Dungeon / FoTM Build help
Well, go shortbow + sword/dagger for groups and swap the sword with another dagger for boss fights, go somthing like 30 into critical strikes and 30 into acro or shadowarts.
7800 hours ingame, and counting.
What about stats on the gear / weapons? Is it really just a preference thing, or is there a particular set of stats I should shoot for?
As a general rule, condition damage sucks in PvE. The stacking limitations, and the fact that defensive stats are very much secondary for PvE means that zerker is just so much more powerful than conditions.
You probably want a bit of defensive stats, but make sure your toughness doesn’t get too high or you’ll draw a lot more aggro than you want to; even a thieve with high defences is rather squishy compared to other tanky builds.
The Thief doesn’t bring a whole lot of damage to the PvE party, and is squishy. If you want to be of the most use you’ll have to know how to take advantage of the utility the class offers… however that is the same case no matter which build you are using… just something to keep in mind.
i can kill more mobs faster on my condition thief than on my zerker thief. this is a 100% fact. again this requires a qualifying statement. if you go from 1 enemy to the next then zerker is faster. if u go at 10 enemies at the same time….carrion/condition is faster….heck to be honest zerker has no chance at killing 10 at the same time. so i guess there is your difference. but condition is great in pve. heck condi thief is the best build thieves have so :P
don’t make a thief for those. Unless you got some friends to go with, it is very and very unlikely you will be allowed to join a party for 20+ fotm or most of the harder dungeons.
Don’t listen to guys who says Thief isn’t accepted in FotM parties. Thief is a requirement for any decent fractal party due to dredge.
About the build, I usually run a 0/30/0/25/15 with S/P + Shortbow as main set and swapping to S/D, D/D and P/P according to the fractal/boss I have to fight.
As heal, always according to the fractal, I use Withdraw for Vigor and HiS when damaging conditions are heavy.
About utilities, I don’t always have a fixed set of utility, but I always run Shadow Refuge for ressing and two of those utilities: Smoke Screen, Blinding Powder (for dredges), Ambush, Assassin’s Signet, Shadowstep (I can’t live without), Haste and Roll for Initiative.
Thief can easility contribute to a number of things in every dungeon. People stating otherwise like Ichishi are either: 1: so bad at the class that they are not accepted in groups and fail to see that it is them and not the class, or 2: people playing a different class then thief and are still in the lower tier of fractals where, I do admit, most thiefs suck.
My suggestion at this moment is probably s/p and sb tough. s/p has the amazing AOE cleave from sword, while also offering on demand invulnerability via pistolwhip, condi removal and out of combat stepping via infiltrator’s strike, a nice defiant remover and mob freezer on headshot and last but not least the great blinding powder, which allows easy ganking of all the trash in almost every dungeon and fractal. If you are sure you will be playing in the higher fractals, go full berserker as you will be one hit there regardless of your gear, dodging is the key to survival.
I play as a thief in higher fractals and I have no problem finding groups, you can pretty much proof yourself in the begining of every fractal by doing something a thief does best, be it blind tanking a full group or stealthing the dredge fractal.
Traits are up to you, I suggest taking full critical strikes tough because you will need it do deal decent damage. Utilities will show themselves, smokescreen is amazing and you will always have shadow refuge on your bar.
Pringled | 80 Thief | GH | Aurora Glade
I run a 30/0/30/10/0 build with those two armor sets, bezerk and carrion. I don’t think the 30 deadly arts are powerful but I like having a venom option. Anyone else might want to spread those points elsewhere. My carrion armor has adventurer runes for extra endurance and I use it as a purely defensive/kiting set.
For fractals I don’t use any single weapon pairing. I use almost every combination somewhere. The traits and utilities change regularly as well. I firmly believe that the right skills for a fight are more important than having the right skills for your traits. All the fights are possible with that approach.
I play a 0/30/10/0/30 thief in dungeons/fractals in full berserket armour + trinkets and divinity runes. (Changed from 25/30/0/15/0).
I use D/P + SB or S/P + SB most of the time. The reason for this is very simple: Black Powder. It not only mitigates damage to you, but also your party. At the same time it give you the option of goign into stealth in sticky situations when using D/P. In dungeons, condition is probably your worst nightmare, but use of sword allows you to remove conditions when needed.
You can also use sword to go in, DPS, then get out if you get aggro, then repeat. The same can be done with D/P.
Weapon choice, however, is entirely dependent on play style and the situation at hand. I do use D/D and S/D as well from time to time.
Learning to play thief smartly is much harder than choosing the right traits/items. Even if you go full PVT gear everywhere, you will not be able to tank as a thief. You need to learn to make full use of your skills and utilities. I swap my utilities pretty much for every fight; although I do not use venom and traps.
I met a thief in FotM 48 who told me people hate thieves in fractals. As we went along, I realised why he made that statement. He was playing his thief like he would a warrior/guardian. He made no use of thieves abilities to their full potential. He was a burden. Perhaps my utter loath for rangers in fractals is for the same reason.