Guild Wars 2

LetoII.3782:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Could you guys post your PC specs along with the vids, and maybe how much those cost? My $1300 laptop can’t record for jack other than PvE and roaming where it maintains a solid 16-30 FPS. :/

Asus m5a99x pro r2 mobo
Asus gtx 660ti using nvidia shadowplay. Dedicated ssd for recording
Watercooled Amd 8350 oc’d to 4.5 GHz

I throttle to 30fps because of heat buildup, vids are in my signature. Earlier stuff in the collection is pre-shadowplay recording with fraps to a dedicated spinny HDD. The difference with shadowplay is dramatic.

Ahh, yeah. Can’t use Shadowplay on a notebook GPU, it’s only enabled on desktop NVidia cards.

It’s because you’re a cheesespam D/P permastealth thief. Try some no-stealth and be a man:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlYmSO3dS6E/5Eh3jyOWzqVgmdP4q81KA-j0DBYfREREgaAiWGgQAM5pIaslhFRjVNDRVLoqkYaXQ6XwmeQ2eAGfLrWKAsFGB-w

What I wouldn’t mind is a more “vintage” looking reskin of it to emerge in the gem store, so that players who were there still can have that sentiment without it being ruined and players who want the skin can still get it. I say vintage because it could be something for the “Season 1 Rememberance” section of the gem store, coming back with all of the LS-related items, slightly changed to signify that they’ve been aged over the course of a year and a half.

People over-exaggerate the condition meta and feel the need to take removal upon removal, sacrificing most of their build for it. I built a hard counter to terrormancers dhuumfire necros which also acts as a counter to hambow warriors, and doesn’t even use stealth. You’ve got to find that threshold, but most of the time you’ll never have more than 3 conditions on you while fighting even the most terrifying condition builds. Condition engineers are included in this.

My philosophy on the cleanse in stealth trait is this: the longer you’re spending in stealth to cleanse, the more time you’re giving your enemy a breath of fresh air to recollect themselves if they’re any sort of decent player. You need to keep constant pressure on any type of condition build, because that’s what will ultimately bring them down. You’ve also got to take into account the fact that many condition spammers (necros, mesmers, engies, rangers) have minions, clones, turrets, spirits and pets you have to worry about which can be major damage soaks against backstab thieves. You need cleave in order to be effective in taking down people who rely on AI, which there are a lot of in the world of condition builds.

I feel like you’re trying to make backstab D/D work against condition builds, but the truth is you’re going to need to change everything to be the hard counter you want to.

Jocksy.3415:

How to get more condition damage?
Precision
Condition
Condition duration

3 stats to be top, just as zerk…

You can get 50% more condition duration from food/runes/sigil, where zerk can only get 20% by maxing out runes and taking food, so taking P/P/T gear and then crit damage food and traits isn’t exactly an option like taking C/P/T gear and then condition duration is, making you both tanky and hit hard.

Faeyd.5094:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Hey all, it’s been a while since I’ve brought out any builds, so this time I thought I would do something a little different. Okay, you got me, a LOT different.
Snip

I hope someone finds some fun in this build. I know I’ve had my share of it.

Also, Shortbus was supposed to be Shortbow, but I’m posting this on my phone and autocorrect happened. Happy mistake? I think so!

I like the intent and it’s good to see something a bit different. I think most folks in this game feel there are a few specs that you must play or you can’t play the game… almost anything works in the right hands.

The only thing I struggle with Viking is that an Apothecary thief in WvW and Shaman thief in sPvP is far more immortal and kills much easier So I will always play with your specs for fun, but when I want to go ‘immortal’ I defer to heavy stealth+condition+healing. I find it just as easy to kill in WvW or PvP on heavy heal as heavy power… they just don’t realise they’re dead til a bit later

Thanks!

I’ve already posted an apothecary D/D build, and I like to keep some pretty substantial differences between all of my builds, making each one as unique as the last. Otherwise, it just looks like a variation of the next guy’s build. This one also uses far less stealth than Apoco D/D, which makes it a pretty decent home/mid evade bunker.

