If you want to try leveling by using the kill streak bonus, there is a spot south of the Town of Cowlfang’s Star waypoint in Glory’s Steps with a lot of baby raptors that spawn fairly quickly. You can spend a profitable hour killing the raptors, gaining bonus exp and poultry meat to sell.
I’m lvl 42 and I accidentally used the exp booster that gives “+50% exp in all game types, +50% PvP reward track gain, and up to +100% bonus exp on kill streaks”. I logged out to save the timer =P
What are the best activities for me to do to take advantage of this? I was thinking about leveling up cooking to 400 while it was active. I can afford all the mats right now at around 8g. But it also has PvP bonuses and I’m not sure what that does exactly. Would it be better to sit in Edge of the Mists the whole time? Or can I just continue on my way doing open PvE leveling zones
Anyways, I don’t want to waste this thing because I don’t even know how valuable it is. So if anyone could give some advice that would be helpful
Just make all classes. In this game you will max out in 1 week or so casually playing. This way in the future whenever you get bored of one class, you have the whole board to pick from.
1 week or so only through playing Mists maybe. I doubt it’s that fast if you’re casually playing through PvE zones, etc
One subtle difference regarding PvP: Cone attacks (drake’s breath, fire grab[!]) are easier to land if you play a larger race. The cone attacks start from a lower point on Asura and a larger portion of the cone hit box points into the ground because of the higher camera angle.
Really? Is this actually how it works? I haven’t heard of this before. So if your aiming your character more towards the ground, your aoe attacks will aim “down”?
Thanks for the responses guys, I have both classes at lvl 30 now and I’m leaning towards Ele a bit since they do seem more powerful in general. They both seem fun in their own way but right now Ele seems way more flexible and versatile. However, I like the actual playstyle mechanics of Thief even though they may be considerably less powerful. I do prefer the female human Thief storyline more as well.
Currently, elementalist is top tier in all gamemodes. It has already been confirmed that dd ele will recieve some nerfs because it’s too strong in pvp. What is getting nerfed and how hard is anybody’s guess, therefore we won’t know what the impact on other builds and in other gamemodes will be. My guess is that the impact on pve will be minor and i hope they won’t overdo the pvp nerfs.
As far as DPS goes, both ele and thief are top tier, although eles have a much stronger burst at the start of the fight. Both classes are highly desired in dungeon runs, but they each fulfill a different role. Ele is more capable of carrying the group through fights because of its utility and damage. Thief mainly makes skipping and certain puzzles easier.
basic ele responsibilities:
- maintaining party fury
- might (prestack before fights; you can also maintain a high amount of might with a df build if you lack a PS warrior)
- vulnerability
- blinds for trash fights
- icebow (for deep freezing bosses)
- ….
basic thief responsibilities:
- strip defiance for deep freeze (basilisk venom, steal, scorpion wire; don’t use headshot)
- blinds for trash fights
- stealth for skips (both blasting on darkness fields and shadow refuge)
- mobility skills like shadow step, shadow trap and infiltrator’s arrow can be used to make some puzzles easier and faster
This is by no means a complete list but it gives you a general idea of what your job is during a dungeon run while playing the respective class. Especially for the ele, there is so, so much more you can do to make the dungeon run easier for your party.
Detailed guides and builds for both classes can be found on dulfy, their respective class forum or you can check out the youtube videos made by DnT.
Awesome response. Exactly what I was looking for, thank you. Yes, I was doing google searches before I made the post but I kept getting old results stretching back to 2013. I wanted to get up to date feedback, which you provided me with.
I may go Elementalist because it is strong in both PvP and PvE whereas the Thief seems to be strong in PvE and bottom tier for PvP.
I’ll level my Elementalist the old fashioned way through map completion and if Thief gets buffed or Elementalist gets nerfed I’ll level the second character through Mists for speed I guess.
Ok I know Elementalist is OP right now but will they get nerfed any time in the next few months? It would be pretty rough to get to lvl 80 then get nerfed a week later.
How do Elementalist and Thief compare to each other in PvE?
why not both. It doesnt take a long time to level up to 80 anymore.
Well mainly because I’m usually a completionist on my first character playthrough and I’ll be leveling up mostly through the open world PvE zones going for 100% completion. This will probably take a LONG time. I don’t want to just sit in Mists all the way to 80.
I want to experience the full leveling experience for my first max character
So I’m in quite a bind in that the two class playstyles that I like the most in this game are considered the most Overpowered and the other being the most Underpowered.
With my luck, If I roll an Elementalist it’ll probably get nerfed once I hit 80. Meanwhile if I go with a Thief and hope they buff the class, it probably won’t ever happen. Or I’ll stop playing the game once it does.
I need some advice over here. I have both characters already created. I think I like the Thief playstyle slightly more but dear lord…every single experienced player is saying that Thief is a bad idea right now so I’m very hesitant to continue spending time leveling it up.
I hear a lot of people say Asura is the best choice since they’re harder to see/detect in PvP. For RP purposes it seems that they’re also fitting as Elementalist because of their innate Intelligence, etc.
For actual character benefits, do the racial bonuses make much of a difference in combat?
I have a Female Human and their personal storyline is awesome so far, how is the Asura personal quest storyline?
They’re the same as the odds that you strike oil in the bathroom of a mansion you won in a lottery, before being the first person on Mars, but after your whirlwind fling with an Icelandic supermodel while your band Leaf Seven (known for their hypnotic rhythms and driving baselines) is on world tour.
But don’t worry, even if we do get buffed, Anet will spend the next 2 patches nerfing it into the ground (so at least we’ll get a year out of it, heh), and the community will kitten about it for 3 years.
Well alright…since I’m still a relatively low level I may make another class to see how big of a difference it really is. Elementalist gameplay looked cool but there are also like 99999999 Elementalists running around right now…
I’m enjoying leveling the class in the PvE zones so far and I like the playstyle… but I have that feeling hanging over my shoulders that I’m just wasting my time. I think literally all of the experienced Thieves I’ve come across say that end game is a big letdown and it would be very wise to just go with another class.
Since I’m new to this company, I’m wondering how often Arena Net balances classes? Sometimes it’s better to be at the bottom because that may mean the class will receive a nice change in the near future. However, the posts I read here seem to say otherwise…are Thieves just the black sheep of the family? Just getting pushed aside patch after patch?
Thank you for your response. Of course the class I finally decide to play is at a weak state, lol =P. Well I’m going to try out Thief for now, if I keep hearing from everyone that they aren’t worth playing then maybe I’ll consider Elementalist instead. I’d hate to spend countless hours leveling up only to find out how frustrating my class is to play compared to Elementalist
I’m not a brand new player; I got the game when it was released in 2012 and played a Warrior for a few months but I found it very boring.
I wanted to try the game out again and I was torn between Elementalist and Thief (Still kind of am) and I am starting to think I’ll enjoy Thief more. I prefer faced paced gameplay with high mobility. I enjoy open world PvE/PvP in most games as well as small scale PvP. I don’t know anyone that plays this anymore so I will mostly be solo for a while.
I’m new to the forums and the first post I read here on the thief boards is, “Which class will you reroll to.” Obviously this doesn’t make me feel too comfortable. Is this class in a really bad state right now? Should I just go Elementalist instead? I was looking forward to some fast paced shadowstep + dagger slashing mobs and players.
If there is another class in this game that fits my playstyle more can someone recommend it? I don’t like pet classes at all by the way…
