Guild Wars 2

Hi all.

I’m playing a thief as my first GW2 char. I like the D/D condition play style for PvE/leveling. Yesterday I played my first dungeon and also participated in some WvW. Overall it was fun and ok, but in particular in the dungeon I felt very squishy.

Level: 35
Traits: 5/0/0/10/10
Gear: Condition and Condition/Precision
Full build: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/thief#3|3|2642|2786|2645|3997|4485|5|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|10|1165|0|0|10|782|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Things I would like advice on:

- Should I go for something like 0/0/10/10/10 instead (towards lvl 40), to be less squishy?
- What secondary skills should I use for dungeons? Hide in the shadows is useful as heal, but is it the best choice?
- I’ve been using a bow as secondary to get out some ranged damage when my health is low. Is that a good choice with a condition gear and build, or would P/P or P/D be better?

Any other tips are welcome.

Really at that level there are few choices. What you have now is just fine.

For your secondary I would go with bow. You have a poison combo field + blast finisher which means AoE weakness. Also, if you get good with the 2 skill you can consistently apply 4 bleeds in an AoE. P/P is really just for unload spam (not condition) and P/D is best for CnD into the stealth skill on 1. That requires melee though and does nto work without some initiative regeneration you get down the road. Honestly the best thing you can do is make sure you have gear around your level and keep at it.

All I can really recommend at that level is:

1. Run with a ranged weapon until you know the dungeons.

2. Get gear with a little Vitality

3. Dodge

Thanks for your answers. I’ll just continue to level up then.

D/D condition style is weak in PvE
Very weak
Very very very very weak

The only decent way to level condition with the thief is P/D.

But if you insist, I suggust getting your iniative high enough that you can just deathblossom then run the kitten away

Just my two cents.
It easier to level via precision and crit.

However, I also ran a condition thief while leveling. I suggest you get caltrops, the immobilize trap and shadow step/return for utility skills. If you do not have three slots when at that level. Caltrops>Shadow Step/Return>Immobilizing trap.

Caltrops is one of the best skills to apply constant bleed and damage.

Shadow Step/Return is for survival. If you are in a tight spot, Shadow Step away. You see an attack but can’t dodge in time or have enough endurance? Shadow Step away. You are knocked down and about to die? Shadow Step away.

Immobilizing help with those charging foes. It is also great because immobilize also work on champion/legendary mobs. It does not count as a cc, so the defiant stacks doesn’t matter. You can just place one in front of you, so if the mob comes close to whack you, you can move back and see him get stuck there. If it is a ranged or dig attack, it does not work though.

Your best condition dealer on d/d is death blossom, so you gotta time it right as you can avoid damage as you are using it. When you see the mob about to attack, death blossom and you will evade it.

I ran pistols and bow along with dual daggers while leveling and am still running them actually.

Dual pistols are great for single target range. The constant bleed on #1 skill is quite good. The #2 skill causes vulnerability which will help the overall dps.
#3 is mainly for damage. #4 is great for removing stacks and waiting for the exact time to interrupt as the mob channels. #5 actually works on certain mobs in melee range because of the shots you will shoot that causes blindness. However, if the mob whacks faster than you can blind it and the pulse of the blind, please get out.

A bow is great for the poison aoe. You get to poison the mobs and apply weakness using a combo as mention by a post. #2 gets to aoe damage, #3 gives you a free dodge if you time it right, #4 is your aoe poison, #5 allows you to position yourself better. Do remember that #5 is not instant though. Your arrow has to actually fly there. A funny thing is that the poison aoe can hit people in WvW when they are up at the walls. I used to have people dying from my poison because they do not realise that they are poisoned and mistaking my condition damage tick.

Overall, condition damage is fun and I do miss it. It just take slightly longer for your damage to show up. It saved me countless times when I go down and rally due to the number of bleed stacks on the mob. Fyi, I’m running crit build now.

Sorry for the long post

Scootabuser.4915:

D/D condition style is weak in PvE
Very weak
Very very very very weak

The only decent way to level condition with the thief is P/D.

But if you insist, I suggust getting your iniative high enough that you can just deathblossom then run the kitten away

At least in the early stages (I am only level 31), I have to disagree with this. I am running D/D with whatever points I have available in trickery and acrobatics and it works very well indeed. I use caltrops alot and have the caltrops when I dodge trait, and as I am constantly dodging I get very few hits on me. The rest of the time I am death-blossoming or heartseeking. I find I can take on a smallish group of enemies or a boss of similar level without too much difficulty. With non-boss enemies, once I’ve deathblossomed them a couple of times I find I can then more or less forget about them as they just bleed to death and I can focus on the next one. So to conclude, I find myself pretty strong in fact. As I said earlier, this is still in relatively early stages of the game and I haven’t tried dungeons as yet, so I may have to adjust my playstyle as the game progresses, but for the time being I’m having great fun!

D/D and P/D Thiefs are insanely powerful leveling up, and not too shabby at 80. P/D for the 1v1 and D/D for multiple mobs.

Not sure what other class can solo Champions and easily handle multiple Veterans.

If you can afford it, grab some Pizzas for your food.

I hated my thief – until I started leveling using a condition build D/D & P/D. I used the solid advice Phenn.5167 gave in the thread I am listing below and I could not be happier with leveling on my thief:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Leveling-Thief-Build-Weapon-Combos/first#post893684

World PvE, Dungeons, WvW – it works incredibly well everywhere. D/D is great for the initial stacks of bleeds on a pack of mobs or a boss, and then switch over to P/D. At 80 gearing was a piece of cake using all Carrion gear you have a great health pool and great condition damage. Since running a Condition build on my thief I have hardly touched my 80 War or 80 Guardian… BTW My final build at 80 is 0/0/30/20/20 – there are better builds for single target (venom) but I like having the extra utility of blinding powder, shadow refuge, signet of shadows.

Albane.8367:

D/D and P/D Thiefs are insanely powerful leveling up, and not too shabby at 80. P/D for the 1v1 and D/D for multiple mobs.

Not sure what other class can solo Champions and easily handle multiple Veterans.

If you can afford it, grab some Pizzas for your food.

Off topic, but so far I have been able to solo champs or multiple vets with my thief (given), mesmer, necromancer, ranger and warrior. It isn’t hard. Kite melee and LoS ranged.

I appreciate your input, and some of your tips and the link that Leowan posted will help me to improve.

Overall I’m doing fine out in the world, with caltrops, blossom and dodge I can easily take groups of enemies. My dungeon experience is very limited, maybe I just have to learn when to dodge etc to be less vulnerable. And/or stay at range with the bow sometimes.

Thanks again!