Guild Wars 2

That is a good suggestion. I usually always notice the conversations NPCs have when I run by.

Personally, I have no idea who scarlet is, so it would be great to hear asurans or sylvari talking about her in the big cities, so at least I could listen in and have some idea.

My first reaction when the scarlet invasions happened was: “Oh… kay… who is this crazy kitten?”

The thing that really makes me mad is temporary content.

I took a break from GW2 when I bought Skyrim for PC, I took a break during basketball season, and also I took a break when I got burned out from grinding a legendary.

Anyway, it would be nice if when I came back to the game, I could experience all the new content that had been released in the last 7 months, but no… all I had to do was ONE little patch(the scarlet invasions), and that was fun, but what is the point of spending time making Flame and Frost, Sky Pirates, The Bazaar, Dragon Busters.. Queens guantlet, etc if you only have a very short time to experience them?

Why can I not return to the game and play through that content?

Since I have been back from my break, I have done scarlet invasions, Teq has been upgraded, and now there is a new path in TA. That is barely anything. There is no story here…

What made me like this game was the rich lore, the story behind the elder dragons, saving tyria from dragon minions, the class mechanics, and a few other things.

Well, I feel there is no story now, there has been nothing released that has to do with the elder dragons, or any other storyline that directly involves me as a player or tyria as a whole.

Who the hell is Scarlet? I dont even know this even after doing the invasions.

Full berserk with fury and signet is almost 100% crit right there, so Im not sure Assassin’s makes any sense to use.

Well, if you are having trouble surviving, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should change to a spec that reduces your damage output.

I would start by wearing some pieces of soldiers gear in the helm/chest/leg slots, the toughness/vitality will increase your survival.

The most used specs for damage in dungeons are 25/30/0/0/15 for short fights or 30/30/10/0/0 for longer fights(this spec takes the +2 initiative on stealth ability so you can keep up a solid cloak and dagger > backstab rotation).

You can run 25/30/0/15/0 for more dodges/health, which isn’t too much of a dps loss, but I would still recommend using the better dps rotations and using a little vitality gear.

All accessories should be berserkers. Gloves, shoulders, and boots should be berserkers too. If you need more survival, get some power/vitality/toughness gear for chest, helm, legs, and if you must, weapon slots too. You can make up for the loss of crit with signet, sigil stacks, fury, and food.

Completely agree. There is really no story involved with the ‘Living World’. I need more personal story style quests, new dungeons with rich stories/lore, new areas to explore/quest in, etc.

I admittedly never played GW1, but I have really tried to get into the lore of this game world and it is really hard. I have had to do a lot of reading outside the game. =(

I was going to make a topic about this.. but I think posting here will do for now.

I completely agree with your point, and I have also experienced frustration and sadness due to the removal of content.

I took a break from the game… a long break I will admit. But the point is, since I missed the release of a lot of the content, I will possibly never be able to experience it!

I never got to fight through the Queen’s guantlet, or play the SAB, or take part in the karka event(one day only are you freaken kidding me?). I also missed flame and frost, sky pirates, among other content.

I just don’t understand why these things can’t be left in the game so that players can experience them when they are ready and all that work isn’t wasted in the end. If the content was made permanent, that would also keep players playing the game longer.. I know I would have more of a reason to log in right now.

Bweaty.9187:

Yes, Thief gets fear. (Pretty sure there’s didn’t get nurfed cause of Dumbfire)
They can apply more stacks of torment than us. There dodge removes chill/cripple. There dodge returns dodge energy, they also have vigor, lots of there weapons have extra dodge too. They have weapons with auto-attacks that apply weakness, and not short duration weakness like our pricy traits.

There’s also the stealth thing, being able to vanish and not even target them if you hit them with damage.
Oh then the mobility, from not having a wormy give away where you could tele too, to being able to move much faster than us, even with swift and the wind behind us.

The good news is. Every time you kill a thief, it’s because your a better player than them! Probably also a better person in real life, as your chosen class isn’t so ‘cheap’. (Tho, burst condi & fear bombing is a kitteneap)

This is all inaccurate and basically just QQ.

