Have played three rounds in a row where I could fight other players and affect them, but had no effect on cap points or other objects. I logged out, restarted the GW2 launcher in between the 2nd and 3rd matches, but had the same problem. HELP!
So was just playing a match, and I wasn’t allowed to cap points. Everything else was normal, I was getting points for killing the opposing team, but had no effect on the cap points. Just weird.
Hey guys, i got through on the second try. Just exit out and go back. The teleporter starts you back at the ooze mission, so no long repeat. I also pushed to keep the way clear for Aurene REALLY hard the second time, and she ate right through all three generators. Good luck!
So, I actually play this build, and it’s not that hard to defeat. Eventually i will run out of INI and dodges, and that would be the time to strike. Watch for when the thief stops bouncing around then slam them.
A single attack can generate well over 10k in damage with regularity. This need not wait on the next cooldown or next batch of INI to replenish as multiple attacks from varying utilities/skills can generate this sort of damge.
With the low health that is available to the thief , they had better dodge more then one or two or three attakcs in a row or they are dead. Before the complaints about “dodge spam” there were complaints about “blind spam” and complaints about “stealth spam” All of these builds came not because of exploits or because of the OP nature of the same but because the thief was adapting to changing circumstances on the ground to find that balance of survibability and ability to inflict damage. Those dodges/blinds/stealths are how they survive.
By DESIGN these are the things a thiefs survival built around. A warrior can absorb far more damage due to armor, vitality and health regen via adrenal and healing signet. We do not see any of this in game because none of these are active skills. That armor just “happens” . The thief on the other hand has to ACT in order to trigger the greatest portion of his or her defenses. This act can be a dodge or a stealth or a blind.
That is by DESIGN. It an underlying mechanic of the game and one of the attractions of the thief class. We can not rely on armor and health to protect us, or some passive kicking in, we have to actively perfrom an action to avoid damage (In this case dodge)
I do not see even the dodge spam thief dominate at any level, be it WvW , PvE , or the PvP that I am aware of. It does not make them invulnerable and they can still drop quickly if they miss a dodge, are stunned or Immobbed.
I do not see any real issue here. That the technique used to avoid damage appears on the screen as an action results in the appearance of “spam”. Other forms of defense require no action thus giving less perception of “spam” on that classes part.
Did some playing around today and realized that having expertise or other condition duration increases does not apply to the poison stacks given by Choking Cloud. . . including any combos. Which is pretty kittening weak if you ask me. I understand the low field time, but the ticks themselves? Sheesh. . . .
That honestly seems like a bug. I wonder if the same is true for the duration of blind from Black Powder…also throw gunk has the confusion combo we should test.
I was mistaken. The initial tick is only 2 seconds, so max 4s with 100% condition duration increase. So just very weak basically. Although, the weakness ticks lasts twice as long as the poison, so there is that.
In light of the other thread where adjustments to high stealth uptime thieves were being discussed, having a top three priorities thread seemed appropriate.
What are your top three priorities for thief? It can be a buff to thief itself or a nerf to some other class/trait that makes thief more frustrating to play effectively.
Mine:
1. Sword seems like a fun set but the animation time for some of the attacks make it hard to properly use in a fight. The variable nature of the stealth based attack, and again its’ relatively low speed, make it hard to land with consistent results it in the post ICD world. In addition the slow animations make using IS and then following it up with another attack feel clunky. I think there is a lot of potential to be unlocked by trying to make the set more fluid.
2. The duration of the poison field on shortbow is absurdly low. It doesn’t do much condition damage on a full condi build even when a person sits in the field and just takes the damage. The low duration also has a side effect of making it difficult to set up combinations with finishers—which I think is the whole point of having a field in the first place (aoe weakness and poison projectile finishers). Five or six seconds would not be uncalled for given how weak the poison applied actually is.
3. Shadowstep has the most awkward condition clear mechanic. The only time it works “correctly” is when you using Shadowstep on engage and get loaded up on conditions in the first 10 seconds and can hit the return ability to cleanse those conditions. As a positional tool in combat, a more common usage, it pulls you back towards the thing loading you up with conditions in order to clear the first set. Yes you can overcome that by spamming dodge and shortbow 5, but returning to where I was just taking damage is a silly idea on a thief. I’d move two of the conditions cleared to the first shadowstep and leave 1 clear on the return ability. This lets you spread out the clears and lets you decide if the last cleanse is worth taking over returning into the line of fire for.
In Addition on #2:
Did some playing around today and realized that having expertise or other condition duration increases does not apply to the poison stacks given by Choking Cloud. . . including any combos. Which is pretty kittening weak if you ask me. I understand the low field time, but the ticks themselves? Sheesh. . . .
Feel pretty good about the venom timer changes. . . definitely makes my hybrid condi build a bit more viable, and happy with the Dancing Dagger buff (maybe I can use it for more than pushing posions now). There is still MUCH work to be done on our class, but at least they didn’t nerf us this time. Thank you anet.
Here is my solo pve build. Not as tanky as full dire, but using viper armor with rabid trinkets, I can kite pretty well, absorb some physical damage that gets past the evasion, leaving 4 condi types behind me. . . although it is weak to condi damage itself.
Sometimes change out the chill venom for Infiltrators signet if in a higher cc situation. The point of the buildis to push out as much condi damage and types as possible, then leave them ticking to reset and roll again and also have some power backing up the strikes themselves, especially when doing a steal or shadowstep + CnD (good way to gain some space and let 2 seconds of condi tick roll down before the backstab).
