Guild Wars 2

The Shortbow’s potency is mostly evident in PvP and WvW. the #2 to blast with can be useful in PvE for AoE might and AoE stealth to skip parts of dungeon runs.

As you’re still levelling and haven’t tried PvP/WvW yet, I can see why the SB still seems a bit useless compared to other weapons, but it’s amazing, really!

The SB is also really great for any scenario where you, being a squishy thief, don’t want to get close. Drop a poison field for the great 33% deduction to healing efficiency, clusterbomb it (without exploding) for AoE weakness, or do explode it for bleed stacks. Whenever you get targeted you can use #3 to get away in a pinch and all that.

But yeah. It’s mainly an utility weapon, rather than a damaging weapon though.
for some thieves making good use of the Shortbow, you could watch this 1v1 vid from Fave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeOrXTBX9j0
Or for another style of using it you could watch this vid from Sindrener who plays in a Focus Party in a guild in WvW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl3Fe_bPiFU

and there’s much more to be found.
Just be creative with it

Always good to see these topics, let me know if you ever need a hand!

Aside of the fact that you sometimes seem to have a bit of trouble adjusting to the higher speed a thief plays at, there’s nothing wrong at all!
Great kiting, clever stealthing, good initiative managing, proper targetting…

You can tell you played the other classes, that is a big benefit to every thief player.
Knowing your enemy makes all the difference and since you got that nailed down quite well, you play thief good and clever

Keep it up, go main thief ^^

Mikey.1456:

For survivability max out shadow art and then crit damage or condition damage choices skills wisely

Yes, let’s jsut forget about the fact that speccing into Shadow Arts, means you rely on Stealth for surviveability…
Yo’re useless when your stealthed (to put it real basic), the OP asks about how not to be useless… Your advice would work for WvW and even then it’s quite bad considering how much of a Crutch SA is (not to mention, it’s not exactly needed if you learn to play properly).

So to the OP: Disregard his advice, Stealthing in PvP isn’t as good as you might think it is, atleast once you get to somewhat higher tiers.

Personally I’d reccomend you make a bit of a list for yourself when you start a match.
What’s your team comp, what is the comp of your enemy team. Who on your side will need to keep an extra eye on, and who on the enemy side will need a dagger in his back first?
If you can set your priorities like that and try to get a feel for when you can leave a fight and go for a (de-/re-)cap, then you’ll be doing great before you know it.
Don’t use stealth excessively because it means you burn through your initiative. Don’t forget that the SB is also a pretty potent damaging weapon

Playing thief, I will avoid them if I can.
If I really need to, I’ll use my Shortbow to AA and Clusterbomb the turrets down, mixed with #3 to dodge the annoying immobilizes that the Engi might shoot.
If the turrets go down, then I move in with my Melee Set.

If I play D/P (and the Engi is low allready), I’ll link #5 into ShadowStep, Heartseeker into steal or inf signet and go for the backstab.
Goes real fast and usually takes away the last bit of health they had in less then a second or something. Plus you still got Shadow Return for an easy way out if it goes wrong.

Slackoth.2108:

Yeah this mechanic is just outright stupid in WvW, they will attack and stealth all day, i play ranger, i don’t have the AoE you people are talking about. So when they attack and i push them back, why can they just restealth? I just wasted my ONE reliable hard CC, meanwhile the thief just regens all his hp in stealth, and won’t let me reset combat, balance right there.

I’d rather have them have perma-stealth until they initiate combat than the way that it is now. It’s ridiculous that they can attack, restealth then repeat this an unlimited amount of times, it’s actually impossible for me to do anything about this whatsoever if i’m solo roaming.

But hey it’s been made clear to me that anet just straight up hate rangers. 30% of our damage is our pet, which makes 30% of our damage kittened and hey, you can kill them. Combine all of this with our crappy mobility and a thief that’s flying around stealthing all day makes for an impossible fight, against anyone decent anyway.

