Guild Wars 2

So, I am very attracted to this build and I see its potential exemplified in many videos. With that being said….

How many times did everyone else fail at it before they were capable of standing there ground? I am ok at 1v1 but anything beyond, I am having serious survivability issues with a survival friendly spec. This is one of the biggest learning curves for me out of any class of any game!

5/0/30/15/20
or
0/0/30/20/20

V, VI, XI
II (and III in 2nd version)
III VIII

If you mix carrion w/ apothecary that’ll help your toughness and healing while in stealth (more survival while keeping up condition damage)

On my P/D set I use 4 apoth rest carrion and it’s aprox 18.5k hp, 2.5k armor 550 heal (exotics) I can survive more on this than I can on my balanced set up Guardian.

It helps to not just spam sneak attack right away, reposition, be unpredictable, let yourself heal while in stealth. Keep them crippled with dagger and caltrops on dodge (VERY good trait, just gotta learn to aim it a little bit). When I C&D I’ll dodge though them to drop caltrops (might + cripple) if I have good enough energy. If they get in close use shadow strike until you want them in close to C&D.

P/D Condition was my first build (used it before it became the FotM) and is one of the easiest to play. Since you heal and remove conditions on Stealth, you simply continue to use your CnD and use Blinding Powder or SR for prolonged stealth while you build up your initiative.

Going 0/0/30/20/20 means you practically have to screw up on purpose to die, imo. However, good luck fighting against Guardian bunker builds. I think the P/D venom build requires far more skill than the Condition.

The main premise is – stay away from your opponent, drop caltrops, run in circles, CnD and then Sneak Attack just as the stealth wears off.

Suralin.3947:

P/D Condition was my first build (used it before it became the FotM) and is one of the easiest to play. Since you heal and remove conditions on Stealth, you simply continue to use your CnD and use Blinding Powder or SR for prolonged stealth while you build up your initiative.

Going 0/0/30/20/20 means you practically have to screw up on purpose to die, imo. However, good luck fighting against Guardian bunker builds. I think the P/D venom build requires far more skill than the Condition.

The main premise is – stay away from your opponent, drop caltrops, run in circles, CnD and then Sneak Attack just as the stealth wears off.

Anything with reliable consistent condition removal will stop p/d build as it’s basically just bleed damage. This was brought up in the most recent state of the game interview… so I hope something is done about that, but who knows : /

See, DPS is not an issue really. I think my problem is coming from timing. I don’t use my stealth abilitities at the right times therefore I am extremely vulnerable. For some reason shadow step makes me feel stupid as well lol. I think as I learn how to time my abilities and initiative, I will stay alive far longer then I do now.

Am I the only one that had this problem in the beginning lol.

I went from full zerker backstab to pistol dagger condition thief early in the game, and I’ve never had any trouble. I have 20/0/30/20/0 traits for survival and good damage. This build is pretty easy, you just have to dodge the big hits and stack bleeds and poison on the enemy. They’ll bleed to death pretty fast, even bunkers will die at ease since their armor won’t help :p

I use full carrion gear for health and condition damage, and I can easily stand against a small five man group. Look up SlicGW for more help on p/d. He have nailed it if you ask me

My inspiration to roll the profession was actually derived from the Wild Bill videos. I am currently running the same setup. I realize that you can not just hop into WvW and instantly be awesome and with time comes skill. Every day that goes by, I am slowly getting better and better, though I am still off a long way from being anything worthy of talking about!

I had no problem surviving with P/D I just felt like killing took too long after playing a good backstab build. It’s a fun diversion and great for harassing small groups of enemies or preventing caps but I like quick kills too much to stick with it

Sounds like you got the right mind set! Every step forward is a step in the right direction. I came across the Wild Bill videos after a few weeks playing P/D and it really enhanced how I played that weapon set.

I believe that with some practice you’ll master it! Just play and have fun and you’ll get the hang of it sooner or later And you’re right, it’s not a set that you can just be pro at immideately ^^

I never failed with mine cuz I crafted an Apothecary set before trying it.
Amazing armor, lol. Don’t do insane amounts of damage but have fun never dying.

This set is very boring to me since you have to rely heavily on your condition to take out the target and often time they are countered by regen or removal.

Two skills in P/D (#3 and #5) are not used while in ranged, thus it renders the weapon set as a failure on the get go. Trying to make P/D works, and it works sometimes, the effect is not significant enough in comparison to other builds, like D/P or even P/P.

I personally failed with the Weapon set more than I can count and that’s why I no longer use it. If you want to stay in ranged, SB and P/P are way better choices.

I generally laugh at P/D thieves on my S/D build… I’m sure it must be frustrating, but that’s their fault for playing a noob slayer build…

Laika.8795:

I generally laugh at P/D thieves on my S/D build… I’m sure it must be frustrating, but that’s their fault for playing a noob slayer build…

P/D and D/P builds are for carebears that hate dying.

Real thieves fight with only 1 weapon and no #4 and #5!

We use the other hand to steal/mug/grope.

I found the P/D playstyle to be very easy use.

This is probably the playstyle that is going to take the biggest hit next patch because I found myself using CND→CND a lot while waiting for CDs/HP and letting bleeds tick.

@Haters

I know that its open forum, and you can rightfully post anything you want… however I am only paying attention to those that are contributing to the OP.

