Guild Wars 2

Hey all! So I’ve recently decided to go all in and aim for a full set of ascended Zerker gear in response to my increased interest in both Fractals and WvW. As such, I have been trying to develop a build that will allow me to succeed in both fields. I’m no newbie to the thief class, but I also know that there are many other people who have been far deeper into the competitive scene for a lot longer than I have, so any advice would be appreciated. The build is as follows:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoYVlsMp2plOxxJsPNRPRtdAMAPA3TwFUgeFFA-TRCBABQ8AAqU9nzUCilyPJOBAAcEAoZ/h80HwwhAIAwBwv9tv/G45nf+5nfuf/95ff+3A-e

It’s basically a Shadow D/D build relying primarily on stealth and backstabs. Also keep in mind that the utilities that are in place are what would be used for WvW. Some explanation on some of the more unusual parts of the build:

Utilities: Shadowstep is pretty standard on any thief and AS is common enough, so I don’t think they need any explanation. The odd man out, Scorpion Wire, is one that I’m considering removing. The idea is that I could use Scorpion Wire (with it’s range of 1200) as both an interrupt and a gap closer, allowing me remove any ranged advantage I’m faced with and prevent attempts at escape without burning a Shadowstep. Unfortunately due the BUG (not “anomaly” as the wiki calls it) that is currently affecting the skill, Scorpion wire has the rather irritating habit of simply knocking the target down as opposed to pulling them closer. Still, when it works, it works. Thoughts?

Traits: My CS loadout is focused on increasing crit chance while also granting might for signet activations. Maybe not totally conventional, but I don’t think it’s strange enough to warrant too much explanation. It’s the SA and Trickery lines that are a bit weird. Aside from Infusion of Shadow and Resilience of Shadows (which I chose for initiative sustain and survivability respectively), the traits I chose were geared toward adding more utility to the Steal skill. Hidden thief would offer access to an additional 3 seconds of stealth and Long Reach (admittedly the strangest trait in my loadout) would couple that stealth with long range gap closing potential. The adept minor trait in Trickery would also grant me 2 initiative, coming to a total of 4 bonus initiative every time I use Steal.

Gear: The gear and sigils are pretty standard for Zerker sets, so I don’t think that is going to be a highly debated point. I also use Mighty and Vital infusions, which I also don’t think is unusual for thieves. The main thing I’m iffy on are the runes. I chose Runes of the Eagle in order to bring my crit chance to well above the 50% mark while still maintaining a fairly high level of crit damage. Still, I have heard that other runes may be more optimal.

Finally, I chose to use Agony Infusions under the reasoning that a solo roamer probably won’t be facing too many guards on his own (besides the single mob checkpoints, which I find are fairly easy to take down without infusions at all), and while slightly less damage when fighting guards in a Zerg or group can be overlooked, agony resistance is mandatory for higher levels of Fractal play (remember, I want this one set of gear to be useful for both modes, rather than having to constantly switch between two different infusion or gear sets). Of course, that could just be ignorance on my part.

Thanks in advance!

Hello,

so I’m a little confused.. are you trying to create a build that has use in both area’s? meaning that you won’t have to switch your traits? the reason i ask is, in order to be effective is both area’s different traits are needed. as well as gear.. so I’m assuming that you are looking for a build that will save you time and money (so you don’t have to have multiple sets of gear for either.) overall my opinion is that you need to have different builds for each.

This is the current Dungeon/Fractal build that i use. in my experience utilities for dungeons and fractals should boost your dps as much as possible.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoYVl8Mp6pNOxwJ0PNRLRtdHsBfgXnh2XQAEiA-TFCBABVq+zZKBxa/R5HAHAh803wwBEIgnUgenCgAAHA/23++b++7v/+8zP/8zPvf/93f/93SBExwI-w

You can find info about this here.
http://dulfy.net/2014/07/10/gw2-thief-pve-class-guide/

WvW is interesting, their are a few viable builds running around out there. I really dislike the meta condi spam p/d build out there. so currently i’ve been using this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVlsMp7plOxyJ8PNBNhwdpaz8O83yaFA-TFCBABOqEEiTBQlq/glyAAeAAmp0ro9HY4IAEA4Aw5nf+5nfekCIihVA-w

Shame you made the armor already. I’d have really suggested Valkyrie. You’re way too glassy for WvW in full berserker.

