Guild Wars 2

I’ve been running mostly groups to get to 80. doing champ rotations in Queens till I hit 80, did some wvwvw, but found it boring. (ahmergerd!) What i’m having a hard time with now is staying alive! (do do do do staying alliiiiiiveee…stupid song)

In all seriousness. What is a good build to go to not die so much? Also what Runes, and sigils are good now?

Note I haven’t played much since the end of February so few things have changed….except that I’m still squish as a kitten under a cement truck….

Thanks =D

Oh if I didn’t mention it, I really just do PvE solo/grouping and WvW.

for thief.. easiest way to stay alive.

Signet of Malice, Sword/Pistol. Use skill 5 to blind anything for 4 seconds in a field around you, and use skill 3 to do large quick damage. Also with the signet you can heal almost to full on three mobs.

Also skill 2’s second ability will clear a condition and can be spammed.

Solo PVE with a thief is really pretty easy. Only issue are mobs that can constantly knock you out of melee range.

Pistol/Pistol is for single target range, Dagger/Dagger has higher single target melee.

Shortbow is good for mob groups at range and moving around the map quick with skill 5, but personally I didn’t like the short bow.

Couple questions.
I haven’t used sword in so long I forget if its an AoE attack.

Also with AoE attacks will Sig of Mal heal me for each attack? or each target?

and could the same logic be applied to short bow? or dagger 4 when it bounces off more than 1 mob?

Methal.9045:

Couple questions.
I haven’t used sword in so long I forget if its an AoE attack.

Also with AoE attacks will Sig of Mal heal me for each attack? or each target?

and could the same logic be applied to short bow? or dagger 4 when it bounces off more than 1 mob?

Sword is AoE though I think it maxes at three targets.

S of M will heal for each attack on each target. So a standard AA chain against three mobs will trigger 9 heals. Yes SB or bounces each count for a heal.

What kind of runes, and wep augments would you suggest?

berseker is the safest bet for the power crit. I personally like emerald orbs for the power and crit with toughness, but I am in the minority there.

Methal.9045:

What i’m having a hard time with now is staying alive!

In all seriousness. What is a good build to go to not die so much? Also what Runes, and sigils are good now?

In GW2, there’s no such gear, nor build, nor runes, nor sigils that will keep you alive — none.

You can keep yourself alive even if you’re running around naked — the solution to your problem is situational awareness.

You fail to use your skill — you die.
You fail to move out of the way — you die.
You used your skill too soon — you die.
You stand on an area where you shouldn’t stand — you die.
You don’t cleanse conditions — you die.
You fail to dodge or dodged too soon — you die.

You get the idea.

Agree on the above post. IMO. To play well. You really have to have good map awareness. Sure build and gear will help you. I recomend to new thief to start out with 6 points in SA in WvW. Pick condi remove and heal while in stealth. You can put other points else were you see fit…Once you advance and are more confortable with the class then you can play around with other traits. For weapon set. At least have a off hand SB. Good luck…

Know what you can… and cant do.. pick your fight..you do habe that option with a thief.

Does it get harder to play thief in open world PvE later on? I’m level 24 and am regularly taking on 3-5 enemies 6-8 levels above me. I don’t even have traits yet. For me, the trick has been D/D and using Death Blossom. Drop some caltrops (can’t wait for “uncatchable”), DB on the mob (timing it properly to evade and/or give me some distance to make them come to me for another DB), roll for init and DB some more, then dodge and kite to avoid hits. I’ll use hide in shadows for heal/stealth (to allow bleed more time to win), or something like shadow refuge or blinding powder if I’m in a bind.

If you going to aoe. I recomend using short bow. The dagger #3 skill is soso. With SB. You can start with #4 then #2 as a blast finisher.. it create weakness. Also. For DD #4 is actually pretty good to tag mobs. I would use that if needed.

IMO. Talking pve. Thief starting lvl can be challenging. As you get more traits it become easier. You can also try sword/pistol for pve. And again. Equip short bow. Hipe this help.

Personally, I can’t seem to get SB to work better for me than D/D. CnD, DB and #1 are just so good. Maybe it’s me, but SB just seems slow and much less effective.

Mmmm the SB auto attack will bounce to multiple target. I guess you juat need to play around with it. Drop 4 then clusters bomb2… then auto attack. In time you will see it is ment for aoe. I put stackable sigil on SB. Which im sure most thief do the same. Reason for it being easy to aoe and tag mobs… good luck!

Eroza.4769:

Mmmm the SB auto attack will bounce to multiple target. I guess you juat need to play around with it. Drop 4 then clusters bomb2… then auto attack. In time you will see it is ment for aoe. I put stackable sigil on SB. Which im sure most thief do the same. Reason for it being easy to aoe and tag mobs… good luck!

What sigils do you use, corruption and something else? I feel like the AA damage is much lower with bow. I haven’t tried the 4->2 combo yet. For some reason #2 fields unwieldy to me.. it takes some time to land and mobs move out of the AoE sometimes. Do you use the detonate cluster option?

I use bloodlust one. I mean you can now add 2 sigil in 2 hand weapons now. So I use bloodlust and fire…

Dont over look the clusterbomb. Play with it.. does good damage. And no. I dont detonate it. Just let it blow up. The trick is to manage your initiative. So dont go spamming 4. 2 4 2.. space it out woth auto attack and your group of mobs should melt quickly. You can switch to DD once thwir HP is low… if you like. Good luck.

Cool thanks. I looked at the sigil of fire but since I’m so low level my chance to crit is like 5%, so a 2.5% chance to trigger seems like a waste for now.

Yah. I wouldnt waste any gold on that till you hit 80. In fact… when I was lvling… I just use any weapon I find. As long as it is similar to your current lvl. That should be good enough. You will think about gear/stats of your liking when you max lvl.

So. Just sell…dont even put anything in. Is my recomendation. But at least you know what to try at 80… Good luck.

By the way. You probably knkw or seen. Fire on crit does make a cool aoe explosions…. I do like that part. Try it out anyway.

I always recycle what I find to get components, luck and daily recycle credit. Is it better to sell everything for some reason?

When I said sell. I simply mean just to get rid of it.. recycle or what not is good as well. just gear up once you reach max lvl.

Thanks for all the info. I spent about 7 hours yesterday (much to the dismay of my wife) testing these.
Very good suggestions, I have found however, that all wep sets offer pretty good survival.
The thing is I can’t just afk attack like I could on my warrior and ranger.

Action and Reaction seems to be the key to playing the thief well. Watching for specific animations from the mobs, knowing where I will end up when I hit an ability, etc.

Yah. All classes attacks differently. Just take time getting use to it. You will discover more tips as you level up or face enermy in pvp. Just wish I had time to try out other class.

Methal.9045:

Thanks for all the info. I spent about 7 hours yesterday (much to the dismay of my wife) testing these.
Very good suggestions, I have found however, that all wep sets offer pretty good survival.
The thing is I can’t just afk attack like I could on my warrior and ranger.

Action and Reaction seems to be the key to playing the thief well. Watching for specific animations from the mobs, knowing where I will end up when I hit an ability, etc.

Very true. The squishiness of the thief means that you have to pay a lot more attention to what’s going on so you can avoid damage. Next time you’re looking to try another class, try mesmer. It’s really fun and also requires a lot of “dancing” to max damage and avoid hits. On second thought, with the state mesmer is in right now, better to try elementalist