Guild Wars 2

Everything revolves around the dagger eh?

Pyrial.2917:

No, the pvp playerbase complains that there is nothing to play toward. Let me just get ahead of the, “play for fun” comment. Let’s see how much fun the pve playerbase has when we stick them in the same instance and have them kill the same mobs that now drop now loot. Yeah, have fun!

Don’t they do that to themselves already?

60% of the forums is complaints.

It seems by design PvE has been given tools to make expanding it relatively easier.
PvP seems to want more UI which is apparently harder to do with the way they coded the game and in general (CA, Spectating)?
Ignoring the higher focus on it.

Dinster.7063:

Why people keep telling, that they quit pvp because of no balance and “viable builds”?

I honestly believe, that we can call it a non-GW1 player.

Horse crap.
If people aren’t enjoying themselves they’re going to leave this is common sense.
Builds also represent playstyles and variance if a weapon is not viable that itself can imply a certain feel of play is not possible which in term means some of the interest in playing diminishes. Why play the game from the get-go if you do not enjoy it? That is reality, you’ll go find something you enjoy. Even with fotm you could spin it off, make it your own, each profession basically had a set role, but there were different ways to hit it to enjoy yourself while remaining competent. Gw2 is oddly worse when they’ve purposefully limited skill choice to prevent incompetence and aid balance…wtf?

But its freaking GW2, not WoW or any other MMOrpg! You can create a character and make a build, which is suitable for you within 20 mins.

and make a build, which is suitable for you…but you tell em to reroll ele if they want to run a certain weapon :o? Wot.

Again, it depends on the aim of the player. If you want to have fun with your uberproGSslashBANNERslash2xMACE warrior, then its ok, keep crying. But if you want to win tourneys, be good at spvp, then swallow the fact, that warriors suck, log out and create the freaking ele.

You should fundamentally see an issue with that when they restricted skill options with the idea that the weapon someone brought would not be a problem and as such a good reason to limit the choices of GW1. Sure if they’re running banner+kick or some nonsense then definitely something doesn’t add up.

Every weapon seen as unviable itself speaks poorly on them, forget utilities. If a weapon is mediocre wtf is it in the game for, when they want it to give a certain level of competence?
Or actually screw it lets quote them

Eric Flannum: Our goal remained the same. We wanted to keep the customisability which Guild Wars had. If I’m a Ranger in Guild Wars, I can be a very different character. I could have a hammer and a pet and be a melee character or I could have a bow and interrupt and harass other characters. They’re very different play styles, and you can customise your plays tyle. That was really important to preserve in GW2.

Rao Rangers had play, and of course our Disabling shot monster of old. You see this throught GW1, Deadly arts-deadly paradox sins and the traditional DM+CS builds? Hammer linebacking or Axe wars? There were more viable builds in GW1 with it’s clusterkitten of skills then when skill choice has been restricted for viability…that is terrible.

Eric Flannum: One of the issues we always ran into is that some players are not good at building those characters. We went through making sure that we didn’t take the customisation out, but also made it so you can’t make a really, really bad character. * In Guild Wars 2, for example, the first half of your skill-bar is determined by what you’re holding in your hand. So if I’m a warrior and I have a sword and a shield and then I switch to a great sword, my first five skills which change to reflect to show that I have a greatsword now. Those aren’t skills you drag to your skill-bar – they’re skills which are determined by your profession and what you’re holding. *That way we’re sure that people have at least basic, usable skills which they can build on top of. The second 5 are ones you can slot yourself, and enhance your basic functionality.

Any weapon seen as nonviable speaks poorly on them. Utilities being nerfed is one thing, the weapon skills must be solid on their own.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/04/28/guild-wars-2-interview-part-1-fighting-fires/

That haste nerf had me feeling so poor.
Until I asked myself.
“Wtf am I supposed to be doing”.
Played some other games.
Bet it all on black.
Feel like I can use my thief again.
Feels good.

MrForz.1953:

The problem is that the Thief isn’t an assassin by default, more of a duelist actually, I’d prefer having more creative ways to fight and adapt rather than a set of weapons that give you the opportunity to clone whatever assassin or ninja you’re drooling at.

