Guild Wars 2

I think everyone can agree that pets need a little love; they’re missing stats, have damaged AI, and some of the traits made to increase their survival are completely nonfunctional. I can also agree that having no way to pull conditions off of a pet reliably is a problem. Simply fixing the bugs and adding the stats would go a long way, but I think something like including pets on Wilderness Knowledge’s effect would be necessary.

However, we have what we have and there are ‘some’ options.

Firstly, pet swapping in combat not only helps to heal them but pulls them back to your location. It’s too long of a CD to use for everything, but it can help. Next, when swapped most pets have an attack they’ll use immediately, and some of these attacks have finishers. Drake, for instance, blast. Canines Leap which is an excellent chance to get a fire shield for a little survival Lastly, we have a variety of pets.

The hallmark of the original GW Ranger was versatility.

While I know the habit of picking a favorite type and stick to it forever, sometimes having multiple setups can be a boon. When I roam, I usually pack a stowed Canine; first time I get get by burst from stealth it’ll KD giving me a moment to react. When I camp flip though, it’s a pair of drake. When I zerg I tend to swap drake types to the one with tracking attacks. Unlike Gear they aren’t eating up space so swap at will! If you’re going into an area with lots of unavoidable conditions, bring a high-hp pet. Yes, it does less damage, but it does more than a dead one!

As a mained thief and someone very much enjoying ranger atm, I might be able to shed a little light here.

The last patch hit thief hard. The lack of reliable stun/immob breaks, the low basic vit, and the changes to traited power took a LOT out of their sails. In addition, Ranger got some new toys that specifically help it to handle bursts. It’s not going to flip many games, but it does change the scope of the matchup when a Thief runs onto a ranger.

The fact it, even in full Carrion, Valk, or Cav gear thief is still glass. It relies on constant movement, stealth, and evasion tactics to be able to take players down. Getting hit, even a few times, hurts. Given how the Rapid Fire skill works, it makes it VERY potent against a thief and thus reduces the margin of error from ‘slim’ to ‘none’. You do, however, have a few options.

Using Steal with Sleight of Hand is an excellent way to handle any channeled abilities you come across. In addition, Scorpion Wire is handier than a lot of people give credit for. As Shedalang said, many of Ranger’s best burst is telegraphed once you’re used to seeing it. With every weapon set there are also a few evade tricks; if you’re using D/D pop a #3 to close some distance and evade a second round of multiple shots.

These are just off the top of my head, but I just wanted to show there are options. That said, as others are saying, Ranger is a bad match for thief. It doesn’t make Ranger OP or Thief any more than it makes Rock and Scissors OP/UP.

Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. I’ve made some updates:
-Moved the build to GW2 skills (Mists wasn’t calculating a few things correctly)
-Swapped Weapons for Zealots
-Swapped Sigils for Crit Chance/Healing/Vulnerability
-Changed extra weapon to Longbow (I like GS, but felt the ability to step out of melee as needed is something I really want for the build atm)
-Replaced Fernhound with Wolf for better control
-Dropped Guard for Sick ‘em (wasn’t getting right calculations on recharges, had EXCESSIVE regen)
-Moved Spike Trap in place of Reflexes (More control, already have a good stun break in Protect me)

Even for just the first update I think this is a MASSIVE improvement to the capabilities of this build. I might have enough gold and mats to build/but the gear in storage, so this might be worth giving a go this next week.

@Samis, I have a condition build I usually run. Also working on a Melee GS build. This is just me wanting to add a bit of variety and try to actually enjoy WvW group play. Have to stop being such a loaner :-p

That’s excellent advice on the fern hound. I’ll toy with it to see what I can figure out.

As for the point, while I know both modes require certain changes I’d ideally like it to be able to do both. It is, however, intended primarily for contributing to groups in WvW.

idontnoso.9850:

Q: Why can’t spirits be like banners?

A: Because they’re too heavy to carry around.

First off: I know the Ranger is not the god of support, and will likely never be thought of as the ‘Healer’ class. However, we do have some nifty tricks/fields/traits that I think can give at least a decent role. Who knows, maybe Druid will make the build ‘viable’ in the elitist sense of the word. So here we go!

