Guild Wars 2

Hey everybody! We all know that with the new traits system some things will change to our thieves playstyle; and I’m focusing on S/d SB thief, in particular for the runes to use!
We don’t know exactly how our stats will be balanced, but I think we can make some little consideration: the most important I think is the fact that thieves won’t have access to might anymore. Hidden Assassin won’t be in our build, as the same Power of Inertia.
So The point: Rune of Strength will be useless I suppose.
Which rune do you think will be more viable for s/d new build? Rune of Pack only?
Considering to choice in the build “Deadly Arts”-“Trickery”-“acrobatics”… which runes you would choice?
Let me know your thinkin about it!
Bye all!

With precision being in your base stats and gear you should have a way higher base crit chance – almost 100% uptime on fury and swiftness only due to trickery + rune is too good though to pass out on
So i think pack will be the way to go, maybe (unlikely though) Scholar or Rage but Pack will be better

What will the meta be after the update?

While I think pack will be very solid those Runes of Evasion now look more usable as well and might just work.

This will really load on the ferocity on top of what you get from the CS line. You will go 0/6/0/6/6 of course and get a lot of evades and dodges. Fury shuts off you just dodge and turn it back on along with getting 5 seconds swiftness base. Why I did not use them bere was the 3 seconds fury was too low. With the ability to keep regenning fury using the CS line this no longer an issue.

These runes along with the CS traitline will allow a base of ~ 650 ferocity and will open the door to using all knights armor for added toughness.

babazhook.6805:

While I think pack will be very solid those Runes of Evasion now look more usable as well and might just work.

This will really load on the ferocity on top of what you get from the CS line. You will go 0/6/0/6/6 of course and get a lot of evades and dodges. Fury shuts off you just dodge and turn it back on along with getting 5 seconds swiftness base. Why I did not use them bere was the 3 seconds fury was too low. With the ability to keep regenning fury using the CS line this no longer an issue.

These runes along with the CS traitline will allow a base of ~ 650 ferocity and will open the door to using all knights armor for added toughness.

I was thinkin about CS line, but for s/d I realized it’s a little useless.
Deadly Arts gives more useful traits, and unless I don’t wanna use DA, I’ll get on SA for sure…

I was thinkin about rune of rage too, but at least you will lose 175 power over 5% damage under fury… Idk, for now i’ll say Pack.
We should only see how many critical dmg we’ll have after the patch… if it will be high, pack will be useless i suppose…

Deadly Arts will be superior to Critical Strikes for damage output. The damage modifiers in Critical Strikes have become modifiers for critical damage rather than damage overall, so unless you have 100% critical chance (we’ll be able to get a bit above 80% with fury), it’ll statistically be less of a boost than the modifiers applied directly to damage, found in Deadly Arts. Furthermore, the champion of the Critical Strikes line was Executioner, which has been moved to Deadly Arts. The fury, which would allow Critical Strikes to compete against Deadly Arts is excluded, because sufficient fury - as far as we know - remains available from Trickery and runes.

Critical Strikes will offer traits providing buffs to critical hits, ferocity and precision (via fury), while Deadly Arts will offer increased "normal" damage modifiers, as well as Mug for some added sustain and damage which of course increases somewhat if one uses Swindler’s Equilibrium, and Panic Strike which allows the player (and allies of course) to land strong attacks on the immobilized target, which serves as a significant DPS increase in practice.

The only reasons Critical Strikes is currently superior in terms of damage, is because of Executioner, and precision and ferocity being more effective - especially with the fire/air sigil combination - than power and condition duration, all of which will no longer be acquirable through that line. If one invests in Critical Strikes - be it S/D or D/P alike - it will most likely be as the second or third trait line, after Deadly Arts.

the meta will be D/P 66006 though

Don’t forget that the stats from your gear will be more important than ever, losing power from pack runes to get fury/+5%dmg will have bigger impact on your overall stats than it does now.

I got sets with both scholar and pack, so will try both with new traits but I think Pack runes will be better. Glad I bought mine when they were 40s :P

It also important to note that of all the professions the thief has the fewest triats that give boosts to attributes. In fact the only attribute a thief gets a boost through via traits IS ferocity and that a significant boost and Power to an extent with Revaled training which is quite specific to an attack from stealth.

By memory all other classes use traits to boost multiple attributes outside perhaps the mesmer.

The Warrior just as example can trait to boost Conditions, Precision, Toughness, Vitality , Power and ferocity. Certainly not all at once but this aids immensely in abilty to choose gear. In real terms the Thief is going to have to be more deliberate when doing such if they find particular attributes lacking then would be that warrior.

