Guild Wars 2

362 HPS may not mean a whole lot but when it is on 100% of the time, never requires you to press a button, and is on a heavy armor profession therefore making the most of the regen, it’s no competition. There are ways to tear up healing signet (poison :X) but on the warrior profession, healing signet is very powerful compared to any of the other options. They look nice and it’d be great if they gave some actual return for their long cooldowns but they just don’t make the cut.

Jerus.4350:

Vargamonth.2047:

cthaeh.2168:

Ha! Try sending 5 new players into a dungeon in full zerk and see how well they do. It is skill based, it’s just that everyone has spent the past 3 years honing said skills.

Maybe it’s time then to develop something that plays slightly different.
Something where, even if knowledge, experience and muscle memory still help in the long run, it’s not enough to completely dominate the content.

So you want AI that learns your tactics and constantly adjust to maintain a certain level of difficulty? If you can come up with how to do that for a video game, props, people have been trying… of course if anyone were ever successful it might also just flop because people don’t always like getting punched in the face. It’s generally not the punches people enjoy, but learning how to do better each time and the success of finally beating it.

They made an effort doing this with fractal level effects, they just kept it static across all of them so it was easily learned (and some avoided altogether).

They don’t need to learn your moves, they just need to react to certain things in a different manner rather than have the same, “I punch you there and you jump up and down to hurt me”. I’m sure they can make some creative mechanics to cycle through it’s just most bosses people encounter are open world where it’s just AoE’s and heavy projectiles that people block/reflect. Nothing really that crazy but it’s been getting better.

I ran spirit only a handful of times and it’s just like any typical AI build, you let them buff you up either from boons or damage (in this case, little of both). Problem for me isn’t that spirit’s die so easily it’s that it’s another passive build that just doesn’t bring anything exciting to the fight. Even though they have actives, the only time I see them used is for blind stomping or when they die due to a trait proc.

I think ranger spirits should provide their own unique aura vs some occasional effect like a boon or condition, like they did in gw1. Things like reduce movement speed of enemies nearby and plant the guy in a safe corner, or increase the range of projectiles, or boon duration, etc.

You just have to get into the rhythm of landing CnD either using the enemy AI against them with LoS (they will run to the corner and you can pre-cast CnD as they get there) or using steal→ CnD combo, or any other method where you are not stumbling towards them trying to land it.

I think the only thing d/d needs a rework on is #3 and #4 to be a bit more useful either on its own or from the thief kit in general. Otherwise it’s a very strong build either on the side for condi or as power.

Same reason thief has assassin’s reward in acrobatics, and assassin’s retreat in acrobatics, and power shots in shadow arts, and traits that literally only affect 1 skill.

I could list more for ranger guardian warrior necro and engineer but that’s despite the point, everyone has some really, REALLY odd trait locations and odd traits in general.

Thief needs a similar revamp in the way every other profession needs one, and that is their monstrous list of useless utility/healing skills and traits. The same builds get used and abused and they all have their well known weaknesses since people play against them soo much to find out. There really isn’t a need imo to revamp the stealth system as much as revamp the traits that alter them so things like hiding in stealth aren’t encouraged in a “fight” (atleast not for a very long time). At the end of it all they need more options to go about doing what thieves love doing, a special revamp of their own.

Outside of that it’s just add more weapons and actual rouge skins. I enjoy my thief and no matter if the HoT adds a character slot or not, I’m not deleting either of my 2 thieves to make room for it.

Get every weapon the thief can get if you’re goal is to get money to get gear or just doing dungeons to get gear. Some dungeons require different weapon sets and it’s always nice to come prepared.

Also if exploration is your thing, look at your traits and always keep a tally on which traits can be unlocked in the zone you’re completing. Given you’re new to thief you’re going to want to explore all of them (although if you ask any semi-experienced thief can tell you which traits are a waste of time) to see which fit you best.

Those builds “can” kill a warrior it’s just not as great on their own. D/p mixed with sb is your best bet because A) the poison uptime is what you will want to hinder HS, and B.) BPS + whirling axe really puts a dent in them.

D/d’s has the issue against GS where the warrior can just dash or ww away after a cnd and waste your chance at a BS, or if they have hammer AoE cc near them which either forces you to dodge and possibly waste time setting up a BS or get cc and same thing.

