Guild Wars 2

This is gonna be long so prepare yourself. I’ve played p/d since beta and I tried everything else, bottom line is I can’t wrap my head around d/p s/d s/p or even d/d. I know many will say it’s easy but when i try it, it feels so wrong. So….I’m looking for a way to make it as a p/d thief and just pray that Anet will give some love to condition thieves at some point. I’d love for any of you guys that have been playing p/d as long as I have to give me your views of how we can make it through this bumpy road. I’ll load my build below but its the standard build with a few modifications that “Wildbill” started.

My problem is so many classes have cond removal and I have no way to finish targets quickly as they are nearing death. Also it just seems that other condition class have so much better conds than we do as thieves. I use to slot full condition duration but have come off of it a little bit because it seems a bleed will never stay on 8 secs like it use to. It will get cleared way before that. So should I back down bleed duration to gain something else or stay as high bleed duration as possible?

Any suggestions will be very appreciated and I welcome discussion on the P/D thief. Thank You.

My Original Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAqYlUmKP3ey5E95EC3DnKpaKPFOIa1pAr0KA-jEyAUAAqAYmsIasFsoVzCS5LsKZioa1NGA-w

Venom Build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAqYlUmCNXaS1E95EC3DnCqaKvCOo2DZymiJA-j0BBUAA0BgZSFRjtseIalPhVJjIqWdDDA-w

The Build I feel most comfortable with right now:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAqYlUmKP3ey5E95EC3DnKpaKPFOIa1pAr0KA-j0BBUAAUBgZSFRjtseIalPhVJjIqWdDDA-w

Ive played with all three of these and went mainly with 4 plex runes because sneak attack is as near to 100% chance to apply 3 stacks of confusion as you can get. I’m looking for ways to cover with misc conditions so my bleeds don’t get stripped. The venom build made me feel like I had no defense and after I blew my load I was toast.

C/D: I have always had issues landing cloak and dagger, my timing has never been great. Now a days its even harder when this build is based around it and so many good players are looking for this. QAdvice on how to land it better would be appreciated.

Food: I always run cond duration food…Pizza

Lastly the heal skill: I have always used stealth heal but tried withdraw for a few weeks, i hate not being able to get into stealth but since every player I face is a warrior these days the immobilizes and stuns are ridonkulous! it helps with that but doesn’t help clear conds like the stealth heal will.

Thanks ahead of time for any help.

The biggest annoyance as a P/D thief are the engis that are immune to conditions under 25% HP. I usually run a P/D and D/D with sigil of intelligence on the D/D set. Can get 4K backstabs with full carrion.

Also, use sigil of fire on your pistol, if you haven’t already. It’s a nice little chunk of DPS, and if you run ascended rabid/dire trinks, it activates very frequently.

umm are you talking about wvw or spvp?
anyway here some footage of two different wvw p/d thief game play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIXC_VHghk condi 5v1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHNUtnV-GsI hybrid

I apologize. 100% WvW.

Trueshots.9456:

I apologize. 100% WvW.

in that case p/d is fine while not having the highest condition pressure its currently pretty good in addition its survivablity is among the highest of any condition build.

To land your 5 skill make a habit of going through the enemy and hit when you are that close. Try sigil of torment and use shortbow when you can for poison.

FrownyClown.8402:

To land your 5 skill make a habit of going through the enemy and hit when you are that close. Try sigil of torment and use shortbow when you can for poison.

^^ what he said also man get caltrop on dodge its so useful as a condi thief. You should change some of your utilities as well sos sig is a terrible waste when in combat and caltrops is very situational, its take a special type of player to stand long enough in it to make it a must. Swap sos sig for shadow step or roll for initiative and change caltrops to Spider or skale venom. Just those small changes will increase your dps and survivability.

Also I don’t agree with some of your trait choices but they are ok if you feel comfortable with it.

FrownyClown.8402:

To land your 5 skill make a habit of going through the enemy and hit when you are that close. Try sigil of torment and use shortbow when you can for poison.

OK after watching vincecontic’s video, I really think that 2 things are lacking from my skill set.

