Guild Wars 2

So after trying to alt so I could feel less selfish ,I came to the realization that its a game, and I really enjoy the mechanics and style of the thief. But I always felt squishy and had really leaned towards zerk just because killing stuff fast in open world usually seems like the best solution.

I started recently doing fractal daily’s at 10 to try and get some rings, recently aquired 2 rings through daily chest and threw some agony resistance in ( wow, 10 ar is enough to keep that stuff off me thank god, use to suck watchign that stuff tick me down).

I usually do my fractals with guildies, sometimes, well most times, trying to fill a group, a level 30-40 will join not ever doing them, and I refuse to kick a guildy who wants to learn fractals. I usually warn them that this is level 10, it is a little tougher then it has to be for your first time, but agony is the real issue.

So after running mostly zerk, and throwing in a few piece of valk., I always found myself squishy, I tried 10/30/30 builds and 0/30/30/10/0 builds and still found myself squishy.

So I decided, lets try to get a full valk set for just fractals, I can usually run most other dungeons with my zerk gear. So I picked up on tp some valk crafted stuff (not the prettiest but I might put the stats on my t3 human when i save enough )

This build focuses on s/p and sb. I do use a s/d , especially on the charr like fractal, those vet ascolonians get a lot of might on them and you can basically number 3 all their might all day long, (25 stacks of might is pretty sweet).

I decided to put emeralds in my valk gear( just to try a little tankier) not really use to it but man what a world of difference i can do now. I sit at around 17k hp and a good chunk of toughness. My weapons and trinkets are berserker (my trinkets are still greens lol, saving for ascended now and the rare stats aren’t that much higher and exotics are too much gold for temporary for me ) .

So, I really started noticing that one of the best tools we have is blinds, if I can position myself right with my guardians and warriors, i can allow us to basically faceroll junk mobs and not take any hits, so there is no downtime on killing.

The stun too on number 4 and the interupt on pistol whip comes handy too against golem spin attacks and such on the asuran world fractal.

The build uses 0/30/0/20/20. With all the gear and such, my crit chance is a little low, sitting at about 49% and my crit damage, with the emeralds drops about 12-13% i think but its a decent trade off I find. This is with guildies who we do this for fun, were not speed demons or trying to be the fastest. Its a game, I don’t go down a lot, and we have fun.

I use practice tolerance(%5 of precision turned into vitality), this can be changed out, I like the extra vit(its not much running valk and the emeralds but it helps), furious retaliation(the fury really helps since my critical % is quite a bit lower then a full zerk).
I use executioner aswell since with the fury i get off this build, I sit around 70% most the time, I don’t have a lot of stealth in this either so the 20% is nice.

I use gain might when I dodge, with the 20 in this tree, I get those 3 dodges, and 3 stacks of might most the time from this so I personally find it nice to use. I also use pain response to get some regen and condition remover when it procs, kind of a set it and forget it skill. I mostly use this acrobatic tree for the 3 dodges, I decided to put the extra 5 in it and get the trait skill. You could easily put 5 in deadly arts for the poison on steal.

I use Thrill of the crime and bountiful theft. I have had little experience in the trickery tree, but I love these 2 for support. When I steal now, nearby teamates get fury, might and switftness, and vigor. They also get the 2 boons that I steal off the opponenent(if any exist) . I kind of feel like a guardian with this skill tree, its pretty sweet watching my teamates buff bars fill up. This I find is the most important part, you really got to watch where your teamates are and see what their doing. I like to wait till atleast 2 are on one opponent and then steal in.

With the sword/pistol, I can spam the blinds and interrupts where I seem fit. Since i got 20 in trickery, I get 4 extra initiative which to me almost feels like I got infinite blinds and pistol whips at times.

For skills, I like to use signet of malice, the aoe from bow, dagger storm and sword keep my health up. I use hide in shadows too if I feel like a certain part needs that big boost at once, like at final bosses if you have low agony resistance. I like to keep shadow refugee on my number 6, lets face it, as a thief your an awesome team medic. For my other skills, I usually keep signet of agility and signet of shadows up for the passives, plus the blind and the condition remover are nice for certain parts. Certain levels, I’ll use shadow screen to really help with the projectiles. Me and some teammates had an awesome success with certain parts when we all use reflects. Like the asuran fractal, keep rotating and keep the screen between you and the asuran and you can bounce back those agony attacks all day. Also I like to use daggerstorm and keep on my teamates if I notice a lot of projectiles, I just tell them on ts to get on top of me and were good to go. I think you should learn and adapt to each fractal and switch the tools in as you need them, there all situational I find. I like my immobilize trap for the dredge fractal, I can get that elemental be immobilized under the spot or I could use blinding power and my bow number 1 to immobilize.

To the pro’s here, if you see anything I could switch up, give me some tips. This is just to share my experience with other newbies, if it works for me, it’ll work for you.

I find a lot of thief builds I find are mostly for wvw, and pvp.