I just found a Thief PvP video where... well the title speaks for itself. Pretty obvious the Thief will be hit pretty hard with the Nerf-bat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR5lFFJb6kA

Edit: Edited for clarity.

How can you say that without actually knowing the mechanics of the skill?

Originally posted by marinrider

How can you say that without actually knowing the mechanics of the skill?

The Traits & Skills are available for all to see on the wiki, which was recently updated after the beta weekend. So it doesn't take a genius to figure how he built his character and what exactly helped him remain in stealth:

• Preparedness - +5 to Initiative pool
• Kleptomaniac - Stealing gives 3 Int
• Hidden Thief - Stealing stealths you
• Infusion of Shadow - Gain 2 Int when using a stealth skill
• Meld With Shadows - Stealth last 1 second longer
• Hastened Replenishment - Receive 1 Int when healing
• Last Refuge - Shadow Refuge at 25%

hmm they keep talking perma stealth but there isnt perma stealth.  and i cant say OP cause most players i seen videos are bad

watched the first video and... that wasn't all that great of a build.

Spent the first half of the video losing most of the time, and the latter half only winning because his team seemed far more interested in killing the red team than capping points, which may be why they lost by a lot.

Don't really see a problem with this build.

I feel so bad for everyone he was fighting against, especially that poor ranger.  Seemed so hopeless.  

It was painful to watch the first video. Attack skills in GW2 don't require an active target and will hit someone in the path of the skill. That ranger almost had the Thief a number of times if she had just set off a few attacks while he was stealthed nearby, he would have been dead. When people learn to play, stealth won't be as deadly. (This is opposed to most MMOs, where only AoE attacks can hit a stealthed character, because other skills can't hit something with a target).

It may be nerfed a little, but stealth can be dealt with via smart play.

It seamed to be more annoying than anything else in the vids tbh, and sometime it seamed to work against the thief, especially in 2vs2 where the opponent actually could focus on one target at a time. But it's kind of nice to see this kind of build will be possible, i guess it was effective in some chaotic situation though where it really was good for the thief, maybe in the Mist it would be a better build to try. The guardian seamed unkillable in 1vs1. Anyone know if you gain damage bonus if you hit in the back or not?

Originally posted by fiontar

It was painful to watch the first video. Attack skills in GW2 don't require an active target and will hit someone in the path of the skill. That ranger almost had the Thief a number of times if she had just set off a few attacks while he was stealthed nearby, he would have been dead. When people learn to play, stealth won't be as deadly. (This is opposed to most MMOs, where only AoE attacks can hit a stealthed character, because other skills can't hit something with a target).

It may be nerfed a little, but stealth can be dealt with via smart play.

Yeah, true... well I was mostly going by the beginning of the 2nd vid. I guess I should make it clearer in the OP.

You're right in that the combat mechanics of GW2 will this a non-issue to a degree. Like a good melee player will be able to handle a Thief that's constantly stealthing on them. However range will have a much harder time, unless they have tons of good AOEs. Will be interesting to see how the PvP build meta game develops for this game.

Originally posted by Requiamer

It seamed to be more annoying than anything else in the vids tbh, and sometime it seamed to work against the thief, especially in 2vs2 where the opponent actually could focus on one target at a time. But it's kind of nice to see this kind of build will be possible, i guess it was effective in some chaotic situation though where it really was good for the thief, maybe in the Mist it would be a better build to try. The guardian seamed unkillable in 1vs1. Anyone know if you gain damage bonus if you hit in the back or not?

Some skills do, I think that skill he was spamming did.

The guardian could have countered it buy constantly knocking the thief back if he had a shield and using all the AoE good stuff but yea, annoying build will be annoying regardless.

Funny thing is though, I came up with a similar build but with a lot more.... punch. At least I'd like to think it has more punch.

Would the Guardian's knock back skills work on the thief when stealthed? If so, I would think that would be an easy defense against a thief.

Originally posted by Churchland

Would the Guardian's knock back skills work on the thief when stealthed? If so, I would think that would be an easy defense against a thief.

Yes. You're still susceptible to any and all aoe while in stealth.

THe red team obviously lost the match, because its not about the killing that much but about capturing the areas...

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

THe red team obviously lost the match, because its not about the killing that much but about capturing the areas...

Another thing with his build is that he has no fire power and he moves so slow.  People can easily just run away from him and ignore him.

Originally posted by Barkam

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

THe red team obviously lost the match, because its not about the killing that much but about capturing the areas...

Another thing with his build is that he has no fire power and he moves so slow.  People can easily just run away from him and ignore him.

This. By only using cloak and dagger and double strike he effectively lowers his DPS/burst because he needs to pace himself on initiative so he can keep in stealth. If he were to use other skills his dps would be higher but he couldn't stay in stealth. The better formula, IMO, would have been to mix in leaping death blossom. By stacking the bleeds on the target and then returning to stealth he can increase damage during the downtime of waiting on initiative as well as take full advantage of 4s of stealth(health regen, initiative regen, or remove a condition).

I find the very first fight in that video funny because he spends a lot of time getting the necromancer down to like 20% hp and then suddenly she finally finds him and he goes down to 40% before he finishes the necromancers last 20%. It just shows how weak his dps is when trying to stay in stealth and how squishy he actually is. The rest of the fights he wasn't really focused on, had more friendlies around, or used other skills(no perma stealth).

I'm not saying it isn't annoying, but I don't see it as overpowered and in need of nerfing. I mean the easy counter is AOE's and it's not like you won't see the thief coming because they can't really stealth until they hit/steal from you.

hard to believe something like this slipped past the devs. if intended, epic fail.

Originally posted by sonoggi

hard to believe something like this slipped past the devs. if intended, epic fail.

Did you actually read the thread?
 

It may get toned down a bit, but if you understand how skills and stealth work in GW2, it's not as overpowered as near perma stealth would be in most other MMORPGS. In the videos, most of the theif's opponents could have won the engagements with smarter play.

It may be a good build for the early days of the game, but against players who know what they are doing, not so much. :)

Stealth, no sorry INVISIBILITY was the first thing i highly disaproved in GW2.

It will always lead to classes that have that option to have the upper hand and alot of balance issue.

Like i've always said, thief is going to be the most played class in the game, not because it's the most fun but because people will always flock to the class that gives them the chance to pick their fights and have a clear advantage.

Seeing this video is exactly like seeing WoW rogue arena pvp, couple of hits, invisible, couple of hits, invisible, gets into trouble? Invisible and flee.

Just really lame and outdated.

When the thief class appeared i hoped that it would trully be an assassin class and not another invisibility class....we've seen way too many of them, it is just the same old same old, nothing new or even remotly interesting.

Originally posted by Barkam

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

THe red team obviously lost the match, because its not about the killing that much but about capturing the areas...

Another thing with his build is that he has no fire power and he moves so slow.  People can easily just run away from him and ignore him.

This ^.

While it is a clever build (what I'm guessing is he's using mostly initiative boosting traits (the primary stealth skill he keeps spamming needs 5 initiative to use, but you can equip a number of traits that mitigate that cost down to ~2 initiative). However, to do so you are sacrificing at least half your firepower. Very annoying, but once people learn how to handle stealth better this will be less of a problem. The build seems kinda like the touch ranger from GW1: a 1 trick poney that is extremely cheap, but when u know it's there, it's not that hard to counter.

Would be interesting to see him go up against a decent ranger or mesmer.

Is just the Cloak and Dagger skill, bit overpowered imo.