Guild Wars 2

Fay.2357:

Myxam.2790:

The Meta is very muddled at the moment — you have proponents of Conditions (like myself) and Holdovers of Zerker (Like a few people in this thread). Its not cut and dry at this moment in time because very few people are experimenting with it, and the Holdovers from Zerker are very vocal.

No, let’s be clear. There are 3 types of people.

1. Those who still want to play optimally, run the numbers or listen to those that do, and use zerker/assassin gear because it is still the very clear best choice, with absolutely no question.
2. Those who want to play conditions, aren’t worried about being somewhat less than optimal (at least once DD gets fixed and whatnot), and use an effective PvE condition build to accomplish that.
3. Those that have no idea what they’re doing and think their build/playstyle is fantastic and optimal when it’s actually nonsensical and awful. You and your build that you’ve posted fit into this category unfortunately.

There’s nothing wrong with option 2. It’s not optimal, but it’s also in recognition of that fact and working with it anyway. The problem is option 3, which leads to posting blatant misinformation and awful advice all over the forums, potentially causing folks to make poor decisions.

Blatantly insulting someone is a great way to prove your opinion is the best. Just saying. Lets be clear here, there’s far more than 3 types of people, and you know really quickly which one you fall in, its the kind that gets reported for being needlessly hostile in a public forum.

You also fit into category #3 you listed, because if you’d read my post I offered the following:

1. Experiment and find something you enjoy
2. Seeking Guidance on the Forums on optimizing and improving
3. Create your Ascended Gear

Which is the best possible avenue for the OP to take since they have time to make a decision, rather than posting that Cookie Cutter Build #15 is the most optimum and any variation from that is shame and vulgar threats until you concede.

If you want to be critical of the Build I’ve made, you can do it on the Thread I posted it in.

Ryouzanpaku.1273:

I have not played my mesmer for a long time.
Now I am slowly hoarding Damask cloth so I will be in 2 weeks able to craft set of cloth ascended armor. Question is – what stats?
Month ago it would be quite easy – Zerker all the way… but now I am intrigued to go condi torment/confusion mesmer… it seems to have lot of synergies in trait lines/signets?

I have zerker warrior and would like to try something different but also do not want to waste resources on something sub-par…. another intriguing on condition build is full set of ascended jewelery I have got as side product of LS….

Maybe someone has experience with these builds? I do mostly silwerwastes and EoM lately… but also open word and occasional daily fractal.

Ignore what’s been told to you so far. You have a tailor, you should craft yourself some different stats of armor and try builds for yourself.

Find what fits your playstyle, and then come to us for help making it the best it can be. THEN craft your Ascended Armor.

The Meta is very muddled at the moment — you have proponents of Conditions (like myself) and Holdovers of Zerker (Like a few people in this thread). Its not cut and dry at this moment in time because very few people are experimenting with it, and the Holdovers from Zerker are very vocal.

Same kitten happened in GW1 when the Mesmer Backline came into Meta.

“Augh, Panic is kitten, can’t do better than Discord man.”
“Discord is so win man. Panic and Ineptitude can’t even hold a candle to it man.”
“Oh kitten, Mesmers are awesome.”
“Hey, look at all these Mesmer Team Builds. They’re everywhere!”

Also — you can now change the stats on your Ascended Gear at a whim with the Mystic Forge. So its not as big of a deal anymore.

Added a Mystic Forge recipe to change the stats on ascended weapons and armor. The recipe is as follows:
Ingredient 1: An ascended weapon or armor piece.
Ingredient 2: The exotic insignia or inscription for the desired stats.
Ingredient 3: Five globs of ectoplasm.
Ingredient 4: An Anthology of Heroes, purchased from Miyani for 10 spirit shards.
Result: A piece of ascended gear with the stats of the inscription or insignia of the same type as the piece of gear that went in.
Example: Zojja’s Claymore + Knight’s Orichalcum Imbued Inscription + Five Globs of Ectoplasm + Anthology of Heroes = Beigarth’s Claymore
NOTE: All upgrades are lost as part of this conversion.

