JonnyForgotten.4276

So far, teef seems to be balanced quite a bit better than it was when I went on break. Just starting to do some competitive today, and so far it feels pretty good, at least for my oddball mostly-melee DE build. Definitely liking the new relic system and the way they have the Thief spec traits atm. Looks like I came back at a good time. 🙂

Downloading now. 🙂

Try out new things man. This is the biggest shakeup the game has had in a while, and one of the biggest changes I have noted is that our 1v1 ability has gone up considerably. Been having good luck lately running with high damage gear paired with specs that are sustain/utility/damage bonus focused in roughly equal measure. Point being, this balance is so new that no one has really, really figured out what may or may not work. Try a bunch of builds, find something you like. . . .or roll another class.

Choking GasProblem: 6 feels like too high a cost in initiative, and the new Daze on impact is A) Not as useful on such a slow mocing projectile and B) Is simply not as fun. The pulsing Daze on poison stacks was much more strategic and had a larger payoff upon successfully building 5 stacks.Solution: Drop to 5 Ini, restore the Daze on stack count, except perhaps at 3-4 stacks to account for reduced poison stacking. Put Daze back at 1/2 sec per pulse. To me, it was simply just much more fun to build combos to attain those stacks. Impacting Disruption (PI)Problem: Weak, weak damage. For an on-interupt skill, the payoff just isn't there. . . and, again, this is a skill that promoted active gameplay by it's very nature.Solution: Tune the damage up by at least double, reassess from there. Or, keep the current low coefficient, but allow PI to crit. Overall, the patch didn't really feel too too bad running around in WvW last night in my same prepatch build (acro/trick/DE s/p rifle, BqBk). If anything, the longer fight times gave me a bit of an edge in some cases after I adjusted to not bursting nearly as hard. Ini costs definitely need some tweaking across the board (everything feels too high for the damage gained), and defensive traits/skills need some nerfing on some classes (what is this new Rev tank I kept finding?), but I think this gamewide nerf may have been a good step if the devs keep on tweaking everything.

You're saying this with 4 other sources of stealth on your bar.......... This doesn't kill perm stealth. All of which take up a utility slot. This forces the char to give up damage potential or utility in exchange for high stealth. You can talk about the numbers, but this does help enforce a fairly hefty tradeoff at a mechanical level.

just within 2 minutes, i was +1 shotted over 18k with Death Judgment. Yes the same Toxic Death Judgment since guild wars 2 beta in addition to 8 years of it. Not only that Anet loves terrible stealth mechanics, they find absolutely nothing wrong with Toxic mechanics as wellhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death%27s_Judgment 'Death's Judgement (Rifle #4) ranges anywhere between 42k - 60k per shot so a pretty large spread' If Thief Profession is either redesigned from the ground-up or be completely deleted from the game, expect Nothing from the patch What the heck are you on about? Rifle 4 is a backwards 600 tele, or a smokescreen in kneel stance. . .

True, not sure why it's suddenly claimed to be some fresh "Sind's build" :D I remember seeing some funky WvW builds with s/p but even if some people used the kit in spvp they weren't really posting on here. I don't remember seeing much of Sinds build with s/p kit but definitely agree some people on this forum have been playing s/p for awhile. I think we should differentiate between kit and build though more on this forum in general, I'm not even sure sometimes if I'm using the terms right in context. A lot depends on whether the person in questions streams or not. There a misconception that if a build in action not streamed then for some reason it does not exist. Most iterations of builds were tried and used by other players before someone decided to stream it in action. Ya, I mentioned that. But I also feel like people are talking a lot about a kit, or a weapon set calling that a build and saying they already ran a build when they actually just ran another build with that kit. Nope, I'm talking about a build and I still don't understand how it's anything new. :p That said, I wouldn't say that a specific build has to be a literal copy in every way. For example swapping a utility skill or 1-2 traits depending on the needs wouldn't suddenly make for a new build.The s/p dash build really isn't new. Just the Sind effect *rolls eyes. I remember running it back before PoF as I was transitioning away from condi builds. It does seem to be more effective now than it was back then, but I don't know if it's more effective due to balance changes or that I am a better player now. Still, seeing Sind's vid did get me thinking about s/p again, so now back to running BqBk DE as my main build lately. Think I prefer it over the DD version mostly because it plays more aggressively.

