Guild Wars 2

I have a 30 thief that im thinking of leveling, my focus is using him for WvW. i plan to spec him for condition damage but im wondering if im picking the right class. would i be better off going with a necro or ranger for a condi build? i see a metric ton of DD backstab thiefs in WvW and dont want to go that route. so is the thief a good condi class? and if so could you link a good build or vid that explains it.

thanks

I run a D/D+SB condition Thief.

Yes, it is viable.

It is not the easiest build to execute, however. It requires you to be inside an enemy zerg for an extended period of time, since you have zero burst. Clever use of Death Blossom, Dodgetrops, Caltrops, and Dagger Storm, can allow you to cause an unreal amount of condition damage in an AoE while you jump in and out of stealth via Cloak and Dagger.

I feel that 30 points in Shadow Arts is almost mandatory for it to work, though.

I run 0/0/30/20/20.

I love playing as a conditions thief. I use 0/0/30/20/20 poison blinding powder and caltrops. thieves guild imo is better than dagger storm for conditions as ur burst is low. thieves guild make a tremendous mess of things. without caltrps doen I can keep up 7-10 stacks of bleed and 45-60 secs of poison. fully carrion geared doing huge damage over time.
I should have mentioned I use P/D and SB. SB for the quick escape, reset then re-engage.

Go P/D if you don’t want to run D/D for conditions. Lots of good P/D info and builds out there. I run 20/0/30/20/0 with much success.

Yeah go P/D – it’s far more effective than burst vs. multiple folks which you will be facing. With 40% bleed duration food and 45% duration from runes you hit 100% duration easily (anything over that doesn’t add any duration). You can turn over supply camps solo very comfortably.

Yeah love the condition thief. Especially a P/D, the 100+ ticks from bleed and almost 200 ticks from poison can make you laugh. Especially when you roam in WvW

That and use choking gas+stealth on a zerg or enemies to mess with them since it doesnt break stealth

Can do that in pve to, but the enemies are more quick to realize when you drop from stealth

DD/PD with an emphasis on stealth utilities and here’s the basic:
In a standard multi-target fight, spam deathblossom until out of initiative, then fall back and shoot people in the face until full initiative and steal to get back in the fight. Rince and repeat.

In a standard single target fight, either use the the same strategy as multi-target or use Cloak and dagger to stealth up and pistol sneak attack for 5 bleeding stacks. The peculiarity here is that pistol sneak is a set of 5 100% projectile combo-finisher so, combined with any damage dealing fields(fire, poison, ether) you get the full 5 stacks for it.

I never used it seriously though, just goofed around in the mist for giggles.

Either double dagger or pistol/dagger works. The primary difference between the two is that in general, dagger/dagger can stack bleeds more quickly and it is easier to keep the enemy on the caltrops, because you are trying to stay in melee where you deploy them. Pistol/dagger is safer, but not as easy as mindless deathblossom spam, and doesn’t tend to keep up with the bleeds as well. Either is viable, but right now I’m prefering the pistol mainhand, as with double dagger a backstab spec you have to be in range to take damage while you deal it, and condition builds tend to have a longer time to kill.