Guild Wars 2

I would love to see a 50 man Zerg walk, yes walk, in a massive line into battle, it would be so epic!!!

a t s e.9614:

Carpboy.7145:

This same thing has happened to me before. After running from a massive zerg in a dueling server j eventually go down because i had no cooldowns left. the owner of the GASM server calls me “complete trash” and calls me out to duel. I say ok and down him with 1 mug/HS/backstab combo in about 3 seconds. (He was playing ele, most likely full glass) from there a massive Zerg resses him and as im in the middle of shadowstep stomping i get blocked from the entire server for “trolling”

GG

Im also banned from GASM dueling server, must pay 4g to get back lol

Hahaha, I got banned for killing too many people in a row. So now I can’t train my killing skills anymore?!?! And I run p/d power build!!! Who can rage at a non-meta build?!

On Kaineng I’ve benn starting something similar. Up to 15 thieves now! Any thief on kaineng interested in joining, whisper Oscuro Fenix to join the upstanding gentlemen of Tyria!

Menzies The Heretic.3415:

oscuro.9720:

I think cluster bomb should be reworked in the sense that it changes the arrow animation to the bomb one but shoots at normal speed. On detonation, it blows up in mid air launching miniature bombs downward.
It should act more as an arrow, not a mortar shot.

So less arc, higher speed.

Bingo. Maybe more damage and more stacks of bleed

I think cluster bomb should be reworked in the sense that it changes the arrow animation to the bomb one but shoots at normal speed. On detonation, it blows up in mid air launching miniature bombs downward.
It should act more as an arrow, not a mortar shot.

eye floater.7140:

Splatter Paw.7238:

Lol pro tip op even when there invisible………..there still there!!! shocking right? So aoe it maybe? and to “counter cnd” you could always dodge and then it miss’s and hes visible still, ground breaking stuff. Getting old listening to people whining about stealth a year+ into this game its not rocket science.

It’s funny when people pretend like what they suggest is really that simple. Say you’re roaming solo, and you come across a thief. You see him in the distance, you keep an eye out though, and keep running. Then you see him closer, and again he disappears. 4 seconds later you get stunned, so you use a stunbreaker or a block to stop his chain. He sees your block and cloaks again. You’ve just used a skill with a 60 second CD, and he pops up a few second later and stuns/attacks again, so you dodge and throw down whatever evasive/AoE attacks you have. This just happens over and over, depends on who you’re fighting. The point is, if you are beating the theif, he’ll just cloak and teleport away, and you’ll have no idea where he is because you CANT SEE HIM. Almost any other class can be run down and finished off, but thief can’t in most cases. Yes, much of it is a L2P issue, but I think thieves rely on stealth too much. It’s the dev’s fault, really.

Umm, first of all, you can’t CnD off of someone using a block, so I’m assuming that you are talking about a D/P thief. Second thing that’s off is a thief can’t stun you that many times. Basilisk Venon has a pretty hefty CD for a 1.5 second stun.
Here’s your problem, you panic. You “throw down whatever evasive/AoE attacks you have”. This is the WORST idea I have ever quoted someone saying. You kill a thief by staying calm and using AoE and evasive attacks at the RIGHT time, not all at once. That’s what makes you an easy target.

When I train I use full green armor with a green mainhand sword with no off hand and 30/30/10/0/0. Try surviving in that! It doesn’t really happen very easily.

There should be a separate GUILD TAG that is yellow like the guild names and can only be seen by guild members and party members. It costs 10 guild comidations and 10 gold. On the map it has precedence over the normal ones (when there are two tags ontop of each other, you see the guild one and name over the blue one). This also helps avoiding having pugs hop onto your organized group and mucking it up. Additionally, you can organize your havoc group via this tag.

We should have weekly rewards for winning WvW matchups. This would make it feel more worth while when you win. Maybe if you win first, everyone gets a chest with a random exotic and minor chance for an ascended chest, similar to world ranks. Second place gets 1 gold, and third gets nothing. There should be a 3 hour play limit to earn rewards, and this would make WvW more competitive for those who are losing interest or have lost interest because winning in its current state (this is out of season) is pointless

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Build-Oscuro-s-LRB/first#post3863048
This is a p/d power build. It is lethal to almost everyone. It has a learning curve but when you can play it effectively, it is very fun and powerful.

