Guild Wars 2

Kinda short clips and not my best gameplay but good fights at least. The audio messed up on twitch and only recorded my voice so it sounds like I’m crazy.

http://www.twitch.tv/thecozert/v/14929610 There is the full stream of glint/shiro valk/zerk revenant.

Another few duels I had. Sorry about the audio, I’m exporting these directly from twitch and when I mess up the stream audio I mess up everything.

uhohhotdog.3598:

I can’t watch the videos at the moment but in my play time I found rev to be really strong in 1v1 power builds. Only had issues against pu mesmers so far.

Overall, revenant seems very strong 1v1 either condi or power. Clearly I’m still working on mechanics and timings and learning some tricks, but still did well overall against most classes. The ability to do good dmg while evading with sw3 is awesome and your defensive abilities aren’t bad either, with 10s stunbreak (with my build) on legend swap along with fury and condi cleanse and potential to spec for heal/dmg immunity at 50% hp.

Figured I’d post some gameplay from tonight as a power revenant against a few different classes. The highlights are all 1v1s either in SPvP or in WvW prior to reset. Feel free to critique the gameplay/give comments since we’re all still learning the class. Also any feedback about the highlights themselves (sorry about the long spvp one, I took off my headphones so the input for audio changed and muted the sound) or the stream is welcome.

http://www.twitch.tv/thecozert/v/14489800

http://www.twitch.tv/thecozert/v/14489539

The whole broadcast is revenant gameplay so if for whatever reason you want to go through the rest (and there are some other 1v1s in there) feel free.

http://www.twitch.tv/thecozert/v/14458780

YouTube videos:

Short wvw duels against thief

Long spvp duels against ele, rev, engi

Do I think that auto defense traits are a little out of control? To a certain extent yes, however that might be bias since thief does not have a lot of these traits open to us.

However, when it comes to the daze activated ones, I really haven’t had an issue recently since I changed how I approach and fight them. Typically if I notice the ele is running air, I use headshot prior to engaging to activate the trait then as soon as aura is down I steal in knowing I have an opening. Not saying I win every fight against d/d eles, but it is important to recognize the traits the opponent is running and adapt to it instead of asking for possibly our best trait to be nerfed.

I’ve played a lot of s/d since the patch after maining d/p prior to the patch.

Basically I think d/p is stronger, especially in outnumbered fights. The ability to disengage and stealth on demand along with access to blind and excellent gap closers make the set great for outnumbered fights.

That being said, if you prefer the playstyle of d/p feel free to play that instead. I’ve always felt that since the patch s/d isn’t quite as strong, but it still shines in outnumbered fights if you are able to use LOS to your advantage with sword #2.

If you’re not solo roaming, I think d/p is a better set. For small man support, the ability to blast stealth (#5 + sb #2), stealth yourself on demand if pressured or while looking for new targets, having an on demand ranged interrupt, and a 900 range gapcloser that does excellent damage really makes the set have great utility for small group fights.

DeceiverX.8361:

I’ll continue not running either of them so I can get the satisfaction when winning a fight of knowing I didn’t win from RNG/sigils carrying me if my opponent avoided my burst and I recovered from said avoidance.

What? Honestly if someone is avoiding your burst (especially as a thief) and you still managed to win it most likely didn’t come down to sigil procs, especially with how they are toned down.

I don’t know what spec you’re running, but I assume it doesn’t include improv with your attitude. You must have either 0% crit chance or 100% crit chance since otherwise it involves a certain amount of luck/rng.

kdaddy.5431:

If we just put a system in where you can only be blinded once every 20 sec, bam things might be put back in balance.

I’m sorry, but what? Just what? Your intended mesmer/ele nerf would actually obliterate the last vestiges of 1v1/2v2 ability the thief has. The effect on the two desired classes would be minimal, while the class that would hurt the most would be thief.

swinsk.6410:

Is this live? Where are patch notes?

Not included in patch notes at all, but its true. They were ninja nerfed.

Personally, I think air/blood for burst weapon set is best, but fire is still useable despite the nerf (which was sizable).

Gamewithstorm puts up the NA tournaments. However since I’m on my phone I can’t link the channel on YouTube. Just search gw2 gamewithstorm.

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgYFfAK4A-Q~

Weapons: Staff sw/axe
Runes: Currently Strength, but at release strength, pack, or rage would all work well.
Stats: Zerker armor, mixture of soldiers and valk. Zerker weapons with air/fire on sw/axe and either the same on staff or air/energy.

