Guild Wars 2

So for trickster, which first two traits should we take? I can’t decide between thrill + bountiful theft and haste + trickster.

I prefer the latter, It seems to give better dps.

Haste is a must, bountiful theft is better most of the time IMO (10s AoE vigor) and boon strip. If you’re spamming withdrawal for running then It’s viable to use trickster but the CDR and single condi cleanse isn’t that good comparatively.

Haste isn’t really “a must” considering it doesn’t really add much DPS, and if it procs at a weird time and messes up your rotation it will cost you tons of DPS.

Wouldn’t it depend on group composition. And, if we’re talking about strait meta including composition you’re covered on might/fury/swiftness outside of split tactics or solo WP unlocking runs. Outside meta if you need fury Thrill seems pretty nice.

TotC isn’t going to benefit your team if you’ve already capped those boons, but in those less effective comps or trios then it’s going to be an effective option I guess.

Screwing up a CnD rotation because of quickness is just down to player skill.

Jerus.4350:

Wouldn’t it depend on group composition. And, if we’re talking about strait meta including composition you’re covered on might/fury/swiftness outside of split tactics or solo WP unlocking runs. Outside meta if you need fury Thrill seems pretty nice.

Yeah I think so. All of them are pretty good. I like thrill of the crime for the swiftness during run between point to point, and switch to haste before encounters.

I don’t get why the meta build suggests to take bountiful theft though. It’s not like there are many cases where you can steal boon from enemies. and the extra vigor, I don’t think it’s really helpful – especially in a good/coordinated group. I think haste and trickster are the best to take for dps. Open for discussion.

Honestly, sometimes I don’t understand why there is a swiftness problem when retreat and charge should give a permanent uptime for runs but its there. And as a result some people have resorted to blasting lightning fields. I don’t understand why some people blast lightning fields as it literally is a time waster so to counter act it, I run thrill of crime and say we aint blasting no lightning field. Think of it this way; if it takes 6seconds to blast that lightning field after a boss dies and it took you 8seconds to kill that boss, totc is a ~200% team dps increase and since you are 1/5 of your team it is a 1,000% personal dps increase.

Flanking Strikes and Trickster are definitely the best choice for DPS. Trickster actually has synergy with Flanking Strikes in that it reduces the cooldown of that trait by 24 seconds (currently bugged in that it is twice as effective), which will pretty much allow you to have it up for every fight. This means that if you have Flanking Strikes + Haste (utility) + Guard Quickness, you can have permanent quickness for every fight. This means faster Icebows and Heartseekers. If you are messing up your CnD + Backstab rotation because of quickness, then that is just a problem of being unfamiliar with the proper rotation. It’s still better DPS to have quickness.

Bountiful Theft really isn’t that good. Vigor actually makes a Warrior’s DPS rotation more difficult as they want to keep low endurance, and Vigor really isn’t that strong since it got nerfed. On top of that there is a small handful of bosses where you can actually strip boons.

You can also just slot Thrill for out of combat runs and then switch to Flanking before the fight starts. Most meta compositions will be capped on Might and Fury anyway.

Your job isn’t just DPS though, in that sense you’re often going to get nothing from Trickster if you’re not using Withdraw (for whatever reason) or simply don’t need it and not using Haste/Scorpion Wire which isn’t uncommon.

With that, who really cares what the meta says in this regard. The “meta builds” are the baseline builds, they are meant to be tweaked and tuned to fit situations better. If you aren’t going to gain from TotC then why not grab Flanking? If you’re not stealing boons and giving your team vigor isn’t an issue and you have Haste/Scorpion Wire on your bar makes sense to use Trickster. It’s why swapping traits on the fly was such a powerful and nice addition (well actually kinda annoying at times to do it )

EcoRI.9273:

Honestly, sometimes I don’t understand why there is a swiftness problem when retreat and charge should give a permanent uptime for runs but its there. And as a result some people have resorted to blasting lightning fields. I don’t understand why some people blast lightning fields as it literally is a time waster so to counter act it, I run thrill of crime and say we aint blasting no lightning field.

Don’t always like “wasting” my retreat on swiftness when we’re coming up to a fight where the Aegis is especially powerful. If I can get it from someone who doesn’t have to sacrifice as much if anything I prefer that. One of my pet peeves is a warrior who uses his signet to go running off but can’t bother to swap in a warhorn for the group

Well, Trickster actually has synergy with Flanking Strikes, so even if you don’t have a Trick on your util bar, it still has it’s uses. In fact, it is currently bugged and reduces the cooldown by 24 seconds as opposed to 12 which means you can have it up for pretty much every boss fight in most dungeons.

