Guild Wars 2

Hi all, im currently new to thief, leveled one up with tomes and the first thing i wanted to try was a stealthless S/P build here’s the link…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAsaVl0Mp3plOxyJ8PNRs9Yn5knePIbZNrWBaC-zkCBYfREbBggAioAkIAI9pIaslhFRjVtATZiIq2doIa1kCYUhRA-w

i mainly gathered the build from what i read here on the forums and what i thought might work.

but I have two questions,

my first question is: How would you guys adapt this to a stealthing build throughout the traits and utility slots? I kinda wanna give stealth a try but i feel like i’ll fail really hard at timing revealed off the cuff haha.

and my second question: as the build sits by itself, what changes would you make? are any of the stats redundant or need to be higher?

I literally have about 5 hours of playtime on my thief now, and i’ve been doing really well roaming (that teleport from 2 is AMAZING) but I usually like getting a general consensus about my build to see if i can try and squeeze out the most i can.

Im assuming WvW? Trickery is meh there. Acrobatics tho is great, giving you dodges for days, condi removal, and much better ini regen. That build is extremely squishy, youd go down in seconds.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQRAsa8al0Mp2plOxyJ8PNhs9oC1JeSrAN19grkvqC-zECBYfS0YLA0HBiII0pmFRjtqpIas6aYKXER1kCQPhRA-w

Try this. Basically just weapon swap off CD to get evades and initiative.

Im assuming WvW? Trickery is meh there. Acrobatics tho is great, giving you dodges for days, condi removal, and much better ini regen. That build is extremely squishy, youd go down in seconds.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQRAsa8al0Mp2plOxyJ8PNhs9oC1JeSrAN19grkvqC-zECBYfS0YLA0HBiII0pmFRjtqpIas6aYKXER1kCQPhRA-w

Try this. Basically just weapon swap off CD to get evades and initiative.

You can’t make Sw/p a stealth build. You need offhand dagger or d/p. but you can definitely use the same armor, just chane your weapons and traits

Carpboy.7145:

Im assuming WvW? Trickery is meh there.

You are out of your tree. Thrill of the Crime is kitten-near required for a Sword build. Deep Trickery is debatable, 10 Trickery is not.

kornfanxxx.9143:

my first question is: How would you guys adapt this to a stealthing build throughout the traits and utility slots? I kinda wanna give stealth a try but i feel like i’ll fail really hard at timing revealed off the cuff haha.

You don’t. Sword/Pistol and stealth do not get along. If you feel like you need a little bit of stealth, feel free to add Blinding Powder to your utility bar. It can act as a ghetto stun-breaker in a duel, and you can use the Blast finisher on it to combo with Black Powder as well.

and my second question: as the build sits by itself, what changes would you make? are any of the stats redundant or need to be higher?

Get some condition removal and survival. You will get destroyed by condi-users. I’d suggest the following:

- Drop 30 CS, put 25 points into Acro, and get DA to 15.
- Take Vigorous Recovery and Pain Response in Acro.
- Long Reach in Trickery is fine, but consider using Bountiful Theft occasionally.
- Consider using Lyssa Runes instead of Traveler’s. You get a free condi removal and all boons on elite, a random useful boon on heal, plus enough Precision that you can drop some Berserker’s for defensive power-based armor (like Soldier’s) and use a different nourishment (like a Stone instead of an Oil). You won’t miss the +25% movespeed if you also make the above trait changes (you will have perma +33% from Thrill and Expeditious Dodger).
- Assassin’s Signet is a good way to add some punch if you have a spare slot for it.

There’s more you can do, but I’d start with a couple of those things.

Interceptor.2653:

Carpboy.7145:

Im assuming WvW? Trickery is meh there.

You are out of your tree. Thrill of the Crime is kitten-near required for a Sword build. Deep Trickery is debatable, 10 Trickery is not.

kornfanxxx.9143:

my first question is: How would you guys adapt this to a stealthing build throughout the traits and utility slots? I kinda wanna give stealth a try but i feel like i’ll fail really hard at timing revealed off the cuff haha.

You don’t. Sword/Pistol and stealth do not get along. If you feel like you need a little bit of stealth, feel free to add Blinding Powder to your utility bar. It can act as a ghetto stun-breaker in a duel, and you can use the Blast finisher on it to combo with Black Powder as well.

and my second question: as the build sits by itself, what changes would you make? are any of the stats redundant or need to be higher?

Get some condition removal and survival. You will get destroyed by condi-users. I’d suggest the following:

- Drop 30 CS, put 25 points into Acro, and get DA to 15.
- Take Vigorous Recovery and Pain Response in Acro.
- Long Reach in Trickery is fine, but consider using Bountiful Theft occasionally.
- Consider using Lyssa Runes instead of Traveler’s. You get a free condi removal and all boons on elite, a random useful boon on heal, plus enough Precision that you can drop some Berserker’s for defensive power-based armor (like Soldier’s) and use a different nourishment (like a Stone instead of an Oil). You won’t miss the +25% movespeed if you also make the above trait changes (you will have perma +33% from Thrill and Expeditious Dodger).
- Assassin’s Signet is a good way to add some punch if you have a spare slot for it.

There’s more you can do, but I’d start with a couple of those things.

I just tried out those suggestions, and tried fighting a condi warrior friend of mine. I kinda felt like that removing burning @ 75% trait didnt really help me much, since it was reapplied literally 10 seconds later and i didnt have the burst or sustained dps to down him since I dropped CS. I do however like the lyssa runes, those do help. could be a L2P noob issue as well.

I feel like i can kite around the power built people with the interrupts and blinds, as well as using my teleports defensively. but yeah condi built bunkers are an issue

kornfanxxx.9143:

I just tried out those suggestions, and tried fighting a condi warrior friend of mine. I kinda felt like that removing burning @ 75% trait didnt really help me much, since it was reapplied literally 10 seconds later and i didnt have the burst or sustained dps to down him since I dropped CS.

Pain Response is not just about condition removal: it also gives you at least 12s of Regeneration, which is restoring about 40% of the damage you’re taking from a re-applied Burning. Even more if you have boon duration or healing power elsewhere in your build.

About CS, the only thing that you are really losing is Precision/CritDMG and a few traits. You can make up most of the loss by adjusting some of the stats on your gear/food to compensate.

Another thought to give you burst damage cheaply: drop your CS to 10 (take it from Trickery), put a bunch of Signets on your bar, and use Signets of Power. You should be able to give yourself 10-15 stacks of Might easily in a fight this way, which will give you a window to break someone down with Power-based damage.

Rest of it is probably L2P like you said, and in general we don’t match up super-well against Warriors anyway, although Poison/Weakness and such help a lot. Sword’s autoattack chain can be devastating to a Warrior if you land the third hit. Pistol Whip is not necessarily the best thing to be using.

One final bit: Saffron-scented Poultry Soup is a really good way to get condition removal on your build. Withdraw removes the movement-based conditions first, and the food gets one of whatever is left (which is usually a damaging condition). You can switch foods in combat, so maybe keep a couple of these around in case you are up against someone where the Power food is not helping you deal with them.

I feel like i can kite around the power built people with the interrupts and blinds, as well as using my teleports defensively. but yeah condi built bunkers are an issue

Bountiful Theft helps with the bunkers that are boon-based. Hard for them to function properly when you keep stealing everything.