Guild Wars 2

PvE? Yes, full berserkers, 0/30/0/20/20 picking up initiative regain and damage. With that a P/P rogue can spam 3 ALL day long for kittenloads of damage. You also have the survivability from Black Powder and dodges. The on demand boss interrupting of headshot. And finally the lack of dependence on any utility skill makes it so you can bring whatever skill best suits the fight, calatropes for kiteing, venom for heal heavy bosses, ECT… you also turn steal into a massive support skill giving everyone fury might swiftness vigor and 2 of the enemy buffs without kittening your dps.

Best team buffs
Highest Applied DPS
Survivability up the kitten
No condition overlap.

EpicSuperFail.9518:

awesome video! I think this is interesting. What argument can you make for choosing a condition/crit hybrid over full crit or full condition? I am in the process of getting exotic gear and I don’t want to spend the money until I am totally sure what build I want.

I suggest your first exotic set to be full berserkers everything, not only can you use it in PvP but (IMO) it’s the only way to play a thief in PvE (since you have so much dodge duck stealth and roll livability anyways.) Zerkers lets you go any build for PvE (except maybe P/D)

ledzep.9504:

Could you post your build / armor set?

It’s in the youtube video comments

Same.4687:

Well like with most Cond builds you have +300 Vit & Tough from traits which makes you quite a lot more damage resistant than any other build. I would never run his build because I honestly believe there is no reason you should want to.

There is no reason to go hybrid because the other 2 builds are way more effective at what they are supposed to do than a hybrid form of the two. 50% cond/50% crit dam doesn’t mean it does 50% damage of a full glass cannon build nor does it give 50% survivability and kittenhat a condition build does.

I would run this build for fun and to mess with experienced players their heads. “Ok he’s currently using Pistol/Dagger probably condition” followed by “WTF his #1 out of stealth just did 5k damage!” followed by “WHY ARE THE CONDITIONS TICKING DOWN MORE THAN 50 DAM PER TICK”.

It’s not a build for the feint of heart that’s for sure.

Comparing the hybrid build and the condition build is like comparing apples and oranges, mine is a skirmish build good in many situations with clinch burst and good bleeds. The condition build is more of a bunker stealth whittle you down over time build (not good for fighting large groups since you have so little damage.)

Comparing my hybrid build and a standard crit build, I’ve only sacrificed a small amount of crit damage, but in return gained a repertoire of utility and functionality. My game isn’t over when I miss a back-stab or shadow-refuge is on cool-down.

Going too far down one path leaves you open to being countered, this build helps prevent me getting hard countered.

your using haste in PvE? wouldn’t a party helping utility skill like shadow refuge be more useful? It’s BARELY increasing your DPS…

The rate of thief nerfs is too kitten high!

Check out some of my videos on how to play a P/D thief.

I don’t use the standard carrion build but it’s the same principal.

Thieves have trouble PvE wise? Hell no, Sword/Pistol + Shortbow, sigil that heals you per attack. Make sure you circle enemies to confuse AI (they attack half as often).

Can output more DPS in 1 fight then everyone else in the entire dungeon while having insane viability (just need to learn how to use black powder ect…)

Tonight I will be showing you the finer points of 1vMany and how you can survive and pick off your enemies 1 by 1 with a P/D D/D Condition Burst Hybrid build.
http://youtu.be/NAPtTnVCSuw
This is a re-released version of one of my previous videos, using my new editing software. It has much more instruction and better camera usage so you can see what’s going on and what I’m thinking and planning during the fight. I apologize if the video gets jerky at times, that’s my low FPS from FRAPS and there is some low quality from not being able to get my original video. Hope you enjoy<3

Some people say that thieves rely too heavily on stealth in WvW but I don’t agree with that. Capturing Camps and hunting people down maybe, but that’s not what WvW actually is. In the broader sense of WvW I think the thief has some pretty kitten good non-stealth things to contribute to WvW. One of which being shown in this video is being a long term diversion for enemy forces. To be honest I think the only thing the thief has going for it is stealth/dodge survivability. Our base survivability is crap, and our damage is crap unless we invest heavily in gearing for it. Thieves are very pigeonholed into gimmicky builds cause gimmicks are the only way we can survive with our low defense and still have enough damage to kill someone.

to me it sounds like you should be running P/D, if you want the pewpew stealth pistol

P/P is more of a berserkers set where your 3 is your main damage ability

Also, PvE and WvW require vastly different stats, thieves can easily go full zerkers with a slight learning curve for learning how to dodge and blind NPCs

Vizioso.5981:

How do so many people literally do nothing to you for that long a period of time? I can understand thieves being slippery and hard to kill especially with so many of the guys in this video elevated to 80, but literally your health almost never moves. It’s like they were just standing there looking at you while they died. Good video, though.