The build

Gear: I mixed Vit and Tough pieces to give additional survival (dead healers don’t heal). The weapons are Zealot just because of the damage, but you can swap into additional Magi for a slightly higher Healing power should you find the damage still isn’t up to par. The Jewels are a little more power oriented, just so you’re not eating a slot and contributing nothing to damage (besides massive crit chance).

For weapons, the Longbow gives excellent range, vulnerability stacks when Quickdrawn, and passable utility should you need to move around a little more. In reality, the only weapon the build ‘needs’ is Warhorn for the extra blast and fury.

For Runes, you can swap Trooper/Soldier for Water if you need additional condition cleansing.

Side note: All of the Armor and Trinkets can be bought via Karma, so this is a REALLY cheap build to assemble, which makes it great for a second set

The Skills: Warhorn will keep Regen up on allies 24/7 by itself, and Protect Me gives you a solid stunbreak/survival skill, and Sic ‘em will provide additonal Regen/Fury while boosting pet damage. That only leaves the last utility for choice; while I’m not a huge fan of spirits this is probably a decent place for Frost but Spike Trap also gives you a solid control option.
Healing Spring actually shines here: The water field it leaves behind can be blasted for AoE Healing, Leaped for personal healing, and it’s additional Regen (in case you manage to ever need that!) You’ve got 2 sources of blast finishers (pet/warhorn) so manage them well and you’ve got roughly 3.5k burst heal on demand. More, if you plan it well.

The Traits: These should be pretty cut and dry. Boosted healing from you AND pet, perma regen/swiftness, lowered cooldowns, and a few extra benefits for your allies.

The Pets: Wolf’s Howl is multiple seconds of great control, pulling the enemy in on a taunt and then sending them away in fear. Immediately followed by a swap into a drake, who will Swipe(Blast Finisher!) as an opener, this can lead to a noticeable AoE spike heal.

Thoughts, feedback, and suggestions are more than welcome! Maybe, as a community, we can shape this up well enough to be on the current builds list!
Original

Swiftly.2385:

Thanks all. Feels like we got a little bit of the short end of the stick on movement traits also…just my opinion but as a Ranger I feel like we should have top tier movement at least out of combat.

We do. Swiftness is max movement speed in and our of combat, so being able to have it perma up from one trait is awesome. The fact we also get it on several other skills on demand means we can’t be stopped. Combined with a little immob clears we’re incredibly difficult to keep still. Then, as Fluff said, you toss on a GS or S and you can prance around the battlefield in complete control of the situation.

Runes of the Trapper grant a short speed boost after dropping a trap. Resounding Timbre/Guard/HaO provide perma swiftness. Traveler’s Runes give a movement speed bonus.

I know there are a few more options, but those should get you started!

Withdraw + Resourceful Trapper + Trapper’s Runes = Poor Man’s HiS w/decent Condi Removal and Immobilize Remover.

Youtube:
This video has been removed as a violation of YouTube’s policy on repetitive, misleading or inappropriate metadata.

Sorry about that.

This is what I’m currently running with for roaming:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-K;5FFy-x2cDF-0;9F89;1Z_b;0246137036;4SJ06K;1mAjwmAjwPSlNFKsYN;3f1A4f6A9fBA9eWPk4RWAisXAi;9;9;9;9;9;4V6-7u

Side note, you’d also want to pickup a Longbow for tagging, and I usually use Signet of the Hunt when going from camp to camp.

It has good survivability/mobility, as well as excellent escape should you decide a specific fight is not for you. Passable condition clearing, good field manipulation, plenty of self-might, and solid harassment. With it I can flip a camp in just under a minute from engagement to just waiting on the circle to turn. Thanks to the traps I can also handle it if reinforcements show up.

It’s worth noting that this build will NOT zerg well, nor is it strong at dueling. It does, however, annoy the crap out of small squads I come across and can be a strong forward scout/roamer.

