Guild Wars 2

“https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/The-thief-and-its-gameplay-Your-feedback-Merged”, I feel sick everytime I look at this. 3500 worth of pages and all the promises to make thief a better profession are nothing but a lie (Thieves should be given more mobility! Elementalist is actually taking that role, that shouldn’t be the case! – Some post from some anet guy.), unless they count making other professions feel good about taking thieves down easier.

I played D/D 0/30/30/10/0 pretty much for a long time, and right now it’s completely useless against good players right now, so it’s time to switch builds and hopefully give others a better build.

Number 1 build:

The full burst backstab build made (in)famous by Jinzu. There’s no nerf on this yet. Let’s take a look at the traits

30/30/0/0/10

Pros

- Pretty much the highest DPS you can get from this build.
- Burst damage to get that annoying guardian/elementalist down asap.
- The best build for a zerg rush.
- Your loot bags go up with a shortbow. Condition builds shortbow may or may not be good, but I suspect the damage from a 30/30 really beats the condition damage anyway (+ the zerg might be able to put on regen and condition removals.).

Cons

- You can hardly survive fight multiple people.
- High cooldown for skills.
- No mobility.

Anet is going to nerf mug next, probably. Until everything is burnt unto the ground, they won’t stop nerfing thief (I think). At least, that’s what the trend is indicating. Almost from the start there has been numerous complaints about thieves, and since the stealth department has taken a major hit, they’re likely to come after this to placate more angry casual players.

However, this build is truly the most practical build right now. If you’re unhappy about the overall nerf in whatever damage that stealth duration has given, this build remains rock solid and is the rough equivalent of the Warrior’s rifle sniping build. It also brings down guardians and elementalists (did you watch that 2 v Zerg video) easier. High risk build = high rewards. Defending areas with this build is the best because your hybrid 0/30/30/10/0, or P/D condition or 0/20/30/20 D/P builds, simply cannot output the same damage.

This is the most ideal zerg build. Your burst build almost finds a good target (multiple people are below 75% HP), just pick someone and combine with Executioner trait and fury boon to drop him down. After that, quickly resume shooting your arrows to do 3000 damage per shot if you hit multiple enemies (high damage, high crit factor)

Recommended food : Plate of Truffle Steak Dinner (+200 power, 10% crit). If you’re in a zerg, you can easily pick up kills and the +200 power 10% crit will easily come about.

Recommended food 2: Plate of Orrian Steak Frittes (+100 power, +70 vit). Improves power and vitality, a balanced food.

Number 2 build.

D/P build. There are multiple builds out there, but I think 0/20/30/20 is the best survival/DPS build you can possibly use.

Pros

- Best balance between DPS and survival and utility (blind)
- Best mobility.
- Best skirmish build if you don’t want to follow the zerg
- Removes conditions.

Cons

- You can’t kill certain players who are very good.
- You need skill playing this.

I’m not a skilled player, just your average thief. I did okay with this build before the shadow shot buff (now you can combine it with backstab, extremely amazing buff) and if you don’t like the above burst build, you can try this. I think you need to have a good understanding what the other professions have in their repertoire, so you can properly fight them with tactical means.

Recommended food: Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew (+40% endurance regen, gains might on dodge.) Combine this with vigor on heal trait. Might prove to be a swashbuckler build.

Recommended food 2: Bowl of Curry Butternut Squash Soup (+100% precision and 10% crit). Most people will use valkyrie items, and you’re lacking a bit in critical trait, so using this might prove to have more damage to it.

Number 3 build

P/D condition build.

Pros

- Huge health pool
- Great staying power, removes conditions
- Condition build > certain professions.
- Possible to fight 1 vs 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmyLuxTtqIQ)

Cons

- Boring. Unless you like spamming ‘1’
- War of attrition.

