Guild Wars 2

Looks like you got a lot of help,, now how about some for Kaineng…

Edit: now we turned into you guys, and we’ve even lost guilds as you guys have gained them

Jitters.9401:

Okay, a 12 k Backstab would be on a full zerker ele/ranger with absolutely no sustain and the thief has 5-10 stacks of might. As I said, an opening chain of a Backstab thief happens so fast that the total damage is recorded as one hit, causing so many misconceptions about thieves. Second, in that 6-8 second down time, which you are pretty accurate about, a thief can die very easily. You also have to consider that Backstab doesn’t always hot their back when in mid fight, so the chances of dealing 8k damage (a more realistic Backstab against a decently built WvWer) drop because you bed to position yourself perfectly. While this is easier on some races (I.e. Norn) and very difficult on some (I.e. Asura) it makes a difference in the outcome of the fight. If you don’t hit the back, you do significantly less damage, dropping that 8k to a measly 5-6k. This is a power necros life blast. This is an Eviscerate. This is damage every class can do in 1 skill, while thief requires 2-3 depending if mug is on or not.
Don’t act like you are so smart with numbers, those are in an ideal situation. The chance of doing 12k is an idealistic scenario where you are fighting a full zerk target who has no sustain built into their build. So this happens a lot against rangers and Mesmers, that’s about it. [/quote]

That’s funny. I don’t wear any zerk on any of my toons and neither do many others. I wear a vitality/toughness mix of gear with my thief to make up for condition and direct damage as much as I can, and wow.. I still get hit for 12k. You do know how to stack for max crit damage right? Maybe not by your replies.

It isn’t a matter of being smart with numbers. It is a matter of checking my combat logs and knowing how to play against a thief who stealths.

I can squash any argument you have, will have, and did have with one statement.

Who is more believable… The thieves who refuse to play a style because they say it is far over powered and skill-less, or the thieves who say it is balanced and continue to play it?

Answer is obvious.

Huzzah[/quote]

I don’t play a Backstab build… And when I did, I knew how to stack crit damage.

Jitters.9401:

sierras.6297:

QUOTE

I’ve already stated the facts that the thief auto attacks are higher damaging then most abilities with cool downs. Example.. Backstab uses no initiative points and can be traited to crit 100% of the time and has only the stealth reveal as a cool down. What other class has an ability that can do up to 12k (depending on the target) every 6-8 seconds. I say 6-8 because you need to set up the backstab beyond the reveal time out.

Besides. A thief doesn’t need to use initiative abilities beyond stealthing.

And again I smoosh stealth thief arguments with factual information.

Okay, a 12 k Backstab would be on a full zerker ele/ranger with absolutely no sustain and the thief has 5-10 stacks of might. As I said, an opening chain of a Backstab thief happens so fast that the total damage is recorded as one hit, causing so many misconceptions about thieves. Second, in that 6-8 second down time, which you are pretty accurate about, a thief can die very easily. You also have to consider that Backstab doesn’t always hot their back when in mid fight, so the chances of dealing 8k damage (a more realistic Backstab against a decently built WvWer) drop because you bed to position yourself perfectly. While this is easier on some races (I.e. Norn) and very difficult on some (I.e. Asura) it makes a difference in the outcome of the fight. If you don’t hit the back, you do significantly less damage, dropping that 8k to a measly 5-6k. This is a power necros life blast. This is an Eviscerate. This is damage every class can do in 1 skill, while thief requires 2-3 depending if mug is on or not.
Don’t act like you are so smart with numbers, those are in an ideal situation. The chance of doing 12k is an idealistic scenario where you are fighting a full zerk target who has no sustain built into their build. So this happens a lot against rangers and Mesmers, that’s about it.
One last thing, imitative is used for other things other than stealthing, it’s just the most common use, and if you miss a Backstab twice, there goes your initiative, and now you are in a lot of danger.

