Guild Wars 2

Kudos to Caed for the inspiration for this build. However, I’ve made some minor tweaks, and can say that it is one of the most viable build we have now.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn0MBlOhFOB+OBkmiFYCzLMEHaDzdwR4KULBEA2NA-TpBFABCcBAEvMQDHCg73fYhjAAAPAAA

Okay i know, one thing people will say about this build is the COMPLETE LACK of stealth in this build? Why? Because WE DO NOT NEED IT.

However, it make up for it by having an unreal amount of evades, and applies heavy pressure in an AOE. I was able to solo bunker mid for almost a minute before teamates arrived and cleaned up.

With runes of the scrapper, we get that extra tankiness we so desperately need. I was able to survive DH trap bursts, shrug off D/P thieves full burst with more then 50% health, a full on gravedigger to the face etc cetera.

But… no condi clense w/o SA? Well, Trickster gives condi cleanse, and take note, ALL MY UTILITY SKILLS are condi clense, including Withdraw. SoA even cleanses more then one condi.

No Basilisk venom? Well, I rather have a stomp then a venom every 40 seconds. Uppercut interupts almost everything except for ele’s mist form and thieve’s shadowstep.

But… NO STEALTH? As i said, i hardly benefit from stealth, the stealth attack knockdown is good, but it is buggy and not reliable. And you still get stealth from steals on thieves. =)

Okay, lest see how many evades we have. Well, we have 3 dodges. SoA refills 2 dodges. Staff attacks Refill endurance, around 2-3 Vaults will refill a dodge. Our heal skill is a huge dodge. Our Roll of initiative is a dodge, which refills Initiative. Oh and our staff 5, Vault, its a dodge. Oh and our steal will steal endurance, which is another dodge, and with improve, gives us a pretty high chance of resetting our skills since we have 4 different skill types (except traps and venoms).

If you do run out of dodges in this build, you are either tanking 3-4 players at a time, or you should really learn how to calm down.

Stunbreaks? Shadowstep itself is 2 stunbreaks, Roll for initiative is a stunbreak.

But what about damage? Bound easily crits for 2-3k. Vault deals up to 6k damage. And honestly, that’s all that you need. Oh, fyi, those are AOE damage numbers. I’ve tried using the other 3 staff skills, but Vault just does so much more for a decent cost.

But the damage not that high…. Well, 3k dmg mulitplied by around, 5-6 dodges, + 3-4 vaults… you are looking at almost 35k+ damage…. WHILST EVADING EVERYTHING.

Sure, what we don’t have is stealth. Which means no stealth ress. But in turn, we can brawl in mid. We are not effected by Reveal. We can literally tank even with Marauder’s amulet. We will only die if caught by a lot of CCs, yet we have 2-3 stunbreaks.

Throw away your understanding for the thief class. Thieves rely on stealth, but we are not merely thieves anymore. We are Daredevils. Throwing ourselves into the middle of the fight, almost untouchable is how we should play this build.

And yes, you can go up against almost every class in a 1v1 and actually stand a chance of winning. I’ve killed Reapers, Chronomancers, Condi Mesmers, Dragon Hunters (if i manage to dodge their traps). Granted i don’t have a 100% win rate against them, but we have a fighting chance now.

HOWEVER… this build is very cheap… so….. prepare to be flamed when more people start playing it. Pray it doesn’t get nerfed. =X

Below is one of my better matches. It has been a while since I’ve seen such numbers. =)
I would love to post a vid of my matches, but i have a lousy pc, and my screen capture software make my gw2 stutter.

Edit: spelling

I’m interested, but the build link refuses to load for me.

Sorry but I can’t take a build without Shortbow seriously in sPvP. I could see this working in low MMR Soloqueues as a brawler, semi-bunker though.

bliss.4305:

Sorry but I can’t take a build without Shortbow seriously in sPvP. I could see this working in low MMR Soloqueues as a brawler, semi-bunker though.

Edited

Thanks for pointing that out. Yes it’s suppposed to be a shortbow on weaponswap. I took a thief build and edited it, not paying attention to the second weapon slot as it’s kind of mandatory.
You can tell from the sigil I’ve put on it that it’s supposed to be a shortbow.

And no, I still use it as a decapper and +1, but now i can also 1v1, semi tank, and brawl in mid. I don’t see it being used as a dedicated bunker.

It was actually kind of weird as you stressed out zero stealth capability so many times in your post and I’m looking at D/P…. then looking at Bounding Dodger… and like Wut o.O

Now it all makes sense

That was the most annoying guide I’ve read.
Treating your audience as little kids.

luzt.7692:

That was the most annoying guide I’ve read.
Treating your audience as little kids.

All in the spirit of the most annoying build ever. ;D

EazyPanda.6419:

SoA even cleanses more then one condi.

Where did you see that ? SoA cleanses only 1 condi on the thief itself.

Tooltip :
Signet Active : Refills endurance and cure a condition for each nearby allies.

> 1 cleanse on the thief, 1 cleanse on up to 4 allies in 360 radius.

Nemaides.6873:

EazyPanda.6419:

SoA even cleanses more then one condi.

Where did you see that ? SoA cleanses only 1 condi on the thief itself.

Tooltip :
Signet Active : Refills endurance and cure a condition for each nearby allies.

> 1 cleanse on the thief, 1 cleanse on up to 4 allies in 360 radius.