Been using it in WvW with some good success.

Sword #3 needs something this much is clear. Either it needs an evade for the period keeping the current cast time or (and this may be a better fix) remove the cast time on the ability and maybe have the ability cripple foes it hits for a short period? Right now it seems sluggish and unresponsive.

As everyone else has said, sword 3 just doesn’t really have a place right now. Its decent if you’re not being focused, targeted, have no condis, and just want to see a flashy ability go off. But it really lacks application within fights (I’m speaking from a small group wvw prospective 1-6 players). In 1v1’s its a deathwish more or less since the opponent just can tank it and dps you down during it. Larger fights the only benefit you really get is stacked might, since you can’t use it to only focus one opponent to pressure and at the end you’ll probably find yourself being out of position.

Changing sword #3 would help Revenant in the department it needs help in the most currently, its complete and utter lack of ability to trade blows with any spec and class currently.

Hype.8032:

I figure those who do it completely seamlessly have it macro’d. Maybe someone else can chime in and prove me wrong.

The majority of the time I can do it seamlessly without having to stop. Part of that is probably due to binding the about face to a mouse button. Honestly is a bit of a practice thing though, once its muscle memory to do it without stopping its really not to difficult.

Honestly just run a meta build and see if you can beat people with that instead of using some special dueling build. Will help you become a better player much quicker than you’d expect. And you get the added benefit that you most likely flat out outplayed the people on those special dueling builds if you beat them.

Anyways if you really want to have a dueling spec, probably d/p DA/SA/Trick with offhand s/d or sb depending on the matchup.

A couple of things; first off any buff is a buff and I’ll take it. Gives me tons of vigor during fights especially when coupled with bountiful thief (which every thief has pretty much). However, its a little troublesome that it doesn’t really address what the complaint actually is about Feline Grace. It really should give us vigor (revert it back to 2s idc) along with some portion of endurance back on successful dodge. Doesn’t have to be a lot, but some would be very nice. Also with this update, anet completely has destroyed and make useless a major trait of ours. Who is going to take vigorous recovery (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vigorous_Recovery) which is 5s of vigor on heal when you can simply just dodge 1 attack and get 4s of vigor? I get more vigor isn’t a bad thing, but it seems a little silly that a major trait that has at minimum a 12s cd (signet of malice) gives 5s while dodging 1 attack gives 4s of vigor on a 1s cd. Even random dodging during fights you’re going to get more benefit from the minor than the major and really ruins the major trait.

Since the skill is tied to the mainhand (kinda), you actually throw your dagger with the shot animation. Incinerator has an effect along with any other dagger that changes the effect (such as the Majory one).

Steinpilz.5078:

EragamerLG.2390:

Also, to complement what was said above, SE has been fixed to remove a condition on stealth activation.

Doesn’t work.
Just tested it out: Got chill on my thief and activated Blinding Powder, chill remained.

Isn’t that due to SE only removing damaging conditions now? I believe the original poster you quoted was simply saying that the bug/unintentional feature of SE only starting to remove conditions after being in stealth for 3s (so 3s,6s,9s…) instead of what it had been since launch with removal of 1 condition immediately than 1 every 3s (so 0s,3s,6s…). However since the patch, SE no longer removes all conditions, one of the conditions I believe it does not remove is chill.

Vornollo.5182:

As a S/D thief you have to be really good and know how all classes work. This is especially so due to/since the nerfs to Feline Grace AND Vigour. No more random dodging, really, really high skill cap on it now. I’d advice against using S/D if you don’t even know builds for your other 80’s, sorry.
Sadly S/D is far from what it used to be. You can make it work with DA, CS, TR and Acro (in any combination really) but the risk vs reward makes it so that S/D is hardly wever worth it.

If you do want to stick with it, keep in mind that S/D relies more on sustain than damage, therefore you might be better of trading some of your zerker pieces, for Valkyrie pieces.

Are there other solutions outside of D/P? Yeah…they all involve heavily outplaying your enemy though… Anything can be made viable if you’re good enough. Between the other classes you stated, mesmer is in the best spot right now. Everyone and their mom plays mesmer now though…

Really, just play what you like and what works for you. If you’re having fun, you’re doing the right thing!

