Guild Wars 2

Aga, I wrote out my build ideas so you could see not just what I have planned, but also the thinking behind my plans.

Teknomancer, thank you for the reply. I wasn’t aware of the problems with vamping. I don’t think that alone would be build-breaking as I am really good at the mobility part of not getting hit in the first place. If that’s all that’s wrong, I might go for it anyway. I’m also expecting the pets to die which is why I plan on being able to at least sorta tank for them. I guess it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.

Figure that topic will grab some attention. And I’m serious. I want to know why this plan of my is going to be epic fail.

First, background on how I play. My first level 80 toon was a thief. I’m really comfortable using dodge and mobility while fighting which is a must for that class. My second level 80 toon (I should also mention I haz no life) is a ranger, so I’m a big fan of pets. My third toon is a turret engineer (only level 55 so far). Actually, let’s just cut this part short.

Hello. My name is Xavori. I’m an altoholic.

Okay, my build. Weapons I’m debating dagger/dagger and something/focus (maybe dagger, maybe axe, maybe scepter). Warhorn is tempting too for speed.

I’m thinking of a minion build necro. The idea being tho that I’m the tank and maybe if my minions decide to attack (yes, I’ve read about necro minion AI bugs) they can do the DPS. This not only makes it a fun reversal for my ranger, but it plays into the traits that buff minions.

So, 30 points into Death Magic and Blood Magic and 10 points into Soul Reaping. Traits are DM: Minion Master, Flesh of the Master, and Death Nova. BM: Dagger Mastery, Vampiric Master, Fetid Consumption.

The net effect is I have maxxed toughness and vitality, very important for being the tank. I get the vampiric attacks for myself and my minions which helps me tank. I get minions that have a bit more health but explode when they finally die, cuz they will. I get free minons when I kill stuff. And the more minions I have, the tougher I am so I want to be able to resummon them as much as possible.

Now my concerns.

First, I’m going to be a tank in a pretty dress which is not exactly going to be helping me shed heartseekers, thousand blades, etc. Second, the obvious bugs with minions leaving me with pretty much no deeps if they decide to afk a fight. Third, I’m counting on using all three health bars to pull of the tanking thing, but haven’t done much to improve my death shroud or downed fighting.

So, has anyone used anything similiar to good effect, or am I just doomed? Are there some tweaks I could make to improve things, or am I just an idiot for dreaming about my little task force of fleshy things?

Heh. Simplified it MUCH further after playing in game with it a bit.

All you need is one line:

+RButton:: Send {rbutton down}

After that, click Shift+Right Button toggles the right button being held down, and just clicking the right button again toggles it back off.

As someone who has a couple health problems directly related to my hands, I really hate having to hold down a mouse button for any extended length of time. Since I’m also fairly addicted to the game, it was getting problematic.

Anyway, I wrote a very basic autohotkey script that does nothing but turns Shift+Right Click into a toggle that holds down the right mouse button allowing you to play the game as if you were holding down the right mouse button. Shift+Right Click again toggles it back off.

To use, just create a new script for AutoHotKey and use this script:

ToggleButton := false

^!k:: ExitApp ; close this script
^!r::Reload

+RButton::
If ToggleButton
{
Send {rbutton up}
ToggleButton := False
return
}
else
{
Send {rbutton down}

ToggleButton := True
return
}
return
______________________________________________

Jordo.5913:

also…people that are complaining about this build are probably running glass cannon builds….thieves usually go in and try to destroy the light/medium armor wearing classes…when i am on my Guardian or Warrior, a thief hardly ever targets me

I’ll target you. The joy of condition damage is that your armor doesn’t matter. And since I’m using a lot of Death Blossom and dodges, I’m evading most of your attacks. Throw in a Cloak and Dagger and my heal with stealth, and you don’t get to use your big slow attacks while I’m using my biggest and baddest: Backstab. And unless one of your buddies shows up to save you, you’re going to die.

