Guild Wars 2

Playing dredge/hylek – rogues/golanta tag with a few buds was too much fun today.

What is worse, people complaining about thieves, or thieves complaining about people complaining about thieves?

http://mos.millenium.org/matchups#NA

Looks like we’ll have a new Red team next week…

Shan – a couple weeks of this trend and we’ll have a Borlis/Ferg/Kain matchup.

Would anyone else expect a server that receives a 500+ member guild to stay in the lowest ranked matchup? If they did it would be kind of strange.

Your damage will be reduced, but you will still hit glass cannon specs hard and you will manage to survive being focussed in WvW. It really depends on your style of play.

I run about 1750 toughness and around 18k health – glass cannon thieves are very easy to deal with.

Sigil of Bloodlust – get a second dagger, and put this on it. Swap back when you have your full stacks.

For fighting in mid to large scale fights, this style of build actually works. Your damage output suffers so unless you have good control skills, small fights will be more challenging.

Pointing out the obvious: Dodging negates 100% of all damage (except of course existing conditions). This includes aoe damage and of course siege. The more people attacking you, the more valuable this type of mitigation becomes. Unlike past games where dodge was almost always just RNG based (or non-existent), here we can control that timing (making it 100% avoidance if timed properly). Add in the fact that projectiles have travel time and can be seen, aoe’s leave big circles, and many threatening abilities have some kind of audio or animation cue. Dodge is overpowered.

Synergize with Vigor/Endurance gains and condition removal (I like signet of agility and vigor on heal/vigor on steal).

Add in a little bit of stealth (hide in shadows, refuge) – dagger offhand is always an option. I prefer pistol and forgo the stealth traits, but it’s an option.

Abuse shadowstep and shortbow combo spam.

Drednyte.7601:

Just had a hilarious 2-3 hours of SM siege in Eternal. Hats off to Kain for some nice defense. I kept watching the DR folks run into the doorway to the throne room, stop, get smashed by the 10 folks in the room manning siege. Easy 30+ DR folks died…..you 10 rocked. Quite a bit more Kain showed up shortly after, and there was more in the room to start..but when i dodged into the room, thinking i had a team behind me just to find out i was soloing it, i managed to get 6 of u to stop manning the siege before i went down. Panned camera around..and saw DR running up, stop, stand in the doorway to the room..get mowed down..over and over. all i could do was laugh.

Can lead a horse to water….lol

Anyways, very nice teamwork under pressure there Kain. Hope to see more of it during the week. DR, well, there was bout 10 of you trying with me and heck of a good shot we gave it…the rest well, not sure what they were doing (other they dying in the doorways to siege over and over).

Well, again, nice fight there and heck of a good job defending SM.

It was a blast holding it until we had a few more people to push you all out of there.

Should be interesting after these pve events are over.

Do this with outmanned buff and no orbs.

When someone just won’t get off your nutz during WvW and you end up pulling off a 1v4 – that’s a teabaggin.

Rockin the outmanned buff as you push a group of campers out of your BL northern supply camp – that there’s a teabaggin.

Someone chased after you while you were invading their territory; running halfway across the map to just have you turn around and spike them into the ground? You better believe that’s a teabaggin.

My favorite is:

/sit
/laugh

The laugh makes you stand up.

All in good fun. It’s a great way to get semi-anonymous cross-server whispers.

Vigor on Heal, Vigor on Steal, Swiftness on Dodge – no need for SoS.

Very strong now. Was great before, now it’s one of those abilities that will never leave your utility bar.

Kaineng would be ideal for this.

@Mighteous

You are correct – Dougie [Nuke] was a hero for sitting in the treb and doing the boring job of boring through that wall. cheers

We noticed that your treb was in a great position, but about a foot from actually hitting the wall – so we just kept experimenting with the positioning and got that whole shindig started.

I have to agree with you – that was one of the greatest battles I have ever experienced in an online game. All three factions warring over the most coveted piece of real estate in the game and walking away the victor is easily going to be one of the most memorably few hours I will ever have in gaming – and this is coming from a guy who played Wizardry I when it came on 360k floppies for the Apple2.

Devonas is doing work this week; Their transfers are making a huge difference.

A thief traited for WvW mobility can chase down anyone and flee most situations.

Too many options to immobilize (stealth→bow #1, sword→#2, venoms)
Too many options to chain cripple (sword #1 chain, offhand dagger #4, shortbow #4)
Too many gap closers (infiltrators *, heartseeker, steal)
Too many utilities (25% movements speed and/or perma swiftness, 1200 range teleport)

Steal – shadowstep giving the thief a potent weapon that excels at shutting down whoever you steal it from.