Legionnaire.1586:

oscuro.9720:

It mainly relies on rune changes. I have not done any looking into the new runes, so I couldn’t tell you. The build is sound hit it relies on your ability to play the build well. Gals to have you back in the thief community

Whats a good substitute for the traveler runes then? And will i need to change anything else if i take out the traveler? Im just not that down to spend 60g on runes that can be substituted for something else.

It’s not anything wrong with travelers, when the April 15th patch comes, all the runes change.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Build-Oscuro-s-LRB/first#post3863048
Pistol/dagger power build that devastates enemies, I suggest giving it a go!

Again, rune of the undead cost about 5 silver for a full set, grab those since the patch is coming!!!

@Twinkle Bee: It’s great to see another kaineng player on these forums! It’s sad that we are so poorly represented when our thief player base is one of the best in the game. Whether that’s because there are only about 10 total thieves on kaineng or not, it still makes me sad. If you ever want to roam, just shoot me a whisper, or go to KBL and look in chat for me Cya around!

I think they should have more events int he lower level areas where if you do not complete the invasion of enemies, they eventually make their way into the main city (I.e. Divinities Reach gets invaded by centaurs). This would be very cool because you would have to comets the events from the outside in, unlocking external camps and what not until you reach the city. There should be massive NPC armies that oppose you and what not.

Wanze.8410:

ualgh.1832:

As a WvWer, I would pay a hefty premium for access to a gem item like this. So sick of crafting the eight professions to 400 which will only net you 56 levels and costs a great deal of money and time. I don’t see the downside to it—once someone already has an 80 that he or she leveled normally, it would save so much effort just to buy an item and be able to hop in WvW ready to go.

There is a large WvW population that I’m sure would be happy to buy something like this. What do other people think?

The reason they dont introduce such a gem store item is mostly economical. As crafting is atm the fasted way to lvl, it keeps demand on lower tier mats high. IF that was not the case, alot of them would be at vendor value, giving new players a hard time, earning some gold from the stuff they loot.

You still need lower tier mats whenever you want to level a crafting profession to get to 509 for ascended. Most of the low level mats ATM are still very cheap. So I feel that the prices wouldn’t drop very much

Well, I have never given p-p a real shot. It seems like it could work in theory though. I don’t really know, you just have me an idea though. Let’s see how it turns out, I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

It mainly relies on rune changes. I have not done any looking into the new runes, so I couldn’t tell you. The build is sound hit it relies on your ability to play the build well. Gals to have you back in the thief community

@Hawkeye: when a zerker ranger gets the jump on you, it will be difficult to cope with. Trust me. They get that long bow chain shot into you, it hurts. I may consider switching to a Valkyrie or soldier back piece and possibly soldier weapons.

So I am curious what the meta Condi build is/going to be. I am very interested in Condi gameplay, and know engi is pretty good at Condi stacking. Any one know?

Here’s the easiest answer, our “amazing” backstab meta is mot going to kill a good pu Messer, and will have a lot of difficulties against a decent/average one. There are a few number of specs that can’t be killed by backstabs, and this is why I find it fundamentally flawed that it is such a large part of our meta, especially d/d power build, since I believe that d/d was intended to be a hybrid setup that people have simply turned into a power setup.

The initative regen you stated is not as much of a problem for me anymore. You need to rely on your 1 skill. Using to many skills at once is not how this build is played. If you play it for a week, maybe two, you will learn how to play in such a way where a mistake doesn’t result in death. If you get decent with it, it is much more forgiving than a typical Backstab build.
The trick to a lee is always targeting the real one. Backstab off of the clones until the real Mesmers has used all of their stealth then do as much damage as fast as possible. This may sound sad but the hardest class for me is zerker ranger.
@bazaahark, I will most likely end up going 30 into DA when the patch releases, but I do not like panic strike as I find it both unreliable and not as useful since you already have a low ini immob. When I go 30 into da I may make the weapons cavs or Valkyrie to keep the slight sustain buffer.