Actually your pet is only about ~12.5% of your damage, it varies depending on your build, but 30%? Where’d you get that? (Source for ~12.5%: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLlGMDtoams). Considering that guy uses traps and his pet actually hits the target, the damage the pet does is a fair bit higher than the damage the more conventional pets like Wolf and Spiders do. despite those conventional pets having a higher theoretical damage.
Rangers also recieved a pretty neat ‘buff’ to Rapid Fire, depending on your view. Could also consider it a nerf because of how easy it can be dodged or blocked.
You also got various Hard CC skills depending on how you choose to play. if your #4 on LB is all you got, that’s your fault. Entangle, Muddy Terrain, even some of the pets can do Hard CC’s like the Wolf’s Howl.

As for mobility, the Sword gives great mobility, the GS gives great mobility…
It’s just how you choose to play.

So, while I agree that those thieves that run 6 in SA are indeed quite scrubby and using a crutch trait (Shadows Rejuvenation) and something could (=should) be done about it…
So while I can understand your frustration, you are really just having a big issue with the build you play, how it lacks in many aspects of what is desired in a fight and how it’s really just YOUR issue.

Having that out of the way, time to get on topic.
Stealth can be overpowered with the deep SA traitline, the cleansing is ok, the healing is fair enough, together it’s indeed ‘OP’. How to fix it though… No idea.
Simply nerfing the healing that you get while stealthed from Shadows Rejuvenation is such a boring route to take and probably not the best option…

I played with SA, it’s fun to troll with for a bit, but it always just feels a bit ‘meh’ to me.
Fights just get stale and boring too quick for me.
Besides, it’s possible to deal with it even though I mainly play S/D and “should be hardcountered” by such builds… It’s difficult and it was very frustrating but after practicing against them, those thieves become predictable.

Invisible doesn’t equal Invincible.

Steal, kite until you know your steal would be up again.
Jump in with the stolen daze while on your D/P, burst a bit and make steal part of that burst, stolen daze again, burst some more (effectively 6 seconds of free damage dealing)
Pressure during your kiting with combo fields and see if you can lure him into using his cd’s with some cluster bombs.

The Stolen daze you get from them is simply amazing, it’s just burst happy hour if you got him to use his cd’s

tboneking.2531:

Turk.5460:

tboneking.2531:

My experience with thieves is that the best way to kill them is with condis. You apply them when theyre not stealthed, and whereas they can avoid direct damage when you cant see them, your condis will still be ticking. So as boring as it sounds Ive found the best build for dealing with thieves is the standard cele shoutbow/sword warrior.

Most thieves you’ll see in WvW are running at least 2 points in Shadow Arts, which takes away 1 condi every 3 seconds while in stealth-the first tick immediately when stealth is applied. And if they don’t attack out of stealth, the minimum amount of stealth thieves get is 3seconds, which equals 2 conditions removed.

I had assumed he was talking about pvp. I dont believe that trait is commonly taken there?

Panic strike build takes 2 into SA for exactly that Trait.
Most thieves run that 6/0/2/0/6, It’s rare to find D/P thieves running anything else.
Simple reason being is that they really need it. Thieves got terrible condi cleansing.

That brings me a bit on topic. Thieves who play with such stealth do get eaten by AoE.
Invisible doesn’t equal invincible. Keep in mind that they’re bound to a timer when they stealth (3 or 4 seconds, depending on their build) most thieves wait until that last second for their backstab so that they can reposition.
Any mobility impeding abilities will also really mess them up.

For eles, see if you can keep up some poison and try to keep pressure on them when they cycle through water. They heal for sure, keeping up the pressure is really the only thing you can do.
Against D/D eles it also works just like with thieves. Screw with their mobility and they can’t do much then.

So I’d suggest switching either of your weapon sets to be able to do something along those lines.

I don’t play D/D so I can’t help you much there, but I do play S/D a lot. Against really good ones, I find myself using the SB a lot and try presure them with poison. Kiting them around if they’re in GS ([i]or trying to keep him guessing of my location using SB #5), I try to bait the cooldowns if possible, or I try bait him into risking a bit more before charging in with S/D to get some quick burst off.
S/D also gives a lot of room to dodge their hard hits and an easy point of returning and getting rid of that Burn Condi.

It’s always a really long fight against a good Warrior, but it’s doable.

Your gear setup is good.
You’ll probably end up switching the Valkyrie pieces for Berserker ones, once you grown more confident.
Another good option is Berserker Armor with those Ascended ‘Berserker&Valkyrie’ stats for trinkets.

