Guild Wars 2

Hi all!

I have returned to the game from a longer pause (left just after Hot launched) and I find myself confused. I have gotten all the DD skills and traits and are using staff, but I am having huge trouble surviving while leveling my masteries in the jungle.

Anyone got any tips or builds that I should be using?

Finally some hard open world content though!

eziest way is using ur skill 4 from staff. it blinds the enemey and u will survive without getting any dmg if u keep up the blind. if this dosent work u got 3 doges and 3 x skill 5 from stuff. cant believe u die that much with 6 dodges in a row which also making a ton of dmg

The Staff Thieves that I fight make sure I am constantly blinded with Staff #4.
They also Steal and perform Staff #2, so that i get weakended.
the AA hurts a lot, of you can root your target in place, try to pull this off.
Do some AA and disengage with #3.

And your dodge is your life man. Don’t dodge too much, use your Staff#3, and Vice Versa.
Dying is the norm in the beginning, no worries.

I don’t PVE a lot, but when I do open world HoT content I use bounding dodger trait, brawler’s tenacity trait, staff, channeled vigor heal, signet of agility and Bandit’s Defense. Excellent damage, AOE damage, weakness, blinds, many sources of evades, immob removal on staff 3, and a block stunbreak on 12s CD. You really shouldn’t die unless you are trying to solo legendary wyvern.

I also use some marauder gear mixed in with zerk gear to up the vitality (pretty much my WVW gear setup)

Thanks all. Been away for really long, so I’m probably just a bit rusty :p

You can pretty much still use D/P / SBfor most content in HoT while you level up your DD. After that, you can use Staff / SB with dash to get around. 5 all day and it kills a lot of things, then switch to sb and kite a bit, then switch back to staff and 5 some more. That gets you through a lot of it LOL. >_>

IP can help a lot in new areas and in particular against things like the raptor and mushroom swarms. A vault with staff into a cluster of raptors not only kills a whole lot of them but can add a lot of healing.

D/P is weak on AOE damage and mainly single target

babazhook.6805:

IP can help a lot in new areas and in particular against things like the raptor and mushroom swarms. A vault with staff into a cluster of raptors not only kills a whole lot of them but can add a lot of healing.

D/P is weak on AOE damage and mainly single target

Yeah, figured that out last night. Crazy how much healing you get from some lucky crit procs from a vault :’D

yeah, just blind literally everything any chance you get. Equip the heal on hit skills and vault.

I know it’s very odd to see this used, but Healing Signet and staff auto, brings a ton of heals mixed with the aforementioned 15% healing from critical hits. You can do some serious healing while putting out big numbers. Probably not ideal for super competitive levels of ranked, but worth messing with in unranked and lower tiers.

For me I like trying anything non-meta.

Thanks for the input ^^

Reece.7341:

For me I like trying anything non-meta.

Yeah. Always been doing that. Spent the first two years of the game exploring tons of different builds, talents, weapon combinations and signets/runes. So much fun trying out the “bad” stuff.

Theres 2 ways you could go about doing PvE:

• Using Ivigorating precision with a Trick/Crit/DD lineup, and using the healing signet for even more heals. This works best if you’re running damage gear (Marauder, Zerker, etc..) with a good crit chance.
• Using a Trickery/Acro/DD build allowing you to dodge, dodge some more, and dodge even more. This is what I do as I’ve come to stop relying on IP & healing signet (I run the channeled vigor heal 100% of my play time).

ProTips:

• Use Bounding Dodger instead of Unhindered Combatant to weaponize your dodges, giving you damage output with your evades, but primarily to also not move you so far from the target that it resets their attack sequence (making them less predictable); this also puts you at a disadvantage because now you’re outside melee range and have to get back in. Thief works best when you’re all up in their face.
• Bandits Defense is entirely too useful to run without, EVER. Keep this slotted and you’ll always have a good duration block, and can use it offensively (when you learn you’ll be attacked) for the knockdown, allowing for at least 2 vaults & staff 3.

Dont rely on dust strike/blind spam, it’s a handicap and a bandaid. Instead learn to pay attention to their attack animations, and opt for rotations like:

• dodge (bound) + steal > staff 3 > vault > staff 3 > dodge (into target) > vault, etc….
• or dodge + steal > AA once-twice (dont finish chain) > vault > staff 3 > dodge in > vault > AA chain > and one of the many evades (staff 3, vault, dodge).

This was my general PvE setup (yes I was nearly full zerk), until I swapped to full marauders for WvW (TY condi spam). If I change out any utility for anything, it’s shadow step.

GL hope this helps.

Geiir.7603:

Hi all!

I have returned to the game from a longer pause (left just after Hot launched) and I find myself confused. I have gotten all the DD skills and traits and are using staff, but I am having huge trouble surviving while leveling my masteries in the jungle.

Anyone got any tips or builds that I should be using?

Finally some hard open world content though!

For crazy survivability without going ridiculous (i.e. toughness on your gear), I recommend marauder gear (berserker lite + vitality) and acro/CS/DD build. Make sure to take invigorating precision in crit strikes. It’s a huge amount of healing on offense. Set up your utilities such that you rarely/never find yourself without endurance when a dodge would have saved you (the agility signet and the channeled vigor heal both refill endurance as well as steal, so you have plenty of options).

You should be able to figure out the details from here, but if you’d like to know more feel free to hit me up in game. I don’t do meta builds, but soloing champs and armies of HoT enemies is just my game! And thief is one of the strongest classes for this with the right setup, in my opinion.