Jaucko's WvW/PvE Crit Thief Build (Open to suggestions)
Aside from glass-cannon build in sPvP I’d never recommend using more than half Berserker gear.
Both PvE and WvW require a decent amount of survivability unless you’re so well organized (in some guild groups) that you’re in full control of your environment.
My rule of thumb for a D/D – Crit build is to use Berserker Accessoires coupled with a Power/Toughness/Vitality set or anything that offers similar survivability.
As for Runes, I must admit I had to look up the Runes of the Eagle. They do seem like a good choice for a Backstab build. I’ve currently got Runes of Lyssa that offer a significant amount of added protection during Daggerstorm making it a lot safer to use, especially in WvW.
However the Runes of Lyssa don’t procc reliably for some reason, so there’s that.
Aside from glass-cannon build in sPvP I’d never recommend using more than half Berserker gear.
Caveat for this is open-world PvE once you’ve learned to dodge. You’ll want some survivability for dungeons, but most PvE AI is so terrible that you’re far better off stacking heavy offense and killing mobs in a few seconds without letting them hit you much than stacking survivability and making fights take longer. My PvE effectiveness went way up as I ditched more defense for offense.
As far as the OP: A handful of vitality does not survivability make. Vitality on your accessories might make you stand up better against random AE/target of opportunity damage, but it won’t do much when someone built like you (another glass cannon) decides you need to die. There’s not really anything wrong with that, it is a viable counter, but accessory vitality alone doesn’t suddenly make you survivable. You are right in your assertion that people who do zero defensive stats and die to “accidental” (bouncing shortbow projectiles, siege hits) damage might want to throw some in somewhere though.
(edited by Tulisin.6945)
I agree with Tusisin. Go full spec to support the build you’re making and use utility skills and dodging for your survivabilty
I use the stealth heal, shadowstep, roll for initiative, and the speed signet for my utility skills. Most of the time I can get myself out of trouble, as long as I’m careful about watching my health bar.
Amazing how few thieves I run against have these skills. I kill those ones.
On the contrare, you gain 2000 HP and aside from losing a bit of precision, you actually increase your damage output as well as keep power the exact same. Basically amplifying your critical burst as well as giving you perhaps that final critical chance you need to seal the deal.
Runes of Divinity do not exist anymore lol.
On the contrare, you gain 2000 HP and aside from losing a bit of precision, you actually increase your damage output as well as keep power the exact same. Basically amplifying your critical burst as well as giving you perhaps that final critical chance you need to seal the deal.
Runes of Divinity do not exist anymore lol.
You do not incrase your damage output choosing power/vitality/crit over power/prec/crit, as you will always have lesser damage output, however the berserkers gear is hightly problematic in vast siages, where some random siage hit or aoe might drop you dead. In solo PvE i found more damage more usefull then extra HP, due to as a thief i pick my encounters, and my damage is enough to drop oponents w/o beeing hit, if i dont mess up(using Flanking strike as a dodge)
Former Devils Inside Thief R43
PvE vs boss
Thieves as a class is very glassy. If we mess up ONCE, we have a slight chance of recovering, but if we mess up TWICE we die. There’s just not enough hitpoints/armor/heal to counter two mistakes.
PvE vs mob
I use my thieves guild as tank. It’s a really cheap way out but it works, less tense. Shortbow has great aoes so no worries.
WvW
:D SO FUN. I do double pistol/shortbow.
Indeed, however lets be more specific. As oppose to a pure berserk all around damaging crit thief of course it is very problematic in WvW scenario’s and sometimes problematic during dungeons. If you’d refer to the initial post you would see I was elaborating on WvW scenario as the basis of this discussion, and a glass cannon berserk thief with divinity runes to counter some of that issue. However all I was saying is instead of playing it safe with Divinity, replace your berserk accessories with pow/vit/crit and use Eagle runes. The difference is you actually gain more HP as oppose to Divinity without sacrificing, perhaps even amplifying the damage that you put out. Obviously there is the scenaro in which a berserk thief would use Eagle instead of Divinity, however that was not what I was originally saying.
You gain more damage from raising Crit damage % instead of Power, because it doesn’t matter how hard you hit if you do not crit.
Did you name yourself jaucko after the dean koontz Frankenstein books?
LvL 80 Thief “Axxeman”
Sorrow’s Furnace
Planet Earth
Sorrow’s Furnace
Planet Earth
Let’s move into WvW aspect of a thief, automatically assume were talking about orange exotic gear.
So full Runes of Divinity is a no-go for a critical HS/BS thief, in terms of stealth the idea is to burst your target down glass-cannon style and get out of the fuzz, perhaps even pop cloak for a quick BS take down then C/D while their down for an invisible finisher. How about those Runes of the Eagle? is there any alternatives that would make it cheaper for the same effect? and do you like the idea of full Runes of the Eagle with vitality accessories and gemmed for vitality as well like stated above? Also with all that, would you use C/D for anything other than a finisher or a get out of jail card?
Feel free to be detailed about this thread, take note this is focused on WvW/PvE HS/BS
critical thieves only.
bumpbumpbumpbumpbumpbumpbump
I went with half my accessories having vit or toughness and my boots/mask/gloves being Valkyrie. I got one condition ring to replace and still not sure what I’m going to do with it though. Might go for the emerald knight one (toughness, power, precision).
I have 2k power and 43% critical strike chance unbuffed with 10 points in deadly arts and 30 in critical strikes, I have 2251 armor and 16.5K health. So far this seams like a perfect trade of survivability for damage. Might want some more critical strike chance though, but it doesn’t seem to go up as much as I would have hoped.
EDIT: I’ve been switching out runes and I’m at 5/6 divinity atm. If I play dagger, I’m still doing over 10k backstabs on squishies
(edited by Ivonbeton.6814)
Interesting, I however would not get any toughness if you are converting to a critical type thief. Why? because your not suppose to outlive your opponent while conditions eat them away, more so just survive a few big hits for you to take down your opponent before he and his friends take you down, therefore vitality is definitely the more logical choice in my case at least. However your free to build however you’d like though unbuffed with my pow/vit/crit dmg accessories and my berserker with eagle rune armor allows me to achieve near maximum damage output while still maintaining a healthy 17k health in terms of WvW unbuffed. Goes well to close the gap depending on your performance with +10 power per kill sigil with the might sigil as well. Yet like I said it is all your choice. I’d feel no fear taking down a critical thief stocked with toughness anyday.
How about sPVP, I still run full berserk thief with a little vit, though I see alot of difference in spvp. I’m still effective, but I am lacking something that others know I think.