Just give me a server that is pure open world PVP. Glorious battles in the main cities, carnage across the landscape. No place is safe.
Or rather than server tie us to a faction. That has been mentioned before too.
I do like to wander around a pve map once in awhile for the view and music but I get a little down after a bit wondering how much fun it would be if there were an open pvp ruleset versions of the mega server where a guild could claim favor of towns like we do with Hyleks and Ogres.
I’ve heard zerker trinkets with marauder weapons and armor are a pretty good combination. I already have ascended zerker trinkets but working on getting marauder for the rest of the armor. If you do decide to go the marauder route, superior rune of exuberance is a good combination to go with.
That’s exactly what I’m wearing right now. It’s a nice roll out for riding zergs and jumping in and out of your commanders kill box but I do feel a bit of a trade off when someone gets away from me where a zerk weapon or some armor might have finished it.
I came back to the game awhile ago and I’m seeing more sigil of rage and blood. Are those more build specific and standard is still air/fire or are rage and or blood becoming more prevalent in pvp and wvw?
I can’t say I know what I’m talking about but I’ve been using scrapper runes for awhile, and while they’re nice in smaller group encounters, I spend most of my time getting vaped by zergs. I think I’d rather have that extra vitality and the power from exuberance runes works out to standard for a power set anyway.
I completed Daredevil just a few days ago and can’t seem to land Bounds %100 of the time and I can offshoot the target resulting in dps loss. While this wont be a problem for targets with large hitboxes, is there anything I can do to improve the accuracy on targets with small hitboxes?
I normally pan my camera up for a birds eye view when doing bounds or vaults, partially for placement and partially to make some sense out of the balls of light that most fights result in.
It might be best using Fist Flurry if you have a full stop like Basilik Venom in an interrupt build to land the flurry and try to pile on the Pulmonary Impacts in a short window.
While people are certainly free to play the game in whatever way they want. No matter if its pve, spvp or wvw, the problem is pugs that dont follow the commander, dies and rally ppl. So you actually end up doing worse with additional ppl not on TS, than if they weren’t there to help at all. Thats why guilds doing closed raids shout to ppl not to follow them. It’s not that they can’t stand you being around, you actually do more harm than good.
While people are certainly free to play the game in whatever way they want. No matter if its pve, spvp or wvw, the problem is pugs that dont follow the commander, dies and rally ppl. So you actually end up doing worse with additional ppl not on TS, than if they weren’t there to help at all. Thats why guilds doing closed raids shout to ppl not to follow them. It’s not that they can’t stand you being around, you actually do more harm than good.
Ya I’m aware of that, said as much in my post, whatever.
Me and most of my guild members just got bored of playing the same mode over and over and over and over again for almost 3 years. I honestly doubt bringing the old bl will attract players/vets to play wvw again.
I also partially blame gvg elitist and their “GTFO this is our raid/fight”. Rather than promoting wvw to the newcomers, elitist often scare away ppl with their smug behavior. It’s not rare to hear guilds saying the server is doomed if they leave the server, making more and more ppl less inclined to step into wvw.
For a moment, I miss the matchups before gvg exist. It was just pure madness and fun. TCvFAvDB matchups were some of the best moment I have in gw2
Aside from my gripes with how WvW development is handled that’s another reason I stopped going there. Every bit of action I’d come across I would be told to get on Teamspeak or find someplace else. I don’t mind being on there sometimes but unless it’s a really important fight I don’t want to listen to people get super serious and talk at double speed saying everything three times as if that helps. It’s not an open world pvp area, I accept that, but there’s not much to do anymore if you just want to jump in and wander around.
Can they just set aside a separate server or instance of the main game world and just flip the open world pvp switch on for us to mess around on until then? I really wouldn’t mind doing my normal harvesting and daily stuff while running into friendlies or badguys along the way and a player made structure out of necessity based on the game world itself would probably pan out better than what’s going on right now.
