Guild Wars 2

Sunflowers.1729:

Besides, the last patch didn’t even nerf Thieves; in fact there were a lot of buffs.

Shortbow auto attack nerf, Mug nerf, Smoke screen nerf… I don’t even recall a major patch that didn’t nerf thieves.

If stealth lasts for 3/4 of the fight, it’s not permanent then.

Quakeman.9378:

(on a side note thieves can also basically stay invisible forever if they keep using CnD)

Invisibility =//= Immunity, when people are going to get that? And if a thief is CnD’ing you to stay in stealth all the time, its a l2p matter then.

Bread.7516:

It’s not bugged

Invulnerability (renewed focus) for guardian is NOT a stun breaker.

you cannot break stun mid-air of a launch/blowout; activate break stun when youre flat on the ground and not bouncing.

What he meant was probably that “Stand Your Ground” does not break all kind of stuns (apart of stability, the tooltip states it also breaks stuns). It is confirmed in many other dungeons; “Save Yourselves” is a better stunbreaker to rely on.

PearlGore.7419:

Support in GW2 does not mean what you think it does.

I am well aware what is support in GW2; I also know very well what to expect from vast majority of players considering themselves to be support builds.

If you are in a group of 5 supporting builds, who is going to deal the damage? Is it fun to support each other for the 1-2 hours it takes to clear a dungeon with such a party setup?

Scootabuser.4915:

More DPS and an easier rotation then the warrior, but more difficult to survive.

It’s single target and much easier to fail. The boss often turns away in the very last milisecond before your backstab, I mean frontstab now, lands. Also, pulling the boss into a corner or to a wall, favored by most, actually only makes it harder for the thief.

PS. The spreadsheet shows warrior setup.

As someone said, even if a zerker warrior dies after 30 seconds, he still did more damage than a p/v/t warrior would do during the whole fight.

Thieves are OP, every random WWW PvDoor karma zergling will say you that.

Ensign.2189:

If you did want to break the chain, you’d want to do it after the 2nd attack (3rd hit), not the first; it’ll fail if your timing was tight on the first 4 attacks, and after 5 you might as well take your poison+weakness, as it costs you very little raw DPS at that point.

http://youtu.be/wYbTFzrtOUk

Not really, waiting for 2 AA chains to finish will result in a significant loss of DPS over breaking the 2nd chain.

This is all theorycrafting and it often overlooks missed backstabs. Positioning for a perfect BS is not always possible, there are situations where the mob will turn in the very last millisecond before your backstab, making it a failed frontstab. With less BS in PvE rotations and constant ratio of missed/hit , the DPS loss may be even higher than theyorycrafting suggests.

The titles create now such a mess on the screen, there must be a way to turn them off.

Stealth: The duration of Revealed has been increased to 4 seconds when coming out of stealth via an attack.

And here goes thieves dps:
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But no worries, warrior banners will give 800 hp and 4% crit chance more, it will make up for the loss of thieves dps…… Ehm, what loss? With no thieves in a team, there is no loss…

I don’t deny the fact that a thief can be a survivable class. But I do deny the statement that thieves bring excellent survivability to the whole party. Their support options are limited, and using some of those you mentioned (perma aoe weakness and PBAoE blind) will nerf damage done, due to the initiative system. And can you think of a “support” better than killing mobs faster?

Thieves class design sets their main role in PvE to damage dealing. They do have some fine tricks that may help the party, like Shadow Refugee or Smoke Screen, but if you talk about group support and group survivability, they are far behind guardians. And behind warriors in terms of damage, too.

Vilkata.9078:

If you know how to play them well they can have both indeed. I always bring excellent dps with mine and in wipe situations am usually the last/only man standing. If you honestly believe your statement you are doing something horribly wrong or have found some terribad thieves to group with.

Do you really want to say that the fact you are the last man standing adds excellent survivability to the party as a whole?

Pyroatheist.9031:

You bring high damage and excellent survivability to a party

Thieves? Excellent survivability to a party? Perhaps in P/V/T gear, 30 in Shadow Arts/Acrobatics and only to yourself, but then your damage will be pitiful low.

I don’t know why, but of all bad players I meet, most of them are rangers. Why is this class such a noob-magnet?

