Guild Wars 2

I’m kind of curious what the thief community has come up with post-patch, given the new traits and updated runes/sigils.

I’m trying the Runes of Balthazar, coupled with Bewildering Ambush as part of my tried and true P/D setup. Confusion and 5-6 second burning, on a 27/30 second CD. Added Sigils of Energy to my Sigil of Doom setup.

Trying to make up for ferocity.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FvYAQNAoYVlsMp8plOx7JsPNhs9onqQii7BTlUNVXhoC-zUCB4fAYLLakgIaEFIUBg5oFRjtNoIas6aYaXER1kCYrFAA-w

Im sitting at ~80% crit dmg

Well I’ve gone and sacrificed some survivability from the Shadow Arts line, in an attempt to recover the damage lost, and allow for more offensive burst. Note with the build calculator the stats of somethings are off now due to change so I’ll post a written version before the actual Calculator Version.

Armor
x6 Valkyrie – x6 Superior Rune of the Wurm (the bonuses are Vitality/Ferocity Alternating, with the sixth bonus being 7% of your vitality pool converted into Ferocity. Also do note that taking the Practiced Tolerance trait to increase vitality pool will not increase Ferocity.)

Weapons
Dagger/Dagger – Short Bow
Daggers- Sigil of Fire + Sigil of Bloodlust (yay +5 for murdering bearbow rangers)
Shortbow – Sigil of Fire + Sigil of Air (to top end the damage when on this weapon.)

Trinkets
Ascended Berserker Amulet
Ascended Berserker/Valkyrie Ring
Ascended Cavalier Ring
Ascended Berserker/Valkyrie Accessory
Ascended Cavalier Accessory
Exotic Berserker’s backpiece – Exquisite Ruby Jewel

Skills
Hide In Shadow – Only real heal you should be using as a high stealth uptime build
Shadowstep – Basic stunbreak(s) + Condi clear
Shadow Refuge – Helpful for resetting the fight or getting a moment to recollect before attacking again
The third slot can be filled by Blinding Powder, Signet of Shadows, Infiltrator’s Signet, or Assassin’s Signet just choose what you like/require the most.
Elite- Changed depending on situation, either Dagger Storm or Basilisk Venom

Traits
Deadly Arts – 4 – Mug/Dagger Training
Critical Strikes – 6 – Side Strikes/Practiced Tolerance/Hidden Killer
Shadow Arts 2 – Shadow’s Embrace
Acrobatics 0 -
Trickery- 2 – Flanking Strikes

So as you see I’ve forgone the typical 0/6/6/2/0 build, in favour of finding more burst, but still keeping it survivable. Mug adds a little bit of damage, but we’re really chasing the 2k heal it offers when used, as with Dagger training for the 5% bonus damage from your Daggers damage.

Critical Strikes I selected Side Strikes, for the base 7% Critical Chance when hitting from the sides or behind, this is to keep damage even outside of stealth steady, and Crits outside of it are easier to land. I know Practiced Tolerance doesn’t offer stat bonus towards the Rune of the Wurm’s bonus but having the extra vitality pool as a condi sink, and to withstand more physical abuse is a nice touch. Finally the standard Hidden Killer to guarantee all our Backstabs crit, no real explanation needed as to why its there.

I went two points into Shadow arts to pick up the Shadow’s Embrace trait, which helps to remove conditions placed on you.

Finally I went two points into Trickery, to pick up flanking strikes, which allows for +5% damage when hitting from the sides or behind

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAoYVlsMp0pVOx7J8PRhs9YnqQiirgT5VAs0UQTtEA-zkyAYLioRCCIZJQpvioxWPLiGraBT5CodTkKO1eDMCBMaMA-w

Here is the build in the calculator, remember that since the update is new, the calculator hasn’t updated for it yet at this moment so the written version is more reliable for the setup overview.

Hope this helped, if anyone would like to comment, and discuss possible further ways to better this build I’d be up for it. Feel free to shoot me an ingame message or whatever.

