Guild Wars 2

Huck.1405:

xihorus.2804:

I realize everybody’s taste varies, but GW has a very distinct artistic style

Yes it does. With a few exceptions, every one of their medium armor chests is a coat. Most with daggers hanging all over them. That’s very distinct.

Artistic style goes beyond the fact that most medium armor chests are coats. I agree that there should be a bit more variety in medium armor, but that is another point.

When I am talking about artistic style I am referring to the overall art direction of the game, as compared to other games in the same genre. For example, FF has a very anime artistic style, while WoW is very cartoony.

Conncept.7638:

Quaggan backpack would like a word with you.

Liz.1497:

actually GW’s armor designs are kind of all over the place: compare zodiac with aetherblade with the wintersday outfit with your run of the mill lowbie armor. There is nothing the OP is suggestion (which, btw, are Roman inspired helmets, not FF or Knight) that would go against the current design philosophy of this game.

Also, why is there a wizard hat exactly like the one the OP posted in the game then? And a witches outfit?

I tend to divide armor sets into two categories: the “actual” armor sets obtainable through crafting, drops, dungeons, etc. and the “fun” armor sets, like the costumes on the gem store. I realize everyone may not make this distinction, but it is how I view things.

None you say? Tell that to Isgarren and the Risen wizard outside Arah.

Totally forgot about those two. I concede that there are wizards in GW2 :P

And a magic user is a wizard/mage no matter whatever else they call themselves.

Well…. technically elementalists/necromancers/mesmers are considered Scholars

/equips flame shield

I can’t speak for the other classes, but 100% swiftness uptime on a Guardian is really easy with a Staff and the Retreat skill.

Every class has pros and cons. You complain about a lack of movement speed bonuses on Guardians, Necros, and Mesmers – what about the other classes that lack certain abilities that these classes have? I would love to have an instant cast stability available on my thief.

Also, swiftness is better than movement speed – it’s faster! If you can maintain 100% uptime on swiftness, who cares if you access to a 25% movement speed bonus?

I realize everybody’s taste varies, but GW has a very distinct artistic style which is why you don’t see helmets similar to what you are describing. FF inspired helms should stay where they belong – in FF.

Also, there are no wizards in GW2 :P

robotempire.2451:

xihorus.2804:

Would the upgrade be available immediately after taking a keep or tower?

Also, don’t get me wrong -I still really like your idea. Coming from a smaller population server, though, I see two issues with it. First, if the beacon fire is available to all three servers it would heavily favor the server(s) with a higher population. I think an idea like this could be used more effectively to attempt to balance the matchup somewhat.

Second, allowing a player to light the signal fire encourages griefing. In the same way that enemies with accounts on the server they are up against will run into a tower or keep and burn supply on useless siege, or trigger unwanted upgrades.

1. WvW always favors the server with the higher population. I am not sure there’s even a way around it, or that there should be a way around it.

2. How would it encourage griefing? The signal fire can only be lit when the keep is contested. It works exactly like white swords do; the signal fires are replacements for white swords. I do not follow the griefing thing.

I think there is a way around favoring the server with the higher population, it just requires giving exclusive bonuses or access to certain things to the lower population servers. Also, you correct that the system you proposed wouldn’t allow griefing. I missed the part in one of your subsequent posts where you mentioned that the tower/keep would have to be under attack in order to allow a player to light the fire.

I have come up with a solution to fix your woes!

Since your character is always in the center of the screen, take a blue dry-erase marker and shade in an aura around him. Then, regardless of what weapons you have equipped, you will always have a blue aura! If you’re feeling daring, you can even buy a pack of dry-erase markers and have a different color aura every day. Or a rainbow aura!

By Dwayna, I’m brilliant….

Would the upgrade be available immediately after taking a keep or tower?

Also, don’t get me wrong -I still really like your idea. Coming from a smaller population server, though, I see two issues with it. First, if the beacon fire is available to all three servers it would heavily favor the server(s) with a higher population. I think an idea like this could be used more effectively to attempt to balance the matchup somewhat.

Second, allowing a player to light the signal fire encourages griefing. In the same way that enemies with accounts on the server they are up against will run into a tower or keep and burn supply on useless siege, or trigger unwanted upgrades.

