Guild Wars 2

#8 is definitely me lol, run into 3 people at a node just for me to do a steal and swing my sword around a little then instantly teleport back to safety with sword 2. Then those 3 people are running around saying “Wheres the thief?”.

edit: Aside from how awesome sword is, I’m pretty sure stealth is getting a nerf but probably won’t affect many people unless your niche near permastealth or something.

khylo forever and ever and ever

The power/crit attrition thiefs (or near permastealth thieves that get all their hp back after stealthing) are mainly designed to harass mesmers on backpoints, kill squishy thieves, and force teammates back to your home point. All you have to do to counter this is drop a trap ranger on your homepoint and do not send people back to help him unless they send others.

The march patch is supposed to be WvW stuff. Feburary was the big patch. They also said ladder is coming out this month in its own patch.

turn it off and spam your 1 harder then anyone else when everything else is off cd.

Don’t worry,they’re gonna primarily nerf hundred blades warriors and sword thieves soon (cause you see these guys in tournies right?) in an attempt to tone down other bursts and I am gonna cry myself to sleep every night afterwards.

Lorienda.1349:

i have no kittening clue what u guys talking about
ele didnt get nerf d/d is much stronger now they still have perma vigor 100%
their cantrips the same .
i heard somehing about seperated queues for premade and soloq it didnt happen
i am dissapointed next month is their last chance for me.

guardians can get a high vigor uptime as well from the minor adept trait in honor called vigorous precision. It gives 5 secs of vigor on critical hits and has a cd of 5 sec, sound familiar? Difference between eles and guards is eles can run away (if not immobilized whiled doing rtl) from a fight and gain fury while guards have an inherent 15% damage reduction and can only get fury from save yourself. My friend would run scepter/shield or scepter/focus just to get vigor from the high hit volume of scepter 2.
edit:forgot to mention most guards have aoe heal on dodge so 1-2k heal on every dodge so its not too far from ele healing on dodge which is on 10 sec cd.

ensoriki.5789:

Pistol Whip got nerfed.
Tactical Strike got nerfed.
Tripwire and Needle trap work
I get a 1/2 second circle if I use my Venoms
Speak for yourself, I’ve seen quite a lot of big changes.

In seriousness
you forgot 1 round tourneys on your list.
Map change so destroying Guild isn’t as ez as it was before.
Other minute details that aren’t necessarily large.

That pistol whip nerf made me a sad moa but it was op as heck

playing new classes as well cause i’m pretty sure you don’t want your first time to go badly in tournaments. also @ ensoriki, I’m using tripwire as well lol but stupid ranger pets keep triggering it.

they “fixed” the bug for getting in Legacy’s red side base like 3 times. Its a lot more difficult to fix then it looks apparently.

If you pick up the orb, strafe sideways and don’t run. You will move faster as you are not affected by the speed debuff. its annoying to do but gets the job done.

daggers don’t have much in mobility other than heartseeker (and steal) and it’s mobility tanks if you have quickness. better off with sigil of fire and bloodlust on daggers for more burst. also, if this is for pve then definite no.

guardian trident 5 hits through the evasion and will cc him for about 2 secs, burst him as soon as you use it or the mesmer cc previously stated in another post.

The actually value of heavy armor versus light armor is 15% damage reduction…well it rounds up to 15%.

Kardiamond.6952:

Man each time I watch a video like this, and I see a player spam the same skills over and over, I remember why I’m playing an Engineer. kitten it must be boring to only auto attack!

You should watch two sword thieves fight. nonstop teleporting over a node is hilarious :P

I still have fun playing this game playing with my team doing paids pretty much every night and I have full faith in this game. I bought this game for the PvE and now, I just log for prime-time tournies to play against other teams.

Opc.4718:

Why are necros ranked so low? In any group battle or even duo, if you have a necro sitting in the back dropping conditions like crazy, it’s almost a guaranteed wipe for the enemy team if they aren’t prepared. They aren’t the best at solo, but sPvP is about teamwork right?

Thats why you have someone take them out, train their kitten, stop them from dropping all those conditions and rez signets. If your team can’t protect your necro then they become pretty useless.

