Guild Wars 2

So I’m a new thief, well actually a new player, with thief being my only character. And I’m having a ton of fun with it.

So currently, I’m running full berserker set, with the typical D/D, SB, S/P. 0/6/5/0/3 But while it worked beautifully in roaming and Dungeons, I’m having great difficulty being useful in fractals, especially higher-leveled ones, as i keep getting one-shotted.

I’m thinking of returning to my old condition thief build. Full dire , P/D, D/D. It deals pretty good DoT, but i admit it’s not for speed runs. However, I’ve found that I die far less, and is usually the last man standing with this build while getting near perm stealth (which allows me to revive my party easily), which makes me more of a support healer, with bleeding damage.

While i’ll still use my zerk build in Dungeons, I’m thinking ,Should I get a full exotic dire set for fractals and other situations where my squshy zerk will die easily?
Or should i get a mix of soilder and zerk, or maybe full valk? Or should i sawp my weapons for P/P, S/B ricochet build to minimize risk of dying?

condi is terrible in pve in general, running condi won’t save you from getting one shot

it is really just learning boss mechanics, some bosses simply can’t be melee’d unless you run dnt kind of group for it

only thing i really could suggest is getting shadow embrace in SA rest is just normal zerker build

i run lv 50 a lot with zerker set and still usually last one to die…. so it is just execution and encounter knowledge

Swap weapons for each battle. Swap utilities as you go. Learn to play a variety of styles in the same dungeon. It doesn’t matter if you have perfect traits/stats as long as you use a good tactic.

Ima paste the same thing I said in an earlier thread.

-s/p is your friend. Despite the BPS nerf, the AoE cleave + evade is invaluable since 9/10 dungeon encounters involve stacking on a corner to obstruct LoS (line of sight). Enemies will take the shortest path when chasing you if they loose LoS, causing them to gather all at a corner for easy AoE application. You will not use s/p always, but its a primary set to have.

-You will constantly be adjusting your utilities and traits, even in the same fractal. Each encounter is different for the most part, so expect a tweak here and there such as using smoke screen and dagger storm for projectiles along with the smoke screen on down trait (concealed defeat in critical strikes adept), p/p for ranged dps [the decending lasers on the uncategorized fractal are projectiles and can be blocked/reflected as such protecting your allies on the way up]. You will see what is needed in each encounter the more you play and can adjust accordingly. I can tell you that I change my traits between ~3 set ups and utilities/weapon skills constantly because everything has its place.

-Learn boss skills. Most are very telegraphed but some act much quicker than others or have strange delays either visual or effect. Knowing them you can act on the fly using all the tools thief has to offer to stay alive. Remember, a dead player = zero dps so if you are dying too often change your playstyle up and possibly your build until you are comfortable stepping into heavier dps builds.

-On the volcanic fractal (with the legendary shaman at the end) make sure you have pistol/x as one of your sets. When it uses its bubble, it is based on number of attacks. Simply carry SR (naturally both as an offense and defense) and keep pressing 1. The short aftercast will let you fire 5X bullets real fast and destroy its bubble. You’re no the only one there but for your end of the fight, its the best bubble destroyer.

-Scorpion wire can be quite useful in some situations. Get creative with it especially for fights where you need to relocate the boss somewhere (mai trin, giant jellyfish, dredge fractal boss, etc).

Thats really it, just learn the encounters and overtime you will find new and creative ways to take them down. Most important point is don’t just hop in with full zerker gear and expect it to be easy, if you are dead you aren’t contributing to the group no matter how much damage you got off in those few seconds. Ease into zerker if you can.

If you play wit ha (comptent) group then you probably will be able to get away with full damage any maybe 3-2 points in either SA or acro.
If you’re going to run pugs then you have a chance you’ll get brain-dead people. So you most likely need to “bring more to the table” because bad pugs usually: take forever to kill stuff, die a plenty, don’t bring meta builds/utility, don’t change weps/traits accordingly, they kill you (by luring mobs into you will stealthed or some sort).

For the first case, then you are good to go with about any and every weapon since most (except maybe P/D) have good-ish damage. Just be sure they you bring the essentials: blinds and stealth for the appropiatte encounters.

For the second…. I find it most helpful to run DD with 6 points in SA. Why? because then you can be a better nurse for the baddies and you can keep mobs blind locked with C&D, more room for mistakes and hits, ect. 6 on crit I’d say it’s pretty much mandatory, still, for damage.

Either way, if you encounter bad pugs and need to carry them I find guardian to be way more useful at that since it can solo fractals very easily (at least some of the troublesome bosses) and keeps the party alive for most time.

As a final tip: mango pies are your friend.

I’d actually recommend not using SA for anything but certain boss fights. You generally do not use stealth because

A) Only good stealth attacks are single target, and most encounters are groups
B) If you use stealth to skip trash mobs or position yourselves, SR does the job on its own
C) if you have to recover in stealth (shadows rejuvenation) you’re sitting around while your group carries you.

Only time you use SA is for:

-Volcanic fractal, during the part where veteran grawl spawn and run to the edge to knock a human off. Best thing I’ve done with thief is S/X venom share which requires SA.

-Volcanic fractal, during the boss I go 6 points in so if I need to heal someone the rejuvenation covers up the burning I get for sitting still.

-During Mai trin boss I go 4 points in since I use d/p for her for mobility and high single target dps. The condi clearing and regeneration to allies only though.

That’s really the only time I go into SA for anything, the rest is always critical strikes (6) and acrobatics (4-6) because it gives vitality which helps with our naturally low health pool and the “1 shot” mechanics that swarm higher level fractals with some other good traits like faster initiative regen for PW or power of inertia for extra dps.