Well, if you are running full dire, grab rune of the undead. They are awesome runes and only 89 copper.

I am a thief. Played since launch. So, I know there is a great way to counter thief on engi. If you run a Condi build, Condi bursting will work great on a thief, also, confusion is great. Most thieves rely on rapid strikes, increasing the effect of confusion. PbAoE is something engineers have a lot of, will work incredibly well against thieves when they stealth.
Overall, just through on tons of conditions and a thief will die.

So I am leveling an engineer, my first alt since launch (played thief). I have enjoyed it so far, but how are engineers at WvW? I know that a good engineer is amazingly hard to kill, but how is their sustain, and learning curve?

Well, this isn’t a meta build by any means. I crafted this build myself, and it shreds apart everything in every aspect of the game. It is for level 80’s though, so you will have to wait or go into pvp. Not 100% sure if it is the build making people rage or my ability to play it. Without further ado,
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Build-Oscuro-s-LRB/first#post3853798
I get people constantly messaging me to “at a real thief build that back stabs”, or I even got a message saying “Why you hack, thieves can’t attack at range”. That one made me lol. Basically, if you get good with it, there is no limit. The skill cap is incredibly high. Also, I find my self using every skill on this build. Enjoy

They can’t beat us, they can’t join us, so they just hate us.
It is a sad truth in this world.

Oscuro’s LRBB:
An amazing p/d burst build. Has amazing DPS and nice asura in. Gives your thief a good ranged primary weapon set revolving around bursting down opponenets!
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Build-Oscuro-s-LRB/first#post3853798

@Hawkeye: I did not incorporate food because I know many people do not spend the money on food. I am getting similar numbers when I go full food. A slight amount less because I prefer not using stacks in WVW. It’s a personal preference.
I would have to say I do prefer the 15 in SA rather than splitting the five because of the extended stealth which helps when fighting upwards of two people. This is a nice variant.
You made a nice point, switching in cavaliers anywhere does not affect the overall playstyle/ DPS of the build but does give some nice additional sustain Glad to see someone else playing this build!

So I carry around four separate sets of gear in my bags because I use them all for different aspects of the game (Commanding, Roaming, and PvE). With everything becoming selectable, will hear presets become selectable or not?

Imperator totius Sylvari.9164:

Chaotic Storm.2815:

I’m sorry for your pain and troubles. The sickness you are suffering from is a case known as “narcissism” as of yet there is no known cure to correct this issue. however there is a treatment to help relieve some of the pressure for your inflated head. I few sound smacks from a nerf bat will quickly help you and all your fellow warriors return to respectable size.

xD

This “Nerf bat” sounds like the perfect weapon for a warrior,

TEMPEST LEAF DEMANDS IT. <3

Sorry, the thief of kaineng stole it before it arrived. Now I shall wield it against you to destroy you MIGHT!

Loco.4561:

I did the same thing, I got my thief to 80, got him geared and run S/D and Shortbow Power builds. Even when understanding thief mechanics, D/P is just plain broken, it’s one of the hardest specs to counter in game.

Players get easily frustrated and that frustration comes out in the forums.

I have to disagree that is “one oft he hardest specs to counter”. I agree it is difficult, but even good d/p thieves can be killed if the spec is understood. Using any sort of immobilize or heavy burst will devastate them. They may be able to heal but if you can pump out enough damage, they can’t out heal it. I kill almost every d/p thief I run into because they are fundamentally flawed in the sense that every single move the make can be anticipated and countered before it even happens. Just takes a knowledge of the class.

Zacchary.6183:

We do have a blowgun. Its called p/x. Its a gun that blows.

I would object, p/d is a very strong set. Not just for the condition, but has good burst too.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Build-Oscuro-s-LRB/first#post3837907
^is a great burst p/d build I run that gives sustained damage and good utility as well..

You should have seen when champ train in Laineng was at prime time, we all went in and had 20 different tags on Frostgorge. This is hilarious though!

I am too busy to log on, someone post a picture!!