Two weeks ago they said it would be back online shortly, but not in time for the last update. There should be another update in the near future, so we can only hope.

brently.7946:

I get that SOME people would complain about this…. but honestly, who ever uses those skins? I literally see a HoM skin like once a week and I play a lot. Further, I can’t believe that all of these ppl complaining JUST got gw1 titles to get stuff in HoM. It seems more possible these are ppl that have had access and just didn’t care to get the skins in the MONTHS we’ve had the wardrobe. Which I did btw…. because I like them. This just seems like another complain because there’s nothing better to do scenario. But, even that goes on Anet because they should be releasing content that might distract people from dumb stuff like this. Which HoT clearly isn’t doing. It seems like the development of HoT has everyone more mad about different things than I’ve ever seen this community.

Firstly, some of the things being locked out are pets which can’t go in the wardrobe.
Secondly, some people haven’t been around for the months wardrobe existed. Perhaps they were waiting on new content, or are trying out the balance of the new patch.
Thirdly, some players have gone back to GW1 to unlock additional heritage options or titles.
Lastly, unless a player was using a specific skin from the HoM they likely didn’t bother to go get the skin. For example, I never used swords on any characters so going to get the skin never made much sense. You can call it laziness, but there just didn’t seem to be a point.

I count myself as one of the players inconvenienced by this, since the sword skin I now wish to use is hidden away pending this fix. I’m just holding hope ANet can get it done soon!

Just like dungeons, PvP, World Bosses, Fractals, and every other game mode in every game invented 95% of the player base is bads. I thought we were talking upper crust against upper crust? Sure, a PvP pro will crush roamers just trolling for duels; just like a dedicated WvW roamer who is actually GOOD will crush PvP bads. The statement you disagreed with was (paraphrased) “Good PvP wins PvP, good roamer wins WvW”. We’re talking upper crust against upper crust, in their environments.

Also, bear in mind that unless you’re commanding the Zerg, the roamers probably aren’t calling to you to give positions and plans. I know when I roamed more, and once I get more heavy into WvW again I’ll be picking up a few specific players to keep contact with who can use the information I provide and give good direction on where I need to be to make the most impact. There’s probably more good roamers than you think; they just are’t spamming map chat.

In that case, I’d even be fine with taking the hit to the damage. A low-cd evade with leap finisher and the utility mentioned before is worth the hit to the damage output imho!

I literally just posted a link to the definition, as written and maintained by the community. It’s the same definition I’ve always understood, though admittedly I just came back after a few extended breaks so I’m willing to admit the definition might have changed. Heck, a quick google search of GW2 roamer is filled with threads, videos, and articles on how roamers can impact WvW, or how the term works in other games with similar systems (which is how I understood it when I played ESO and DaoC as well).

While it is true that many/most ‘roamers’ are actually just out for the dailies or dueling, a true roamer is working to have an impact as an advanced skirmisher.

I think your statement might need additional clarification.

Current:
Activate Sting- Deal damage, evade back
(wait up to 2.5 seconds)
Activate Leap -Leap forward, deal damage, cripple.

Yours:
Activate ‘Sting’-Evade back
(wait up to 2.5 seconds)
Activate Leap – Leap forward, deal damage (Perhaps additional), cripple

Is that what you meant?

Glacio Lightbringer.8394:

I like your idea about sentries actually generating points, however PVD is a big part of WvW and is even used as a map tactic, and is the only point I do not agree with. I think your sentry points idea does enough to encourage roaming. As it is roamers can take camps and taking sentry positions would make the pot even sweeter for roamers. That only leaves the problem of solo roamers having to contend with guild roaming groups, but that is a different challenge altogether.

Additionally I think sentry points should give a team certain abilities, at least a limited way to see enemy positions. I mean isn’t that the whole point of having forward sentry positions in a war? In WvW sentries are merely NPCs that just stand there and contribute nothing to the combat mechanics of the map. They can’t even kill enemy pack dolyaks that happen to walk by!

While I agree with most of your post, I wanted to focus on this part specifically:
A sentry needs to be able to either kill or at least lock down an enemy dolyak team. By simply having them do that you increase the reason to control these points. If you also counted guards for points while under bloodlust, that’d make roaming a small teams great at supporting the larger zergs from afar!

While I can appreciate the effort to bring additional mobility to the ranger, this change would hurt a great many players, myself included.

The current attack system has a great many uses. It can be used as a solid evade, a gap closer, a bigger gap closer, a gap maker, an escape, a great finisher, a kite method, etc.

