Guild Wars 2

The best way to get it down is just run around playing, obviously. All I can do is give you a process to expedite the learning curve. Running a 10/30/30/0/0 (more survivable) build or a 25/30/0/0/15 (high damage) is also a decent build to start with. I actually have gone back to the latter. Also, using two signets and the 3 second stealth w/ Signet of Malice is a very easy layout to run in WvW.
Once you get a hand of that, take off a signet and replace it with shadow step or the roll skill. Both are very effective when used right. Basilisk Venom is very effective when roaming. FREE KILLS!

The best way to get it down is just run around playing, obviously. All I can do is give you a process to expedite the learning curve. Running a 10/30/30/0/0 (more survivable) build or a 25/30/0/0/15 (high damage) is also a decent build to start with. I actually have gone back to the latter. Also, using two signets and the 3 second stealth w/ Signet of Malice is a very easy layout to run in WvW.
Once you get a hand of that, take off a signet and replace it with shadow step or the roll skill. Both are very effective when used right. Basilisk Venom is very effective when roaming. FREE KILLS!

Or just replace the condition damage with crit damage % or MORE PRECISION!

Isn’t the point of a thief to be stealthed and burst people down in our stealth. The point of low health, high damage, and high skill level, is to have to play skillfully, and if you do, you are rewarded.

I agree completely with the aforementioned idea of not huffing unload, but vital shot. In my own opinion, vital shot should have a speed increase to slightly less than when haste is active. Also buff the physical damage by 10% and lengthen the condition duration of bleed. Next, add some sort of condition to Unload, in reality, something like torment or bleed, providing 1 stack per hit. If these changes are implemented the. The build will be very viable for both a power and condition build. Primarily, it would be an awesome condition build. If these changes are implemented, including an initiative reduction on the pistol #2 skill, this build would be nearly comparable to the warrior du sword build, sacrificing the warriors armor for the ability to be ranged. Not only would it be effective, but it would be fun, and it could actually give runes of the thief a purpose.

I have played thief since launch and must say this is not true in any way (the original thread, not the responses). I run dungeons with and without my guild all of the time, and there are things, as mentioned before, that a thief brings which no one else can. Shadowstep, blind, stealth, a permanent poison. And don’t forget the damage. OH THE DAMAGE! I am hit 11k crits on dungeon bosses with heart seeker. I average 1.8k on sb 1, and 4-6k on cluster bomb. I also tick 160 on my poison with no condition traits/gear. There is so much a thief can offer, just it takes skill to do. Once you find it, it becomes a cake walk and you can compete with any other class, and it becomes a matter of skill, not what class you are playing. Every class has a place in this game, and I love how the person above me put it, THIEF IS NOT ANY OTHER CLASS! However, I do wish that scorpion wore could pull allies as well as enemies. That would be awesome, and incredibly helpful. The ability to hide in a tower (because thieves are amazing at that) and then just pull a mesmer up to you so he can port in everyone else. It would b a nice utility.

This shouldn’t have been based on a video…just saying. Would be better if it was a written concept.

Many people have been saying that a S/S warrior is impossible, it IS NOT! They have one kill move, which is when they throw their sword and stack torment on you. I find that these warriors are simply more difficult because they have condition and thief has no condition removal. The trick is to start with steal, and have shadow step in your utility skills. If you have shadowstep, you can easily break stuns and pop out if combat for a quick heal.

You are not bad by any means. Why you didn’t scratch him is curious to me, but it was probably the fact he had rejuvenation signet in and you got killed before you could land 3 solid attacks. You just turned 80 so it is not a surprise you died to a warrior, and if you face a guardian, well, those are harder IMO.

Zaxares.5419:

Also, Scarlet met Renei while in the Mists and learned everything he knew in less than a day.

What? I don’t quite get your connection, please elaborate.

Aaron Ansari.1604:

Out of curiosity, what makes you think Scarlet was behind Thaumanova?

Follow this link, it is very well put together and makes a lot of sense. Mostly, watch the video, the comments are just some additional speculations.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/lore/Scarlet-s-Chaos-Reactor-Her-Endgame-Video/first#post3206471

Psynch.4087:

sierras.6297:

stuff!