Here’s mine, though it is built towards PvE, but the adaptation should be easy. You’ll want Perplexity Runes over Undead, and a Dire Amulet.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW7fnsICVohFoBeoBcrhlXDysDDfEoBInNpMB9OaA-ThyCABQoEEgLAwL6GMw8HyPAgmU+J0+D+o+jEHEgpPCAkCAilVA-e

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Are we being trolled?
Assuming not, some PVE suggestions:
You can pick up a fair chunk of extra damage by switching over to full Rabid, and the Dueling traitline instead of Inspiration (honestly not sure why you didn’t already?).

There’s no condition stacking that deals damage, and is triggered by a Critical hit in the build, so Precision is not needed and detracts from the Sustainability. Also, the Build Link was wrong sadly, it was Domination rather than Inspiration, which would make Sinister a better choice, which is not an option for me currently (I really hate Silverwastes and those kitten Crests).

Krait runes will probably outperform Perplexity, as bleeds outperform confusion in PVE, and it’s easier to stack bleeds than confusion.
Undead runes will lose condition duration, but will get you a lot of condition damage. More testing is needed to decide which will outperform on a mesmer.

Undead Runes were what I had originally in PvE before I went and threw myself into WvW. Krait would out perform perplexity if the build had any substantial source of Bleed in it. Winds of Chaos isn’t exactly spammed, and its simply a chance to get bleeding out of it. Confusion is far more wide spread so its duration length is far more valuable than Bleeding as it still ticks for damage at a few points of damage south of Bleeding in this build If I were to depend upon Winds of Chaos, I would be far better off going with Burning and Balthezar Runes than Krait Runes as there’s more sources for it..

Torch is weaker than pistol, as the iDuelist unloads significant conditions while the iMage can only keep up a single stack of burning. Math says at this level of condi damage, 1 stack of burning is worth about 2.5-2.6 stacks of bleed, and the iDuelist averages 5 stacks per unload with Rabid gear. The AoE burn from the Prestige just doesn’t make up the difference, but Torch is really nice to have around in dungeons (just pop in the torch and switch to The Pledge when you’re gonna be skipping content, and go back to Compounding Power when you put the pistol back in).

Torch is, but Torch doesn’t require a Field to unload conditions like the Pistol does. Unlike the Duelist, the Mage is fodder for Shatters, where if you’re going Pistol, once you drop the Duelist, you’re losing damage by shattering. I’m not sure if you noticed but there’s a Conditions sitting in the F1-F4 bar. Not to mention the Torch gives us
What manipulation skills do you use that benefit from Master of Manipulation? All I see are slotted signets.

Another instance of the Link being borked. The slotted Trait was Illusionary Defense. Domination is why we have Signets.

Chaotic Transference > Chaotic Dampening, especially since the nerf, and with dire or rabid gear.

That one was up in the air and I didn’t notice it working while testing it. Really just needs to be a 20% stock reduction.

You’ll get more mileage out of Mass Invisibility than Signet of Humility on most content, especially with Prismatic Understanding. The cc reduction is more niche, and the moa won’t benefit you much at all against mobs that you’re just going to kill in a few seconds anyway. MI might give you a reason to keep Master of Manipulation, but in practice the combo is a bit annoying, as the reflection from MM can pull you out of stealth.

Like any good Mesmer in group content, your Elite is a Group Utility, not a personal one, which means you’ll take MI or kitten their pleasure. SoH is for solo roaming at the moment, which is useful for shutting down Elites and Vets while you wipe up the Adds.

Malicious Sorcery is broken, so all you get out of it right now is 20% cooldown reduction on scepter. Until that gets fixed, Ineptitude will probably outperform it, giving you confusion stacks on successful dodges, and on successful scepter2 blocks (or the blind for that matter, which gives you another source of aoe confusion).

I agree, wasn’t aware the Attack Speed wasn’t working.

