NorthernRedStar.3054

Boons generally are running rampart right now. It's not even the duration, but the fact they can be reapplied nigh' constantly.

Funny you mention that. I've seen a couple good 1HKO or really "1Burst" D/P Thieves lately. They can kill you in about .75s regardless of the build you're on. It's another one of those sleeper builds that was always good but people just weren't playing it due to a particular counter or two that were in play for awhile, but now that the meta is shifting it's becoming viable. This is actually much more obnoxious than DE Rifle play. They are running Core Thief with it so it has full 1200 Steal and Shadowstep. They come in at you with a no-tells 20k burst that lands instantly right out of stealth from far range. The stupidest part about this is that lately something weird is going on and they aren't getting revealed after landing the burst. You'll be standing there taking 20k initial burst, then reaching up at a 30k combo in about 1.5s, as you hear dagger noises going "ting ting, ting ting, ting ting" but there is no Thief to target. The reveal is like 1.5s delayed or something. I don't know if Arenanet is aware of what's going on, but they need to look into it because that's just broken and has no counter play. Not sure if this is a hack or a common exploit or a bug, but it's full of $%^& regardless and it needs to be fixed. At least a DE Rifle makes a loud noise and draws a red line at me before the 1Burst hits, and actually reveals the DE. And on that note I'd like to state now how absolutely tired I am of builds that can 1HKO or 1Burst directly out of stealth with no tells. It's really just starting to make for a bad game in all honestly. Yeah, Thief - Soulbeast - Power Mesmers, I'm looking at you. People complain about Deadeye and I don't understand why. At least the DE puts a mark on you which clearly indicates that you are a target, and then there are actually tells that provide counter play before he hits you. However, Core Thief - Soulbeast - Power Mesmer builds can literally "Front enough stealth to move across a map at you from like 3000 range or more if using portals, and 1HKO you with absolutely no tells whatsoever to provide counter play." Lately I've been quite disinterested in playing GW2 pvp, really for the first time. I'm not even mad or needing to a take break, I'm actually uninterested. This is because of janky dynamic going on, such as the "Stealth Wars 1Shot Combat System" along with being tired of seeing some classes just stay OP for ridiculously elongated amounts of time, whilst others are garbage canned & kitten on, and then of course the allowance & encourage of match manipulations. No idea what Arenanet is doing. You'd think they didn't care at all that most players at this point have completely lost trust in them, and would never again buy a game produced by Arenanet. I mean for the sake of future projects, you'd think they'd AT LEAST want to redeem their trust with the player base that had formed in GW2. Oh yea, definitely, you just start losing HP to nothing, look at the log and its 10k backstab, 2k steam and 5 auto hits before thief even appears.I thought it was my internet lol. Definitely not just you. I've spoken with a couple other people who were having this same thing happen vs. a couple thieves in particular who have been rolling around. I don't think it's a hack program. I think it's probably tied to the same server desynch errors we've always seen in the past. Like how a person can go into downstate, you cleave the body but they aren't actually there. Also for the same reasons why speed hackers desynch all over the place. Either way it's stupid broken OP and it needs to be fixed.I've been running into this a lot recently, and I thought it was just my connection acting up. Good to have that cleared up.

Tactical Strike isn't as important for pw as s/d as you'll be dazing them a lot with Steal. I'd much rather have the utility from Dash. Same goes the stealth option: in-combat, it isn't very important for this build as far as I can see (no pun intended).

As someone already said: these kind of builds shouldn't exist. But generally speaking, it's the 5-man premades in unranked that play it solely to farm new players that are the major reasons PvP population is on the decline, I'd imagine.

I wouldn't mind, if you wanna share.

I used a condi s/p dd build that was as effective for me as the s/d variant but haven't tried a power s/p build in a long while.One thing to keep in mind is who the player is using the build. Sind is a great thief player and I imagine he would be more successful on most builds than a lot of players would be. I imagine I wouldn't preform very well with it but then again I'm not a great thief player like those guys are. That was my impression on it. Generally speaking, it feels too one-dimensional for me; I like there to be multiple options for using in combat. The playstyle is too one-trick-pony for my liking.

The only fractal where someone's 'kicked [[[[me]]]] off' (and it happened only once) has been Uncategorized.That "me" is what makes your argument valid ONLY FOR YOU. Good mechanical basis aids in every game mode. Shocker, isn't it?Well, shocking in the sense that you think that Siren's T4 with S.A. boat fight is just a matter of dodging.Fractals in general, and Siren's (with S.A.) in particular, are not difficult because people don't know how to dodge. And even less because they are not PVP specialists. The fractal mechanics with a ton of adds, the 3 pushing winds and the ultralimited safe floor areas during boat fight are what make this fight hard and so annoying when there is S.A. (that being the reason because so many people skip Siren's), and as far as I know, there is nothing of that in PVP. Shocking, really. Never once did I say it's "just a matter of dodging". Don't twist my words, only villains do that. If you think there's nothing similar to PvP in the last boat fight, you're gravely mistaken and, unfortunately, shallow-minded as well.