Also, the food you got (butternut squash) that stuff is really expensive and not worth it (if you’d ask me, atleast), I use Omnomberry Pie myself (+70 precision and 66% chance to steal life on crits).
For other good food, there was a topic about good food for S/D users in WvW in this section not too long ago, you could check that one out: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/s-d-wvw-food/first#post4965113

When I play D/P, I like to have another D/P thief or a mesmer.
If I play S/D I like to have another thief, mesmer or (D/D) elementalist.

With the new Stability, venomshare is pretty decent as Basi and those Immobilize and Frost venoms affect it quite heavily (forgot the names)
You could also go for some D/P burst setup and try act like a solo focus party… Just got to be really careful

The godmode was/is ment in the sarcastic view of the average player on Thieves, I’m well aware of it being quite overexaggerated :P

I’d like to see the ‘Revealed’ get a simple timer, either 3 seconds or 4 seconds for both PvP and WvW. Also ‘Shadows Rejuvenation’ is a terrible crutch for newbies to seem competent and what I fear, along with Stealth and the incapability of the majority of players to understand that Invisible does not equal Invincible the reason for many of the hits our class took… I’d happily make a trade where some of the previous nerfs get undone (like the sword #2 return instant, dancing dagger damage etc.) and that trait is nerfed down so that we can’t just keep resetting fights.
It’s just bound to WvW as noone in their right mind would run that deep into SA in PvP, but still.

Anyhow…
Just learning thief won’t cut it I fear. You’ll have to learn about every profession really. What are their strengths ad weaknesses, what attacks hurt the most, how do the animations for those look etc.
The sad fact is, is that as a thief, you’ll really have to outplay the majority of your opponents, both through the use of skills and the way you fight. Other classes have an easier time to get the same effect, atleast most of them do.

The reason why Thief and Mesmer are both is such a relatively bad spot, is because the average player doesn’t understand squat about them. They can blink in and out of sight, they’re all over the place and they can really mess with your head if you don’t know how to fight them.
As the average player is the vast majority of players, the classes they struggle with will be hit the hardest.
That, along with the fact that even despite the continous nerfs, really good players are still pretty much in godmode on those classes, makes it seem as if any nerf to those classes is completely acceptable.

S/D is the way forward man! I’d recommend S/D to anyone :P

If enjoy D/P but just want a different build, you could try going for 2/6/0/0/6 or a variation if you feel like you really need a reliable condi cleanse.

0/6/2/0/6 is pretty efficient aswell, just less bursty.

That’s skipping the step where the boons on Player A with X stacks on an Y timer are ‘rewarded’ to player B who might (both) be miles away from the server, latency would probably be quite the hassle just for starters.

It’d be quite powerful and a pretty rough counter against all those cele builds yeah…
Good fun but just like you, I don’t see it happen

morbidillusion.2759:

Vornollo.5182:

Besides, I think it might be due to engine limitations, it’s quite a process to calculate x-stacks from player A converted to x-stacks to player B, not to think of the timer variables that come into play and all that…

Nope.

Source for this constructive criticism?

Quality of life improvement for Thief? Good joke!
Sure, it would make sense but I don’t think they’ll let is have that much fun.

Besides, I think it might be due to engine limitations, it’s quite a process to calculate x-stacks from player A converted to x-stacks to player B, not to think of the timer variables that come into play and all that…

So yeah, it’d be good, it would make sense, but it’s unlikely to happen because of technical difficulties or because “Teef OP plz nerf QQ”.

apocom.3172:

Vornollo.5182:

I only use D/P during guild raids (otherwise S/D) and I also use 2/6/0/0/6.
It’s quite amazing with the right setup.

I find conditions to hardly be an issue in raid setups, but for solo/small scale roaming you might prefer going 0/6/2/0/6 for the condition clearing outside of shadowstep.

There is a lot of discussion in our focusparty which build is better (DA or CS). I agree with you, you don’t need the condi remove during a guildraid, and I was also a big CS fan. But espacially for GvG’s DA brings you good utility. If you work with another thief, he goes bp, I switch to sb, blast the field. 10 sec cooldown on weapson swap. Target gets called, first shot immobilizes the target, he steals (daze) backstab, next shot immobilizes again. An ele with mistform on cd is dead. Or you steal->backstab->hit->immobilize. If the rage sigil kicks in, its so much damage.