SB#5 with the Trickery line is more mobility than just about any class out there. Add in Thrill of the Crime and Shadow Step and nothing short of a Shiro Rev or another thief will catch you. Once you are in the zerg, their swiftness will keep you going.
I love Dash since it removes mobility condi, reduces incoming damage, applies speed and adds extra mobility but Bound is beastly when adding on damage to the big hitters like Backstab, Pistol Whip and Vault.
I would like to stick with the zerg more often, but I tend to end up in a number of small groups floating loosely around it in support. I appreciate the damage reduction from Dash and wouldn’t mind at all doing less damage myself if the animation for Dash was similar to Bound. I’ll just have to spend a day or two disciplining myself into getting used to Bound and find some better routes.
SB #5 and SS. Those are all that are needed for solid mobility on a thief. Dash is a huge bonus but ultimately cuts into DPS. IMO a Dash thief will typically lose to a Bound thief of equal skill most of the time.
A point proven by a couple thieves from BG that skinned my hide multiple times last night.
Does this apply to WvW as well? I’ve given Bound an honest shot out there but unless I stay right on top of our servers zerg I’m always going to play catch up and I’m not likely to survive many encounters unless again, I stay with the zerg entirely. I’m probably going to try to push myself into Bound more but it’s painful after a night of feeling like I’m dragging my feet.
I’m not likely to explain correctly how I land this one. I think of Weakening Charge as a large sharp disk shape. I try to spin sometimes at only the slightest angle and stop, only turning enough to partially circle or at least stay tight on the target, with the staff point being the part that shaves the target. It’s weird to only turn a little like an old thermostat knob trying to find the right temperature, so you’re turning only enough while being on your target.
Or think of your staff like a big needle and you turn or hook them like you’re trying to thread the needle, Weakening charge can be kept pretty tight.
circle? turn? I can’t turn mid charge
Told you I can’t explain it well and that part probably isn’t correct anyway, the partial turning part is more to keep me in the ball park, basically the same thing everyone else explained better, it’s easier for me to set up a starting and cut off point that way. Kind of like turning your body to drive one side into first base in baseball. Just do what these other guys explained, they’re pretty straight forward.
I can’t give you any good advice, I still stumble around my build. Do you think that draining sigil is enough life steal to make up for only having Infiltrators Return as your condition removal? I will say that Sigil of Rage never kicked in when I needed it and it was very low impact on my S/D build.
oh? I’ve never done it against a player sized target, so do explain. would be a great help
I’m not likely to explain correctly how I land this one. I think of Weakening Charge as a large sharp disk shape. I try to spin sometimes at only the slightest angle and stop, only turning enough to partially circle or at least stay tight on the target, with the staff point being the part that shaves the target. It’s weird to only turn a little like an old thermostat knob trying to find the right temperature, so you’re turning only enough while being on your target.
Or think of your staff like a big needle and you turn or hook them like you’re trying to thread the needle, Weakening charge can be kept pretty tight.
I use Bound occasionally if I’m in an encounter that’s controlled where I’m just trying to hit whatever threshold. I sport my Dash shoes day to day, I don’t like the animation because it feels like it’s too far, but it makes too much sense for my build and the parts of the game I play.
Drop Trickster for Bountiful Theft. You have ONE trick. Quite pointless really. Otherwise, the build is quite good. Though, if you have all that stealth, just get hide in shadows.
Withdraw with Trickster has been enough for me, helps to have Shadowstep in your pocket though, otherwise I might take another trick. I do often go with only one Trick and it’s not much of a stretch, you’re getting one or two conditions or you’re getting all conditions it seems like.
That’s the intended behavior really. The point is that it’s a timing based skill, which is why the block is so short. The problem is that, even when you use it properly (say to block>CC a big burst in a team fight or something) the two seconds it takes to do the kick animation leaves you vulnerable to damage and unable to do anything about it.
