Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow thiefs!

As I get asked frequently ingame what build I play … here it is.

Are you tired of backstabbing people, getting downed if someone sneezes at you, your reliance on stealth to stay alive which prevents you from holding points against enemies or your lack of group support?

Maybe you should try something new? A thief as slippery as wet soap. They don´t get hold on you and if they drop the soap and bend over to pick it up again you are right behind them ruining their day. Just kidding. :-D

I would like to introduce to you my new build for a mostly stealthless thief.

THE EVASIVE INVADER!

What to expect:

Good Survivability (High toughness, vitality, constant healing and lots of evades)

Good Mobility ( Infiltrators Strike, Swiftness, Roll for Initiative, Infiltrators Signet, Infiltrators Arrow, Withdraw, Shadowstep, Steal)

Group Support ( Might, Swiftness, Vigor, Fury, Blast Finisher )

Control and Conditions ( Cripple, Poison, Bleed, Daze, Immobilize, Boonstripping)
Mediocre Damage (many small numbers)

Charactercalculator: (Copy&Paste)

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-cF3V;1Vw-1-U5R-kd0;9;49;0TT2;628946A57X7;2IBl3IBl36NR

What you get:

Steal: Every 34 seconds you grant you and your team swiftness, fury and might for 13 seconds and vigor for 19 Seconds through steal. Two boons are stripped from your target and granted two your Team for 5 seconds. Your target gets poisoned for 10 seconds (118 damage per tick) and damaged via mug ( about 1200 damage). You receive 3 initiative ( 237 HP)

Withdraw: Every 15 seconds you get Vigor for 10 seconds. You get 4 initiative. Summed up: 4518 HP (Withdraw) + 316 (Spending gained initiative) = 5996 HP

Assasins Reward: For every point of initiative you spend you get healed by a small amount (about 79 per point). 15 initiative (full bar) = 1185 HP

Shortbow: Evade+ Cripple / Poisonfield / Blastfinisher + Aoe bleed with direct damage / Mobility

Sword / Dagger: Daze / Cripple / Boonstrip + Evade / Shadowstep + Immobilize + Stunbreak

Superior Rune of Leeching: Every time you switch your weaponset you steal a small amount of life ( ca. 975 HP).

Thiefs Guild: Extra damage … little bit of CC

How to play:

First of all … this is a team oriented build. You provide a lot of boons and conditions for your team but you can play it solo and be successful.

Don´t expect big numbers and easy fights. Something like burst is only available every 180 seconds with your elite utility Thiefs Guild.

Rest of the time you have to troll your enemies and kill them rather slow. You have a lot of dodges and evade skills so you can outlast most of your enemies.

If you get pinned down and spiked you are dead like all other classes with no invulnerability abilities, but to pin you down is a rather hard task for your enemy.

Drop Choking Gas to weaken the opponents healing. Clusterbomb for the blast finisher or detonate it to stack more bleeds.

If you fight with other people switch to sword/dagger after you dropped choking gas and start to strip boons from the focused target and daze it with tactical strike.

If you engage with sword and dagger be sure to always enter melee combat with infiltrators strike. Keep an eye on Shadow Return, switch in and out to keep it active. If you get focused it´s your lifesaver. Shadowreturn and Withdraw, switch to Shortbow and use Disabling Shot and Dodge. Also watch out for Confusion.

Have fun by supporting your team and soaking up damage like a sponge. ;-)

Gameplay Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVjdROhcJAA

What else?:

Sorry for any unclaritys, english is not my native speech.
Will record and post a gameplay video soon.
Constructive criticism is always welcome.
Best regards!

Shinobi Sicarius

Definitely a mobile build. I would argue S/P over S/D, but both are pretty good weapon sets. However I admit I’ve grown to shun ‘bunker’ thief builds – they simply don’t have the survival traits needed to take real hits (boons, HP pool, or real heals – even fully traited Thief has some of the weakest in the game) – so the trick to thief is to not get hit. And, well, if you’re not getting hit, why do you need Vitality or Toughness? I say Zerker and Rampagers for thief. You can start tanky, but swap them out as you learn other people’s tells and can effectively fight with getting hit less and less. If you don’t have killing power, you become a game of attrition – They go until you’re all on CD or make a mistake and they squish you or they give up. You go until your buddies come or your target gives up and runs. Only kills you’ll really get are hot join nubs or… nm, just hot join nubs. Though if that’s all you do (hot join), you’ll rock. I’ve run thief bunkers and would repeatedly win 1v3+ and would always capture my points. However the second I took it into a real PVP or guild groups joined, I was stuffed with the fact I could never kill them. I would be faced with praying for actual DPS to come, just annoying them until they wore down all my CDs for evading/stun breaking and having to run or die. I survive longer on glass cannon builds in real fights because at that point I can always kill my target, it just becomes a game of skill.

TL;DR – practice your build and switch to as much DPS equipment as you can as soon as you can is my suggestion. Thieves have some pretty rocking choices for trait spreads, so play that how you want, but DPS gear I don’t see as a true option. Worst class in the game for taking a hit, but lots of fast attacks making it good for DPS – that combo doesn’t leave much options. :p

Okay after two months of playing this build some tweaks:

Build Update:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-cF3V;1VwV0-K5R-kd0;9;49;0TT2;628946A5BW4;2IBl3IBl36gH

Good luck and have fun!

Gameplay Video:

Best regards!

Woah.

When did the exact same build that I play get popular?

Well… Almost the exact same build. Traits and weapons all the same, amulet/jewel the same, and healing plus 2/3 utilities are the same.

This is weird.

I feel unoriginal now.

Good on you for playing the build though, it’s a very nice weapon to have on you.

EDIT: OH AND HE’S AN ASURA TOO.

All that being said, there are some changes you should make in your play style, IMHO. For example, you waste initiative on skills that aren’t particularly useful, put stuff on CD at inconvenient times, etc.

I saw evasive invader and thought htis was a wvw build. haha Would you think this build is good in wvw as well?

penatbater.4710:

I saw evasive invader and thought htis was a wvw build. haha Would you think this build is good in wvw as well?

No, it’s a very good dueling build but in WvW it lacks the mechanics required to make it particularly useful. You can hit and run all you like, but you’re simply too visible and will be spotted out by multiple enemies fairly quickly, at which point you’ll probably die. It also really requires a very particular gear setup.

Hi!
Yeah i still make a lot of mistakes while playing it.
You never stop learning. :-)
Currently i am ranked 400. Still a long way to go.
I think it works even better in wvwvw because of consumables etc.
But i didn´t join Zergwars for a rather long time. ;-)

Best regards!