^Hits everything right on the button more or less. Prior to the patch, I never ran s/d in part due to its ability to random dodge. Since the patch I’ve been more or less maining s/d DA/Acro/Trickery simply because its the most fun thief build for me currently.

There is emphasis on the fact that I play it because I find it the most fun, not because its the most optimal or best set currently. As mentioned above you really do need to know your matchups for each class (which a lot currently because of the number of changes that came at once recently) since you no longer have as many dodges.

As long as you know your stuff and are having fun while playing s/d I’d say go for it! Its still a fun spec and still has that s/d feel that makes it unique imo.

DHawk.2687:

well considering that a build is always best with the guy who came up with it,
i outlpay so many meta thieves with my dd build, i have no need for meta

you should encurage ppl to play meta and don’t even try to make your own build

Well the first statement isn’t true. You’re just emotionally attached to it. I’ve played every thief build at some point and come up with some effective builds that I never see. But you claiming your build is the best is laughable.

DHawk.2687:

they don’t in my opinion, they are just the best for the ppl that do metabattle
doesn’t mean it’s the best

Then feel free to continue playing the game how you see fit. But from my experience playing this game, the builds that have been tested and tested by the top tier players in competitive settings are going to be more effective for the thief role than the build that some guy just dreamed up and thinks is good.

Cynz.9437:

Snip

Good analysis of the downsides of the build.

Not that there is anything wrong with trying out new builds. But when it comes to thief, a lot of the builds that are meta are meta for a reason, they do the job that’s required for thieves the best.

And in all honestly, good positioning and counter pressure >>>> more hp from valk. If you’re dying a lot to cleave you’re playing thief wrong oh so wrong.

I think its a little too rng, but its somewhat balanced around that. Honestly maybe the best change would be to make it guaranteed to recharge on utility slot that is on CD currently (only 1 not the category). This would keep the somewhat rng aspect, while giving it a much higher ability to actually be controlled and useful.

Nil.4320:

Hey guys,

I play a D/P thief (deadly arts/shadow arts/trickery) and cannot decide which food to take.

Is there a great difference between the following nourishments in terms of damage?

1. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Furious_Maintenance_Oil

2. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sharpening_Stone

Which food do you recommend in combination with one of these nourishments?

What is the most optimal crit-chance?

How much health do you recommend?

Thank you!

From my experience, I prefer power focused utility items. This is due to how they impact every hit instead of just crits giving them an edge over crit dmg or chance imo. This makes sharpening stones the best imo.

As for food, Omnomberry Ghosts. There are other choices that people can put out. But at 10s each for 45minutes of 66% lifesteal on crit and +70 precision you get what I believe the best food for thief and you get it at a very reasonable price.

As far as crit changes goes, 40-50% is generally my sweetspot (though I believe I’m sitting at right around 55-60% atm). This gives you 60-70% crit chance with fury without having to give up a lot of other stats you might want for surviving.

Now as far as health goes, it really depends on both your playstyle and what spec you are running. Since you are using SA, you have more sustain than other builds especially with D/P. I personally run right around 13-14k hp, but I’ve had a large amount of experience playing around that health and have played the class for 3 years. Since you’re wvw roaming, you have access to guard stacks (at least at the moment) which grant you a large amount of health once you have killed the five guards. This gives a bit more room for you to get some more offensive stats (or toughness from Cav) without being in too much trouble. The overall sweetspot for health would probably be between 15-16k tho if you find yourself dying too much at that hp, or not doing enough damage, feel free to alter that. Its simply a sort of starting place.

To counter point what Ades has suggested, here is my current wvw roaming build.

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=Vh;4Rw-_06-JOFd0;9;4IJM;0148146237;4LBW4U;1t_MTt_MTm-F9Ir-6;2VOVTWYXcYi3o4230CN-5;9;9;9;9;9;9;1E-6v

While its a matter of personal playstyle, I firmly believe that SA simply isn’t worth the loss in damage at this point. With the sheer amount of damage going around currently the difference between SA and none SA is negligible. Instead of relying on the passive defenses of SA, its better to make a build that uses counter-pressure and extra evades through signet of agility to actively defend against the opponents.

As far as the SR removal posted above, it is more a debate about what you’re doing. If you’re solo roaming SR really isn’t needed so much as when you’re roaming in a small man. The amount of times that tossing an SR on a down and then using it to quickly get the rez (even if its really the rest of the group who are tanky going for the rez) is simply too high for me to not take it when I’m small man roaming.

