Guild Wars 2

Question: Is that build compatible with your play style?

PVT armor, berserker weapons and jewelery. Runes and sigils to tweak as needed.

edit – for Wv3 play for me anyway

Dont go solider armor get valkyrie armor, you loose very much dps by going pvt (loss of critdamage, which is the main dps factor) go valkyrie armor rest berserker, almost all builds uses this combo. becuse its super effecient at thief.

With a typical S/D build you have high evades and high regen, so toughness isn’t necessary. I agree, go Valk, unless you REALLY want to be bunker, but in that case good luck killing people! :p In my latest vid, I face a guardian with my PVT trinks on (I had just logged in and forget to change them out from a dungeon run), and that fight took FOREVER.

x/x/x/30/x
Then get the traits for regen 2 ini every 10 seconds, and gain 3 ini on weapon swap, and run dual S/D. Beyond that you’ll have to decide your own traits, but for DPS, Executioner in the Critical Strikes line is going to be best.

And dont listen to people who say Soldiers gear is bad. Soldiers in correct slots (like Hat/Body/Legs) with Berserker everything else is mathematically superior for DPS and Defense compared to Valkyrie mixed with Berserkers.

Big Tower.5423:

Dont go solider armor get valkyrie armor, you loose very much dps by going pvt (loss of critdamage, which is the main dps factor)

Like this guy…

Critical damage, is most imporant without critical damage you wont do damage

Not that soldiers is bad, in fact, nothing is “wrong” really. I run a mathematically silly build to great effect, “wasting” many points in Trickery, and so having a lot of +condi damage which isn’t very useful for a S/D weapon set.

But S/D has so much to gain from the “stickyness” that steal provides, and Steal + Cloak & Dagger + Tactical Strike are as potent for S/D control as they are for D/D instagib. Combine that with the extra daze on steal and steal cooldown reduction and you get a lot of great synergy.

However, going down Trickery meant lots of damaged stats missed from Critical Strikes line, so for decent damage output, in the case of my ‘wrong’ build I had stats sunk into +condi damage, but used physical damage, so boosted that back to an acceptable range via zerk/valk. With this ‘wrong’ build, I gained daze duration, but sacrificed both condi damage AND toughness, when mathematically I “should” have had a gear/trait combo that only sacrificed either condi OR tough.

To ramble a bit, I also want to say that — of course — math can explain everything in the universe. The issue with anyone simply doing the numbers on stats and their effect on damage mitigation, and damage output, might miss other critical “maths” of duration a foe can be dazed, etc.

I’m not saying such a formula doesnt exist ( factoring in things like daze on gear, cooldown on steal, initiative needed for CnD+Tacstrike, condi duration, etc ), my point is that, generally speaking, no one who makes builds or plays builds (ie all of us) takes every single mathematical formula for effectiveness in to account. Not even that one website that really tries to, I forget the name.
/ramble

Big Tower.5423:

Critical damage, is most imporant without critical damage you wont do damage

You’re a funny guy. Why don’t you show us some math problems to prove your point.

Woaden.9425:

my point is that, generally speaking, no one who makes builds or plays builds (ie all of us) takes every single mathematical formula for effectiveness in to account.

That’s a pretty poor attitude to have IMO. Intentionally gimping yourself when you could do better is just… bad.

No one cares about traits btw, you should trait for whatever abilities you like that suit your playstyle. Selecting gear is the only thing you can do wrong or right.

But I don’t take advantage of toughness, I hardly get hit, and when I do I have a low cooldown heal/evade to top me off. So in that case, I have to disagree. I would rather have more crit damage from my gear than more toughness. I do still highly value HP though, as a buffer for condition damage. I have tried it with the “correct” gear and it is not as effective.

Woaden.9425:

But I don’t take advantage of toughness, I hardly get hit, and when I do I have a low cooldown heal/evade to top me off. So in that case, I have to disagree. I would rather have more crit damage from my gear than more toughness. I do still highly value HP though, as a buffer for condition damage. I have tried it with the “correct” gear and it is not as effective.

If you have that much of a problem with conditions I suggest Runes of Lyssa/Bask Venom or Melandru/Lemongrass. Either of those options will win out over stacking HP.

Woaden.9425:

But I don’t take advantage of toughness, I hardly get hit, and when I do I have a low cooldown heal/evade to top me off. So in that case, I have to disagree. I would rather have more crit damage from my gear than more toughness. I do still highly value HP though, as a buffer for condition damage. I have tried it with the “correct” gear and it is not as effective.

You do realize that your heal means nothing if you’re taking serious damage due to low toughness right?

Then every time you heal yourself, you’re not dealing damage making your crit damage useless.

In due time, you’ll understand that toughness and vitality matters a lot — and how much do you need of each to maintain a nice frequency of attacks.

As for now — you speak like a newbie.

@OP – you still reading this thread? Whatcha thinkin’?

Remember one size doesn’t fit all and all these builds are dependent on your play style. I’m a brawler, so it’s PVT or go home. YMMV

I’m going to duck out of this thread because what I’m trying to do is have a discussion, but instead any response is simply name calling.

