Guild Wars 2

Hi guys.
I started playing a few weeks ago, and I’ve really enjoyed playing Thief.
My current setup is built on survivability in PvE, while still doing decent damage, but I want to get into more PvE group content like dungeons, fractals and PvE guild missions, so I don’t know if I’m doing any potential groups a disservice with my build, compared to what I could be doing
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This is my current build with items and slotting: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQRAoY6al8MhunYvTwwJw+EH0EVvvCiAdnnDXFqDgJMCA-TRyFwAxU/hxBU4oyAR6fop0DgSwAvtgP7Po10HA-e

Now here are my questions:
1) Is my build viable for group content, or is there something in it that I absolutely MUST change? (Please specify why, if any changes, so I can learn)

2) I’ve read that full Berserker gear is the go-to items, but nowhere I’ve read does it explain why it’s better than a mix of Assassin/Soldier gear. I know that going for a little Soldier gear lowers my damage output, but if I’m dead I don’t do any damage at all. Can someone elaborate?

Please keep in mind that I haven’t played for very long, and I only do PvE content, no WvW or PvP at all.

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance for any help and/or suggestions.

1)Yes, reroll your class. Thief can dish out some good damage, but they offer nothing to the group. I’m not saying having a Thief means fail, just that a Revenant can deal same damage, but at the same time they buff the group.
2)As for your gear, get some marauder stuff (power, prec, ferocity, vitality). You don’t lose much dps, but gain lots of survivability. Aim for 14-15k HP.
Drop dual daggers please, that’s so old. Either run a staff or /p for blind fields.
For the love of God, throw those dolyak runes out of the window, and replace them with scholars.
Drop acrobatics and get daredevil. What? You don’t have the xpac? Too bad.
I also prefer trickery over deadly arts. You lose some dps, but gain much more utility.

Thief is a fun class, but in PvE we’re at the scum tier right now.

Sorry sir, but most of your response makes you come out as an elitist kitten…
I was looking for constructive advice, not “reroll” and “daggers hur dur”.
That said, I will take a look at marauder gear, as it sounds useful, compared to my assassin/soldier setup, as well as replacing my slotting.
Do you still recommend Acrobatics or is it Crit – Deadly – Trick?

I was being constructive. D/D is crap, period. Yeah yeah, maybe it has single target highest damage, I don’t know, but it give you no utility whatsoever. Staff gives you aoes, plenty of dodges/escapes, blinds.
If you don’t have the xpac you will be subpar (of an already subpar class lol), you need to be aware of that.
Acrobatics line is crap, you shoul definitely go as you said, crit/DA/trick.

You are using 2x Sigil of Blood. Sigils of the same type do not stack.

Fhaeris.9237:

I was being constructive. D/D is crap, period. Yeah yeah, maybe it has single target highest damage, I don’t know, but it give you no utility whatsoever. Staff gives you aoes, plenty of dodges/escapes, blinds.
If you don’t have the xpac you will be subpar (of an already subpar class lol), you need to be aware of that.
Acrobatics line is crap, you shoul definitely go as you said, crit/DA/trick.

Staff offers better damage than D/D. D/D is objectively the worst set on the thief at the moment except for condi 3spam bunker cheese, and it is the worst set because of Death Blossom’s incompatibility with the rest of the kit.

@TheDarkScion – What Fhaeris said may sound like elitist crap, but it is exactly what you are going to find when you get to endgame PvE and Spvp. No raid is going to take a thief when they can fill that slot with someone who can do every job a thief can but better, unless you make the raid yourself and they are okay with semi carrying you along. Also for fun, if you want to hear the most QQ in your life team up with another thief and queue up some PvP. Chances are your team will literally quit if you do not switch classes before the match starts.

I feel that since we are the stealth “gank” class (mesmer does it better though…) that we are the ones who get shafted because of all the crying. DP thief use to be something feared; now DP thief more accurately describes how we’ve been getting screwed from both ends with each patch. Players cry about getting ganked, so devs nerf the thief class and stealth (this is the DP) while everyone else gets stronger.

It’s a crying a shame with how things are for people like us who main the red headed stepchildren of GW2, but hopefully we’ll get buffed and those who stuck with it will get rewarded. So use daredevil because it is awesome and get your ascended gear and pray that the balance that is coming soon will make us viable again. Otherwise do that Fhaeris said and reroll now because we are dregs of the game.

I started playing recently too, coming from completing very elite content in other mmo’s lol where I can solo raid bosses, to this, is a bit of an adjustment. Here are some things I notice.
Because it’s your first toon don’t reroll. It doesn’t matter what class you are if you aren’t completely used to the game mechanics and the class mechanics yet. The balance patch is just around the corner now too, so don’t stress, just enjoy the game.
Toughness is the main aggro mechanic in this game, for that reason if you’ll want to drop it all!; because boss tells are super easy to judge when you solo them, but not really when you are in a group. So it’s best to only take up extra vitality so that you don’t generate extra aggro. Then just get used to sticking behind and beside the boss. And timing your evades ofc. This is your + survivability.
Full berserker is superior in theory, but I cannot count the number of times I’ve seen any teammates with full zerk go splat. When someone gets downed they become a HUGE liability and usually have the worst dps because of it. Like it was said before marauders is a good choice, but over time I’m finding a mix of berserker and berserker + valkyrie to be a better choice, but still aim for around 50-60% precision unbuffed. You won’t need that much health regen with dolyak either, invigorating precision and signet of malice alone hasnt failed me yet. I like invigorating precision because it heals you for more as your DPS goes up, but you can drop it if you have a healer on the team.
Also the bow should be your second weapon. This is because of skill 2 and 5 and because it makes the easiest way to stack power from the sigil of bloodlust, and because there are no Y axis limits on aoe’s you can use it to cook enemies above you with aoe and use bow5 to travel up as well as across. I hated bow at first too though.

