Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I rolled thief at launch and played a DD thief in WvW for a few months running the OP 1 shot build before changes had been made. Full GC. After a long night of roaming and killing yaks with the occasional stagglers I got tired of, what I thought at the time was the purpose of a thief who had no place among a zerg or large group for that matter, and salvaged all my gear and moved everything I had to my guardian and begun leveling my warrior just after deleting the class. I played multiple stealth classes going as far back as my DAoC days and never had I been so dissatisfied by Thieves in this game. Today, I understand my error. With the changing of the game and class mechanics I should have waited till they gave thieves more options besides the gimmick Steal - Mug - CnD - Backstab - HS x1-3 times then CnD - Stomp (of course it was more complex if a class actually put up a fight but it was still almost a guaranteed win).

So I am on the rise again for my thief and wanted to just do some pre-game planning on how to play them now. I goofed around in Spvp one night using S/D packing the soldier ammy and was shocked at the mobility and survival that S/D packed with the constant boon stealing.

I am brainstorming something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAoY8YlUmiO3by9E/5Ey2jeSnIKuHWYS1UdFuKA-jUyAYrBRTYCEVAkQAn9KiGbhrIas6aMdJRUt3gIqWGgqxA-w

TLDR: Recreating a thief and looking for ideas on builds revolving around a D/D + S/D build based solely in WvW.

If you wanted a thief so you could run around in large groups you made a good decision. In large groups you want to run dagger storm and the signet that gives you hp when you attack. You want to run with some healing power and toughness/vitality both traited to 30. You also want the trait that gives you hp on using initiative, condi removal when you go into stealth as well as regen when in stealth. You should have blinding powder shadow refuge and signet of shadows.

All you have to do is run with the commander when you ball up during zerg fights. Press your elite skill and then spam cluster bomb on your location while using short bow. You will tag A LOT of people in zergs as well as being quite tanky with lots of sustain.

Cheers for the reply, TheAmpca. I guess D/D and S/D are more small group/roamer builds?

What I find most rewarding in WvW is cutting off supply lines, destroying small uncoordinated groups, flipping supply camps and teasing the Zerg. I’m not too fond of the zergball stuff, so I usually leave it alone. However, if I choose to go with the zerg I really never run with them. I run either behind it, in front of it or wait in the outskirts for the right moment to strike. I find myself waiting on my prey in the same way big cats do it: they wait for the weakest link to show up and take it down. This means that I’m waiting in the outskirts, dropping some cluster bombs on the combo fields to activate them and just wait. As soon as I see my prey I’ll stealth and move in for the kill. Nothing is more fun than appearing out of the shadows snapping the neck of my for before I return to the shadows again. This weakest link is often the ranged caster in the back of the zerg or an enemy thief (thieves are my number one priority).

If you do want to stick with the zerg then short bow is your friend. Cluster bomb to utilize all combo fields and damage the enemy, dagger storm for tagging, damaging and healing. Just learn all the combo fields and abuse them: you have access to every single combo finisher in the game – that’s a pretty strong advantage in a ZvZ crash, and way too few thieves have realized this. Due to our combo finishers we can permanently weaken our enemy while we heal, spread buffs and cleanse conditions on our allies – that’s pretty strong and underestimated.

Your build is pretty strong, but as a thief you can get away with full berserker armor – because we tend to never be there when the hammer falls. I have never played with soldier gear on my thief, I just never have had any reason since my survivability is high enough already. If you plan on running with a group I would recommend you to take a look at what 20 points (or 30) in trickery can do for you. If you’re a zerg guy you can skip this because there are other professions that will give you those boons anyway.

Glad to see an old thief return. Now go have some fun with it and gank some noobs ;D

Thanks!

I use to run the 25/30/0/0/15 build and I dabbled with a 0/30/30/10/0 build right before I up and deleted my thief. Even then if I did happen to roll with the zerg, I was more of a scout and a straggler killer. Doing these things though tend to reduce the amount of badges, karma, and wXp I could get. I figured to run D/D for my high end burst and swap to s/d when I need to steal heavy boon targets (guardian, eles, and engi).

I run a solo roaming condition bunker and it’s a hell of a lot more fun being able to sit there and melt entire 20-man zergs with conditions while I maintain 100% health while I watch them drop like flies as they stand in my caltrops. The hype behind GC builds is so overrated. People respect the fact that I can still take them down and I don’t go with the “M” word.

I advise that you try everything before you settle down with a build.

Back on topic, I see no reason why you’re running dagger offhand. You have no condition duration to increase dagger 4, no condition damage for LDB to actually be useful with your build and the only thing useful is CnD. I’d run pistol offhand with that build personally. The applications for GC builds are far greater and you still have a stealth with the BP/HS combo, as well as CC for survivability and heal hate, and D/P dual hits harder than a truck and also acts as a gap closer.

Take it how you will, but dagger offhand isn’t the best choice for that kind of build.

PVT gear isn’t great on thieves IMO. Thieves have the lowest Diminishing returns on toughness due to our low health pool, you’d be better off with cleric’s gear if you wanted a higher EHP (more toughness plus healing in stealth = higher effective HP and lower incoming burst damage). Just make sure to keep Condi removal in stealth traited and you’ll have no need for vitality either. In my experience, healing power is a far greater asset with thieves than vitality, which only acts as a buffer which you’ll never get back until you’ve died or you’re out of combat.