That said, if I land in a stun (aka stupid elementalists blah) I’m just so much roadkill. I mean, I have slightly more survival in that case than the heartseeker build thief, but not enough that it’s really going to matter.

As for the people suggesting spamming dodge and CC’s and what not to beat a heartseeker thief. I’m thinking that’s pretty inefficient, not to mention really difficult since timing the dodge to the thief’s leap is tricky. You’re best bet is to start some kind of AoE even if you’re not sure where the thief is. In the case of elementalists, this is pretty easy since things like Frozen Ground will just totally ruin the thief’s day. The goal is to catch the thief once. After that, you get to dictate how the fight happens, and that’s a disaster for a glass cannon.

Instead of queuing for a specific battlefield as our only option, give us the option to queue first open WvW spot. The algorithm is a bit trickier since it has to essentially place you in every queue and then take you back out of them all once you enter a battleground, but it’s not totally out of line.

Next, create more maps like Eternal Battlegrounds that have a specific theme to them. Perhaps one with more PvE stuff that is smack dab on the routes between PvP goals. Then one with almost no PvE stuff and shorter runs between the control points. Maybe even one with some wonky new trick mechanics or something.

Between those two additions, the wait times for players should be able to get cut way down.

And then after that, we need to start looking into being able to queue as a group

Whargoul.9613:

Oh God Xavori! Common sense and intelligence does not belong here! Leave now! Lol

Prolly helps that I’m an altaholic (not sure if you ever played Champions Online, but I have 71 alts there smirk) and actually have a warrior, engineer, elementalist, mesmer, and ranger. I’d have more, but I forced myself to not buy more than one character slot until I get the rest of them to 80 (my main, the thief, is already there).

I’m also a big fan of sPvP where you can try out pretty much any build you want with your character to see what they can, and more importantly, cannot do.

I’m a d/d shortbow loving thief, and it comes down to what I’m trying to do.

In PvE events where you have swarms of enemies, it’s all about shortbow with choking gas to not only poison everything, but to set up the poison combo for all the other ranged projectile peeps. In sPvP, shortbow is a good way to start a fight against a group of opponents because again, choking gas poisons them all. The last thing the shortbow is good for is the AoE’s fired at the people up on walls in WvW. Ya, you have to get a lot closer than the rangers and elementalists, but it lets you be somewhat useful during the time when you’re waiting for the gate to drop.

The daggers are just so much damage. Death Blossom to stack bleeds. Your default auto-attack poisons. Heartseeker is a great closer/finisher. And of course Cloak and Dagger – run behind – Backstab. Good times.

So you ran into a thief was was all about burst damage. A heartseeker thief is going to be pretty good against one target who doesn’t fight back. But then he’s out of initiative and is going to be pretty helpless against the second target.

I’m curious what you’d do if you ran into me. See, I never use heartseeker. At all. I’m a condition damage / mobility thief. I’m going to poison and bleed you to death while never letting you use any of your big attacks. Sure, I can’t rip into huge swathes of enemies ala the elementalists. I can’t set up an area to defend before turning myself into a fire breathing monstrosity ala the engineer. I can’t wade into the thick of battle hitting multiple enemies with every swing ala the warrior. There are a whole bunch of things I can’t do that other classes can.

But what I can do is really ruin the day of 1-3 people at the edge of a fight. I can run down anyone trying to escape. And, I can get out of almost any fight if things start to go badly.

Kinda weird how it worked out that each class is good at some things and not at others, eh?

p.s. To the OP:

Before you poo-poo my ideas on the thief, keep in mind I’m a level 80 thief and have yet to lose a one on one fight in either sPvP or WvW. I’m sure it’ll happen eventually (in fact, I have an idea for an elementalist build that should be able to completely counter thief mobility), but so far, so good.

More importantly, so far, so much fun.

