Guild Wars 2

Hi, I play as a thief but really want to make a great dungeon build.

I mainly concentrate on double daggers and shortbow.

I stay in stealth a lot and deal out good crits from stealthing. Regenerate initiative when in stealth so I can use skill 5 and then 1 for a backstab on double daggers.

I don’t think this build is very good for dungeons. Works great in WvW for me.

Would just like an experienced thief to share tips of how they play and what the best weapons and tactics are for playing dungeons as a thief.

Thanks

When I run dungeons I like to do something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAsa4YlYm6OHdy9E/5EymiKMn0ZQTvUPjrSrA;TwAg0CnoQygkAJLSOkkItoYQxugZBA

Its pretty boring cause all you do is sit in S/P and spam 3 all day while dodging around every so often.

When the enemy boss gets to 25% (or I get bored of pressing 3) I’ll swap to dagger to either backstab a little or spam heatseekers.

Don’t copy the utilities exactly like I have them there. The only necessary ones are Shadow Refuge and 1 stunbreaker/out.

I like to be careful and take two outs but sometimes I’ll take scorpion wire or a signet instead of roll.

The heal skill choice is just what i like most. There are good things about signet and hide so if you want to take those go ahead.

I played venomshare with shortbow for blastfinishers and double dagger for death blossom.
Having the possibility to dish out big heals in water fields or mass might in fire fields on demand is just the best ability a thief can offer their group. (with the exception of shadow refuge to skip content more effeciently)

I get stuck in with S/D, 0/30/20/20/0. Constant evades, stealths, blinds, cripples and I pick my moments to daze with the paralysation sigil to almost totally stunlock dangerous mobs. Since I’m so hard to hit, I act as a pseudo-tank, attracting a lot of enemy attention towards me and away from my team. On top of that, I can efficiently stealth and revive teammates (BP or SR). I also use Golemancer Runes, so if I get hit a few times, I’ll have extra support (that thing is a MASSIVE tank). I usually use the cover of the golem to summon the Thieves and advance as a small group while my party go around the flanks.

Without going into exhaustive detail, your blinds versus trash mobs, and your Poison Cloud shortbow attack that can cause AOE weakness for 34-seconds with a 15-point trait, and your Shadow Refuge skill are the most valuable things you bring to a dungeon. The blindness and weakness are especially useful against those more overtuned trash pulls.

Oh and Scorpion Wire can be a useful split-pulling tool.

But it’s all about keeping an offhand pistol for nearly permanent blinding of an entire trash pull by having you and all your teammates shoot through pistol #5. That and using the traited Choking Gas from shortbow. And using shadow refuge to revive downed players.

i have a general PVE build that makes use of the fact that thief can get a lot of hits per second, even if they don’t damage much, to sustain my health without making use of a healing skill (not actively, anyway).

so i use dual daggers, spec into condition damage and healing power, with power and vitality as secondaries to support damage and survivability. so mostly shaman-esque and carrion armor, with rampager weapons.

skill-wise and trait-wise, i use this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAoY6alcmKP3eS5E+5EBPDjiU/Dkt7xVtqWB

(might need to copypaste the link, the forums don’t like gw2skills’ links :P)

with a set of superior runes of the undead (high toughness and condition damage), a superior sigil of corruption and a sigil of choice.

i heal about 120 health per hit. each caltrops tick on each enemy counts as an individual hit, each of the 3 hits of death blossom per enemy counts as a hit. i heal about 90 health per initiative point spent, so i can heal about 1k health per death blossom, when fighting a single enemy. with groups it’s even better. if you’re low on health and there are multiple enemies around, popping dagger storm is a guaranteed full heal.

basically, the build is designed for high DoT AoE output and high survivability, while not being completely useless on other scenarios (i still hit for 3k damage when i crit heartseeker on a low-health enemy, or when i backstab).

I highly recommend this guide if you’re new to dungeons:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Kirin-s-Guide-for-Aspiring-PVE-Support-Thieves/
Everything you need to know about thief tips/tricks in dungeons is in there, regardless of whether or not you want to play a support thief.

Build-wise, I just get 15 in Deadly Arts for Lotus Poison, 15 in Acrobatics for Feline Grace, and everything else in whatever traits boost my dps for the weapon-set I choose.

Just make a warrior or guardian instead. Thieves are worthless in everything except PvP.

Well, that’s a lackluster and birdbrained argument if I ever saw one. Not to mention, argumentative and mildly offensive to people who play thieves.

On a side note, I agree with Kirin’s Guide. It’s a good place to start playing a Thief in dungeons.

I generally run full berserker’s armour and jewellery, but my traits alternate depending on what I think I’m going to need.

15 in Acrobatics I think should be mandatory on any thief build for dungeons, the endurance return as well as extra vitality is AMAZING. I like to always have 10 in Trickery, as “Thrill of the crime” is one of the few ways thieves can supply a team with some nice buffs. 10 in Deadly Arts can be quite nice, I enjoy “Mug”, makes melting any white trash you may encounter (see: cof path 1/2 acolytes).

A fun build can be a sort of infinite-initiative thief. You put 20 into Shadow arts for “V” and “VIII”, 20 in Acrobatics for “X” or “IX” (Personal preference), and finally 5 in Trickery for the set trait. This can be quite fun to play with because with “hide in shadows” as your heal – which I think is the superior heal for dungeons – and stealth on steal, you can pretty much spam your intiative until your heart is content. Put the rest of trait points where ever you fancy.

P/V/T armour with 5 scholar runes + one additional 25 power rune, combined with Berserker’s jewellery is also a nice balance of DPS and survivability. Personally I think as long as you have some trait points in Acrobatics and Shadow arts, you can quite safely run full glass cannon armour/jewellery.

Spent nearly 500 hours on my thief, most of it in dungeons. I may not know more than some others, but I can potentially give you a little bit more help or information if you’d like to contact me in game.

Shooopa.5632:

Just make a warrior or guardian instead. Thieves are worthless in everything except PvP.

This must be why I tank just as well as guardians while dealing superior damage.
Trick is you can’t take a glass thief into a dungeon because they’re too fragile and their burst isn’t even high enough to kill most trash mobs in dungeon.

Shooopa.5632:

Just make a warrior or guardian instead. Thieves are worthless in everything except PvP.

I can take a wild guess how well you performed when playing as one, then.