In WvW I hate it when….

….I am on my warrior who only has melee weapons and a ranged class attacks me. All ranged weapons should be disabled when a ranged class initiates a fight with me.

….I am roaming on my thief and am attacked by three people at once. Two of them should be automatically disconnected at the start of the fight to make it more even.

….I am on my support guardian and the enemy stops focusing me and switches to my teammates instead because of my high defenses. The game should force enemies to be only able to attack me.

….I am on my elementalist and enemies don’t stand in my meteor shower after I cast. The game should force enemies to stand in the red circle and soak up the damage, like in PvE.

….I am on the WvW forums listening to people complain about stealth mechanics, because they haven’t spent enough time in WvW to learn how to deal with them.

I really like your idea of beacon fires, but instead of an upgrade to a structure how about making a beacon fire a new type of siege equipment?

By default, no tower or keep would display white swords. A player would drop a building site for a beacon fire within the walls of the tower or keep. It would require some modest amount of supply to build, on par with other basic siege. A tower or keep under attack with a beacon fire triggers white swords on the map.

The beacon fire would have a reduced siege decay timer (10-20 minutes), encouraging scouts and roamers to visit it to refresh. Failing to refresh the beacon fire causes the flame to extinguish, and white swords will no longer trigger on the tower or keep.

Another possibility would be to have automatic build sites at pre-determined locations within the tower keep, similar to the oils in keeps.

Thoughts?

Kapina.9012:

Just threw my 2 cents at the discussion and trying to make people understand the other side (low population) of the situation too.

No, I understand where you’re coming from. I’ve been there… in need of some Vistas and POIs in WvW stuck on a server that is perpetually last place. Very frustrating.

But it also can be very fun. There was one point, when my server was perma-red, where I had all of WvW done except the keeps in green borderland. I had gotten to the point where I began to accept I would never actually see the inside of any green keep. Then one day, either out of bravery or sheer lunacy, a commander led an assault on a fully upgraded hills on green borderland. We got an outer wall down, but then the green mega-zerg arrived and wiped our group.

But not before my sneaky little thief self went into stealth and hid.

And I must say, that being chased everywhere by NPCs and the enemy while trying stay undetected long enough to reach the vista was an exhilarating experience. That was also the first time I found out you can’t be in combat to view a vista (thought I was gonna run up there, grab it, and jump to my death but found out the hard way lol). But when the enemy finally gave up on hunting me, and the NPCs couldn’t see me, I got that stupid vista.

And I must say that when I got my 2 greens and that paltry amount of XP for completing green borderlands weeks later, it was the best and worst loot ever.

Kapina.9012:

Won’t happen if you are on Underworld server for example. We’ve been same colour for 3 months (?) now. It is pretty stupid that person has to change server to get his/her world completion.

Just looked at the history for your server. You guys could be blue next week, and are currently red. That’s 2/3 of the borderland maps, and 2/3 of EB. Granted, you haven’t been green since March, but that is likely due to your last place standing. If WvW completion is important to you, why not get yourself and others more involved in WvW?

I can tell you from personal experience that taking part in your server’s rise from last place to top of bronze league is a very rewarding experience.

EDIT: misread WvW server history for Underworld.

Oh look…
it’s this thread and this thread and this thread and this thread and this thread and this thread and this thread again.

However, my time played vs. actual skill is being more and more player driven toward “Achievements”. These achievements are really focused on some rather ‘niche’ content.

Only if you let it be.

Now, dungeon raids are frequently saying 5k AP, all Zerker rush.

I rarely see AP/Zerker requirements on dungeons. Not saying they don’t exist, but it’s not as widespread as you are claiming.

that AP system is being used to block people out of dungeons and therefore getting the experience to be in the dungeon.

It’s blocking you out of groups that have AP requirements, not the dungeon. Anyone can go in a dungeon.

Players are being demanded to come “experienced” to a dungeon without having access to the dungeons because “You must have 5K AP to enter”.

Only players desiring to join the “5k+ AP” parties. Not the 99% of the parties I see listed that have no AP requirements.

Stop making fractals the only place to get ascended gear drops.