First and foremost The videos I watch of the best p/d thieves (or any thief for that matter), they never miss on the c/d, I miss multiple times in every fight. Thing is, it use to not matter no one removed conditions so just a few times from stealth and they were dead. Fights weren’t that hard.

2nd, I need to be using shadowstep. It is such an awesome skill and i never use it and here’s why: Anything that uses the aoe target I never use on any toon, I feel as if I fumble with it so much, it feel like the worst multi-task in the world. I talking any class I play, i run from it, I build around it.

Which brings me to my next question:
I have 2 thumb buttons on mouse they are c/d and interact(for quick loots, stomps, revives). I feel very confident in using those buttons but it seems awkward using the #7-#9 for Shadowstep. i only use keys 1-5 with my left hand so everything right of that gets clicked with the mouse button(utilities and elite), pro’s don’t do this I can tell by watching their videos. How are they hitting those buttons without moving their left hand off the movement keys? When I try it my toon is just sitting there not moving, which we know is death incoming.
I hope y’all understand what im saying and where i’m having trouble

Also what do you mean by “running through the enemy”. I try to go right at them but it seems to telegraphed and good players know what you’re doing and will avoid you and you miss the c/d.

Hope this gives you insight on my trouble so you can better advise me. Thanks!

vincecontix.1264:

Also I don’t agree with some of your trait choices but they are ok if you feel comfortable with it.

I agree with you I need shadowstep, i don’t mind using venoms either (nice to add the poison). Caltrops is really for weaker players and clearing NPC’s, plus I love the thought of using them and the animation

What traits would you suggest, which ones aren’t you liking?

I love the caltrops on dodge animation and would love to use it, but it seems it does a fraction of the damage that the utility caltrops does, in a smaller area, and it stays on ground very short time.

Thanks

One other thing, a few suggestions that were made would definitely decrease my bleed duration. Do you guys feel that it is ok to pull back from that max 8 sec bleed duration on sneak attack?

Trueshots.9456:

One other thing, a few suggestions that were made would definitely decrease my bleed duration. Do you guys feel that it is ok to pull back from that max 8 sec bleed duration on sneak attack?

7 secs is ok its what I run on my condi set. You can keep uptime on bleeds good you just want to have some cover condis in there. You wont necro burst condi anyone down though. I find personally spider venom is a must if you want to kill warriors. You will either kill them or force them to disengage because most only run cleansing ire trait to wipe and dont’ have a on hand condition removal most don’t.

If you want to get rid of clicking #7-#9 just change the key binding so that you can reach every key with your left hand. There are many options (keys r,f,v,c,x,y,<,g,t….), just try it out and see how you feel comfortable with it

The problem with p/d is that it’s been left behind in the balancing arms race that anet created. They keep pushing extra condition removal on classes because of the ridiculous condition spam that necros and engineers can put out, instead of nerfing necros/engineers. IMO the aftercast for pistol 1 should be lowered a bit and the duration of the bleeds increased from 4 to 6s

FrownyClown.8402:

To land your 5 skill make a habit of going through the enemy and hit when you are that close.

OK, just checked in game. I had “Melee Attack Assistt” checked in options. It says it prevents running through enemy to stay in melee range. I’ve always had this checked, is this my problem? please tell me yes!

Yes, taking off Melee Attack Assist will help you run through your targets. You should practice using C&D right before you go thru them, and practice using a D/D or P/D thief for PvE and level up for a while only using C&D. Then take it to PvP and learn how to successfully land a C&D on a real person. Also, for Shadowstep, I bind it to an easily accessible key, which for me is R since I don’t use it for anything (I set my AutoRun to mouse3 aka clicking the mousewheel), good luck and happy hunting!

