New Thief, LF WvW guide Vanilia
You will Want to get Marauder/Berserker mix or if you can’t go Berserker/Valkyrie mix.
Depending on your play style will determine how much of each you will need, now the more popular Weaponset for Thief is D/P with SB of set, since you are Core I would suggest running that and using the Traitlines Deadly Arts 2/2/2 or 3, Trickery 3/1 or 2/2, and Shadow Arts 3/2/2.
Now moving on To Utilities the best Core thief heal is hands down Withdraw it provides instant cast Low CD Immob break and is an Evade, now you can run Trickster from Trickery in place of Bountiful Theft, this further reduces Withdraw’s CD and gives it a random Condi clear on top of the Condi clears it already applies
You will more than likely want Shadowstep for a Stun break and then my personal favorites for Core builds Blinding Powder, Signet of Agility and the Elite Basilisk Venom.
Blinding powder is great for Shadow Arts giving on demand instant stealth which clears Condis its down side is you have only one Stun break, next with Signet of agility it provides with two additional dodges as well as a Condi clear (very negligible) as well as the passive increasing your Crit Chance.
Onto playstyle with this build, you will mostly be jumping in and out of stealth as needed when revealed is not on you, you can try for Backstab a or just use Shadowshot from stealth, you can also use Black Powder(pistol 5 ) on top of your target for pulsing Blinds, you want to use stealth to constantly re position without the enemy knowing where you are moving to, normally don’t open with astral since it provides a decent heal and is better used as a dedicated Interrupt.
(edited by BlaqueFyre.5678)
Already have full beserker exotics with my jewelry being assassin, should i change them or keep it as is?
You will be vey Squishy you can easily be one shot with those stats.
So i should go 3 Berserker/3 Marauder for both armor and jewelry?
It all depends on what you think you need, right now I run 3 pieces of Marauder on the shoulders gloves boots and the rest Berserker, most this isn’t enough Vitality but for what I use it for I do fine.
You can even do full Marauder armor and full zerker trinkets or vice versa.
I find power builds much more difficult in WvW using core then Condition builds. This simply for reasons of survival. There so many ways to spike damage , mitigation or avoidance of the same at a premium and it hard to do this with Core.
If core power you really have to get timing down right to avoid AOE and bursts. There a whole lot of in and out and leaving the scene. Look at things like IP or the Acro line for a bit more survival. Without the DD line and EA with those extra dodges Conditions can do you in quick.
Things like Trickster , Pain response and the like have to be considered for extra cleanses or no matter the vitality you have health will drop fast while at the same time too low toughness leaves you prone to one shot from power.
Really it all depends on your playstyle in the end, for newer players it’s normally best to have the more defensive options then whittle it down as you get more comfortable stat/traiwise, or you can do the exact opposite which is go for pure Offensive and learn that way but expect to be killed a lot, but on that note you can learn to delete people fast normally before they can react if they are alone!
Its nice that they left out the marauder and valkyire gear out of the pvp vendors, i mean you would think you would be able to gear your self in WvW gear by doing WvW.
Not going to bother with wvw at this point, i already invested all of my gold into a build some one said would work but now that some is taking 90% of my hp with a single hit with it while i am unable to do any damage with it all.
Its nice that they left out the marauder and valkyire gear out of the pvp vendors, i mean you would think you would be able to gear your self in WvW gear by doing WvW.
Not going to bother with wvw at this point, i already invested all of my gold into a build some one said would work but now that some is taking 90% of my hp with a single hit with it while i am unable to do any damage with it all.
Marauder is a HoT stat no HoT stats are in the WvW vendor, and there are quite a few Core stats not in WvW vendor
I’ve just begun to pick up thief too, and it’s such a blast!
Some basics that were helpful for me (I play d/p, shortbow):
1) Stack stealth with black powder + turn camera facing downward + heart seeker. The camera facing downward makes you heart seeker go a shorter distance. Conversely, if you need to chase a low hp enemy with it, turn your camera horizontal to the ground
2) For unaware enemies, you can black powder + heart seeker + steal + backstab. The stealth comes after the damage in heart seeker, so you get back stab instead of auto attacks. You cannot, however, be in already in stealth and heart seeker + backstab, because the heart seeker damage will reveal you for a few seconds (it changes into heart seeker + auto attack).
3) Try to steal after a dodge. Most enemies won’t dodge twice in a row.
4) If you’re stuck in short bow and the enemy’s low, you can cast shortbow 2 + steal + shortbow 2 to detonate the shot over the enemy for 3 packets of damage.
5) If you see a blue glow on an enemy, it’s likely a heal, and you should interrupt with head shot. If they have stability, don’t waste your initiative.
6) If you trait steal with bountiful theft, it prioritizes stealing aegis, stability, and protection. That means if you also trait it with the daze (gm trait Sleight of Hand on trickery), you can use steal to interrupt any ability, including overload earth on tempest.
7) If you see a mesmer use shield 4 (the bubble block thing), blind it with shadow shot to stop the clone generation.
8) The trick to fighting other thieves is to land your steal, make them miss theirs, and out-stealth them.
9) Your auto attack will still progress if you hit enemies in stealth. This is can be very helpful to check for stealthed downed bodies.
10) Heart seeker through ranger’s stolen ability for healing. Use warrior’s stolen ability over black powder for semi-AoE blind + reflects (unless they have resistance on. run like hell if they do). Fear necros using their stolen ability + shadow shot in when their stability in reaper’s shroud runs out.
11) Safe stomp most classes with down-state interrupt skills with the blinds from black powder. Follow players who teleport away in down-state with shadow step or steal in the middle of your stomp to complete it over their body.
12) Basilisk Venom is shared with 5 other players in a 240 radius. If you’re working with other players, share the venom! You can also black powder + shortbow 2 for AoE stealth to start group engagements.
13) Watch Sindrener on youtube/twitch