The delay, while not ideal, is what allows this skill to have such a short cooldown and be so amazing. Please, please, leave it alone.

blitzkrieg.2451:

The name roaming in the sense of wvw is roaming in small group skirmishes or roaming by yourself because they despise zergs. This is what roamer is considered in this game. What you’re referring to is a ‘scout’ but roamers are much different than that.

Roamers generally HATE zerging, therefore they roam and look for equal fights or duels.

May I ask where you get that definition from?
Not the part about hating the zerg; that’s subjective and while it likely does play a part in many roamers’ reasoning, neither of us can claim it as an absolute cause.
I mean your definition of a roamer, because that’s never what I or the wiki consider it.
From the Wiki:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World#Roamer
Roamers are usually individuals or very small groups that go behind enemy lines to achieve objectives that would normally be impractical or impossible for a zerg. They include:

Killing or deterring enemy stragglers and reinforcements
Defending and destroying supply caravans
Capturing enemy camps
Tagging (or tapping) – Attacking an enemy keep sufficiently that it (and its waypoint, if any) becomes contested
Providing intel about enemy zerg size and position
Creating diversion for enemy zerg
Roamers generally require high survivability and escapability.) (emphasis mine)

Scouts are those individuals who tend to look out or babysit one objective. Scouting a objective may vary from, Keeps, Towers, Camps to even some points. Scouts, are useful to a purpose which even sometimes roamers cannot fulfil.

Tend to stay and keep lookout for a specified objective even if there are fights happening in the same map.
Responsible for upgrading and keeping it safe.
Calling for assistance if enemy zerg hits your objective, the response if faster.
Responsible for keeping the siege refreshed in the objective.
Provides precise intel if the objective is tagged or is being attacked.
And in most cases, upgrading the objective and keeping check on the supply.

The roamer, as I depicted above, is a skirmisher. Absolutely. They just also handle a great many other things, to the point skirmishing is only a part of it. Like a grocery store manager is more than just the person who gives discounts to angry customers.

blitzkrieg.2451:

Roaming is just a word for running around looking for fights, so essentially you’re referring to fighting in which case the best pvp players would absolutely, 100% demolish the best ‘roamers’.

That’s actually only partially true.

A GOOD roamer is about far far far more than fighting. A good roamer also acts as a scout and alerts commanders of enemy zerg locations, engages keeps to prevent porting or distract enemy zergs. Heck, some of the more talented ones can even keep multiple locations in combat which gives the appearance of large scale combat in an area where there’s only one. They can also flip camps and towers, breaking supply lines for enemy siege.

A side effect of all this is that, quite often, you’ll come across small teams or other roamers in the world; remember that you’re behind enemy lines the majority of your time as a roamer and quite often intentionally drawing attention to your actions. So yes, you’ll need to be able be able to handle combat with other players; usually in 1vX battles. Being able to eliminate those players, escape those players, or a little of both is an asset to a roamer, and something a good PvP player can likely do as well. That, however, is only one facet of roaming. A PvP player who is just trolling the countryside looking for fights is a BAD roamer and eating a slot on the map that could be utilized better by someone else.

Worse yet, they’re probably NOT going to be as good at even this one aspect as an experienced roamer. As PvP players are so fond of reminding everyone, there’s no food, gear stats, or levels in PvP. There are also no mobs. So, picking the situations that are good or bad to engage in a roaming situation might elude them.

Example:

You see three players running around not far from an enemy keep; likely running to hop on a Zerg you spotted near there. Engage them, or flee? What you’d want to look at:
Are they close enough to the mobs running around that your cleave will draw extra aggro? Will their cleave let you put the mob aggro on them? Where they moving faster than normal/swiftness perma up? What classes are they? Upleveled? Does their gear look fully fleshed out? How far away was that enemy zerg? What’s their title? Can you use the terrain to your advantage, or will it be there’s?

Yes, an experience PvP player can account for some of those questions. Yes, they can handle the combat itself really well. Yes, they can probably whoop me hard. But a better roamer? Doubtful at best.

Eval.2371:

I was going to make a video, but there are a lot of better ranger players than me, and most of the video would be boring one shots.

Please?

