Guild Wars 2

The bad Mac client are the number 1 reason why I am not playing this game actively. I love this game and played it exclusively for over two years, but then I got bored of restarting my computer to Windows every time I wanted to play it… I now play WoW instead, because they actually took their time to make a proper OS X client.

There are times (as a thief main) that I almost feel sorry for the enemy team that has a player with a skill that can reveal people, because they don’t use it right.

Therefore I wanted to do this thread so that we could share our favorite ways to apply “Revealed” to someone.

My favorite:

Someone gets downed and a thief is about to enter and (probably) drop a shadow refuge. Apply revealed to the downed target to deny the stealth and finish him.

I just can’t get myself to read all these long posts, so I’ll just add my opinion to this discussion:

Thief are the only profession that can get an entire trait line, a heal, two utility skills and one weapon skill for every weapon set shut down.

And to all that say that thief isn’t the only profession with stealth: do you really think they created these skills to deny ranger and engineer stealth? Crying for thief nerfs was the number one reason they introduced it, and it somewhat hit PU mesmers too. But don’t tell me that “other professions have stealth, so it doesn’t only affect thief”. Well, you’re right, but the other professions don’t get utility skills, a heal, weapon skills and a trait line shut down… That only happens to Mesmer and Thief.

As someone who has been roaming and seeking outnumbered fights since launch, I am still having a blast. Nothing feels more rewarding than roaming with my thief and killing off small groups of people. I usually just poke at them until they get so kittened that they start to over extend them self, hence giving me the upper hand. From there on it is just about focusing one down at a time and play carefully Still love to do that, as I always have.

One of the best things are picking off people running to their blob or killing players in the blob that gets separated for a few seconds :p

I miss it tbh. Seeing a Headshot bounce three times was hilarious! Same with Unload and lucky rng against a ranger.

If thief gets nerfed too hard or hardcountered I am just going to leave this game for good. I love my thief and have made him work so far. I only play thief too, so if he could be deleted because he is just useless I’ll just quit and find something better to do

I remember the discussions on these forums when they introduced the first abilities that would reveal us. I am going to say the same now as then: what the hell are ANet thinking?!

Thief are the only profession in the game that have certain skills and abilities that completely shut down its profession mechanic and an entire trait line! Yes, we have enough “survivability” with evades and shadow steps available, but that do not justify those skills.

Let us thieves trait into steal shutting down other profession mechanics then.

- Mesmer: can’t create clones.
- Engineer: can’t use kits or tool belt skills
- Guardian: lose all boons and deny them for the duration and won’t be able to use virtues.
- Warrior: Lose all adrenaline, deny any more to charge and can’t swap weapons.
- Ranger: pet won’t do anything.
- Elementalist: Can’t swap attunements
- Necromancer: Lose all life force, can’t apply conditions and can’t regenerate any life force for the duration.

Sounds about right if you ask me.

Are utility and elite skills allowed?

I believe I’ll go with only main hand weapon and spam #3

Thank you all who have encouraged me to keep working on this guide!

Now that there have been some massive changes to all the professions I have to revamp this guide (which will take quite some time). I’ll post when the guide have been updated to the new patch again.

Coronit.9432:

Geiir.7603:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Geiir.7603:

Hi all! Thanks for the bumps, kind words and feedback!

I have been away from the game for a few months for personal reasons, but I am now back and will start working on this guide again. I also want to say that I am expecting a baby girl in early June, so my playing time (and updating this guide time) will be limited. I will do my best to keep the guide up to date at all times.

Just wanted to let you guys know what I’ve been doing and why it is such a long time since I have updated it.

Welcome back, but sadly, you might have to edit the whole thing after the expansion.

Congrats on the little one.

Yeah, which is also one of the reasons why I haven’t been super active trying to write new stuff for this guide. After Heart of Thorns are released I’ll play a lot and update the guide accordingly.

Thanks bro! Finally got my baby girl, so I have been almost 100% occupied the last weeks :p

Well, congratulation from my side, too. I would say thats one of the most beautiful gifts a man can receive. June… Nice month for birthday-partys. Barbecue! \o/
Mine is late Dezember. A lot of people always in holidays. At least I can spend my time with family most of the time :P
And nice to hear that you want to upgrade that hole thing

Thanks man! Yeah, June is Perfect! Definitely going to have some out door birthday parties for my little girl

It also got moved from Grandmaster to Minor, so now it won’t compete with Shadow’s Rejuvenation. Taking 25% less damage, regenerating health and initiative and removing conditions while in stealth sounds pretty darn good to me.

