NorthernRedStar.3054

Because thief is not mainly a 1v1 profession. If/when you do start a duel, you need to understand your opponent's profession/build nearly as well as yours. Ideally, at least. This is where planning your engage, along with managing initiative costs, comes along. What weapon sets you're running is a big factor as well - also the reason why Shortbow's been a mainstay for core and most daredevil thieves as long as it has. And this is directly related to the first quote. If you run a setup such as this, you can't expect massive gains in your fighting ability. Mobility (more often than not) has a cost to it. This is exactly how thief performs in a team (deadeye to a lesser extent). When you can't help in fights, you roam and decap, potentially take side objectives. You should not stick around in a single place for too long, unless you absolutely have to - say, 3-4 members of your team are dead, the enemies are manning your home and middle. I assume you're running Basilisk Venom as an Elite?

I wasn't even able to loot, got DC'd just after the port. Obviously chest lost, but also my bonus chest disappeared.

It's truly rich. Warriors, mesmers, thieves, engineers and guardians all pointing fingers at one another. "You're the one playing the anti-fun spec, not me!" When in reality, everything - on top of some fundamental changes - needs nerfs.

Hey there and Thank you for the Update. I have to ask, are the sentences in bold ment as questions for the players or an example of what is the Team going to ask themselves when balancing/spliting? Also, you say it should be focused mainly on splits, does it mean we should not expect changes to functionality of skills, but instead simple number tweaks? Would for example, caping might stacks at 10 be considered a split or somewhat complicated change that is for now off the board? For this post, these questions are for the players as discussion topics. They are also things that the team is discussing internally as we look toward these balance updates. I want you all to focus on splits because those are the changes we can do with no impact on the rest of the game. If a split makes sense for PvP or WvW, we can just do it. Functionality changes require larger discussions about the impact on the whole game. We are starting discussions internally about things that are not addressable with numbers changes, because there are things that need a functional change but need to change for the sake of competitive modes. Game mode-specific boon caps is something that we have talked about, but there are other ways that we can solve some of these problems. For the example of might, I'd want to look at the sources and durations of might applications. 25 might isn't necessarily a problem if it requires significant investment from multiple team members, but a single player self-stacking 25 might is something that probably shouldn't happen. There's also the possibility of splitting the effectiveness on a game mode basis. im glad ur back at arenanet (: but yea delete condi thief Very near future release note: Deadly Ambition: The internal cooldown of this trait has been increased from 5 to 10 seconds in PvP only. The stacks of poison has been decreased from 2 to 1 in PvP only.We're not sure it's enough but hopefully a good start. NO, please stop with this pattern of nerfing/buffing things, changes like these are why the game is totally unbearable today. The trait is good at it is at the moment, it helps a lot of condi builds that are not even viable or good, the only one that is overperforming is condi s/d.Please instead of nerfing a trait/skill until it becomes garbage (like most of your balance patches) start looking at the bigger picture. What's wrong here is sword #2 interaction with panic strike, and it has been long before PoF (remember condi thief ventari rev meta) you never removed condi thief, you just nerfed it and people realized core was better now it's the same, you nerfed core power and people realized condi thief is much better. Remove the poison from panic strike, it's the easiest solution you can do, it will literally have 0 effect in any situation, what makes panic strike worth of choosing is first the other traits are worse and the immobilize effect is crucial in some situations for thieves (chasing) that's it, the poison is unnecessary so remove the poison and add anything else, boom you delete condi s/d thief for good and you don't nerf other condi builds.I'd also touch Spider Venom. Might as well update thieves' venoms while at it (bring the rest, sans Basilisk, up to par). 6 stacks of poison for 5 people with 24-second duration is just too good for the "effort" it takes. This is where a lot of the burst people hate comes from, alongside Panic Strike.

Just dodge the steal.

Idk fam, despite all their boon rip and might and quickness uptime, it'd take me much more to list necromancer or any of its specs here. Too telegraphed, lacks mobility to hang with thieves, holo and mesmers.

