Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing thief since launch, and as a frequent browser of the thief forums I want to know how players have really made this class their own. I’m asking players to submit any odd builds, utility setups, and combos made up that work in either wvw or spvp or pve (note which one each build is specific to.)

Submit clips of how the combo works or describe how it should. Include what advantages or disadvantages if any.

well in a way, isnt everyone’s thief there own i mean no two look the same :p

As an example I’ll include my spvp build.

Standard glass cannon traits, infiltrator signets, valkyrie gem inside of berserker’s amulet.
Sword/pistol and shortbow.

Utilities: shadow refuge, ambush, scorpion wire, thieves guild.

Process:

This usually turns around a fight for me as I do play GC. After taking too many hits I’ll refuge and use thieves guild. Then I back up and place and ambush trap, then scorpion wire my target through the trap. This creates 3 thieves (1 ranged, 1 melee, and one random from ambush)

Going into stealth enables me to root my target for a bit with either sneak attack from sword or shortbow. The damage from thieves is good enough to down GC builds with one additional backstab. If the enemy is tougher I’ll abuse shadow return and flanking strike and dance around both in and out of stealth. With the extra dps it really helps to focus down bunker builds as well.

In group fights, shortbow may be better to use, just for the better spread of damage. Having 3 more bodies on screen gives a good advantage. However, if the other team has strong AOE, don’t count on your thieves being around for their full duration.

Other than that, play to the thieves strengths and be fast.

Strong 1v1 with most classes. Helps me hold a capture point easily, high mobility, great damage.

Not the greatest group utility, and has trouble being effective vs mesmers and thieves, and arguably rangers. Cannot work underwater.

RedSpectrum.1975:

well in a way, isnt everyone’s thief there own i mean no two look the same :p

I meant how do you play thief. What do you do to make it special instead of just spamming cloak and dagger, or using signets, etc. Or just tricks that you think many other thieves could benefit from learning.

So you basically want a summery of these entire forums?

I’ve had a great time with my PP/SD build in WvW. Haven’t tried it out in sPvP yet. Here’s a link to the thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/P-P-S-D-WvW-Video-Something-Different/

There are some good examples of how I play it, along with build/gear/etc in the video on the first post.

My PvE Condition Build:
0
20 VI, IX
0
30 II, IX, III
20 V, III
Utilities: Call Owl, Caltrops, Shadow Refuge (Yes I use a racial skill, it’s quite handy for some extra bleeds)
Rabid/Rampager gear mix (Crit to proc Opportunist)

My Roaming WvW/Solo PvE build
0
30 I, X, XI
0
30 II, X, VIII
10 V
Utilities: Signet of Infiltration, Haste, Shadow Refuge
Full Zerker gear

Both specs use:
2x Monk
2x Water
2x Hoelbrak
D/D + SB – Strength/Accuracy + Energy
Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew + Tuning Crystals

Playstyles are:
Condi – Roll around in between Death Blossoms (High Evasion uptime through skills and dodging)
Direct – Roll back and Heartseeker back into melee until 50% health then I can spam HS (Popping Steal for more Initiative and Fury) Haste beforehand is optional.

I didn’t want to rely on stealth (I found it… Boring) and so made 2 builds around being agile and dodging a lot…

ok then 10/30/30/0/0 i would go in depth but i dont know them by hand

My full armor set is the valkyrie set with the duelist skin.
Main weapon usage belongs to the dual daggers, as for what the secondary is depends on where I am:
Dungeon/pvpwvw
I use shortbow as it has aoe but also has great escape potential. Trick shot is also useful

pve: P/P because i wish it were better for other people and had synergy with D/D but you cant have everything apparently, and it just feels kitten.

As for battle approach, i try to run toward them and steal when able, which leads to a backstab. the rest of a fight will revolve around me evading sparingly while CnD and backstabbing trying to sparingly use HiS and SR. When fighting another thief, in WvW, when they go in stealth, i try to CnD off of the little things so that I can save my main stealth utilities for when I really need them. and when times get desperate when they go into stealth and I have nothing left, Dagger Storm as a last resort option. Lately if I get caught in a 1v1 in WvW and they put up a good fight, I’ll give them a bow. Though it seems female toons’ bows have an insulting behaviour to them…

Is that what you wanted?

RedSpectrum.1975:

ok then 10/30/30/0/0 i would go in depth but i dont know them by hand

My full armor set is the valkyrie set with the duelist skin.
Main weapon usage belongs to the dual daggers, as for what the secondary is depends on where I am:
Dungeon/pvpwvw
I use shortbow as it has aoe but also has great escape potential. Trick shot is also useful

pve: P/P because i wish it were better for other people and had synergy with D/D but you cant have everything apparently, and it just feels kitten.