S/D can put a dent in them for sure especially if you snag their stability or might stacks but with no uptime on poison you will have to play rather aggressively to take them down which is something the warrior will beat you at if they’re “good”.

In pvp I’ll keep d/p on for warriors mainly for the bps+whirling axes combo unless they pop berserker stance in which case I sit back and kite them. If I run d/d or s/d I will rarely go after them unless they are running something like condi or something slow.

Zerker meta is around because the only goal in dungeons is blow your target up. Even if you get downed, you just focus fire something and rally (except in the case of a boss, you either wipe trying to focus rez or you succeed and continue your rampage).

Make encounters depend less on simply bursting your enemy and it will solve a lot of dungeons as far as increasing their difficulty. They still have to revamp their rewards for the dungeons and look into adding more side objectives either for independent rewards or for assistance in later encounters within that dungeon to really make them shine. Also find some way to remove stacking as a method of killing, and in return, lower these mobs’ damage or lessen their mechanics to be a bit more reasonable in an open field. It’s nice that there are a few classes that can pull groups together and take advantage of stacking but when mobs do it naturally it defeats the purpose of any real effort.

Glad someone agrees

I think a formula like this has plenty of room for expansion as far as adding future events to suit the “guild only” missions (perhaps make them instanced…. like a raid…. so outsiders don’t interfere with your efforts), as well as rewards that feel rewarding instead of a ton of blue/green gear and literal junk.

Unfortunatly gold still plays a huge role for many so I don’t think they can get out of that one but its still a great option given it has no real down side like fotm rings are (I have far too many I’ve already been tossing them to the npc).

They have the back pieces that make you go out and explore a little already, and they have the upcoming precursor crafting, I think its time they put these systems to their fullest potential in HoT and help remove a lot of the grind players have been breezing through for years now.

On a somewhat related note, I hope they also look into the world boss events to be a little more challenging as well as rewarding using tequatl as an example. Sure some lower level world bosses can stay moderately easy but the unique skins and titles, runes, etc all make the event feel like an actual world boss. Don’t make them all require a massive group otherwise people just won’t bother but make them take more effort than standing still spamming stability skills and pressing F at the end.

Against medi guard, your best bet is to get ahead of their burst by laying your own down. In the long run you won’t beat them, you have to get them scared and hit them hard while you can. If it starts to look like there is no return, back off and recover because their burst can come very quickly which on the offense is bad for you. Most times when I can, I will stealth and poke at them to get them to blow their cooldowns before ever engaging.

Otherwise I run with my tail between my legs because they can be very deadly when they jump you.

(This is just a list of things I hope to see in HoT given my experience after being at end game for far too long).

A while back they mentioned that higher level maps will reward players with mats specific to the zone they are in to help with crafting a legendary and making many of these zones a bit more relevant. I imagine they won’t stop there but I hope it is something they jump into immediately for the HoT expansion and not just for legendary crafting.

Leveling is hardly an obstacle in this game, between daily’s, dungeons, and hearts it can go by rather quick. So we are left with few things to work for in the end, skins and ascended gear. I think it would be a wise decision to make many of the skins (not LS specific) that aren’t easily acquired or no longer possible to be obtained by doing activities related to the zone they fit with such as completing many of the brawling mini events throughout the game (some in shiverpeaks with drunk norns, some in orr defending a raging champion, etc) to eventually get the full barbaric skin set vs crafting it, completing various high difficulty mini dungeons or mini bosses to get something like an ascended infusion of your choosing or a set of runes, etc.

To summarize, make this exploration not only work on lower levels to level faster or get a large number of lower tier crafting mats, but for those seeking end game to get the skins and materials/recipes for their gear. Don’t just stop at precursors! For the “unique” type of skins, make them untradeable but atleast bring them back even if the method to obtain them is drastically harder than previously introduced. Don’t punish late incoming players from ever working towards their dream look.

Additionally it’d be nice to look into more guild missions for each zone with rewards tailored to their location or type of event. Rewards for things not normally obtained such as a black lion chest key, mystic stones, high tier consumables/boosters, etc (something sought after by many). Even if the mission is just a highly upscaled version of an existing event such as defending the ascalon settlement in Gendarren fields but with siege and troops so larger guilds can test their capabilities. Make these activities only possible for those representing the guild that activated them so other players don’t upscale these events.

