Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

Im running 30 Deadly arts, 30 Shadow arts 10 Trickery venom sharing build, i was just wondering what gear is best for a supporty thief spec like this? atm im using full Carrion but i find that i can only really keep up poison and 9 stacks of bleed at max. I would like some gear that gives me survivability and decent damage, atm my survivability is fine but i feel like my damage is abit low. I use mostly dual daggers/shortbow but i sometimes switch into either pistol/pistol for ranged single target or sword/pistol to keep up blinds etc.

In short, what gear would you recommend?

pistol dagger, for the sneak atk does 5bleeds per pop, and some npcs are pretty easy to combo that with cloak and dagger

Well, you have tons of condition damage, and condition-based gear will work well with your venoms, so I’d go that route. For weapons, I’d give P/D a try. You get some really good melee/range flexibilty, and you can apply lots of bleeding for good damage.

As for stats: condition damage is king for offense. For defense, vitality is your best defense against conditions and for short fights. Toughness is best against direct damage in any fight that goes on more than a few seconds, and it drastically increases the strength of your healing skills. You’re really high on healing, so healing power would also be worth it.

According to the wiki, your healing power affects the lifesteal your allies get from your venoms. This means that healing power would not only give you a good defensive boost, it would also greatly increase your ability to support your group with healing.

In summary:

• Vitality is great for short fights, bad for long fights.
• Toughness is poor for short fights, great for long fights.
• Healing Power is bad for short fights, good for long fights, and good for support.

Personally, I’d get some Sapphire jewelry (healing > power > toughness), and then mostly Rabid (condition damage > precision > toughness) with a couple pieces of Shaman (vitality > condition damage > healing power). This should give you a good amount of condition damage, high healing and toughness, and a little vitality so you have room to make mistakes. (To find out how to get that gear, or look at other stat sets you can get, see here)

Also, be sure to eat pizza. It’s a massive, massive boost to condition-based builds, and you can get the level 70 food for ~1s per hour on the TP.

Thanks for the help, would you get the full Sapphire Jewlry set, 4x rabid pieces, 2x shaman pieces? And also, what stats and sigils would you go for on the weapons dacromir?

Also, the Leeching Venoms trait states that the healing effect can only occur once per strike, so if i apply all venoms at the same time, will my allies get higher healing per strike? or would the healing only proc for one of the venoms that was used once?

Pragmatist.1349:

Thanks for the help, would you get the full Sapphire Jewlry set, 4x rabid pieces, 2x shaman pieces?

Yes, although that might be a bit heavier on support/defense than you want. You mentioned wanting more damage, in which case I’d swap a couple pieces out for chrysocola (condition damage > power > vitality).

Exactly how you fine-tune your gear is a personal matter of what balance between damage, support, and defense you want.

Pragmatist.1349:

And also, what stats and sigils would you go for on the weapons dacromir?

Rabid (condition damage > precision > toughness) on the weapons. I’d take a Superior Sigil of Agony, which increases bleed duration by 10%, and then a Sigil of Superior Earth which gives you a 60% chance to apply bleeding when you crit.

For gear, I’d take 2 Runes of the Krait, 2 Runes of the Afflicted, and 2 Runes of Lyssa. That will give you +40% bleeding duration and +10% duration to all other conditions.

Stack all of these bonuses together, and you’ll have crazy amounts of condition duration. From traits, food, runes, and sigils, you can get up to 120% bleed duration and +80% duration to all other conditions (80% and 40% in sPvP). That means that your pistol 1 attack applies an 11s bleed in stead of a 5s bleed. Your damage will have some ramp-up time, but once you get a lot of bleed stacks going you’ll be able to do insane condition damage.

This will also work great with your venoms. Devourer Venom without any bonuses gives 4s of immobilize. With your build, it will give 10.75s of immobilize if all three attacks hit, which is insanely powerful because you can’t even turn or dodge while immobilized. Against people who can’t remove conditions, that will be devastating because you can just sit there and shoot them in the back.

Pragmatist.1349:

Also, the Leeching Venoms trait states that the healing effect can only occur once per strike, so if i apply all venoms at the same time, will my allies get higher healing per strike? or would the healing only proc for one of the venoms that was used once?

You get the same healing whether you’re apply four venoms or one venom with that hit. This means it’s better to space your venoms out a little bit than to apply them all at once. Wait until everyone’s used up the current venoms before you apply a new one.

I was considering going for 6x Superior runes of lyssa for all boons every 36 seconds, but i have heard its bugged or has an internal cooldown which means that it will only proc every other time you use basilisk venom, is that true?

If you are condition build in dungeon I assume you are using caltrops. If not, you should be, imo.

I am a cond spec thief for PvP, but for PvE I switch out to sword/pistol, using mostly power/tough/vitality armor, though I will switch in bezerker gear depending on dungeon and boss.

i tend not to use caltrops because i like my 3 venoms in venom sharing

Dacromir, have you tried out venom sharings viability in Arah Expl?