I’m not really sure what to say. 30 trickery does no good for either d/p or s/p.. so you went down that line only for 21 sec cd steal? Its good but not worth it.

You don’t have 30 in critical strikes. For a power build, 30 in CS is basically your starting point.

30 in Shadow Arts, seems like a waste to me since s/p gains little from it. D/P can make use of it but if you are sitting in stealth for healing/condition removal, then you aren’t dealing much damage which is why thief is brought to dungeons.

You mentioned your focus was using steal as much as possible, but what does steal do for you? It doesn’t heal you because you don’t have mug…. not sure what the benefit is of having a short cd steal in dungeons. The boons? Can be nice but def not worth losing 20 in critical strikes or DA.

The blinds can be brought by any build with pistol offhand too.

Zodian.6597:

Stx.4857:

If you think S/D thieves are too strong in spvp you’re wrong. End of discussion.

Passive healing stun/longbow warriors, condition fear necros, spirit rangers, bomb/bunker engies are all more useful in a spvp match, and are easier to play than a thief.

A thief has to time his evades, use skills at right time, outdps the passive healing, and basically never get hit with a stun to beat a warrior. All the warrior has to do is spam attacks and stay alive, which with 500+ health per second, isnt hard.

Warriors and Condition bunkers are a big problem right now, so is AE damage in general. Thieves are barely even taken anymore. Yes, please nerf S/D.

Warriors and necros are both FOTM right now, this thread isn’t to compare current class balance, it’s to evaluate the accessibility of evade as a mechanic on s/d thief. Why should any class/build have surplus access to what is supposed to be an extremely finite game mechanic? Even if it’s not completely broken by your standards right now (imo it is, because it is, math doesn’t lie, sorry), what happens when warrior and necro get nerfed this month?
Furthermore, is it really fun just spaming the same 2 keys for 90% of a fight? Don’t you feel like you’re cheating or something? I do.

Uh, if you’re not comparing thief to other classes, then what is the point? Your math is useless and has no point. If you just spam evades as a thief you will die in seconds. You have to have a plan, you have to know what you’re going to do before you do it. You have to react, manage your initiative, anticipate certain attacks… Thieves are very squishy. Stealth was already nerfed, so evades are all we have. If you want to nerf them, then thief wont even be playable in spvp.

Same 2 keys? Hardly. S/D thief, unlike many professions, makes use of almost every ability. You might not use cloak and dagger as much as a stealth oriented spec, but it is definitely useful, and so is AE cripple, infiltrators strike, shortbow skills, and especially utilities.

If you think S/D thieves are too strong in spvp you’re wrong. End of discussion.

Passive healing stun/longbow warriors, condition fear necros, spirit rangers, bomb/bunker engies are all more useful in a spvp match, and are easier to play than a thief.

A thief has to time his evades, use skills at right time, outdps the passive healing, and basically never get hit with a stun to beat a warrior. All the warrior has to do is spam attacks and stay alive, which with 500+ health per second, isnt hard.

Warriors and Condition bunkers are a big problem right now, so is AE damage in general. Thieves are barely even taken anymore. Yes, please nerf S/D.

Signet of malice is key.

I don’t use as much toughness/vitality as some of these suggestions, but caltrops+poison field from shortbow proc signet of malice heal and when you have 3-4 mobs in it you get topped off pretty quick.

Omnomberry ghosts are amazing for staying alive too, especially when you use rapid attacks like pistol whip or unload.

No need to get offended. There is literally no way that clicking an ability will improve your performance over having it hot-keyed. The simple truth is that you will always activate an ability faster by key press, so there is really no reason to argue against it.

It was a fun video to watch though, so I don’t personally care that you click.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVlcmKPHcy9E+5ExmidmTfGkFt6Mk5LB-jQCBIgCi0CQUFAUBg5PFRjtqpIasqaER16aYGxASBAzYA-e

Hybrid dps by Stx. 1.0

I already have a fun and viable dps build for pve. I have never met anyone else that uses it.

