Guild Wars 2

Hey Anet, any chance of getting at least some of the gear stats from PvP amulets for WvW/PvE gear? I specifically want Paladin at the moment, but it would be nice to recreate PvP builds for the other gamemodes, and I don’t see how it could be OP considering PvP stats are the most tightly balanced in the game.

Thanks!

dagger/dagger shortbow condi works well (lots of survivability and some group support if running venoms), especially against large mob groups. Sword/pistol works well for soloing champions (lots of stun skills for that breakbar), and staff works pretty well all around.

Personally, I’ve done most of the open world pve content running d/d condi with Daredevil/Trickery/Acro, and haven’t found much that I can’t handle with it. Build goes something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVl0MhCnYRTwpJw/ELaFVXMNjBwcyH9Vv3C0BPHA-TxhWABZrE0Ylf4q+TenCAA2fAvnAAq6DIFwiKrA-e

The viper stat stuff can be changed out for more defensive gear if needed, and you can use a mix of Carrion and Rabid gear if getting Viper/Trailblazer/Dire isn’t possible for you yet.

Think making the strike grant stealth but not do damage or apply vulnerability if blocked (or invulned, etc) would be the way to go to keep things balanced. Also, a base stealth duration of 4 seconds. Think this would make CND a bit more competitive with d/p without being too overpowered.

Managed to do nearly all of them either solo or with whoever happened to be around at the time, no train required. . .

+1 for capture the flag, team deathmatch, 10v10, and an improved version of stronghold.

The standard d/d condi build can easily be beaten if you learn the timing. . . l2p op.

stuck in the load screen for legacy of the foefire. . . help

EDIT: I’m out. All good. Good luck with whatever server issues you guys are having. ALL the instances are apparently haywire.

+1 Sounds way better than roaming WvW looking for people to duel. Also, would love it if we could choose colors on entering so we could use the space for build testing with guildies and such.

Personally would like to ditch the amulet system completely and go to open full gear builds. . . or maybe split the amulets into 2-4 amulet slots so that we can experiment with different stat combos instead of being locked in to a “sport” like arrangement as it is now.

Impact Strike takes 3 blockable/interruptable strikes to get that instant stomp. It is also an elite skill and on a minimum 42 sec cooldown (when traited for a shorter CD). Not overpowered.

Having full stat options to build from would be pretty cool. . .

Toughness does seem to help if your planning on being in each fight a bit longer outside of the standard stealth—>burst—→reset rotation, but yeah, try for vitality as your defensive stat first. I generally have only about 200 extra toughness on the set I use, but it does seem to cut my inc damage just enough to make a difference (especially against initial d/p bursts).

Kamara.4187:

Turk.5460:

Kamara.4187:

There will always be an OP build in wvw because there are too many variables to balance without one class taking a hit to make adjustments. The only way to address it would be to make it more like the pvp mode which means someone will come undone because their shinies got nerfed. I run in all ascended gear with all the bells and whistles. It wouldn’t bother me if it was changed but others continue to resist it.

Its not about the rarity of the player’s gear at all. Its about what stat combos you can make. Changing this would lock many professions into single builds, with any experimentation outside meta leaving you at an insane disadvantage. So…no.

I disagree. Builds can still be flipped around, and faster with the other system. Its all about the shinies and having an edge over other ppls gear rather than skill with the way it is now.

Would absolutely hate an amulet type system in wvw. Making weird mixnmatch stat builds and then testing them against other players is a good chunk of the fun in WvW.

Azukas.1426:

Highlie.7641:

No other profession complains about this utility, they have stability and CC which will counter this. They might also realize the transition from block to kick leaves the thief wide open.

And this fella is the winner. Anyone paying attention to frames can easily destroy the thief during the kick animation.

+1 Gold stars all around

I would personally like to see a ranger spec that folds in the pet damage (i.e. no pet), creating a medium weight, skirmishing kind of light warrior.

Yeah, i was playing with staff yesterday and noticed the hit box is kind of sketchy around the edges. Was sometimes hitting targets on the edge of the AoE and sometimes not.

No, no, no. BD is fine the way it is in relation to every other classes kitten nal of defensives. The way I see it is that it is on a short CD because the duration is short as well, which fits with the overall fast playstyle of the thief imo.

Edit: Really? can’t say kitten n a l? lol

The HoT and lws3 stuff is absolutely soloable. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I do it on a kittening thief. It’s definitely a big jump from core Tyria, however, and takes some training/getting used to. I also feel that difficulty jump was necessary, as everything in core now feels like I’m always playing on godmode. Plus, once you learn the maps, the HoT maps are absolutely gorgeous pieces of design.

AzureWolf.9150:

I have to admit the first time I went from Zhaitan to HoT I had to agree it seemed like a huge leap in difficulty, but then I stepped back and did Living World Season 2, which kinda ramps you up to HoT (and makes the story a lot more understandable). After LWS2 I felt more prepared for HoT, and I enjoyed it more as well.

HoT still keeps me on my toes more than central Tyria, but I’ve learned to appreciate that extra challenge.

This. This right here. I found HoT hugely frustrating when I first got there, a fresh faced lvl 80 daredevil just come from zhaitan. . . and promptly got stomped and reduced to hiding in zergs to try and continue my story. So i quit playing HoT. I switched to pvp, experimented with my class, covered the rest of tyria for map completion, played through LWS2, did some WvW.

Then i returned to HoT, and now. . . the other day I found myself in Tangled Depths, in an area I’ve never found before, after mob jumping and getting kills, stealth gliding my way past the chak, dropping hundreds of feet from a glide into kitten in the ground to fight through those mobs that used to be so hard. . . to find myself thinking “Wow, what a kittening pretty map this is.”

Point being, I used to hate the HoT maps too, but now I love them. They are a great step up once tyria has started feeling like godmode, and they are incredibly detailed, beautiful map design to boot. It just takes a while to see it.

Exedore.6320:

Why does this seem to happen only with thieves? Why not mesmer, necromancer, elementalist, engineer, ranger, or even revenant? Does every stubborn person have a thief alt “cuz stelth is cool”?

Not all thiefs use stealth. Stop being classist! :P

Also, some of us don’t have the time to learn other classes and have chosen to focus on, and get good with, just one class. Learn to adapt and deal with what comes.

Use kiting and draw them off their traps. It’s amazing how many DH don’t seem to know how to deal with mid range, kiting attacks and seriously rely on their opponent jumping into traps.

For my two cents, don’t feel like you are stuck using full dire or trailblazer (i.e. the defensive condi stats) if you opt to run d/d condi. I’ve been getting good results with a mix of viper, rabid, and carrion to make a more hybrid build that has 2k power and about 40% on crit chance. I like it because it rewards taking risks for more hits instead of tanking through and letting condis tick.

Zero damage, lots of armor and evades. . . you can bounce around and survive, but not much else, until your bounces run out or you get stunlocked and die because you had no damage potential to make any headway in a fight. You being simply alive, as a thief, is no good for your team/zergmates/ people fighting next to you in pve because you have no support mechanics to offer to others, and also no way to down a target (which is our main role). More simply, staying alive for a full minute means nothing when your target should have died 45 seconds ago.

Start the other way around. Build for damage, then trade out for vit/tough/other survivability enhancements. The balance, as a thief, should definitely lean towards damage.

Run around taking camps, killing dollies, flipping sentries, and generally just seeing how much havoc one player can cause. Bonus points if you get an enemy group chasing you around that never quiiiite catches up to you.

Would also like to note that there are generally other roamers out there doing the same, and it’s quite easy to form and breakup small groups as needed for various objectives.

So, my two cents:

the simple fact that resistance doesn’t cancel the condis, but only negates the damage for a set time keeps it from being overpowered. It allows for counterplay like baiting out the resistance, then loading condis at the end of the uptime (which, hilariously, is often easier because the target thinks they have dodged your burst.) This, to me, promotes good gameplay on the part of the defender and the attacker. Not overpowered.

d/d condi thief

Straegen.2938:

If I had a say, Stealth abilities would replace existing time instead of add on to it. Then reduce the initiative cost of BP. Thieves should have strong stealth access but that also needs counter play. Being able to go dark indefinitely or even for 10s is absurdly difficult to balance.

In this system total amount of stealth outside of BP stays relatively the same but with more risk to the thief and more opportunity for counter play.

Rather like this idea. With like a 4/5s base.

Here is the dagger/dagger setup I use. You can also use the same basic armor/gear setup from saerni’s build above to run it for a more tanky, survivable build that works well for PvE. Replace the number 8 utility with whatever you need for the area you are in, like an extra venom, or a stealth field, etc. Happy trails!

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVl0MhCnYpTwoJw/ELUF1c139jfXPFAHg3FkCbHA-TBiWABoqPIvHBAenBAA2fwYlK1psKblg4q+DA-e

That’s what i’ve been finding as well. The extra cleanse is REALLY nice a lot of the time, especially in wvw.

So it’s been a few days and I was curious how the changes to SoA are working out for everyone, especially those of us that play evade builds. I personally run d/d hybrid condi, and I am pretty happy with the extra cleanse vs giving up 50 endurance. I think if you are playing properly, the loss of the one evade is pretty negligible, while the condi cleanse is a big help. Thoughts?

After a few days of playing with the changes to SoA, I have to say I am very happy with it. Gives us a solid condi cleanse while also cutting back on dodge spamming. . . highly approve, and I play d/d hybrid condi almost exclusively.

I Forgot.1684:

JonnyForgotten.4276:

Hate to point this out, but pretty much none of the combo attacks can be canceled. DB no, HS no, 3 staff no, etc. . .

If you’re talking about Death Blossom, Heartseeker, and Debilitating Arc, you’re incorrect. Those skills can be cancelled by swapping weapons.

My mistake in ref to op. I was thinking stow.

+1 on this. Would like to see EOTM changed to run on a different modified PvE map each week as well.

Hate to point this out, but pretty much none of the combo attacks can be canceled. DB no, HS no, 3 staff no, etc. . .

