Guild Wars 2

the moa on elixir x is pretty useless for burst tho right? iirc 3 sec, and moa has an evade on #5
but yeah true didnt think of the ability to stop rampage on an opponent or so, ty i will probably try out elixir x over supply crate sometimes

This is for WvW and PvP
I’m using Explosions, Inventions and Tools (10101) for my SD Engi Build and I’m still unsure which elite to take

Mortar Kit: seems nice, most of the time i played with it I mostly ignored it though (apart from F5 -> #5 Mortar Kit due to double water blast finisher)
Its hard to get used to another Kit and apart from the damage of F5 (which will barely land) or the #5 Water field I dont fin much use for it in SD anyways

Supply Crate: This is what I am using atm (like pre patch) as I like the extra Stun, Med Kits and Water Blast Finisher by Overcharging -> F5
Dont know whether it’s better than the options though tbh, am no Engi main (Champion Genius anyway though so I kinda know most stuff from pre patch)

Elixir whatever: Never played with this but it seems pretty nice as Tornado is decent for bunkering (i think) and Rampage is… well Rampage.

Which one would you reccommend me to take?
Get used to Mortar Kit?
Stick to Supply Crate?
Take the RNG of the Elixir elite?

I never really played with AMR before specializations, did it use to reset the Cleansing Burst pre patch?

oZii.2864:

nearlight.3064:

SrebX.6498:

Do you think this can perform as well with a more defensive set up, like using earth line instead of arcane?

No…. arcane is mandatory on all celetial builds, as is water.

You could go earth/water/arcane, which is honestly better on cele staff and d/d. D/F is best using fire/water/arcane for the extra mightstacking from the extra fire aura and the earth/air skills make stone heart and rock solid feel like overkill for it. On staff though you need earth/water/arcane since you need rock solid and stone heart to cover ether renewal and to rez people, since cele staff is a supder duper ultra rez build.

I disagree celestial lets you take advantage of the fact that our weapon sets are truly diverse in attacking being direct+condition damage/defense. Celestial is great on elementalist because of how we do our damage with a mix of dots and direct damage you can never go wrong with celestial. You just wont be the best direct damage dealer there is nor the best condition build. If you build tanky you can with traits and celestial you would augment condition removal, healing, and defensive modifers like protection.

Arcana doesn’t benefit from celestial more than any other trait line we have. Every trait line has multiple traits that benefit from the stats on celestial.

imo arcana is mandatory as it offers you a lot of sustain an might stacking via EA (a way to make celestial even more worth it as might affects both power and condi dmg), perma vigor, a lot of fury (if not perma) and quite some protection as well

i personally only care for my stats and boons in a fight, not ooc – due to pack runes you’ll have perma swiftness in combat if you get hit and use your steal frequently

not anymore, S/D was nerfed a lot and S/P was never viable to begin with

my Build

I wouldn’t reccommend Mango Pie as Omnomberry Pie is just way better – more healing unless youre running away, more dmg and the precision is nice

You could change the Trickery major trait (just slipped the name…) to Trickster or some stats to valkyrie instead of berserker, but i dont feel like using 5 ectos per ascended weapon/armor piece to switch it so…

love perma fury due to pack and trickery though, as well as pretty much perma swiftnes in a fight (if you really need it, just switch Infiltrator’s Signet to Shadow Signet if ooc to get around the map, infight you’ll have perma swiftness anyway)

Terissimo.6852:

Mashami.8752:

I am still using DD and Shortbow in WvW as well and actually think it was buffed, not nerfed.

Huh? buffed? Can u explain how? U have to choose between 2 must have traits and u call it buff? d/d is even more trash than before compared to d/p.