You can gear yourself in 100% ascended without ever stepping foot in fractals.

I’m pretty sure we all came here to play a video game. Instead, a few less than desirable people are forcing the rest of the gaming community into “skipping” the whole game so they can have their instant gratification.

We all came here to play a video game, but for different reasons. No one is forcing anybody to do anything. Some people came here to skip content in dungeons. Some came to clear all monsters. Some came to play the TP. Others came to sit in LA and map chat.

Until there is some minimum AP requirement to post in the LFG tool, you have no reason to complain. Post in the LFG party yourself and find like-minded people. It is really, really easy to do.

Hjorje.9453:

I have been kicked quite a few times from groups that didn’t have any requirements because I didn’t have enough AP.

Well, they did have an AP requirement, they just didn’t post it in the LFG. That is stupid, and people like that do contribute to the toxicity of the player base.

Now the AP one I do find really stupid though since I can see from personal experience that AP doesn’t reflect on how one will perform in a dungeon or what their experience could be. (emphasis added)

That’s your experience. My experience, the experience of several others that have posted in this thread, and likely the experience of the people requiring a certain AP for dungeons runs is different from yours.

AP as an indicator of skill isn’t black and white. But imagine you had to place a 100g bet on who could successfully complete a dungeon path: 1) a group of players that have 500 AP; or 2) a group of players that have 12k AP. Which would you pick? What if I told you the path they had to complete was Arah P4?

I agree AP is a “gray” indicator at best. Someone with 3k AP isn’t guaranteed to be better than 2k in a dungeon. Someone with 8k isn’t going to be twice as good as someone with 4k. But if you cannot fathom why someone in this game would think that there is rough proportional relationship between AP and skill / experience / competency, and further cannot understand why someone who wants a smooth dungeon run would have an AP requirement for their party when this is the only metric available to them, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Again, I don’t post in LFG using AP requirements, but I do not for a moment think that it is stupid for people to use it.

Hjorje.9453:

Honestly my experience is the opposite. I can give you 30 players right now that run dungeons with me that would get kicked out of those groups requiring AP. I have 10.5k AP and these players have more then me. But they don’t run PUGs and usually go with me or one of the other people in my guild that do dungeons.

This is a discussion about PUGs posting AP requirements via the LFG system. I’ve never been in a guild that cared about AP. Doing runs with guildies is about having fun, or teaching the path, in my experience. But if you have 10.5k AP and the 30 players you speak of have more, why on earth would they be kicked from the groups requiring AP?

Hjorje.9453:

Most people that ask for AP are doing it for that reason you stated, “Skill”.

As to my post you quoted, if you go and look in the thread you will see I said the ones that ask for AP is their choose. We all get a choose on how we play the game and I am not one to tell them to stop. But that doesn’t mean I don’t think it is stupid and they are elitest for doing it.

I read your post, and I understand you are advocating for people playing the way they want to. I am the same way. My issue was that you are calling the practice stupid and elitist, especially considering by your own admission you do not normally PUG. I personally cannot see how it is either, unless you consider all group restrictions elitist.

Vakrir.4829:

AP is a very good indication of how much you’ve played the game. This doesn’t translate directly into skill, but 9 times out of 10 someone with 6-8k AP knows what they’re doing, whereas I often see 1-3999 AP players struggling, getting downed, not knowing certain things, etc. etc.

I think this is pretty much the experience of players who have been running dungeons for awhile, which newer players don’t seem to understand. From what I have noticed (disclaimer: personal experience only):

• <1k AP: Might know parts of the dungeon, but that’s about it. Also, gear is probably underlevel.
• 1k-2k AP: Might not know certain mechanics, but gear is probably at least 80 rares.
• 2k-5k AP: Likely to know all the mechanics.
• 5k-8k AP: Would be shocked if they did anything wrong.
• 8k+ AP: Expecting flawless performance. Also, will readily admit if they haven’t run the dungeon in awhile.

Again, these don’t apply 100% of the time. Just my anecdotal observation. But from reading other people’s posts, I think this is a similar experience to what they have had.

Hjorje.9453:

Man, using AP’s for a marker is the stupidest thing in this game. I see the elitest jerks in this thread talking about it.

