GW2 Thief Discussion

[worprz]

Oh lol I didn't notice, I skipped ahead looking for a section as them playing a thief XD

Sick fight though this game looks so much fun.

[Allanon the Mystic]

Watch it. First fight is against a thief.

Watched it before, that thief was in stealth for the longest time, and wrecked the mesmer.

[DrakeWurrum]

It would be more accurate to say that the Mesmer wasn't very skilled, I dare say.

Plus, it's possible that the Thief's burst damage is overtuned atm.

[Loaf Lord]

Thiefs are far from being squishy. Here's a good thief playing :

Holy shit, that thief WRECKED that mesmer.

---------- Post added 2012-02-27 at 05:04 PM ----------

It would be more accurate to say that the Mesmer wasn't very skilled, I dare say.

Plus, it's possible that the Thief's burst damage is overtuned atm.

That meser definitely wasn't utilizing all of her abilities. But the burst on the thief was incredible.

[Autumn xD]

Immobilize prevents turning? Why do I keep missing all of this );

And I assume all of that damage to be Backstab (Unless Thieves wield a sword in that "reverse" fashion?), so he set that up pretty well with whatever was preventing turning. But, does anyone know how much Initiative is returned from Backstab if it his from behind? That is, assuming the Wiki is still correct on that. Because if it's something substantial, he could probably continue that burst for 1 or 2 more hits, or more O__O

Meh, this is making me want to see the Pistol, SB, and Sword Stealth-abilities in action even more ):


Edit: Oh wait, I noticed 7 stacks of Vulnerability - It looks like it goes 1 -> 4 -> 7; I guess Cloak & Dagger gives 3 stacks? And how much armor does each stack reduce?

[Larynx]

Immobilize prevents turning? Why do I keep missing all of this );

And I assume all of that damage to be Backstab (Unless Thieves wield a sword in that "reverse" fashion?), so he set that up pretty well with whatever was preventing turning. But, does anyone know how much Initiative is returned from Backstab if it his from behind? That is, assuming the Wiki is still correct on that. Because if it's something substantial, he could probably continue that burst for 1 or 2 more hits, or more O__O

Meh, this is making me want to see the Pistol, SB, and Sword Stealth-abilities in action even more ):


Edit: Oh wait, I noticed 7 stacks of Vulnerability - It looks like it goes 1 -> 4 -> 7; I guess Cloak & Dagger gives 3 stacks? And how much armor does each stack reduce?

So many questions with this one.

[Autumn xD]

So many questions with this one.

Sylvari are still learning :C

[Larynx]

Here's what I saw happen:

Thief opened with some sort of stun or immobilize ability, did some sort of damaging move, vanished, backstabed, used basilisk poison (stuns), vanished, backstabbed, vanished and backstabbed again? Something like that. I counted like 3 or 4 big "bursts" of damage and one small hit probably from 1. The Mesmer would have been able to avoid at least 2 of them, the only ones that would be unavoidable would be the initial opener and the one where he was stunned.

I'm not sure what the initial opener was those. The camera was at a terrible angle.

Someone more versed in the arts of Thiefdom could probably give a better explanation. I've looked over their abilities like twice.

[Autumn xD]

Here's what I saw happen:

Thief opened with some sort of stun or immobilize ability, did some sort of damaging move, vanished, backstabed, used basilisk poison (stuns), vanished, backstabbed, vanished and backstabbed again? Something like that. I counted like 3 or 4 big "bursts" of damage and one small hit probably from 1. The Mesmer would have been able to avoid at least 2 of them, the only ones that would be unavoidable would be the initial opener and the one where he was stunned.

I'm not sure what the initial opener was those. The camera was at a terrible angle.

He opened with Signet of Shadows & Steal.

Signet of Shadows Blinds & Immobilizes, and I noticed the Thief had Might, Swiftness, & Fury from this trait. The Mesmer also had Poison on him when the Blind & Immobilize applied, which is from another trait, so it's likely he went Steal + Signet -> Backstab as the opener for that first 5k Crit.