The OP did not say he wanted the best gear formula for highest overall DPS/Defense, he asked for builds. To me, builds are a combination of traits, gear, and style (what skills to utilize, and when).

To the OP: Listen to everyone and form your own opinion on what BUILD works best for you. There are stat min/maxers and stat analysts in every game and they contribute a lot to the meta. But keep in mind that even the loudest and most insulting don’t have all the answers.

wish.1027:

x/x/x/30/x
Then get the traits for regen 2 ini every 10 seconds, and gain 3 ini on weapon swap, and run dual S/D. Beyond that you’ll have to decide your own traits, but for DPS, Executioner in the Critical Strikes line is going to be best.

And dont listen to people who say Soldiers gear is bad. Soldiers in correct slots (like Hat/Body/Legs) with Berserker everything else is mathematically superior for DPS and Defense compared to Valkyrie mixed with Berserkers.

Big Tower.5423:

Dont go solider armor get valkyrie armor, you loose very much dps by going pvt (loss of critdamage, which is the main dps factor)

Like this guy…

Do you have a link to the math? or the math itself?

Aratoa.7398:

Do you have a link to the math? or the math itself?

I talked about a lot of it in this thread when I got close to finishing my ascended gear and needed to do the math to determine upgrades and foods and stuff for when I finished.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Building-a-better-D-D-thief/first
Something is broken with the Mug build though, the precision doesnt come out correctly, so the final build there is wrong.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Celestial-Armor/first#post2425144
I made this thread today and the end results can be seen there. There was another thread somewhere when I tried to determine how it counted oils/stones and why the math was wrong, but no Dev responded to me, and I got tired of trying to figure it out. The only thing I decided was that oils/stones are divisions of 1024 instead of exact % ’s, and even then, Im not 100% positive on that, it is just what I was leaning towards when I stopped caring.

wish.1027:

Aratoa.7398:

Do you have a link to the math? or the math itself?

I talked about a lot of it in this thread when I got close to finishing my ascended gear and needed to do the math to determine upgrades and foods and stuff for when I finished.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Building-a-better-D-D-thief/first
Something is broken with the Mug build though, the precision doesnt come out correctly, so the final build there is wrong.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Celestial-Armor/first#post2425144
I made this thread today and the end results can be seen there. There was another thread somewhere when I tried to determine how it counted oils/stones and why the math was wrong, but no Dev responded to me, and I got tired of trying to figure it out. The only thing I decided was that oils/stones are divisions of 1024 instead of exact % ’s, and even then, Im not 100% positive on thakittens just what I was leaning towards when I stopped caring.

Awesome, thanks very much, I’ll give the threads a read through.

wish.1027:

Big Tower.5423:

Critical damage, is most imporant without critical damage you wont do damage

You’re a funny guy. Why don’t you show us some math problems to prove your point.

Tell me why i do 8-10 k crits with valkyrie gear? you would not go past 4 k with soliders at best, backstab is niche to test damage, but s/d is also very good with valk + berserker + berserker. you will do 50% to 110 % more damage, based on how many berserker pieces you take with your solider gear.. which is HUUGE, this is why you got to go the combo i say. you still will have decent survablity,

Delete 15 letters.

btw you might also take some berserker armor pieces if you are not a stealth build, perhaps legs, gloves and head.

Big Tower.5423:

Dont go solider armor get valkyrie armor, you loose very much dps by going pvt (loss of critdamage, which is the main dps factor) go valkyrie armor rest berserker, almost all builds uses this combo. becuse its super effecient at thief.

If you haven’t done the math, then don’t speak out about which stats are better than others.

Aratoa.7398:

wish.1027:

x/x/x/30/x
Then get the traits for regen 2 ini every 10 seconds, and gain 3 ini on weapon swap, and run dual S/D. Beyond that you’ll have to decide your own traits, but for DPS, Executioner in the Critical Strikes line is going to be best.

And dont listen to people who say Soldiers gear is bad. Soldiers in correct slots (like Hat/Body/Legs) with Berserker everything else is mathematically superior for DPS and Defense compared to Valkyrie mixed with Berserkers.

Big Tower.5423:

Dont go solider armor get valkyrie armor, you loose very much dps by going pvt (loss of critdamage, which is the main dps factor)

Like this guy…

Do you have a link to the math? or the math itself?

It’s extremely complicated for WvW, but I could give you a brief overview of how it works. If you’re interested, just PM me.

Big Tower.5423:

Tell me why i do 8-10 k crits with valkyrie gear? you would not go past 4 k with soliders at best, backstab is niche to test damage, but s/d is also very good with valk + berserker + berserker. you will do 50% to 110 % more damage, based on how many berserker pieces you take with your solider gear.. which is HUUGE, this is why you got to go the combo i say. you still will have decent survablity,

Big Tower.5423:

btw you might also take some berserker armor pieces if you are not a stealth build, perhaps legs, gloves and head.

So the gear set you advocate is all valkyrie, with berserker legs gloves and head? And what food do you use with that?