Guild Wars 2

Faeyd.5094:

So you wouldn’t kill my ranger then you’d need more damage / procs / luck / RNG support from the game.

Well… sounds likely you’re not running the glassy build all the other bandwagon LB rangers are then.

In that case, I’m not particularly worried about you being able to kill me either.

Faeyd.5094:

I can see a lot of folks moving to P/P at the moment and I get it… On all my power builds my secondary set has always been P/P for remote drilling of opponents etc.

I know there are specific counters, but I am playing my old LB ranger at the moment and P/P thieves are dieing at 1k range before they can get to play which just makes me feel bad.

Ha… well you must be facing some dull kitten thieves (or maybe its the Rangers I’m fighting who are dull kitten), because p/p has become my number one troll weapon on Rangers. :-D

Once rage sigil procs on my Unload , it’s hilarious watching Rangers go through panic motions as they realize their “I win” button can’t save them this time. I rack up 20k damage on all these “flavor of the month” zerker Rangers easily in the space of 3 secs with guard stacks, blood lust stacks and power food.

I’m not gonna just run up to them with pistols out though… that’s why I use it as my secondary weapon set.

I’ve actually dropped short bow off hand, replacing it with p/p for my WWW d/p build, and I have no regrets. :-)

Just slot the quickness sigil (rage) into one of the pistols and you get insane dps on your Unload… particularly with the now reduced cast time on the skill from the recent feature patch. Typically I can get a full 3 Unloads off in quick succession during the 3 seconds that quickness procs… to give me damage that rivals and in many cases exceeds the notorious Ranger rapid fire… particularly if I have furious retaliation set up in traits.

Petless options ?

Wut… that animal following you around getting in the way of your LB pew pew ?

Poor Rangers.

Atalas.4965:

While is see many sad posts about thieves nerfed down, as I read the patch notes there are only buffs to this class. Most thieves relied way too much on stealth, meaning they were in stealth about 90% of the time in any battle.
When changes came and that’s good they came, now you need a bit more skill and timing to do the same thing. It’s only it was actually easier for the unskilled ones to look up the net for some “never see me” “I hit you but you shouldn’t hit back because I am so used to stealth that I forgot how to use my mobillity”

Thief is the profession who’s weapon skills have NO cooldowns. Thus this is the one profession that really can be played in Many different ways with the same weapon set without any need for rotation, the thief will switch weapons if he wants to, given the circumstances, not because he has to.
This is by far the most versatile class from the game. I love it. I main as thief, and I really like the changes. I used stealth where I needed it. But that was not my ONLY option to stay alive.

I am sure that I am not the only one still confortable playing as thief, I am quite sure that there are still hundreds of others. But the voices of sorrow can be heard louder then the voices of joy

Dude, did you even READ the patch notes ?

The effects on stealth are non-existent. My D/P thief carries merrily along like nothing has changed. It’s mainly the sword thieves who are complaining. I give you 1/10 for trying to stir kitten up.

nicknamenick.2437:

cry over warrior? they are in a horrible place right now.

And no this patch doesnt made guardian suddenly OP.. they where already very good (medi guards) and yes this patch did buff them even more.

If you compared guard with other classes i can say you they have too much burst for the amount of sustain they have.

And dont come with the argument, if you get target and 3 man jump on guard they just dead.. every class if dead when multiple jump on 1.

Tell that to Mesmer, thief and (Nike) Warrior. The Medi-Guard’s problem in a 3 man jump is that he has no way of getting the kitten out of there. Like others have said, yours is a L2P issue.

Sometimes you’ve really got to wonder about ANet’s patch testing before release.

Exedore.6320:

Medi guard was buffed where it didn’t need it. People are complaining because it’s extremely annoying to fight, even when played by mediocre people, just like d/d ele.

It still can’t kill anyone reasonably smart because the burst is too easy to avoid. But now it lasts even longer with the extra heal and faster virtue reset so eventually it will win through attrition, even with a damage-oriented amulet.

Instead, they should reduce the healing on Monk’s Focus so they can make it better at well-executed offense.

Dumbest idea ever. Unlike warriors, Medi-Guards have no way of leaving the fight if things go south… they are “in it to win it” in every sense of the phrase. And when you factor in one of the lowest base healths of all classes, you can understand why Guards need every bit of sustain they can get.

Yet you want to nerf one of the most vital things keeping Guards in the fight… their healing ?