Supreme.4051:

From an ethical point of view, is it wrong the let the lord be killed over and over again by the players? It’s modern day torture…

I do this to the people I kill when I’m roaming. I keep downing them until they have no more downed health bar. It’s hilarious

I feel there should be some sort of de buff on The Lord to prevent this from happening repeatedly but still have it implemented, but The Lord should also get a short RI to compensate. In addition, there should be a buff to initial defenses, like walls and towers. By implementing possibly higher walls or towers on the walls that get built with fortification upgrades allowing for ballista placements at 1500 range, defending the initial walls and gates would be much easier and make the game much more enjoyable when defending. Also, there should be an upgrade that triggers when a gate hits 50% called “Bolster”, which applies a buff to all gates, reducing incoming damage by 30-40% in exchange for 100 supply.
I have more ideas but i am not able to type them all out right now.

Best wishes,
Oscuro.

I have 1700 hours on my thief #1 and about 800 on my thief #2. So I kind of lost track of when I started to become good. However, I can say that, having played since launch, my opinion on how to learn the game is a bit skewed, as I was figuring It out with everyone else. I would recommend trying to make your own build for sPvP. This region is not my speciality, but I’ve played a pretty fun version of thief in which I use minimal stealth and a LOT of healing power. It wasn’t meant to kill people, just hold points so others can help you later on. I ran short bow/ sword/pistol, and ptv armor with clerics everything else. You don’t crit. At all. But on pistol whip I am hitting 3k. That’s not a lot, but I can never die. I use the two stealth skills, but don’t stay in stealth. I use it because I get 12 seconds of regen each time I stealth. Also, the immob on SB is awesome because then you switch to s/p and use pust whip and get a full burst. It’s affinity bud if you want to try it.

What is the possibility of a blow gun for thieves? To me, very likely. They are stealth weapons that are used to poison enemies. This is what I was thinking:

1: Puncture: fire a dart out of your blowgun at high velocity, bleeding your target.
Stealth: Searing dart: Fire a white hot dart that penetrates up to 3 enemies causing burning.

2. Poisonous Barrage: Fire a succession of darts rapidly that poison and weaken your foe. (Similar to engineer pistol)

3. Deathly Rain: Leap into the air and rain down darts that apply torment (AoE skill)

4. Frozen dart: Fire a dart at a foe that shatters on impact, chilling nearby foes, and sending out shrapnel that bleed enemies. (AoE skill)

5. Paranoia: Fire a poison tipped dart at you for that applies confusion (3 stacks) and stealths you from your enemies.

I got the idea from the hylek, who use blowguns, and thought that it seemed like a cool idea. The blowgun would be a two handed weapon, and is pretty obviously for condition builds.

Well, Kaineng is on an uptime right now. We are in bronze tier but everyone is experienced and we are having pretty decent numbers (about 20 each map, with only 5-10 in one of the borderlands). No sure if this is what you are looking for but the community is great and we would be happy to have you.

Being an experienced commander, be sure to understand the limitations of your group. If they have difficulties stacking, don’t push into a larger group, because that takes organization. However, if your group is organized PUGs, who know how to stack, field and blast efficiently, and are all adequate survivors, you can push further into a group that is larger than yours. That is very important to know. Additionally, be sure you have enough siege (I buy 100 at a time of each siege type except golems). Asking your Zerg for siege placement is unreliable. Finally, know siege placement. Placing siege in the right spots can make defenses, or open world battles turn in your favor (I.e. Place a ballista in the middle of a Zerg fight that gets built quickly and starts ripping apart the enemy)

It would be amazing if we had tiny omega golems storming SMC in a golem rush!! I know it will never happen but I can dream!

Realist.5812:

^ The ability to spam blind with no thought of cooldown management is not skilful play.

Just saying.

Same goes with evade frames.

And before you misread it, yes I’m referring to thief. All skilled play goes out the window with that class.

Your a warrior. This is just so sad to read. I wouldn’t doubt it if you haven’t played a thief at level 80 before. I have a warrior and that is truly the class that takes no skill. I went into a fight with a hammer on my warrior about 5 minutes at level 80, literally pounded all of my skills, and the enemy was dead. That’s WARRIOR, not THIEF.

