Guild Wars 2

maybe once an expansion comes out, and hopefully, they don’t raise the level cap….people can see that as the “endgame” and the first game will be the leveling part with killing Zhaitan and dinging 80 being seen as some sort of Dragonslayer rank or whatever in the expansion

meaning each expansion just adds more personal story, story and lore, but it is a full 40 levels equivalent or so worths of content, but ALL at max level, making it more stuff to do once you hit 80

I feel like GW1 players that are now playing GW2, feel kind of bleh because GW1 was so power after max level without gear treadmill.

Yeah you could get level 20 in about 5 hours. But legitly, if you followed through the story in GW1, you were level 20 around the halfway point of the game. So you had more missions to do @ level 20 which made it seem like it was max level end-game, but also had some heavy story and lore elements to it. The amount of missions you had left to do, were quite a bit too. They even had a way to feel like you were still beefing up your character, without actually giving you a gear treadmill.

In GW1, you fought your doppelganger to become ascended. You also had to infuse your max armor, to withstand the attacks from the Mursaat, or go into Extra Hard Mode missions. Zero gear treadmill, still ways to make ur character feel like he is getting new stuff, or getting more powerful. It was all free too!

In Factions, you had to become Weh No Su, or “closer to the stars”, to become powerful enough to fight the end game boss Shiro.

In Nightfall, you became Hunted, this is the weakest of all the “feel more powerful things”, but you basically go behind enemy lines, and setup a Sunspear command post, anchoring an eventual retaliation against Varresh.

In EotN, you had to recruit 3 new factions/races to help fight off a new enemy that was brewing in the depths of tyria. This was more of a “power in numbers” type of thing, you basically went around to the Asura, Norn, and Ebon Vanguard and helped them deal with their problems, to earn their respect, and return the favor by helping you fight off the destroyers that were threatening the Dwarves.

So in GW1, it was 4 feelings of accomplishments.
1) Hell Yeah, I hit lvl 20.
2) Hell yeah, I am ascended. I have the favor of the gods upon me.
3) Hell yeah, I am infused. Time to woop some Mursaat kitten
4) Hell yeah, I defeated the Lich. (by this time, you felt like you had had enough end game on this character, jk new campaign ALL max level stuff again, which was a good thing)

Right now in Guild Wars 2 its:
1) Hell yeah, become the highest rank in my Order
2) Hell Yeah, Setup a military Pact base on the edge of Orr.
3) Hell Yeah, Hit max level!
4) Hell Yeah, killed Zhaitan
5) Ummm, max level means more stuff to do right?

The problem, you don’t feel like it is making your character stronger on top of already being at it’s full potential. You were probably thinking Lightbringer at level 50? HA! Commander of the Pact at level 60? HA! I need to be level 80, then i can woop some kitten

For GW2, you guys should have let us hit 80, or a lower max level, right around the time when we pick which Order we are going into, or a little bit before.

So it would have been:
1) Hell yeah! Hit max level! (40)
(what would have been 10 levels)
2) Hell yeah! Achieved Lightbringer/Warmaster/Magister in my Order!
(what would have been 10 levels)
3) Hell yeah! Recruited all the Orders into a unified Pact! Earned rank of Commander!
(what would have been 10 levels)
3) Hell yeah! Established a military Pact base on the edge of Orr!
(what would have been 10 levels)
4) Hell yeah! Fight through Orr to kill Zhaitan.
5) Man that was a lot of stuff to do at max level.

This theory would make the current level 40, i believe, max level. Then 40+ would have been ALL endgame, with significant story. Then your order rank, pact rank, and killing zhaitan, AFTER all that “endgame” would have been that much more sweet.