Lies the thief is an assassin rebranded.

Look at the “executioner” trait for instance.
“Hidden Killer”
Shadows and acrobatic?
They said they decided not to name it the sin because of Cantha or some nonsense like that.

Stop.

The rangers melee is generally supplementary to their Range.
Hence how both feature evades, and movement. Giving you defense for someone closes the difference. Though if you want to do dual melee I suppose that is an option…

Huh I don’t see the issue.
I can’t even remember the last time I was in Rata sum prior to this update.
There was pretty much zero reason to be in Rata sum to worry or give a rats behind about immersion.
Not that it mattered since everyone knew from day 1 Asura were a what’s it called “Deus ex machina?” race. They can do anything. They’re a magi-tech race. Charr are industrial and humans stuck in their castles.
Hell just looking at it, it looks like another Asura thing until you pop in.
So if you don’t like it, you never have to actually stop in, to see the change of direction.

Don’t see me up in Southside Cove.

Had more fun with the funbox then I did in the entirety of gw2 pve excluding the fight with eye of Zhaiten :o.

If you don’t try it, I think you’re missing out on something you have paid for this time around.
Oh and fused weapons are from the gem store if I recall so…

Resouled.5614:

Well no wonder we barely have any PvP features.. They’re all working on this kind of stuff. How awesome these random events may be I’d rather have them focus on one thing at a time.

Event has more interested in gw2 than spvp.

They should’ve made it a spin kick like Ryu so you can kick people behind you…

Leash range stretches farther than Stretch Armstrong

Gandarel.5091:

Groups of 3 or more entering together. If below 3 you can’t join, how fill you find the mising 2 or 1 member? So only full teams could join that.

“Looking for 2 more”.
That’s how you fill it.

To put things in perspective.
Spirit watch itself is very buggy when it comes to Shadowsteps.
The bottom right, top right and top left bridges have dead zones in their middle where you cannot shadowstep. I do believe this extends to some other areas in the map, however primarily if it tries to path itself through the bridge then it’ll screw up since those are deadzones.

Shukran.4851:

ensoriki.5789:

Hitting people with Backstab is easy and typical.

if they are sleeping yes. a normal opponent should avoid it or he will be not normal.
play thief for some time. it sharpens your reflexes

You could try an original response.
Hitting Backstab “IS” easy.
What helps dodging it is that every thief telegraphs it with Basilisk Venom giving you a 411 that your about to be backstabbed.

Hitting people with Backstab is easy and typical.

Valkyriez.6578:

You have just spelled out the exact reason for their nerf to quickness all by yourself. *You state that it was a necessity of every single build of warriors and rangers. In order for build variation to even possible in the future, quickness had to be reduced and hopefully they go the whole hog and remove it completely so that skills and the rest can be tuned to not be reliant on a mechanic that never should have made it out of beta. *

Since he said what I wanted to say.
Reinforcing for emphasis.

mursie.3681:

i guess that is my problem.. always has been. I want a team game scrim but with the hopes that everyone is equal and anyone can kill anyone. I.e. counter-strike. Your team scrims another team…but you can individually kill any one on the other team. Not some bullkitten where “oh he is a ele… i’ll have to just leave and give them the win”

I guess i wasn’t cut out for games like this.

So switch the match-up?
Reality is there is not perfect 1v1 balance unfortunate as that may be, and on some level you can assume it is intentional.
Man you know what Blind Bot eles used to do standard Assassins and Warriors man if they were given the chance? Tell them to go sit in a corner.

If I’m playing Pokemon and got Blissey out to counter X and he throws in hell a Zangoose with Brick Break, Blissey gotta get warped out or im sacrificing her.

Been trying out Smite lately. My Arachne isn’t like My Odin, he can go up against a hell of a lot head on, no problem. Arachne looks for people who are weakened and eats their face. I see the thief as the guy who eats off someones face while weakened primarily though we can 1v1.

