Guild Wars 2

Icelandica.6320:

In a 5v5 tPvP though, if you try D/D, you are so useless it’s not even funny.

Blossom builds and 20+ stack bleeds would like a word with you and your “useless” claim. And I’m not saying that pejoratively. There are thief builds that a excellent roamer builds for tournament play. Some of those even use D/D. They just don’t rely on Haste and HS.

Looking at it from a tournament context, it denies a viable and important strategic move to change the points mechanic on Svanir and the Chieftain. Having multiple yet equally valid paths to victory is important.

^
This is a terrible defense.

It’s not about you. “Personal” story might as well simply mean that you are a person in a story, rather than it actually about you. Say what you will about another recent MMO that prioritized story but at least those stories were interesting, varied, and about “you”.

Sweeet.8127:

So this is supposed to be one of the best competitive sPVP teams out their, and they won off the back of a Thief spamming Quickness with Pistol Whip…. And people are seriously trying to defend Quickness?? This game is in more trouble than I thought.

Keep it in your own thread.

There definitely needs to be some adjustments. It’s very odd to join a match right at the end and have 10 Glory for your effort just to wait around for a match where your team (having just lost 153 to 500) is probably not going to rally just because you’ve shown up.

Quick play being quick is fine enough but a “queue for fresh match” option or something wouldn’t be a terrible thing to have alongside the server browser.

That…didn’t answer the questions really. Or at least, I should say, yes…I’ve read those pages too and I do know how to use Google.

I know what the Mists is. What I don’t understand is why there is a war there. The most I’ve come to understand is that the spirit inhabitants of the Mists continually match up mortals against each other for sport.

Which is all well and good but why are people entering the Mists then? For a chance to be enshrined in the Hall of Heroes? For blessings from these spirits? (I suppose the allure of riches could count as motivation as well.) It seems that if it is common knowledge that the Mists War is just some game run by vengeful spirits, there’d be a lot less motivation to participate. It also raises another question…

What does death mean in the Mists? Does it even exist there? Or are we dealing with a place where death is cheap and these spirits just keep people in perpetual battle, bringing them back from deaths door for another battle?

S/P and P/P for one of my thief builds in structured. Shortbow and P/P for when I am in WvW. Might change but P/P is useful to a point and works far better in a support context, on the fringe on things, rather than in the thick.

I’ve been transmuting my Anonymity Mask up from level one. It’s great.

Learn to dodge. Or, alternatively, increase the initiative cost. But really, if you’re spamming it over and over, you’re nuts. Good players will counter you and the skill is clearly meant as, for lack of a better term, the class’ “execute” option.

And that’s the big thing. Thieves are certainly not node defenders. At max, they manage 2 v. 1s and that’s it. And if you lose 2 v. 1, it’s mostly because you just got outplayed or the build matchups were poor. Same for when a thief tries to solo a node on the attack. Thieves are roamers. They’re job is to ambush individuals moving towards certain points, sneak caps when people aren’t there, and to move about the battlefield.

But in a lot of cases, they have such good escape abilities because they’ll end up needing to use them if you manage to hold them long enough. If only because of potential HP deficient (since they’re only so durable) or because they’ve lost their ability to control the pace of the battle (ie. they’re starved for initiative and need to use what they have left to retreat and reset). Either way, the node is the more important thing and not the kill.

This has bothered me, somewhat. And it seems like a small thing but it’s sort of been like a splinter in the mind’s eye of my lore knowledge of Guild Wars, which I admit is small.

Now, I PvP. I understand that the Mists is where PvP occurs. But my question is why? What is the Mists War? Why are we fighting it out? It’s clearly a real thing, sort of. NPCs talk about it and I assume they mean sPvP and WvW (ie. that the “Mists War” is the in universe way to explain PvP)…but again, why? Is it a timeless place? Are we battling eternally like Norsemen in Valhalla, competing for glory and the chance to be known as a great warrior? Why am I conquering keep and castles? Who am I doing it for?