Wondrouswall.7169:

Nachyochez.9758:

That would remove the point of the fall damage traits… If they’re all base line, then everyone has them and using them for escape tactics becomes pointless. Currently, they have limited usefulness, but they’re always there for anyone who wants to pick them up.

Rolling them into another trait would certainly give them more utility, but I personally like them the way they are.

That’s the point – to remove the point of the trait’s existence lol. Sure, everyone can use them for escape tactics, so what? There have been changes more dramatic throughout the game in the past (ie: leaps and dashes change) that overshadow taking a trait so you can survive a cliff jump while your pursuer doesn’t.

Actually, it wouldn’t allow everyone to use escape tactics, it would make it so no one could use escape tactics. I’m also not implying that there haven’t been bigger changes, or that this change would completely change the scope of WvW, I’m simply saying that not everyone wants the fall damage traits removed, and since they aren’t hurting anyone by being there so long as there’s another option, they should be left alone!

All power builds took a slight hit on the update, including thief and mesmer. Mesmer got a few others buffs that compensated for the loss and gave them some stellar burst potential, but thief lost a lot of power and utility in the patch.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

50% damage reduction is no reason to keep this trait, just remove the muddy terrain part and merge it with Natural Vigor, makes sense taking the WS line would then automatically give fall dmg reduction and then we could have some useful trait.

No sense in merging fall damage reduction as part of a traitline when it can be rolled baseline into the game. Even those that love to do Jumping Puzzles would probably like the idea of not having to swap out a trait beforehand so they can just start as soon as possible.

Edit: As for the “effects when receiving fall damage” portions, those can be rolled in with the disabled traits, such as Shared Anguish.

That would remove the point of the fall damage traits… If they’re all base line, then everyone has them and using them for escape tactics becomes pointless. Currently, they have limited usefulness, but they’re always there for anyone who wants to pick them up.

Rolling them into another trait would certainly give them more utility, but I personally like them the way they are.

Kaz.5430:

Sorry to slightly derail the thread, but why is it, that an increasingly large group of Rangers from this forum, go on the offensive every time someone brings up the idea of a ranged Ranger?

It’s probably because the melee/ranged discrepancy has always been a part of the game, and the fact players have complained about Ranger not being very good at range has always been a part of the game. While I’m technically new to the class, I could see how that would get old after some time.

Added to the fact that the ranger forum seems to be the most negative of any forum I’ve spent any time on, and you’ve got a good mix for being tackled and beaten.

For soloing content, doing world bosses, and just having fun, ranged is fine. However, once you start doing dungeons you’ll probably want to be more melee focused. All of your boons and combofields have limited radius, so to get the most bang for your buck you’ll want to be close to your other party members, which typically means getting into the thick of things!

Honestly, I’m loving the GW2 ranger more than I have any right to; it does have a good feel to me atm.

To be fair, though, outside of spiking I never really used a bow on my GW1 Ranger. I usually ran around with sword/shield for stance spam, daggers for lulz, staff for beastmastery or trapping… granted, GW1 is a completely different game, I think they did a good job translating the old class to the new one.

MattyP.6954:

I think they should just retool the Soften the Fall trait. Change it to:

Reduce falling damage by 50%. While falling, skin a pet and lay the fur as a rug under you. Pose seductively on your bear skin rug, stunning nearby enemies.

Can’t lose!

Like so?
http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/i/2015/03/27/ryan-reynolds-deadpool.jpg

FrownyClown.8402:

I really like potatoveg;s build but the lack of condi removal is concerning.

To be fair, every skill on his utility bar removes conditions (Lightning Reflexes being a technical exception, but it breaks stun so I’ll count it). Given that each skill also provides regen, I’d imagine it can outpace the few damage conditions that manage to stick. Beyond that, there are a few solid mobility skills, so the slows aren’t going to do a whole lot.

Essentially, it has a fair amount of condition removal/ignore, its just woven into the build-something I’m finding more and more ranger builds operating like.

They’re also great for traveling in WvW; you can skip down normally lethal mountains to get to an objective far faster. Alternatively, you can lead enemies up to a higher ground for combat and jump down to escape w/o instantly being dead/downed.