As for battle approach, i try to run toward them and steal when able, which leads to a backstab. the rest of a fight will revolve around me evading sparingly while CnD and backstabbing trying to sparingly use HiS and SR. When fighting another thief, in WvW, when they go in stealth, i try to CnD off of the little things so that I can save my main stealth utilities for when I really need them. and when times get desperate when they go into stealth and I have nothing left, Dagger Storm as a last resort option. Lately if I get caught in a 1v1 in WvW and they put up a good fight, I’ll give them a bow. Though it seems female toons’ bows have an insulting behaviour to them…

Is that what you wanted?

Pretty much. Thanks for the contribution, as well as everyone else so far.

this is for wvwvw, and playing so much wvwvw, i feel like mobility is the best thing for wvwvw, running to objectives, escaping for survivability, sticking to enemies, moving around in and out of stealth. so i based my build around expeditious dodger and feline grace.

10 critical strikes – v pistol mastery
30 shadow arts – iv shadows embrace, vii power shots, xi shadows rejuvenation
15 acrobatics – ii power of inertia
15 trickery – v thrill of the crime

lots of health regen if you pick up omnomberry ghost and SoM from sneak attack and trick shots

p/v/t armor with 2 air, 2 pact and 2 speed berserker trinkets
berserker shortbow with sigil of energy and p/d with sigil of energy and accuracy

your gonna have lots of endurance to dodge while giving yourself swiftness and might, ranged weapons to kite, and each weapon swap gives a free dodge to keep the cycle going. the best part about this is your gonna constantly cripple the target with dancing dagger and disabling shot while creating alot of distance and if they go range, you can play up close witht he p/d to pop in and out of stealth. lots of stuns also with cnd, swapping to sb to surprise shot

the ability to stick to your enemy and create distance is just rediculous, this is my favorite trolling build that can dish out some good dps

My build is NOT a bunker build
Rune Set,
Sup Mercy

Util Skills:
Shadow Refuge
Haste
Shadowstep

Revive the teammate and get out.
(Used for stalking some GC commanders)

I played every spec and combination imaginable. [Sword Conditions lol] And, even though there is still much to learn about what all classes can do, I think I have a decent understanding and ability to play my class.

I used to main a PowerSword build, but got bored and swapped to p/d conditions and quickly realized that—that spec is useless when all we get is a mediocre poison and some bleeds. This is also about the time I learned that Condition damage isn’t as important as condition duration. [Leveling I played d/d conditions with caltrops, was good fun but not in WvW]

Regardless, I then decided to go back to a Backstab build for WvW roaming. No, not the 25/30/0/0/15 build. My own build with PvT gear and traits of 10/30/15/0/15. I found that my damage was weaker than most GC, but I had more survivability. I got bored and irritated of the spec due to the stigma of Backstab Thieves and resorted the the earlier P/d build.

Then that’s when I had an awesome idea, which is my current spec that I love. It’s the same trait lines and points as my BS build but with Pistol traits, ofc. 10/30/15/0/15 with Knights Armor, Cavaliers Trinkets and Cavaliers Weapons with Ruby orbs. I have 2800+ armor and 3000+ attack and 47% crit chance with 91% crit damage. This spec makes you tanky with burst option as well as bleeds that do 50 per tick and can stack easily with C&D auto attacks. The Dual Skill for p/d is really strong against Melee classes. I can get 1k+ for the initial hit and then a 3k+ when I shadowtep away and shoot. This is spamable and also causes you to miss their attacks.

My favorite combo is to Steal -C&D – Auto Attack – Shoot two Body Shots and then hit Shadow Strike.

I use Hide in Shadows – Shadowstep – Signet of Shadows – Shadow Refuge — and Dagger Storm. For WvW.

—Dean

http://youtu.be/zmwXAFbFQiQ
here an example of p/d playstyle in WvWvW, this an old video
i was stop playing since 2months ago, so dunno what changed they made to thief class

http://[/url]http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-c33V;1Rwk0-J5VOVd0;9;59TJ9;12;049A59-3;0LNV0;2Ewk2Ewk28kf[/url]

I run a “tanky bleed” Thief with a 0/0/30/20/20 spread, and actually run a full set of mad king runes, a life sigil, and the condition/vit/toughness ascended gear.

Basically, it’s a P/D/Shortbow spec that trades in some DPS from longer bleeds for an increase in burst and a very large increase in survivability from signet of malice and traits. It’s pretty good and diving in to zerg fights and tanking trash in instances, and I wouldn’t trade the birds+SoM heal for anything now that I’m so used to it.

no, because all popular builds get the nerfbat from what i saw…
sharing is not a good idea…. unless it is a bad build ^^