Funny, the only thief builds that are able to burst people down are certain glass-cannon DE builds that see no serious play whatsoever.

The only fractal where someone's 'kicked me off' (and it happened only once) has been Uncategorized. Good mechanical basis aids in every game mode. Shocker, isn't it?

The original clash with Dhuum, playing as the reapers of Grenth in their mortal coil.

People who struggle with Siren's Reef should honestly do more PvP and learn to control their space usage and dodges. It's not a hard fractal unless you're 1st time and no one bothers explaining the mechanics of the last fight. And SA isn't even that bad, you have to be reaaaaaaaally close for it to proc.

Just like everything in this game should be; a clear period (time) of opportunity and vulnerability. Or strength and weakness, if you may. Despite the stance against holy trinity, no class should be your 'do gooder, do everything'.

Works against pepegas, clunky and nigh' useless against everything else. EDIT: I suppose the playstyle just takes time getting used to. It's functionally quite different from anything else I've played.

Actually. This.

I'm still pissed man. Ranger wasn't in a good place before the last balance patch but Anet being Anet decides to keep slapping us with nerfs just like they did with Druid. @Cal Cohen.2358 Removing Crippling Throw and the greatsword auto evade were mistakes. Just like when you guys decided to nerf ranger Shouts by turning them into Command skills for no kitten reason. Just like when you guys decided to completely butcher Druid patch after patch even though it was already a 1 spamming shell of it's former self. There is literally no reason to use the greatsword autos anymore. Now they're filler damage at most and you'll get punished heavily for even attempting to use the 3/4s cast time Power Stab against any remotely competent player. 15 endurance gained is an absolutely pathetic attempt at remedying what you took away. Way to rub salt in the wounds YOU created. Yes, considering how rarely you'll be able to pull the entire chain off w/o being punished, the 15 endurance is meaningless compared to Natural Vigor.

Kinda late reply (lol), but I'd say it's more profitable, both for the player and ANET to have the story bosses be somewhat 'hard'. Just consider how large the step from solo instance PvE to raids & fractals & particularly PvP will be if no effort whatsoever is required on your part for half your first 100 or so hours. It can also strengthen the effect the narrative wants you to feel. Like vs Lazarus; killing the last mursaat? Hell ye it should feel like a lengthy uphill battle. These guys are major players, by no means should they feel like pushovers, it cheapens the gametime and your character.

I still haven't gotten over the evade remove from the auto-chain. Muscle memory's a beach, lol. Anyways, the GS4 change, as it currently stands, is a buff to ranger. The retaliative kick, however, feels extremely bad. The aftercast is massive and because it's a knockback and not knockdown (why?), it has immense anti-synergy with Maul and Hilt Bash. Current ranger gameplay effectively has GS as your defensive play option, with focus on staying at range and relying on your pet for pressure. Kinda silly, and not exactly the direction I want to see ranger headed into. Pretty much.

Looks viable in certain team composition layouts. No matter how I look at it, though, FB is superior. Fragments of Faith is a budget Tome of Courage. Not a fan of Smite Condition w/o any reliable gap closers.

P/P to quickly stack might w/o boon support. Also synergizes with Bound the best. If you need to skip ads or terrain cheat, just swap for shortbow for the time being. If there's a large mob, then Cluster Bomb spam will do the trick better, though.

The nerf to staff isn't that bad, was a mediocre build to begin with and will just be mediocre after the nerfs, condo thief deserved the nerf. Anet meets to look at reverting the pointless and unneeded nerfs to d/p builds as well as make some changes to p/p to make it viable without making it OP that way thieves aren't pigeonholed into one build in competitive modes like it was in the past. The condi thief nerfs were rather harsh considering they beefed up / didn't nerf its counters. The build was already getting niche due to the prevalence of guardian and ele. As it stands, the only viable thief build will (once again) be core S/D because DE is inting vs team comps consisting of eles, revenants and guardians. Even then, why'd you pick core thief over herald with an FB? Also, the continued ranger nerfing is rather hilarious at this point. They really don't want druid in any game mode, shape or form.

That's the last nail in condi and staff thieves' coffins. I can already see the DE nerfs in a few months' time. What about 'em revenant and ele tune-downs? Sigil of Agility, good riddance.

Spirits of the Wild are manifestations of Jormag's psyche and/or the magic they've consumed over the cycles of awakening they've lived through. Off-note: it's been recounted that Owl was 'consumed' by Jormag. What if this process was just them recollecting all the haywire aspects of their lost magical energies.

People here sleeping on / lowballing core guard.

Trickery is good for the boon strip and utility. There's no real reason to pass up on boon strip atm.

Considering T1 fractals are literally a joke, that's not much to go on about. 1st try gold w/o anyone explaining the fight's mechanics (going in blind). Also @OP your DPS rotations are incorrect.