Guild Wars 2

Okay I know what you are thinking, “who is this guy to randomly come up with a new viable P/P meta”, but hear me out, because I think I might be on to something here

I want to mention that the reason that I like the P/P wep set, is because of the sustained, on going great dps you can get from the set, with constant unloads. And the fact that you can deal great dps without having to stand in everyones faces at all times. I have been using shortbow up until now, but I dont feel the damage output is nearly as good as I want it, even though the mobility is great. Which leads to me to tend to not switch to shortbow during combat. My main goal is that I wanted to use both wep sets effectively in combat, switching back and fort.

The goal behind this build is to keep alot of the thief burst that we all love, and still be survivable enough to be able to use the P/P set effectively due to the lack of survivability in the set it self.

Lets start with Traits:

0/6/0/4/4

CRITICAL STRIKES: V VI XI (Standard setup with the exception of the V trait)

• V – Pistol mastery. The V trait adds 10% damage to your unload/ricochet, which adds to general burst from the P/P set

• VI – Practiced toleranse. VI gives you vitality based on your precision, which adds to the general survivability of the build

• XI – Executioner. XI is the standard Executioner used in pretty much all burst/backstab types of builds for the thief, and is a must have in my opinion

ACROBATICS: III VIII

(This is a very crucial part of the build, adding alot of survivability, and the use of acrobatics was probably made famous by Sizer, S/D thief. The idea is that you get a huge supply of dodges, which probably is the best damage mitigator in the game)

• III – Vigorous recovery. The III trait gives you 100% endurance regen when using a heal skill, and in par with the minor trait that you get if you spend three skill points in the acrobatics tree (Dodging returns some endurance spent) you get a big supply of dodges in your defensive gameplay

• VIII – Pain response. The VIII trait I chose strictly to remove conditions. And it removes probably the three most common conditions in the game (Bleed, poison and burn). Condi removal is something that probably all builds need to be an effective build in this game, therefore this was the obvious choice for the build.

TRICKERY: V X

(The common reason you spec trickery as I can see it, has been to buff your steal immensely. Making your build pretty much revolve around that you must hit your steal. But in this build, I spec trickery most of all for the increase of initiative, as unload + D/P stealth combo takes alot of initative. It adds to the general offense to spec the trickery line)

• V – Thrill of the crime. The V trait is a must have to make your steal somewhat viable. Even though this build doesn’t revolve around the steal, it gives you fury, might and swiftness, which is crucial both for your offense and to get perma swiftness – almost. (I’ll ellaborate on this later). The way I use steal now is to get the fury/might offensively, and swiftness “defensively” to move around the map.

• X – Ricochet. This trait was buffed in the September patch of the game, and it is really good. Thief isnt known for its great aoe abilities, but what this trait does is that it gives your bullets a chance to bounce to three other targets. And when you use unload in a group fight, it really adds up and helps your team, especially when the sustained damage of your unload is so great. Average around 5k per unload to fairly squishy opponents. In addition to focus on one target, you help your teammates out with their targets as well.

To sum up the traits a bit, you get the great burst from Critical strikes as most of us are used to, you get amazing evasiveness from the acrobatics line, a bigger pool of initiative plus buffing your steal from speccing 0/6/0/4/4. These are all my favorite aspects of playing thief – Burst, evasiveness and ofc stealth to add to this. Lets move on to runes and sigils.

• Superior rune of strength

• Sigil of fire (Great synergy with ricochet, adds to general aoe damage) – P/P
• Sigil of strength – P/P

• Sigil of air – D/P
• Sigil of purity – D/P

The rune I use in this build is Superior sigil of strength. The point behind using this is if I pair that up with a sigil of strength, I get 5-6 stacks of might fairly early in the fight using unload, as you get might from crits using strength sigil. The strength rune helps you maintain the might, and also boosting your damage by 5% under the effect of might. In longer fights you can sustain around 9 stacks, even 10 with multiple enemies. On the D/P set I use Sigil of air, and sigil of purity. Air adds to burst damage, which is good, and the purity rune is for getting more condi removal (60% when you hit to remove condi). If you think the pain response trait is enough to deal with condi, you may change it with for instance sigil of energy, if you are all out of dodges (last resort) and need to dodge away to stealth.

UILITY SKILLS:

• Withdraw. This is a great healing skill that in addition to have a very short cooldown (15 seconds) it also is an evade, and adds to the evasiveness of the build.

• Shadow refuge. This is a must have for pretty much every thief build. It is a great defensive tool which we all know. But with the P/P set, you can also use this offensively. Im guessing most of you know this already, but when you enter stealth, you get a sneak attack from P/P set, and when used within the refuge you get lifesteal from your target. A sneak attack followed by an unload leads to an amazing burst. 40-50% from most tanky builds/classes, 70-90% from squishy ones. In addition you gain health both from lifesteal and the healing of the refuge itself.

