NorthernRedStar.3054

Both core and soulbeast builds mainly use GS/LB. And those are power builds (condi is mainly druid). So the builds you're looking at would be, as you yourself said, "long-range sniper" (Sic' Em + damage modifiers from One Wolf Pack or Strength of the Pack). While those builds are fairly monotone in nature, greatsword does add some flex into it. Since Maul is so ridiculously easy to dodge, you'll mainly be using GS to create distance w/ Swoop and block key abilities (like Backstab and Bull Rush) via Counterattack, and to occasionally set up longbow burst. Recommend you only go ham on Beastmode once you've exhausted your other options or your opponent has. Keep in mind that neither of those builds is particularly good in 1vX combat, because ranger has such highly telegraphed attacks unless bolstered by either Quickness or Stealth.

Ranger literally counters burn guard, so...

That's kind of the point, isn't it? Mobility and dealing WITH mobility is a big part of mastering thief gameplay. You shouldn't have any issues landing Shadow Strike via Steal/Swipe, but you should consider whether it's worth it in your current situation or not. High risk / reward -gameplay working as intended, friend.

You don't fight a trapper on point. Ever. You either force them to fight on your terms, proc them traps via a dodge/invuln, or you leave them to their solemn misery.

Question(s): why do necromancers utilize Dhuumfire if they don't revere him as a deity? Is Grenth incapable of producing a similar conjuration? Is it related to each of their respective roles / affinities in their godhoods? Are necromancers actually even dirtier than thieves?

A good thief scams guardian in WvW, I wouldn't draw conclusions based on PvP alone (even if this is the PvP-sub). If anything, however, this is a fine proof of thief's sad state in PvP overall. Guardian's by no means the apex of PvP power scale - limited mobility and lack of passive defense traits see to that. No, you cannot draw any conclusions from WvW to sPvP, especially for thief. Thief is not killable in WvW, can reset any times they want. This is not true in sPvP, where there are other objectives. Core support guardian is becoming popular, bunker guards are also unkillable in 1v1 or even 2v1, burn core guard and burn trapper DH can potentially wipe out 3-4 opponents.When the OP is phrased as overarchingly as "what is stronger than guardian", it becomes difficult to forego mentioning other game modes in order to provide a satisfactory perspective. Besides, your post contains a few fallacies: 1) thief is killable in WvW - it varies from extremely hard (further varying based on player skill on either side) to nigh' impossible, and is matchup-dependent. 2) Thief cannot reset "any time they want" - there's still 3 seconds of reveal time that any spec 'part from DE has to deal with. Usually not an issue, it can become a factor when fighting multiple people (ofc I cannot speak on the behalf of others on how they want to play their game). Regarding trapper DH - yes, it can wipe out multiple opponents, but under a very specific set of circumstances (against capable players, at least). The larger issue, in my opinion, comes from a similar set of dilemmas Rune of the Trapper provides when compared to thief's WvW performance - but amplified: it is too low risk compared to the rewards it reaps - on top of being of notably lower skill floor and ceiling than thief in general.

A good thief scams guardian in WvW, I wouldn't draw conclusions based on PvP alone (even if this is the PvP-sub). If anything, however, this is a fine proof of thief's sad state in PvP overall. Guardian's by no means the apex of PvP power scale - limited mobility and lack of passive defense traits see to that.

No. This is one of the worst metas ever. It's like new players were asked, fresh off the start, what they want to change in PvP after a few games.

The state of the PvP's been the same for a while now. It's stale, it's bunker-heavy, and favors stealth builds - particularly rune of the trapper's been FotM for god-knows-how-long now. I migrated to WvW, personally, and been enjoying it much more ever since.

Mesmer says hi, as well as mesmers say suck it up.Thieves are extremely dominant in WvW and as far as spvp goes with thieves being replaced by mesmers simply is not true. Except this has nothing to do with mesmer?Also if you really want to get pedantic, release Mirage also phased thief out of sPvP entirely since it had better map mobility. This was addressed in one of Sindrener's streams, among other top thieves, many of which switched to Mirage for the weeks during its period of absolute dominance due to its strictly better mobility. Thieves are less dominant in WvW insofar as they have the safest roaming disengage when things go bad. Raw dueling potential by far and away goes to Soulbeast. If you're taking this from a perspective of mesmer as you seem to be, thief seems artificially strong because D/P Daredevil, the absolute best thief build by a mile, pretty much counters mesmer for a number of reasons. As it does Reaper, which you don't really see complaining much about its weak matchup because the rationale is fairly obvious. Although good reapers and mesmers alike stand roughly even chances against the thief with a +/- 10% variance based on skill level given the 55/45 WR favoring the thief. This is my bone with the past months' thief treatment. The "issue" most players have is clearly D/P thief, yet the nerfs hurt other thief builds far more than stealth ones. IDK about you, but the combined nerfs to IA and Signet of Agility in PvP are VERY noticeable for a sword main hand. I suggest you to play core d/p in pvp. You would be amazed (Warning: you might want to destroy your keyboard or monitor, so make sure to secure those). DD or rather P2W formula for pvp is the "issue" but it will never be fixed because company wants quick money.Oh, I am well aware, I've been an avid thief player for a while now. Thief in PvP is currently outclassed by mesmer in terms of, well, almost everything, on top of facing an unfavorable meta. In WvW D/P thief is still very good, though, as is DE. In WvW I can confidently 1v3, even 1v5 players below my skill level, and actually kill people - in PvP, it takes quite a while to even kill a support 1v1, lol.