Actually the regen you get as a master trait equals to about the same healing as before if you stayed in stealth for the whole C&D stealth duration
like this, you can play more aggressively though and as long as you dont roam with someone who gives you perma regen or your opponent doesnt rip that regen, you are healing for more than before

also you kinda get the fall-damage trait for free now… even though thats a buff so small its barely noticeable

d/p is still better, sure. but d/d is more fun imo

also had that bug a couple of times in wvw on my ele after dust forming through the gate of a tower or so

I think anet told us bombs would be 240 baseline, if thats not the case (usually dont play bombs) then you should add that to the Entineer Bug Thread in tbe Bugs Forum, maybe anet will answer you

If 240 is not baseline I dont see a reason why they shouldnt add it to the adept bomb trait in explosives

i play D/D in wvw because i hate blinding powder. just simply hate it.
that, in combination with liking burst, brought me back to D/D

even though its nerfed i enjoy 10101 and so far i’m doing good

Edit: for me, hitting a C&D just feels cooler, smoother and has a nicer animation than BP->HS, reason why i also play engi and ele as they play smoothly imo

11001 S/P full berserker, full burst
go for pack runes and haste on hitting from behind

pretty much the most annoying thing i can think of is getting bursted down by a nab and have him jumping on you while you bleed out, so go ahead :p

MidoriMarch.8067:

any class are deadly if u play it right.

but ele and necroes are even more dealier than thief and they cank tank harder than thief too

necro? think you meant engi
unless youre talking about condi necro, which is really string in 1v1s and small group play without real focus

in team fights thief generally has it easy against mesmers yes, in a 1v1 it mostly comes down to who is able to land the first burst though (evn though the chance for thief to land that may be higher)

but thats what counters are, so lets keep this going:
You need a thief to keep the meta Mesmer in check.
Then you need a guard to keep the mesmer-countering thief in check.
Wanna continue?

Mattigan.6395:

What I’m trying to say is you can kill them if they are pretty much afk lol.

Thieves excell at killing afk players.

Topic:
Save your stolen skill, especially if you have improvisation!
Use it after they rotate out of water, they may not be able to cure the chill -> easy
Keep in mind though apart from Water attunement the usual Cele D/D Ele 10011 has 2×4 condi remove on utilities and traits (burning fire), another 2×1 condi remove on utilities (lightning flash + armor of earth)
they also have another 1×1 condi remove (if its fixed now) on a 20sec CD or a burn+chill remove on dodge on 10sec CD (Stop, Drop and Roll iirc)

D/F eles also have a 3 condi remove in earth but one less in water.

So Improvisation may be really helpful (btw its an awesome trait against thieves, mesmers, guards, condi rangers and ranged warriors or with /P)

lighter.2708:

Tarkan.5609:

lighter.2708:

Yet thief is still there in top teams.

And that has nothing to do with th actual topic because:
1. Mobility for backcapping
Wasn’t nerfed and the #1 reason why thieves are taken over other classes.
2. Mobility for +1ing
As i said, mobility wasn’t nerfed.
3. Dmg for +1ing
The damage, especially if going 11001, was increased by a lot.
Which doesnt have anything to do with actual balance, as thieves are forced into being really bursty right now (SA’s healing capacity is limited in PvP due to the fact you generally don’t want to stay in stealth for too long)

So thanks for a reply that didn’t have anything to do with the actual balance changes to thief kthxbye

thanks, you said it yourself, these are the things considered in the balance, if you balance on top of all that, theres no balance

Thieves are in top teams for this reason.
Actually, Mesmer do everything (and more) that Thieves do:
Dmg and Burst, ranged though
Boon remove (random but also a 4x daze on F3)
Add portal and more Traits being made baseline and bam.

The only thing Thief is better at atm is Mobility, so you call balance removing some dmg and mobility? So that Mesmer gets into Meta over Thief?
Well then…

Also you seem to have missed one thing i wrote:
thieves are forced into being really bursty
So they dont have any actual defenses (especially not against AoE) apart from Shadow Step which is on a 50-60s CD
Which imo makes it pretty balanced?

Cynz.9437:

Evion.2471:

Uh, now i’m getting revealed if i get hit while stealthed! Yay!~, Use sr, wait for it to go away, have someone hit you. You’ get revealed half the time.

did you get hit by engi? because they got trait called Lock on which activates by any fart engi does, has 20 sec CD and puts 6 sec revealed on w/e engi hits

Thief vs Engi this is actually a really fun trait from the Thief perspective!

Its adding that little bit of “lol xD giggles rekt”, great addition to engis gameplay which was lacking exactly that.

