Straegen.2938

Everything is workable in PvE so if you like axes my suggestion is to go all in on Grieving stats and pick up Critical Strikes trait with a 1-2-3 line. Pair with Trickery 2-2-2 and IMO Daredevil at 1-2-2 mostly because I like the mobility. Dagger off hand works best with Grieving but Pistol is useful if the target is one that you cannot get up close on safely. Power/Condi runes and power based sigils such as air/fire. Axes are fairly terrible in the play experience. They deploy slowly and feel clunky. Even that one shot pay off when you recall them lands a bit flat. P/P these days is still the go-to fun weapon set in PvE particularly with the last couple of buffs.

I am no fan of how the stealth mechanic works in GW2 and think any damage even when not stealthed should immediately proc the stealth cooldown. However if you are dying to solo Deadeyes, it is either because you are engaging with it, they are catching you hurt or you are running a glass build same with D/P Thief. Neither of these are one shot builds. Dying to it is like getting killed by a Pew Pew Ranger. I suspect a lot of the complaints stem from a pack of thieves carving up a target with only one being visible at a time. Over tuned classes that are legit dangerous in small scale WvW, Willbender tops that list (a build variant that shouldn't exist on a heavy armor class that already dominants in large scale fights). Teleports half way across a map and often runs very bursty with power and condi because of its stupid good sustain. One shot blow up mesmer variants are vastly more dangerous and even lightning eles are better one shot (although more difficult to play). Thieves of pretty much any build variety are essentially relegated to +1 play and are terrible in large scale play. They are slippery and when played very well dangerous in small scale but are by no means OP or need any more nerfs beyond general stealth nerfs. Players that duel know exactly what I mean... 1v1 of equal skill the thief class is unremarkable and outright terrible in medium to large scale play.

Reflect... reflect... reflect... spam condi... block... block... block... spam condi... invuln... invuln... invuln... spam condi...

WvW enjoyment has always lived and died based on how well the matchups are balanced at any given time. If this is more unbalanced, it will suck. If it is more balanced, it will be more fun. IMO only time will tell. Besides, no more transfer fees and I can jump from any alliance to another that isn't "doing it" for me after a few weeks... count me in.

Oddly P/P and Marauders is pretty fun. It is a +1 build for sure and can only wreck the weak 1v1 but still a lot of fun. I run CS 3-3-1, Trickery 2-2-2, DD 1-2-2. Shortbow off hand. Anti-toxin or Fireworks relic, Fire/Air sigils, . A solid 1v1 build is P/D condi with Shortbow and Trailblazer. I run DeadlyA 3-2-1, Trickery 2-1-3, DD 2-3-2. Fractal relic, Torment/Poison sigil (P/D), Absorption/Corruption (Shortbow). Neither build will stand up to meta builds like Willbender when played well but non-elite players will often get caught by these builds. They are also very strong when doing a +1 in a fight.

I mostly main a thief, play daily and hunt. Looking for an experienced guild into the same thing. Almost all my friends moved on from the game a long time ago. Not into trash talk, corpse jumping, etc but I do gank, grief, and the like. I enjoy fighting players with a higher skill cap (it is how I learn). I don't really zerg unless nothing else is going on. I do the Discord but not required on my end. I have played since pre-release and have ground out numerous WvW titles... God of WvW, Ultimate Dominator, etc. Not a brag, I just play a lot and for a long time. I am above average but not elite level. Oh and I don't really PvE or PvP. Some may know me... Gallowbraid - I rep SFH (Sarcasm For Hire) mostly but I sometimes run LV (Laughing Vengeance) or BAIT. If you need a solid +1 thief, PM me. Thanks!

Thank you! Pulling my hair out trying to figure out why it wasn't working. This step was not obvious to me... why not just charge 500 coins for one item is beyond me.

It will never be as good or as fun as it was with Ricochet pre-nerf.

Well roaming in WvW I find the axe weak. Dagger off-hand has a nice teleport but the axes are so slow by the time they arrive the target is gone because without ridiculous levels of boon striping few get immob'd anymore. Also the teleport doesn't place me behind the target it just teleports like steal. Pistol off-hand doesn't seem to have any synergy with axe at all. It can kill scrubs but so can every other weapon. In duels, it is getting torn up. Axe is just too slow to stack condi and relies on a gimmick for any burst that is pretty easy to avoid IMO. Absolutely worst thing about Axe/Dagger is that it cannot run anyone down despite having a nice teleport. You can catch them but the axes will invariably be behind you and the target so even the immob is useless in this situation if it works because none of the pre-cast axes will land. Maybe in PvE it will perform better where everything face tanks but as a WvW thief I am not interested in slow projectiles... the class simply does not have the sustain to wait for damage build up at least in WvW.

Staff always needed a built in block capability particularly from ranged attacks. I would even argue it should have block with reflect to help close distances and punish ranged attackers. It needed something even if it was a built in stealth mechanic to really work properly. While it certainly underperforms compared to virtually every other upgrade in every other class, it once had a narrow place before mounts and every class got high movement/teleports. Bound/Staff with D/P was a viable roaming spec in WvW, did OK in PvP and functional in PvE. Outside of staff and before it got nerfed into uselessness, Impacting Disruption on a P/D build was absurdly powerful in WvW and PvP. Next on the amazing list is Bandits Defense which is still one of the better active blocking skills in the game. Nothing else is decent outside of the sheer movement capability of Dash but sadly Dash is meh compared to other class movement capabilities now. Willbender alone is uncatchable by a Dash Daredevil even with multiple gap closers. Although Dash really does make the Speed Relic sing.

The hilarity of this request. Nearly everything beats the thief now in virtually every format of play. It isn't the fastest, doesn't hit the hardest, has near zero multi-target damage and cannot scale damage well any longer. Long gone are the days where a thief of any build variety had an advantage in 1v1 play. Now it is lucky if it can +1 a fight and not be utterly useless doing it.

ANet went down a dysfunctional path years ago in WvW when they prioritized AoE spam and ranged attacks over targeted and melee damage. Some of the hardest hitting abilities in the game mode come from range and many are ground targeted. One would think that over years we would see the rise and fall of classes in the meta as it shifts but the core remains. Guardians have never seen a significant nerf and Necros have been absurd for years now. Any decent design is going to prioritize risk/reward making up close combat more damaging and AoE/Range damage root players or have significantly less damage. It boggles the mind that Rangers still tee off on players from a mile away with ridiculous amounts of sustain and mobility in small battles.

For some reason they have obliterated melee builds in WvW which are high risk and low reward now. Instead ranged damage and ground targeting is the preferred gameplay.

I use the Action Camera and select targets by putting the Action Camera cursor over the target I want to hit similar to a traditional shooter. It doesn't work as well for some classes but works well for the thief. I converted the old CombatMod macro to use ANets built in system. Tab turns the Action Camera mode on/off so the camera works like most other 3rd person view games, left click attacks and right click dodges while in "Combat Mode" otherwise the mouse behaves normally outside of "Combat Mode". The macro also allows for the use of the scroll wheel to be mapped to weapon swap. On teleporting builds such as P/D you can watch opponents get dizzy trying to spin around and select me with a mouse. Even tab targeting sometimes gets confusing for them when there are multiple targets around.

So much this. They could roll thief back 5 years it would be SOOOO much better.