I get why I’m doing it out of universe but is there anything close to approaching an in universe explanation for what’s going on?

I know that for my own server, we’ve donated to get the skill tome to someone whose consistently acted as a strong leader. Sometimes, leaders just…well, lead and you know who they are.

“I died…therefore the issue is with the mechanics”.

Amazing argument. Perhaps we should consider the relative difference between the two individuals behind the keyboards, their builds, and their skill. That seems a lot more reasonable.

Sweeet.8127:

You sound like an intelligent person, yet you are either unwilling to see how detrimental Quickness is for the game, or you lack the foresight to see the game would actually be better off without it.

Instead of questioning his foresight compared to yours (and in the process sparing us of your self aggrandizement…), maybe you should just accept that there are people in the world who don’t agree with you. Just as much as there are people who do.

For the record, I fall into the former category and echo what an earlier poster said. The only change I could possible see for Quickness is that the duration would be extended while the actual boost is decreased. Removal? I can’t see it happening, if only because there’s intelligent and tactically cogent ways to deal with it if you exercise situational awareness of even a small modicum.

HS spam will get you killed in any competitive setting. And there’s ways for Sword/Pistol to be viable without relying on Pistol Whip spam. Bottom line is that regardless of the class, if you’re only relying on a single skill, you’re going to be SoL against anyone who can properly counter your attacks. Especially since you’ll have burned the Thief’s iniative pool.

Duels. Severely wanted, even for the PvE open world. Perhaps only at a certain location to prevent lagging high traffic areas.

I totally miss when it rooted…

Mraza Sharpclaw. Just hanging around in the Eternal Battlegrounds. And show a dangerous disregard for safety with pointy objects.

Main character VO work is a bit stilted. I’m thinking of the female Charr in particular. Other characters are a bit more lively and vibrant.

One Sword/Pistol build here and another high stacking bleed build. I like the first build better because Infiltrator’s Strike has Shadow Return built right into it. You can pull some really great ambushes and confusion fu stuff with that. Leap to a guy, place your point near an archway, chase him over the wall, and as he runs through the archway, use S. Return to catch him again. That kind of thing.

It’s not a crazy build (http://www.gw2build.com/builds/berserker-build-thief-sword-pistol-1945.html). Still uses Pistol Whip w/Haste at times but it has so many skills that augment my damage (First Strikes, Fluid Strikes, Executioner, the Thief Rune set bonus, Side Strike, plus lots of ways to generate Might) that I don’t really have to use that combo too often. Signet of Shadows for speed, lots of benefits to Dodging. Uncatchable, Fleet of Foot, Power of Inertia. It’s a build near and dear to my heart.

The other thief build seems much more suited to group play though. High focus on Blossom and Caltrops to get big time DoTs. Not much Heartseeker usage, which is nice. It’s good to have thief builds that aren’t heavy stealth based and can still get towards double digits in kills when things jive.

Thieves have far too many easy counters and enough poor “match ups” that while they might need some adjustment, I don’t know how much.

This partially applies to Mesmers too. Most people who think they are OP tend to be the people who have trouble just keeping track of their target. Moa’s a bit of an “I Win” button though.

So, in all…I’m not sure. There’s definitely room for adjustment but there’s more than enough ways to counter certain enemies either through tactics or group comp that I’d be wary of leaping too quickly to make massive changes. Increments, to find the balance between too effective and underwhelming. And that will take some time and thought.

SDSkuld.9352:

Just don’t expect to ever win at WvWvW.

Except for the times when we do…

Anyway, for the OP’s question. Divinity’s Reach is a solid spot, as is the Serrated Blade in the Black Citadel. Lion’s Arch is a mixed bag. The biggest trick is to just advertise yourself and find likeminded friends. We’re out there. RP in the field when exploring, you’d be surprised what you can manage. Just keep it on, you know? And you’ll end up finding folks.