If the kick was turned in to evade frames, then it would still have the reactive skill component, requiring you to time it properly, but it wouldn’t get you killed for timing it properly in large fights. In addition, it would actually slightly increase survivaility in situation where you’re getting spammed with damage as you’d stunbreak, block a hit, then evade while you kick whatever random target procced it. Currently, to use it effectively in such fights as a stunbreak you want to stunbreak and then immediately dodge out of it, wasting the potential of the skill and one of your dodges.
I think the timing and automatic retaliation is an important part of balancing the low cooldown by making it harder to use at peak effectiveness, the problem is that using it at peak effectiveness can get you killed.
You’ve changed my mind on that, or at least I’m going to give it a fresh shot and try to think of it more in that angle. I do miss using it, it’s just fun to do and makes me look legit when my Daredevil is in a big fight, like when The Foot ganked Michelangelo on the roof top in TMNT.
Nah, the way it works if fine. What needs to happen is that the kick needs to be evade frames. This maintains the semi-uncontrollable nature and makes it a reactive action (because having it be a preparatory action you can use on a second target could be potentially overpowered) but doesn’t actively punish you for using the skill properly in larger fights.
If we just make the skill evade during the kick, its use would remain the same, it just wouldn’t accidentally murder you. In addition it would slightly synergize with DDs other “on evade” traits.
It kicks the first thing to have hit you after activating it. I’ve nearly kicked my way off a cliff after getting hit by a yellow name critter that had happened to have been hit by someones random aoe and agro’d us, normally I’d just end up kicking my way into a worse situation or I have to bug out completely . If the thief forums are fine with it working this way then I’ll just accept that but I think the kick part of this utility negates the first blocking part.
Peoples fingers are different lengths and varying reflexes. There are some good general keybind layouts but mostly you want to change it up as you go along little by little to fit your spread in a way that keeps you from having to lift your hand much if at all. All of my keybinds are inside a grid of keys [~] [Ctrl][Space] [V] and [T] so at most I have to lean my palm to the side a bit to press Ctrl for my Elite skill. My mouse only has two extra buttons on the side but that’s about all I need.
Fermi mentioned Mouse 1 for push to talk, I’ve tried everything else since the later 90’s and always end up back on that middle mouse button for voice comms.
It is and that is the problem. They need to make wvw a self sustaining game mode so that everything needed to play wvw is obtainable easily just from playing wvw. The guild upgrades, armor, consumables such as siege, food and utilities. everything needed to play wvw should be able to be obtained just from playing the mode so we do not have to focus on bag farms just so players can play the mode at all.
That’s the one thing keeping out of WvW right now and I’m not overly particular. I had first decided to go all out on the expansion to help with guild materials. I gave up on that, sorry guild, I just can’t afford it with the amount of time I get to play. I had bought GW2 initially for the idea of having an open world pvp zone to live in and I do enjoy it when there’s action, but it’s not a game mode at this point, it’s been reduced to a large meta event that may or may not happen any given day. They should just scrap it and give us an open world pvp instance of the pve maps and let us make a mess then tweak what’s needed as things move forward.
I have never met someone that tries to push the 100% out of their character and refuse to craft the best gear available.
I always assume that people who refuse to craft ascended don’t really know how to min/max (and so far i stand confirmed in every encounter i had).
In general , you shouldn’t be raiding if you are refusing to play your best.
In other games, raiding is how you got that gear. You go to the raid to get that thing, not to already have it so can show up looking on point and sparkly.
That an it’s more of a guide from what we run to get 100% wins ever run (so long as the pugs we take in listen)
“So long as the pugs we take in listen”. Pretty much anyone can make that same claim, that’s entirely the problem that has inspired so many posts about this event. That’s like a sports announcer saying something like, “if he wants to score, he’ll need to get the ball in the basket.”
