Guild Wars 2

Okay. I’m very confused at this point. Everything I’ve read thus far about thieves and rune sets the general consensus is either travelers, divinity, or scholar. I’m pretty confused at this point because the ONLY one to seem to be superior to running exquisite ruby jewels could be travelers for the 25% movement speed if you WvW.
With the ruby jewels you get 150 power, 18% crit damage, and 90 precision. From what I understand crit damage is very important to your damage potential, so I’m confused about the selection of scholar and divinity. Scholars will net you 165 power, 8% crit damage, and the 10% damage increase above 90% health. You can’t honestly expect to stay above 90% health the entire dungeon or even boss fights regularly, so the 10% damage bonus is sort of very situational and can’t be expected to be maintained during the boss fight. You lose 10% crit damage and 90 precision for a gain of 15 power and a situational 6 rune set.

Now looking at divinity runes you lose 6% crit damage, 90 power, and 30 precision in exchange for the rest of the other stats (vitality, toughness, healing power, etc) and let’s face it That extra 60 vitality, toughness, or healing power isn’t going to give you as much bang for your buck as the crit damage loss, power, and precision. Now after ALL of this it seems like the ruby jewel is much superior to me, but factor in the fact divinity runes are 10 gold a pop and scholar runes are about 3 gold a pop whereas the ruby jewels are only 70 silver or so for the exotic ones.

Are there any reasons I’m missing for the divinity choice or scholar choice over the exquisite ruby jewels? Or do people just.. Well think the 10% damage for scholar is worth it and the minor stat increase in divinity is negligible for what you’re giving up?

ruby orbs give 20 power, 14 precision, 2% crit damage, meaning 6 = 120 power, 84 precision, and 12% crit damage
That being said, scholar runes are the superior choice, power > crit damage, and you should be at 100% crit chance without the extra precision, and yes you should absolutely be above 90% hp for the majority of every fight, if you cant do this you still need to improve but even without that 10% damage, scholar runes are still superior to ruby orbs

travelers runes are utter trash and shouldnt ever be used unless your class doesnt have access to a 25% movement signet or perma swiftness.
edit: forgot to mention divinity runes, same as travelers, should absolutely never be used under any circumstances, mainly due to wasted stats on them

Traveller’s nets an extra utility as most run with 25% speed signet (better for wvw imo or centaurs)
Divinity like you said adds some survivability and has crit% (note: there are more classes than thief where this rune pays off)
Scholar 10% damage is better than ruby if you avoid damage

Clumsy.6257:

ruby orbs give 20 power, 14 precision, 2% crit damage, meaning 6 = 120 power, 84 precision, and 12% crit damage
That being said, scholar runes are the superior choice, power > crit damage, and you should be at 100% crit chance without the extra precision, and yes you should absolutely be above 90% hp for the majority of every fight, if you cant do this you still need to improve but even without that 10% damage, scholar runes are still superior to ruby orbs

travelers runes are utter trash and shouldnt ever be used unless your class doesnt have access to a 25% movement signet or perma swiftness.

Exquisite ruby jewels give 25 power, 15 precision, 3% crit damage, though. So you lose off on only 15 power in exchange for the crit damage loss (Which is hard enough to get on its own) and the precision. And no, you shouldn’t be at 100% crit chance, even with fury. 55% is plenty and anymore is pretty much overkill.

I disagree, traveler runes are the best for sustained dps thief. Being able to run both quick recovery and infiltrator signet and still have 25% more movement speed (and 20s might duration boons) feels great.

On topic – OP you are mistaken – the “Orbs” give, as Clumsy said, 20 power, 14 precision, 2% crit damage, meaning 6 = 120 power, 84 precision, and 12% crit damage. You are mistaking them with the accesory jewels.

BlueDragoon.1632:

Exquisite ruby jewels give 25 power, 15 precision, 3% crit damage, though. So you lose off on only 15 power in exchange for the crit damage loss (Which is hard enough to get on its own) and the precision. And no, you shouldn’t be at 100% crit chance, even with fury. 55% is plenty and anymore is pretty much overkill.

Talking runes so only orbs work…

BlueDragoon.1632:

Clumsy.6257:

ruby orbs give 20 power, 14 precision, 2% crit damage, meaning 6 = 120 power, 84 precision, and 12% crit damage
That being said, scholar runes are the superior choice, power > crit damage, and you should be at 100% crit chance without the extra precision, and yes you should absolutely be above 90% hp for the majority of every fight, if you cant do this you still need to improve but even without that 10% damage, scholar runes are still superior to ruby orbs

travelers runes are utter trash and shouldnt ever be used unless your class doesnt have access to a 25% movement signet or perma swiftness.

Exquisite ruby jewels give 25 power, 15 precision, 3% crit damage, though. So you lose off on only 15 power in exchange for the crit damage loss (Which is hard enough to get on its own) and the precision. And no, you shouldn’t be at 100% crit chance, even with fury. 55% is plenty and anymore is pretty much overkill.

you cant put exquisite on armor, and yes anything under 100% crit chance is intentionally gimping yourself, especially as a thief where our damage relies upon a guaranteed crit from backstab, and dropping the 20% while enemy is < 50% hp trait isn’t an option
edit: changed > to <

Would anyone like to tell me how people are getting 100% crit chance if it’s gimping yourself so badly? -_- Full zerker EVERYTHING exotic level, mind you, you only sit around 55% crit chance. You need nearly 3.6k precision to reach 100% crit chance.
100% crit chance is ridiculous, unless you’re meaning with fury factored in, still you need 80% crit chance which STILL isn’t realistic.