[Larynx]

He opened with Signet of Shadows & Steal.

Signet of Shadows Blinds & Immobilizes, and I noticed the Thief had Might, Swiftness, & Fury from this trait. The Mesmer also had Poison on him when the Blind & Immobilize applied, which is from another trait, so it's likely he went Steal + Signet -> Backstab as the opener for that first 5k Crit.

Steal+Signet don't remove you from stealth? Or did he vanish when he was off camera?

[Autumn xD]

Steal+Signet don't remove you from stealth? Or did he vanish when he was off camera?

That I'm not sure of. I know Steal doesn't, but I'm not sure on the Signet. Like you said, the Angle was too horrendous for me to tell, so I just guessed :X
Unless he opened with the Signet and then used Steal, but I didn't see any signs of a Thief near him. Unless (again), he came from behind, but I don't know the map at all.

[DrunkenBeard]

Here's how I think it went :

Spider Venom
Signet of Shadows (Blind + Immobilize + Poison from Spider Venom)
Steal (Might + Fury + Swiftness + Restealth via Hidden Thief)

Cloak and Dagger (Crit => Vulnerability from CnD + Vulnerability from Sundering Strikes)
Backstab I guess (not sure, but that would be best in his situation)

The Mesmer Heals, uses Invulnerability and starts running

* Strange part here, he gaigned a second Might but I'm not sure how. Maybe through a late Venomous Strength or Hidden Assasin
Heartseeker (You can see that he closes the gap, just before the Mesmer puts down his invisibility wall)
Blinding Powder (Stealth, after a couple seconds he was detected by the Mesmer's Clone)
Dancing Dagger (Cripple)
Killed the Mesmer's Clone
* Cool play at this point by the Mesmer : Vulnerability + Knockback and a dodge to make another Clone

I think he steals the clone here (and stealthes through Hidden Thief)
Signet of Shadows while stealthed (Blind + Immobilize)
Heartseeker (I mean at this point with a Double Dagger spec, it's a JOY to go for Heartseeker)

PS : This is something I posted couple days ago in GWGuru, but it seems I was a little too excited while reviewing the fight and missed some stuff/made some wrong calls. I think this depiction is better, though I could have missed something.

PS 2 : Also, maybe some people aren't aware of this but Steal has a shadowstep baked in. So if he started with SoS (no stealth, off-camera) and then immediatly Stealed you'd see it exactly as the videos shows it.

[Glytch]

Immobilize prevents turning? Why do I keep missing all of this );

And I assume all of that damage to be Backstab (Unless Thieves wield a sword in that "reverse" fashion?), so he set that up pretty well with whatever was preventing turning. But, does anyone know how much Initiative is returned from Backstab if it his from behind? That is, assuming the Wiki is still correct on that. Because if it's something substantial, he could probably continue that burst for 1 or 2 more hits, or more O__O

Meh, this is making me want to see the Pistol, SB, and Sword Stealth-abilities in action even more ):


Edit: Oh wait, I noticed 7 stacks of Vulnerability - It looks like it goes 1 -> 4 -> 7; I guess Cloak & Dagger gives 3 stacks? And how much armor does each stack reduce?

back stab is a stealth move now

however heart seeker, if you have low health, will screw you over

[Autumn xD]

Here's how I think it went :
-snip-

Sounds right, but the "Killed by" display on the right hand side says the killing blow (3.4k) was by a Backstab (or, I think that's what it's saying), so would that mean a <33% Heartseeker will go above 3.4k noncrit? I haven't really been paying attention to numbers prior to this Video, so if there's one of a Heartseeker, please point me to it ;D

[DrunkenBeard]

Sounds right, but the "Killed by" display on the right hand side says the killing blow (3.4k) was by a Backstab (or, I think that's what it's saying), so would that mean a <33% Heartseeker will go above 3.4k noncrit? I haven't really been paying attention to numbers prior to this Video, so if there's one of a Heartseeker, please point me to it ;D

Yep good call If you notice the finishing sequence, I think it goes like this (after he fires the final SoS) :

Heartseeker for the leap : 1718 damage
Cloak and Dagger (you can see the Vulnerability stacks + Stealth) : 2037
Backstab for the finish : 3403. Keep in mind that that Backstab was with 2 Mights on the Thief and 3 Vulnerabilities on the Mesmer.

[Loaf Lord]

I think I'm officially going thief. Weapon sets will be dual daggers/shortbow. Healing will be signet of malice for pve, hide in shadows for pvp. Utility will be shadow step, infiltrator's signet, and smoke screen, max shadow stepping ftw. Elite will be dagger storm.

[Autumn xD]

Yep good call If you notice the finishing sequence, I think it goes like this (after he fires the final SoS) :

Heartseeker for the leap : 1718 damage
Cloak and Dagger (you can see the Vulnerability stacks + Stealth) : 2037
Backstab for the finish : 3403. Keep in mind that that Backstab was with 2 Mights on the Thief and 3 Vulnerabilities on the Mesmer.

Bam!
I'm curious as to the numbers of Might & Vulnerability and how they compare to total Might & Toughness stats. HMMMMM.

[DrunkenBeard]

I think I'm officially going thief. Weapon sets will be dual daggers/shortbow. Healing will be signet of malice for pve, hide in shadows for pvp. Utility will be shadow step, infiltrator's signet, and smoke screen, max shadow stepping ftw. Elite will be dagger storm.

Hide in Shadows would be too much Stealth IMO.

I think the spirit of a Thief should be sneak and kill fast while being unpredictable. Lots of pressure. I don't think it will be very beneficial to start a thief with a "I must be able to get away ASAP" mentality. You already have a plethora of weapon abilities who, when used smartly, give you on-demand stealth and mobility. Your utility abilities in the other hand, have pretty long cooldowns and should be handpicked to support you in distinct moments of the fight that you should identify yourself based on your play style.

For example, Roggles, you say you're going with Shortbow and then you're taking Shadowstep. That's redundant IMO. Shortbow already gives Infiltrator's Arrow which is basically a much better Shadowstep. It has no cooldown, costs only 6 Initiative and blinds your enemies for 5 sec. In comparison, Shadowstep has a 50sec cooldown and has no other effect. So I'd suggest dropping that Shadowstep for something that will support your Double Dagger, or your Short Bow. You'll also have to sort your traits too before choosing your Utility abilities so you can take advantage of your strengths. You don't want to go all out on poisons and then take a bleed utility.

As for the weapon choice, Double Dagger seems to be a must in PvP. Shortbow is great too for Infiltrator's Arrow mostly, but I think that Daze in Off-hand Pistol is even better (Head Shot). Depends actually on what the Daze effectively can and can't do, if it can interrupt an Elite Ability then I know I'll be holding a pistol in my offhand.

[Scrabblet]

I'm loving the new Sword skills. I think I'll be going Sword/Dagger Pistol/Pistol for a high mobility high burst set.

[DrakeWurrum]

Hide in Shadows would be too much Stealth IMO.

I think the spirit of a Thief should be sneak and kill fast while being unpredictable. Lots of pressure. I don't think it will be very beneficial to start a thief with a "I must be able to get away ASAP" mentality. You already have a plethora of weapon abilities who, when used smartly, give you on-demand stealth and mobility. Your utility abilities in the other hand, have pretty long cooldowns and should be handpicked to support you in distinct moments of the fight that you should identify yourself based on your play style.

There's also a trait that causes Steal to put you into Stealth.

Not to mention the other bonuses you can give to Steal that makes it self-buff Fury, Swiftness, AND Might. There's really not much reason to get additional stealths unless you feel like you get targeted too often, or you want to build all of your damage around maximizing stealth usage (through traits).
If you like that playstyle, you can do it, I just don't think it's going to be as fun as people think.