I’m by no means experienced, but the drake’s tail attack is used the moment they initiate combat/comes off cooldown, and is a blast finisher. So, if I put 2 drakes, and swap them on swap cooldown that should but some consistent blast finishers in my oh-so many fields.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks again for all the help!

Safari, how do the Drake fair? I know they come prebuilt with a blast finisher and have decent AoE condition damage; worth keeping with? I’m using a dog as my secondary pet for on-command CC; but am tempted to pack 2 drakes for on command blast

Kyosji.8961:

If you don’t mind, I may try this when I get close to 80.

Please, by all means! Just make sure you let me know how it goes, so I can make adjustments as necessary

Safari.3021:

If using entangle with wilderness knowledge, also consider krait runes, they’ll boost condis and add to entangles effect.

Quick draw is good for reducing torch 5’s recharge, but not so good when swapping to sb, consider Light on your feet for the piercing effect on shortbow, hitting multiple targets, especially wvw camp guards when camp capturing can not be undervalued

Before the balance patch I ran a trap build which was dire armor and rabid accessories, and found the loss in precision for crit chance wasn’t actually that much, but the boost to vitality was worth it (Vitality aids in absorbing condis, which ignore toughness)

Swapping Quickdraw for LOYF in WvW camp flipping is an excellent idea; one I’ll definitely consider. I’ve been contemplating on grabbing a set of Dire Gear; since I’m not using precision for all that much (and have plenty of access to Fury) it might be a solid swap. Doesn’t look that expensive to get, either.

As for Krait… I used them on my thief, and found myself underwhelmed; largely because I would pop my elite (guild) from a distance and never got to see the ability proc. It’s left me unfairly biased against the runes; might just need to give them a second look!

So I recently started playing Ranger, and while I’m leveling figured I should start working on my final build (hopefully ding 80 over the weekend). I mainly play PvE, but I do so enjoy roaming/camp flipping in WvW. So far, this is what I’ve come up with:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-K;4wEFy-x2cDF-0;9F89;1Z_b;0256137036;4S-H6V;1NX8aNX8aPSGN7K96;2Vz91f3A6f8ABA9eWPk4RWAisXAi;9;9;9;9;9-F;2V6-7g

The idea: At its core this is a condition damage build; it relies heavily on burning/poison/bleeds, adding in chill/cripple/daze/weakness/immobilize/blind for covers and control. My main is a condition thief, which works well but has too little sustained damage for my tastes. With this build, standing in melee and unleashing condition after condition should give better uptime, and thus be a little more fun for me.

I use axe for the chill and bleeds, but I’d also consider sword for heightened mobility. Torch gives me nearly 100% uptime on Bonfire with Quickdraw, which also works with shortbow’s concussion shot/poison volley. The constant swapping led me to pick on swap runes, giving me additional might and bleeds.

For the gear, I’m torn on choices. I’ve got enough Karma saved up to get the Rabid Gear completely equipped on the day I hit 80, though if there’s a better gear set I’m willing to take the time to go for it. My Rune choice is primarily because I wanted something that boosted condition damage, but also wasn’t dead on certain fights. I REALLY like Balthazar’s, but am concerned the burn-immune enemies would leave me extremely kitten in certain fights, while Undead gives me always-useful stats.

Lastly, I don’t consider this a ‘trapper’ build in the truest since of the word. Rather I’m going for a front-line condition spammer, and my utilities provide solid AoE conditions/controls/and fields with the added benefit of being able to be precast!

Please, any suggestions or help for a new ranger is much appreciated!

These look like some solid changes; from the looks of it boons track creator already, so making sure the same one doesn’t get applied twice should be simple enough. Just add the getting boons from pets into Fortifying Bond, and suddenly the ability should work just fine! Hopefully someone in red is listening!

Also new to ranger, and very interested in the trap scenarios…. perhaps we just need to make a guild call ‘Admiral Akbar’[TRAP]?

Wanze.8410:

snip

And I expect the recipes to make a return between now and HoT or with HoT.

Thanks for the clarifications; I’ll just start trying to save up for them then! In the meantime, anything in particular give you that feeling?

xarallei.4279:

snip _They should also kill things faster than a lowbie. _snip

The point I was trying make is that you DO kill things faster than a lowbie; even a lowbie in twinked gear. You can also handle more of them at a time, higher level groups of them, and can solo events the twink can’t. The only area you’re not stronger is white damage on the auto attacks.