BlueDragoon.1632:

Would anyone like to tell me how people are getting 100% crit chance if it’s gimping yourself so badly? -_- Full zerker EVERYTHING exotic level, mind you, you only sit around 55% crit chance. You need nearly 3.6k precision to reach 100% crit chance.
I’m honestly starting to feel like everyone’s who’s mentioned having 100% crit chance are being unrealistic. 100% crit chance is ridiculous, unless you’re meaning with fury factored in, still you need 80% crit chance which STILL isn’t realistic.

sitting at base berserkers and glass build im at 61% crit chance, with signet of agility ( a signet you should almost always be using), im at 70%, with fury (easy to get 100% uptime with 1 warrior and 1 ele) im at 90%, since the majority of parties have a warrior in them, im sitting at a little over 100% due to banner of discipline and if i wanted to get really fancy i could invest in 25 stacks of perception putting me at around 115%,, very easy to get over 100% crit chance

Clumsy.6257:

BlueDragoon.1632:

Would anyone like to tell me how people are getting 100% crit chance if it’s gimping yourself so badly? -_- Full zerker EVERYTHING exotic level, mind you, you only sit around 55% crit chance. You need nearly 3.6k precision to reach 100% crit chance.
I’m honestly starting to feel like everyone’s who’s mentioned having 100% crit chance are being unrealistic. 100% crit chance is ridiculous, unless you’re meaning with fury factored in, still you need 80% crit chance which STILL isn’t realistic.

sitting at base berserkers and glass build im at 61% crit chance, with signet of agility ( a signet you should almost always be using), im at 70%, with fury (easy to get 100% uptime with 1 warrior and 1 ele) im at 90%, since the majority of parties have a warrior in them, im sitting at a little over 100% due to banner of discipline and if i wanted to get really fancy i could invest in 25 stacks of perception putting me at around 115%,, very easy to get over 100% crit chance

Jesus. I’m sitting at 45% crit chance with my setup, up to about 54% with the signet of precision. I’ve switched out some zerker gear for PVT to counter my squishiness. Despite people swearing by full zerker I don’t feel it’s viable. Just too squishy and go down too often, I’m not perfect with dodging boss attacks and there’s just some moments you can get screwed entirely. I’d rather be able to live through those with the 17.6k hp I have. I haven’t sacrificed too much damage and I live much longer in comparison. I just don’t feel the scholar runes or divinity are the way to go, though. 10% damage doesn’t seem to justify it when I won’t have it that often. :\

Clumsy.6257:

BlueDragoon.1632:

Would anyone like to tell me how people are getting 100% crit chance if it’s gimping yourself so badly? -_- Full zerker EVERYTHING exotic level, mind you, you only sit around 55% crit chance. You need nearly 3.6k precision to reach 100% crit chance.
I’m honestly starting to feel like everyone’s who’s mentioned having 100% crit chance are being unrealistic. 100% crit chance is ridiculous, unless you’re meaning with fury factored in, still you need 80% crit chance which STILL isn’t realistic.

sitting at base berserkers and glass build im at 61% crit chance, with signet of agility ( a signet you should almost always be using), im at 70%, with fury (easy to get 100% uptime with 1 warrior and 1 ele) im at 90%, since the majority of parties have a warrior in them, im sitting at a little over 100% due to banner of discipline and if i wanted to get really fancy i could invest in 25 stacks of perception putting me at around 115%,, very easy to get over 100% crit chance

Yes and going over 100 % will make you crit so much more ! Oh w8…

Everything just depends on where you want to place your burst and how you play.

It’s impossible to stick above 90% health in longer fights, but if you build your thief for quick takedowns, scholar is the best choice.

If you want a balanced option use divinity.

If you want to boost your ability to execute, Runes of the eagle.

If you want a condition cleanse and gain all boons, Runes of lyssa.

If you can’t play without 25% movement speed and wish to clear up a slot, Traveler.

Centaur runes if you build for perma swiftness and mobility.

If you mainly wish to just boost your overall dps ruby/beryl orbs are just fine.

And I’d say 50% crit chance + 20% from fury, is just fine in terms of dps, afterall it’s 83% crit chance with keen observer and side strike. So, converting power into precision at these numbers is just a dps loss, so sigil of force and sigil of bloodlust over the accuracy ones.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAoYlUmKOHcS5E95Ex2jeuTe6fAs6MwZLB-jQyAY/ASEAoCgJvioxWcLiGruGT5SEVbvJimt5oSBExwI-e

71% critc chance + 5%above 90%hp + 7% from behind + 20% fury = 101% critical chance
118% critical damage
2709 power + you can put 25 stack of bloodlast and reach 2959 power
+ various damage modifier

this thief can put out a decent dps , i think.

Ogre Runes are my favorite, but I use Traveler Runes for convenience.

Ruby Orbs, Ogre Runes, Scholar Runes, Lyssa Runes, or Traveler Runes are the only choices:
- Ruby Orbs for cheap DPS
- Ogre Runes for raw damage + Rock Dog blocking attacks and 1k per hit
- Scholar Runes for the most potential raw damage
- Lyssa Runes for condition clear + stability (and all other boons)
- Traveler Runes for guaranteed mobility and freedom of build/healing skill

Centaur Runes and Divinity Runes are preference, but aren’t as good as the above.

40-50% critical chance is all you need for any Thief build.