Guild Wars 2

The purpose of this thread is to help thieves that use stealth to explore viable builds beyond stealth (so that thieves can still rip a new kitten without giving other classes an excuse to complain).

What I ask is that those with builds that uses VERY LITTLE TO ZERO STEALTH to post them here with build descriptions and instructions on how to use it. I also challenge anyone who normally uses stealth to try out, master and perhaps tweak the builds posted on here USING THE LEAST AMOUNT OF STEALTH POSSIBLE.

Again, the purpose is to explore and broaden thieves’ arsenal (and give other professions no room for excuses). I’ll start off the build I use everywhere.

Zach’s Basic Bleedy-Dodgy Build

About this build:

The purpose of this bleeding condition build is to stack and maintain bleeds while keeping a dodge available. This build has possibly the highest synergy of any thief build.

Notes:

• Initiative Regen: HIGH
  3 Initiative is gained every 10 seconds from Quick Recovery and Infiltrator’s Signet passive. Extra initiative is gained though Opportunist (20% chance on crit to gain 1 initiative). Every signet gives you 2 initiative upon use (Signet Use Trait) up to 8 initiative every 24 seconds maximum. Stealing gives you 3 Initiative every 29.25 seconds.

• Suvivability: MEDIUM to MAXIMUM
  Armor is just under 2400. Health is just under 17.5k. Signet of Malice heals per hit and per person affected by Caltrop ticks. The amount of available evades/dodges are maximised by Feline Grace (Endurance regen on dodge), Vigorous Recovery (Vigor on heal), Signet of Agility Active (Refill Endurance), Death Blossom (combine with Initiative regen and +3 Initiative from Preparedness) and Wild Strike (2nd 1-skill). Cloak and Dagger is only used to give yourself time to regroup. Signet of Agility cures 1 condition. Infiltrator’s Signet breaks stun and will set you up for a counterattack.

How to Use this Build:
Every action you perform has more than one use making it’s level of utility VERY HIGH. Combining these uses will give you the most out of build. I will list and describe them here.

Basics: Spam Death Blossom and Caltrops when near your enemy. Use Heartseeker to get close or finish your target when they are about 5-10% HP. Spin2Win as an opener vs. small group. Time signets properly to maximize DPS, conditions and dodging.

Protips:

1. Dodging through or away from a charging enemy is a good way to apply cripple and keep up your Bleed and Might stacks.
2. You can use Heartseeker as a gap-closer instead of as a means of damage.
3. Damage from your Heartseeker means you are close enough to land all 3 hits from Death Blossom.
4. Heartseeker > Dancing Dagger can be used to make chasing enemies easier.
5. You can replace Infiltrator’s Signet with Signet of Shadows for a AoE Blind/2 Initiative/5 Might source that is safer to use directly after cooldown. The cost of doing so is removing your only stun breaker.
6. You an also use all signets and switch your second best source of AoE bleeding with better access to might and initiative. I wouldn’t advise using Assassin’s Signet, though.
7. You can use Spin2Win (Signet of Malice + Dagger Storm) as an opener vs a small group. I like to keep it close to my first target so I can quickly stack bleeds after it stops.
8. When your target gets around 30% health, you can pop all of your signets to speed up the bleed out and then down them with a Heartseeker, so long as the situation allows.
9. If the group you are fighting is manageable and your HP is around 65%, using the Signet of Malice Active will only benefit you. Use it with caution, however.
10. Caltrops will heal you for 133 per person affected per tick when Signet of Malice is not on cooldown.
11. This build ruins mobility and will rip apart high mobility classes and other thieves if used properly.
12. Constant Cripple on a Thief is funny.
13. Use CnD ONLY when you need a few seconds break. Otherwise, you are kittening yourself out of initiative that could be used for bleeds.
14. You can replace Acrobatics III for VII or VIII for more situational survivability.
15. You only apply 2 conditions. If facing a necro that transfers these conditions, you can brush it off with Signet of Agility, reapply the bleeds and then laugh as they are taking more damage.

Pros:

1. Perfect for sadists.
2. Consta-dodge.
3. Consta-cripple.
4. Consta-bleeding.
5. Decent access to might.
6. Everything you do will boost another part of your build.
7. Good multipurpose build.
8. Safe vs Condition Transfer. (for me anyway)

Con:

1. Buff-humping guards will kill you.
2. Cripple will kill you if you let it.
3. Raw damage output sucks.
4. You are kittened if CC lands.

Post dem builds! GOGOGO!

