S/P S/D in wvw blobs ?
I run S/D, Sb and frontline often in WvW. Your primary weapon is going to be Shortbow with S/x mostly being used to finish people or catch stragglers. You should be aware that versus strong and organized guild groups frontline as a thief gets a lot harder.
If you want to contribute to the group, run venom share with two venoms on utilities. Using Basilisk is up to you, it will be the more offensive of your options, but dagger storm is useful for staying alive, and for the cripple.
In a pug group your play is gonna mainly consists of Shortbow 1 and 4, using it’s evades to pad out your dodges. Use 5 to correct if you get out of position. With more organized teams that are boon sharing and have a good cleave, you can go melee and cleave with them, just remember you can’t stay in the pocket as well as the heavies. Keep in mind too you have a blast finisher with Sb 2 so hit those water fields when you can.
It is possible to go full Zerk doing this but you have to be on your game, because one mistake could mean death. It also depends greatly on the quality of your opponents. I’ve run from full tank spec gear on lazy nights, to full zerk. Just find your happy place and run with it.
I personally feel dagger storm is our best WvW Zerg fight elite, you have projectile reflects and stability while it’s up, and you can dodge out of it and still have stability. It’s also fun to do some early harassment before a big fight starts. Shadow step won’t break dagger storm, so you can hit it, poof into the enemy pile, smack em around some then poof out, leaving them crippled before the fight even starts.
If you don’t care much about group utility, I currently favor the 2/0/0/6/6 build. Go for boons and boon stripping, and high vigor uptime. With this build I usually run signets to compensate for the loss of DPS stats; and Shadowstep of course. For heals withdraw and HiS both work, I favor HiS because it basically gives me an aggro drop.
This is kind of a helter-skelter overview, so if you have questions, you can also hit me up in game.
I prefer S/P with shortbow. The interrupt options are great for S/P while it can cleave people who are ressing downed. S/D to me is more of a small roaming party set.
As long as you don’t stay and get AoE spammed you can run the typical 2/6/0/0/6 spec and be fine with it as long as you have Shadowstep, Shadow Refuge, and the break stun signet. Don’t run with the Hammer frontliners, usually flank their back liners like rangers/eles/necros/mesmers.
SBI – Thief and the occasional Guardian & Warrior.
I use SB & P/P for zerging, bow 95% of the time (cluster bombs with full zerker build are just awesome) and P/P for whoever needs to die fast.
Underworld Vabbi 1.5yr
I’ve gotten so frustrated running my Thief in anything but small-scale WvW. As soon as there are more than 10 enemy players on the screen I seem to die instantly due to random, untargted damage or CC. It’s fekkin annoying and the singe biggest reason for me to reroll a Warrior.
You might do reasonably well if you build you Thief specifically for zerging…aka Soldier gear, Signet of Malice and Omnomberry Pie. But really this is a big investment for a single aspect of the game you’re really better off rolling something else.
Check out my guide. it offers you decent damage and a really high survivability.