Yes. All your effects and stats will be transferred to the venom if you share it.

Zero Day.2594:

Burning….

Yeah. Zergs running with burning builds, apply 5 second burn of 10 stacks = dead anything xD

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Geiir.7603:

Hi all! Thanks for the bumps, kind words and feedback!

I have been away from the game for a few months for personal reasons, but I am now back and will start working on this guide again. I also want to say that I am expecting a baby girl in early June, so my playing time (and updating this guide time) will be limited. I will do my best to keep the guide up to date at all times.

Just wanted to let you guys know what I’ve been doing and why it is such a long time since I have updated it.

Welcome back, but sadly, you might have to edit the whole thing after the expansion.

Congrats on the little one.

Yeah, which is also one of the reasons why I haven’t been super active trying to write new stuff for this guide. After Heart of Thorns are released I’ll play a lot and update the guide accordingly.

Thanks bro! Finally got my baby girl, so I have been almost 100% occupied the last weeks :p

Got invited even though I didn’t apply I’ll drop my info here anyways.

IGN: Melder
Playstyle: PvP, WvW, PvE. I play all parts of the game as I tend to enjoy testing out new stuff. I love to give new builds a try (yes, even the weird ones or those I make that make no sense at all) and go with weird comps in PvP. Roaming WvW with fellow thieves to gank unknowing players or troll blobs are my favorite hobby though <3
Server: Gandara
Experience: Played Thief almost exclusively since it became available in beta. I am the creator of the Book of Shadows.

Morwath.9817:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Geiir.7603:

Pistol 4 is intended to use as an instant interrupt to stop key skills or healing skills. Putting a cast time will literally render the skill utter useless.

They already needed thief mobility when they fixed the patching with SB5. Now I can’t use 90% of the old spots to get around, so we aren’t as mobile as we used to be.

We are meant to excel at 1v1. We and mesmers, which both do pretty well imo. Shatter Mesmer and backstab thief is all about who land their combo first, pretty much.

Saying thief are op are a testament to your skill tbh, because I have no trouble countering them when using other professions….

Opinions are irrelevent. Thief is a mainstay in the meta. It is an “apex predator” spec. These are FACTS not opinions. Look at the team set ups every decent team uses. All have a thief because thief is too strong. Any class required in the meta is too strong and needs significant nerfs. Opinions are irrelevent. If you HAD to run a necro to be competitive that should be nerfed too. Same for any class. Thief is the only class who you HAVE to have really.

Wrong.
Each team has a Thief, because Thief can do something that other classes can’t, not because Thief is too strong ‘stat’ wise.

Thief have mobility and burst damage, or mobility and sustained damage. By your logic we need to nerf every profession since every profession do something that the others can not.

Have you even tried using SB5 lately? They fixed most of the ports which makes it less cheesy. Yes, thieves do still have superior mobility (kind of their thing) and very good burst damage, but we lack aoe damage, support and the ability to soak damage.

Pistol 4 is intended to use as an instant interrupt to stop key skills or healing skills. Putting a cast time will literally render the skill utter useless.

They already needed thief mobility when they fixed the patching with SB5. Now I can’t use 90% of the old spots to get around, so we aren’t as mobile as we used to be.

We are meant to excel at 1v1. We and mesmers, which both do pretty well imo. Shatter Mesmer and backstab thief is all about who land their combo first, pretty much.

Saying thief are op are a testament to your skill tbh, because I have no trouble countering them when using other professions….

No, we don’t have a problem with Lich Form. The stability you gain we will just steal away and then pop our stolen skill that fear you away while we stab you to death.

This being a 1v1 encounter that is ^^ In group settings we should focus down Necromancers before you get to do too much damage…

Hi all! Thanks for the bumps, kind words and feedback!

I have been away from the game for a few months for personal reasons, but I am now back and will start working on this guide again. I also want to say that I am expecting a baby girl in early June, so my playing time (and updating this guide time) will be limited. I will do my best to keep the guide up to date at all times.

