Guild Wars 2

The point of confusion is to give the player a choice. You can keep attacking and take the damage, or you can stop attacking (press esc, the stow key, or just remove your auto attack) and wait for confusion to wear off.

This is part of the reason (the other being the really bad dialog) why I don’t like the personal story, but love the dungeon story of Destiny’s Edge. Sometimes this game just feels like it’s rated ‘Everyone 10+’, and not Teen. It’s a bit annoying.

Having no quest log is a chance to ask yourself what you want to do, instead of what you should do.

I’m not holding my breath. I don’t see how anyone can believe that, in one month, they are going to fix what they haven’t been able to fix in the last six months. Maybe they will add a ladder, or one other thing that players have been asking about, which won’t change anything at this point. The only thing that would surprise me, is if they drastically changed all professions to make more builds viable, but we all know that’s not going to happen.

The point of stealth has always been to give you more time. Time that can be spend on changing position, waiting for a skill to recharge, channel mantras, or using a healing skill without the fear of being interrupted. If you use stealth correctly, this change doesn’t make any noteworthy difference.

This is a nice list of reasons why I still only use sPvP to test new builds for WvW.

I was hoping sPvP would be up to speed, by the time I had finished the story line in PvE. That was five months ago. Every time I try to play sPvP, it still feels like a beta. There’s absolutely nothing compelling about it. And it’s becoming evidently clear that, while ArenaNet are listening, they really aren’t interested in changing anything drastically. sPvP development is like watching a snail trying to crawl of a hot frying pan; it’s slow and painful.

killimandros.5087:

Kasama, i believe you got it wrong. Maybe, just maybe ranger pets will be faster on thieves again. In any other pvp situation there will be no, zero difference. You will still die. It only nerfed the pve thieves, who were a pretty weak class anyways if im not wrong (never do pve on my thief).

frans.8092:

We’re talking PvE mobs here, not Wvw. PvE mobs already were doing a lot better then Wvw zerglings against thieves.

But I really wouldn’t mind seeing something like that ranger trait for a permanent +50% endurance regeneration. Beats the 15% refund by a mile.

I was referring to new Thief players, playing PvE. The majority of current Thieves are already lost to the Cloak and Dagger stealth spam fest. This change means that new players won’t fall into bad habits, but will learn how to use movement more. Meaning that we might see some more movement focused Thieves, which are not only a lot of fun to play, but also fun to play against.

The Thief already has the best movement in the game, through shadow stepping, stealth, and dodging. +50% endurance regeneration on top would just be ridiculous.

Yep, it feels like an attempt to grab players attention, in order to keep them focused on loot, and not the shortcomings of the game. “The changes will come, but until then, here’s some more loot to keep you occupied!” Only, if you don’t care about loot, all you can see are the frustratingly slow development, when it comes to things that matter.

I feel like people are mixing overpowered together with unintentional. The only way “Guard” could be overpowered, is if the pet is overpowered. Just because it wasn’t the intention of “Guard” to get the pet on top of walls, it doesn’t mean that it automatically was overpowered. “Guard” gives the pet a bit of stealth, and some protection, but that doesn’t make the pet overpowered. Killing one player on top of a wall, before the pet gets spotted and killed, is not overpowered.

While the Ranger is shooting someone on top of a wall, and the pet isn’t dealing damage, that is underpowered. The fact that the Ranger had to use a utility, with a 30 second recharge, just to be abel to deal full damage, is underpowered. The pet dies to just about any AoE damage, which makes the Ranger underpowered.

There was nothing powerful about “Guard”, at all. It was a balanced ability, that allowed the Ranger to use his pet in situations where he otherwise could not.

Obsidian.1328:

Kasama

I’ll address your points in order:

1) Irrelevant if there is no one around to stop it.
2) There aren’t always players running around a certain area, it’s very sporadic and depends on where the action is.
3) NPC’s on walls are few and far between, there are tons of places on towers/keeps that aren’t within aggro range of guards.
4) Irrelevant if there is no one around to stop it.
5) Irrelevant if there is no one around to stop it.
6) The range on this actually exceeds the AoE radius of Metor Shower(the largest AoE in the game) if you position yourself right. I know because I’ve placed siege specifically just out of Meteor Shower range and pets still get to it.