Dueling Section. (Snipped for Character limit)

The Build did used to go into Dueling for Deceptive Evasion, DE is especially nice now that it doesn’t have an Internal CD, but I think I’ll get more mileage out of Domination, aside from Blink, Mass Invis and Mirror, the other options for Manipulations are entirely situational. Desperate Decory is actually the Pick for me here, since literally every Illusion made is fodder for attacks or for Shatters, and the Stealth with give us Boons, and if we had our S/T out, CDR, I’d agree on Pistols and Duelist’s Disc if we have more than 2 Interrupts available, which makes the second half of that skill a little lack luster. I agree about Blinding Dissipation, it just adds more confusion to our Shatters.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

-Snip-

This was a really popular PvP Build a year or so ago, I think it was called Clone Factory. Focused on Stacking up as much confusion and having enough illusions to take full advantage of each shatter when ever needed, depended a lot on misdirecting the foe and letting Illusions tank damage from foes. Works surprisingly well in PvE after the Conditions buff I’ve found.
The link was a copy of my build when I last played it, which was Sunday night. I noticed though, that it wasn’t Confusion, burning, bleeding, or poison doing the majority of the damage — it was Torment.

I went through your suggestions and posted my thoughts in Italics. It’ll be in the next post.

Telekinesis.8312:

the build you linked doesn’t have any traits put in the inspiration line. and prismatic understanding’s been selected. something’s wrong with the link i guess or it’s just me?

No, the link definitely did break, at least on Google Chrome. It was actually using Domination in the Center Slot with Confounding Suggestions, Blurred Inscriptions, and Mental Anguish

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW7fnsICVohdoBGoBMrhlXDycFzYEnANA58IA-TByCABA8AAAU3AyXBgl3fwT1fSUJYWK/k4gAEA4AY3dT36GM+4jP+4j3u7u7u7ubpAgYZF-e

I melted through mobs in Silverwastes faster than I’ve ever done with the above build. Had a lot of fun as well. Might make a guide after I try a dungeon with it.

Celestial Staff also has some decent viability in PvE, the utility it brings to the table is capable of carrying groups or increasing uptime in fights that would otherwise have very small windows in dungeons (Healing, CC, and Field Utility) and I recommend starting with it first, over Zerker as it gives you far more survivability which enables you to learn mechanics and adjust to the Mobility this game has over others.

Depends. Do you want to hug Fire like a little pansie girly mage , or do you want to burn Attunements like its Money in Russia after WW1? Former? Berzerker. Latter? Celestial or Soldier.

Yes, because Zordon is a boss and those mechs are the shiiiii- wait, a different kind of Power Ranger?kitten

I’ve done some ridiculous damage on my Thief, but if you’re just spamming Auto-attacks you’re not playing it right.

I’m thinking Summoner:

It was a class in Utopia (which is the Xpack in GW1 that became the frame work for GW2), Mesmer we already suspect to be the Chronomancer, and I think we’ll get an offhand item…

It most certainly is

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Utopia

We’re guessing you’re wondering what we’re wondering: Why mess with success? It’s not as though Guild Wars isn’t a financial triumph, despite its unusual business model (it’s the only major MMO without a monthly subscription fee). It’s hardly lacking in depth (more than 1,000 skills support 10 professions, and each character has a primary and secondary profession); aesthetic appeal (lush settings recall African savannahs, ancient Asian temples, and posh Arabian castles, among other gorgeous environs); or ways for players to spend their time (ArenaNet says a “shockingly large” number of GW players have logged more than 2,000 hours of playtime). And, given that the development team has aimed to release a new campaign every six months or so (despite missing that deadline by six months for the second campaign), one might assume that every Guild Wars designer’s wildest ideas have found a home somewhere between the lands of Tyria and Elona.
But, in fact, the restrictions of the every-six-months model meant the team found itself perpetually wistful over what didn’t make it into the game.
“We sat down to discuss what was going to go into Campaign 4 and realized we couldn’t do all the things we wanted,” says Game Designer Eric Flannum. “Why? Partly because we’d need more time [than six months], and partly because some ideas wouldn’t work well with things we’d done before.”
At that point, there were still no plans to fix a system that didn’t seem broken. But ArenaNet Co-Founder Jeff Strain decided to let everyone “freestyle a little bit,” he says. “And the more we talked, the more excited we got about what we could be doing.”
What the team felt it couldn’t do was implement its exciting new ideas in the game’s current campaign-every-six-months plan. While the promise of fresh standalone content twice a year sounds great to players, its requirements have actually caused Guild Wars to become somewhat convoluted from a game-design perspective.
“With each new campaign, we’ve been trying to introduce brand-new mechanics that change how the game plays. That’s led to the need for larger and larger tutorials to explain the new mechanics, and it’s made each campaign’s beginning experience much more bloated,” explains Flannum. “And since every new campaign was aiming to bring in new players—thus requiring bigger and bigger tutorials—plus aiming to give stuff to older players, the list of skills just kept growing.” Each campaign that’s been added to the Guild Wars world—three in total—has added another layer of design that, in the name of making things easier for new players, has actually ended up creating barriers to entry as they try to sort through multiple training areas, increasingly intricate tutorials, and an ever-ballooning list of skills.
“We’re battling against complexity,” Strain adds. “We don’t want to make complicated games. We want to make fun, easy-to-grasp games that are easy to get into and not frontloaded with complexity.”
As the team considered its situation – how to uncomplicate the current campaign model and add new, cool features without making the game any more Byzantine – what began as a brainstorm about Campaign 4 evolved into the blueprint for a completely new game.
“We kept changing the scope of what we were doing, until it became Guild Wars 2,” Flannum says with a shrug and a smile.
ArenaNet’s abrupt about-face is a shock, but not necessarily an unpleasant one. When a dev team with a track record of doing great stuff announces it wants to focus on doing more great stuff, there’s little to complain about-except that Guild Wars 2 won’t be coming out in six months, or even six months after that. (More like two years, says ArenaNet—expect a beta sometime in 2008.)

