Guild Wars 2

Thanks for advices.
I’ve got experience with D/D thief and some S/D thief and here are my thoughts about the build above:
The changed trait to 20% more damage to half-hp target might be really nice, since at least 3/4 hits will come from me, not being in stealth.
The 100% crit while in stealth was meant for burst (tho damage shouldn’t be higher than 2k from sword), but also something I could count on. With Sigil of fire, it’d be additional 1k damage from it once every 5-10seconds and 330health every 2nd time from omnomberry food.
Valkirie items aren’t an options. Ratio stats:critcal damage is simply too high, but I could use some different orbs and jewel to trinkets. Then I’m not losing anything (5-7stats = 1 critical damage).
It’s not really meant to be D/D build. 70 critical damage for it is way too low.

PS: With our 4 people group (including me) we can’t stack fury on each others really that way. So counting 25 stacks and perma fury is rather paradise situation. Therefore critical chance would stay tad over 55 probably (not including additional 12% chance from traits – 5% while health above 90% and 7% from side/back).
And it’s just meant to be for fun, for any serious fight or if I actually wanted to do something, I’d log class I’ve got experience on – ele.

Mango pie is 85hp/sec
Basicly I use only health regen food (either mango pie on offtanks or omnomberry on high-crit proffessions). Omnomberry ghost is pretty good, you can’t really complain on that and with your critical chance sure it’s work using. You should give it a try and decide yourself.

Hide in Plain Sight is basicly stealth for 3sec every 30seconds. Personally I can’t go on without it. It’s simply great no matter solo or group roaming.

Hello everyone.
Came here to ask for your help/opinion.
I’ll start of by saying that thief used to be my main, but around 4 months ago. In last 2-3 months spent WvWing on him probably less than an hour. Chose other proffessions to play on, but since I like diversity and good ‘ol thief is getting rusty, I’d like to regear him to suit our guild’s play style and log him once a week when I get bored of other proffessions (solo ranger and for group higly supportive ele).

What I’m looking for?
We’re 4 roamer guys, each of us with highly deffensive stats and some little burst once a time (20-30% c. damage and stuff). I’d like now to get more out of thief by using S/D set instead of D/D as it used to be (which is considered as highly bursty), still without loosing good potential damage thief have.

Here’s the build I came out with:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.0|c.1g.h17.8.1g.h8|5.1g.h17|1c.a7.1c.a7.1c.a7.1c.a7.1c.a7.1c.a7|1c.67.1n.67.1n.67.1n.67.1n.67.1c.67|a3.u36c.u45b.0.0|54.7|57.5h.5a.5b.0|e

(could change to 0-30-30-0-10 and trait in Critical Strikes to maintain 50% fury up time).
I would like to sneak and disturb enemies while rest of group is defending themselves (and with thief’s ability, grant us escape by stealthing us).
SB is for mobility, blasts and in general AoE.

And here are the questions:
Are those stats good enough for S/D thief (mainly talking here about critical damage)? What could I possibly change still dealing 1.7-3k damage under critical by #1 skill?

PS: I chose items with lowest stats to critical damage ratio beside weapons. So eg. berserker pauldron of armor or exotic trinkets are rather poor option to increase it.

PS 2: It’s not meant to be for 1vs1 or solo roaming. I won’t do it on thief.

There is no ranger build good mesmer couldn’t kill. That would be it. I’m serious.
If you manage to kill mesmer, most likely you’re half godly-ranger and he is semi-skilled or you’re above average and he spent on proffession less than 5h (not couting exp).

For me, the biggest pain are confusion mesmers (410dmg+ per confu stack + other conditions) even with empathic bond and signet.
2nd worse are the ones with sword burst and who know how to apply confusion right before it (confusion before direct damage burst).

“Duel evening” starts in ~15min.
Place: RoF borderland, behind windmill (middle south).

That’s why I said “almost”. It’s not same with thief cannoniness (50% c. chance. 110 c. damage), but thief has much better survivability even with such low health and armor (15k, 2-2.4k).
It’s sure pretty enjoyable to watch something new (not d/d ele who is lacking of skills and still killing 2-3 rookies), but I think we could agree that in real world (against any better player who isn’t 100% cannon) he wouldn’t stand any bigger changes.

But well, nevermind. It’s pointless to talk about elementalist builds in one of the threads from ranger section, heh.

Sebrent, as I like your opinions I can’t agree with comment above you made.

D/D is simply the best for vs and small actions.

