Guild Wars 2

Typical build seems to be 10/30/0/0/30.

Can someone link a build and explain how it manages without shadow arts?

Somewhat new to thief and just finally got the hang of d/p and want another fun build/set for roaming wvw.

DA mug obviously
CS I; III and executioner
Trickery V; VII and XII for interrupts

Gear, well anything goes but to do any decent dmg, you need zerk in it. Mix of zerk/soldier is popular. Most use lyssa runes for condi removal.

There is no sustain from SA so you have to time interrupts well or you are a toast. Spamming sword 3 will kill you.

whenever i play s/d always maxing out acrobatics for more evades and suvivability https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7moYkWLPK8&list=UU-SjU98hzx0-TdRsxXuf6kg

Coloxeus.3480:

whenever i play s/d always maxing out acrobatics for more evades and suvivability https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7moYkWLPK8&list=UU-SjU98hzx0-TdRsxXuf6kg

Haven’t seen you play in a while coloxus. But I agree 30 points in critical strikes and 30 in acrobatics is the way to go. the last 10 is really up to preference. I like mug for additional burst but some go for thrill of the crime/uncatchable.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VeF3V;1VwF_0J5V-Fd0;9;49T-T-2;017A;127B;1LNV4U;1KJG4KJG45Bx

Trickery is not the right traitline for s/d. s/p can use it because it evades while doing damage. S/D needs the extra dodges to survive long enough to win a fight.

Hype.8032:

Trickery is not the right traitline for s/d. s/p can use it because it evades while doing damage. S/D needs the extra dodges to survive long enough to win a fight.

How does this make Trickery inappropriate? Bountiful Theft gives better Vigor uptime than even Vigorous Recovery does, and the deeper you go down the line, the more often it’s available.

30 in either line is viable, it’s been proven by plenty of thieves. The difference is Acrobatics is more defensive while Trickery is more offensive (of course not as much as Deadly Arts though). 30 in acrobatics provides about 30% more endurance return than 30 in trickery, some condition removal, a possibly more consistent damage multiplier, and something else of your choosing, also likely to be defensive. Trickery provides 3 extra initiative in the pool, access to 47.6% up-time on fury and swiftness, and extra boon steal and a daze every 21 seconds. As for stats, is steal recharge rate vs 3k health. Condition damage and boon duration aren’t important enough to have any weight on the decision.

You can always get the best of trickery, CS, and acro with 0/30/0/20/20. Dont have to go a full 30 in either one

Trickery is not well suited for s/d because it does very little to cover up the after cast of the sword skills. Acrobatics provides more dodges than trickery and that difference is make or break for s/d. S/P and D/P do well with trickery because s/p can evade while dpsing (s/d can’t) and d/p compensates with more evades from shortbow (spend most of the time in shortbow not d/p), blinds, and stealth.

This has been proven time and time again.

I must admit I do favour 30 Acrobatics with S/D. For D/P however, I take 25 Deadly Arts, and 15 Shadow Arts for the extra 1 sec stealth and condition removal for those poxy blinds and poison. In fact, I’d sooner take 30 Shadow Arts than 30 Trickery. The reason for not taking Acrobatics for me is the blinds on demand with D/P, not so much the evades on shortbow which I actually rarely use. I spend much more time using D/P than shortbow, unless it’s against a bunker-heavy group in which case it’ll probably be 50-50.

Edit: In anticipation of stealth-trolls; that 1 sec of extra stealth is BECAUSE I don’t take stealth utilities. Not because I can’t get enough of them.

Hype.8032:

Trickery is not well suited for s/d because it does very little to cover up the after cast of the sword skills. Acrobatics provides more dodges than trickery and that difference is make or break for s/d. S/P and D/P do well with trickery because s/p can evade while dpsing (s/d can’t) and d/p compensates with more evades from shortbow (spend most of the time in shortbow not d/p), blinds, and stealth.

This has been proven time and time again.

Or you can do both like I do and others like Arganthium. Trickery with Acrobatics does surprisingly well with sword dagger, combined with the amazingly low CD of steal afterward for extra steps

Carpboy.7145:

You can always get the best of trickery, CS, and acro with 0/30/0/20/20. Dont have to go a full 30 in either one

I enjoyed this setup also! S/D has always been my favorite thief set not a fan of the 3,3,dodge,3,3, dodge setup though. I do enjoy 30 trick because against anyone not prepared you can get a almost guaranteed kill with sleight of hand you have to be more careful in avoiding attacks but the daze on steal is very powerful imo I feel it is one of the top thief traits now.

In my opinion, Acrobatics is dumb for S/D. You already can evade a lot, no need for more evades. Trickery is the better way to go for S/D. I’ve also mained S/D for a long time and ive tested pretty much all specs for S/D and ive found trickery the most useful.

oZii.2864:

Carpboy.7145:

You can always get the best of trickery, CS, and acro with 0/30/0/20/20. Dont have to go a full 30 in either one

I enjoyed this setup also! S/D has always been my favorite thief set not a fan of the 3,3,dodge,3,3, dodge setup though. I do enjoy 30 trick because against anyone not prepared you can get a almost guaranteed kill with sleight of hand you have to be more careful in avoiding attacks but the daze on steal is very powerful imo I feel it is one of the top thief traits now.

Sleight of hand is the main reason I put 30 in trickery. But I guess most feel acro is more useful as interrrupts require some thought into timing rather than spending a lot of time in evasion frames.

Sleight of hand : stab denial interrupt on a 21s CD + bountifull theft prioritizing stab (and apply vigor) makes the entire acrobatics line look very weak in comparison.

and you can also use 10/0/0/30/30 for longer survival and more steal boons bunker wrecker and can interrupt on steal lesser damage but still zerker hurts

>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPJKfvK4eB4&feature=youtu.be

At least 15 acrobatics is usually good if you just want to increase your evasiveness substantially. I like 0/30/20/20/0 for a more tanky, less skill-dependent thief. Sleight of Hand is good, but it’s a little one-trick pony for me. Good trick mind you, but I like to be a flittery butterfly more.

RedSpectrum.1975:

Hype.8032:

Trickery is not well suited for s/d because it does very little to cover up the after cast of the sword skills. Acrobatics provides more dodges than trickery and that difference is make or break for s/d. S/P and D/P do well with trickery because s/p can evade while dpsing (s/d can’t) and d/p compensates with more evades from shortbow (spend most of the time in shortbow not d/p), blinds, and stealth.

This has been proven time and time again.

Or you can do both like I do and others like Arganthium. Trickery with Acrobatics does surprisingly well with sword dagger, combined with the amazingly low CD of steal afterward for extra steps

That build is fine in WvW where you can supplement your damage with food. However, in spvp even 10/30/0/30/0 is flirting with the threshold of doing too little damage for its niche. 10/30/0/0/30 s/d has less survivability than s/p or d/p and less burst to boot, it’s a nonstarter.

when i used s/d i used my own take on jumper’s build (before he changed to it as well), 0/30/0/25/15.

you maximize your benefits completely in each traitline this way.

CS obviously you get the damage, Acro you get the survivability (vitality/evasion) and damage (fluid strikes is essentially a second executioner), and with Trickery you get a much needed initiative boost and access to either thrill of the crime or long reach- LR being really only good in wvw for ridiculous gap closing fun.

I played around with arga’s 10/0/0/30/30 and while it’s not bad, it just doesn’t get the job done for me.

honestly though, using s/d nowadays really is putting yourself at a disadvantage in most cases. dont get me wrong it’s still fun as hell to play, but as it stands s/p trickery is considerably more viable.

10 0 30 0 30

It’s WvW and this S/D spec be pr0.