Guild Wars 2

They’ll probably update them too with enough loud mouths. ;x

What I do:
-Salvage CoE/CoF/HotW/Arah rare light armors with mystic salvage kits.
-Throw exotic weapons down the mystic forge for all other dungeon tokens.

Definite nerf coming soon.

You can just craft an ascended weapon or armor for the 5 AR. But generally you don’t really need AR until 20+.

The problem of you melting is you’re not utilizing the thief correctly. We belong in the shadows, since we lack stability, stealth and evasion is the only thing we can do to mitigate damage.

That said, trait allocation would up your survivability much more than stats choice on armor. 15 in Acrobatics essentially allow you to dodge 3 times, 15 in Shadow Arts essentially allow you 4 more seconds of stealth with Shadow Refuge, and 30 in Shadow Arts is essentially the troll build of “perma-stealth” by reseting and re-engaging fights.

If you’re not a condition build, then you’re usually running zerk/valk/cavalier armor and zerk trinkets. Idk what the nerf to crit dmg will allocate the mixture between these choices but it will still probably be the preferred route.

Staff is useful for running TA, kiting in AC, and generally pulling aggro/kiting away from party members. It has some usage in Fractals as well with Line of Warding at dredge level. I wouldn’t ever use it in terms of dealing damage though. Kiting is the main purpose you’d ever use staff.

Takes a lot of skill if you can do 49 frac with zerk and never get downed once in there or, let’s put it safely, be the last to down (if your pug team is bad).

How do you even hate doing dailies? Just by doing stuff in the game I usually get 5/5 naturally.

They’re just balancing zerk stats since their damage output before was way too large. Zerk will still dish out the most damage, just less. You can call it a nerf, but it’s more like a balance that finally will be implemented.

Condition engineers, mesmers, and necros. Our class is still very weak against conditions unless you want 30 in Shadow Arts.

Bunker classes can be killed given enough time.

Fext.3614:

Tachii.3506:

Fractal Mistlock Instability: You heal less for being near another player.

This is already supported in most single player games. No cooperation needed, and you are guaranteed to win solo all boss fights.

Well, stacking isn’t really cooperative play. The range for this should be very limited, like maybe 100, specifically to eliminate stacking. Supportive combo fields and skills would still be effective.

There were like 3 people that entered way before I did, maybe that is the issue.

Champion at the end doesn’t continue the dialogue with the two NPCs.

We tried dying and leading the NPCs back into the room with no luck. Had to restart a level 49 fractal all over again.

It was not pleasant.

Screenshot isn’t very helpful at all but basically the champion was just stuck up there due to missing dialogue that didn’t trigger for whatever reasons.

Kharel Arhew.1437:

I don’t know what y’all are talking about. I duo fractals with my friend; we roll for everything but swamp. Could probably swing it if one of us had a mesmer, but since neither of us do…

You won’t be able to do Dredge if you duo. Notsureifsrs.

Clumsy.6257:

Tachii.3506:

Fractal Mistlock Instability: You heal less for being near another player.

This won’t change anything. Most organized groups rarely need to heal because stuff dies so fast. It may make a slight difference in fractals but not enough to stop the sheer efficiency of stacking.

Spider Queen (AC), Greater Nightmare Vine (TA), Legendary Destroyer (SE) and some of the other bosses that hit hard would make it more difficult. Won’t change anything is a bit of an exaggeration. I will guarantee there will be many, many complaints as it was seen in Fractals with this mistlock.

Fractal Mistlock Instability: You heal less for being near another player.

It doesn’t even matter if someone is better at stacking vulnerability than you do. As long as the target doesn’t have 25 stacks of vulnerability, the trait helps maximizing DPS for the entire party.

Discordia.7293:

I see incoming nerf for lyssa, critical dmg and energy sigils.

Nopls.

/15chars

OIIIIIO.7825:

@Tachii.3506 Let me convince you to take take Sundering Strikes and Dagger Training.

We know sundering strikes adds a nice boost to DPS esp on trash mobs where you can apply it on multiple targets.

Mug I would suggest away from because in PvE it’s a small boost of DPS and a small boost for survival on a medium cooldown. You don’t need the survival boost and the dps boost is smaller than what Dagger Training provides.

Vs

Dagger Training. When fighting bosses you will be in my D/D. The 5% damage buff for the duration of the boss fight would enable you to deal more damage than triggering mug on cooldown.

Just my thoughts. I also use SoM so maintaining the Scholar Rune damage boost is very easy. – Cheers!

What’s SoM? Acronym escapes me atm.

I do agree I actually don’t like Mug that much. Unless I go 25/30/0/015 but I enjoy the 15 in acrobatics more atm.

Pistol/sword ftw, lul.

But it should make sense. We are supposed to be ambidextrous.

That is the build I use.

