Guild Wars 2

Doesn’t it die instantly then? The one I saw dying took dmg.

If you go D/D on both weapon sets, use Sigil of Geomancy. I wouldn’t go into Critical Strikes at all. It’s not like DB is the ultimate defense. Going all out for its spammability is somewhat a bad idea. You need some more survivability, especially condition removal.
Shadow Arts IV is an awesome trait for on demand condition removal

I’ve seen a spirit sword “die” 2 mins ago. It had burning applied once before its hp dropped to 0. So any hints on that?

Is there a way?
Pretty annoying not to be able to cap a point because you’re in stealth for 4 more seconds after killing your enemy.

Hey Guardian players,

as a condition thief player it seems to be impossible to deal any damage to spirit weapons but I’ve seen them damaged already. So how can you deal damage to them?
Ele’s splash AoEs maybe?

Anyway is this considered a bug?

Downstate is fine as it adds another strategic factor to the game.
Downed skills have to be reworked though AND res effectiveness has to be reworked completely. Ressing your allies is way too op at the current state. You can start ressing even after the enemy started his cast and still rally your ally.
Against decent players you can’t win a 1v2 unless you kill the second enemy before the first is rallied. Even though you are the better player you still can’t win because your enemies keep ressing.

Hey folks,

I’m running a DD/SB condition build with massive healing for PvP.
As elite skill I use Dagger Storm (even though it’s kinda buggy) because IMO it’s alot better than Thieves Guild for my character build.

I’ve been testing alot with sigils and runes lately but I can’t really decide between Lyssa and Undead runes.
Rune of the Undead adds roughly 300 condition dmg which equals 15 dmg per bleeding tick and 30 per poison tick. That’s quite some DPS..
Lyssa runes on the other hand remove all conditions once Dagger Storm ends or is interrupted or if auto stealth procs. Moreover all boons will be applied for 5s.

Dagger Storm is currently kinda broken. Sometimes there are alot daggers flying around and sometimes there are absolutely none, regardless of the number of enemies around. Once I pop Dagger Storm I’m pretty much fresh meat and I’m usually catching lots of conditions and sometimes some heavy melee/shatter dmg. Lyssa helps alot since conditions are removed and boons (including protection) are applied.

I’d like to hear some opinions on that because I can’t really decide. Both rune sets seem to be viable. I should probably add that I don’t use crit proc sigils anymore, so the precision is just for some minor direct dmg.

I wonder if it is intended that thieves using Caltrops do not get the AoE indication (white circle) whereas the enemy gets it (red circle). Sometimes it’s pretty hard to tell if my enemy is in the AoE or not which then makes me waste my immobilizes.

Why not make server tarnsfers available whenever you want BUT add a 2 week WvW joining cooldown to it. So once you change the server you can’t enter WvW for 2 weeks unless you pay X gems. The amount of gems is determined by the WvW score of your server

Thieves would’ve then be able to dodge for the time they got the revealed debuff.
I don’t see the point of it. IMO quickness isn’t even that good on thieves.

Imo Daays pretty much hits it in his post.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Nerf-or-Buff-is-not-what-PVP-needs/first#post612316

Class balance or certain skill or whatsoever are not the problem. Basically it’s the lack of complexity in tPvP. The PvP mode is always the same, the number of players is limited and it’s far below the number of available professions. Even the maps are always the same. All this makes certain classes/builds mendatory to bring at the current state of the game.

So what happens if you add more maps to the pool?
It adds complexity. Let’s assume you bring a Mesmer for the sole pupose of having him at the treb on Kyhlo (I know they’re hella good anyway and usefull on any map but let’s just assume that). If you don’t get to play that map because the pool is just too big to assure that this is going to happen the Mesmer blocks a spot for a profession which would be more suitable for the map you actually play.

What happens if you add a second combat mode and leave the map/mode unknown until the game starts. Let’s say you have to destroy a stone (which can receive boons/heals/conditions but takes overall less dmg and has a high hp pool) or whatsoever which the enemy is guarding while trying to break your stone at the same time. Characters would need alot more sustainability for this mode. It’d also favour pure support builds alot which you don’t see in the current PvP. Thsi is of course just an example, in fact there are alot PvP modes different from the current conquest mode.

