Mhina.1827

This is a common trend for anet, right? 😄 Looking at you, vindicator...

Hey guys, I'm a d/p Daredevil main, not claiming to be great by any stretch (typically hover around gold 2 - 3) but I am enthusiastic about pvp. I'm wondering what the +1/decapper style players are enjoying lately. With the resurgence of scourge/reaper/DH/tempest, I've found myself not enjoying daredevil quite as much. My damage feels lackluster, but it seems too dangerous to not index into shadow arts for the cleanse and initiative regen. There's so much AoE literally everywhere that you can just kinda die by accident. xD I've been slowly leveling a new mesmer, making sure I have an intimate understanding of each trait and shatter combos with the intent of playing power chrono (I had played ambush power mirage for a long time a while back too), and I think holo might also be a good choice. Do you guys have any suggestions? Even if it's simply "get gud" and drop shadow arts for DE/CS lol

I've found wells to be terribly underwhelming since they removed alac from them. I found this particularly frustrating because wells are the most interesting animations we have (in my opinion) but there's not really a reason to use them over anything else, which I find very frustrating. In PvE it seems like you've got to run venoms, and in PvP/WvW...I mean power specter can get generous use out of wells but it isn't exactly meta. You can run more wells here, but again, it's probably not the best idea to run any more than the heal well (I personally wouldn't but you can def make a case for it) and the elite well, as they are rather easy to interrupt and for some brilliant reason not a single one has a stun break. Sorry to use your post to whine about the state of wells...it has just been on my heart lately and this seemed like the perfect place xD

Daredevil is my favorite spec in the game. Well, I suppose I should reframe that response. The current iteration of daredevil literally offers absolutely nothing but an improvement on core thief due to an extra dodge. So I guess in that regard core thief with daredevil's extra dodge is my favorite class. But I think you're right. I think it's silly that people keep suggesting daredevil as the martial arts/monk class when willbender fits that troupe much better. Willbender's punch, kick, dash, lunge, and block skills are at worst viable and at best essential. The healing counter, the dashing punches from your F skills, the spin kick often paired with judge's intervention, the meditation-like invulnerable elite utility, etc. In any case, I hope they do a better job of making thief's skills more relevant. I'd like the daredevil skills to actually matter. And it'd be cool if specter wells were useful for more than just role play.

Mad that we're still examining changes to staff when sword has been afk for the better half of a decade. Everyone didn't create the "assassin" archetype class to cosplay as a great value monk with no boon generation or sustain. Man I played druid for a while like 2 weeks ago and it was crazy how kitten near every combination of weapons felt so good to use. Sword/dagger, dagger/ torch, axe/dagger, sword/torch, sword/wh, shortbow, staff, axe/axe, all of them felt viable to use. We technically have access to a fair bit of weapons on thief, but they really don't feel good. So I personally am tired of seeing staff on the buff/revamp menu. But I dunno. Maybe that's just me.

Thank you for this! How do you think the pvp variant is holding up currently? I'm totally new to ranger, a longtime thief main finally branching out and trying other stuff but I've been pretty interested in druid.

This lmfao hilariously enough, after 4 weeks and making this post, two dropped in the same tower siege and I was able to complete conflux lol I appreciate everyone that responded. I boosted my magic find to over 400% and that seemed to do the trick lol can't believe I didn't consider doing that before. Thank you very much.

Hey guys, I'm not gonna lie; at this point, I'm not too proud to beg. I've been hunting for a Legendary Spike for like 4 weeks now. I've gotten a couple a long time ago, but upon the recommendation of others, I merely sold them. Now that I need one to complete conflux, 4 weeks of rampaging through every camp, tower, and player I could find either solo or in a zerg has yielded absolutely nothing. I've completed over 7 gifts of battle and 2 triumphant armor lines and I think have gotten over 400 skirmish tickets, but no spike. I'd like to insert a rant about how having a component of a legendary be totally rng based feels frustrating and totally unrewarding, but that's a different topic. For now, has anyone noted a higher drop rate of these things at any particular location or from any particular mob? Would appreciate any insight.

Fact.

No disrespect but I never understand why people say this. I can personally only think of 3 builds total that used trapper runes: D/D or Axe/D + shortbow trapper Soulbeast, Trapper Druid, and power trapper DH. At the time of removal, none of those classes as far as I remember were super meta. You could definitely find success on them, but they weren't up with the likes of vindicator, WB, Daredevil, Harbinger, Cele Renegade, Catalyst, etc. I agree with the OP. It was a niche but fun playstyle whose removal had no real positive effects. Sucks for the people that enjoyed it because there's no avenue for that trapper playstyle.

I've been bemoaning the spam oriented nature of the initiative system for a while myself, and I commonly run across thieves that entertain the notion that this isn't true....but reading most snowcrows benchmark guides confirm it for instanced content, and my preferred gamemodes (PvP/WvW) see us as 5 >2 + stealth 1 bots or shortbow cluster bomb spam until you can 5 > 2 > 1 combo. It may be a simplification that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of some. I get that the spam oriented nature of the class doesn't paint a true picture for how challenging the execution of the class can be. But as an enthusiast of the rogue/assassin/marksman archetype, I find that this is by far the most underwhelming version of the concept, but gw2's superior combat systems in terms of general movement mechanics and combat fluidity almost make up for it. Essentially, I agree, and if more thieves open their minds to this concept, we may get a class that has a far more dynamic playstyle that's easier to balance, and consequently regularly tended to by the development team.

Thanks for all of the replies guys! And yes, I didn't realize that I never specified. I am primarily solo roaming or small scale fighting!

Hey guys, I guess it's fair to say that in WvW I typically play bladesworn and thief, but admittedly, I'm trying to hang up my thief hat. I simply no longer enjoy gw2's particular brand of cloak and dagger the way I used to. I've been absolutely enthralled with elementalist lately and the sheer amount of options available to you on the class as I leveled one from 1 to 80. I was wondering what builds you guys might recommend for WvW, as that's my favorite gamemode and I certainly intend to try out Ele there. Thanks!

Thanks for all of the replies guys! I'm looking forward to trying some of the suggestions I'm seeing here. I think my WB play is improving too!

Hey guys, quick question; What are you guys enjoying playing in WvW melee wise? I primarily roam and play d/p daredevil, bladesworn, power mirage, and I did play trapper dagger/dagger soulbeast before that rune was gutted. I've been kinda moving away from d/p daredevil and looking for a new melee oriented build (or if not melee, at least power), and I was interested in knowing what you guys have found fun.