Guild Wars 2

So it’s been about a year since I’ve last played and I’m returning with the same old equipment that I left with.

My current setup is d/p:
0
6 – 3, 6, 8
6 – 4, 5, 11
2 – 6
0

With equipment (inc trinkets) being a mixture of:
- power, vitality, ferocity
- power precision, toughness
- sup runes of divinity
- note, all equipment is exotic and trinkets being ascended.

and weapons being power, precision and ferocity with runes of super sigil of air/accuracy.

Some other stats of mine:
2572 armor,
15255 hp,
219% crit dmg
55% crit chance

So the main point of this thread is that I’m returning with this equipment and I’d like to know if the d/p is still a viable build? What is the new go with builds and playing the assassin? I used to love the d/p build fighting against people as well as the backstab builds but it seems anet screwed me over and the D/P build no longer feels as useful as it used to?

D/P is absolutely and arguably the most viable thief build available. Looks to me like you’re using a WvW build.

Divinity runes got nerfed so they’re pretty much worthless to have. Those need to be switched with something like scholars or strength.

The traits look a bit off, but overall not unreasonable. You’re kind of riding an awkward setup in the Critical Strikes line. SA is fine, though some people prefer hidden thief over infusion. Thrill of the Crime is a much better choice in the Trickery line over long reach.

I’m not sure what utilities you run, but I think your crit strikes line could look something more like 1/6/12, or if you still prefer, 3/6/11, depending on what you’re trying to do. I’m under the assumption you’re not using a build with more than one signet and are probably focusing on backstabbing for damage, thus ruling out the usefulness of signet use with an emphasis on securing critical attacks.

If you’re in sPvP, you’re out of luck on stab builds altogether. Most thieves now use builds focusing on Acrobatics and Trickery to stack might and turn fights from even numbers into favorable numbers/finish foes off. The thief is very weak in sPvP at the moment.

For WvW, dire condition builds are the roaming meta; so you’re fighting substantially tankier targets than you probably were a year+ ago when most roaming players were also in berserker stats. You’re also running cavalier armor which will reduce your power stat and subsequently cut damage. Ferocity, when it was implemented, nerfed critical damage dealt by around 15%, so that is also cutting your damage.

Huge-damage stab builds are pretty much locked into signets, which you can find my build posted in the “Show your thief build” stickied thread here. I do believe mine was posted fairly recently so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.

The meta has evolved and players have gotten more skilled to better counter thieves in general. Currently the class is in a weird limbo of having the best PvE damage in the game while suffering in the PvP formats from utility problems and previous damage nerfs paired with metas based around more or less durability and the exploitation of gimmicky mechanics which the thief has few ways to deal with.

DeceiverX.8361:

D/P is absolutely and arguably the most viable thief build available. Looks to me like you’re using a WvW build.

Divinity runes got nerfed so they’re pretty much worthless to have. Those need to be switched with something like scholars or strength.

The traits look a bit off, but overall not unreasonable. You’re kind of riding an awkward setup in the Critical Strikes line. SA is fine, though some people prefer hidden thief over infusion. Thrill of the Crime is a much better choice in the Trickery line over long reach.

I’m not sure what utilities you run, but I think your crit strikes line could look something more like 1/6/12, or if you still prefer, 3/6/11, depending on what you’re trying to do. I’m under the assumption you’re not using a build with more than one signet and are probably focusing on backstabbing for damage, thus ruling out the usefulness of signet use with an emphasis on securing critical attacks.

If you’re in sPvP, you’re out of luck on stab builds altogether. Most thieves now use builds focusing on Acrobatics and Trickery to stack might and turn fights from even numbers into favorable numbers/finish foes off. The thief is very weak in sPvP at the moment.

For WvW, dire condition builds are the roaming meta; so you’re fighting substantially tankier targets than you probably were a year+ ago when most roaming players were also in berserker stats. You’re also running cavalier armor which will reduce your power stat and subsequently cut damage. Ferocity, when it was implemented, nerfed critical damage dealt by around 15%, so that is also cutting your damage.

Huge-damage stab builds are pretty much locked into signets, which you can find my build posted in the “Show your thief build” stickied thread here. I do believe mine was posted fairly recently so it shouldn’t be too hard to find.

The meta has evolved and players have gotten more skilled to better counter thieves in general. Currently the class is in a weird limbo of having the best PvE damage in the game while suffering in the PvP formats from utility problems and previous damage nerfs paired with metas based around more or less durability and the exploitation of gimmicky mechanics which the thief has few ways to deal with.

Ah yes, I am using a World vs World build and the divinity runes cost me 10gold each back in the day… What a rip.

For the Crit stikes line, I implemented 3/6/12 because I didn’t like the fury for 11 seconds with a 30 second cooldown. I wanted something that lasted throughout the battle and gave me an upper edge in crits. As you have correctly guessed my main damage comes off of back stabs and 100% crit strike from stealth gives an added edge to that.

The notion my build was developed on around was to get the most out of crit damage/percentage and yet be somewhat tanky so I could live long enough for a small scrimmage. From what you’ve noted, is it better to buy new armor without ferocity? Do you think ferocity is a big of a game changer?

I will be looking at your build now, cheers

Here is a build i use in wvw that will probably suit your play style:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZEQNAoYVl0Mp0pVOx7J8PNhPBtdAedD4OEV4Dd1DA-TFTBABkfEAoZ/BcUD4hTAAaKBvSpXXKDuRVFQOEAooPIHVKA4BAAA-w

It focuses on backstabs and stacking might with the traits hidden assassin and signets of power to ramp up damage. On top of that it is not a super glass build and has decent defensive stats.

However the rune set costs about 100 gold, so if that is too much here is a alternative:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZEQNAoYVl0Mp0pFOx6J8PNhOBt9tDQB4OFf4EdVEA-T1SBABkfEAe4EAgmSwrUa1lykbUDAkDBAR7Pgi+gcU9BgHAAA-w

This focuses on steady damage, rather on relaying on burst from backstabs (it does much less dmg because you can’t stack as much might). It also has slightly more hp.
You should swap basilisk venom for dagger storm (or shadow refuge for smoke screen, or blinding powder) if you are running in to lots of longbow rangers, also thees work with d/p (swap cloaked in shadows/hidden thief for infusion of shadows and you are all set and if you want you can swap out vigorous recovery for fleet shadow and in that case taking hide in shadows as your heal might be better ).

Also the first build is much better with d/d since stealth with dagger offhand is cheaper on initiative to get and faster, and thus you can get in stealth more often and get more might, and is the build to go for if you want to see consistent higher numbers on backstab.

Also also none of thees are considered ‘meta’ at the moment (most meta builds go 6 in trickery for sleight of hand) but don’t let that discourage you from playing them, me thinks better to play what you like than what is slightly better.