VodCom.6924:

It’s a bad habit of elite wannabe who want to ape recordmen speed clearers and try to feel good by imposing AP requirements on the LFG. They are just too lazy to teach people how to do dungeons so they are filtering.

Etienne.3049:

They don’t give a good indication (at best they give an extremely rough estimate) but elitists will always find a way to discriminate.

This seems to be the argument here against people who filter by AP: they are elitist, uncaring jerks. It just doesn’t make sense to me. No one is forcing you to join their party. And how does it make them elitist? Because they are asking for people similar to them? Isn’t asking for a social run the same thing?

elitist (adjective): favoring, advocating, or restricted to an elite.
elite (noun): a select part of a group that is superior to the rest in terms of ability or qualities.

If a posting in a LFG asks for a certain AP requirement, because those players believe that AP = superior ability, then sure, they are being elitist. But if you believe that people who do not rely on AP to judge ability are of superior quality, then you are being just as elitist as they are.

As for me, I don’t use AP requirements when I post, but I have joined parties that have them. But if I made a posting that asked for “experienced 80s only”, “speed run”, or “must know x fight”, and someone joins with less than 1k AP, I am going to politely ask if they do, indeed, know the dungeon well.

Mattia.2095:

I was going to reply to you in extent but if what you got out of what I wrote is that I want people to change their way of playing… and you wrote that in bold too!

You missed my point completely. I’m not complaining either but merely sharing thoughts I had as I can’t help but wonder what other people think about this.

No, I understand your point and I understand your frustration. I was at one point just like you: new to the game, still learning dungeons, with really low AP. Back then I experienced a lot of what you are talking about.

For example, my first character was a thief. Which, back in the day, got me auto-kicked from a lot of dungeons (used to be lots of hate for thieves in dungeons). Then one day I saw a post for a “CM all paths thief needed”. Awesome, I thought, I’m a thief! And this group actually wants me! After joining I’m asked if I can solo the Asuran part. I asked, what’s that?, and boom kicked. Now I know what they are talking about, and what they needed. Which they could have specified in the LFG text, but rather than get upset about it I just moved on with my life. Some of the things that have gotten me kicked from groups when I was relatively new would probably make you laugh.

Mattia.2095:

Your second suggestion made me smile though and it’s probably one I’ll follow, I have to!

Good! That’s what I did, and I’m a better player now for it. Once I posted “LFG AC path 1. Please teach me how to speedrun”. Got invited relatively quick, and had every leg of the dungeon path explained to me. If I see posts like that now, I tend to join them in an effort to pay it forward.

Mattia.2095:

By removing the option of seeing other player’s achievement points I thought that experienced players could no longer have the “certainty” that someone is good. Hence forcing them to play with their guild mates or friends they know are good. They’ve been around longer and should have plenty!

It sounds like a good idea, but if you remove the ability to see AP it will just be replaced by something else. Like, a requirement to ping all your gear on joining (there are already groups like that, too). Or making people cycle through titles. Or a dungeon path trivia quiz before starting. Or a certificate that has been notarized by at least 5 ANet employees stating you know what you are doing. AP is just a quick and dirty way to gauge a player’s ability. Far from perfect, but usually accurate.

If you don’t believe me, work up your AP and join a 10k+ group. Most friendly, social, quickest, and smoothest dungeons runs I have ever done. Once I joined a group that blazed through the AC paths so quick we went on to do the rest of the commonly run dungeons just to continue our conversation.

Just in case anyone has been following this thread I thought I would share my experiences with some of the rune sets:

Krait:

• Pros: Bleed duration is devastating against opponents with little to no condition removal. I could apply bleeds and pretty much hide in stealth and watch them die.
• Cons: Bleed duration pretty useless if they do have good condition removal. Also the 6th set bonus pretty much forces you into using Basilisk Venom, and applies conditions you are already normally applying.

Balthazar

• Pros: Burning is not a condition you normally have access to, and can really help out if your opponent has good condition clearing.
• Cons: Burning only happens when you heal near the opponent. If you’re using HiS, that will be every 30 seconds only. Withdraw helps with this, but you lose the stealth and bleed/poison/burning removal of HiS.

