Guild Wars 2

Devonas rest.. Levvi accepts nothing, largos says take a moment to recover..

Apparently canach is bugged to according to /m but I don’t even know what sent people to him cuz I never got a mail or item which mentions him.

I’m finding it funny and ironic that the acronym for it is “FOTM” which also stands for “flavor of the month”..

Cyanstorm.9613:

THEN it wouldn’t be a fair match would it? I have never played any other profession but warrior in Gw1 and GW2, my record against Mesmer’s is about 70/30% (the 30 I lose are against kitten good ones)
I will still fight you, I never run away from any challenges, from anyone.

I believe you are the guy I started a 1v1 with that ended up getting interrupted during our great battle then I /w’d you afterwards.. If this is the case, then yes he is a great Warrior and quite decent against Mesmers.

Well I got my butt kicked from 2 Envy Mesmers in 1v1’s early in my playtime today.. I’ve never been beaten 1v1 by a Mesmer (on my mes) so that was a learning experience. GG to both of you, Andromeda and whoever the other one was.

Later on in the night TRx fielded 7-10 guys and had a lot of epic battles on Kain bl which was a blast, thanks to all Kain/Ferg involved in those (even some 3 ways).

I really like this server matchup and really am not tired of it like some people have posted about being. I do hope Kain and Ferg can grab a few more guilds to make it more competitive in general but honestly I’m (and most of TRx) really in it for the open world PvP and we don’t really care a bit about the match scores. Kain and Ferg both really bring great PvP to us, so this is great.

I have so many people on my friends list from Kain and Ferg (since Devona has been against them for weeks).. I love this feature and set up skirmishes a lot with it, and give a GG or w/e for 1v1’s. Never have I had a bad experience with me /w tons of server rivals and often receiving them as well. One guy started to wig out on me at first but we talked for a few minutes and it turned out he was having a bad day and we became friends.. Just let us see names already and be done with it.

BTW I’ve also received several whispers from people who grabbed my account name off the forum after I posted in our serverVserverVserver topic. So what’s the difference?

Doomdesire.9365:

At least your opponents don’t level up while you’re fighting them

lol that has actually save me from death so many times.

I do think there are too many aggressive mobs in wvw and just mobs in general. Though I don’t mind the rally from them, it just annoys me when I get perm dazed by 5 raptors when I’m trying to fight a player..

Shadow.3475:

One more thing i think is a thif should not be able to do finish in stealth, when a player is down the thife should have to unstealth before pressing F, not as it is now he get unstealthed when his character is up in the air at the end off finishing move.
There you can have same but say add on 4 you unstealth any enemy close to you.

Sure but also remove the ability for every class in the game who can either stealth / invuln or stability stomp.

Hint: Every single class has one of these methods. (maybe not necros, dunno never played necro).

You can aoe those trebs just from the wall. I know this because on BG we built them there all the time and I spent lots of time defending them from rangers/ele’s on that wall aoe’ing them.

Rystlwulf.1476:

Asp – True, however, most of the complainers are players that don’t run around aware or prepared for instant action and don’t know how to play their classes as well as they should.

Dank, it sounds like you run a very similar set up to my Mesmer – are you traited 10,20,15,15,10?

Nope, my build is highly defensive as I’m quite often 1v3-5 or with some guildies in 2-5 man groups taking on much larger ones..

My build is a bit uncommon, but works great for me.
Dom-0
Duel-20 II,X
Chaos-20 III, IV
Insp-25 IV, III
Illusion-5

Full knights gear (armor, weapon, trinkets), except I have replaced the exquisite jewels in my trinkets with beryl’s.

Nobody mentions the best way to negate a backstab thief as a mesmer. It’s quite simple. Trait for regeneration proc at 75% hp, trait for protection proc when gaining regeneration. Done. Now laugh as steal/cnd or steal itself procs protection and backstab does 1-3k..

