Guild Wars 2

So having levelled to 67 while running a Condition Damage d/d + sb build on my Thief, I decided I was sick of being a glass cannon. I re-traited, re-skilled, and re-equipped myself completely a few hours ago, and am so far pretty happy with the results, but am looking for further advice.

First of all, I would like to make it very clear that I am not level 80 yet. I am level 67. As such I haven’t gotten to play with a few of the perks I plan to have later on. I also have not invested in Rare/Exquisite gear yet, or even any decent armor upgrades (the lvl40 Glyphs of Accuracy are probably the best thing in my gear at the moment).

Without further ado, here are the ideas of the build:

1) – PvE Survivability. If I miss a dodge in a boss fight or get stacked with conditions I would like to be able to heal up and keep going.

2) – WvW Survivability. I want to be able to escape as necessary. In this case I’m relying heavily on stealth.

3) – Support. I intend to be useful to my team beyond just DPS. Combo fields, boons, heals, etc. This is difficult to achieve as a thief.

4) – Still decent DPS. Clearly this is what Thieves are meant for, after all.

This is the build in it’s current form:

Weapons: s/p + p/d

Heal: Hide in Shadows

Utilities:
Blinding Powder + Shadow Refuge + Shadow Step

Elite: Thieves Guild

Traits:
30x Critical Strikes (III + VI + XII),
30x Shadow Arts (I + III + XI),
10x Acrobatics (VI)

I am geared for Precision, Toughness, and Power at the moment.

I seem to be more than capable of absorbing damage from mobs (which is shocking to me, haha), and I can kite rather effectively, but the damage is a bit lower than I’d hoped. Even so, I can get over that, but I’m looking for some advice on my third utility skill and Traits. For the skill, I currently have Shadow Step. This seems a little redundant with the s2 skill, but they each have their purpose, and more condition removal is nice. That said, I wouldn’t mind having a faster escape (namely Roll for Initiative). I would also like opinions on whether Smoke Screen is worthwhile.

Regarding traits, it seems like Shadow Arts has far too many good choices for this, and Critical Strikes has far too few. Shadow Arts V and IV seem especially useful, and I have yet to figure out just how much I’m benefiting from the others. It comes down to either: More Initiative, Consistent Regen, Group Regen, Shorter CD, or Condition Removal.

Has anyone tried a build like this yet, and do you have any advice for traits? Also, I’m looking for advice on keeping DPS up. I’m at about a %50 crit chance right now, but would really like to abuse that for more damage. Thanks in advance for your help!