Guild Wars 2

Part of the reason for the stack is so that the team can easily res people as they go down… people made good suggestions here but you’ll be up in 2 sec after going down anyways.

Did anyone see the thieves in the finals of a recent tourney running 30/30/0/0/10? I’m not seeing the potential behind that build other than crossing your fingers and hoping the burst ends it.

bump anet………

Haters gonna hate O_o

That being said, sbow is a lot stronger than most thieves realize. How many have you seen use sbow for most of a 1v1 and come away with the win?

I want my character to be able to obtain full ascended gear from playing spvp. I also think skins only obtainable in spvp should be usable in the pve/wvw environment. I still want to be able to go into wvw with my thief but I have no desire to farm for ascended pieces anymore.

I agree with everyone here. In my estimation, Anet nerfed the wrong part of S/D and over-nerfed it at that! If any nerf was merited I’d say they should have reduced the damage of LS. By doing so, thieves would be spending less time 333333-ing and spending more time auto attacking. The use of FS and/or LS would then be used when the player gets more benefit from it than what’s lost from the lower dps. Lowering the boons stolen to 1 just promotes spamming 3 even more (even though the nerf was strong enough that the spec will be seeing less play anyways). So is reducing the amount of 3 spam by reducing the use of the weapon set considered a win for Anet?

I didn’t notice it while playing s/d thief in hotjoin yesterday :P

TS definitely needs more umph but there are already too many stuns/dazes/interrupts in this game. I always thought adding chill to it would be reasonable. S/X needs a reason to go into stealth and seeing how the whole set is about having high mobility while reducing the enemies it makes sense to me. Besides, they can’t just add more damage and make it rival backstab…

I just got my highest solo queue rank ever post patch while using my thief. I even had to walk all over a Champion Shadow to get there. None of the other professions give me lasting enjoyment so I’ll just leave gw2 if thief stops being fun for me.

That being said, I think mesmer’s are the most similar to thieves but they’re less visceral and the lack of chase ability really bothers me sometimes. I really like how engineers work but I prefer spending my time focusing on positioning rather than managing tons of cooldowns (my hands can’t take it anymore) so I just can’t get into them either.

I used to be able to play in WvW too. My client would crash sometimes loading new zones but lowering my graphics to absolutely minimum stopped that (even though I could get decent fps at higher settings). Then they ‘improved’ wvw with their culling fixes and now I can’t even step foot in there. PvP is all I have left that’s stable. Grats on your rank, I just got inside of 200 myself

In a foot race warriors can be roughly equivalent to thieves but like others said, the z axis mobility makes thieves the best. My thief is designed to chase people down and if I don’t have all my utilities off cooldown I can’t catch a GS warrior with the leg mod trait (not sure on the exact name).

runeblade.7514:

You tell me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl6z-RjPUGg

Fun video. Mesmers don’t need any nerfs but I don’t really think they need buffs either. Just my opinion though.

Seems reasonable to request an icon. It just adds a higher skill ceiling for those who know to look for it.

The main s/d build is s/d + sb 10/30/0/30/0. Acro doesn’t give you a lot of damage but you do get crazy dodges and decent health gains from it. Plus s/d is a very heavy initiative user so you need the +2/10sec and infi signet’s passive. If you keep your endurance below 100% you get the +10% damage boost from 25 in acro and if you auto attack smartly rather than spamming 3 you’ll stay over 6 initiative which is another 10% boost. Stealth isn’t useful for the set (except as an escape method) because tactical strike is underwhelming. TS needs something more to motivate s/x thieves to use stealth; I doubt it needs more damage because that’s what mainhand dagger is for but I don’t think a 4 second chill would be unfair to add to it.

Nerf Burnfall, he is clearly OP Hey friend, glad to see you’re still sticking in there! Can I ask what your main profession is by chance?

Asomal.6453:

He is right, you know. There’s nothing to improve about DPS guards, they were fine before and they are even better now. The thing that makes them seem like a weak or problematic build, is that “everything” else is out of control in this game. Take those condition spammers, AI and CC builds away, and the guardian will do just fine, like the S/D elementalist, another spec some people thinks needs a buff. It’s not the build per se, but the awful balance we are getting since ever. And no, I don't think power creeping the guardian should be the solution

Agreed… there are several professions that need to be brought back in line with the rest of them.