Now for some real content. Blind spam is on d/p and s/p. d/p uses it to gain stealth. If you get blinded, you are kittened for standing in the red circle filed with smoke. S/p used it because they don’t have really any stealth. So it is a primary way to have survivability. Again, if you aren’t smart enough to not stand in a red ring filled with black smoke, you honestly deserve to die to that thief, or struggle at the least.

@mompen, I still see my self using the rune of the eagle because of the buff it is recieving on its 6 set ability. However, this is one of the few runes I have seen the change of, so I believe in just waiting and seeing.
I also use SR for the leech, as I still recieve the healing bonus from standing in it, but also I don’t have regen in stealth, so the leeching adds a nice bit of sustain. However, I am just one of those people who is almost too aggressive, and that is the primary reason. It’s funny to see someone not know what to do when you use a burst skill while in SR.

Poor warrior, complaining about one condition, I pity you, too bad you don’t have high health, armor, attack, and mobility. Oh wait…

On a more serious note, this is like complaining about blocks and evades. Using a blind tactically can save your life, and just because a warrior can’t apply a lot of it, doesn’t mean you need to rage. It’s not broken because it disappears after you attack. If it screws up a chain cc, that is more beneficial to the game and primitive of skillful play than a broken mechanic.

Can we have above water spear. That would be amazing.

Here’s an idea I had:
Create tower heights for each upgrade. So on stone walls, the circular joints gain an extra level with places for ballista a to be placed and more room for arrow carts. Also, it sets up two sets of cannons, one on the bottom, one on the bottom. This would greatly increase the functionality of Ballistas as well as giving more utility for cannons (they get killed way to quickly by blobs in their current state).
Finally, on the reinforced walls, there is a third level. It doesn’t add a third level of cannons, but has a balcony jutting out, similar to what is in SMC, at 2500 range from the ground. This would be good for ballista a which could shoot down on the gate and rams, as well as protected spots for ACs. This would help from destroying siege and would benefit small groups of defenders against large groups.
There should also be an upgrade you can activate for the fully upgraded gate when it reaches half health called Bolster the Gate. It costs 100 supply and reduces the damage of siege on the GATE by 35%. This would help especially in fully supplied keep when there is no Zerg on the map during your servers off time, but there are 5-10 people trying to hold out against a blob

Dee Jay.2460:

oscuro.9720:

Dee Jay.2460:

.

As for WvW, well that’s harder to predict. I expect Condition spam builds to rule the world, but we’ll have to wait and see.

The problem is if everyone builds Condi bunker, no one will be able to kill each other because there will be so much vitality to cut through. Burst will always have a strong presence, especially for thieves, because of stealth.

Conditions aren’t countered by Vitality, they are countered by condition removal. And not all classes or builds have abundant cleanses available to them.

However, if everyone is throwing around conditions, vitality is the main STAT that deters them because they have to cut through more health. As for condition cleanses, usually the condition skills recharge MUCH faster than condis can be cleared (except for ranger w/ bear/spirits) meaning it is really just postponing your death. It will ultimately cone down to who can more conditions faster because of the amount of health there will be.

Dee Jay.2460:

.

As for WvW, well that’s harder to predict. I expect Condition spam builds to rule the world, but we’ll have to wait and see.

The problem is if everyone builds Condi bunker, no one will be able to kill each other because there will be so much vitality to cut through. Burst will always have a strong presence, especially for thieves, because of stealth.

OSCURO’s LONG RANGE BURST BUILD

Background
I have played thief since launch. It is basically all I play in every aspect of the game, even commanding (I have a warrior, but I prefer running on my thief). Having played since launch, I haven’t had the luxury of looking up “the meta” builds because they didn’t exist in beta/launch. I have made my own build since the game started, and each build has become fairly popular as time progressed and have all been very effective.

What it is
This is a p/d power build. It is focused around dps, not conditions. I have run it for about 3 months perfecting it and I am now sharing it with you, since I believe I have perfected it. The burst is slightly lower than backstab builds, but I feel the overall DPS is pretty much the same, if not higher.

