Guild Wars 2

Are hybrid builds viable for a quick switching of tactics? By that I mean, can a thief go from a tanky, dodgy, speedy kiting machine to a bursty glass-cannon with the switch of just a weapon, say Shortbow and D/D? And if so, how effective is this, and in what enviroments, like pve, spvp, tpvp, or wvw, would this work? Post comments and build links.

Edit: By switching a weapon, I do not actually mean solely relying on the change in weapon stats or sigils to complete the spec change. My question, in clearer terms, is whether there is a way to be able to moderately burst someone while also having decent survivabillity. Not excelling in either but providing lots of options for combat situations.

The weapon’s stats won’t have that significant of an effect. I know some people put defensive stats on their shortbow because they use it defensively and accept they won’t be doing loads of damage with it. It doesn’t really make them tanky, though. You’re only shifting something like 15% of your overall bonus around.

Clockwork Bard.3105:

The weapon’s stats won’t have that significant of an effect. I know some people put defensive stats on their shortbow because they use it defensively and accept they won’t be doing loads of damage with it. It doesn’t really make them tanky, though. You’re only shifting something like 15% of your overall bonus around.

Yes, but I am talking about more the traits and armor that you can create a hybrid of so that when you switch from Shortbow to D/D you can change not only your weapon but also the entire play style. Like have two specs in one, just each one being a little less effective than say, having just one fully committed spec of that type.

Jack of all trades, master of none!

in “theory” you can but what will most likely happen is your build will end up having medium attack and defense.

good luck trying to make one though

I guess you’re talking about PvE dungeon type content rather than PvP. It is certainly possible to carry a second set of armor with different runes that can support a different play style. My second armor set is carrion with adventurer runes that works well his high dodge content (like Lupicus). Customizing your weapon change isn’t going to do much beyond the sigil benefit.

When you partially swap out of a zerker build you’ll probably have some residual + crit chance and + crit damage that becomes a lot worse in low numbers. You could see a big drop in performance in exchange for versatility.