Guild Wars 2

Hello.
To keep things short, I am leveling my thief and I actually quite like to play in PvE kind-of-support role. I don’t particularly like a glass cannon type of build that brings nothing to the party, save the DPS.
So the question is – what are your tips/tricks/builds to be actually a member in a mostly PvE party who brings some value to others too. How can we be useful to others?

(eg – I have a warrior alt, who will use shouts to buff and heal other while wrecking the mob’s faces and an engineer that likes to throw around elixirs. Looking for something similar in the thief than pure glass canon)
Thanks

I’m a support thief that deals decent damage to back it up. Any gear with power/prec will do, but your traits are what define you.

30 Shadow Arts
30 Acrobatics
10 Trickery

In Shadow Arts, I have Infusion of Shadow, Cloaked in Shadow and Shadow Protector. This means that going stealth blinds nearby foes, gives me initiative back AND gives allies (including myself) regen. Minor traits are also great (automatic stealth and blind at 25% HP and gaining might on stealth, which also lasts a second longer).

In Acrobatics, I have Power of Inertia, Pain Response and Quick Recovery. Combined with minors, this means that I can be on the move continuously and using weapon skills almost constantly. The extra mobility and survivability is handy for staying around allies. Staying close to allies is important to be a good asset, as most of your blinds and stealths are close-range support.

In 10 Trickery, I went for Instinctual Response for a little extra support for myself, but in situations that call for it, I switch out for Thrill of the Crime.

Healing is obviously Hide in Shadows, and my first two utilities are always Blinding Powder and Shadow Refuge (Shadow Refuge is the shining beacon of your support abilities). My last utility varies all the time. Sometimes I use Shadow Trap on blind spots near allies to keep them protected and be at the scene in an instant. Sometimes I use Infiltrator’s Signet to jump in to the thick of a battle and hit stealth skills, and have some extra initiative to work with myself when I don’t use it. Sometimes I use Caltrops to slow down enemies and relieve pressure on teammates, while doing good bleeding damage (I use Rampager gear and my condition damage is still formidable alongside my direct damage). Elite is Dagger Storm for packed rooms and Thieves Guild for smaller battles that are easier to comprehend (I know when to hit it to distract and avert aggro from teammates, as in huge packs, the two thieves get wiped and it’s wasted).

Weapons are up to you. I like sticking with sword/pistol + shortbow, and using the stealths when my team need them (I can hold the line pretty well on my own with S/P + SB while dealing formidable damage, so I don’t need extra stealths from C+D or BP + HS for myself).

That’s just what I’m running right now. Hope you get something out of it!

If you want a support build thief, look around and put as many points in as you need to to get all the buffing and damaging bonuses for steals.

You’ll apply boons every time you steal, get a free effect to use on the enemies, damage them with steal, and get a free stealth! Plus the build is fairly tanky.

As support thief you dont have much choices and it pretty much boils down to trait deep into shadow arts to get venom share.

Venom share means that you share all the venoms you will apply with your next hits to your teammates, so all their hits will apply the same venom with the same effect.
A venomshare-build looks like this:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.7.10.3.0.20.0.0.0.0.0.157.158.176.178.0.0.0.454.458.462.0.0.0.483.489.492.0.0.0.515.0.0.30.0.30.0.10

Your venoms apply weakness, you also have a weakness venom, your venoms will heal yourself and others if they apply them (not for much, but still) and Protip: use venoms with bouncing weapons. You only consume one stack of them and your bouncing attack applies the venom to several targets. Means: mainweapon = shortbow

You can also try to use smoke screen in your utilty bar and shoot through it to apply more blinds aswell as stealthing your teammates for some heal from time to time. Or you can use the offhand pistol for a smoke field and switch to shortbow after to apply some blinds and area stealth.

You wont have much mobility with that build though and you shouldnt expect that big numbers from your hits as you lack points in critical strikes for burst dmg.

Edit:
Oh and as support-thief you should get used to spam clusterbomb into combofields. That is basikittenhe only real big thing a thief can bring into a group… spamming clusterbombs into combofields for combo effects.

I agree Shadow Arts and Trickery are some support tools, but I don’t necessarily think Venom Share is mandatory. There are a lot of useful traits in the two lines that vary depending on the situation.

I’m not going to give you hardline Trait choices because I switch them up depending on the situation we’re running into. I’ll just say that Shadow Refuge is awesome, Smoke Screen is underrated, and Thrill of the Crime and Bountiful Theft go a long way into making Steal worth burning on cooldown if you don’t already.

And a general mindset, when it comes to roles and builds, some people like to tell you X can do it better, why bring Y, etc. That may be true, but it’s good to know X can do it at all because Y isn’t always going to be around. Know your class and mechanics, and know the OTHER professions’ mechanics. And know your combo fields.

If you want to focus mainly on support, you wont get around to use venomshare, otherwise there is not much you can do except sometimes stealing to give all some buffs, or shooting through your smoke screen.