Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing off and on since launch, but am only around level 60. That said, I’ve been having an increasingly difficult time with PvE. It has become so frustrating that I’ve almost given up on my Thief multiple times, especially seeing how my alts and my non-Thief friends just cruise through content.

Anyway, I recently respecced into a heavy condition (bleed) build, putting as much as I could in + condition dmg/duration, and picking traits that go along with it. I basically spam caltrops (through the dodge trait and the actual skill) and Death Blossom. It turns out that the majority of the fight I’m not even able to be hit, between the constant evades of dodging and DB. In the meantime, my enemy has a constant stack of about 12+ bleeds on them at all times, and are basically perma-crippled. This also works excellent for taking out large groups of enemies.

If I ever get into trouble, I switch to P/D and just keep applying bleeds and cripples, while keeping my distance.

So far, it isn’t super quick and the burst damage is super low, but it has been working well. I even tried it in sPvP with great success.

Any thoughts on this build/idea?

Hush child. Don’t give away out secret build that’s underrated.

I currently play a very similar build.

In solo PvE, it is pretty effective.

In open world PvE such as world events, it is pretty useless as the bleed cap is hit quickly and minimizes your dps.

In dungeon PvE, it is ‘ok’, but not as good as other sets as the majority of enemies will die before your full bleed duration can go through.

In sPvP, it is decent for holding a capture point, but pretty bad everywhere else — most classes have plenty of condition removal, and some even have passive condition removal, completely removing all of your dps.

In WvW, it is pretty much useless, as death blossoming into a zerg is just asking for death, and the pistol only has the short 900 range.

These are my thoughts, which are of course subjective.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Hush child. Don’t give away out secret build that’s underrated.

wait thieves can be played as condition builds? i never tried myself but it does sound interesting and OP’s build description is interesting.

Condi thief are very underrated but after playing with them for a bit you will see the massive draw backs of running such a spec. Any way check some of the fights out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTX0tqx_qHc 1v6+
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIXC_VHghk Garrison troll

Condition build in WvW is great for trolling, but is not very useful otherwise.

From what I’ve read, when you get to the level where you can start using 3 stat gear, power gear/builds pull way ahead for thief.

I leveled exactly like you are talking about to 40, then swapped my gear to power/precision and play a more back stab / heal / condition cleanse on stealth build, and am breezing through PVE content.

I just geared up for damage, with toughness accessories, and picked traits for survivability. My damage might not be huge, but for general leveling, hearts, map completion, and taking out tougher mobs when needed it’s been very effective – and way more fun than kiting things around with bleeds.

I will say though that I use my short bow a ton when fighting multiple enemies, mixing in cloak and daggers for heals/blinds. Having no trouble with survivability. Caltrops hasn’t been on my bar for 31 levels now.

Deathspike.1870:

Condition build in WvW is great for trolling, but is not very useful otherwise.

Condition thieves have the advantage of being able to keep pressure on a target without having to remain unstealthed. They don’t have the burst obviously but they can unchain themselves from precision which can be quite freeing.

This is an interesting condition build I haven’t quite deciphered yet