I repeat… dumbest idea EVER ! (and I don’t even main a guard and normally don’t see medi’s as that much of a threat). Which means we can probably look for this recommendation to implemented next patch !

OK, thank you !

Referring of course to the new sigil which stacks ferocity on kills. Been using bloodlust for a while now with my DP build for maxing burst. Just wondering if stacking ferocity instead will give me higher bursts on my back stabs… lol.

Lankybrit.4598:

You don’t HAVE to pay a subscription for Wildstar either. Nor for TERA. Nor for the upcoming Archeage. What’s your point?

Someone over on the AA forums coined it best…

F2P on ArcheAge is like a never ending Free Trial.

So let me guess, you got owned by some passing med guard and came on here to rant.

Guardians still have one of the lowest HP pool and mobility even after merciful intervention change is still kitten. Medi guardian pressuring you ?

Just run away (unless you’re a necro). They are easy to kite once judges intervention is on cool down.

Hitman.5829:

Expect a 3 second cast time and an animation telling “here I come” in bold letters.

Did you watch the ready up video showing the skill being used ?

I’m guessing not.

vespers.1759:

Silly Kuro Kami, you should know by now that thieves will never be touched.

Wow… the ignorance in this thread. Thieves black powder is being nerfed to hell and back with this coming update. No more will they be able to stand in their blind field, laughing at your “misses”.

Cygnus.6903:

If it roots the warrior, however, it will be way worse. Hammer used to be unusable when #3 and #4 rooted you. Still, for the combo, it will be interesting to say the least.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the current Arcing Slice root you in place during the animation of the skill ?

And if so, why one earth would Anet change this when buffing the skill to something useful for a change ?

Anyway based on the Ready Up video it seems to have a very fast cast time so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

fellyn.5083:

Exciton.8942:

fellyn.5083:

McWolfy.5924:

the final strike is not changed, so the change is under 5%

Actually it’s not. Each of the hits before the final strike is taking a 5% nerf. At least that’s how I understood it when watching the vod on twitch.

So it’s more like a 35% damage nerf outside of the final hit. If what I said is true, and I believe it is until I’m told otherwise.

What math are you doing? Are you joking?

Well if each hit is reduced by 5% then that’s not simply a 5% nerf. As I said in my previous post his wording remains ambiguous.

Knocking 5% off of each of the initial hits is a lot different than knocking 5% off all of them together.

Unless there is some clarification somewhere on what he means specifically then I will always see the worst case scenario as the likely option.

This is what he said, exactly: Hundred blades has been reduced by 5% for the initial strikes.

If an opponent eats every strike of 100b they take 100% of the skill’s damage, agreed ?

Therefore 5% nerf to each strike equals 5% nerf to total dmg of 100b (well less than 5% since last strike is unaffected.

Ha Ha… Warriors preview changes were disclosed today as well. And boy… damage increase buffs all over the place !! (some nerfs too but mainly to adrenaline and minor enough that they can be worked around easily compared to the new toys).

So much for any thoughts of me switching back to my thief main. All hail Warriors !! And may my thief R.I.P.

Azure.8670:

they already announced the updates for Ranger and Engi. It was in the last ready up, the updates for thief and war were supposed to be in the aug 8th one. I jus realized as I typed this that its aug 8th… now/tmrw…. doh

The Ready Up update is supposed to come around 12pm PDT.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Skill-Bar-Balance-Preview-w-Karl-on-RU-8-8-Noon-PDT

Much appreciated that you took the time to make such a comprehensive guide on the class. :-)

Oh and I love the name too (Book of Shadows)

liedofwar.5409:

The idea that all professions can be equally good at every aspect of play is just a fantasy. ArenaNet made a big deal of muddying the water, but the truth is that any game which has mechanically different classes will have incomparables which cannot be so easily balanced and will leave some better at specific things than others.

Ha Ha… read this. Thought about the Warrior class in this game. Then laughed some more.

Xerion.8014:

Hihi, there is an upcoming sandbox MMO where you can sail on boats, where you can sail across the ocean and battle against other ships and get eaten by a kraken.

Archeeee i don’t remember the name of that upcoming game, i think it has something to do with my Age.

Uh huh… and might I remind you that the upcoming game whose name you can’t remember is launching as “Free to Play”. Expect to pay a small “fee” every time you want to get on that boat. And despite what the devs may say otherwise, down the road F2P nearly always translates into P2W, just saying…

MasterYoda.8563:

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

So, the low level map populations just died.