And I am less on sb with DA. Not entirely sure why.

I used to go deeper into DA aswell and it’s still really good!
Actually, I only switched over upon finding out about the Furious Maintenance Oil quite recently.
I’ve been prefering high precision + high ferocity over raw power since.
Truth be told, I haven’t really felt like number crunching it yet, but I feel like I’m more efficient on the 2/6/0/0/6 build. In fact, with my exotic gear (working on the ascended…) I still got pretty good Power.

Both builds work extremely well and I think it really just boils down to what kind of tactic you (and the rest of the focus party) prefer. The combo you speak of works perfectly fine with CS line too, don’t know why you brought it up other than it just being a nifty little tactic :P

I find I switch between SB just as often on DA, it depends on the flow of a fight and how lucky I feel.

egh, I’ll try get around to crunching it down before/during/after that stream tonight about new Borderlands, I guess…

I only use D/P during guild raids (otherwise S/D) and I also use 2/6/0/0/6.
It’s quite amazing with the right setup.

I find conditions to hardly be an issue in raid setups, but for solo/small scale roaming you might prefer going 0/6/2/0/6 for the condition clearing outside of shadowstep.

Haha, you’re funny!

Add them to the nerf/wish list if they’re not on it allready

For PvE everything works really.
I’d suggest using the Withdraw Heal for S/D though. The Signet heal doesn’t cut it as the S/D set is relatively slow. Aside of that, it really doesn’t matter.

For dungeon runs… I wouldn’t recommend S/D, but even then, anything works!
Some things just work better, for dungeons, such as S/P for general killing and D/D for boss kills.

I wouldn’t worry about it in PvE

Impact nailed it really.

Another benefit from being small in for example GvG situations is that you’re tougher to be picked out even in open field fights.
That minor advantage, combined with certain spots such as the Mine Cart on Foefire that Impact mentioned, make Asura the best technical choice.

I’d recommend Asura or really tiny human.
Personally playing on the tiniest Asura I could make, gives your opponents who run without the ‘Standarized Player Models’ a bit of a harder time.

But really… It’s nitpicking and doesn’t matter too much I’d say.

European styled sword for me, fits my bruiser style a bit more.

Oh nooo, you have to change your tactics now and think about what you’re doing!?

Yeah…

You can still frontline quite efficiently.
Stop thinking in the way you used to and try to innovate.

[s]Well, I have to say that in terms of EU servers, Aurora Glade is amazing.
Organising server-wide events during weekends (saturday night live raids and such) and the major WvW guilds are very open and willing to help people out, not uncommon to see them switching over to an open raid if there’s a lack of a commander and such…

Possible downside is that the actual WvW community is relatively small as there was a lot of folk leaving that server not too long ago. It’s been primarily a PvE server since…
The community that is there is strong though, often making a good ‘quality over quantity’ statement.[/s]

You posted you ment NA right before me posting :P

I don’t think any of the race skills is really worth it.
They’re certainly no reason to go with one race over another.
I’ve seen a few people using the Asura and Human racials on several builds, mostly these have been uplevels that didn’t have their Sleight of Hand trait yet etcetera.
Point is, Thieves got plenty of better alternatives to any racial ability if they got access to what they want, be it more cleansing, another daze or whatever you’re looking for.

If anything racial related, I’d look at size. Being small has it’s benefits (especially if you do WvW with guilds).
But yeah… just go with what you enjoy looking at since you’re going to spend a lot of time looking at whatever fine backside you give your character… Best make it worthwhile!

Just got to end it on one final note:
Asura master race!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVl0MpyplOx7J8PNBNB5dY+SZ0KAdHl+GEA-TVCFABA8kCKU9HBOhAJp8LN9B8pEsm9HyQDzCHChAAIA3sObzdG4oH9oH9oHtdezje0buzCBUeBA-w

That’s how I’ve been running it.
I prefer Pack Runes over Strength due to the high fury uptime which adds to my critical chance which results in me getting pretty good recovery due to the food I use.
Pack runes also are a bit more party-friendly due to the effects applying to allies around you.
Because of running Pack runes, the trait ‘Power of Intertia’ which is meta(?) is not as appealing to me, I rather swap it out for ‘Hard to Catch’ further on in the traitline which is a real saver. It puts you off 600 range and gives swiftness to increase that distance (if possible), so yeah… as a roamer it’s nifty to have when you get caught off-guard.
Another big plus to Pack Runes > Strength Runes for me is that it allows me to ditch the Signet of Agility for Shadowstep instead while still maintaining a good chunk of Critical Hit Chance.

