Guild Wars 2

I personally go fire on sb (along with an energy sigil). More just due to how the fire seems to go along better with the bouncing auto attack. Since you can’t control if it’ll proc that air crit on the desired target, the aoe aspect of fire can come in handy.

Nice videos man. Always fun to see you guys running around.

Went for a little holiday cheer with my new outfit.

I play 2 6 0 0 6 ogre, full zerker everything for WvW solo roaming.

Is it frustrating sometimes? Yes. Rewarding once you get good at it? Yes.

As for explaining why? 2 in DA for mug (which is great since it gives you access to poison on your opponent while doing dmg and healing you), 6 in CS for additional dmg along with the ability to get access to haste or additional hp, and then trickery because its crazy strong line and makes your steal extremely useful.

For the gear, basically zerker is just more fun for me. A little valk in there would probably be optimal, but its your choice. If you put a lot more valk into it I’d maybe say go Rage or Pack runes over Ogre, but Ogre are probably your best choice.

Just get used to being outnumbered and learn the terrain and you’ll be fine on whatever D/P build you choose.

Archaon.9524:

Anyway 4 bunkers require LESS rotations than 3 bunkers + 2 glass cannons (That being thief and MESMER pretty much always need to roam together cause if there’s a thief or some condispam around a lone mesmer is a dead mesmer)

Due to the mesmer thief roaming combo and their mobility, I take that comp as needing less practice rotating. Basically the thief mesmer combo are always going to be together ideally and their high mobility allows them to constantly rotate. This means a poor rotation by the combo is less likely to be punished dramatically since they can always react and quickly move somewhere else. Whereas with the Abjured comp which had less mobility they had to keep constant tabs on the mesmer thief combo and attempt to force poor rotations from the rest of the team since the abjured didn’t have a mobility advantage likeTCG did.

I use 2 6 0 0 6 d/p sb for wvw roaming. Are there limitations to the build? Yes. Personally I find it the most rewarding thief build to play and it fits my how I like to play. I’m a little biased but playing without SA (or at least without six points into it) will allow you grow as a player and learn much more about each matchup you have to face.

Putting points into SA generally leads to a more passive and safe playstyle since you gain from sitting in stealth.

Kicast.1459:

Are european servers in Europe Anet?
When I “whois” the server the server is identified as located in Austin….

I believe the EU servers are located in Germany. Last I heard the login has to do with the Austin servers that is why that comes up. But just due to the latency difference you get between the two regions I’d believe the US are here in US and EU are in Germany.

Justin ODell.9517:

We’re doing this because even though I consider myself perfect and incapable of writing bugs, I don’t have much empirical evidence to back that up.

On the off chance I messed up, it’s better that other people don’t get punished for it.

Best dev response NA.

I use energy and purity, with an alternate sb with fire and energy. Probably would say purity+generosity or purity+energy is a better overall combination than fire+energy. Fire is decent dmg but you aren’t often using sb to burst except for downed bodies and in that case the big contribution is the poison with clusterbombs tossed on. The condi cleanse and an extra dodge will save your life and contribute more than more situations than a little more burst.

You know you can mute streams right? So can just watch the gameplay?

I use ogre for d/p 2 6 0 0 6 build. They are nice overall. The +dmg is nice especially since its always active and the +stats it gives are useful for power builds. If you’re looking for alternatives, pack runes are a popular option currently. Depending on your build you can also look into strength, problem is that with non-SA d/d or d/p builds you don’t have access to might to the level which makes strength more powerful than ogre.

Assuming you’re not playing SA I would say look into pack or ogre with myself preferring ogre. Another option might be runes of the pirate, though I’ve always thought that ogre will do better overall.

Reinn.7436:

Can someone tell me if we are allowed to Shadowstep on higher platforms much like Mesmer teleport? Whenever I try to do it I end up on the edge instead.

In short, yes we can. Its more a matter of knowing the spots and being able to hit them in the heat of the moment than anything. The majority of hills/cliffs can be shadowstepped up if approached correctly.

Best three roaming classes. Assuming equal skill level;
1. Elementalist
2. Thief
3. Mesmer

Should note that those aren’t really in any order.
*disclaimer I do solo roam kittenter mesmer and crit/trickery d/p thief so its possible the fun I have playing those solo influenced my rankings.

A large number of bridges/platforms can be shadow stepped up to from below. (ie pretty much anywhere on Spirit Watch/Khylo though this extends also to WvW).

When playing d/p you can press #3 a split second before using infiltrators signet to get what becomes around 1500+ gap closer. Good for getting the drop on people, especially other thieves.

