Jugglemonkey.8741

No, it's not. Read my comment again, I said anything that LEGALLY gives you an advantage, in other words anything that exists in game as is. That obviously doesn't mean third party hacks, and you're just creating an obvious strawman by bringing them up.

Your comment and my first reply was talking about revealed originally, not weapon stowing. I'd appreciate it if you would kindly stop shifting the goalposts and focus on one topic in one conversation, not moving between alleged revealed bugs, one shot builds, alleged exploits in weapon stowing etc. As for weapon stow tricks, my opinion is pretty much summed up by my signature. Anything that legally gives you an advantage in a fight is fair game, be it terrain, combos, numbers, condis, sneak attacks, anything, which is why I don't really get why you think an accusation of unfair play would mean anything to me given these things are available to all. Using tricks like these used to be a mark of skillful play, if you choose not to use them as you don't think they're fair, then you're handicapping yourself for no reason other than a falsified sense of honour. If it's strong, use it. As for me, I don't use most of the tricks in your linked video (although I am aware of them, and others) as a large part of my advantage when roaming comes from getting the first attack with a build that counters the other guy, so given I'm usually running my own specialised off meta builds in specific circumstances using templates to swap as needed, build templates are arguably way more important to me. TLDR: if it's in game, use it. If it's too strong, it'll get nerfed like the staff 3 jump trick did.

Tbh it was always a pretty oppressive trait that heavily punished anyone not running the meta D/P daredevil due to the synergy with sleight of hand, mug and basilisk venom. The way it works now, it's either going to be oppressive or pointless depending on how the numbers work out, so I'd be down for having the trait reworked into something more interesting too.

Unfortunately, most people assume that a thief is hacking/bugged etc out of sheer ignorance of the mechanics. The fact that you say revealed doesn't seem to work the same on thief suggests you simply met a thief that understood the mechanic better than you do.

D/D core has little in the way of engage potential which another reason IF going that route SW has to be considered. If the enemy breaks off or fights at range there little the d/d player can do outside the steal to close the gap. When on d/d power and the enemy in trouble you need to finish them quick and if all they need to is open range to ensure that does not happen there no gap closer outside the steal. SW plus steal is three closers (WHEN SW works) and infiltrators a fourth. Now I do not play a d/d power build with that as my main weapon set but I do play d/d condition where I am in d/d all the time and gap closing is the number one issue. If facing a Ranger as example you can be killed before you even get in range of them. This will happen even if you in a dire build with higher toughness and vitality then a typical power build. If in power and core you have less stealth, less dodges and evades , one port to as utility that can be used (infiltrators) and that about it . It far to easy to counter via range and mobility and especially since their burst so much weaker now. D/D power used to be able to rely on an opening burst to get that upper hand but that potential is much less now. RFI/Withdraw are generally gap openers. The problem with d/d core power is as not so much as opening a gap as it is closing one. When you use a withdraw you now have to close that gap again and are open to attacks when you do. I usually de-target for Withdraw and run it behind them. I kind of wish it was ground targeted like Shadowstep, I still take a dive off a wall or cliff once in awhile. With the old traps and trappers runes I used to withdraw INto the target. That would drop a trap on top of them. That whole action had to be fun to watch play out. Thinking back on GW2 history it's crazy what you can't pull off anymore and what we can pull off now. The other thing I would do with old traps and respite was preload a trap off the toolbar before the steal then steal with a port to wherein the trap would drop just as I got there. This would stealth me allowing a stealth attack as trap triggered. It required great timing and practice but was very effective. It felt much more rewarding when it was pulled off properly.I used to do the same, but using shadow trap. Most people didn't know, but shadow trap used to allow you to port to a target even if they were stealthed, much like how DE stolen items will hit a stealthed enemy if they are in range. So I'd lay a shadow trap and a needle trap off the heal (cast then cancel heal still laid the trap without putting heal on full cooldown) and stand on them, wait for the thief to steal in and trigger both traps, let him stealth and cleanse, then use shadow trap to port into the thief in stealth while precasting needle trap utility. Add a swap for geomancy and doom and it was such a satisfying thing to pull off haha. I miss shadow trap so much. I remember one time using it from 2k+ range to pull a ranger's pet out of range so his signet couldn't transfer the condis from the ranger to the pet. He died horribly lol