I’m actually interested in fighting T1 roamers again. I left blackgate about 5 months ago, and now I want to see how the roamers are doing

There isn’t even perma stealth! We have a 3 second reveal every time we attack out of stealth. You guys need to sop using stealth as a scapegoat for your inconpetance in fighting them! I have 3 other classes to 80 and can kill almost all thieves. Beefing stealth isn’t he answer. Needing anything on thief right now isn’t the answer. L2P is the answer, no matter how overused and stale it is, it is true. If you are running a full zerker build in WvW, and get 3 hit by a thief (Thieves 3 hit people, it’s simply they can do such a large amount of damage in such a short time the combat log says “Thief has hit you for x amount of damage with Backstab”), it’s quite honestly your own fault for running full zerker. It’s no different than when people would whisper me my power necro was OP because life blast was critting for 5-6k because that was how I built my necro, and I was squishy as hell.
So what am I trying to say, well, stealth is the thirds only for of survivability. It isn’t a broken concept like so many of you say, it isn’t OP kitten many as you say, and it most definitely isn’t a safe guard like many of you say. It is susceptible to any smart player, because thieves go into stealth so they won’t get hit because thieves are very squishy. Stealth isn’t an insta heal, nor a form of evade/blocking. If you hit a thief in stealth, it usually doesn’t fair well for the thief. I just want people to stop complaining about stealth being OP, it’s a very well designed concept.
And finally, to all those saying “Stealth spammers” and “Permastealth”, THOSE DONT EXIST! You can’t attack repeatedly while in stealth because of the 3 second reveal that has been implemented, so this directly effects in fighting style of ALL thieves in an absolute total of 0 ways. Even DP can’t maintain perma stealth any more. Since stealthing while in stealth doesn’t give initiative any more, you run out of initiative at 8 seconds, and it takes more than 8 seconds to get all the initiative back.

The things is, this is probably true. With a drop in thief activity, it is most likely (as previously stated) that most thieves are re-rolling as a different class because they simply aren’t good at thief. This leaves behind the good thieves.
Second, you said you tried p/d and didn’t like it? Lost health fast? I have found p/d to be very fun, while still taking skill to play. If you are having trouble landing Backstab, it is usually best to chain steal into Backstab then stay just out of melee range until you want to Backstab again. I would personally recommend going back to p/d but try out a full dire set. I run with 1400 Condi damage, 3.1k toughness, and 20k health in buffed. I feel like a god when I play my thief

A thief is a master at the game, but doesn’t realize it. (Try playing thief for a year and a half, then playing guardian. It is not as fun, and it is very easy in wvw.

To stat off, my phone cannot access the link, so I don’t know your build specifics, but I will post again when I can see it. However, every build relying on burst is taking a hot, so prepare for a heavy hit, Just so you aren’t surprised if it is indeed a drastic change, though I doubt it will be. If you are duo roaming on a thief and getting targeted, you’re doing something wrong. Stealth automatically de-targets you, so that really shouldn’t be happening too often unless you are going against very skilled roaming groups.
I would wait with the trinkets until we have ferocity released so you can see the in-game effect. I have played a lot of burst builds so, once again, I will give you a more build focused response later when I can get on my computer.

An actual tip, as opposed to these other ones: you can get small amounts of supply from killing supply dolyaks on rare occasions.

I don’t play warrior, and I have to say that the rage against the signet is overrated. It is far from necessary. Even with the adrenaline heal combined, it heals the same as a guardian built for bunker. Any class can counter it, and almost every build can too. Warriors may have it easier, but it isn’t a matter of easily being op, it is a matter of it being easier to learn and become decent. Any good player on any class can counter the average warrior easily. It is good warriors fighting decent players that cause the rage. That is why there is hate on necros, and thieves, and every class to some degree. It is just the prevalence of warriors that people find it a problem, but warrior has been the most prevalent class in the game since launch, so stop whining and grow up.

Out of those, being a necro, I wouldn’t really prefer any. I run with a guardian when I duo, and that is effective, i haven’t actually run with a war, but the idea could be near the same, just build tanky and jump in and wail.

I have found a way to play my guard so it is good roaming and in zergs, with the same build. It is just slow.

Look on the bright side… You never have to worry about rams, one of those teens is bound to be able to hit the gate. Same with catapults, and many other trebs

Muramasa.6487:

Interesting. I think a “terrain” change would be cool. Like, red BL is a wintry theme and blue BL would be like a swampy sylvari theme. Cool!

I definitely agree that each map should have it’s own unique style. This would not only add for new variations on how to play, but also could influence a players choice on where to fight. Optimally, implement more choke points to make it easier for small groups to hold off large zergs in major areas.

Oozo.7856:

sierras.6297:

I feel the staff AA should knock back enemies to make up for its low fire rate and damage. In addition, orb of light should knock down all foes hit by the detonation for 2 seconds. These changes would be very fair and balanced and allow the guardians staff to be balanced to the standards of other staves in the game.

