Guild Wars 2

I’m working on a new thief for WvW which will focus on condition damage and I’m stuck between choosing either Vitality or Toughness as a second stat (first being power and third being condition damage).

I did some fast calculations and the difference is either 20k hp with 2.2k armor or 15k hp and 2.8k armor. Although there are alot of condition builds in WvW where Vitality would clearly be the winner against, there are also the glasscannons who can burst you down within seconds if you lack armor.

Any input would be appreciated.

Well on conditions build, you wont be bursted down all that easy with Vitality, as you got stealth and stuff, Toughness isnt too good after some point since, we arent class made to take damage, Avoiding dmg is how we roll. If you avoid damage its reduction is meaningless too.

Toughness is better the more Vitality you have and vice versa. You really want to be mixing the two. In general, Vitality is slightly better for Thieves although a little Toughness goes a long way.

So essentially I’d get: “A lot of Vitality” and “a little Toughness”.

That said, if you’re going for a Condition Damage build…..you should stack Condition Damage, not Power. Power doesn’t improve Condition Damage the way it does Critical Strikes.

Imo you should go Condition Damage > Vitality > Power/Toughness

I’m doing what Dee Jay said.

All 6 armor pieces are Power/Vit/Tough and every other piece of gear is Power/Vit/ConDmg aside from the back piece which I’m saving for currently. I’m going to get the Vit/Tough guild one.

I think it’s pretty effective. Stealth is the main defense but when caught out of it I can tank quite a lot of damage.

im also torn between these two options also,

im chosing these two combinations,

2680 armor + 15030 hp vs 2423 armor + 16235 hp

so whats better?

Oldgrimm.8521:

im also torn between these two options also,

im chosing these two combinations,

2680 armor + 15030 hp vs 2423 armor + 16235 hp

so whats better?

I think some information is missing. Based on this the first choice would seem better but that’s because it has more stats.

The difference in toughness between the two is 257 stat points and the difference in vit is only 120.5. So the second one has ~136.5 more stats elsewhere? Then again, I have no clue some stats are weighted differently on gear?

What I would like is condition armor that has cond/vit/tough, or a jewel type that has toughness strongest.

I go with cond/vit/power myself. There are certainly times I wish I had more toughness, but I tried mixing the gear up and was never that satisfied with it. Seemed like I needed to really stack toughness high, before I noticed a benefit.

If you are doing 1v1 then vitality in my opinion is better then toughness, if you are doing a lot of 1vX then I think the importance of toughness is increased as you are taking more hits as it is harder to dodge multiple people.

these stats are as follows, (i crafted two sets = bankrupt)

first set of stats

2680 armor
15030 hp
50 crit chance 75 crit damage
attack 2890

second set

2423 armor
16235 hp
55 crit chance 85 crit damage
attack 2890

Knock yourself out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0At7RT8CCLILIdC1fcjdRZmJYemt4RllPdl9GWEpnMFE&output=html

First set is better for defense for sure. 2nd better for offense. I guess that’s how I would decide.

@ dee jay, wow thanks aloooottttt

hmm if its defense vs offense, i think ill test it out myself in wvwvw if what suits me better, either offensive or defensive player

Oldgrimm.8521:

hmm if its defense vs offense, i think ill test it out myself in wvwvw if what suits me better, either offensive or defensive player

This is probably the best approach, so much is based on play style.

As stated, both are important. Take toughness if you have good condition removal in your build (signet of purity etc) as vitality only really offers an advantage against dots and conditions. Toughness is great for mitigating spikes and it synergizes better with our less than stellar healing. Remember that one of our trait line skills in CD offers a 5% conversion of precision to vitality, so utilize that especially of you are stacking damage and crit chance. The acrobatics line also buffs vitality and is a common go to trait line for most thief builds.

we dont have signent of purity, do we? stellar healing?

hehehe

but i like your point, regarding, toughness + good condition damage removal

For my condition build, I went with:

Armor/Accessories:

Orr Karma Exotic armors that offered pow or prec/tough/conditions, with Runes of the Dolyak. For accessories, I went with all Chrysocola exotics, with Crest of the Rabid (20 cond/14 prec/14 tough) on all of them, with Rampagers Spineguard of the Rabid for the backpack slot.

Weapons:

Dragonshot pistol mainhand (prec/tough/cond) and a dagger with the same stats (can’t recall the name, I transmuted it) and with sigils of agony and corruption. With 25 stacks of corruption, you’ll be at ~1425 (1495 with veggie pizza food) condition damage.

Health is at 17,904. Armor is 2,858. 23% crit chance.

Your choice of food, but I like Rare Veggie Pizza (+40% condition duration, +70 cond damage)

30 points into shadow arts, 20 into acrobatics, 20 into trickery.

Defensive traits, Shadow Refuge w/the other 2 traits dependent on what I’m doing at the time. Thieves guild as the elite.

Going this route, I’m tough to kill outright, mobile with condition removal on stealth (using CnD often, so conditions don’t stay long), high armor so I can stay in the fight far longer, with decent health. With the exception of a few bunker builds, there really isn’t anything you can’t kill or at worst, escape.

I’ve been using the PvP cal here: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/
Is there a way to get the same distribution of stats I can get there with level 80 karma exotics? Are they distributed similarly? If so, how would I go about it?