Thanos.2970:

Imperator totius Sylvari.9164:

From the sound of it you got bursted by 2 backstab thieves, you will die if any 2 glass cannons from almost any class concentrate a burst on you, but as a necro you do have some some counters, Reapers mark on the staff, place it on the area you and the engineer are on and let them come to you, the fear will break up nicely the thieves combo, once the combo has failed pick one of the thieves and both you and the engineer concentrate in killing him, at all cost prevent him from use hide in shadows(can be done with the fear from death shroud) get an immobilize(net shot from the engi’s rifle helps here) on him also from you saying the 20% speed bonus I doubt the thieves have any condition removal utility so immobilize and proceed to kill and if they use shadow refuge just aoe it.

If it had been any other 2 glass cannons I could have fought back in one way or an other. The problem in this case is, that you are dead before you know the fight has started. I guess they stood behind a rock or a corner and used camera movement to scout ahead and dropped shadow refuge as soon as they saw us just to get a long enaugh stealth to close in on us. We never saw them coming (and I constantly move the camera in WvW). As soon as they hit 900 distance one of us is dead. You have no chance to know they are there and when they will attack. There simply is no reaction time. I can not drop a mark before an attack if I do not know the attack is comming.

They have to actually LEAVE stealth before they can execute the combo on you. I’m sure they did refuge and flank to get behind you, but they still had to become visible before they can steal/cnd/bs or it would reveal them on steal and foul up everything. I do this to people all the time, it’s especially how I fight other thieves.

I’ve never once had a thief be able to sneak up on me like that though because I check my 6 like a paranoid freak. I can’t help you if you never see them coming other then say, be more paranoid lol, especially if after the first time or two you know they are out there stalking.

When you see them coming on the other hand, it’s quite useful to know by instinct how far 900 range is exactly.. 99% of thieves approach in the same way, obviously looking for the steal, and always hit it as soon as they get in range. So with this you can time a dodge, immobile w/e you wish to try countering with.

Once you have avoided the initial burst, engineer should definitely put down a supply drop those turrets are annoying as hell for thieves. And the engi should just concentrate only on CC’ing them with nets knockbacks etc.. CHILL really messes with a thief too, something you both have access to. Weakness is another one that will mess with them. Neither of these are removed with hide in shadows (poison, burning, bleed is). And both of them really mess up a thief who’s trying to pull off a backstab burst.

I can’t tell you much what to do as a Necro it’s basically the only class I haven’t put any time in playing at all. But I know when I fight them on my thief, the chills and weakness annoy the crap out of me.

Took my thief out for a spin tonight, had a kitten blast! Thanks Kain (not so much ferg tonight but a little bit) for the great fights.. Kudos to the noQQ thief who managed to tag me when I made a bad decision to try and rez someone who was almost up instead of finishing off your buddy. I think that was my only death of the night..

Calos.1350:

Why is it everyone so quick to blame xfers??? What about people who have been fighting in DR when both DR and Kain got there butts handed to them by fergs, borlis? Why no props too those who have gotten better, matured, learned to ninja, learned to protect camps, properly lay siege? All servers have gotten better, but everyone blames xfers, no props to those who have gotten better? I would like to see that more often, PRO themselves have said its not PRO, its DR! Since I have been with GASM when DR was nothing, and I had never played MMO before(go ahead and flame me) my guild taught me, taught plenty of new wvw’s, but no one gives props to people who have gotten better. Maybe this has a effect on why DR is winning? and I have seen Kain get wayyyyyyyyy better then when I started. Stop blaming it on xfers, hacks, exploits, and give some props to those who have come a long way and now kick kitten or u can just make excuses, GASM taught alot of newbies, RED and alot of other guilds have been there longer then xfers and have made a great impact, we learned, we are better, but no one says that? Kain has definetely matured, learned, and have gotten great, but everyone goes straight to xfers as the reason for success. I have seen newbies grow in my guild to be some of the best, its been months, maybe people in all DR guilds have gotten better? Can we get some props?

While people have improved and we were winning before, we HAVE gotten a ton of transfers and now the match is just a blowout. This is BORING. Kain and Ferg can field zergs in one map a couple times a day for some hours, but DR now has Zergs almost always at least on one map usually more. When you own the entire EBG or an entire enemy BL that is more often then not, numbers rather then skill.