When stomping a someone, press #5 on shortbow then start the stomp, you will be teleported away but the stomp is still queued, use steal or infiltrators to complete the stomp. (best for stomping guardians since it will put you out of knockback range, but if you’re clever with your use of LOS with the #5 placement it can guarantee a safe stomp against most classes while also avoiding cleave.)

Remove the white swords and bring back orange swords for either 5 or 10 players (originally it was 5 but I could see 10 working well to allow for ninjas still). Easier to keep track of enemy zergs, harder to catch solo/small group roamers.

No dire amulet in spvp means the condi class can’t go truly full tank anyways. Condi burst is fine, especially when you look at it in the perspective of teamplay. If you’re not playing team queue, acknowledge the limitations of your build and either move on or change the build to overcome these limitations. Coming onto the forums to incoherently rant about your issues with the game isn’t going to help.

Play PU and then complain when they lose to a shatter mesmer.

Throw down a chaos storm right where the enemy is while the mesmer is way far away. (Use that kitten as a zoning skill kitten it, so good for directing enemy movement and giving you defensive boons)

Complain when losing to other classes, but refusing to learn how to dodge the appropriate skills and just spamming dodges to get clones

Spamming all the skills on a weapon, mainly staff or gs.

During duels always engaging the same way. GS aa GS aa, iZerker, mirror blade in that order every kittening time guys. You do that kitten I will dodge the zerker, kite the blade and be up cds on you already. Makes me sad inside.

When playing sword, being predictable with mind wracks. You don’t need to land a sword 3 to mind wrack people. Not even burst has to being a sw3 → sw2 + mind wrack.

p/d zerker or celestial 6 2 0 0 6

ZenoSpyridon.1396:

Really? Want a few examples of AAA games with 2 year development cycles?

All the Uncharted games.

Demon Souls/Dark Souls/Dark Souls 2

Bioshock 2

Both of Mass Effect’s sequels.

That’s not counting the countless FPS games, and yearly series that reguarly come out.

And now that I think of it, why don’t you look at the development of Guild Wars 1 and it’s expansions as an example…?

Not to mention the fact that the structured PvP portion of this game is just a fraction of the size of a typical game, and all the groundwork is in place, making the work on this aspect of the game more minimal than a sequel.

This isn’t really the point though…. Point is that it’s been 2 years and PvP has had very minimal changes during that time, compared to what was promised, considering it’s been 1.5 years since they said we would be getting new modes…

Just to point out, none of the games you listed are MMOs, which adds a wrinkle to the development, since it adds complexity especially when it comes to PvP.

Thief class sets itself up for montages for a few reasons. First is thief is a popular wvw roaming class choice. Access to stealth and the mobility that is with the class makes it attractive to players. This creates a target rich environment. Second, people who roam in wvw generally have a hatred towards thieves due to the ability to create “cheese” specs with the stealth mechanic and the strength of SA traits. Lastly, thieves in general are one of the last (one could argue the last) class where you will find players roaming on full zerker builds in wvw still. There has been a general shift to builds with tankier attributes or condi builds that utilize dire gear for a softer risk reward trade off. This means that if the thief makes a mistake it can create a good 100-0 clip for the montage, which could be a reason people put them in as well.

A ping lowering service is allowed. It doesn’t give you an advantage over other players since they potentially have a lower ping naturally. It’s more a leveling of that playing field.

Daishi.6027:

First off Shatter needs a buff. You do less burst, with less escape/survivability with more set up than most glass builds,

Also don’t be afraid to use higher ground positioning and terrain is part of combat and if anyone calls you a coward for using it tell them to drop their stupid amount of low risk.

Shatter is already extremely strong. Burst is extremely high already, though it does require a bit more thought to set up. But shatter also contributes boon strip, good pressure from longrange with gs and an aoe daze chance field if you’re using staff.

Shatter survivability is entirely active, but that doesn’t mean its bad. A standard shatter build has access to 1 stun break teleport, 1 pseudo stunbreak teleport, and an instant stealth stun break that isn’t negated by revealed. Along with this it has access to a 1-4s invuln (2 if traited) that doesn’t even require a utility spot or certain weapon.

Mesmer escapes are just fine as well, see above.

And positioning as a mesmer is your defense, idk why any mesmer would think its a good idea to facetank anything at all.

I have never pved so imma put that disclaimer out there. But assuming its maximizing damage output I believe meta would be strength runes with full zerkers s/p for trash and d/d for bosses (or stay s/p). Traits would be 6 6 ? ? ?.