P/P build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqa4alcmiOHcy9E+5Ex2jemTe6positTxVtKA-jEyAYrBRTWCMVIiJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVbvLiWtQAlHDA-w
This build is great in PvE and small group battles in WvW. Ricochet makes SoM proc a lot to keep your health up. Damage is great, but it is very heavy on initiative, which is why I trait for so much initiative regen. Very useful when in dungeons with pugs or in tough dungeons such as high level fractals or Arah. The bad side is the poor synergy in the weapon set. To use black powder to tank more, you sacrifice 1 unload. Initiative management can be hard if you’re just spamming unloads. As always, with such high damage output, you are extremely squishy. You’ve got to stay mobile at all times, and shadowstep must be used for the LoS advantage, otherwise you’ll find yourself in trouble. Shadowstep can be switched out for something else if you’re running solo and don’t need the stealth, but it is priceless for revives, and useful for getting away. You’re second weaponset can be shortbow, as opposed to D/P, but I find D/P to be better as heartseeker can be used both offensively and defensively, and has saved my life more times than I can count. However, for pve often shortbow is the better choice.

I use this both in wvwvw and in tPvP. Focuses on evasion and “dancing” with your opponent. Very hard to kill and pretty much uncounterable in 1v1 by melee professions.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYmSO3eS6E/5Ey2jean4JNF0UD2pgrsKA-jEyAYLBRySEpCAJPl10ngYVsIas6aMlLRUNA-w (for some reason my ingame hp is 15.6k, for tpvp use zerker ammy).

Main idea is to use terrain to your advantage, strike from a place where there is no LOS and be smart in your ini management. Sword 2 is both your iniator and damage mitigator. If you’re fighting backstab specs or just feel like you’re gonna get spiked then lay down sword 2 beforehand so you have a safe “stunbreaker”.

Simple rotation:
sword 2→steal→sword 3→dodge behind→autos→(if boon then sword 3)→dodge→autos→(if stun/daze/fear/condition sword 2 back)

Skill usage:
1: main damage
2: damage mitigation/iniator/cleansing/breakstun
3: boonrip and main damage
4: almost never use/can be used once when chasing
5: almost never use/can be used on critters when you need to position better/use on stomping

inf signet: thief stomping and extra ini. Swap it for SoS in wubwub.
shadow refuge: panic escape, stomp denial, rezzing, counter for long stealths.
shadowstep: panic stunbreak, can be used aggressively aswell to decrease distance, guardian stomping

Fighting various specs:

• Shatter mesmer: keep constant pressure on him. Withdraw negates his doubleshatter completely when you fail to dodge ileap. Mix sword 2 and autos to keep the clones running from one place to another, dodge when they try to shatter. Avoid GS5 with sword 3 or dodge to behind the mesmer, use the stolen buffs to keep putting pressure on him. Force the mesmer to use his distortion then spike with basilisk. Only use dagger 5 if the mesmer stealths, counter mass invis with shadow refuge, make sure you dodge inside the area to negate focus pull or gs5.
• Phantasm mesmer: basic playstyle is the same, but use CnD on clones to make them lose target constantly.
• Guardians: if they are bunkerish then you can train on their back as much as you want. Main idea is to force out cooldowns and renewed focus. Rip as many boons as possible, mix it up with sword 3→dodges→autos→sword 3 or double sword 3 if basilisked. Long fight guaranteed. If they are squishy harass with sbow and force them to use their burst then spike down.
• Warriors: lol most are freekills. Only threat can be a lbow spec if he is extremely good, with everything else you can just dance around with him and keep him running. Keep your distance and force out endure pain/block.
• Eles: Staff ele is freekill so are squishys, full bunkers can be a pain to kill completely. Requires quite a bit of chasing. Swap to sbow when he has shocking aura up and punish chill aura with stolen chill. Cleanse burning with sword 2.
• Engys: Stay on sbow mostly. Punish boonspam and running away with S/D. Cleanse burning asap, bleeds can be somewhat ignored.
• Ranger: powerspecs are freekills, bunkerspecs require a long fight. Focus on ripping prot/regen from him. If he uses troll’s ungent then spike after the heal. Cleanse bleeds with sword 2.
• Necro: powerspecs can be kited to death (you don’t want to “facetank” powernecro) and then finished off with sword, condispecs are harder to fight. Avoid wells/staff marks, make sure you always have sword 2 to break fear. Use basilisk to cleanse condispike and punish. When they use lich form/plague form then rip stability and stolen fear→autoattacks.
• Thief: everything should be fairly easy and based on player skill level. Avoid getting into D/P daze lock, always have a option to back off and try spiking squishy backstab specs down asap. P/D should be easy to go against, just cleanse the bleeds constantly when they get higher. Against high sustain permastealth thieves it’s better to swap to backstab for a moment, you wont push out enough spike damage to get them down with sword alone. Otherwise it’s pretty much the same, counter shadow refuge with your shadow refuge, if he is low and uses it swap to sbow and clusterbomb the area.

