I can't kill anyone anymore (Daredevil)

[Urud.4925]

Hi, I'm basically still a noob, though since I discovered that it's faster to complete my daily by doing 1 or 2 pvp matches, I enjoy some unranked daily battle.

My rate wasn't exaggerated, but around the 70% (that was more than good for me) and I very often got the top score.

This... until 3 days ago. Now I'm not able to win any match if my team mates don't carry me through (and most of the times they don't). My worst record was 4 matches lost in a row, but now it bumped all of the sudden to 13 and I waste more than 2 hours before winning a match and do my daily.

 

I have no idea why. Maybe there's a matchmaking system and I'm now paired with more skilled players? Maybe because of the last balance patch? I think that my damage is still more or less the same, it's the other players that kill me much faster. I always had problems against guardians, but now they kill me in 2 seconds. Same for warriors. Even necro and rangers that were among the easiest to kill, are now much harder to put down.

 

Also, I've never seen another daredevil in pvp since PoF has been released, so I'm wondering if this class is still viable in pvp (at least against skilled players). They are all deadeyes, but I don't like it, a completely different playstyle. Should I drop this class for pvp and reroll something else? Cheers

[Deus Fatorum.2473]

Not sure what build you are using, but for daredevil there are many diff viable builds out there right now, there is d/p dash, s/d condi, and staff acro, note staff acro got nerfed, but is still a decent 1v1 and skirmish y build, though you sacrifice a lot of mobility, dash thief also got hit with nerfs though not as hard, however its limited in its team-fight potential. Out of all the daredevil builds I feel s/d condi is prob the least affected by nerfs, though I see very few of them around.

 

If wanting to avoid deadeye playstyle, I would personally recommend d/p or core s/d (core s/d is harder to learn but very fun build and has a high skill ceiling so plenty of room to grow)

 

As to fighting rangers, they did get buffed, so that match-up is gonna be harder...

 

Some tips, if you close in on them and force a melee fight you will be better off than just kiting due to longbows range, if d/p utilize the blind spam and constantly run through them and behind them, if they pop there elite shout steal their boons with your steal and keep up pressure/blinds and interrupts. If s/d close the distance fast with sword 2 then try to land some larcenous strikes/autos if they swap to gs evade what you can then port back with sword and kite them a bit by porting in and out and landing as much damage where you can, if they swap back to bow be sure to get in their face to force them to swap back to melee.

 

Scourges are tough for any melee class though if you bring your condi clears they are easier now do to the rework of condi. However reaper power did get some buffs...

 

Some tips, necro lacks stab so utilize your cc, if reaper they get 2 sources of stab 1 is chilled to the bone. If you learn that animation, its as simple as blinding/interrupting/or dodging it the rest is keep up your cc spam and damage while avoiding as much of their cleave as possible. Reaper also gets stability in their shroud as one of their skills, you can steal this stability with your steal, or just kite their shroud as it is melee. Scourges are trickier, while they have 0 stability they also have four big aoe instant casts. If fighting a scourge play cautiously and utilize hit and run tactics, never stay on top of them for too long.

 

Warriors again are a strong well rounded class like rangers, though if anything might makes right nerfs just means you will see more spell breakers, so watch the full counter, if in a 1 on 1 it is rather easy to avoid though if in unranked as a general rule of thumb expect a teammate to trigger full counter so be ready to get out of range/dodge it when it comes up. Also d/sh is a heavy CC weaponset for warrior so be sure to watch for their stun locks in that set as they can prove quite fatal for a teef.

 

Guards can be tough for many thief builds, especially for d/p dash thief, though this has always been the case. However s/d does better vs guard due to its higher

unblock-able pressure.

 

TLDR-

While thief is not in a bad spot its also not quite what it was a few seasons back IMO, The mobility is nice in team play though it brings less to the table in terms of team fights. You can certainly stick with thief if it is what you like, but be aware it is by nature a harder class to play well. If you are eager to try other classes and liked to play thief, Mesmer is probably another class you may like, right now mirage has high mobility and can easily take up thief's rotating roll, and is in a strong place right now in the meta.