In return, more of the game is actually relevant and can be fun. It’s still not hard, but I’m also not going AFK in the middle of zones in a spawn area, coming back to 12 things attacking me, and I’m literally not taking enough damage to die.

Kaz.5430:

I obviously can’t say for certain, but I would expect them to become available next time the Crown Pavilion is opened up, whenever that happens to be. It’s been opened twice now, and there is no reason to suspect it wont open again.

Ah, I thought it had only been run the one time (never saw anything about a second). This gives me hope, so thanks!

MauricioCezar.2673:

Actually, suriel can be seen running trough lion’s arch “Training” for the upcoming reopening of CP. And there’s also another champion in LA that I don’t remember the name right meow.

One could think that this is a tease for a reopening of CP at upcoming gw2 anniversary eh?

One can only hope; already getting a ton of b’day gifts during that from original toons, so this coming back would be a true event to behold!

Gerrand.3085:

Oddly enough, getting hold of the recipes probably wont help you. I believe all the jubilee recipes required clockwork sprockets – the true source of the insane cost.

Farm enough clockwork sprockets to craft one of those recipes, sell them, and you’ll probably be several gold pieces off purchasing your sigils straight off the market.

I’ve been getting a fair amount of sprockets already from my pick (invested some gems from the HoT Ultimate) so that might end up being what I do… that or finding someone with the recipes sweet enough to turn them into sigils for me!

krzygum.4028:

They didn’t tweak numbers “a bit more”. They went so far that unless you’re on lvl 80 map your level and gear don’t matter.

That’s patently untrue. Against a level 20 thief using pure power, myself using Carrion, I’ll have more power than them unless they’re twinked to the gills. I’ll also have more condition damage, more health, and deal more damage from my own might stacking off of traits. I’ll stay in stealth longer, and drop into it easier. My cooldowns are shorter, my initiative higher, and I can swap skills to match the EXACT situation I’m in with little to no issues.

Yes, if they’re twinked to the heavens in all crafted masterwork gear, their auto-attacks white damage is higher than mine, but that’s ONE stat. I have more.

I took a break from the game for awhile, and came back during the big patch (pure happenstance). My favorite playstyle, conditions, are finally viable and fun, but the sigils I’d like to pop on (Malice/Bursting) are both extremely expensive since the recipes are no longer available.

Are there any plans (or methods I’m not aware of) to pickup these recipes to craft for ourselves?

Gambit.8425:

So what’s the point with excessive downscaling in the first place?

The point is that once you reach 80 and start going back to starter zones to complete the map, the content is so easy it gets boring. As in “Literally can’t die” level of easy. Downscaling ’s intent was to make content more challenging to a higher level player coming back to starter zones. However, the original model failed to take into account exactly how much difference there was in an 80 being fully geared/traited/skilled in a zone balanced around a level 20 in a mix of white/blue gear. So they tweaked the numbers a bit more to put everyone a little closer to on par, with 80s still having the advantage of more attributes/traits/skills!

Kizare.7950:

And P/D? Whats their Pros Cons

Preface: I run P/D currently, but I’m also not the most 1337 teef ever, so while this is experience not theory crafting, take it with a grain of salt:

Pros:
On demand stealth from #5
Ranged attacks
Condition Stacking (From stealth #1 puts 5 stacks of bleed, bleeding auto attack, #3 puts on Torment)
Gap maker from #3
Passable burst (From stealth #1 is a pseudo unload)

Cons:
Only mid range; easy to escape
No gap closer(except steal)
Can be dodged (If #5 misses you’re in trouble)
No Group stealth
Two dead skills (#2 and #4 are so rarely used I usually forget I have them)

It’s a very fun build; I use steal/improv to recharge my utilities, stealth, stack some additional bleeds, then use #3 to get back out of melee. Creates a nice short burst with plenty of conditions left behind for fun, but it’s not something I’d advertise as the ‘strongest’.

Edit: Never noticed that #2 is an immobilize; makes it slightly more viable, but most everything else holds true!