If ANet added more maps which would occur in a random sequence and if they added randomized PvP modes then there wouldn’t be something like a perfect team setup because the game got alot more complex.

SoM is pretty awesome on a condition build if you get the Vigor on heal trait. You have pretty much perma self-healing with Caltrops, Choking Gas, Cluster Bomb, Death Blossom and kinda fast melee dagger swings.
If you feel like you need the active effect, you get a 10s Vigor for more dodging to make up for the loss of self-healing. For me it’s much more enjoyable to play with SoM than with HiS. But that’s probably just me.

Geomancy breaks stealth

Necros can fear ressing people

Combine DD and SB with Signet of Malice and Condition Dmg and be fine PvE wise.
Choking Gas and Caltrops will heal you alot. Death Blossom or Cluster Bomb will add heal as well. No need for blind.

Duration is only for fighting vets/champs in PvE.
For everything else it’s pretty much useless because bleeds never ever tick the full duration because mobs die too fast or your bleeds get removed in PvP.

PvE where kill stealing is not possible is a concept of cooperation whereas PvP is competition. Therefore the ability to steal kills from the enemy team is absolutely fine.

Portal is a completely different story. The way it functions is completely different even the result is different.
Anyway you guys do realize it’s thieves complaining about their skill to be slightly overpowered it’s not some random people QQing about OHMAGAZ TIEF BS DMG OVAPOWAD NURF PLIX

8s stealth is hella long. It’s long enough to travel at least one third of the map without being noticed and finally attack the enemy’s point. You don’t see the house, you don’t see a thief approach you and then hide you simply don’t see anything until you eat the first BS.

Stack on one spot AoE right there.
Randomly hit the air and pay attention to your combat log. Although you can’t see if you are hitting or not, you can just read it. Once you get an idea of the thief’s position knock him down and squash him like a bug.

Max stack is 25 regardless of the number of sigils. So 1 sigil is perfectly fine.

You have to stay in it for 4s. After that you got 8s of stealth during which you can move around freely.

SoM is by far the best hps skill thieves have access to. Conditions thieves use multi hit attacks such as DB, shattered Cluster Bomb, Caltrops, Choking Gas. Each single hit/pulse procs SoM. The active heal is slightly lower than Withdraw and has base CD of 15 secs which can be reduced to 12s.
If you got enough options to stealth and if you don’t need/want the condition removal, SoM is the healing skill of choice for a condition thief.

You can buy char slots upgrades for 800 gems~7.5g

What does all that have to do with Shadow Refuge…

Asomal.6453:

Though Smoke Screen is 30 seconds CD against 60 from Shadow Refuge, but SR is superior,i’ll give you that. However, it’s not like god mode to revive yourself or an ally. Is it good? Of course it is! I use SR all the time for those cases but let’s be real here: How many people keep attacking you when you enter stealth to revive an ally? You and your ally didn’t move from place but some people may think ’’wow where did they go?" and does nothing until you reapper!

If you trait for heal in stealth and if your mate actually keeps ressing himself it’s not that hard to res – unless heavily aoe’d ofc.

Jumper.9482:

Malicious.6742:

Said it the very first day, that skill is op in almost every aspect

Only now (as of Act1 Patch) that you can move out of it after it’s finished applying for a 10-second stealth.

I was actually referring to the very first day of the Act1 Halloween patch

Asomal.6453:

How is 10 seconds stealth from Shadow Refuge OP when you can achive the same 10 seconds just spamming Cluster Bomb on Smoke Screen?

You do know that Smoke Screen bombing consumes Initiative you probably don’t have. Shadow Refuge is super ez to use and can be used to stomp downed enemies or to res mates or just to safe or res yourself if you use it right before you get downed. It’s just far superior.

Said it the very first day, that skill is op in almost every aspect

That’d be GvG which is not coming anytime soon according to ANet even though it is a necessity imo.

read: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Competitive-large-scale-GvGvG/first#post548934
for further explanation

HS thieves usually hit 1 or 2 out of 6 or 7 Heartseekers against half decent players.
Especially if they have quickness, 1 dodge roll would neglect 2 Heartseekers.
Spamming Hs is probably the worst thing to do on a thief.