Plus it would make more sense for a max level character to be able to become the highest rank in an order and pact, than a character who only is half or 3/4 his eventual potential :P

~~~~Realization after making post~~~~
A lot of the story elements in GW2 are just recycled from GW1.

Ascension/Infused = Being used as a gear treadmill
Weh No Su = Trahearne getting Caladbolg
Sunspear Command Post = Fort Trinity
EotN Recruitment = Order Recruitment into Pact/Recruitment of Quaggan, Skritt, Ogres, Hylek, Grawl

Sorry for the long post! Cheers!

man, is there a shortbow that kind of resembles this?

Hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng, that bow is legit….

longbow or shortbow

Ursan.7846:

Minos.5168:

Heijincks.9267:

Sorry, but your first and second sentence already contradict each other.

So if more time is needed to get something, it doesn’t count as an alternate source? Also, the recent patch added all forms of available ascended stuff except for backpieces which is attainable via Mystic Forge and Fractals.

From the Reddit AMA, they acknowledged that the availability of Ascended gear was too limited.

Explain to me how the Laurels vendor is enhancing the availability.

You need 30 laurels for an Amulet. 35 for each ring. 40 (plus 50 ecto) for each Accessory.

Right there, that’s 30+70+80=180. You need to get 180 laurels to equip one character with all the current Ascended gear. And that’s not even counting infusions.

This wouldn’t be an issue, except that you can only get ONE laurel per day. (With the bonus of 10 per month.) This equates to around 5 MONTHS of continuous playtime to gear-up ONE character.

If you don’t see an issue with this “availability” then I don’t know what to say.

While you’re correct, they have already stated that your achievements will be converted into laurels. So honestly I won’t worry about it too much.

So…all these Jumping Puzzle and Exploration achievements i have will be converted to Laurels?

Sylosi.6503:

Salacious.7358:

ascended is meant for fractals, for pve it gives you 1-3% increase. for pvp it would be the same. calm down

Well there is a guy in another thread who states the 4 bits he has now give him a 7.6% increase in DPS over exotic, when you add in the other 10 slots and that weapons will apparently have 4 stats not three, it is a signifcant advantage.

Thats 1.9% per peice, which is 19% dps increase for the other 10 slots eventually….which would be a total of 26.6% dps increase in full ascended

Heijincks.9267:

How do you know you’re getting killed by people with ascended gear and not because you’re just bad?

you don’t, eventually though ascended armor and weapons will come out, and likely will have its own special model….so you’ll know

but oh, the whining that will ensue when people are repeatedly getting killed by those people

i feel that after people spend so much time getting this ascended gear, Anet is going to come out with something in the expansion, or right before the expansion that makes Ascended gear @ 80 stupid easy to get

Sovta.4719:

Jordo.5913:

PvP in this game is supposed to be “I beat my enemy because of skill”. W

When was this? It was always zergfest.

i suppose, if your talking about just W3, but there were times when i was on a scouting mission to destroy supplies, and i 1v1’d quite a few people, or in the jumping puzzles that are in the W3 maps

Vinny.6924:

Good theory OP. I hope that it actually takes place. Minus the expansion.

Sounds like a blast.

thanks, i’m hoping that’s what it could be….being thrown into two elder dragons going at it, could end up being one hell of a story.

Ascended gear is NOT needed to make all of PvE doable. Yes, there will be about a 10% increase of stats per slot, which will make PvE even easier. It isn’t holding your team back though, because exotic is good enough to take down every boss in every dungeon. It may be more rough than if you had 5 people in eventually ALL ascended gear, but it is not needed. Therefore the need for Ascended gear is negligible to progress in PvE.

I believe Anet released Ascended gear for all the people in the game who need that carrot on a stick, the most notable people would be from WoW. I have noticed a lot of my people in my guild from GW1, are not even going after the Ascended gear, because we feel that there’s no reason to be more powerful, if we can already do everything in PvE with just exotic gear.