Additionally, siege isn’t an inherent part of a structure, nor is it related to guards. So if your pet is attacking siege, white swords will not be drawn.

zeus

Search and Rescue does revive dead players

Your idea of answering my points is to call them irrelevant? Again, you aren’t thinking this through..

1: If it takes a long time for the pet to kill a siege weapon, then it means there’s a higher chance of you getting spotted.
2: There are always players near a siege, unless the siege weapon isn’t needed anymore, in which case killing it is irrelevant.
3: Yes, this is true, but if it is placed near an NPC, then would still kill it. It’s a drawback to doing this.
4: If someone stops it, you are at a disadvantage. It’s a drawback to doing this.
5: It’s a risk, therefor it’s a drawback.
6: And then you killed the pet and moved on, while the Ranger was at a disadvantage as “Guard” was then wasted.

Rhaps.8540:

I have to say I loved it whilst it lasted, and used it a fair bit. But I really expected this fix. Being able to send your pet anywhere under the cover of stealth was always going to be way too good to be true.

The real shame is we yet again didn’t see any meaningful buffs to the class so the closing off of an exploit is felt far more. I wish the patch release had went more along the lines of: “Oh they fixed guard, ah well at least spirits are good now and they adjusted the traitlines finally!”… but no.

I disagree that it’s too good to be true. What advantage is it really that you get? Killing one player on top of a wall, where there’s usually a ton of other foes who can revive him easily? Sending the pet anywhere you want does sound very powerful on it’s own, but that’s only until you consider the fact that pets are really bad on their own. They have far less health then a player, and far less damage. In order to actually make the pet useful, you’d have to use “Search and Rescue” for reviving, or “Sick ’Em”/Quickening Zephyr for damage, on top of using “Guard”.

The only reason this looks like an exploit, is because it wasn’t how “Guard” was meant to be used. But it’s ridiculous to just remove an ability like this, without considering whether or not it’s balanced. I don’t think ArenaNet considered this before removing this ability from “Guard”. They just saw that the skill worked in a different way then how they intended it to, and then decided to “fix” it only based on that.

Obsidian.1328:

Really??

In what world does that make sense or is fair in any way? So basically you want the ability to remove siege from a tower/keep from outside without drawing white swords or putting yourself in any danger whatsoever?

This was one of the most obvious skill abuses in the game.

This is the problem with why this skill was changed; you don’t think it through. If you did, you would realize that it is balanced by several different factors:

• It takes a ton of time for one pet to kill a siege, as the pet deals even less damage then a player.
• There are always players running around, it wouldn’t take long before anyone would see you.
• Even if no player is around, the nearest NPC could quickly kill the pet.
• If the pet dies, you have to both switch pet, and wait for the recharge on “Guard”.
• You are sacrificing at least one utility skill in order to do this. So if you get attack by a player, you are at a disadvantage.
• Elementalists, or any other profession with enough target based AoE damage, can do the exact same thing. Except more efficient!

I don’t know how anyone can call it an abuse. The Ranger can’t deal full damage on top of a wall, because the pet can’t reach. The pet is part of the Ranger, and so it should be able to deal damage where the Ranger can deal damage. The fact that we had to use a utility in order to do so was a very fair balance, considering every other profession gets max damage for free!

1: There’s the bunker Ranger, which relies on regeneration and vigor. It deals damage with the pet, since it’s only affected by Beastmaster traits, and not your stats.
2: If you play the bunker build, then winning a 1v2 should be possible. There’s a far in between great players in WvW, and most of them run in zergs.
3: No, not any garbage weapons as a whole. But direct damage weapons deal garbage damage, even though they have some good utility.
4: Yes, just don’t touch Marksmanship. Make a bunker or condition damage trap build.
5: Condition damage all the way. Direct damage for the Ranger is a joke.

I think this was a much needed fix. More Thieves need to learn how to use movement more, instead of run and hide tactics.

This doesn’t make any sense, at all. “Guard” is basically now useless, where it was a balanced and important tool before. And the Ranger spirits which are still completely ignored, didn’t get another health buff, even though Guardian spirit weapons did. So I’m not sure what information it is ArenaNet are looking at. I wish they’d spend more time reading the forum.

