Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, so I am leveling a theif and wondering which build should I follow for questing, since the elite spec builds are only possible after reaching 80, those builds are not useful for leveling.

What is the current best build for PvE theif for questing,soloing,roaming around killing stuff?.

For leveling 1-80.

Play whatever you find fun imo. The content is not really a challenge until you hit 80 and you go in hard areas like HoT.

Try out al the weapons and find what you like best.

for PvE when not wielding staff I like: D/D and S/P.
Both options are fun, but D/D may be a little hard without traits early

I think you should try everything, but if you want my advice you can’t go wrong with deadly arts/trickery/crit strikes. I personally like d/p best next to staff. I use p/p as my ranged set in HoT for the damage, but as it isn’t as critical to use range while leveling I think you should use shortbow for the extra mobility. Also, the area effect damage is comparatively more useful with d/p being so limited in that sense.

But honestly, I tried all sorts of things while leveling.

The signet which gives you movement speed is really useful, as you can have a lack of swiftness. Further more try D/D or S/P, whichever you like the best, on your off hand use a shortbow for tagging mobs and mobility.
Level critical strikes first, as you can easily maintain permanent fury and gain a good amount of ferocity, second get deadly arts for executioner and last trickery is fine.
As for utility skills I just went wih full signets because I’m lazy, but movement speed signet is a must have, and the active from the precision signet is really good as well. Signet of malice (healing) gives with a trait the most amount of healing per second (minute, just in total) but the passive part is really good as well. Everytime you hit you gain health, so with for instance d/d 3 you get like 15 ticks, s/p 16 ticks, shortbow 2 9 ticks, and with elite daggerstorm you can heal for potential infinite health if here are just enough mobs.
As for elite just get thieves guild first, as it is good for tanking aggro and extra dps, dagger storm later in game, best after you finished your second trait line.
For gear just go with the most damage gear, if you’re using dagger you could try to use a bit of condi damage as well, I did it as I bought cultural armor while leveling and I was a human.
This is what I did to level up my thief, managed to get to 80 within 40 hours, but mind of cheated since I also crafted, tome of knowledge 10-15 levels and an improvised xp farm in a level 30 zone, getting around 8 levels before getting bored.
I’d say that thief has one of the easiest time leveling of all the professions once you know what to do.

Cool, thanks for the info everyone, currently I am using D/D for melee I really like the cloak & dagger + backstab its so op.

Yes, I am using shortbow as my swap weapon for easy teleporting and also to get into melee range fast or run away from mobs.

I must say theif feels fun to play wonder how it is after I reach 80.

Dragon Lord.1026:

Cool, thanks for the info everyone, currently I am using D/D for melee I really like the cloak & dagger + backstab its so op.

Yes, I am using shortbow as my swap weapon for easy teleporting and also to get into melee range fast or run away from mobs.

I must say theif feels fun to play wonder how it is after I reach 80.

I suppose it depends on what you’re doing, but for open world HoT daredevil is amazing. Excellent damage, mobility, and damage avoidance. You can take on almost anything. The biggest swarms, even some champions. And when things get a little rough, nothing can stop a thief running unhindered combat from disengaging and escaping to safety.

stuff like this was never asked when we all started from step1. just take what ever you have and trait what you think, its pve and the ai is bad.