And when was the last time a d/d ele had any trouble vs a d/x thief? As it turns out, a hard counter to stealth on any profession is a bad idea O_o.

I recently played against a dps guard on my d/p thief and he insta KO’d me twice before I figured out what was going on I was intrigued so I went back a third time and had to play my kitten off to finally beat him. Honestly, the build seemed solid as is.

OP I think you’re coming off as conceited. Being good at this game doesn’t give someone more insight to what makes it fun for the 90% that actually pays Anet’s bills. You wouldn’t have played so long if you didn’t enjoy it so is Anet really doing that bad? It’s just a game after all.

Regards,

This thread has been kind of fun to read. I’d give back some blinds for the burst I lost over the months. OP don’t worry too much, everyone who is good had to practice and go through being bad to get where they are now.

Cheers!

Thief is a lot of fun and it can do everything in the game well once you learn how to protect yourself. It is the only profession I really put any time into anymore. The nerfs are ridiculous but I’ll play until it isn’t fun then I’ll move on to other games.

AtoBoss.2906:

Maybe bring some stability and dont hang around the edges…

WTB thief stability. The map is completely imbalanced across classes.

It is just a game. If it isn’t fun or rewarding for you to play then you really shouldn’t be playing it. I get frustrated by what seems like obvious laps in judgement by the devs but it’s a passing feeling. Go off and through superior play beat the FOTM rollers and smile

Necros have tons of weakness applications and seem to have protection up half the time. Wouldn’t this just make them godly?

I do fine against the necros in solo queue with s/d. Pain response in acrobatics seems to help a lot even though it’s hard to notice sometimes.

It’s much harder as d/p but you can keep blinds up pretty often and it’s important to get in a ton of damage when you use the stolen fear from them. Headshot/steal-daze interrupt their heal and obvious animations. Shadow Return removes 3 conditions on the utility, use it at a good time.

Keep weakness off yourself at all costs and boonsteal protection when they activate spectral armor.

wish.1027:

You have to play smart and make them burn their alternate forms and fears while you hide and kite, then you can get an easy kill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgE5BJs0MQI

So the trick to beating them is to find a newb necro in wvw and after waiting out plague form heartseeker him at full health? kitten that necro was bad.

Quality thieves are the rarest class I’ve seen in solo queue/hotjoin. O_o

Yeah, things get stale sometimes with our limited weapon options.

That’s pretty impossible to answer. They both have their 1v1 match-ups that they are better at so their ability to cap nodes is about the same (assuming the same utilities). S/D is much more sustainable in teamfights though. If the d/p thief gets focused he has to get out fast. I’m around rank 450 solo queue only using d/p thief; it is viable and I think it’s more fun than s/d. However, using shadow step instead of signet of agility has made s/d so much better for me so that’s what I’m playing now. I miss being able to end fights faster but the kit gives you the tools you need to survive long enough to get the kill and you end up fairing better in ugly situations.

So for both builds I suggest infiltrator signet, shadow step, and shadow refuge. I used to play double signet with s/d (FOTM style I know) but ningyou’s commentary about shadow step made me realize I could use my d/p utilities just as effectively on s/d.

My only trouble on s/d so far is 1v1 vs a good d/p thief. I never learned to counter stealth without stealth of my own so I don’t dodge the backstabs properly yet.

Give both a try, they’re different enough that when you get bored you can switch to the other.

I hate people lumping trickery based d/p builds with the shadow arts versions…

10/30/0/30/0 s/d + sb lyssa runes
10/30/0/0/30 d/p + sb ogre runes

I’d consider these the two top spvp builds. The s/d build is designed to evade a lot and provide steady damage. The d/p build is meant to spam blinds, interrupts, and have a great burst. Neither heavily rely on stealth although the d/p build will use it for burst. Short bow isn’t talked about a lot but it is really important for team fights and mobility.

I use the same d/p build in wvw but arguably it’s still better to use a perma-stealth variant if you like taking on uneven odds. I’ve never liked sword in wvw because it’s chase potential is too low. Everyone in wvw runs… everyone.