Just wanted to let you guys know what I’ve been doing and why it is such a long time since I have updated it.

The new Improvisation trait that the devs previewed on the last Ready Up episode is bad design and should not go live. Why you ask? I’ll put it into perspective for you:

In Heroes of the Storm (Blizzards MOBA) they have a talent called Rewind. It allow you to reset skills so that you can use them twice. The problem with this is that the developers started to balance around this talent. The result was that people who didn’t take it was not viable, but those who took it were in line with other players. This made the talent almost mandatory for those who have access to it.

The same can be said about Improvisation. They already said in the video that they would have to look at certain skills so that they wouldn’t be too good with this talent. This mean that those who pick Improvisation will be very strong (until the devs nerf the stolen skills) and those who don’t will have weak stolen skills. This will in turn make the trait a must have for anyone who want to use their stolen skills.

What do you think?

All the things you listed are the reasons I hate PvP in other games, like WoW…. Having the best gear can win you the game, not skills. In this game however, it is all about skill and building your character right. You keep your weapons, skins etc in PvP. You can even choose to run the same build you use in PvE if you want too! I for one would quit this game on the day if they ever were to introduce PvE gear in PvP.

PvP should be about skill, not gear. You farm your gear in PvE to use it, you guessed it, in PvE, and WvW if you want too. The fact that you can so easily change builds in PvP is one of the reasons it is so good. You can easily try out new stuff and learn other professions, without having to go through a lengthy leveling process.

Also, remember that there are many people that can’t stand PvE! These guys only chose this game because they don’t need to PvE to get to the PvP part of the game – which is awesome!

After such a huge patch they should wait a few weeks at least, to let the meta settle a bit. There’s a lot of new stuff coming, so people need to find the new top builds and tricks. If something is completely broken, though, they should fix it immediately! Which is something they tend to not do….

I gotta say that if they do in fact ruin the balance completely and don’t do anything for two months, then I’m probably leaving this game for half a year until the next balance patch. I’ll play through the PvE stuff and get my masteries, and then we’ll see.

Harvest.2506:

Shiyo.3578:

I’m sad. Please start streaming.

I’m #2 on the ladder right now last week was #1 in NA and Europe, the reason I don’t stream is cause i don’t want to give away my buildss, and I have way too many heartbreaking loses at 400 points due to idoits in random team. that don’t know rotations or take ranked game seriously enough. no one listens or can’t win their 1v1s and i’m usally just left to bunker 2v1, even when i win I don’t get to record much action cause i’m usally guarding a point half the game in slow fights.

Leaderboards is currently a grind, so please don’t brag about being the person who got most hours to put into the game…

Secondly: you look like you see yourself as a top player. Why wouldn’t you show your builds? If you ever were to play in a tournament (which is where top players are) then everyone would know your build. Finding the best builds and sharing them with the community, including tips and tricks is what help the community grow. The fact that “top players” won’t stream because they won’t give away their “secrets” is just plain stupid and one of the main reasons this community won’t grow any larger.

If you are in fact a top player, it won’t matter if people know your build. If you are that good then you will still wreck those players who just copied it. Most of the top players can play almost any build and still carry games. This game is 99% about awareness, good rotations and mechanical skill. Build is that last 1%.

Torment + Confusion + Taunt = dead thief xD

Very curious about how these new effects and specializations will play out.

Power necro is hard countered by d/p thieves. Lich form = steal (rip stability) → use stolen skill → win. I always enjoy seeing power necros on the enemy team, it just mean that the enemy team is one player short ^^

Professions isn’t the problem. The celestial amulet is. Tone down the celestial amulet so that it has exactly the same amount of stats as the other amulets. Currently you get more stat points from celestial than any other amulet – this is the problem.

Well. The AI in GW2 is so easy to predict that it is only the new players that will die to those builds. Turret engineers and minion master necromancers are not used in top play, for one simple reason. The AI doesn’t think. It doesn’t react to plays by the opposing team, it just mindlessly attack its target.

