Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

Since the new patch allows us to greatly reduce our steal cooldown I have come up with a new build. It’s mainly for spvp and solo que, I don’t do much high end tpvp so I cannot comment on that part.

What is the goal of the build:
Having a thief with a lot of boons, having the ability to lock a target down very fast (even bunkers) and kill them. Still being able to survive a lot, as well as high mobility as always.

Weapon set:
Main: Sword/Pistol, with sigil of superior fire and sigil of purity.
Second: Shortbow, with sigil of superior energy.

For your main I have chose for condi removal on crit and some extra damage, once you get into trouble you can switch to your shortbow, dodge another time and start using #5 to get away.

Runes: I have been trying out divinity for now, but this is a point for improvement.

For amulet I just use berserker’s.

With this and the traits I maintain a 17.5 CD on stealth, about 16k health and 2k power with 47% crit change (67% with fury, which is up almost all the time) and 52% crit damage.

Traits:
10/20/0/10/30

Deadly arts: Mug, just for the extra stuff you get for stealing, really usefull little heal and some damage, as well as poison from your 5 point trait.

Critical strikes is mainly for the extra precision and crit damage
Critical strikes: Furious retaliation, the fury helps. Practiced tolerance, for some extra vitality.

Shadow arts: every 3 seconds condi removal. Obviously you don’t have stealth acces through your weapon set, which is why I use the utilities I’m naming in a second.

Trickery: Thrill of the crime, you don’t have to hit stealth for this. It gives you fury, might and swiftness. Bountiful theft: vigor and two boons. Sleight of hand, daze is another interrupt and it reduces the steal cooldown.

Trickery gives you a lot of iniative regen, with which you can maintain your attacks.

Utilities: Like I said I need some stealth to have condi removal, it is also handy in saving your team. As I have teleport on sword #2 I can manage without a stunbreaker.
So: Blinding Powder and Shadow Refuge.
As the third utility I go for Scorpion Wire, with a 20 second cooldown it is amazing in giving you another interrupt with pull. This is easily avoided though, so don’t start a fight with this.
As elite I just go for basilisk venom, but you can use anything you like here.
As heal I use withdraw, but I think hide in shadows will work just as fine

So, for starting a fight, I usually shoot them a few times with my shortbow, if it is a bunker I start attacking once he has two or three boons up. I open with infiltrator’s strike for a immobilize, as I have already attacked with shortbow he will most likely have blown a dodge already. Next I use steal to get 4 boons + 2 stolen boons and I daze the target. Now I will use a pistol wip, maybe 2. After this it depends what the target is doing; is he kiting you, just use headshot followed by scorpion wire.

You can continue doing this, you have so much ini regen from traits + 3 from steal every 18 seconds that I haven’t found myself without any so far. Once your target is down, simply use Black Powder to secure the stomp.

You can easily roam around the map and help where needed, quickly securing a kill or keeping 2 guys up at some point.

What do you guys think? I have been having amazing fun using it, for me it is very effective so far. And a nice change from the meta.

Let me know!

Edit: I forgot to mention; Because you hardly use stealth, it is very effective in pvp as well, since you can keep nodes contested etc.

every 21.5 seconds…..they seem to ahve a different understanding about steal recharge rate than most of us and or the way it used to be pre patch/

If I recall 30 trickery gave you 35s steal instead of 32 which is the same formula.
So there isn’t a prepatch difference in how its calculated.

It’s literally the exact same traits taken before they nerfed haste except you have practiced tolerance for some ungodly reason and should swap that out it’s giving you nothing of value.

So has it been 21.5 seconds all day and just read 17.5? or was it actually 17.5 at one point.

it still says 17.5 and gives 21.5, far as i know thats been all day. annoying, and hope its fixed, still will probably do a steal focused build tho with condition damage.

Wolfe.3097:

it still says 17.5 and gives 21.5, far as i know thats been all day. annoying, and hope its fixed, still will probably do a steal focused build tho with condition damage.

For me it now says 21.5

i admit that was when i was in the mists..so i dunno invizible

either way, math dictates 21.5 makes no sense, so either change the math, or change the CD Anet please

Thank you for your build AND description of your usage. I will be trying this out in PvP tomorrow. I was running a larcenous strike boon stealing build, but now with the changes, this will likely be better.

I’ve run exactly your build but with 30 in Critical Strikes for Executioner and First Strikes.
Having 6+ initiative is incredibly easy when you have an ini pool of 15, plus Pistol Whip, due to the high channel time, rarely let you fall below that point.
Also, Executioner is a must have.

As utility, I’d take Shadow Trap. It is incredibly useful for both an escape and a mobility tool.

Just so you know, both your sigils have a cooldown, which means one of them is useless. I was also thinking of giving this a go, although I don’t think I’d sacrifice the 10 in CS for 10 in shadow arts, especially since you’ll hardly go into stealth anyway. If you find that conditions are still a problem, maybe consider runes of melandru.