There is a plethora of stuff to do once you hit 80. I believe Ascended is another thing people can do if that is your cup of tea. If farming your looks isn’t something your into, you can farm power.

On the pvp front, i believe Ascended is really hurting the moral of this game. PvP in this game is supposed to be “I beat my enemy because of skill”. With the introduction of Ascended gear, the people who choose not to get Ascended gear, will be at a stat disadvantage, so it isn’t “all about skill” anymore, making some players feel they HAVE to have it to be good in PvP.

Well, we know stuff is getting real in the far shiverpeaks, and this “storm” is forcing itself down from the north, causing many refugees to seek shelter to the south.

We know Jormag is up there somewhere.

We were told that this living story would not add any new zones, but focus on updating older ones along the way.

The finale of this living story will take place in April.

There is rumored to be an expansion on it’s way by the end of the year, possibly sooner.

I believe that this story will lead to the announcement of a Far Shiverpeaks expansion in May, a month after letting players play the finale, taking us back into the areas of Eye of the North, to put an end to Jormag.

This expansion could possibly kill two dragons with one stone. The storm could just be Primordius’ forces fighting Jormag’s forces(we know they will fight each other, they do not have an alliance), causing this harsh storm to take place. The reason I believe they are fighting each other is because of the Flame and Frost name, Flame would be Primordius, Frost would be Jormag. Jormag pretty much reigns heavy here, but this is also the area where Primordius awoken, and he could want it back. Thus a territory fight is breaking out causing the storm that is pushing the refugees south. However i remember reading in Destiny’s Edge that Primordius’ lair is somewhere west of Rata Sum, or was that just the location of his champion at the time? Not 100% sure on that.

This would leave Kralkk for a possible Elona expansion, and “bubbles” for a possible Cantha expansion. If the expansion is Jormag only, then that leaves Primordius for a possible jungle/depths of tyria expansion, to hopefully extend the asura and sylvari areas as well, since they got the short end of the stick map-wise this time around.

DancingPenguins.9875:

Jordo.5913:

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

Zenith.7301:

450g Dusks and 478g Legends are not something you grind in a few days; stop lying.

At 50g per day, you could grind that in 9 days. I wouldn’t want to dedicate that much of my time to that, you’re right. But it is well within the realm of possibility.

and how exactly do you propose to make 50g in one day?

Get an extra job. Buy gold.

he said grind it out….therefore he is doing something in the game to make 50g per day

Nike Porphyrogenita.8137:

Zenith.7301:

450g Dusks and 478g Legends are not something you grind in a few days; stop lying.

At 50g per day, you could grind that in 9 days. I wouldn’t want to dedicate that much of my time to that, you’re right. But it is well within the realm of possibility.

and how exactly do you propose to make 50g in one day?

i’m pretty sure if this was achievable by a fair amount of the gw2 population, no one would care about this topic anymore

there is a flaw with your logic…it is not a guarantee that if you try 5 times, you’ll get at least one exotic

there were times when i put 4 rares into the mystic forge 10 times, a total of 40gs (10G) and came away empty handed

there were other times when i put 4 rares in twice, 8 (2G), and came away with an exotic

you have to remember for a 20% chance….you could do it 80 times and not get an exotic, and then your next 20 would be an exotic each time…though this is probably a far reach though

the above video is someone using 9G to buy 40 GS….and only getting one exotic to sell (4G)…a loss of 5G

Expansions still cost money…but there is monthly content/patches that add stuff to the game you bought

Think of it like this:

Expansion = New Continent = Paid
Monthly Content = New Zones for Continent you paid for = Free

So, let’s face it. The Arah story mode was pretty epic, up until the boss fight with Zhaitan. Button mashing 2 and killing adds isn’t as epic as actually going toe to toe with the elder dragon himself. While yes, going toe to toe with an elder dragon would seem like suicide….this is a fantasy game, where we do stuff we can’t do in real life, and surmounting the odds of something impossible.

