Guild Wars 2

Once you hit 80, the exotic 80 WvW gear looks different. The NPCs that sell them for badges scale with your level, so right now you probably see the lvl 60 exotic WvW

Not sure about earlier levels looking unique, since I never even bothered looking at the npc till 80.

^ as he said, boss mobs have 2 types of anti-cc buffs. The first one (silver icon) states reduced weakness duration and 10% effective blind. The 2nd one (orange icon) has stack that make him immune to CC, but every time you try to CC, one stack goes away. When the boss has no orange icon, you can CC him as you please (any kind of interrupting CC. Fear, stun, knockdown, pulls, etc..)

With a coordinated group, any boss is ‘easy’ since you can interrupt all the big abilities.

also: smoke screen worked for me in the fire golem fight. I’d put it up right in front of a downed ally to rez them and nothing would hit us.

I run dungeons as a melee thief. S/P is kinda op. #2 into a group of mobs, #5, and you’re insta-tank for ~5 sec. Then #3 and you’ll tank for a bit more. Sword autoattack 3rd hit applies weakness – maor tank. If things get hairy, re-use 2 to pop out to a safe distance. if the 15 sec timer on 2 ran out, I use withdrawl for heal. Then pop back in with #2 again.

Trait wise I run 5/0/5/30/30. Could do 15/0/5/25/25 too (for the weakness on poision. Can stack perma-weakness if you use choking gas, shoot 3 arrows, choking gas, 3 arrows, etc.)

Never having touched dagger offhand, can’t say if this happens with CnD, but I’ve noticed a ‘stuckness’ sometimes after using Infil arrow (bow#5). Hold W, use it, get stuck. have to re-press W for it to fix. Happens ~5% of the time. Razer keyboard.

It was kinda funny once. Assaulting garrison on a borderland, get gate down to keep lord room – totally empty. Run in, tab-and spam skills. After a while I didn’t see a single person in the room at all, just massive skill effects everywhere.

Amiray.1845:

This is the video showcasing exactly what the issue is. Sorry for the quality I think it will get better over time.

It is the mechanics of the skill. Even though it ‘teleports’, its just a horizontal movement. Mechanically, it draws a straight line between you and the location. If there is any terrain object considered impassable by walking (the drop, a wall, etc), it will tele you to the closest point to that object,

I need a better coat…

Can’t kite? → shortbow.
Can’t survive? → doing it wrong.

As I play my thief with 22k hp, my highest ‘hit’ is around 3k. I may not kill you in 5 seconds, or even 15 seconds. But once I’m onto you.. you will die. There is no escape.. and you cannot catch me. Just deal with it.

p.s.
thief is not assassin.

Ambush (that 2nd thief is so useful with scorpion wire / blind / dmg, and often mobs agro it too), scorpion wire (PvP) caltrops (PvE), signet of shadows.

After a while you learn what you can and cannot cross. I’ve used it so much I don’t ever ‘miss’ it anymore (out of range or can’t go to the spot). Practice makes perfect :P

Just my two cents with S/P, always make sure you have infiltrator stike up in 1v1 fights. I can’t tell you how hilarious it is to fight a bow ranger and have them knock you away, only for them to see you teleport from 1 spot to another, and then right back to them (with infil strike again). Also helps when you might lose the fight, you can use it any time (since return is a stunbreak) and then get away.

What I do in WvW: Withdrawl (heal) + shortbow + s/p.

See a group of people. with s/p out, use 2 (from ~2000 distance). walk forward, steal (have trait that gives me swiftness for 10 sec), switch to bow, infil arrow away. watch as everyone chases me, infil arrow again, turn around, withdrawl, turn, dodge rollz. after weapon swap cooldown up, switch and press 2 again. watch group scatter about looking for me to come out of ‘stealth’. jump up and down laughing mykitten off till one of them notice me all the way back there near the horrizon, repeat.

also apply same concept to preventing enemies from capping supply camps.

I mainly scout (considering I can get away from 99% of situations) and pick off stragglers (sp/bow chase ability sooo good, esp with wire and speed signet)

Its a pub stomper build. Same with the warriors GS/axe build. I play a S/P thief, and whenever I encounter one of these hs spam thieves, I laugh. I have 22k hp in SPvP to start with, and whenever they leap onto me I use pistol #5, which creates a aoe smoke field for 4 seconds. Since HS sticks to target, and I’m in a smoke field, he gets blinded for every hit, then I laugh and stun him with #3, do 1/2 his hp before he knows what hit him, catch up to him and root him with 2, another 3, and hes dead.

Easy to counter cheese build if you learn a bit about the game and don’t do other cheesy glass cannon builds.

Timing dodges / projectile blocks. As my thief, I did it with smoke screen and put that up whenever i could to block the double lava pool attack (saving my energy to dodge his normal atk / other lava atks while screen was down) and with the signet that refills endurance / removes condition a condition for every ally around, and then shadow refuge to stealth downed allies so he wouldn’t attack us while i was rezzing.

Quite simple once you get the hang of it.

or perhaps a solo instance(s) to test one’s PvE mettle (with leaderboards, ofc).

All I have to say to the people having trouble: learn combo fields, time dodges, learn mechanics, time dodges, condition removal skills, time dodges, and for some fights a stun break or 2.

All the old MMO ‘veterans’ who think they can go into a dungeon, have run into a group of trash and just tank / dps away by mashing skills and go into a boss fight with the same idea + dodging a few special moves are in for a culture shock. Everyone is the tank, and everyone is the dps. A few can be healers, too.

steady dmg = power
low – high dmg =precision

Basically with power, you’ll do around the same all the time. With precision, you might get 10 crits in a row (better than power), or 10 hits without a single crit (worse than power).

All lvl 80 gear is the ‘same’ as in the same stat spectrum (say, 90 / 64/ 64 for 1h wep). What differs is the actual stats and the looks. There are 10+ lvl 80 exotic 1h swords, all with same dmg (960-1010 i belive), but they have diff stats. power/pre/crit, power/condi/vit, etc.

This same rule applies for all lvl 80 gear. Same base stat (defence / damage) and amount of stats given, but different variations of stats. The key is to pick the ones that suit your playstyle the best.

Its not so much tanks are not needed, but someone to take agro is.

I play my thief with 15 points in acrobatics so dodging returns some endurance, as well as gaining vigor (endurance regen) with heals. Combining both of these, I’m the guy who goes in head first, pulls agro of a group, and then lives through it while rest of gorup dps them down 1 by 1. I dodge, I heal, I kite. I don’t tank.

I just survive.

hint: pistol offhand = aoe blind for 4 sec, quite helpful for my role.