Guild Wars 2

I’m the kind of player who just can’t help but tinker. I love to change builds, weapons, etc. I recently started leveling a thief (40’s now) and after spending time reading and trying all the different weapon combinations, I can’t come up with anything that holds a candle to S/P.

The other builds are fun but nothing kills like S/P. It’s depressing when there are so many possible combinations that are fun to play:

I love D/D and don’t mind dodging while the dots tick if only it killed as fast as S/P and gave health from SofM…

D/P is fun because of the port to your target but against multiple mobs it can’t hold up against S/P. It doesn’t even kill solo mobs faster!

P/D is kinds cool but… well, you get the idea….

Feel free to jump in here and tell me that I am missing something because I can’t see any reason to use any build for world PVE leveling other than S/P. It does more damage to a solo mob than any other build, does more against groups and has arguably the best escape ability while also having the best healing with SofM.

What am I missing?

I don’t know what you’re missing, I use S/P + shortbow for open world and S/P + P/P for dungeons. Both with signet of malice too.

Dagger has a big problem in that it’s single target. S/D is kinda eh???? It’s like what is this set for in PvE? Flanking strike is really unreliable. Trust me I really gave this set a lot of chances but in the end S/P is better for PvE.

P/D is also good for PvE though, possibly the best but may kill slower. Condi is just not my style though.

My problem with P/D is that in order to get the stealth shot damage you have to let the mob close so you can hit #5 and gain stealth. You are shooting and crippling and then you want the thing to catch you so you can do your big damage. It’s counter-intuitive,

dd condi is super effective
s/d s/p power are super effective too

The easiest builds in PVE are AOE builds for every profession. S/P is the easy mode leveling melee weapon set for thief.

I’d like to point out you don’t have to take the easy mode. I leveled with S/P but was thoroughly bored with it by 80. I currently favor S/D, and I bounce between a crit build and variants of the acro/trickery build.

You don’t have to do the “best” build, do what you find the most fun. If you know your stuff, very little in the open world is going to present much challenge anyway. It’s more important to me that I stay entertained and engaged in my fights than get through them the fastest way possible.

I leveled as D/D and S/D (always with a SB in the alternate slot). S/P is better for just about everything but Dredge, but the more aggressive setups are more fun. They’re certainly viable.

D/D + SB with carrion type gear is faster and more effective than S/P imo, so I really have no idea what you’re talking about by saying that you can’t tick SoM. Death Blossom + Caltrops + Traitrops + Malice = invincible.

If you use cloak and dagger with the blind on stealth trait you can get a more mobile style of play than using black powder. Pistol/dagger can kite small groups of mobs very easily so don’t ignore that for PvE.

S/P supplies you with all you need on one weapon set. That said, if you wish to play actively I recommend P/D+D/P for the fastest killing of a single target you’ll ever achieve.

With P/D you can literally kite forever using your dodges, Dancing Dagger, Withdraw, Shadowstep and Shadow Strike. If the enemy closes on you for some reason you can simply use C&D and position yourself for Sneak Attack while regaining the gap. This is tremendously effective for killing Veterans, Champions and high HP normal mobs. Another considerably powerful tactic for dropping things in four attacks is to just run directly at your target over-and-over spamming Shadow Strike, though this is a good way to suck up initiative. These abilities and tactics make P/D essentially god-mode for fighting any melee oriented mob.

With D/P you simply use Shadow Shot to close distances, immediately drop Black Powder and then use Heartseeker to gain stealth, Backstab and then either repeat or simply strafe until you have enough initiative to do so. If enemies have long wind-up ranged attacks Head Shot will allow you to do some damage while interrupting the skill, at which point you can then begin your chain anew or simply Heartseeker the mob into the floor. Much like P/D making melee mobs trivial, D/P does the same for any ranged attackers you may encounter as they just cannot run fast enough.

S/P is only the best if you feel like standing still and smacking things to death, in which case you’d be better off just rolling a warrior- but who would want to do that?

S/P is only the best if you feel like standing still and smacking things to death, in which case you’d be better off just rolling a warrior- but who would want to do that?

Yes it is better to roll a warrior , but it must be said that in guild wars 1 the assassin fights his/her enemies head on!

P/D (heavy stealth/condition) using Caltrops (Dodge + Utility) was very powerful in PvE when I played it a long time ago. Not sure if anything has changed for it, but it was easy to solo champions, and 25 stacks of bleed (aoe) does a lot of damage — especially for requiring almost no effort.

I actually switched back to that for the Liandri fight. Failed horribly with P/P (mostly berserker), but killed her within 2-3 tries with P/D.

Barfoi.9537:

P/D (heavy stealth/condition) using Caltrops (Dodge + Utility) was very powerful in PvE when I played it a long time ago. Not sure if anything has changed for it, but it was easy to solo champions, and 25 stacks of bleed (aoe) does a lot of damage — especially for requiring almost no effort.

I actually switched back to that for the Liandri fight. Failed horribly with P/P (mostly berserker), but killed her within 2-3 tries with P/D.

Well the armor you used for P/D is probably a lot tankier; Carrion has lots of vitality.
By the end of the Queen’s gauntlet, I could down liadri with P/P like 1 in 3 times. Though I use berserker/soldier/valkyrie mix so it’s about as tanky as carrion.

I agree with you that P/D is better for soloing champions though…cuz the guy who soloed a ton of champions used P/D.

Booray.1560:

My problem with P/D is that in order to get the stealth shot damage you have to let the mob close so you can hit #5 and gain stealth. You are shooting and crippling and then you want the thing to catch you so you can do your big damage. It’s counter-intuitive,

Many bosses, veterans and champions summon minions, you C&D from them, and Sneak Attack the big guy from a safer distanc. Trash-mobs, anything less then veterans is not noteworthy enough to take into account for building. Unless you want to focus on eliminating trash mobs in large quantities, in which case Shortbow with a power-crit setup shines. You can still use S/D, S/P, D/D and even P/D as alternate set.