Except I switch master trait of Honor with Empowering Might and Two Handed Mastery. You seriously don’t need to make symbols last longer. You actually want more fire fields (might/PvE) or lightning fields(swiftness)/poison fields (weakness/WvW).

The only reason I took it is because it’s versatile. It can be used in WvW and PvE equally well. In pug groups it’s absolutely great. You are the anchor of the party in PvE pug teams because there will be ton of bad players that need healing/buffs and for you to tank the majority of the hits.

Conclusion: play with this build. It’s perfectly fine.

WvW zerg fights. But I believe the optimal setup is a mixture of soldiers, cavaliers, and knight gear. For PvE knights/berserk is usually what people go for.

I put 25 in Deadly Arts, and have access to both Mug and Sundering strikes, best of both worlds. The only real other trait that can be taken when you put 25 in Deadly Arts would be the dagger damage increase. Considering that you often have to switch weapons depending on the context of dungeons, sundering strikes is a general trait that benefits the entire party. You may compare it to the traps trait, but that forces you to use up an utility slot on perhaps the most useless skills for thieves.

There’s absolutely no reason not to take it. I’m not going to look up and try to debate it out with Vincent, he seems bent on assuming he’s right. For the other thieves that is open-minded, 25/30/x/x/x is a very versatile build for dungeons and sundering strikes had become a worthy trait to take.

Not worth it. Especially when it still came out and the mats have exploded in price.

I wouldn’t hurry on getting them. Wait til the price have dropped enough. Linen scraps already dropped to 4s atm when it was 6.5s just 2 weeks ago.

I use 15/20/0/20/15. Less zerky with more sustainability. You can’t expect your pugs to be all zerk and experienced. Gives access to longer duration of banners + increased power to everyone.

Utility is usually a stance, a shout, and a banner. Very broad here since the shout, stance, and banner depends on what you’re facing and if there’s other warriors in the party. I always have Endure Pain or Dolyak signet as a precautionary measure to how bad the pug teams can be.

Weapons are usually GS, Axe/Mace, Rifle, and Sword/Warhorn. Longbow is really optional. GS + Axe/Mace is usually the best DPS you can have.

10/30/0/0/30.

Just get the Ricochet trait from Trickery. Get Mug, Executioner, 10% more dmg from pistols, Furious Retaliation. From trickery get the Adept trait that gives fury/swiftness/might + steal dazes opponent for 1second as grandmaster trait.

Sundering strikes with no ICD and affects any mobs you can hit on is a great trait.
You can maintain a consistent 3-4 stacks of vulnerability if you’re using anything but shortbow (and have 30 in Critical Strikes). How long it lasts is irrelevant since you’ll still be constantly hitting the enemy. Basically that spells out to 3-4% damage increase for the entire party on whatever you’re targeting. I say it’s pretty good.

Also traps sucks.

I have full celestial ascended armor on lv80thief with 30 in Shadow Arts and the Wurm may still down me in one shot if I get hit multiple times with a spin.

So it has nothing to do with you. World bosses usually tend to be only for lv80s for the rare/exotic drops.

Every forum professions section have some class is OP or nerf this class thread.

Except for rangers I guess. (lol.)

End of the day, forums will always repeat in a cycle of complaints. (nerf warriors please).

Black powder is really only handy in PvE where you’re facing loads of trash mobs. Usually in boss fights you need to remain mobile since they have moves that ignores blind (burst or persistent AoE/PbAoE damage) and in PvP/WvW, like said already, you’ll really have to be very new to stay in the smoke field.

It’s a skill that’s situational and can be easily countered. That’s not what overpowered is.

It’s sad when I don’t see Eles spawn fiery gs in a stacked wall fight. I’m not even that into getting the absolute fastest runs, but seeing those crazy numbers is very enjoyable.

Too much egoboosting and kittening in PvP. There’s still some of that among PvE but way less imo. Everyone have their definition of fun, and PvP just isn’t that fun considering how hostile some of the players can be.

Only problem with dredge after countless threads is really the bomb gate portion. The spawn of dredge is absolutely ridiculous and increases in difficulty the more you charge (and fail).

They absolutely need to remove the ability of random dredge of picking up bombs and the crazy amount of spawns.

But the majority of players as far as I know don’t want team work in dungeons.

Case in point: Aetherblade path of Twilight Arbor.

PvE dungeons/fractals, you really only 3 sets.

Sword/Pistol – Pistol 5 + Auto attack for persistent blind and weakening on trash mobs. I don’t recommend pistol whip since it’s primarily selfish play.
Short Bow – Cluster bomb spam on fire fields for stacking might, beating trash mobs that require you to be mobile, etc. Occasionally throw down poison fields and if traited with Lotus Poison (15 points in Deadly Arts), give all enemies Weakening affected by poison.
Dagger/Dagger – primarily boss fights. Cloak and dagger → backstab → autoattack combo, rinse and repeat.