Kasama.8941:

dank.3680:

Well I for one hate the Focus, and only use the Staff for situational purposes. The Centaur rune is useful in AND out of combat. I has gotten me that kill that almost got away, it has saved my kitten MANY times running from zergs, it helps a buttload to get 14(12 just from runes and I have 20 in chaos) seconds of swift during combat every time I heal, which means I’m swifted almost all the time in combat.

I might wear light armor, but my armor stat is about 2900, which is by no means squishy. Aside from that Mesmer has SO many ways to avoid damage when played well. In fact I find myself using my heal IN combat against multiple opponents almost more often just for the swift, then for the heal itself.

But to each his own, you may not like it, but you can’t argue it isn’t a viable choice.. I would not give up my Centaur runes on my Mesmer for anything.

It’s not about whether it’s a viable choice, or about me telling what people must do. I’m just making sure that people who are reading this know what they are giving up in return. Runes can do so much more then make you run faster, so using it just for that just seems ignorant to me, especially when there are other options that are of better gain. You can get Rune of Rage that can give you fury on top of your power, and then use Sigil of Speed that gives you 10s swiftness whenever you kill an opponent. Or, as said many times, simply use teleportation to move forward faster. Swiftness does really not make you move that fast.

Yeah yeah, its totally great stacking as much damage as you can for 1v1 or if you plan on standing in the back of a zerg… But when it comes to 1vX or small group on small group, swiftness is going to help a hell of a lot more then some extra damage. Swiftness is not only survivability (as a
thief player also, I know just how much harder it is to CND/BS someone who has a lot of swift uptime), but it also helps stay on your targets.. Remember the first thing a person does when they take a lot of damage is run away, if they happen to be a class with a lot of speed (lol most classes!) then they will likely get away enough to heal back up.

Saying it’s ignorant, is the same as saying its not viable BTW. My opinion is that it’s ignorant to concentrate on highest damage possible builds and ignore something that adds a ton to survivability. Again you don’t need it for some playstyles.. (ie 1v1’s or campin in the back of your zerg).. Some of us don’t play that way though.

I could easily say that my deaths would be doubled if not tippled without the swift on my centaur set.. That’s because I’m an aggressive player whos not afraid to jump into a 1v5, the extra gap making power given my swiftness allowing me to reposition much easier is a life saver.. And the many many many times it’s aided me escaping from a zerg..

The skills you describe are leaping death blossom (overhead leap that evades attacks, strikes 3 times and applies bleeds) and Cloak and Dagger, he strikes you and it stealths him. Condition removals and any interrupts to prevent the restealth is all I can really advise for you.

Kasama.8941:

Kanto.1659:

Except that it gives a 10 second buff and then you need to wait 15 seconds for it to recharge.

No, centaur rocks for everything. You also never need to heal at the start of a fight so the heal has plenty of time to recharge. If I would like to use other runes? Certainly, but I also like to reach where I want in a fast manner and 15 second gaps in swiftness is terrible.

Statistically speaking unless you lose the fight by 2% HP that extra condition damage that would have won the fight does not really enter the equation.

The staff can also give you 4 seconds swiftness, and you can use teleportation from the staff, or utility, to move forward faster as well.

Unless you are just running from door to door in Worlds PvP, or standing safely behind a wall casting skills, you do need to have your heal ready. It is very possible to turn a corner and run into a group of players. And since you are wearing light armor, it only takes an immobilize skill, or some quickness, to get your health very low fast.

I can get almost 300 more condition damage from runes. That’s equal to a full trait line, or about half the condition stats from an amulet. Runes make a big difference.

Well I for one hate the Focus, and only use the Staff for situational purposes. The Centaur rune is useful in AND out of combat. I has gotten me that kill that almost got away, it has saved my kitten MANY times running from zergs, it helps a buttload to get 14(12 just from runes and I have 20 in chaos) seconds of swift during combat every time I heal, which means I’m swifted almost all the time in combat.