Um hate to be that guy but I believe the appropriate reponse in this case is learn to play.

Thaelias.7432:

Heh, 30 strikes of stored combat equivalent time for a flat single target 4 second burn? That’s pretty funny you made me chuckle Vee Wee.

In how simple and probably good of a change it would be? Could scale up the burn time, but otherwise its a good idea. Actually allows for counterplay to that field/skill. You still would get the field to stack might in and combo through.

Because it’s fun to play and there aren’t a lot of good ones around, which leads to a general surprise when people die to one.

Air/blood.

I don’t believe so. Switching between matches is allowed but not during.

Gotta admit thief short bow probably their best PvP weapon (for spvp). Mobility, cleave, aoe poison and an evade though nerfed still an extremely good weapon.

Just want to point out that all ground targetted skills do that, where if you are hovering over the enemy icon it will cast at your feet.

SkylightMoon.1980:

Thieves are a broken class tbh. At least d/p is. The only reason its such a threat is because it can insanely burst anyone from stealth and constant restealth/reset the fight. S/D is hard to fight but more respectable. d/p is full cheese. It has the same damage as eviscerate with air/fire proc yet eviscerate is a telegraphed animation that can be dodged consistently by a good player while the same is not true about backstab on thieves.

Backstab is easily dodged by good players as well…

Frenk.5917:

Now not every thief will use LS (especially the bad ones!), thus giving us even less chance of hitting them.

If a thief is going to spam FS, they’re going to be a dead thief in a hurry. 4 initiative cost isn’t a small amount especially if you’re double casting that. Besides, FS has an aftercast which you can easily unload a burst onto.

Archaon.9524:

What’s the point of PU mesmer in pvp? No seriously…it’s one of the most unuseful specs ever seen in tournaments, can’t literally do kitten…can’t kill ppl 1v1 in decent amount of time (Well once it’s clear a mesmer is running pu crap you can just sit on point and it will take forever to kill you if you just clean up condis not trying to fight him back, no point on fighting back anyway cause he permastealths and you get the point too), can’t defend points, can’t even contest…the only use for dat that comes to my mind it’s stealth ressing or stomping someone…maybe…

Doesn’t have access to stability so can’t do those well either. PU is simply a spec that makes the user feel like they’re achieving something valuable while not actually giving the team anything.

On a note to the OP, I personally think PU isn’t going to work well in the longrun for a player. If you’re looking for a spec that isn’t shatter mesmer and still gives some good survivability, I would recommend Countless’ build. (A bit outdated but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uliW4wkPRpo&index=12&list=UUOYeLwfWdNJrK4c13hSpcDQ) or a chaotic interruption build, which would be 4 4 6 0 0 running staff/gs and utilities being decoy (or null field), MoD, and blink.

I haven’t played it for a month or two but celestial 6 2 0 0 6 p/d sb does well against engis in general and gives you two options for not standing in the turrets themselves. Honestly though if you find a turret engi on a point with his turrets up, don’t even bother 1v1ing just rotate off and +1 another fight.

edit: Chaos armor does wonders against engis themselves, less so against the turrets, so when you throw down that gunk can always blast it once or twice with sb for some chaos armor.

As the person above me mentioned this isn’t a PvP exclusive feature so I feel like it wouldn’t necessarily be tied with the improvements to PvP.

I think this goes along with a larger issue, lack of ability to move around the ui. It would be nice to actually be able to move parts of the ui around freely instead of either one or two options or no options in most cases.

Is there a reason this hasn’t been implemented?

kirito.4138:

Play all of them, and you are required to use “default” builds for each profession.

My personal favorite default build is mesmer. 0-5-3-3-3 with solider amulet.

T raw.4658:

You do realize that using goggles guarantees at best the blowing of stun breakers for the thief.

Now ask yourself what’s the CD on thief stun break utilities vs goggles

No I didn’t realize that. I didn’t realize thieves didn’t have access to the dodge mechanic. I stand corrected.

MarauderShields.6830:

That’s the problem with so many people here: they think “counterplay” means pressing one button. Everybody just wants the game dumbed down to “press I-win-button”. Look at all the rangers drooling over the huge channeled ranged burst. People want the game to be easy, whether defending or attacking. Positioning/mobility as a stealth counter? Too hard.
Imagine all the QQ when Rangers eat their own 20K burst with daggerstorm or traited warrior blocks. We will see these people here again, demanding “counterplay to dem block spams” because once agin, their brainless playstyile doesn’t work and they think it should.
With all the forced revealed being probably only the tip of the iceberg, I doubt GW2 will have any meaningful tactics or need for skill next year.