LIVE MY DEAD POST, LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!

Here, some CPR with another very typical looking Thief.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Myxam.2790:

“Healing isn’t Fun.” Whatever Dev said this, is entitled to his opinion, but one has to realize its still an opinion. I played GW1 From Factions to GW2 for one reason; Protection Monk was challenging and fun.

It required you be grounded in the action to work correctly as it was entirely preventative (save for Zealous Benediction everything in Prot required had a requirement that needed to be met). However, what completely ruined the playstyle was the rise of Speed Running and HeroWay. So to be frank, the very mindset the game takes upon itself with the “We’ll not have the Trinity” is destructive to the play style I, and many GW1 Veterens ENJOYED.

I want a dedicated healing role, call it nostalgia, but I want my Monk back baby.

i’m sorry to say, but one of the first things the devs did when working on GW2 was “let’s get rid of the monk. no one likes having to rely on a monk to succeed, no one likes having to wait for a monk on the LFG to go do stuff”.

so if you liked protection monk, your best bet is roll a support guardian and stack them boons on your allies.

I can do this with any class however the same mentality that wrecked my playstyle in the first game is already present here. “Why aren’t you playing berserker-geared character? You bring nothing to the table. You are not coming with me to X content, goodbye @*[=}€~!.”

“Healing isn’t Fun.” Whatever Dev said this, is entitled to his opinion, but one has to realize its still an opinion. I played GW1 From Factions to GW2 for one reason; Protection Monk was challenging and fun.

It required you be grounded in the action to work correctly as it was entirely preventative (save for Zealous Benediction everything in Prot required had a requirement that needed to be met). However, what completely ruined the playstyle was the rise of Speed Running and HeroWay. So to be frank, the very mindset the game takes upon itself with the “We’ll not have the Trinity” is destructive to the play style I, and many GW1 Veterens ENJOYED.

I want a dedicated healing role, call it nostalgia, but I want my Monk back baby.

http://www.gw2armor.com/human/female/k2/heavy/front.jpg

Sorry for spoiling it…

Gust should have been a PBAoE Cone tbh, and Blinding Surge… needs to be AOE.

Rampage is very good for Linebacking… which isn’t a role we see much in PvP anymore. It might come into play with GVG.

Plus. We already see the Mesmer messing up folks with a giant clock. Kinda obvious what we’re getting if we do some history-searching.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_Utopia

I love me some Axes (my bonkin’ stick at work is a PVC bearded haft-and-a-half) but Thief ain’t where me axes should be axin’ the axe-less faced Mobbies.

On a serious note, way too much power in your 2, Cheap Spammable Blast and stuns are a no-no. Also you forgot the ‘No Offhand’ ability. Chill isn’t a Thief condition really, we only have a utility for it. Spammable Superspeed is a no as well.