I’d look into Practiced Tolerance in crit strikes. SoP seems wasteful when you’ll be generating 5 might over 45 seconds, and you only get more mileage on 5 attacks, which for only 15% damage or so every 45 seconds is negligible, and I’d use Blinding Powder and Shadow Refuge instead. For WvW, you’re going to need Shadow Rejuv instead of Resilience, especially with health like that, seeing as then SR becomes a full heal and you’re going to get killed out of stealth/you won’t be taking the bulk of your damage while stealthed, anyways, and if you are, it’s likely a stampede and you’ll be dead regardless.

For PvE (and maybe WvW if you find it useful), use Thrill of the Crime. Long reach shouldn’t be doing too much for you, and that fury and swiftness is really, really nice. It’s effects occur out of combat with no target, too, so it’s on-demand AOE swiftness and fury fr your whole party for when you need it, and it applies from your starting location, so you can engage and the rest of your party will have the effects as well.

If you’re really going all-in for PvE, Runes of Strength (but I can understand avoiding these due to cost) are ideal, but Runes of the Citadel work extremely well as they allow for pretty much near-permanent fury uptime, although Pack and Hoelbrak are also very good choices as well. I’d avoid scholars as Ogre end up being more effective in most cases as you’ll likely be under 90% hp during boss fights, and the rock dog can be handy lol.

Full zerker + shadows resilience sounds interesting. You can get plenty of sustain out of mug and life steal food anyway. I may have to try this

Thanks for the feedback guys!
Tengu,
My apologies, I should have been more clear. Yes, I know that traits and utilities would have to change depending on the game mode. I simply forgot to mention that because I naturally put points into one of the defensive trees when even while in PvE, as I’ve found going full glass, despite being what you’re supposed to do, tends to get me downed even while stacking. That was confusing.

I guess the main thing I’m focusing on is the gear. Since full ascended gear can be a pretty big time and money commitment, I was hoping to find a gear loadout that would work for both game modes. From the way you speak though, it seems like that’s not possible. Shame. Well in that case, is there perhaps a middle ground when it comes to gear? A set that excels in WvW and while not providing the ideal level of dps for PvE, still allows me to adequately fill my role and contribute to fights in my team? Or is that just a frugal man’s pipe dream?

I noticed that your Fractals build uses runes of the scholar. That’s the second time I’ve seen those runes used in a thief build. Are those generally seen as superior rune options when it comes to filling a dps role? I had tried to find runes that keep my crit chance well above 50% but I’ve heard than many thieves prefer having extra power and I know that generally speaking, Power always beats out precision.

I’m also curious on your WvW thief playstyle. Your build seems to veer away from the standard dps builds that I’ve seen and takes more sustained approach to combat, which is interesting. What are some of your tactics when using this build?

DeceiverX,
Actually, I haven’t made the gear just yet (and apparently thank goodness I didn’t). I made this post to receive feedback and better understanding before I made the commitment of crafting the gear. I have heard that many thieves go Valkyrie instead, sacrificing some crit chance for more survivability. Judging from what you’ve both provided, glass builds usually don’t get very far in WvW. I’ll start looking into Valkyrie builds. Do you recommend full Valkyrie or a certain combination of stats? As for signets of powers, I see your point. I had simply figured that the 5 might stacks combined with the AS activated bonus might be useful, but more survivability is always a good thing.

So Shadow Rejuvenation is that useful then? It always seemed to be lackluster on paper in comparison to the damage mitigation offered by RoS, but in the case of Shadow Refuge, I can see how that might be more useful. I’ll look into it.

As for Thrill of the Crime, that’s what I normally use. I just figured that long reach might give me more long range utility, but I see your point. In general TotC is probably more useful. Just thought my idea was worth a shot.

Thanks for the advice so far! Much appreciated!

Starsurfer.7209:

Thanks for the feedback guys!
Tengu,
My apologies, I should have been more clear. Yes, I know that traits and utilities would have to change depending on the game mode. I simply forgot to mention that because I naturally put points into one of the defensive trees when even while in PvE, as I’ve found going full glass, despite being what you’re supposed to do, tends to get me downed even while stacking. That was confusing.

