Guild Wars 2

http://intothemists.com/guides/5880-vinis_current_build

That’s my current build, which is Zerker. I like it a lot. I really like the look of my Zojja’s Razors and the Zojja’s Shortbow, so changing those weapons is non-negotiable. (I also like the names, so transmuting them is also non-negotiable) I’m willing to work with my armor and runes, though. And sigils for weapons.

Now, I used to have a DA, Acro, and SA build, but I tried out Trickery instead of Acro and I’m enjoying it. I’m just wondering what would be best for a condi thief if it’s viable.

My playstyle tends to be kill fast before they kill me. Though, you may notice from my ascended rings that I’ve given myself some survivability.

Anyway, any suggestions for a condi thief build IF it’s reliable in PvE?

The short answer is: Yes, they are very viable and extremely durable if built correctly. Able to boost their HP to 20K’s with out sacrificing any damage(it actually adds to it if done correctly.)
My recommendation on gear is full Dire armor and weapons, and full Carron accessorys(to keep Vit as high as possible). With the right Runes, and the right settings, it’s possible for you to do a full venom dump on someone with 2.4K+ Condition, draining their HP in the blink of an eye.

Unfortunately… I have few laurels, so I can’t change my rings, nor my accessory. Personally, I like accessory, and rings, too.

Is there an alternative to Dire that has some power? Dire is condition, toughness and vitality.

And what runes?

I’m also getting info from my guildies that a condi thief with precision would be good, but that may be based on using the Critical Strikes trait.

Hum…

If you want power too, carrion is the way forward. It depends how durable you want to be, dire is better generally on a pure condi build and the extra toughness really makes a difference.

If you want power and some crit chance to work with critical strikes, consider some sinister gear. Direct damage would be akin to knight’s gear, you’d have condi instead of toughness which means more bleed damage but no better defence than a zerker build has.

Scavenger runes are good with high vitality, plex and krait work well too (plex more for WvW).

Frankly though, hybrid builds don’t work amazingly on thief, you’re generally better off going full zerk or dire and doing either condi or direct damage, not both. P/D cele may be an exception, but since you don’t wanna change weapons or trinkets you’re really limiting your options.

Well, right now, I CAN’T change trinkets. XD I do like my celestial accessory as I said, but I’m willing to sac, but… I have 19 Laurels. Can’t buy ascended gear with that. I could try it with exotics, though.

I have tried in the Heart of the Mists at the training grounds with the golems using a different build.

I used the Thief runes. They add to condition damage, and I also focused on venoms. The golems went down really fast. I want to try it out in the open world to see how it works, but I dunno if I have the money for the exotics I need to test it.

As for Sigils, I’m willing to change those, I just don’t know which Sigils to use.

http://intothemists.com/guides/5894-vini_condi_build_beta

Here’s a beta build. The back piece changed as did the accessory. I’m not sure how easy it is to get back pieces (I chose the Quiver of Thousand Arrows and chose Valk back when Zerker was meta).

And yeah, I am not willing to part with my weapons. Other than that, I’m free game.

Jugglemonkey.8741:

If you want power too, carrion is the way forward. It depends how durable you want to be, dire is better generally on a pure condi build and the extra toughness really makes a difference.

If you want power and some crit chance to work with critical strikes, consider some sinister gear. Direct damage would be akin to knight’s gear, you’d have condi instead of toughness which means more bleed damage but no better defence than a zerker build has.

Scavenger runes are good with high vitality, plex and krait work well too (plex more for WvW).

Frankly though, hybrid builds don’t work amazingly on thief, you’re generally better off going full zerk or dire and doing either condi or direct damage, not both. P/D cele may be an exception, but since you don’t wanna change weapons or trinkets you’re really limiting your options.

I would like to say that before this patch, I ran a hybrid thief and it was incredibly successful for me personally. After patch though, I agree with your statement, hybrid thief is a thing of the past / worthless.