That’s a good start, but it should also be such that it can’t be evaded, blinded, or blocked. Oh, and stability shouldn’t work against it. That would make staff pretty good.

We should submit these reasonable requests to the developers.

To make it truly balanced, it should hit 5 times, instance proccing burn on every target, so it can synergies with the boon strip on burn trait. Also, it should grant AoE protection for 5 seconds on the fifth hit on every enemy. This would be very balanced and even.

LIKES
1. Player vs player fights (even if it is Zerg vs Zerg fights)
2. Siege mechanics
3. Just WvW in general

DISLIKES
1. Ridiculous amount of damage arrow carts do to certain siege (especially golems)
2. 5 man party limit. It almost hinders the effectiveness of a havoc group with 6-8 people.
3. I don’t know

DO NOT LEAVE KAINENG! It is far from dead. I know there are guilds that will stage huge raids during your play time that you mentioned. I am in one of them. We are never defeated, only set back from achieving our goal! Having recently acquired a commander tag, I am now trying to get my main guild (RaW) backbiting wvw, and in the mean time in running with a small wvw guild. Join TS3, heck, I’ll even invite you to raw myself so you have someone to run with (me!). Kaifeng is not dead, we just play differently, like et members have said. I myself have led a treb siege of full fortified bay with only 12 people, and held a tower because of proper siege placement! It is not a matter of commanders (though that would be helpful for our pugs and is why I got a cmd tag), it is aster of having skilled players. Don’t leave, keep fighting with me and the few standing men.

I feel the staff AA should knock back enemies to make up for its low fire rate and damage. In addition, orb of light should knock down all foes hit by the detonation for 2 seconds. These changes would be very fair and balanced and allow the guardians staff to be balanced to the standards of other staves in the game.
/sarcasm
But seriously, I would like to see the staff AA have some sort of fire rate increase. Also, it would be a very cool play style if, say, The 5 skill have regen or protection when walked through, and the staff AA healed a relatively reasonable amount on every ally hit, and yourself.

What if walking through the RoW gave a buff (I.e. Protection) for 5 seconds to make up for the extremely long cast time and cd.

I think the staff is fine. Having a heal on that AA is not something I would object to by any means.

I am a new guard looking for a good build. I play WvW with light pve(don’t fractal or do constant dungeon runs). I was thinking something like a headway build possibly, I don’t really know. Also, I have extra gold and was thinking of getting a com tag, so something that would work for commanding too. Thank you so much

Like people have said, it does depend on the build, however, I find that the change of roaming partner does not change significantly. I mean, I have run Condi and power necro with every class but elementalist, and have been able to do serious damage in these scenarios. However, I find that guardian is the best. The main thug is if you let him run ahead of you. Let him leap in, then as an opener, hit then as hard as possible, or, if a Condi necro, spam marks, and get as much Condi on them as possible. They will definitely feel some pressure. As a guard, you are going to want to go as tanky as possible, while maintaining decent dps. This could work with warrior too, just never run with tank war.

I agree it has to do with positioning, but using death shroud at the right time (not when you are at 2 health left, but periodically when you still have high health). I tend to run staff in a Zerg and the fear is very helpful too for clearing a gap for you to run into and not get ht for that split second.
Edit: Also, that fear wall is great when choke pointing enemies, or just in general as zergs are in mid fight, as many people lose their stability about 3-5 seconds into the Zerg fight.

Signet of Vampirism is in a dismal state, despite having a very nice concept. There have been arguments that the design is odd because “vampirism” would imply a similarity to leeching. However, due to the necro’s overall slow attack speed, this design would be very pointless, and have nearly no purpose. The current design is a very effective one due to necros natural sustainability. How it is implemented, though, is not. Here is why:

1. No net gain of health: The current way it is implemented allows for no overall health gain, only a minor reduction of the damage taken (unless you are taking very little damage).

2. 1 second ICD: Since many classes are able to hit you for multiple hits in one second, this greatly limits the usefulness of this skill. Especially since no other healing signet has an ICD.

3. Poor passive healing: Currently, the signet heals a base number each hit. This makes the signet dependent on classes who hit fast, not hard, which is a flawed concept. This limits both the usefulness and practicality of the signet.