I wouldn’t consider mesmer for an AI profession. Mesmer players use their clones for a big burst (berserker) and shatter or to deceive the enemy and make them attack the wrong target or just to create clutter for their team to take advantage of. Mesmers rarely leave clones out for long enough to have them deal any significant damage.

Tl;dr: I don’t think it is a problem, since it isn’t used for any top plays. Only newer players will fall to AI builds.

Kurow.3076:

Shiyo.3578:

I think hard counters should exist, but this is like banging your head into a wall.

WRONG!!!

GW2 is NOT a MOBA. It will never be one.

Hard counters in an MMO PvP is the dumbest thing ever.

They hard counters us on point 1v1 fights. What we have is mobility. We can easily outmaneuver them. By simply avoiding them in team fights and blowing up other professions we can still be viable, even with a medi guard around. They beat us in 1v1 fights, but they are so slow between nodes! We can just leave and go +1 a fight. By the time the guardian show up we have probably won that fight already ^^

No. We have been nerfed a lot since launch, but it looks like it has sort of stopped. Thief provide lots of utility and very high dps in PvE! Well played thieves can be a real asset to their team.

PvP: still part of the meta. Very strong in our role as roamers.

WvW: best roaming profession, period.

DeceiverX.8361:

Most SA thieves are also bad and do not comprehend the basics of damage avoidance/skill/encounter interactions due to SA acting as a crutch for their lack of playing ability.

This is true. My current WvW spec is 6/0/2/0/6. Lots of control and good damage, and much more difficult to play than SA builds. Shadow Arts is the main problem regarding players thinking thief is OP. It is too rewarding simply because it make bad thieves look good and good thieves are just invincible with such a build…

Reaven: it is true that many decent thieves will try to get some space between the two of you before getting more stealth. But the fact is that 90% of the thieves you encounter in WvW is utter crap. That’s at least my experience.

You can still spot the red ring from black powder even if they’re invisible. This means that if you manage to get inside that you either wast their initiative or they get revealed. Both is pretty devastating for a d/p thief, especially in WvW where they usually don’t run trickery for extra initiative.

Shiyo.3578:

Should an entire class be hard countered this hard? I basically can’t do anything and the second they enter a fight I’m taken to 10% hp.

What am I supposed to do against this? I just avoided fights, back capped and stole boss kills(Forests of nifhel).

Completely avoiding PVP in a PVP match isn’t very fun.

Sounds like you did exactly what you should do in such a situation. If there’s a team fight with a meditation guardian and you can’t leave, use shortbow and try to avoid the guardian as much as possible! They blow up pretty fast when focused, so tell your team to do so and then you’re free to kill the others.

It is a hard counter that is very, very hard to win. Just keep your cool and test the guardian. Many people who run medi guard doesn’t know how to play him and you may win, but against a good player you should just go do something else. :p

D/P shadow arts build is strong at surviving, but does not beat everything. It is more of a zerker buster than anything else. The only thing you can expect is shadow refuge (keep a knock back or AoE fear for this!) and that if black powder goes down, he will heartseek through it. My best tip? Walk into the black powder and see this poor thief reveal himself as he tries to jump through it again for extended stealth. He need to keep a longer period of stealth to survive larger condition bursts.

Power.2957:

Alrighty, this screenshot should clear some things up. See attached image.

Not a valid reason if I dare say so. Why do you have to be in the Mists to accept? Can’t we just accept from WvW and just get ported right to the arena instead of through the mists first?

Rising Dusk.2408:

Good dailies:

• Kill 3 Players
• Defend a Point
• Earn Rank Points
• Win a Ranked Game
• Win an Unranked Game

Bad dailies:

• Capture a Point
• Class-Based Game Win

Agreed. I have encountered more and more daily players (4 thieves on one team and 6 thieves in the match total), especially outside of prime time…

He’s just sad because he know he can’t get any better.