You know the meaning of “pretty much”? This should make it obvious that there are exceptions.

Btw. in my opinion eles are king in terms of DPS if played correctly. DPS is meant as DPS in this context (surprise surprise).

I always thought DPS=damage per second. Thieves don’t really have that when gearing for power/prec. All they got is burst which is fine. The sustained DPS option of a thief is a condition build which is comparable to condition builds of any other profession.
Pretty much every profession has glass cannon builds with comparable cooldown on their bursts.

Check this Vid of an Engi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJkTMqJOWvU

I know there is alot of upleveld people but some 80s as well. At 1:30 a lvl 80 thief gets insta dominated.

2 things
How to counter Mesmer Moa?
To me the cast doesn’t look special. If the Mesmer is invis and casts it you’re done.
So how to predict it? Can you dodge it? Does it have a special sound?
Are the skills good for anything? I think I tried them all but they all seem to do nothing. Soem of them even lock you in position.

What might be the best behaviour once you got cought? Run behind pillar and such, predict and dodge the next big hit (zerk most likely)? Is there anything else I can do?
Once I get moa’d I die in 80% of the cases.

How to counter massive knock down/stun/daze chains?

Hammer guardians and warriors becoming more and more popular. 1on1 is pretty much doable if you concentrate on your enemy but once it’s a 2on1 (both either hammer warrior or guardian) you’re getting dominated because you’re getting knockdown-chained until you die. I main a thief at the moment so stability is not an option.
I thought about dropping shortbow and get sword/pistol as second weapon set and counter that with Blinding Powder (pistol 5). Does that work at least partly?

To me it seems that either the trait or revealed is broken anyway.
Revealed seems to be randomly applied when you take lots of hits regardless of the damage. I even get it when I am above 90% HP.
I’d rather assume that the debuff itself is bugged since Blinding Powder fails completely 50% of the times and doesn’t even apply the blind to the target around.

In my opinion your traits don’t synergize well with you skill and weapon sets and they way you’d have to play it.
Replace Cloaked in Shadows with Shadow’s Embrace. The blind on stealth doesn’t help you that much while condition removal on stealth is awesome. A 4s stealth will actually remove 2 conditions with this trait.
If you want to stack Vigor, get Withdraw as healing skill. It has only 15s CD, a decent heal and a dodge+stun break included. Get Beautiful Theft instead of Thrill of the Crime to have access to perma Vigor.
Regen traits are not reliable. Heal on spending Initiative would be better imo.
You might want to get a another good trait instead of Slowed Pulse. Get Initiative gain on stealth or -20% CD on Deception skills.

Competitive large scale GvGvG

GW2 needs it because of various aspects.

#1 sPvP is not competitive at all since you always play with random players every single game. The whole concept of sPvP is rather simple which leads me to point 2.

#2 tPvP is lacks complexity. That’s the reason why something like a meta develops. 5 players each team, 3 points to hold. Actions of each team are predictable. Class compositions/combinations are limited simply for the reason that you have 5 players and 8 classes next to the fact that some classes are mendatory.
Nevertheless tPvP is competitive but it rather simple.

#3 WvWvW is supposed to be the actual end game content but it is neither competetive nor motivating at all. Wow, there are even people who PvE there just because WvWvW has PvE elements.
You can hardly manage to organize a big zerg effectively and efficiently if it consists of randoms. Let’s say you manage to that and have the best zerg ever, WvWvW still lacks motivation. You can’t really win as an individual player. You can’t really be victorious anyway. WvWvW is an eternal battle in which you gather points for your server and that’s it. You don’t even know who you fight against on the battle field, the only thing you know it’s people from another server - great.

#4 Guilds bring almost no real benefits to players. You don’t need a guild to PvE. You don’t need one to PvP or to WvWvW either. GvGvG would encourage people to actually form guilds and care about their roster and organisation. Currently only guilds playing high tier tPvP do that and these guilds make up for 1-5% of the player base.

#5 This might sound stupid but the game’s name is Guild Wars but there are no guild wars. I’ve read somewhere else that the meaning has actually nothing to do with GvG but that is exactly what the name suggests and what people, especially new players, expect.