My suggestions (for what it’s worth):
- lose caltrops: as funny as it is to see bad players just stand in it and watch the bleed stacks go up, the truth is that you would have beat these players anyway. The only time it is beneficial is if you have multiple baddies. With all the condition removal nowadays though, I think it’s more important to invest in a venom to cover your bleeds.
- lose signet of shadows: you don’t need speed as a p/d thief like you would if you were trying to land backstabs. Keep it on while running around if you want, but always be ready to switch out.
- get Shadowstep: gap closer, 2x stun breaker, remove 3 conditions, gets you out of zergs way to use shadow refuge more safely; there are so many benefits that it’s almost a must as a p/d thief to make up for the lack of utilities in the set
- get skale venom: I personally would go with skale to get another 2 conditions up to cover bleeds and torment does decent damage in itself.
- replace sigil of force with corruption until you get your stacks, and even then, I would rather use an on-swap sigil if possible. An extra 5% damage on this build is nothing, especially with dire gear.
- bleed duration is currently at 65% with best food, you’re wasting 15% duration. Either make it 75% (preferably) or 50%. I wouldn’t worry about 100%.

So you only need to worry about getting poisons up, and you have a couple options:
- Use bow OH number 4: These is effective, but you kind of expose yourself more with bow. You’ll have to find a way of doing this without losing the flow of constant pressure from p/d bleeds and getting yourself killed while out of stealth. Having a bow OH for avoiding zergs is helpful though.
- Lose 5 trait points under either acrobatics or trickery and put them in deadly arts. If you find yourself doing a lot of 1vMany, then I would keep trickery and change it to Ricochet. While you’re at it, change the first trickery to Uncatchable. If you mainly do 1v1’s, lose the 5 trickery points (or maybe the trickery line altogether and put 10 under deadly arts, and 30 in acrobatics).
- get sigil of doom with either another p/d OH set (easier to manage, but no mobility and lack of utilities) or a d/x set (harder to manage, but more mobility and utility)
- replace spider venom for skale: I personally like using other ways of getting poison on.

This is the build I like to use while doing P/D condition:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY4YlUmiO3eS0E9JFB3Dnm0m6f4r6C6UcVrC-jkCBYNDimWI000AkHQZSFRjtgJI1MRr8JsKZER1qbYyAUNHA-w

might stacking is very useful for condition builds, it also helps deal a bit more physical damage. you gain 2 stacks of might from dodging (Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew and Power of Inertia (II) in acrobatics) and 2 from every time you stealth.

There are a few options with the traits you can change if you want. Quick Recovery (IX) can be changed for Pain Response (VIII), if you change those 2 around it’s good to change Shadows Embrace (IV) with Infusion of shadow (V). You do have the option of just changing the first 2 around though, I like having a lot of initiative.

the Reason for D/D in the other weapon set is quick getaways and when you’re fighting another Thief and s/he inevitably uses Shadow Refuge when hurt, you move to the middle of it swap weapons sets (Geomancy sigil goes off) and you death blossom the field, almost 100% you get a downed enemy thief.

I was running a similar build, but Assassin’s reward is a bit underwhelming. I now run 20/0/20/15/15. In deadly arts, I basically just traited for Mug and poison on steal, so stealing now causes poison, weakness and returns ~2k+ health while doing direct damage. I run P/D+D/D.

I also use mostly Carrion gear with some soldiers and apothecary’s mixed in. I am currently running runes of speed as I like the increased movement speed, and I figured being able to have a third utility slot open makes up for the minor loss in DPS. I do good direct damage and great condition damage with 21k hp. Swap between Signet of Malice or Hide in Shadows depending on what I am doing… HiS tends to be better for roaming and picking off single foes, SoM better for groups.

My utilities change based on what I am doing as well. I mainly go for stealthing utilities. With a good rotation I have bleed, poison, weakness, cripple and blind up most of the time, with torment thrown in periodically. Debating runes of perplexity as the icing on the cake and switching back to the movement sig.

Lyrsen.6702:

the Reason for D/D in the other weapon set is quick getaways and when you’re fighting another Thief and s/he inevitably uses Shadow Refuge when hurt, you move to the middle of it swap weapons sets (Geomancy sigil goes off) and you death blossom the field, almost 100% you get a downed enemy thief.

D/D is also great for stacking bleeds really quickly with DB. I tend to have an excess of initiative when running P/D, and it’s a great way to dump some of that extra and convert to lots of bleeds.

