That build is very dependent upon bleeding from sharpening stones so in groups/events you might find that the 25 bleed limit really is limiting. A healing spring is typically a better heal in group content too.
For the equipment, you don’t seem to have the right mix and there’s not much point having high crit damage, high condition damage, conditions applied on crits, and lowish crit chance. Getting fury from the horn doesn’t really fix that. I don’t see that another build suiting those stats better so although you can do okish in PvE with those stats I’m guessing you’ll need some changes sooner or later.
It’s worth looking at pistol/dagger at the same time I think. If both pistol/pistol and pistol/dagger are poor then changes are needed to 1 and 2 skills. Also pistol/pistol needs to keep a separate function from pistol/dagger that has kiting capability on skill 4 and mobility on skill 3. The pistol skills 4 and 5 seem ok with the melee sets so probably don’t need a fix. Pistol/pistol seems to only have a role as a high single target dps but it just doesn’t deliver that so unload seems to be the failing skill.
A rather cool looking solution would be for unload to continue shooting even while dodging. Less cool might be any dodge during unload to cost zero endurance. Something different might be a trait for “unload applies a random venom once every X seconds”
“Seriously, Ranger’s really aren’t in that bad of a state right now, in comparison to a warrior”
I wish people would add lines such as “in PvP” to the end of those sentences. Warriors totally are out of sight of rangers when it comes to PvE.
Juts my personal experience but I saw this event run twice the same day recently. The first time a bunch of risen spawned at the bottom of the hill just as another bunch were dispatched on the lowest slopes. This wiped the morale by 50% instantly. So the second time I stood my thief at the back, put down a smokescreen at the right time and drew some fire, and the morale stayed at 100%.
There also seem to be places quite near the temple where morale can drop quickly. There could be some plaguebringer(?) exploding mobs turn up but I’m guessing that poor command of the event just takes its toll. People drift all over the hill and perhaps the path ahead isn’t cleared, veterans are not dispatched, or the pact forces not healed.
For open world PvE you can run with some pet boosting traits and healing + power as stats. You can use a cat and have something a bit tougher in reserve if/when the cat dies. Use either bow with a swap to any melee combo. Keep a trap ready if you want some defense. Maybe use some signets to keep the pet healthy. Rethink the build entirely for dungeons.
It is of course a water field so you get more regeneration when you shoot through it or a heal if you leap in it.
Thief dual skills seem to prevent a number of utilities while they are progress. So while you are using unload, pistol whip, or flanking strike a utility such as a trap, shadow refuge, or basilisk venom gets queued to complete after the dual skill is finished. The queuing is lost if it dual skill continues too long (a second maybe). A heal will still interrupt the dual skill, as will another attack skill including scorpion wire.
I don’t know how important this is in the big scheme of things but I’m not sure why the dual skills are not responding properly to the players commands. Similar ranger utility skills such as traps will interrupt any attack skill and get used immediately.
I’ll actually take back some of my previous post. For rangers, using a utility skill will usually interrupt an attack. For other classes this is not the always the case so it might be down to specific class skills.
Pets typically complete their existing attack before activating the F2. If their target is a distance away they will move to that target and complete their attack before using their F2. They can also sometimes move to their target and then execute F2.
If your character tries to queue a utility skill when doing a long attack then the queued skill can sometimes time out and just not happen. Players generally don’t manage their own skills badly enough to be in that situation but perhaps it does happen with the pet as well.
Most boss mobs seem to have the unshakable ability that reduces blindness to a 10% chance. However I don’t remember ever in my thief career seeing these mobs miss despite a variety of blinds happening in their area. Is this really a 10% or is it actually a 0%?
With the thief and many other classes you do not get survivability from gear. You get survivability from skills. While your skills are negating damage, all your dps is being used but your durability is not. This leads people into heavy dps builds and it is personal choice as to how much extra vitality/toughness you need as contingency.
Given the nature of these forums I know I shouldn’t say this, but perhaps thief heals are reasonably well balanced.
In fractals you can use an ambush trap on the svanir boss for some damage. In the dredge fractal you can use a trap on the mining suit boss to immobilize under a cauldron. There are probably other uses in dungeons as well but caltrops are typically just better.
Rangers and thieves get those evades because they have paper defense in melee and need something.
If you look at the shadow arts trait line you find out why hide in shadows is good. You can then blind enemies with that heal, gain extra regen with that heal, cure an extra condition (typically cripple) with that heal and so on. If you are using cloak and dagger and backstabs in melee then the heal will fit into that cycle and save you some initiative.
If you want to be a melee thief then withdraw just rolls you out of melee range all the time. For my play style, I find signet of malice best for big group melee with caltrops and dagger storm, withdraw best for kiting and dodging, and hide in shadows best for melee.
There could be a simpler explanation for all this, such as your guild guys were all drunk and having laughs on voice chat.