Perplexity:

• Pros: Adds a condition you can apply that synergizes really well with Sleight of Hand.
• Cons: To trigger the condition with Sleight of Hand, you actually have to interrupt a move your opponent is doing. I found that at the beginning of the fight, especially if you jump someone, Steal→CnD won’t normally trigger it.

As a follow up question to this topic, what utility skills do you guys normally run?
I’ve found Spider and Skale Venom to be pretty useless (since those conditions are getting applied normally anyways). It also seems that a stun breaker (Roll for Initiative / Shadowstep) and a stealth move (Blinding Powder / Shadow Refuge) is almost mandatory for this build.

I always thought that P/P was kind of meh until:

1. I have to solo a champ in PvE protecting a skill point (pre-megaserver, there was no one else in the zone)
2. I had to fight Liadri the Concealing Dark for the Blazing Light title

Then I was incredibly happy that P/P was an option available to me. I think the major complaint about P/P is the fact that other weapon setups outperform it in other game modes, like WvW. But when you consider how many other viable weapon setups and builds we have as thieves that work wonders in non-PvE game modes, and look at other classes and how much more limited their selection is, I think it is a fair trade-off.

I see posts like these all the time: asking for certain requirements for joining a dungeon group. Sometimes it’s about achievement points, sometimes it’s the zerk only parties, or some other requirement people are asking for. I’m not trying to be an elitist here, but your complaints don’t make any sense.

Mattia.2095:

I think many players are being misjudged by the rest of the community because of them. Being accepted in a dungeon party is plain impossible and I completely gave up the idea to playing in one. And if I decide to try my luck I’m constantly in fear of being kicked again.

Start your own party. In the party advertisement, state requirements that you meet or state that there are no requirements. If I join a party that says, “new players welcome”, I would never vote to kick someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. Only a megatroll or griefer would do that.

Mattia.2095:

I don’t see how achievement points can give a good indication to how well a player can do in a dungeon or anything else for that matter. If someone needs to know whether someone is experienced cannot this person simply ask the player whether he has done the dungeon or not beforehand? It’s more humane and there’d be a conversation, I wouldn’t even mind being kicked then. I’d see it coming and I’d understand.

AP is not a perfect system, but it is the only system to get an idea of how experienced someone is. A new player who recently hit level 80 on their first character is usually around 1k AP. Someone who has done some zone exploring, dungeon runs, leveled up another character, etc is usually in the 1k-3k range. People higher than that have played for longer because many achievements are related to time played, such as slayer achievements, dailies, living story, etc.

Asking never works in my experience because either 1) the player lies, out of fear of being kicked; or 2) truthfully says yes, but has only done the run a few times and was carried through it so they have no idea what they are actually supposed to do.

Mattia.2095:

Why is a player who hit level cap and has the gear needed to play in a dungeon forced to do meaningless tasks over and over again for a long period of time only to finally do what he wanted to do in the first place and have some fun?

No one is forcing you to do anything. Again, start your own party, with a description that describes your idea of having fun. I guarantee you that there are others out there that will jump at the chance at joining your party because they, like you, have the same idea of what “fun” is. But don’t pretend it is the same for everyone.

Mattia.2095:

Plus from what I understand you can get an endless amount of achievement points by doing dailies. Seems to me like this also makes achievement points less of a valid indicator.

Someone who has done dailies for an extended period of time has been forced to play their character(s) for an extended period of time. This actually makes it a really good indicator (but again, not perfect).

Mattia.2095:

Could players simply not have the option to see other players’ achievement points? Would that be such a big deal for the community? There’s plenty of other ways to show off and I mean this in the good way. I’m all for it. I just don’t think achievement points are the way to do it.

Again, no one is forcing you to look at other players’ AP. What you are asking for is to have it turned off for all the other people who do care about AP. Which is as selfish as the people you complain about for kicking you due to low AP.

