Guild Wars 2

Getting really bored of D/D power build. It’s just not in a good spot. Figured I’ll try some random stuff like D/D condi thief. Anyone have a build?

Just roll Venom Spread and SoM. The rest is preference.

No condi thief build is in a good spot either but like firefly said you can roll YOLO venom share if you want and like it. If you are talking PvP good luck.

Condi thief is very good for WvW roaming and troll, but not using D/D. mostly if not all were P/D, it is a long time i dont use mine… :<

D/D as condition build has a number of weaknesses which you need to address in your build.

1>Compared to P/d much less access to stealth. P/d uses stealth to get its sneak attack and bleeds off the AA chain. D/D gets its bleeds off DB requiring ini.

2>Little mobility or means to open distance when in trouble. P/d does have shadowstrike , D/D has to rely on a dodge.

3>Very susceptiple to conditions. Less stealth less cleanses.

I have found in order to address these concerns more sustain needed and the best way I have found for that is leveraging sources of heals. SOM has been spoken to but on its own is not enough and in particular in a 1v1. In lower scale battles you better off with withdraw.

Outside of runes and sigils and our heals we have access to Mug, IP, Leeching venoms and assassins reward. IP in a condition build is really hard to pull off as you really will not get enough high hitting crits to make it worthwhile.

Leeching venoms IMHO is ones best bet meaning S/A as one of the traitlines.

With this in mind consider Shamans or Apothecary over Dire as leeching does not scale too badly with healing.

I myself use a DA/SA/Trickery build using Shamans. It will work better once DD line released. With the current build a single death blossom against two targets can get me a 5k heal and you are going to need a lot of heals given lack of stealth and blinds.

Ballerina Thief is probably the most nonsensical condition build right now. I seriously doubt that there is a worse spec intended for condis.

So, I play such a build, and I can say to you:

Get mad king runes, and use SoM. Seriously. It’s a crying shame these aren’t avaliable in sPvP, but the ability to turn any elite in to a moderately powerful heal and still benefit from the passive healing of SoM makes or breaks the build.

Wait for HoT

The extra passive healing, procs on evade, cover condition spam from lotus dodge, and CC/stunbreaking from physicals take the build from “eh cute” to “woah, this is actually a half decent condi bunker.”

Finally

Petition Anet to adjust the evade frame timing on deathblossom so you’re not locked in to an animation that everyone can time their attacks on just by attacking as soon as you jump.

Cecilia.5179:

Ballerina Thief is probably the most nonsensical condition build right now. I seriously doubt that there is a worse spec intended for condis.

Well it obviously beyond your ken. The build can be made to work, it not as easy as some other builds but the OP did not ask for an easy build.

The DB evade needs fixing to be sure and the build will be much better with the DD spec but it hardly as bad even in its current start than you proclaim.

I’d also like to note that the build is a lot more fun with the DD stuff simply due to having more decision points to juggle in your head.

For instance, against single targets, your lotus daggers are actually higher DPS than using a deathblossom, so it becomes advantageous to actually treat the dodge as DPS, and the initiative as evade fuel. The low CD and block>knockdown of bandit’s defense makes timing its use a very skill intensive decision. Do you save it for a block, or do you intentionally hit it on an auto to get the KD which guarantees a few risk free condition applications? Do you save the new elite to finish with or do you blow it for some sustain heal from mad king birds and extra CC?

Overall it moves the build away from “just hit 3” in to a place where you actually look at your other abilities as valuable uses of initiative or other cooldowns as valuable damage rather than automatically loading up with utility, and in general have more frequent and meaningful combat actions.

PopeUrban.2578:

I’d also like to note that the build is a lot more fun with the DD stuff simply due to having more decision points to juggle in your head.

For instance, against single targets, your lotus daggers are actually higher DPS than using a deathblossom, so it becomes advantageous to actually treat the dodge as DPS, and the initiative as evade fuel. The low CD and block>knockdown of bandit’s defense makes timing its use a very skill intensive decision. Do you save it for a block, or do you intentionally hit it on an auto to get the KD which guarantees a few risk free condition applications? Do you save the new elite to finish with or do you blow it for some sustain heal from mad king birds and extra CC?

Overall it moves the build away from “just hit 3” in to a place where you actually look at your other abilities as valuable uses of initiative or other cooldowns as valuable damage rather than automatically loading up with utility, and in general have more frequent and meaningful combat actions.

Yes I have been honing such a build in wVw. DD even in the state it was released added so much more to the build and it was a lot of fun. The AA in the DD spec was much more usable for the poison apps. Also given the DB looked so similar to the dodge it was not as easy for the enemy to time that on DB hit. Mixing dodges with DB was part of the fun.