Welcome to EoTM.

And watch EOTM get nerfed because of all the people being rude going there since they just moved the problem without really fixing nothing.

No need for ANet to nerf EOTM. The professional WvW guilds going in there to “farm” all the Queensdale refugees will be all the nerf they’ll need.

Hunter.4783:

That’s the whole problem with the roaming guardian, even though you might be able to beat 6/8 other classes consistently the moment you get 1v2ed you will die with no way of escape.

All these builds are nice and all but none of this solves the core issue, which is our mobility and escape options

Yeah… this build is nice and all but it’s still a tough sell asking me to give up travelers for those might stacking runes. Our mobility sucks enough as it is.

Auesis.7301:

Kincaidia.3192:

Auesis.7301:

http://www.gw2db.com/items/64883-experimental-remnant-s#c1

This is WAY cheaper and almost as effective.

what is this?

8% damage while moving, 1s28c for 10 minutes.

I went and did the quest chain… bought a few and tested them out. The damage increase was noticeable but seems to apply mainly to auto attacks which you can do while moving. All of our other hard hitting skills (back stab, Heart seeker, etc) brings the thief to a halt just before the attack starts.

ninjabiscuit.8052:

panicbutton.1053:

I’m still a little confused about why a few people think Revealed Training is a good trait. It’s something like a 8% damage boost, right? That literally a small 8% damage boost for a few seconds. That surely can’t be enough to call it a godsend for anything — if anything it makes our damage a little closer to what it was pre-patch?

I’m not attacking it, I just don’t see the promise in a 8% boost.

If an 8% damage boost is the difference between a dead target and a living one, then I take it.

Well (and people generally tend to forget this) you are traiting 300 power just to get that 8% damage boost. That in itself will up your damage by a decent amount even without the new GM trait.

Geiir.7603:

I think that the 0/6/6/2/0 build is still viable. I also go for hidden killer, blind on stealth, condition removal on stealth and healing on stealth. I use traveler runes, berserker weapons and trinkets and valkyrie armor. Utility skills, elite and healing skills are completely up to you. I usually run with shadowstep, hide in shadow and blinding powder. With those three skills you should be able to rarely die when combining those with the stealth stacking from black powder and heartseeker.

I run this setup with dagger/dagger (land those cloak and daggers). More burst and more challenging. It’s very viable if you learn to land CnD.

Travelers runes ?

Dude with that build you now hit like a wet noodle. I would be shocked if your back stab even reaches 2k on your average warrior.

Dee Jay.2460:

Oh my, that’s a deal-breaker.

That said, both Sigil of Fire and Air seem over-hyped. Their damage is lackluster compared to most other Sigils. The only real benefit they offer is added burst. But DPS wise they are terrible choices.

It adds an extra 1k or so damage to my back stab/mug combo and so in that sense it helps to close the gap between my burst damage pre and post patch which makes me happy. But yeah no one should expect it to be some kind of DPS godsend.

Carpboy.7145:

Hexalot.8194:

One thing that got trashed was Ruby Orbs. They went from +2% crit damage to +2 ferocity. ;-(

That doesn’t make sense. It should be +15 ferocity

Maybe the Wiki is wrong ?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ruby_Orb

One thing that got trashed was Ruby Orbs. They went from +2% crit damage to +2 ferocity. ;-(

Double up on sigil air & fire for your main and off hands. With a bit of luck (i.e… both proccing at the same time), you’ll be doing damage above what you did pre-patch on back stab. Even if only one sigil procs, your damage should be consistent with pre-patch.

Phlakez.5817:

I just want to be sure…
Before patch there were two stats, one for power and one for Attackrating (including base dmg of the weapon), after this patch Attackrating is missing… if i change my legenday to a green weapon, i dont see any changes, except the few stats in power etc…
so is it true that anet forgot to integrate the weapon damage in this new system?
were is this stat now? if this stat is missing, we all lose about 1k AR… this is a huge damage loss… i can now wear a green weapon instead of my legendary or a ascended one?
Is this working as intended? instead of 9k dmg i now do 3k? I know crit damage was nerfed but normal hits also? :o this cant be true…
hopefully i get an officiel answer

I also noticed this. I’m assuming (more like hoping) it’s a bug ?