Thanks for the input! A lot of really neat ideas there. I do, however, question the use of portals for spreading spores. The very nature of the nightmare tree is that it spreads the spores through the air. In doing so, the spores spawn more nightmare trees (the offshoots dynamic events). And if those offshoots succeed in growing, then the trees/spores spread farther and farther, like a virus/epidemic. It seems like such a roundabout plan to use portals to reach Ascalon when the spores would do it themselves in time.

My thinking was that the Tree will release spores, and majority of those spores will land in Kessex Hills and maybe Queensdale. Some may go as far as Lions arch, but those will be far fewer. What does she have by infecting these low population areas, I mean Kessex hills has probably 200, maybe up to 500 residents, that’s being generous. And these people are mostly Seraph and Lionguard, so they can easily pack up and go if the threat is to great, or will die fighting. I saw that by utilizing portals, as we see she has already done for movement of troops, she could bypass the areas of lowest threat or importance.

Now look at her objectives, EVOLVE THE PALE TREE. While letting the spores take their time and spread through nature, it would be much more effective to create a portal and send hundreds, if not thousands, of spores down on the Pale Tree and surrounding areas like Caeldon Forest. With enough spores, they will catch root and it will become very difficult to uproot all of them.
Depending on how many spores the tree emits, this could be repeated over heavily populated areas such as Lions Arch, or The Black Citadel. If the tree reactor would be left to reproduce on its own, the process would take much too long and the races of Tyria would find a way to combat it. With their superior forces, they would wipe Scarlet. This is why it would be imperative for her to overwhelm them, instead of slowly spreading, allowing for her enemy time to find weaknesses and exploit them.

Now I read some of the newer comments on your video and one caught my attention. One person theorized that Scarlet tried to kidnap Queen Jenna to assist her plan. I did some looking, and some personal speculating, and found that maybe Scarlet looked at the human empire, being the weakest of nations, battling on all fronts and only having a very temporary, fragile peace, and figured they would be easiest to corrupt, being the most beaten down. It could be possible that the illusion cast on the reactor existed before the Queen’s Jubilee and Scarlets attack. We need to remember that the reactor was discovered unintentionally, so how long has it existed? If this is so, it could show that the subtle mutation of beings could take a decent amount of time if they are to be mutated under control. This means that if Scarlet came to attack with an adequate amount of chaos matter, she could, theoretically, mutate the last remaining human settlement. Also, it provides a link to the Charr regions through the portal to Ebon Hawke (if that is what the city in Fields of Ruins name is), and a portal to Lions Arch. Now this would not be used to send troops, but spores. The mass travel of spores would expedite the spreading of the Chaos through infection of heavily populated urban regions. This supports your theory that she is trying to spread the chaos through growth of a new tree, and she was using the krait to conceal it until it germinated, and then some.
Now a look into the Eternal Alchemy, if this is capable of travel, and what is used in Asura gates, as hinted at I the asura storyline for those who chose College of Synergetics (a thing I will come back to) , her interest in the eternal alchemy could be how the transportation through teleportation works (her portals), making it able to expedite her mutation through mass spreading spores. Also, as we see in the College of Synergetics storyline, there is now a way to transport without a receiving end, something that could save Scarlet from the risk of people coming back through her portals, if she chooses to send spores through portals. Just a theory.
I don’t want to detract from your theory, it is very string, I am simply trying to possibly make a few more possible connections.

I am an avid thief enthusiast. It is the best class in the game IMO due to its enjoyable factors, despite its strength. Even then, I don’t see them being weak. Ask my guild, I do phenomenal damage and that is one of the reasons they want me in dungeon groups. I crit 9k on dagger 2 if they are below 25, 8k below 50, and I hit 1k no criteria per dagger 1 hit.i have no troubles playing, using a mix of seeker and power vitality toughness gear with full seeker trinkets. Try it sometime, maybe you will see thieves don’t die quite so much if you play well enough. Don’t reroll warrior just because it is easy, play the game for enjoyment, because every class can kill one another. I harbinger you will be killed by thieves one after another because they are GOOD, better than you are on a warrior.

He has slain a warrior with three hits.

He once broke down a tower gate with only melee attacks.

He didn’t use the cannons to defeat Zhaitan, he used a wooden gun.

The Hylek have a day devoted to him.

He is the most interesting thief in the world.