The video you pasted is example of almost full zerker elementalist killing almost only thieves. I this case any opponent with a brain would get him down within seconds (after lighting flash and mist form).

Focus on versus with ranger might seem good in theory, but then you’re losing the most powerful skills dagger have:
Fire grab (fire#5)
Cleasing Wave (Water #5) and quite decent aura (8sec fury&swiftness with build for that).
RtL is no doubt good. (air#4 and following that air#5 for combo)
And both #4 and #5 earth.
Fire grab and Churning earth deals the most damage.
Cleasing Wave and Ride the Lightining are probably the best self supporting skills with dagger set.

That’s the reason why people tent to use D/D set for these kind of fights.

@Xsorus, you must have been fighting with very bad elementalists then if they use only 1/2 of their potential (attunements) and probably cannony ones if they have to switch to water every 9sec.

PS: Today on my server is “Duel Night”. I’ll try to record some versuses against thieves, eles staying on my ranger most of the time (instead of ele).
I wouldn’t place d/d ele in top of the hardest vs opponents against ranger.
Mesmer would be for sure top#1. Then maybe some thieves along with guardians and engies (last both due to retaliation and pretty tanky play style).

To be honest even really good elementalists aren’t that hard (d/d situation), cause they are pretty predictible. I’m elementalist for my own so I know everything I should know and attack’s animations are pretty long. So if you’re not stuned/knocked it’s easy to avoid.
On the other hand, condition or burst/condi mesmers are nearly impossible to win as ranger, even if they aren’t really good.

I’d like to point out that while we don’t have many weapon sets, we do have many skills.

But to follow the rules and to play the ’’game’’:
if anything fits it’d be probably only warhorn for some odd reasons.

Having two legendaries nor claiming you’re pro, doesn’t make you one.

Sebrent, aren’t you expecting a little too much from the upcoming patch, heh?

Traps (even without condi build) are still effective. But the best option is to have greatsword, it will do great.

If you’re going for pure damage ranger is not an option at all on W3(and I mean it).

The only necros I was having problems with were using that transformation elite skill with some decent burst. That’s it.

I’ve got dual corrupted dagger and peacemaker’s dagger (which looks way better on anything bigger than asura).

While rangers aren’t bad played right, they aren’t beneficial in group plays.
For dungeons ranger is class ‘’k, ranger might be our 5th’‘, but basicly any other would do better.
For WvW/sPvP dream-teams I’d never include ranger.

Overall I’d say rangers are OK (nothing more) and far from other proffessions being known for certain things (survivability, mobility, burst, condi burst, group support etc. etc.)

The thing with trap ranger is that he is effective even without condition build and (without putting points into BM) doesn’t have many other choices to pick skills beside signets.
I wish to see some little boosts and adding some boons to make them viable to obtain.

Shalom!
I’d like to represent you latest movies of 2 Guild mates. I’ll do it for them (by their permission), since they are forum-asocial, heh.
To not make it longer than it should be, here it is:
Stepa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTWlYSKdpNA

Obeet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5kgLwjqjhI

About conditions there are two ways to go:
Condition reduction food/runes.
Empathic Bond.

Still, I think sword does better. Short cooldown on sword #2 is a bless when you got to escape.

So next time I’ll be versusing with your ranger, ha? :P

Dan.8709:

Lert.6287:

You got me wrong @Hicci.
Last months I spent basicly only on ranger (so do first months, but back then i was completly nooby). I regeared him and learnt to play the proper way. I’m not one of those guys claiming ranger is weak, they can’t kill anyone or thief is taking them down in less than a second on versus.
While ranger is pretty decent played the good way (and for sure pretty strong on 1vs1 due many evades) he has nothing to be in ‘’dream team’’ of eg. 5 people. Survivability isn’t at it’s highest (comparing to other classes), damage is on ‘’meh level’‘, and very poor group support. That’s what I meant, that certain things should be improved.

I’m sorry but have you ever seen a BM or trap ranger playing properly? They can do amazing stuff and actually people are constantly complaining about how strong they are.

Still nowhere close to:
Guardian’s/Ele’s group support
Guardian’s (warrior and ele too) tankyness
Mesmers/Thieves burst
All written about survivability
Mesmers/Engis condition burst (mostly confusion dealing over 400 per stack)

They are half decent in many matters which doesn’t make them good in any.

Once again. I’m not saying rangers are the weakest. I’m saying rangers don’t have anything to be known for.
You can do it yourself and compare every matter to those written above and compare ranger to other classes as being beneficial in group.

As for topic: These are things we heard before (about changes). I’m kind of disappointed that they think ranger doesn’t have bigger issues, but well… Time will show.

