Trianox.3486
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Posts posted by Trianox.3486
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Good advices by babazook.
I'm currently using a P/P diviner (with some berserker/marauder pieces) Deadeye (DE, Trickery, Critical Strike).Rune of the fireworks for speed bonus + boon duration + power.
I achieve solo perma 25 might, fury, swiftness, vigor, quickness (which comes with 200 bonus precision AND power of traiter with Be Quick or Be Killed).
The trait "Collateral damage", for me, often compensate for the single target issue of P/P. If there is a group, I mark weaker targets first, so they explode quickly triggering the AoE ...and 2-3 times are usually enough to clean all trash before I can remark the champion/veteran.
You just gotta be good at marking-switching target and re-positionning to avoid having any for between yourself and your marked target. Otherwise, your DPS goes down quickly... But a few hours of combat with get you the hang of it.
Solo, I trait for payback (which decreases your utilities/elite cooldown). If I have a really good support team for fractal with lot of boons, I trait Premeditation which gives bonus 8-12% DMG)... But often payback is solid given it allows to use heal, utilities and elite more often, which can be really convenient.
I alternate between: SOM/Withdraw, and for utilities I use the power signet for big spike DMG... And the usual suspects ones: such as Roll for initiative, Smokefield, Mercy, etc.
It feels a bit "one trick pony" at first, but in fact, it's not that boring at all because you eventually realizes that there is a lot of other things you can do than just unload. Plus even if you just unload, it forces you to be really good at positioning. I realize I actually use all of my pistol skills...
Mark + Bola shot + unload is often enough to get rid of small critters, without any melee risk. Unload+Unload works well in small pack if you have autotarget enabled.
Diviner gear + berserker/marauder allows me to pug without performance worries, which really is my go-to. I consider it to be my optimal build, and most stable DPS.
Berserker/marauder is maximal DPS, but if you leave the range of your boon-provider, or have a solo segment while other are busy, or do not have a boon-provider with full quickness, fury, vigor and swiftness, you can patch the holes easily and have a very smooth game.
As mentioned above, while quickness may screw your initiative management it allows to burst down ennemies un vert short time frame, and get you full unload Channel without interruptions. With time, you get really good, based on ennemies' health at gaging how fast you should chain unload or if you do 1-2 AA in between while moving.
Longer fights without reset/pause windows will make your DPS sink if you don't use Mercy and Roll for initiative appropriately.You can trait Sleigh of hand (mark CD is shorter and with Trickery provides 2 ini) OR initiative on weapon swap (P/P and P/P), for more initiatives.
Personally I take Sleigh, and use Dagger/pistol on my 2nd set for the few enemies with projectile reflect/ or high projectile defenses.
I recently replaced CS by DA, and weirdly, it seemed like I was doing more damages on longer boss fight (executioner kicks in at 50% HP) and the grandmaster minor trait seemed to contribute quite well when many conditions were affecting the tareget... which happens in group setting more easily. Mug was good for low-HP-trash-targets and a bit of self sustain. I still want to toy with those, but CS is a very solid pick for solo play, maybe for fractal you can try both and see what works the best for you.
You can finally try a somewhat hybrid build and use DA for poison 3-2-1 traits. Funnily enough it's not so bad since poison ticks while you're auto-attacking and regaining initiatives. Plus, you get more out of your stealth attacks (bleed + torment if max malice!)Tickery GM minor also boost DMG and condi.It does not feel as good, I suspect lower DPS by quite a margin, but I still need to run comparative tests: power vs hybrid vs condi.
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...not to mention the super-telegraphed attacks from warriors that scream "I AM ABOUT TO SWING... Wait... Wait... It's coming... On the count to 3: 3, 2, 1, BAM" evades
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Well, with that many evades, he must have had traits for evade/vigor/etc both in Daredevil and Acrobatic, which therefore reduces his DMG output. Hence, it is annoying to fight, but nothing to be too worried about.
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Also, do you like to play more condition oriented or direct damage/power based?
HnRkLnXqZ.1870 proposed a good and smart build / equipment setting already. Should be an enjoyable build.
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If you have a dodge/DrD build, I like using rune of Mirage, 4sec torment on dodge, in addition to everything else ends up stacking nicely. It has condi DMG and toughness. (But keep in my the torment application is on a single target only.)