But! You have to take the red pill first!

Karolis.4261:

Stx.4857:

Perma swiftness is great, but I would rather take many other rune sets.. such as: Scavenger, Perplexity(even with no interrupt spam they are great damage), adventurer, or the classic bleed duration mix and match.

I would also much rather use hide in shadows for any build with 30 in SA, just too much benefit there. Although withdraw isnt bad, I just dont think its as good for a stealth build.

Shadow strike is great, it really increases your damage when you stack it with bleeds and poison from steal/spider.

Everyone has their preferences I guess, and this setup clearly works for you, was a great vid.

Cant agree that hide in shadows is better then withdraw on p/d build. Even without centaur runes. When traited withdraw lets u reach close to perma vigor. More evades = more survivability, more caltrops laying around + it cleans chilled, cripple and most important immobilise, what lets you get out of those sticky situations when ppl try and lock u in.

I’d rather have the much more efficient healing, the removal of damaging conditions, especially poison, and most importantly, stealth. As far as survival goes, yes evades are great, but stealth is even better. There is a good chance you will remove that root or cripple just by using hide in shadows anyway.

It was OP when it was a stunbreaker. Now that its not, it is perfectly fine. No reason to nerf it at all.

It deals no damage and costs a decent amount of initiative.

Perma swiftness is great, but I would rather take many other rune sets.. such as: Scavenger, Perplexity(even with no interrupt spam they are great damage), adventurer, or the classic bleed duration mix and match.

I would also much rather use hide in shadows for any build with 30 in SA, just too much benefit there. Although withdraw isnt bad, I just dont think its as good for a stealth build.

Shadow strike is great, it really increases your damage when you stack it with bleeds and poison from steal/spider.

Everyone has their preferences I guess, and this setup clearly works for you, was a great vid.

25/30/0/0/15… or 30/30/10/0/0… or 25/30/0/15/0 if you want extra health/dodging.

Best gear is full berserker but if you are not very experienced with the content you are running, mixing in some soldiers(power/toughness/vitality) gear is the best way to gain some survivability. Start with the helm, chest, and leg slots, then weapons if you want more. Scholar runes/ruby orbs are the best for damage, if you need survival stats, Divinity runes are the best way to efficiently mix those stats in, but they are expensive.

Good luck!

Edit: This is what I use for dungeons, I’m not really good enough yet to survive without 15 acro on higher level fractals, and I use 4 pieces of survival gear still.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVlcmCOney9E95Ey2jdqC5JdG0UL1f4qA-j0yAofAsFI6CiiARUApCAJPl1sngYVrIas6aMlLRUtQAm3CA-w

Burnfall.9573:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

aspirine.6852:

And it kinda shows why people think this class is broken.

Could you describe what you mean?

All I saw was a bunch of bad players that had no idea how to counter a thief. Even the thief couldn’t counter the thief. The whole time I was watching that was, Vince, you are so lucky X class didn’t do this.

A good gameplay video against the lowest common denominator in WvW. Newbies.

p.s. If you are in this video getting stomped and QQ that stealth is broken, I can easily name off so many counters. This is a L2P issue for you HoD’s.

Another example of OP thief ’covering up their dirty tracks"

Or in simplar term, “OP thief InDenialbility of the Truth”

As the saying goes, “Lying to the Truth will Expose your Lies”

In other word, keep the Lies coming…

Thanks for the chuckle.

Dee Jay.2460:

It feels like every P/D video is the same since that Wild Bill guy made the build popular.

I know it’s effective, but honestly it’s also incredibly cheesy and boring.

But what ultimately stopped me from playing it myself is that I couldn’t stop people from rezzing each other constantly.

I liked this video much better than most of the Wild Bill vids. It wasn’t as boring imo… and the perplexity runes weren’t being abused, so I didn’t mind them.

Edit: WOW, these filters are ridiculous. You can’t even type “less” “boring”….

For leveling, there are two methods that work well and make leveling as a thief very easy. Sword/Pistol with power gear can kill multiple mobs quickly, and you stay safe as long as you keep a blinding field down. Often times you wont take any damage at all if the enemies are melee.

The second option and the one that I used, is to go dagger/dagger and spec for initiative regen.. mostly acrobatics/trickery. You spam death blossom on your target, and use caltrops utility skill for more AE bleeding. With this combat method you can kill 5-6 enemies at once if you round them up, and barely take any damage.

The human story-line fits a thief perfectly. I have leveled two human thieves, one went the street-rat option, which works great for a thief, but my second one went the path of a noble, who is kind of like a royal assassin.

The story archs with bandits, ministers, detective work… all fit great for a thief.

As for the norn… they are gigantic, so its hard to imagine them as a thief, but I could easily see a norn thief being a member of the snow leopard clan. Cunning, stealth, etc.

Charr… I haven’t played past level 10.

Sylvari to me look really cool as thieves, but their story doesn’t fit a thief at all.

I have never made an Asuran. I stay away from midgets in any game I play.

Morons complaining about stealth classes are what ruins pvp balance in every game.

Who cares that other classes can stability stomp, invulnerability stomp, WAAAH the thief stealth stomped me!

Thieves are already a crummy spvp class, yet they are still receiving nerfs… while stun warriors go around owning everything and being 10x easier to play than thief.

Well I just learned something new! lol. I always thought you gained the 10% damage if you had 6 initiative left.

Well, crap. I love my 15 in acrobatics, I would feel really weird playing without it… but maybe its time I learn.

Vaikenn.8371:

As In The Trait Or The Trait Points Could Be Allocated elsewhere

What I meant was, if you took 5 out of trickery, and put those in deadly arts, you would gain 10% damage. 10% damage > ricochet.

messiah.1908:

after fighting this month solo i can say that the average confusion stacks on me was 8

even with 2 thieves roaming against 2 mesmer, necro, 2 warrior all with perplexity runes i had 13 stacks max and my other thief fellow had 8 stacks

i manage to take down 1 mesemer warrior b4 i got down by being focus by all and the other thief took them down later.

now mesmer with no runes can put on you 13 stacks with scepter/focus

so why is that op?

The fact that they were all using perplexity runes is the first sign that they might be OP lol!

It’s not bad… the only thing is, you are losing 10% damage just for ricochet, which is a bad trade imo.

Not a fan of eagle runes but maybe you need to precision with all that valk gear. I personally like ruby orbs because they are cheap.

Anubarak.3012:

Stx.4857:

I have always wondered… what is the point for those 15 in trickery?

Is it for the fury/might that you will always have on you anyway from your team? Or is it for 5% extra damage from behind the mobs?

Either way I would much rather have 1500 extra health and a 3rd dodge, especially in fractals.

10% dmg for initiative >6
and 5% more dmg while flanking

the thing is: if you dont have 10 points in trickery you get 5% while flanking and loose 10% from initiative >6 and cant do backstab that often

Are you saying that you need the extra 3 initiative from 15 trickery to stay above 6 initiative for the 10% damage from critical traits? If so, I would disagree. You can manage a regular 12 initiative pool while backstabbing and keeping 6.

Oh and you call people noobs for actually using their skills? You think that if a thiefsmer gets confusion on you that the smart thing to do is go afk or run away until it wears off?

Every single skill you use, including auto attacks, can be interrupted. Yes I know there are a few instant utilities. The point is, when every ability someone uses can be interrupted, it doesnt take timing or skill to stack confusion, it will just happen.

Both bonuses on these runes should apply only one confusion stack, and there should be at least a 5 second internal cd on the 6th. Then they would be more in the line with the other popular runes.

Lyssa are the only runes you listed that even come close in power to perplexity. And that is more because of the condition wipe every potential 45 seconds, and less about the boons.

But when you fight a perplexity engi, and then fight a non-perp engi. You can see the huge difference, and a rune set should not be that powerful.