Hope this helps.

I don’t care about the stupid top thief discussion, I just want to see examples of his gameplay. The only good s/d thief i’ve watched from the thief POV is jumper and his 2x s/d build was pretty different.

Does he have any videos of his gameplay in tpvp?

The only d/p builds that needs tweaked are the ones that grant 2 init on stealth. A change such as not granting +2 init if gaining stealth while stealthed (only when first entering stealth) would fix it. Thieves run D/X in wvw because the average person there sucks and has a fondness for running away. D/P is our best chaser set so it makes sense. You’ve spent enough time in these forums (even without providing any useful comments) to know that!

Thanks for the video Lux, it is nice to see the style of other d/p thieves. Interesting use of smoke field but I can’t see giving up inf signet for it.

Sceinna you always make good videos. I can’t stand playing p/d anymore but watching this reminds me of why I liked it before. Keep up the good work!

Bad or average ones I beat with d/p + sb. Good to great ones it’s better to find another target.

dDuff I think you’re onto something with that amulet. Overall this build isn’t my style but when playing it I rarely wished I had more damage and less sustainability. D/P with soldiers is just a bit silly haha. I enjoyed the latest video too!

Thanks for the tips Gwalchgwn!

azuzephyr.7280:

Power necros are non-existent in tpvp, thieves are rampant in almost all teams and comps. There is no matchup even close to a power necro and a thief. It is not rock paper scissors comparing power necro to thief, it’s comparing battle tanks to paper planes.

An equivalent skill to off-hand pistol on a necro has a 50 second cooldown and takes a utility slot, the only thing better is the radius which equates to very little when stomping.

If this is true then go off the the spvp or necro forms and ask for power necro buffs. You’re ruining this thread with off-topic rants dude.

People just don’t like thieves. I was in an spvp game yesterday on my mesmer and a group of thieves had joined together on one side. They broke into our base to get the lord but I and another person cut them off. They spent 5 min or so kiting around with sbow #3. They didn’t get anything accomplished but I couldn’t kill them. If I was on my thief I probably could have but the point is that our profession makes it easy to annoy others. Nothing the thief has is overpowered right now but we have a lot of annoying things we can do that people just hate. S/X #2 is the same way.

Hasn’t the d/p troll zerg harasser build already been done? 0/20/30/20/0 or 0/10/30/30/0 d/p both work for that but it’s harder w/o culling.

Quick Mouse.7635:

Hype!

Yes?

Another thief /15 char

dDuff.3860:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

The display of noobish tendencies to interrupt a heal when using S/D is amazing. If you have that impulsive noobish tendencies, it is fitting to your playstyle to use D/P and feed into your tendencies with headshots.

Such noobish tendencies has no place in S/D. A target trying to heal is not a situation that demands daze when using S/D — that’s your noobish tendencies nagging at you.

Which also explains why certain S/D skill are a waste of initiatives to you — in truth, you just don’t know the right moment to use them.

Accidentaly, I haven’t found you on leaderboard to decide what bracket are you talking about.
In my ~100-150 it is vital to interrupt heal and to protect it with both stability/invulnerability, but i’m not playing cheesy S/D to follow its path.

How is S/P less cheesy? Get off your high horse man.

Vincent stop trolling please.

Thief: I DEMAND stealth! CnD
Opponent: NO! Dodge

Yes, on demand stealth on S/D, proof!

Agreed, good video and nerf the runes!

Mesmer weapons should do less damage than thief weapons. Clones and phantasms are supposed to do a significant portion of a mesmer’s damage. Besides… when was the last time you saw a thief use mind wrack?

For #1 to take place I’d need our base init regeneration to increase to compensate for 1-2 stealth attacks. Even having one less init every 10 seconds is a huge nerf for several builds.

Others already explained why #2 is a bad idea. It’s a counter to bad d/p thieves? Bad d/p thieves are already easy enough to counter; they’re not good by definition!

Interrupting the other professions should put that all of that weapon set’s skills on full cooldown. That’s about equivalent to your kind suggestion.

Life is so hard! Why is life so hard?

There should only be GS warriors in this game, everything else is lame. Diversity sucks!