I’ve noticed this as well. Brb want to do 2 HS, end up doing 3. It’s a bit delicate so eh I just acted more consciously with it…

No the way quickness as a buff works now is fine.
Increased attack speed has to be considered a temporary multi-purpose dps boost as both an alternative to Might or % buffs like Assassin’s Signet or the Ranger’s Opening Strike, and as something that can co-exist with them. Since quickness also allows you to get off your heals faster and revive faster it’s obviously significant, however it should clearly remain a choice and not something that determines viability.

When Anet told us about weapon-skills before Beta instead of the GW1 system, they said it would be easier to balance. They said utilizing weapon skills would help to ensure a level of competence in every build. If utilities are required to make weapons viable by them-self, then they failed and need to work on their weapon sets.

Ensign.2189:

In the case of Pistol Whip, I personally don’t want to see the damage nerf undone. Instead, I’d like to see the half second delay before the stun lands shortened, which will both improve the DPS of the skill when weaved into a combo, as well as empowering the stun aspect of the skill.

Still, yes, a lot of things that were being held back by quickness can be buffed now, let’s hope that happens.

I do appreciate significant design changes. Though the shock of losing haste made me want some quick fixes.
I wish there was a “fan” type of combo finisher. Every time I Pistol whip in a Smoke field I wish I could fan out some blind.

And then you were backstabbed from +15% dmg + 5 stacks of might.

What you’re seeing is being compacted into a small time frame since the month is ending.
Come April they’ll be spread out and less of an issue.

: Agreed. In the coming patches we have plans to give the Warrior: more resistance to movement hindering condies, the ability to punish boons, and we want to improve some of their specs that are out-shined by 100 b’s.

GW1 style John?
Time for some Mage Hunter Smashing on dat Hammer know what I mean?

If you can spare 4 minutes from the office.
How you envision, P/D, P/P, S/P and S/D going forward or in other words what are the “general” roles you have for each of these weapons? While it feels obvious, at this point I want clarification. Going by the profession outline given some months ago, how you see these sets. P/P is not mobile or stealthy, and tbh outside of quickness, it can be pretty slow for “single-target burst”. In a December post it’s utility was emphasized a bit as a feature of it. Have you changed ideology or am I not seeing what you see?
So we’re clear going forward please, explain, thank you :O.

No.

I contend to this day that Potent Poison is an absolutely horrendous trait.
If you use D/ or Shortbow, you get all the poison you need honestly from an auto attack, Kleptomaniac or Choking gas.
If you use a S/ or P/ your options are kleptomaniac, Needle trap or spider venom. There is also the weapon sigil for poison but w/e.
Anyways basically on one end the poison application for thieves is very high, and on the other end it is very niche. Regardless extending poison by 33% does very little for you as a thief because it is so easily applied relatively speaking.

Sundering Strikes is another problematic trait because it’s based on criticals. If it was just a 40% chance I’d root for it more, but I think it’s rather alienating and almost encourages you not to take it.

Zenith.7301:

Why did spirits and guardian spirit weapons become destructible while banners remain immune?

Banners are environmental weapons.
You can’t destroy an Elementalist Conjures either.
If you’re comparing things, then you compare Banners to Conjures or hell even the Elixir gun and Flamethrower an engineer drops on Downed.
Conjures are buffs to an individual and a set of weapon skills.
Banners are buffs to a group and a set of weapon skills.
Ranger Spirits are more like Engi turrets and Guardian Spirit weapons than Banners IMO.

Jon if you’re reading this, remember the Ritualist skill Summon Spirits?
If you want to help banners along you should let a warrior be able to summon back his Banner via a chain skill. Would be a “small” step in the right direction.

Okamakiri.8746:

Like you did with the “Revealed” nerf?

Zing!

Maugetarr.6823:

ensoriki.5789:

Maugetarr.6823:

ensoriki.5789:

D/P

….probably this. Been using D/P + S/D since the patch. Great utility with added defense from blinding attacks. People will be annoyed that even though they can see the thief they either can’t hit them or get interrupted. D/P dual puts heartseeker to shame post change, especially considering the reverse shadowstep that occurs if it’s reflected.

D/P is an anomaly among the other 2 /P sets which are less reliant on their stealth attacks but like them as a temporary boost or effect.
I would not be surprised at all if like the haste nerf everyone saw coming from beta. D/P loses it’s self-stealth access in favor of stronger effect on it’s dual and improvements on the Pistol off-hand in general. As it is now, D/P creeps quite strongly in the /D (current) usage of focusing on stealth to get off Stealth attacks.