And Deep Wounds I really don’t care to see return as we don’t have a relatively uniform health pool across classes.

O.o

I’ve got 41% and I crit just about every hit.

A lot of people are missing the fact that we’re already playing what is essentially a Specialization.

Several things coming over from Ranger.

1st. You’re a Hybrid Build class at the core, take advantage of that. From top to bottom Elementalist is at its best, when its doing as much as it can — it has the highest APM out of any class in the game for a reason.

2nd. Unless the build you’re using requires you to, never Attunement hug. With the way they work, there will always be a more important skill you can be casting than just Autoattacking (unless you’re playing the Fire-Hugger build (which is soul-crushing)).

3rd. Weapon Swap Sigils are your friend. “But Ele’s don’t have two weapon sets!” No, they have FOUR. Changing Attunement counts as a Weapon Swap.

4th. Practice Practice Practice.

5th. Staves are boss.

Its Nuck Chorris, the most kitten of Devourers kittens be danged!

zenleto.6179:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

zenleto.6179:

Whatever people may think about the changes Anet have made to their game over the course of the last two and a bit years, the power creep has been negligible. Considering how much of a grip the devs seem to have on this aspect, one that has affected a lot of games, I can’t see them letting go of this. Obviously it may pan out differently but I don’t think so.

Power creep hasn’t been implemented in the past 2 years. What have we gotten for player progression?

Ascended gear, which barely adds anything on top of Exotic gear sans Agony Resistence. 2 new healing skills. And 5 new traits. This is hardly a power creep, especially compared to all the new masteries and specializations we’ll be getting.

Correct. Negligible.

So are you wanting power creep? Its not how I read your post.

With the additions of HoT, and possibly future expansions, it poses a threat, and PowerCreep is already an issue in the game.

For anyone wanting to join in Fractals, its Tough Luck For You Bucko on the server I play on. No one is interested in climbing or helping others to climb the ranks to the higher end content, making people who have very little Agony Resistance (or none, in most cases) have little to no chance of joining in on this content. So, rather than try and consume this content they go farm Silverwastes.

The singular instance of Vertical Progression in this game is by and far the worst I’ve seen in any game I’ve played.

So, yes, Powercreep is a MAJOR CONCERN.

draxynnic.3719:

I think Zaxares has a valid point. Having such themes, in a light where it is clearly something that only the villains will do, can serve as a means of demonstrating how horrible such policies are.

One of the more poignant examinations of the Holocaust I’ve come across was Harry Turtledove’s “Darkness” series:

Show Spoiler

hide spoiler

It’s fairly clear early on that it’s a replaying of World War 2 in a fantasy universe. “Algarvian” hatred for “Kaunians” is established early on, but it isn’t until Algarve gets mired in the fighting with the setting’s equivalent of Russia that the Algarvians try to break the stalemate by sacrificing Kaunians to power dark blood magic. The “fridge brilliance” moment is when you realise this act – generally enough to immediately label someone as the blackest villain in most fantasy settings – at least had the excuse that it had a purpose beyond senseless slaughter out of irrational hatred.

Or, to put it another way – blood mages performing mass sacrifices to power some foul magic = Still not as bad as the kittens.

With all that said, an internment camp doesn’t necessarily need to mean actual atrocities. Most of the belligerents, in both world wars, had internment camps for people who were connected with hostile countries – however, apart from people effectively being jailed because they had a certain ethnic and cultural background, these were relatively civilised institutions. Having sylvari being interned as a precaution against being taken over by Mordremoth – without any intention to do worse to them than denying them their freedom – may be a rational precaution given the circumstances.

However bad anti-sylvari prejudice might get, though, I don’t think we’re ever going to be put into a position of agreeing with it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans

How about nope. Same logic, and in some of these places was just as bad.

Basaltface.2786:

heh this topic amuses me as charr player to no end. Its ok when charr get racism..but god forbid the sylvari get a share of the cake for once…

When the Charr players get a thread asking the Developers to intern their characters in Concentration Camps, I will be saying no there as well.