Gelltor.3015:

It was obviously not meant to work that way,i’m surprised that people didn’t expect this to happen,especially after they did the same thing to mesmers with their illusions.

How it was suppose to work is besides the point. The point is that it’s not game breaking in anyway, as it is balanced by several different factors. The Mesmers damage doesn’t rely on illusions, as much as the Ranger rely on his pet for damage. It is also still possible to attack with illusions on top of walls as a Mesmer, as long as your target is not obscured.

vespers.1759:

i disagree. i don’t think it was ever intended to be so effective. it was similar to perm invis for thieves on walls. i don’t mind the change, but i do facepalm the other nerfs we got, especially when thieves got buffed AGAIN.

But it’s not very effective at all. Quite the opposite. Whenever you are dealing damage to someone on top of a wall as a Ranger, you are always dealing lower damage, because your pet isn’t dealing damage with you. “Guard” not only gave some more utility to the pet in these situations, it also allowed the Ranger to deal full damage.

Lanser.8520:

Actually, what is Guard used for now? I can effectively accomplish the same thing with F1 spam.

I never notice any stat increase, and the stealth is a minimal bonus.

“Guard” gives your pet a short duration of stealth and protection, while locking it down to the target area. It lasts for around 3 min, unless the pet/you are defeated, or you run too far away from the pet.

__

It’s kinda sad that this topic isn’t getting more replies. This was quite an important tool for the Ranger, but I guess not enough people know how to really use it.

firebreathz.7692:

mainly because..

dead mesmer inside keep.. use guard to get pet on wall.. use search and rescue to revive dead mesmer.. mesmer then makes a protal into keep so others can gain access and attack the boss…

I think this was the sole reason.. not the legitimate use of just using on walls

Not guarding a defeated Mesmer is just a mistake. A Thief could hide inside the keep and just go revive him.

But why shouldn’t the Ranger be allowed some utility? As mentioned, you would need to spend two utility skills on doing this, while being close to a wall where foes can hit you. And if you fail, you would need to wait 30-85 seconds before you could do it again. Next to that, anyone can see the Mesmer being revived, and just spam AoE on the location to kill the pet, or kill the Mesmer again after rallying.

This skill gave the pet and the Ranger another purpose. It allowed the Ranger to attack enemies on walls in WvW with full damage, as the Rangers damage is balanced with the pet. And it allowed us to send the pet to unreachable locations in fractals, to help allies. Like reviving fallen allies on Cliffside Fractal, instead of having to suicide and start over.

It was already balanced by these facts:

• You need to use a utility slot to send the pet to inaccessible areas.
• After you use “Guard” you still need to use another utility slot on either “Sick ’Em”, Quickening Zephyr, or “Search and Rescue”, in order to actually make the pet do something valuable at the location. Using “Guard” alone does nothing, as the pet damage on its own is too weak.
• Even after you’ve managed to do all of this, the pet can still be killed very easily from anyone who cares to target it, or just from AoE. And once the pet is dead, you need to switch pets, and use “Guard” again, to get the pet back on the wall.
• If you move too far away from the pet, it will be teleported down to you. Meaning that you have to use “Guard” again.
• There have been next to zero complaints from players against this.

You removed a very important tool from the Ranger here ArenaNet. It puzzles me that a skill like Cloak and Dagger can exist in the game, which is the primary tool that allows the Thief to be permanently in stealth, which is very annoying to play against for a large population of your players. Yet the pet can not be send on top of walls in WvW? Hell, even the Mesmer can send illusions on top of walls and shatter them, with an auto attack. So why was “Guard” changed?

I agree, it makes no sense at all. They are talking about spirits like it’s a done chapter, and it’s too late to fix them. All they have to do is make them more survivable.

Calae.1738:

If you’re old enough, you might remember Quake.

Quake use to have a movement manuver called strafe jumping. It was a bug in the game code that players learned how to exploit in order to move faster. It later became a skill that separated the men from the boys. The designers desided to remove it in the early developement on Quake 3 Arena and there was an outcry from the fans so large you could hear it from the other side of the world.

The designers argued that this movement manuver was not intended. It broke immersion and was unintended design. The fans argument was that the skill when mastered, created a skill gap between players and enhanced competitve play. The designers decided to keep it in the game.