I might wear light armor, but my armor stat is about 2900, which is by no means squishy. Aside from that Mesmer has SO many ways to avoid damage when played well. In fact I find myself using my heal IN combat against multiple opponents almost more often just for the swift, then for the heal itself.

But to each his own, you may not like it, but you can’t argue it isn’t a viable choice.. I would not give up my Centaur runes on my Mesmer for anything.

“The MOA Elite is a sign of a truly skilled Mesmer.”

“Omg the Mesmer got owned in that 1v1”

Braxxis.7062:

Willowisp.6490:

Here’s a few guilds that stand out to me as a challenge in small-scale situations.

On Devona’s:
Trx – Highly skilled groups, always fun to fight
Btsy – Incredibly frustrating thieves, and normally I don’t worry about thieves but these I tread carefully with.

On Kain:
iSpy – They seem fairly well coordinated, you can never find them alone or in small groups. A few of em are fairly good and tend to be a more difficult group to harass.

I felt I had more to list (esp for Kain) but as me and my ele guildie are so often 2v10 (and thoroughly enjoying being dedicated zerg harassers) we either decimate or are too busy moving as fast as we can to escape getting trampled. I only take mental notice of those guilds who are able to stalemate us or take us out so as to take them more seriously.

Lots of good fights out there!

The Spirit of Life – Legends of Moonglow [Moon] – Ferguson’s Crossing

Are you the Asura that was harassing us in Kaineng’s BL last night? It was two of you from [Moon] that kept coming at us on siege island. We’d kill the one and then the Asura would peace out faster then the roadrunner. Just could not catch the little guy.

Yeah it was him, and yes he is a slippery little bugger for a guardian..

Classes feel a heck of a lot more balanced imo.. Always thought the buffs were a horrible idea anyways.. I like the idea of orbs, but not for such an imbalanced reward..

TRx want’s to thank the huge Kain zerg for the hours of epic battle with our 6 man crew between redbriar and (greenlake?) tonight… We had loads and loads of fun, hope you did as well..

Embolism.8106:

^ The benefits you mentioned apply mainly to PvP. This is PvE we’re talking about. Monsters are stupid and usually attack Illusions anyway, there’s very little benefit in target breaking or confusing enemies or reviving friendlies (if you need to revive friendlies it’s probably a boss event that’s spamming loads of AoE which will hit you anyway).

Uh, the OP does not mention any distinction between his question being applied to PVE or PVP.. ME has plenty of benefits in PVE as well, but I would probably take Time Warp then.

Mass Invis is one more way for me to buy time while waiting on my heal CD.. Mass invis is another helping hand when rezzing downed friendlies.. Mass invis is yet another tool to escape when need be. Mass Invis is another tool to confuse my enemies and reposition to set up another burst.. And much more…

Hounds – A bit more damage for a small period of time..

Choice seems pretty easy for me .

Themanbat.3206:

@thenoobler: Balidore is extremely good, on his mesmer and thief (I can 1v1 him either way in sPvP though). Only reason you probably didn’t notice me is because I was on a level 12 most of that night. Anyways, when I’m on my mesmer, we’ve been able to kill around 7 at a time. Actually one Kaineng zerg was so bad we ninja’d a tower next to their spawn from around 15 of them with only a few less-than-useful people following us and held it for around a half-hour until their numbers doubled, all the while outside the wall racking up badges. Has anyone else even noticed ENVY, though? We’re a pretty small guild, but half of us win about 98% of 1v2s. So far only one ele from iGod and a few players in Bsty have had decent enough players to catch my attention, with the Bsty players only doing well when they worked together. After a while, though, they were using the spawn for cover. So sad. Have to go after zergs to get good fights most of the time :/

Just gotta say TRx (a small DR guild) has given ENVY plenty of good fights. Good enough that most of us have at least 2 of you guys on friends list from our whispers after epic battles.. We really love when we run into you guys, you’re one of the few guilds that gives us any challenge in an even numbers skirmish.