Zaxares.5419:

I can understand where you’re coming from, tekfan. (And personally speaking, I would be appalled at any Sylvari-oriented bigotry or “ethnic cleansing” that occurs in HoT.) However, this may also be an excellent way for older generations to teach newer ones the horrors that can come when racial, religious or political hatreds are allowed to go too far. I have faith that ANet will not be portraying such behaviour or attitudes in a positive light, and the story will have our characters trying to prevent such inequities (or worse, massacres) from taking place.

Considering they failed to even portrait the main character of their own story in a way that created a positive reaction (Try-hearde) — I really don’t want them to tackle controversial topics.

This reminds me of the “QQ MOAR” build back in the day <3 or MORE FRENZY~

Ezekiel.1985:

The problem with “old content” becoming irrelevant is basically defined by power creep.

And the inherent problem with power creep is it’s unfriendly to new players – notoriously unfriendly. Oh you hit level cap, but you’re useless until you get ____ which you have to go through 2+ expansions of content for.

That kind of thing.

Gotta agree here. As a player of many games, PowerCreep makes it extremely difficult to enter into new games, or new aspects of old ones. Think about PvP in any MMO except for this one? Your only option is be stomped on until you get enough power to compete.

I don’t know how HoT will affect it, but its an important topic to keep on the list of ‘Worries’.

Calves… those are the muscles on the back of your shin…

Ausfer.1853:

If I were to only go on what we know from the Living Story, and if I had NOT seen what these “new allies” look like, I would assume they are The Forgotton.

Physically, they closely resemble the mursaat, yes, and I am not ruling that out, but there’s so many of you focused on the physical appearance of these “new allies” without putting any consideration into more basic facts. Lets take a look at some things we can safely say we know so far:

-The Living Story has brought up the Forgotton and related subjects multiple times since season 2 started.

-Our vision from the Pale Tree showed golden towers, like the architecture we see in the HoT trailer. Taking Glint’s egg to the Forgotton makes tons of sense, since they are protectors of Glint’s legacy just as the zephyrites were. The mursaat would probably despise the egg as it comes from the dragon who prophesied their downfall.

-Based on their past history, it seems very unlikely that the mursaat would ally themselves with the rest of Tyria. The Forgotten served Glint. They are more likely allies.

-The Forgotton are said to have come from the Mists, and as such would be great candidates for teaching the revenant profession to Rytlock. The mursaat have no connection to the Mists.

-Most importantly, the door to Caithe’s hiding spot with all the golden architecture (and likely, the entrance to the new areas in the expansion) was kept shut by a Forgotton seal. A Forgotton city protected by a Forgotton seal makes plenty of sense. A Mursaat city protected by a Forgotton seal does not.

If we disregard their physical appearance, it would seem most logically that these “new allies” are indeed the Forgotten in some form. I don’t think Arena-net would radically change their design without good reason, which leads me to believe these allies aren’t literally the Forgotton … or rather, not in the way we’re used to thinking of them. Perhaps they are some kind of avatar for the Forgotton to speak to us from the Mists, or constructs built by them that house their memories. We do know that they are a very ancient race with powerful magic … because we know so little about them, practically anything is possible.

These could be the Seers…

Or whatever culture we were going to encounter in Utopia… which with the word play, is some form of Musaat or otherwise unseen group.

It really depends on the style of Rifle they go for, you could argue literally for all 4 of those Attribute Lines.

Also, if you like the Paragraph, download and attach the photo xP! Thieves are Thieves!

Sylvari have massive Calves.

It depends on your Guild’s Strat. If you’re front loading Eles, then yeah, Sigil means more burst which means more Downs per clash, but if you’re Melee-Train, Your role as an Ele is support and Utility, which puts weapon swap sigils FAR FAR above.

Shadow Form could be a good one, but with Rifle coming I don’t see it. Maybe when a Specialization gets packaged with a melee weapon. Though it needs to be balanced. I can see it more as a Mist Form kind of ability, but not a “Lolucandonothingwhileibackstab”

They made a point to display all 9 Professions in the Video. We can’t see what the Warrior or Elementalist is wielding (this is the Dragon Fight section close to 1:45 I believe). But the character closest to the camera does a trade mark Thief Dodge Roll, and we can see her shouldering a long weapon like a typical rifle prior. Its quite obviously a thief, quite obviously holding a rifle. The Trait lines are speculation, but not shots in the dark. We know that Steal is going to change when you swap Specializations, Thievery is tied directly to Steal. That Trait line is most definitely going to change.