Could you guys post your PC specs along with the vids, and maybe how much those cost? My $1300 laptop can’t record for jack other than PvE and roaming where it maintains a solid 16-30 FPS. :/

Lordphantomhive.1256:

Josh Davis.6015:

Clearly a lie. I have never died in WvW or PvP.

Tsk tsk no need for such damage control. I cracked up greatly after learning that me spiking you was live streamed.:P

I spiked Regina during the Shattered Invasion final event of CBT 2. It was glorious, and the feeling of seeing that tag and acting on it is great.

No, it’s an exclusive item for those of us who can say we were there when the LIVING story started.. I hate when games bring back exclusive items simply to get more money because people weren’t there when they were available… I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Necrotize.2974:

If they did do this, they would need to make it work like mesmer’s arcane thievery instead of bountiful theft. If they kept the bountiful theft mechanic, you’d transfer 2 conditions but only 1 stack if they do stack. Nothing quite like blowing a 20+ cd skill to transfer a single stack of bleed :P

If it functioned anything like Bountiful theft, your opponent would only get 1 stack of bleeding rather than the 25 they stacked on you.

Wait, there are other Master level traits that aren’t Bountiful Theft?

/s

In all honesty, this might actually be decent. It’s no boon strip, but for those defensive builds that need some more condition removal, I would definitely suggest this.

Thieves were designed around being able to use our skills repeatedly. If you want to call that spammy, go ahead. A lot of bad thieves are guilty of spamming heartseeker for sure. I’m guilty of abusing sword 2 to clear conditions when they get out of hand.

The only other class I know that is guilty of true spamming is guardian staff 1.

Travlane.5948:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Travlane.5948:

Stabu.1763:

Travlane.5948:

what is your goal for wvw? zerging or roaming?

Roaming!

if u plan on doing only 1v1 or MAYBE mediocre enemies on 1v2 then d/p is the way to go. if u play on doing 2v2 or 1v2 or 1v3 etc then id say p/d is the way to go. basically direct dmg for even 1v1 s and p/d carrion condi for larger attrition fights.

While those are two viable options, they aren’t exactly the only way OP can go. D/D burst takes much more skill and is just as apt at 1vX fights as D/P is, and he can always go P/P if he enjoys the playstyle (and having dual Quips with unload is more hilarious than a ranger spamming 1 with The Dreamer).

i personally dont like d/d bc the only line of defense lies within your utilities.

deathblossom was meant to be the defensive part of d/d but its obviously a total bust.

personally if they turned 4 into some kind of super low dmg but high utility skill on d/d that would have high evade or something it would make the set much much more viable.

dont be decieved by yishis. hes decent. well good. but anyone who looks back can vocalized that they had clairavoyance while playing. also it takes him weeks to make 1 video. when i made my vids i put mine in mostly unedited from a couple of hours straight in wvw. anyways to cut a long story short…all you see is those fights that happen 1 out of 20 times and put them together in a montage making it look viable. when in reality 80% of the time or more you either run….lose….hide…or have so much help from allies. its hard to actually get a 1vx fight and win…. especially with d/d. you need mediocre enemies in addition.

d/d is good … wvw is just not tha best place for it.

Yishis is a pretty decently skilled player, but I think any half skilled player who spends that much time voicing over every action you make, most of which weren’t conscious decisions, can look good to anyone who has less experience. That being said, there are a myriad of builds you can run, not just burst D/P, D/D, and Condi P/D.

NinjaEd.3946:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Did you not see the PvP variant of that Shortbus build I posted a while ago, Ninja? It’s pretty kitten successful at holding point, you just have to get used to not spamming shortbow 3 and landing off point. Pair it with S/D and you’ve got a potent dodge bunker as long as you don’t resort to stealth, which is a last ditch effort when holding point.

It looks a little strange on paper but I can give it a shot. I’d prolly tweak a thing or 2 just for my taste but it looks like against melee, it’d be pretty fun to play with.

All of my builds look strange on paper :x

Travlane.5948:

Stabu.1763:

Travlane.5948:

what is your goal for wvw? zerging or roaming?

