Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I am a level 80 Thief with full exotic set etc etc… I play a D/P direct damage, harass, stealth, blind build.

Things have been going pretty well in WvWvW and PvP. I am winning 90% of my engagements with my current 10/30/30/0/0 build.

The tricky part is balancing my attributes. Right now I am running with the following:
*Power – 1,995
*Precision – 1,827
*Crit Chance / Damage – 47% / 78
*Toughness – 1,326
*Vitality – 1,229
*Total Health – 13,935
*Average Damage Backstab – 4.5k
*Sigils are Force and Air

I’m feeling like my attacks are a little bit light hitting. Compared to other theives I am doing far less damage (i feel) while being much more survivable while having far less health.

Basically I feel like I am missing something as to why I am not really laying on heavy damage as well right now.

Can others please shed light on what their attributes are running for direct damage builds? Thanks!

I’d say because D/P is a terrible weapon set at the moment. If you’re going for melee damage. You may as well go D/D so you can CnD your way to a back stab.

Stealth (mug) + CnD + Back Stab is where the damage is at the moment.

I haven’t experienced a direct problem with D/P (unless that is really resulting in Backstab hitting for less damage).

It provides GREAT AoE duration blind in close quarters, provides a wonderful ranged interrupt ability, and allows you to enter stealth at will while closing distance.

I know CnD is a nice damage hit, but currently Stealth (mug) + SS + Heartseeker + Backstab + Heartseeker seems to be taking them to 90% or dead range.

Is there really that much of a base damage difference?

Hmm…

Good goood…

But missing one thing.

Offhand should be dagger.

Kind of fixes all your problems. I promise.

Edit: Ok I will share. Look you’re doing it half right. But the 3% extra damage with C&D, plus the more Stealth time, is good if you know why it’s good. Pistol is best for PvE or tanking Camps in WvW. But against players, it’s too small an AOE and you can’t hit a blind on anyone outside of the AOE, so it’s kind of waste to use Black Powder against 75% of the classes you face. Only Warriors and other Thieves are affected by the AOE in any regard. Guardians have lots of AOE to negate the blind’s effectiveness. Everyone else is ranged.

But... But.... I wanted to be different!

Ok ok, I will try the D/D but there has to be a reason that I have won 99% of my fights versus thieves...

Black Powder is awesome against other thieves, that’s why you are owning them probably. I kill a bunch using P/P myself, and Black Powder is the main reason. Chaining blinds on them makes them miss cloak and dagger and backstabs, and they go down easy when not in stealth if they are the typical glass build. D/P can work just fine, you are just missing some of the damage from the points in the power tree that most D/D thieves run, hence you will hit lighter.

Which leads me back to my initial question…

How much power, precision, crit chance, crit damage do you have your builds?

I’m doing well and atm I’m using a P/D S/P 25/20/15/0/0 build.

Mind you when I find a better dagger I’ll probably change from S/P back to D/D (atm pistol whip is sill pretty boss)

How much power, precision, crit chance, crit damage do you have your builds?

If you’re expecting some kind of magic stat balance that is the most efficient you’re going to be disappointed. Your personal play-experience is probably just as good a basis as anyone’s.

Me personally I’ve recently decided to pursue a gear-setup based on the following stat-weights.

My build is D/D – SB – 15/30/0/25/0 a typical burst build but with 25 points in Acrobatics for PvE and general survivability.

Power – 1.0
Precision – 0.8
Vitality – 0.7
Crit-Damage – 0.5
Toughness – 0.5
Condition Damage – 0.3
Healing – 0.2

Reasoning is that I currently have a very mixed set with rather a lot of Healing and little Power. I got this because I considered Precision to be the most important stat…which apparently it’s not. I also undervalued Toughness where even a little can make quite a difference.

My current base crit-chance is about 45% according to my character sheet. But considering all the buffs, proccs and effects…..it’s probably closer to 70% in practice (Fury + Sigil of Accuracy + other stuff).

But now I’m looking to maximize Power while maintaining a healthy level of Vitality and replacing most of my Healing with Toughness.

My main set should soon look like this:

Gear: Power/Vitality/Toughness
Accessories: Berserker’s or Valkyries, depending on my gut-feeling.

Should my base crit-rate drop below 35% I’ll replace “Executioner” with the auto-crit from Stealth.

so having 100%+ crit damage isn’t advisable?

Dee Jay.2460:

How much power, precision, crit chance, crit damage do you have your builds?

If you’re expecting some kind of magic stat balance that is the most efficient you’re going to be disappointed. Your personal play-experience is probably just as good a basis as anyone’s.

Should my base crit-rate drop below 35% I’ll replace “Executioner” with the auto-crit from Stealth.

I’m definitely not expecting some kind of magical ratio that is perfection. I am mainly trying to reconcile my play style with other’s attributes to see if I can be more efficient within my own style of play.

For instance, you actually gave me something to look into. I have 47% precision and I am starting to wonder how inefficient that is when compared with pure power. Your number of 35% with heavy power seems right to me. Especially with fury and the auto-crit to consider.

so having 100%+ crit damage isn’t advisable?

It always depends on what you’re sacrificing to get there. So far theorycrafting in GW2 has been very limited. Still, here’s some interesting reads:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/115mln/power_vs_precision_vs_critical_damage_what_do_we/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/113pjt/spreadsheet_for_optimizing_your_character_the/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/10odor/elementalists_double_dagger_powerdamage_scaling/
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/z6rbk/power_vs_precision/

its really difficult theory crafting hybrid gameplay, i think ill settle with a purist point of view >.<