DatPieGuy.6540:

So does revealed training grant bonus power while revealed, as we originally believed, or does it apply to attacks initiated from stealth? If its the latter, I’m immediately switching to 6/6/0/0/1 for wvw so I can feel better about the crit damage nerf.

Yeah… I think OP has it wrong… 200 power should apply after back stab.

Belzebu.3912:

Here we go again …
You won’t lose the stack on weapon swap, you’ll lose when you un-equip the weapon.

Um… the quote says specifically that you’ll lose the stack when you un-equip the sigil… it doesn’t say, “un-equip the weapon”. Now this is where the vagueness comes in. Does “un-equip a sigil” refer to just swapping the weapon or does it mean un-equiping the entire weapon, i.e… removing it from the box ?

hellsmachine.4085:

Tao.5096:

hellsmachine.4085:

I think there are two types of Pay 2 Win.

Soft P2W: Games like GW2 and NW that have advantages also obtainable via in game currency

Hard P2W: Games like AoC, where without paying you can not win end game content.

NW – you can exchange ingame currency into shop currency
GW2 – same thing

i.e. you can obtain shop items w/o spending a penny out of your wallet in game.
Also, both shops don’t have even p2w items that boost you up heavily beyond normal player.
NW tho differ since it’s f2p anyway – and Cryptic studio does a good job maintaining ingame balance between ingame items and shop items.

In GW2 the only thing that would be p2w would be boosters….but really? I get them from daily/monthly rewards too, and they’re free.

Mining/harvesting tool – I can’t imagine someone not being able to purchase gathering tools out of merchant :/

Okay, they have some customizable items, remodel skins etc, but hey.
It doesn’t affect game experience and yet we treat it as donating developer team and maintaining servers which aren’t cheap.

so yeah, your comparison is good but I really don’t see any GW2 shop item even as soft p2w.
Maybe if they would add Level up Tomes.

I still think it’s technically pay to win. I can buy gems convert to gold, and buy ascended mats or even legendary. It’s not a bad thing. Many games have this. Even D3 was soft pay to win.

The problem here is that ascended/legendary gear doesn’t give enough of an advantage over standard exotics to be really considered P2W gear.

If you ever played Perfect World you’d know what I was talking about. In that game, gear that was only available via boutique purchase (either real money or lengthy grinding for coins) had more than twice the stats of gear available from the open world/dungeons.

hellsmachine.4085:

I think there are two types of Pay 2 Win.

Soft P2W: Games like GW2 and NW that have advantages also obtainable via in game currency

Hard P2W: Games like AoC, where without paying you can not win end game content.

Your hard P2W definition is also false. There are plenty of hardcore P2W MMOs out there where you can get end game gear (typically available only from cash shop) without paying a cent. Those are typically games where you can grind for gold/coin which can then be converted into cash shop currency to buy end game gear.

What makes them P2W is that in those games it typically takes months to a year (unless you’re a wiz in the Auction House) to grind the coin necessary to buy the cash shop end game gear required to “win” the game. On the other hand, someone with a credit card can just swipe and instantly get that same end game gear that you’re currently grinding your butt off for. Hence that someone has just “paid to win”.

As far as GW2 is concerned, nothing in the boutique that I’ve seen comes even remotely close to providing superiority over anyone else at end game. And by “superiority” I’m talking about better offense, defense, mobility, etc… over someone playing with non boutique items. Merely having the better fashion or stat resetting convenience doesn’t count as P2W IMO.

Real men don’t waste a precious slot on shadow refuge when playing D/P… I’m just saying.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Mhmm… Low gank-factor due to lack of power and still gets instagibbed by a scholar thief due to lack of vitality. Could perhaps mix in some valkyrie to gain more power and some vitality. One doesn’t really need 2k thoughness as a thief.

The streamlining of crit damage stats will probably destroy this build as it relies mostly on crit dmg %. Not only will crit dmg % see an overall nerf, but the “extra” % that is currently given by trinkets, will be balanced out.

This.

Anet won’t have to bother with nerfing this since they know that the upcoming changes to crit damage will do the job just fine in terms of reducing the effectiveness of this and all other builds that rely so heavily on crit damage.

Charak.9761:

Jski.6180:

Compensate for what? Every one who did crit dmg is going to do a bit lower unless you intend to build a condition guardian your not going to need to changes any thing. Crit dmg is still going to be ontop vs pure power dmg. Unless you think they are dropping vit they are not.

