Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I had a long introduction planned describing my various trials and forays into playing the thief class, but I decided to condense that entire material down to the following description: failure that transcends the word “epic”.

Maybe not so dramatic, my thief is currently at level 58 so I did get here somehow. But, I’ve been dying so much that honestly I just got frustrated to the point where I ended up making a warrior and a guardian instead. You know, classes that do not get one shot in dungeons or in mobs. It really stopped being fun playing thief after repeated deaths.

I’ve been looking around to get some tips on a build that does well in PvE and dungeons, but most of the stuff that I came across are condition thieves and burst d/d thieves. The latter is really not my play style, and I must be doing something wrong with the condition thief because mobs just dont die fast enough and it becomes tedious as hell.

I would like a build where I can see a mob and feel confident that I can run in there, take them all out, and specifically NOT DIE!!! And then move onto the next mob. I’d like to keep the running around and kiting to a minimum (but I understand that’s generally how you play the thief so a little running around is unavoidable).

I’ve been playing around with S/P lately, but I don’t know what the most efficient “kill combo” is. I winged it and its fun to shadow step into a mob, pop haste/pistol whip/shadow step back/swap to SB and run while throwing AoE’s. Problem is, this only works in specific situations and esp doesn’t work in narrow spaces or when I’m surrounded. Maybe there is a more stable and “standard” kill combo with S/P? Also, whats a good trait allocation/slot skills for this kind of build? I’ve been trying to get signet of malice to work (due to the sustained damage of pistol whip) but I’ve had only moderate success in that regard.

D/D condition builds, like I said earlier, either I’m not playing it right or maybe I’m not using the right skills. I’ve been following the 0/0/30/20/20 trait allocation with hide in shadows/shadow refuge/caltrops/signet of shadows/thieves guild slot skills. Would switching to venoms/poisons make my life easier? Would signet of malice be a better alternative to hide in shadows?

I’m hoping to get some inspiration or ideas on what works for a lot of people so I can go back to playing thief again, although I have to say I learned a lot about general game sense playing the warrior and guardian. So time wasn’t completely wasted.

Despite my best efforts this turned into a long essay anyway, my apologies, (procrastinating studying for my exam as long as possible, which is in about 3 hours).

Thanks!

If you’re using either S/P or D/P, liberal use of Black Powder will make you nigh-invincible in melee range in PvE. I like to precast Steal + Black Powder, then you can just spam 1 until everything is dead (unless it’s a champion, then you’re going to have to play smart and dodge a lot).

D/D Conditions are also good, but make sure you pick up quick recovery, that helps a lot. Also adding Infiltrator’s signet means you should have plenty of regen to let you keep spamming those DBs. I’ve heard signet of malice is awesome with Caltrops + DB, but I’ve never really used it myself, mainly because if you run dungeons with any other condition classes, you’re going to be stepping on each other’s bleed stacks and won’t be doing a ton of damage in total.

Also, don’t neglect Shadow Arts and Acrobatics. There are some very important traits in here, major and minor. Oh, and a lot of the D/D burst builds you see aren’t really made for low – mid level PvE. They are typically designed for PvP if anything, but can work fine at high levels.

Could you post your most current build so we can get a better idea of your trait selection and gear stats?

I’ve had a lot of success in dungeons with the following D/D build.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-c33V;1Rwk0-I5FOVd0;9;5TT9;252B59A5;3JRV7o

30 in SA works wonders for thieves in dungeons. Heal on stealth, regen initiative on stealth, and blind on stealth. The blind on stealth is an awesome damage mitigation in dungeons.

I hit Cloak and Dagger every few seconds to blind the target, heal, and set up a backstab. If I start to get low on health i’ll cloak and dagger a few times and back out. Usually after 3-4 of em I’m back to full health. For multiple mobs i’ll pull out the short bow and poison field / cluster bomb away then switch back to the daggers to finish up.

For utilities I go with hide in shadows, shadow step, blinding powder, and shadows refuge. I’m always watching peoples health. If someone is getting too low on health I’ll shadow step to them and hit blinding powder. This pulls aggro off of them and gives them a chance to get out before they bite the dust. If someone dies, I’ll shadow step to them, pop shadow’s refuge and stealth res them.

It keeps you mobile, gives you amazing burst, and brings a lot of utility to the fight.

Are you sure signet of malice will trigger on bleeds from caltrops and DB? I know for a fact that it registers the 3 hits from DB but I never noticed getting healing from the subsequent bleeds from either DB or caltrops (although I did see youtube videos several months ago where this was the case). Maybe they recently patched it? I’m not sure.

Regarding my build, I’m going off the top of my head here but it was something like this, keep in mind I’ve only got about 48 points to allocate since I’m in level 58, I know I put 10 into critical strikes and shadow arts and 20 into acrobatics, but I don’t recall where the other 8 went (most likely into shadow arts?) I think I was aiming for the 0/10/20/30/10 trait allocation with signet of power, shadow embrace/infusion of shadow, power of inertia/quick recovery/assasin’s reward, and uncatchable. (I’m describing this in case my link does not work)

This link is a bit of a lie as I’m not lvl 80 yet but I’m aiming for something along this line:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlcmaPHey5E9JFxWBfypwpG1rwX7ecVtaVA

Regarding the gear, I’ve been focusing on power/vit/toughness or some combination of these. I haven’t given much thought to my “end game gear” as of yet as I’m still trying to figure out what works.

Regarding the Condition d/d and SB build, it goes something like this instead
0/0/20/20/30. The gear choice amplifies condition/power/vit, again I’m nowhere near ready to get gear that optimizes this but this is my idea for now.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVlUmaPXey5E95EBnCnaUvHflsjtTxV1KA