Shadow Arts I will admit was based thematically on what my own speculations are as to the Specialization, but with consideration of the likely theme, pirates aren’t exactly Sneaky.

Political Correctness? No. I don’t give a kitten about being called a Cabbage, or jokes about Salads.

Giving real, tangible reasons to ostracize part of the playerbase on their Species/Race Selection? Yes, Its especially bad on PvP-heavy servers like Blackgate. Getting whispered “You are sub-human filth you dirty rotton cabbage” is not appreciated or welcomed, and I’m glad the player got banned but this is exactly what I’m talking about.

kitten NO TO THE SYLVARI-HOLOCAUST >:|

Orpheal.8263:

myxam,

Dont speak, as if anything of what you say here is a fact.
Nothing of what you say there is a fact at all about Thieves, because Anet yet hasn’t announced NOTHING officially about what the Thief profession specilization will be at all and how Specilizations even at all will work exactly…

I wouldn’t have high hopes for Snipers. There simply doesn’t exist anything at all, what you could have “seen” about it at this current moment, because anet, nor any gaming magazine website like IGN for example has shown anything about thieves yet, what someone could have “seen”…

A. We see a leather wearer wielding a Rifle; since they already showed Ranger wielding a Stave, and an Engineer wielding a Hammer, its simple to deduce the character is a thief. (The Announcement Trailer).

B. From what they said at the PAX announcement, and subsequent interviews we know that.

1. There will be no new weapons added to the game.
2. The new traits will come packaged in Attribute Trees.
3. The Core ability is to be changed.
4. There will be no Armor Class changes, because they’re looking for parity of 3×3 (3 classes to each armor).
5. That the class mechanics will stay relatively the same (Sneak Attacks and Initiative).

So. How can I NOT speak authoritatively about these aspects? These are things we already know, the only things up for Speculation really are:

What is the new Core Ability?
What new Attribute Trees will we see?
What will be the Specialization be named?
What skills will come with the new weapon?
What kind of Playstyle will the Specialization take us towards?
Will it be effective?
Will it have a place in the Meta?

And the real question I have is how kitten are you over the fact you play a Thief, not the Kittened, Monkey-King

Donari.5237:

draxynnic.3719:

Charr tend to think in terms of practicality – they might think it’s practical to take draconian security measures against sylvari, or they may decide it’s more practical not to (Mordrem attack on the Iron Marches aside, the Brand is a long way from the Maguuma, and sylvari are safer there than anyone else).

Question on that: Does anyone remember if Sylvari got Branded in the BWE end event in Ashford? I was playing a human at the time and really don’t recall if ‘varis got made human Branded or something. Not that I’d take anything from those BWE end-parties as canon; still, it would be interesting if they put a clue in there as to ’varis having some more general Elder Dragon resistance.

Don’t think Sylvari were even released when that event went down.

From what I’ve seen and heard…

Thief Specialization Weapon is Rifle, Shadow Arts and Trickery are being replaced by two new trait lines, Steal is being replaced with a new more appropriate skill (I don’t know what it is at the moment). Stealth, and Initiative are both still going to be apart of the class, Thieves are not getting a change in Armor Class, nor are any NEW weapons being added in this expansion.

Thieves are not Assassins, they aren’t Ninja, or Samurai; Kryta and Tyria are very Western influenced locales, therefore, Thieves are Thieves. Get over it.

Here, is your influence.

Harnel.6810:

RashanDale.3609:

MrForz.1953:

Many people would gladly change the “Thief” name to something quite cheesier I’m afraid.

So our specialisation will be ‘Elite Shadow ninja assassin’?

Well, the thief is a reworked assassin class from GW1. I’d say “Shadow”, “Assassin”, and “Sniper” all might make solid Specialization names.

Aesthetically yes, mechanically no. Assassin in the first game revolved around Critical Strikes and chaining together attack combos to kill or control important enemies quickly for the team. Mobility was not a hall-mark of the play style, simply Killing Speed.

