Engineer to Thief?
d/d vitality power gear to level with. youll get the hang of it. pve is ok for thieves unless ur fighting big bosses or too many ranged mobs. tank builds are ok if ur running heavy condition dmg. go to the thief topic “thief build. the new old. videos included” i included a tanky condi build that is pretty good. skill ls def bad for a thief bc u die quick no matter what build you run :/.
1. Yes, mostly because of #2.
2. Yes, there are. These builds happen to be my speciality; I run (almost exclusively) 0/0/X/X/X, and, as opposed to what Trav says, I don’t run condi damage at all. Never liked it, never will. If you want to take a look at my build and try it out a bit, feel free to PM me about it.
3. PvE is very possible for thieves. Stealth is a very good defense for us here, given that mobs don’t attack you while you’re in stealth. The SB is also a wonderful weapon for this game mode. Your guildy may have been referring to thieves there, but the problem is that not every thief is a D/D 25/30/0/0/15 glass cannon, which- I agree- are very strategically and tactically weak overall. Again, you’re going to want to invest in a tanky build, if you’re planning on going into higher-level PvP, WvW, and PvE, so a tanky thief would be a very good choice for you. Also, given their wonderful regeneration properties, stealthing, and mobility, they can bring a lot to any party. Will they absorb as much as a guardian that goes full tank? Probably not, but they can insert themselves in and out of battle much more easily than any guard, can move around like crazy, stealth allies, etc- all very useful things to have.
4. This is a bit more of a difficult question for me to answer. However, I would suggest a sword build for leveling, mostly because sword builds have automatic condition cleansing and stun break, good AoE melee damage, cripple and weakness, and a bunch of other good stuff. Most likely, I’d choose S/P, try to get 15 Trickery as quickly as possible, and then spend points into Acro and CS.
Also, @Trav: trust me, that’s only the thief meta- to die quickly. You’re missing out on a whole world of builds for thieves.
skill ls def bad for a thief bc u die quick no matter what build you run :/.
I see… hmm… that’s unfortunate. So there is really no way to be able to barrel through some damage? What I am picturing is a hearty thief, and you’re saying that’s never gonna happen, you’ll die really quickly regardless of what you’re gear/spec is?
skill ls def bad for a thief bc u die quick no matter what build you run :/.
I see… hmm… that’s unfortunate. So there is really no way to be able to barrel through some damage? What I am picturing is a hearty thief, and you’re saying that’s never gonna happen, you’ll die really quickly regardless of what you’re gear/spec is?
That’s not really true. See, the majority of the thief community will run something like
X/30/either 0 or 30/maybe 10 or so/10-15
It took me a while, but I made my own build which I have yet to see pop up anywhere else on the nets, that throws out this semi-outdated concept and throws points into a build that, I think, is extremely consistent throughout, resulting in decent damage while also being near-unkillable, if you want it to be. I understand how this might be a major misconception that most thieves have, but I think that it’s time for the meta to be changed.
1. Yes, mostly because of #2.
2. Yes, there are. These builds happen to be my speciality; I run (almost exclusively) 0/0/X/X/X, and, as opposed to what Trav says, I don’t run condi damage at all. Never liked it, never will. If you want to take a look at my build and try it out a bit, feel free to PM me about it.
3. PvE is very possible for thieves. Stealth is a very good defense for us here, given that mobs don’t attack you while you’re in stealth. The SB is also a wonderful weapon for this game mode. Your guildy may have been referring to thieves there, but the problem is that not every thief is a D/D 25/30/0/0/15 glass cannon, which- I agree- are very strategically and tactically weak overall. Again, you’re going to want to invest in a tanky build, if you’re planning on going into higher-level PvP, WvW, and PvE, so a tanky thief would be a very good choice for you. Also, given their wonderful regeneration properties, stealthing, and mobility, they can bring a lot to any party. Will they absorb as much as a guardian that goes full tank? Probably not, but they can insert themselves in and out of battle much more easily than any guard, can move around like crazy, stealth allies, etc- all very useful things to have.
4. This is a bit more of a difficult question for me to answer. However, I would suggest a sword build for leveling, mostly because sword builds have automatic condition cleansing and stun break, good AoE melee damage, cripple and weakness, and a bunch of other good stuff. Most likely, I’d choose S/P, try to get 15 Trickery as quickly as possible, and then spend points into Acro and CS.