“I don’t always kill warriors, but when I do, I use Spark”

Get your spark today in local trading posts near you, for the low low price of 268 gold. Only direct gold is accepted, no iou’s or credit card transactions available.

Seriously people, stop complaining! The thief isn’t that bad if you know what you are doing. Just asura then to death. Jk. But I am serious, it is rarely the warrior I have troubles with, it is the necro, but that is because thrives have no CR so yeah.

There was once an Elonian named Renei. He was a trader of sorts. He traveled gathering lost relics in the desert then returning to cities to turn a profit. One time during his explorations, he ran into a Seer. The Seer granted him the ability to see into the mists. He slowly went mad. He returned to a town to sell his wares, being tormented inside, and met a mesmer named Carter. Carter taught him illusion magic, as it was very similar to the magic of the mists, and they travelled Elina for twenty years as a show. But Carter got old and settled away back in his hometown. Renei seemed to have not aged at all. He slowly went mad, not having someone to release his powers with, and went on a journey into the desert to find the Seer. One night he sheltered down into a cave, as a downpour had begun. During the night, the Seer returned with two ascalonians. The Seer told Renei to remain in this cave until it’s return. Once the seer had gone, the two ascalonians sat in two chairs that appeared out of no where and began working on weaponry. Renei begged them to teach him, and in turn he would open the mists so they could return home. The crafting proved a potent cure to his boredom, and sending the Ascolonians back was a very minor feat as he had become a walking portal. He lived in between the dimensions of man and the Mists. This so did his worn. For eighty years he crafted weapon after weapon, each having existence in both the human dimension and the mists. This gave them a low opacity appearance, but to Renei, they were sturdy, powerful weapons.
After the eighty years, a djinn came. His name was Zommoros: Having a similar magic, Renei taught him everything he knew just to have some sort of company. After two years, Zommorros left. He went off into the desert. He eventually became entombed in the mystic forge and now creates these weapons on his own account, dispersing them throughout Tyria if a person is worthy.
As of Renei, he waited in that cave for 36 more years until the Seer did come. He went out into the world, to see it completely changed by the Guild Wars. He went to the northern shiver peaks. Then deep into the Maguuma Jungle, exploring the world. He showed to some how to enter the mists, creating a small opening through which peol could go and return with no personal harm. Finally, he settled on the borders of the Maguuma Jungle and Wastes. No one knows if he died, or he simply dissapeared one day, Into the Mists.

DISCLAIMER None of this is factual lore, just something I made up.

Maybe she came from another tree, like that one guy in the sylvan I storyline who came from a different pale tree. This is easily so considering she was once a seed, and there could defiantly be other seeds that rooted down somewhere else.

Hopefully, they release a class with an ED. In which case I could see this happening:

1) Primordus and the dwarves
2) Kralkatoric and the Forgotten (the reptilian race that were helper to the gods and inhabited the Deserts of Elona
3) Jormag and the Kodan

^Thanks, I spelt it wrong^

FlamingFoxx.1305:

^

Also I’m wondering if you play in a different language version of GW2 because “Gohr” and “Ashram” aren’t things from the English version of the game?

Ashram is an autocorrect for Asura. Not sure why it did that. Also, Gohr is in the level 20 story line when choosing your order. His research proves the dragons are absorbing magic, or “eat” it. He simply doesn’t know why, and says it if you follow the order of whispers.

Also, Dustfinger proves a very good point. Magic may enter Tyria at a constant rate, or an exponentially increasing rate, meaning the elder dragons may awaken at a certaint level of magic contamination in their respective region. This would explain why Zhaitan was the first to awaken, with Orr being the center of human of magic, or one of them. Also, if magic is exerted at a changing rate, and people start drawing on magic at an increasing rate, is it possible that the EDs could start awakening faster and faster?

There are a few things I would like to touch on. If the dragons (assuming it implies elder dragons) balance the worlds magic, would that mean their return signifies that magic is too rampant? Thus they consume magic, as Gohr scientifically verified in the ashram story line, but they would have to stop at some point or magic would be gone. So in a way Gohr is right and wrong which puts a flaw in the priories work as they have come to the same conclusion. This could be very interesting in the future if one of the elder dragons is unstoppable.

