Guild Wars 2

Never change, forums.

Let’s wait for the patch notes?

Omri.8196:

By the way guys my point of view is totally based on the pvp aspect of the game. Mostly zerk guardians are the only ones that will agree with me on swiftness.

As for pve, I would prefer fury all day.

I’d prefer Guardians get something sPvP-specific instead, if that’s a real concern.

Omri.8196:

Well I doubt you’ll understand unless you run an offensive non staff medi build, here you support less and smash more.

I understand just fine, thanks. Why do you suppose I want easy access to Fury?

And in exchange for that, Guardians get a bunch of ridiculous defensive skills and party support abilities that the kiting Thief does not.

Some call it “balance”.

Guardians are designed to have poor mobility, by design.

Bring on Fury.

I never get interrogated about my gear. People who PUG generally know what to expect from PUGs, and make the most of what they have available, since the alternative is that you don’t do the run.

If you read the pearl-clutching posts from the elitists here in the forums, you’d think that everyone was playing competitive Megaman instead of Guild Wars 2, but in reality folks tend to be understanding and reasonable.

tanshiniza.8629:

Might stacking is very useful unless you meet a Necro or a thief. Never give a Thief free might stacks or you’ll end up wondering where the 12K backstab came from.

That’s not how Bountiful Theft works. One stack of Might is not going to make a huge difference on Backstab. Thieves have a lot of ways to get Might for themselves anyway, particularly if they aren’t running some kitten-useless glass Backstab build.

Nikachu.1475:

Also, I’ve been hearing you can now craft ascended gear. Should I not bother with new exotics and just work on ascended? Are the stats on ascended worth the time and resources to craft? I’m not the kind of person who likes gear treadmills. I want a build that is a good all rounder, and gear that will last me forever, so I can focus on the story content rather than spend 1000 hours sitting in front of a crafting table, wearing out my mouse.

What will take you a while is not the crafting (with a good guide you can hit 400 in under an hour), but the cash investment, especially going from 400-500. Unless you are independently wealthy, forget about it for now. Just get a full set of exotic in your preferred configuration, and then pepper in ascended trinkets as you are able to afford them with laurels. That’s power on the cheap, and will allow you to enjoy the story and open world content.

Why so cagey about the build? The video is cool, but it’d be more fun to try to replicate it in WvW.

deadatspawn.6045:

If you don’t and you randomly pick up people to play with you why not help them out instead of bashing them. Maybe they don’t live to play GW2 or other MMOs. Maybe they are learning.

Preach, bro. Everyone was a newb at some point.

On topic, I actually ran my newly-minted level 80 Guardian in CoE 1 the other day, with yellow Zerker’s armor/weapons and Valk trinkets, Soldier Runes, 10/30/0/30/0 traits, various shouts on my utility bar, and Sword/Focus (Staff backup). I earned 40 new gray hairs trying to keep everyone (including myself) up with Aegis/Blinds/etc. It only went badly when the fights were too long and my cooldowns were at their limit. Had a professional Warrior in the group, who was a bro and tried to get people into the right spots without being a kitten about it.

Would PUG again.

Svarty.8019:

Engi?! Seriously, your post lost all credibility when you chose engi.

In his defense, you set the bar for credibility pretty low in the OP.

Oxxy.7068:

@Interceptor – When i was getting used to my guardian i rocked full valk gear with zerk trinkets and weapons, it gave me just enough room to recover from my errors until i was totally confident to use full zerker stuff, after that i swaped to zerker and ruby orbs, and when i was – finally – used to most bosses “tells” i swaped to scholar runes.

This sounds like a good training wheel program; I’ll try it, thanks. I’ve been thinking about Soldier runes, though, for the bonus condi removal. Will work that in somehow.

Oxxy.7068:

For champions you’ll have to rely on utility from weapon skills, vigor from honor 5, aegis, WoR and SotA.

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

I may need to mix some Valkyrie’s or something into my final build, because I’m not that good at surviving without Blinds. Maybe this is an argument for 5 points of Valor, or something, as insta-blick protection.

purgatoryz.6038:

Healway hits like a limp noodle in PvE (and everywhere). They were right.

I’m a firm believer that everyone should start off PvE in full zerk + ruby orbs and see where you are at. If, after learning the encounters and mechanics, you still find yourself dying, THEN add in pieces of tanky gear until you find the bare minimum of survivability you need whilst maximizing your DPS.

It’s not just the gear, though, it’s the build. Spec more DPS @ first and get used to life without AH. It’s a whole new world out there.

This is relevant to my interests, since I just started a Guardian (my very first) last Thursday. I used my birthday scroll to get to 20, crafted another 35 levels, and then hit PvE. On the suggestion of a friend, I went for Mighty/Berserker’s armor, weapons, and jewelry. I’ve used the same set of Runes the whole time (four Major Balthazar, two Major Flame Legion). My spec is mostly Radiance and Zeal, with a little bit of Virtues. I eat Power food.