I used to run it in the same setup in Exotic and Rare gear for quite a while (mixing Valkyrie , Berserker and Assassin Accesories). It’s just as effective really. I haven’t noticed a lot of difference after hopping over to Ascended aside of having a bit better health regeneration from the food.

ooh and @babazhook
I like what you got going on there! I might try my hand at that build myself

Wrapthor.1057:

Just experienced “No valid path to target” when fighting an enemy on certain spots in WvW. Spammed my steal and it wouldn’t let me even though I’m seriously next to the person I’m fighting with nothing obstructing my path. :c

Pebbles OP, please nerf.

Warshade.2984:

I also still get rubberbanding on SB#3… (T_T)

I find that more annoying than this half baked #5 “fix”, honestly…

Yeah that’ll work just fine.
I’ve ran the same kind of build, aside of ‘Withdraw’ for heal and ‘Infiltrator Signet’ instead of Blinding Powder.
That, plus give or take a few pieces in the armor spread.

But yeah, you’re good to go, really.
Just don’t be some HS spamming scrub, please :P

Try aiming at a close point.
For example, you can’t port up the Archway from Vale Camp anymore, you can however port up just to the side of it though.
Ok, it’s a bit slower from before but it’s not nearly as bad as you might think at first.
You’ll just have to run around shooting your shortbow everywhere again, just like you did back when you were a newb

I found most spots still work and many other have been added or made more reliable, just have to take a step to the side for some of the old ones that are now slightly different.

Don’t know about any PvE though… I completely neglect that side of the game, hehe.

EDIT:

Try aiming at a close point.

That might be a bi unclear…
I mean, try aiming at a point, close to where you would aim prior to this update. It’s likely that it has only moved over about an inch.

Please, for the sake of further evidence that Thieves need to be nerfed again after all those buffs: Make an uncut video of your Thieving endeavours.
It’ll surely prove exactly whatever point you’re trying to make here!

Do it, make my your day!

P.S. Don’t forget to publicly release it of course, we’re all very excited to see how OP we are, being invisible =/= invincible and all.

Ok, no problem with 1 or 2 arrows/bullets mid air!
Sure you can sheathe to cancel the melee attacks but… Please explain why a trait should hold me back at any given time?

Until then, yeah it’s a very circumstantial trait that has got me killed on a few (though admittedly rare, which still is too much) occasions with the health threshold in mind.
A rework, even a small one that’d cure ‘revealed’ and refrain from getting the ‘revealed’ effect upon LR proc for like .6 secs would improve the trait by a mile.

I got an aggressive playstyle, LR limits me in the way I can play as opposed to how I want to play.
Ok, I’ve had some benefit of it when I ran with that Trait that gives +200 power to give that extra little push as well… But really, LR’s current mechanic that is built for a game with no ‘reveal’ shouldn’t be on an forced spot in your traitline.

Swapping it for Slowed Pulse, like others said, is also a good idea.

If they’d only think about having skills that rip/steal boons apply some sort of condition that prevented them from gaining boons for an x-duration that actually made sense…
Would’ve been pretty easy…

Well, just adds to the challenge!
Time your steal right after the pulse and bomb away! For three or less seconds…
:desk:

frans.8092:

Make it blind yourself for 1/2 seconds so you miss whatever attack happened to be ongoing.

That’s actually so silly that it’s a genious fix, lol.
It’s also pretty normal to get blinded with all that dust and smoke or whatever it is you drop. RolePlayers will be satisfied, maybe that appeals to Anet?
______________________
Anyhow, I haven’t really given this thought but the topic interests me so, here’s my uneducated two cents:
How about we have it drop a smaller version of Shadow Refuge in a dodgeroll’s distance from your character?
Stays in line with it being a “refuge” and it allows the player to decide wether or not it should be used.

Shame Shadow Refuge is such a dead-easy giveaway…

EDIT (2 secs later I thnk of this…):
Now that I think of it…
That idea could actually work pretty decently if they make it in the shape of something similar to a Mesmer’s Veil? Move through that nearby area for stealth and reposition?