If you don’t mind running a double-P/D setup, Sigil of Doom is the best way (imo) to keep poison on your target. It also frees up that utility slot that would’ve gone to poison.

Runes of the Traveler – This rune set is great. It frees up that utility slot that you are using for Signet of Shadows. This could allow you to run Skale Venoms instead. It has the added benefit of having +10% condition duration on it, so you can drop that Sigil of Agony for something else, like Sigil of Bursting.

Uncatchable – Instead of running Caltrops, use this. If you’re near your target, use body shot on top of your target (immobilize), and dodge away. If you have 50%+ condition duration, that’s at least a second of standing in the ’trops radius.

Separate from all the gear and traits, here’s a little trick I use when I roam: If you weapon swap, make sure to have 3 weapons with the following sigils:

Doom
Intelligence
Leeching

When you fall off a wall, you are put into combat. Before you do fall, swap in a weapon with one of these sigils, and fall. Swap your weapons to the ones with these sigils (before you drop out of combat), and repeat and rinse. All 3 stack, so your first combat, you have the properties of all 3 go off on your first attack. (It will also make it easier to keep poison up the first 10-20 seconds of the fight).

Edit: The caltrop utility is decent, but I find it shines when you have an enemy thief dop a shadow refuge nearby. The caltrop radius perfectly covers it, and if you can drop it before the house animation disappears, you’ll get at least a couple of ticks on the thief before the bleed and cripple is removed (if they are running condition removal).

I’ve seen the not-so-good thieves run out of it to avoid it, and if they are very low on health, it might down them.

Edit: If you run the utility poison, you can drop the Sigil of Doom for Sigil of Battle. Couple this with Hidden Assassin, and Power of Inertia, and you can easily maintain 10+ stacks of might.

These on-swap sigils are very good in certain situations, I’ve run all of them in tests, and each has it’s strengths.

Sigil Of Hydromancy isn’t bad if you have at least 50% condition duration. 4.5 seconds of chill every 10 seconds can disrupt an Ele’s rhythm, and is good vs. other professions.
Sigil of Leeching is pretty good – It does 975 damage, modded by power, and heals for 975.
Sigil of Geomancy is good for stacking bleeds faster, 3-stack bleed for 7 seconds base.
Sigil of Energy is good for extra defense if you’re lacking.

Kinda off topic but am I the only person that uses Alt+1-5 for utilities and elite? I also bind all alt + q w e r f d s a z x c … just wondering

If I were to roll P/D Thief in WvW, and I probably will thanks to this thread, I’d probably use this build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY4YlUmiOXay9E+JFymiK8n8U8VilWBaqTRUFfA-j0BBUAgkFA5QFRjtgRIq8RjVJjIqWpETIgFrBA-w

—Weapons—

P/D because of this thread.

D/D for those times you can’t immediately get away or just want to get your hands dirty. The bleed damage from spamming Death Blossom is also nice if you want to go out with a bang against a zerg of enemies. It may even rally you.

It’s either D/D or bow and since most of my builds use bow I figured I’d make a change.

—Skills—

Hide in the Shadows for condition removal. It also lets you use your bleed stacking opener.

As mentioned above, Skale Venom is really good to mask your bleeds and the torment damage is also great since you’ll be kiting.

Shadow Step has numerous uses and it’s really fun to use in general. It also breaks stuns and removes conditions.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a build that didn’t use Shadow Refuge. It’s just too good.

I’m going with Dagger Storm since it deals bleed damage. Mix it with Shadow Refuge and you’ll be leeching health. Not saying it will keep you alive against a zerg but I still think it’s more useful than Thieves Guild and Basilisk Venom with a kiting build.

—Traits—

I’m going 10/20/0/20/20 with emphasis on pistol aoe and kiting. I picked these traits for the bonuses not the stats. From what I understand, Pistol Mastery (Critical Strikes V) doesn’t scale with pistol bleed damage so I took the extra health instead. I’m totally stealing the poison mug idea since I realised P/D is lacking in the poison debuff.