Now to fix them. Theses are suggestions on ways the signet could be improved. Individually and collectively, each one is a buff, and each is fairly significant in its function:

1. No net gain of health: to combat the lack of healing provided by the signet, both active and passive, the Signet should be active while in DS. The concept of this is basic, but very influential. Each hit while in DS will heal your actual health pool. This is how a net gain of health would be possible with minimal design changes, and could provide some interesting gameplay styles.

2. 1 second ICD: Just scrap it. It limits the functionality of the signet, especially when fighting in Zerg fights, or really any class that isn’t necro.

3. Poor passive healing: The healing should work off of % damage taken, making it more efficient when dealing with nearly every burst class. So say the % is at 25%, and someone backstabs you for 5k (I know it’s relatively low), then the heal would heal for 1.25k. The amount of healing power would directly affect the % healed. (Maybe 1% per 100 healing power with the standard starting at 25%).

What are your thoughts?

I don’t know what is wrong with your game, may be a bug. I have 52% crit chance out side of DS, and I never have missed a crit in DS, hence having 102% crit chance in DS with this trait.

Signet of Vampirism is in a dismal state, despite having a very nice concept. There have been arguments that the design is odd because “vampirism” would imply a similarity to leeching. However, due to the necro’s overall slow attack speed, this design would be very pointless, and have nearly no purpose. The current design is a very effective one due to necros natural sustainability. How it is implemented, though, is not. Here is why:

1. No net gain of health: The current way it is implemented allows for no overall health gain, only a minor reduction of the damage taken (unless you are taking very little damage).

2. 1 second ICD: Since many classes are able to hit you for multiple hits in one second, this greatly limits the usefulness of this skill. Especially since no other healing signet has an ICD.

3. Poor passive healing: Currently, the signet heals a base number each hit. This makes the signet dependent on classes who hit fast, not hard, which is a flawed concept. This limits both the usefulness and practicality of the signet.

Now to fix them. Theses are suggestions on ways the signet could be improved. Individually and collectively, each one is a buff, and each is fairly significant in its function:

1. No net gain of health: to combat the lack of healing provided by the signet, both active and passive, the Signet should be active while in DS. The concept of this is basic, but very influential. Each hit while in DS will heal your actual health pool. This is how a net gain of health would be possible with minimal design changes, and could provide some interesting gameplay styles.

2. 1 second ICD: Just scrap it. It limits the functionality of the signet, especially when fighting in Zerg fights, or really any class that isn’t necro.

3. Poor passive healing: The healing should work off of % damage taken, making it more efficient when dealing with nearly every burst class. So say the % is at 25%, and someone backstabs you for 5k (I know it’s relatively low), then the heal would heal for 1.25k. The amount of healing power would directly affect the % healed. (Maybe 1% per 100 healing power with the standard starting at 25%).

Put these buffs together and the Signet of Vampirism would be pretty effective took in the necro’s kitten nal.

Prysin.8542:

Rangers can apply 250% more fear then necromancers are able to.

Yeah, that is kind of stupid to be honest. Necromancer are designed around fear and other classes do it better -_-
Anyways, I don’t think rangers are bad, they aren’t as good as a lot of classes, but they are by no means terrible.

I think I got a good idea.
Staff:
A) Change the AA: Make the AA have the same animation, but a faster travel rate. Also, make it explode on impact, giving AoE poison or torment. If poison: not extremely strong, but decent duration. If torment, a relatively short duration with a bit of a kick to it, but not too strong. Since the staff AA is pretty slow, even if sped up a little, it would still be pretty slow, the torments duration would only allow it to stack about 2-3 stacks. With staff being basically the only aoe weapon we have, i based this off of a feeling that the basic attack should have some sort of AoE or Cleave.

B) Marks AoE concept: Currently, one person can run ahead of a group and take the damage of the mark so their party members don’t have to. This is kind of stupid as it makes strategically placed marks in choke points much less effective. This is why I propose that marks have a short field duration (except for #4). This could not only help them be more effective, but also provide some interesting combos. Say, perhaps, the mark of blood leaves a dark field while dealing bleed damage. Now you get additional aoe out of the mark, but know someone could use a blast finisher during a Zerg fight and BOOM, not multiple enemies are blinded, greatly helping in the fight.
The #5 skill would not leave a pool of fear, but maybe a poison field, and change the chill marks field to ice!

What is your build, I currently run the mentioned 30/10/0/0/30 build, with zerker armor, and it is effective, but I noticed you have more health, and probably more armor, and was wondering if that is coming from traits or gear?

Stx.4857:

Staff.