Lastly, the daily dungeon reward for doing each path should be adjusted as well to scale higher for doing the entire path. From skipping the first burrow in AC to zooming past the flame legion on the bridge towards crea irontooth there is a lot of content groups skip by just to get the path over with. If normally you would get say 1.5 gold for doing a speed clear on a path, doing these extra events within would grant you an additional silver per event and a few extra tokens. Make each step in a dungeon a part of this so for those who just want the base reward for speed clearing can go about it and those who want to go the extra mile can get a hefty bonus. For example with AC, breaking the first burrow would grant 25 silver. Defeating kholer would grant 50 silver. Defeating the troll would grant 1g, etc.

This can always be expanded on to make more events within such as collecting several relics in hard to reach areas or killing a certain mini-boss on the way that drops a consumable which aids later on in the dungeon in addition to the extra coin/token rewards at the end. Bring back side objectives and make them worthwhile.

magom.3275:

yolo swaggins.2570:

I cringe every time I hear someone praise Venomshare.

Even with condition removal I would not use them. Arenanet isn’t going to modify them either until they cave and remove Venomous Aura. But I doubt they’ll do that seeing as how it will also remove the more obvious support aspect of the profession.

HAHAHA, totally agree. I used venoms like for 3 months in all combinations, and they are bore as hell, you need to heavy trait them to get things that you can also have with runes, sigils or your wepons or others utillity skills for free and with a plus!!!

You can spec for venoms and not miss out on a whole lot of fun. For instance, I’ve ran a build quite a few times that focuses on the damaging aspect of leeching venoms as well as just overall focus fire.

Something close to this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVl0MprpFNx0J8PNhNhwdraz0cQgOH2E-TZBGwAJOEAAeCApPBAULDYb/BA

Alone you annoy the hell out of them with evades (as usual with any acrobatics build) but with allies you target 1 for the team and watch them melt shortly after. Has mobility and with heavy might stacking quite the nasty hits but it certainly isn’t going to blow people up anytime soon.

Perma stealth is pointless anyways. You can’t kill anyone doing so and you put the odds against your allies by giving the enemy 1 less person to deal with. Just like those in pvp who poke and run for miles, not really helpful if you ask me.

Guess I’ll have to stay tuned till release. Trying to keep up to date but 90% of what I read is either speculation or “we will release details later”. Not to put the balance team down but in the meantime, pvp is still a thing that could be addressed as far as diversity assuming they have a plan on which traits will be changed. I’d hate to wait till the expansion to see another big balance update.

Looking for some education on the matter incase I missed it but, is the update to every class’s traits going to be added or are they going to be deleting old traits for their place, or are they going to be adding and updating old traits to some measurable degree? Just curious if there is any word on this given the HUGE list of traits that have no place in any form of game play.

Looking for some plausible hope

I can’t recall the build but the one I made (for dps purposes) was entirely focused on giving my pet massive might stacks. I used the bird with blinding slash since it was a low cooldown and rather quick to get off.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBHhFakRlKW7XxlFuWDUIUNThRg97GANgzjYGKYUD-TpBFwAPOBACeAAIOEAt2foaZAAHBAA

-Greatsword for obvious heavy damage and defense
-Axe/WH for focus firing a target. Call hawks works well against those who stealth or use LoS as it will continue to track them.
-Elite and signet combo I can get over 1k auto attack on axe which single target is ok but if an enemy has any sort of companion to bounce off it starts to really hurt.
-WH blast and GS leap with healing spring making the most of my heals however often I use it only when I get really low because of the long cooldown.

Overall I enjoy the build since it works really well in some instances. It just isn’t that great of a 1v1 spec and has a hard time dealing with conditions.

I’ve suggested it probably a million and 1 times now, remove ice drake because it is easily outdone by devourer venom for control and lasting impact (not to mention chill from only 1 source on the entire thief kit just seemed misplaced), and add “Karka Venom”, transfer conditions to your foe with your next 3 attacks.

Veteran karka’s do this naturally so it fits thematically, and it gives thieves a dirty little weapon to use with venoms.

As far as the pre-existing traits and skills that are next to useless, will they be addressed to be relevant in some way shape or form or are they just planning on adding more toys to our box full of broken ones?

Everyone has them, and I’m sure it wouldn’t take long to list them out from each profession. Even if they are mildly relevant to a certain kind of encounter, I hope they can at least be made worthwhile. I’d hate to experience the Gw1 skill selection where only a small percent was ever used because there would be skills that do the same job but better. Acquisition was great, just the prize wasn’t there always.