Obviously they already have the fights probably being worked on, but maybe some of our ideas can get pushed in before they release the dungeons!

Jormag, Primordius, Kralkkatorrik

Jormag – I don’t have many thoughts on this boss fight other than using fire to combat it him or something. It would be cool if Eir got the final blow so she could be a hero among her fellow Norn.

Primordius – I believe what would be awesome for this battle is we get to Primordius’ lair which is a bunch of platforms all suspended in lava. Primordius swims around in the lava and pokes his head up to attack every now and then. Obviously he will have destroyer adds spawning as well. Once you get his health down to around 30%, he creates a lava whirlpool in the room. All the platforms begin getting sucked into the middle of the whirlpool where Primordius is now sitting. Once the platforms reach the inside of the whirlpool…its about 10 seconds before they get sucked under the lava. This is so melee can still fight in the battle, but they have to do dps, and then jump back to a platform that is getting sucked down to the center again, or risk being pulled into the lava. Only problem with this theory is that, if someone goes down, there is no reviving them because they are in lava XD If that wouldn’t work, just make a circular platform around Primodrius, and have it constantly spinning because of the whirpool’s current.

Kralk – I think a good idea is to have this fight be similar to the fight in the book. Hold off the adds at the choke points. Bring one of those brain mind control devices like Snaff had, because the one Glint attached to him is probably still on him. So you have 4 people in the group at 2 different choke points trying to defend the 1 person in the party attempting to mind control the boss. Mind controlling the dragon is through a mini game of sorts, and once you finally achieve it, the player takes control of the elder dragon model and can fly it to the ground. Then the party jumps on him to do damage but Kralkk will swipe every once in a while since the mind control will be weak. Once you get him down to 10%, the next time the dragon lands to the ground, Rytlock finally gets what was taken from him so long ago, and thrusts the magical spear, made my glint, into kralkkatorik’s chest!

So i know the general consensus is that Longbow/Greatsword is the best for a Zerker build….

but the question is…while leveling, especially low levels like lvl 20ish….what weapon should i use?

I ask because i don’t feel like im doing as much dps with my longbow as my shortbow

also, what are the best pets to use for a zerker build?

they should never allow this…if you don’t want an elite skill, then it’s actually a failure on the dev side….

in GW1, NO one would have suggested this because elite skills were amazing…you were seriously gimping urself if you didn’t have an elite skill on your skill bar…..unless it was some crazy farming build

oh lord…..so you want to be separated from people who work for a living and don’t have the time to spend gathering mats?

some people work 12 hour a day factory jobs and only get to play two days a week if that….could you imagine trying to get that “craft your legendary” achievement only playing the game two days a week?

on the other hand, that guy also makes bank, and rightfully has the option to buy his legendary to quicken the pace

sorry but this is a “i wanna flash my kitten” moment, and arenanet doesn’t support that

hmm

well how about

Norn – Bear (Tanky)
Asura – Raptor (Stealthy)
Human – cant think of anything (Support)
Sylvari – Fern Hound/Wolf (Power DPS)
Charr – Devourer (Condition DPS)

Yeah…the Tengu are in the Dominion of Winds at the moment.

“When the Great Tsunami of Zhaitan’s rise occurred, the tengu across the world saw it as a sign to return home and traveled to Tyria, a descendant of Talon Silverwing leading a charge through Zhaitan’s risen forces. When they reached Tyria, they built the Dominion of Winds which resides in Kryta over what was once known as Sanctum Cay. Out of fear of a repeated past, they constructed a great wall to encircle the Dominion of Winds. Non-tengu are not allowed to enter their city. Tengu also rarely travel beyond the walls.”

So there probably ARE corrupted Tengu out there long ago, Talon Silverwing has a hero with the heroes from the past, so 250 years ago? Once the wall was build around the Dominion of Winds, Tengu’s hardly ever came out, meaning eventually the corrupted Tengu went “extinct” because the corruption couldn’t spread into there.

