Guild Wars 2

I’ve tried and disliked playing (burst crit) thieves, until I found a condition build (that I mixed from a couple of builds I’ve found). I’ve just played it in spvp/tpvp so far and now planing to level it to 80. So I’m running P/D+D/D, traits 0/0/30/20/20 with carrion amulet + schaman jewel. Now I’m really loving my build, I find that I have extremly good survivability due to lots of stealth, regeneration with other nice traits and utility skills. I feel that I do kill quite fast, but of course not as fast as burst theives. I might try out a burst crit build now that I feel more confident playing thief but so far I feel it’s not my play style. What I wonder is how good can condition built thieves be compared to those insane bursty thieves, for example in WvW (solo roaming for example)? I will probably not get as many kills and I will always be weak against those with good condition removals. But on the other hand something can always be countered by someone, but not everything by everyone.

So my question here is basically, can condition thieves stand a fair chance compared to the insane crit thieves? Or is crit thieves just way too superior to a condition build?

Condition works great in leveling. I have tried crit builds for leveling, and two issues I have. One is, you depend on stealth for certain things, and I have issues with mobs resetting if I am solo. One way to prevent a mob from resetting and regenning health back is to put a condition on them before stealthing, which is sometimes a pain. The second issue I have is, AoE is lacking a bit with a crit/power build, unless you’re sword, but honestly, it gets pretty mind numbing as a sword build in solo stuff. I prefer to be active, move around etc.

Once you get in to more PvP oriented situations, you will find you prefer one or the other.

try a condition build with d/d, signet of malice, caldrop and death blossom spamming, easy 18 stacks ofbleeding on mobs, waaaaaayy faster than p/d single target bleeding against mobs. each death blossom heals multiple times, tons of rally cuz mobs always bleed to death, and more loot than p/d. p/d is for 1v1.

WakkaJabba.3910:

try a condition build with d/d, signet of malice, caldrop and death blossom spamming, easy 18 stacks ofbleeding on mobs, waaaaaayy faster than p/d single target bleeding against mobs. each death blossom heals multiple times, tons of rally cuz mobs always bleed to death, and more loot than p/d. p/d is for 1v1.

The other day I was testing out how powerful caltrops were. I went to a nest of raptors, pulled about 8-10 of them, dropped caltrops as they chased me in circles, then spammed DB just a few times and then sat back and watched every single one of them drop dead at my feet.

The only thing to remember is, if an enemy is ranged, you will need to either LoS them with your caltrops down, or just drop them under their feet, which is usually what I do. I love that the enemy doesn’t need to even move a foot to get the bleeds stacked.

I found that a crit thief (myself) is very fun to play compared to spamming death blossom all day or using caltrops/elite skill (Conditional thief). This is assuming you go with D/D ofc. I mostly see common builds like below for these two builds. When playing burst, it’s very important you pick your target well and don’t just run into a 3+ enemy fight without people. However, Condition is very good for PvE esp for mobs in Orr. But i think crit/burst is the way to go when it comes to PvP.

Crit thief: Power, Precision, Crit dmg
Condition: Vitality, Toughness, Cond. Dmg

I’ve done some research and video watching. Look up Rainythief on youtube and it honestly, you should play what you like.

Condition thieves are very viable compared to burst thieves in open world pve and in pvp.

For exploring/questing/farming I would recommend a death blossom spam spec like 0/20/0/20/30, and if you want to spvp/wvw, a bleed bunker spec like 0/0/30/20/20 is amazing at surving and fighting multiple players at once.

You wont kill anyone as fast as a burst thief, but you will be a lot harder to kill, and you will have solid constant damage.

Troponin.4081:

WakkaJabba.3910:

try a condition build with d/d, signet of malice, caldrop and death blossom spamming, easy 18 stacks ofbleeding on mobs, waaaaaayy faster than p/d single target bleeding against mobs. each death blossom heals multiple times, tons of rally cuz mobs always bleed to death, and more loot than p/d. p/d is for 1v1.

The other day I was testing out how powerful caltrops were. I went to a nest of raptors, pulled about 8-10 of them, dropped caltrops as they chased me in circles, then spammed DB just a few times and then sat back and watched every single one of them drop dead at my feet.

The only thing to remember is, if an enemy is ranged, you will need to either LoS them with your caltrops down, or just drop them under their feet, which is usually what I do. I love that the enemy doesn’t need to even move a foot to get the bleeds stacked.

Caltrops isn’t meant for damage, it’s meant to add extra damage to get Signet of Malice to proc and to slow down enemies chasing you while you dodge/regain initiative.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Leveling-Thief-Build-Weapon-Combos/first#post900885 Scroll up and check out Phenn’s post. It takes a while to take off, especially if some enemies/quest bosses are essentially immune to conditions or eat conditions for heals (I’m looking at you, Trybulus Griefblade’s second in command for Ash Legion story).

Both builds have their perks and faults. No build is perfect. It is true that as condition based you may struggle to kill some people. But glass cannon builds have their own woes. Being glass cannon means if you mess up or run into skilled players your life is much more fragile. P/D builds really excel in taking on groups of players/mobs. Where as Glass cannon crit builds excel in single target take down. Play what you like playing that is what I always say.

Rhinzual.7861:

Caltrops isn’t meant for damage,

Oh, so why not just remove the damage from them, if they werent meant to do damage? Seems fair, based on your reply. You’re right, I don’t use any other attack at all. I just lay down caltrops, wait for the CD to be up, then lay them down again, as I stand there taking a beating from the enemy(ies). /sarcasm

Thx for your responses I’ve tried some burst builds in spvp and still don’t like it. =/ Might see if it changes as I level up my char, but atm I feel that I will be sticking to a condition build.

One more question, are condition thieves good at taking supply points in WvW compared to burst thieves?

paleeshi.1924:

Thx for your responses I’ve tried some burst builds in spvp and still don’t like it. =/ Might see if it changes as I level up my char, but atm I feel that I will be sticking to a condition build.

One more question, are condition thieves good at taking supply points in WvW compared to burst thieves?

I always feel more comfortable doing it when I am in a condition build. SoM, caltrops dealth blossom and dagger storm combined makes soloing them easy. just get the scouts close together and make sure they die relatively quickly. you can kite the other enemies to death.

Gungnir Grimm.7123:

paleeshi.1924:

Thx for your responses I’ve tried some burst builds in spvp and still don’t like it. =/ Might see if it changes as I level up my char, but atm I feel that I will be sticking to a condition build.

One more question, are condition thieves good at taking supply points in WvW compared to burst thieves?

I always feel more comfortable doing it when I am in a condition build. SoM, caltrops dealth blossom and dagger storm combined makes soloing them easy. just get the scouts close together and make sure they die relatively quickly. you can kite the other enemies to death.

I actually favor condition damage as well for camps, if only because Caltrops is amazing at balling up and killing the NPCs. Ball them up, drop caltrops, burn all of your initiative on either shortbow shotgun or death blossom, then hit Dagger Storm and they should all be dead by the time it finishes.

Condition is better overall. A “burst” “crit” thief are extremely unreliable and unefficient due to the fact that it is very predictable and all it takes is a few clicks to either force you to run or die.

Condition thieves have a little more headway. You can afford to make mistakes, since condition thieves generally have vitality/toughness/ or healing. One mistake will not mean your death, and you can recover mid fight.