Well in the instance of ranged dps, yes p/p is great in pve for that. However you get far more utility and still moderate damage just for having sb, which is a great get out of jail free card whether you’re knocked far into an environmental DoT or immobilized and need to evade.

P/p can be played in pve with good results but that’s as far as the trail goes for it. Anything else and honestly p/d does a better job for power.

P.S. ricochet is your friend ^^

Even if my crit chance is high, and I have situational bonuses (7% from flanking, fury, etc) I still rather run hidden killer than peel my eyes back on a non-crit backstab. The damage bonus from it being a single target hit and good critical damage just make it outstanding. Ofcourse backstab isn’t the only dps d/d has to offer but for the playstyle I never run d/d without hidden killer.

As far as it being viable, I’d say so it just isn’t as “easy” to play as say d/p for setting up backstabs or sustaining with heavy blind access. Has quite a lot to do with #3 and #4 on d/d power being rather weak compared to the 3 and 4 on d/p.

OP, you don’t seem to understand people’s frustration with this trait, even with people reciting it back to you in your own thread. It’s a minor trait in a trait line people generally like to use, yet it has the potential to cause a negative effect on your playstyle. Even if you may see it as occasional or not a big deal, the fact that it has and does cause this problem for many people is the reason we “complain” about it.

Doesn’t matter that it tells you the health you will trigger this trait at, 25% for most thieves isn’t a whole lot and can come at a split second. Thief is about making quick decisions to live and fight, any trait or skill that acts on its own is bad by nature and should be addressed or at the very least made optional.

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Justine.6351:

Should 100% rework downed state.

*Remove all downed skills.

When you hit 0 HP you die. If there is an ally within 1200 range you enter downed state giving that ally a chance to rally you by killing your foe or healing/rezing you.

Would not work, the game is built around the downed state.

Not really, only a few skills work on downed allies and have long cooldowns tied to them. The downed state imo isn’t properly represented across the 8 professions with some having obvious advantages over others. They should look into how each professions #2 and #3 actually work and make them consistent rather than, “class A gets an AoE kb and class B gets a single target kb; same cooldown”. Not suggesting copy paste everyone to have the same skills, but the results shouldn’t be so different.

Warrior

1. turn hammer to skill shot that doesn’t require the body to aim (can throw behind, like a twirl) as to not give away the obvious direction the hammer is heading. Additionally it will knockdown foes in a line vs just the first target, and unblockable.
2. remove cast time; add “gain might on attack for duration; 1 stack for 4 seconds per hit”. This makes you seem like a raged lunatic and give a final attempt before falling. Besides, its a 50% chance to rally already so you should feel like an animal if you’re going to stomp and still die.

Guardian

1. fine as is
2. add retaliation every second for 1 second in the healing field, makes enemies think twice about hitting you during that heal.

Ranger

1. Increase the width of the thunderbolt, right now 2 people on each side can safely stomp a ranger if far enough, kinda renders the interrupt futile.
2. Add effect to apply invulnerability for 4 seconds upon activiation (no effect underwater) to yourself only, this includes the time it takes for the pet to arrive to you. You can now avoid a stomp by getting this off and getting a little healing going. Additional effect, if your pet is cc’ed on its way to you it will cancel its process of healing you but you will still get the invulnerability, gives a little high risk high reward to the whole skill.

Engineer

1. change to a magnet pull vs a wire. Seems odd to change up the engi’s tool kit, plus they obviously dunno how to scorpion pull because it misses all the kitten time. Less chance okittenward object obstruction.
2. Fine as is, fun combo with the pull.

Thief

1. common teleport issues needing to be fixed, but otherwise fine as is.
2. Increase the stealth duration to 2 seconds and remove the cast time. This would better aid in the deception this skill is meant to give that could be life saving for the thief. Such as stealth/tele combo to a corner.

Elementalist

1. op as is, even if it can now be cc’ed its quite the survival tool in some situations involving a door.
2. hard to buff given vapor form performs so well, but it is a pretty laughable downed skill. Not fine as is, but no suggestion either.

Mesmer

1. now that it requires no target, pretty nice but its still easy to spot. The real Mesmer has a downed icon and is always the 2nd to spawn, so how about a little rng and add the icon to all Mesmer clones?
2. pretty nasty hitter, fine as is.