Also, @Trav: trust me, that’s only the thief meta- to die quickly. You’re missing out on a whole world of builds for thieves.
Wow! Thanks for all of this. I will definitely be messaging you sometime soon! It seems to me that what you play is exactly what I had in mind.
skill ls def bad for a thief bc u die quick no matter what build you run :/.
I see… hmm… that’s unfortunate. So there is really no way to be able to barrel through some damage? What I am picturing is a hearty thief, and you’re saying that’s never gonna happen, you’ll die really quickly regardless of what you’re gear/spec is?
That’s not really true. See, the majority of the thief community will run something like
X/30/either 0 or 30/maybe 10 or so/10-15
It took me a while, but I made my own build which I have yet to see pop up anywhere else on the nets, that throws out this semi-outdated concept and throws points into a build that, I think, is extremely consistent throughout, resulting in decent damage while also being near-unkillable, if you want it to be. I understand how this might be a major misconception that most thieves have, but I think that it’s time for the meta to be changed.
I would be happy to be a part of this movement
1. Yes, mostly because of #2.
2. Yes, there are. These builds happen to be my speciality; I run (almost exclusively) 0/0/X/X/X, and, as opposed to what Trav says, I don’t run condi damage at all. Never liked it, never will. If you want to take a look at my build and try it out a bit, feel free to PM me about it.
3. PvE is very possible for thieves. Stealth is a very good defense for us here, given that mobs don’t attack you while you’re in stealth. The SB is also a wonderful weapon for this game mode. Your guildy may have been referring to thieves there, but the problem is that not every thief is a D/D 25/30/0/0/15 glass cannon, which- I agree- are very strategically and tactically weak overall. Again, you’re going to want to invest in a tanky build, if you’re planning on going into higher-level PvP, WvW, and PvE, so a tanky thief would be a very good choice for you. Also, given their wonderful regeneration properties, stealthing, and mobility, they can bring a lot to any party. Will they absorb as much as a guardian that goes full tank? Probably not, but they can insert themselves in and out of battle much more easily than any guard, can move around like crazy, stealth allies, etc- all very useful things to have.
4. This is a bit more of a difficult question for me to answer. However, I would suggest a sword build for leveling, mostly because sword builds have automatic condition cleansing and stun break, good AoE melee damage, cripple and weakness, and a bunch of other good stuff. Most likely, I’d choose S/P, try to get 15 Trickery as quickly as possible, and then spend points into Acro and CS.
Also, @Trav: trust me, that’s only the thief meta- to die quickly. You’re missing out on a whole world of builds for thieves.
Wow! Thanks for all of this. I will definitely be messaging you sometime soon! It seems to me that what you play is exactly what I had in mind.
Sweet, always glad to help a new thief.
I am engineer that played a class since release in wvw and currently switched thief, since wanted diversity.
1) Skill lag is pain, but with shortbow you should be mostly fine. Neither as Engineer nor Thief i ever relied in WvW on health. Mobility, keeping out of aoes and knowing the safe distance and when to shadowstep make Thief actually more easy to survive than engineer. I dont use stealth and run with like 10k HP, yet i still die less – since i can just use Infiltrator Arrow of shortbow to get out, use steal to port to other enemy and get out of danger, shadowstep, and dagger storm elite is great if you are in a group of enemies, since it reflects all projectiles and minority reacts correctly on it – most just see thief rotating and try to get away. thus it serves as nice oh kitten!/escape ability. The only class i fear right now are roaming backstab thiefs
2) “Tanky” thief is nonsense if you expect durability to damage. You can build evade thief for 1on1 (does not work in wvw well), or HP/healing thief with heal on signet – which works pretty well: it`ll not save you from focus, but its good enougth to not really worry about stray damage in wvw. Some nice traits that save you when your HP drops (well, like most classes if you need them)
3) PvE for thieves feels actually way easier than engineer. Just run Shorbow/Cluster bomb spam and get used to avoid real getting stunlocked and get out to heal. Do not run dungeons, so cant say how sueful thief is there. Taking out Supplycamps in WvW on thief is also easier than on engineer due to superior damage, though have to watch the hp/stunlock.
4) Leveling – shorbow cluster bomb spam in melee.
(edited by Preacher.9018)