Roaming!

if u plan on doing only 1v1 or MAYBE mediocre enemies on 1v2 then d/p is the way to go. if u play on doing 2v2 or 1v2 or 1v3 etc then id say p/d is the way to go. basically direct dmg for even 1v1 s and p/d carrion condi for larger attrition fights.

While those are two viable options, they aren’t exactly the only way OP can go. D/D burst takes much more skill and is just as apt at 1vX fights as D/P is, and he can always go P/P if he enjoys the playstyle (and having dual Quips with unload is more hilarious than a ranger spamming 1 with The Dreamer).

Did you not see the PvP variant of that Shortbus build I posted a while ago, Ninja? It’s pretty kitten successful at holding point, you just have to get used to not spamming shortbow 3 and landing off point. Pair it with S/D and you’ve got a potent dodge bunker as long as you don’t resort to stealth, which is a last ditch effort when holding point.

But that’s why I like it! When using the “underdog” specs that aren’t blatantly UP (see; P/P) people don’t know how to deal with you, especially when you’re doing it differently than anyone else. It’s that element of “Oh kitten , shouldn’t have gotten overconfident.” when they want to duel the stealthless thief.

I was arguing with Arganthium over the viability of S/P in PvP, and from personal experience, Berserker with 30 in CS is far too squishy to be helping your team in any way, let alone take out a bunker who simply has to outlast you. With Soldier’s, you maintain the same base attack and power you get out of berserker, while sacrificing 15% crit damage and about 30% crit chance for an extra 4k health and a whopping 600 more armor. People seem to try to burst with sword, and while S/D is different in that LS actually does do a significant amount of burst, S/P is more a utility bruiser set with sustained damage, much like a hammer warrior with faster attacks and access to more utility conditions. Since I’ve moved to S/P for PvP, I haven’t lost a match (12 with S/P so far, 0 losses since I swapped from Unicorn, and this is completely pugging TeamQ while I micromanage our team’s positioning constantly).

NinjaEd.3946:

Taking celestial out only lowers the condi dmg from bleeds by 23 dmg over 3 bleeds (same duration) but bumps the direct damage of each bomb by 23(mix of zerker valk and cavaliar). The extra power also benefits your other skills. I can kind of see the healing power use for AR but it seems like a heavy loss in direct damage just to make it viable. I tried that food btw, it is really nice^^ Makes dealing with condi spammers soo much easier.

I’ve tried valk, and the minor loss of healing from AR is significant enough for you to notice a difference in your sustain. I’ve been playing my ele more and that more balanced approach has rubbed off on my thief, and makes for a good consistency when fighting each class rather than adapting simply to deal damage. I’ve also never lost to another S/P thief with this build, and while they do hit significantly harder, they’re also very squishy and I just have to live long enough for them to die rather than focus on the “kill or be killed” method.

NinjaEd.3946:

Viking Jorun.5413:

dominoeffect.4216:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Do you like killing people or living? This is important.

How about both

Blasphemy! Haha, just kidding.

If you don’t like stealth, OP, go ahead and give my build a try:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlYmSO3dS6E/5Eh3jyOWzqVgmdP4q81KA-j0DBYfREREgaAiWGgQAM5pIaslhFRjVNDRVLoqkYaXQ6XwmeQ2eAGfLrWKAsFGB-w

Just curious, why celestial?

It provides the healing power boost I need to make Assassin’s Reward viable while still maintaining an acceptable level of crit damage, as well as boost my toughness, power, vitality, and all them other important stats. Condition damage even comes into play when fighting other thieves, and shotgunning cluster bomb around me spreads those bleeds (that actually hurt) pretty fast.

@Stabu – laugh all you want, stealth is a crutch.

dominoeffect.4216:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Do you like killing people or living? This is important.

How about both

Blasphemy! Haha, just kidding.

If you don’t like stealth, OP, go ahead and give my build a try:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlYmSO3dS6E/5Eh3jyOWzqVgmdP4q81KA-j0DBYfREREgaAiWGgQAM5pIaslhFRjVNDRVLoqkYaXQ6XwmeQ2eAGfLrWKAsFGB-w

Do you like killing people or living? This is important.