To be honest, I don’t understand why people come to a dungeon if they are completely new to it and have no idea how to behave in there. There are plenty of videos on Youtube that explain every detail of every dungeon in this game, for every profession. Some do it as quickly as ten minutes per path. Watching such a video, even a single time, will save a lot of your and your teammates time and frustration. And if you are a smart fast learner, watching the tactics and then doing them once or twice will let you consider yourself experienced when browsing lfg.

Has the “casualness” of this game gone so far that people really expect to jump into a new dungeon and finish it without any troubles?

tl;dr – Before you go to a new dungeon, make some effort and at least watch the tactics on YT. Unless you are selfish and just want to be carried by your teammates.

Seveleniumus.5973:

I myself play a P/V/T + some healing shout warrior with a hammer + rifle. I take the supportive approach of healing/removing conditions, CC’ing and granting might/vulnerability or whatever else party needs and in the end I do not do that much less of a damage than my DPS thief, who usually goes down in one or two hits.

Ever dared to compare your damage output to what a standard zerker warriors does?

In any case it all comes down to, well – fun. It’s so redundant to see all these 100 blades warriors zerking all the time, when this game has so many other weapon combinations to choose from.

Why people so often fail to realize that maximizing effectiveness may also be – as you name it – fun…

Dub.1273:

I prefer Berserker Warriors who die after 30 seconds over Soldier Warriors who die after 2 minutes. Because in those 30 seconds they pulled off more damage than the Soldier one would do in the whole run.

Post of the day!

Gaudrath.6725:

As for necklaces, if someone is so fixated on getting a 3% increase to their stats that they feel they’re being punished with the laurel system, I’d say the problem is in their mindset, not the game.

Why do you consider the hunt for BiS gear, even if it means only a 3% increase, to be something odd? There are different players with different approaches to the game, and only 3% may mean for some as many as 3%.

Gaudrath.6725:

And if those other people want more rewards, then they can put in more effort. You know, like doing events, dungeons, fractals, WvW, whatever. Dailies in no way interfere with that and do not impose any kind of “artifical ceiling”.

I meant laurels, not gold or the other currencies. You can get them only by completing dailies and monthlies. The amount you can get is fixed – and low, and there is no way to obtain them faster, even if you put a great effort in the game, much greater than logging off after completing your dailies. There should be more ways of earning laurels, or a way to earn more of them – with DR – but without the absurd ceiling of one per day and ten per month.

Many players have several characters on end game level, and some of these characters make use of different eq sets. I don’t even want to know how many days and laurels would take to gear all of them in ascended trinkets. But I know that there is absolutely no way to speed up this arduous and slow process.

Dailies rewarding laurels are wrong for another reason. They create an “artificial ceiling” for those who can spare more time for playing. It may not affect casuals spending an hour a day, but it limits those willing to put a greater effort for greater rewards.

DR work in a similar way, but I believe their concept was better designed. The more time you spend on an acitivty, the lesser the rewards will be. But there is nothing that stops you from repeating an activity for more rewards. No artificial ceiling, no restriction like only a single laurel a day.

tl;dr New dailies give everyone the same rewards no matter the effort they put. Is it good? Perhaps yes, but only for those who put little effort and play only to complete their dailies. Not really for anyone else.

I would like to acquire a specific skin of an armour for my main that is available only through personal story mission (http://www.gw2db.com/items/58838-commandos-jacket).

If I complete that mission on another character, will it be possible to transmute the skin – first to another piece of equipment with ‘soulbond on use’ status and then to my main’s char armor – so he can use it?

I recall that some time ago there were titles connected to achievements for PvP matches won on each profession. It was for both tPvP and sPvP. Now there are titles only for winning tournament matches. What happened to the regular ones?

Leo G.4501:

You should be moving and watching the enemy’s attack patterns. Understanding how the foe attacks and what their animations look like can help you take no damage at all.

True, but unfortunately not always possible. I’ll give you an example (see attachment). I consider myself experienced in online gaming and gaming in general, but with so many spell and skill effects, I cannot see a kitten thing, let alone boss animations (I feel sorry for backstab thieves).

Depends on your profession. If you are a guardian, you can easily PUGs as high through the fractals as you wish. However, if you are a thief, you will be kicked even from daily 10 & 20 PUGs just because of your profession. What is more, a significant amount of gw2lfg posts asks for a certain class, in 95% of cases they are looking for guardians/warriors only.