Why is flat berserker so important? It’s because we have so many more ways of stacking +% power and damage etc. So you will actually get more out of runes that give you any damage vs runes that don’t, because of all of the modifiers you van stack with them. You will only use toughness when you get hit too, but cause you can evade so easily, you won’t get measly as much value out of survivability runes as you do damage runes. You can’t heal or tank a boss to death anyway, that’s not how it works :P

Thanks a lot for your comments and advice guys!
I’ve already invested a ton of gold and time into this guy, and I really enjoy playing Thief in the PvE content I’ve played so far, so will definitely not re-roll.
As I haven’t begun my journey into Ascended armor and weapons yet, I’m currently running with my Assassin armor and weapons, but have switched all my soldier trinkets to Power – Ferocity – Vitality trinkets instead. I’ve also switched out my off-hand runes to Air for that extra burst damage. And I’ve slotted Scholar runes into my armor instead of Dolyak.
It already works a lot better, and I feel prepared to do the normal dungeons and the lower fractals now, if anyone wants me with them.

Appreciate all the advice, elitist or not.

About the build though… I get a good amount more DPS, etc with Trickery instead of Acrobatics, but all those immobilize/stun/etc. is really annoying, and Acrobatics really help a lot with that.
It might just be me who is doing something wrong, either with my rotation, Initiate expendiature or choice of utilities, but when I go away from Acrobatics I keep getting stuck in CC.

I’d go with zerk mixed with some Valkyrie and with scholar runes. Don’t listen to the other people, D/D is a close 2nd in terms of Dps, behind the staff. Those guys just don’t know how to play thief. When playing D/D ur rotation is skill 5 followed be a backstab to the back for 2x damage. Then auto. Repeat. At 25% use Heartseeker. The other guys probably don’t know that there are stealth skills that do insane damage. Like seriously, the guy who said to take D/P?? LOL That’s the worst dps weapon set for thief. So yeah, just stick with your D/D, it does insane damage if you know how to properly use it, unlike the other guys in this thread.

And if you don’t have the expansion, my old build was DA, CS, and Trickery. If you do, trade DA or Trickery for Daredevil.

Its worth mentioning that 99% of the comments here are related to the new Raid Mode.

Thief still does fine on Dungeons, World Bosses (not like you class matter here…) and any open exploration event. You are also free to do Fractals until highers lvls.

Now, if you take END GAME content in count (high level Fractals and the current Raid) Thief is indeed in a bad spot.

PS: Worth mentioning that the only Raid available in this game needs the expansion, you don’t need to worry about it right now.

marauder is like zerker+valkyrie, except better

may require the expansion though

Ok guys, this will probably be my last post on this subject, as I believe I have the info I need now.
I would like to say thanks to anyone contributing to the post, I’ve learned a lot.

I tried switching from Acrobatics to Trickery last night, and it’s doing wonderful after my adjustments, and I believe that it was because of my sparse use of Utility skills, and me forgetting about dodging, that I did poorly with the stuns/immobilize/etc. But I’ve become better at using them now, so the CC is not as dangerous anymore.

Now after reading all your posts a few times, it’s come to my attention, that quite a few of you are talking about PvP, WvW and Raid. I stated in the very first post that I do not play PvP of ANY kind. Also my second line literally says “I started playing a few weeks ago”, which means I’m no where close to getting full Ascended or even trying to get into the endgame raid(s).
That being said, I still appreciate your advice, but it’s not the advice I was looking for. I was looking for advice to my build, for doing Dungeons, low level Fractal and Guild events, which is all clearly written in the very first cluster of text. So I would like to give an extra “thank you” to those of you who actually read what I had written, and gave advice taking that into consideration.

Lastly; to those of you who says that Thieves are a “no go”, that may be true in PvP content and the end-game raid(s), but it’s definitely not true in all the other PvE content. Could there be better classes that gives more to the group? Sure, but that doesn’t mean that Thieves aren’t viable.

Take care all, and see you in game!

i’m using this
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAsaVn8MBdOhlNBWOBkmiFcCb7AEAaQzNwKYH0LKcF2BA-TlCBwA4U/ZrSEtKPOrEEwpAArSoU6Dot/AhHAQjjAApAMRkF-w
and it’s quite nice in pve…
If you get enough mobs around you, you never die. Movement is great.
Tripwire+Elite chain melt most of the defiance bars.
Black powder + AA for trash mobs.
Pistol whip when you want to heal up.
Infiltrator’s strike when you want the mobs to stay put.
Swap signet of shadows to SR when you go in dungeons.
You could even switch to staff for the good heal on AA.
Also, you might want to have handy some Omnomberry Ghost food for when you need that extra healing

You will still get a lot of kitten if you want to party up for dungeons, but you’ll get used to it…

Some variations of this also work in low level PvP but you have to time your engage right. Pistol Whip + Steal ftw. This happens only when you are in a balanced pvp…most of the time your team will log out..