[Urud.4925]

Thanks Deus. I play a power staff DD (crit and deadly arts) with a condi bow as second, but I almost only use it to escape faster with 5 (I was thinking to replace it with double pistols sooner or later). I played s/p before and it was much safer indeed, with the blind spam. But I liked to smash things here and there with the leap, so I changed weapon :) I lost the shadowstep, true, but I use the steal to compensate, though with higher CD.

I noticed the warriors with daggers... I've been paralyzed and killed in a blink of an eye by a spellbreaker with double daggers :/ so awful

 

Anyway I'm puzzled by the sudden change that I'm experiencing. It really all went fine until 3 days ago. Now it's a completely difference level. I can't understand why all of the sudden.

[Dahkeus.8243]

Here’s how you win as a Daredevil:

Equip Dagger/Pistol and Short Bow

Think of yourself as a scavenger. You’re not a lion. You’re a hyena.

Stay away from fair fights and look for small 1v1s and 2v2s where an enemy is at low health. Burst the low health enemy with heartseeker+steal backstab+steal.

Look for unguarded points and recap.

Rotate and move from point to point like a hyper kid that just polished off his Halloween stash. Being able to rotate points faster than others and close the deal on fights is what makes a class that doesn’t engage in normal fights a strong teammate.

[Urud.4925]

Ok. But again, this doesn't explain why I became a noob all at the sudden.

Is there some hidden matchmaking system to pair players with similar won/lost stats? (Maybe I'll come back to my previous low-tier if I keep losing like this). Just sheer unluck? Some other staff DD found more difficulties after the last patch?

I appreciate the tips, and I can possibly change my playstyle and improve, but my doubt atm is "why, out of the blue, without changing anything on my side?"

[Sifu.9745]

Same thing happened to me: from around 50:50 win/loss i've just dropped to maybe 20 or 25% win no matter what class i have been playing. My new record is 7 losses in a row. Have no idea what's going on. I also only play Unranked just for fun and dailies. I would understand if that happened in ranked arena, but unranked shouldn't really be affected by ranking system. There is something really weird in the air ...

[Alatar.7364]

> @"Urud.4925" said:

> Ok. But again, this doesn't explain why I became a noob all at the sudden.

> Is there some hidden matchmaking system to pair players with similar won/lost stats? (Maybe I'll come back to my previous low-tier if I keep losing like this). Just sheer unluck? Some other staff DD found more difficulties after the last patch?

> I appreciate the tips, and I can possibly change my playstyle and improve, but my doubt atm is "why, out of the blue, without changing anything on my side?"

 

You did not become a noob all at the sudden. It's just things that Everyone, Everywhere, Always, knew were broken got buffed. The Balance starts to feel more like a Social Experiment than... balance.

[Strider.7849]

Hello, I'd like to recommend watching Sindrener on youtube. He is currently, in my opinion and that of many others, the best thief in GW2 pvp. He posts full, unedited footage of matches from start to finish and even as a druid main, I learn a lot from his videos.

[ravenmoon.8970]

I'd recommend playing Deadeye One trick Rifle.... maybe p/p... and hanging around your team, stealthing out if anyone tries to focus you, and generally playing like a coward. It gets results, especially once you perfect.

[Blood.5607]

If you were not using Meta, your build will only get you so far. I don't see how staff/DD works at all in the current meta.

[Toll Booth Willie.6723]

This as of last patch?

 

[Cynz.9437]

> @"Strider.7849" said:

> Hello, I'd like to recommend watching Sindrener on youtube. He is currently, in my opinion and that of many others, the best thief in GW2 pvp. He posts full, unedited footage of matches from start to finish and even as a druid main, I learn a lot from his videos.