I like Krait runes, for build using death blossom.
I use thorns for the DrD shortbow-only and interupt build. Extremely annoying and 95% poison duration. But I agree with previous comments, duration isn't as important in sPvP unless we talk about burning OR a build with ton of interupts that prevents cleansing.
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You guys had a great and civilized discussion. Loved reading you.
The Glacial Heart trait-skill does indeed trigger on any disable. I've been toying with axe 2 (traited for daze with Unrelenting criticism), axe 3 (pull), and shield 5 (knockback), which means 3 disabling skills (on 6, 12 and 24 sec CD).
The following chain is really annoying in PvP or WvW:
Pull -> symbol/daze -> AA while symbols ends.Then either A or B.A.-> More AA/dodge/mantra -> shield5 -> pull -> symbol/daze.B.-> shield5 -> staff/scepter/focus swap -> ranged fillers until pull is ready again -> pull -> symbol/daze.
I love the pull, knock, and daze combinaison. It really mess People's up and there is little/nothing more annoying than "someone else" moving your character around... Combined with faster burn justice virtue, the extra bit of DMG and chill from glacial heart, plus axe bleed... the triple interupt just become so much more effective.I always liked combining condi + interupt.
I also tried axe/shield plus hammer... And you morph into a really good area denial character.Scepter/focus is however better for DMG/ending the fight quicklyOr staff better for some support/line of warding.That being said, as a Firebrand, staff felt less important given our access to tomes, and same for scepter if you traits and take soj for tons of burns or spirit hammer for more knockdown.
Otherwise, I like playing hammer with Dragon hunter's traps in PvP. I receive a lot of salt. :-(
As in PvE, axe-shield and hammer on Firebrand is a lot of utilities and area denial, adds in spirit sword or hammer and you're well covered for higher end DPs while you're "slowly AA with hammer" (which isn't that slow anyways with quickness, as noted OP). I would not camp hammer tho, but rotating back into hammer every now and then for the ward or big knock is just soooo enjoyable. Hammer AA combined with soj, does compensate the lack of DMG while offering nice survivability.
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If you denote your cluster at the right time, you can stack 4-5 bleed, and 12-15 poison stacks in a single hit. Then chocking gaz, then again CB, etc. Big damages actually, and you can dodge with lotus training for even more stacks.Back to cluster bomb, Not too easy to get it. I often get 3 bleed and 9 poison, but more and more I can hit the 4b and 12p per hit every 3 sec.
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Scourge and mirage, condi-speced, are still a hassle to deal with for thief even when you take the right condi cleanse.
And if you have a thief condi build, weaver can perform really well as they have so much cleanse. Of course ele is otherwise really not an issue for power spike thief.
If you focus a lot on stealth and blind, you loose some access to stunbreaks, so thief becomes vulnerable, especially with a low HP pool, to being stun-locked/CC, which certain specs can do really well.
To be honest when I didn't play thief, I had only low to medium problem dealing stealthy-thiefy. People always complain about stealth mechanics, and yes it can lead to really nasty combos, but you can equip yourself to deal with that. Just the same way that if the meta is condi oriented, bring some condi cleanse!! Yes, you might reduce your DMG option, but won't die to condi in silly ways.
When your biggest fear is gimmicky/nasty stealth build, bring some blocks, defensive skills, CC, AoE skills/utilities, traps, a bit more vitality/toughness, or unlockables to go through the thief like a knife in warm butter.Most my fight against decent Rev ends up very quickly. Either he dies really fast, either I'm downed instantly too.
Also, it's still uneasy as a thief to go solo into a massive AoE cluster-mess which is what is favored in the current state of the game.And a very high DMG oriented thief is super fragile/goes down really fast if you read their game. Plus most thief are actually not so great.
Being fragile thief relays on blinds and stealth and shadowsteps as its core mechanisms to avoid dmg. But most of them are active gameplay, require planing/thinking for a thief to be able to survive decently, unlike the passive sustain of some other classes. Fast attack overcome blinds, and while stealth you're not being attacked, AND it requires good positioning by the thief to avoid AoE or even melee random attacks. I can't remember how often, in my early days I'd be downed while trying to stealth away from a fight.Melee Thief drops smokefield in your face, well, just dodge out, AA to clean the blind, and restart you DMG rotation.