except…everyone is the same at level 80…..putting in an elo bracket would make people feel like they should be rewarded for being the best….like upgraded gear, or special items

when arenanets policy is everyone can get everything in the game, no restrictions

The Norn are known for their animal blessings, and a lot of the times we get to turn into those animals. Why not turn it into a class?

Have it have a high skill cap like the elementalist, but instead of being primarily ranged, you are primarily melee. Less weapons to use, but lots of blessings (attunements)

Druid

Medium Armor Wearer

F1 – Bear
F2 – Wolf
F3 – Snow Leopard
F4 – Raven?

Bear would be brute force with some defensive utility moves to protect you.

Wolf would be bleeds with mobility and dashes

Snow Leopard would be an ambushing, stealthy build…power rather than bleeds

Raven would be kinda hard to do model wise…but you could go bleeds with some blinds and passive evading

I understand this would kind of take away from the Norn racial skills, but this is more flat turning into the animals rather than turning into a humanoid version of the animal.

Just a thought that came across my mind while playing my Norn.

I leveled a D/D condition thief first way back in September, and i decided to come back to the game for wintersday. I found that I was not as fond for the thief as i once was. Slowly ticking away my opponents health is not the way for me. I tried to do a Power and Precision D/D thief….but felt i wasn’t doing much…i was basically auto-attacking until i got them around to 50% to spam Heartseeker. I would Leaping Death Blossom if there were packs of mobs. A ton of people suggested i go Sword/Pistol, but sadly I really really wanted to use D/D. I’m a sucker for the look of my character, and D/D makes my thief look awesome.

In short, i hate condition damage, and my thief couldn’t supply my needs for power/precision. Looks prevented me from switching to a different set.

So enough about my thief. The question now is, “Which to level”?

I read Warrior can put out some massive damage if going power/precision build with a greatsword. However, most guides make you get a little toughness/vitality so you don’t get blown up because you have to stand next to the enemy to deal damage.

I read Ranger can put out tons of damage because they can just go full power/precision and not worry about toughness or vitality because they are ranged and stay away from their target. You can still get two or three shot, but that’s what dodging is for, and you can actually see it coming since your ranged. The problem i have with the ranger is I would want to use Longbow and Shortbow, and I have heard the shortbow is a bit condition heavy. So would power/precision would be bad for the for shortbow?

A lot of people have asked me why not do both? I would, but like i said before, I’m a stickler for how my character looks, and the set i like best for each one is the T3 Norn armor…and there is no way I’m going to be able to farm up enough for 2 sets. I think I’m probably going to buy enough gems to get 50g to even be able to get it.

What it really boils down to is…

which does more damage going into power/precision

a greatsword warrior that has to get a little tankiness to survive or a Longbow/Shortbow Ranger?

I believe the fountain will be coming back.

I think it would be even better to have the fountain come back as something completely new, not that i hate the lion or anything.

It could be a bit refreshing to see a new fountain every year…or maybe they could go ahead and stick a HUGE Christmas tree there in prep for the Wintersday event.

I think one of the reasons exploration starts to become less and less important is because once people see something once, they could care less to go look at it again. While the lion statue was awesome and I was in awe of it for about the first two weeks, I kind of just pass by not noticing it anymore.

This could change that, and lead to even better things being changed.

I was wondering when is the last day I can get this.

Also, is this just a costume, or can I skin it to my battle armor?

Also, is that skins I can transmog onto my battle gear, or is it a costume?

so if conditions can’t crit…..why so much precision?

i would much rather be putting that into more vitality or toughness….

the Tornado is a god send in sPvP…..the knockback will help you keep a node until help arrives

lol i believe Norn is already my choice of race…makes my GS as big as possible :P