Instead of the food used by Ades, I use omnomberry ghost. The lifesteal is very nice and still gives you precision while being very cheap for its effects (45min for 9s).

Of course tweak the build as you desire, could probably go more valk without losing any real damage since my current iteration has 75% crit chance (since it has perma fury in fights).

Jana.6831:

Chaotic.9742:

I’m saying the over the top QQ like “OMG THIEF IS DEAD!!11!!1!1,” such as this thread, is uncalled for. Just play, learn from your mistakes/experiences, read over the changes, and adapt to them. If you don’t want to run d/p, theorycraft and practice new/unique builds thoroughly before you write them off. This really isn’t that bad of a patch. It’s fine to ask for some changes concerning skills/abilities/etc, but to just throw your arms up in the air and scream (like the OP did) is just foolish.

Play thief for a bit longer maybe?
It’s hard to take advise from someone new to the class.

Nessie isn’t new to the class or the game. His thoughts more or less echo my same thoughts about the patch when it comes to thief.

And honestly his advise is more attitude adjustment from the overreaction (imo) that many are showing here on the forums.

kash.9213:

Mattigan.6395:

…Since I usually opened with Steal, there weren’t many scenarios where I could count on a skill recharge. If it guaranteed a specific skill type, like, say, BV, then you could build around it in sPvP a little bit.

I have that same problem where I more often need to use Steal before I have things on cool down on the utility side and it’s also very rare that I use a stolen item twice before dumping at least one in favor for a specific item I know I’m going to need a step or two ahead.

I agree with this. Executioner will trump improv for me due to its reliability. I can always use additonal damage, but being able to use the stolen abilities twice is not always optimal, even with the RNG chance to reset my heal or other abilities. Perhaps part of this is due to being so used to not having two abilities to use when I steal since I’ve had almost 3 years of only 1 stolen item.

Trickery. Decreased steal CD leads to more sustain and dps from mug. Ability to rip boons and get vigor (or cleanse conditions) and a daze. Imo you can’t beat that. Plus additional fury uptime synergizes well with CS.

Maugetarr.6823:

This drives me nuts now while on my thief. The auto-proc of endure pain, plus taking the actual skill just provides such a long resistance to physical damage. Other abilities like reapers defense, tempest defense, and mesmer’s mirroring one (the name escapes me) just shut down an initial burst. The number of blocks that burn coming from guards is also really tough.

Yeah the amount of cc induced procs is crazy now. They existed before but few had the points to trait into them, now not an issue. Been having to remind myself to open against d/d eles with headshot and then kiting for 4s while they have that aura up. IMO its a little silly, but we’ll adapt like we always do. Thieves are still useful as gankers and +1ers.

No quarter. The increased crit damage and ability for perma fury is very useful. Also there is possibly a bug currently where any fury stack your character puts out gives the +crit dmg modifier. This means any thrill of the crime (and possibly pack runes) gives your teammates the +crit modifier making it even more useful.

IP gives a bit more survivability, but honestly the difference is not even close to enough. The moments where you need the healing you probably won’t be able to get enough counterpressure out to get the healing you need anyways.

It seems a little early to completely say that you are forced to play d/p DA/SA/Trick. Honestly I think that DA/CS/Trick is stronger anyways, but maybe that is just me.

S/D isn’t nearly as strong as it used to be, but if its your favorite spec then you can always play it and still be viable (assuming you’re a good player otherwise). Playing around with s/d using DA (or CS which I think is possibly actually better with S/D), Acro and Trickery was not too bad overall. The damage of the build is higher than it was before with the increases to stats, but the survivability did take a hit. Using withdraw, signet of agility, SR, and Shadowstep gave me decent survivability while having more dmg than before with s/d.

I know that a lot of people who used to main s/d are not happy about the acro changes and there are some aspects that should not have been nerfed as much (Feline grace probably should’ve just been changed to give less endurance back instead of just vigor), but playing acro myself I didn’t feel like it was absolutely terrible. Probably has to do with how I didn’t play acro before the patch so I wasn’t acclimated to the amount of dodges that were available.

swinsk.6410:

I destroy in hotjoins too. In fact I think we got a boost against noobs who don’t run immunity passives or react slowly. Try playing against competent players in tpvp tho… We got a big nerf against those guys because their builds will most likely include those passives along with a good reaction time when they are down.

