Guild Wars 2

It’s always better to try to kill the mob attacking you – otherwise you can’t – maybe that’s why everybody is still throwing their mud when I use SR to rez them, thus they unstealth and draw the mob/player attention to that spot so we’re both downed.

Only ranger’s downed skills have got any value in pve. No other class can rez themselves when downed.

Cuddy.6247:

Generating a farm will also decrease the value of a precursor on the TP, which makes buying it easier.

Don’t think so actually: The more people farm the more gold they have the more they are willing to pay. Got my pre last year and it was worth 800 gold, a year later it’s at 1300 and people never farmed like they do now, thanks to megaservers and zones like Dry Top and Silverwastes.

Edit: Although it might be more difficult as that as I’m not sure if the precurser drop rates have decreased since the MF has been nerfed.

Sign me up.
And yes, both my thieves stab their legs, one human, the other sylvari, a friend of mine has a Norn thief the same there.

Linken.6345:

You were on a na server hence shouldent you be a resident of na first and formost?

Then complaning that a event failed in the middle of the night eu time further give the conclusion merit

I despair!

Why do you assume that I don’t know what time it is in the EU when I’m on an EU server? Makes no sense.

Where do you think I live?

And: We’ve been around 15, so it shouldn’t have failed, I’ve done the event with less people.

@TPMN I said it today in an other thread: I transfered to EU from NA 3 months ago and have seen the event succeed 3 times since then. For some reason it doesn’t work over here and I just come from another failed attempt – so.. maybe it’s not that easy for everybody.

Azhure.1857:

I don’t blame you or players like you. They made it so people could just up and pay for their legendary weapons. * shrugs * Had it been made more personal and difficult – I think I would be okay with the situation.

I’m sure there are people that will scream and yell at me, “But its not easy!” Yet for something designed to be “legendary”, yes, yes it is too easy. But it doesn’t matter what I think.

I knew what you meant, actually, I was just making fun of the legendary situation.
I think the only thing that makes legendaries non legendary is that they are tradeable. If it were only the precursers it would still take a lot of effort to craft them. But economy and stuff – so maybe it’s just like it is.

If you’re a thief or can get a thief to do it with you you should make it without the temple being open.
Here’s how: Run to the Skillpoint, don’t fight anything and stay together. The thief then uses shadow refuge on the SP while you interact with it – it lasts long enough to get a SP – but it might be that you’ll get hit by a meteor shower, in that case: try again.

Edit: Or the thief can also use blinding powder shortly before you’re at the SP and then SR right after that while you’re still stealthed so the mobs and meteors don’t have a clue where you are.

Azhure.1857:

Personally I am sick of seeing legendary weapons. Even though I know not everyone has one, it certainly seems like most do. They’ve become so common place that it sickens me to see them sometimes. I give more respect to players with regular weapon skins because they’re not showing off a legendary weapon… Which for me is just a public cry of, “Look at me! I did this too! Look at ME!!!”

So over it.

Which is basically a bit unfair because I found my precurser and crafted the legendary myself. But I’m well aware that a lot if not all people suspect I just bought the legendary – and sometimes I like it better that way, after dying like a noob in wvw, for example ;)

Rashy.4165:

A better solution would be to have a short mission, where you need to use the trait (given to you temporarily during the mission) to complete it, awarding you the trait as the final reward (permanently, once you’ve successfully used it in the mission). That’s been suggested on this thread and makes more sense if their motivation is for players to “learn the trait”.

It still goes against their goal of allowing free and accessible experimentation.

Would make more sense when it comes to skills, right? The effects of some traits are hard to see; f.e. 7% of my precision is turned into vitality. Wouldn’t be that exciting to have an event evolving around that ;)

Edit: Grammar

Lishtenbird.2814:

I have a different experience. It usually takes several days to get a trait in this event, as it is already done (most of the time, so obsi shards are available) or no one is doing it because it’s wrong time of day/wrong instance; when I stumble upon a decent try with enough people, I never see people asking to kill the champ instead of completing this event. It may fail, yes, but not because people farm it, but because people are noobs and don’t know where to focus.