If a thief uses heartseeker into a smokefield as an escape, he usually has low HP, or low initiatives, therefore won't hit you in the next few seconds until he resplenish either one or both of them.Those high DMG deadeye are super weak... 1-3 well placed hit and they die. Get one of your guy to focus him while you are minding your business. Have reflect! Can't tell how often deadeye almost killed themselves on reflected ranged attacks, often a single hit was then necessary to deal with the guy/girl.
Anyways... I recognize it's not super easy, but one cannot expect to just brutally facetank everything. Equip yourself for builds that you fear the most. :-)
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With cluster bomb, when detonated at the right timing, you can get up to 4 shards per target... which mean 4 bleeding stacks... and if you use the new Deadly ambition plus Potent poison traits, that makes it 12 poison stacks right away. A single skill therefore let you get 4 bleed and 12 poison stacks right away. You can then use chocking gas, or AA once, then re-stack again in PvE, or AA for 2-3 hits in PvP/WvW, then restack again.
When you add venom however, the effect is negligible as each hit seems to waste a charge while using cluster bomb.
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@Freakshow.1809 said:IDK how i feel about it, I feel like its easier to ramp up to 10-16 poison stacks han before, but harder to ramp it up into the higher numbers like 30+ now while in the oder build I could burst 50+ with top gear
Yeah, same feeling. I'd just add tho that as you rotate weapons, you're capable of keeping your poison stacks up better than before.SB poison gas, combined with the new poison trait and potent poison is an instant 4 poison stacks, with immediate daze it seems, so it's quite enjoyable combined other traits such as torment on interupt, or disrupting impact, along a with a quickness on interupt rune... It gives a whole new dimension to Short how... and add lotus training/dodge into the field... It's a bit gimmick, but actually works kind of well.
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@DemonSeed.3528 said:Want to see someone explode? Set you seal together with a dragonhunter trap, but make sure they only overlap a little into a sort of figure 8 - just enough so they they struggle to get out of dh trap and your seal so they keep triggering in/out of the dh trap. Want to be more nefarious? lay one of the other preparation traps in center of the figure 8 zone.
Yeah hahah, it's quite nasty.
In a way, once could achieve similar results with guardian hammer5 and DH traps, but the thief seal/preparation is just nicer/more efficient.
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One very nice thing to note is that the cooldown of preparation starts when they're armed. Therefore, if Seal is placed on a control point with 1000needles, then you mess around, someone comes to the point you activate them, and as soon as they're over, prepare them again, and 3 sec later they're up again! So it's not a double cast, but for ringing the Bell, or for certain defensive situation, it is perfect.
As a D/D condi thief I can better solo defend point. I'm low ranked, but was able to take down more than one 2 players at once by combining death blossom, seal+1000needles+dagger storm, followed by more dodges and blossom, which all synergize super well with the dark field.
Felt solo good to take down DH+Mesmer, or Scourge plus Mesmer... Within 10-12 secondes only. That was unexpected! (Again, low ranked.)
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@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:
@Trianox.3486 said:I just came out testing over and over some of the skills/traits, and despite many bugs (oh boy...), Deadly Ambition poison seemed to cleave. Hummm.So seems to cleave if you hit enemies all at the same time with the same strike, but skills like Bouncing Dagger or Death Blossom will only apply it on the first hit, so any foes not hit by the first hit won't get the poison stacks. So its per hit, not per target ICD. Hadn't gotten the chance to super test it yet and was only looking for per target ICD earlier.Also Potent Poison isn't working with it at all, which is awful.Oh okay! I get what you mean. You seem right then!Yes, I already reported the Potent poison bug both IG and on forum.
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@LucianTheAngelic.7054 said:
@Straegen.2938 said:- DA Dagger Training is a small nerf particularly for D/? condi
- DA Deadly Ambition seems to be a wash to me since I used the unblockable trap to good effect
Yeah this change is pretty horrible for D/D and D/X condi builds in all modes. It’s like a 50%+ nerf to poison application from Dagger Training + Potent Poison plus the loss of poison cleave since the new trait has an ICD and isn’t “per enemy.” Really bad changeI just came out testing over and over some of the skills/traits, and despite many bugs (oh boy...), Deadly Ambition poison seemed to cleave. Hummm.
