Guild Wars 2

Hey forums,

After much theory-crafting and testing, I have finally made a thief build that can last in the current meta state. I will explain the main changes and reasoning behind certain trait/sigil/weapon choices and what makes this thief build currently the most fluent build in HoT.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoaVl0MhSnY3Tw8Jw/ELIFlXOcD9AXDEALwc7f/7PA-TZBFABiXGI+9Ha7IAswpAAgHAAA

TRAIT LINES

The trait lines are an obvious question for most people when viewing the spec. As I was testing this build with friends, I was often asked why take Shadow Arts (SA) traitline over Deadly Arts (DA), which is the current thief meta. While DA offers so so so much (mug, panic strike, and improv/executioner), SA is a much better choice while running Dare Devil (DD). The reason being this: DD + SA essentially gives you infinite mugs (stealth regen and pulmonary strike), while giving you so much sustain. Though, you do lose the weakness on poison. Fortunately, you can easily swap out DD first trait from the 7% increased damage to the weakness every 10seconds for 5seconds based on team comps you go against. With SA you also conserve a lot more initiative and dodges (because steals give you stealth, which is essential in almost any situation). A conservative thief is a good thief. Finally, while improv is beyond good, you are never guaranteed a good proc from it. That being said, relying on improv is never a viable option.

WEAPONS

D/P – Obvious choice for headshot (pulmonary strike synergy) and stealth.
Shortbow – Rotations/survivability/godtier

*Nothing else really works well with this, so D/P SB will always be your weapon set.

SIGILS AND RUNES

D/P – air/energy
SB – Generosity/energy
Daredevil Runes – Constant crits

*Double energy for the extra DD rune crits. You can swap out D/P energy for blood/fire/rage.

This build is far superior to the current interrupt thief, so good luck!

Soem Aidz kitten shiet… why u so bad :/

Whether you want DA or SA depends on what comp enemy and your team is runnning. And thief is only viable in queue, not as a real thing to be played in tourneys anyway. Well it’s not really viable in q either, but atleast you can do something there. This might work in NA where players suck, but not in EU.

Kitten… Its almost exactly my build with small changes. Great minds think alike

Having extreme success with this build so far. The sustain tradeoff from DA is worth with DD elements. The damage might seem low without DA or CS but its actually ridiculously high. DD Pulmonary + havoc mastery and bound dmg % ALL add up to insane bursts.

A few things I’ve alternated: Valkyrie Amulet. The HP difference might be little (to Marauder) but the Ferocity + Power difference makes up for some INSANE bursts. You rely on Bounding Dodger for crits since you run around ~25% crit rate with Fury up. However, since you just get in – spike – get out, you don’t need to rely on such sustained crit rate. Bound and DD runes get the job done.

Utilities: Screw Shadow Refuge. Scrappers, Revenants… every class reveal on demand now. Blinding Powder with Black Powder works much better. Shadow Refuge is very hard to work with using Daredevil dodges (except Dash but even that’s not easy to work with). For the 3rd utility Bandit’s Defense or Signet of Agility work great.

Heal: I go with Channeled Vigor. Low CD. Fast cast time… Never got interrupted using it so far since you can easily BP + dodge for unintteruptable (nearly) stealths → heal. If you’re full on endurance heals for an insane amount and fills HALF (1,5 dodges) of your endurance bar. Insanely good.

Sigils: Energy + Air/Hydromancy for SB, Force + Air for D/P. Force adds more % damage increase to the Pulmonary impact and backstabs etc so I found the flat damage increase incredibly valuable. This section is subject to personal taste so anything that rocks your boat…

Anyway. Spot on build Kreep. Was expecting this to be the meta since my last build after trait-revamp ended up meta as well… but I’m selfish and actually wanted to keep this one under ma blanket. This post makes me happy and mad at the same time.

Oh and stream more you pleb.

<3

-mistermeta

nasebona.6120:

Whether you want DA or SA depends on what comp enemy and your team is runnning. And thief is only viable in queue, not as a real thing to be played in tourneys anyway. Well it’s not really viable in q either, but atleast you can do something there. This might work in NA where players suck, but not in EU.

Ahh of course it’s clearly because of how bad NA players are compared to EU clearly.