Krypto.2069:

Flu.5906:

Krypto.2069:

Flu, I did a quick search on the wiki, but I couldn’t find anything on changing ascended armor stats in the mystic forge as being a possibility.

Can anyone confirm ever doing this before?

If so, that would be GRAND!!!
Please explain how. (I wouldn’t mind changing a piece or two to see how it would affect my build.)

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge#Ascended_equipment_stat_change

I already changed the stats on an ascended scepter, and that worked just fine. That’s why I don’t understand why I can’t put my armor in.

Cool, man! Thanks for the tip!

Ok, all of my armor (all six pieces) show up in the Mystic Forge window when unequipped. And my rings do too, but my amulet and accessories do not (interesting).

Easy reason:

Anet stated you cant change the stats on trinkets, your rings probably appear simply because they are nor infused yet!

lighter.2708:

Yet thief is still there in top teams.

And that has nothing to do with th actual topic because:
1. Mobility for backcapping
Wasn’t nerfed and the #1 reason why thieves are taken over other classes.
2. Mobility for +1ing
As i said, mobility wasn’t nerfed.
3. Dmg for +1ing
The damage, especially if going 11001, was increased by a lot.
Which doesnt have anything to do with actual balance, as thieves are forced into being really bursty right now (SA’s healing capacity is limited in PvP due to the fact you generally don’t want to stay in stealth for too long)

So thanks for a reply that didn’t have anything to do with the actual balance changes to thief kthxbye

Zero Day.2594:

Originally by: Peow peow.2189

What: Thief
Why: The dps a thief puts out after patch is too much. I can’t even touch them in Spvp without getting killed in 2 seconds. The worst part is that im a gaurdian, yet they just proc my block and then daze + backstab me to death.
Thiefs are unkillable… they just hit you and reset. Other classes have had enough, Anet needs to do something about this class.
Thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Thief-class-too-strong-after-patch

Seems like this is a professional troller
changes his mind 360 degrees noscope every few days

Thats weird I just changed some random ascended Armor i found into Berserkers for WvW…
No idea why it doesnt work for you or how to fix it, worked for me though

I have this bug sometimes in WvW after I dustformed through the door of a tower, i am sometimes able to well walk while ressing myself with #4

anyone else as well?

Again somebody thinks I am a cheater… what do i do wrong?

(he blocked me and then send me a pm… genius)

Maugetarr.6823:

It interrupted before. If you were at the the outer range doing BPS+HS, sometimes your HS would get interrupted if they moved out of range.

iirc BP+HS+Steal when the opponent was out of range always used tp interrupt your HS

Ekletik.3724:

Are you guys still running full celestial ? I’ve heard it has lost its tankiness…

i never ran full cele, always a mix between cele, cavalier, berserker (not sure, maybe also knights) and clerics.

Divine Flavor.2016:

rotten.9753:

There are 6 weapons with “ascended” prefix in that datamine and they all are connected to elite specs:

Ascended Longbow -> Dragonhunter
Ascended Shield -> Chronomancer
Ascended Greatsword -> Reaper
Ascended Warhorn -> ???
Ascended Staff -> Druid
Ascended Hammer -> Engineer spec

So most probably, we will have another 3 elite specs released soon and those specs will be a druid, an engineer spec and some spec with a warhorn. That can be a thief, a revenanat or an ele (warrior already has warhorn skills). Out of those, only an ele had datamined sword (not confirmed) so I would put my money on a thief spec.