Just saying, thief got nerfed hard…

Probably the biggest changes for fights have to do with the ability to take passives where there used to not be passives. Elementalists and their stunning aura on cc usage + lightning rod are something new along with the ability for warriors to take defy pain without losing any grandmasters because of it.

Now part of the difficulties is how strong these passives are against thieves in general (sleight of hand working against you with the elementalists and defy pain making any burst irrelevant during its proc), but also the fact that the changes were so massive otherwise. Previously most good players could immediately find out the traits being used by just glancing at the player, but with all the changes this isn’t easy to do at a glance anymore since we haven’t been exposed to each of the builds for as long.

Due to this I’m reserving judgement about thief until I have more experience against the other builds out there, since much of my thief play requires active defense and that requires knowledge of the opponents that is still developing with the new traitlines/patch changes.

I’m not sure what setup you’re using, but using thrill of the crime and pack runes gives you just over 100% swiftness uptime in combat. It would effectively make any movement boost you get null because swiftness is better. Besides this effective d/p usage typically has a large number of gap closers #2,#3,steal,infiltrators(optional),shadowstep. Combined together, I believe that using any movement utilities or runes is not as effective as a simple trickery plus pack setup.

swinsk.6410:

Actually, cripple and immob and chill are the ones I want to remove most… Don’t work on them anymore…

Seriously think this is worst patch ever….

Grandmaster in acro reduces the effect of chill and cripple (50%) automatically and also converts 1 immob to a cripple with an icd of 10s. I’d say that is a decent alternative to shadows embrace, especially since I think the overall bonuses from acrobatics is better than SA (at least when it comes to my playstyle, which doesn’t involve a lot of stealth stacking while in combat nor eating lots of damage). Can even take Guarded Initiation instead of Hard to Catch (which is the superior trait) if you really dislike slows.

Cynz.9437:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Link packet of salt for every response.

oh i need to get one of those…. what about bag of cumin?

I’ve actually upgrade to a stack of runes of rage to PM people. Is it 17g I wasted? Yes. Is it worth every penny? Also yes.

kitten that little spot around 8:30 for the no valid path on stealth giving Toker time to get cds back.

Justine.6351:

The advice I’m asking for is avoiding condi stack burst. Not eating condi stack burst and then having people rewrite my build to remove condi stack burst because they don’t have the skill to avoid condi stack burst then write advice rewriting my build and then getting mad because I refused advice to rewrite my build in favor of advice to avoid condi stack burst. I’m sorry if you don’t appreciate my lack of appreciation for advice rewriting a build that I find fun that I am indeed willing to change if it = same or more fun and effectiveness.

Sorry I’m out of time or I would write more.

Well I gave a bunch of matchup advice in the first comment. The reason people are looking at the build and giving the advice for that is because its the easiest thing to change and see a dramatic improvement.

You want my gameplay advice? You’re eating bursts because you’re wasting dodges and don’t know your matchups nearly well enough to get away with using that build. You waste dodges not knowing the timings of thieves coming out of stealth and panic when they enter into stealth causes a large amount of cd wasting. Dodging is your friend. For condi thief, the sneak attack from stealth can be pretty much full dodged if you simply dodge right as the first hit is put on you and then you can combo into a gs block to mitigate their next move.

You’re asking for us to talk for improvements and the build is the easiest aspect. Otherwise I’d recommend rolling a thief and putting 100 hours into it to learn how it plays and then transfer that knowledge back to ranger while you fight them. To me currently I just see someone who doesn’t know the proper techniques for fighting (and not just thieves) due to lack of knowledge of the matchups.

And to the guy above me, that’s a ridiculous claim and you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Justine.6351:

I was hoping for more advice on avoiding condi stacks. I will focus more on denying p/d strike from stealth with preemptive wolf fear, gs block and see how far that will take me.

I am playing the build I am playing because it is fun to me. It also takes me where I want to go in game. I do not meerly duel. I’m not opposed to change but its unlikely I will ever go back to signets. I may try trapper runes if I cannot avoid condi stacks enough. I may drop flame trap for muddy terrain once we get 3 full trait lines. I used to do hydro,leeching sigils on gs but swapped leeching for geomancy cause it looks pretty and more bleeding for camp stacks.

I will probably roam again tonight. I will record every fight against condi build and see if I need to make vid. Note, I did not record every fight on reset night nor did I add all the ones I did record to vid and I’m sorry about that. I did kinda suggest vid would be full of condi but it ended up only having one clip with first thief. That guy killed me like 10 times and I only got him once. Came across condi engi and mesmers as well.