#6 Lack of content. PvE is mad boring, sPvP is repetitive and not everybody likes it. WvWvW is just frustrating and not fun at all. GvGvG would just broaden the portfolio of content and activities in the game. Competitive large scale GvG is what kept alot games alive for years, games like Ragnarok Online (best GvG system ever).
----------------------------------------------------
How to implement large scale GvGvG

• scheduled guild wars 2 times a week for 2 hours +/- a random time frame from 0-30 mins
• have guild emblems displayed above every guild members’ heads

• aim: conquer and defend a keep until the end of the war (probably a keep representing every city in Tyria)

• possible rewards:
-have daily access to regular and rare crafting mats and have a low chance to get mats for crafting legendary armor/weapon or whatsoever
-access to a special dungeon which yields its own armor/weapon tokens
-have your guild banner in front of the keep and/or in cities
-have a position in an official guild ranking
------------------------------------------------
Wow, sounds like a huge thing - is it possible get that into the game?

Of course it is. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t suggest it.
But what get’s me to that conclusion. Guild Wars 2 has the mechanics (siege mechanics and skill combos) all in the game already and the mechanics themselves are working fine. Just apply them to a different concept of PvP battles - a battle of multiple guilds in this case. All it needs is a new environment and the event schedule.

edit: textile eff’d the layout :o

If the trait gave you Vigor instead of Swiftness you’d probably have perma Vigor if you put 15 points into Acrobatics. No please.

I can confirm the issue. Doesn’t work 80% of the time when you use it while you receive damage.

Regular mobs usually die before bleeds run out so the duration only scales dmg up in theory. That’s of course only true if you stack enough bleeds using caltrops.

Add 2 Heartseekers to both the sequences.

Bust Nak.6150:

I am thinking: Mug, C&D, Signet, BS, C&D, BS, C&D, BS. For 3 lots of buffed BS.

You get a 3s revealed debuff after BS.

Anyway, good change. Overall dmg stays pretty much the same (I guess) but you get the chance to dodge the follow up skill of BS which is supposed to kill you. Sin’s Signet is now more viable for other builds/skills/weapon setups. Definitely not a nerf.

The time you have to stay in it was basically halved from 8s to 4s. That is really OP if you compare it to Mesmer’s Elite and take cast time, duration and cd into consideration.

Get Invis from Thief/Mesmer land that thing on stacked zerg in WvW expect massive QQing on forums. Someone please do it and fraps.

If you use Steal while casting CnD, the CnD will hit and grant stealth. This is probably something ANet will change to add some challenge to it.

Condition builds eat glass cannons

Wow not another whine thread…
Burst dmg is totally fine and that’s the only thing a BS thief/100B warrior or whatsoever has.
You want burst damage nerfed? Fine but then nerf survivability of certain classes/builds as well.
1on1 against bunker builds and be happy to never kill them with conditions or any other form of sustained dps. Trying to burst them is often the only viable option which usually fails anyway due to burst counters or insufficient damage.

Inb4 “LULZ u glass cannon thief”
I play a condition/survival build myself

How to counter a BS thief:

Step 1: Include any burst counter in your build.
Step 2: Target a thief when you see him coming and please, yes please, check his buffs. If you see Assassin’s Signet and/or Basilisk Venom, be sure it’s a BS thief. From now on every action is predictable (CnD precast, Steal, BS).
Step 3: Having realized it’s a BS thief lay back, use your burst counter and watch that thief run away.
Step 4: Smile.

Feel free to use any runes that fit your build. (not saying runes of earth are necessarily bad but there might be better runes)

D/D + SB Condition build with awesome survivability (sPvP)

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/thief#3|3|3537|3361|2645|8743|4989|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|2383|2198|751|20|727|1695|0|20|2419|2200|0|19|0|0|61745|28023|49978|49978|49978|49978|49978|25903|48792|0|0|0|0|

Instinctual Response can be switched out for Thrill of the Crime or Uncatchable

+decent condition dmg
+probably highest possible survivability due to massive healing
+AoE conditions
+ground control

-mediocre direct dmg
-no stun breaker
-good condition necros will eat you

Depending on classes you can keep 3 or even more people busy, solo lords@foefire with ease or go into beastmode when it comes to 4+v4+ situations.