Yeah the focus should clearly be Balthazar – but the farmer didn’t get it.
This was an example for a lot of occassions in which some farmer demanded something stupid for a gilded coffer – if you haven’t witnessed it then lucky you. If you aren’t on an EU server then you won’t know how hard it can be to find an open temple of Balthazar or to get the trait.

Since I transfered to an EU server 3 months ago almost every balthazar event I witnessed failed. Well, the event itself isn’t that easy but NA got how to do it.
So, I needed the trait for my mesmer, I have done the event a hundred times, I know when it can fail: Right at the start, 1 minute after that, shortly before the end or when the Champion Risen Abomination downs the whole zerg, what has happend quite some times. Today we’ve been quite a lot and the final escort went relatively smoothly, the caravan wasn’t at 1% health in the end like the other 2 times I saw the event succeed. About a third of the people was downed by the Abomination, Balthazar was at 10% health when someone demanded that we stop attacking Balthazar because they would get more loot if also killing the Abomination.
The event fails 95% of the times, I (and others) get a trait for completing it, people who need obsidian shards need it (except for farmers who farmed the silverwastes). I’m not really convinced I like this overwhelming farming mentality – it’s okay if all of you farm but please just learn to not always get your way.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

It is possible to unlock all traits but I seriously doubt it can be done in 16 days. Unless he plays 12+ hours a day. Some of the events people get stuck waiting on for hours for just one event. Plus to level that fast he is in EotM the majority of his time. Don’t kid your self. If he unlocked every single trait he bought them with gold and skill scrolls.

It is possible, I basically did it with my necro, without EotM and without playing her 24/7 and without scrolls. That doesn’t mean that this system is good or anything, or that I believe this person really did it (sorry), just that it is possible to unlock all (but one) traits and to get to level 80 within 2,5 weeks.

Today’s my lucky day, I guess, or I should demand teef videos more often.
Thank you!
The first few minutes I thought: “This guy really doesn’t like rangers.”

Black Frog.9274:

Jana.6831:

Rin.1046:

I thought they changed the way mobs react to stealth, so that they do not reset anymore.

Correct.

what they did was to make the reset not instantaneous. but if you let more than a few seconds go by, they will reset.

Yeah but I’m pretty sure that’s because they have a designated spot they have to be, so if they run farther than area x they’ll return to their spot, if they can’t find an enemy within x seconds they return as well. You can try this with an yellow mob, they will still be mad at you after you leave stealth.

Edit (oh my one day without edits would be sooo great):
Just tested it in gendarren, CnD isn’t enough to reset, SR is.

Iris Ng.9845:

snip

Ok, explanation: I replaced my original reply, so people who already read this might be surprised. I’m sorry for that but it would’ve been more confusing if I’d left the original reply and tried to explain what I’m explaining now in 5 other posts afterwards.

Here we go:
You did say that thieves weren’t able to stack might – that was what I was initially replying to.
I spoke of 12 might stacks my thief usually has got – when I notice it. I then reduced it to 10 stacks as these are realistic when spamming CnD/BS. However he can get 12 if using his skills additionally, so he can have spikes of 12 might on his own.
With 10 stacks of might he’s got 350 more power, with 12 450. If I’d put the 2 from the acrobatics line into DA, I’d be at 550 power. I would miss out on dagger training though.
Conclusion: A DD thief traited in DA is marginally stronger than one traited in SA.
(The one website you linked actually said that thief has got the highest DPS).

What you based your “solo-ranks” on was how fast people have killed Lupi with different classes. That has got little value as it’s just a subjective ranking and maybe tomorrow a thief will come and beat them all (unlikely but possible).

And also: thieves who solo dungeons usually use S/P – more utility, less damage. So yes, if a thief can’t BS spam a boss, then his damage will be lower.

How about you make a video about a thief soloing a dungeon?

Yay, my prayers for more thief videos have been answered!
I like it! Maybe especially because it’s a long fight.

yski.7642:

The trick is not to 1v1 anything – the moment your victim spots you, run away and stab them once they turn away

(I think I broke the edit button – the forums finally decided my random additions that had nothing to do with anything were too off topic and flat out refused to add them. They involved a rant about not having time that had several plot twists in it, a missing right bracket, and the shocking revalation that I probably shouldn’t post at 1 am, so all things considered it was probably for the best :P)

Don’t think I didn’t watch your videos :P You did use it in some 1v1 – but it’s impossible to tell whether or not one will be in a 1v1 or 1+xvx anyway.