Hate to tell you man, but if you’re asking for advice on forums about fighting specific specs and having trouble against those specs and yet you don’t want to change your build from something that truly isn’t that great against well anything then you have no one to blame but yourself. A component of your build is being used “because it looks pretty.” What? Play how you want to play, but don’t ask for help and then refuse to listen to good and valid points about your current biggest weakness. Also, the comments aren’t about dueling. I legit can’t think of a single situation as a power ranger where I would prefer your spec over any other option.

Now if its fun for you, that’s good and keep it up. But the fact that you’re complaining about those pesky roamers who kill you seems to imply that it isn’t as much fun as you’re claiming and perhaps could be improved by actually listening to the advice.

And shadowshot can be countered pretty much by knowing the timing of stealth and seeing the projectile that is being shot through the air. Pretty much counting to 3 and dodging will counter shadowshot from most thieves when they come out of stealth.

It’d be extremely helpful to actually see what build you’re using. Currently it seems all over the place, with traps without trapper runes and geomancy on gs without any condi dmg. It doesn’t seem like you’re dishing out a lot of damage either, which makes it kind of a curious choice. I personally use full zerker 6 6 0 2 0 lb/gs with HaO, LR, SoR, SoS, and binding roots and I don’t usually have issues with a condi thief. If you’re finding yourself being overwhelmed by condis, why not just swap traits to take SotF? Additional fury and ability to cleanse 2 condis when using any survival skill is pretty nice.

Based on the video it just seems like you panic when the thief goes SR and don’t really know what to do to counter it.

If you see a thief go SR, I typically just start a timer in my head and depending on the thief’s playstyle I know what I am going to do to counter. If you’re losing the fight just create space with gs #3 and reset. Otherwise I typically keep lb out and after a number of seconds of them sitting in stealth I toss #5 down around me to discourage close range engage without being slowed and damaged. If the thief is condi, just be ready to do a quick weapon swap to gs block and you mitigate the majority of their burst pretty easily. Hitting good knockbacks is also key against the thieves (and any class that wants to get close).

Besides what you do, controlling what your pet does is also a major bonus. A good p/d will use the pet as a free CnD target that can’t dodge so microing it properly helps a lot. Also using pets with some sort of control ability pets a lot especially immobs against condi thieves since you can always outrange them when they’re immobed.

As far as the number of Maguuma condi roamers goes I don’t think Mag has a larger number than any other server. The majority of people I see on Mag are using power while roaming it appears and the video you posted supports this. The only real condi player you meet is the p/d thief at the beginning. A swap of builds would probably help a lot, since the current build just doesn’t seem optimal in any way to me. Doesn’t have burst mitigation, doesn’t have condi mitigation, doesn’t have high armor to tank, and doesn’t have high burst to counter pressure.

Well since I can’t equip the staff currently had to preview. Crossing fingers for good skills for staff.

Zero Day.2594:

Lady Minuit.3186:

Turk.5460:

When people trash talk the best thing you can do is just reply with “ok” to everything they say. I learned this from a guildmate and it works wonders.

Sounds like a good trick. I’ll try that for when I forget my offline.

Make sure to say “that’s cute” or just “cute” every so often.

I usually am very polite than add “kiddo” at the end.

I personally always use sb for WvW roaming. Since most of my fights are either solo fights or small group I think that sb just gives better utility. The ability to drop the poison field and then cluster bomb a down in small scale gives it an edge over other sets. Add in the ability to outposition with #5, I do hold the belief that sb is highly recommended for thieves, at least if you’re running a glass set. You can put up good pressure simply through the bounces from the AA and then swap to your main set for the burst opportunities.

DeWolfe.2174:

I just crafted Ascended Armor last night. Said the heck with it and put Traveler Runes in them. I know I know, I just lost 10% damage output but, Terrain speed is just to darn slow. I’m incredibly sick of being stuck with Signet of Shadows as well so, I said the heck with it. Otherwise, I’d have gone with Pack runes for certain. It’s a tough call when I’m swapping the armor between Ranger and Engi too.

