Guild Wars 2

Hello, I recently hit level 80 on my Thief, and I am looking for a build. I need to find one that isn’t out of date. I am in full exotics, but can change things around if need be. My gear is a mix of knight’s and valkryie, and I am using all berserker trinkets. I would like to use D/D and SB if I could, but I’m open to suggestions. I do mostly dungeons and farm Orr, with some WvW mixed in. Thanks in advance!

Also, I am more interested in a pure damage build, not so much in conditions. I’ll do a condition build if it’s worth it, though.

I’ll just copy and paste this from the very same question on reddit earlier today:

1. Don’t limit yourself to a particular set of utility skills. Every situation calls for different utility skills and a bad Thief is one who doesn’t adapt.

2. Same applies to weapons sets and traits. Only because your build is built around Dagger/Dagger shouldn’t stop you from using a Sword when the occasion calls for it.

As for the actual build, I recommend you use a 15/30/10/15/0 build:

15 point in Deadly Arts make your auto-attacks apply Weakness which is pretty nice in PvE. It also adds a fair amount of Power, which is good.

30 points in Critical Strikes are obviously for DPS purposes.

10 points in Shadow Arts give you the choice between 3 good traits. Blind in Stealth which is great when Backstabing trash mobs, +2 Initiative when Stealthing which really helps to keep Initiative high or Pulsing Condition Removal every 3 seconds. This can save your life in certain PvE encounters. Just remember to switch to the right trait for every situation.

15 points in Acrobatics give you Feline Grace (as well as Vigor) so you can Dodge more than you could ever need. the HP bump is also quite nice.

Gear-wise it’s about finding the right balance between offense and defense. Your traits make you fairly durable but you’ll still need at least 16.000 HP to feel comfortable. It really comes down to mixing Berserker, Valkyrie and arguably Knight’s and Soldier gear to find your personal sweet spot.

Don’t use D/D in dungeons, you’ll be limiting yourself to single target damage with D/D and in dungeons you want as much AoEs as you can get.

When I hit the cap on my thief, I had same mind set (did too much sPvP at that time). But it’s not that good for PvE (good for map running, not that good in dungeons).

From my POV, there’s only one build I find outperforming everything else for thief in dungeons.

Use S/P (yes, PW spam all the way), go 20/30/0/20/0. Trait for as much ini regen as you can and take as much DPS stuff you can get. Get Berserker armor and weapons, Cavalier jewelry. I switched amulet and rings to zerk, because now after I run all dungeons bazilion times I know what to do in every situation so I can dodge stuff that can hurt me (if my timing on PWs is not prefect so I have to dodge).
I alternate this build with 10/30/0/20/10, which has bit smaller DPS, but has bit more group utility.
SB on secondary weapon slot is no brainer, it’s just too powerful weapon to not take it.

Go into dungeon and interrupt / evade everything into oblivion Oh and dodge after PWs, you can charge them up on your way back to mob and you’ll get one extra might from that and more evades.

My utilities: Ini regen signet (I use precision one if I know I’ll be dodging a lot or I will need extra condition removal, but that doesn’t happen often), Shadowstep (I never take this one out) and Refuge (only slot I swap as situation demands).

With this stuff, you’ll run out of ini only if u have mesmer in group, but Time Warp is just sick in combination with loads and loads of PWs you dish out!

I’ve seen lot of people suggesting usage of #6 with pistol offhand, but from my experience it’s just not worth it. Difference is small and 6 ini is far too much for 4s of blindness, which roughly translates to two attacks of any monster (if you time it well).

Obvious downside of this build is, it’s pretty much just PW spam, so it’s kinda boring to play.

P.S. If you know dungeons, you can pretty much interrupt each and every boss’ major attack (combined with pistol #4).

D/D is out of the question exept for bossfights if you are confidendt enough to go in melee, i use S/D because it gives big CC possibilites if you combine cloak and dagger with sword number 1 and it slashes more than 1 foe at a time. In off hand i use SB because of the mobility it gives and AoE damage it can produce.

My build, 10/30/30/0/0 is the same for PvE, sPvP and WvW 10 in deadly arts is mostly for mug, i adore mug because it can be a real lifesaver sometimes (breaks stun and teleports) and it can burst quite a bit of damage, 30 critical strikes is for dps, and 30 in shadow arts gives quite a bit of armor and big regeneration. If you combine shadow refuge with shadow embrace and shadow rejuvination from big slots in shadow arts trait line you can be fully healed and battle ready in less then 10 seconds. Many players say that is better to make 0/30/30/10/0 version of this build for a bit more HP, but i got adiccted to mug

I use fully berserker armor set with superior rune of the eagle, sigil of accuracy on all weapons, and full valkyre jewlery (back slot is berserker), this gear gives me 14k of HP, crit chance 53% and crit damage 100% wich is quite nice concidering that with shadow arts i never engage with less then 4 stacks of might.