Look, it’s really simple: different people want to run dungeons differently. Some want speedruns, with zero mistakes and zero conversation. Some want super speedruns, with zerks only and the previous two things. Some don’t care. Some want new people to feel welcome joining. Some want to do training runs to improve the community as a whole. And a million other things, too. Depending on my mood and time I want to spend in a dungeon, I have fallen into all those categories at some point.

tl;dr At the end of the day, you have two choices:

1. Make posts on the forum complaining about the way other people want to do dungeon runs, while simultaneously complaining that they don’t want to run a dungeon the way you want to (because, in effect, that is what you are doing)
2. Start your own party, with your own description that fits the party you want to be in. (“AC path 1 all players welcome!” or “CoF path 2. Social run. Watching all cutscenes and making a sandwich after each boss!”)

Honestly do appreciate the advice. Going to give the Balthazar runes a try, especially since the Krait ones were so cheap it won’t be that much of a loss.

One question though…

mango.9267:

Lastly, you get the krait conditions every 45 seconds, but with balthazar, you can apply burning every 10 seconds using tonics (let’s face it, if you’re going to play p/d dire, might as well go all the way here).

What do you mean by “using tonics”?

Have been playing around with the build I mentioned, and wanted to follow up and hear some more opinions.

mango.9267:

Again, condi duration isn’t the way to go with p/d. Very rarely will all your conditions stick for the full (or even half) duration. The weapon set is about constant application of conditions, since sneak attack and shadow shot have no cooldowns, and you have mug on a 21-27 second cd.

I repeat, going for high condi duration is the wrong way to go, especially when you do so at the expense of better rune/sigil choices. Perplexity + sleight of hand is better than bewildering ambush, IMO. The cd reduction and daze on steal are game changers. Alternatively, balthazar is a good set too. Krait is fine if you can’t afford the other two, but don’t go for krait runes thinking they’re a better choice than perplexity or balthazar.

I tried both Sleight of Hand and Bewildering Ambush and I will agree the cooldown reduction alone makes Sleight of Hand a better trait. Ideally I do want to try Perplexity runes at some point – but does the extra burning condition from Balthazar really make then superior to Krait? If constant application of conditions is the goal, and I’m using Krait that is three conditions applied every 45 (assuming using Basilisk Venom) versus Balthazar which is one every 30 (assuming using Hide in Shadows). Also, Krait and Balthazar provide the same bonus to condition damage. Or am I missing something?

Also, I’m not going for high condition duration… I’m using full Dire with the exception of one Giver’s weapon. Is the trade-off of 90 condition damage and 64 toughness really not worth the 10% condition duration increase?

Also, by Shadow Shot I assume you mean Shadow Strike, correct?

messiah.1908:

for 1v1 or 1vx the duration is important a bit as after the signet warrior which has 800 heal per second use is utilities u can tick 5 seconds and above . without it you wont be able to kill anyone with -40%-60% condi duration

This was my major incentive to boosting condition duration: enemies using food to reduce condition duration, or warriors traited to reduce it.

I appreciate all the responses and would love to hear some more thoughts.

You could also consider taking up cooking. One of the nice things about WvW is it has many different tiers of harvestable ingredients (and ore/trees).

1. Some dungeons got a tweak. Most notably, if you draw the Spider Queen into the corner like you used to, she will now use her poison AoE attack. And since everyone is stacked, all those AoEs will be stacked on top of each other, and deal massive damage. The only way to really stack is to have an all zerk party and 2x or 4x FGS. And even then half those fights end in a double KO from my experience.
2. Produce any new builds? Maybe… but I haven’t heard of any that would fit the omgthisisthenewmeta category.
3. I’m not 100% sure about this, but I have noticed the change you are speaking of. If I had to guess, it’s all due to the new wardrobe system. Legendaries are in higher demand, since you can re-use their skins now. I know Incinerator has jumped in price because of this. Given the high amount of T6 mats required, I think this is the reason the price has been driven up. And since exotic gear also requires T6, that would explain the increase in those prices, too. The lack of ability to transfer sigils and runes to new gear with the old transmutation stones I think is the largest contributing factor to driving those prices up.

Only inexperienced or bad players will bother to invite you to a party just to call your build “cheese”. Every class/build has a counter, and some people don’t know how to deal with certain classes/builds or don’t realize that their current class/build simply cannot match up against yours. One time in WvW I was accused of “cheese” when I beat someone 1v1 with my staff ele by FGS rushing him to death (staff ele has to be one of the easiest classes to 1v1).

