Guild Wars 2

With the introduction of ‘Resilience of Shadows’ and a bit of a buff to Mercy runes, the return of the greatest build in the game will surely define the new meta for tanky zerg thieves (how oxymoronic does that sound lol). This is the build i have theorycrafted so far:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-c;4Vw-_0T5R-Vd0;9;6TT9;435C2570;0WwG7U;17X7X7X7XJOGiXgBA;3j5k5iaiajah51mWRc4P0-gk1Ag;9;9;9;9;9;5Ax

The main points for this build are

1. Vitality is the best stat by far, even sacrificing some toughness from ascended trinkets is worth it due to the flat 50% reduction in damage while in stealth effectively doubling EHP.
2. The core traits are ‘Resilience of Shadows’ (Shadow Arts XIII) and ‘Merciful Ambush’ (Trickery I). These synergise perfectly as the damage reduction is applied to all who are affected by your stealthing effects.
3. Shadow Refuge + Haste + Mercy runes combine to make ressing extremely quick and easy
4. Best paired with a Guardian to provide decent uptime of Protection. Resilience of Shadows + Protection = 66% damage reduction not including any armour you have
5. You need to be reasonably coordinated with those you are trying to res, if they start autoing immediately on down, your stealth and associated damage reduction are removed.
6. 30 into Acrobatics is mainly due to the vitality and extra dodges that it provides. The rest of the traits in Shadow Arts are pretty standard
7. This build does not do any meaningful damage, if no one has been downed yet spamming Choking Gas for poison and Dagger Storm for cripple are your best bet.
8. Try not to cry when you realise that you’re an inferior single target Battle Standard

I know that this is a pretty silly build, but even without the investment into Sentinel’s gear I’ve had fun playing with this and come to realise the how strong Resilience of Shadows really is in a zerg setting.

This is a hilarious build. I think that I might keep a suit of armor in my bank just for running this spec in a karma train blob.

I feel like you need Blinding Powder in there somewhere though, maybe in place of Shadowstep.

I saw the new GM trait and immediately thought “NINJA NURSE WILL RETURN!”

It’s the greatest build posted to the thief forum, really.

Ninja Nurse is an awesome build! I found that just tweaking my P/D build was sufficient and didn’t halt my damage much but mase me to a support ninja

this looks hilarious but doesnt it get boring after while?

a shame it doesnt have swiftness. wouldve been great for dolly escorts

RashanDale.3609:

this looks hilarious but doesnt it get boring after while?

a shame it doesnt have swiftness. wouldve been great for dolly escorts

Just change the trait in Trickery to Thrill of the Crime and you have access to AoE swiftness.

Geiir.7603:

RashanDale.3609:

this looks hilarious but doesnt it get boring after while?

a shame it doesnt have swiftness. wouldve been great for dolly escorts

Just change the trait in Trickery to Thrill of the Crime and you have access to AoE swiftness.

but thats nowhere near permaswiftness. but with some different runes like centraur maybe

RashanDale.3609:

Geiir.7603:

RashanDale.3609:

this looks hilarious but doesnt it get boring after while?

a shame it doesnt have swiftness. wouldve been great for dolly escorts

Just change the trait in Trickery to Thrill of the Crime and you have access to AoE swiftness.

but thats nowhere near permaswiftness. but with some different runes like centraur maybe

True. I would bring bring a Guardian / Mesmer if you want perma swiftness. But the centaur runes are a viable option.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Pony-s-Support-Build-AKA-Realest-thief-EU-NA/first#post3820708

Runes of Mercy OP

I just tried this out last night. I ended up using the build traits and runes, but with my dire armor and p/d & SB. Worked out fantastically. Never knew search and rescue could be so fun.

My only real suggestion is that you don’t need the blind on stealth for this build, I think master of deception is better suited to get more up time on Shadow Refuge and Shadow Step.

ok, serious question,

why sentinel armor? (or dire armor in the reddit post)

wouldn’t a settler or apothecary pieces be better ?
healing power affect regen gained from “shadow protector” trait, shadow rejuvination trait and shadow refuge utility.

Lalangamena.3694:

ok, serious question,

why sentinel armor? (or dire armor in the reddit post)

wouldn’t a settler or apothecary pieces be better ?
healing power affect regen gained from “shadow protector” trait, shadow rejuvination trait and shadow refuge utility.

The build seems more centered around res’ing downed allies which does not scale with healing power (making investing in healing power to that end pointless) and providing damage mitigation with Resilience in Shadows.
I would consider this build more of a “triage expert” than a “healer”.