—Stats—

Just a mix of condition damage, duration, and tankiness.

edit:

If this helps you, my bindings are:
weapon skills – 1-5
healing skill – left side mouse button
utility skills – q, e, r
elite skill – right side mouse button
class specific skills F1-F4
weapon swap – `(tilde key next to #1)

edit2:

Yah I’m changing my traits for poison mug as well. Seems more useful than the stun escape that can sometimes teleport you into a bad place.

Man great advice thanks all, after toying with it in the middle of the night. I tried this for a few fights before i fell asleep on the keyboard at 6am this morning. I’m gonna play with it tonight. I switched and put shadow step on my thumb which is really nice but downing players and looting is awkward. Never the less think its just gonna take time.

I like the “mug” for a free 2k heal and poison application, the venom to add 2 different conds, the 4 plex runs for yet another condition. The switching of weapons is nice for the 1k heal, still awkward to use.

In the time I spent I did win a number of 1v2’s and felt like I was back to decent form although feeling a little clumsy over the new key mapping and skills. I’ll keep you guys informed.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY6YlUmiOXay9E9JFB3Dnm0m6V4raFoZnirqVA-jECB4iFRjmCQIiCRjOTqIasl1DRr8JsKZER1qbYSBAx0I-w

DanielGames.5198:

I’m going with Dagger Storm since it deals bleed damage. Mix it with Shadow Refuge and you’ll be leeching health.

I’m going 0/20/0/30/20 with emphasis on pistol aoe and kiting.

I can’t believe i didn’t know dagger storm inside refuge healed……Do you stay in stealth? I wouldn’t think so. Nice tip!

Also im a little confused about the trait line up.

0= no mug or buffs to poisons and no + to cond duration

20=these builds are typically very low crit chance, seems like a wasted 20 points here

0= I have no clue how anyone plays a thief without 30 in SA line. Blind on stealth, 2 stacks of conds removed on stealth and regen in stealth. I will never give up those 30 points for sure. Also 300 toughness is HUGE in this game.

30= I like this line alway have at least 20 points in it but the 30pt skills are lackluster for me

20 = I’ve alway run 20 here but I’m seeing now where 15 and 10 may be a better choice

Ya I made some last minute trait changes to make it 10/20/0/20/20 instead. I agree that 30 in Shadow Arts is really useful, I just like being different I guess. The 20 in Critical Strikes was to get the chance to apply 4 seconds of crippled every 10 seconds. The extra crit chance also helps proc the fire aoe I applied to my weapon. That’s my reasoning. To each his own really.

Edit:

About Dagger Storm and Shadow Refuge. If you’re feeling ballsy you could shadow step into a zerg, use up all your initiative with death blossom, drop shadow refuge and dagger storm, then shadow return back.

DanielGames.5198:

About Dagger Storm and Shadow Refuge. If you’re feeling ballsy you could shadow step into a zerg, use up all your initiative with death blossom, drop shadow refuge and dagger storm, then shadow return back.

LOL, immobilize would kill me I bet

Trueshots.9456:

DanielGames.5198:

About Dagger Storm and Shadow Refuge. If you’re feeling ballsy you could shadow step into a zerg, use up all your initiative with death blossom, drop shadow refuge and dagger storm, then shadow return back.

LOL, immobilize would kill me I bet

Shadow Return before you get killed

…

Then proceed to run away like a man.

signet of malice with apothecary jewelry ( a few pieces or all 5 slots) works really well with condition builds but blinding powder utility and being good at timing/landing cloak and daggers is definitely a must.

that sort of setup is demonstrated here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XDPeOfvS5I

good luck

can someone post a good sPVP version of the d/p build please?

Dagger Storm is just a fancy-looking liability. ;P Immobilize, Corrupt Boon (Necro), or Steal (Thief w/ boon-stripping & daze) can easily get you killed, or at the least make you waste your elite.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqYVlUmiOHfy5E+5EB3Dni0m694ri1saFoJA-jEyAouASBAoFgZyioxWNLiGrmBTxSEV7RKiWtQALWDA-w

so this is a quick link to my build i tried out the more popular 0/0/30/20/20 and it just wasn’t for me so i just threw this together and it works wonders for me in TC wvw i run 1v3’s and 1v5’s alot with this build. I’m open to suggestions though if anyone has anyways i can change this to make it better

Black Scoutsman.5830

can someone post a good sPVP version of the d/p build please?