I would want it changed to a melee weapon, with the same shadowy scythe animation on all attacks.

1) Three part auto attack chain that cleaves. Third strike has a longer cast and steals health.
2) Whirl attack. Channeled, with 3 second duration, say like 6 strikes. Each hit applies 1% Vuln. and 5 second Blindness on the last strike. 10 second cd.
3) Ground targeted attack that shoots out in front of the Necro(in a line). Deals some damage and removes up to 2 boons. 900 range, 20 second cd.
4) Single target attack that pulls an enemy to the Necro up to 1200 range(non-projectile) and deals minor damage. 30 second cooldown.
5) Necro kneels down and channels a 3 second cast. During the cast he is immune to all damage and CC, and enemies within 600 range are afflicted with chill, blindness, and weakness with every pulse. 40 sec cd.

The focus here is we need a cleave weapon for PvE, and we also need sustain, and anti mobility skills. Add in the Necro anti boon mechanic for fun.

Obviously they would never take away our only 1200 range weapon, but it would be cool to get a 2hand melee weapon on Necro either way, and I want scythe!

I would say that’d have to be a new weapon. HOWEVER, I think if they were to give us a 2h cleave weapon, it’d be hammer. A 3 attack auto chain, not super slow like most hammers, but more of the speed of thief sword. It could have similar attacks;

1: A) Smack you foes with you hammer dealing direct damage
B) Bash your foes with the solid face of death, crippling them.
C) Shatter your foes skull with iron will of darkness, dealing PbAoE to all foes in front of you, and apply weakness

2: spin move: spin around in circles applying weakness and vulnerability to all enemies, hits 4 times. 2 1/4 sec cast duration. (6 sec cd)

3: Corrupted Earth: pound the ground with your hammer, dealing direct damage to all enemies around you (PbAoE), and create a Well of Suffering. (15 sec cd)

4: Death’s Grip: Shadow walk to your foe (like Lupicus does in arah p3) and immobilize your foe. (15 sec CD 1200 range)

5: Banshee’s Doom: Pull all foes to you while dealing direct damage (4 hits), and causing weakness and crippled.

I ran a Condi build for a while that was pretty tanks. If you run dire gear, you can get high Condi damage while running with about 25-30k health and about 3k armor if specced right. You can run rabid gear too (precision, toughness, and condition damage), this will be slightly squish ire but the precision will be good for stacking on crit conditions. Staff and scepter/dagger are optimal weapon sets. The staff ape is great, but when all skills get set on cool down, it is imperative you switch to your scepter. I, similar to cogbyrn, come from a primarily stand point, with this specific build. I have leaned away from conditions recently and have run a full zerker build, which takes work, but is the most fun I’ve ever had on this game.
Feast on conditions is going to be the best heal for you, as it provides a much needed condition cleansing. I’m not sure how epidemic runs in PvE, but I would use that just to experiment as it’s condition spread is godly, and can kill very effectively (at least in WvW). Other than those two, I’m not sure what you will want in PvE, but I could imagine signet of spite to still be effective, especially when dealing with large amounts of trash mobs. Plague is a very good 0 skill, infact, all of the 0 skills are pretty good.

If you do want to run a well Condi build, rampagers, as stated earlier, is the way to go. I ran that same build for about a week, and while it was good, it wasn’t my “cup of tea”. However, I can recommend some wells to use. First, DO NOT USE HEALING WELL! It isn’t as good as feast on conditions primarily because the Condi cleanse isn’t there.
Well of suffering, well of corruption, and well of darkness are the best, IMO. Well of suffering provide good dps and vulnerability, while well of darkness allows you to stand in the middle of everything and not be hit. By everything, I mean everything, because it constantly applies blinds. That is a major factor in PvE, and yes, I did run this well build in PvE, primarily dungeons, and it is very helpful in any boss fight, stacking or not. Same weapons would be applicable in this build too. It is important to remember that this build will be much more squishy than the condition build as the gear applies no toughness or vitality, though it still has decent sustain because, after all, you are a necro.

If you want a direct damage build suggestion, I can give that too, but you said you are more interested in those two, so I’ll leave it at that.