Currently I am up to level 75. I’ve gotten used to the whole “survive with blinds/aegis/blocks/killfacing things” using a mix of either Greatsword or Sword + Focus. I’m using Signets, which I understand is bad for support, but it’s nice for open world soloing. I mapped Virtue of Justice to a side mouse button, because I’m pressing it like my life depended on it.

I don’t feel very Guardian-like, but the damage is nice. Mobs of trash will down me pretty quickly if I make a mistake or push buttons incorrectly. But those same trash enemies die in a single autoattack chain, or one chain and a little more.

I am concerned about Champions. Blinds won’t work, and CC is unreliable.

akamon.2769:

i was messing in WvW yesterday after having not “PvP”-ed for a while. and conditiosn realyl are all over the place. within seconds of engagement, i’d have a bar full of condis. and the reapplication is too easy for condi builds it seems. i’m just wondering are there any classes/builds out there that can readily or even easily counter / deal with focus fire condi bombs?

Necromancer, the class that nobody plays.

Basically I don’t care about level 80 content yet; I need to get to level 80 first. I’m not going to be doing up-leveled WvW and getting pasted like a booger. If I want to take a break and pwn some people, I’ll play my Thief in the meantime. I just want to make the “reach level 80” process as painless as possible.

It seems like Dagger/something with Wells or Minions and a Power focus is the way to go. I’ll start with minions first, I think. Hate pets, but what are you gonna do.

Thanks for the feedback!

I’m a returning Necromancer, looking for an efficient way to level up and spend skill points. I played Necro in the beta and for the first few weeks of launch, but I switched out of frustration with the state of the class (and rolled a Thief… joke is on me, I know). Necro seems like it’s in a better place now, but things have changed so much in a year that I’m a little overwhelmed with the choices (traits especially), and looking for a bit of advice. Already been there done that, so I want to minimize the level-up portion.

I have a level 80 main and plenty of resources, so staying in level-appropriate blue/green gear is no problem, and I have a grasp of the basics of play as a result of doing backflips for a living over the past year. But I don’t know what to buy or what to spec for PvE. I am not concerned with WvW or expensive endgame gear at the moment, so I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.

Any suggestions? The gist of what I’ve been able to glean is that Power setups centered around Dagger main-hand seems to be the du jour build, but what about offhand? Utility skills? Are minions any good now, or are they still garbage?

Thankee for whatever tips people can provide.

AikijinX.6258:

Put up some nice video clips, lets see how you play it ?

Probably I play it poorly; I am not very experienced in WvW yet, only just hit Recruit recently. Also, I don’t have video recording capability at the moment in any case.

But basically I will gap-close with Steal (which sticks at least three conditions), and try to get a panic-interrupt out of someone with Pistol Whip. I have Long Reach traited, and tend to approach from blind spots, so this works most of the time. I’ll use Headshot if I have to (i.e. someone created distance, or I need something that comes out faster), but generally avoid it because the damage is garbage.

A successful initiation puts 8 stacks of Confusion on the target (PW has nine hits, it nearly always procs the on-hit Confusion as well), and from there it depends on the situation. I’ve got enough juice for a few more PWs, there’s Black Powder if I have to fight in melee with autoattacks, and Shadowstep on the 2-slot can be used to either chase or engage/disengage.

I’ve started running with Tripwire lately, since it’s pretty easy to get someone to hit it, and getting knocked down for 3s in melee range means that you’re eating a whole bunch of damage in a short period of time. I’ll use Skale when I don’t use Tripwire, as a condition-clogger. Dagger Storm is my chosen Elite, as it gives me a way to stick some bleeds/cripples if I need to.

Since I have a buddy, usually we can take out small groups between the two of us. We’ll generally win 2v2s unless we are out-matched skillwise, and loners have no chance.

I had some good WvW roaming success over the weekend (with a P/D partner) running Perplexity runes with S/P, mostly Carrion gear, and 20/0/20/0/30 traits. I may slide SA up to 25 or 30 if I can find a good way to replace the Power and Condition duration from DA.

It was nice to have the chasedown options of a stun and a Shadowstep. Towards the end I started using Tripwire, just to be a kitten. Keeping my health up could sometimes be a problem, but the ability to take people down quickly was very good. It’s quite amazing how many people will panic-spam and give me free interrupts with Pistol Whip. I think that survival will improve as I learn to use the defensive tools of S/P properly.

I had one particularly funny sequence: some poor noob got away from me clean, but didn’t know what Confusion was, and helped to down himself by using abilities. Whoops.

Source for this?

AikijinX.6258:

Well I have read your argument, and as I said before try to make it work. If that is how you are comfortable playing, and if you feel good about relying on your partner all the time rather than you doing it yourself, than that is just as fine. It’s just how you feel comfortable playing. ^^

Yeah, basically it’s that solo play doesn’t interest me. If I’m by myself then I’m not roaming in WvW, I’m doing something else instead (farming, crafting, PvE, whatever). I’d run P/P if I were solo, but you won’t ever find me solo, so my preference is for a complementary spec instead. There’s no value in gearing myself for something that I have no intention of doing in the first place.