 

The only thing that bothers me with this statement is that thief is balanced around Sindrender's skill level while certain other classes are balanced around skill level of LA roleplayer. Not saying that they should make thief faceroll but i would prefer they would treat every class equally, which they don't. On some classes/builds you need nearly lightning reflexes and preferably degree in rocket science to be effective, on some you can actually watch your favorite movie and let your cat run over keyboard and be as effective (e.g. current scourge).

[Griever.8150]

> @"Cynz.9437" said:

> > @"Strider.7849" said:

> > Hello, I'd like to recommend watching Sindrener on youtube. He is currently, in my opinion and that of many others, the best thief in GW2 pvp. He posts full, unedited footage of matches from start to finish and even as a druid main, I learn a lot from his videos.

>

> The only thing that bothers me with this statement is that thief is balanced around Sindrender's skill level while certain other classes are balanced around skill level of LA roleplayer. Not saying that they should make thief faceroll but i would prefer they would treat every class equally, which they don't. On some classes/builds you need nearly lightning reflexes and preferably degree in rocket science to be effective, on some you can actually watch your favorite movie and let your cat run over keyboard and be as effective (e.g. current scourge).

 

At the same time its what make these classes fun. Its what make classes like Thief feel rewarding to play, while playing a Scourge is just a flat experience (i tried it, there's nothing to be excited about ever when playing one).

[Cynz.9437]

> @"Griever.8150" said:

> > @"Cynz.9437" said:

> > > @"Strider.7849" said:

> > > Hello, I'd like to recommend watching Sindrener on youtube. He is currently, in my opinion and that of many others, the best thief in GW2 pvp. He posts full, unedited footage of matches from start to finish and even as a druid main, I learn a lot from his videos.

> >

> > The only thing that bothers me with this statement is that thief is balanced around Sindrender's skill level while certain other classes are balanced around skill level of LA roleplayer. Not saying that they should make thief faceroll but i would prefer they would treat every class equally, which they don't. On some classes/builds you need nearly lightning reflexes and preferably degree in rocket science to be effective, on some you can actually watch your favorite movie and let your cat run over keyboard and be as effective (e.g. current scourge).

>

> At the same time its what make these classes fun. Its what make classes like Thief feel rewarding to play, while playing a Scourge is just a flat experience (i tried it, there's nothing to be excited about ever when playing one).

 

Oh i agree. I am sure, there are some necro players that still play core/reaper for the kicks and not so happy about current oppressive state of scourges.

[Urud.4925]

Well, today it went fine again. Maybe it was just a particularly unlucky pairing lasted 4 days/40-ish matches (I did notice some high-tier banner for the past days, maybe most of them were pre-made with voice chat, idk). It's still a bit harder than pre-patch, but is not like before, when I was completely wrecked and hopeless.

 

Thanks for the tips and for bringing me down on earth again, though. I got too many high scores in a row and I started to play like a warrior, jumping on 3 enemies without any team mate nearby. I don't like to play like a "hyena"/scavenger, but I must realise the limit of a staff DD. There are also skilled players around, not all noobs like me, even in the unranked. Yesterday I left one of my team mate to die alone vs 3 enemies (they still were with full HP)... we would have probably died in 2 in the end, so better for the score. But I used to jump in, in the past.

Not sure if I'll change weapon (the fact that I literally never met another staff DD since PoF, leave me doubtful) but for now I'm having fun (again). The important is that the matchmaking is not broken somehow, or some huge overlook/bug in the balance-patch, since I really didn't know what to think.

 

 

EDIT: I searched on the wiki and found that "Glicko2" is used as matchmaking algorithm, for both ranked and unranked arenas. It holds into accounts a lot of stuff, and eventually, it puts players into groups of another level, if they're waiting for too long. Probably I passed to "the next level" and now that I lost a lot of matches in a row, I came back to my previous one. The gap was really huge.