A combination of diversion (the NPC mobs) and the the stealth culling issue. Most players don’t start spamming tab after a thief goes invisible.

Mods can you please move this post back to the thief forums as it is a thief instructional video.

Out comes #8 hope you enjoy!

“We have always worked hard to create a sense of satisfying progression rather than gear grind and this new item progression initiative is no exception.
By adding challenging new combat mechanics (an arbitrary damage per second debuff) to end-game content (let me guess, another big boss that you can’t get near and throws out AoE that you have to dodge and maybe some mechanic to temporarily stun him to enable you to get in close) and ways to mitigate those mechanics through gear progression for high-end players(arbitrary anti-debuff gear), we can add personal progression without making the game feel like an endless treadmill of gear that is just out of your reach.”

So were adding an arbitrary de-buff that kills your character and the only way to not die is to grind for our arbitrary ANTI-DEBUFF armor. Screw creative boss-fights were half the players get positive charges and half get negative charges and you can’t stand next to people with a different charge or you all explode. LETS JUST MAKE MORE GRIND.

Seriously, the fact that you can solo most of the bosses in Gw2 is just pathetic, more creativity less… failure to understand what your player-base actually wants…

ReverantSpark.7309:

Ive been looking into making legendary weapons, and Im pretty dissapointed. All you have done is make it so we have to gather insane amounts of mats… Dont you think thats a pretty poor way of doing it? Its like you couldnt be bothered to think of a fun and interesting way of implementing it and just went “stuff it, just make it so people have to use stupid amounts of mats to get em.” thats not a legendary weapon, thats a pain in the butt weapon… The amount of farming/money it would take to gather all those mats is stupid.

There are far better ways of acquiring a legendary weapon that dont seem like a ridiculous farm/grind mission. The way it SHOULD have been implemented is like this…

Each weapon has an epic quest chain taking you all over tyria, a quest chain that can only be acquired when you hit lvl 80. You get messages throughout the game from your herald, (I think it was a herald) you should get a message from him when you hit 80 pointing you in the direction of NPC’s that start the quest chain for each respective weapon. For example…
“greetings, Im writing to inform you that there have been rumors circulating as to the whereabouts of the legendary weapons of tyria. [npc name] is said to have information on the whereabouts of such and such weapon, [npc name] has information on another weapon” and so on…

You could make it so the herald only points you in the direction of npcs that have info on the weapons usable by your class. Then during the quest chain for that specific weapon, you obtain parts of the weapon (artifacts) from each part of the quest as a reward or boss drop. Sort of like another story chain, but for endgame. Then once you have completed that quest chain, you have to use each part in the mystic forge along with a REASONABLE amount of mats to revive that pieces power. Then once you have empowered all of the pieces, you then combine those in the mystic forge to create a TRUE legendary weapon.

At the moment, legendary weapons are the “korean mmo” of weapons in guild wars… a huge grind/farm fest. As it stands, Im probably not gonna bother with them, cause to me it doesnt seem worth all the time and effort. But if it was incorporated into a quest chain… It would make the experience and road to acquiring your legendary weapons actually fun. I would happily play through a huge quest chain to get em, and Im sure that most if not everyone would prefer it that way too.

In place of a ridiculous number of expensive mats (I understand you made the numbers so high as to make them difficult to obtain) you could make it so the quest chains were long, challengeing, and pretty difficult.

A weapon isnt legendary imo cause of the umpteen amount of mats you have to gather, but because of how much of a challenge it is to obtain. And gathering/buying mats isnt a challenge. Thats only a challenge of how much mind numbing boring gameplay you can stand.

Legendaries are gold sinks and economy stabilizers.

We hate bots as much as you do, tell us what we have to do to get a botter banned, should we report them every day for 7 days straight? Should we get our 10 buddies to all report them at the same time? Do you want us to fraps a video of them botting for a few minutes (the botting AI is painfully obvious). If it’s an automated system tell us what we have to do to trigger it, if it isn’t then tell us how we can make your jobs easier!

TELL US WHAT’s WRONG tell us why the bots we report don’t get banned, we won’t be mad, look at the support for EvE online, they are straight with the players 100% of the time, they give feedback and when kitten goes kitten up they do their best to explain what’s happening and what their doing to fix it, even if half the player base doesn’t understand it gives us a sense that you aren’t just planning your next big event to get us to buy gems.

30/10/30/0/0/0

Gear should be berserkers and go venomshare build.

Basalisk and drake venom, shadow refuge and 25% movement signet

That’s how you run a thief in a group.

Video 7 is out!