You either go full investment, or you go home. You’re going to need x amount of power to get through the initial defense of something like say an elementalist running diamond armor, and of course x condition damage so that you actually have pressure because compared to what other classes can do with burning alone you are going to need it.

IMO, Condi thief needs a little bit of love. >.<

AegisRunestone.8672:

Well, right now, I CAN’T change trinkets. XD I do like my celestial accessory as I said, but I’m willing to sac, but… I have 19 Laurels. Can’t buy ascended gear with that. I could try it with exotics, though.

I have tried in the Heart of the Mists at the training grounds with the golems using a different build.

I used the Thief runes. They add to condition damage, and I also focused on venoms. The golems went down really fast. I want to try it out in the open world to see how it works, but I dunno if I have the money for the exotics I need to test it.

As for Sigils, I’m willing to change those, I just don’t know which Sigils to use.

http://intothemists.com/guides/5894-vini_condi_build_beta

Here’s a beta build. The back piece changed as did the accessory. I’m not sure how easy it is to get back pieces (I chose the Quiver of Thousand Arrows and chose Valk back when Zerker was meta).

And yeah, I am not willing to part with my weapons. Other than that, I’m free game.

That link doesnt seem to work for me :/

AegisRunestone.8672:

http://intothemists.com/guides/5880-vinis_current_build
[…]
http://intothemists.com/guides/5894-vini_condi_build_beta

Your links do not work for me either.

If you wanna check a nice condition build, based on venom share, and sinister gear, check this one

I am currently playing with the trickery variant (but I still keep my shortbow).

However, after reading some of your answers, I don’t understand why you want to change your build since you seem to refuse any change to your weapons or trinkets…
It’s like you saying “Hey ! I wear zerker gear, is there any condition build I could use with it ?”

Please read my second post. I AM willing to change my trinkets, I just cannot at the moment.

Sorry my links don’t work, I guess I dunno how to link builds. :P

AegisRunestone.8672:

I AM willing to change my trinkets, I just cannot at the moment.

Sorry, I have misunderstood what you were saying then.

However, If you wanna get sinister trinket, you don’t need laurels, nor guild mission rewards. To get them, you have to do the achievements of the living story II. (episodes 4 to 8.)

AegisRunestone.8672:

Sorry my links don’t work, I guess I dunno how to link builds. :P

I guess you should use the build calculator on this website, and share the URL once you have modified your build. (like this : http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vh;4VwFb0Z5BPVd0;9;4IKM;0046258047;9;9;0FB5YnPp)

gruntzy.5847:

AegisRunestone.8672:

I AM willing to change my trinkets, I just cannot at the moment.

Sorry, I have misunderstood what you were saying then.

However, If you wanna get sinister trinket, you don’t need laurels, nor guild mission rewards. To get them, you have to do the achievements of the living story II. (episodes 4 to 8.)

AegisRunestone.8672:

Sorry my links don’t work, I guess I dunno how to link builds. :P

I guess you should use the build calculator on this website, and share the URL once you have modified your build. (like this : http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vh;4VwFb0Z5BPVd0;9;4IKM;0046258047;9;9;0FB5YnPp)

That’s okay. We misread stuff all the time, it’s a common mistake.

Question about intothemists site. How do I access my builds from my profile?

Jesiah.2457:

Jugglemonkey.8741:

If you want power too, carrion is the way forward. It depends how durable you want to be, dire is better generally on a pure condi build and the extra toughness really makes a difference.

If you want power and some crit chance to work with critical strikes, consider some sinister gear. Direct damage would be akin to knight’s gear, you’d have condi instead of toughness which means more bleed damage but no better defence than a zerker build has.

Scavenger runes are good with high vitality, plex and krait work well too (plex more for WvW).

Frankly though, hybrid builds don’t work amazingly on thief, you’re generally better off going full zerk or dire and doing either condi or direct damage, not both. P/D cele may be an exception, but since you don’t wanna change weapons or trinkets you’re really limiting your options.