Oh, and broken stealth for gaining superior tactical positioning.

Strong class is strong

1. #1 attack from stealth is a daze if you hit from behind
2. IF = infiltrators strike – removes condition on return – immobilizes on attack

I’ve been wanting to go to Sword/Dagger but I don’t know if I can give up Headshot and Black Powder (sword/pistol ).

Steal, acrobatics assisted dodge spam, stealth, shadowsteps and spammable blast finisher.

OP class is OP.

http://mos.millenium.org/matchups#NA

Same matchup for next week.

Same colors as well.

From the scores it looks like the matchups may very well stay the same for next week.

SoS is Taiwanese

Couple things about this past week.

It’s been great fun to see the scores moving around, but nobody taking full map control (what you see in this screen shot will not stay very long).

3 way fights constantly breaking out is often quite epic.

DR waking up and holding territory (often making their BL fully red) and constantly pressuring both sides.

Defense of our last keep at times that results in finally pushing defenders away and going on to reclaim most of our territory.

Lot’s of great skirmishes and less dominance on zerg balls; seeing multiple fronts all the time.

Best week so far of WvW.

Slightly different to transfer servers to another that isn’t in the same tier.

Just when we thought there was the possibility of some 2v1 vs the Green Menace…

CRrabbit.1284:

The fact is —-- dagger storm can’t be immobilized. DS will give stability which is anti-immobilization.
Every time I saw a thief using dagger storm I put a spike trap on him (which immobilizes target) , although the trap can be activated, but the thief can run through it and not immobilized at all.

spif.7580:

Thenoob.1480:

Cripple: walk slower than your enemy
Stability: you can’t be crippled
Gee I wonder why no one goes up and hits the guy.

Immobilize Immobilize Immobilize

When I see a thief run into my team with daggerstorm, I swap to Sword and Infitrators (Immobilize) and just auto attack chain him. If he doesn’t cancel daggerstorm he will die.

Stability does not protect you from immobilize (a condition) – it protects you from CONTROL EFFECTS – such as stun, knockdown, daze.

I see almost every Thief build out there using Signet of Shadows. It may not be “fine”.

Cluster Bomb may be better used as a spammable combo finisher. If you burst it, however, it won’t combo.

Lot’s of action on all fronts. Sometimes it even feels like the game the designers imagined in their head.

WvW Combat Thief

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmMc0MzMFLaoMFCaoa9MxxccRaVkb8khT7khA7kiH707khA70z7kGL70V7owX

Stealing is highlighted in this balanced, somewhat tanky build. Chain dodging granting swiftness coupled with a multiple of ways to remove conditions makes you very durable. Decent power and enough movement on the battlefield to exploit combo fields. Very strong in 1v1 versus any class/build. Resilient and mobile enough to evade nearly any situation – even zerg melee trains.

30% cooldown reduction for Steal
30% Boon duration

Gear:

Armor: Invader/Orr – Power/Toughness/Vitality – with Divinity runes
Jewelry: Knights with Emeralds – Toughness/Precision/Power
5% crit/5% damage Sigils on Sword and Pistol
Bloodlust Sigil on Shortbow

This gives you nearly 3000 Attack – Over this when Bloodlust stacks are up. 30% base crit (50% with Fury – which has a significant up-time with this build). Condition damage gets a slight boost from the Trickery line.

Trait Choices:

10 in Power

• Mug
• Poison on Steal

30 in Acrobatics

• Swiftness on Dodge – you dodge a lot and boosted with high Vigor uptime (almost 100%) this basically lets you drop Signet of Shadows
• Vigorous Recovery – Vigor, under-rated; makes this build very strong. I used to run might stacks on dodge, but Vigor is just better for long fights (majority of WvW).
• Pain Response – Pretty much a hoser card for condition builds. Can make some 1v1 matchups lopsided after the first few volleys.
• Assassins Reward – this makes all that Toughness and Avoidance even more valuable. I used to run Quick Pockets but I think that this is stronger in this kit.

30 in Trickery

• Thrill of the Crime – with 30 points in Acrobatics this really shines in group fights
• Bountiful Theft – Moar Vigor and steal up to two Boons (shared with friends) – strong
• Sleight of Hand – Another 1 second of Daze makes for some mean control combos

Utilities:

Hide In Shadows – Regen and removes all damaging conditions along with stealth makes it a clear winner. Withdraw is considered but Sword gives enough stun breaks along with Shadowstep

Shadow Refuge – Revives, Stomps, Dark Combo field, so very flexible

Signet of Agility – I don’t see a lot of people running this. The Precision is a nice bonus but not really what makes this little gem one of my favorite oh-kitten buttons. Remove conditions (1 for each buddy around you – including yourself) and fill up an endurance bar – giving you 3 more bonus dodges when you probably need it most. Under-rated.