Shadow Refugee works only when your team has some common sense team work knowledge. And since common sense is not so common, in 90% PuGs when I use Shadow Refugee to safely res someone, said person just keeps attacking while downed, revealing himself to the enemy.

Compare it to a mindless easy 3 x aegis in 5s.

SwickHobo.5096:

i fail to see the problem

It means you’ve never tried to find a team for fractals 20/25+ as a thief.

I’m almost done with gearing a tanky DPS guardian but I can’t decide on the sigils. I intend to run mainly dungeon PvE and fractals with this character.

Taking into consideration 45% critical chance and 78% critical damage, which sigil/s would be the best for a greatsword in terms of damage output? And for scepter + focus?
a) Superior Sigil of Force
b) Superior Sigil of Accuracy
c) Superior Sigil of Strength (without boon duration runes)
d) Superior Sigil of Strength (with 40% boon duration runes)
e) Superior Sigil of Blood (but the wiki says it doesn’t work with 2 handed weapons…)

Any help appreciated.

maddoctor.2738:

Konrad.9587:

tl;dr: ANet please implement gear inspect feature. Non-elitists, you will still be able to party with people like you, but you will no longer reduce the effectiveness of elitist runs with your casual builds.

Elitists can ask other elitists to join their group, there your problem is solved.

“Looking for 2 more elitists for dungeon run”… we already have posts like this.

Nothing is solved. Can you think of any, apart from gear inspection, reliable ways of early identification and elimination of MF leeches, AR leeches, full P/V/T players joining speed runs, etc?

Yes, it should be implemented.

Guild Wars 2 is about, using ArenaNet’s own mantra, playing the game the way you want, this include armour setup, weapons, jewels, traits and skills. Allowing an inspection tool would ultimately result in a reduction of variety in player builds as people will standardise their builds to what groups expect them to have.

And what is wrong with it? Isn’t it the maximum effectiveness that is expected? You may test some fancy builds in doing Open World PvE solo, but when you join a party, you are expected to actually help the group, by using a good build and good gear. And if you insist on using non optimal gear/build, you reduce the overall effectiveness of the whole party.

Why should anyone accept that?

Morrigan.2809:

I am against inspect- it is no-one’s business what gear I choose to run with my build, it works for me and that is all that matters.

True, until you join a party. And when you join a party, bad and awkward builds on par with poor equipment will do harm not to you, but to the remaining four party members, who will have to carry you through the dungeon.

tl;dr: ANet please implement gear inspect feature. Non-elitists, you will still be able to party with people like you, but you will no longer reduce the effectiveness of elitist runs with your casual builds.

To the OP: if you intend to PUG your way up through the fractals as a thief, you better expect that many PUGs will kick you out as soon as they see your profession. And even if you progress with guild members or other trusted players, you’ll still be far behind guardians in terms of support and survivability.

Yasi.9065:

This thread reminds me strongly of those oh so tolerant people forcing you to listen to their music, because if you dont want to listen to it, you are an ignorant, intolerant snob.

And an elitist!

On the other hand though, the profession with the highest sustained dps also has the highest health pool, wears heavy armour and is arguably the easiest one to play… isn’t it a bit too much?

The karma vendors featured in temple chains offer new exotic wares.

I can’t log in to check this. What kind of new exotic wares is that?

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

I disagree, if people want to see my exact specs they can ask.
The big problem with “inspect” is dat most people will turn it in a requirement for joining runs/parties. I don’t want to go through a thorough inspection just to join a party because the party leader demands I have “the right” build.

I wear full exotic/ascended with no MF and I find nothing wrong in inspecting or being inspected. I always do my best to help my party and this includes using the best gear possible.

Once I was in a party for 20 lvl FOTM daily run with a player who had only 5 AR. Whole run took longer than usual and we had some problems because of rezing him during combat. If we had had a way to check his equipment (he didn’t tell us about his low AR nor he didn’t avoid agony), we would have never invited him to the party. The run took longer than a standard 20 lvl daily and was definitely more stressful.

