Guild Wars 2

Would it be viable to balance the direct damage and the condition damage or I would end up being bad in both? How high should be critical chance, critical damage and condition damage so you can do well with any kind of damage?

I tried something, but I’m not sure it would work:

Armor:
6x Carrion
6x Thief Rune

Weapon:
D/D Carrion (maybe SB Carrion)
D/D Berserker

Trinkets:
5x Berserker
5x Ruby Orb

Traits
0 / 25 (III, VI) / 30 (I, IV, XI) / 15 (II) / 0

It gives me 17k of health pool, 67% of critical damage, 50% critical chance and a bleeding of 72 damage per second. Power is around 1800.

I consider the condition damage a little low, but it could improve with the Corruption Sigil at maximum stack and some stacks of might or maybe changing the Thief Runes for Afflicted. Critical chance and critical damage seems good and the vitality plus the Shadow Arts could give good survivability.

What do you think?

-If you are going that far into trait line 2, I think you must go all the way to 30 for 20% more dmg under 50% health. The third minor trait is not all that great, and going 20 for 2 majors in tier 1 is also not ideal in my opinion.

-What is the attack with 1800 power? can’t remember.

-What’s the actual value of the condi dmg parameter?

For PvE, any build would work, so it’s fine.

For PvP, you generally want to specialize with traits, and maybe add an edge with utility or something. Either condi tank or a variation of burst thief.

For WvW, I think some form of direct AoE is mandatory, unless you just run around to gank people.

In all 3 situations though, I think 2 sets of daggers is not a good idea. Even D/D, P/D is better for the idea you are trying to run with.

TJL

ryokoalways.3450:

-If you are going that far into trait line 2, I think you must go all the way to 30 for 20% more dmg under 50% health. The third minor trait is not all that great, and going 20 for 2 majors in tier 1 is also not ideal in my opinion.

-What is the attack with 1800 power? can’t remember.

-What’s the actual value of the condi dmg parameter?

For PvE, any build would work, so it’s fine.

For PvP, you generally want to specialize with traits, and maybe add an edge with utility or something. Either condi tank or a variation of burst thief.

For WvW, I think some form of direct AoE is mandatory, unless you just run around to gank people.

In all 3 situations though, I think 2 sets of daggers is not a good idea. Even D/D, P/D is better for the idea you are trying to run with.

TJL

You are probably right, the 20% more damage under 50% is a amazing trait and I should take it. I just love Shadow Rejuvenation and Feline Grace to not take any of them too.

I guess the actual attack would be around 2800. No? Condition Damage is around 625 plus 250 from 25 stacks of Corruption.

Berserker dagger is obviously because of Backstab and the Carrion one would be for Death Blossom, but maybe Clusterbomb would be a better skill for that purpose.

Thief condition build is usually centered around blossom and caltrops. Just one or the other isn’t really going to work. 2800 damage is also not high enough. You need to be above 3k for direct damage burst to work. Condition damage I’m not too sure what value, but again it’s more utility/trait dependent.

You don’t have enough utility slots for all the skills needed for both on thief. From the fact you are not taking mug, you are probably not PvP or WvW (primary, that is). I would say then that you should just go full conditi-tank build.

0-0-30-20-20 as you seem to be most interested in shadow line

Remove condition every 3 seconds, gain initiative faster in stealth, heal in stealth
Gain vigor on heal, heal when use initiative
Drop caltrops on roll, Tricks recharge 20% faster

Additionally, if you are willing to go just 20 into shadow line, get 10 more in trickery for bountiful theft, which also gives you vigor. This way, you can get close to perma vigor for a lot of dodges, which means more caltrops.

Hide in shadows
Choose 3- Caltrop (Mandatory), scorpion wire (use as an interrupt), roll for initiative (more spam and a stun breaker), blinding powder, shadow refuge, shadow trap (just place it right on target for immediate access to stealth).
Elite doesn’t matter

Get gear for survivability and condi dmg. Check stat combination and figure something out.

TJL

If you want to be a jack of all trades, I suggest Celestial accessories where able(karka trinket and celestial rings and amulet from fractals. Any orbs should be Ruby, for your other earring and back, for example.

Runes should be Divinity. Armorial type should be all Berserkers, but change if you feel like it.

Make your steal as awesome as possible. Steal is our class ability and should always be strong. 10 in deadly arts and 30 in tricks. Trait mug, thrill of the crime, bountiful theft, and daze on steal. Other points can be put where you please, but they should focus on making your gameplay more fluid.

I run 15/0/10/15/30. Weakness on poison makes my shortbow awesome, and lets my steal and dagger weaken too. 10 in shadow arts lets me get 2 init back on stealth, which makes init management and burst stronger. 15 in acro for swiftness, might and endurance gained back on dodge. Extra dodging means I live so much longer.

I make up any lack in crit chance with food, oil and the fury gained every time I steal. I hit like a truck and my conditions do more damage than pure berserker, and I have a bit more survivability with the divinity and celestial gear stats. Condi sits somewhere near 500, crit damage is same as pure berserker, and pose and precision values are barely lost. Essentially, I am not very glass cannonish thanks to my traits and celestial gear/divinity runes, but I do glass cannon-like damage and put out decent bleeds too.

Honestly if you are going to take traits in stealth line make sure it has shadow refuge and the trait to give you INitiative back when you use a skill that stealths. this way shadow refuge is going to almpost fully refill the initiative, in addition to the major rejuvenation healing. i played all kinds of builds using that combination. it makes you truly resourceful to be able to do a big bad recharge and come back out swinging to finish off skirmishes

could always give the super shadow unicorn a spin but i dont think it really has mixed. your problem is always going to be having initiative and some kind of direct attack to unleash. i experimented with a few (dagger, pistol, stealth with the combo vs dagger dagger, just using the more efficient cloak and dagger to get chances for solid shadow killer backstabs)

Ultra Shadow unicorn
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-e33V;1VwFb0Q5FOVd0;9;6T9T;434A2;046AaZF9;2nBnBnBnB1FF

Dagger/pistol hidden killer supershadow which really doesn’t make use of condition attack.. there’s nothing that really lets you tap into both besides a cluster bomber build
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-e3RV;1Vwka07-FOkd0;9;5TT9;209B34A4;3YRF9;2nBnBnBnB5kc

Thank you for your responses.

I’m seeing that maybe it is just easier to just go full direct damage or full condition damage because of our initiative system.