In most meta groups your team will be capped on Fury and Might which makes Thrill pretty much useless. Vigor isn’t a very good boon now that it has been nerfed and warriors lose DPS by getting Vigor, so Bountiful Theft can actually harm your party’s DPS. Obviously there are some places where running Thrill is better, but in an ideal party composition and setting, Flanking/Trickster is the best option.

Yeah didn’t realize that.

Chazua.1934:

In fact, it is currently bugged and reduces the cooldown by 24 seconds as opposed to 12 which means you can have it up for pretty much every boss fight in most dungeons.

It’s a tooltip bug, cd is reduced by only 12 sec and not 24.

Amicable Pugs.4503:

Chazua.1934:

In fact, it is currently bugged and reduces the cooldown by 24 seconds as opposed to 12 which means you can have it up for pretty much every boss fight in most dungeons.

It’s a tooltip bug, cd is reduced by only 12 sec and not 24.

I tried, It’s 36sec ICD with Trickster :p

Yeye you’re actually right, I can’t count ._.

Yeah. I’m not sure trickster reducing the ICD of flanking strike is a bug or working as intended XD since they haven’t fixed it. The ICD reduction is the real merit of trickster.

and I agree with ecori, the swiftness is really nice for running between encounters. So I guess if you want to min-max. Use thrill of the crime for running between points and switch to haste just before encounters.

You guys in a lot of fights where the CD reduction of Haste from Trickster is relevant? Really? I think if so you have bigger issues than min/maxing your Thief DPS.

I run Flanking Strikes, Trickster and Quick Pockets for the reason that Flanking procs automatically on hitting from behind and quick pockets allows me to get initiative on Icebow pickup.
CnD→Backstab→pick Icebow→Icebow4 this all with the haste from Flanking Strikes allows the Icebow to hit mostly into the revealed buff from revealed training while having 15 initative for max modifiers from Lead Attacks.

Almost as sick as my ranger rotation ?

*Perry gets arrows but I don’t? kitten this forum

I’ve also been taking quick pockets most of the time except for archie,moss, and mai. The CD on steal is pretty much irrelevant and the daze is usually more of a burden.

Can organize weapons as d/ – /d to milk Quick Pockets harder (or mash the kitten out of a choir bell)

Please tell me that the tooltip on http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/ for Flanking Strikes is wrong.

If they seriously put a stunbreak in a proc-on-hit trait…

O.o

dlonie.6547:

Please tell me that the tooltip on http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/ for Flanking Strikes is wrong.

If they seriously put a stunbreak in a proc-on-hit trait…

O.o

nope it really is a stunbreak as they just took the normal skill haste and linked it to a trait

Well, but you cannot attack when you’re stunned, and you cannot proc Haste if you cannot attack. Hue!

Edit: Unless you got stunned after your attack connects to stuff like Shocking Aura and by miracles, your Haste procs…

steal can still proc it even if stunned also projectiles that are allready flying

Only reason why it’s done that way is to get relevant traits to affect it without having to make a completely new skill for it.

NikeEU.7690:

You guys in a lot of fights where the CD reduction of Haste from Trickster is relevant? Really? I think if so you have bigger issues than min/maxing your Thief DPS.

The CD reduction is so that it will be up for every fight in a dungeon. In dungeons like CM, where the bosses are around 30 seconds apart from each other, it’s nice to have quickness for each fight. And Thrill of the Crime + Bountiful are pretty much useless if your group is half competent. Eles can cap fury easily, and Warriors take care of might. Vigor is an extremely weak boon since the nerf and is detrimental to Warrior DPS.

If quickness is messing up the CnD/Backstab rotation, then learn how to do the rotation with quickness. When it comes to DPS, Flanking/Trickster is undoubtedly the better choice.

Chazua.1934:

NikeEU.7690:

You guys in a lot of fights where the CD reduction of Haste from Trickster is relevant? Really? I think if so you have bigger issues than min/maxing your Thief DPS.

The CD reduction is so that it will be up for every fight in a dungeon. In dungeons like CM, where the bosses are around 30 seconds apart from each other, it’s nice to have quickness for each fight. And Thrill of the Crime + Bountiful are pretty much useless if your group is half competent. Eles can cap fury easily, and Warriors take care of might. Vigor is an extremely weak boon since the nerf and is detrimental to Warrior DPS.

If quickness is messing up the CnD/Backstab rotation, then learn how to do the rotation with quickness. When it comes to DPS, Flanking/Trickster is undoubtedly the better choice.

Points taken.

Chazua.1934:

If quickness is messing up the CnD/Backstab rotation, then learn how to do the rotation with quickness.

Oh did you think that’s what the issue was? How quaint.

That’s exactly what you said at the top of the thread. If that isn’t the issue, what is?