Necromancer

1. change to a targeted knockback cone (like chilling wind in lich form, minus the chill)
2. add to apply fear (1 second) to enemies if they stand in the field for more than 2 seconds, cannot effect enemies more than once each. Pretty useless atm, this skill should strike fear to those who test it ^^.

lordkrall.7241:

So it basically comes down to people not being able to pay attention to their health and thus uses abilities at a time where they would hurt the stealth given by the Trait? Or am I missing something?

Unless they introduce a visual timer for trait cooldowns, its not something you can work with. Not to mention thief is overall quite squishy so you can be 90% or higher and drop to 25% really quick and this trait does nothing to cancel your current actions such as dealing damage (which breaks stealth). That’s the problem people have with last refuge.

The trait needs to be disabled until a solution is made to fix it. No trait should have the potential to harm a player, especially not a minor trait because you can’t not choose those. Not spec’ing into SA is not a solution either, there are many valuable traits in there that get hindered by last refuge, and what kind of balance suggestion is to scratch off 20% of your trait selection?

To OP

“The game of balance, is like a sword fight. sword swooshing You must think first “HIY”, before you move".
“Settler’s style is immensely strong, and immune to nearly any build. When it’s properly used, it’s almost invincible”

-New dungeons with guild mission versions (raids). Feel like I would hate running an 8 or 10 man dungeon with pugs.
-address current weapon selection for less or almost extinct weapon use so that future weapons can be deemed necessary.
-continue the wide yet small balance updates ^^
-change the method in which legendary (and precursors) are obtained and add new skins. Make a contest even, some people are quite the artist on these forums.
-Add more recipes for bloodstone dust and dragonite ore and empyreal stars, I have too many :x
-Add more in game events that take place over a server not just a zone. Such as a bonus reward for finishing event X for the (game) day, or a personal bounty (solo a zone boss of your home region), or a mini dungeon. More things to make people explore and get actual rewards tailored to their expectations. The greens and blues with random stats don’t satisfy anything but my “luck” percent.

The approach that anet had on pvp imo is unmatched. No body has any statistical advantage over another player outside of their starting health pool and armor type, consumable buffs are non-existent, and various sets/runes/sigils are not allowed for obvious exploitation.

Anet if you can read this, you’re last update (preview) is EXACTLY the kind of balance I wish I saw in this game every (2?) weeks regardless of where the living story is at. Balance isn’t something you should let soak in until people cry or find deep flaws, it should be addressed constantly because people find new things and also if a trend appears where a majority of players are playing a specific build only, I feel as it would be wise to address it in some fair way.

Just like the preview notes have it, not only are the changes small as to not surprise anyone, there are a lot of them as well as explanations to the change which lets the player base know where you are coming with said change rather than just because someone in the office said so.

So, BRAVO, even though I only care for maybe a fraction of the upcoming balance changes, the execution was spot on. Im slowly gana be inch’ing my way back into gw2 given the last few updates in what feels like a fresh approach

ofLegends.9853:

Totally against.

I love the travel system – world feels huge. If you don’t want to use waypoints, nobody is forcing you to. You can run all the way from dry top to ascalon.

But other people like waypoints. Don’t mess with them.

Also,

So I ask others, not to remove waypoints as I believe that would hurt far more than help, but what would it be like if waypoints were limited to actual outposts rather than scattered around as they are now?

This is super confusing. Don’t take them away, just make them permanently contested?

(to those who think otherwise) First off, no I strongly do not want mounts. All they would do is make the towns obnoxious and the zones even smaller and less relevant. I’ve played games with mounts and it gave me the same issues where I just ran past everything to get to a spot that was rewarding or worth my time. Why make miles of nothing?

Im not against the wp system, I just think they went overboard with the amount that some zones carry. I have no interest in walking 10 minutes to my destination but event farming or champ train (idk, is that still a thing?), it doesn’t really feel like effort. Look at the timer and just port across the world in the blink of an eye and afk till the boss/event starts.

There is more to this topic as far as making that travel relevant by some means (rewards, exciting encounter) and looking into how event chains are started so people aren’t overwhelmed by the limited time and forced to port all over to make them. I’m just wondering what all the effort into the maps was for when it seems like only a very small fraction of it is ever used. Are there plans to revive some of the dead zones?