Despite that nerf on stealth and caltrops, P/D thieves are still good to use, at least better than D/D thieves that doesn’t use the Jinzu’s build. While I had tried this at least once, I find that I dislike this build the most for some unknown reason. The proof that Wild Bill can do it in WvW means that it should be applicable, but you may need skill for this.

How about sword, you ask? Meh. Sword is the most useless crap right now. I can’t believe I made a bolt and I can’t use it. That S/D build is useless with stealth duration increase, that pistol whip is a ROFL junk that no one wants to go near with given that haste nerf.

Welp, I hope this helps any thieves who are lost in WvW. Three of the best possible builds (in my opinion) right here. Just don’t get your hopes too high up, though. You KNOW there’s going to be ANOTHER nerf.

If there is one thing the thief certainly doesn’t lack, its build variety. We’ve got many builds that work. Some of them might be better than others, but in the end they all work good somehow. Being a good thief doesnt come from a build, but from the person behind the thief.

You’re promoting glasscannon specs (30/30/00/10 or 25/30/0/0/15), although most people will just faceroll over such specs, especially in zergs where an inexperienced player will probably insta die because of AOE. GC specs are probably the worst builds to go for as an inexperienced player, as you’re so reliant on insta gibbing people – if you miss or the oppo knows what he’s doing, you’re practically dead.

Second build suggestion is probably the cheesiest build we’ve got. Seriously there is nothing more lame than d/p stealth spamming. The build works either way (0/10/30/30/0 or 0/20/30/20/0). I’m rather puzzled that ANet obviously thinks this build is fine and rather wants to nerf mug. If you’re a halfway good player u won’t ever loose a fight. You certainly lack the burst potential of a 10/30/30 spec, but fights are so easy as your oppo is basically perma blinded and you’re almost perma stealthed. With the fix on shadow shot, it has become even stronger. I really don’t get why ANet thinks this isn’t OP, I’m quite sure this is not the way the spec is supposed to work, either blind has to go or the excessive stealth use. In my opinion this is the spec that will definitely get us nerfed, its just too easy to play. Also why would stealth trigger although u hit the oppo with heartseeker, this is just bullkitten, I’m definitely not a fan of this build.

Third Build – the infamous wild bill p/d build. It still works quite well I think, but there’s only a few people using it anymore as it isn’t FoTM anymore, although u can easily take on 1on3+ with it. Yet you didn’t even mention that u can also play a d/d condition spec instead of p/d, which is just as strong as p/d, if not even better. Still gotta watch out for glasscannon specs, because they’ll most likely burst u down, if you didnt pay attention or stunbreak is on cooldown.

All in all this is a very biased and subjective list, but you indicated that by saying it is YOUR opinion. Nevertheless saying sword builds are bad doesn’t contribute to your credibility. While I agree that s/p is a crap build, s/d is probably the best side set for WvW in terms of survivability and mindgames. I always find it hilarious, how I can troll entire groups chasing me. Infiltrator strike is just too good and it also offers stealth due to CnD. Also this is probably one of the best duelling sets, as u just wreck ur oppo’s mind by shadowstepping, stealthing and dazing.

Last but not least u didn’t say a single word about the 10/30/30/0/0 spec, which – in my opinion – is the best build we got, but as with every thief build – u have to be good to play it to its full potential and they all work somehow, so pick the one u feel most comfortable with – there are no good or bad builds.

i run 30/30/0/0/10 my trickery trait is long reach. That ting is so amazing. 1200 range on mug <3.

laquito.5269:

If there is one thing the thief certainly doesn’t lack, its build variety. We’ve got many builds that work. Some of them might be better than others, but in the end they all work good somehow. Being a good thief doesnt come from a build, but from the person behind the thief.

………Last but not least u didn’t say a single word about the 10/30/30/0/0 spec, which – in my opinion – is the best build we got, but as with every thief build – u have to be good to play it to its full potential and they all work somehow, so pick the one u feel most comfortable with – there are no good or bad builds.

The reason why I chose full burst build as the best WvW option is because it’s for Zerg vs Zerg. If you’re going for a skirmish class you choose D/P, which I stated clearly (Best skirmish class if you don’t want to follow the zerg). And I refuse to acknowledge the section about “inexperienced players”, because it’s the problem about how Anet Meowed things up for the majority of Vanilla D/D players who didn’t go burst damage. I try to keep the max HP for my thief at 14000 and I can survive relatively okay. Just understand your role is a DPS player and not a tanker.

In the game there are classes that mainly does

1) PVT builds.
2) DPS builds
3) Balanced between survival and DPS
4) Condition builds
5) Others

Now 2, 3, 4 and 5 can be countered by D/P skilled players. That works against the majority of the players. You can’t kill PVT players on your own (elementalists and guardians for example). PVT can’t kill the D/P players easily either. In that aspect, yes, D/P does wonders against maybe 95% of the players if you’re skilled.

D/P is weak against players who actively seek to stop your heartseeker. The majority of the players can’t do that because they don’t trait for it, or they aren’t good enough to know when to stop you. Some of the players I have fought 1v1 spent enough time in the PvP section to actually fight me to a draw and even beat me. But that’s like maybe 1% of the entire WvW population. It’s not as infallible as you think, really.

And despite what you may claim, D/P requires relatively precise skill. It sounds like you don’t play the build enough to see how other players counter you. Once you make one wrong move, you lose your initiative by 8 (fail blind powder + heartseeker). If you want to add in “inexperience players”, they might start to panic and fall even faster.

I doubt I’m more biased than you are when it comes to D/P. You’re completely convinced that the build is OP.

Edit: Out of all the thieves I played, I haven’t encountered a mug thief that beat me yet (not including the full burst spec). I experimented with 10/30/30 before and I conclude that the lack of HP, last refuge and move faster in stealth, is less effective overall as a build. You walk a thinner line with that build too (lack of HP). And I think Yishis would have used 10/30/30 if he actually thought that build is better.

Nothing like getting a stun into the face after casting heartseeker through a smoke field.
It typically means instant death… Even if you live through the stun.

LoneWolfie.1852:

Edit: Out of all the thieves I played, I haven’t encountered a mug thief that beat me yet (not including the full burst spec). I experimented with 10/30/30 before and I conclude that the lack of HP, last refuge and move faster in stealth, is less effective overall as a build. You walk a thinner line with that build too (lack of HP). And I think Yishis would have used 10/30/30 if he actually thought that build is better.

Yeah it’s true I’m obviously not objective concerning d/p builds either. I’ll elaborate on that soon, but just gotta say one more thing. Just because you haven’t encountered any good mug thief, it doesn’t mean the build is bad. I’ve duelled many people, even those who thought they’re tough guys asking out for a 1on1 just to realize that they got facestomped. U obviously didn’t experiment enough with it, because I run around with 16.8k HP, 63crit chance 80critdamage while still having 2.8k armor, it’s all gear dependant. The thinner line I’m running on is a result from the relatively low initative regen compared to 0/20/30/20 and therefore it’s less forgiving to mistakes, thus making it harder to play.

Ok lets get back to d/p: It’s obvious that u’ll have to stop them from hearseekering, but no class/thief has that much abilities to daze or immobilize them to prevent their constant stealth abuse. U’ll have to use x/P yourself to use headshot and daze him, because thats the only “spammable daze”, but even then the d/p build is more forgiving to such mistakes, because of the high initative regen and once he’s in stealth its almost like a free shadow refuge, he can heal up via stealth as long as he wants to. Hitting some1 with heartseeker still triggers the stealth combo while it shouldn’t, any other weapon set gets revealed debuff.. won’t mention the blinds at all I guess everybody knows how annoying they can be, but if you think a on-demand-as-long-as-I-want-to stealth is perfectly balanced, then thats up to you, but I think thats OP.