That’s me playing prophet however.

Maybe, but the self stealth takes such a huge amount of initiative I’m not sure it will be removed. People complain that thieves don’t have to think or plan their escapes, but when that combo takes 3/4 of your global cooldown to accomplish, there is either forethought to using it or dodges till the initiative can regenerate itself. Not to mention right now it seems as though the 1 extra second of stealth does not affect this trait so its power is limited unless you take the time to HS through it multiple times making sure not to nick anyone in the process.

You could be entirely right though as I didn’t see the revealed time extension coming.

In terms of boosting our utility/staying power (which the said they are looking into….) It would be nice if quick pockets (trait name?) reduced weapon swap cooldown also to either 5 or 7 seconds so we had more flexibility in combat. 3 initiative every 10 seconds assuming I weapon swap right then (locking me out of a tactical swap later) is lackluster compared to 2 initiative passively every 10 seconds. It’s not that its bad, its just that it offers nothing that makes me want to trait to 30 to get.

I know it’s expensive, just using the prophetic eye.
Lulz if Executioner gets nerfed before years end.

Masa.2193:

thieves are still fun class to play but there is NO room for a thief on 5 man tpvp since only type of gameplay is conquest.With burst spec you could roam around and try to get fast kill but now that isnt possible since everyone is playing bunker and if u dont finish your target in 2-5 sec they will fully heal up and burst you down even faster.Haste is worthless now and with 1 additional sec on revealed is making a big difference.I think that “bunker” builds need to be tuned down a bit.With that there will be a spot for thief/warrior or whoever.Thieves were never a problem in tpvp for decent player but a good elementalist/guardian will always waste alot of your time and with that you end up loosing your game. Spvp is hanging on a silk thread since meta hasnt change for last 9 months.One more thing, there is only one or two viable builds for thief same goes for the rest of classes.This game is based on idea of multiple builds and versatile teams and we dont have that.

Doing 1v1’s isn’t uncommon but it’s not really what you are there for to begin with. So when you’re attacking the ele, more often then not he has external pressure on him from a teammate of yours.

Maugetarr.6823:

ensoriki.5789:

D/P

….probably this. Been using D/P + S/D since the patch. Great utility with added defense from blinding attacks. People will be annoyed that even though they can see the thief they either can’t hit them or get interrupted. D/P dual puts heartseeker to shame post change, especially considering the reverse shadowstep that occurs if it’s reflected.

D/P is an anomaly among the other 2 /P sets which are less reliant on their stealth attacks but like them as a temporary boost or effect.
I would not be surprised at all if like the haste nerf everyone saw coming from beta. D/P loses it’s self-stealth access in favor of stronger effect on it’s dual and improvements on the Pistol off-hand in general. As it is now, D/P creeps quite strongly in the /D (current) usage of focusing on stealth to get off Stealth attacks and the line between the two on one hand of the game is somewhat blurred. Where kitten P and S/D clearly do not overlap as a result of stealth access, nor do P/D and P/P.

That’s me playing prophet however.

If I was not on my phone I would go in depth. Your changes are very short sighted and blatantly function towards /D at the cost of 3 other weapon sets. In addition instead of simply directly solving the issue as they planned in the sotg, you go out of your way to affect traits that would all of had ICDs of 3s minimum had Anet done what they originally planned. You’re straight reducing efficiency on great levels for near any build type whatsoever to try and prevent chain stealth while still keeping it. The only outlier is D/P which is what your changes are actually worth considering until you recognize how you crap over diversity and try to force trait roles worse than it can be now.

Til;Dr: no thanks.

D/P

A couple months ago you were preaching how after the S/D nerf D/D was the only viable thief and you played D/P “knowing it was mediocre”. I believe Caed corrected you then and low and behold even before shadow shot was fixed D/P became the main thief build.
Sometimes yoi don’t know it all brah.
Last month I believe you were debating Haste vs Signet with Caed and accepted the siggy as an alternative so knowing signet is untouched how can you threat. Its not like you run anything unorthadox or uncommon.