Honestly imo traveler runes are not a good option on thief. Even moreso with pack runes being the way they are. By simply taking thrill of the crime (adept trait in trickery line) and with pack rune procs, one is able to achieve perma swiftness in combat which is better than the results from the traveler runes. Along with this you gain perma fury and a free might stack because why not. Don’t forget you’re giving these to all nearby allies (up to 5) as well. Basically pack runes give better stat bonuses and better 6 rune effects, basically makes taking traveler runes moot for the speed bonus in combat.

If you’re complaining about out of combat move speed, simply slot signet of shadows when you have long runs or just detarget and use steal to get 12s of swiftness from trill of the crime. That combined with the natural ability to shadowstep from SB or sword 2 should be more than enough mobility when out of combat.

Not sure if you’re looking for advice about matchups or just looking for videos of gameplay. If you’re looking for advice/have questions feel free to toss me a message in game or on the forums @Helly.2597 I’m always willing to help people.

Give me ability to stow weapon/cancel cast PBS and then you’re welcome to nerf its damage.

Gomma.3792:

Hello again,
my 2nd ranger is ready now. I made an asura ranger ;D
New race… new build (oldschool build). Have fun and thx for all your comments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcsPEFBB_0A

So a good example of why I don’t like the aggressive pet stance is at 7:30 where a dog knockdown is wasted on a 1/4 HP scout instead of being used on any of the other targets. Also a little confused in the fight with the thief (and the guard coming in halfway through) why you didn’t use technobabble to interrupt the thief’s stealth. Used it when the thief was moving away from you and not doing any actions.

Fluffball.8307:

Your pet stance is not that important. You’re constantly spamming attack and return during fights.

I keep mine on aggressive because if I get overwhelmed, I’d rather have my pet attacking than doing nothing.

Appears its just a taste thing. I’ve always found that I’d rather have the pet keeping close to be unless I tell it to go somewhere. And keeping it on guard makes it easier to control exactly the non-activation skills like dog knockdowns and spider immobs. Also prevents pet from wandering into areas and just dying.

Decent videos overall. Pretty solid gameplay.

Only major thing I disagree with is placing pets on the “aggressive stance.” Perhaps I’m missing something, but the ability to actually control the pet a lot better with “guard” (and commanding when to attack) seems to only really have advantages. It requires a bit more micro on your part, but it just adds a dynamic new aspect to the class and raises the skill cap especially when it comes to power ranger.

Its possible that I’m just missing something, however, and if that is the case please inform me, since I’ve only spent 65 hours on ranger.

I’m not entirely positive, but I believe throw chain is stolen off guardians underwater. I’m a little surprised its not on the list though. Guess there isn’t a use with no real underwater pvp anymore.

Its not really so much that underwater steals are undocumented its just there isn’t much exposure to them currently. Still is an oversight on the wiki’s part though.

Pimsley.6087:

Thanks a ton. That 60206 looks very intriguing and I definitely did not consider the fury buffing my crit damage. Great call. I will definitely be testing a ton this week. The feedback in gw2 is fantastic. Thanks guys for all the tips.

No problem, and just to clarify fury buffs crit chance which is different than damage.

Have fun!

Pimsley.6087:

This is great stuff. I was playing with a build editor and really liked the look of the 6 0 2 0 6 build, but noticed crit dropping well below 50%. Is this going to be noticeable at all, or am I missing something that one of the traits provides? I know it will go up with food and maint. oil, but I was just wondering what your thoughts on this are? I am currently testing 2 6 0 0 6 and having some success with it, but as a new player and testing a new build I will definitely need some time to really feel it out.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZQQNAoaVlsMp7pdOx0JsPNBMBxVP8ONnpNangdHAA-TVCFABA8AAKU9nrUCikyBBOFAJpkrm9HSTfwCHBgAAIA3sNbzbG4oH9oH9oHtbezjezjezCBYeMA-w

Thats just a base build I use on my thief (honestly without as much ascended as that) as far as stats go (food/sigils/runes as well) with the traits changeable between 2 6 0 0 6 and 6 0 2 0 6. Feel free to put some more valk gear (pow,fer + vit) if you want. Having hp between 13k-15k on d/p is excellent for a 6 0 2 0 6 traitspread imo.

As far as crit chance goes, keep in mind you’re gaining 20% from fury constantly, so keeping it between 40-50% is perfect since then you aren’t sacrificing other stats for it. Its a bit of a balancing act. Personally, 40-50% before fury is perfect. Allows for you to have the benefits of very high power, which will impact every hit regardless of crit or not and still having the majority of attacks be crit during combat (with the fury uptime).