I hope you’ll find the time to make some new videos one day and also that the aliens won’t kidnap you while you’re at it <— I can be offtopic without edit!

Question is if I can live without edit…

Yeah.. signet of malice can be difficult to pull off. Especially 1v1.

Edit: But you guys all could make some D/D videos so I won’t feel that alone with my build anymore. And I love watching them..

Iris Ng.9845:

Jana.6831:

06620
The trait is the second last in the SA line. And since in a CnD BS spam situation I’m stealthed every other second another 2 stacks are coming in.

Alright, for 12 stacks of Might, you are missing out a lot of damage modifiers and +300 Power. Let’s take a look:

• Sundering Strike: stack Vulnerability, a DPS increase
• Dagger Training: +5% Damage with Backstab, etc
• Exposed Weakness: +10% Damage if your target has a condition (good synergy with your Vuln uptime.)
• Revealed Training: +200 Power when revealed. For a BS build, this is a DPS increase.

So a thief cannot have both optimal DPS build and might. It explains why it is not highly ranked in the solo DPS scale. I need to mention that this scale is based on the max (solo) DPS build of each class.

Who did the calculations, you or someone else? I was refering to “Thief is no self might stacking class”. And I am pretty certain that thief has got the highest DPS in a relaxed boss fight. But curious to see something which explains the rankings =)

Edit: I’m getting 300 power with 10 stacks of might btw. Edit²: 350 actually.

Yes, but that doesn’t effect might
I’m solo roaming in wvw and that helps a lot.

06620
The trait is the second last in the SA line. And since in a CnD BS spam situation I’m stealthed every other second another 2 stacks are coming in.

Iris Ng.9845:

Basically, when soloing…

1. Ele
2. Warrior
3. Engineer
4. Guardian
5. Mesmer
6. Thief
7. Necromancer
8. Ranger
   The first group: self might-stacking, the second group: reflect + damage modifiers, the third group… roll eyes.
   In that sense, a good PvE duo has a good (and sustainable) straight DPS and a good utility class (be it guardian, engineer, mesmer or thief and to a certain extent, ranger).

My thief is traited for might, he usually has got 12 stacks.

Palador.2170:

They’re the best single target damage, I believe. But, they don’t take hits that well. Against a boss, they’ll spend more time dodging and avoiding than some other classes might have to, so their DPS may suffer for it.

Mind you, against REALLY tough bosses, everyone dodges.

Depends on the team – with a nice guardian and/or warrior I can stand in one spot and spam CnD and BS.

shion.2084:

For boss fights where DPS is the most protracted, they are typically one target right? Do theives have most damage for that as well?

Yeah, D/D thieves.

One thing to know about thieves: If they’re a stealth build you will get all the damage while they’re stealthed. It’s also rather hard to have to run after the mobs (as a stealthed thief) because the other person is running away. So maybe yeah guard is the best choice.
I love running with eles though as they have so many nice fields to do a combo with.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

16 days was done by one of the following.

a. Only unlocked a few traits and not all of them, to suit a certain build. Probably didn’t even finish a build.
b. Had an obscene amount of skill scrolls and enough gold to unlock all the skills from an alt. He will not be able to do the same for any other new characters because he won’t have the skill scrolls unless he saves up for another year before creating another character.
c. The character was created pre-April patch and was grandfathered in.

No, it is possible without buying a trait, except for one as that one is bugged.
BUT it requires a lot of knowledge about where to find help (websites) and how to do stuff in this game in general. Well and also luck as a lot of the traits aren’t soloable.

I haven’t given up on anet and hope that they realized that this system is a huge mistake and are working on something to make it better. That’s why I’m still keeping this thread alive as as long as it is I won’t give up hope, I guess. Well maybe in another 6 months I will lose hope no matter what.

Rin.1046:

I thought they changed the way mobs react to stealth, so that they do not reset anymore.

Correct.

I don’t use mug, I don’t use Basilisk Venom.
You guys make me feel better than I am.

