Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I’d like to invest some time in learning properly how to play thief. I’m mostly interested in brawling in PvP, if possible 1v1, 1vX, or XvX using power setups (no condition builds), with high mobility and damage.

So far, I’ve tried and enjoyed the D/P metabattle build very much. I’m now in the process of playing staff, and would like to know if you have good resources to share (previous posts, videos), or simply tips to provide.

I’m running the following, which I found from spectating other thieves:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn0MBFmiVOBmOB8PhFYCbuDOCbhehhzQbQLBEAyAA-TpBEABAcEAe4QAU/+DIcBAI4BAYeZAA

Specifically, I’m interested in the following topics (although anything else is relevant):

• I’ve taken a shortbow because I love #5, but aside from it I don’t find myself using it a lot. Rather than kite and range, I find it easier to disengage and seek another fight. So, should I keep the shortbow, or is there another weapon set I can complement the staff with?
• I have no stealth, so only rely on evades to survive. I’m okay with it (I main a power warrior), but I feel that forfeiting stealth is a bit of a missed opportunity here. Is it?
• I’m not sure of how to use the staff skills efficiently. So far, I use #2 with Steal and Signet of Infiltrator, #1 at melee, and #3 to lure melee attacks and evade. The rest is circumstantial, so I’m pretty sure I’ve missed the “essence” of staff game play so far. When running D/P, I had clear patterns in mind for all skills.

Thanks for reading, looking forward to your expert guidance.

1. Regarding your build, I wouldn’t bother with infiltrator’s signet in this age. Go with Signet of Agility, Impairing Daggers, or Roll for Initiative, or something else decent that complements your playstyle. Also, Run Escapist’s absolution in PvP. You’re just not going to stay alive if you don’t have condi removal. Executioner is decent, but also be aware that improvisation is a great choice too and can save your kitten . But you said you wanted a high damage build so it makes sense. I would also consider putting on impact strike, because it can really sway the tide of a game.

2. If you’re okay with losing Y-axis mobility and some kiting to gain damage, stealth, and chase/single target pressure, run D/P and put on bound. The playstyle is different because you’re more of a bruiser type, so if you’re a good 1v1er this build really shines for thieves.

3. Again, going with D/P would help with the lack of stealth, although not necessary and depends on what your playstyle is. As for using the staff skills efficiently, it depends on the situation. In a 1v1, using 3 and 4 is important, and vaulting for damage(and hopefully an evade) when necessary. In a fight involving 3 or more people, especially teamfights, #2 and 5 become your best friends. #2 gives you damage and weakens everyone around you, and vault will give you some HP and clear a condi (hopefully, if you evade) while dealing big damage in a teamfight.

Build: I would probably swap staff master for escapists absolution, execution for improvisation or both. You will find that utility and sustain, especially on staff is much more helpful. Some would probably even consider pulmonary impact.
Rune of the daredevil is no good, you already have a high critchance with marauders and fury.
Vampire, wurm, scholar(probably not scholar, staff doesnt fight on full health)
Signet of agility >>>> infiltrators signet. I’d also advise you to try channeled vigor over withdraw, to find out if it suits you better, but both are very good.

Shortbow is usually a good choice. And as you get experience playing the class you will find yourself using the shortbow in combat more and more.
Staff is one of the weaponsets that can partially replace the utility offered by sb, you can try out different weapons. p/p for example could work, but your initiative managemant will be crucial.
Just try some stuff out, but you will probably return to sb.
I would not worry about stealth. There is simply the stealthy thief archetype and the acrobatic one. Stealth is a strong asset to our class, but not mandatory.

Your choice of weapon skills is interesting. Usually we start by spamming vault before we discover the depth of the set.
Vault is a strong skill. High damage, evade, gap closer, gap opener.
Its also somewhat of a skill shot because your enemy can easily evade it.
If you are about to use vault, dont face your foes way. Make them think the last youre going to do is jump on them.
Dusts trike is probably the second strogest. You can use it to attack enemies at range, suprise proccing basilisk venom or sigils. You can use it to blind them when they attack you or you can use it to bling them prematurely, so they wont just attack you.
If you can spare the initiative, a 3-4 times spam of dust strikes can deliver suprising amounts of ranged damage, especially against other thieves.

All in all the stronges advantage of this set compared to other thief builds is the kiting potential.
Just as any thief you are basically immortal, but you dont have to fully disengage, you can stay close to the point without getting caught, proving a constant threat.
You have amazing abilities to deal with aggro, but it will require you to go into full defense and stop attacking.

I’ve been running without condi clear on evade lately partially because PI is just plain OP at the moment.
I’ve been also testing Staff here and then

I’m somewhat in the same shoes, getting familiar with the class.

• You can take the Staff trait that gives the player increased damage if you don’t want to use Distracting Daggers as one of your utility skills. Generally Signet of Agility and Shadowstep are kinda mandatory, which leaves you with 2 free utility slots.
• you can either equip Distracting Daggers and the trait with PI as you’d still have plenty of interrupts without pistol offhand (Steal/Daggers/your elite skill)
  or
• you can equip Blinding Powder which would pretty much guarantee you a Vault after the Stealth attack, which is a knockdown. The choice is yours, I like to mix it up
• Impairing Daggers is also nice with the immob, which would also guarantee you landing a Vault
• For Elite, I think both skills are pretty viable, depends on your playstyle. If the enemy team has a strong rez comp, I usually take Impact Strike just for skipping downstate (if timed perfectly)

• I take Improvisation over Executioner only if there are classes with decent stolen abilities in the enemy comp (necro/mesmer/warrior/etc.). This part depends on the enemy comp almost entirely for me though. For example if I have an enemy comp with 2 thieves, I would take this trait for sure as the extra stealth would be a huge advantage on my side if they decide to jump on me. Double Fear and double plasma is also nice.
• I find Shortbow essential, the poison on downed corpses, the evade on #3 and the vertical mobility on #5 is just too nice for me to give up. If you run Blinding Powder, the Immob from stealth is pretty strong too IMO.

I’m still learning though forcing myself to get out of the tunnel vision and find a proper function for Staff #3 and #4 as well, which I know they have.

Hi guys,

Thanks a bunch for all your insight, much appreciated. That’s a lot of food for thought, and plenty of stuff to test in the coming days. I’ll follow up if I have additional questions, cheers for setting me on the right track!