Rookie mistake I know that I am making because of my gung-ho play style… I never wait on Tick damage when I blow my Stealth CDs, major problem… I appreciate you opening my eyes. I will learn more as this forum develops.

The P/D thief is not a gung-ho play style.

Try the Jinzu Burst Backstab build if you are looking or gung-ho play style.

P/D thief is a condition build, basically you kill things really slowly, but in exchange you have high survivability. At least you will until the patch hits.

Exactly.

As stated, I am learning more as I read. With a few implementations of stupid factors I should have been aware of, I know already that my survivability will be noticeably higher. I came from a Mained Guardian, and rolled this thief for purposes of PvP only and I am in love with it. Now its just to master it. I appreciate all the great input and I am watching this thread very closely.

Laika.8795:

I generally laugh at P/D thieves on my S/D build… I’m sure it must be frustrating, but that’s their fault for playing a noob slayer build…

S/D isn’t usually hard to beat as P/D… just gotta dodge that root. Most S/D players I’ve come across can’t do much when the target isn’t rooted/dazed… and P/D can dodge like a madman to avoid those. Then pew pew ing them after their the return tele isn’t hard if you position yourself well.

Vs. D/P… that’s harder as they’ll be almost certainly be running remove conditions on stealth and can stealth at will from anywhere. This winds up being a no winner situation as I know they’ll be coming in for a backstab and can c&d off of them while they are in stealth.

Where P/D shines in WvW is yak killing. They can’t predict where you’ll be like with a mele weapon and a slow moving yak is wonderful for caltrops. I’ve had groups of 10+ unsuccessfully try to stop me from ganking a yak. It’s pretty kitten funny.

Aberrant.6749:

S/D isn’t usually hard to beat as P/D… just gotta dodge that root. Most S/D players I’ve come across can’t do much when the target isn’t rooted/dazed… and P/D can dodge like a madman to avoid those.

If I miss the root, I just SR back and cleanse all the conditions. lol.

But really, with S/D, you have too many cleanses at your disposal (if you’re playing right.) and the only thing that messes you up is blind on stealth.

Worst case scenario, I have to back off and reset the fight, but I find it hard to lose to such tactics.

Laika.8795:

Aberrant.6749:

S/D isn’t usually hard to beat as P/D… just gotta dodge that root. Most S/D players I’ve come across can’t do much when the target isn’t rooted/dazed… and P/D can dodge like a madman to avoid those.

If I miss the root, I just SR back and cleanse all the conditions. lol.

But really, with S/D, you have too many cleanses at your disposal (if you’re playing right.) and the only thing that messes you up is blind on stealth.

Worst case scenario, I have to back off and reset the fight, but I find it hard to lose to such tactics.

I wait until after they use SR to sneak attack on them to prevent that, most S/D that I’ve fought don’t seem to want to even try unless the target is immobilized/dazed and will retreat to try again immediately. I haven’t fought many in S/D sPvP… nor used P/D in sPvP so this could just be that they are WvW noobs like the typical I didn’t kill them with bask venom combo so I’m running types (not calling all WvW-ers noobs).

P/D only having bleeds for damage is an issue vs. any cleansing and the dev’s seemed to agree in the last state of the game… so we’ll see if they do anything about that later on. P/D is a good easy intro to thief but obviously isn’t without its issues.

So…

I spent some time in WvW yesterday, roughly about 5 hours consecutively and I must say. With a better understanding of the class mechanics, 1v2+ has become ungodly more controlled. I may not have one all of them, but I can assure you that I stood my ground, and presented much more of a challenge then I did before. I appreciate all who have contributed to this forum, helping to open my eyes!

awgardner.9634:

So…

I spent some time in WvW yesterday, roughly about 5 hours consecutively and I must say. With a better understanding of the class mechanics, 1v2+ has become ungodly more controlled. I may not have one all of them, but I can assure you that I stood my ground, and presented much more of a challenge then I did before. I appreciate all who have contributed to this forum, helping to open my eyes!

Glad to see you improving. The next trick is to not spam CnD as often anymore and timing your dodges while you’re visible. What I enjoy doing is running into a relatively large group and seeing how long I can survive. Trait correctly and it can be a very, very long time.

Suralin.3947:

awgardner.9634:

So…

I spent some time in WvW yesterday, roughly about 5 hours consecutively and I must say. With a better understanding of the class mechanics, 1v2+ has become ungodly more controlled. I may not have one all of them, but I can assure you that I stood my ground, and presented much more of a challenge then I did before. I appreciate all who have contributed to this forum, helping to open my eyes!

Glad to see you improving. The next trick is to not spam CnD as often anymore and timing your dodges while you’re visible. What I enjoy doing is running into a relatively large group and seeing how long I can survive. Trait correctly and it can be a very, very long time.

Understood. This was the concept I had to pretty much force myself to learn to even get to this point. As I stated in previous posts, I was not even paying attention when I was doing it, more rambunctiously spamming abilities, but I would not wait to receive full regen and condition removal when I was in stealth, I always would spam it as a scapegoat and reopen fire without reaping its benefits.

However, I feel that my build relies heavily on stealth, I will consider trying to trait it differently as I become more fluent with my skills in order to obtain a little bit more survivability.

As a matter of fact, I will put my build together here later on and post it since this thread has been so helpful and see if anyone could shed some light on it, or offer a unique twist. I am always up for suggestions!