D/D core has little in the way of engage potential which another reason IF going that route SW has to be considered. If the enemy breaks off or fights at range there little the d/d player can do outside the steal to close the gap. When on d/d power and the enemy in trouble you need to finish them quick and if all they need to is open range to ensure that does not happen there no gap closer outside the steal. SW plus steal is three closers (WHEN SW works) and infiltrators a fourth. Now I do not play a d/d power build with that as my main weapon set but I do play d/d condition where I am in d/d all the time and gap closing is the number one issue. If facing a Ranger as example you can be killed before you even get in range of them. This will happen even if you in a dire build with higher toughness and vitality then a typical power build. If in power and core you have less stealth, less dodges and evades , one port to as utility that can be used (infiltrators) and that about it . It far to easy to counter via range and mobility and especially since their burst so much weaker now. D/D power used to be able to rely on an opening burst to get that upper hand but that potential is much less now. RFI/Withdraw are generally gap openers. The problem with d/d core power is as not so much as opening a gap as it is closing one. When you use a withdraw you now have to close that gap again and are open to attacks when you do. I usually de-target for Withdraw and run it behind them. I kind of wish it was ground targeted like Shadowstep, I still take a dive off a wall or cliff once in awhile.Glad I'm not the only one who does that xD D/D core has little in the way of engage potential which another reason IF going that route SW has to be considered. If the enemy breaks off or fights at range there little the d/d player can do outside the steal to close the gap. When on d/d power and the enemy in trouble you need to finish them quick and if all they need to is open range to ensure that does not happen there no gap closer outside the steal. SW plus steal is three closers (WHEN SW works) and infiltrators a fourth. Now I do not play a d/d power build with that as my main weapon set but I do play d/d condition where I am in d/d all the time and gap closing is the number one issue. If facing a Ranger as example you can be killed before you even get in range of them. This will happen even if you in a dire build with higher toughness and vitality then a typical power build. If in power and core you have less stealth, less dodges and evades , one port to as utility that can be used (infiltrators) and that about it . It far to easy to counter via range and mobility and especially since their burst so much weaker now. D/D power used to be able to rely on an opening burst to get that upper hand but that potential is much less now. RFI/Withdraw are generally gap openers. The problem with d/d core power is as not so much as opening a gap as it is closing one. When you use a withdraw you now have to close that gap again and are open to attacks when you do. Yeah, I can see where you're going with scorpion wire for sure. He was using smoke screen to try to get a stealth advantage, not so useful vs a deadeye as I can easily match the stealth but it would be much more useful vs a soulbeast or something like that. I actually ran D/D on deadeye for a while before the Marked debuff was introduced, I still think deadeye is the best way to play that set atm as it has stealth options that don't involve being in melee range. That said, I don't really think dagger main hand is doing so well at the moment, there's better options if high burst out of nowhere is your aim.

I ran into a D/D core thief last night, I play quite tanky for a thief on both power and condi so his opening burst wasn't taking me below 50%, making it hard for him to capitalise on the opening enough to guarantee a win. He died pretty easily to condi (no surprises, condi in general is too strong atm), and also became an easy kill on power once I got some distance and started focussing on immob. In fact, only time he won was when he hit me with a target painter before engaging, and even then it took him more than a couple of tries to get the damage in. So while he didn't play badly at all, he also didn't have the flexibility in his build to kill me easily if the opening burst didn't do enough damage. He was running smoke screen, shadow step and infiltrator's signet, and I'm pretty sure he was he was DA trick SA although I wasn't paying enough attention to notice if he had hidden killer.

I still don't know why anyone would make legendary runes, but being able to share legendary armor and weapons is a thing I didn't know they were working on. Pretty cool ^^

I finished legendary armor last year in WvW, if I get bored during isolation I'll probably do this.

It's a cool idea I think. It doesn't affect current endurance if it's full, so it makes it an attrition style trait. Would be annoying to fight, but better than the old implementation for sure.

Vampirism runes help a lot for general sustain, along with invigorating precision (Critical strikes grandmaster). If you're getting one shot, you were stood in the wrong place.

Just to post on topic, I don't really have a problem with any of the reveal skills in the game as is atm: Detection pulse had a massive nerf being moved to cleanse gyro, so it's hardly taken compared to before that change. DH spear has always been a "dodge this or suffer" type of skill, given that if you land it you can pull the thief mid evade. It shuts down a lot of thief options which is fine because landing it ought to punish the thief heavily, the only thing to do is use a stun break to break the pull before you hit the traps or to port out of range to break the tether. Lock on is annoying as it's next to impossible to avoid, but given holosmith lost a LOT of damage on their CC's last patch it's not anywhere near as hard to deal with as it was. If anything I'd say holo needs a bit of a buff right now, as it's basically not a threat compared to before the patch. Same for Sic 'em, damage from soulbeast isn't on a "2 hits and I'm dead" sort of level anymore so it's actually fine. Besides, the fact that the majority of soulbeasts will spam the skill off cooldown makes it really predictable, so it's easy to deal with on DE if you have shadow meld. It also requires a target, meaning if you kill the ranger before he can use it you're fine. The only ones that can be really annoying are the warrior shout and the rev facet, mostly because they're AoE and you can't really react to them being cast. That said, AoE reveal is something that ought to exist to counter scrapper's stealth gyro, so that's fine imo. If I have a problem with ANYTHING, it's the amount of marked coming off sentries, towers, and the fact that any random guy can use a target painter trick and ruin your day. Even then I don't have so much of a problem, as:1) you should have to plan your routes while roaming in enemy territory, esp if stuff is upgraded2) most camps can be reached through other routes if you know where the marked zones are, and3) honestly if I wind someone up enough to the point they start randomly throwing target painters at dark corners that's a win for me in and of itself.