A six second reveal is not a “I-win-button.” Imagine if they said having the goggles on the utility bar lets the engi see players in stealth. A six second reveal has the potential to dramatically swing the fight in the engi’s favor, there isn’t any debate about that. However, you are assuming that you won’t be able to kite around for the six seconds, gain some distance, shadowstep away. Making a thief revealed doesn’t automatically kill the thief. As far as I can see, you’re the one complaining about counterplay and not being able to adapt from your own brainless playstyle.

vincecontix.1264:

You better off not running a thief as part of serious havock squad. Just stack guard and wars and you good to go.

What? No serious havok squad is ever going to abandon mesmers or thieves. Thieves still have best pressure for enemy casters and other thieves. Just hyperbole on your part there. A simple 6 second reveal isn’t going to make thieves not viable. I understand this is a scary time for you with a nerf incoming, but the fear mongering isn’t going to help. Its an addition of something people have wanted since the game’s release, stealth counterplay.

Gosh this isn’t the end of the world people. Does it make SA less powerful? Of course, but that’s a good thing. The cruth that is that traitline needs some counters in game. As others have mentioned maybe 1/20 engis run this skill. Its not useful in Condi builds anyways so it won’t impact those fights much. People overreacting to what might actually be a well implemented change.

NeXeD.3042:

As a terrormancer I say we get dire as well as perplexity runes yesterday.

Would be like any power bunker class……

Not even close. This isn’t a discussion, this is you being wrong and needing to seriously consider your level of intelligence.

Yes

Honestly, all ANET has to do to get around the whole “we can’t show that we kittened up” thing is to say that each team should have 1 of each race. Means limited to 1 asura, which could mean there is actually a tactical element to which class plays the asura.

But in all seriously they should just ban the kitten things and burn them with fire.

The improvisation trait +10% damage is known to be bugged and not working properly currently it gives 0% damage. Those op thieves and their bugs man.

Gorni.1764:

I’d say there is no best class in 1v1. It’s more like rock, paper and scissors. Especially when you take specific builds into account.

This is partially true, but if you want a chance in every 1v1 with very few rock to your scissors matchups I would say warrior with axe/sword lb celestial strength or thief. Those two have very few actual counters that make their 1v1s unwinnable and the counters that do exist can be outplayed.

Ok. I understand people being frustrated with issues they find with the balance, but there really isn’t a need to complain about everything and take issue with the devs clearly showing an active interest in spvp. Just because there is a tourney you think all balance work totally stops?

Listen we get it, you are the saviors of GW2 spvp and if only the devs had listened to you we’d be esports.

Please have a celebrity game with a few players from each region playing with or against mods. (Preferably against)

Phaeton.9582:

Correct me if I’m wrong (obviously not a thief main), but if you’re dueling an s/d thief he’s probably saving his heal for your sword 2 into burst, as (at least to me) it’s the easiest way to cleanse the immobilise.

If an s/d thief couldn’t do that you would just one shot

Oh I’m fine with counter play and everything. I’ll even admit withdraw is countered extremely well by poison.

I also do not run sword so them saving the heal to cure immobilized isn’t exactly the case.

The problem is besides using a condition, there is no counter to the counter, which a smart thief would just cleanse. Ie even if I expect his heal and see it coming there isn’t anyway to prevent it from going off.

Like I said before, I don’t have an issue with thieves and them being strong against mesmers. It’s part of the game.

Daishi.6027:

The only thing I have an ACTUAL problem with and am truly salty about is the uninteruptable heal

I agree with this. I can take s/d thieves as a mesmer and acknowledge that even if I outplay them they have a good chance to win. But allowing for a heal to be truly uninterruptable is frustrating at times. Withdraw is probably the thing that messes me up the most when fighting thieves, since I’ll time my burst for after they’ve blown their normal dodges and boom they are healing.

Overall though it’s not really unique to the thief class for a heal that is uninterruptable. Elementalists with their signet (although I don’t know if you interrupt their cast if the heal still goes off), warriors with their signet, and mesmer with its signet all have heals that really can’t be interrupted and whos only counterplay is poison.

The point is certain classes are going to have more trouble against other certain classes. I can’t expect to come into every fight thinking at the base level its a 50-50 win rate, that’t not how balance or mmos work especially one that is based around a 5 man team.

Also engi heal can be interrupted but at 0.5s cast time its a matter of prediction and knowing when they’ll be wanted to cast it.