Rennoko.5731:

sierras.6297:

First off, I would like to acknowledge that there are some videos you can find of a necro fighting 1vX. I have fought in 1vX situations, and won. The problem mentioned about downed state is frustrating, but if you focus people right, you can down the dps sealers so that the less damaging people are left (usually can down two people in one DS) and stomp one, or even both, because people need to choose between A) rezing one person or attacking me, and with a high health pool and DS, the latter does not usually work. So it usually works out that you can down one person, then the other has just gotten up, and is at 50%, so you can death shroud them backdown and fear the third person. Then stomp them and deal with a 1v1 like normal and just face roll the person because they are low damaging, usually an up level or tanker build. This is in a 1v3 scenario, as I haven’t even had the chance of fighting more when solo. Also, I do not use lich form, and this is based off of the standard 3 man roaming team. When encountering better players, this changes and it becomes a reaction scenario.
I agree with the counter-counter argument because Condi builds do not have an unfair advantage. Their source of dps can be cleansed, which is the equivalent of dodges/blocks. HOWEVER, Condi specs have an aoe advantage that is something which damage specs lack drastically. Granted DS 4 skill is aoe and a damage spec can get 6-9k on the end of the chain, it is the only option other than wells, which are easily avoidable. So I wouldn’t go as far to say Condi has an advantage, because they are so differently focused and played. It is what makes this class that much more diverse.

The AOE potential of epidemic is disasterously high, and that creates really strange winnable scenarios what would otherwise be winnable.

I find the downed state problem is a much larger issues not in 1v2, as much as it is in what I tend to end up doing, which is 2v4+. At that stage, they can more or less stand on each other with stability and spam F while I unload on them for a straight 60 seconds. The ressing mechanic is very friendly to larger numbers. 1-2 max people allowed to res would greatly help that disparity as well.

I understand what that can be like as I run with an engi in my guild for duo roaming. I feel that the number of people rezzing should scale on the number of people present, primarily because in large Zerg fights, even having 6 people rezzong won’t get everyone up because of the large amounts of aoe and the fact that Zergs often move “through” each other.

First off, I would like to acknowledge that there are some videos you can find of a necro fighting 1vX. I have fought in 1vX situations, and won. The problem mentioned about downed state is frustrating, but if you focus people right, you can down the dps sealers so that the less damaging people are left (usually can down two people in one DS) and stomp one, or even both, because people need to choose between A) rezing one person or attacking me, and with a high health pool and DS, the latter does not usually work. So it usually works out that you can down one person, then the other has just gotten up, and is at 50%, so you can death shroud them backdown and fear the third person. Then stomp them and deal with a 1v1 like normal and just face roll the person because they are low damaging, usually an up level or tanker build. This is in a 1v3 scenario, as I haven’t even had the chance of fighting more when solo. Also, I do not use lich form, and this is based off of the standard 3 man roaming team. When encountering better players, this changes and it becomes a reaction scenario.
I agree with the counter-counter argument because Condi builds do not have an unfair advantage. Their source of dps can be cleansed, which is the equivalent of dodges/blocks. HOWEVER, Condi specs have an aoe advantage that is something which damage specs lack drastically. Granted DS 4 skill is aoe and a damage spec can get 6-9k on the end of the chain, it is the only option other than wells, which are easily avoidable. So I wouldn’t go as far to say Condi has an advantage, because they are so differently focused and played. It is what makes this class that much more diverse.

Knowing how the classes work is a big factor. Second of all, power builds IMO are generally better for roaming. I run 30/10/0/0/30. Death shroud is amazing. Dps the mesmer fast then kill the thief.

Wells should have a higher pulse rate, or much shorter CD. Also, that well that grants some stability, THAT needs to have a revamp. It gives 1secobd of stability. Not on the pulse, just 1 second. It would make much more sense if it have ape 5 second on cast, instead of 1second, or just 1 second every pulse. The current stability duration is almost laughable and is most definitely pointless.

Death shroud drop: fall from any height and cast DS just before you hit the ground for DS to absorb damage and do nothing to your health bar ????

I run full zerk Nero and it is rare I die in a 1v1, even a 2v1. The damage output combined with natural survivability is a very potent combinations. Death shroud is the key factor to both killing and surviving. I hit 5k crits with 100% crit chance in DS. Combine that with a 20k health pool, 2.8k armor, and vital persistence, you kill EVERYTHING.

Balefire.7592:

When you say +1 hit, do you mean that it added additional strikes? That would fit in well with Ghastly Claws and mayde the auto, but firing two Unholy Feasts may be a little too strong…
As far as increasing attack speed, that would be an interesting way to buff it – I don’t know of any existing traits that affect attack speed. Although in that case, would it only affect the axe? Firing quick Life Blasts and channeling fast Life Transfers might be a little over the top.