The fact that you can build around just these runes(the p/p spam #4 build) is proof enough that they are imbalanced. If you can say that a build wouldnt be viable without a specific rune set, then wake up and smell the coffee, because you’re in denial if you think stacking 20+ confusion for 5-10 seconds is okay.

Melandru runes are powerful, but they are balanced, because you gain no offense from them, and they only reduce conditions by 25%… The food is the real game changer, but then so many foods are blatantly OP.

I have always wondered… what is the point for those 15 in trickery?

Is it for the fury/might that you will always have on you anyway from your team? Or is it for 5% extra damage from behind the mobs?

Either way I would much rather have 1500 extra health and a 3rd dodge, especially in fractals.

Lol, I love people who defend these runes. Show me any other rune set that even comes close to these.

Chopps.5047:

How come you guys don’t get berserker armor?

Made me chuckle, bravo chap.

They should leave the ascended weapons as a low %… but I would be fine with more gold and some rares for rewards, and a higher chance for exotic, just no precursors.

Even though I dont have one for my necro yet, I dont want the Teq ascended skins to become common, those things look amazing. But yeah for the work involved in camping the map and putting together a group that large, there should be a better gold/items rewarded.

Eh, a world spawn? No thanks.

If it were a raid instance then hell yeah.

Lopez.7369:

Stx.4857:

I don’t think its fine that technical limitations exist.. in this case.

What other game has an issue with DoT users using their DoTs? I mean thats just ridiculous.

No other game has to calculate condition duration and damage as extensively as Guild Wars 2, though.

Are you implying ArenaNet is lying? I doubt it, considering there’s no other reason bleed cap should exist.

No, Im not saying they are lying… I just think it isn’t acceptable that they haven’t solved this.

I mean(and I’m sorry for using WoW as an example), how stupid would it be if you played a Shadowpriest or affliction warlock in world of warcraft, and were told you couldn’t attend a raid boss because he was immune to dots? I mean, how would you even play if bosses were immune to dots?

Obviously that example is very different from this game, but thats how I feel when I try to play my necro on Teq or in wvw sometimes too.

What is so cool about the bleed stack mechanic that we cant just do away with it and all have our own dots?

I also like the idea that the above poster had… just give world bosses a 1500 bleed stack cap. I’m not sure if their servers could handle it.. but its a solution.

KOPPER.1458:

I didn’t read everything. But why can’t this game be a multitude of things. Why does it have to be black and white, hardcore vs casual etc. etc.

Because people are stuck in their mentalities, and lack the clarity to see things from others perception.

Astral Projections.7320:

Maybe the old Tequatl with the old loot in the usual place and the new Tequatl in an instance with improved loot.

This is the best option.

It takes way too long to successful organize a raid on Teq currently in open world.

A 30-50 player raid would be perfect.

I don’t think its fine that technical limitations exist.. in this case.

What other game has an issue with DoT users using their DoTs? I mean thats just ridiculous.

I love s/p — sb in dungeons.

While Im here… how far below dagger is sword for single target dps? Assuming 25/30/0/15/0…

I approve of more challenging content.. that requires less players.

I felt no accomplishment whatsoever when I killed Teq the first time, because I was 1 out of 150 players.. and I was just doing the same thing I had done every attempt before that. The only difference is more of the rest of the raid didnt suck.

If an overflow has enough players, yes its possible. There are a few reasons why it will probably never happen though.

Firstly, AFKers. Even if they dont die or take players away from combat, they are still taking a spot on the map. People AFK because lets be honest, who wants to sit in a map for hours staring at their screen, that would drive me insane.

Secondly, coordination. The fight mechanics are simple, but to have enough dps to beat the timer, the dps zerg needs to be coordinated. This level of coordination 99% of the time requires TS.

Thirdly, if there is no leader, people just give up.

I think the number of players required to down him is extreme.

Once this boss week is over and the craze dies down, it will be increasinly difficult to find a group for him. Oceanic and late night players may be screwed altogether.

