Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to get some feedback on the build I’ve been running lately. With the nerfs coming to crit builds, I’ve decided to go more of a hybrid between crit and condi. I use this build in both PvP and WvW, and currently am having great success. Anyway lets get right into it with the traits.

10/10/0/20/30

DA – I went 10 into DA for Mug. Mug has always been a go to skill when I play thief. It is just to good to give up, and works amazing with this high steal build.

CS – I went 10 into CS to give the pistol just a tad more raw dps. It alone is lackluster at physical dmg, and running a hybrid it needs all the help it can get.

Acro – I chose to go 20 into Acrobatics for Vigorous Recovery, and Quick Recovery. Vigorous Recovery is an amazing trait, and is used quite often. This build is a low stealth and requires dodging as its main defense, so vigor is an obvious. Not only that your heal is only a 15 sec CD which makes it that much better. This build does however tend to eat initiative rather quickly, which make QR a great trait. 1 Int every 10 sec may not seem like a lot, but it adds up rather quickly.

Trick – Here is basically what makes this build. You will want to choose Thrill of the Crime, Bountiful Theft, and Sleight of Hand. These three skills along side Mug are just amazing. You do dmg, steal 2 boons, gain fury, might, swiftness, and vigor, 2 int, poison, and daze, all on a 21 sec CD.

Utilities
Withdraw – 15 sec CD, and a dodge/distance
Signet of Agility – + prec, and condi remove, and 100% endurance recharge.
Blinding Powder – your only stealth besides CnD
Shadow Step – Your stun break/“OH kitten” button
B. Venom or D. Storm – depends on runes and personal preference

Armor/Runes
I am currently running all Valkyrie armor with Lyssa Runes. The Valkyrie armor gives me enough Vitality to help survive at least one full burst if I mess up, or get jumped. Some, and most would probably argue this choice, but with having low burst potential on this build I feel it is the best choice. As for Lyssa Runes, almost every thief runs these the bonus on elite skill which synergizes so well with BV.

Weapons
Sword – Zerk with sigil fire for the added AoE dps
Dagger – Zerk with sigil of endurance, again with the dodging to survive idea
Pistol – Zerk with sigil of bursting, to help give your bleeds a little more umf

Ideal Combo

CnD + Steal > Stealth Attack > Body Shot > Shadow Strike > Weapon Swap > Infiltrator Strike > Flanking Strike X2 if boons are available > Full Auto attack > CnD > Infiltrator return > Weapon Swap > Stealth Attack

Thank you for taking the time to read, and check out my build. Feel free to leave any comments/criticism, because I know its coming anyway =)

Almost forgot to Include my accessories…
Back – P/T/crit
Accessories – Valk with coral orb
Ammy – P/P/V/crit
Rings – P/P/T or P/T/condi

…however, you will never dent any bunk rangers or warriors with that. They will laugh off all your damage as they absorb/negate it.

I’ve been running a similar build in WvW for a couple of weeks now, and it’s certainly a lot of fun. I find the build doesn’t work as well in sPvP due to low damage and the confined spaces on point, so what follows is from a WvW perspective.

I went for 10/0/0/30/30 (individual trait choices pretty much the same as yours) with S/D & Shortbow, because the AoE bleed, poison and general mobility from the shortbow goes really well with the high vigor uptime. I tried using P/D but the lack of AoE made it less useful in group play, since I can get 10 AoE stacks of bleeding shotgunning clusterbomb whilst dealing good damage. I also took assassin’s reward as the acro grandmaster, as with peach pies as your food you get a good amount of sustain when kiting with SB.

My armor is a mix of soldiers and zerk, my trinkets are zerk with cavalier rings, and I use zerk weapons. For utilities: in group play I use withdraw, shadowstep, shadow refuge, roll for initiative and daggerstorm, for solo I use shadow trap instead of refuge and basilisk for more condi clean.

I play with a small group of guildies a lot, and they focus on AoE damage (ele, engi etc) so I tend to focus on killing the squishy zerker things trying to kill us, or just disabling a tanky target while my group focuses it. Bunkers can be a problem, depending on whether they rely on boons or not and whether they actually know how to dodge. I’ve found that most bunkers simply don’t have the mobility to keep up with you though, so you can just kite them while killing something else. If it’s a 1v1, there’s no reason to stay if you can’t kill them.

Hydromancy sigils are a great choice for this sort of build, because they can AoE crit for around 2k even with my (relatively) low crit damage – kite with bow, cast basilisk, steal for mug, swap to sword for hydromancy, CnD, sneak attack for daze can easily do 7-8k damage whilst keeping the enemy locked down. The chill when combined with cripple from dancing dagger also helps take advantage of your mobility, should you need to ‘relocate’.

Sure, you won’t be bursting like D/D can, but even with 60% crit damage my clusterbomb, larcenous strike and CnD will crit for 3-4k on most targets. It’s nice to see people using more unusual builds, stick with it

Form.8741:

…however, you will never dent any bunk rangers or warriors with that. They will laugh off all your damage as they absorb/negate it.

First off thanks for the replies.

As for Bunkers I really don’t have that much of a problem. The amount of dodges, heals, Stuns ect. it isn’t a big deal. It’s all about keeping consistent pressure, and reading animations. We have endless amounts of stuns, which can be crucial playing against healing bunkers. Not only that the amount of boon removal puts a stop to any boon bunkers. The only ones that really get me are the occasional banner warrior, but lets be honest… Banner roaming warrior? What a joke. What I cant kill my Mesmer friend can.

I will try and get some clips here in the next week and show you that what you can’t kill, can’t kill you, and at which point you can easily escape.