• Shadowstep. Basic reasons why this is being used in this build, two stun breaks, escape, offensively (catching up), but also what I like to do in longer fights, is teleport away and instantly unloading, when they close the gap you teleport back and do the same thing. Two free unloads, 30-50% or more damage (works great against warriors/guardians).

• Infiltrator’s Signet. As the steal isn’t that important in this build, the inflitrator’s signet becomes very crucial to your D/P set, basically to get your backstabs of if you have used the steal for fury/might during P/P burst or as swiftness boost to get from point to point.

PROS TO THIS BUILD:

• Quickly stacking 5-6 might
• Good condi clear
• Very good burst, both single target from backstab, and from unload (amazing from shadow refuge combo)
• Good sustained damage, less gaps in your gameplay
• Great evasiveness from dodges
• Decent AOE from ricochet
• Loads of stealth from D/P set
• Almost perma swiftness (3 second “cooldown” after rotation). Especially useful in WvW, where you travel long distances (Shadowstep from shortbow equals the same as 33% swiftness, so you dont lose out much)
• 17.5k Health with berserker amulet in sPvP, and 17.3k (with full berserker amulets) valkyrie armor in WvW (Berserker amulet and valkyrie armor is pretty much the same)

CONS TO THIS BUILD:

• General thief squishyness, sensitive to bursts, that’s where evasiveness and use of intelligent dodges comes in. And also a bigger health pool also helps.
• Not as good mobility as you have with shortbow, getting away if you dont have shadowstep available can sometimes be a problem.

ALMOST PERMA SWIFTNESS ROTATION:

• 10 seconds from steal, used whenever available (used without a target when running around)
• Dodges whenever available (minor trait in acrobatics gives you 2 ish seconds of swiftness)
• Using your heal whenever available. The way I do it is that I turn my camera right before its ready (but still running forward), press right mouse button to turn, execute the heal, turn camera back forwards during animation (I know the mesmer keybind technique is superior tho). As I said earlier in the trait section, you get endurance from heal, which makes it possible to dodge enough to almost make the rotation perma.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

So there you have it, I wrote this with alot of detail which many good players might find uncesessary, but this was written for everyone, including beginners, and better players will get the gist. I have gotten comments during the last 3 days of people asking me what build im using etc, but what do you guys think of it? I feel that this build is nearly a complete/perfect one, covering pretty much all the different aspects that is important to this game, the best aspects of playing a thief and what makes a viable build (might stack, burst, evasiveness, condi clear, mobility etc etc).

Ingame nick: Nightstinger
Server: Far Shiverpeaks

Leave a comment!

I feel like Mesmer fulfills the role of this build better. Not that this has zero viability. This build doesn’t really fulfill the classic role of a thief because of the lack of mobility, so Mesmer seems like a better comparison, but this lacks AoE and the utility offered by Mesmer.

Shockwave.1230:

I feel like Mesmer fulfills the role of this build better. Not that this has zero viability. This build doesn’t really fulfill the classic role of a thief because of the lack of mobility, so Mesmer seems like a better comparison, but this lacks AoE and the utility offered by Mesmer.

A thief was never suppose to have lots of AoE, and this is obviously a single target set up w/ DP and PP.

This is pretty close to what I’ve been running for a long time. There’s some builds out there that are going to be tough matchups for you, but nothing’s unwinnable.

You should definitely trying to make room for Mug in your build, though. That extra bit of heal/damage comes in handy.

stinkypants.8419:

Shockwave.1230:

I feel like Mesmer fulfills the role of this build better. Not that this has zero viability. This build doesn’t really fulfill the classic role of a thief because of the lack of mobility, so Mesmer seems like a better comparison, but this lacks AoE and the utility offered by Mesmer.

A thief was never suppose to have lots of AoE, and this is obviously a single target set up w/ DP and PP.

Which is why GS and S/X Mesmer feels like it fits this role better, it has AoE ranged burst and better utilities.

P/P Thief has the single target damage, but it lacks utility. There’s also micro reasons Mesmer feels superior, such as greater range.

My current build for spvp. What cha guys think abt it? http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVlsMpxpdPx0J8PNBNBxZNKhvh5L6GgZD-TpRAwAAOEAH3fwwRAg0JAAdZACPAAA

Make your own thread Nephrite

Nightstinger, my man. I like it

We roamed together last night with this setup, and it worked out quite nice.
Especially in small group fights where ricochet bounces to targets. 1on1 it’s a little lackluster, and can be changed out for bountiful theft or something.

<3