Guild Wars 2

So…I’ve rarely played a thief, (I main an Ele, warrior and ranger) but from time to time I’d theory craft some builds with a decent understanding of how the class works and stuff.
But I’m just curious, how effective is a healing venoms build with Skelk Venom? Say Pve/Wvw

The venoms themselves provide a nice little heal when used. Skelk venom has a nice burst heal… however, the cooldown is waaaay too long.

The biggest complaint against venoms is that you have to trait 30/x/30/x/x to make use of them… and it kind of gimps you for doing anything else. It’s possible to get a functional DD build by realigning the traits, but you’re still kind of kitten.

That said, in a good group in Wv3, it can be a lot of fun… I run it from time to time and have had good experiences… and have been facerolled.

Is Assassin’s Reward+Leeching venoms and Signet of Malice heal decent?

I see a ton of initiative traits and abilities and after the initiative buff for thieves, i’ve seen a ton of troll p/p builds in Pvp mostly

Shadow Arts and deep Acrobatics don’t work all that well together. You really want to pick a lane; either run with venoms, or use SoM/AR. Leeching is limited to one activation per strike, but SoM wants lots of hits, and these two aims usually conflict with each other because of your available skills.

Interceptor.2653:

Shadow Arts and deep Acrobatics don’t work all that well together. You really want to pick a lane; either run with venoms, or use SoM/AR. Leeching is limited to one activation per strike, but SoM wants lots of hits, and these two aims usually conflict with each other because of your available skills.

So something like spamming Unload would be better for SoM right

^ Correct. Unload and Pistol Whip are good with Signet of Malice. Especially Pistol Whip, because it cleaves and can hit three enemies at once (and each hit is another proc of SoM).

EDIT: although Ricochet does help with Unload.

Also please note that Venoms only Tigger if they actually hit, so if they are Blocked, or you are Blinded they do not go off and it is “used” up.

Interceptor.2653:

^ Correct. Unload and Pistol Whip are good with Signet of Malice. Especially Pistol Whip, because it cleaves and can hit three enemies at once (and each hit is another proc of SoM).

EDIT: although Ricochet does help with Unload.

unload, ricochet and SoM is an amazing combo, been using it for afew weeks, it makes healing signet look bad

on the subject of healing venoms though, it’d be fun to see your health fly up using skelk venom, and leaching venoms + unload

i actualy wish unload could multi proc the bleeding sigil or the might sigil to begin with tbh because right now it dont from what a friend told me

They’re alright but the issue is it only affects soo many people for so little attacks. In s/tpvp it can be useful because the player count but you also have to strongly invest and even so, healing power on thief scales HORRIBLY.

Leeching venoms provides a very decent heal, yeah.

Don’t waste your time on skelk venom (the healing skill #6 venom) though.

1. It’s underwhelming compared to leeching venoms, especially with its cooldown.
2. It forces you to give up whatever other heal (be it stealth heal or signet of malice)
3. With these things in mind, YOUR VENOM CAN MISS AND YOU DON’T GET IT BACK.

Point 3 absolutely makes it ridiculous and useless for me. I would be MAYBE, MAYBE willing to give up malice for it if venoms didn’t ****ing get used on miss/block/evade/whatever. But they can and do.

Ezekiel.1985:

Leeching venoms provides a very decent heal, yeah.

Don’t waste your time on skelk venom (the healing skill #6 venom) though.

1. It’s underwhelming compared to leeching venoms, especially with its cooldown.
2. It forces you to give up whatever other heal (be it stealth heal or signet of malice)
3. With these things in mind, YOUR VENOM CAN MISS AND YOU DON’T GET IT BACK.

Point 3 absolutely makes it ridiculous and useless for me. I would be MAYBE, MAYBE willing to give up malice for it if venoms didn’t ****ing get used on miss/block/evade/whatever. But they can and do.

True on skelk venom but it does have a base heal outside of the attacks.

I think if they made each venom hit count per swing, vs per target it would be a HUGE buff. For example, you use sword and swing at 3 people within range. You manage to hit 2 people but the 3rd person dodges or blocks, still consumes the charge without your consent so to speak. I think if they limited it to 1 strike per swing, so if you used cluster bomb with a venom and only 2 people of 4 got hit it would consume 1 charge onto 1 person, that way you can utilize leeching venoms a little better.

Just a thought.