There is a possible ninja nurse build that i ran into someone using in WvW, but I’m not sure what the build actually is.

Axl.8924:

So i should be capping flags and only attacking if enemy is surrounded and use headshot to interrupt? i didn’t know i could do that.Does headshot interrupt? it just says daze, but does it actually interrupt the moveset? does this work on say:Rangers casting multishot?

It works great on rangers casting multishot.

Just initial impression, the changes seem pretty okay. Really like the extra condi cleanse on Agility, and the nerfs to dodge aren’t too overbearing (I play d/d condi), but probably needed. Gives me some hope that someday I may not have to use EA. See how things work out.

No one going to jump on the “obstructed” errors? No?

Maybe add a short tick of vulnerability to Dancing Dagger? It would give it a purpose as an opener and contribute to combat more than at current.

Perhaps put a very short range shadow step on CnD to give it a better chance at landing?

Aside from my ideas, I do like the stealth off DD idea, and the idea of doing a decently substantial effect off CnD instead of stealth.

^ The sigils of geomancy are probably a bit redundant, but, yeah, that’s a good build for PvE. With some minor tweaks, it works in WvW as well. Also look into Adventurer runes for an extra endurance gain on heal paired with the Withdraw heal skill (this skill can’t be interrupted). If you want more power, you can start mixing in Rabid and Carrion trinkets to replace trailblazer to build up more precision or power respectively without sacrificing ALL defensive stats. Something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVl0MhCnYpTwoJw/ELUF1c139hfXPFAHg3FkCbHA-TBiWAB4q+jxKVqTZFenBgsVCiq+g8eEAAs/AA-e

Generally change out the number 8 utility depending on the situation. I.E. shadow refuge if i need a stealth bail or group stealth, slow or torment venoms for mobs, etc. I feel like the extra power really takes advantage of the fact that you are physically hitting a lot with this build, so why not pump those hits up as well as your ticks, as well as opening up the possibility of backstab and heartseeker not being useless.

Would absolutely ADORE something like this. I think part of the problem with WvW right now is that it feels like a scaled up pvp map, not a real landscape with strategic points and resources to take and hold for concrete reasons beyond a score. Think how much fun a massive battle across, say, northern Harathi would be. . . or through Lornar’s pass. . .

Both ranged weapons work as condi or power or both. Thing to remember is pistols are generally single target and shortbow hits multi targets with each strike.

^ +1

Again, as a thief, you kitten up or fail to escape, you die, and escaping a fight is not winning. We have low armor, low hp, high damage, and high mobility. It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

I also agree that fighting lots of evades and stealth is irritating, but that’s the class’ defense, and in the context of every other class post HoT, the thief is not OP.

DeceiverX.8361:

I’ll just repost this (since it’s a long post) regarding an overhaul of OH dagger.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Off-hand-Dagger-Discussion-Thread/first#post6427223

No-cast-time IR is just way too strong, particularly with Daredevil, since it’d allow an Acro/Daredevil an effective stunbreak/disengage on average once every 3s

Think this would go a long way towards fixing the set(s)

Perhaps add a very short range (450) shadow step and speed up the animation on CnD to make it a bit easier to land.

Requiring a target would screw d/d builds even more than they already are. -1

“Thief can’t be killed”. . . . . . . riiiigggghhht. . . . . . .

To be fair, I agree, dealing with a fast stealth based power thief can be really irritating, but that’s the nature of the high risk/ high reward playstyle. Do it right, thief deals a massive burst and target goes down. Do it wrong, thief misses, catches a burst, gets condi loaded, get stunlocked, etc, thief dies. Point being, that’s the trade being a thief. High offensive capability paired with little defense beyond mobility and stealth. It’s not overpowered, it’s not really unfair, it’s the nature of the class.

Nikola.3841:

Famine.7915:

Hitman.5829:

Justine.6351:

To balance their power. If an enemy group of 30+ camps under them then they are now under ac fire.

Defense in layers.

Well, now reverse this argument, what about the 30+ that go around killing siege when 2 or 3 defend a tower. The siege is killed and there is no way to defend against 30+.

3 should lose to 30+. Siege if well used can stall for a really long time, but in the end, you will need reinforcements anyways.

Thats not true even in real life

^Yup. The whole point of walls and static defenses is to magnify the force of the defender. A well defended fort or whatever should absolutely be able to win an outnumbered defense if the static defenses are used well.

For example: sending out a small group to troll the kitten out of attackers and draw them into AC range for easy pincushioning rather than pushing out in force.

Apparently does still process on multi interrupts. Managed to land three in quick succession last night over about 4-5 seconds and they all stole a boon. Hurray!

Siege wallet, build saver, mini pet blocker.

CV is def worth using, I just prefer Withdraw because I have a tendency to get in a liiitttle too deep sometimes and it’s a great way to bail. Plus the stun/immob break on it is nice in a clinch.

Sweet. Been having tons of fun with a half viper/blazer condi p/p build using PI and RS. Glad to know this is adding into it.