Buffing D 4 and 5 would buff P/D and S/D thieves. P/D thieves are already (with necros) those who give me the most trouble, buffing me wouldn’t change anything when they’re buffed as well. The same goes for trait lines except for CS which is “unique” for D/D.
I’m using D/D SB for nearly everything except when ranging solo bosses or when daylie interrupter is up (I do miss the interrupt from time to time). I’m doing fine – well it’s pve.

Kalendraf.9521:

Superior Rune of Trench Coats (6/6)
(1): Chest piece skin is replaced by a full-length trench coat.
(2): Leggings skin is replaced by the pants best described as “Something that Columbo would wear”.
(3): Headgear skin is replaced by an umbrella hat.
(4): Glove skins are replaced by large, over-sized rubber gloves.
(5): Footwear skins are replaced by thick rubber waders.
(6): While wearing armor with all 6 runes, each successful event completed by the player gains 1 Trench Coat Claim Ticket.

5000 Trench Coat Claim Tickets can be exchanged for an Outfit item called, “The Trench Coat”.

Yeh.. the reason why my thief ran around in exotic starter gear. I was that close to make ascended starter gear. The irony of it is that some ranger with rubber gloves, umbrella hat, rubber waders and trenchcoat made fun of it… (he wasn’t the only one).

My first Jormag fight. I was downed a billion times as I just stood there and stared at that dragon. And people were reviving me actually – something that hadn’t happened before.

Winning a 5 vs 20 in Garrison’s Lord’s without siege, without anything.

Playing thief for the first time.

Now a world crumbles or you’ll have an invitation to 1v1.

lvis.3824:

Ofc Wvw with all these extra Stats from gear, food and consumables is different but i am talking about real PvP .

I don’t think that this thread was about pvp only – and pvp also hasn’t got mobs, siege and doors to CnD on – but it has a team which helps if it’s a good team. I have played it sometimes but not that much that I would really know what is going on there. So – pvp also has got different damage calculations as far as I know and it’s necessary to cap points – what is difficult for a thief, especially when relying on stealth. There are people here who say it works and I kind of believe them – but it is easier to do as a D/P thief, that’s true – that doesn’t mean that D/D doesn’t work, even if it doesn’t work on your teams in pvp.

Not sure if I would challenge second child.. but that’s me.
And wvw is a different thing than pvp, btw.

And, really unlock ALL of your traits? I’m curious too ; )

I actually use stealth against mesmers to figure out who the “real one” is as they move differently.
And, just for the record, CnD works endlessly.

maha.7902:

caveman.5840:

pve will all ways be lame

pvp/wvw is end game shame they don’t focus on that

Yes, brain-afk’ing in zergs and playing a joke of an e-sport is “end game”.

Yeah ’cause all there is in wvw is zergs!

Edit: I was just alone on our maps in wvw against a bunch of golems – I didn’t stand a chance but was able to get some camps and towers back – alone. Capping a tower is easier than soloing a dungeon but the way to get there mostly isn’t as I’m up against humans who don’t always do what they’re “programmed” to do and also against annoying npcs and unnerfed mobs who destroy the siege I’m trying to build.

So before this thread turns into a soldier’s vs zerkers and zerker’s vs wvw.. (I hope you see what I did there) let’s call it a day.

ArchonWing.9480:

It’s still missing two stats. It’s no better than soldiers at best and worse given any mishaps.

And sure, zerker is best against the trash mobs and if you have time, you should switch; I’m too lazy to do it myself but it still doesn’t change these things. Also, the defense timers mean that killing stuff that much faster isn’t going to mean much unless they overrun the batteries.

Now if you’re defending the turrets, then sure, use zerker.

It’s all situational; surprising, right?

Edit: You can certainly use zerker in the dps zerg. But I think it is still inferior enough to pvt there that I would not suggest it.

It’s not just defending the turrets but the lasers which is a big part of the whole fight. And neither vitality nor toughness helps that much in that fight as when the turrents don’t cleanse and heal and if all other defensive mechanisms fail and you don’t know when to dodge you’d be dead in pvt gear as well.
Not saying that people shouldn’t wear pvt during that fight (is there a “ping your gear” during world boss events anyway?) but it’s less important than people think.

Then I seem to play against very very very very very bad players as I win 90% of my fights. I’m running solo though, group fights don’t work for me.