“Now spirits have 100 health more and pets deal whole 1% more damage”

Just kidding. Hope for something good finally.

You got me wrong @Hicci.
Last months I spent basicly only on ranger (so do first months, but back then i was completly nooby). I regeared him and learnt to play the proper way. I’m not one of those guys claiming ranger is weak, they can’t kill anyone or thief is taking them down in less than a second on versus.
While ranger is pretty decent played the good way (and for sure pretty strong on 1vs1 due many evades) he has nothing to be in ‘’dream team’’ of eg. 5 people. Survivability isn’t at it’s highest (comparing to other classes), damage is on ‘’meh level’‘, and very poor group support. That’s what I meant, that certain things should be improved.

And again, you’re talking about 1v1 situation.
When you’re already fighting against someone, last thing you want is getting bursted for 10k in 1sec and then evading heartseeker…
And it’s PvE buff, which most of us don’t really care about. I think on PvE ranger is on decent position, while on PvP it’s hitting bottom line in almost ever possible thing. It should be the matter looked about and improved.

Azura.4172:

The fact that OP abandoned the thread clearly indicates that he has no argument or solid proof of showing that theif is still OP after numerous nerfs. I sense all this verbal diareah is but his own personal QQ experience derived from several encouters of some skilled theif.

If you truly believe that one player or a class is so OP, you are more than welcome to become that % of rage quitter.

Or the fact that only comments come from 1st March and Today (close to 50days later).

Keep the good work, Obt!

Glass cannon means you’re going only for damage, nothing else. Else it wouldn’t be glass.
So mostly people end up with 1.9k armor and 12-15k health with 40-60% c. chance and over 100 critical damage (or equal condition damage).

Xirin.8593:

Syn.3459:

Xirin.8593:

Syn.3459:

nah thieves are fine and totally balanced, probably going to get a thief respond and tell me i was up-leveled or that i suck though

Glass cannon killed by another glass cannon.

Stop the presses.

absolutely

Are you trying to argue that 2300 armor should be considered a defensive-heavy build?

Are you trying to argue that 20k health and 2.3k armor should be considered as glass cannon?

I was hit for 10.5k by BS by thief on sPvP while having 2540 armor. I don’t think it should be that way, and he didn’t even had stacking sigil of stacks of might on himself.

While I don’t have any problems with thieves on vs, there’s gap between group fights and solos. Sure, with group you can tank way longer, but when there comes thief who will take 10k health out of you in no time and simply slide away…. answer yourselves…

I got to agree that ranger will never be such great bursty class as thief or mesmer, but they can of caurse burst. The difference (written above) is that thief can burst people in 5 man group, cap down and run away (or continue to fight) while most classes end up dead (and most likely without killing anyone).

Chris goes Frontline.1853:

How many people came to GH for “vacation” from seafarers?

Our guild did couple of weeks ago.
We couldn’t stand 2h evening queues (or pretty long queues any other time) and zerk fights where you either could choose: you zerg or you got nobody to fight with.

Yeh, that’s true.

From me: there are not many estetic huge staff skins.
But there are few shiny staff skins which fits ele (ghosty, corrupted etc.) than any other class. Think about it, hombre.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gallery_of_staves

There were two necros, you and your guild mate.
Also two engies, but at different times.

Anyway, it was pleassure to fight. Was really fun. Looking forward to do that again and hopefully some 4vs4 between our guilds.

Shalom.

With my power/toughness/precision build it’s the only choice, heh.
And survivability is on decent level with omnomberry ghost and sigil of leeching/blood.

I like knight set on ranger and ele since it’s in-between armor. Neither heavy tank, neither for bursting people down.

Jathres.7236:

Nice fights indeed.

Much fun with Impact, CORE, SoE, Psy and all other people that attended. Specially happy to see other classes participate too. Not just the normal Guardian/thief/ele/mesmer collection but also Rangers/ engis /warriors you name it ^^

Ranger* :P

Stats with other food would be probably higher, but omnomberry ghost is like gift from heaven :P

capuchinseven.8395:

Lert.6287:

I run with ~2950 attack, 60critical chance with food and 57-58 (depends if SB or Duals) critical damage.
In my opinion no condition build has damage comparsion to it. It simply hits more.

My guess is that you’re running a glass cannon build though given you have the best of both worlds with power and critical chance, my build runs high toughness so I can’t get both up to those amounts.

With 2947 armor I wouldn’t even call it close to glass, heh.