I hope this thread takes off, I am so freaking lost now!

i haven’t changed my build yet (valk/traveller 10/30/30) but is sigil of force no longer good for d/d backstab build? (currently have force/fire).

Once I get my thief to 80 I am going to try an s/d build with Signet of Malice, Revealed Training and the critical strikes one.

I’m going to go 4/0/6/0/4 and swap between venom share and condition damage, as opposed to the 0/30/30/0/10 I was running before. Need to update my accessories though. This is for WvW.

10/30/….{cough}2/6/0/0/6 – S/D + SB

DA: III
CS: VI, X, XI
Tr: V, VII, XII

Berserk ( w/ valkyrie in WvW)
Runes of the Scholar
S/D – Sigil of Paralyzation and Sigil of Fire
SB – Sigil of Bloodlust and Sigil of Fire

Still running the standard trickery D/P build in sPvP.

If I touch WvW again, I may give S/D a shot since the crit nerf has hit dagger burst quite a bit, but I’m kinda sick of that place.

Honestly, I don’t see any of the new traits as appealing for PvP.

1. The extra damage on revealed doesn’t justify a deep DA build.
2. The healing from the crit trait isn’t near enough to outweigh the loss of Executioner
3. Defense in stealth only helps in WvW where you sit in stealth and even then, I’m not convinced that it’s any better than just dodging the damage and healing up with Shadow’s Rejuv
4. Stealth builds just don’t synergize well with the acro tree, so I don’t see a 1.25 second stability as justified for a full GM investment there.
5. Sleight of Hand is just too good to pass up if you’re going down the trickery line. It stops stability stomps and shuts down enemies when you’re stunned. Even if you’re running a condi build, I don’t think that an extra bit of confusion outweighs the loss of that utility.

I have two builds I’m going to try. I am going to try first to take advantage of the new sigil and runes of strength. I like their synergy and in my head at least, seems like you can stack a lot of might to reclaim some of that lost crit dmg. I also don’t fully understand how bloodlust is going to work (I’m thinking it’s still worth having on a weapon so you can get 25 stacks, but I know you can’t unequip the weapon anymore.)

new strength runes – 175power, 45% might duration (seems big), 25% to gain might when struck for 10 sec (~15 sec), 7% dmg when you have might (pretty much always on with these builds, as opposed to scholar).

Strength sigil: 60% to gain 1 might for 10 seconds (~15 secs), 1 sec icd. With 55% crit, this equals one stack of might every three melee swings, according to probability.

First build – more of a group build for wvw and PVE. 30/30/x/x/x. Basically, taking some ideas from sPVP meta pre-patch. More of a burster/finisher type role (PVE also). Very high power, some might stacking (not as much as the solo roaming build probably), mostly glass, survival mostly from blinds and stealth. Might use zerk weapons if I find that 14k hp is not needed with ferocity nerf to everyone. This build also depends on whether revealed training turns out to be any good. For the extra 10 points, each extra tree could have it’s uses. The SA points are mostly for condi cleanse since condi use will probably go up even more. Tempted to take 10 in acrobatics for might on dodge roll and 1k hp. 10 in trickery for thrill, self explainatory. The extra 10 points can be moved/chosen at will now.

Note: Panic strike should equal revealed training. 2nd sigil on bow would be fire.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAoaVlsMp7pVOxwJ8PNhs9wnqQeirgTp9gmaJYC-zUyA4LBRCCERBgyAm8KiGblrIasqFMlLRUt3AjQACGDA-w

Solo roaming: Nothing complicated here. 0/30/30/10/0. Same gear set up as the above build. I foresee the might stacking being even higher here because of the 2 stacks of might for 23ish seconds on stealth, and one stack for 23ish seconds on dodge. I would probably use HK here just because I prefer to crit my backstab in solo fights. Again, if I see this build works and 15k hp doesn’t seem necessary, I will probably drop the valk weapons for zerk. Might work a little better with D/D since the stealth comes more frequently, but D/P can still build some might with HS thru black powder 2 or 3 times.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAoYVlsMp7pVOxwJ8PNhs9wnqQii7hTlUNVXhrC-zUyA4LBRCCERBgyAm8KiGblrIasqFMlLRUt3AjQACGDA-w

I used 100 power 70 vit food on both builds to get more power and boost hp to the target of 14/15k. Since the foods that used to give crit dmg got nerfed some, they didn’t seem worth the money.