Edit: Ok, maybe 90% is too much, 70? and 20% of the times I run away – my excuse for that is that another enemy was coming in. That’s legit, right?

ArchonWing.9480:

Also, what about open world? You don’t need zerker for that. In some world bosses such as teq, zerker is actually bad against teq himself.

Zerker isn’t even bad against Teq himself as the base stat is power, just like soldier’s. And since the trashmobs can still be critically hit zerker is the “better choice” for the entire fight – unless you have time to swap gear or have bad people at the turrets, but in that case the fight is doomed no matter what gear.

My D/D thief is alive though.

Maugetarr.6823:

And make more.

I second this! =)

Right, I forgot the complete steal range ; )

Well, that is his choice – who am I to judge what he wants?
I’m just thinking that I couldn’t make it work and well I’m allowed to use stealth, so I don’t need to find a way around it and I can also use food.

HHR LostProphet.4801:

Gosh… I don’t even know what to say. I am using zerker gear all the way on all characters 24/7 in PvE. I have done dungeons now more than enough and it’s boring. I want the bosses to be harder because it’s boring how they are designed, not because I want zerker to be devalued. Do you even notice how stupid the argument is you’re using?

Ok, maybe I should’ve looked up more of what you wrote.

But, I also said that a lot of people struggle to even zerg bosses. I do myself at times if I don’t look up how others fought them as there’s usually too little time and too many special effects (I’m looking at you, twilight!) to figure out bosses oneself – well and impatient group members are also a factor. So by making bosses harder people who don’t look up what others already have perfected won’t stand a chance. Don’t know if that is a solution. I’m fine with instances with harder bosses, but I’m neither fine with another crit damage nerf or a complete boss overhaul just to please some groups as I think that this won’t do any good to any of us.

Maugetarr.6823:

Jana.6831:

Maugetarr.6823:

How is it not focused on dealing damage?

No damage related Grandmaster trait. I don’t really get why you chose the exposed weakness when you aren’t really dealing condition damage. But since you’re using venoms, why didn’t you chose residual venom? You can switch from feline grace to Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew if you want the extra dodge and can put the one point into a Grandmaster trait = more power and a more useful trait.
But alas, that’s just my opinion and maybe you can make this build work but I’m pretty sure that it needs a pro.

Good questions:

1) The 10% damage takes effect with any condition, and modifies damage, not condition damage, so it’s almost always active.

2) I find that the duration of venoms and the way they work render residual venoms useless. With DV at 5 seconds of immob, people usually either clear it (meaning all the stacks) or they die. The way BV works, 2 stacks is usually meaningless.

3) Feline grace is better for burst dodging when you get put into a rough spot, especially combined with SoA because you also get 3 dodges after the use instead of 2 and faster refill. If I were to switch that though, I would use panic strike for more immob. Using feline grace though lets you use this in PvP as well where you don’t have food.

1) Yeah, that was what I meant. I understood that the target gets “more vulnerable” when it has got a condition, I just don’t see that many conditions in a D/D build, even with venoms. I just wondered why you didn’t get a master trait in the acrobatics line instead (or a grandmaster in the power line). (see 3))

2) You miss out on 50 extra power by not using the full line and don’t have a grandmaster trait.
Having a hard time with the abbreviations, so I guess I can’t say anything to that until I’ve looked them up

3) The OP asked for wvw roaming advise, for pvp you’re of course right, food is useless there. But I didn’t know that this build was meant for pvp which is kind of different from wvw roaming.

Actually yes and to a lot of others who switched from “zerker isn’t viable” to “too easy” after they apperantly learned that zerkers solo bosses

Oh my “I can’t kill them with my soldier’s gear and all those stupid zerker’s can, that’s why I’m now claiming that this game is too easy” – come on, really?

Maugetarr.6823:

How is it not focused on dealing damage?

No damage related Grandmaster trait. I don’t really get why you chose the exposed weakness when you aren’t really dealing condition damage. But since you’re using venoms, why didn’t you chose residual venom? You can switch from feline grace to Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew if you want the extra dodge and can put the one point into a Grandmaster trait = more power and a more useful trait.
But alas, that’s just my opinion and maybe you can make this build work but I’m pretty sure that it needs a pro.