Argon.1563:

Chaith.8256:

Hell to the no, its pure 100% pure un-adulterated power

Well, thats a terrible shame, considering it was the better of the two long-range weapons. I hate longbow for condition builds, because people slap the tag “condition weapon” on it, because it deals burns…those burns are so short, no amount of +burning% can save it, therefore it is not a condition weapon, because it’s conditions are so short, they might as well not exist.

Thats really annoyed me now. They nerfed the only real long range condition weapon to the death.

I never understand people’s interpretation of rifle as a “condition” weapon over longbow. Longbow with 1 point into arms makes the auto attack have chance at bleed 2x if you wana argue the auto attack and its faster (because it has 2 hits even if the speed is slightly less). You got a shotgun burn for some real damage or the burst skill for an incredible burn coverage and fire field to work with (which can turn all arrows into burn), and you got a nice blind and an incredibly rewarding skill like pindown. Rifle all you had was bleed and cripple because vulnerability doesn’t work on conditions.

Bottom line, a 6s bleed auto attack did not make this an ideal condition weapon. No build would be more effective with rifle over longbow in this department, and changing it to an actual power weapon that works well with itself was a good change. Even killshot on the right build can be quite hilarious, its just not an ideal burst skill against players with a head.

If you are supporting a zerg, venom share is the only option. Whether its for damage, healing, or both that’s the only option. You can run a heavy single target dps build and snipe the backline but its not nearly as beneficial to the group as helping them lockdown groups of players and steamrolling them.

However venom share thief is difficult to play because of the nature of venoms and how limited the build choice is when it comes to traits but its manageable with good group composition and communication (you’re gana want some stability^^)

If anet listened to venom feedback and took it more seriously venoms probably would of been fixed into a more known build but I rarely see anyone run it. Once they realize how sub-par it is to an actual support build its only there for fun really.

You detonate for damage (condi or power) and you keep it as is for the blast finisher or if you want to damage something through a wall (since it deals proximity damage).

Any chance they can improve the current weapon selection before adding to the list? Pretty sure the # of guardians using shield and rangers using OH axe are slim. And the list doesn’t stop there lol.

Reason I ask is because several months ago, I took a break from gw2 (not asking for sympathies). It wasn’t because of any one thing, I just didn’t feel like I had anything left to accomplish except achievements which were only the pvp/wvw ones. So, in that time I played some other games to pass the time and observed what I liked and didn’t like about them (I’ll leave them un-named as to not deter the point).

Strangely enough I’ve come back here as a casual player for the time, mostly because I’ve got so much done on my account that I really didn’t wana quit just yet. One thing I really liked about the other games was the very simple idea of travel. The game felt far bigger having to actually go to a destination rather than have an ungodly amount of teleports at my disposal.

So I ask others, not to remove waypoints as I believe that would hurt far more than help, but what would it be like if waypoints were limited to actual outposts rather than scattered around as they are now?

There are contested waypoints in higher level zones that make this concept ideal but there are countless waypoints in some strange locations that just seem plopped there for convenience which imo is a little too convenient even if I had to of gone there to obtain that wp first. Thoughts?

Condition weapons should require more thought than pressing a few skills and aa them to death. Healing power/condition builds are a disease that need to be dealt with not added. There are many ways to buff sb without changing how crossfire behaves.

Reaven.3958:

Seriously, I don’t understand why the devs haven’t even commented on this.

They have, just a long time ago. They actually said they want it to grant stealth even though everyone and their mother knows it doesn’t work that way half the time.

Caedmon.6798:

NinjaEd.3946:

Caedmon.6798:

Pewienpan.5168:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAT8cjMdU4ZVIugwJagkgCdLkBz9pAI9MEDFBA-TJRHwAQLDU4iAAb/BAPBAA

Here, in 1v1 situation only very heavy condi spam can kill you on this build. Just remember to always pop the banner.

It’d be better to lose tactics banner,grab toughness banner.You’re traited for Regen on banners,since Tactics is a regen banner..Picking toughness would give you a bigger boost in being a tank, 170/170 tough – vital + The regen going from IBS.

Tactics banner gives you boon duration for vigor (wh being the easiest one) and healing power AND has a decent heal/regen vs kb. As a bunker warrior you should already have a ton of toughness, the HoT is going to pay off more than an equivalent amount of toughness and a skill that can be ignored by many things.

Grabbing tactics will grant you regen ( the added boon duration is off no effect to a “bunker” )

Depends on how you run such “bunker”. Seems like you and I have different approaches to it.