Nephrite.6954:

Guys can we still chain shadow steps as usual? like Infiltrators strike (sword2) and steal for maximum range? or infil signet + steal? Can’t get on for a week but I can’t wait to know cause it’s one of my favourite parts of being a thief.

Yep, you can still use Sword #2, Inf Signet out of Range as a Gap Closer
Steal works like before, you can use it out of range but it won’t close the gap.

Really, only the pathing on shadowstepping changed.
An example is that it’s really annoying that you can’t quickly use SB #5 to move on top of a wall in a WvW keep (think someone else allready stated that too)
But in open areas, it should work like before pretty much

Meh, I used it for everythign but the stability really…
That was just a nice bonus :P

Definitly Dagger for off-hand.
Evade and Boon Steal on #3 along with the Stealth on #5 makes it incredible for PvP and WvW.

While the #3 on Pistol off-hand also has the Evade, it locks you into place, leaving you (being a thief) extremely vulnerable. Plus, it’s pretty useless against anyone who can take a few steps away from you and attack from ranged distance.

S/D keeps you quick on your feet and in constant movement, making for a more difficult target.

Ehm, what “meta” build did you go with?

Thieves are always squishy, we sustain through stealth, blinds, potentially through shadowsteps and ofcourse, evades.
Some builds (mostly P/D and S/D) can take a few hits without too much worry, but it’s ill advised to not avoid damage alltogether by means stated above.

So there’s my tip: Avoid damage by any means possible.
Thieves got plenty of tools for it, but yeah… There’s a steep learning curve and you’ll need to outplay any opponent rather significantly because thieves have been nerfed to being almost useless, save their mobility.

Maybe find a friend to duo with, you’re probably much better of like that until you’ve become more expierenced.

Engaging with CnD as a S/D (which doesn’t rely on Stealth really) is indeed not the very best move like Apocom mentioned above.

I don’t really know what to say though. It depends on your build on what you can do.
Don’t spam LS and avoid pointless dodging… Really, and S/D thief shouldn’t run out of dodges in any 1v1 fights regardless of wether they run Acrobatics or Trickery.

From the information you gave us, that’s really all I can say :\

Jayden Ennok.3687:

Vornollo.5182:

From having played both Ranger and Thief extensively, Line of Sight is key.
Either they’ll have to get close (_which will usually allready take a few seconds _) or they wait/run off. Whatever the situation, they’re wasting time and 6 seconds isn’t very long.
I’d also advice you to simply learn surviving without Stealth. You can use mobility in a defensive manner aswell. Especially in WvW situations where there’s plenty of objects and height differences for you to work with.
Also, don’t forget about Dagger Storm if Rangers (wether they run Sic ‘em or not) are a problem. You can use it in several ways because of the fact that it’s a whirl finisher (Drop Shadow Refuge and whirl in it for LifeSteal, drop a smoke field for stacks of blinds…) Just be creative with whatever setup you’re running.

Some weapon sets’ mobility depends on leaps not teleports, try to stay mobile with dagger mainhand if you have cripple/immob on and bunch of other condis to cover it up.

Not saying sic em is op, to me it seems like a waste of utility when I play a ranger. What I don’t like that it counters dps for dagger mainhand sets and condi removal.

Dagger main hand is potentially incredibly mobile, provided you don’t target anyone/anything.

It’s a trade-off between maintainig presure, or surviving to get them down a few seconds later… I know which one I pick.

From having played both Ranger and Thief extensively, Line of Sight is key.
Either they’ll have to get close (_which will usually allready take a few seconds _) or they wait/run off. Whatever the situation, they’re wasting time and 6 seconds isn’t very long.
I’d also advice you to simply learn surviving without Stealth. You can use mobility in a defensive manner aswell. Especially in WvW situations where there’s plenty of objects and height differences for you to work with.
Also, don’t forget about Dagger Storm if Rangers (wether they run Sic ‘em or not) are a problem. You can use it in several ways because of the fact that it’s a whirl finisher (Drop Shadow Refuge and whirl in it for LifeSteal, drop a smoke field for stacks of blinds…) Just be creative with whatever setup you’re running.