It isn’t the fact that it is a double cast of unholy feast, it is just a double hit. The speed increase would be just for axe, being a relatively slow weapon. I completely agree that increased cast speed of dagger and other weapons would be very over powered.

Bhawb.7408:

OH. MY. GOD. I want to be able to double Unholy Feast. 200% retaliation uptime wouldn’t be OP at all.

…no, that’s not the concept. It doesn’t stack the retal duration, it simply hits the target twice.

Balefire.7592:

Luke.4562:

Shall we go on discussing other Trees?

Does everyone feel like we’ve reached a consensus on things?
Many people have mentioned that they would like to see some traits scrapped/merged, and I’m interested in seeing what you’d want to see in their place.

There was a trait in beta that added +1 hit to every axe skill. This would make Powermancers damage via axe so much better. Instead of having a long cast, pretty low damage AA, it would be a bit slower, but with 1k crits each hit, the chain would do better damage. That or a trait adding attack speed to the axe. That would make the axe a much deadlier weapon just a 10% increase would be so great.
(If you can’t tell, I like the axe)

I agree. MM necros, IMO, are not useful in dungeon, especially in boss fights. Maybe flesh golem, but everything is a waste of a utility slot. I run a Powermancer, some times a Condi necro, and I would say that they are about equal in effectiveness. HOWEVER, Condi necros are usually pointless in pug groups, even if it is just a collection of guildies and not a deliberately planned group, because other peoples conditions will overwrote yours with a lower duration and damage Condi. That’s why I have started running Powermancer which I find not only easier to play, but more effective in more situations.

Bhawb.7408:

First off, lets be honest, you are exageratting about the three second timer, because that is literally the amount of time it takes to dodge twice. Meaning, no one should ever die in sub 3 seconds; including naked level 1s.

Backstab thief with basilisk venom can kill you in two.
As to reply: basically what was said before, either you are not very good, or your build is being countered. Kind of blunt, but it’s just the truth.

I’ve played since launch on a thief, and now made a necro. I do both WvW and PvE. I usually run with organized groups, not pugs, so I can get it organized so I am the only condition damager. However, I have seen videos of Powermancers having ridiculous damage, like 5k life blast.

So, having my Necro at 80 now, I’m going to buy some rabid gear. I come from thief, so figured surviving won’t be that hard, or harder than glass cannon thief. However, I need a build. Do any of any of you (I’m sure you do) have a good build I could use with rabid gear. Right now I’m running 30/20/0/20/0. Just tried to maximize dps with vitality.

For a Condi build, which is better?

I always thought the way that death shroud ES balanced was as you lose LF, you attacks get weaker. I that’s how it was in beta and that’s how I have kind of associated it. I have never had this glitch happen, and pray to god it doesn’t ever.

Swimfan.8014:

Hm nah seriously, every second random guy running by being Warrior sure means something, right?! :P Even the Arenanet Staff often run around as Warriors …

@Medens
Sure, dmg is fine and HP as well but what bugs me the most is the ability to dish out so freaking well with a range weapon such as the longbow … that’s insane.
For example: Guardian (who is doing fine as well) has to sacrifice range combat for his advantages (scepter can hardly be called “effective”) – Warriors have NO shortcomings. Like mentioned above: Good health, good dmg, good range, good armor …. no downside?! See that’s why some refer to them as op and unbalanced Nothing else.

Warrior has one disadvantage that I exploit a lot. Most of then are noobs thinking they are good because their sword is shiny and big.

What new weapons do you guys hope for thieves to get when new weapons are added to new classes?

Wharrgarbl.9263:

Seriously, roll another class. Engis and Rangers have the same look.

Why is it that they nerf the medium armor classes? It seems they want the middle to be destroyed and have a black and white line between heavy armor tanks/meele dps and ranged caster dps/Condi.

So that’s what it looks like to be bigger than everything. Interesting, usually I’m so small.

XPGAMER.7324:

So many people complain for so long, and anet hasn’t done anything. It’s not even a remotely challenging fix, either replace it with something else or just make it so it doesn’t activate while channeling a skill. Getting tired of this trait messing me up in WvW, as are many others. Do we need a petition or something? -_-

I think that is a perfect idea! Let’s make a petition to change everything that is wrong with the thief class.