I did not try mine with Mad King. As I recall I used scavenger but that mad king interests me and especially if used with the new elite. Impairing daggers worked great with the build and I did find that even with that low evade time on DB I was getting cleanses and heals off the DD traits time to time.

babazhook.6805:

Cecilia.5179:

Ballerina Thief is probably the most nonsensical condition build right now. I seriously doubt that there is a worse spec intended for condis.

Well it obviously beyond your ken. The build can be made to work, it not as easy as some other builds but the OP did not ask for an easy build.

The DB evade needs fixing to be sure and the build will be much better with the DD spec but it hardly as bad even in its current start than you proclaim.

Is it a thing in the thief forums where you are automatically assumed to suck at the game if you find something to be lackluster? You will be hard pressed to do anything impressive with death blossom spam against things that don’t stand still. I can’t think of any weapon on any other class that wants you to use a condition build, but brings almost nothing that makes it worthwhile for it. The closest thing I can think of is Earth Attunement on ele, but ele gets fire attunement on the same spec, so earth is just defensive. You’d be much better off using p/d for condis on thief.

Dude, I’m telling you, if you’re using SoM mad king should always be an auto pick. In a group fight I can literally refill my entire HP bar just by hitting my elite. It will kitten up tactical use of BV or any other venom though, as the birds count as attacks, and you don’t control what they choose to attack first (and sometimes they attack rabbits, doors, and other random kitten)

BV used to be my go-to because of the cooldown when I was getting in to solo fights, but impact strike has the same CD so I can spam the birds on cooldown and is controllable rather than random CC so it’s a better pick. Obviously you’ll still want to use daggerstorm when you start zerg surfing though. What’s cool about daggerstorm is that the birds fire after you end the spin, so you get the SoM heals from all the bouncing dagger spam, and then while you’re disengaging the birds fire so you still collect heals while escaping all the people trying to knock you out of the spin, or finally limping in to range.

Cecilia.5179:

babazhook.6805:

Cecilia.5179:

Ballerina Thief is probably the most nonsensical condition build right now. I seriously doubt that there is a worse spec intended for condis.

Well it obviously beyond your ken. The build can be made to work, it not as easy as some other builds but the OP did not ask for an easy build.

The DB evade needs fixing to be sure and the build will be much better with the DD spec but it hardly as bad even in its current start than you proclaim.

Is it a thing in the thief forums where you are automatically assumed to suck at the game if you find something to be lackluster? You will be hard pressed to do anything impressive with death blossom spam against things that don’t stand still. I can’t think of any weapon on any other class that wants you to use a condition build, but brings almost nothing that makes it worthwhile for it. The closest thing I can think of is Earth Attunement on ele, but ele gets fire attunement on the same spec, so earth is just defensive. You’d be much better off using p/d for condis on thief.

And why must YOU assume I have not already tried P/d condition and d/d condition and not arrived at the same results you do? Yes people “move around” in WvW but they move around for every other skill including while you fight with an SB for conditions or p/d for conditions.

P/d is certainly safer as you fight at range but once DD spec kicks in Condition d/d will outperform p/d condition wise keys being here longer base duration on DB bleeds and the dodges will be in range of an enemy for implaing loutus much more often in the d/d build than a p/d or SB build.

PopeUrban.2578:

Dude, I’m telling you, if you’re using SoM mad king should always be an auto pick. In a group fight I can literally refill my entire HP bar just by hitting my elite. It will kitten up tactical use of BV or any other venom though, as the birds count as attacks, and you don’t control what they choose to attack first (and sometimes they attack rabbits, doors, and other random kitten)

BV used to be my go-to because of the cooldown when I was getting in to solo fights, but impact strike has the same CD so I can spam the birds on cooldown and is controllable rather than random CC so it’s a better pick. Obviously you’ll still want to use daggerstorm when you start zerg surfing though. What’s cool about daggerstorm is that the birds fire after you end the spin, so you get the SoM heals from all the bouncing dagger spam, and then while you’re disengaging the birds fire so you still collect heals while escaping all the people trying to knock you out of the spin, or finally limping in to range.

Will give it a shot. I was working my way through various runes trying to find a best fit for d/d and sort of settled on scavenger just for the extra condition damage in a high vitality build. (shamans=vitality)

As soon CiS is back to master tier or CnD get baseline blind I’ll test vs those ballerina thieves I mean they are using Acro 2.0 death forgive we get SA 2.0 as well.