Right… My bad, got mixed up with an old discussion about SoA removing a condition FOR each ally, against SoA removing a condition FROM each ally. Brain was overly excited after playing this build.

But then, i pop it when I need dodges, i don’t really save it just to remove condis.

I’m confused, this build definitely isn’t the most annoying ever imo.. It’s more or less the exact same build I run except for one utility and weapon set (shortbow). It’s more or less the standard for staff thief for spvp.

annoying it’s the right word. It’s far from strong tho.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn0MBlOhFOB+OBkmiFYCzLMEHaDzdwR4KULBEA2NA-TpBFABCcBAEvMQDHCg73fYhjAAAPAAA

Whats wrong with the site? Its broken for me

Would this be viable in PvE do you think? Finding it pretty good.. what armor would you say to use with it?

EazyPanda.6419:

If you do run out of dodges in this build, you are either tanking 3-4 players at a time, or you should really learn how to calm down.

lol!!

The new Rune of Durability is quite nice too! Maybe worth a try?

currently running this atm http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn0MBlOhdPBGmCkmiFYCzLNcGaDzdwS4KULBEA2NA-TpBFABCcBAEvMQDHCga2fYhjAAAPAAA

Shogun.7401:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn0MBlOhFOB+OBkmiFYCzLMEHaDzdwR4KULBEA2NA-TpBFABCcBAEvMQDHCg73fYhjAAAPAAA

Whats wrong with the site? Its broken for me

I have no idea, works for me, my phone etc. =/

WhiteShadows.8139:

Would this be viable in PvE do you think? Finding it pretty good.. what armor would you say to use with it?

Personally I run Critical Strikes instead of Deadly Arts in PvE. CS gives us better sustained damage, with perma fury and extra ferocity, and we do not need Panic Strikes and Improvisation for PvE.

herzeleid.3719:

EazyPanda.6419:

If you do run out of dodges in this build, you are either tanking 3-4 players at a time, or you should really learn how to calm down.

lol!!

The new Rune of Durability is quite nice too! Maybe worth a try?

Hmm, the extra vitality and boon duration may come in handy, but the protection and regen on the 4th rune only lasts 1 second, not as strong as an (almost) permanent 7% damage reduction and extra power imo =). But then, no reason not to test it out~ =D

Kolly.9872:

annoying it’s the right word. It’s far from strong tho.

Indeed, I’ll still die to any class who knows what they are doing. There’s hardly a build I’d actually call ‘strong’ for thieves nowadays. =(
But the feedback from dueling friends in our guild arena is generally I’m annoying and very hard to kill, especially compared to other thieves.

Sylpheed.8163:

I’m confused, this build definitely isn’t the most annoying ever imo.. It’s more or less the exact same build I run except for one utility and weapon set (shortbow). It’s more or less the standard for staff thief for spvp.

Your opinion is respectfully noted.

By the way, ‘more or less’ the same build is generally not really the same build. =)
A slight variation in traits/utility skills will generally have a larger impact then one would think.

For example, if you run SR instead of Roll for initiative, your playstyle will automatically include being a stealth resser, or used and an escape/initiate skill.
In contrast, with RoI you gain more sustain with an extra stun-break, condi cleanse, 6 initiative (which feels like 10 from the natural ini regen), which can be used to give us an extra dodge from staff skills.

Standard staff thieves uses DPS Runes, such as Pack runes or Vampirism runes instead of scrapper runes.
Signet of Agility and Shadowstep is almost mandatory.

The shortbow thing was a mistake, which was corrected pretty early on. (unless you are not using shortbow… which i would say.. whaaaaa???)

*fun fact, if you swap Withdraw for Channeled Vigor, you will quite literally have unlimited evades (skills+dodges). (not unlimited evade uptime, mind you). But i find Withdraw much more useful in almost all situations.

This is a really fun build! I’m running something very similar, same utils and everything.

I swapped over to marauder in pve/wvw as well, love the stat setup.

I take scrapper when I’m going dash/escapists absolution, and improvisation, to stack damage mitigation.

I take traveler when I’m going Bound/Staff Master/Executioner to stack damage modifiers and still get overland speed without swift on dodge.

I’m also running with Generosity/Energy on both my Staff and SB, cause kitten condis right in their kitteny little kitten.

old build used it in beta already problem with thhat build is that it is still subpar to d/p

Looks like a same old basic staff build that’s existed since beta/launch. There’s not a lot of good traitline options so it’s pretty common sense.

Shogun.7401:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn0MBlOhFOB+OBkmiFYCzLMEHaDzdwR4KULBEA2NA-TpBFABCcBAEvMQDHCg73fYhjAAAPAAA

Whats wrong with the site? Its broken for me

ctrl+f5 on the page, it will fully refresh it – clearing cache/cookies that might be kittening it up.

Oh please, how is this more annoying than a d/d / d/d dd carrion condi-spam using trickery and acrobatics. You can spam dodges and caltrops for over a minute.

roelvanesch.2817:

Oh please, how is this more annoying than a d/d / d/d dd carrion condi-spam using trickery and acrobatics. You can spam dodges and caltrops for over a minute.

But i can spam dodges that deals Aoe damage for almost forever. And still be able to decap points quicky thanks to shortbow.

And I’ve rendered Condi DDs helpless with this build, which means I’m out-annoying them.

Granted I’d still die to the ridiculous amount of AOE dmg and CCs lying around nowadays.