No offence, but if stealth didn't allow you to attack people that are unaware of your presence, what exactly would be the point of it? To allow you to reposition unseen and attack from unexpected angles? Its supposed to be used primarily in-combat.Fair, but case of point, on my current high spike build I use hide in shadows and shadow meld to get 9s of stealth, 13s with the two dodges, which if I choose my vantage point carefully is enough to approach and spike almost anyone. These are the only skills I have for stealth so I'm not building for permastealth by any means, but the only way to stop me from having that engage potential is to remove out of combat stealth entirely, and as you rightly say out of combat stealth isn't really a problem. You can't fix the problem by nerfing damage numbers either. To my mind, catching people off guard is the reason people complain about stealth, but it's also pretty much the entire point of it.

No offence, but if stealth didn't allow you to attack people that are unaware of your presence, what exactly would be the point of it?

Ah, with you. In WvW when I tried D/P DD I've been getting as high if not higher damage with heartseeker spam than I have with backstab, which is kinda sad. I remember hitting a mesmer for around 8k with backstab, but the follow up heartseeker did 9-10k if I remember right.

Honestly I've not bothered with super high spike builds since the patch. My current build is a DE tank build, on the logic that if it takes more than two passes to down most targets it makes more sense to build for the sustain than it does to try to squeeze a little extra damage out while still taking two passes to kill anything. Since the patch lowered incoming damage overall it works pretty well, that might be a reflection on the meta also being tanky as much as anything tho.

You may already know this, but tormenting rune doesn't heal based on torment damage. It gives a small heal per stack of torment applied to any target, making AoE torment like rev has on mallyx pretty nasty.

Pretty sure if nobody's answered after a week, then nobody is bothering to try using backstab without signet

Adding reveal to a targeted skill that's not even a tethered skill seems counter intuitive.

Less freedom actually. More costs, and no way of just swapping legends to fully refill. Like hell, most of Revenants weapon skills have cost of 12-15. The thief equivalent of that would be 2 initiative. Thief has no skill that costs less than 3 initiative that isnt kneel or a follow-up skill. Which is to say nothing of the speed of regeneration. You have no CDs on weapon skills and no Initiative costs on Utility skills.And then you have multiple skills to regain Initiative, like Roll for Initiative or Mercy.That's more freedom than Revenants, as they have both CDs and Energy costs on Weapon skills, utility skills and their F2-4 mechanics. Trickery trait line is complained about because its necessary for thief in PvP due to it being the strongest source of init, because our lowest move removes a third of our base bar. And a kitten load of moves completely erases your resources. And consequently all nerfs are made with the assumption we use trickery. And so a Catch 22.^ This

It's fine, I was mostly being sarcastic :P

I'm actually fine with thief not having a reveal tbh. Sure, thief vs thief is pretty much decided on openers, but stealth traps and tricks are still a thing in WvW, and most PvP thieves don't stealth for that long anyways. That said, I'm only ok with it as long as mesmers don't get reveal. If they get it, thief for sure ought to have it too.

I don't disagree that firebrand is overtuned, but given the post was about true shot which is a DH power build specific skill, it might be a little off topic to complain about a condi build on a different spec.

Wasn't torment added to mesmers, thieves and necros at pretty much the same time? If that was the original idea, they abandoned it in vanilla. It looks like https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_updates/2013-06-25#Profession_Skills is the update that added in torment shame i cant find the post about talking about why they put it in but it was just for necro and mostly is DS. Mesmer got torment at a later date it looks like. I would like better to work out what they said word for word about why they are adding in torment as a link i can post here but from what i remember it was about keeping ppl from moving so it was on classes that could not move well DS core necor was the main class. In its current state for the classes that its on and the effects they have torment is a broken condi that should be less useful then bleed for dmg only. Rev condi apply a lot of torment and it is an unbalanced classes because of it (i am also suggesting mesmer condi as well at one point but that did get nerf).That's fair enough, thanks for looking into it. I remember thief and mesmer having access to it before rev was introduced (sharing venoms with thieves guild used to be a hilarious way to kill people), but honestly it's quite a long time ago now so I'm sorry my memory was fuzzy. Honestly current condi rev feels dangerous less because of the torment and more because of the burn imo. As others have pointed out, torment isn't as high a damage condition as you might think, the thing is that rev can use rapid torment application to cover burns in the same way thief can use rapid bleed application to cover poisons. If burn damage is toned down, which seems likely given the number of burn guards doing pretty obscene things still, condi rev might actually find itself balanced without any other changes.