Gating a skill like Serpent's Strike like that is a bad design choice. Has any other class had a similar design decision made? Plus, Hornet's Sting is indeed the clumsiest, laggiest, worst in-combat skill ever made, and barely offers any mobility either due to animation delays.

I've encountered this bug as well. Considering how important quick looks at the skill bar are, this is honestly not a small bug. Even if the number still displays the uses correctly.

This, a hundred times. And why are Glyphs in the game when they're obviously so underwhelming no one's been touching them with a stick for years. Can Ride the Lightning get evade frames too? :DYes, more evade frames is exactly what elementalist needs.

Imagine defending power creep in 2019. With 25 might you need to avoid every one of their skills. Yeah it might be easy to do so, but its still unnecessary power creep. And dodge roll, don't forget about those 6-7k dodge rolls.

Top players are the first ones to state that condi thief is aids. The ratio skill/impact on the game is completely absurd. P.S: im leg player and yes, i know how to handle condi thief S/D thief is a 1 trick pony. If you understand that the S/D thief has only 1 burst in a 25 second cooldown. You can easily cleanse and counter it. As a S/D condi thief, when I go up against a (insert class here) that knows what they are doing. I quickly realize I cant scratch this person. So I move on to somebody that doesn't know how to counter, and farm them.D/D condi thief is a different story. You need to learn to survive and actually fight them. Because they are designed to win all 1v1 encounters no matter what class you are.Learn your skill rotations, learn cleansing and know that if you are facing a S/D thief. He only has ONE trick. Use that against him.D/D condi thief, learn cleanse and try to stay away from them in a fight. They want to be in your face. Don't give them that opportunity or you will lose. Ok, you just don't read,. You have to take in consideration that is gold rating and lower its the norm to die in under 20 seconds with an average deaths of 8+ per game.This makes s/d condi less oppressive cuz there isnt much to +, nobody will run away from losing fights which s/d usually finishes in higher rated games by pressing 1 button. Fights are solely limited on the node and s/d simply is less suited.Also d/d condi (which has no mobility whatsoever) can facetank on node slightly better than than s/d i guess, hence he considers that even an option.D/D condi is essentially a worse staff thief.

I'd rather fight DE all year long.....than any condi spec in this game, you can LoS - Reflect - Block....many things against DE That's the thing, though. Not every class has access to blocks, reflects and invulnerability . And not every map offers sufficient cower for being able to defend against a +1 from a DE. It wouldn't be as bad if it weren't for the ability to root+poison you with Deadeye's Mark. For a spec as maneuverable as DE (due to stealth and Rifle 4), they shouldn't have access to such easy utility-setup. DE would need a complete overhaul, but I think all devs will take away from this is to never hypothesize around a viable, ranged thief build ever again.

I'd say core ranger is the best for ladder at the moment, with soulbeast lagging right behind it. The burst is still there, shredding inexperienced players, and the GS 4 change actually helps a lot against warriors and revenants. You won't be holding 1v2 for long against players who know what they're doing, though. If you can time your time stuff, it's fairly decent against thieves. Just be sure to take the condi cleanse line in Nature Magic.

Disregarding the obvious exaggerations, this isn't too far from the truth.

Idk how thief playstyle is passive in comparison to mesmer's.

This, a hundred times. And why are Glyphs in the game when they're obviously so underwhelming no one's been touching them with a stick for years.

God forbid thieves can win a duel.

I don't think that's how it works, lol.

Mesmer/thief -Uno.

Okay, I tried reaper out. My initial impressions were; this is like Holosmith, but a lot more high risk/reward.

In the past, I would've said so. After all these more recent balance changes, I'm quite unsure these days.

Depends on the class you're on, honestly.

What do we say before each match, Spongebob?

What would be the best build to start with in PvP (core/reaper/scourge)? And what is the most effective one at the moment, in your experience? How's reaper generally at the moment? I stumbled upon Hollt's video and he seems to be doing just fine with it.