ShadowStep – this is used to set up zerg busting combos along with being one of the best oh-kitten buttons in the game. This thing has a 1200 range. You can use it for chasing, running, getting you out of a situation that you would surely die from (stunned/knock down and melee trained for example – with this beaut, you can make very aggressive moves and get away. Oh and it removes 3 conditions when you return. My only complaint with this is that the shadow return could last longer (10 seconds).

Elite: Daggerstorm – Stolen Axe – Daggerstorm – Steal from Warrior during Daggerstorm – Stolen Axe.

Exploit Combo fields early and often. Favorite combos:

Shadow Refuge (Dark)->AoE Blind
Poison Field(Poison)->AoE Weakness
Steal from Engineer(Ethereal)->AoE Chaos Armor
Black Powder(Smoke)->Daggerstorm Blind

Sword #2 with #1 spam with mixed Black Powder is much better Initiative use than Pistol Whip (rarely used in this build).

Headshot is deceptively strong with small group trains. Recognize the heal animation and you can turn a 1v1 around very quickly. Very fast animation speed and spammable. I’ve been using this more and more lately.

Black Powder is possibly one of the strongest PvE tanking skills available. Mingled with a few dodges and shadowsteps, you can tank very well. Remember that the Smoke field automatically combos with the pistol shot making this a ranged Blind as well. This can be used to great effect in duels.

Shortbow. This is a very strong skirmishing weapon and the blast finisher is just insane. Once you can coordinate combo fields with your friends, your utility in any setting sky-rockets.

Complaints – low condition damage – this build doesn’t rely on conditions for damage so the few bleeds you get from Cluster Bomb wont tick very strong (about 60ish). This makes the 300 points of condition damage from the Trickery line kind of a waste. I think this is made up for with the terrific benefits of the rest of the line (boons from stealing, extra initiative/damage) not to mention the over-powered 30% cooldown reduction on steal.

BP – bragging about being in the bottom matchup against the two red headed stepchild servers is pretty ripe. I’ll bet you guys take a vacation during your normal matchup against Fergs and whoever else is in that tier.

DR – sending raiding parties large enough to cap towers and push out of their spawn to the north side of Kaineng BL is seriously lolz. I have tracked these guys several times picking off the stragglers and it’s just absolutely baffling how these guys would rather keep capping PvE type targets than fight one lone thief. Do you guys even want to PvP? Running more than 20+ people and doing nothing but avoiding even the smallest of skirmishes is just bizarre. We’ll keep farming you guys when we can catch you – can you just put up a bit more of a fight, please?

This week has been very entertaining. Kaineng may actually move up from last place.

NakedMoleRat.2605:

I would like to ask would it be possible to pro-rate the amount of points a server gets per map based on the difference in number of players. For example if server 1 has 1 player in WvW and server B has 100 players then server B should have their point gain based on that fact that that have 100 times the server A players so if server B was to earn 100 points those points should be reduced by an appropriate factor based on the number of player difference. So they should have there points halved or a suitable mathematically valid factor. Then at peak time every server is full and then point gains are normal but in off times people cant abuse it and earn a giant lead in the morning

Keep the static points.

Capture/Defense award based on population. 100:5 in your favor? You get 5% the karma and exp. 10:200 against? You get 200% more.

Thenoob.1480:

Cripple: walk slower than your enemy
Stability: you can’t be crippled
Gee I wonder why no one goes up and hits the guy.

Immobilize Immobilize Immobilize

When I see a thief run into my team with daggerstorm, I swap to Sword and Infitrators (Immobilize) and just auto attack chain him. If he doesn’t cancel daggerstorm he will die.

The auto-attack chain also adds cripple and weakness. I rarely pistol whip and spend my initiative on infiltrators. Pistol whip is for melee trains.

Haste is a crutch.

Santent.3647:

Shadow Refuge + Dagger Storm = Win.

Shadowstep into huge mob > Pop Shadow Refuge > Dagger Storm > Shadowstep back to original location. Such ownage, really helps turn the tide on small battles.

Spamming blast finisher in Shadow Refuge can be great too – It’s aoe blind.

Invader/Orr armor (power/vit/tough) with Knights trinkets.

For WvW and 30 in Acro and Trickery your survivability will be amazing. With nearly 3k attack and 50% crit with fury up, your damage will not be that low.