The one time I’ve been there for a successful run some guild had organized on a map that wasn’t full, maybe had thirteen or so a lane, and we just treated the break bar as normal and just went with a full forward approach. I’ve been there enough times where people had gone over what to do in map chat over and over and we’d bomb, I think you just have to get that happy chance that most people there, even if they’re new to the event, are alert and can simply keep up and follow their squads lead.
Megaserver would actually be good for WvW right now. It would help solve some population issues that plague 6/8 tiers. If they megaservered WvW to have 4 tiers (2 servers per megaserver) I think this will bring competitive matchups.
There’s two issues though. The first is the servers can barely handle WvW as it is, I feel the stress would just be too much on Anet’s servers. The second issue is Anet would give up a lot of their profit by megaservering wvw. It’s just too much lost transfer gem money they would lose out on. In the end Anet is a business and their goal is to make money, from a monetary point of view they would never megaserver wvw. plus WvW is so unstable right now, guilds are transferring every other month to the most active tier, think of all the moneys they are making right now. (it’s not a coincidence they just opened up all the servers including T1)
There won’t be many players transferring anymore soon enough anyway. WvW was made to sound like it’s own game world but instead ended up being oddly as on rails as Heart of Thorns maps even though it should be the one game mode that is player driven. There’s no reason really to spend any money on the gem store for this mode, no fun glider skins and no gear collections to work towards that represent what part of the game you’ve progressed in.
Bandit’s Defense I’d never use in PvP. If a melee attack is blocked you get into an unstoppable animation, basically CC’ing yourself – any skilled player that sees you do BD will use it against you for the rest of the fight.
I’ve stopped using Bandit’s Defense in pve now as well. I wanted to love this one and it’s really a nice utility but even if some rat accidentally sneezes on your half of the map you’ll scoot right past all of the bad guys out of the place you intended to bunker down to knock down your main threat and drop kick the rat while you get fried by all of the aoe you weren’t in a second ago and there’s a good chance you’ll fall off a nearby cliff.
Asked to switch classes and when I don’t have any others, I’m suddenly “taught” a pve power build which lacked dps compared to what I was running already. As if I don’t know my own class mechanics and builds since launch of Gw2.
I don’t think I could take that after playing WvW for so long where everyone has been pretty nice and helpful all the way through, that would be a harsh culture shock. I’m sure that’s not the norm, or hopeful anyway. I doubt I’ll be able to do much raiding anyway until I get more time to play, still plowing through mastery for that Bo staff.
It should be a nice break bar stripper if you use it under venom share though. I don’t think it’s a crime that Basilik Venom has been turned into a niche Elite since it could be a very useful one if your team is on point. I think at this point the leash BV had of the cast time and a countdown for use can be given some slack due to all of the stability and general stiff arm skills everyone has for you.
Since it still wont stack, I’d rather have it’s countdown to use taken out and and let us bank one of the charges in Stolen skill slot or something, it’s a preped Elite anyway so they can make the cast time as long as they want.
Very well said. I used to only play WvW but I’m now trying to keep up in pve so as to not face the shame of not being able to contribute to the guild treasury now, but it doesn’t really matter now since most of them are trying to crank out the expansion and other pve content for the guild hall and they were pretty much a WvW only guild as well. They need to either roll WvW back to launch status and just fix the short list of main problems actual players came together to give feedback on and maybe add some of that excellent new music from HoT, maybe some simple new skins and an SPvP reward track, and then just use a clean-as-you-go approach to WvW from then on.
I’m really trying to stick with this game but I’m currently not playing much at all of the game I want to play that I used to really enjoy around launch.
I wish they would reverse the order of the two skills. Palm Strike was a lead attack in GW1 iirc. A stun followed by Fist Flurry would be pretty nice with the pulmonary impact on the end of the Flurry. It would be a little like Pistol Whip without the evade or movement restrictions then.
That one confused me also and I understand there must be balance reasons but I’d rather stun first to better land the flurry and at least force a stun break if they get interrupted.