Mug might be better than potent poison. Shadow refuge is better as a group skill and maybe it is a bit of a crutch in solo play. I doubt if you’re getting value from fleet shadow so maybe use signet of shadows and try out vigour on healing. When using sword/dagger you could trait for cloaked in shadow and assassins reward and give that a try. Smokescreen is worth looking at before you go into dungeons, particularly with dagger/dagger.
I wouldn’t bother saving for a legendary yet. It’s not something you can force to happen in a reasonable amount of time. Spend your coins now on what you need now.
Look for threads posted just after the game was released for the discussion. It’s really obvious that it should happen but we can’t complain about it every day.
Most classes have an equivalent to “Hide in Plain Sight”- Applies camouflage when you are dazed, knocked down, launched, pushed back, or stunned. This effect cannot trigger more than once every 30 seconds. Some of the equivalent skills are equally poor. The warrior version is the Last Stand master trait that applies balanced stance, i.e. 8 seconds of stability and a stun breaker, no more than once every 90 seconds.
I think the issue is that thieves need to learn to play quite quickly but warriors don’t really need to learn to play until level … actually they can get all the way to dungeons without really learning to play. Most classes need to relearn their play in dungeons (or PvP).
Pistol/pistol has little or no defense. You can get round this by using utilities such as smokescreen that defends against ranged enemies and blinds enemies standing inside it. Calrops and traps can cripple melee based enemies while you run round them. Ambush traps can get you an extra thief to fight for you. If you’ve got signet of shadows then do use it for blinding, even at range.
There are other ways to go about this though. If you want to shoot crippled enemies you could try pistol/dagger that has a long cripple on up to 3 enemies. If you’re blinding nearby enemies in smoke then sword/pistol will do plenty of damage with auto-attacks and can create its own smoke.
Whatever this attack does, it should be graphically intuitive if it isn’t following the usual red circle mechanics. When you evade forwards into a thrown boulder and get hit you can work out that the boulder carved out a path. This thread demonstrates that whatever is going on it isn’t entirely intuitive.
I liked a lot of the elements of DC Heroes online. It took many similar steps forward as guild wars and I think the next generation of games might pick as many bits from DC Heroes as GW2. I particularly liked using sequenced left/right mouse clicks to execute weapons skills and I still think it is better than the GW2 weapon skill bar with timed cooldowns.
For the thief, I’d say that build is unimportant compared to learning to play. If you spend time thinking how shadow steps, smoke, and cripples can keep you alive it will be more productive than thinking about condition damage vs precision. So I’d start with an offhand pistol and look at smoke fields. Then you could look at pistol/dagger and kiting crippled mobs. You could then look at shadow steps and see what shadow steps do for you, particularly shadow return. Stealth is a big class mechanic but look into it once you have some trait points to give it purpose.
Mobility and positioning are important a thief. Don’t just use mobility to approach mobs but to also get safely behind them quickly, with an option to shadow return when in trouble. If you need to back off and use all your initiative for evades, shadowsteps, or stealth then do that. There are defenses for most situations with smoke screen, cripples, and blinds so make sure you are actively using those and taking control of the situation.
What benefits do you want from an 8+ person raid that can’t be found in a 5 person group? Bigger is not necessarily better. A need for coordinated teamwork between 10 or more players is as much of a drawback as a benefit and will exclude many players (outside of guilds) from completing the content.
Open world events should provide the massive multi-player content although they could certainly be improved. Guild bounties also provide coordination challenges for more than 5 players with some challenging fights.
(edited by Stooperdale.3560)
It may be the person who applies the most conditions.
That is indeed true.
For open world PvE the warrior can tank. Unfortunately you won’t need your friends for dps.
Actually, having got both a thief and ranger I’d say the thief has a lot more to offer and there’s a lot more in reserve. It’s not just about backstabbing daggers. In a PvE group a ranger struggles to take control of a fight and dictate the terms, unless a crowd of melee types decide to conveniently walk through a barrage or trap. I’d certainly like to see the ranger get more skills bringing utility to a melee group even when the ranger is at range.
You can also get similar bugs going underwater when something else is happening.
" So many posts about this, so many players still don’t realise it, so little hope for GW2 playerbase."
Players are allowed to play the game for themselves rather than walk through the game.
Also I think there was a video link posted on the forum that showed many spurious hits from Lupicus on players who were standing outside the circles and standing off the missile path.
Basilisk venom is fine if you use it right in PvE. My tip would be venom sharing with basilisk venom on the new Colossus Rumblus. This sort of use limits strengthening the skill elsewhere.
Traps? One good trap skill would be better than the 4 we have at the moment. The big problem, as with many thief skills, is that they doesn’t scale up well to large numbers of enemies. Ranger traps persist and create fields so they can affect more enemies. Traits for traps aren’t much use since traps are too situational.
More utility skills are needed underwater. A great number of traits are worthless underwater which is bad in itself but leads thieves to change their trait picks whenever they get into or out of the water. There should be a common theme for both land and water fighting.