I assume you’re talking about P/D not D/P here’s an sPvP version of my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY4YlUmiO3eS0E9JFB3Dnm0m6f4r6C6UcVrC-TwAgyCrImR5jzHzMSYswMWYtw2jZHA

has 50% bleed duration with runes, honestly see what works for you with the Sigils, these are just the ones I like.

Lyrsen.6702:

Black Scoutsman.5830

can someone post a good sPVP version of the d/p build please?

I assume you’re talking about P/D not D/P here’s an sPvP version of my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY4YlUmiO3eS0E9JFB3Dnm0m6f4r6C6UcVrC-TwAgyCrImR5jzHzMSYswMWYtw2jZHA

has 50% bleed duration with runes, honestly see what works for you with the Sigils, these are just the ones I like.

yeah sorry i meant P/D. and thanks!

irishking.8956:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqYVlUmiOHfy5E+5EB3Dni0m694ri1saFoJA-jEyAouASBAoFgZyioxWNLiGrmBTxSEV7RKiWtQALWDA-w

so this is a quick link to my build i tried out the more popular 0/0/30/20/20 and it just wasn’t for me so i just threw this together and it works wonders for me in TC wvw i run 1v3’s and 1v5’s alot with this build. I’m open to suggestions though if anyone has anyways i can change this to make it better

I was running a similar build like that last night. Traiting for stealth benefits, mug, and 20 sec steal really helps. I’m surprised you aren’t using Shadow Refuge though. Whenever I’m in a 1v3+ I feel I always need to take a breather once in a while.

To make up for no vigor or acrobat traits to increase dodging, I equipped two offhand daggers with onswap energy. I was playing around with smoke screen, venoms, caltrops, and blinding powder as well. Smoke screen gave me the most success since it prevents a lot of incoming damage. However blinding powder is a great oh kitten button to press. I found that I didn’t need skale venom to mask my bleeds most of the time so I stopped using it. The poison and blinds were enough. Caltrops were very situational but were still effective.

I sort of copied this build from another thread last night but here’s what I used.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY6YlUmiOney9E95EB3Dnm0m69osi1saFoJA-jEyAouASBCE9J0ZyioxWNLiGrmBTxSEV7RKiWtQALWDA-w

I like longer stealing range more than the caltrop dodge since I can trick players into chasing me then I can shadowstep to someone who’s lagging behind. I also prefer the aoe blind when stealthed instead of the extra initiative using cloak and dagger. I find it’s more helpful in a 1v3+ situation.

One thing I haven’t tried as using smoke field with daggerstorm in a group of enemies. It would last long enough for daggerstorm to get its full duration.

i like shadow refuge sept it is an invitation to aoe spam from ele’s and guardians warriors etc lol they wait for and hope u have it when im play against BL and SOR blinding powder is more of a quick situational skill with low cool down i can cycle through to help apply more bleeds and keep them blinded. Im gonna get on and try this build out right now though it sounds interesting ill let u kno how it goes

I was thinking about revisiting my old P/D build.

I can’t remember exactly how it looked, but I think it was something like the one I linked above. I remember using it with full Carrion and going for maximum condition duration, especially the bleeds. I was usually the last one standing in dungeons and I did quite decent dps. For WvW I was usually winning outnumbered fights with ease.

I’ve tried so many different builds, and lately I’ve been running full berserker. Sometimes D/D and sometimes S/P. I feel like the OP do, that P/D is sort of my “home”.

Guess my question is; do you guys think that this build is still viable for WvW?

P/d is not forgotten. It’s like Canada, nobody cares about it. :P

Geiir.7603:

I was thinking about revisiting my old P/D build.