Rambling over, good day!

Viking Jorun.5413:

I run a solo roaming condition bunker and it’s a hell of a lot more fun being able to sit there and melt entire 20-man zergs with conditions while I maintain 100% health while I watch them drop like flies as they stand in my caltrops. The hype behind GC builds is so overrated. People respect the fact that I can still take them down and I don’t go with the “M” word.

I advise that you try everything before you settle down with a build.

Back on topic, I see no reason why you’re running dagger offhand. You have no condition duration to increase dagger 4, no condition damage for LDB to actually be useful with your build and the only thing useful is CnD. I’d run pistol offhand with that build personally. The applications for GC builds are far greater and you still have a stealth with the BP/HS combo, as well as CC for survivability and heal hate, and D/P dual hits harder than a truck and also acts as a gap closer.

Take it how you will, but dagger offhand isn’t the best choice for that kind of build.

PVT gear isn’t great on thieves IMO. Thieves have the lowest Diminishing returns on toughness due to our low health pool, you’d be better off with cleric’s gear if you wanted a higher EHP (more toughness plus healing in stealth = higher effective HP and lower incoming burst damage). Just make sure to keep Condi removal in stealth traited and you’ll have no need for vitality either. In my experience, healing power is a far greater asset with thieves than vitality, which only acts as a buffer which you’ll never get back until you’ve died or you’re out of combat.

Rambling over, good day!

Cheers. I tried to do the whole BP + HS for stealth proc and it is something I would definitely need to get use to. I was looking up Shadow’s Rejuvenation to make sure it was worth picking up and it seems, if i read this right, I can potential earn back approx 1300 health if I stay in stealth for the full duration. I wonder if this would actually make my Hide in Shadows slightly stronger on top of the normal heal + regen?

Thieves have always had more options than the bursty backstab builds, some are just easier than others. I was using sword/pistol for the first 3 months

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Viking Jorun.5413:

I run a solo roaming condition bunker and it’s a hell of a lot more fun being able to sit there and melt entire 20-man zergs with conditions while I maintain 100% health while I watch them drop like flies as they stand in my caltrops. The hype behind GC builds is so overrated. People respect the fact that I can still take them down and I don’t go with the “M” word.

I advise that you try everything before you settle down with a build.

Back on topic, I see no reason why you’re running dagger offhand. You have no condition duration to increase dagger 4, no condition damage for LDB to actually be useful with your build and the only thing useful is CnD. I’d run pistol offhand with that build personally. The applications for GC builds are far greater and you still have a stealth with the BP/HS combo, as well as CC for survivability and heal hate, and D/P dual hits harder than a truck and also acts as a gap closer.

Take it how you will, but dagger offhand isn’t the best choice for that kind of build.

PVT gear isn’t great on thieves IMO. Thieves have the lowest Diminishing returns on toughness due to our low health pool, you’d be better off with cleric’s gear if you wanted a higher EHP (more toughness plus healing in stealth = higher effective HP and lower incoming burst damage). Just make sure to keep Condi removal in stealth traited and you’ll have no need for vitality either. In my experience, healing power is a far greater asset with thieves than vitality, which only acts as a buffer which you’ll never get back until you’ve died or you’re out of combat.

Rambling over, good day!

Cheers. I tried to do the whole BP + HS for stealth proc and it is something I would definitely need to get use to. I was looking up Shadow’s Rejuvenation to make sure it was worth picking up and it seems, if i read this right, I can potential earn back approx 1300 health if I stay in stealth for the full duration. I wonder if this would actually make my Hide in Shadows slightly stronger on top of the normal heal + regen?

That’s correct. I find Shadow’s Rejuvination much more effective than most thieves however since I use apothecary gear, which has healing as a main stat. If you’re using HiS, the normal heal would heal for the full amount and the moment you entered stealth would start regenerating health. That’s why I said to run cleric’s if you’re still looking to do damage with the extra power stat and healing to make your SR highly effective. Just make sure to keep 2 sources of stealth (one small, like HiS and one big, like Shadow Refuge) to maintain your health while your heal is down.

Elthurien.8356:

Thieves have always had more options than the bursty backstab builds, some are just easier than others. I was using sword/pistol for the first 3 months

(from a solo perspective)
P/D at the time was very lackluster and I saw some decent bunker p/d builds but I didn’t want to slowly kill my target.

S/P was ok but really required either devourer venom or haste to be effective after the nerf in damage. The most recent reduction on the delay between the stun and the attack is a great step in the right direction. Regardless, during that time it was rare to come across a S/P thief and lose to them. There just wasn’t many out there nor was it fluid playstyle but clearly you made it work.

S/D was effective if you had condition duration, mesmer runes, and the sigil of paralyzation. That daze was OP until they adjusted it. Flanking Strikes was always bad and required a lot of patience and luck getting the attacks to go through. OR I was just bad at it and saw the functionality of the attack wasn’t worth the frustration.

SB has always been effective. I was a little disappointed to see the drop in range for cluster bomb but I had already deleted my thief by then.

P/P - Was laughable.