It was only meant to be more mobile than core guard. Which it is. 1200(1500) range on longbow and area denial with traps gives DH a kit that does not need insane mobility. It already has multiple gapclosers and F2, thats enough. In a world where thieves(i am speed) getting mobility nerfs, DH does not need a mobilty buffs. The way I (used to) see it was DH being intended to be an utility-filled sniper with limited (but available) re-positioning tools. Not necessarily more mobile than even core guard, but putting more emphasis on controlling the flow and location of combat. Instead of having a permanent MS modifier, I'd like to see swiftness being added somewhere in the kit, à la Symbol of Energy (one of my favorite skills in the longbow kit, tbh). The thing that made the spec interesting for me was the combat options flexibility. If you look at the kit, nearly all of the combined weapon and utility skills have multiple uses and situations they can be useful in - Symbol of Energy, an AoE control tool that burns AND gives you Vigor. Deflecting Shot - can be used offensively as a combo initiator/follow-up, or defensively as a zoning tool. Hunter's Ward: useful at zoning someone out of melee as well as setting up follow-up, among others. Even the traps are fairly flexible in nature (not in trapper rune builds, though). Above all, I want the soft rework reverted.

1v1 you can cut the effect of the rune by avoiding the torment application. But it's still pretty strong. This. It's way too tanky for the amount of pressure it brings to the table, particularly in duos. Unless you can pull off consistent ranged pressure à la soulbeast, you're not killing them - even if you outskill the player.

Literally the most braindead build in all WvW.

My daily 1v10's against Gankdara in WvW, solo bosses in open world PvP while farming, stuff with guild, perfect my mechanics in strikes and fractals.

Mesmer says hi, as well as mesmers say suck it up.Thieves are extremely dominant in WvW and as far as spvp goes with thieves being replaced by mesmers simply is not true. Except this has nothing to do with mesmer?Also if you really want to get pedantic, release Mirage also phased thief out of sPvP entirely since it had better map mobility. This was addressed in one of Sindrener's streams, among other top thieves, many of which switched to Mirage for the weeks during its period of absolute dominance due to its strictly better mobility. Thieves are less dominant in WvW insofar as they have the safest roaming disengage when things go bad. Raw dueling potential by far and away goes to Soulbeast. If you're taking this from a perspective of mesmer as you seem to be, thief seems artificially strong because D/P Daredevil, the absolute best thief build by a mile, pretty much counters mesmer for a number of reasons. As it does Reaper, which you don't really see complaining much about its weak matchup because the rationale is fairly obvious. Although good reapers and mesmers alike stand roughly even chances against the thief with a +/- 10% variance based on skill level given the 55/45 WR favoring the thief.This is my bone with the past months' thief treatment. The "issue" most players have is clearly D/P thief, yet the nerfs hurt other thief builds far more than stealth ones. IDK about you, but the combined nerfs to IA and Signet of Agility in PvP are VERY noticeable for a sword main hand.

Did I mention wanting to nerf a specific class without any compensations? Odd.

Giving a wider access to reveal would be fine, too, or changing how the mechanic is applied.

All the strikes are easy, unless your squad's got mechanically inadept players who die as soon as their support isn't there to Aegis them on the next telegraphed attack. If you've got a bit more complicated rotation, Boneskinner will take a few runs to get used to, though. If anything, it comes down to whether the players involved are running the proper builds (dps) and boons (utility) - stability is much appreciated in 3/4ths of the encounters. Reflects are mostly used in Boneskinner and Fraenir (albeit they're useful for Kodan bros as well - not worth an utility slot, though). When you're new to an encounter, always tell your party so they can instruct you properly. Always ask if something's unclear so no time gets wasted on subsequent tries. Lastly, enjoy and hone your ability as you progress :)

I think DRMs are a solid foundation for future content and, along with the suggested and more frequent changes, show some promise in the current dev team (see Teapot's recent vid). They pushed the quality up a notch this patch, and made the missions fairly enjoyable, actually. Snowden Drifts, in particular, actually reminds me of some of the GW1 missions - just, with better mechanics obviously. If they keep this up then GREAT.

Bollocks. I just barely missed the timer with a random pug group today, on my 1st run none the less. People are just way too used to standing still and mashing their DPS rotations without a worry in the world.

So in other words, remove trade-offs and weaknesses from select skills completely upon traiting? No thanks. That Vulture Stance change might be good, but would potentially enable a condi bunker trapper build, hard. Unless Trapper Rune gets changed, I don't ever wanna see that happen.

For thief that has absolutely no survavibility besides stealth, you just want to farm them or what? That is false. Do evade frames, blinds, ports and interrupts not count? Or is it the timing part you have an issue with? I think those are far more crucial and thematically satisfying to thief's gameplay than stealth is.

This would work wonders for both PvP and WvW. Obviously you will compensate by reverting some of the past nerfs while at it.

The longer you play w/o autoattacking on, the easier it will become. Clear out some mobs in PvE to get a feel. I recommend just switching it off and never toggling it back on. Unless you're farming lab on Halloween days.

Has someone claimed DH or any of its traits are a problem? They should revert the changes to the spec.