mmk, I actually got wireless internet, so there’s always been tiny bits of lag for me here and there.
But since ~3 days, I’ve been expierencing disconnections to the Character screen (after which I can just happily hit the “play” button again and comfortably log back into the game) and drops in FPS that lead to a complete either a complete standstill of myself and (N)PC’s, or a few seconds where I move, and the rest around me moves into a straight line until they crash into something (at which point I realise I’ve been lagging for several seconds allready…)
Game’s quite unplayable for me in this current state

I’ve noticed running into the same issue aswell.
Don’t know what’s causing it, but after thoroughly checking everything on my laptop (and desktop, it happens on both) it’s not on my end.
My internet connection has never been amazing and I’ve had casual lag before, but now it has become completely unplayable.
My character can run around while largely being fine (there’s a small delay that might be on my end, though it’s more noticable than before) and then, as soon as any form of combat is happening around me, or any other kind of effects… Character stands still, skills are shown to be pressed (they go light/dark/light/dark etc) and when the combat is over (aka. me lying dead on the floor…) the game runs “just fine” again.

So while I have always had a certain degree of lag (my internet is not superb, being wireless and all), I’ve never had disconnections or complete drop of FPS like I’ve been getting these past ~3 days.

Strange, pug raids usually have enough warriors and guardians along for Might and Fury uptime…
Anyhow, if you want to get Might/Fury, I’d suggest trying something with Trickery involved, running the trait(s) ‘Thrill of the Crime’ and optionally ‘Bountiful Theft’, depending on how far you want to go… I love Bountiful Theft against Necro’s in Plague Form… Steal that stability and let your pug zerg run him over >:D

so I learnt something aswell, I’ll proceed to infuse my Bakh Naghk (or whatever…)
Thanks

Arikyali.5804:

Despite how much people say SA is for the weak, you do need it in WvW. It’s not the same as PvP. Fights are never fair in WvW, and you’ll need all the advantage you can get to mitigate damage, especially when you get ganked.

Everyone fights dirty and runs cheese. There’s not too much shame in running SA in WvW.

I run S/D 2/0/0/6/6 (apperently this is the sPvP meta?) while roaming and I manage more than fine. While it might be that I’m good (though I doubt it), I manage to beat SA users without straining myself too much (DPS guardians or well built Warriors are a bigger threat, really). Shadow Arts really is a crutch as the builds that revolve around it are very predictable. It’s actually so bad that you can CnD on them while they’re in stealth because of that. Just dodge back as they stealth and you’ll find they largely run to you in a slight curve, mostly in a left arch like the clock goes because they are bound to a 4 second timer and need their stealth to really pose any threat to begin with, so dodge back and cast a proper timed CnD and you’re laughing. you can also time a second dodge to be in line with the distance they have to cover to hit you and they time left on their stealth.

Try to sugercoat it all you want, but Shadow Arts is a crutch that makes bad players think they’re good and gets players that are even worse to rant about how thief is OP and will continue to make us the target for yet another nerf bat.
Besides, it’s largely banned from any serious 1v1 situations, so it’s best to learn survive without it, if that’s what you’re after (yes, even in Obsidian Sanctum duels it’s laghed at).
You’re better of using your good own wit on a build you enjoy, even if it’s P/P (which is currently being seen more often and is even pretty effective at times). It’s a pick between enjoying a class, or enjoying a traitline, I supose.

Well, if you want to use a build as a crutch, P/D is the way to go.

I’ve been succesfully roaming on my Thief on S/D myself and I’m usually asked to clean up those P/D thieves, and well… They’re a handfull I tell you.
In fact, the noobier you play P/D (continously stealthing etc. just generally being boring and “unfair”) the more effective you will be. The only thing that holds you back from 1vX on P/D is your own sense of honour. (unless you’re fcing a small group of warriors who can smartly condi cleanse one another)

EDIT: I have to add, it’s boring and stale plus you’ll really be laughed at because you’re using Shadow Arts as a crutch and will be laughed at despite “winning” your fights.
But yeah, it’s an effective build I’ll grant it that.

Well, the Risk vs Reward as a thief isn’t really worth it when you look at the same thing for other classes.
Thieves are imo the most fun to play, hence I stick to it, but yeah… You’re making a safer choice going for one of the other classes.