Likes

• Ease of access
• Big open field fights
• Small scale havoc/roaming

Dislikes

• Lack of unique rewards (skins)
• Rewards favor zerging
• Lack of unique roles within World XP (choosing everything rather than refining your role; scout, commander, infantry, siege master, etc)

#FormattingForJosh

Garson.9580:

The beauty queen returns! New outfit depending on the mood

Hey, don’t judge the face.. My mom was a skritt okey?

Is the one in the first pic by chance named Cheech or Chong?

Hey Take, could you stop using copywrited music? YouTube keeps blocking your videos on the mobile app because of it. :/

Glenstorm.4059:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Why wouldn’t you go with a settler’s amulet rather than carrion to boost the healing potential of your signet?

I was thinking of that, but I liked the +Condition Damage from Carrion more. Plus, the thought of only having 10.8k ish health is scary lol. I suppose it would be easier to heal up to full health though…worth a shot.

Believe it or not, the lower your health is, the more effective healing power is in conjunction with high toughness. You can also run Rune of the Undead to match your condition damage with Settler’s that you would normally get out of Carrion.

Why wouldn’t you go with a settler’s amulet rather than carrion to boost the healing potential of your signet?

Please, make it a boon so I can switch to Sword/Dagger and steal stealth from a thief who’s just popped Shadow Refuge.

K U T M.4539:

Viking Jorun.5413:

K U T M.4539:

After the new tourney rewards were introduced, I was 31. I’m 39 now and haven’t even won 100 tourneys yet.

(39-40 is 45k tho :V, many tears)

Buck up, that’s only 40 wins per rank!

Yeahhh, but I’ve been playing ele. Valks D/D, not Fresh air or MS + Tornado stuffs haha.

40 wins is a lot u.u

Eh… When my computer’s back up I plan on getting 5-10 TeamQ wins per day. It’ll be a bit of a grind, but honestly the queue times let me collect myself in between matches.

K U T M.4539:

After the new tourney rewards were introduced, I was 31. I’m 39 now and haven’t even won 100 tourneys yet.

(39-40 is 45k tho :V, many tears)

Buck up, that’s only 40 wins per rank!

Stealthasaur.2198:

I saw a rank 78 about a month ago.

I’ll give it 3 months before we see the first rank 80

Auesis.7301:

What: Everything

Why: I went afk in the middle of EB to make a sandwich and I came back to find myself dead and a Thief dancing on my corpse. This is clear evidence that the whole class is unacceptably OP and requires immediate deletion and replacement with the sandwichmancer.

I like sandwiches.

On the contrary, I went afk on my thief to eat a sandwich and came back 30 minutes later and wasn’t dead! Clearly thief is OP!

You can craft Quiver of A Thousand Arrows and goose celestial as a stat option, same with Wings of Dwayna and Shadow of Grenth.

kirito.4138:

Where is the nutshell?

I got this for you!

perilisk.1874:

Why do you think the Charr have been experimenting with surface-to-air bovid technology?

Can confirm.

It’s an upgrade from the cow cannon, and they’re self-guided.

You do not seem to

Get how haiku is format

Five, Seven, Five, yes?

It may not be the tankiest build in the world, but I’ve always been a fan of Excala. Is this still viable?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJAoYhEmmbuR5wjDAEFuYyQRIbUekzM2A-jUDBoeBkgAkCBgEBJ5LIZPRLBKslRFRjVVDQbDTFbR1WzCyW0KryAwMGA-w

Do not mistake me

For the whole community

I am just bitter

#HaikuWars2

My E–peen is bigger than both of you, Interceptor and Ninja.

/sarcasm

Seriously. This thread is so derailed by people flexing their E–peens and arguing over trivial facts that somebody’s got to put it right back on.

The answer, OP, is that it doesn’t matter worth a kitten what your toughness/vitality are, as long as you’re happy with your survivability, damage output, and sustain. It’s personal preference, so just go with what feels right with your build.