The spear weapon skills seem ill balanced. It’s too good, virtually perfect, in some situations and hopeless in others. Tow line is only a PvP skill with no virtually use in PvE. The harpoon gun only has aoe on the auto-shots meaning that underwater combat will sometimes just be autoshots and little else.
You are not ‘entitled’ to finish this escort. If world events cause players some problems then it means that world events are actually meaningful and interactive rather than just another activity where players can kill and plunder.
There are three separate homelands maps in WvW that are pretty much identical and all need exploring (for no good reason) and there are the eternal battlegrounds as well.
“Have you read the OP? The point of this thread is not “berz warriors too stronk”, but “i wanna farm cof, but no one takes me with them”.
Really dude, why no one reads what the thread is about and only answers to some random post."
If players are getting excluded from content because of their class then yes it is a problem and yes the designers will eventually take notice. This does apply to solo, sPvP, WvW, world events, and yes dungeons.
Stealth can be an integral part of what you’re doing but it only becomes strong when backed up by traits, mainly from the shadow arts line. For instance, there is a trait that gives a condition cure every 3 seconds when you are in stealth. This can work whether you use cloak and dagger for stealth, use a combo field for stealth, shadow refuge for stealth, blinding powder for stealth, and so on. By using a variety of skills you can dip in and out of stealth to get these trait benefits, plus some time to maneuver unseen, plus an attack from stealth that has high damage for zero initiative. It’s worth revisiting once you get to level 50 or 60.
As for escaping open world mobs, well if you get outside their roaming area they will reset. It sure makes it easier to run outside that area if you’re invisible and the mob doesn’t know where you’ve gone.
The developers are stupid if they argue with players on message boards. It’s bad if they’re right and worse if they’re wrong. Even if the developers only post neutral comments there will still be posters who try to disagree.
It seems clear that groups can run content fast without zerker warriors. It seems clear that is isn’t as fast as with zerker warriors. It seems clear that some players do exclude other classes to get warriors, gaurdians, and mesmers in their groups. It’s clear that it ultimately isn’t good for the game.
I think there needs to be a step forward in the design of these world events. Some new principles need to come into place so that
(1) Everyone’s contribution feels important. This is difficult for a zerg but it should still be the ambition.
(2) There should be some threat of both death and the event failing.
(3) One idiot shouldn’t be able to fail the event for everyone.
(4) An event shouldn’t be trivialized by more people attending or higher level characters.
(5) Enemies need to be mobile, forcing players to be mobile, and give a variety of different challenges. Dragons are not realistic when they sit on their backsides. You should really have to “watch the skies”.
In this case you lost the fractal when they kicked you. The others probably lost the fractal after another hour of failing. You might have been the lucky one.
Sometimes if you get a bad group you just get a bad group. I’m surprised people reset the cliffside as the first fractal since if you’re going to fail it sometime you might as well fail it first before any time is lost. If you get it right then it’s not so tough and becomes only a medium length fractal.
There could be an argument for creating new content specifically for two or three players. It wouldn’t have to be much more difficult than the open world content, it could even use existing maps, and it wouldn’t have to give great rewards. It would probably be a lot easier to do than any scaling of the exisiting dungeons. Most dungeons encounters still need proper scaling to be a consistent challenge for a 5 man party at the existing difficulty.
I think the trolls have a fire shield that burns you when you hit them or are close to them. You don’t need to stand next to them and melee all the time though and the shield will eventually expire. If you’ve got time to prepare you can also set up some skills for indirect damage such as traps, caltrops, or summoned thieves.
I’m not sure there is a strongest or most common build. Zak’s build looks as good a place to start as any. You can use any weapon combination with that build and a main hand sword is worth considering for the aoe and shadowsteps.
My suggestion elsewhere was to have a barter golem in the fractal gateway trade any fractal skin for a fractal ‘gizmo’, then also trade a fractal gizmo plus 20 pristine relics for a fractal skin of choice.
I find exactly the opposite. I’ve never been kicked by a guild group. I find I can play easily and let the guild people do all the co-ordination and most of the work. It’s usually fine.
Why is a pistol/pistol thief, who wouldn’t care if daggers were replaced with bananas, telling offhand dagger thieves that the change did nothing? I generally use an offhand dagger but when I use an offhand pistol I don’t worry so much about the revealed restriction either. Any time I try to put an elegant shadow arts build together it is frayed at the edge, the edge being that 4th second of reveal.
Keep the blind nearby enemies without making it blinding powder. Add a minor effect such as :
- vigour for a few seconds
- swiftness for a few seconds (although this might run people off cliffs)
- cure a condition or specific conditions
It would be quite a good idea to have hirelings that could fill a spot in a dungeon for you. It would remove downtime when trying to get 5 people together. However, and it is a big however, the hirelings will always die too fast. We know that all the story characters in dungeons die very quickly. Ranger pets die quickly in dungeons. So the top priority issue is giving longevity to ranger pets. The second priority issue is giving longevity to storyline NPCs without them doing the instance for you. An even lower priority issue would be adding hirelings to the game with enough longevity that players are not wasting their gold/gems by getting them.