I understand that posting a bunch of videos of me kicking kitten while entertaining, isn’t helping cushion the impending nerfbat wielded by glass cannon Elementalists. SO I GIVE YOU:
ME!!!!
…dying…
…A lot…

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxIHrQIJgrOHEvV24ncSN8X0skJYSxRyg&feature=mh_lolz

One of the big problems with going toe to toe with so many enemies is that gimmicky abilities like shadow refuge and moa morph impact your fighting so much. When you have 7 enemies trying to kill you, you don’t have room for mistakes.

Video 8 is now out! Hope you enjoy it!
http://youtu.be/cyaIdX7Rpb8

Hammer offhand + the burst weapon/weapons. Ring of Warding + burst = good strategy?

Just wondering if anyone has tried it out.

Shadow Refuge + Staggering Blow = Death Thief

Tozen.9814:

That was a fun video! It’s funny… I’ve tried almost everything but pistol/dagger in WvW. Watching this video makes me want to give it a go though

It’s really versatile, it’s more of a skirmish kinda thing where you outlast the enemy but you can combine it with D/D for a good combo set.

Kita.7819:

Ah yes, the coyotes. God kitten coyotes.

And kittening wolves too

Intigo.1653:

This video is currently being processed.
Please check back in a few minutes.

Useful.

Haha I posted it with 30 seconds left on the processing, your a fast little bugger :P it’s up now!

How to get your snowball item to 25 Stacks in under 3 minutes.
http://youtu.be/kysKMckAk3k

This spot works for any class with good AoE, just be careful not to die

CHECK OUT MY OTHER VIDEOS!

1. D/D Elementalist 1v1: http://tinyurl.com/avfypm5
2. 1v7: http://tinyurl.com/aamc3f5
3. Divide and Conqure: http://tinyurl.com/ctwd3nt
4. I Hate Mesmers: http://tinyurl.com/cofmwv5

ALSO

Here’s my build for people that have been asking, you can find the same link in the video description.

Croatoan.8345:

Can you link your build with runes and sigils.
I use a similar one, but more specced into CD.

Soon™

Findros.3069:

Gathering up mobs so when you stealth they aggro the baddies? Mosquitos as stealth buddies? I love it.

Got a good laugh at the Warrior being able to log before getting downed too. I’m pretty shocked you can actually do that…I’d expect code in place that prevents instant log out if you’re in combat.

Great little video.

<3

I think 66% should be sufficient to have a sentry kill an 1 undefended dolyak. If 2 go by one of them will survive.

A little known fact is that P/D incredibly effective with berserker gear, your attacks don’t hit as hard but you hit much more often and it’s MUCH easier to survive. Make sure you specc into power if your using venoms and always spec 30 into shadow for the sexy healing.

-Attach a snowball sigil to your secondary weapon.

-Switch to secondary weapon when an enemy goes down.

-Curb stomp enemy.

-Switch back to main weapon.

look up “Scootabusing 1” 2 and 3 on the forums or youtube, #2 has a hilarious 1v7 that lasts almost 12 minutes

Rampage Build (Power Percision Condition) + Spider Venom + Devourer Venom + Fire Rocket Barrage.

It’s the new 1 shot thief … hurr

Slic.2406:

It’s actually been interesting to watch all 3 vids – neat to see the gradual improvement in positioning & camera/skill usage over the 3 videos you posted so far. Like, for instance, the change in what directions you dodge, relative to the enemy.

It mimicks the beginnings of my own ‘fighting style’ changes over the last month more than I thought. Finally, my yippie kye yay vids aren’t the only GW2 vids of it’s kind!

When I actually get good and famous, we should do a video together, 2vWorld. Split screen with your view on one side and mine on the other

Kurow.6973:

This video was nostalgic considering I encountered an almost identical ele yesterday. However, he always ended up running to fort guards and waiting to re-engage me when I was fighting someone else. He eventually died at the feet of his guards from bleeding, but was able to get back up because I couldn’t get close enough to finish him off.

Just goes to show that a properly played ele doesn’t lack survivability, and in fact has more escape tools than any other class, unlike what most bad players claim. I’ve noticed this myself when I play my ele, and I’ve said this countless times…but the naysayers who refuse to learn will always argue.

The weapon set I was using at the time was identical to yours, with the exception of my bleeding doing significantly more damage, my health being over 20k, and my utilities being different.

At least D/D elementalists do

Slic.2406:

It’s actually been interesting to watch all 3 vids – neat to see the gradual improvement in positioning & camera/skill usage over the 3 videos you posted so far. Like, for instance, the change in what directions you dodge, relative to the enemy.

It mimicks the beginnings of my own ‘fighting style’ changes over the last month more than I thought. Finally, my yippie kye yay vids aren’t the only GW2 vids of it’s kind!

You downright inspired me to learn video-software and to make videos And my build was inspired by yours too

bradderzh.2378:

While I enjoy watching other peoples vids, I think it’s very disrespectful to claim someone is ‘kittening out’ just because they felt they couldn’t win.
I have had a fair few rights against thieves that either ended with them running or at least envolved that exact tactic as a health regeneration strategy.
By definition thieves are escape artists.

