Guild Wars 2

What insignias do you guys use, and how does it affect your play style? I’m looking for advice specifically with PvE/WvW in mind.

It depends how experienced you are and how comfortable you are at delving into dangerous situations.

You can usually get away with higher dps builds in pve such as pure zerker ones. Also I notice even though my thief has high damage I don’t too often pull attention from aggro, so higher damage works effectively.

WvW is different, although there are some thieves (and other classes) that run glassy high damage builds I don’t recommend it. Stealth does not negate damage and against better players won’t always shake them. Personally I think its best to have some form of survivability whether in the form of armor or trait lines.

If you have strong condition removal you can try to go with toughness (knights), and if you don’t vitality (valkyrie). However with thieves low hp I’d almost recommend soldiers (Infiltrators) for pvp.

I personally run a 30/30/10/0/0 with soldier armor, everything else is zerker. Runes are scholar.

Disclaimer, I’m not pro by any means (probably a better talker than player):

I find that zerker gear (in my case w/ Scholar runes) in WvW is very situational. I’ve had success in a garrison defense where the main fighting was on the 2nd and 3rd floor, when ppl fell down where I was waiting…. it was glorious/horrible depending on the POV.

However when running with the zerg in the open field, taking towers, etc, there is one thing that is SUPER important, do NOT die. If you die, every enemy that is downed that tagged you rallies. That MUST be avoided because you don’t want to be the one guy that swings a close fight in your side’s favor against you.

So I like to run zerker trinkets (always no matter what) and I have a soldier armor set w/ Melandru runes. I find in WvW you get lots of conditions and the reduction is conditions and stuns is great, its even better with the lemongrass soup. At that point you can ignore conditions. (Overly simplified: a bleed that has a half second duration will do no damage at all half the time).

With the defensive gear above, I find I can most help in a large fight by using my SB #4 poison AOE, SB #2 blast finishing water fields (AOE healing!) during a fight. That or selfishly spam SB#2 cluster bombs for mega tagging.

When the enemy breaks, I like to shadow step (via the skill, stealing, infl arrow, etc) into the fleeing badguys and start that Dagger storm. AOE cripple!

Alternatively I’ll switch to S/D and stun/boon strip vulnerable baddies.

So I like equipment allows me to stay alive and support the team, even though the damage isn’t crazy high.

In open world PVE I zerker because its plenty easy w/ some exceptions (certain guild bounty bosses for example), then you go down like a chump.

In a dungeon I haven’t mastered I’m more conservative with my gear though, I normally use a middle of the road approach, to armor, I find mixing soldier stats with zerkers better than all valk or knights.

TL:DR:

In WvW in large battles bring equipment that prevents dieing, as that’s disastrous for your squad in a pitched fight.

It really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, my Venomous Aura S/P & SB character runs full Knight gear (and Ascended gear that favors +Precision over the usual +Toughness in Knight gear). In addition to the standard goals for a VA trait spec, I wanted to be able to hold a piece of land in PvE and off-tank when needed. Between my traits, skills, and gear, I can successfully tank Champion trash mobs in large dynamic events. Holding down one of the Jormag trash mobs is one of my personal joys.

Just be warned that increasing your Toughness score will directly increase your PvE aggro potential. Between my high debuffing, high Toughness, melee range, and respectable dps output, I am an aggro magnet. My character is specifically designed to survive that kind of PvE environment, so it’s not a big deal. Yet if you don’t want to be constantly targeted, then don’t use full sets of Soldiers or Knights gear since it’s more Toughness generated aggro than you would want to handle.

I run a 10/30/30/0/0 build, taking the regeneration while in stealth, initiative gain, and shadows rejuvenation. I run full berserker armor with inflation runes and a celestial trinket set. Celestial on a thief?! You may ask, but while I take a small decrease in power and precision, 5 critical damage, I make up for it with more survivability and condition damage.

It all really depends on your play style AS A THIEF. Pve is really no place for us sadly.

I play the 0/30/30/10 build as well but I use all Valkyrie gear with zerker weapons, rings, etc. I find that the Valk set provides me a good bit of health (16K) while still dealing the damage needed to take down my targets quickly. Still, it’s all about what YOU want to do. For this class, I don’t think there is any “right” or “wrong” way to play.

WonderfulCT.6278:

I personally run a 30/30/10/0/0 with soldier armor, everything else is zerker. Runes are scholar.

Just remember there are more efficient places to put your Crit Damage (Berserker, Valkyrie, Cavalier) armour.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/80673-min-maxing-with-critical-damage/

In summary:

For Min Maxing stats, what you want to use to obtain crit damage in order of least stats given up for crit damage:

Exquisite Jewels > Shoulders, Gloves, Boots > Amulet = 1 Hand Weapon > Earring > 2 Hand Weapon > Chest > Head = Legs = Ring = Backpiece

If you are a 0/0/x/x/x build, then I would go with Berzerker. Berzerker offers the damage you need, while the traits offer the defense you need. And as above said, it depends on your playstyle. I want to have sort of a balance in my build, not going pure DPS/pure support, etc.

Comparison of numeric vs. percentage attributes

I use the karma Soldiers armour with Knights leggings and (mostly) Berserker trinkets.

Valk armor + div runes + zerk everything else.

/end thread.