The next thing is that it was previously said the dragons intent was not evil but their process is or seems like it. However, we see that in only Zhaitan, Kralkatoric, Jormag, and Primordus. It is notable that each desires something, Zhaitan immortality, Jormag power, Primordus destruction, and kralkatoric perfection. The underwater dragon and the 6th mystery dragon we know not. But if you take each of those attributes, each implies some sort of fight. You need some sort of destruction for immortality, or power, especially destruction, and to even for perfection to an extent. However it is possible the next two elder dragons could not be so evil. There is even a theory that the 6th elder dragon is a forest dragon and the forest dragon’s general the pale tree. If this is so, is it possible that Bubbles minions could be helpful not hindering, as the sylvari would be servants of the forest dragon.

Also, if the dragons are the regulators of magic, and they are killed off, what would happen to the lay lines. If an unprecedented amount of magic flowed through them is it possible that they would collapse? Erupt? Begin to leak so much energy that the land becomes mutated with the raw magic essence?

Also, if Zhaitan is destroyed, and any other elder dragon is destroyed, would this not upset the balance of nature sense they are nature? How could the destruction of the ice dragon not have a major influence on the entire northern region of Tyria. This seems to be very odd to me as the landscape seems to be shaped to the attributes of the dragon that slept there had. Could it be that their presence alters the landscape to accommodate to their own natural forces, such as Jormag freezing the north, or Zhaitan killing Orr, or the desolation of Cantha into a desert wasteland by kralkatoric. One last thing on the dragons is if they are a force of nature, will they be able to be reborn as nature cannot really be destroyed so long as it’s core is there. I mean, we killed Zhaitab, but there are still dead people, and we don’t see the gods returning to the men like people thought.

Edit: Cut that part out.

Okay, I didn’t play gw1 so I didn’t know, thank you.

I’m not as experienced in the lore as some (or most) of you but I’m just curious if the gods even are real. The humans are supposedly an alien race, and is it possible that they came here as colonizers bringing a religion with then which they used as justification for their conquest, similar to the late Roman empire? Or is there documented proof of the gods coming in physical form and aiding the men. Could the silence of the gods just be misfortune of mankind, or is there evidence that they actually exist?

Sounds like they should just give us a rifle w/ 1200 range and work it into a power build based.

Mr. Peters,
I am very curious as to if thieves will get a 1200 range option. This isn’t something that I see as changing the mechanics of thieves, but it would add some major conveniences, such as being able to stay further back in WvW when ranging, or in PvE, being able to stack and stay out of AoE rings while still being able to hit the enemy (what I have personally suffered most from). I’m just curious if this change is something that is even considered or not to look forward to this convenience. Thanks.

Anyone know if he runs full zerk?

I personally run a very unique twist on thief. I have a mix of power/vitality/toughness gear, and two zerker pieces. With zerker trinkets and weapons. I have 2.5k armor and 15k vitality and still carry 2k damage per dagger #1 hit and have heart seeker damage of around 3k non crit, 6-7k crit. I have a 49% crit chance.

As a thief, underwater is in no way bad. I just through on signers and charge in. Harpoon gun #2 is awesome, and if a warrior is trying to stab you to death, spear 4 for a counter and overpowered attack, and #5 for evade and heavy damage (I hit around 7k the last hit).

I was using dual dagger in Arah dungeon the other day and was fighting trash mobs, and felt very lack luster on multi target decimation. I recently switched from a sword dagger build, so the multi target on the sword was very nice in pve and even 1vXing in WvW. However, after looking at the dagger animations, and using some logic, I realized that dagger #1 should be able to hit two enemies at a time on A and B. C is a stab, so it makes sense that it is single target, but the other ones should seriously hit two targets (not three because they are daggers and should have the variation between things like swords and axes).

I threw this build on to roam…
I’m not sure if those I was fighting were bad or I am just better than I thought.

So why don’t we see the charr mega laser?

I too have mained thief since launch and I can tell you warrior may be more powerful than most classes, but are most certainly not OP. They have an easier learning curve, and may he overall easier to play, but as an experienced thief, it is very rare I find a warrior I cannot kill in wvw.

[/quote]
No! Dont make them pity us! When that happens, they win. Right now they are jealous of us, our movement, our high damage and whatnot. MAKE THEM HATE US, not for the class, but for our brotherhood.