Shukran.4851:

Noctis Assassin.4035:

Daze on steal. :P death sentence for anyone using their heal skill.

edit:also works well for instagibbing thieves pressing dagger 2

daze on steal is 30 trickery.

it hurts a lot your output.
maybe after patch…

Lead Strikes makes up most of the difference. You get 1% extra damage for every point of initiative. Daze on steal has saved my rear so many times and my teammates cause of the instant interrupts. You ever seen what a d/x thief does when their heartseeker goes on a 5 sec cd?

well, according to the wiki, halting strike, an adept trait in the domination line does “approximately 67 direct damage at 916 power. Damage unaffected by weapon strength.”
lulz at the damage.

Anvil Rock is the way to go for NA, best server in my opinion.
edit: You can always guest on there.

confusion does hit like empathy if you do condition damage and powerblock=effectively 3 sec daze NO STUNBREAKS run like the moa you are XDDD.

confusion does hit like empathy if you do condition damage and powerblock=effectively 3 sec daze NO STUNBREAKS run like the moa you are XDDD.

I believe the devs were talking about ele single target damage versus ele aoe damage and how they compare to each other. Nothing to do with thieves as we all know they’re not getting nerfed soon (looks at venoms buff for proof).

my only problem with interrupts is it seems the shining light from asurans using their heal skill seems to appear a little later then when other races but I’m not 100% sure about it. I guess I’ll do some testing later tonight.

Daze on steal. :P death sentence for anyone using their heal skill.

edit:also works well for instagibbing thieves pressing dagger 2

Kasama.8941:

Stiv.1820:

2 stun breaks and a condition removal within 20 seconds.. usable with any weapon set. Also can get on top of stuff without short-bow requirement. Instant 1200 range movement to catch someone or get away. It’s got to be our best utility for PvP at least..

How often do you really need two stun breakers in a row (let alone one)? Shadow Return on the sword also breaks stun and removes one condition. Roll for Initiative also removes cripple, chilled, and immobilize, while giving you 6 initiative on top of the stun removal. You already have Shadow Refuge to get away, and Steal (which can be traited to have 1200 range) plus weapon skills for chasing. I don’t see how Shadowstep is needed, at all.

The biggest advantage/disadvantage to sword is you are bound to a point and the only way to change it is to return to it or wait 15 secs. With shadowstep, you can easily change that bounded point. In addition, it lets you 1-stomp everything w/o blinds.

Karolis.4261:

PopeUrban.2578:

Karolis.4261:

Stiv.1820:

SB has a huge edge for get away because it will port you while rooted/crippled.. and if you get stunned after it fires off it will still port you. Downside is they emeny can see the swirls of the shadowstep if you are doing it in stealth (if they know), with HS they can only hear your first couple.

Well the real downside of Infiltrators arrow is that it breakes stealth.

It actually doesn’t break stealth. This is a well known bug, but although you’ll appear on your client, and those of your allies, to have broken stealth, you’re actually still stealthed. This has been tested multiple times.

Basically, try the following:

Stealth
IA
Check out your buffs, you’ll see you’re still stealthed.

Heck, IA next to some mobs and watch as they completely ignore you.

Additionally, it you wait, you’ll see another “bamf” when stealth wears off for real.

As best as I can figure it, the “bamf” effect is coded in such a way that the effect itself alters the way the model is rendered to the player/allies, and some designer somewhere took a shortcut and reused the same “bamf” effects script for IA as was already present with stealth.

This bug is as old as release, and confusing to new thieves. Really wish they’d fix that.

Well ill be kitten I do know the issue with any shadowstep screwing up stealth animation, but for some reason i was sure that IA was actually breaking stealth ( that knowledge comes from newbie times, i dont use IA at all for escaping now, HS or CnD on random targets does the job and im still have full acess to stealth w/o 10 s cooldown). Oh well, just another rock to my garden.

IA doesn’t break stealth BUT another person can see your arrow while you are stealthed. So if instance in spvp, you shadow refuge out of the gate in forest of nilfhil, and you start shooting arrows, anyone with eyes can see black blurrs going across their screen.

Whirlwind does more damage to me as a gc thief then hb. A lot harder to predict that then hb. I usually only take like 2-4k from hb with stunbreak if i don’t dodge but I take 7k from whirlwind.

You are only visible to yourself, it is a visual bug. Also, enemies can see your infiltrator’s arrow even if you are stealth. It will look like a black blur crossing the screen.

alrighty, did a little testing and i figured out all the steal traits related to hitting enemies with it goes like this: Sleight of hand, serpent’s touch ,mug, and bountiful theft. I used steal with no armor and a steady sword on a guard to test bountiful theft, did 56 damage when he had protection and 83 when he did not. i tested serpent’s touch (and indirectly exposed weakness, the trait that gives 10% extra damage they have conditions) by using steal on a heavy golem. I had 24 points in deadly arts and 10 power from 1 divinity rune and did 93 damage. Then,i took off the divinity rune and put 25 points in deadly art. My steal then did 103 damage. I would really hope that the order would be bountiful theft, serpent’s touch, mug, and then sleight of hand but I can only dream xD.