Utility skills: Shadow Refuge, Smoke Screen, Signet of Agility, Roll for Intiative/Infiltrator’s signet/Shadowstep is usually my rotation.

Usually when asking such broad questions a list of guides does more than enough than us making wall of texts about it anyways:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Guide-to-Thief-Guides

tl;dr Thief fits in a niche in all 3 types of gameplay. In WvW we’re great at scouting and small team play. In PvE we maintain aoe blinds and stealths and can spam blast finishers which makes fights easier and runs faster. I don’t PvP so I can’t tl;dr anything there.

Going from warrior to thief is probably a good idea. Warrior can probably be agreed on that it’s great in many areas but boring to play with. Thief offers the intangible gratification of stalking after your enemies and evading and mindtripping foes a bit.

Keiel.7489:

I’ve gotten more keys from drops than precursors.

Key 1.
Precursor 0.

So yeah, I guess I can agree with this statement.

All the vets goes for zerk.

Eventually you’ll make ascended weapons of every weapon in the thief disposal. Just make whatever you want to play with at the moment.

CM2 with pugs would take pretty long with the bomb bit.

Nobody ever uses that trait though since it’s so random. I’d say sundering strikes and 5% dagger damage is usually the preferred trait to go with mug.

I dunno how useful this trait is but, I’d prefer Shadow’s Embrace (IV) coupled with blind on stealth (VI) rather than speeding up CD on Shadow Refuge and Shadow Step. Usually we want to end fights before we have to wait another 60 seconds, or in this case, 48 seconds of shadow refuge, so I don’t think it’s a viable trait to take despite the slight nerf for the intiative trait.

Well then Fleet of Foot doesn’t really make sense by the words chosen for the trait. It’s supposed to remove only conditions that compromises mobility, stuff like poison and confusion doesn’t really make sense. And I’d also find it a bit overpowered. Traits in acrobatics is mostly about evasion and mobility, an omni-condition removal trait do seem a bit OP to me as well.

There’s many people in the same boat as you and we all gotta start somewhere. I was pretty into FotM when I started doing it (over summer break last year, was doing multiple levels a day to increase personal reward level) since it is pretty challenging in terms of PvE content and more refreshing with the random elements.

How dare you call players running rubies noobs. Being cheap is a choice.

!

kitten , I confused it with Consume Plasma. Wiki is actually right about lyssa runes. QQ.

(… kitten ..) is censored… :|

Nvm. I was thinking of Consume Plasma, lol. My bad.

Thieves don’t really belong in zergs. We usually stay behind enemy zergs and wipe out any targets that’ve wondered off and/or close to dying. I say this because other classes like Warriors, Guardians, Eles, and Necros are the real meat for the pain train. Sure we can blast water fields and throw down poison fields and dagger storm + signet of malice is hilarious in a zerg, but we roam/scout/kill zerglings that wondered off much more efficiently than being in the core of a zerg.

0/0/30/20/20 is what I run too with Soldier/Knight trinkets/armor and Soldier Runes.

It’s pretty much the epitome of laziness and you will never get killed unless you continue to facetank things instead of utilizing perma vigor.

IV, VI, and XII for Valor. II and IX/VIII for Honor. VI and IX for Virtues.

Compounded with the epitome of laziness would be using Hammer + Staff. Just use 1 hammer which grants a symbol for protection which consequently heals you due to Altruistic Healing. If you want to actually do some damage, switch GS for Hammer.

Utility skills is typically a mix of consecration skills and shouts depending on the situation. I usually use wall of reflection, purging flames, stand your ground, hold the line, retreat, and save yourselves.

The beauty of this build is you can roll with WvW with it, dungeons with it, and fractals with it. The only issue is your DPS is pretty much garbage, but it’s also kind of comical when you’re the only one in your party that pretty much walk into mobs and feels like nothing has happened.

Woah, caps hard.

I use AH because sometimes, well often, you can’t expect everyone to run full zerk and I don’t feel inclined forcing down people’s throats on how to play the game for what is otherwise really easy dungeons. Plus I’m lazy and AH is still OK in WvW zergs.

^ Lol, that sounds very familiar. I had a similar experience where the guardian refuses to use Wall of Reflection when we asked for it. It’s partially the reason I don’t do CM anymore on a full lfg party. The dungeon requires a mesmer/thief + guardian for a fast run, and I can’t expect pugs to listen when it’s a known trend that people refuses to listen.

The DPS guardian bit cracked me up too, since I had a guardian use that same line of reasoning, too. Reflecting damage is a part of maximizing DPS as it mitigates damage while dealing extra damage. Thankfully by ignoring CM, I’ve not had problems with any more selfish guardians who pull off such wack arguments.