I guess the main thing I’m focusing on is the gear. Since full ascended gear can be a pretty big time and money commitment, I was hoping to find a gear loadout that would work for both game modes. From the way you speak though, it seems like that’s not possible. Shame. Well in that case, is there perhaps a middle ground when it comes to gear? A set that excels in WvW and while not providing the ideal level of dps for PvE, still allows me to adequately fill my role and contribute to fights in my team? Or is that just a frugal man’s pipe dream?

I noticed that your Fractals build uses runes of the scholar. That’s the second time I’ve seen those runes used in a thief build. Are those generally seen as superior rune options when it comes to filling a dps role? I had tried to find runes that keep my crit chance well above 50% but I’ve heard than many thieves prefer having extra power and I know that generally speaking, Power always beats out precision.

I’m also curious on your WvW thief playstyle. Your build seems to veer away from the standard dps builds that I’ve seen and takes more sustained approach to combat, which is interesting. What are some of your tactics when using this build?

Hello again,
Alright, I can see where you are coming from. Gear can be pricy. Overall it might be a bit tough to mix the two.

In pve berserker gear is king, no getting around that. In WvW it really depends on the build/ play style that you most enjoy or feel effective with. I have a few sets of armor for WvW currently. The only set of ascended armor my thief has is for pve. All the other sets are exotic, which you can get pretty cheaply.

A nice option for you might be the accessories and trinket slots. Those are fairly easy to get, and you can customize your build with those.

Scholar runes: this is a clip from the link I posted before.
“Thieves have an incredibly high critical chance from traits. Therefore they rely on their gear to get as much power and ferocity as possible.

Berserker’s weapons, armor, and trinkets. Scholar’s Runes for the armor. If the gear is ascended, aim to slot them with power stat infusions. Note: underwater fights will also require a Scholar Rune on the Aqua Breather for the +10% damage bonus.
Sigils are situational. Night + Force will get the most mileage with dungeons. Consider using Ascalonian Weapon Skins for your Night Sigils to easily tell if they can be used or not.”

WvW
It’s a very evasive style of play. With the recent change to flanking strike S/D became very annoying to fight in WvW. Pop in, evade, deal sustained damage, CnD+steal for burst etc.. This way you don’t have to keep popping into stealth in order to win fights.. just evade instead! ;p

In WvW your gear can support this style of play without losing too much damage. Don’t get me wrong this is a different build (one I’m experimenting with) but I’ve played all the meta builds. D/P, P/D D/D and currently the best roaming thief build (hurting my soul to say this) is P/D with dire gear.

d/d is not a good weapon set for fractal, but atleast you got the gear (although you’ll die in 1 hit).

Unless your doing condi d/d is not beneficial to the group because it is single target and also requires you to keep breaking LoS which can be problematic in certain cases such as defending someone on a switch or trying to hold some enemies back while your party is rallying an downed ally.

S/X (primarily s/p) is the best because of the aoe blind for your group’s defense and also the cleaving auto attack and PW. D/d might be great on certain boss encounters but overall is a poor choice for fractals.

For wvw it’s fine, although again with your full on zerker you’ll probably melt in a few seconds if your prey is at all prepared for your ambush.

NinjaEd.3946:

d/d is not a good weapon set for fractal, but atleast you got the gear (although you’ll die in 1 hit).

Unless your doing condi d/d is not beneficial to the group because it is single target and also requires you to keep breaking LoS which can be problematic in certain cases such as defending someone on a switch or trying to hold some enemies back while your party is rallying an downed ally.

S/X (primarily s/p) is the best because of the aoe blind for your group’s defense and also the cleaving auto attack and PW. D/d might be great on certain boss encounters but overall is a poor choice for fractals.

For wvw it’s fine, although again with your full on zerker you’ll probably melt in a few seconds if your prey is at all prepared for your ambush.

Ed is correct. but with one change.. D/D is for bosses, S/P is for trash mobs, shortbow is more for utility (movement, blast finisher etc..) this is all discussed in the other link I posted.

Going full zerker and trait 6 points into Shadow Arts is probably the worst thing you can do right now. One ranger/engi reveal on you and goodbye…

Also prepare to see hits like this: