Guild Wars 2

Don’t laugh. But…I…really have no idea how to PvE with a thief. I’m serious. And I have a lvl 80 thief decked in exotic/ascended. I’m WvW and PvP – the most PvE I’ve done with my thief is flipping camps.

…What do I use for PvE? (looking mostly for dungeons and open world content)

6/6/0/0/2 – power precision ferocity. PvE is just zerg, zerg and zerg if you know how to survive and how to dodge.

56030 for any dungeon related content, because looking at you, you will probably be pugging. Acrobatics is great for everyone who is starting to learn the encounters, the dps loss is about 5-10% depending on whether you cap might, whether u flank and the duration of the fight. If you run 6/6/0/0/2 being the highest dps build for thief you will still be doing less dps considering the misrotations caused by the lack of survivability. Also about open world just roll a staff guard.

Yup, 6/6/0/0/2 most of the time. Dagger/dagger main set, sword pistol for trashmobs, bow for its utilities. Full berserker gear, scholar runes.

I’m mostly thinking about being a dungeon skipper. What do I slot for traits? What weapons? What utilities? I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I had no clue what to do in PvE.

Dagger/dagger for single target damage, sword/pistol for cleave and difficult bosses, or when you can’t backstab/ before 50% health where heartseeker starts to be powerful.
Utilities will vary, signet of malice is good to keep scholar bonus up, withdraw for soloing when you need the extra dodge. I’m not a fan of hide in shadows, but it comes down to personal preference. For dps utilities where you don’t need anything else, signet of agility and signet of assassin, and either haste or infiltrator’s signet. Smoke screen when proj. absorb is needed or long skipping parts/ shadow refuge for those skips as well. Other utilities are niche. Elites can be daggerstorm or thieves guild. Traits are sundering strikes, dagger training or improvisation, reavealed training for deadly arts; side strikes, executioneer and a wild card in critical strikes, and thrill of the crimes or flanking strikes in trickery.

For a few days I have been experimenting with a P/P build full zerk gear & speed runes in PvE (dungeons / world bosses / random world events).
I can’t link the build, but it has 6 in Crit strikes (last trait is the life leech from crit) and 6 in Acrobatics. Here are my conclusions:

- no issue with conditions, the ones that are not cleansed by the 10s cooldown sigil of Purity I can heal with the life leech

- no mobility / dodge issues – I have that trait that returns a bit of endurance after a dodge

- mediocre (?) damage. Here I need your advice: in CoF my unloads can hit for 4-5-6k, no might stacks. I can do that this often: Unload – normal shot – normal shot – Unload. IMO that’s not so great, for single target. Can D/D or S/P do better? If so, how much better? I ask because I do not have enough dungeon tokens to buy the weapons and try it myself.

- world bosses, except the Mark2 Golem, all are ok. Huge issues at the mark2 golem, everyone seams to stack at 1200 range and pew pew, and the huge AoEs hit me pretty hard.

Questions:

1). regarding D/D single target choice for Dungeons: Why D/D? I will not be able to see which face the boss is facing at one time because of the explosions / other effects, so I will not be able to land Backstab consistently. Or should I not rely on BS?

2). regarding S/P single target choice for Dungeons: is this advisable?

3). regarding P/P choice for Dungeons, given a 5k unload without Might, should I try Might stacking via Food / Sigils? How much of a difference can that make?

Hello,

P/P spec are heavily reliant on initiative for their damage output; you should be able to unload at least twice between an auto attack by taking initiative related traits. Executioner is a far better trait than the life leech, especially in dungeons; it’s another 20% modifier when mobs are below 50% health.

5k is what I hit for a moderatly buffed (8-10 mights, low vuln, mob above 50%, not flanking) auto attack with daggers, to give you an idea. Dagger dps is really high, especially if 1) you can backstab 2) after 50% health via heartseeker spam.

Can’t speak for world bosses as I’m not into that and I won’t take my thief anyway, but shortbow is aoe, so it should be superior to p/p for tagging/mobility/escape.

1)You should train to flank your target anytime. Remember you have an extra 7% crit chance via flanking and possibly a 5% damage modifier via traits. Above 50%, backstab is indeed a good part of the thief dps. Below, and especially under 25%, heartseeker spam is no doubt one of the best burst dps achievable. Consistent 10k hs unbuffed on low armor bosses. Even without backstab, dagger auto attack hits hard.
2) S/P is advisable when you need the extra healing/evades/cleave, or you can’t flank and the fight is quick ( in such way you can’t heartseeker much).
3) No, you shouldn’t. Thief isn’t a good self stacking class. Use fire fields to stack might with your party.

1.): change ur settings and reduce the effects and u wont have that problem, or get used to the effects. And yes u rely on BS till boss is at 25% then heartseeker spam.

2.): s/p has worse singletarget dps than dagger. Pistol in offhand is for blinds, which are useless at bosses(only 10%cahnce). Since most encounters where u need singletarget are bosses this set is no good there. Its good for Trashmobs though.

3.) Depends on how many Stacks u can maintain. If u maintain not enough stacks, night/force sigils could be better. Same for Food. u gotta test there though.

Btw: Ur build will probably lack A LOT DPS compared to a usual 6 6 0 0 2 D/D setup.
U miss traits like Executioneer in Critical Strikes(20% if enemy <50%hp).

Here a Link to a D/D build, if u wanna try:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQRAoY8alsMp4pNOxwJsPNRLRtdHEdfgXnh2XQAEiA-TRSBwAFV+FRJ419Hup+DK9DLOIAIM/l/JAA4EAIKgIC-e
switch Haste/Assassins Sgnet for SR/Smoke Screen for Rushs. Switch the daggers for SB(for Blasts) and back when u dont need it anymore.

thx for the tips.
@oxtred:
I use unload when I am above 6 ini, that’s why I don’t spam it.
I do flank.
I use Invigorating Precision because I did not run CoE story yet, so I do not have the Executioner trait.

Lord of Ownledge.9682:

1.): yes u rely on BS till boss is at 25% then heartseeker spam.

Technically if you are flanking the boss you begin HS spam at 50%. If you aren’t flanking, don’t bother backstabbing at all.

BIRDPUNCHER.8263:

Lord of Ownledge.9682:

1.): yes u rely on BS till boss is at 25% then heartseeker spam.

Technically if you are flanking the boss you begin HS spam at 50%. If you aren’t flanking, don’t bother backstabbing at all.

Never heart seeker spam until 25% if you’re fighting a boss that takes more than 30 seconds from 50-25. Backstab from 50-25%. Also even if you aren’t flanking you can still Cnd/BS until 50 to proc revealed training. If you’re not flanking heart seeker at 50%.

the problem I have with flanking and BS is I cannot see where some bosses are facing:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/How-to-lower-particle-effects/first#post4487961

so far no one seams to know…

Edit:
I did some testing in HOTM on the big invincible golem.

Thief: exo zerk gear & ascended (pink) trinks
P/P (my build – what I Really Like, so not optimal dps. ) = 47+ seconds
D/D (same as P/P build & Executioner, CnD then HS under 20%) = 43-ish seconds
D/D (same as P/P build & Hidden Killer) = 40-ish seconds

Engi: mix of exo zerk / rabid gear & rampager ascended (pink) trinks
Grenade (confortable build without complications) = 28 seconds…

now… maybe I’m missing something… or maybe I did not run enough tries (4-5 with each) but it made me sad…