RISE UP FELLOW THIEFS AND BE PROUD OF ONE ANOTHER.

We should be out there in swarms slaughtering warriors and guardians, and when they nerf us down again, we get right back up and do it again!

All I’m trying to say is to be proud of what we have.[/quote]

YEAH! I’m going to try this, get an all thief group and go around steamrolling all other servers!

I’m worried I’m gonna be one of the last thieves in Gw2. At least do the favor of deleting your thief so that once our time comes, you have to grind back to level 80, and cannot just band wagon to the most op classes.

I have personally found success in wvw with a sword dagger build that runs 25/30/0/0/15. I have full zerk and can kill effectively though I may be a bit squishy, I have found ways to use shadowstep to my advantage so I rarely die. However, this build will not be quite so effective as the dec. 10th patch puts a cast time on infiltrators return, making the way to safely fight multiple enemies and not be come absolutely destroyed by stuns when running my build nearly impossible, unless you have a lot of skill. This may not be for sure, as no one knows how much the patch will truly change, but by the sounds of it, my build is going to need to be changed.

My build may be what you want, I rarely die with the awesome ability to shadow step, and can crit around 7k, as well as the dodge on lancerous strike being EXTREMELY helpful. I can 1v3 in wvw pretty effectively, however, I am full zerk.

JonPeters.5630:

I said it in he other thread but this trait has to get hit hard because it is breaking the profession. We need to push the effectiveness of this trait into base thief functionality. If any other profession had a trait that reduced weapon cooldown by 30% for all weapons as a 15 point minor we would have to balance around that. A single trait shouldn’t be holding thief balance hostage so we will steal from this trait, no pun intended, and impart the savings on to every build via base initiative regeneration.

Jon

I am perfectly fine with this and understand the reasoning. The main reason in posting is to say thank you to the devs, I have seen more red tags on the thief forum then I have ever seen. Ever. So thank you for opening the lines of communication with this patch.

It is not a portal, but a looking glass. It shows the structures built by the minions of the elder dragons to contain the human gods form restoring their greatness and the greatness of their followers.

Only by breaking through this imagery can one achieve the true level of knowledge and be ascended like the heroes of old. And through your ascension, you can unleash the power of the gods and vanquish all enemies!

I’m sorry but is it just pauldrons and gloves or is it a whole set? I am not able to go on and look

I personally dislike the sword change. The weapon set already took a certain amount of skill to play well, and the removal of that stun break is going to turn us into fodder for stun lock warriors. Intact, it will just make us significantly less effective because we will have to accommodate for the fast time while in a fight, reducing the amount of damage dealt, and expedites the amount of time we will spend doing nothing but being pounded on.
I do like the unitive change, and it will help a lot with many different weapon sets, but I kind of feel that sword is going to take a hit too big. A cast time for the initial shadow step in the series would be make more sense, preventing a thief from shadow step spamming. As Mr. Peters pointed out, it will put a burden on s/d thieves, and force then to save their stun breaks. I run a shadow step build, and shadow step now becomes my only stun break, IF I decide to open with it and not use it mid combat.

I am usually supportive of the thief updates, but I really feel this will be the destruction of any S/D shadow step build, and most shadow step builds. However, I think the rest of this patch is a general improvement for thieves.

Tyler Chapman.1832:

Oghier.7419:

D/D didn’t get nerfed. Increasing base initiative gain by 33% is a pretty big deal.

It’s more than a big deal. It’s a MASSSSSSSSSIVE buff to all thief specs.

I personally agree. I run a shadow step build, and have found an effective way to play without many of the “limitations” people say thieves have. Through all of the “nerfs” we have undergone, I have never been severely been effected. I personally feel having faster imitative regen is something that will be very beneficial to, as stated above, almost all thief specs. The main thing is, only good players will appreciate it. The one thing I was hoping for was increased heal per hit on signet of malice, but it is a dream, not anything I actually expect because I have a realistic view on how updates will be.

I ran a full zerk p/p build for a while, 75% crit chance, I could get up to a 10k crit on unload. If you have Signet of Malice, you should be fine, as long as you have ricochet. You’ll burst them down real fast and should heal enough as long as you stay at range. Spam able stub is nice, plus the new immobilize allow for some decent escape tools and are very useful in small havoc groups that are dominant (like mine usually are).