Have you tried stagger stomping? its a little harder to do since it got stealth nerfed in the jan. 28th patch but what you do is you try stomping, then you cancel the stomp and start the stomp again as the mesmer is activating his downed skill 2. Sometimes you have have to use a teleport if the mesmer is too far but he is usually not. As a thief, you have the ability to one stomp/stagger stomp every class. Stealth against warriors, engies, and necros, teleport to thieves, shadowstep away from guardian and shadow return. Rangers require stealth and shadowstep and shadow return. Eles are the only class that you can not reliably one stomp/stagger stomp cause their downed 2 is instant. You have to stagger stomp him like as soon as he mists forms then teleport to him as he comes out of mist form. btw, when i say shadowstep the ranger and guardian, I mean it as to get out of range of their downed 2 skill.

The order in which steal traits like mug,bountiful theft and sleight of hand is, in my opinion, out of whack. If I were to use steal with these 3 traits on a guardian with only stability, then he would lose the stability but not be dazed. If I were to use steal on a ranger with the trait “hide in plain sight,” then he would gain stealth, but not take damage from mug. That would only mean the traits occur in this order: Sleight of hand>mug/bountiful theft. I’ll try to test it on a guard with and without protection later tonight to see if mug occurs before bountiful theft. Throwing that in the (neverending) box of traits that could better/fixed.

+60% steal recharge rate with all the ultility it offers xD yes plz

oh god please yes, tokens to powder would be a godsend. same with finishers, don’t need those hundreds of finishers i have in the locker.

Tyler Bearce.3427:

It’s real. It just requires very high rank(70+) to loot or craft.

Thank you for stopping me from throwing at little supplies I had left in the forge, but can confirm if there is a triple critical forge with paid tokens and slivers for every weapon? (i.e. weapons rarer then orrian or the equivalent to orrian)

33% increase on 1.5 sec daze is .5 so it would make it a 2 sec daze. Dazes and stuns automatically round up (I don’t think the daze from headshot rounds up tho) so mesmer runes and sigil of paralyzation are useless in spvp. the daze on tactical strike is 2 secs outside of the mists so it would automatically round up to 3 secs if you used mesmer runes or sigil of paralyzation. I never understood why people would use mesmer runes when you could just use sigil though.

frans.8092:

It strips one boon, not two, at least according to the tooltip description. And despite it’s reputation, it doesn’t miss more then any other attack according to my combat log.

He was talking about saving steal to strip 2 boons with bountiful theft.

yeah,flanking strike is hard to land depending on how your enemy is moving but I use it a lot if i know it is gonna land the second strike. I run something similar to your build but its a little more rng burst.

deadly arts 10-mug
crit strikes 30- practiced tolerance, critical haste, executioner
trickery 30-thrill of the crime, bountiful theft, sleight of hand

beserker amulet with divinity runes, sigil of rage on sword and bow, bloodlust on dagger offhand. utilities are shadow step, shadow refuge, and haste.

with quickness, flanking strike only moves you half of the distance it normally would which actually lets you hit an enemy with second strike. So its pretty much as strong as a heartseeker hp< 25% hp on top of your quickness and boon stripping. Since you have 2 procs of quickness from trait and sigil, you have a 21% chance on crit of activating 1. I use sleight of hand for some gw1 mesmer-style interrupts on heals, stomps on teammates, enemies trying to interrupt your stomps (hilarious to do on warriors bull charging you). I almost always save the haste skill for autoattacking downed enemies so they don’t get rezzed or quickness rezzing teammates. Although,I haven’t tried it but sword 2 then spamming flanking strike with haste and basalisk venom (I use thieves guild) then steal when they try to heal could instagib someone in theory.

;-; gone through 60+ tokens trying to get it. I’m fairly convinced at this point that you can’t get the crystalline sword.

One of my teammates has also obtained the heavy plated rifle and moon shield(i think thats what its called) and another teammate Dwyana’s longbow. (most epic bow ever for spvp)

I’ve been trying to get the sword but it comes down to rng. Although, this is pretty much the same situation i was in when I heard about dwyana’s shortbow.

