Guild Wars 2

I still think it is more valuable than a second melee set. I mostly roam with friends in a small (2-4) group. Playing zerker 66200 I often need to get out of the fight to recover some health or cooldowns. While doing this I can bounce SB autos for 2000-2400 damage each, which is nothing to scoff at, all the while laying aoe weakness and bleeds on the enemy party.

Heck, I’ve even kited a lot of (bad) warriors and guardians from full health to death using only SB and Shadowstep utility.

Idea 1: Just change it back to 3s, it wrecks the rhythm of thieves who enjoy WVW and sPVP on a daily basis. Alternating between 4s and 3s in different content sucks.

Idea 2: Make it build dependent. If ANet insists on having a 4s revealed in the game, I’d say for thieves balance it around the usage of SA 15pt minor trait Meld In Shadows. If the player chooses to go deeper into SA and gets this trait, then make revealed 4s for this player.

This will also serve to balance SA line a bit, since it’s currently very strong. Having your stealths last longer, it might be fair to have your revealed also last longer.

My thoughts only cover the usage of revealed on the thief class, not sure how this idea could be utilized on other stealth using classes.

I’d appreciate your thoughts!

This guy has a few videos up. Some of them are a bit old, but still current since it’s after the ferocity nerfs, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46os-KhN7yQ

And here is some more from another guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1PBgvUsMRo

Cheese is whatever you used to win it appears, even if you ran a sub-optimal build (Im running 6/6/2/0/0 d/d glassy glass) . Last night an enemy S/D thief running perma-evade 2/0/0/6/6 with signet of agility fought me. Like most bad s/d thieves he hit me once or twice then continues to evade and roll around for about 5 seconds. So I just waited for him to blow all of his endurance then I BV, C&D and backstab him dead. Countless angry whispers ensued, like ‘OMG cheesy scrub D/D L2P’

Receiving messages like that feels like a double win for me!

Justine.6351:

godmoney.6025:

All they have to do is remove the shadow step mechanics from it and have the character movement aspect of it act like Mesmer’s portal.

While it should work better, this would make gankers rediculous because of the numbers associated with the trap. Adjust the numbers like CD and it would only ever be used by gankers.

Pardon, but I’m not sure what you mean. All we want is for the shadowstep action not to fail when the path is obstructed by elevation, etc. like in certain pvp maps or wvw obstacles

Fat Disgrace.4275:

D/d can work if you want it too. Having good results with 4/0/4/0/6. (mug/dagger training. Shadows embrace, xxxxx. And the usual trickery traits). With pack runes and totc, you get an easy 75% fury uptime so you don’t “need” hidden killer.

Don’t you feel that missing some of the steroid 25pt traits decreases your damage by too much? You do have the survivability and utility trait to make up for it though.

If we get unarmed combat then I suppose we need unarmed weapons (spiked knuckles, etc) , so that people can get cool skins for it, because looking cool is important.
And besides, a unique weapon style for one class isn’t gonna happen. Oh and Legendary Fist, that I’d like to see.

Depends on what you are trying to achieve.

I like blowing up my roaming enemies in WVW with backstabs before they have time to react so BV really is my only option.

If you want more pressure in sPVP on a node 1v1 then TG is a good option, the CD sucks though.

If you want rangers to dodge their own arrows, DS is a good option.

All they have to do is remove the shadow step mechanics from it and have the character movement aspect of it act like Mesmer’s portal.

D/D is viable in WVW and in my opinion the most satisfying to play when you pull it off effectively. Most D/D thieves prefer 30 SA, I prefer however to build full offensive 6/6/2/0/0 with blind on stealth and Full Zerker armor with -condi duration food.

You just need to be extremely aware of your surroundings since you can’t stealth at will like D/P. DD does however offer superior damage.

The big opening burst if landed properly will ensure the enemy is <50% life (if they aren’t downed already) and Panic Strike will proc, immobilizing them, allowing you to land Heartseeker. They will also immediately be on the defensive giving you the advantage.

The 10SA blind on stealth and 15pt minor DA trait that causes weakness on poison offers decent damage mitigation as well.