Add a little bit of sustain and you’ve just made your effective hitpoints sky-rocket.

Thieves – with the right build – can keep vigor up almost 100%, making dodging an almost constant and never-ending annoyance for anyone trying to focus you down. Throw in your condition removal and stun breaks/teleports for extra lulz.

AoE weakness and AoE blind from your self created combo fields and the best spammable blast finisher in the game can turn you into a zerg busting machine that can take the focus and aoe damage of several people.

Oh, and you can laugh at any glass cannon build as their burst will not take you down as long as you are paying some attention.

Dax.3815:

Tomasen.6013:

To be honest, this feels like walking into any sportgame, computergame, boardgame, you name it and the referee is telling you the other team already won because thats the rules and you cant do anything about it. the score is 50.000 against you and the game started 2 days ago.
Now you can try all day long to do your very best and you might even gonna make a diference when you play, but it wont matter in the end because the game have been decided by something you have absolutly no effect on. (We all have to sleep)

Question is: Do i wanna bother playing such a game?

Im still playing but im getting closer and closer to a bad conclusion

QFT

Also this…

This game seems to be approaching the Warhammer model of PvDoor: avoid the other side for easy rewards. Nightcapping is just an extreme version of it.

We know how well that turned out.

One of the lower pop servers that is always matched up with us has a habit of running karma/exp trains with 20+ people. They can easily take towers if they had a decent leader, but all they do is run a circle around the map capping supply camps and sentries. They do this because it’s the easiest way to get karma/exp without the risk of having to fight anyone (usually).

The funniest part of this is that they are taking camps far away from their spawn, even though the tower/camp right outside their spawn is easily available to them.

It’s become a joke as we call out their movements in map chat and bounce them back to spawn.

People avoiding combat and being rewarded for it is just bad design. Encourage more defense and less rolling zerg-cap-this-and-run-to-the-next-door.

dirtyklingon.2918:

spif.7580:

The new code update must have been to reduce the zerging: make the game unplayable when you roll around with 50+.

my guild was running around on our lowbie alts last night for a bit in a group of around 6-8 and half of hem would randomly vanish on me without anyone else around or anything special happening

(i mean we were sitting idle ish in the north camp in kaeneng BL and suddenly they just dissapeared on me, from visible, right in front of me)

How long had you been in that BL? Was it after you had run into a large fight with many players? After we moved to different BL/EB the problem seems to go away – at least till the next big fight.

The new code update must have been to reduce the zerging: make the game unplayable when you roll around with 50+.

I really hope they keep nerfing these lame moves – way too many scrubs running around.

These glass canon thieves are funny in WvW.

If they ever fix the issue with thieves not appearing immediately after attacking from stealth then most of these other issues people have with thieves go away.

Maybe making it so stealth abilities don’t stack?

That orb was bugged so not sure what you are saying here.

Green keep with a Red orb. Yeah that’s something we’ll defend ;P

Tomasen.6013:

To be honest, this feels like walking into any sportgame, computergame, boardgame, you name it and the referee is telling you the other team already won because thats the rules and you cant do anything about it. the score is 50.000 against you and the game started 2 days ago.
Now you can try all day long to do your very best and you might even gonna make a diference when you play, but it wont matter in the end because the game have been decided by something you have absolutly no effect on. (We all have to sleep)

Question is: Do i wanna bother playing such a game?

Im still playing but im getting closer and closer to a bad conclusion

As much as I enjoy this game – even when out-numbered and my server is getting demolished – It is obvious that there are a lot of people that don’t play the game to be challenged (server hopping to winning side, logging out and not playing when on the losing side).

Understanding that, the game is probably the most enjoyable to everyone when the sides are relatively even. Back and forth capture and maneuvering is what we are looking for.

Whatever changes are made should be done to ensure that as many people as possible are encouraged to participate. I honestly don’t care how this is done, but I just want to log in and have people playing – the ghost town stuff is already getting old.

Stand down and let the orb be recaptured. Then take it back legit.

If you have the respect of your server that you say you have this should be pretty easy to accomplish.

Nothing from the inner south gate? That’s where we ended up breaking through.

Borlis Pass you have shown your colors. As a server you should just abandon the keep where it rests or you are all complicit.

About the most pathetic move I’ve seen in an online game. Borlis Pass is relegated to fighting the underpop servers for a reason.

Oh and I’m that thief that charges into your zergs – and lives. Bring it on chumpettes.

Defensive specc’d all dodge all the time teleport away and never die Thief spec – take that meta

Stop running glass cannon builds in WvW zerg encounters.

Thanks Kubuki

=Saarc