My understanding is that the only thing we really know is each class will get access to a weapon they can’t currently use. If that’s the case, Ele could get shield too, for all we know. (Yes, I’m trying to remain hopeful that it’s not warhorn.)

hope its not warhorn… sword seems more likely (as stated in a few posts above)
and it likely wont be a shield as mesmers are getting one and i doubt anet will use a weapon twice for this expansion

+100 toughness? on thief? hell yeah, still better than kittening guarded initiation

1. Hidden Thief: That trait procs Blinding Powder instead of just stealthig you and seems to have an unmentioned inner cooldown.
2. Withdraw: Did get the CD increase but not the 10% healing increase.
3. Shadow Rejuvination: This trait doesnt give you 1 Initiative back as soon as you enter stealth but only later (after 3 or 4 seconds iirc)
4. Shadow’s Embrace: This trait behaves just like Shadow Rejuvination by not removing any conditions as soon as you stealth.
5. Flanking Strike: (i know some thieves are gonna hate me for this but i’m a thief main after all, i’m used to getting hated ) in combination with trickster the cooldown for this trait seems to be no 48s but 32s
6. Hard to Catch: apparently this trait gives you swiftness when it breaks your stun, but also takes like 1/4 of a second (or less) to actually activate on a cc

thats the new trait system :D
you take the order that was normal pre patch (for ele Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Arcana) and each line you use gets a 1, the other two lines a zero

why 1? because you can only choose full lines now, so using 60066 is just unecessary you could also use 80088 but well 1 fits the best :p

i am not sure about them being able to conpete with pre patch SE but if SE stays as it is currently these changes (which I and a lot of others have called for many times) thes would definitely be options, viable especially if your opponent isnt condition based

actually there’s not a lot i could add to you t raw, nice summary!

what i would also like to see is more viable options in SA adept + major traits (and maybe a change to SA’s passivety? please?) and some bug fixes like the one on hidden thief (i mean the steal-stealth trait in SA)

Glenstorm.4059:

tanztante.6532:

the regen from soothing ice (still) doesn’t synergize with soothing wave and soothing disruption, so you don’t get a condiremove

Sounds like a bug, did you report it?

hope you did tanztante
and hope i remember that the next time im online, the combination of 430ish healing power and condi remove on regen is pretty nice
something i would rather have than burn+chill remove, of course thats nice but having any condi removed on 20s CD as well as regen (no perma regen after boon duration nerf) and frost aura (-10% dmg + nice chillzzz) is just so good

i am using 10011 with a mix of celestial, berserker, cavalier, knight and clerics if i remember correctly
it is possible to go without celestial but i would say some celestial parts are useful
you just gotta min/max the amount of equipment to gain your dream stats

for tht i would personally wait for any build calculator like gw2skills.net to update to the new patch as otherwise that may become really expensive

if you want to try D/D you can go for a stat mix with 10011 as your traits
the stats i finally reach are about (only food)
2000 power (little bit less, lots of might stacking)
36% crit chance (perma fury)
193% crit damage (or thereabouts)
2700ish armor (close to perma protection)
16-17.000 health (boosted by wvw stacks)
600ish condition damage
430ish healing power

i am too used to playing my elementalist with arcana + water by now though, for pvp i used to run with earth for +10% dmg and wvw with the fury/swiftness from auras

but i am trying out 10011 atm (fire, water, arcana) and it seems really good with the extra might stacking by using the cantrips, having a lot of extra condi damage (with might you get +30 power, +30 condi damage per stack – and if i checke correctly 10% of that extra power is also going to your condi dmg by the major trait in fire)
also playing with burn applies blind currently, seems the most viable GM in Fire for a cele wvw roaming build
for the might stacks on fire attacks i just dont camp fire enough and i already got perma fury through arcana minor + major so the blind on burn is something im trying out

that actually sounds pretty nice, rifle would seem to be an initiative heavy weapon then but i think i would like to try that in game – would be somewhat new and fresh

maybe the +6% healing in pve comes from the wvw boni you get for having a specific amounts of points in your current wvw match, i am not sure though whether that also affects pve

So after the patch I’m dedicating each day that I can play to one of the classes I care about: Ele today. (WvW mostly atm)

I’m decided to run 00111 as it allows me to not worry about condi enemies at all, in 1v2s i can even totally ignore them if i am able to burst down any power opponent.

What do you think though, is 10011, 01011 or 00111 better? Fire line also looks pretty decent with my strength runes for extra might stacking and also offers pretty nice condi remove as well as blinds (not sure if i should take that one?)…

And in 00111 I’m still unsure about whether to take Earth’s Embrace (60s CD, Condi Remove, Stun Breaker, Regen, Vigor, 5 Stab and Protection for 6,5s) or Elemental Shielding (3,5s Protection on Aura)
I’m tending to Earths’ Embrace atm because it seems to offer me a lot more (even though that seems a bit like stability overkill, i should probably switch out my major Rock Solid [1 Stab on switching to Earth] to Strength of Stone [10% of toughness in condi dmg] then?)