Its because Precision is becoming Ferocity and crit damage removed

those 18 points of precision I shifted to Vit, means about a 1.5% crit damage loss

Um… no. Ferocity replaces the secondary stat for crit damage. Precision stays the same.

Mash Hog.5672:

Randulf.7614:

A true Living World needs a living environment.

A true Living World needs a living environment.

From some reason you would think this should have been obvious as night and day (pun intended) to the Devs since beta.

Sanduskel.1850:

Incurafy.6329:

How many times does it have to be said? D/P pseudo-permastealth was already nerfed on the 10th of Dec and it is now impossible to maintain it without the use of utilities with lengthy cooldowns. In fact, maintaining it while doing noticeable damage is close to impossible.

It’s actually easier now lol

No it’s not. The days of spamming HS 3-4 times through BP to get perma stealth while not having to worry about cool downs or running out of initiative was as easy as it gets… and that was nerfed into the ground Dec 10th. Now unless you can show us an alternative way that makes the December nerf moot, the Devs are likely to look in this thread and then come to the inevitable conclusion that someone is trolling.

Dee Jay.2460:

But outside of Dagger Mainhand builds the gear-set is less awesome.

Well that’s kind of the understatement of the year.

Nobody in their right mind goes full zerk and/or Hidden killer in non-backstab builds.

Dragonas.8470:

What is the current WvW roaming thief meta? Dec 10 changes applied.

WvW roaming Meta ?

Sure… come join the S/P party dude !

With the new buff to Pistol Whip’s cast time, I haven’t had this much fun on my thief since beta !!

30 DA (hands down the best trait line for s/p builds post Dec 10 patch)
30 CS
10 wherever you wish… who cares !

Sundering Strikes (now buffed to apply vul every other crit on average… with high enough precis you can stack it up to 11 times !), Exposed Weakness (for additional 10% damage boost once SS procs) and Panic Strike for the finishing lock down… LOL… I can’t believe how good the DA trait line has gotten !

Null.9743:

Checked to see if your mailbox isn’t full and there’s a mail you should be receiving with the Finisher item in it?

Ah… that was the problem. Thank you !!

Eh… no one ?

I purchased the new Thornroot finisher from the gem store about one half hour ago. My purchase clearly shows up under the “recent purchases” section of the Black Lion panel. Yet the permanent finisher still remains locked when I check within the finishers tab within the Hero panel.

I’m not particularly sure what’s going on.

I have no idea if this is a bug or not but after purchasing thorn root finisher from the gem store, it still remains locked in the finishers tab under the Hero panel.

Can anyone help ?

Atlas.9704:

Ok if true then my wolf and spirit weapons will be used more often.

“Wrathful Spirits: This trait now increases damage dealt by spirits by 50%, up from 10%.”

On the face of it… this sounds almost too good to be true. But… having never used spirit weapons myself… I have no idea if spirit damage was previously so pitiful that this buff merely brings them back up to the level of mediocre or not.

I.e… will they be worth using now ?

Same issue here. Got in after the 4th try. Judging by the fact that this thread is 13 hours old with still no resolution on the matter, one can’t help but conclude that support doesn’t work weekends…

Kolly.9872:

yeah but you’re talking just for 1 type of build that requires at least 20 point in trickery.. not a bad spec but not everyone that is using sword\dagger want to run 20 points in trickery.. and also I shouldn’t be forced to run like that just for trying to steal might…

also I am sure that might and retaliation are the last boons in the priority list, so if someone is running with 6 active boon at the time, you won’t be able to steal might and retaliation even using Steal and LS..

I realy ask for a change: I want to steal boon in a totally random way, I don’t ask to steal might\protection or retaliation every time but just to have the same chance to steal one of those boon and not always Swiftness\Fury\Regeneration

Psssh… steal from a warrior or thief (might stacking during stealth) and the majority of the time might will be one of the two boons you end up grabbing… LS is fine as it is. It just depends on which class you’re targeting.

TsukiNoEi.4570:

We give up our defence just for burst

and now you nerf our burst?

Isn’t that thief is the best profession to burst?

I never complain that burst thief cannot kill a guardian

and still we need to be nerfed??

Please tell me what a burst thief can kill now? rabbit?

Burst thief cannot kill a Guardian, but boon stealing S/D thief now can.

Time to throw away that main hand dagger and come try what all the cool kids are now playing.