Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, Rand X Al Thor here, I have a build I’d like to share with the thief community. I’ve posted this in some other threads, but I decided to go ahead and give it its own thread. I was playing on an all thief TPVP team and we decided we wanted at least 2 condi thieves for the team, so i decided to try my hand at making a condi build and this is the result:
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The build: 10/0/0/30/30
Traits: III /0/0/ III, IX, XII / III, VII, XI
Amulet: carrion
Runes: adventure gets you condi, power, and even more endurance on a heal!
Weapons: d/d with swap to d/d
Sigils: energy/agony and energy/agony
Utilities: withdraw, caltrops, shadow trap (if youre in a dueling arena run ambush and enjoy 3 thieves), shadow step, thieves guild
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Pros:
your evade time is absolutely unbelievable. Because death blossom and dancing dagger are the only skills you will use on this build, you evade the majority of the time you are attacking.

You can spam Death Blossum 4 times (maybe 5?).

When you swap weapons you will get 3 intuitive and 50% endurance back so do so as much as possible.

When you steal you will get vigor, rip off 2 boons to share with allies, and heal yourself while doing direct damage and applying poison to the enemy (with its new 27.5 second cool down this is amazing).

Your heal breaks immob and soft cc like chills, gives 4 initiative and will apply 10 seconds of Vigor. The 10 sec of vigor on heal and 15 seconds on steal will give you massive vigor uptime, which combined with your feline grace trait will make you able to dodge almost none stop.
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Cons: Terrible condi removal. Your only condi removal is also your only stun break. Luckily with all your evade you can avoid most stuns and some condi applications. Necros built around aoe condi can definitely prove to be a problem. Or if they transfer your bleeds back to you you’re probably going to die.

I’ve been really enjoying this build and think it has massive potential in TPVP. Please give it a try and tell me what you guys think!

This is near identical to Trippseeker’s Condition Dodger, save for one or two differences. It highly depends on the tPvP team comp (theirs and yours). It would be nice to see condition thieves get some more love.

Trippseeker
GW2 pvp thief dodger part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPols-vShvM

xmtrcv.5236:

This is near identical to Trippseeker’s Condition Dodger, save for one or two differences. It highly depends on the tPvP team comp (theirs and yours). It would be nice to see condition thieves get some more love.

Trippseeker
GW2 pvp thief dodger part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPols-vShvM

That was very interesting to see someone with such a close build. I think in a tpvp scenario the sigil of agony is better, but thats personal choice. For traits i would rather have the 2 initiative every 10 seconds over might on dodge, but thats also a personal choice. I do think the signet of shadows is completely unnecessary in this build. You have so much swiftness uptime that i think its a large waste of utility. The new shadow trap is incredibly strong and if you dont like that having ambush is massively good as well. Other than that they are very very similar! I’m just wanting some more thieves to try out this build and see what they think!

build is great but sucks against aoe classes and needs more condi removal. take out mug for condi removal in SA

I don’t even see the point in this build. Necros are so over the top with AOE condition damage and fear control, you get owned so fast you can’t even cast your dodge buttons.

Come back when necros are nerfed.

I’d rather run p/d with skale/refuge/caltrops and either basi or tg.

0/0/30/30/10.

I have been using hard to catch as my auto stun break. Works nicely except vs basi venom. You have condi removal and regen in stealth.

Sb as second weapon for when you need quick escape.

Travlane.5948:

build is great but sucks against aoe classes and needs more condi removal. take out mug for condi removal in SA

Ive been thinking about that, but stealth is so out of place on this build that im not sure if its worth it. I like mug for the small, but helpful heal it has and the poison it applies (the damage isnt that great, but its an extra 1-2k). I also like all of the benefits stealing has right now. Although this build does work pretty great if you have a teammate that can use shouts or aoe condi clear of some sort.

LoneWolfie.1852:

I don’t even see the point in this build. Necros are so over the top with AOE condition damage and fear control, you get owned so fast you can’t even cast your dodge buttons.

Come back when necros are nerfed.