Also why would you mention Yishis? He’s good okay, but he’s no god and I personally think I could compete with him. Just because he doesn’t use the 10 / 30 /30 it doesnt mean its bad. He uses the 20/30/20 build, because it’s obviously better and easier to play for noobslaying (for him). I also pointed out that the d/p build is (probably) the strongest of all builds, I just prefer my build, because d/p is too cheasy to play (hello overpowered), fights aren’t exciting when u know you’re about to win almost any fight because of excessive stealth abuse. Get it?

I find it even funnier when you put it that way. You said,

“and therefore it’s less forgiving to mistakes, thus making it harder to play.”

so why should I recommend your mug build to anyone? Maybe you can do very well in it, but how many other players can do it? The point here is to use the BEST build for wvw.

Since you already stated yourself that the D/P build is cheese and overpowered, easier to use than your mug build, it’s pretty obvious your 10/30/30 doesn’t need to be recommended.

Last but not least u didn’t say a single word about the 10/30/30/0/0 spec, which – in my opinion – is the best build we got, but as with every thief build – u have to be good to play it to its full potential and they all work somehow, so pick the one u feel most comfortable with – there are no good or bad builds.

Nope, it’s not the best build we thieves have, not even remotely. What’s the point of recommending a build that only 0.1% of the thieves are probably capable of using? If you want a zerg build, full burst is the best, you want a skirmish build, D/P is the best, if you want a 3rd option, P/D is your next. Yishi’s the one who spent the most amount of time playing 0/30/30/10/0 D/D build, and he states that the survivability for DD has dropped, and I personally think it’s true. Whatever D/D build you have that uses stealth, your survivability and DPS has just dropped too much.

Even if what you claim is true that you can do very well with your build, I won’t even think it’s possible for any average thieves to be capable of using it. I find it also highly questionable that you’re able to kill anything other than the squishy players. Anyone who runs a tank build should be able to survive anything you do.

LoneWolfie.1852:

Since you already stated yourself that the D/P build is cheese and overpowered, easier to use than your mug build, it’s pretty obvious your 10/30/30 doesn’t need to be recommended.

Alright I give you that, you’re correct – if people need a WvW build they should rather use those mentioned in here, as they’re probably easier & more popular. Nevertheless I think if peoples intention is to get better, dictating them certain builds is the wrong approach as we’ve got many builds that work, its just up to the players preferences.

LoneWolfie.1852:

Nope, it’s not the best build we thieves have, not even remotely. What’s the point of recommending a build that only 0.1% of the thieves are probably capable of using? If you want a zerg build, full burst is the best, you want a skirmish build, D/P is the best, if you want a 3rd option, P/D is your next. Yishi’s the one who spent the most amount of time playing 0/30/30/10/0 D/D build, and he states that the survivability for DD has dropped, and I personally think it’s true. Whatever D/D build you have that uses stealth, your survivability and DPS has just dropped too much.

See thats what I’m talking about, you make your opinion look like it is a fact, which it isn’t, it’s all up to the player. No offense mate my reply concerning 10/30/30 being the best build, was meant to be ironic, just to show you how ridiculous it sounds to say build XYZ are good, the others are bad. Take it with a bit of salt. Damage & survivability has definitely dropped, but thats true for any stealth setup, d/p admittedly mitigates it better than d/d does, but its not broken, just the rotation is awkward and kittened.

LoneWolfie.1852:

Even if what you claim is true that you can do very well with your build, I won’t even think it’s possible for any average thieves to be capable of using it. I find it also highly questionable that you’re able to kill anything other than the squishy players. Anyone who runs a tank build should be able to survive anything you do.

As I said (nearly) every build has potential, it’s just up to the players preferences. Of course there are builds, which are easy to play (d/p – IMO) and others that aren’t. Although i feel we’re drifting to a e-kitten comparison, I can guarantee you that this admittetly uncommon build works fairly well against any build/profession. In the end I have the same, maybe even more damage output, it’s got less sustained damage, but I can somewhat burst, only downside is damage mitigation, but s/d control makes up for that. Hate the low initative regen though. :| The worst that can happen is that I can’t kill a bunker (guardian), but the same is true for d/p.

