Guild Wars 2

I’ve only just turned 80, so keep that in mind. Still a lot to learn.

I exclusively play WvW. Current build is a condition-build using Pistol/Dagger with a Shortbow on swap. My playstyle is survivalist / hit-and-run with heavy dependence on getting into stealth as often as possible. I depend on stealth to apply Bleed, and also to regen my HP and remove conditions. I travel across the map using SB 5 and the 5-trait in Acrobatics.

Current build is 0/0/30/20/20 (note Runes): http://goo.gl/UW3gp

A typical encounter goes as follows:

- Target enemy
- Steal to get into melee-range and to buff myself
- Dagger 5 to stealth
- Pistol 1 from stealth to apply bleed
- Drop Caltrops if slotted to apply bleed and cripple (I’m also playing around with Spider Venom a bit)
- Use Pistol 3 to add pressure and gain distance while the “Revealed” debuff is in effect
- Re-engage in melee and repeat from step 3 (step 1 if Steal is ready) until enemy is dead.

I’m liking this style a lot, especially given that I’m not well-geared at the moment (again, recent 80). I am thinking about changing my build to 10/0/30/10/20 (http://goo.gl/CKA8c) though, because I want to take advantage of the high damage of Mug, and additional pressure from Poison added by the 5-trait in Deadly Arts. I think losing 10 in Acrobatics is well worth it. Any thoughts?

Any advice on other condition-builds or condition-builds in general? What about thoughts on runes? 5x Krait seems solid, but the 4th bonus (5% chance to apply a bleed when struck) seems lousy. What about running 3x Krait and 3x Afflicted? You lose condition damage, but you gain 15% condition duration, for a total of 30%.

well, I would recommend not using pistol 3 under regular circumstances. If you use too much initiative, then someone dodges your CnD you end up in a tough spot where you have to pop a utility to stealth or wait till you regen initiative. not to mention you have to close again to re-stealth. can be useful to get out of a lot of PBAoE abilities though.

as for the 10 points into power for mug/steal poison, mot worth it for condition builds, it wont hit for more than 1.4k unless you get a crit, which shouldn’t be all to likely unless you already have fury up. and you lose out on assassin’s reward/power of inertia if you still want to keep stealth speed. and either of those two are very powerful abilities. not to mention without the endurance regen on dodge you lose the ability to get 3 dodges in a row. the 10% bleed duration also really isn’t worth it compared to the 1k hp and the 10% boon duration.

where runes are concerned, 3 krait and 3 afflicted work great. the bleed duration more than makes up for the lost cond damage, as pistol bleeds only get an extra tick every 25% duration and combined with an agony sigil and superior and rare veggie pizza you end up with 3 extra ticks on pistol bleeds.

you also may want to carry around a pair of daggers for camps/group play. not always the best option, but when combined with signet of malice and assassins reward you can solo supply camps fairly quickly with low risk, and death blossom is a fearsome AoE bleed that gets an extra tick every 10% duration.

edit: maybe give this a shot:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-cR3V-FCRwFb0J5BOVd06E;0k0-N5;8TJJ;434A51-26-8NH6;2fgm9dZH9u

Thanks for the informative reply!

Your runes (especially on weaponry) are very poor choices.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-cR3V-FCZwFb0J5wOVd06E;0k0-N5;8TJJ;434A17-47-aZk6;2fgH9dZH9h

This is what I run with. With the exception that I swap out Roll for Initiative for the passive speed buff whenever I’m on the move. I only swap the passive speed buff out for roll for initiative when I run into a group I WANT to fight or when I see a warrior with a GS.

You say you play with poison aswell, might aswell go for the poison duration on Rune of the Afflicted. Full krait + that other thing you selected is not doing anything special for you.

You are a CONDITION thief, that means you should focus on condition damage. Go full Carrion gear and get other weapon runes. I run with Superior thingy of Corruption and Superior thingy of Agony on P/D and Superior thingy of Energy on SB.

I honestly feel that the “Move 33% faster in stealth” trait doesn’t work. It’s a complete waste imo. And if you are going to use Caltrops in WvW you might aswell use the trait to have it up more often. Vigor and boon ripping feels empty for me.

Second build:
Don’t do it.

Losing out on 100 vit for a non-critting mug is just not worth it. Once again, you’re a condition thief focus on condition damage. What you should be looking for is a nice middle ground that focuses on your bleed ticks and the amount of damage they tick for. The oomph behind your autoattacks isn’t going to be spectacular in this build, ever.

Don’t forget your Super Veggie Pizzas

I would stick with your current spec.

Blood~

Yeah, I intend to run full Carrion, or some combination of Rabid/Carrion (Rabid-armor, Carrion-trinkets).

I will also keep an eye on your claim about the stealth runspeed trait. The reason I haven’t slotted dodge-trops is because the Caltrops produced by the dodge is significantly weaker than the utility skill. I discovered this when I compared the two and saw that Caltrops can produce 10 stacks of bleed all by itself. I’ve yet to see dodge-trops produce more than one. Am I wrong?

As for my runes, I realized that I linked the wrong build. Those are definitely NOT the weapon-runes I’ll be using. They must have been defaulted in. Fixed now.

Same.4687:

I honestly feel that the “Move 33% faster in stealth” trait doesn’t work. It’s a complete waste imo… Vigor and boon ripping feels empty for me.

those two combined with might on dodge and caltrops on dodge are great for condition builds, you can kite people all day long while buffing your bleeds. together with a food I cant remember the name of at the moment you can dodge all day, while dropping caltrops, and gaining 2 stacks of might per dodge, but yeah, by themselves they are lackluster.

Same.4687:

…

I honestly feel that the “Move 33% faster in stealth” trait doesn’t work. It’s a complete waste imo…

It’s working perfectly fine. Like pretty much every movement speed buff this does not stack with other buffs. If you have swiftness on, the trait will basically do nothing since both add 33% movement speed. If you use Signet of Shadows you will just gain an addition 8%. The difference between 25% and 33% is hardly noticeable on short distances. And since stealth is usually only 4s long (I know there is SR and I know there is perma stealth shiz hence the “usually”) the distance you can possibly travel is kinda short.

Keep in mind that movement-speed increase only works on forward movement (or the forward component) and has no effect on side-stepping or back-pedalling.

Ok so movement in stealth works fine. However its WvW and I feel you should just be running with the speed buff until you spot someone/something that requires a stunbreaker.

You are talking about the Orrian soup or something, with the enhanced endurance gain and condition dam. I went for Rare Veggie Pizza’s though. Those allow me to stay in Stealth a lot longer after throwing my stuff on an enemy and thus fully using the heals in stealth.