Guild Wars 2

My thief will be hitting level 80 soon, but I need advice on running a WvW thief. I get the impression that any build aside from Berserker is frowned upon. But since I’m still learning, I want a build that can offer some leeway, instead of a hardcore ‘high risk/high reward’ mentality.

I run d/d and s/p. the main thing I struggle with is timing my skills – but that’s only gonna come with practice. :P With that skillset, how effective would a Valkyrie build be? Is there a way to optimize lifesteal for thieves? I want a thief that can leap in and out of enemy zergs for surprise attacks, but can still survive when I accidentally miscalculate my shadowstep. (Currently my traits are 20/0/0/10/20. I very much like the stealthy skills, so I’m tempted to cap toughness when I hit 80. Would this be a wise decision?

Last question: Why do I see so few thieves carry a bow? There’s so much dislike for it. I would think a thief that can optimize stealth/power and condition damage could be very deadly with it.

Arikyali.5804:

Last question: Why do I see so few thieves carry a bow? … optimize stealth/power and condition damage could be very deadly with it.

FYI the bleed stacks in Cluster Bomb are currently bugged. Instead of the said 3 stacks the undetonated bomb applies only one. Poison is slow to apply and duration low. So it’s not effective as a condition weapon.

Shortbow is good as a power based weapon in the bigger wvw zerg fights, because of the auto-attack bouncing to up to 3 targets and AOE in Cluster Bomb at short range. But that is better when you stay in middle of the action.

The in-and-out playstyle you seek sounds like it could be a better match with something like a pistol condition build. Bleeds or confusion through Perplexity runes. But I’ll have to leave it to someone experience with them to suggest builds.

Arikyali.5804:

My thief will be hitting level 80 soon, but I need advice on running a WvW thief. I get the impression that any build aside from Berserker is frowned upon.

I would not suggest going along with anyone who tells you the only was to play a thief is full Berserker. I personally run my own brand of P/D Condi-thief using Dire armor and Settlers trinkets for the most part and it does just fine.

ChapDev is right, full Berserker is fine outside of wvw, but there you’ll want also to bring toughness and/or vitality. For conditions what he recommended, for power based builds for example a mixture of Soldiers (power/toughness/vitality) and Berserker to balance survival and damage.

When running with a thief in zerg fights I’m using full Soldier armor with Divinity runes, Soldier weapon and Berserker trinkets. That feels like a good balance between decent damage and staying alive. In wvw you don’t want to get downed, since that will allow enemies targeting you to rally. Which is why zerker builds are infamously called rally bots in wvw.

@ OP
I run something similar to Mika with soldier armor, Traveler runes, with zerk everything else. D/D + SB has been working for me since the last patch and the only foreseeable nerf to my build is vigorous recovery. Once you get the timing down on C&D it’s not so bad. D/P is also decent but I like moar dmg! from C&D. Go watch a Yishis or Mugi video for strategies on making D/D effective if that’s the way you wanna go.

For a new thief in WvW I would highly recommend not going full berserker. Maybe later on once you feel your ability to avoid damage is sufficient, you slowly start swapping pieces out. Valkyrie Armor with Beserker weapons and trinkets is a good option. It gives you the same power and crit-damage as a full berserker but with more health instead of precision.

Personally I run a mix of Berserker and Soldier armor with soldier weapons and berserker trinkets. You won’t hit those insanely high backstabs like Mugi but you’ll find that you’ll be able to survive a lot more.

As for runes, I love travellers. The ability to free up a slot (which would have been used on signet of shadows) is invaluable in any spec. Other good options are Lyssa, Divinities or Scholars.

And about shortbows, I don’t find them to be that amazing in terms of damage. Its alright-ish. However a well placed infiltrator’s arrow could save you from certain death.

Full berserker D/D works against the worst player-base and zerker ranged builds like staff Elementalist and Ranger. But against other roaming builds with the means to counter high burst, you will have to deal with extended fights which can be quite tricky with 10.8k base hp and 1980 armor, and I find it more as an area of viability for S/D, until 10th december.

Wish’s builds are versatile and offers good defence and dps both inside and outside stealth.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Building-a-better-D-D-thief/first#post2196794

Current D/D thieves who are in the spotlight:

Yishis, vid and build in description, his build is more of a guideline, from what I’ve seen he keeps it flexible, switching out food, stats and utilities preparing for the fights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8Lh8Oogl6Y

Mugi, vid and build in description, Mugi goes all in on power and crit dmg gearwise, while having roughly 15k hp and no additional toughness, besides traits and divinity runes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzSnrOvsAnA

Just wanted to review D/D, but P/D will also still be the same thing after the patch, the set is fun to play and I find it as a good set to learn how to thief with, mostly it kills anything in the long run, but what some sets can take down in seconds, it can take significally longer for a P/D thief to take down.

The current best P/D thieves I know of.

Shikamaru X,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTX0tqx_qHc

Laela Blackbird
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBQetDHu5Bk

And the classic Wild Bill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx-MV-fxYj0

Thanks for the info. I really want to run D/D because….well, it looks cool. (I plead guilty – part of the reason is aesthetics). And it’s so useful to catch up to fleeing targets. I’ve heard it’s one of the trickier weapon combos to learn. I think I’m going to have to learn how to play it without autotarget…

I forgot to mention I also want my thief to be a roamer/scout, and not just a ‘zerg assassin’. What would you advice to focus on: condition damage, raw damage, or a balanced mix of both? Regretfully, the last game I played looked down on DPS-like damage and promoted only raw power, so that ideology sort of stuck with me when I came to GW2. I know GW2 isn’t structured the same (it’s way better :P ) but I don’t really have a concrete understanding of how much total damage output either one gives.