Speaking of weakening charge, when do you use this skill? I really only use this skill for my opener and I’m not really sure when else I need it. It feels kinda strange to use since it locks you into the animatio
I have no sensible reason for when I use Weakening Charge so I’d also like to hear from more competitive players when the best time and best way to use it is. I’ve been using it when I get the instinct that it will be a threepeat hit so it’s been more an opportunistic skill to bank for me. In action camera mode it’s not at all hard to drive Weakening Charge and you can get creative in how you want space your starting and end points or to shave away multiple targets. Aside from that I just think of it as a team utility because it hits three targets and gives weakness and a whirl.
Circle strafing and landing skills and utilities like Fist Flurry and for more natural movement in general is made easier with action cam mode but some things are hindered or at least I haven’t caught on to how I can target Vault at my feet.
It is a lot of work for a staff. I was about to start this until I noticed how much stuff had to be done. Why make it so hard?
It is but it’s mostly to show off the skin. Although, looking ahead at grinding another crafting profession and then trying to make an Ascended in the current HoT market is pretty clear to me that this mastery grind or hoping for a lucky drop are my two options for how little time I get to play. Much of the collection steps just kind of happen by consequence of doing all of your other stuff there anyway.
Just have fun in those maps for awhile and see what kind of surplus you have of everything after awhile then get more of a focus, most of those items are giveaways really.
Ha! Well yes that’s true. I was referring more to how sometimes I will just run out of a telegraph instead of dodging while attacking with melee, and having 35% more speed helps me do that faster. It enables me if I want, to choose to save or use my dodge in those situations or similar to that. I guess its a trade off. . .atleast in the way that I play.
Run speed is far more a luxury in WvW I think where you’re running around a large map almost constantly and even during an encounter you’re all over the place trying to corral a zerg or weave in and out of one ebb and flow fight that can last a second or an hour. In spvp two or three shortbow #5’s can likely get you to where you’re going.
Anyone using this build or generally the same template in WvW, do you still use Bound or do you switch to Dash? If you still use Bound out there, do you make up for speed anywhere else? I don’t have much of a problem using Bound anywhere else and I prefer the way it feels anyway, but in WvW I have a hard time not having something for sustained run speed, especially while on my own and Utility slots are slim as it is.
I’m usually solo roaming in WvW (sometimes PvPing, less since my team broke up), played around with a yolo P/P + Staff Build (Vault + Dash + Staff Mastery got some mobility really close to SB + Dash!)
It’s close to Caeds but with Infiltrator’s Signet over Blinding Powder (can do some nice bursts with Staff #2 and Steal/IS), Dash over Bound for mobility and immob-immunity, using the new healing skill (absolutely love it) and therefore not using the Trickster-TR-Variant but the “usual”/“normal” TR trait spread
in short: I use Dash over Bound in WvW, the mobility and immob-immunity is just so nice there, in PvP I prefer Bound though
It’s weak against conditions but for some reason I don’t see a lot of condi builds running around lately which is a blessing… usually if I go up against condi opponents I make sure to have Shadowstep off CD, get a few hits off to see whether I can burst the opponent and how many conditions he is able to load on me. Then I decide whether I wanna condi clear using Shadowstep+Run, of whether I wanna burst some more to end the fight
you could replace shortbow with a different weapon (as Staff’s mobility is close to SB’s, as mentioned above) but I like to have a ranged option, P/D’s kiting is not needed as you’ve got dash and P/P got some burst but no defense… (you could self stealth yourself for a few seconds though with Blinding Powder + double Vault)
rage rune is because i don’t need pack’s swiftness but wanna have perma fury with TotC, the +5% damage also making up for some lost power due to marauder weapons
I really like my stats as they are:
2460 Power without BL, 2700 with Bloodlust
~57% crit chance and perma fury
14k HP, usually 15k while in WvW (my sweet spot)
2150 toughness (base toughness, never increase it)
221% crit dmg
Appreciate that response, had some questions but they were answered in that spoiler for the most part. The main reason I’m going back and forth between the two dodges is because, like Narcarsis mentioned, Dash tends to keep me too far from my target and it’s a little awkward to orient myself when I jump/dodge to position behind or to flank. Otherwise, I’d easily land on Dash. I pretty much have my build and stats I hover around and clean up as I go along but this run speed thing has pestered me since the game came out and I know it’s entirely an issue with how I want to play and not much to do with performance.
