I’d like to try Orr runes, to focus on Poison uptime, given Potent Poison trait. Krait runes however allow you to stack bleeds to 30+ easily with caltrops. I tried adventurer, but spamming DB & dodge just doesn’t seem like a sustainable playstyle in dungeons/raids/fracts. Currently I think I’m running Afflicted in my condi set, for boost to bleed & poison duration, because those are the conditions we put out the most.
I’m thinking about the condi play style with a focus on d/d AA’s with the Dagger training trait. This would put poison stacks in the 12’s if not more with a venom, using Viper’s armor for good amounts of Power and Condi.
But to get my Orr runes… Arah runs… =(
Edit For sigils I’m using Bursting & Malice on my d/d set.
“No valid path to target” – Thief life (Dragonbrand)
I’m running all the runes and trying them out. Right now I’m on scavenging and I like them a lot. Overall condi boost that helps poison and bleed, and the heal is pretty awesome on top of the heals we already get for evading. Also as long as you have Vit in your armor (you should) they give one of the highest condi dmg stats possible.
Given posion and bleed are our most accessible conditions in the base build it is my opinion that poison duration needs to be increased in a thief d/d build over bleed as the base durations of the bleeds are already significant.
As such poison duration runes would fit the bill. Orrian is good applying that extra stack of poison on occassion but the quickness bonus 6 is sort of meh in a condition build.
Rata Sum are interesting but more sutiable to a hybrid build. You can use the number 6 bonus to get a whole lof of whirls off of for extra condition loads.
Sunless has some nice decrease on incoming conditions but the fear on number 6 could be a hindrance fearing the enemy away from you when you need to be laying on bleeds. That said with nerfs to condition foods that 15 percent condition duration decrease is more significant.
The afflicted runes are not all bad adding both poison and bleed durations and that death nova can sometimes play your way and down an overconfident enemy but is really too situational in that regard.
I just managed to get my final piece for a Superior rune of Thorns set and that works pretty good. Typically I have found you can expect around 200 more to your condition damage although it can go as high as 300 and that akin to having two sigils of bursting.
Given posion and bleed are our most accessible conditions in the base build it is my opinion that poison duration needs to be increased in a thief d/d build over bleed as the base durations of the bleeds are already significant.
As such poison duration runes would fit the bill. Orrian is good applying that extra stack of poison on occassion but the quickness bonus 6 is sort of meh in a condition build.
Rata Sum are interesting but more sutiable to a hybrid build. You can use the number 6 bonus to get a whole lof of whirls off of for extra condition loads.
Sunless has some nice decrease on incoming conditions but the fear on number 6 could be a hindrance fearing the enemy away from you when you need to be laying on bleeds. That said with nerfs to condition foods that 15 percent condition duration decrease is more significant.
The afflicted runes are not all bad adding both poison and bleed durations and that death nova can sometimes play your way and down an overconfident enemy but is really too situational in that regard.
I just managed to get my final piece for a Superior rune of Thorns set and that works pretty good. Typically I have found you can expect around 200 more to your condition damage although it can go as high as 300 and that akin to having two sigils of bursting.
See this is where I was headed, buff poison duration especially with potent poison buff. Quickness could be good for shelling out more dagger attacks for lotus poison, but…
Superior Rune of Thorns! I completely didn’t even know this was in the game, and this is definitely the rune I’ve been looking for! Thanks for this.
“No valid path to target” – Thief life (Dragonbrand)
I’m glad you made this post! I was just about to inquire about runes choices for Condi DD. I play it in both PvE and WvW and knowing what could work for both would be great! Currently running krait runes since I stack bleeds faster and more frequently than poisons but I’m wondering if the Rune of Thorns is worth it too.
Nightmare runes are actually a nice option for the Death Blossom builds. They stack condi dmg and duration and the 1s fear half the time when hit makes fighting against them a pain. Most hits are evaded but when they land the player cannot setup for the next attack since they are feared off.
That said Krait runes are really hard to beat for bleed builds.
Sarcasm For Hire [SFH]
“Youre lips are movin and youre complaining about something thats wingeing.”
I have a sinister, condi thief with D/D and shortbow and yea trying to unlock daredevil to use it fully but well i use Krait runes. I am no thief expert tho, is not even my main, i mostly use it because i made the dreamer and well thief are probably the best with shortbow. Need to show that legendary lol
The best way to decide runes is to put your entire build into GW2skills.net and look at the skill tooltips with different runes. This way you can see if that +20% condi duration actually puts you above fractions of a second or not.
I am running with Rata Sum runes and they work wonderfully well when you mix in Deadly Arts because of the Lotus Poison (weakness when apply poison). I was able to do the entire intro story to get into VB with Sinister armor and one of my daggers being lvl 67 (the other is 80) and my rings/amulet being like lvl 47 since I am waiting on laurels again without getting downed or even close to it. I even saw my poison ticks exceed 8k damage (I imagine 10k with proper lvl 80 gear). It made me fall in love with thief enough that I think she just got promoted to one of the mains (my guard is basically just a crafter now).
However, for sigils, I am not sure what I want yet… I have a Sigil of Endurance, which I think would be amazing in DareDevil build but, if I use that, then is the other one a condi stacker or bleed/poison duration increase?
This is my build idea so far… any suggestions on improvements? I am fairly new to thief seeing as I just got her to 80 last week.
