Guild Wars 2

So after doing a lot of research on this game and now my class I have a few questions that I haven’t been able to find answers to and was hoping someone would be able to help me out.

1. After reading up on the class I’ve found multiple sources that talk about meta builds, that being said how viable are the other builds? After coming from ESO I’m a bit skeptical when I hear the term play the way want. Yes in ESO you could be a sorc that uses heavy armor and a greatsword but you would do almost no damage and groups wouldn’t even look at you. Is it the same thing here?

2. My second question is about weapon switching, from what I’ve read it seems the ideal 2nd weapon for a thief is a shortbow. That being said when is the opportune time to use this weapon during leveling and PvE. I understand it’s purpose in PvP as it allows you some distance, but I cant for the life of me understand why I would swap to it any other time being that it seems I do less DPS with it.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help shed some light on these subject. Overall I’m loving the game so far, it has kind of the same feel as Final Fantasy does only for some reason I’m enjoying it a lot more.

1. Not sure which game type you’re playing, but as far as PvE goes, there’s plenty viable builds. Basically for Fractals or dungeons though, some parties form a lot of Berserker only groups because it’ll deal the most DPS and get it done quicker because they do them all the time. It’s not hard to find non-meta groups. Never played ESO so can’t compare but in GW2, it’s kind of designed for each player to hold their own with dodge rolls, heal skills, the rally system so overly specing into defensive gear is kind of pointless. A bit of vitality or toughness is alright but going for max defensive isn’t really smart. You’ll actually survive easier killing things faster, giving them last time to do damage to you than you will spec’ing to deal with the damage for longer.

2. As far as ranged combat goes, SB is insanely better than the pistol and I personally like to have the option to back outta combat and go ranged for 10 seconds if heal is on CD and i’m taking too much of a beating. The auto damage isn’t the greatest but cluster bomb does great DPS to up to 5 enemies. The main reason though to carry one is utility. Has a shadowstep, poison heal debuff, evade, decent AOE and blast finisher. Idk exactly HOW new you are but you’ve probably seen a bit about combo skill effects. Having a blast finisher is immensely helpful for might stacking with an Ele and you can self-combo AoE stealth very easily with smoke screen. I’d say don’t carry it as weapon swap if you don’t want to but you should always have one in your inventory at least.

Build diversity for PvE

For PvE D/D is pretty much the king. S/P is decent against bosses and better than D/D against group of mobs, while giving you a lot more surviability. D/P is also decent but more niche. It have the less dps of the three, but give a lot of blind and CC when specific fight need them. Any other weapon combination drop a lot in efficiency. P/P for single target and Shortbow for group of mobs are not really good, but when you need range, they will do the job.

For specialisation most ppl have CD and DS. The third line have a bit more variety to it. Trickery is the best DPS/Support line, while Shadow Art is best when you need to stealth and Acrobatic give you more personnal surviablity.

Build diversity for PvP

D/P and S/D are on top of everything else. S/D, D/D and P/P are also decent options, but it’s a big drop in efficiency.

The Shortbow

You had the right answer for PvP, but for PvE, it’s all about the blast. The shortbow is the best way to blast a field. You don’t waste cooldown, no need to waste trait, etc. Either for a smoke field to stealth or a Fire field for might.

Great answers thanks for the info!

Also have a look at this site for build help and how to play them.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki