Guild Wars 2

I have thief (daredevil) as my main. I love playing him and it is a great fun! But since HoT datadisc, I just cannot help myself, because I feel like paper. I have 13,5k HP, but I feel a lot weaker than the other classes in the matter of survival in combat. Should I focus more on shadowstep, stealth, etc. or make my HP level higher? I was thinking about raising my HP limit, but I would lose too much of precision, which is the critical aspect for thief. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I love my thief and I never ever want to quit him (it is ,,her" actually).

I suggest you get more vitality in your build. That precision does no good if you too dead to use it. 13.5 k hp will not last long if struck or loaded with conditions meaning you have to spend more time avoiding attacks then utilizing that precision to make them.

Now what you can consider is using Runes of the daredevil in conjunction with Sigils of Intelligence in either hand. If you swap weapons with regularity and properly time your dodges (don’t just waste them) you can ensure the 100 percent crit rate that evolves from those runes and those sigils.

This obviously will only last through those quick bursts so review how they work before making any decision as they might not suit your style.

As to precision itself you can do fine with a base rate of 40 percent. Add fury to that and your crit rate decent if you would rather not rely on runes or sigils. Supplemnt your armor with Valkyrie stuff or marauders.

What weapon sets are you using? You should be able to build extra vitality without losing too much damage now if you go d/x. Dagger got 30% attack damage buff in the last patch. You can also go Acrobatics and grab the 2 second evasion trait when you hit 50% hp now too that will keep you alive long enough to heal or get out of the fight(s/d- damage also buffed with traits and after-cast reduction in AA). Also always go marauder in amulet in sPvP, never Berserker. The 200 power is not worth the 6000 hp you lose. That is 1- 2 more hits you can survive in sPvP which is a lot.

Hmm can you post your build? If you are doing something weird with like a pistol main hand, I guess that’s to be expected. However with the recent changes signet of malice for pve has gotten a real buff because our hits are faster, withdraw for pvp has finally gotten it’s buff and our increased damage has really buffed invigorating precision.
My build is full berserker with 3 berserker + valkyrie trinkets and a marauders chest piece. This allows me to have 13005 health, 99.19% crit when paired with a spotter over 220% crit damage (but I can’t remember exactly) and it allows me to hit just below the 3500 power mark with a full stack of bloodlust and might. 13k health is a lot but it’s not really where our best survivability comes from, it comes from our DPS. When you spec for high damage and swap to invigorating precision you can swap that 13% damage buff from no quarter for insane tankiness, as long as you don’t get 1 shot. Give it a try.

I’ve given up. Even with this last balance patch my thief with toughness build is a 1 shot… I can manage 2 shots if I do toughness and vitality. I HATE HoT. I keep changing my build up to see if there’s anyway I can survive better… but no luck at that. Any AOE field and I’m toast.

Wow, thank you everyone for your replies! The main thing is, I am very fond of dual pistols and staff. I have full berserker armor set (but finally got my crafting to 500 so I am planning to go for the ascended set, but don´t know which one, if Zojja or Marauder or Valkyrie) with circle of death ring (and the other one with same stats) and call of the wild amulet. I have superior signets of the scholar in my armor and superior sigils of force in both my pistols. In my staff I have Marauder stats with Ruby Orb and superior sigil of air. As for you IDICERI, I don´t play PvP a lot, only sometimes, but that Marauder amulet is sweeeeeeeet!!! With fury almost always on while in combat, I have 250 % crit. damage and 78 % crit. chance with 2700 Power. Also I am using on my skills 7,8 and 9 signets of power, agillity and shadows and my healing is channeled vigor (I started using the combo of signet of agillity to replenish my endurance and then heal for more HPs). Now where is the proper place for adding some vitality? Again, any help is greatly appreciated!

I changed my armor to marauders.
It is a good mix of zerker and Valkyrie, so you can take a lil more of a hit.
This isn’t tanky though.
It’s more like an upgrade from wet paper bag armor – to plastic bag armor.

skopek.1045:

superior sigils of force in both my pistols.

Sigils of the same type don’t stack, so you’re wasting a sigil slot. As for vitality, outside of pvp it really shouldn’t be necessary to survive. You can add some if you want, but a couple defensive traits/utilities should help you survive much better.

But sigil of force and bloodlust works together, right?

@OP
Get invigorating precision trait. That alone makes a huge difference.
Other than that, learn to dodge, really. We have plenty of dodges.

Link.1049:

I’ve given up. Even with this last balance patch my thief with toughness build is a 1 shot… I can manage 2 shots if I do toughness and vitality. I HATE HoT. I keep changing my build up to see if there’s anyway I can survive better… but no luck at that. Any AOE field and I’m toast.

To be honest, thief isn’t THAT bad anymore. Sure, we are squishy and need a bit of love, but roaming and non ranked PvP (there are no ranked anymore anyway) are fine for thief. Sure it takes a bit more work than some other professions, but it’s not unreasonably work.
Again, not saying we are 100% where we should be compared to other professions, but we are very playable.

actually daredevil spec + unhindered combatant gave nearly everyone an easy access to thief class even if you struggled to play it before

whether its pve or pvp being able to dodge 3 times while crossing great distance, breaking every movement impairing effect and reducing incoming damage its simply great if you find yourself in trouble due to thief’s innate squishiness

if even that isnt enough for you then add Signet of Agility for 100 endurance refill on a 30 sec cd with no cast time

that said, while before HoT I used to have troubles surviving some things now its really a piece cake with all the dodges thief received even running a complete glass cannon build

AnniMira.2506:

But sigil of force and bloodlust works together, right?

yes you can have bloodlust and force.