Thief is much more focused on Mobility and Avoiding attention. Burst is very much a part of Thief, but it is not the primary and sole focus of the class.

I miss my Assassin, but I love my -thief- just as much.

Here’s what I’ve been using…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhEQNAW7fnsISZa2qGGoB1aGx2gM5FKBqHyRWZJDwwA-TRiAABZoEMhHAAAHEAc0NE9VA4ZzfWp8j69HOS9HSBAx0I-e

DevilLordLaser.8619:

BrunoBRS.5178:

Scoobaniec.9561:

BrunoBRS.5178:

you want a sniper? roll a rifle warrior.

killshot is exactly that, except without stealth to make it OP.

Rifle warrior is dead and useless.

which is exactly what a sniper thief would be, because melee DPS > ranged DPS, especially single target.

what thief needs is a new playstyle, not yet another “single target burst” weapon.

And what new playstyle would that be, O Bruno?

Fair point but you didn’t have to be so condescending about it.

Disruptive Mace stunlocks? Roll S/P, you already have all the stuns in Creation.

• I agree, but I can see Mace being used otherwise, the Scepter shows that a weapon does not fit the same niche regardless of class.*

Heavy-deeps Axe cleave? The warrior has, like, four options for heavy-deeps cleave, Axe or otherwise, and what self-respecting master of infiltration, sabotage, and assassination goes after people with an axe?

• Jack the Ripper comes to mind…*

Longbow? Basically Shortbow + 300 range? No thanks, ArenaNet’s already ruined shortbow once, don’t need them doing it again.

Longbow doesn’t strike me as something a thief would use in the first place.

We have a new game, a new area, new enemies, new challenges. Who’s to say that ranged DPS will still be awful? Perhaps ArenaNet will finally start putting enemies in the game you don’t want to go face-to-crotch with at all times. Besides. Perhaps folks just want to play what’s cool, and a Thief with a rifle would be pretty fuzzy-kitten cool.

Who’s to say that rifle will be a Long Range weapon in the first place? Half of the classes who use them use them at <600 range anyway. I see Thief using it more as a Carbine or a Sub-machine gun. Something to pop out of no-where, blitz quick and get some distance before their hurt can be returned.

What the class -needs- is a solid Condi weapon. We can see already that its not meant to have a great deal of distance.

Am I the only one who plays Thief to feel like Garrett?

I disagree with Thadd here on the PVE section, with most of the game moving to World Boss and Open World Content, Zerker builds are less favorable because of the new mechanics in places like Silverwastes. I often use a Tanky Axe Shield GS build in PvE and it serves me much better than AxeMace did. Just like GW1, the Meta isn’t applicable to much aside from ‘Hardcore’ interest areas.

I’d honestly just go hard with the Conditions on Dual Swords and grab a Longbow or a Hammer to lineback with.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAscSjEd05ZVHuhwJagkgC5HkBnDgKY4VWFdBA-TpRAwAHOCAYeAAAOBAjOEAlLD0b/BA

The real answer here is to uncap Bleed, and revert it back to the old fashion where every single stack of bleed ticked independently.

There’s two prominent builds (as far as I can tell these days) depending on your playstyle and content desire.

There’s the Zerker which is D/D or D/P based on preference.

Or there’s a Tanky Condi with D/D Shortbow.

I play the latter, and its really preference and content. If you don’t plan to do high level Fractals, then I’d tell you to give the Tanky Condi a try in Exotics before you sink money into Ascended gear.

Lets see what everyone else is already getting that we know of…

Mesmer: Shield
Ranger: Staff
Thief: Rifle
Engineer: Hammer
Necromancer: Greatsword
Warrior:?
Guardian:?
Elementalist: ?

Seeing as how so far they’ve gone for the least skills they need to make. I think we’ll be getting a main or an offhand, which means Torch, Shield, Warhorn, Sword, Axe, Mace, or Pistol.

Its important to note that so far the pattern is ONE weapon, not a SET of weapons. Also in keeping with the Theme of the xpack, its likely to be Nature, Utopia, Tech, or Mursaat in nature.

So I see…

Mace, with a Tech-magic name.