I can’t remember exactly how it looked, but I think it was something like the one I linked above. I remember using it with full Carrion and going for maximum condition duration, especially the bleeds. I was usually the last one standing in dungeons and I did quite decent dps. For WvW I was usually winning outnumbered fights with ease.

I’ve tried so many different builds, and lately I’ve been running full berserker. Sometimes D/D and sometimes S/P. I feel like the OP do, that P/D is sort of my “home”.

Guess my question is; do you guys think that this build is still viable for WvW?

you have base 66% duration and you stacked it with 110% bleed duration so 10% more as you cant stack above 100%
caltrops for pve is ok but not for pvp/wvw
i would take shadow embrace instead of cloak in shadow
also sigil of corruption to another 250 condi dmg

Zacchary.6183:

P/d is not forgotten. It’s like Canada, nobody cares about it. :P

:)

ppl didnt forget it

also if you not so fancy in 1vX fights and like more group fight check this

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/The-Panicond-build-P-D/first#post3274700

1v2 is doable although

messiah.1908:

Geiir.7603:

I was thinking about revisiting my old P/D build.

I can’t remember exactly how it looked, but I think it was something like the one I linked above. I remember using it with full Carrion and going for maximum condition duration, especially the bleeds. I was usually the last one standing in dungeons and I did quite decent dps. For WvW I was usually winning outnumbered fights with ease.

I’ve tried so many different builds, and lately I’ve been running full berserker. Sometimes D/D and sometimes S/P. I feel like the OP do, that P/D is sort of my “home”.

Guess my question is; do you guys think that this build is still viable for WvW?

you have base 66% duration and you stacked it with 110% bleed duration so 10% more as you cant stack above 100%
caltrops for pve is ok but not for pvp/wvw
i would take shadow embrace instead of cloak in shadow
also sigil of corruption to another 250 condi dmg

Thanks for the response man!

Allright, I’ve played with it the last 24 hours in WvW and some dungeons, and so far it’s pretty great. I did some minor changes to traits, sigils, runes and moved down from ascended to exotic gear(I won’t bother to farm those ascended pieces just yet).

So this is what it looks like now. I’ve capped the bleeding duration (with condition duration) at 100%. I’m still not sure wether I should choose Venomous Strength or Mug? The extra heal and small burst could be just what I need sometimes…

The reason I picked Cloaked in Shadows over Shadow’s Embrace is because I have yet to really need that condition removal. What I do need on the other hand, is to make sure the big hits and stuns are missing me. I’m usually fighting small groups and running around in between them. Sometimes re-stealthing right after I lose stealth just to blind / heal some more.

Thanks, again

take skale venom as you got poison from steal and skale venom adds 2 more conditions to cover and torments can hurts

if you wanna be super dangerous try this
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYQQNAqYYlUmCNHdy0E/JFB3Djm0m6LQTxNtZ/BsC-jUCB4MJD1RQkWAkkWIj+AKTqIaslMFRjVJjIqWpETKAImGB-w

combo used right will kill 1v1 almost anything if you just play carefully
you apply burning for 5 seconds with 2k condition dmg its 4100 dmg and you got torment, poison, weakness, vulnerability, and nice power

bit similar to the panicond build i am using but 1v1 i dont need dodge or stealth as they die so fast. 1vX i try to be careful and hit cnd

vincecontix.1264:

umm are you talking about wvw or spvp?
anyway here some footage of two different wvw p/d thief game play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIXC_VHghk condi 5v1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHNUtnV-GsI

hybrid

Do you have a link to this build, do you still use after the last Patch? Ive recenlty been lvling a theif and looking for good builds for sPvP, WvW and PVE.

psw.5042:

vincecontix.1264:

umm are you talking about wvw or spvp?
anyway here some footage of two different wvw p/d thief game play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQIXC_VHghk condi 5v1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHNUtnV-GsI hybrid

Do you have a link to this build, do you still use after the last Patch? Ive recenlty been lvling a theif and looking for good builds for sPvP, WvW and PVE.

Hi there those videos are quite old now. The traits and gear to both build are different. First video is a condition build and the second once is a powerish/hybrid experiment build(my first one which is outdated now). If you are new and want to use pd I recommend condition build because it is easier to play and honestly stronger than power pd. Though for pvE I would good full zerker(sp/sb).