I switched to Staff Master awhile ago and didn’t really notice the lack of condition clear on evade, seems like no matter what game mode you find yourself in, one cleared condition doesn’t make up for what you have to put yourself through to proc it, which is likely bathing in every condition in the game at once.
Anyone using this build or generally the same template in WvW, do you still use Bound or do you switch to Dash? If you still use Bound out there, do you make up for speed anywhere else? I don’t have much of a problem using Bound anywhere else and I prefer the way it feels anyway, but in WvW I have a hard time not having something for sustained run speed, especially while on my own and Utility slots are slim as it is.
Everything is, but you probably don’t want to get used to flying off cliffs or keep or tower walls. The other dodges feel better along with Staff #2 also, just the right distance and ease of facing to fluidly sweep Staff #2 to knock out all three strikes on the target without having to inch up to them at all, Dash can make you have to run back a little to keep up with the target. It’s not a huge deal, I get why people like the zigzag animation and I’m using it right now because I need the modifiers for my build.
The new dash-unhindered combatant looks very wierd when you do jump-dodge.Not somthing serious but any new animation for dodging in air that will look close to normal would be most welcoming!
I mentioned that jump to dodge issue in another thread, along with the problems that the slight extra distance can create but I got blasted in that thread, I think most people like Dash how it currently is so I wouldn’t expect a change.
This leaves you with Roll For Initiative and Withdraw (which still is missing 10% healing power). Roll For Initiative has a long cooldown for just removing one condition. Withdraw with tricks trait seems to be the only skill possible to use for a independent condition clear. However this means you won’t be able to ever use your elite specialization heal which is lame if you ask me, especially with how necessary extra dodges are on a build without stealth. Even still, this means you have 1 single reliable condition clear…that’s it…
I really liked RFI for condition clear and small heal traited but the evade and initiative is a nice reset also. I’d still use it if Scorp Wire wasn’t so clutch.
Edit: by the way I’m not arguing against your point, just pointing out possibly why that trait is this way currently and that all of our options might be kind of slim but we do have options from build to build.
That combo has been solid. I can’t recall a time where Scorpion Wire actually pulled a player to me but it’s fast and reliable for a condition clear on low cool down and for an interrupt to stop a buddy from getting stomped and for break bars in HoT.
DrDvl trait line is pretty compartmental and EA makes a lot of sense with a certain roll out of that line but is pretty much just taking a trait slot without a roll out that caters to it. I had it for a while but found my usual condition clearing wasn’t great but EA didn’t make a huge impact when I really needed and mostly the reason mentioned, people can starve you out. I don’t think it’s needs to be changed, it works great if you build around it, if it proc’ed on dodge as well I might abuse that one pretty hard, especially considering the build you can already make around Dodging.
I use staff 3 quite a bit because I use Dash. I get that the skill is a little f’d up but it’s in a weird useful way for me. Aside from it’s base effects it contributes a little to healing on evade along with any other evade modifiers you have going on and the shorter evade distance is actually what I like about it, especially on HoT maps and the new Borderlands where I need to evade but still remain in the kill box and not fly off a cliff.
I do agree having the evade proc after the strike is annoying but it can be timed well enough. I hope it stays how it is for the most part but I wouldn’t throw a fit if it was changed based on the majority of peoples feedback, I would just assume I’m missing something and take every ones word for it.
You might want Marauders if you’re also playing WvW or alter what you need to at least stay above or around 15k health. You wont do any damage if you’re constantly getting revived or repairing your armor.