Edit: got 1940 toughness

Maugetarr.6823:

Well, I tried 11001 out tonight. 10k backstab in pvp. Meanwhile (except maybe for S/X builds) acro feels a little underpowered. I guess the best defense is a good offense now.

yeah i think so too… everything is so chaotic after the patch i dont even know what to think of it

So during my time of playing gw2 i had many 1v2s or 1v3s… but this is insane.

I tried a 66006 S/P, SB build and i literally killed 2 gold opponents from the same guild in wvw without ANY stacks at all (only food) in 6 seconds… (1 berserker ranger = 1s, 1 hammer, sword/warhorn warrior = 5s)

What has anet done?

Ragion.2831:

Its better it stays this way, counter play to thieves who constantly passively avoid damage

you know how easy it is to avoid one backstab? i only have to stab the air without a target or anything nearby and i get revealed
thats basically making thieves almost useless

the number of missed backstabs is also inconsistent
and fun fact: in SR i’m getting the revealed debuff after 1 backstab but i’m still in stealth and can backstab until i stab the air another time

Terissimo.6852:

I hope u guys r right if not then medi guards will just faceroll even more

seriously if this is not a bug then i’m going back to S/D and if thats nerfed too much then i’ll just go ranger and pew pew everyhing

its a bug
try out SR – i was revealed after 2 missed backstabs
stealth stacking = revealed after a couple of missed backstabs

SB #1 in stealth doesnt reveal you though at any time…

Jesiah.2457:

Loving the stealth nerf to shadow’s embrace, only removes damaging conditions. Thanks Anet, more nerfs added to our “buffs”.

Where do you have that from? :o

Seems like my plan of going 66006 will be even more likely.

i’ve had a couple of weird reports so far, mostly of raging or lagging players i guess
but thanks haha good to know

Yeah the screen says it all.
Why, does anyone know?
Its pack rune btw

KrHome.1920:

Strategist.6132:

Tarkan.5609:

the meta will be D/P 66006 though

Btw! Why 6/6/0/0/6 instead of SA? I mean that would mean we’d have 0 access to condi removal (aside the healing skill and shadow step on relative big cooldowns)

…not to mention that Merciful Ambush is minor now! You can avoid a teammate getting stomped by just starting to revive him. Very helpful in some situations.

60606 could be useful but 66006 offers higher damage
in PvP Shadow Rejuvination wont be worth it probably as you cant cap a point, so it would be sharing your basilisk venom for team fights if you take SA
nice is also the condi remove and the quick stealth (unless they attack which they often do) but you cant continue ressing for more than like 2 seconds otherwise youre dead

66006 d/p will offer a LOT of damage though, perma fury = perma +16% crit dmg from the GM alone and so on
it will probably either be thrill of the crime + scholar runes or pack runes + the haste trait as CS will offer a lot of fury itself

60606 could be also an option for the meta, mainly for SE, but i think thieves will be more damage focused, you can take out a member of their team pretty quickly with all the dmg buffs, could be insanely strong (high risk, high reqard hopefully)

the meta will be D/P 66006 though

With precision being in your base stats and gear you should have a way higher base crit chance – almost 100% uptime on fury and swiftness only due to trickery + rune is too good though to pass out on
So i think pack will be the way to go, maybe (unlikely though) Scholar or Rage but Pack will be better

Arrow.4619:

babazhook.6805:

On allies does not mean it precludes the thief that cast it. There a number of traits that say “on allies” including the current shadow protector and the person casting gains the boon as well.

True. But I’ve noticed that most of those actually specifically note that they affect “the character and nearby allies” or something similar. Of course, ANet doesn’t excel at providing clear descriptions/tool tips.

Regen gets applied to you as well – at least it used to like 1,5 or 2 years ago when i was new to thief and ran it…