@Straegen.2938 said:
@Loki.4871 said:I'm more a pve person here, but I think Leeching Venoms needs one tweak: right now you have to be in stealth for several seconds for a stack to apply. This means that if you pop Shadow Refuge (7s with the minor traits) you get 2 stacks of spider venom and one of them needs you to wait 3 seconds for the first stack. I find that rather pointless, and think it would be much better to get one when you first go into stealth.It is utterly useless. I mean completely pointless. I am trying to say they somehow took a useless trait and somehow magically reworked it into utter oblivion. Only a sadist would take this trait.Would make more sense if it worked like Shadow's Embrace, spawning one charge as you stealth, then +1 every 3 sec (altho I'd argue for every 1-2 sec... even once per sec would not be that OP considering that you won't be doing any dmg while in stealth other than the already ticking ones... AND that for effective condi build, usually you just keep and keep stacking more and more, you're never really supposed to stop stacking, unless you have another advantage in doing so.).
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But you could also instead use Shadow Shot (d/p 3) for 4 initiatives, which allows for more heal given it has lower initiatives. But you cannot pin-point very well, unless everyone is facetanking a mob.
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Seal Area is a "Dark Field" allowing for using Dagger storm for 10 hits of 250+ dmg, nice extra dmg boost there and the two synergize pretty well.
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@omgdracula.6345 said:Real talk. Do they actually QA their patches?
Well, when there are bugs such as Rending Shade or else, they'll even sometimes re-patch it the same day.
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Hi!Rending Shade is a GM trait of Shadow Art which condi "Fear" on stealth attack if the ennemy has no boons.BUG: Even when NOT selecting the trait NOR Shadow Art at all, Rending Shade seems to be "toggled on" all the time on stealth attack on foes without boons.I replicated it a few times in PvP against the Chieftain.
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The GM trait Potent Poison does not work with adept trait Deadly Ambition as it should. We get 2 stacks of poison instead of 3, in PvP.Both the tooltip and the actual test reveal that it does not work as intended.
Potent Poison should add one more poison stack to every other Deadly Art traits. It indeed works with other traits, but not with Deadly Ambition. (It's quite a big deal, given the lower poison application that we currently have with the updated traits.)
Thanks!
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Cloacked in shadow is disappointing indeed (siphon on blind), had huge potential, but it just creates a small "side bonus effect that works quietly for you in the background"... you can't relay on it to heal you/really push for extra damages. Taking into account that blind can affect often 3-5 targets at a time, the healing figure could double to 150-240-ish and I think it would be "okay" given the multitargets capacity, and the fact that we have some blind "pulse" skills. Healing scale nicely, but not dmg... so I guess it's optimal for condi/heal build rather than power ones as it adds too little dmg per power point.
Shadow siphoning (siphon on stealth attack) is "meh" compared to what we had, but can provide 1.1k heal on mender amulet in PvP for our allies (haha)
Leeching venom isn't too bad if you just consider it has getting 1 poison stack whenever you stealth and sometimes 2 if you stay tiny bit longer... but why not create a trait "stealth attack now poison foes?" Maybe so that it can apply on non-stealth attack too if you miss it or go for something else? Decent synergy with the shortbow if you use the DA traits for poison too... 4 stacks, insta daze but in fact, you don't need it given DA should give you 3 stacks with its potent venom traited... so all in all? It's not that great, it just adds a tiny bit of poison here/there.
Love the stealth on heal tho, and the new preparation skills - much better than expected!
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Yeah, report in the bug section?
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@"MithranArkanere.8957" said:That's the deadeye.
Cantrips, stealing abstract concepts and the possibility of spamming buffs on allies.Deadeye may use a rifle and not a caster weapon like a scepter, but they use it with tons of magic.Daredevils do use a caster weapon, but they are more like melee skirmishers. So the weapon is not what determines the style.
Since daredevil has a melee power and survival focus and deadeye a ranged power and support focus, it stands to reason that the next elite for thieves would have to have a focus on condition dps and debuffing specialization.
Like throwing torches around.
I actually bet on off-hand focus, adding 2 new weapon skills (4-5), plus 3 duals (sword, dagger, pistol).
Arcane assassin, either transforming stealth into a shadow armor OR...