I also eat “bowl of curry butternut squash soup” for extra 100 precision and 10% crit damage if i make it.

my utility skills are shadowstep, shadow refuge and assasin signet, i like using thiefs for elite skill but some situations require daggerstorm. Shadow refuge is great for dungeons in case u need to get som1 raised quickly or you need a quick cover.

Okay, thanks for the advice everyone. I’ll use D/P until I get a sword. I was using sword while leveling, but I figured it was only good for farming-good to know it’s still useful in dungeons. I’ll try these builds out in an easy dungeon like AC and see which I like best.

There are many ways to build a thief that will make it viable in dungeons. I currently favor the 0/30/30/10/0 stealth/blind heavy build (getting heal on stealth and PVT armor greatly increased your survivablity) using DD for single target burst and SB for AOE on multiple targets.

I’ve used pretty much all the weapon sets and they all can work well in dungeons. Try them all and see what you like.

I’m still new to dungeons, but a 0/30/30/10/0 on my S/D, SB has been working rather well. My utilities are Withdraw, Blind Powder, Shadow Refuge, Smoke Wall/misc, Daggerstorm/Thief’s Guild.
I favour this for the abundance of Blinds, Dazes, Regen, Blast Finishers and Condition Removal.
That said, against bosses with a lot of AoE, you’re best off managing your initiative sparingly, you may need to use SB3 a lot.

Dual.8953:

I’m still new to dungeons, but a 0/30/30/10/0 on my S/D, SB has been working rather well. My utilities are Withdraw, Blind Powder, Shadow Refuge, Smoke Wall/misc, Daggerstorm/Thief’s Guild.
I favour this for the abundance of Blinds, Dazes, Regen, Blast Finishers and Condition Removal.
That said, against bosses with a lot of AoE, you’re best off managing your initiative sparingly, you may need to use SB3 a lot.

Instead of SB consider P/P for those single-target encounters where you’re unsure of melee’ing .

LyzeUH.1398:

Dual.8953:

I’m still new to dungeons, but a 0/30/30/10/0 on my S/D, SB has been working rather well. My utilities are Withdraw, Blind Powder, Shadow Refuge, Smoke Wall/misc, Daggerstorm/Thief’s Guild.
I favour this for the abundance of Blinds, Dazes, Regen, Blast Finishers and Condition Removal.
That said, against bosses with a lot of AoE, you’re best off managing your initiative sparingly, you may need to use SB3 a lot.

Instead of SB consider P/P for those single-target encounters where you’re unsure of melee’ing .

If I did that, I’d keep P/P in a change out. Disabling shot has gotten me out of a lot of jams and overall SB has better utility.

Dual.8953:

LyzeUH.1398:

Dual.8953:

I’m still new to dungeons, but a 0/30/30/10/0 on my S/D, SB has been working rather well. My utilities are Withdraw, Blind Powder, Shadow Refuge, Smoke Wall/misc, Daggerstorm/Thief’s Guild.
I favour this for the abundance of Blinds, Dazes, Regen, Blast Finishers and Condition Removal.
That said, against bosses with a lot of AoE, you’re best off managing your initiative sparingly, you may need to use SB3 a lot.

Instead of SB consider P/P for those single-target encounters where you’re unsure of melee’ing .

If I did that, I’d keep P/P in a change out. Disabling shot has gotten me out of a lot of jams and overall SB has better utility.

Oh that’s entirely up to you, depends if you want to finish faster or not.

I’m surprised at how many “dungeon builds” only look at what they can do for an individual. Dungeons are about teamwork and the Thief has a remarkable number of abilities and tactics that can help others be more awesome. Stealthing allies, granting venoms to allies, healing and shielding from projectiles are all possible for the Thief.

Also remember that you’re not alone in dungeons and you don’t need to do all the slaying yourself. Thieves are excellent at debilitating opponents with conditions and impediments to make them easier for allies to deal with.

@Todd: While that sounds good on paper (and Devs said that too), sadly basically every dungeon is just DPS race to the end and tbh venoms just plain suck in dungeons.

And again, that’s why I said I see PW build as the ultimate one, you still have same utilities as any other thief (at least the better ones). While you can interrupt anything and everything (except attacks which can’t be interrupted, like Subj Alpha and there PW shines most, you don’t need to worry about dodging anything, with good timing just just need to dps him as usual) if you know your stuff.

P.S. Every inexperienced thief should use Omnomberry pies / ghosts and SoM (extra broken if u use PW and have 3 mobs to hit), make thief pretty much invincible. With enough experience, you can go full power / prec consumables.