Its pointless to say this probably, but Teq should have been a raid instance. 30-50 players… that way it wouldnt be so hard to make a group for him, and we wouldnt have this guesting problem and overflow nonesense. You could even make him more difficult in a raid.

Also, if they are going to make changes to him currently, I would rather they increase the rewards instead of nerfing him.

If I notice in guild chat that there is a Teq group organizing with a proper amount of people and they are requesting more, I will go and help. But since I got my kill and Sunbringer… not the reward is horrible for the amount of time you need to invest to get a kill.

So in less than a second he went from having that 2-4% HP in the picture to being dead?

Axe/focus – Dagger/Warhorn with no minions is great. I play that a lot.

0/20/10/20/20 in WvW.. although its not a common build, I like it.

30/25/0/0/15 in Spvp, more glassy but more burst and still really fun.

So you welcome feedback as long as its positive? If you post a build for everyone to see, you have to be willing to accept criticism.

I do ‘like’ your build. I tried it, thought it was really easy to ‘learn’, really easy to win 1vX with, and I had a blast. But I stand by my opinions, the runes are way too strong, and it is an easymode build.

I wasn’t trying to be confrontational, I was just expressing my opinions.

“Little to no room for failure”

That’s what I’m talking about… this build has incredible room for failure, its a noob build.

1) High vitality and very high toughness. When I tried this build, I actually dropped some toughness for power because I was too durable, and wanted a bit more damage. Any build that has such high passive survivability will have increased room for error compared to builds without double survival stats on gear.

2) Ranged. All your attacks in this build are at 900 range, other than select utilities. Much easier to land attacks compared to melee builds that can be kited/snared etc. You don’t even have to try and CnD like P/D does.

3) Initiative management. This build uses little initiative compared to most thief builds. You use #4 as your main damage source, and other than that, you rarely need initiative. You can use black powder situationally, or hit unload for minor damage, but running out of initiative is pretty hard to do, especially with 20 sec cd steal.

There other reasons, but those are the obvious ones. Every metric you can use to judge how much skill it takes to play a build, this build rates EASY.

And no, the runes dont need to be ‘tweaked’, they need to be nerfed hard. They need to at least be brought down to the level of other rune sets. Its no coincidence that they are so popular and widely hated.

I can believe that. The skill ceiling comes from timing, positioning, and the big one.. decision making.

I am not nearly good enough to be considered OP with S/D, maybe its because I relied on it too much, but ever since they removed the stunbreaker from IS I have struggled.

Warriors are especially difficult for me, and good mesmers.

nagymbear.5280:

Stx.4857:

What sucks is this game has followed the same path as every other MMO in the sense that players just hate stealthers.

It doesn’t matter if that warrior over there has more health, more armor, better heals, more frontloaded damage, more stuns…

HE SNEAKED UP ON ME NERRF!!!

I think stealth is just a symptom. What people really hate are ganking trolls, and a stealth class just happens to be the best tool for them. And whether you admit it or not, stealth in itself is really powerful. Add some teleport and it quickly becomes op. I am a bad player, but even I can kill people with a thief, or get away from almost everyone if I pay attention. What does that say to you about the class?

Well, stealth in this game is more powerful than in most MMOs, however, the class is balanced that way.

Anyone can get kills with any class…

But no matter what game you play, the finesse classes will always take more skill to play.

Bandit/Mage type classes generally are squishy but have abilities for mobility or stealth or make up for it. They are generally the most skillful classes, and this game is no exception.

Tanky/Passive defense will always be easier than active/reflex defense. This is why I call BS whenever someone claims thieves are easy to play. Especially after all the nerfs listed. Personally, between my thief and my power necro, I find the Necro much much easier, despite power necros generally being thought of as less viable.

Its due to the fact that on thief you have to time your abilities to stay alive, and when you learn their animations… (like the offhand swing for cloak and dagger) thieves become much easier to kill. On the other hand, as a necro, all i have to do to stay alive is pop instant cooldowns like spectral armor, deathshroud, and soak up the rest of the damage with toughness and a larger base health pool.