I abuse mob aggro to take down large groups, just cause it pisses me off that he did it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it too

I love WvW. I love soloing. I love playing a thief. And I wanted to learn how to use video editing software for game videos. So I present to you: The Scootabusing Series

Scootabusing 1 (Guild Wars 2 PvP) – Dagger Elementalist Sparring
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYtYWIpxbDE&feature=plcp

Scootabusing 2 (Guild Wars 2 PvP) – 1v7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwmNSfgIOu4

Scootabusing 3 (Guild Wars 2 PvP) – Divide and Conqure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_WkYR-kwkI&feature=plcp

Kerishan.8460:

This video is the best representation of how thief can use nothing but shortbow + dagger/dagger.

This guy DOESN’T hit hard at all he try to kill this ele with autoattack (wich is the purpose of the build) with no chance. We need an alternative first then ANet and all of haters can ask for nerf on bs build.

Seriously? Your trying to turn my post into ANOTHER one of those threads. It was a toughness/healing elementalist, they are tanky as hell.

The best thing you can bring to a party is the abiltity to cheat certain events with shadowstep and stealth (turning off traps for your team) or gurenteed rezing people with shadow refuge

Dagger/Dagger: Assasin
Shortbow: Theif
Pistol/Dagger: Agent
Dagger/Pistol: Rogue
Sword/Pistol: Pirate YARRRRRR
Sword/Dagger: Duelist
Pistol/Pistol: Scout

Why? I have no idea…

Pragmatist.1349:

I think Hermotoxic/Dermotoxic Venom as traits + venom sharing range increase would be very nice :P get to work arenanet.

I’m waiting for the dev to step in and say the same thing

Vile.5678:

Residual Venom is my favorite trait… Also, you guys realize that Spider Venom reduces the heal effectiveness of the opponent by 33% too? That’s a pretty big deal.

Just because it’s your favorite doesn’t make it remotely good, haven’t you noticed all of your extra procs are being lost to maximum condition times?

Vile.5678:

I agree Venomous Aura needs a SLIGHTLY larger range, but that’s about it. Basilisk Venom is very strong. There are VERY few creatures that can resist it, and it’s usually champions, but even sometimes it works on them. I was skeptical about the change of making Basilisk Venom a type of stun, breakable, but the addition of .5 seconds seems sooooooo much longer than it used to, and I love it.

If your using Basilisk Venom often in PvE… As for in PvP it almost always overwrites itself so it’s pretty meh.

Vile.5678:

Venoms are good! I promise you! But I feel like I’m one of the very few who think so….

I agree they are good if you spec into their might and healing traits for PvP, but the problem is VENOM SHAREING is made pointless by conditions that stack duration, but only to a very small ceiling, causing most of your extra conditions to just disappear or add an extra second of chill ect…

Try to stay on the topic of how to make venom-sharing viable

The dungeon always has the riflemen at the end of a hallway of sorts, it works in pretty much all of the parts, the only exception is the big room where they spawn on opposite sides, but for that part you just run under the stairs.

iSinner.4285:

It is not about the warrior, it is about all other classes that dont have cooldowns on similar traits, while thieves have.

Your comparing the classes too literally, classes aren’t equal, deal with it.

Get a pistol offhand, use daggerstorm and shadowstep to close distance, then spam black powder while your teamates close in.

Works every time.

When your in CM as a theif you have 3 roles:

Stealthing teamates past easily avoided spawns.
Blinding and blocking ranged attacks.
Turning off traps.

I know it wasn’t exactly a fair fight but I had a blast doing it, and almost died twice so I thought I would bring some humor in what is sure to be a long line of increasingly competitive videos.

the reduced healing indirectly causes it to do more damage then burn most of the time

ASP.8093:

Daggers have a higher attack rate than Sword. Cooldowns on the crit procs seem like an attempt to balance the two weapons.
Also this has an effect on Pistol Whip and Unload.

Exactly

Pragmatist.1349:

I think this would be a nice addition and would make Venomshare more viable in pve, however i think that the range of Venomshare should be tripled because atm its in the “Near” category, asin, if you are not stood next to your teammates, they wont get the buff, and if every party member is not getting the venom, the build is pointless.

I would also say that the damage of spider venom has to be increased.

I think that the pve/pvp balancing issues can and should be solved by separating pve from pvp like GW1 did.

I Agree with the increase in range.

As for Spider venom you can’t increase the damage, Poison damage is based solely on your condition damage, there is no base damage for the ability. Speccing into reduced cooldowns on venoms it allows you to keep poison up on the enemy 24/7 which is pretty amazing in PvP and PvE if you dont already have a poison Person.