Haiku was quite bad

But sometimes writers aren’t good

Don’t let door hit you

As a side note, I wish they would stop putting in skill point sinks for the PvErs.. As a fellow commander who makes A LOT of superior siege and can’t afford to buy it all, those sinks are really killing me.

Mbelch.9028:

Grouch, your posts are always helpful, and I’d like to think if Anet had 10 of you, we’d be happier as a player base. I think a lot of us are concerned about the future of the game with the lack of communication, large amount of inaction and the huge shifts in play style which are led by the patches which make people grind.

So.. You’re saying if I take acting lessons and change my name to Josh Davis, I may have a secure job?

styx.7294:

Viking Jorun.5413:

RedStar.4218:

Well on GoM things have been way worse. In fact, thanks to the leagues things have become incredibly better. Even if we had our ups and downs since then, it’s not been as worse as before the leagues began.

And since it ended, things got even better. Which surprised me, so I’m happy.

Wat

RedStar is right, Ferrum. Leagues helped Gate of Madness a lot. I’ve said as much elsewhere as well.

King Amadaeus describes things at their worst. Before leagues, Gate of Madness was pretty depressing. ArenaNet needs to find a way to get people to spread out but as far as I can tell all they’re doing is fixing tier 1 problems by spending months developing a map. Drying up population one tier at a time is how WvW is going to die and it has been exactly doing that since launch.

That said, the way things are right now WvW in the low tiers still does provide great smaller scale fights that are a lotta fun. We’re not at the point where the servers are dead. Sometimes you can’t find much fights in off times but honestly it’s not any better if you’re lookin for roamin fights in the upper tiers either. The smaller community though does mean you’ll get to know a lot of the personalities in WvW. It’s very much like a small town.

Haha, no I wasn’t asking about GoM doing better – that’s tremendously apparent, especially with all of the guilds big and small we’ve been helping over. I just bolder his first two sentences which seem to have contradicted each other. x3

EDIT: Never mind. Re-read Redstar’s post and realized I was emphasizing the “have been worse” as “have been worse since leagues”.

oZii.2864:

Quakeman.9378:

what mixture of soldiers and cleric would you recommend?

I would go for about 16k-17k hp and 800+ healing power. You don’t need your hp to high but you don’t want it to low either.

I would go for a soldier ammy with soldier back and cleric trinkets. Rest of armor soldiers. If you want to get a bit of dps in there you can go celestial mixed with clerics also.

My personaly tanky setup is 0/10/0/30/30
Soldier Helm, rest is clerics armor.
Trinkets are soldier ammy, soldier back, 1 clerics ring celestial everything else.
I happen to have celestial trinkets so I need to use them for something and I found this to be a good place.

A side request, oZ, but would you perhaps have some clips of your ele in some Good Fights matches you could link? Love your team.

Hah. Arg, you humor me too much. You seem to have this notion that, because you can compile a list of builds and get it stickied, that you know more than the rest of us and are somehow the ultimate authority on builds. Guess what buddy? I didn’t get to be the class lead of Team Legacy through ignorance and chest puffing. If you’re going to stoop so low as to blow raspberries and call me names like some child I have no further reason to justify you with a response. Half of your post is agreeing with things I’ve said in the latter half of my previous one, and you’re simply ignorant to any point but the one quoted. I’ll go ahead and let you think I’m wrong, and take the high road while you continue this. Good day, bud.

Look, if you think I’m so set in my ways, go ahead and PM me when I’m online. I have a custom arena set up for my guild and wouldn’t mind learning a thing or two. I may be wrong on some of the things I’ve said, and I’ll admit that.

Hey all. I’ve been looking more and more into switching my main over to my ele, and I’d like to go to the complete opposite side of the spectrum of my thief and be a giant damage soak that’s insanely difficult to kill, and since my havoc team already has a support role filled and we need a dedicated anchor, I’ve decided that I should fill that role. Would anyone have any builds, or advice for crafting such a build for me?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks all!

EDIT: While the weapon setup doesn’t matter, I do like the playstyle that D/D has to offer, so that’s preferable.