Also X/p does a far better job of blinding than CnD + cloaked in shadows.

NinjaEd.3946:

I’d actually recommend not using SA for anything but certain boss fights. You generally do not use stealth because

A) Only good stealth attacks are single target, and most encounters are groups
B) If you use stealth to skip trash mobs or position yourselves, SR does the job on its own
C) if you have to recover in stealth (shadows rejuvenation) you’re sitting around while your group carries you.

Only time you use SA is for:

-Volcanic fractal, during the part where veteran grawl spawn and run to the edge to knock a human off. Best thing I’ve done with thief is S/X venom share which requires SA.

-Volcanic fractal, during the boss I go 6 points in so if I need to heal someone the rejuvenation covers up the burning I get for sitting still.

-During Mai trin boss I go 4 points in since I use d/p for her for mobility and high single target dps. The condi clearing and regeneration to allies only though.

That’s really the only time I go into SA for anything, the rest is always critical strikes (6) and acrobatics (4-6) because it gives vitality which helps with our naturally low health pool and the “1 shot” mechanics that swarm higher level fractals with some other good traits like faster initiative regen for PW or power of inertia for extra dps.

Also X/p does a far better job of blinding than CnD + cloaked in shadows.

Problem is, that’s assuming that your group is competent and keeps themselves alive well enough AND you don’t have to solo. If he happens to NEED shadowrejuvenation then it doesn’t matter if he’s idling or not, without the trait he would be either dead or running away as he tries to not get hit or squeeze out regen out of elsewhere.
Usually running smokescreen with blind on stealth is enough blinds unless your party is really, really slow on killing dangerous vets such as ascalon’s and other vets like fanatics overwhelm you from all side to be able to be all hit by black powder. PW is only going to help on fractals in which any other weaponset would do. In fractals that have hard-er trash mobs such as molten alliance or ascalon, you’ll most likely get 1 shot regardless by the overwhelming number of mobs or range/charge. And since it has a horrible pre and aftercast, there is no good timing for it because there are way too many mobs to face. Of course, if you got a GOOD group that has a guardian doing protection rotations, might stacking, ect, then -anything- is viable for thief as long as you bring essentials and then you’ll be trying to aim for optimization.
Problem is when you have to carry the group and they all die often and such so you need to compensate. I find it terribly hard to solo molten alliance duo without extra regen, it’s way too easy to be caught by any random aoe and out of dodges, for example. 6 SA just gives you a huge coushin to lay back in case of mistakes, bad pugs and soloing; if you try to solo mobs by not getting hit by -anything- then it turns really stressing, particularly if you have ping/lag issues.
In the end, he can go with full damage and give or take some utility traits but truth is, there will be very bad pugs out there and if you can’t carry them then it’s better just to leave party altogether.

To OP: 6SA also gives some forgiving regen to learn mechanics and not be as squishy since while learnign you won’t know most mechanics, it’s likely you’ll get hit plenty. PW spam and signet of malice or PP as well could get you somewhere as well but they’re very team-dependant.

6/5/0/3/0 is good when you’re still learning the encounters. Don’t give up with full berserker and remember that in a bad party you’re supposed to die when your defenses run out, can’t help that. if pugging, chain CnD and stealth to loose aggro and gain some time. In a real group, ask your guard to blow a bit more cooldowns for you, I myself adapt my aegis timing depending on my teammates experience.

Zephyric Reaper.3049:

long

Can you solo a boss? Yes, but its incredibly boring and for the sake of teaching those pugs a thing or 2, does absolutely nothing to benefit them. You’d honestly be better off dying or entering stealth to reset. I’d be more pleased seeing 4/5 of us take down a boss than have me carry them 50% of the boss’s health because I ran stealth regen which is rather selfish. If you ran other alternatives you can actually benefit the group and possibly yield better results.

Only time I run SA is for the group support via regen or venoms, I don’t do it to clutch and flex off for the pugs who went afk for a sandwich after getting tired of watching me. Even with pw I have aoe fury/swiftness and blinds going off, beats using d/x to spike 1 target down at a time imo.

NinjaEd.3946:

Zephyric Reaper.3049:

long

Can you solo a boss? Yes, but its incredibly boring and for the sake of teaching those pugs a thing or 2, does absolutely nothing to benefit them. You’d honestly be better off dying or entering stealth to reset. I’d be more pleased seeing 4/5 of us take down a boss than have me carry them 50% of the boss’s health because I ran stealth regen which is rather selfish. If you ran other alternatives you can actually benefit the group and possibly yield better results.

Only time I run SA is for the group support via regen or venoms, I don’t do it to clutch and flex off for the pugs who went afk for a sandwich after getting tired of watching me. Even with pw I have aoe fury/swiftness and blinds going off, beats using d/x to spike 1 target down at a time imo.

It’s not like you start right off the bat soloing it or that your teammates die instantly.
I can’t tell you how many times have teammates died at the molten alliance duo when the boss is at 25% or less. Even as a guardian, trying to keep protection up and such they -still- die. I’ve have had guildies who get stuck for about an hour on the last boss; be it mai trin or molten alliance duo or any other fractal and when they have a drop out I offer my help and do it for them.
It may take a little longer to chip off the last bit of hp yourself BUT compared to the possible hour or actually not being able to complete the fractal at all, it’s worth it.

You can give him a very effective build but if his party is not making it through anyway then what’s it worth?
Actually giving the OP some knowledge of some survivable builds that are able to solo IF he needs, is important. ButI do agree that he should be going the most amount of damage if he has the chance as long as he’s not perma-downed.