I understand your point of view. You mastered a new skill and you think that this skill makes you a better player. Although that may be true, it doesn’t mean that this skill can’t be made better. Skilled play is still required and I would argue that it makes the game even more skillful than before.

That’s a total moot comparison, as Withdraw is in no way game breaking. You completely missed my point. Learning how to utilize Withdraw is rather easy on it’s own, as several people have said in this topic already, but together with everything ells you have to do as a Thief, it becomes becomes part of a larger whole. It’s the little things that makes the difference. If Withdraw was just a dodge skill with a heal attached, then there wouldn’t be much reason for it to be a skill. Then it might as well just be a trait that says “Heal whenever you dodge. Cures immobilized, chilled, and crippled”. There needs to be some form of difficulty attached some places. That’s also why you have target based skills, next to auto attack skills.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

They could have designed it to make you roll in whatever direction you’re moving, like a regular dodge roll. Then, if you don’t want to leave you don’t have to, but if you want to get out of there you can use it backwards like you would a dodge roll and get the current effect.

You could also just make all target based skills work like this, so you never would have to aim with your mouse! But why remove all challenge from the skill? The fun part is learning how to use Withdraw to your advantage. This is where “skill” comes in. It’s the little things that makes a good player great.

The worst part about stealth is that it makes bad Thief players. Meaning that if you took the stealth away, all these Cloak and Dagger spam Thieves would be downed in a few seconds, because they have never learned how to move as a Thief.

It’s funny when people say it’s a learn to play issue, when the problem is not that the Thief is impossible to kill. The problem is that it’s way too easy to play like this, and it’s never fun to play against. It could be easily balanced by nerfing stealth, and then give the Thief a bit of defensive boons in return, like aegis and stability. But Cloak and Dagger spam Thieves would still complain, because they love the fact that it is so easy to play. This is the core of the problem.

I expect to be disappointed when seeing next to zero profession balance changes. I’m looking forward to all the content, though.

I just wish ArenaNet would remove the jumping puzzles from WvW all together. It gets really tiring to watch the message “is there a Mesmer in JP” pop up every 30 min when playing, and it’s ridiculous to spend time trying to balance professions in the JP, when anyone in there don’t offer any assistance to the overall fight anyway.

Calae.1738:

Dude.

My point is you don’t have to “turn left to go right”. You could build it so that you can “turn right to go right”.

Why build a car that turns left when you steer right?

The skill is designed to roll you back. If you changed the skill into a target based roll, it would be much more difficult to roll back, as you would have to both turn and target first. Having a reliable roll back is also much better for situations where you are immobilized or otherwise unable to turn. And again, the times when you want to go left or right with the skill is next to zero, and turning your camera is already easy. So I really don’t see any reason to change it.

You’re overcomplicating the skill. The times where you need to go any other direction then forward or backwards, is next to zero. The point is simply to get out of a bad situation, from foes you are either facing, or who are chasing you. Turning 180 is as simple as pressing a button, if you just bind the key named “About Face”.

Sigil of Rage all the way. With it, you have three sources of quickness, giving you a total of 9 seconds. The only downside is the 45 seconds cooldown on Sigil of Rage.

If you just want to go for damage in WvW, then a confusion glamour build is the way to go. Personally I like to play a bunker/support type of build; http://tinyurl.com/b93mpky

I play this build http://tinyurl.com/b93mpky in WvW. I guess you can call it a bunker inspiration build.