Just started using this some days ago and am quite happy with it:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlYmiPHdy3E/5Ey2jeqC5JvHk1YZWaFoJA-j0yAYLBRiCIZBiKAk8KiGbVrIasqGMVpStyNQGcAvxyqFCQwYA-w

Main credit goes to Tessa Avery who shared this build initially. I just put my personal twist to it.

The dmg output is just insane (10 – 12k on pistol whip / around 6k with Sword #1 chain) and if used correctly your enemy just doesn’t know where to aim as you can jump back and forth as you want (5 different port abilities!). You have some access to stealth, but only used to get a break or confuse your enemy even more. Your capabilities of dazing, stunning, stoning (all interrupt) and imobilize annoy just any enemy as they easily excess any number of stunbreakers in any build.

I can just say that this build offers a lot of diversity and can be adapted very easily to different situations and playstiles (e.g. changing some traits for quickness or more crit chance from back / different runes for perma swift or perma furry etc.).

I’m not gonna explain in detail how to play it as everyone plays it differently.

Zach’s Slightly Modified Bleedy-Dodgy Build

CHANGES:

• 0/20/0/20/30 instead of 0/20/0/30/20
• Slightly less HP for more Condition Damage
• Signet of Malice now gives 6 initiative instead of 2.
• No access to Vigor. You probably won’t need it anyway.

The biggest thing about this build is that SoM heal gives you as much initiative as Roll for Initiative 75% more often. Its has even better excuses for you to use it now.

I dare someone to test this build out.

I’m currently running this to test Pain Response. Before that I ran 0/30/0/15/25

Tons of mobility from steal, shadowsteps and shortbow means that you can juke and kite all day if you need to. Headshot, Infiltrator’s Strike and PW into Infiltrator’s signet or steal means that you can lock someone down pretty hard, and the blinds and evades from PW help you survive against melee.

Getting stomps in 1vX situations can be tricky, but you can nterrupt single rezzers constantly and drop heavy PWs onto multiple enemies when they try to rez their downed friend. In addition to shadowstomping with Shadowstep you can also chain Sword 2’s Shadow Return into your other shadowsteps to stomp enemies while you’re outnumbered. For example:

• Infiltrator’s Strike in on a half HP target and down them
• Start the stomp and Shadow Return out
• Use Steal or Infiltrator’s Signet to port back and finish the stomp
• Infiltrator’s Strike out and pick a new target

Guardians can be a pain due to retaliation uptime though. If you aren’t careful you’ll basically hand them the win.

I’ve been using this build lately, and I dare say that it works pretty good. People aren’t used to seeing P/P or S/P which gives me the element of surprise. This build does not use any stealth, you can’t stealth with it at all.

This must be the ultimate troll build. It have two weaknesses, and that would be conditions and retaliation. It have some minor condition control and removal, but not even close to stealth builds I’m afraid… Smoke Screen is the best ability to use against ranged opponents since it completely locks them down. Then shadow stepping and Scorpion Wire really mess with their heads. This build offers great control, nice healing, high initiative regeneration and a pretty good damage. It’s not about bursting, but having high sustained damage while avoid all the hard hitting attacks from your opponent (blinds, evade and interrupts).

Really fun and requires some skill to pull off

I am trying to work on a decent build that really abuses blinds. THE PROBLEM IS that most of our blind capabilities are tied to stealth via Cloaked in Shadow so I am a little bit irritated.

Even though it totally goes against the purpose of this thread, I will post this build when I am fully confident that it works. I can assure you though, its really heavy on blinds, has very tanky stats and will have plenty of initiative regen based upon the Infusion of Shadow and Patience trait.

Been experimenting with control builds which lead me to this one. It’s alright so far. Still ironing out the kinks and optimizing my gear. Have a Valk too if need be. I switch out the Skale Venom the most.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYMQRAsa6alcmSOXay1E/5EC3DLEqeKtH3kNFTdFiKA-jwDBYLC0IMQoNYYOIEFQEBa0ECAJQFRjteqIasqFYqTRW5CQFLpGxBxbQaGA-e