Carrion has exactly those stats; Occam’s if you’re doing ascended weapons and armor.

From what I understand, if you unlock every piece of Sorrow’s Embrace and Citadel of Flames skins you can also get 2 Carrion trinkets.

I’d suggest Sinister for the remaining gear slots (Condition Damage, Power, Precision).

As a condi thief, I completely agree with most of what you’re saying. My only addition would be to have Potent Poison do +10% damage and +10% duration for each unique condition on the enemy. Then it’s not only buffing poison, but also every other condition you stack on; since I typically have Poison/Bleed/Cripple/Confusion/Torment/Vulnerability stacked on at any given time, and could easily add Immobilize/Immobilize, that’d be a significant increase to my condition up time- thus an increase to my overall damage.

Having just come back from an all too extended break, I’m in desperate need of some training on my thief!
Region: NA
Server: Dragonbrand
Char: Bas Flaith

kop.8724:

Venomd have too long cd to be useful on this game.

If you diversify your build a little, you can use Improvisation to dramatically reduce the CD on your skills. While it won’t always be Venoms that get cooled down, it will almost always be something, and thieves have enough solid skills in each category that this can only be used to our advantage. Personally I use a trick(Withdraw), 2 Venoms(depends on fight which ones), a Signet (again, depends on fight which one) and a deception (Thieves Guild).

Also, don’t forget that you can chain Venoms if you pre-cast; ie use the Venoms before the pull, stack conditions on the target, then reapply and cast again. Followed by a steal, there’s a decent chance you’ll be able to immediately use those venoms yet again. If not, it’s only a few seconds of downtime on some of the conditions before it’s time to go again!

Mittens, after the last update we no longer have a ‘clear all condition’ skill setup, so there are a few choices on how to handle them now.

Firstly, if you use Hide in Shadows, you’ll remove any stacks of burning/poison/and bleeding. If you trait Shadow’s Embrace, you’ll also be able to remove 1 stack of poison/bleeding/torment/confusion when you enter stealth, and and another every 3 seconds you’re in it. That covers every ‘damaging’ condition, but leaves you susceptible to control.

Withdraw, on the other hand, gives you Crippled/Chilled/Immobile removal. If you have Trickster traited, you also get 1 more condition. Note that technically this can get control effects like fear, but the skill itself cannot be triggered while under a control effect, like fear.

Guarded Initiation can also remove a large amount of conditions, assuming you can stay at 90% health and have enough rabid-fire attacks. However, like above, control conditions are going to be a problem.

For control effects, we have a few more options:
Roll for initiative eats a utility slot, but breaks stun/evades/restores initiative. With Trickster, it also removes a condition. Haste, while on a longer cool down, has much the same effect as Roll (minus the initiative and evasion, plus boons).

In the Acrobatics Trait Line, Hard to Catch is a 30 sec ICD passive control remover; this can be great if you’re concerned about fear, but it does take the same slot as GI (see above) so choices have to be made.

Also, bear in mind that ‘leaps’ now break stun as well. That means Infiltrator’s Signet and Shadow Step/Return all break stun as well.

Please note, this is NOT a comprehensive list of all your options. I’m sure someone will hop on and point out one or two combinations that I missed inside the class itself. There’s also rune combinations, field usage, and other mechanics that can help out. For example, you can use Withdraw/Trickster with Trapper’s Respite and Runes of the Trapper to get Cripple/Immobilize/Chill + 1 condition, drop a trap and go into stealth for another condition, and then three seconds later shed another condition.

As I’ve grown fond of saying recently, it’s a new meta. Experiment. Every meta was once someone’s experiment!

YOUNGaz.5690:

Nachyochez.9758:

YOUNGaz.5690:

Personally, I found full Carrion armor and Dire trinkets and weapons work well for me. And if you ever plan on ascended gear, just keep in mind there’s not any Carrion versions (yet at least) so that’s why I went with that set up.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Occam’s the carrion prefix for ascended weapons/armor?

woops! yeah ty. edited to specify trinkets. Occam’s is indeed prefix for Carrion weapons and armor. my mistake!

No worries; I’m starting the road to get my ascended gear atm, wanted to make sure I wasn’t saving up mats for a set that didn’t actually exist, lol!