Hello fellow thiefs, I’d like to share and comment with you my efforts on creating a suitable build for aoe farming.
The idea is to create a viable build to kill mass of foes in the world PVE events while wearing magic find armor, in group or even in solo (note: I will NOT use this setup/armor in dungeons).
For that I’d need survivability and spread-out aoe dmg.
Bearing in mind that the magic find armor gives only crit and power, leaving you exposed to direct damage, I came up with two options so far:
SB focused.
Deadly arts to add some power and might (that affects condition damage too) with the 3 venoms utility (used mostly to leave foes at distance, weaken, and get the might buff).
Acrobatics for the classic “assassin’s reward” and the useful might-roll.
Trickery for condition damage and “initial strike”, wich seems to proc off of the SB autoattack BOUNCES (so can proc more than once with each autoattack). That’s the main initiative regen, along with buffed steal.
How to use it: Envenom the terrain, spread the venom, and start kiting with autoattacks, dodge/caltrops and clusterbombs, while blowing the venom utilities cds.
Aoe damage will flow from the venom spread throu the SB, the bouncing autoattacks and the “cluster bombs”, wich also adds some bleeding along with the caltrops threw when dodging.
Option 2: that one is a PVE version of the Lowell’s “Leaping Super Immortal Death Troll Legendary Unicorn Blossom”
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/thief#3|3|3537|3468|4001|3999|4989|0|0|0|0|30|1726|1723|1728|0|0|0|0|25|1165|1695|0|15|782|0|0|0|0|4|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|
D/D focused.
Critical strikes is for the might and init regen (main one) from signets and crits, and to buff the direct damage of Death blossom.
Acrobatics for the (yet again) assassin’s reward and might-roll.
Trickery for the cond. damage, caltrops, and initiative (max and steal-regen).
How to use it: run in, spam Death blossom and dodging for caltrops, while evading most of the attacks (and healing the others). Blow signets – even all at once – to get initiative and endurance back up. AoE dmg flows from bleeds and death blossoms (mostly crits) direct attacks.
Both specs have very high survivability (even with no thougness/vitality on gear): health keeps flowing from attacks (signet of malice) and the continuous initiative burning (assassin’s reward), plus in option 2 you are nearly always dodging, and in option 1 you can maneuver to stay out of most of the damage.
Main noticeable problems when playing these is damage:
Opt.1 lacks a costant flow of bleeding (the caltrops and the bombs dont stack very well), and the time used to kite mobs sometime feels like getting the overall dps down. Also, with no conditiondmg on gear and low on traits, I guess the venom n bleeds aren’t hitting that hard, although the long forms of might buffs help.
Opt.2 lacks completely venom damage, although it keeps 10+stacks of bleedings on everyone. Problematic with spread-out ranged mobs, wich also dont get the caltrops dmg because stationary, making their bleed debuff fade every now and then. Also, same problem with the low condition dmg on equip/traits , although the might buff spikes on signet burnings help.
Any suggestion / hint on how I could improve those specs? 