LoneWolfie.1852:

The only constant, sustainable viable backstab build I know of is S/D combination where there are a number of utilities, daze, blind, crippling strike, stealth, health regain under stealth and immobilize. That LOLBURST you mention is indeed a one hit wonder because every other skill and traits went into that. Is it gimmicky, sure. Is it overpowered in PVP? Erm…. I think I have huge trouble winning points or even escaping other players after using everything, and that cooldown is every 45 seconds.

Is it overpowered against WvW players? More often that not, killing anything below 80 and 80 with master gear is cheese easy. Full exotic geared players have a fighting chance and I think it’s 70/30 if the thief got it right, otherwise skilled players will hit endure pain or use their mesmer skill to run away.

The problem here is really the whiners are now coming in with their glass builds or master/rare gear and complaining about how instantgib build that has a 45 seconds cooldown should be nerfed. Get your exotics and learn to trait. The build isn’t unbeatable.

How is S/D a backstab build? lol… FYI I run 10-30-30 with valk armor/weaps and zerker jewels. Shadow/powder/speed signet and dagger storm.

(with ruby orbs in the armor bcuz im broke) It’s a balanced build that is both offensive and defensive, and works very well for sustained cnd/backstab attacks.

Amen.4293:

Bah you guys showed up before our wall could be completed.

Sorry, I did get a good laugh at all the rams though. Was actually kind of annoying accidentally targeting them sometimes.

I agree, I am for sure enjoying the balanced feeling fights without being overpowered because I have 3 orbs or underpowered because I have none and my enemies have them..

Those kinds of buffs that aren’t universal should never be in pvp combat, how are you supposed to balance classes around a variable like that..

I once seen a defensive flame ram on top of a tower wall, fully built of course.. Pretty sweet placement I thought..

Well we are a bit outmanned tonight on the maps I’m playing, but I’m having tons of fun anyways. Actually moreso because I love to be outnumbered in a battle.. If you ever see a big fat norn mesmer with a purple glowy sword charging balls deep by himself (or with a couple guildies) into your too large group, you met Dazlin. <3

You are a standout PvP class as a Mesmer, even at lower levels.. Level in WvW.

I think this would just dumb down the Mesmer.. Removing the need to do half of the critical thinking involved in a fight..

Knowing what skills/rolls I use when, and knowing that a Clone never replaces a Phantasm, I don’t think it’s hard to keep track at all.

Krathalos.3461:

dank.3680:

I suggest you watch the video and pay attention to the rangers skillbar. As soon as the thief hits him all the rangers skills go on CD most for 1.5 seconds some for 3, meaning he cannot possibly use any skills to escape (or break stun). By the time he has his skills available again, he is down to about 2.5k hp. He is ALSO immobilized so cannot move either. This guy is literally helpless in that situation.

I’m not saying it couldn’t have been avoided with a different build or utility setup.. Also like I said before it damage is fine imo.. I would just like to see more skill involved in the execution of the combo. (as a thief player because I like a challenge rather then a faceroll win, which is why neither my mesmer or thief use any build you will find on these forums and are built more towards fighting in outnumbered situations).

This is 100% his problem. If you don’t carry around a break stun, you’re fodder for every class. Guess what a glass cannon GS warrior with Bull’s Charge would do? The same thing but faster.

His situations were all avoidable.

Most class cannon Warriors in my experience use immobilizes (or knockdowns)rather then stuns to pull off big bursts.. In which case, rangers do not have a lot of access to removing immobilizes.

I also mentioned before, since it keeps being brought up, Warriors need tweaks in the way they can execute their huge bursts as well.. Again I don’t think it’s a damage issue, just ease of quick execution. I also agree with many Quickness is a huge issue.. I remember when I played my ranger how many LOL’s I had when I popped QZ into someones back with my shortbow…

My last opinion is probably pretty unpopular, but I think GW2 has FAR too many and too effective CC options.

On one hand shattering can be useless in a lot of situations especially against an opponent who moves around a lot and is smart enough not to stand around by all of your clones..

On the other hand I like that it takes a situational setup to get that big shatter burst and requires more finesse and skill.. I think it would be pretty OP if you were guaranteed that 3 clone simultaneous shatter every time. ’

One tweak I WOULD love is that my clones target my CURRENT target when I shatter them, rather then who was targeted when I summon them or in the case of dodge roll clones a tiny rabbit nearby.