If you add vigor to the build boon duration is helping, this also means allies that come along and use any of their boons are getting better some of which are actually good (protection, stability mostly). You’re not getting a whole lot of return on 1.7k health and a few toughness when you should already be over 3k armor. There is a stronger return for addressing your healing power and keeping everyone around you alive than increasing their and toughness and health.

Also if you use the tactics banner #2, I’ve had allies run to another objective and I still see them regenerating for a real long time (I have a lot of boon duration on my build) which means you’re assisting from a distance rather than forcing someone to hug the banner circle.

Again, that is just how I’ve run warrior “bunker”. Real hard to kill and assistance from a distance.

Keyboardwarrior.8021:

Like title said, 9300 in just one hit, really? not in wvw, just in spvp. As a glassy cannon thief, I never had any single skill damage above 6k actually, warrior has heavy defense skills, huge HP advantages, insane regeneration, heavy armor and surely hits harder too.

I’ve hit for over 9k BS with thief, given that my target was another glassy thief but that’s besides the point. Final thrust can be seen from a mile away, the only annoying thing is that flurry applies its effects before it actual hits anything. Sometimes I feel like magic immobilizing someone with my sword and then start cutting them down. This, of course, leads to a very easy final thrust.

Caedmon.6798:

Pewienpan.5168:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAT8cjMdU4ZVIugwJagkgCdLkBz9pAI9MEDFBA-TJRHwAQLDU4iAAb/BAPBAA

Here, in 1v1 situation only very heavy condi spam can kill you on this build. Just remember to always pop the banner.

It’d be better to lose tactics banner,grab toughness banner.You’re traited for Regen on banners,since Tactics is a regen banner..Picking toughness would give you a bigger boost in being a tank, 170/170 tough – vital + The regen going from IBS.

Tactics banner gives you boon duration for vigor (wh being the easiest one) and healing power AND has a decent heal/regen vs kb. As a bunker warrior you should already have a ton of toughness, the HoT is going to pay off more than an equivalent amount of toughness and a skill that can be ignored by many things.

Rannulf.9417:

Wishful thinking since LB got a buff would be nice if SB arrows pierce, QUick shot breakstun and cross fire doesn’t need flanking to apply bleed and it also adds 1 sec of torment. As a wvw player i approve these changes.

Please, no. Other condition auto attacks should take a lesson from ranger sb and follow it, the concept of an auto attack easily applying a DoT is terrible. Try cleansing that burn and poison when you got bleeds being reapplied in high numbers…… at least crossfire takes a little thought.

Chill as an effect is too strong to allow any 1 build to maintain its effects “permanently”. Although I do wish chill would stack and apply a freeze effect upon x stacks. Would make a lot of builds quite scary like ice drake venom share(thief) O.o

Between axe, frost trap, sigils/runes and pets ranger can apply quite a few sources of chill to reach a lengthy effect.

If they removed pets it would be months if not years before the tooltips are corrected to no longer display pet effects. I’m sure you all know how tooltips and anet are, best leave pets in the game and hope they are fixed one day rather than shave a large portion of our dps for 0 compensation.

Justine.6351:

There are forms of stealth in game that do NOT cause reveal by dealing dmg but do simply end. Norn’s Snowleopard Form prowl skill stealths and ends when you deal dmg but it doesn’t apply reveal. No doubt a remnant from before reveal found its way into the game. Im not sure if that could be somehow applied in this scenario.

It couldn’t. Even if last refuge produced a stealth hybrid that did not cause reveal upon dealing damage, the issue is more so the thief being actually visible. You can’t stealth and then use a CnD to maintain stealth, the CnD would just break you out of the previous regardless of reveal being applied or not you’re down 6 initiative and exposed.

Last refuge should just change entirely to something the player can control, thief does not do well with effects going off on their own terms(improvisation…). Could change it to temporarily swap your F1 (steal) to a smoke bomb at the given threshold. Would have no cast time like steal, grant you stealth when you want it (3 seconds; 4 with meld with shadows) and be gravy.

Technically it already has no cast time, all this would be doing is giving you the say in when it goes off. Could give this a ~5 second window to use or it expires and goes on the ICD to prevent chain stealth abuse.

Fire, its an AoE proc and thief SB is an AoE weapon. Just fits it better.