Build Link
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.1%7Ca.1g.h1.8.1g.h17.0.0.0%7C5.1g.h17.0.0.0%7C1p.7h.1p.7h.1p.7h.1p.7h.1p.7h.1p.7h.0.0.0.0.0.0%7C2s.0.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67%7Cp3a.u56b.f4.0.0%7C0.0%7C59.5a.5b.5h.5v%7Ce

Build
In case you can’t access the link or don’t have time, here is the gist of the build:

25/30/15/0/0

All Valkyrie armor, Superior Rune of the Eagle;
Berserker weapons (pistol, dagger, short bow), Rune of Accuracy (pistol) Rune of fire (dagger, short bow);
Berserker trinkets, w/ Exquisite Ruby Jewels

Trait Reasoning
Deadly Arts: I choose this line for the nice amount of damage recorded from it.
III. Mug: I chose mug he wise currently I’m hitting 2k no frog. The heal is nice as well as the damage output.
IX. Dual Training: Your dual skill is essential and provides the biggest burst in this build, reaching upwards of 6k on glass cannon. Additionally, it functions as a great gap created, so it’s a win win.
The 25 minor trait gives additional damage if the target has a condition, and since every skill applies conditions, it’s pretty useful.

Critical Strikes: every choice in this line is pretty self explanatory.
(Note, hidden killer does not apply to the entire chain out of stealth or else I would’ve taken it because it would be SO OP.

Shadow arts:

In Game Stats
In game, the stats line up as:
Attack: ~3250
Crit Chance: 55%
Crit Damage: 96%
Effective Health: ~15,200
Armor; ~2200

How to play
This build focuses a lot on kiting. The average crit with the basic attack is about 1.5k damage to a glass cannon, 1.3k to someone in between, and 1-1.1k on a heavy bunker build. Overall, the damage is high. The trick is to open up with heavy burst through steal (mug=1.5-2k) then CnD (3k crit), followed by a sneak attack (4-5k chain on medium armor). Stay close so you can use the 3 skill which gives you large amounts of burst (3-5k depending on armor). The total for this sits at around a total of 11-13k opening chain.
After the opening burst, you kite them using the auto attack. The trick is that when you want to CnD to go into another chain, either use steal for the shadow step to throw them off, CnD off of a nearby npc and then move close toy or target so you can use the 3 skill, then unload, or let then come to you. Letting ten approach you is most effective against melee targets because it makes them feel they have the upper hand by getting you in melee range.
This build hinges around being aggressive while relying on the distance to keep you safe. Staying in stealth for the full duration is not optimum, especially when you do not have 30 SA. Utilizing SR for the leeching combo out of stealth is great because of the 100% combo chance. It heals a very nice amount when combining the passive heal with the leeching. Additionally, use the distance provided to protect you. This build gives good gap creatures with very nice damage/ utility (I.e. 3 skill or immobilize skill). By staying aggressive you will almost always have the upper hand in a fight, and be able to dictate the course of events in a fight, especially with the immobilize.

I have done numerous 1v1s and 1vX’s with this build and I find it very effective because:

1: people don’t expect thief to be ranged after they go stealth. This gives you a high advantage of picking your positioning because they expect a Backstab.

2: Even if they do recognize the p/d layout, they would expect the Condi stacking, and this build does stack conditions, and I’ve noticed people try to clear the conditions because the opening burst stacks about 8 stacks of bleed plus 2 stacks of torment. This confuses them because they don’t realize the conditions aren’t dealing the damage.

3: you have melee dps at range, providing a lot of utility and movement room, which is very beneficial with the thief low base health/armor.

Best Wishes.
Oscuro of Kaineng

Edit: Extra detail on “how to play”, grammatical changes. Additional Information again.

I may be making a video soon depending on how much time I have, be sure to check back!

Venoms have pretty decent utility. I command on my thief and have a special commanding build (actually two, but what ever). I run either ptv gear with 20/0/30/20/0 for the venom share and high defense/ attack damage. I have might on venoms and I can personally put venoms on my party, and get my power up to 3900 (not 100% sure that’s the exact number but it is high) because it’s already sitting pretty high with no might. The catch is I don’t crit. Also, you can run full dire with a 0/0/30/20/20 build with venom share to get tags on a lot of people. Then you run caltrops and drop them in the middle of the Zerg to cripple basically their entire Zerg and tag more people. So yeah, venoms have good utility.