Guild Wars 2

hi to all thief fans,
i am a fresh 80 thief, been trying to experiment all “arts” and “tricks” of thief until now mostly in PVE. Ive been reading many of your posts and opinions because your conclusions come from gameplay experience.
actually i am seeking the meta or perfect build for PVE.
I like all trait trees cos they bring different approach to a battle, either be a perma stealth backstabber, a perma dodger, a stealer and boon giver, a heavy critter so my dilemma is u can do many things but what is most important thing for PVE and what setup should i choose.
and i dont have a real preference about weapons, like many of u i am aware of what any of them can do depending on the situation.
So i am looking forward to your thoughts and thanks in advance, everyone’s opinion is appreciated

Clumsy.6257:

You shouldn’t use the same build for wvw and pve. As far as pve goes, 25/30/x/x/x (see below) is and has been the meta build for months, as far as wvw goes, build around your weapon set, i normally run d/p with 0/20/30/20/0 or 0/30/20/20/0.
25/30/10/0/5 – the best for long fights, typically for pugs and outdamages 25/30/0/0/15 in fights longer than 12 (?) seconds
25/30/0/0/15 – highest burst damage, dont use unless your in an organized party that can kill most bosses in a few seconds
25/30/0/15/0 – i normally use this for fractals, the 15 in acrobatics really helps out for dodging
And as far as weapon sets for pve go, d/d and s/p are our best 2, there are very few situations where you shouldnt use these, mainly range boss fights or running to the next boss (shortbow shines here).

ignore the parts about WvW and also full berserker’s armor w/ scholar runes and full berserker trinkets

Alternatively if you aren’t great at dodging the big attacks yet PVT armor with zerk everything else is a great intermediate step. 25/30/0/0/15 is a good damage spec, but I prefer more dodges so right now I’m 15/30/0/25/0 which is still (slightly less) good damage but survivable till you learn the ropes. Vigor on heal (acro III) + feline grace + withdraw will keep you alive for a very long time.

D/D and S/P both work well in PVE at this point. Keep a SB in your secondary slot to get to people to rez faster.

30/30/10/0/0 D/D for single target/bosses. Backstab – Auto attack chain – cloak and dagger – backstab – repeat.

S/P for trash, or shortbow for mass AE.

I don’t think there is a single meta build unless you are one the elite speed runners who worry about whether they finish CoF five seconds faster. You can usually gain advantage by changing your weapons/utilities for each PVE fight, so in the long run your traits are determining which of those fights you are stronger/weaker for.

Generally any build with 30 points in Critical Strikes is great for PvE, but your kitten nal (“a stock of weapons;” thanks forum censorship!) should include a Sword, one or two Daggers, at least one Pistol, and a Shortbow.

Sword/Dagger is great for clumps of trashmobs as the Sword’s auto cleaves.

Dagger/Dagger is your bread and butter Backstab/Single-target weapon.

Dagger/Pistol can have its uses on certain encounters or areas (i.e. stealthing through areas of tightly packed mobs).

Pistol/Pistol may be used on a single target that must be kited or best fought at a distance.

Sword/Pistol is niche but may be used in certain encounters (I use it for Subject Alpha to evade all attacks).

Shortbow is your go-to weapon for burst AoE damage and escape/utility. Its Blast finisher makes it King for group play (low health + water field = happy Party members).

@Clumsy: Forgive my ignorance, I’ve only been thieving for a little while, but 25/30/0/15/0 & 25/30/0/0/15 & 25/30/10/0/5 just isn’t all that descriptive, especially when comparing them in detail. You specify when to use them, but not what traits they include or the weapon sets. Could you be a bit more specific for me please? I’ll be 80 within the week and would love to understand the ins & outs of endgame PvE thief.

Seras.5702:

@Clumsy: Forgive my ignorance, I’ve only been thieving for a little while, but 25/30/0/15/0 & 25/30/0/0/15 & 25/30/10/0/5 just isn’t all that descriptive, especially when comparing them in detail. You specify when to use them, but not what traits they include or the weapon sets. Could you be a bit more specific for me please? I’ll be 80 within the week and would love to understand the ins & outs of endgame PvE thief.

excuse my lack of exact names or numbers but i dont pay attention to those just what they do
deadly arts – 1. mug 2. dagger damage
critical strikes – 1. usually prec to vitality 2. the trait that gives 10% chance of quickness, 3. executioner (never ever ever hidden killer unless your in wvw)
shadow arts – 1. either trait that gives 2 initiative every time you stealth or condi removal every 3 seconds (condi removal only in certain situations 95% of the time its going to be initiative on stealth
acrobatics – 1. w/e you want, only putting 15 in for the endurance regen on dodge
trickery – 1. flanking strikes

Here’s the 25/30/0/0/15 build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoYVEBnTEbP2pO5p/ByqzgmtE-jQyAYfioRiCIZBiKIkl8KiGbxtIas6aMlLRUt9uIa1A-e
(slight, debateable variant: take VIII instead of X in Critical Strikes tree)

This is pretty much as good as it gets for min/maxing in PvE. You can run with other builds if you prefer, but generally they make sacrifices in DPS for survivability. Some people prefer to drop 10 points from the above build into Shadow’s Arts for extra initiative, but that’s only a minor payoff on long boss fights. If you’re running with a serious group, then you won’t have that issue.

For some classes, the ultimate min/max dps build is a bit debateable, but this isn’t the case for thieves. While there are plenty of viable builds, this is the one you run if you want to maximize dps. Just be aware that a berserker, glass cannon thief is a lot harder to keep alive than most other professions running a similar type build.

I finally got good at Thief and have been running S/P and D/D 25/30/0/15/0. It’s great damage and dodges for days.

Can someone please, please give the rotation of skills for d/d and s/p?
(Ie auto attack, auto attack, cloak and dagger, auto attack)
Also can someone please, please give signets to use (also when and why for the signets)?
I can’t use this build correctly without this information!

snowfaire.2781:

Can someone please, please give the rotation of skills for d/d and s/p?
(Ie auto attack, auto attack, cloak and dagger, auto attack)
Also can someone please, please give signets to use (also when and why for the signets)?
I can’t use this build correctly without this information!

For D/D, you just Cloak and Dagger then Backstab. Try to keep at least 6 initiative for the bonus from the 25 point trait. When the enemy gets below 33% HP, start using your initiative on Heartseeker instead.

For S/P, just keep the blind field down and auto-attack against mobs that hit hard. If the mobs don’t hit hard enough to justify a blind field, then just burn your initiative on Pistol Whip.

D/D: cloak and dagger + BS, then autoattack chain, first 2 hits from the next and CnD+BS again. So it’s 5, 1, 1,1,1, 1,1, 5, 1. You can start using Heartseeker when the enemy gets <50% HP.

S/P: Blind trash with 5, if no blinds needed, spam 1.

Thank you!
No one ever did suggest signets so I guess I’ll just do the ones I’ve been using. Lol