Chicago Jack.5647:

Lordrosicky.5813:

With healing signet poison is no counter because you cant poison the heal

You can poison the heal. Poison affects all sources of healing – in fact its one of the strongest counters to HoT skills/traits and the reason why it should always be applied to downed targets and surrounding enemies trying to heal them.

The problem is condi immunity and longbow always proccing cleanse. Not to mention lyssa proc from signet of rage.

In my opinion, if they decide to keep healing signet as is, then increase the cast time and recharge time of longbow combustive shot. And do something about all the condi immune BS in the game. And tone down the power of condi nukes. Hell, nerf everything.

Pretty much this, except eles.

Burnfall.9573:

Viking Jorun.5413:

skyz.7321:

Viking Jorun.5413:

skyz.7321:

They can also teleport under the map to leave combat and heal.

Thieves do this the most.

You down them with a big hitting skill, which triggers their 10% auto stealth, you auto attack them (they’re invis still), all of us a sudden, you stop hitting, they never reappear, 10-15 sec later they’re running around near you on full hp again.

If you ever get a thief low, and have a strong feeling he should be downed, then reappears on near full or full health, he’s using ‘midnight’ or w.e that hack is called.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadow's_Rejuvenation

It scales unbelievably well with Healing Power, and is in a tree with both Healing and Toughness. This isn’t a hack, it’s by design. :P

Yep, it does.

But I’m talking about people who you KNOW you put into down state, or ones you’re 95% sure you put into down state. There is a hack that allows people to teleport under the map to drop combat, and thieves use it more than hackers with another class simply because you can do it while stealthed, aka auto stealth when under 10% hp/downed, so the enemy doesn’t see them blatantly cheat.

The hack DOES exist.

I used to run a build where I’d drop Shadow Refuge before I went down, wait for it to lift, teleport out using downed state 2, and heal up in stealth using my boosted healing from SR. I don’t doubt some jack exists, but I think you lack the understanding of thief techniques to survive. It doesn’t take long.

I believe, the complete removal of thief stealth would resolve this critical issue.

wouldn’t you agree Viking?

I think everyone agrees that it would solve the issue of people QQing over the stealth class, but removing it altogether, Burnfall, would create a myriad of new issues.

skyz.7321:

Viking Jorun.5413:

skyz.7321:

They can also teleport under the map to leave combat and heal.

Thieves do this the most.

You down them with a big hitting skill, which triggers their 10% auto stealth, you auto attack them (they’re invis still), all of us a sudden, you stop hitting, they never reappear, 10-15 sec later they’re running around near you on full hp again.

If you ever get a thief low, and have a strong feeling he should be downed, then reappears on near full or full health, he’s using ‘midnight’ or w.e that hack is called.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadow's_Rejuvenation

It scales unbelievably well with Healing Power, and is in a tree with both Healing and Toughness. This isn’t a hack, it’s by design. :P

Yep, it does.

But I’m talking about people who you KNOW you put into down state, or ones you’re 95% sure you put into down state. There is a hack that allows people to teleport under the map to drop combat, and thieves use it more than hackers with another class simply because you can do it while stealthed, aka auto stealth when under 10% hp/downed, so the enemy doesn’t see them blatantly cheat.

The hack DOES exist.

I used to run a build where I’d drop Shadow Refuge before I went down, wait for it to lift, teleport out using downed state 2, and heal up in stealth using my boosted healing from SR. I don’t doubt some jack exists, but I think you lack the understanding of thief techniques to survive. It doesn’t take long.

skyz.7321:

They can also teleport under the map to leave combat and heal.

Thieves do this the most.

You down them with a big hitting skill, which triggers their 10% auto stealth, you auto attack them (they’re invis still), all of us a sudden, you stop hitting, they never reappear, 10-15 sec later they’re running around near you on full hp again.

If you ever get a thief low, and have a strong feeling he should be downed, then reappears on near full or full health, he’s using ‘midnight’ or w.e that hack is called.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shadow's_Rejuvenation

It scales unbelievably well with Healing Power, and is in a tree with both Healing and Toughness. This isn’t a hack, it’s by design. :P