I didn’t include infusions because I don’t have any of them yet. the builds would be better with all ascended obviously, but I don’t have it yet. Was holding off til after the patch.

Please give feedback on how you think these will be.

New traits are very weak. Good old lyssa s/d is still best even thou it got nerfed. Condi removal from lyssa rune is still essential to a thief.

Nice to see that every one is using the new IMBA Grandmaster Traits!

aw wait…

Traxal.2745:

…

Basically what I came up with for pvp as well (the sigils and runes). They work VERY well in combination. Got sigil of intelligence on my second setup (with sigil of hydromancy). The might stack will still be on it ’till I can re-swap to the first setup with might stacking. I got up to 15 might stack with sigil power buff.

Volrath.1473:

Nice to see that every one is using the new IMBA Grandmaster Traits!

aw wait…

Seriously. Some of them are good for PvE but I am not jumping for joy over the traits for WvW. I am rather disappointed.

I’ve been messing around with a double pistol/dagger condition setup with sigils of doom and energy on both weapon sets. I’ve been calling it The Dodger, and if you like non-stop dodging, you will really enjoy this build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQRAqY6Yl0Mp8plOx7J0PNRwpwpG17xXHLA6Uw1rC-zECBoOFRjm6IQ0HhOTqIaslhFRjV3ATxiIq2joIa1kCAm5AA-w

With a 0/0/4/4/6 build and swapping weapons every nine seconds, I can dodge an insane amount of times while keeping up near permanent poison. I’ve been roaming around in WvW and feel insanely survivable while keeping up great condition pressure.

The real fun comes from the fact that feline grace interacts with sigil of energy in a way that grants more dodges per swap than other classes. While revealed, I can dodge and drop caltrops continuously until I need to get back into stealth again. From there I can do the usual CnD > Sneak Attack > Shadow Strike combo.

Power of Inertia works really well in this build with how often you dodge. During fights I generally keep up a constant five stacks of might, going up to seven or eight if am really throwing out the dodges.

I like Blinding Powder for a multitude or reasons in WvW, but I may test swapping it with Signet of Agility for even more dodges. I just really love to dodge, but we’ll see if it’s worth the trade off.

Dahkeus.8243:

Still running the standard trickery D/P build in sPvP.

If I touch WvW again, I may give S/D a shot since the crit nerf has hit dagger burst quite a bit, but I’m kinda sick of that place.

Honestly, I don’t see any of the new traits as appealing for PvP.

1. The extra damage on revealed doesn’t justify a deep DA build.
2. The healing from the crit trait isn’t near enough to outweigh the loss of Executioner
3. Defense in stealth only helps in WvW where you sit in stealth and even then, I’m not convinced that it’s any better than just dodging the damage and healing up with Shadow’s Rejuv
4. Stealth builds just don’t synergize well with the acro tree, so I don’t see a 1.25 second stability as justified for a full GM investment there.
5. Sleight of Hand is just too good to pass up if you’re going down the trickery line. It stops stability stomps and shuts down enemies when you’re stunned. Even if you’re running a condi build, I don’t think that an extra bit of confusion outweighs the loss of that utility.

Can you post your sPvP standard trickery D/P build if it still seems to work after the nerf?

I’ve been having fun with a D/D, P/D power setup. 6/x/6/x/x -mug, dagger damage, revealed training, stealth cleanse, stealth blind, stealth 1/2 damage with your choice of minor trait (I use pistol training, fleet shadow or thrill). Sigil of intelligence on the main hand dag, hydromancy off hand and sigil of battle on the pistol. Makes it a lot easier to hit CnDs while getting crits on the CnD>backstab/pistol attack or heartseekers. Just gotta make sure not to swap in stealth to avoid revealing yourself. The new shadow arts trait helps you while staying close to enemies, I haven’t fully made up my mind about it though.