I run with everything knight (armor, trinkets) beside weapons (berserkers, since with such huge amount of armor, critical chance I need so attack boost) and ruby jewel to trinkets. And runes w/e boost your attack by 160 (I chose vampirism, since it’s additional 1k heal every 25sec). Runes of citadel probably will do too. Or orbs (which will boost critcal damage to 70 and critical chance by 3-4%).
0-30-30-5-5 traits.

Water #25 gives you 2% damage boost for each boon you have. As long you have 4-5 boons your damage will be same as with that 300 power boost from fire and survivability will be much higher.
With staff attunement dance works other way with D/D ele. D/D got many short cooldowns and every 2-3chains skill with longer cooldown unblocks. Staff ele should switch and drop AoE (water 2, earth 2, fire 2 – always ready after switch).
For group fights there is no possible way you won’t hit anybody. As for solo…. we’ll, staff is rather poor solo weapon choice.

I run with ~2950 attack, 60critical chance with food and 57-58 (depends if SB or Duals) critical damage.
In my opinion no condition build has damage comparsion to it. It simply hits more.

On WvW there is no place to stand still using heal, mate :P And yeh, I do know that. Then it looks decent (kinda similar or same to asura guardian’s staff skill?).

Rizzy.8293:

Lert.6287:

Just look at asura’s animation of it. It looks awful…

pic?
when im moving and channeling this spell it looks like im about to do a kitten head butt.

Makes ele look like a humpy cripple.

With Runes of Citadel, Warhorn and Red Moa you can obtain perma fury.
With bird pets, warhorn and runes of centaur (?) perma swiftness during battle.
With Runes of Dwayna, Fern Hound and Healing spring perma regeneration.

But as you can see it’s either this, this or that. And to obtain one of those you’re giving much more away, which I’d consider as waste.
While we can have certain boon for longer time, we have to put much more effort to achieve it in comparsion to other classes and it’s only one, single boon. Not whole set. While many other classes can keep boons permamently without giving their stats away.

Eg. I can just have fury and swiftness 1/3 of the time and regen for around 1/15 of the up time (from x-x-x-5-x). Not counting elite with incredibly long cooldown, nothing else. For heading of any of the boons I wrote about, I’d have to give away more important things (viable attack options, damage, survivability, other rune choice, pet only for keeping one kind of boon).

Just look at asura’s animation of it. It looks awful…

Let’s be serious. Even elementalist (with so many condi-removals) can easly die to confusion mesmer, as well engi.
Confusion isn’t the only damage source, so it’s not like ‘’do nothing, you will be okay’‘, cause you won’t. You won’t be able to deal any damage, confussion will still work (attunement swapping, dodging, auras w/e) and mesmer will still attack you.
As well I’ve seen few really good mesmers who know how to work their burst out along with confusion stacks. In the end you’ve got few stacks of confusion of you and getting bursted really badly with that sword skill.
Confusion is strong itself. Even without going condi damage build. Confusion with stacks of might and burst is just killer.

In my opinion confusion should be brought close to sPvP leve (maybe not 50% of WvW’s, but around 60-70).

They won’t really split skills between PvE and WvW.
One of the Devs said that the purpose of it is so the tactics from PvE would as well work on WvW (combos, play style).
They consider trifles, like theives after stealth state 4sec on WvW, 3 sec on PvE.

As long you’re wrong, there’s nothing you say will ever be against me.

If you’re asking me for real, either check warrior for your own and use wiki for once.
Only this gives me to thinking that your only proffession is ranger and you don’t know much about any other.
Just by observing X proffession you should guess their strong and weak sides. Their boons (tell me at least you noticed tha eles and guardians run with 5+ boons while ranger doesn’t have any of those options) and role in group.

And we got a fight, yay >.<

Control is part of Support for you and your team. You support them by distracting enemies. Not only cure and heal counts. 2seconds lack of actions from enemies is surely better than anything moa provides.
As well you act like you could use your Moa in way no one else could.
‘’Hey little bud, do you see that allie who is dying? Ye, this one. Go and heal him right now, in this second!’’
As ranged ranger you will stay out of attacks. So will probably your pet. While most people will just dive in. Therefore your pet won’t be able to heal them. If he rush, he will die from lotto-attacks (and we know it). If he somehow survives and will use his ability to heal 3.2k health within radius of 240, most likely he won’t heal anyone beside himself, due to fact that even melee fights aren’t happening all within 400 radius or so.
And even, if you stay ranged (somehow) and let your pet go and hit somebody. It shows how bad pet choice you have.