I would like to say that before this patch, I ran a hybrid thief and it was incredibly successful for me personally. After patch though, I agree with your statement, hybrid thief is a thing of the past / worthless.

You either go full investment, or you go home. You’re going to need x amount of power to get through the initial defense of something like say an elementalist running diamond armor, and of course x condition damage so that you actually have pressure because compared to what other classes can do with burning alone you are going to need it.

IMO, Condi thief needs a little bit of love. >.<

You’re quite right, that’s kinda what I meant about cele being an exception. I didn’t know whether it was still a thing tbh. Thanks for making it clearer ^^

Max condi or max dps, dont bother trying to trait venoms at all useless af

Yes trappers runes work great. I prefer IMprov myself over the poison in GM trait just because of my utility layout. (trick/trap/trap/deception or trap/venom) which gives a high chance for a utility reset. I find the double steal is so very handy. Gunk doubled up can load confusion , fear doubled up two more interrupts and so on. (steal gunk throw it stealth sneak attack through gunk)

Trapper was also a fun way to play Condi and remains so.

I never tried SOM in the build yet and might give that a go.

This might work even better with my Condi p/p build. I have been practicing with gunk and other combo fields to get more conditions on using #3 and it works very well. Troment galore off the steal and #4 skill. Vulnerability off Number 2 and the stealth sneak attack bleeds off number one. With SOM i might get more heal on that unload.

On my thief, I ran a d/d build with sinister gear, sigils of earth and agony, and mad king runes.

Even before the changes to condition damage I could get 25 stacks of bleed that reached over 2k damage per tick. Just shadow step in (steal), throw down caltrops, spam your death blossoms, and watch as everything melts.

I have no idea what kind of damage she does now … I haven’t touched my thief since the change because I also ran p/p with acrobatics and both of those got heavily nerfed, so I am pretty jaded on thieves now.

As far as general PvE, condi thief is still plenty viable. The thing with them though is duration. Even with krait runes, it’s still going to need constant applications to keep the damage going. Knowing that, I’d say have at least part of your gear have a little power behind it to chip away along with the condi app. Personally, I found full Carrion armor and Dire/Rabid trinkets and Dire weapons work well for me. And if you ever plan on ascended gear, just keep in mind there’s not any Carrion trinket versions (yet at least) so that’s why I went with that set up. Just spec into shadow arts and get stealth every possible way you can for the stealth pistol auto. I use D/D for 2nd set just because the SB eats away init for hardly any payoff as far as condi damage goes.

And if you’re part of a small group or something, Venomous Aura works well for single target spikes with Basalisk & Spider Venom. The rest of the venoms are pretty useless so don’t even bother. gl!

YOUNGaz.5690:

Personally, I found full Carrion armor and Dire trinkets and weapons work well for me. And if you ever plan on ascended gear, just keep in mind there’s not any Carrion versions (yet at least) so that’s why I went with that set up.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Occam’s the carrion prefix for ascended weapons/armor?

Nachyochez.9758:

YOUNGaz.5690:

Personally, I found full Carrion armor and Dire trinkets and weapons work well for me. And if you ever plan on ascended gear, just keep in mind there’s not any Carrion versions (yet at least) so that’s why I went with that set up.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Occam’s the carrion prefix for ascended weapons/armor?

woops! yeah ty. edited to specify trinkets. Occam’s is indeed prefix for Carrion weapons and armor. my mistake!

YOUNGaz.5690:

Nachyochez.9758:

YOUNGaz.5690:

Personally, I found full Carrion armor and Dire trinkets and weapons work well for me. And if you ever plan on ascended gear, just keep in mind there’s not any Carrion versions (yet at least) so that’s why I went with that set up.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Occam’s the carrion prefix for ascended weapons/armor?

woops! yeah ty. edited to specify trinkets. Occam’s is indeed prefix for Carrion weapons and armor. my mistake!

No worries; I’m starting the road to get my ascended gear atm, wanted to make sure I wasn’t saving up mats for a set that didn’t actually exist, lol!