Guild Wars 2

Pretty new to game. Running two daggers. I get the evading thing. I get the bow thing. I would like to see a post on how to START out as a thief, not endgame or pvp builds. Please post what you would have liked to have known when you first rolled a Thief! THANKS!

What I want to know is…

1. What is the basic burst rotation? Blossom-backstab(3x)-heartseeker?

2. Best ways to use stealth—from what I see my HEAL gives the best stealth—WTF?

3. What is the best trait tree STARTING OUT?

1) As a d/d there are two (most used) possible options:
a) condition thief: Just spam deathblossom in general, caltrops is a great utility as well. Use signet of malice for immensive healing
b) Direct damge thief: backstab and heartseeker
You can try and combining them, but it would be a basic burst. You’ll be mixing condition dmg with direct dmg. When I started as a thief, I went either for a or for b, but never at the same time.

2) Why would your heal give the best stealth? Except for shadow refuge, all stealths give 3s stealth (when not traited). C&D is the easiest because it has no cooldown, but it does uses ini. Hide in shadows is your healing skill, wouldn’t be wise to put that on cooldown when you’re still full on health and want to set a backstab up. Then you have 4 utilities that can give stealth. Blinding powder, shadow refuge (don’t leave the area t’till tripwire is gone), smoke screen (combine with a leap or blast finisher) and shadow trap.
Best way to “use” it.. Set up for your stealth attack (backstab), for retreating (use c&d, then your heal and you’ll have 5s stealth, regeneration and gained back health) or while running from A to B to get minimal agro.

3) Depends on what you want to roll. Glasscannon, condition thief, “tank”, … Take your time to read what all major traits and all minor traits do in every tier before choosing a path of your own. (Use guildwiki for this)

A very easy weapon set is Sword/Pistol. Use Black powder and autoattack.

Starting out as a thief i think D/P is great. you’re usually fighting only one mob at a time, and you can keep anything perma-blind. however, i found that around lvl 30 i was really falling behind and i made the move to D/D, which i think is our best weapon set

Larynx.2453:

A very easy weapon set is Sword/Pistol. Use Black powder and autoattack.

This.

S/P will get you from 1-80 no problems, anyone who says otherwise…well I don’t want to say they are wrong… but they are wrong.

To the three above me, those weren’t really his questions.. :P

I think 1 has been answered so I’ll go with 2 and 3.

2. Stealth can be used to drop aggro, to heal your allies, to heal yourself and possibly remove conditions if you traited for it, to capture certain skill points that require you to Commune, and to easily open up chests safely. You can also use it to mine or gather stuff safely when you don’t want aggro.

3. Critical Strikes imo is by far our best traitline. Basically gives you crit chance and crit dmg. At 30 points you get access to Executioner which is just really really good.

If you want to go into Deadly Arts for more damage, I’d suggest getting 15 at least to get the trait which weakens your targets if you poison them. Your D/D autoatk applies poison on third hit so you can more or less perma weaken the target you’re attacking. And from range your SB has Choking Gas so you’ve got aoe perma weakness there.

Shadow Arts if you want have a bit more toughness, it’s basically if you want more stealth or if you want to gain additional benefits when going into stealth. If you want a stealth orientated build, consider going at least 15 points in.

Acrobatics gives more hp and lets you dodge more often if you go at least 15 points in. This is the trait-line to go into for better initiative management(although Trickery also has some initiative related stuff too).

Trickery has…many uses I guess. Most people would go 10 points in for Thrill of the Crime-> gives you and your allies Fury and Power when you Steal. 15 points to add an extra 3 maximum Initiative. There’s more but….

So I’d recommend always specc’ing into Critical Strikes…very useful. Acrobatics is also a useful line to start out in too. Makes you a bit tankier and when you dodge you gain swiftness. Go into SA for the stealth utilities and go into DA if you want more dmg.

So really it depends on how you want to play in regards to which trait-line to begin with. Perhaps Acrobatics? It’s pretty versatile, extra hp isn’t terrible.

kamandi.4798:

Please post what you would have liked to have known when you first rolled a Thief!

What I’d have liked to know when starting a thief is: When facing higher level opponents, Bleeding is unaffected by glancing blows. Would have made early levels so much easier for me…

kamandi.4798:

What I want to know is…

1. What is the basic burst rotation? Blossom-backstab(3x)-heartseeker?

Basic burst rotation is Cloak and Dagger > Backstab until 50% and then Heartseeker spam.
Death Blossom is only used for condition builds (Or AoE, when doing large scale events and you don’t want to swap to a shortbow)

kamandi.4798:

2. Best ways to use stealth—from what I see my HEAL gives the best stealth—WTF?

Best ways to use stealth are – Quickly entering stealth for Backstabs, losing aggro when running away from things and once Shadow Refuge is picked up (Tier 3 Utility skill) stealthing through areas (Shadow Refuge provides a long duration stealth)
Also – Shadow Refuge on top of a place of power skill point = can get the skill point without tackling any nearby enemies.

kamandi.4798:

3. What is the best trait tree STARTING OUT?

Early levels favour Deadly Arts for the power.
Mid levels favour Critical Strikes for the crit and initiative (Opportunist 15 point minor trait)
Later levels depends on what style of play you prefer (Condition build, Stealth backstab build, Dodge builds etc)

kamandi.4798:

What I want to know is…

1. What is the basic burst rotation? Blossom-backstab(3x)-heartseeker?

I play as a condition thief so others can give you a better answer. That said burst is strong enough that you should not need condition attacks unless you are fighting veterans or champions.

2. Best ways to use stealth—from what I see my HEAL gives the best stealth—WTF?

If you want to devote yourself to stealth there are a number of methods:
1) Hide in Shadows heal
2) Blinding Powder
3) Shadow Refuge
4) Dagger #5 (CnD)
5) Combo leaps through smoke screens: Pistol #5 Black Powder —> Dagger #2 Heartseeker, or Smoke Screen --> Dagger #2 Hearseeker.
6) Trait: Last Refuge – Stealth at 25% health.
7) Trait: Descent of Shadows – Release blinding powder when you take falling damage.
8) Trait: Instinctual Response – Release blinding powder if you lose 10% health in one strike.
9) Trait: Hidden Thief – Gain stealth when you steal.

There are tricks you can do to help line up the Dagger #5 CnD: Scorpion Wire —> CnD, or CnD --> Steal. Steal can be used while another skill is in action. You can also immobalize, stun, knockdown, or cripple.

The trait Infusion of Shadow returns 2 initiative when you use a skill that stealths you. It is very effect for using more CnD.

3. What is the best trait tree STARTING OUT?

I would recommend starting with increasing damage and then slowly mixing in some nice defensive traits.

Please post what you would have liked to have known when you first rolled a Thief!

I recommend keeping one of your weapon sets capable of area of effect damage (AoE). This is strictly for cases when you find yourself overwhelmed with more enemies. The shortbow is awesome at this as you can combo the poison field with Clusterbomb. Dagger/Dagger #3 Deathblossom works, as does Pistol/Pistol #3 Pistol Whip. Later on you can grab the elite skill Daggerstorm, or Thieves Guild. Worst case you can always stealth and run away.

Almost forgot. When using Cloak and dagger (CnD) you do not have to hit the opponent you are engaged with if other targets are around. In PvP this means you can CnD off of a mesmer’s illusions or hunter’s pets. Just be aware of the creatures/NPCs around you.