I can’t edit but I’m guessing lightning reflexes would have not been put on cooldown from the stun, so like I said before a different utility setup could have helped.

To reiterate I really don’t want this tweak to be damage based, rather execution based.

NightyNight.1823:

You know you’re right..I looked more into it and you can’t break out of Basilisk Venom .But for your information Basilisk Venom doesn’t daze.It turns you into stone for a second and half.And you Shouldn’t be able to break free.Its a freakin elite skill .
Also , while dazed you’re free to move, even tho you can’t use your skills.
And no thief can kill you in a second and half.You have plenty of time to react and negate the rest of the burst (if you didn’t do it in the first place),evade and heal .Those hits is all they have.If they miss that burst they have nothing left but for you to kill them.If you can’t manage that well you’re just not good enough.Or what you just can’t keep up whit the speed?Thats just you buddy.Screaming for nerfs is just pathetic.

But I realy don’t mind Thieves getting looked at.Nerfing one area while buffing the other.Sure if it has too..for all of ya slowww people.:)I realy liked the other nerf on Assassin’s signet.Bring us more of those.

I suggest you watch the video and pay attention to the rangers skillbar. As soon as the thief hits him all the rangers skills go on CD most for 1.5 seconds some for 3, meaning he cannot possibly use any skills to escape (or break stun). By the time he has his skills available again, he is down to about 2.5k hp. He is ALSO immobilized so cannot move either. This guy is literally helpless in that situation.

I’m not saying it couldn’t have been avoided with a different build or utility setup.. Also like I said before it damage is fine imo.. I would just like to see more skill involved in the execution of the combo. (as a thief player because I like a challenge rather then a faceroll win, which is why neither my mesmer or thief use any build you will find on these forums and are built more towards fighting in outnumbered situations).

NightyNight.1823:

The majority of people here complaining about Thieves never even heard of stun breakers .The recent video added on Thief forum is just the evidence of that.Should we take them into consideration?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZMl4S4C7Sk

Please explain when he should have used a stun breaker… During the time when all his skills are unusable because he is dazed? Or while he was IMMOBILIZED since stun breakers work against immobile? oh wait..

That Ranger was indeed horrible and could have done better, but stun breakers would have not done jack in any of those fights..

Besides even if you USE a stun breaker most of them don’t free you up instantly and by the time you can do anything you already ate 3/4 of your hp bar in damage since the cnd-steal-bs combo is near instant and already in progress before the venom hits to stun you.. Even IF you use a stun breaker the thief gets to pull off that whole combo PLUS some auto attacks before you can move.

The only real effective defense is dodging the steal with some great timing, stealthing right before he attempts it, or a movement stun breaker like shadowstep or blink. Or any of the immunity skills such as endure pain, mist form, blurred frenzy(with great timing).

I should mention that I also have a 80 ranger which was my first 80 that I don’t really play anymore. I had a lot of frustration at first but in the end did learn how to deal with thieves effectively, though I had to build in a specific way and make sure I had specific utils (notably lightning reflex and sword 3 for evades while immobilized). But I definitely had to work a hell of a lot harder then the thief did with his gimmicky attack.

Thief was my 3rd 80 but I have put a ton of hours on him… I purposely use a more sustainable backstab build because I think the glass 1 combo burst is lame and not even fun… When I get in a fight I want it to feel like I outskilled my opponent… I’m sorry but getting in 900 range using a OP stun venom and pressing 3 buttons with a timing a infant could learn is NOT a skilled fight..

Let me be clear though before anyone responds to me. I am perfectly ok with the damage a thief can dish out, even in 1 combo.. But the way it is instantly dealt is not ok with me, even as a thief player.

For the record since people also keep bringing it up I also believe some Warrior skills could use a bit of tweaking.