My partner relies on me as much as I do on him; that’s how good teams work.

If it doesn’t pan out, at least running your exact setup is guaranteed to work, despite the overlap, so that’s the fallback.

AikijinX.6258:

So your partner would be there all the time roaming with you?? My friend i don’t believe it would be wise. The reason i went 0/0/30/10/30 was because I wasn’t relying on pure raw physical damage. My conditions were and are my burst damage dps. If you add Mug to steal, isn’t a very good choice. The reason i went 30 shadow arts was because of the Superb condition removal via- Shadow’s embrace/ Regeneration of hp in stealth via- Shadow rejuvenation/ and Hidden Thief(Stealth on steal). Now if you used mug trait, that would totally void out that trait if you were to devise a trait setup around hidden thief and mug. All of my traits have a purpose, they’r not just there just to be thrown in there. If you’d like I can explain each purpose for the specific trait.

Now note. S/P you’d only be interrupting once, while vulnerable and rooted in 1 spot. You can try to make it work, but I wouldn’t deem it quite viable.. With my build you are free to interrupt while moving, also not being in the danger of being rooted. You can disengage and engage freely.

If you find S/P is more viable, i would love to see some video action. People said P/P isn’t viable, but I broke that Myth, and did the impossible. Don’t let me decide whether or not you put down that set. Try to make it work!~

Yes, I’d have my P/D partner roaming with me for the most part. He’s condition based, and uses the standard Cloak and Dagger into Sneak Attack bleed-stacking rotation. I’m looking to use a build that will work well with what he’s bringing.

For example, P/D isn’t exceptional at chasing, lacks interrupt capability, has no Blinds, can struggle with people who have good condition removal, etc. If I am S/P with Perplexity runes, basically everything that I bring is covering up a hole in his kit. I suppose that I could run S/D, for boon removal (and trait for Bountiful Theft), but I’m not comfortable with giving up Headshot until I play with it a bit.

Pistol Whip is actually pretty good. The stun is going to last around 0.75s with condition duration extenders, and you can move during the animation of the stun attack. During the follow-up slashes you are “rooted”, but you are also hitting a (hopefully) stunned target and auto-evading while slashing. In the worst case, you can interrupt the channel by moving; it’s not necessary to whiff thin air if they stun-break and escape. And as for damage, Pistol Whip blows Headshot out of the water, naturally. And you even have an 85%+ chance to proc the “on-hit” Confusion, since PW has nine hits. Only costs 1 init more, too.

So that’s basically my justification for it. I understand that it has less stealth time, but 15 SA is still enough for the condi removal (and Shadow Return from the 2-slot gives another option for that), Mug’s lifesteal can help replace the stealthed regen you lose, etc. I wouldn’t argue that’s it’s better than P/P for dueling, I just think it might work well for my situation.

Also considering throwing Skale on my bar, just to stick more conditions on there (one Steal equals four instant conditions: poison, weakness, vulnerability, torment, plus dazed). I figure that’ll help protect my Confusion stacks and my partner’s Bleeds.

The 4 and 5 skills with the one-handed setup would be a good way to expand the use of items from Steal use: stock them, or give Thieves options.

AikijinX.6258:

Fellow Thieves take a look at the build try it out for yourselves, let me know your feedback. Post on Coloxeus or my thread doesn’t matter.

I like the build, and would like to try it out, but a bit modified.

I tend to roam with a P/D Thief friend of mine, and would like to expand the available utility and synergize with him a bit more; do you suppose that this might work out acceptably with S/P, and perhaps a 25/0/15/0/30 setup?

Idea behind DA would be to take the Steal thing a bit farther for Mug, Poison on-hit, and Lotus Poison. Also gives condition duration, and bonus autoattack damage while the conditions are on the target. Plus boon stealing, and a daze that has good DPS. My partner would be there for the bleeds and such.

evilapprentice.6379:

The last time I fought a D/D DB thief, I tried explaining this to him. When he called me a noob, I stopped fighting, let him go nuts with his DB, cleansed his bleeds (essentially turning 15 initiative into roughly 3k damage), then demolished him without any effort.

So, are you sure you didn’t just own a noob, rather than owning a D/D spec? This is nothing but a reversal of the same fallacy you just piled on to.

I don’t see a whole lot of point using Precision without Power, because we don’t have a lot of useful “on crit” effects that are synergistic with condition builds. Not like Necromancers do, anyway.

Thieves are fun.

1. They are mobile. There are braindead builds for Thief if that’s your deal, but there’s a lot of choice in terms of how to approach encounters. The initiative system is pretty flexible.
2. Depends on how skillful you are. Thief has the tools to handle tough fights: stealth, blinds, cripples, evasion, etc. Doesn’t have the health or the armor to take big hits, though. You can’t tank with your face.
3. Sort of. Thief has some pretty useful utility skills for groups (Shadow Refuge, Black Powder, etc), but mainly what you bring is damage of some kind. I wouldn’t call the class any kind of big-time support type.