Guild Wars 2

Ive been reading these forums for a while now and i have a question. Do ppl play a thief in PvE? I have only seen a handful of PvE thiefs on my server and im wondering how viable they are in PvE. I know they are awesome in PvP but if your not a huge PvPer is there any benefit of making a theif. I know you should play what you enjoy but is it a struggle in end game content if your a thief. I enjoy farming and i find the thief fun to play so far but im less than lvl20 atm. If i have to be in a group to farm orr i dont think the thief is for me.

I switched from Warrior to Thief for PvE (well, WvW also, but predominantly PvE at the time).

The easiest PvE thief playstyle to understand is Sword/Pistol. Sword’s basic attack hits multiple targets and does pretty good damage if you take multiple swings. Pistol offhand gives you Black Powder, which sets up a field that spams Blindness on enemies around you every second. So you can kill almost any non-champion without taking damage by just autoattacking and pressing 5 every few seconds; you can kill a whole crowd of them, too, if you wrangle them all together. With your stats focused on offense, you can also do this quickly.

Your second weapon is usually Short Bow. It has a default attack that hits up to 3 targets, and Cluster Bomb, which is a really spammable area-attack with good damage. It’s really easy to rack up a massive kill count in group events by just pressing 2 a lot.

So, at the basic level, you can do pretty well by just mastering a couple of skills and positioning. This is how I butchered my way through Orr (with the major exception of Lyssa-charged areas in Malchor’s Leap, because that constant dazing is awful).

On top of that, thieves can dodge like crazy, which makes them pretty nice for the “avoid the red circles” part of the game (i.e. most dungeon encounters). Thieves’ ability to keep up Cripple or Poison on monsters is very useful in certain boss fights, and a couple of utilities, like Smoke Screen and Shadow Refuge, can totally save the party in a bad fight. Generally you’ll do good damage with an offensive build in dungeons, though sometimes you’ll be stuck using bow attacks because it’s too dangerous for you to get in close, and that’s when you’ll envy tankier guys a bit.

I can’t speak for Dungeons but for general PvE I’m able to get around just fine. Shadow Refuge alone makes gathering things like well guarded Ore veins and completing skill communing skill challenges easy. I’ve been going around Orre recently and have been able to sneak into some pretty mob filled areas with little fuss. In groups my build brings Shadow Refuge, Caltrops, Cluster Bombs and Choking Gas to the table.

Dungeons and PvE are doable and even easy for a thief that’s properly built.
I use a S/P+SB thief with power/tough/vit as my stat focus. I out dps most people (my attack is over 3200, when I complete my gear it’ll be over 3400). the problem is most thieves try to go the stealth/glass cannon route which isn’t how you play PvE, that will get you killed in the later level areas such as Orr and dungeons.

BabelFish.7234:

Dungeons and PvE are doable and even easy for a thief that’s properly built.
I use a S/P+SB thief with power/tough/vit as my stat focus. I out dps most people (my attack is over 3200, when I complete my gear it’ll be over 3400). the problem is most thieves try to go the stealth/glass cannon route which isn’t how you play PvE, that will get you killed in the later level areas such as Orr and dungeons.

What traits do you run and what jewelry? Please state which ones you take in your trait tree btw

BabelFish.7234:

Dungeons and PvE are doable and even easy for a thief that’s properly built.
I use a S/P+SB thief with power/tough/vit as my stat focus. I out dps most people (my attack is over 3200, when I complete my gear it’ll be over 3400). the problem is most thieves try to go the stealth/glass cannon route which isn’t how you play PvE, that will get you killed in the later level areas such as Orr and dungeons.

i have a stealth/steel cannon route i go with on wvw/pve it works wonderfully, i rarely die pve, and wvw doesn’t really count for much, i can defiantly hold my own against multiple people though.

Pragmatist.1349:

BabelFish.7234:

Dungeons and PvE are doable and even easy for a thief that’s properly built.
I use a S/P+SB thief with power/tough/vit as my stat focus. I out dps most people (my attack is over 3200, when I complete my gear it’ll be over 3400). the problem is most thieves try to go the stealth/glass cannon route which isn’t how you play PvE, that will get you killed in the later level areas such as Orr and dungeons.

What traits do you run and what jewelry? Please state which ones you take in your trait tree btw

Emerald Ori insert name of the Berserker

0/30/0/20/20

signets of power, signet use, executioner
power of inertia, the one that regens initiative
thrill of the crime, trickster

BabelFish.7234:

Pragmatist.1349:

BabelFish.7234:

Dungeons and PvE are doable and even easy for a thief that’s properly built.
I use a S/P+SB thief with power/tough/vit as my stat focus. I out dps most people (my attack is over 3200, when I complete my gear it’ll be over 3400). the problem is most thieves try to go the stealth/glass cannon route which isn’t how you play PvE, that will get you killed in the later level areas such as Orr and dungeons.

What traits do you run and what jewelry? Please state which ones you take in your trait tree btw

Emerald Ori insert name of the Berserker

0/30/0/20/20

signets of power, signet use, executioner
power of inertia, the one that regens initiative
thrill of the crime, trickster

With what utilities, and what sigils on weapons and runes on armor? Dont just give me half the story i want to know the full shabang

That should answer your questions

Almost, except what sigils and runes do you use on armor/weps?

My Runes are Superior Rune of the Mad King (I’m testing it out, it may get changed later) and my sigils are superior sigil of force, superior sigil of air and superior sigil of bloodlust.

BabelFish.7234:

the problem is most thieves try to go the stealth/glass cannon route which isn’t how you play PvE, that will get you killed in the later level areas such as Orr and dungeons.

That’s not true at all in my experience.

Orr in particular is actually easier with a big-damage build, since you only need to avoid damage for a couple of seconds before you kill your enemy. If you do go down to a surprise attack during a group event, you can teleport out of red circles and your downed-state auto attack hits hard enough that you can just rally yourself off some trash.

Finding the right stats for dungeons is trickier, but everyone dies constantly unless they know how to dodge.