Topic.

I have solely based my heavy armored class around who wields the greatsword better. I want greatsword to be my main go-to weapon.

I mostly play PvE, but will delve a little into PvP.

Part of me says to go Warrior because I love doing massive amounts of damage, but I don’t want to have to do the cheesy Bulls Rush>Frenzy>Hundred Blades build for my greatsword to stand out.

That forces me to check out the Guardian, but its seems like the Guardians won’t put out the big numbers that Warriors can.

So i will leave it open to discussion.

Also, I put this thread here because i didn’t want to create two on each class forum and get biased answers….here i will get a little bit of both in one nice thread.

eh…i mean i usually see each bleed tick for about 109…in my current gear…

i can usually get around 30ish bleeds on the target ( 7 Deathblossoms that apply 3 stacks each…and 9 from caltrops), more if i have dagger storm available

30 bleeds x 109 each second = 3270 damage every second

and you can put that damage on multiple foes if your good at landing your AoE

The Build:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#Mzkzzc9MMrLvMMrLvMVGp0GoRVRVk

Things to note:
You have 15 initiative
Stealing gives you vigor, might, fury, swiftness(all 10 secs), stealth(2 secs), and 5 initiative.
Your heal gives you 6 initiative.

The Gear:
+Precision
+Toughness/Vitality
+Condition Damage

• The Order of Whispers set is perfect for this…AND….looks cool too

Why do you get precision gear instead of power, and rares instead of exotics?

this build is based on condition damage…that is the only stat you really need….you don’t even have to auto attack, i only do it to pass the time….after the LDB spam, steal, more LDB spam, caltrop, dagger storm/thieves guild rotation…..switch to shortbow, get to ranged, and keep spamming cluster bomb and poison field to put more conditions on your target….the only time you are actually auto attacking is to shoot thru your poison field to put poison on people.

the ideal gear for this build would be +vitality, +toughness, +condition damage…..but does not exist as far as i know

so then i saw this trait: “5% of precision is converted to vitality”….and since the above gear does not exist…precision is just as good as vitality….so i stack precision like crazy instead of going into the vitality tree

also…you can beat pve content with rares…i’ve beaten Arah Explorable Mode in the Order of Whispers armor and with this build.

are you going to WvW with this character?

no = get rares and don’t splurge gold on perfect stats
yes = get exotics and splurge gold on perfect stats

How to use:

Run in and spam 3 LDB’s.
Steal.
Backstab a target.
Spam 2-3 LDB’s depending on your initiative.
Drop Caltrops.
Use what you stole.

(Optional: IF your stolen ability stealths you, Backtab and spam more LDB)

Switch to shortbow.
Stay ranged and keep your poison field and cluster bomb burn on the target with your bleeds, while you regen initiative to full.
When you cap on initiative, repeat the process. (With or Without Steal)

Release thieves guild whenever you want

Use your first signet if you need to drop a condition.

Things I have noticed with this build:

If you are good at landing AoE’s and kiting with the shortbow…you can easily take down 6 mobs at your level by yourself.

The build is weaker at lower levels because of it relying so heavily on traits giving you back tons of initiative and boons.

You can dodge directs attacks with LDB giving you a lot of time of invincibility from them…but AoE’s on the ground will still damage you while leaping around. This kinda sucks with destroyers putting down those little volcanoes.

This is a very good party build, especially if you are working with someone who is a glass cannon. Your constant damage, plus slight tankabililty while your are leaping around like yoda, will let your glass cannon annihilate groups of enemies. I leveled with a staff ele going heaving into power/precision…and we could easily take down a group of 15…without taking any damage.

why do i recognize the jinzu name….i believe i have followed one of your guides in another game….WoW perhaps?

also…every good build…using it now

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/45902-lowells-ultimate-spvp-thief-guide-wip/

yw

also…these builds which are used for PvP are legit for PvE as well….and where better to get practice in than PvE

the dual dagger, condition damage, signet of malice is esspecially good in PvE….i lul’d my way through dungeons with that spec