Been having decent results running a condi in PvE with full Viper armor and full Rabid trinkets (for a bit of Toughness defense). Its a bit glassy, but it works when using Dodge and evade as your main defense mechanics and letting your posion/bleeds deal most of the damage. Thing I like is that the Viper stats and weapon sigils (Burst and Force on all weapons) allow me to do a power based stomp if needed.
For my two cents, I would like to see an across the board increase in projectile speeds, especially on #2. . . seems like it would be fair considering our short range/speed based class style.
Vanilla thief is NOT unplayable, DareDevil is NOT mandatory. Find a build that you like, and run with it. (personally: d/d, s/b with DA, Trickery, and ACro)
Also, try to not let the naysayers discourage you too much. If you have found a weapon you enjoy playing, then play it. Otherwise we WILL be a d/p only class, which would suck.
I’ve been having pretty decent results with a mix of Viper armor, Rune Of the Lich, and Rabid trinkets. Weapons are D/D and SB, both carrying sigils of bursting and force.
The extra bleed and poison times from the Viper and Lich are really useful, and using the rabid trinkets gives you juuust enough extra toughness to survive a bit better while kiting and inflicting condis. It definitely drops your power a bit, but coupled with the condis I can put out pretty decent damage.
Was reading one of the threads recently and someone pointed out that we don’t have any sort of ability to break stealth, and it got me thinking, so here is my idea:
Create a mechanic called Flashbang that, when triggered, would produce an AoE stealth break along with causing Revealed for say 6s, and blindness for 2-3s. This would give us an option to combat stealth based thieves and mesmers, as well as making more use of the Revealed mechanic.
Perhaps put the trait into Revealed Training, and have the skill triggered either by a third profession mechanic, or maybe by triggering stealth while already stealthed? Not sure, haven’t really thought it out much.
One place I’ve found that my thief really shines is venom sharing cc’s when taking down lords or anything else with a breakbar. The Basilisk Venom just melts break bars.
I was running a group support venom/stealth roamer for WvW and it worked out pretty well. IMO, this change hurts more than it helps. Having Leeching Venoms where it is in SA now means that you have to choose between faster recharge (32 sec) (and carry a useless taitline as a result) OR have some stealth abilities and 40 sec recharge on venoms. With the reduced share distance, it really hurts my build. As someone who runs the type of build I think this was meant to help, it doesn’t.
That being said, I’m not going to give up running this build for WvW. Instead, I’m going to hope they fix the issue.
The CD on stealth attack is a good balance tweak against DA/CS/(Tr or DD) builds.
A balance against what?
DA/CS/T is naturally balanced by the plethora of passive defenses in the game.
In PvP, at least, power Thieves don’t need any nerfs.
They’ve already given up sustain for lethality, and not even that is enough to stand a good chance against other professions.
Where’s the Thief’s 8 seconds of immunity to power opponents? Warriors have it.
A Thief can’t even use a long-cooldown-based elite to remain in Stealth and do damaging attacks for 3 seconds while still remaining completely mortal.
Thieves can’t even enter Stealth for merely a second without giving up point-control to the enemy… even to clear a condition or minimally heal… without even attacking. That’s completely disabling an entire traitline while trying to hold/contest a point.
And this patch didn’t even touch the “perma-evade” condi- or “perma-Stealth” trapper Thieves… which is what most complaints are about.
Personally, this barely affects my build. I run Dagger/Pistol DA/CS/T. The ICD on Backstab won’t cause me much trouble, and I got a shared stun with a longer duration on Basilisk Venom (which never stacked anyway).
What angers me is that Anet has absolutely no idea what is happening with the Thief, and that is apparently clear with this patch. Nerfing things that are already ineffective. Leaving things untouched that need changes.
In PvP, the Thief has no identity. It doesn’t have the tools needed to be effective independently, nor does it have what is needed to be effective in a group. Even at its extremes, it is mediocre in every role. It is literally a vulture.
If this barely affect your build while increasing the effectiveness of hybrid/condition builds, then it is a balanced patch. There’s no grounds for concern.
I’m not saying that this patch will suddenly make Thief more viable everywhere in the game, but the removal of VA and adding the venom CDR to leeching is a big step towards the right direction.
Sure they could have given condition damage to venoms without one while they are already balancing the venoms, but by simply not requiring to spec for VA is, I believe, good enough for now even if I have to use the same two venoms in order to deal damage. Surely they have a lot of work to do.
What this did was completely close the option of stealth to a DD/SB DA/SA/A hybrid thief. . . to have effective venom recharge, I have to give up a sure stealth from steal. . . meaning I have to carry SA for faster recharge and don’t even get the one other benefit the trait line offered. Not to mention the smaller share distance. If the devs were trying to help condi group roamers, they didn’t.
Guess I have to get used to using a DP for any sort of defense. . . yay
This update messed up my SA/DA thief pretty bad. Simple fix: swap Leeching Venoms with Revealed Training. . . why are those traits in the lines they are in anyway? Sacrificing stealth steal for faster venom recharge makes no sense.
I am proposing that Revealed Training should be moved to Leeching Venoms’ spot in SA and vice versa. I think this would fix the main problem I have with the new LW3 build, which is that I have to sacrifice faster stealth movement and stealth on steal for faster venom recharges. The problem I see is that having these two traits where they are now makes it much harder to do a hybrid stealth/venom build using DD ans SB, not to mention each trait would make more sense in the opposite specialization.
