Guild Wars 2

After getting back into the game from a lengthy leave just about a month after release, I’m picking my thief up again. It’s my main character, no alts thus far (yay), I need to find out though what the preferred leveling build/weapon set is to quickly vanquish my foes and send me off giggling into the night. Currently I’m level 36 over half way to 37 and i’m running a Dag/Dag and Shortbow weapon set, my gear consists of mainly Condition Damage/Duration with a mixture of power but very little mixture.

My traits thus far is 10 Deadly Arts, 10 Critical Strikes, 6 Trickery. I can’t seem to find a website with a leveling build suggestion or effective weapon set to level with. What I do find seem to be fleshed out for end game.

Any of you seasoned thieves care to chime in?

D/D conditions is one of the two most efficient leveling builds. the main thing is to pull a group, and DB spam after dropping caltrops. it also gets easier at 40, when you can put 20 points into trickery. with the 15 point bonus and initiative gain on steal you can DB away all your initiative and then steal so you have enough to get one more DB off.you also have two available traits, I recommend caltrops on dodge and thrill of the crime or bountiful theft. after than points into acrobatics, then power last. with all the dodge caltrops, and the extra DB you can get in most fights things will die fairly quickly. just remember the build is more effective against multiple enemies than one. even more so if you use signet of malice. the gear you should use when it becomes available is carrion, which has condition damage/vitality/power on it.

the other is sword/pistol. you use pistol 5’s combo field to blind everything in melee range then beat the crap out of it, refreshing black powder when necessary. standard power/prec/crit damage priorities for your gear. at later levels berserker gear is priority. your main source of survival are blinds, pistol whip’s evade, and your ability to interrupt as needed with pistol 4. you also have an instant gap closer, and your auto attack is an AoE. once again signet of malice works well. you are less able to take a hit than your usual condition thief, but you are less likely to be hit.