I think signet of malice needs a buff because it is impractical for a thief to choose it. The opportunity cost of losing an evade with gap opener/closer and 3 movement impairing conditions cleansed or gaining stealth and removing 3 DoT is too much for a theoretical “op” heal. Its a neat idea, but the heal just needs to be tweaked to fit a build that would bother using it which will always been a heavy offense build with quick attacks (either s/p or d/x or p/p with ricochet).

I’d suggest something like this for such builds:

[Signet of Malice]
Passive- Heal yourself when you attack.
Active- Heal yourself and gain additional health for every point of initiative missing.
Passive heal: 180(.08) increase in base and slight scale increase
Active Heal: ~4750(.15) + 220 per inititive; health per initiative is taken at the start of the cast. increase to base and scaling and added health per initiative to reward a heavy offense attack
Cooldown 15 seconds.

Considering the active now has a high potential heal (w/ 300 healing power and 0/15 initiative you can get over 8k) the cast time seems fitting and worth interrupting. Given the trait line that gives you 15 initiative (trickery) you can also trait for hastened replenishment, another trait hardly ever used.

I know this game isn’t tailored to my expectations but I believe that would be a huge fix to the signet while preserving what seems to be its original idea. Of course its all a numbers game and none of the above are what I would call “balanced” for all game modes.

Normally I’d say don’t flat compare 1 profession to another but there is some truth to this. Take ele and guardian, the 2 professions that share the lowest health tier with thief. Guardian has heavy armor and strong healing/condition cleansing. Ele has again strong healing and condition cleansing and also mobility (atleast more than guardian by a lot). Even though they have a low health pool to start with, they can work with it pretty well given their traits and skills.

Despite the 7.5k difference in the base health pools between tier 1 and 3 health, thief is suffering the most because they rely heavily on complete avoidance rather than soaking it up and recovering. For example, how many thieves would choose toughness over vitality in their build? Thief is rather squishy by nature, no matter how they build however the base health pool only makes up a small part of this problem.

Benjamin.8237:

Knighthonor.4061:

I am excited about getting new pets and skills in the expansion pack.

Tell me I’m not missing something…right?

Believe me, I’ve looked. Nothing…. think OP found a post from early 2012 and thought it was up to date.

Zero Day.2594:

SoLeciTO.3490:

…
Plz add to nerf whish list . . . . PLEASE!

15 hours too late.

He is too good!

Magic 8 ball, if I spend $500 this Christmas on the gem store will anet send me a buff?

yolo swaggins.2570:

mango.9267:

yolo swaggins.2570:

Question: Why does the thief need to add more skill into it’s gameplay?

It is the most noob-unfriendly class in the game, useless in most situations unless the player is very good and giving it “more skill to play” is only going to drive it deeper into the gutter its already in. The profession has enough skill, now give it some DIVERSITY.

Well, it’s never a bad thing to promote skillful play, and 20066 S/D isn’t that difficult to pick up. I think that if feline grace were nerfed to only return endurance on successful evade, it should also be compensated with something like 1 stack of might on successful evade. This way, dodges are used more sparingly, the trait gives you more on evade, and you get some additional sustain because you can now take assassin’s reward over power of inertia.

No. Add as much skill as you want, it is not going to change anything except player’s distaste for playing the class.

It is completely amazing how adamant people are when it comes to pointing fingers at a single class that kills them all of the time. Thanks to the wonderful community, they’ve brought the thief and profession balance forums some creatively veiled threads like “Promoting skillful play”, “Fixing exploits”, “No viable counterplay”.

Thing is they all lead back to one thing: “Thief killed me. I want blood.”. The only ones who fall for those masks are the ignorant.

Feels good to of quit this game lol.

I grew tire of trying to correct peoples horrific suggestions which had no benefit except for themselves. People should know by now straight nerfs are not healthy, and have done nothing but kitten off a lot of players.

Even if sometimes its just venting or over exaggeration, most people have valid points to be angry. What most people don’t seem to have are valid suggestions that make sense to anyone but themselves.

I guess keep fighting? Maybe there will be some collaboration between the dev’s and what the community wants for each class. Idk, I tried to hold out and I failed after 2.5 years :/

Sadrien.3470:

d/d auto should deal more than a frontal bs. s/p does less dps than dagger auto but s/p evades and stuns with skill 3

S/p also cleaves more targets and depending on the build can be much more efficient due to quicker hits. I can make a literal pw spam build for pve only because of stacking.