Guild Wars 2

I know people are upset about a few nerfs to the thief class, and there are already threads addressing that. So I thought I’d start a thread to consider the buffs that happened. Please leave the QQing for another thread as I don’t need to hear anymore about thieves being overpowered, or the nerf making you want to quit the game.

So disclaimer aside,
what is your favorite buff to thieves from this patch?
Has it significantly changed your build / playstyle?
Are new builds viable now, that weren’t before?
Do you have any tips for fellow thieves on how they could use these new skills?

Not going to lie I find body shot interesting, if the duration was only a second or two longer. I’d like the skill.

Personally, I’ve liked the steal buffs the best, though the d/d (poison duration/death blossom/dancing dagger) buffs were pretty nice and have encouraged me to start playing d/d as a condition tank build.

My favorite combo has been to use infiltrators strike and steal (with the long-range buff) to close a 2k distance gap, all while channeling caltrops, so that it pops as I steal, thereby dazing the opponent and cloaking me, allowing me to backstab and start spamming death blossoms. I’ve basically used shadow-arts to turn steal into roll-for-initiative.

This build has been fun in wvw, and gives me a new sense of what to do in zerg vs zerg fights. Harrassing with aoe.

Shadow trap has also been a very important (but buggy) lifeline for me in this playstyle.

In Pve, I’ve noticed a disturbing problem – I have more toughness and vitality than I did with my zerker build, but I feel less survivable. It seems that I’ve gone too high with toughness, and now I am getting focus-fired. Even as a tanky thief, I don’t have access to boons like aegis and protection, and my evades, though frequent don’t defend against random pve focus fire. Not sure how to fix this, but I think the build that is working for me in wvw needs some heavy modifications for pve viability.

The patch hasn’t really changed my build any. I’m so psyched that they smoothed out my Pistol Whip; it feels so much more fluid. The Steal CD drop to 35 is always nice. The ability to make a steal spam build with 10/30/0/0/30 seems like it could be some decent buffs for party support, but it doesn’t fit my playstyle really.

The little things such as DB’s lower cost have really reopened Thief for me in Open World PvE. I haven’t changed much in the build but the differences are noticeable.
Still kinda terrible underwater, but on land I’m having an easier, more enjoyable time than before. Not quite as well as my Ranger but far better than my poor engie.

I don’t know if it’s build or what, but generally Thief seem to be in a good place. Now if the water problems were solved as well….

Anet are getting there, if slowly. The medium armour classes were pretty much the most useless in the most game modes, doing well in only one each. This seems to be balancing out, so, thanks ANet.