Quick guide for a returning thief PVE
All depends on the encounter and group needs, For Raids I run full zerker with Scholar Runes, I alternate between D/D core Thief Da/Tr/CS and Staff Daredevil depending on the encounter and if there is Perma Revealed
Hey, welcome back!
I actually just came back after a year and a half myself, and have been slowly reintroducing myself to fractals and raids. I’ve found that the obvious metabattle thief build, Staff DPS Da/Cs/DD, is probably the thief’s best build for pve. The one change I made to it is instead of having No quarter, the CS grandmaster, I changed it to Invigorating Precision. Because of how much damage you do, that 1 trait can basically keep you fully healed, which will proc your scholar runes and flawless strike trait more often, and keep you alive much easier to help carry your team if needed. This 1 change has made fractals a breeze.
For the offhand, I usually either have shortbow if we are stacking fields (stealth, might, swiftness), or otherwise I have an offhand pistol for an on demand smokefield for stealth or trash mobs.
For the third utility, I switch between blinding powder (to use in conjuction with smoke fields for longer stealth or ressing) or fist flurry for even more damage.
And finally, I switch to unhindered combatant (second DD grandmaster) while doing stuff in the open world for easy navigation or in the swamp fractal for an effortless orb run.
Hope that helps!