Seems like a pretty good idea to be honest. Sustained area denial is definitely a combat role thief doesn't really have have in its kit.

But, but I love it when this happens and the Benny Hill theme starts playing. . .

Oh, Sind, why did you have to make a meme vid with s/p? Now my for fun set is getting hated. . . lol Seriously, what is everyone up in arms about? I have been using s/p off and on for 2-3 years now, and it's not suddenly any better or worse. At least for me, I tend to end up around gold 2 with it. . . just like with every other build. It's not toxic, it's not cancer, it's just a set that was underused so people aren't used to dealing with it yet. Does PW hit hard if it lands? Heck yeah it does, but only if it lands. For one thing, the stun portion is absolutely interruptable and pretty clearly telegraphed. For another, the skill roots the thief in place, meaning you can simply walk away from the evade/damage bomb part of it if the stun portion was mitigated in some way (like block, or dodge, or taking a step back out of range). Learn to play around it instead of calling for nerfs. Yeesh. Edit: Actually, everyone else stop using it so I can use it in peace. Thank you. :P

I had 2 CTD's in WvW last night, wonder if it is the same issue.

This feels like a pretty poorly implemented change to me. Letting it proc off ANY 3 skill rather than only dual wield would have been better.

If you don't mind me asking, what traitlines are you generally running on your DD s/p build? Think I see DD, Tr, and Acro in the last video you posted, but would love it if you could confirm. Cool. Thanks man.

If you don't mind me asking, what traitlines are you generally running on your DD s/p build? Think I see DD, Tr, and Acro in the last video you posted, but would love it if you could confirm.

I haven't yet in WvW or PvP, but I have been running something very similar in PvE. Think I may try it out in competitive now. :)

Wouldn't s/d condi also benefit from this? Or is the loss off SB enough to hurt the build a little?

I just don't get why it's tied to DUAL WIELD skills. Tie it to skill 3 on all weapons, fine, as I kind of like the active play nature of this change. It just really sucks that, as worded, shortbow will not be able to benefit from the poison application. :(

Thief We released a hotfix for Deadly Ambition for PvP in November, but in this update we're addressing the issue with a more comprehensive and functional change to refocus the trait on control over its usage rather than being a very passive damage increase. Uncatchable: Fall damage functionality has been removed from this trait.Deadly Ambition: This trait now applies 1 stack of poison for 3 seconds when striking with a dual-wield attack. This effect has no cooldown but can only occur once per dual-wield attack use. This trait is no longer split between game modes.So we can't get the effect of Deadly Ambition on shortbow, staff, or rifle? Fine for staff or rifle, but really sucks on shortbow. :(

I tend toward shortbow simply because it has good cleave, gives you an extra dose of mobility, and every skill on it is useful. P/p is nice for boss fights, but since most thief melee weapons are great single target weapons I don't find it that useful.

Like bluri said, but it seems like you are getting the idea. :) The key to playing thief is using your mobility and making smart plays to control the map, whilst not getting overeager and getting killed (I have some problems with that bit lol). Do things to draw enemies away from fights or across the map- decap, make people chase you, +1- essentially do anything that can pull the other team out of position on a second's notice. Map awareness is definitely key. I am not a super good build crafter, so take this with a grain of salt, but if d/p isn't working for you and you still want high mobility, maybe try this? it's not as fast a killer in +1 or a duel, but it gives the option to seriously kitten up a teamfight from the edges with shortbow 4, and with proper kiting it can be pretty survivable. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAUpjlRwuYOsFWJOuWnNXA-zZx8MyUBkvUwpDA