• As with other inspiration builds, it generates boons from Signet of Inspiration and the staff. But thanks to Rune of Lyssa, the build can also give a steady stream boons from Mantra of Recovery.
• For damage, the build plays on confusion (scepter, Cry of Frustration, and the trait Confusing Combatants), next to the condition damage from staff.
• Mantra of Recovery is very strong if you trait it like I have here. Mantra of Recovery heals for two times 2620, plus 80 from the 200 healing power. Next to that, the trait Restorative Mantras heals for 2600, plus 40, whenever I channel Mantra of Recovery. And on top of that, the trait Mender’s Purity removes a condition every time I use Mantra of Recovery. This means I get a total of 8040 healing (split three ways) and can remove two conditions, just from my healing skill, which has a recharge time of only 10 seconds. Needless to say, it is very powerful.
• Going over utility skills, the Null Field is mostly chosen for playing against Elementalist or Guardians. I love to cast this on them whenever they try to run into a zerg, and then just watch their health melt away. Without their regeneration or protection, they die very fast to a zerg. Decoy is there to change positioning in combat, as the build plays on clones, but it’s also great to use if you want to be sure that no one interrupts the channel of Mantra of Recovery.
• Mass Invisibility together with Rune of Lyssa is a well known combo. But what many seem to be missing is that it’s a defensive combo, not an offensive one. This is simply because only three out of the total nine boons are offensive (fury, might, and retaliation). The rest are defensive (aegis, protection, regeneration, stability, and vigor), with swiftness being the middle ground, as it can be use both for chasing or running away. On top of this, Mass Invisibility is also a defensive skill on it’s own, so using this combo offensively is a total waste. I use Mass Invisibility when I’m low on health, or when I want to save an ally who’s running away form a zerg (run towards him, then use Mass Invisibility plus Signet of Inspiration).
• Sigil of Might and Sigil of Leecing is self-explaining. Sigil of Speed stacks, so I always make sure that I switch to it whenever I’m stomping someone, or killing mobs. It also allows me to play a bit like a Thief, in that I can stealth, run into a zerg, stomp a player, and then have the swiftness to run away.
• I use Rare Veggie Pizza for this build, as the condition damage is on the low side. This plus Rune of Lyssa, gives me a condition duration of +50%.
• In sPvP the build looks like this http://tinyurl.com/alohzej The build is more supportive by using interrupts, through Mantra of Distraction, Temporal Curtain, Chaos Storm, and of curse Diversion. And more bunker by using the traits Protected Mantras and Illusionary Defense. Bountiful Interruption gives even more boons on interrupts, and channeling Mantra of Distraction also heals for 2600, plus 40 (so I can heal allies for 5280 through two mantras).

Overall, I’m having a lot of fun with this build.

The burst is fine. The Thief is suppose to be the best 1v1 profession. The only problem is the stealth. Stealth should be toned down for the Thief, and then be replaced with some more protective boons. This would allow for more visual combat, which is a lot more fun to play against. Also, give the Thief some more support skills.

I like the persistent world, but I hate the fact that it’s so empty. I always feel like I’m the only player running around. I don’t think greater rewards are going to change anything. The drive should come from having fun playing the game, but it’s kinda lost when there’s hardly anyone in the persistent world you can play with.

Rajnesh.4526:

Thanks to Gandara and their Guild YaK for giving us harder fights than Baruch Bay did in the past 2 week.

Kodash is not strong on weekend, our best period is between Monday an Thuesday.

Edit to YaK: We need more Condition Remove!

That’s Gandara’s strong period as well =)

You can say the Mesmer is more of a reactive profession. With an Elementalist, you want to get straight up in your opponents face, and then run away to heal up, if you’re dealt too much damage. With a Mesmer, you want to get straight up in your opponents face, try to anticipate their next move, and then counter the damage (through clones, stealth, distortion, interrupts, boons, and so on).

The Mesmer is also a much better condition damage profession, and arguably a better utility profession.

I usually log in after 10pm. I spend most of the time playing WvW, sometimes with one of my level 80 characters, but mostly leveling a new character. I take a look at how far along I am with the daily, and then finish it if there’s not too much left (I don’t really care about laurels that much). Sometimes I do a bit of node gathering and food crafting, buy some new armor/weapons, or do some dungeon runs if I need some more gold. I also want to finish the different personal stories of each race at some point, but mostly I just play the game like a multiplayer fps, while maxing out new characters.

I think 25 is a little too high, as 25 players can quickly take down a gate. 15 is a better number.

Always keep moving. Your weapon skills also have some type of damage denial (shadowstep, blind, stealth, cripple, …) that you need, so don’t waste all your initiative on burst damage. It’s more important to keep moving and deal consistent damage.

It’s pretty much the opposite to playing a Ranger, where you mostly just stand still and let your pet tank.

jkctmc.8754:

ski.4927:

@jkctmc:

That’s the difference between a thief video and anyone else’s video. Thieves need fixed. They are quite broken in PvP.