Zetesofos.1724:

So, talked with a friend, and I feel we have come up with some design changes that not only eliminate this problem, but also add value and complexity to the thief overall – here goes:

First, heartseeker – to fix/and made more interesting, separate the leap from the damage portion – this helps reduce the ‘cheese’ as the thief now needs to stick to their target better. Secondly, add a small cast time to the attack – .5-.75 sec (blunderbuss time), and animation to the attack; finally convert perhaps a small portion of the full damage into stacks of bleeding (again, similar to blunderbuss).

What you have now is a slow, powerful ability that does good burst damage, but also allows for condition damage; and more importantly, requires more awareness and skill to use effectively, and is punished more by simplistic, spamming tactices.

Secondly, take the leap portion, and add to backstab, perhaps increase the range to 600, to give the thief more mobility – as a stealth skill, it cannot be spammed constantly.

P.S. – reduce damage on Pistolwhip, make evade like ninetailed strike, just sayin’

your kind of taking away the only Power single target ability from thieves….

“What you have now is a slow, powerful ability that does good burst damage, but also allows for condition damage”

so now dagger/dagger becomes a condition only weapon set because it would be more profitable to spam auto attack(instant) than wait and get your HS off

you also cannot put any more condition damage on thieves….their auto attack gives poison, their death blossom gives 3 stacks of bleed per use, burning doesn’t make sense,…..the only one that would actually matter is more stacks of bleeds, but then death blossom specc’d thieves become OP

also….you can’t use slow ability and burst damage in the same sentence…burst is all about fast attacking

your also taking away the only gap closer (besides steal) that the dagger/dagger (melee) set has which forces a utility slot to be shadowstep….and putting the gap closer on backstab is a terrible idea….if a thief doesn’t have utility skill that stealths them, the only way to go stealth is heal, or cast skill 5….which you already have to be at your target to cast, which means you aren’t going into stealth for the gap closer…so that forces a thief to take a utility stealth skill…..forcing one class to take certain utility skills to be viable in pvp instantly kittens them when other classes have freedom of choice

edit: kittens = g i m p s
edit2: wtf, why does it do that? LoL

Xavori.3768:

Jordo.5913:

also…people that are complaining about this build are probably running glass cannon builds….thieves usually go in and try to destroy the light/medium armor wearing classes…when i am on my Guardian or Warrior, a thief hardly ever targets me

I’ll target you. The joy of condition damage is that your armor doesn’t matter. And since I’m using a lot of Death Blossom and dodges, I’m evading most of your attacks. Throw in a Cloak and Dagger and my heal with stealth, and you don’t get to use your big slow attacks while I’m using my biggest and baddest: Backstab. And unless one of your buddies shows up to save you, you’re going to die.

That said, if I land in a stun (aka stupid elementalists blah) I’m just so much roadkill. I mean, I have slightly more survival in that case than the heartseeker build thief, but not enough that it’s really going to matter.

As for the people suggesting spamming dodge and CC’s and what not to beat a heartseeker thief. I’m thinking that’s pretty inefficient, not to mention really difficult since timing the dodge to the thief’s leap is tricky. You’re best bet is to start some kind of AoE even if you’re not sure where the thief is. In the case of elementalists, this is pretty easy since things like Frozen Ground will just totally ruin the thief’s day. The goal is to catch the thief once. After that, you get to dictate how the fight happens, and that’s a disaster for a glass cannon.

alright…but we’re talking about a HS spam build here….not a death blossom build….the power/precision build….where armor does matter….i do see some thieves attacking me….but they are usually condition thieves such as a venom sharing, death blossom, or a really kitteny sword/pistol thief

callabhan.3627:

A full initiative bar is 12(15 with spec) points, and heart seeker costs three. Tell me again how people spam this 6 to7 times?

