Build crafting the Thief Tank

Build crafting the Thief Tank

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Posted by: Kirochique.9186

Kirochique.9186

So I’ve recently come upon build crafting for Thief and I had an idea!
Thief tank.
Many other classes can make a good tank, why not thief?
So I got to experimenting, the only tanky thing a thief can do is dodge.
Imagine this,
A thief that forever dodges and just spreads condi’s everywhere and has a constant heal! Awful right?
Yes for everyone else!
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVn8lCFOhVOB+OB8PhFqiaO77+w37C+gtrrnCgGA-TpRAQBc4QAAgHAwCOBA9Y/hJWGwDHBAA

With this build your Dagger/Dagger 3 skill heals you for 600HP every time you use it,
Your evades are pretty much forever as you have signet of agility and channeled vigor.
Every dodge does damage, gives you swiftness and clears conditions.
I find myself running into 1v2’s instead of avoiding them and keeping players occupied for minutes at a time trying to kill me, and if they can’t then they bleed to death no matter how much condi clear they have.
How is this not the Meta?!

Let me know what you all think as a thief community? I’m really happy I’m able to share this with you all, even if you prefer power bursty builds.
Thx – Jhadir

Jhadir the Charr Thief (ET) EradonTerrace
All the dodge!

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Posted by: saerni.2584

saerni.2584

High evade spam is useful, but this thief lacks somewhat in the mobility and chasing department. Strong ranged attacks or classes with AoE stuns/knockdowns/etc will prove the death of this particular build.

That said, it is a strong build against players who have no answer to perma evade builds.

Many people disparage what can work as being too easy. That’s why it isn’t meta. There are also those who feel power damage is superior to condition damage and like to see big numbers—also why this isn’t meta.

Personally I like to have the flexibility that range (pistol) gives me against people. That is why I personally don’t take a D/D condition approach.

Northern Shiverpeaks (NSP)
Thief (Daredevil)
Commandant of Pistol-Dagger and Apex Predator

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Posted by: Kirochique.9186

Kirochique.9186

Your mobility / chase comes from your signet and your steal both have a good 20s’ish cooldown
, but yes you could swap out sb for d/p kitten is only good for skill 5

Jhadir the Charr Thief (ET) EradonTerrace
All the dodge!

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Posted by: Kirochique.9186

Kirochique.9186

Also have the insta stunbreak every 40s and 2 stunbreak utilities

Jhadir the Charr Thief (ET) EradonTerrace
All the dodge!

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Posted by: Taobella.6597

Taobella.6597

to be a bunker thief you need up time on weakness + ranged skills thief hp may be small but weakness make thief very hard to kill when they can never crit you. so that being said i would change your minor to weakness one

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Posted by: Kirochique.9186

Kirochique.9186

to be a bunker thief you need up time on weakness + ranged skills thief hp may be small but weakness make thief very hard to kill when they can never crit you. so that being said i would change your minor to weakness one

Thanks! The minor skill reduces uptime on the heal skill and gives extra endurence. If only it wasn’t so useful id be able to switch it ????

Jhadir the Charr Thief (ET) EradonTerrace
All the dodge!

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Posted by: Sir Vincent III.1286

Sir Vincent III.1286

If you want to go tanky;
- You need to use Unhindered Combatant…for damage reduction and anti-CC.
- You need to use Withdraw with Vigorous Recovery.
- You need to use Guarded Initiation with Pistol/Dagger.
- You need to use Don’t Stop…for anti-CC.
- You need to use Trickster…you get more Endurance per Withdraw (VR) than per Steal using BT.
- You need to use Sleight of Hands for obvious reasons.
- You need to use Impairing Daggers instead of Infiltrator Signet
- Caltrops…omg, this doesn’t need to be said.
- You need to use Impacting Strike if you’re gonna use Krait’s Rune…look at the synergy.