I’m just wondering if you(as in everyone) would really want d/p to become the new meta. It’s the stealth heaviest build there is and it would probably cause such a kittenstorm, resulting in stealth getting nerfed even more. A step towards the right direction would be to prevent the stealth stacking on this build or just remove the combo field from blinding powder and give it something to make up for. The overall package is just too good, but maybe thats just me.

I still love my S/D sega-mega-ultimate-blaster build without stealth, just for laughs when they die under my awesome power Hail to S/D and no stealth builds! They can’t whine about stealth anymore

1) It really isn’t just my opinion. You need at least 100% extra crit damage + 3200-3300 base power to beat the PVT class. Otherwise the damage you output from 10/30/30 is insufficient to do anything to them. The good players tend to stop/dodge thieves hitting their rotation at 3rd and 4th strike, making it even harder to damage them. You can only do so much with that build, and D/P has blind/mini stun that’s valuable in a small group fight.

D/D is heavily penalized right now as compared to D/P, and that’s a fact. It’s not a biased opinion.

2) I think D/P is annoying and I personally don’t use it. But the problem is Anet is doing EXTREMELY bad balancing that leaves thief players with not many choices. The survivability for thieves were culling + 3 sec duration stealth. If that’s gone, the average thieves will be looking for something that’s similar to a PVT elementalist who can 1vsZerg.

It’s not like I want this to happen as the new meta. It’s all on Anet.

3) It’s like the problem with pistol whip. Instead of nerfing quickness, they chose to nerf pistol whip. Result? No one uses pistol whip anymore (and after the quickness change, I think everyone just stopped using S/P for WvW). D/D thieves got nerfed in stealth? They don’t want to play D/D anymore and changes to D/P.

D/P Pros
1. Anytime stealth
2. Chaining stealth
3. Best out of stealth defense
4. Best gap closers

D/P Cons
1. High init cost
2. No CnD->Steal->Backstab combo

D/D Pros
1. Best burst with combo
2. CnD off stationary targets
3. Least amount of init for stealthing

D/D Cons
1. No defense out of stealth
2. DB and DD are pretty much useless in comparison.
3. Requires targets to stealth

I like to run both when roaming, but D/P is a must now. You need something to defend you out of stealth now. Blind field is our only option.

LoneWolfie.1852:

“https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/The-thief-and-its-gameplay-Your-feedback-Merged”, I feel sick everytime I look at this. 3500 worth of pages and all the promises to make thief a better profession are nothing but a lie (Thieves should be given more mobility! Elementalist is actually taking that role, that shouldn’t be the case!

“ kitten I’m a ninja assassin! I should run faster than them! Nerf!

Okay, so I am using a D/D-ShortBow Build with A healing/Toughness/Condition Build. I currently have a full build of Apothecary’s gear. 20/0/30/20/0
It’s pretty amazing honestly. The quickness of the hit combos with the dual-daggers applied with Signet of Malice makes you healing incredibly quickly, not to mention with leeching venoms. You’ll keep health whilst dishing out awesome DoTs that will take your opponents down fairly quickly. For Zergs, It’s best to Apply all of your active venoms with your dagger storm and head into the enemy zerg, you will do tons of damage, whilst hardly even getting any health taken from you since every hit from the dagger storm, (Which is an incredible amount) heals you due to your venoms AND your Signet of Malice. After you get through channeling it’s great to throw Shadow Refuge down, switch to shortbow if you can, then use Infiltrator’s arrow to escape.. then hang back, throwing bombs and poison fields until your dagger storm is up and ready to bash face once again.

This is a very stable build currently, I use it all the time.
If you’re a skilled thief player, you wont die at all unless you somehow get stun locked. But that’s rare as a thief.
Yes, it lacks in damage.. but it makes up for it in the crazy heals.