Just imagine this, close your eyes, see your thief flying around with a staff, chopping enemies into chunks like a crashing helicopter. Isn’t it more glorious than lying in a bush with a gun!?

I’m still hoping for a staff with close combat, flamboyant, agile, fighting style. Something like Kilik from Soul Calibur. With some stealth enabler thrown in for good measure. I want to go invisible and poke and stab people.

Imagine a nice parry-riposte attack (maybe staff 4) that enables stealth on the 2nd attack, or a big swoop knee bursting roundhouse swing that will knockdown enemies in a 180 radius (staff 5). Or even a nice polevault mobility+damage move like Corvus from Heretic 2. (staff 3)

They can even recycle Death Blossom and give it to staff and give d/d something that fits better.

Have you guys considered that maybe mesmer will get shield as a main hand weapon only.

Thus you could use main hand shield with off hand pistol/sword, etc.

xD

Do you have your auto attack set to automatic?
Since a few patches ago Blinding Powder will no longer interrupt your current action, so it might happen that it doesn’t interrupt your auto attack chain and that the auto attack actually pops you into revealed after you steal and go into melee range.

You have options, you can take soldier’s amulet and run 6/6/0/0/2 to mitigate the loss of damage and add some wurm runes to increase your ferocity. You can also do weirder things like use sigil of intelligence to create a tankish thief that can still auto-crit backstabs.

Problem in doing something like this is you are sitting with a tankish thief that doesn’t do optimal damage and also lacks the boonstealing and daze capability of the meta thief builds….. Might as well just bring a warrior then.

For fun i used to run a s/p/s/p soldier build with lifesteal sigils and healing signet and all sorts of utilities that are good at point contesting, like caltrops, trip wire, smoke screen, etc. You end up being a troll instead of really useful and it works sometimes, because the enemies don’t know what to expect, but it won’t really hold up in serious arena tournaments.

Doing my thing, roaming in WVW, my own borderlands. Getting wrecked the week by two stronger servers. They own our Hills, but I see in mapchat we are planning to take it back. Oh well I’ll just go kill some dolyaks and flip a few camps. Eventually end up running closer to Hills, see two orange swords, decide to check it out. Massive battle between our servers, probably 100+ people. I run through the broken front doors to check it out, so much carnage – screw this – go into stealth… Decide the only thing a cowardly thief would do here is to run over the bridge and hide in the lord’s room.

Go into lord’s room – there’s nobody here! Lord is dead, room is empty, nobody is guarding! Go sit in the circle. Count down the seconds with sweat on my brow. Capture Hills while 100 people are still fighting. Eventually we end up massacring them inside Hills, corpses everywhere. Mapchat praising me as a a hero. My 15 minutes of fame.

Trying to answer OP’s question: It is a good trait, but I think it depends on the situation.

I.e. during a prolonged fight you might heal yourself for about 1500-2500 life, which might save your life.
Or if use Executioner, you might save yourself 1500-2500 life or even more by killing your opponent even faster

Something that does work well though is running IP, going kamizake cluster bombing with 3 enemies on a point. That heals you for a lot. xD

I’m currently testing IP in WVW and PVP and I can’t decide if I prefer it or executioner. Sometimes I’m like: Phew I’m glad I had that healing otherwise the condis woulda shred me, sometimes I’m like: kitten I wish I had executioner, because then that mesmer wouldn’t have escaped. etc.

IP probably could work well in some niche builds combined with Assassin’s reward, Leeching venoms, healing signet, sigil of blood, omnomberry ghost, etc. to create a massive self sustaining life stealing build.

Call me old-fashioned, but I can’t see anything wrong by utilizing line of sight or stacking stealth (or whatever else is allowed within the game mechanics at the specific time) to beat an opponent.

Winners play to win , not to look honorable by losing fairly in the eyes of the opponent.

Hmm, well it could be a combination of Sigil of Hydromancy or sigil of Ice and Ice drake venom. These combined with + any number of condi duration foods/traits could bump it up to 6 seconds.

