I think it is heading in the right direction with the lower cast time. Upping the heal spike I think it would add more for survivability which is something we have been asking for. Like everything else with thief I believe this will fit the roll with proper timing/high risk. Just making the payoff worth it is the trick.

Since we will not getting to see the actual dodge animations till HoT release, could we at least get a video preview through youtube or something? We could at least provide some feedback and know what they are before launch.

I like the idea of having a preview on some sort of media like youtube,
we could at least have an idea of how it will look, knowing of course that it is a work in progress.

I really like how people that clearly have never (or at least not in the past 2 years) played a Thief talk about it like they actually know what they are talking about.
Buff on pistol damage means nothing as pistol skills are horrible. Thieves don’t need more damage, they need everything else.

“Summon Creature”? o:

Well here is the meta: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_Dagger/Pistol

I personally like to use Critical Strike instead of Shadow Arts and I use Flanking Strike instead of Thrill of the Crime, Trickster instead of Bountiful Theft. For Sigils I use Generosity over Air on SB.

I mostly target low health enemies on situations like 2v2 or 1v1 they’ll go down very fast if they are not bunkers, use Pistol 5 and finish them (you’ll finish faster due to haste, and won’t take damage due to blind by Pistol 5, you’ll still take condition damage tho).
That and rapidly decap far when possible (SB 5 and Shadowstep to move fast), just don’t do this if your teammates will loose a battle because you left.

Also try to res your teammates when possible, shadow refuge is very good for this.
And when you are on team fights use SB 4 on down people, poison will make them revive 33% slower.

Edit: This is for sPvP Roamer

Christonya.3856:

“Some times weeks before it’s suppose to be done, you might realize this thing isn’t working we need to throw it out and do it all over again.”

Hope this is the case for DD.

I feel bad for any new Thief player period. :/

Doggie.3184:

Cynz.9437:

nah they will just report you for trolling/botting because you didn’t switch prof

Then Anet gets swarmed with silly reports they can’t take action on.
They’d be forced to fix the class to stop the negative mentality or continue looking at and ignoring the reports.

Wait a second, so.. its illegal to play thief on PvP?
Wut? I don’t play any other prof. so I can’t play ranked?
Wtf is happening to this game..

That’s it for thief?
Come on..

Christonya.3856:

But.. I miraculously become a druid moments ago. Why mourn the teef?

But seriously, reroll reaper / druid. Much better classes.

The thing is there’s people that actually like thieves and want to keep playing them (like me).

Highlie.7641:

Dare Devil + Trickery. Dual Roll’s, S/d./Staff

Withdraw: 2 conditions cleared, chill,immobilize,cripple.
RfI: 2 conditions cleared + chill,immobilize,cripple.
Evades: 1 con cleared.
Inf S Return: 1 cleared.
Staff 3: Cripple, chill, immobilize.
The other way’s i’m to lazy to write:

That is more then enough condition clear. Anything more and it will be to easy, anything less would become troublesome. Do you guy’s really want thing’s simplified to a point where we are like every other class? It’s been done to much already if you ask me..

I want a cool elite specialization, that’s all,
recycled slow and boring animations with boring and broken mechanics are not fun or cool at all.

Kageseigi.2150:

El Psy Congroo.7965:

Maybe that’s what they wanted our elite to be: “that poor disabled guy”.

Apologies to the person who already posted this here, but it’s worth posting again!

The Adventures of the Thief!

Well thats obviously what devs took as reference to make the dd,
mystery solved

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Kocoff.7582:

Vincent, Irenio either really hates thieves, or he is a really good character designer. Actually it’s both.

Needless to say, he is the one who designed the Scrapper.

But the extra dodge means extra condition removal on evade…it’s a godlike elite skill…too powerful according to Karl.

Besides, DD don’t need stealth, Scapper can give it to them and DD don’t need condition removal, Druid can give to them. We’re like a disabled person depending on other people to provide us care.

Maybe that’s what they wanted our elite to be: “that poor disabled guy”.