Asomal.6453:

Tbh they should put more weapons/sets in pvp. I mean, where’s all the cool items we can get in the mystic forge, like Essence of Forefire or the legendaries? Or the gem store sets that we can transmutate and use in 3W? I’m not asking to be easy to obtain those, but at least know I have a chance to do so…

I’m not so sure putting legendary weapons in would be a good idea since we already have enough particle effects lagging up the game there are atm but I do know that u can get ultra rare weapons like the precursor for the dreamer in spvp, called dwayna’s shortbow. It involved getting a triple critical success in the mystic forge with paid tokens and slivers. Double critical successes would give orrian weapons, regular critical successes give kodan and no critical successes give arching/inquest weapons.

Infiltrator’s strike/shadow return- fix bugs with shadow return not shadowstepping you or resetting on stun/daze. (ate a hundred blades today in a paid cause of that.) /cry

Shadowstep/shadow return- increase duration of shadow return from 10 secs to 20 secs to match the shadow return of the Infiltrator’s shadow return.

Aeden.5896:

The whirling axe change is actually great. That ability went from the absolute best to the worst after they removed stability. At least the other more underwhelming steal abilities didn’t make me a free kill.

Whirling axe was overpowered lol, it still is since its like 11k aoe damage( all 15 hits usually hit around that for me) it wasn’t stability either, it was evasion which is another way of saying invulnerable.

Syeria.4812:

My suggestion:

At least until tPvP populations reach a higher level, make tournaments 4 teams instead of 8. Have it on 2 randomly selected maps out of the 3 tournament maps instead of a fixed rotation. Add a “consolation bracket” to the tournament.

Basically, with 4 teams instead of 8, tournaments will pop faster because only 20 players are required instead of 40. The big kicker here is that with only 4 teams, a consolation bracket becomes possible (rewards would need to be adjusted for all of this of course) where the two losing teams from the first round play each other for third place. This way, out of every tournament there are 3 teams that get to feel like they accomplished something. Having a 75% success rate instead of the current 50% should increase the feeling of accomplishment for players. It even mitigates the discouragement of being pre-made stomped in the first round because you’ll likely get a “real” matchup in the second.

The problem i see with consolation brackets is not everyone might wanna try to win 3rd place when they can just try again in a brand new tournament and save that time they woulda wasted.

shadow return, chain #2 skill for sword, does not break stun(breaks daze though) and does not break knock-down (still usable while knocked down though)

Idk why we can’t kill those darn spirit weapons. There are bosses in dungeons that use them and they’re killable so why not in PvP. Its no different then using ranger spirits. (I understand that pretty much no ranger uses them which is probably cause they have so little health)

Gilgamesh.2561:

It’s true that the only casual sPvP mode tends to be hot-join. Grinding ranks through solo-queuing free tournaments will take forever, as you are unlikely to make it past Round 2 or Round 3 due to premades.

It’s quite funny that premades are even matched against PuGs in free tournaments. Shouldn’t tournaments be about skill? There is no skill in PuG stomping.

• If you queue as a group you go into POOL A.
• If you queue solo you go into POOL B.
• People from POOL A are only matched against others in POOL A.
• People from POOL B are only matched against others in POOL B.

Problem solved. Will queues be longer? Yes. They’ll also be worth it. I’d rather spend an extra 5-10 minutes waiting for a queue for a game that may end up giving me more glory and rank than losing a game I have no chance of winning.

The burnout for casual solo players such as myself is strong, because we only ever see 1 or 2 maps. Kyhlo pretty much doesn’t exist to me. You may argue tournaments are meant for grouping. If that’s the case they should remove solo-queuing from free tournaments.

I could definitely get behind this idea. My only problem is when you try to dual queue with a friend/guildie. I’ve play countless free tournaments before paids as a pug and then with a group and neither really matches you up with appropriate enemies to fight half of the time. All aNet really needs to do is make a new free tournament that disallows premade groups and only allow solo queues (idk how they would deal with dual queue).

oh and i could go either way with hp bars overhead. Won’t complain if they did it.

well,i’m not sure if you guys noticed but you can see all the conditions/buffs and hp/downed hp of all the teammates around you by looking in the top left corner of your screen. idk, maybe i’m missing something since its not that hard to miss. As for your enemies, you should already know how much hp they have since you should be prioritizing targets by their role and profession. This is based on tpvp btw, hotplay doesn’t mean squat.