I wish that were true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWl92k63C9k

The reason why this is possible is only thanks to boon generation. If people would learn to remove boons more in WvW, Elementalist and Guardians would also die a lot more. But instead, everyone always tries to burst them down, which is not possible on a player who has next to permanent regeneration, protection, aegis, and/or vigor.

You can not remove a Thief’s stealth, which would be fine if they didn’t have Cloak and Dagger to keep the stealth permanent.

Change pets depending on the situation. Some bosses/mobs will deal a lot of melee AoE damage, which will just kill your melee pet, so in those cases you’ll want to use a ranged pet. Ranged pets are also easier to dodge with (using F3-F1), as they stand still while in range of the target. When it comes to melee pets, you really only want to be using bears, simply because they stay alive longer then other pets. And as long as your pet stays alive, it takes pressure off your allies.

Healing Spring, Search and Rescue, and Spirit of Nature, can be real life savers in dungeons. Equipping a greatsword or sword as your second weapon set is a good idea, as they will give you a quick way to escape through Swoop or Hornet Sting. If you have 20 points in Marksmanship, then get Spotter for the extra 70 precision for allies.

Other then that there’s the situational things, like using Signet of Renewal and Signet of the Wild if there’s a lot of condition damage, using traps to slow down fast moving bosses, using spirits on stationary bosses for extra damage, using Entangle for situations where there’s a lot of mobs, and Rampage as One when you need stability.

I don’t set my pets to passive, but I use F3, F1, and Stow a lot. I find it annoying that I have to press F1 at each new target I want my pet to attack.

Skills are full of references:

Shield of the Avenger – Captain America, The Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D.
Sword of Justice – A reference to the sword that Lady Justice is holding
Call of the Wild – The book ‘The Call of the Wild’ by Jack London, about a sled dog named buck
Dart – A reference to a great white shark attack, where it ambush seals from below at high speed, and hits them mid-body to knock them out
Search and Rescue – The SAR rescue teams
Thunderclap – A headache that happens very rapidly
Trick Shot – A type of pool game
Scorpion Wire – The signature move of Scorpion from Mortal Combat
The Prestige – The movie The Prestige
Portal – The game Portal

Jazenn.7526:

Kasama.8941:

Whirling Defense can be pretty devastating if you snare someone first, forcing them to take all the damage. But since main-hand axe is mainly condition damage, you’re going to be better of with an off-hand torch.

By mainly condition damage you mean one skill?

Winter’s Bite deals both chill and weakness, and Ricochet’s damage is very weak on its own, without a combo field like Bonfire. I don’t see how you can justify main-hand axe as a direct damage weapon with the low base damage that its got.

Whirling Defense can be pretty devastating if you snare someone first, forcing them to take all the damage. But since main-hand axe is mainly condition damage, you’re going to be better of with an off-hand torch.

ensoriki.5789:

You said you don’t see how it’s needed.
So I gave multiple reasons (not a straight comparison) on why it would be taken
:) Cheer’s brah.

I appreciate it. You did list some reasons that I had not thought of. I just feel like the skill is a waste of a utility slot.

ensoriki.5789:

RFI is
1) Less frequent (60 cd vs 50).
2) Creates far less maximum distance from an enemy than Shadowstep.
3) Specifically removes 3 conditions but does nothing for you if under Confusion, burning, poison, bleeding, which will wreck your face if not removed in dire situations.
4) Does not combo with my sword nearly as nice. I can get 3 enemies coming my way, hit shadow return off sword, Shadowstep into the distance, plant another Shadow return from shadow strike, continue moving. Shadow return from shadowstep back to my original location, and if needed shadow return again from inf strike where I had Shadowstepped too. My ability to go “see ya” goes out even further if I get stealth up, or switch to shortbow. With RfI, at best I get an extra CnD/IA or Black powder… Tbh just not feeling it. There’s also when people try to get away from me, and I shadowstep to them, and hit backstab/flanking strike/Heartseeker when they assumed they were safe. No sir.
5) When not running shortbow. Been playing my free’s without it for quite a bit now, and that means I have no ground targetted shadowstep, this means I’d have to walk up certain terrain if I didn’t have Shadowstep on my bar. Rfi wouldn’t solve that. Same for WvW say at shoot what’s it called Arah’s Hope? (left supply camp) When you want to warp up that ledge to Gtfo. Or on the right camp when you go down the slope and warp up the mountain towards the tower by the wurms.
6) When Sword Shadowreturn does not break. This is generally true for Engineer launches, and stomps. There are also times when I shadow return and cannot move despite no conditions on me, I assume this is me actually being stuck in a form of stun and the animation just not showing. Shadowstep comes into play here to get me out. Nothing worse than eating some Engi’s knockback, shadow returning…still on the floor and a Thief comes in with his dagger combo…Shadowstep brah.