I run a 10/0/30/15/15 P/D & D/D condition build atm, focusing on duration.

You can still pull off the Steal CnD Backstab combo, with a D/P weapon set, except replacing CnD with Heartseeker.

1) Get in range of Steal
2) BP+ HS
3) Before Heartseeker completes, Steal to the target
4) Mug will proc, Heartseeker will hit, and then you will stealth
5) Backstab
6) Spam 2!

Most people don’t do this because D/P is more of a sustained damage kind of build, but if you really want to, you can.

Mine. Balanced D/P build 0/10/30/30/0 with berserker equip and some knight.

ive been playing a S/P thief the entire game with no problems
30 DA
0 CS
20 SA
20 A
0 T
also i amp my power with enhancements and stuff
and signet of malice makes it a rofl fest

ive been playing a S/P thief the entire game with no problems
30 DA
0 CS
20 SA
20 A
0 T
also i amp my power with enhancements and stuff

Test out my build pl0x?

Dorian.8542:

ive been playing a S/P thief the entire game with no problems
30 DA
0 CS
20 SA
20 A
0 T
also i amp my power with enhancements and stuff
and signet of malice makes it a rofl fest

Yep. This.

META =

D/D

0
30
30
10
0

D/P
0
20
30
20
0

Honestly I hate this. People come onto the forums and siphon “the” builds thinking that they’re the be-all-end-all when really, if you’re a skilled player and you make a build that compliments your personal playstyle well, you don’t need a “meta” build and can actually create a shift rather than remaining in this stagnancy. None of these builds consider condition melting for taking camps, none of them consider non-stealth or boon hate and the perception of the “best” build seems to be that from he who uses it. I’d love to share my own builds with the thought that it would help the current meta, but in reality lurkers are just going to snatch up any build that see and deem noteworthy only to abuse and misuse the owner’s original intent and in most cases claim that they’re the creators. If you ever PvP with me, feel free to check out my build out of genuine interest. I cannot and will not post personal or TL builds due to the lurkers that the warrior forum has suffered so much from. We’re better than them. Let’s step up and build around what we like for us, and stop stealing from the forums, shall we?

EDIT: However, I may begin creating builds and posting build videos for the public to increase build variety and help us as a class get out of this “Burst or nothing” rut. The current meta is conditions, and we need to adapt to remain on top.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Honestly I hate this. People come onto the forums and siphon “the” builds thinking that they’re the be-all-end-all when really, if you’re a skilled player and you make a build that compliments your personal playstyle well, you don’t need a “meta” build and can actually create a shift rather than remaining in this stagnancy. None of these builds consider condition melting for taking camps, none of them consider non-stealth or boon hate and the perception of the “best” build seems to be that from he who uses it. I’d love to share my own builds with the thought that it would help the current meta, but in reality lurkers are just going to snatch up any build that see and deem noteworthy only to abuse and misuse the owner’s original intent and in most cases claim that they’re the creators. If you ever PvP with me, feel free to check out my build out of genuine interest. I cannot and will not post personal or TL builds due to the lurkers that the warrior forum has suffered so much from. We’re better than them. Let’s step up and build around what we like for us, and stop stealing from the forums, shall we?

Or you should share and discuss the +’s and -‘s of each build. If some one says omg nooooooooob without giving any reasons why they feel it’s not a good build, just ignore them. Some one posted a S/P build and didn’t get flamed for it (which is hardly the current meta).

Aberrant.6749:

Viking Jorun.5413:

Honestly I hate this. People come onto the forums and siphon “the” builds thinking that they’re the be-all-end-all when really, if you’re a skilled player and you make a build that compliments your personal playstyle well, you don’t need a “meta” build and can actually create a shift rather than remaining in this stagnancy. None of these builds consider condition melting for taking camps, none of them consider non-stealth or boon hate and the perception of the “best” build seems to be that from he who uses it. I’d love to share my own builds with the thought that it would help the current meta, but in reality lurkers are just going to snatch up any build that see and deem noteworthy only to abuse and misuse the owner’s original intent and in most cases claim that they’re the creators. If you ever PvP with me, feel free to check out my build out of genuine interest. I cannot and will not post personal or TL builds due to the lurkers that the warrior forum has suffered so much from. We’re better than them. Let’s step up and build around what we like for us, and stop stealing from the forums, shall we?