Just how I took a stab at p/p. Played it for about a month. Was very effective, though I personally like my shadow step build much better. More mobile and fun.

I run s/d full zerk+signet of malice. Works well because SoM is not only a passive heal, but a good active one too. It would be nice to have it be even 1/4th of the warriors healing signet, but we gotta work with what we have.

No. I run a S/D build very effectively. I rely on shadow step, not stealth, and I feel it is a more fun play style, being able to dodge just by shadow stepping away. The complaints that we will never have the burst to be viable is a complete lie. It is true a sword build cannot burst as well as a backstab build, but I feel that if played right, it can be more effective. I still have a nice dps output, while not dieing very easily (partially because being an asura thief in WvW is convenient), and pve is not too difficult (By nice dps I mean I crit 5.5-6.5k on sword #1’s final strike, and LS). The most important thing is to remember to not shadow step immediately after shadow stepping out. That is the only mistake that will get you killed half the time.

Mainly, a stealth build is nt necessary, and is not te only viable build.

Meridian.8730:

Thief roll = good snack for warriors, necros and guardians. MMmmm.

I don’t know about that, I can kill good warriors and necros pretty easily. A relatively skilled player is much more difficult to kill, as with any profession. I think the main problem is the skilled player to poor player ratio. Because of thieves relatively small middle group compared to other professions, many people believe them to be worse than they truly are.

The thief role I have found is not just scout, but very good when a Zerg takes on a Zerg. I just run around the enemy Zerg and slowly take out the rangers and eles siting in the back. With my build generating crits at 6-7k on LS/the final strike of sword 1, I can burst these guys down very quickly, then switch to my short bow and aoe their Zerg from behind, with a 4k crit on CB and 1.8k on the auto attack. I’ve found that most people want thieves to run a stealth build because they misconceive a thieves potential. I have run builds in which I stand in the front with p/p depending on ricochet, and having a full tank build. My favorite role as a thief is in havoc group. When played right, the DPS and shadow step of a thief can carry a havoc group. Leave the typical Zerg roles to the people willing to be bored and die. I like how I play, and it is effective enough. Just my two cents.

-Oscuro

Never would I leave my thief. I have other classes at level 70, and a necro at 80, but NEVER would I leave my thief. I love it too much. People conplain and whine, but those are the bad players.

I feel that people restrict thieves to filling a stealth dependant role. I have played every imaginable, as well as a tank like thief. My current build (my favorite one I have played) only uses stealth when gotten from steal. People need to see that thieves can shadow step, poison (less helpful but still decent), heal, pure AoE damage, and many other things. These utilities are so neglected IMO that it makes propel have threads like this. Sorry bout that small rant.

If I would have to go to a different class because they deleted thieves, I would play necro or mesmer.

I have mained a thief since launch, and have seen a full signet thief, however, I have never seen very many, if any, who are good. And by good I don’t mean the “yeah, they are good”, I mean they are just an absolute beast that rips through things.

Mostly I’m just curious if it is worth looking into, maybe trying out?

-Oscuro

So I have mained a thief since launch. It is my only character, and I love it’s playstyle. However, I am looking to make another class. I have only played a thief, and am looking for a class that is good in both wvw and pve, and has a high damage output and a high survivability rate. And above all else, i do not want a class that is so easy it is no fun. I am implying warrior, though I am not sure If they have changed. Thank you in advanced.

-Oscuro

I’m sure you have all seen the newest thief updates, and I was looking to see what the individual opinions are (not a place to whine about this or that). In my opinion, I thought the sword nerfs were unnecessary, as that is what I role, but what do you think?!

-Oscuro

I tried the previously mention of switching to mor crit instead of a small amount of condi damage, and it is better in a straight up conflict, however, when fighting with a group of two or three, the condi damage helps exponentially when people try to run from your havoc group. It is just mainly a preference in what you want. I personally do not find hitting the highest damage ever necessary as you do have enough range to stay alive, even when fighting other ranged classes, you have shadow step to bring you in range.

Okay. It isn’t pertaining to an asura, but then again, mine isn’t either, so I can’t say anything.

I am Oscuro Sombra. Killer of shadows.