WVW: I’ve been trying out a panic strike trickery s/d build for a few weeks now, but I personally can’t live without the fluidity that feline grace offers, so I’ve settled on 5/0/0/3/6 with Pack runes to compensate for the precision loss.

With valk armor, a mix of zerk and cavalier accessories, precision food and high fury uptime (Thrill of the crime and 4 pt bonus on Pack runes), the build has good damage, decent survivability and pretty much perma swiftness.

If possible before I engage a fight I might switch ShadowStep for Signet of Agility, depending on what class I’m gonna fight. Typically I will keep ShadowStep if I know I’ll need extra bulk condi clear/stunbreak (vs. Terror/CondiNecro). If I anticipate I’ll need more dodges/precision with less condi clear I will pick Signet of agility (.e.g. vs another s/d thief).

My 2c

I prefer Sigil of Air over Sigil of Fire. Higher single target damage on lower cooldown (3s vs 5s).

How is his idea for Abduct more OP than Engineer’s Magnet Pull?

I used to run the d/p pvp meta 2/6/0/0/6 in wvw, but it’s pretty squishy (although still my favourite). Since I’ve worked runes of strength into my gear I started running 0/6/6/2/0 and with all the might stacks you build while stealthed + the added 7% bonus from runes + guardstacks and bloodlust stacks you still hit very hard and the survivability is much higher.

Tl;dr: Full or partial SA isn’t required in wvw, but it improves quality of life, albeit at some damage and/or utility loss depending on your previous build (i.e. Trickery boon steal, Trickery interrupts, Acro extra dodge, etc.)

Trickery grand master trait Sleight Of Hand reduces steal cooldown by 20%. Take it.

What Chicago Jack said. Open from stealth on the mesmer, then swap to shortbow if your burst didn’t kill him, or if he stealths or teleports to gain range. I however try to not cluster bomb shotgun the illusions, because of the conditions on illusion death.

I dumped my traveller’s runes last night in favor of a more power based set (Ogre, might try Strength later on). My reasoning was a.) I’m always in a party of 3 or more players so keeping up swiftness isn’t really a big problem. I don’t run SoS anyway to make up for the loss in speed. b.) I wanted more damage

Can anyone confirm if this recipe still works or yields PVP Mistwalker armor? I can’t even get it to work in the forge. When selecting the Free Tournament Token, it disables the Arcane Sliver. I only need the hat to complete the set, but cannot get it working for the life of me.

Assuming you were in WvWvW, then probably runes of perplexity.

Does Protective Shield reduce the damage of the first critical hit that activates it, or will you eat the full damage of the first critical hit?

Hi,

I normally run a variant of the classic TankCat build in tPVP. I’ll try this build a bit over the weekend. Seems fun!

So our turrets got buffed a little, but we all agree they still need a lot of work to be generally useful.

I hope ANet buffs them some more. Can we look forward to maybe this circa June/July?

http://hugelol.org/lol/92064

For leveling, I’ve found I level much quicker running with the pistol/pistol/Tool kit combination if I’m focusing on 1 vs. 1 mob action. For groups and events I swap to flamethrower for tagging.

The combination of some +condition damage gear, Pry-bar + Static shot for 7-9 stacks of confusion literally melts single mobs (especially if they land more than one attack). Throw in a Rocket Kick (big burns) for good measure since I’m in melee range.

Even mobs 3-4 levels higher than me go down in an instant. This obviously isn’t an end game spec, I just find it super fast for leveling. I’m level 42 atm so it’s legit at lower levels.

I recently switched to S/D (instead of D/D) on melee heavy boss battles. The auto attack chain hits pretty hard and gives great weakness uptime. If you can get the boss to stand still flanking strike is pretty decent (boon removal is just gravy). Shadow return is awesome for getting in/out of melee range if you anticipate big hits (wink wink Kohler in AC) as well as removing pesky conditions like long duration poisons, etc. This allows you to swop out utilities since you pretty much have condition removal on demand. And ofc if you can get the CC stacks down on the boss the stealth+daze is pretty cool too.