Guild Wars 2

So for the past month i have been trying out every thief build imaginable to find what works best for me. I’ve done condition builds and damage build alike. Right now i am using D/D Assassin gear build and it works well, but my survivability leaves something to be desired. I am considering a Celestial build, but i cannot just outright buy this gear and it will take some time to craft. So i want to ask the community if anyone knows if a fully celestial build (any weapon set) works well for thieves? I’m not just looking for numbers either, I would like some input from people who have actually tested this build.

I’m mostly WvW if that helps.

This question gets asked every few weeks. Celestial is about the worst set for thieves. Mix in some soldiers or valks if you want survivability. Don’t ask which is better, it just starts a nerd fight.

I was unaware this was a common topic here as I don’t often visit the thieves forum. But if there are people who think it works great then i would love to hear their opinion.

To be completely honest with you, Celestial gear is almost never superior to other types of gear in any build across any profession. The inconsistency simply makes a build completely pointless. If you ever use Celestial gear, it’s only going to be to balance out the other gear types that you have in what would otherwise still be a “jack-of-all-trades” build, and those builds tend not to be very effective anyways.

If you’re looking for survivability, go Soldier’s. It’ll provide you a decent bit of damage while also giving you magnificent protection. The build that I used to use in sPvP was this (or this for WvW), and while it is still an acceptable build, the truth of the matter is that it is fairly ineffective. Thieves have begun to crawl to the bottom rung of the ladder, and I would say that, apart from elementalists, thieves are very likely the worst class in the game (eles, unfortunately, were hit far harder than they should’ve been, and many of the problems plaguing them at the release of this game still affect them today). As it just so happens, the only real trump cards that we have compared to other classes, which are, for the most part, independent of one another, are stealth and mobility.

Stealth is only really useful for reconnaissance and burst damage, although the former can easily be accomplished by mobility. On the other hand, mobility affects a large number of factors: being able to travel to places you normally wouldn’t be able to, to use different tactics in battle, and so forth. However, burst doesn’t work if you don’t do a lot of burst damage, and, given the current state of the game, using your mobility will only work out to your advantage if you can do lots of damage, because it takes so long otherwise to take out an enemy and thus gives them more time to counter you.

Long story short, if you’re going to run a stealth build (D/D), these days, you have to run high damage. Otherwise, you defeat the purpose of the build, and other classes are going to surpass you in effectiveness. While that especially applies to D/D, it also applies to all other thief builds. In other words: if you aren’t going to run high damage, you’re going to be very ineffective compared to other classes.

Hope you only read the important bits. tell me what you think so far.

Well it seemed like a good option because of the higher crit damage. Mix that with hidden killer in theory could cover the lack of overall damage. But i guess i’ll stick with my assassin’s gear. Thanks for the input.

Arcuss.6457:

Well it seemed like a good option because of the higher crit damage. Mix that with hidden killer in theory could cover the lack of overall damage. But i guess i’ll stick with my assassin’s gear. Thanks for the input.

Only piece which provides really good bonuses compared to the other choices is the Celestial Helm. Everything else is a waste.

Celestial p/d works, about as good as other armor sets for p/d, but I don’t think you can pull a “superior” build out of celestial stats (maybe things will change dec 10?).

0/20/30/0/20 or 0/10/30/20/10 I’ve found to be viable.

Try a celestial D/D burst/condition hybrid using x/30/x/x/30, using both backstab and death blossom. I’d love to see that, and you’re using every stat Celestial has to offer.

Combine it with divinity rune, it will help spread your stats. It is there for a reason. In fact if you draw this out on paper, it will make a thief with high toughness provided with right trinkets. A thief or any other thief have to be open minded in regard to build.

Stay classy batman,

-Remember to spam skill #2 all day every day.

-peace.

better use traveller runes. d/d lacks long range gap closers,SoS is crap, probably not going to trait acro? also condi/boon duration is nice to have for hybrids (10/30/30/0/0 for example).

Celestial Armor set:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Celestial-Armor/first#post2424729

Celestial Hat:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Building-a-better-D-D-thief/page/3#post2623220

No, never celestial. Celestial is not worth the time to make, nor is it beneficial in any way. Avoid it. If berserker isn’t working for you try practicing evades, know what to watch out for.