And for the guy that brought up the “huge shatter mesmer burst”.. That takes a hell of a lot more setting up and is way more situational then any other classes burst.. You do realize you can avoid “burst” from a shatter just by strafing clones.. They are slow and kitten the only way to get a big burst is all 3 clones being right on the target when you shatter, in that case it’s your fault you got hit by it.

LoneWolfie.1852:

gaspara.4079:

dank.3680:

In my opinion (as a thief player), just adding a 5 ini cost to backstab would change a lot of things.. Sure you keep the initial burst, but then you REALLY do pay for it like people claim (oh I BS then I can’t do anything- BULL).. I can CND/BS repeatedly forever with my build even throwing a heartseeker in after every BS to keep gap closed. It’s a bit cheesy IMO / no I don’t use glass full burst build or use any stuns.

As others have mentioned making it so you can’t pre-cast CND then Steal would make a huge difference as well, it feels cheesy and gimmicky every time I do it.

Anyone who thinks the thief burst doesn’t need tweaked in some way is a poor player who is scared to adapt to a thief that would actually take skill to score kills.

When I can insta-gib a true 80 in wvw and I’m NOT berserker built, SOMETHING is wrong.

BTW – Those who scream oh just get some toughness.. My Mesmer is in FULL Knights gear armor/weapon/trinkets(exotic except for trinkets atm AND I have 25 points down the toughness trait line) and I can still be burst down in one venom by a glass thief.. If my Blink happens to be on CD when I get hit well GG, that is just lame IMO.

First off, but if you blink is on CD you will destroy them basically every time.

Honestly I feel that the only thing that needs to be done is put a .1 second cast on steal so that you can’t precast with it. This would hurt a couple of other precast usages but would force the thief to shadowstep in then have 1 second to cast and land CnD or would force them to use another mechanic to enter stealth or close the gap.

This would effectively force players using the all signets insta-gib combo to drop a signet for either a stealth or gap closer either of which would be on longer cool down than steal.

The main reason why CnD is paired is because the precast time for CnD is atrocious. Even if you shadowstep and hit that CnD it will never hit in time due to lag or miss half the time because the enemy dodges away. Makes me wonder why non-thieves are even trying to suggest solutions which will effectively cripple the thief class.

Wait…

Oh wait, I do play Thief… And I don’t use a LOLBURST build. I have a sustained backstab build, which means I do less damage per burst but use CND and Backstab continually during a battle. I am well aware of the cast time of CND, this is where actual skill and awareness comes into the situation so you can land it correctly the majority of the time. “Lag” which is hardly much of a factor in this game, is NOT something to base balance off of and is a lame excuse to boot.

In my opinion (as a thief player), just adding a 5 ini cost to backstab would change a lot of things.. Sure you keep the initial burst, but then you REALLY do pay for it like people claim (oh I BS then I can’t do anything- BULL).. I can CND/BS repeatedly forever with my build even throwing a heartseeker in after every BS to keep gap closed. It’s a bit cheesy IMO / no I don’t use glass full burst build or use any stuns.

As others have mentioned making it so you can’t pre-cast CND then Steal would make a huge difference as well, it feels cheesy and gimmicky every time I do it.

Anyone who thinks the thief burst doesn’t need tweaked in some way is a poor player who is scared to adapt to a thief that would actually take skill to score kills.

When I can insta-gib a true 80 in wvw and I’m NOT berserker built, SOMETHING is wrong.

BTW – Those who scream oh just get some toughness.. My Mesmer is in FULL Knights gear armor/weapon/trinkets(exotic except for trinkets atm AND I have 25 points down the toughness trait line) and I can still be burst down in one venom by a glass thief.. If my Blink happens to be on CD when I get hit well GG, that is just lame IMO.

Out of this whole topic I just find it funny you claim all he has to do is run around spamming #1, but all the things you describe him doing require him to do much more then that.. Clones don’t just appear from nothing, #1 skill doesn’t invis you, you can’t teleport with #1 skill and you most certainly don’t get invulnerability from the #1 GS skill.. Might also comes from the #2 skill, and knockback is the #5..