Hopefully Anet will ban him if this is his normal behavior…

I dare say that it is close to extinct… I have played on a few teams, but all of them have been disbanded due to teammates leaving the game because of the slooooow pace of how anet work and balance this game…. There’s no fun with playing the same meta for a year with only minor patches. They need to do balance patches – way often than they do now! They need to see the meta settle and then bang in and shake it up a bit to make things interesting again. As of now I see more people leaving the game than new PvP players…

And worst of all: no tutorial or guidance for new players! This alone pretty much destroy all chances for us to see more PvP players making it through. My friends and I only came to PvP because of friends dragging us in – there was not a single other reason for me to start doing PvP back in the days, and my reasons to stay are fading, unfortunately. :/

This is a serious problem. The fact that people say: “just browse youtube or Facebook” just prove how bad it really is! This is a MMORPG! You should never find any reason to leave the game while waiting for a PvP queue to pop! That must be the worst decision the devs have ever made! This is something they need to go back on immediately, because it makes no sense.

Before I could go practice 1v1 in custom arenas, troll people in WvW, work on map completion, do a few PvE dailies, gather resources, work on achievements, craft new gear or just wander around Tyria and gaze upon this wonderful world. Now? Sit in the Mists, afk while I surf Facebook, watch streams on twitch or just run around mindlessly in the Mists. I may spar with the “awesome” sparring partners (dueling anyone?), watch some brat rage in map chat or something similar. There is literally nothing fun to do while I wait for the queue to pop, which is really, really bad! This also heavily affects streamers (not fun to watch someone on stream do nothing for 10 minutes while they wait for a queue to pop….

Wouldn’t a sticky be in place to tell people how to properly name their threads?

For example: Use brackets to show what part of the game you’re requesting something for.

[PvP][EU/NA]
[WvW][Server name]
[PvE][Dungeon/Fractal/World Boss]

Something like this:
[PvP][EU] Thief, looking for team.
[WvW][Gandara] Looking for active WvW guild
[PvE] Looking for active guild to play Fractals.

Proper naming of threads make it so much easier to find what you’re looking for! It can also further the use of the search function. If someone is reading this; please start to name your threads properly!

On a sidenote: I would love to see this part of the forum get three different sub-forums, one for PvP, WvW and PvE.

Looking for should have three different parts :/ Now it is just a mess..

Guardian, way easier than thief, but oh so boring in comparison! I love my thief, and if I don’t want to die, I wont (unless faced with players way above my skill level). I do not think it isn’t rewarding to play. :p

I always click the ready up button when I’m ready. Have happened a few times that the match started earlier.

I miss the time when you could play custom arenas while waiting in queue… I used to join duel servers and fight there to improve skill. Too bad they removed that option….

Guys. This is a legitimate problem. Honestly, I think there are many who left after one match who potentially could have becomed a PvP main… I was a PvE player, tried PvP and hated it because of the toxic environment. Left after one match and swore I would never try that crap again.

Got convinced by a friend to give it a second try: now PvP main, never looked back.

All professions at lvl 80, only two of the leveled the old school way ^^

I think the reward tracks are great! What we need is more tracks, specifically tracks with rewards that is only obtainable in pvp.

Omg xD So good!

Build diversity and the fact that you can build your profession (nearly) the way you want is what makes it interesting and fun!

Did you wait long in queue before you got matched with those guys? After 6 minutes in the queue you’ll get matched with the first available team. This will sort out as the player base grows. I for one is happy with the way shorter queue times compared to before the change!

Leaderboards is a joke indeed, but they know this and are working on a change as far as I know.

Here’s my opinion: conquest are far more fun than regular 2v2 or 3v3 arenas! I’m excited about stronghold though. I still find conquest far superior to regular arenas as far as tactics and mind games go.

Not the wrong forum! You have this forum and the necro forum to ask these questions. I would probably ask in the necro forums first since there’s probably quite a few necros there that have great tips and advice for how to kill a thief.

Most thieves will melt when faced with conditions. Unless specced with shadow arts, we have very limited condition removal. If you condition bomb us we usually have two options: waste a long cooldown and take the risk of not getting another condition bomb, or get away…

If you need any help I’ll be glad to do so.

A good thief can usually carry a match. Being able to +1 any fights, stealing bosses and get quick decaps (leaving home and be back again 10 seconds later) help a lot and can carry most matches. As long as your teammates so a decent job of holding two points that is. :p

Steal -> Use stolen skill -> profit.

Edit: I had a power necro constantly trying to 1v1 me the entire match. I used the exact same tactic to waste his Lich every single time. He kept coming back and literally was the reason his team lost that match!

2nd edit: typo. Thanks adozu. :p