Replacing every instance of shadowstep with Arcanestep, steal now becoming a simple teleport/arcanestep that can target foes or allies.Arcanestep could be toggle between firestep, lightstep, earthstep, waterstep, airstep or whatever... Spawning mobile combo fields, with traits capable of increasing radius, duration, other traits for X2 the effect of combos (like warrior gm trait). Some traits would amplifies certain type of condi or cleanse, or allowing you to have Arcanestep (on steal) as an ammunition (2) special skill.
Tradeoff: you loose access to stolen items or skills.F2 is a simple "arcane attack" which does an attack/effect at mid range based on your arcane attunement. Improvisation allows you to use it twice, during 20 sec, after any arcanestep.
You can select two "steps" options for F3-F4 that are choosen out of combat like Revenant heroes, allowing you during combat to move between F3-F4, your F3 being the active "step" that applies to F1, and all your other skills/utility that normally would have used shadowstep.
Pistol: Shoot a double acane bullet based on your attunement, 2nd is a ptojectile or blast finisher.Dagger: Hit, slow in area for 3 secondes, 240 radius.Sword: Sword-dance : execute a 360° swiping move 240 radius.
X-/Focus4: Magic-blast : two pulses, once per second, each pulse is a blast finisher, apply boon/ condi based on attunement?X-/Focus5: Throw a wisp whirling around the assassin, blocking incoming condi for 1.5 sec
Utilities would be glyphes, something agressive/condi focused based on attunement/arcane choice.
...I think I'd enjoy that, a mix between ele and thief. So then it would be the squishiest thing ever.
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Ah Shadow refuge rezz.. it seems like the new SA lines can help with that... But indeed, holo/scourge/etc are still around... So.... We shall see how practical it is in reality.
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@Yasai.3549 said:
@babazhook.6805 said:Rifle hybrid might be a thing. Those preparations might be ideal in such a setup using that portal, shadowstep and the rifles inate port to move around the battlefield stealth and frustrate the heck out of the enemy. Rifle DJ hits hard even with lower power and ferocity. Put on grieving maybe?Even with new Deadly Arts traits Condi DE will be a new experience.Might be more consistent with Vipers, and will end up with DA - SA - DEI'm still skeptical about Shadow Arts granting Venom on stealth.It might be absurdly good and give yu 1 stack every second in Stealth, or it might be utter trash and have a skill ICD but give yu 6 stacks.When it comes out, I shall see if it is the former or the latter.If it is former, hooray, definately gonna try my hand at Condi DE.If it is latter, might just try Grieving with SA-Trick-DEThat idea sounds good!
I tried a DrD hybrid with DA-Trickery, using lotus training (to stack different types of condi for DA bonus DMG on number of condi). It was mediocre. I like your better.
But I can better see now an hybrid DrD build with SA-Trickery using either D/D or D/P and using Viper... And focusing on applying condi, while spinning in smoke fields for throwing blind around (with siphoned on every blind?).Traditionally siphon does not crit, so precision/ferocity would not be as important. You could invest fully in condi and power with other side stats such as expertise, vitality or even healing, lol... You'd loose a bit of condi for not using DA, but you'd gain siphon on blind...
...or it might actually be a thing now to use Death Blossom in a pure power build if you consider the whirl will send blind/siphon around boosting DMG that ignores armor.
On paper sounds funny, but might not be practical at all, really depends on the numbers... I can't wait to toy with that.
Just stop..
in Thief
Posted
There are quite a few builds ranging from decent to quite good, and even great. But you would not necessarily play them like how you used to play similar builds a few years back. Over the years rotation changed, as well as how you approach certain fights.
To be honest, many thieves are doing quite good/decent at the moment. Thief appears decently balanced, but some other professions, due to their inherent mechanics are "breaking" thieves or certain PvP encounters.
My biggest issue however lies in the fact that people tend not to adapt enough their build choices in front of new strong threats.The super bunker scrapper we had before last patch could actually easily be taken down by CC oriented build, especially those with lockdown-style.The new holy warlock (DH-burn) is quite strong but lack serious anti-condi traits/skills, and therefore any condi thief can swiftly deal with it.
That's not OP's case, but I find it silly when players complain too much about the condi meta while most professions have many condi cleanses and other tricks... But yet are not being used because players do not want to sacrifice damage for survivability.Of course, that trade off is bad for certain profession/builds, but there are usually ways around any of the most annoying profession.