P/D thief is just one of those builds that is easy to pick up. Mastering any build is tricky, because mastery requires you to not only know how to play your class effectively, but to know how other classes work and can be used to counter you. P/D is no exception.

I absolutely hate fighting decent P/D thieves on my warrior because my condition cleansing relies on my ability to land Earthshaker successfully, which is hard to reliably do against someone who is constantly going into stealth and zigzagging around. Bad P/D thieves I can usually more reliably hit them in stealth because I can guess exactly where they are. Difference in ability, combined with a certain build, makes or breaks the fight. On my guardian, however, I know that the fight will always go one of two ways: 1) I will kill the P/D thief, because he is bad or got sloppy; 2) It will stalemate.

Regardless, inviting someone to your party just to call their build cheese is the surest sign of a bad player, IMHO.

Using S/P and SB for PvE content makes me wonder sometimes why I would play with any other character when doing PvE content solo. A warrior build focused around 100b is a close second.
Good damage, access to stealth, and access to a 25% movement speed signet makes thief a well-rounded class for PvE. For PvP and WvW, there are several different builds to fill different roles. Overall, thief is nicely balanced.
My only complaint about thieves comes from when I have to fight them on another class. I think the most unbalanced thing about thieves right now is the offhand pistol’s Black Powder ability. It is a bit OP when facing off against other melee classes (just my opinion).

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the advice here.

I do not like to be dependent on food as part of my build (just my thing). So I do not factor in condition duration food into my stats. Given that, I was thinking of the following:

• Krait runes. Perplexity is definitely a nice choice, but more than I’m willing to spend for now. [adds 45% bleed duration]
• 2/0/6/0/6 build, using Bewildering Ambush grandmaster trait from the Trickery line, since I’m not using Perplexity runes. [2 in Deadly Arts adds 10% condition duration]
• Full Dire set, with the exception of one weapon which is Giver’s. [10% condition duration]
• Superior Sigil of Malice. [10% condition duration]

In total, this gives adds 75% bleed duration and 30% condition duration. For my other sigil I am considering using Superior Sigil of Corruption.

Thoughts?

Race: All, as far as I can tell
Armor: Viper’s Jerkin

The left arm (covered arm) is skinnier than the right.

In addition to what Behellagh has posted:

• Significant overhaul to the rune sets and sigils.
• New attributes for gear such as Dire and Nomad’s.
• Champ train is now in Frostgorge Sound and EotM.
• Dungeons now only yield the gold reward once per day (not sure if you were here for that change). No more CoF path 1 runs until your eyes bleed.

If you want to know more about class change mechanics, I would start reading through the patch notes since you last played. So many minor tweaks here and there I couldn’t give you an overall picture.

Thanks for the info. Any thoughts on using Giver’s weapons? I was playing around with a build calculator and it seems that I could push bleeds up to 100% without food pretty easily using them. Or is the loss in condition damage from using Giver’s too steep?

Pie the Pious
Pie as a Kite

If you ever use Venoms, you could name it Poisonberry Pie. Or just poison in general I guess.

Favorite one on here. Actually made me laugh.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Living Story events have added new areas. Cragstead in Wayfarer Foothills northeast corner, for instance. Vayne posted a commonly missed location for Orr – I would check there first for your last area. As far as Maguuma, another commonly missed location (and one that I was missing for my map explorer achievement) was the Proxemics Lab in Brisban Wildlands. If these don’t work, I would recommend comparing the pictures of the maps on the wiki against the map you see in game.

Haven’t played P/D thief in ages, but with the introduction of Dire armor and the changes to some of the runes and sigils, I was considering giving it a whirl (if for no other reason than for kicks). I did have a few questions though before I go about making a build and gearing up. Keep in mind I’m only interested in playing P/D for WvW roaming.

1. Do the 25%/50%/75%/100% bleed duration cutoffs still apply? From what I remember from before, the aim was to hit one of those exactly (as there was no benefit in between). Also, what bleed duration do you guys normally shoot for?
2. What are some of your favorite rune sets? I was looking at Krait personally, but I’ve seen several other favorites on the boards here.
3. Do the ricocheted shots from Ricochet apply conditions to the second target hit?
4. Also I have noted a lot of people recommending going full Dire. Wouldn’t a mix of Dire/Carrion be more ideal, especially against Diamond Skin elementalists?

