Guild Wars 2

This is the build I am running with at the moment:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQRAsa8an0MB1OhFmCGPBkmilriybDGhPo7mmuAY+5z+uH-T1REABLp87k9HYT/AAnEAHeCAIq+jWKBBA-w

It has high evasion, high condi cleanse, supposed to have high dps, good stun breaks, but very low HP and bad armor. In other words, it is a glass cannon that, if you can catch him, will die easily.

My strategy is, like all S/P builds, to port in, harrass, port out. Sometimes I would use scorp wire to change the pace and be unpredictable. Stealth is not necessary but optional by using black powder and dodge. The build is based on interrupts and pulminory impact.

My issue with the build is that using Black Powder and dodge is a bit clunky and not optimal. There are no ranged options in this build. The survivability obviously depends on skill with evading attacks, which has a very high skill ceiling that I am far from having reached. The build seems to fail spectacularly when facing monsters in HoT PvE that are immune to interrupts.

Can I please have some input on the build? What could and what should I change? For what effect? How should my rotation be? What should be my priorities when attacking foes? Which skills are most useful? Pistol Whip? Infiltrators Strike? Black Powder? Auto Attack?

I’m thinking of using other runes:
Rune of Evasion: Fury and Swiftness on Dodge on the cost of Precision and additional 5% dmg.
Rune of DD: Guaranteed crit after dodge, toughness and power on the cost of precision and ferocity (shift towards power build and not crit build)

I’m very thankful for any useful comments. Thanks!

well it depends how u want to play it.
i personally would drop scorpion wire cause atm i dont think is very reliable like impairing daggers considering u have no condition clear u could chose signet of agility. it gives u condi clear and free endurance on activation.
then i would change trickster with bountiful theft, u have low steal cd so its a solid choice.
bound is a good choice and allow u stealth access trough BP.
swindler eq. is questionable, hard to catch if u want another free stunbreak or guarded initiation if u feel confident enough with the build.
ofc this is pvp wise

I personally would recommend changing Swindler’s Equilibrium for Hard to Catch. SE only gives you 0.3 of a second off of steal, every second, only if you evade an attack every second. Over the coarse of a fight you might gain 2-3 seconds back from it, maybe a couple more if you are evade heavy during a fight, but the benefit of that is not as good as the auto stunbreak from HtC in my opinion. HtC has saved my bacon more times than I can remember, and gaining that boost to endurance is also a massive help at times too. Having steal a little earlier is useful, don’t get me wrong, but when you have on demand ranged and melee stuns on your weapons, plus an on demand shadowstep on sword, having to wait a few more seconds for an additional stun isn’t that big a deal IMO.

All your other choices seem good to me. Some things I would run differently, but that is just my pref and doesn’t mean your choices are bad. Hell, SE is not a bad choice, I just think HiC is better overall. Sometimes you can min-max one aspect of your build and miss out on other, sometimes more useful, benefits in other areas. Here is the Pulmanary Impact build I was running in Stronghold, and it seemed pretty effective.

Here’s what I would change due to the fact that you’re running a very offensive gear setup.

Hard to catch > Swindler’s equilibrium – You need more CC cleanse, it’s that simple. You are super squishy, so even 1 second locked down could see you dead. Plus the 100% endurance refill is beautiful in terms of synergy with DD. Have 3 all three bars of endurance back? Yes please!

Unhindered Combatant > Bounding Dodger – Same reason as above. Bear in mind, that you are choosing not to run shadowstep, so you need as much mobility & CC cleanse as possible. Infiltrator’s strike is not enough on its own.

Don’t Stop > Upper hand – Exactly the same reason again. S/P & your utility options lack stealth up ability, so mobility and the inability to lock you down are vital to your survival.

Shadow Step > Scorpion wire – Another stun break and escape mechanism? It goes hand in hand with any sword based thief build imho. You need as much mobility as possible.

Vigorous recovery > Pain response – Withdraw is on a very short CD due to you traiting trickster, so 7 seconds of vigor every 14 seconds is beautiful, especially considering it has 50% boosted effectiveness due to Endless stamina. More vigor = more dodges = more survivability & damage (If you switch to DD runes).

Escapists absolution > Impacting disruption – This trait gives withdraw the ability to cleanse TWO CONDITIONS every 14 seconds… and that’s not even taking into account the ability to cleanse a condition ONCE EVERY SECOND via evading.

You need high condi cleanse, high CC cleanse and high mobility if you’re going to run S/P with a full zerker setup. This trait setup & Utility setup will give you that. I’d keep the sigils of energy on your weapons and switch your runes to either DD runes for that extra critting after dodge OR Runes of Vampirism for the extra heals & escape option if you hit 20% HP.

It’d look something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQRAsa8an0MBlOhFmCGPBkmiFqiyLEShSoLCCggcu67+yH-TFSEABAcQA6Z/hBOBAIq+jWKBXS5Hb6Hc4JAEAABYn1ZdWnBH9oH9oH9otzde0de0dWKABVGB-w