Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I’m trying again to make an all ranged P/P + SB Thief build work for me in WvW. The biggest problem I have is I feel squishy. Between burst and conditions, I feel I go down way too quickly.

My typical build is 0/30/0/20/20. I’ve often seen Valkyrie (Pow+Vit+Crit Dmg) recommended for players that want more survival. But to me Knights (Pow+Crit%+Tough) makes more sense. That coupled with Runes of Melandru to help against conditions. I know Toughness does nothing against Condition Damage, but I would prefer to have some Toughness against burst and prefer Crit% over Crit Damage.

According to GW2 Build Craft, the Effective Health/Power is about the same:

Knights:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.0|a.1g.h14.a.1g.h1|5.1g.h17|1n.7r.1n.7r.1n.7r.1n.7r.1n.7r.1n.7r|1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67|0.u57b.0.k19.k35|0.0|57.5i.5b.5o.5v|e

Valkyrie:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.0|a.1g.h14.a.1g.h1|5.1g.h17|1p.7r.1p.7r.1p.7r.1p.7r.1p.7r.1p.7r|1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67|0.u57b.0.k19.k35|0.0|57.5i.5b.5o.5v|e

Any thoughts or opinions? Anybody have better suggestions against burst and condition damage?

Thanks!

Vitality is quite necessary for thieves if you want durability. toughness works better over time, but you need some vitality if you want to keep yourself alive through burst damage or condition enemies. if you have to chose between the two, vitality has the higher payout for thieves.
also, just as an idea you could take furious retaliation and thrill of the crime, have a base crit chance of 30-40% and make the rest of your gear power-vitality-toughness.

i personally would not use SB with a p/p build. i use this build in wvw and some times in tpvp. p/p and traps has some awesome utils and damage.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.0|a.1g.h8.a.1g.h17|a.1g.h1j.a.1g.h17|1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7|1p.61.1p.61.1p.61.1p.61.1p.61.1g.67|a2.u59b.0.u59c.0|0.0|57.5j.5l.5h.5w|e

The key about playing p/p is using the daze #4 skill, its godlike..
you should be switching weapon every 10 seconds netting you 5 INT per 10, thats not counting in what you get from crits.

Wow, by going Berserker with gear and Valkyrie with trinkets makes a huge difference in effective health and damage!

Thanks for the advice! I’ll check these options out and any more that people want to offer below!

How does corrosive traps compare to sundering strikes for this build?
5 stacks of vulnerability per trap is really better than 40% chance of 1 per crit (1s CD)?

Don’t forget your food and oils/stones. When I play hammer warrior to lead the zerg I eat Loaf of Omnomberry Bread and Superior Sharpening Stones. Makes a noticable difference. On my thief I use crit damage food but you could use vitality or toughness foods. There are some great level 80 foods you can consume for WvW, I am trialing the Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew and really like it – with 15 in Acrobatics I am a dodging machine. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food

You could also try dagger/pistol instead of shortbow so you have on-demand stealth for escaping when you get in trouble. I guess that is what you use infiltrator’s arrow for but I prefer stealth over teleports for escaping. You could run more escapes in your utility slots also – the main problem I see with p/p and shortbow is you don’t have ready access to stealth (CnD / BP+HS) which is how a lot of thieves mitigate damage. I run Blinding Powder, Shadow Refuge and Shadow Step (3 escapes).

Don’t forget it is more efficient to put crit damage% gear in certain places because you sacrifice less of the other stat for the same crit dmg%.
I notice you are putting crit damage on your rings but that is one the last places you should put crit damage.
see this: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/

If you find yourself dying to burst then you could swap dodge caltrops (which are pretty lame) for Instinctual Response – if you find yourself suddenly in stealth because you took a big burst then it gives you time to re-evaluate what is going on and plan your next step.

PM me ingame and ill try to help.

I just started a thread on this subject and it looks like u have smiliar build to me

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Thief-zerg-builds/first#post1803813

I actually run berserkers, and feel like I have plenty of survivability. I run a similar p/p build in which I use 0/20/0/30/20 with one key difference. I use signet of malice and assassins reward so every attack I do, I get atleast 150 health back. I get about 1/5th of my hp back from unload. I also use positions and the speed signet, which is especially effective in wvw/champ solos.

Also, I would warn against using a short bow with p/p. I use a dagger offhand as my secondary for the #3 skill and the knife throw for a very handy cripple. But that’s just me.

-Oscuro

3v1 pp thief vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIZrsaTsXCU build is in the link