See, you can farm AC with poor gear. But when some serious content comes along, no party member should come undergeared. You want the run to be as smooth as possible, why should you waste your time and nerves?. Assuming every party member is equally skilled, it is the gear that will make the run go smoother.

And besides, It’s my gear and build. I don’t want everyone nosing around without my permission.

This is right when you play alone, wrong when in party.

Doctor Orderly MD PhD DDS.7625:

personally have seen plenty of ragequitters in the sense of OMG OUR RUN ISNT PERFECT ragequit at 3rd fractal

Personally I find that most, if not all of those brainless ragequitters, are actually quite bad players with low skill. And if there is no one to make up for their poor performance, like a skilled supportive guardian, they leave the party after just one or two wipes.

Since it ruins the run for the remaining party members, I wish there was some kind of ingame penalty for this kind of behaviour. Until then, my blocked list is just getting bigger and bigger.

I think profession discrimination should be also discussed in the context of other dungeons and fractals. For example, today I got kicked from 4 different daily 20 lvl fractal teams because of my profession – I am a thief. What is funny, I even had no chance to talk with those people, they just kicked me upon seeing my prof. Do you have any tips how to deal with this kind of behaviour, other than rolling a guardian/warrior?

Currently upon leaving or disbanding a party, whole party chat is erased from the main chat window. Sometimes there is an interesting piece of information posted there, or after a good run you want to add party members to your friends list (or block them, after rage quit or so).

Therefore just for the convenience sake I would like to suggest that the party chat messages should not be erased upon losing a party.

Chuo.4238:

There are nice people, there are jerks. Only you get to decide if you’re having more fun playing faster with jerks, or slower with nice people.

Why do you call someone who doesn’t want to prolong a speed run with some meaningless kitten-chatting, a jerk?

#

I don’t agree with the OP. You criticize a group of players but don’t really try to understand them. There are different, perhaps better ways of socializing with other people than chatting while doing a dungeon speed run. When these players play a game, they actually want to play it – read, while in a dungeon, a fractal or WvW borderlands, they want to do a dungeon, a fractal or fight. If they want a chat, they join a guild TS, hang in LA, use fb or meet someone IRL. They may have a more serious, professional, effort-and-reward approach to this game, but is this a reason to call them elitist snobs or jerks?

tl;dr - group up with people who share your playstyle.

Is there a way to reduce the amount of visual effects displayed on your screen during gameplay? There are many skills and utilities with large and/or rich animations, there are lavish aoe effects, there are combo fields and so on. All of these combined together often become just a colourful and flashing mess.

I consider myself quite experienced with MMOs and computer gaming in general. However in some situations, especially in group PvE, due to the excess amount of visual effects displayed it is hard for me to see where my cursor is, let alone to tell which side the monster is facing (I play a BS thief and proper positioning is an essential part of my gameplay).

Yesterday I was doing a fractals run with pug party. The group didn’t do so well but we managed to complete the run. However there was a member of our party that for every single misfortune blamed the fact, that there are two thieves in the party and no guardians.
Thinking about it later and despite myself being one of the thieves, I came to a conclusion that indeed my profession may not be so great for fractals and doesn’t bring much in terms of party support and survivability.

tl;dr - If you were to choose the last member for your fractals party, would you take a thief or a guardian?

NightyNight.1823:

Thief never gets targeted whit stealth.

Stealth =//= Immune.

A great deal of damage comes from AoE, or PBAoE, stealth just doesn’t matter for those. And if you want to maintain a steady damage output, you’ll be dropping out of stealth almost immediately.

Excuse my question… but what is the point of having an endless tonic, except vanity?

teg.1340:

The point is thieves are the only ones how decide when the fight is over. Either they’ve won or they poof away.

Only if the opponent is unable to kill them. So its not the thieves to blame here.

Do you know any other PVP oriented game where stealth does not break when doing

Get your facts straight. Dealing damage does break stealth and gives a ‘Revealed’ debuff, so you cannot restealth immediately.

That’s just sad. It’s Saturday evening and Far Shiverpeaks holds literally nothing, not even a single supply camp except on its own borderlands. This is what happened to once successful WvWvW server after several weeks of losing to night and morning cappers.

Namu.5712:

There is a reason when you join a spvp pub 80% of the teams are thieves.

In fact, there are more guardians or mesmers than thieves in random sPvP.