Well this build can applies bleeds SO much faster than a necro can. It doesnt have the cc of the necro though. If i was going to make a team id want this build and a necro on it for sure. The thief can easily stack 25 bleeds on a target in seconds at the mid fight and if the necro uses epidemic and then fears? Its pretty much game over for everyone who doesnt have a stunbreak with instant condi clear.

Why would you take this build on a tpvp team? Shadow trap. You can get from mid INSTANTLY. Itll definitely help you get number at home point so i think its absolutely a valuable build.

swinsk.6410:

I’d rather run p/d with skale/refuge/caltrops and either basi or tg.

0/0/30/30/10.

I have been using hard to catch as my auto stun break. Works nicely except vs basi venom. You have condi removal and regen in stealth.

Sb as second weapon for when you need quick escape.

I love p/d builds, and they are very very strong at dueling, but i think the deathblossum build is better in tpvp. The only reason i like the d/d build better is the way it mitigates damage. The p/d spec relies on stealth to mitigate its damage (which is freaking awesome in wvw or if you are dueling someone in a dueling arena), but unfortunately you cant cap a point in stealth and so every time you make use of your condi clear and regen the enemy can be capping the point you’re standing on. The deathblossum build uses its evades to mitigate damage and you can cap a point while you evade.

Do i think 1 build is necessarily better than the other? No i don’t. I just choose to use the evade build for faster/easier capping of points.

Would there be any interest in a video covering this build or a video of some gameplay with it?

I love P/D builds as well. :) I typically run P/D + D/D, so I have Deathblossom to stack on top on Caltrops for point harassment. It’s not an evade build, but it has its moments.

As with anything, any videos created for the Thief community are good additions, so make with the recording. I know I would be interested in watching. xD

xmtrcv.5236:

I love P/D builds as well. I typically run P/D + D/D, so I have Deathblossom to stack on top on Caltrops for point harassment. It’s not an evade build, but it has its moments.

As with anything, any videos created for the Thief community are good additions, so make with the recording. I know I would be interested in watching. xD

I’ll definitely throw something up on youtube then.

Oh, and after looking at your build some I was curious as to why you chose hidden thief over infusion of shadows or cloaked in shadows?

pantsforbirds.9032:

xmtrcv.5236:

I love P/D builds as well. :) I typically run P/D + D/D, so I have Deathblossom to stack on top on Caltrops for point harassment. It’s not an evade build, but it has its moments.

As with anything, any videos created for the Thief community are good additions, so make with the recording. I know I would be interested in watching. xD

I’ll definitely throw something up on youtube then.

Oh, and after looking at your build some I was curious as to why you chose hidden thief over infusion of shadows or cloaked in shadows?

I have used both previously, tending to favor Cloaked in Shadows for the Blind condition as additional cover.

Lately, I have been testing Hidden Thief. I can use it defensively or offensively, on the occasions when my auto-attack doesn’t auto-reveal. :D

pantsforbirds.9032:

Hey guys, Rand X Al Thor here, I have a build I’d like to share with the thief community. I’ve posted this in some other threads, but I decided to go ahead and give it its own thread. I was playing on an all thief TPVP team and we decided we wanted at least 2 condi thieves for the team, so i decided to try my hand at making a condi build and this is the result:
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
The build: 10/0/0/30/30
Traits: III /0/0/ III, IX, XII / III, VII, XI
Amulet: carrion
Runes: adventure gets you condi, power, and even more endurance on a heal!
Weapons: d/d with swap to d/d
Sigils: energy/agony and energy/agony
Utilities: withdraw, caltrops, shadow trap (if youre in a dueling arena run ambush and enjoy 3 thieves), shadow step, thieves guild
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Pros:
your evade time is absolutely unbelievable. Because death blossom and dancing dagger are the only skills you will use on this build, you evade the majority of the time you are attacking.

You can spam Death Blossum 4 times (maybe 5?).

When you swap weapons you will get 3 intuitive and 50% endurance back so do so as much as possible.

When you steal you will get vigor, rip off 2 boons to share with allies, and heal yourself while doing direct damage and applying poison to the enemy (with its new 27.5 second cool down this is amazing).