Or you should share and discuss the +’s and -‘s of each build. If some one says omg nooooooooob without giving any reasons why they feel it’s not a good build, just ignore them.

I never said that any of these builds were bad or called anyone a noob. I can respect each and every build creator here, but worry for the lurkers. As I said in my edit before you posted, I’ll start posting build videos of builds of my own creation and discuss the pros and cons of each one, as no build is perfect for every situation. The biggest issue I see with our class is the fact that people, typically the influx of lurkers, play thief simply because they think we’re OP and want to see big numbers on their screen. I can appreciate the hybrid builds here since they’re moving in the direction of the current condition meta, but they aren’t direct counters to anything specific and I can see how you could easily misuse them, especially without an explanation from said build’s creator. “This build is designed to..” And “This build is for..” go a long way to help our lurkers choose a build that people can respect because it doesn’t fit the “M” word and is still successful in achieving its intended purpose as a build. There is no “one size fits all” build, so it’s our job to let people know specific points about a build and it’s owner’s intentions.

Wasn’t trying to imply you were calling anyone noob Viking, was basically just saying ignore the reasonless haters. I agree with explaining the uses of builds like… P/D can be boss… for slapping yaks.

Aberrant.6749:

Wasn’t trying to imply you were calling anyone noob Viking, was basically just saying ignore the reasonless haters. I agree with explaining the uses of builds like… P/D can be boss… for slapping yaks.

A friend of mine runs a variation of my full condition build and swaps shortbow for P/D just for a gap closer and to proc his sigil of geomancy when the weapon swap cooldown is up. Currently P/D isn’t strong enough to be viable on its own, but it does act as a very good secondary set when you need to step back and lay down some conditions as pure team support. Every weapon set and build has a roll, and I don’t think most thieves know the role of their build. More often than not you see people quitting our class solely because the survivability of burst is so low. More options need to be introduced to revitalize the class, and I’m not saying ANet has to do anything. I’m saying that it’s our duty as players and the build creators to go in depth and discuss every detail of our builds and their purpose in PvP/WvW.

I’ll start posting build videos next week and possibly begin streaming at one point, if my GPU can handle it. Keep an eye out.

I agree with Viking Jorun.5413, if the trait setup and utilities are not to your liking/playstyle, you will never be good with whatever other people call the best setup. Your traits/utilities should be whatever you feel the most comfortable with, and give you the best performance, with 1 exception. If your traits are built specifically to do damage, and nothing else, there will be a right way and a wrong way.

For instance, playing a 30/25/0/0/15 D/D build will play exactly like a 25/30/0/0/15 D/D build, but the second build can easily be proven to have greater DPS through math. In this instance, the person doing 30/25/15 is in the wrong. But, if there was some utility in the deadly arts line that altered how you would play, then you couldnt make the argument that it is wrong anymore, because it would be built to get that trait, not to do the most damage possible.

I would like to point out though, that there are definitely correct and incorrect ways to go about picking stats for your gear. Like if you were wearing all soldiers gear, and decided you needed a bit more damage, so you changed your hat, body and legs to berserkers, that is by far the least efficient way to gain damage that is open to you, and absolutely not what you should be doing.

The way I see it is the best thing you could do, is try different trait setups to see what you like. Then determine how much defense you need and build that into your gear first in the best slots to pick up defense (like those hat body and legs slots I mentioned earlier) After that decide if you want utilities in your runes/sigils and which ones suite you, then build the rest of your gear for max DPS. And again, yes, there are correct and incorrect ways to do this.