It sure sounds to me like he’s using every hotkey on his bar(with both his weapon sets) and is able to outplay you like that, while you run around relying on 1 trick (mr warhorn) that isn’t working and claim it’s game inbalance.

I use the Krait handgun skin, it has a nice big blade on it..

Wizardauz.3761:

how would you stealth… with a torch?

The same way Mesmers do it with the torch offhand skill that stealths them lol..

Since this match is coming close to an end, I just want to say thank you to Ferg and Kain. I have had some really awesome battles with a lot of you guys.. Made some friends through whispers on your servers after fun fights etc.. Made a few “friends” who like to come straight at me in crowds and /cheer on my corpse if I happen to die lol. Great fun down in this bottom tier!

P.S Looking forward to this rivalry to continue next week.. Some people I hear want fresh blood, but I for one like this unique opportunity to fight the same people for an extended time and get to know my enemies by sight..

I leveled 3 chars 20-80 in WvW and to me it was very fast.. I took the occasional break to do pve and it was way slower then what I could do in WvW and went right back to it.

You just have to know how to work it I guess for it to be fast.

Here are some examples of some super fast exp in WvW—

Find a tower near a supply camp that is being trebbed by the other team, a great and common example is durios in Eternal Battlegrounds. Run supply back and forth from the camp to repair walls at the tower, 3 repair runs earns a gold medal for the defend event.

Find a group of 3-5 people hitting supply camps and run with them.. If your server is assaulting a tower or a keep, get in on it.. Especially keeps give tons of exp..

Get on a siege weapon at a keep being attacked, again keeps offer the best exp from the events. You need to get kills or repair walls to get credit though which is why I recommend being on a cannon or arrow cart or something, though depending on your class you might be able to score kills yourself even as low level.

Go Yak hunting, pretty decent exp especially if you run with a small hit team and do it quickly.

Do the storm events whenever they pop up in the BL’s (the axe things in the lake in the middle). The middle one you might need some help with you, but the other three are as simple as swimming around collecting pearls (though you can kill krait to do them also).

Basically, take advantage of as many ‘events’ as you can and don’t waste time being in large back and forth field battles as it is a waste of time if what you’re after is leveling.

Well I noticed with my friend yesterday that I can’t see the glow from his backpack and he can’t see the glow from mine. It only glows on your own screen for your own backpack(book).

Honestly I watched the whole video and I don’t see any rendering issue… He becomes visible pretty much right away everytime he hits you from stealth. You always get him targeted right away also, so even if he rendered half a second earlier I don’t see any difference in the outcome of that fight..

Part of where it LOOKS like he fails to render is not actually so, he is using a shadowstep after exiting stealth numerous times.

The part I do find funny though is it is actually YOU enabling him to stealth so often. Everytime he uses all his heal/util stealth options (3 total since he has shadow step as 1 util, hide in shadows, powder and refuge), YOU then go into melee range letting him stealth with cloak and dagger. I saw several times you almost had him dead, he had used all his stealths and then you went and charged into melee range and he CND’d on you. You would have beaten him in those moments if you just continued to range attack him.

Also more food for thought, that pet of yours gives him another stealth option via CND.

So you came across 7 low level ungeared players, used Dagger Storm and downed them. But then you weren’t smart enough to CND stomp them, and you somehow think you are good? Crazy…

Yeah this trait has gotten me dead so many times by revealing me… Usually I want to use my refuge when I’m low on health obviously.. Sometimes this trait fires off the instant before I enter my refuge and I end up revealed or I’ll take damage while already stealthed in the refuge and get revealed, SO annoying.

I don’t have a problem with channeled spells hitting (except pet ones those are annoying lol), what I DO have a problem with is ‘Queued’ skills still hitting.

For example, I was about to attack a Thief, I saw him start the animation to ‘Hide in Shadows’, I then queued up my CND-Steal-BS he vanished right about the time I hit steal and was invis before I actually shadow stepped to him, yet everything still went through.

Lol, this is not a bug, this has been a bug FIX. It is NOW working as intended.

Auesis.7301:

What? Why would you want to stealth an enemy?

lol I’m pretty sure he wants to BLIND them not stealth them.