Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I’m an old returning player. Decided to give a different MMO a try (Wildstar) but due to the dying population, I thought I’d come back to GW2. My main is a Level 80 thief, and I had a Lvl 80 warrior as well..

I’d love to continue playing my Thief, however I was hoping somebody could update me on how thieves are to be played now. Last time I was active, fractals had only just been released, Lions Arch wasn’t blown to bits and I think Guild Weeklies were only just announced. So clearly a lot would of changed since then..

Main question is; what builds should I consider? I miss playing my D/D burst (Basilisk venom+Signet of power into CND and backstab spike) build

My main builds are in my sig. The S/P build is my own take on things, but the condi build is pretty close to meta. I’m odd and I don’t use dash much (a daredevil grandmaster trait that every other thief seems to use), hence why I take acro over deadly arts, but otherwise the trait choices are pretty self explanatory. You pretty much need daredevil and trickery, but the other slot is pretty optional.

Most people run deadly arts, trickery and daredevil, with D/P. Think old glass D/P thief with extra dodges, and you kinda get the idea of how most people play nowadays.

Have to buy HoT to be viable.

Doesn’t look like Thief is in a very fun place at the moment – I’m considering trying out a caster type class. Either Ele or Mesmer maybe

Helterskelter.8490:

Doesn’t look like Thief is in a very fun place at the moment – I’m considering trying out a caster type class. Either Ele or Mesmer maybe

Thief can still be fun, as long as you like D/P basically. It’s a lot better than it was 6 months ago though, HoT really did a number on thieves for a while.

Helterskelter.8490:

Doesn’t look like Thief is in a very fun place at the moment.

It’s no way near as fun now unfortunately. The class has suffered greatly since the specialisation update and HoT were released. You need both Daredevil and Trickery so build diversity is awful. It’s still very effective, but most weapon sets come down to using the same skill over and over again which makes it very boring. Thief has always been like this in some ways, but now it’s predominate across every weapon set, including D/P. I do recommend trying out another class to supplement your time with Thief if you are indeed looking for something with a little more wiggle room for build and playstyle self expression. Although expect to come up against the same lack of interesting build diversity with every other class (just to a lesser degree).

Been playing my thief and so far so good. Very fun, I love the mobility I have compared to other classes. I 1v1’d a D/P pistol thief in WvW and he dropped me in seconds (I was using staff, barely got a hit on him). Would love to look more into the current meta and builds and find how thieves are played these days

Boy, do I miss the days of D/D full zerker – Bas venom, Mug, CnD into BS days of burst!

There used to be a lot of variety when it came to roaming. Back in the day it wasn’t uncommon to see a healthy mix of D/D, P/D, D/P, and S/D users. Nowadays its pretty much exclusively D/P or some kittenty evade build

I’m interested in a Stealth/Staff build. I wonder if anybody has tried a Vault/stealth crit build before. I’ve critted on another players before and got 10k crits, etc. so I imagine it’d be fairly decent

you cant have both staff and stealth, besides staff almost doesnt rely on stealth

D/P Daredevil is the way to go. Compared to Thief of old, we use many of the same tricks and mechanics but their effectiveness and availability has changed dramatically. Basically, it takes landing more consequential blows, such as backstabs, hasted auto-attacks, and cc/interrupts, to down someone. However, we also have more access to delivering regulars blows with Pulmonary Impact (dmg on interrupt), Basi venom now being unblockable, more haste through flanking strikes, and other offensive utility skills, like Bandit’s Defense’s knockdown and Impairing Daggers. We can also stay in some fights longer thanks to having more dodges and those dodges providing more stealth (if using bound) or more mobility (if using dash).

In other words, you’re probably used to picking one moment and ripping someone a new one. Now it’s more like lining up 3-6 moments while also having more rounds in your chamber to accomplish this. If you can adapt to the changes, you’ll enjoy them.

Helterskelter.8490:

I’m interested in a Stealth/Staff build. I wonder if anybody has tried a Vault/stealth crit build before. I’ve critted on another players before and got 10k crits, etc. so I imagine it’d be fairly decent

There’s mainly two ways of doing a staff/stealth build. Option 1 is going staff with d/p and using d/p for stealthing purposes. Option 2 is playing a normal staff build, like the marauder staff build on metabattle.com, with shadow refuge and smoke screen. Option 1 sucks because it doesn’t have shortbow. Option 2 can be good in some games but most of the time D/P will be better for stealth plays. Staff is best against teams full of brawler and tank builds that are largely unaffected by our uses of stealth.

rennlc.7346:

There’s mainly two ways of doing a staff/stealth build. Option 1 is going staff with d/p and using d/p for stealthing purposes. Option 2 is playing a normal staff build, like the marauder staff build on metabattle.com, with shadow refuge and smoke screen. Option 1 sucks because it doesn’t have shortbow. Option 2 can be good in some games but most of the time D/P will be better for stealth plays. Staff is best against teams full of brawler and tank builds that are largely unaffected by our uses of stealth.

If it’s for WvW using d/p on switch hasn’t limited me like I thought it might. I use p/p on switch currently, having d/p on you will end up with you using it all the time anyway and you might as well build for it, but it’s fine for just stealthing to set up a Hook Strike if you’re really into staff. That, or take acro with Bound and p/p if you want ranged auto but it’s a pain to switch all the time and I don’t think it’s really worth it. DA/Trick/DD staff power stomper or acro/trick/dd zerg herder have felt the most natural for staff.