While I expect a DA loadout well do more damage then one going CS I can not really make that call until the load of the patches. The advantage DA has is the direct 10 percent damage (when condition on enemy), revealed training if taken and of course Executioner. A spike mug will certainly play a role as well.

Added together this should be more than CS damage wise but factored into that it has to be noted that executioner only works if the enemy under 50 percent health. If it turns out that up to that point you get more damage from CS per attack based upon having much higher Crit damage then it becomes a harder call.

We should theretically be able to get enough ferocity through gear selection but if forced to look for sources of vitality AND precision some of that ferocity might be surrendered.

babazhook.6805:

While I think pack will be very solid those Runes of Evasion now look more usable as well and might just work.

This will really load on the ferocity on top of what you get from the CS line. You will go 0/6/0/6/6 of course and get a lot of evades and dodges. Fury shuts off you just dodge and turn it back on along with getting 5 seconds swiftness base. Why I did not use them bere was the 3 seconds fury was too low. With the ability to keep regenning fury using the CS line this no longer an issue.

These runes along with the CS traitline will allow a base of ~ 650 ferocity and will open the door to using all knights armor for added toughness.

I don’t think Rune of Evasion exists in sPvP, but it would be a cool addition! Since S/D doesn’t hit many times (but rather hits a bit harder), maybe speccing into CS isn’t that bad in the end?

Tarkan.5609:

the meta will be D/P 66006 though

Btw! Why 6/6/0/0/6 instead of SA? I mean that would mean we’d have 0 access to condi removal (aside the healing skill and shadow step on relative big cooldowns)

Strategist.6132:

Tarkan.5609:

the meta will be D/P 66006 though

Btw! Why 6/6/0/0/6 instead of SA? I mean that would mean we’d have 0 access to condi removal (aside the healing skill and shadow step on relative big cooldowns)

…not to mention that Merciful Ambush is minor now! You can avoid a teammate getting stomped by just starting to revive him. Very helpful in some situations.

KrHome.1920:

Strategist.6132:

Tarkan.5609:

the meta will be D/P 66006 though

Btw! Why 6/6/0/0/6 instead of SA? I mean that would mean we’d have 0 access to condi removal (aside the healing skill and shadow step on relative big cooldowns)

…not to mention that Merciful Ambush is minor now! You can avoid a teammate getting stomped by just starting to revive him. Very helpful in some situations.

60606 could be useful but 66006 offers higher damage
in PvP Shadow Rejuvination wont be worth it probably as you cant cap a point, so it would be sharing your basilisk venom for team fights if you take SA
nice is also the condi remove and the quick stealth (unless they attack which they often do) but you cant continue ressing for more than like 2 seconds otherwise youre dead

66006 d/p will offer a LOT of damage though, perma fury = perma +16% crit dmg from the GM alone and so on
it will probably either be thrill of the crime + scholar runes or pack runes + the haste trait as CS will offer a lot of fury itself

60606 could be also an option for the meta, mainly for SE, but i think thieves will be more damage focused, you can take out a member of their team pretty quickly with all the dmg buffs, could be insanely strong (high risk, high reqard hopefully)

Strategist.6132:

Btw! Why 6/6/0/0/6 instead of SA? I mean that would mean we’d have 0 access to condi removal (aside the healing skill and shadow step on relative big cooldowns)

This is just my opinion…

6/0/6/0/6 would be like it is now with the extra benefit Shadow Rejuvenation. A safe choice for those used to it.

6/6/0/0/6 should be harder hitting. And hopefully, the new Flanking Strike trait will give condi-removal through Haste. I just hope it’s on a short cooldown.

KrHome.1920:

…not to mention that Merciful Ambush is minor now! You can avoid a teammate getting stomped by just starting to revive him. Very helpful in some situations.

That’s also situational. It’s great to be able to avoid the stomp through granting stealth, but you’ll most likely get cleaved and/or AoE’d right after the opponent misses his stomp. It would probably best to interrupt or stun the stomper instead, trying to get his attention off of the fallen.

Kageseigi.2150:

KrHome.1920:

…not to mention that Merciful Ambush is minor now! You can avoid a teammate getting stomped by just starting to revive him. Very helpful in some situations.

That’s also situational. It’s great to be able to avoid the stomp through granting stealth, but you’ll most likely get cleaved and/or AoE’d right after the opponent misses his stomp. It would probably best to interrupt or stun the stomper instead, trying to get his attention off of the fallen.

Yes if you play the thief for his traditional +1 role, then 66006 is better because it means more damage = faster kill. If you enter a 1vs1 with your ally already in downstate, then trying to rez him instead of finishing the opponent will kill both of you.

KrHome.1920:

If you enter a 1vs1 with your ally already in downstate, then trying to rez him instead of finishing the opponent will kill both of you.

I’ve definitely learned that through experience :-P