Thieves in the game have a pretty good set of roles. In PvE, we are high DPS with high mobility making it likely we’ll live through most fights (unless you get brave aka stupid). In PvP, there is likely no better class at one on one fighting. This means if you catch people alone in sPvP (happens all the time) or wander the edges of the zerg in WvW, you should be creating quite a bit of chaos. And oh, ya, with thief mobility and steatlh, it’s really easy to get out of trouble once the enemy zerg realizes you’re picking them off.

Speaking of stealth, add me to the list of people opposed to perma-stealth, and keep in mind I play the rogue-ish character as my main in every single MMO I’ve ever played.

Stealth in GW2 does a few things, and does them amazingly well.

First, it sets up your backstab which is a pretty nasty hit. In PvE, this gives you a headstart. In PvP, it’s a pretty significant psychological trick that can often cause your opponent to panic. Nothing like having someone you didn’t see take 25% or so of your life at the same time they appear.

It allows you to control the pacing of a fight, ie. you can duck in and out of stealth fairly often. Combine that with dodging and all our skills that have dodges built in, and unless your opponent gets lucky, they’re not going to be able to get any of their big hits in on you.

It’s awesome escapability. Fight starts going bad? Stealth, dodge, and run. Heck, we have a great movement speed signet if you really want to be able to get out of trouble (or alternatively, if you want to chase down people in PvP who are trying to escape).

What stealth does not do is allow you to be stupid. You have zero business leading the zerg against the enemy. You also cannot try to sneak into the middle of the zerg looking for squishy finger wagglers. You cannot wait until the very last second to pop stealth versus AoE or sustained attack opponents (like the ranger machine gun arrows). In short, it’s not some unbeatable ubermechanic that makes thieves better than any other class.

What it is, is a good tool to help thieves do what they do best. Kill opponents while limiting said opponents ability to fight back.

My suggestion:

I’m a dagger/dagger condition damage thief who lives on mobility and stealth to get in and out of combat pretty much at will. My build is 30 points Deadly Arts, 20 points Shadow Arts, and 20 points Trickery. The key thing is I’m loaded up on stuff that proc’s on steal and makes poison work better/longer most of which also benefit bleeds.

Just to give you an idea. When I steal, it proc’s Serpent’s Touch poisoning my target, and Lotus Venom weakening them. I also have Exposed which is 10% bonus versus targets with a condition, ie poisoned. I have Thrill of the Crime which gives me and any allies near me Might, Fury, and Swiftness for 10 seconds. Oh, and I have Hidden Thief which stealths me when I steal. All that adds up to my target being in big trouble.

So, steal to pile on my benefits, then backstab my target. Then I hit a pair of Death Blossoms (#3 attack) which stick 3-6 bleeds on my target and anything near them. Since I’m built for +condition damage, those bleeds hurt. I then hit Cloak and Dagger which puts me right back into stealth for another backstab. There is a really good chance my target is dead and never got to hit back.

However, if target is still alive, I dodge backwards leaving caltrops via Uncatchable. This means my poisoned, bleeding near dead opponent is also now limping, and I have a moment or two to collect my thoughts, perhaps make a snarky comment or two in chat, etc.

I also make heavy use of the Hide in Shadows heal, and not just as a heal. It’s stealth. So not only can it heal, but it can also set up backstab or let you escape from a fight that is going badly.

Okay, after much fiddling around and putting my 30+ years of leetzor computer experience to work digging through all kinds of settings and registry entries, I fell back on the classic uninstall-reinstall drivers.

And I’m up to 35-40fps again.

It kinda reminded me of telling customers I’d built computers for to try turning them off then on again (which solves a remarkably high number of problems).

At least I didn’t have to resort to percussive maintance…

Running Win7 Ultimate 64 bit
nVidia 550ti video
306.02 drivers

Prior to tonight’s (Sep patch, including the beta, the game solid at about 35-40fps. Tonight, it’s getting 10-15 which is near unplayable. For kicks, I jacked it up to high quality and got it to 1 fps, and low is only getting me to 17-20.

Not sure what changed because again, it was running great right up until I got booted for tonight’s patch. Logged back in, and blech.