5 eles lol go ahead I’m pretty sure even at their current state sales have counters if top play is serious 5 eles will be counter comps if it gets too common especially since char swapping is still in effect.

On a mainstream level nothing changes but a utility and possibly 1-2 traits in a line you already run. Im high positive haste is still effective at compacting damage as well gives you a slightly better than normal stomp and quicken revives.

Literally if you ran siggy you have no change but the reveal increase and that was being run successfully.

Use a greatsword.

25/25/20
Mug, Quick Venoms
Furious something and or other + Side strike.
Slow pulse + Leeching venoms.
Berserker, srs.
Poison venom, filler venom, Filler skill/third venom, Basilisk or thieves guild.

ATM I’m using traps mostly like melee attacks esp against Rangers since the pet diffuses…

SA is still useful in practical combat. You weren’t going to land your CND every 3s on people trying to stay afloat. Venoms are also useful.
I’d say more but I can’t even comprehend how people think its trashy now.

My immediate response after seeing PW die… Was to go to venom share since I didn’t need haste with that. However I solo que so it wasn’t as practical as it.could be. So…. I’m playing with 25/25/20 ATM while I brainstorm.
Really enjoying 4s immobilize on needle trap too.

You get glory already you don’t lose it.

Shukran.4851:

i wqas hoping in a pw thief revamp…nvm i will wait for the next patch playing other games

Still trying to make it work. Realized for what I want to do with my Swords now means essentially the inability to solo que if trying to be potent. Unless I can make up damage with crit venoms and get the extra 300 or so + conditions to make up for anything. Normal venom share works still but again desires more coordination than normal solo join Q_Q. I’m gonna make it. If you want to burst as a non dagger thief now you are better off asking an elementalist for their FGS or lightning hammer lol…

I’m getting too old for this back and forth.

There is no elite I hate more in this game than Rampage as One…

Should double it.

Brb found the missing patch notes.
Stealth: 3s reveal when you leave stealth.

Sword:
Tactical strike – Removes a boon if they’re over 50% health.
Inf strike damage increased 15%
Pistol whip damage increased 10%. The pistol stun can affect multiple foes.
Flanking strike 2nd hit grants 4s of Fury.

Main hand dagger:
Death blossom hits 15% harder

Off-hand Dagger:
Dancing dagger dmg increased 33%

Off-hand Pistol:
Headshot dmg increased 80%
Blinding powder damage increased 80%.

Needle trap: Damage increased 20%
Tripwire: Damage increased 20%
Ambush trap: reduced recharge to 30.
Shadow trap: reduced recharge to 25.

Inf signet – Removes 1 boon.
Scorpion wire – Removes 1 boon.
Signet of agility – reduced to 25s recharge

Pain response: Healing skills remove an extra condition (applies after their normal condition removal) (15s ICD). Gain 10s of regeneration when hit under 75% health, (30s ICD)

Assassin’s reward. Increased base healing per initiative to 75.

Initial strikes – Increased to 10%.

Volrath.1473:

@ensoriki.5789
That build doesn’t work either, the hidden thief trait is broken after the patch. There is no 100% crit chance from stealth. Even it it was working you can’t kill bunkers and unfortunately bunkers are all there is in spvp.
So pointless to go GC. the self heal build is also not viable due to the reveled nerf and condi is the easiest build to counter.
All it’s left for thieves is take a brake and come back in a few months or reroll.

GJ anet!

Im not running Hidden thief or killer.
Doesn’t work with Pistol whip and a waste on Tactical strike.

However I do believe it’s time for a brake for now.

Pve fixes…lol.

Liewec.2896:

CachoDm.4639:

Lol won’t ever play an anet game anymore. I want to stop playing but I dont know what other game to play anybody knows which one could be good?

if you like FPS games Planetside 2 is pretty fun, and free
thats where i’ve migrated to since anet made it clear they don’t care.

Im on Waterson brah, what you roll?
Don’t tell me you’re one of those Vanu lames.

Same 25/30/0/0/15. Tried acrobatics.
Tried Trickery.
Either way I’ve lost a lot of damage.