Guild Wars 2

We all know that Zerker gear is the basis and you add survivability according to your spec’s requirements or your own liking. But I’m unsure how exactly that is done.

So whats the best? Soldier, Valk or Knight? Toughness or Vitality? If the 67% crit chance cap is real, then Valk seems to be the best (if you reach 47% + Fury, you are pretty much crit-capped. But have a lot more HP, than Zerker.). I’ve seen threads where different stat combinations and their effective HP were compared. Yishis’ build (Valk), some guy with Soldier and an other with the combination of Knight+Soldier. They all were between 21800-23000 effective HP and the difference between offensive stats was even smaller. However the Soldier gear set was the winner in both categories. Is this still the case?

Sure it depends on what spec you are running, but with the nerfs to direct damage, a power thief is pretty much pigeonholed into running full zerker gear with Strength runes in order to function similarly to their pre-patch role. Valkyrie armor I’m afraid, just doesn’t give enough damage. Roamers have made up for this in a few ways. I like using the zerk/valk trinkets instead of the full zerk trinkets for a little bit of added HP. Also, acrobatics S/D thieves are quite strong now so the added Vitality from running 6 points into Acro can also help with the HP problems. Then of course you have your 5 stacks of Applied Fortitude.

Nimrud.5642:

…If the 67% crit chance cap is real, …

Critical Chance cap? Where did you get that?
Talk page on Deathly Perception suggests there is no cap.

Anyway, you’d want toughness over, or with, vitality when you stay in combat for extended periods of time, like in zerg battles or skirmishes. Think of your vitality as a large upfront heal, applied whenever you are out of combat, making it a very effective use of attribute points when you go in and out of combat rapidly, but when you stay in combat for a longer time, with many other sources of healing, that single heal gradually looses influence.

Maxing total stats before ferocity change was due to the fact that crit dmg was in % instead of a flat stat like everything else. Since ferocity is a flat stat, you won’t get that many more total stat points like before. The only thing you can do to max your total stats now is using as least as possible stats for precision/ferocity to reach whole % for crit chance and crit dmg. The difference is very small tho, you might want to save yourself the time.

Valk is nice for backstab builds with hidden killer and adds a nice cushion to condi dmg.

Condi dmg ignores toughness so having high armour won’t help against condi builds. vs direct dmg toughness is nice especially in longer fights as it makes your heals more effective.

With Knights you lose power as it is a minor stat on that set.

Select your gear based on what you want to do with you build, which weaponset you will be using and what type of enemies you have hard time dealing with.

Ty guys. Probably I’ll need a full zerker set for the 1/0/0/6/6 S/D build and I’ll make some Soldier armor (or trinket or weapon – depending on the random loot I get from fracs and whatnot) for the 1/0/6/0/6 D/P build. I tend to play them both.

Anyways, you’ve helped a lot. Ty.

This is what I use for WvW:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQRAoY8YlsMp0pdPx8J8PNBNBt9DGeE4uGrYGaFAA-T1TBABlqSgK6Be4BAkgJoIOBAXpc5GVI6SJBWKhGa/BU0MMhSwFOIA5ouCAHBASB8wWA-w

A combination of zerker, Valkyrie, and Cavalier.

I’m pretty sure a mix of Zerker/Valkyrie and Cavalier is the best option for thieves. You keep the damage but gain survivability which is awesome.