Your heal breaks immob and soft cc like chills, gives 4 initiative and will apply 10 seconds of Vigor. The 10 sec of vigor on heal and 15 seconds on steal will give you massive vigor uptime, which combined with your feline grace trait will make you able to dodge almost none stop.
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Cons: Terrible condi removal. Your only condi removal is also your only stun break. Luckily with all your evade you can avoid most stuns and some condi applications. Necros built around aoe condi can definitely prove to be a problem. Or if they transfer your bleeds back to you you’re probably going to die.

I’ve been really enjoying this build and think it has massive potential in TPVP. Please give it a try and tell me what you guys think!

Nice. For me, I really do prefer switching the 30 tricks for 30 shadow so you can deal with necros 1v1… you still have acres of dodges and I also do use D/D and D/D with 3 init on swap so it’s easy wins vs melee and with the shadow investment you can tackle most necros/engis (not all, but you can reset when you get out of your depth vs high skill).

Wow this is a very similar build to my own, I was beginning to think that I was the only one.

A lot of the traits I use with 10/0/0/30/30 are the same. However I’ve been using a Shaman’s Amulet (Tough/Heal/Cond) with Carrion jewel, combining this with Assassin’s Reward (gain health when using initiative), and sometimes I even use Signet of Malice rather than Withdraw if I want to have a bit more staying power.

In the Trickery line I use Thrill of the Crime, (give Might/Fury/Swiftness to allies) and Slight of Hand (Steal dazes and c/d is 21 sec). This actually allows for some decent uptime on buffs for nearby allies (and yourself), and turns Steal into an interupt. Interupting an enemy’s healing skill with Steal is great fun, puts you right where you want to be when they are feeling most vulnerable.

For utilities I prefer using Shadowstep and Roll for initiative, swapping out Caltrops/Scorpion Wire depending on the situation. Caltrops being better for fighting a larger group, or when fighting on a point, whereas Scorpion Wire is great for smaller scale fights, and fights where the enemy can easily just walk away from them (not defending a point). Scorpion Wire gives another interrupt on a 20 second c/d… and again, its a great for interrupting heal skills, as it puts your enemy right beside you when instead they wanted to heal.

I’ve actually been playing around with Sigil of Paralyzation to turn that daze on Steal into a 2 second daze.

For sigils I’ve just been using Sigil of Undead to boost my condition damage, it synergizes with the high toughness from the Shaman’s amulet.

The main difference I see between my build and the OP’s build, is that mine has more HP sustainability, and more focused on interrupts, whereas the OP is more focused on having what would seem like unlimited evades, gaining his sustainability that way.

xmtrcv.5236:

This is near identical to Trippseeker’s Condition Dodger, save for one or two differences. It highly depends on the tPvP team comp (theirs and yours). It would be nice to see condition thieves get some more love.

Trippseeker
GW2 pvp thief dodger part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPols-vShvM

i’ll update the build once the dust of the patch is settled,
I’m expecting to much hotfixes in the weeks to come.

btw only trouble the build has is beeing able to remove conditions yourself. seeing its more a non stealth build we aint got any good enough condition removals.
With all the aoe conditions out there now its harder then before the patch.
( so lets hope on a condition clear on dodge ( 10 sec cooldown ) in next patch, its about time we get a 10 sec passive condi cleans , and only thing missing for this build)

besides i just love zergsurfing, that alone is a good reason not to give up on the DD dodger build

@ xmtrcv.5236 , keep up the good work , glad people thinking around the evade DD build.

cheerz Tripp

I’ve been using a build like this in wvw w/ apothecary and it’s been great fun. As stated the only issue I’ve been having are dealing with conditions. I’m relatively new to wvw and not a twitch gamer so this build is relatively easy to play for me. Death blossom and signet of malice/assassin’s reward can keep me in the fight. Steal on this build is brutal, 11s poison, 13s ae fury/might/swiftness, 2 buffs stripped and transferred to you, 100% coverage on ae vigor, 2k heal, 2k damage on a 21s cooldown.