Know, OP, you weren't really looking for a Daredevil build, but here is one anyway. :) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAUhjlRwuYOsFWJOuWnNXA-zRRYLRNjN4CpvMIzCojQwzZ5RzK-e A hybrid build I have been running with lately. Good survivability (mostly based on kiting and evades) mixed with solid if not absolutely stellar damage. Use shortbow 4 and AA's to trigger interrupts for those sweet Pulmonary Impact procs, especially against larger groups of mobs. Switch to d/d for more burst damage against big/single targets, although the daggers also work just fine with groups for me. On daggers, generally mixing skill 3, skill 5 to backstab (usually around 6k damage per backstab), and auto attacks in between. The big thing that makes this build work to me is it's mobility- if things go south, simply dodge out to shortbow range and lay down some sb4 fields or just kite until you can heal up a bit. Along with Bandit's Defense, I find that I almost never get locked down into a situation I can't escape. The constant poison damage this build puts out also means that even when you have to be kiting away, your damage is still ticking, meaning it gives you some breathing room that I feel makes up for the loss in straight power damage. Edit: credit to Saerni for the carrion/grieving mix of gear. He pointed it out to me originally.

It's the combat system for me too. Everything else (the world, story, etc) just kind of fades into the background, even though the maps in this game are generally pretty great. I would like to see some new maps/metas similar to the original HoT maps make an appearance. Those map-wide meta events are the last time I really felt drawn in to the world.

I mean, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but you just said it yourself in your very own post, what with "not true" followed quickly by "certainly can't put up the massive numbers a pure power build can on a single strike"; but adding on condition damage really doesn't make up for the strength of specializing. Even the OP acknowledges that it's all about fun. I was just addressing @Kalifax.3046 's concern. Disregarding the character ADHD, I have a full Berserker's thief, full Assassin's thief, full Marauder's thief, full Viper's, full Trailblazer's, and full... Apothecary's thief (see... this is why we need build templates!). I also messed around with Grieving once, Valkyrie's once, and also an Assassin's/ Cavalier's mix once, but those are gone. They were of course just for fun and seeing what variety I could come up with, but I know that when I get serious and put my Saitama Gameface on, I grab another class my Berserker's thief and shred through everything. Fair enough, lol. Realised that was stated somewhat poorly after I had posted it, but I am too lazy to edit. :)

It's no use at this point. The attribute system in this game along with how encounters are presented leans towards specialization in one area of focus, as that will give optimal results. Unlike in Guild Wars 1 where you'd put 16 points into an attribute which would be your max, yet you'd still have another 16+ left allowing you to make other things worthwhile as well (also, enemies weren't health sponges until just short of Ring of Fire), with the Guild Wars 2 method, you choose a direction and keep going... and going, while traits and other modifiers add multiplicatively onto them. Then add in enemies that take forever to kill if you're not optimized while they mainly "challenge" you back with big hits or one shots and do little else, and it seems like the game itself is training you towards the best burst and dps you can be capable of. Heck, even level 80 WHITE armor and weapons you buy default to Berserker's. Strengthening secondary stats wont help this. It'll just mess up the competitive game modes. That being said, I love to make just about anything, but I wont fool myself into thinking my myriad experiments are more effective than my minmaxed characters. Not entirely true. I have been running a condi/power hybrid set on my thief lately with pretty good results, especially out in open world. Carrion weapon and armor, plus Grieving trinkets. Built out with thief runes, I end up with ~45% crit, 170% crit damage, plus solid power and condi damage to boot. Certainly can't put up the massive numbers a pure power build can on a single strike, but the constant condi ticks seem to more than make up for it. Plus its far more fun than a traditional tank condi build. :) http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAgiVlRwuYOsFWJO2WnNXA-zRRYLRHjN4CpvSIzIojEwzZ5RzK-e

I do.