In any case, I’ll meet you half way. Nerf the dmg done to enemies with more than a 30 % health bar. Other then that, people need to learn how to roll sideways.

5 HS’s = 5 seconds

initiative regen is 3 every 4 seconds

in that 5 seconds he gets 3 initiative back…then steal also gives 3 initiative

therefore 7 HS

also…people that are complaining about this build are probably running glass cannon builds….thieves usually go in and try to destroy the light/medium armor wearing classes…when i am on my Guardian or Warrior, a thief hardly ever targets me

so if you really want to combat the HS spam…put together a toughness/vitality spec…and watch as the HS’s do absolutely nothing

also call a target on the thief if your on vent/skype/mumble with ur friends….never travel alone, always stay in a group…

there are a million ways to stop the heartseeker thief

i think venom sharing build would be best in competitive tourney…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYAQNAqYVlUmCN3aS1E95EB3DjC1n6VgsaPopNjJA;TsAgyCtogxAjAGrPOYk+sCZEysDA

This is the basic trait distribution for a venom sharing build. It will do well in every situation, no trait is useless. You have Mug, which is the only trait you should always take as a roamer if you have to secure secondary objectives such as the Forest Monsters. It is an instant spell that does a decent amount of damage even with a non-crit/crit damage build. You have a decent initiative sustain thanks to Infusion of Shadow and Kleptomaniac, but your initiative pool is small (12).

The build is focused on venoms, so you’ll take a lot of traits to improve those: Quick Venoms, Residual Venom and Leeching Venoms. You also bring Venomous Aura to share those venoms with your team. Anything that applies to your venoms, applies to the venoms you share. Therefore, Residual Venom and Leeching Venoms are team traits as well as solo traits. This allows your team to apply a lot of conditions, to have sustain and deal unavoidable damage through the life steal. You have access to Weakness with Lotus Poison and to team-wide Fury and Swiftness (plus 1 Might stack) with Thrill of the Crime. It is the most well-rounded Venom Share build.

Keep in mind that every Venom Build is stronger with Ambush, the only reason why I do not put it in all of them is because I think it’s extremly cheesy. For those of you who are still interested, just equip Ambush instead of Ice Drake/Devourer Venom, take the 20% cooldown reduction for Traps in Acrobatics and have fun.

All credit for the build goes to Lowell

man…the dual skill for dual swords could be epic…maybe do an omni-slash/teleport thing….

shadowsteps to a target, strikes them repeats up to 3 enemies within 5 yards…if there is only one target it does it 3 times to the same target

that would be so epic

Erto.6832:

Whargoul.9613:

The default dodge key is V btw and WASD to move – hope that helps you.

Sorry, but you do realise Heartseeker also leaps you, right? While dodging obviously avoids a few of them, and you can still kite to an extent (although Thieves have Steal and Shadowstep, as well as their own slows), it’s very hard to avoid, and a Profession shouldn’t be designed in a way that spam CC is the only way to survive them.

If you chill a foe via Frozen Ground with a staff in water attunement…that chills the thief for a good while…and while he spams heartseeker to get to you, it cuts down how far his leap can go.

I don’t see why people have such trouble with thieves running this spec, for thieves to run this spec they have to have zero +toughness, and zero +vitality….meaning they are squishy.

1. Let the first two heartseekers hit you while your above 66% health because they don’t hurt too much.
2. Cast heal before you go under 66% health, to absorb two more.
3. Dodge roll two more

That is the generic form for ANY class to counter the HS spam thief. You just dodged/absorbed 6 of the 7 HS he has to put out. When he is out of initiative, you now have a squishy target sitting in front of you that will die with your general rotation.

(For an Ele)
4. Cast Frozen ground BETWEEN you and the thief, and kite him around the AoE….chances are he won’t go through it, but if he is an idiot and tries to HS thru it, then he will be chilled and his next two HS might send him forward about a yard. At this point, most thieves will panic, and still try to spam HS to get to you while wasting initiative.

I have not died to single HS thief using this strategy. It also usually ends in him getting frustrated in chat, because he is so used to just flat out owning people.