Ok build for the condi 5v1 video is 5/0/30/15/20 with carrion gear. Though this is the WvW build I recommend for you for:
budget build
Krait runes and full dire gear(toughness/vitality/condition damage)

weapons pistol(sup sig of agony)/dagger and shortbow

Traits: 5/0/30/5/30 or 10/0/30/0/30

Shadow Art: IV-VI-V

Trickery :IIIorV-VII-XIII

If you got money to burn you could get full perplexity runes and change the last trait in the trickery line to sleight of and bring dp as off set though krait runes are really good also. Also if you wanted you could rune 5/0/30/15/20 with krait runes and it would still work but you would give up offensive power for survivability.

Now for spvp I use a slightly different build(post patch) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhKtUGgVsoo

Do not overlook extending condition duration to the max. This not just bleeds. It really opens up a lot of skills you would not have used before and especially the CC type . This then acts as both a longer cover condition and said skills have an impact in their own right.

So as example I pulled Skale off my utility bar as a test and used Ice drake venom. No one uses that venom because it so short in duration. It does stack however and if durations maxed you can get 6 seconds of chill on an opponent. Chill is a VERY powerful skill.

If you use hydromancy you can get 6 seconds.

Your #2 skill is now a 2 sec Immob.

You CAN sacrifice overall condition damage (as long as you keep it around 2k) and still have a more effective build.

Currently I use 20/0/20/0/30. I like the weakness on steal and always take improv as it just my kind of skill. When I need more in the way of defense I switch to 10/0/30/0/30 and still have a 95 percent duration on all conditions. Yes there cleansing but in smaller scale battles they will spend a lot of cleanses ridding themselves of the cover conditions as the bleeds tick away.

Needless to say you switch up tactics or skills if running in a zerg.

Bleeds still do the bulk of the damage . In camps I will draw the guards to me in bulk and drop caltrops. A few AOE Death blossoms and I was getting bleed ticks on multiple guards of 3500+

I’m working on my own 100% condition duration, but it goes 30 deep into Deadly arts. Panic Strike turns into an 8 second immobilize when they hit 50% health. :P

>>I’m working on my own 100% condition duration, but it goes 30 deep into Deadly arts. Panic Strike turns into an 8 second immobilize when they hit 50% health. :P

You can also consider devourer venom instead along with residual venom.

Thats 12 sec Immobilize available. You have to weigh the pros and cons. I found devourer easier to “control” as it hard to measure the ICD of panic strike. It can also be shared if you go the venom share route. While this works better in a group you can also fire off one 4 sec Immob, let the enemy use one of his utils to break free and then add the other two at 4 seconds each.

Panic strike saves a spot on the utility bar and does have a lower CD overall.

vincecontix.1264:

Trueshots.9456:

I apologize. 100% WvW.

in that case p/d is fine while not having the highest condition pressure its currently pretty good in addition its survivablity is among the highest of any condition build.

funny joke. this applies bleed stacks comparable to necromancer’s scepter. not to mention the most access to torment in the game.

Lightsbane.9012:

vincecontix.1264:

Trueshots.9456:

I apologize. 100% WvW.

in that case p/d is fine while not having the highest condition pressure its currently pretty good in addition its survivablity is among the highest of any condition build.

funny joke. this applies bleed stacks comparable to necromancer’s scepter. not to mention the most access to torment in the game.

Pistol can keep up 6-7 bleed stacks by itself, hardly high pressure and the occasional 2 torment stacks are hardly threatening.

Now as to the ‘access to torment’, Shadow Strike give 2 stacks of 5 seconds, comparable to 1 stack of 10 seconds, Impale nets 5 stacks of 12 seconds, which is like 1 stack of 60 seconds and Illusionary counter 5 stacks of 8 seconds, or 1 stack of 40 seconds. Even if all initiative is used for Shadow Strike, Impale still yields about twice as much torment and in practice P/D uses most of it’s available initiative for Cloak & Dagger.