Warriors have a good HP pool to work with, so if you are looking for a tanky build that still does damage, try mixing in some Knight’s gear with your Berserker’s. The recommendation I make to all warriors who just hit 80 is to try Knight’s armor with Berserker trinkets (weapons either Knight’s or Berserker). From there you can start swapping out gear based on your playstyle and build that better suits you. Hoelbrak runes are also a great starting set for new warriors in WvW, as condition builds are aplenty there.
GS and Hammer is an excellent starting set for WvW. As a warrior, you have high mobility assuming you are using a GS or sword in mainhand. Take a look at some of the builds Highchu has posted, especially the last one. Shout healing builds are one of the easier builds to get into the swing of things in WvW, and your teammates will definitely appreciate your presence.
I would disagree about the synergy of a sword in a power build. A sword mainhand is more of a hybrid weapon – Final Thrust is especially powerful with a power build. There is also the mobility aspect (if you are not using a GS as your other weapon set), and to a lesser degree the sword burst skill is nice in groups to lock down opponents.

I can tell you what I have found from my experience:
1. As far as I can tell, Tempered Spinal Blades are the cheapest assuming you already have the Blade Shards and are planning on using Leatherworking to make the Gift of Blades (since the recipe uses Elonian Leather Squares which are cheaper than Bolts of Damask or Deldrimor Steel Ingots). Your other option outside of the Fractal backpiece is the Quiver of Swift Flight, but that requires 250 Vials of Powerful Blood to make. The catcher skins are just skins and have no stats of their own.

2. The Light of Dwayna is not easy to get. The ingredients required to make it, along with the recipe you would have to purchase, make it the most expensive backpiece to make next to the Chaos of Lyssa. The item I think you are referring to is the Fires of Balthazar Skin which is a reward from one of the PvP reward tracks.

If you have Leatherworking to 500, and have the 1000 or so Blade Shards it takes to make it, I would go for the Tempered Spinal Blades and just use the catcher skin on it. Otherwise, prepare yourself for some Fractals or start saving the money for the Vials.

Thanks, I was unclear as to what “Sigils of the same type” meant, but from your response I’m guessing it means a specific Sigil (like Sigil of Fire) instead of a family of Sigils (like on-crit or on-hit Sigils).

1. All ascended gear is account bound. If you craft an ascended greatsword on your Mesmer, let’s say, you can put it in your bank, and withdraw it on your Warrior and equip it. You can then unequip the greatsword on your warrior, put it back in your bank, and equip it on another character.

2. Ascended trinkets are unique-equipped. What that means is that you can only have one equipped at any given time. You can, however, equip two ascended rings that have the same stats (say, Berserker) as long as one ring has an offensive infusion slot and the other a defensive infusion slot. For example, you cannot equip 2x Ring of Red Death but you can equip a Ring of Red Death and a Crystalline Band.

Agony infusions are for fractals only; they provide Agony Resist, a stat which mitigates damage from agony attacks dealt by bosses in Fractals. By default, these slots are empty so you have to add the infusion yourself. It works the same as any Sigil/Rune would for weapons and armor.

3. What infusions you put in your gear is entirely up to you. If you WvW frequently, there are WvW-based infusions; if you do a lot of Fractals, there are infusions that have Agony Resist; and if you have the gold and/or time, there are infusions with both +4 primary stat and Agony Resist.

There is no limit on max Agony Resist. If you want to look more into the topic, the wiki has a list of infusions here and another page showing you how to acquire and upgrade Agony Infusions

EDIT: posted response to 3rd question

I’m not completely sure on the other pieces, but the shoulders look like the Dark Pauldrons and the gloves look like the Forgeman Gauntlets

I did some searching on the forum but cannot find an answer to this question. For instance, if I am dual-wielding and have a Superior Sigil of Purity on one weapon (on-hit proc) and a Superior Sigil of Generosity on the other (on-crit proc) do they share a cooldown or can they proc independently of each other? I would test this myself but I have no idea how to go about it.