Or when they’re about to stomp my bro and steals on CD. So I shadowstep right to em, hit haste, cnd, Tactical strike (or Pw/headshot) that’s interrupted, start rezzing in their face, No problem or drop the Shadow refuge.
Though Generally I have 2+ Stunbreakers on my utility slots regardless, so if I took Rfi it’s with Shadowstep in order to facilitate some need that RFI will fulfill.

tl;dr; Weapon skills can’t do it all and Shadowstep synergizes very well with D/ and S/ probably P/ too I’d assume but I rarely run it seriously.

It’s not about comparing one skill to another, but comparing everything you can do, and the ask yourself if your chosen utility offers anything you don’t have. The Thief already has plenty of ways to get in and out of fights, as movement is what the profession is centered around. And if everything fails, you can just throw down your Shadow Refuge and run away. You already got plenty of condition removal in traits or just your healing skills.

I’m not saying Shadowstep is a bad skill, just that it’s not one of the best or most useful utility skills the Thief has, which is what the topic is about.

Stiv.1820:

2 stun breaks and a condition removal within 20 seconds.. usable with any weapon set. Also can get on top of stuff without short-bow requirement. Instant 1200 range movement to catch someone or get away. It’s got to be our best utility for PvP at least..

How often do you really need two stun breakers in a row (let alone one)? Shadow Return on the sword also breaks stun and removes one condition. Roll for Initiative also removes cripple, chilled, and immobilize, while giving you 6 initiative on top of the stun removal. You already have Shadow Refuge to get away, and Steal (which can be traited to have 1200 range) plus weapon skills for chasing. I don’t see how Shadowstep is needed, at all.

I only agree with Shadow Refuge being an addicting utility, the other two are not needed at all. Put 15 trait points into acrobatics, and you have reliable swiftness on dodge. The trait Thrill of the Crime will also give you 10 seconds of swiftness, and can be activated without having a target. Next to that you have weapon skills like Infiltrator’s Arrow or Shadow Shot, that can easily get you to a target. I’d pick Roll for Initiative over Shadowstep any day, when it comes to a stun breaker. 6 initiative vs. a shadowstep that you already have access to from other skills? Not really a competition..

Sounds like sword/greatsword Ranger and sword/greatsword Warrior are going to be the best carriers, since they both have the best travel skills, AoE fear, and “Protect Me”/Endure Pain. It will be interesting to see.

I did not realize this was possible, but the pet in combination with Entangle does give you everything you need to take a camp. The pets can tank a few mobs at a time, while you deal damage, and keep the mobs in check with Entangle.

I can also do this with my Mesmer, but I have to move around a lot more since illusions die fast, and the Mesmer doesn’t have any AoE snare skill.

By the way, Swoop on the greatsword is a much faster travel skill then Call of the Wild, because it has such a low recharge time. The greatsword will also give you another interrupt on top.

If Guild Wars 2 ever turns into an eSport, it will only consist of full asura teams. Guaranteed.

I agree with the tiers, except for Ranger and Necromancer. In my experience Ranger is B WvW-A PvE, and Necromancer is C WvW-C PvE.

kurtosis.9526:

Kasama.8941:

I use Signet of Inspiration and the focus with a Sigil of Speed on it. Both Signet of Inspiration and Sigil of Speed stacks, and Sigil of Speed doesn’t have any recharge, so I can ramp up quite a lot of swiftness during a fight.

I don’t recommend using runes to get swiftness, as you miss out on quite a lot of damage (Rune of the Undead) or utility (Rune of Lyssa).

Does Sigil of Speed proc on Critters?

No it doesn’t. I mostly use it to get away from a losing fight, after defeating a couple of players. Or if I see a downed player in a zerg, I can stealth and go in to stomp him, and then have the swiftness so I quickly can get back out again.