TL;DR
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQRAqY6Yn0MBdmiNPBGOBkmiFuiqLAexY07AygKYO5b+qH-TJRHABAcSAE4JAEy+DfXGAA

http://sirvincentiii.com ~ In the beginning…there was Tarnished Coast…
Full set of 5 unique skills for both dual-wield weapon sets: P/P and D/D – Make it happen
PvE – DD/CS/AC – If that didn’t work, roll a Reaper or Revenant.

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Posted by: Eval.2371

Eval.2371

Adding my own two cents… I experimented tank thief for a while, mainly as a front liner.

Thief kinda struggles with the whole tank concept because it lacks stability and even if you perma dodge, you still have windows at the start and end of dodges where you can be locked down and rendered useless. Anyone worth their salt knows what to do vs a dodge spaming dagger dagger thief. I found that staff was a much better tool for tank thief, as it allowed you to sustain via blinds and weakness, have two skills that dodge, as well as make picks with hook strike.

I ended up running this.

The whole idea of the build is to either knock them down repeatedly from stealth with hook strike and burst them with vault/weakening charge or dash in between people while putting up blinds and weakness. It was very effective but struggles in the burst department at times.

[Cya] TC Roamer/Scout
I Play WvW to have fun. I don’t find it fun anymore. Therefore I don’t play.

(edited by Eval.2371)

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Posted by: Kirochique.9186

Kirochique.9186

Adding my own two cents… I experimented tank thief for a while, mainly as a front liner.

Thief kinda struggles with the whole tank concept because it lacks stability and even if you perma dodge, you still have windows at the start and end of dodges where you can be locked down and rendered useless. Anyone worth their salt knows what to do vs a dodge spaming dagger dagger thief. I found that staff was a much better tool for tank thief, as it allowed you to sustain via blinds and weakness, have two skills that dodge, as well as make picks with hook strike.

I ended up running this.

The whole idea of the build is to either knock them down repeatedly from stealth with hook strike and burst them with vault/weakening charge or dash in between people while putting up blinds and weakness. It was very effective but struggles in the burst department at times.

As far as WvW goes this build has not been defeated by another player in a 1v1 yet, The build works fairly well for zerg confusion, as you can jump into the middle of a zerg and come out unscathed, or just confuse them enough for your zerg to surprise them.

Jhadir the Charr Thief (ET) EradonTerrace
All the dodge!

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Posted by: Taobella.6597

Taobella.6597

Adding my own two cents… I experimented tank thief for a while, mainly as a front liner.

Thief kinda struggles with the whole tank concept because it lacks stability and even if you perma dodge, you still have windows at the start and end of dodges where you can be locked down and rendered useless. Anyone worth their salt knows what to do vs a dodge spaming dagger dagger thief. I found that staff was a much better tool for tank thief, as it allowed you to sustain via blinds and weakness, have two skills that dodge, as well as make picks with hook strike.

I ended up running this.

The whole idea of the build is to either knock them down repeatedly from stealth with hook strike and burst them with vault/weakening charge or dash in between people while putting up blinds and weakness. It was very effective but struggles in the burst department at times.

As far as WvW goes this build has not been defeated by another player in a 1v1 yet, The build works fairly well for zerg confusion, as you can jump into the middle of a zerg and come out unscathed, or just confuse them enough for your zerg to surprise them.

i tested around with dagger dagger in zerging turn out short bow just more effective dps your death blossom get spred out too much an it easy to clear but choking gas is much harder to deal with an pulse on more players. even if the number when using it make it feel like it doing not much.

here a short clip of how my build works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MNJJGndFNs

my build goal around wiping con clear for fallow up zerg to wipe them clean.

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Posted by: Zlater.6789

Zlater.6789

Thief is already used for tanking in organised pve, you just go full glass… Then just swap your weapons to s/p for the stationary evade and use invigorating precision, swap in a little bit of toughness for aggro management. Then bam: thief tank. You only lose about 10% of your damage this way.