Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

With the information gathered from this week’s SoTG, I think it’s safe to assume that us thieves are going to have to change up our game to become viable in a competitive PvP environment. I do not believe that the bunker meta is going to disappear completely because of the addition of some boon hate on a few professions. This is why I decided to have a go at making a Thief bunker build.
It has been tested in a few matches and has performed well, but I am in no way claiming this is a good build or even viable.
Please leave constructive criticism below, and hopefully we as a community can come up with something that truly stands out among the rest.

The Build

Traits: 0/0/30/30/10
Shadow Arts – Shadow Protector (III), Hidden Thief (VIII), Shadow’s Rejuvenation (XI)
Acrobatics – Fleet Shadow (VI), Assassin’s Reward (X), Quick Pockets (XII)
Trickery – Flanking Strikes (IV)

Weapon Sets: Sword/Dagger, Dagger/Dagger
Sigils: Force in all weapons (prone to change)
Armor Runes: 6 x Superior Rune of the Warrior

Slot Skills:
6 – Hide in Shadows
7 – Blinding Powder
8 – Shadow Refuge
9 – Shadowstep
Elite – Thieves Guild

The focus of this build is to be tanky enough to stand toe to toe for a few hits without worry, using Infiltrator’s Strike and Tactical Strike to keep your target locked down. As you can see the build has a high amount of stealth skills, allowing you to quickly gain health off of Shadow Protector and Shadow Rejuvenation at a moment’s notice. The choice of going with no ranged weapon set was a tough one to make, but necessary as I see it. Quick Pockets in combination with Runes of the Warrior allows you CnD then switch to D/D for a backstab and a Heartseeker on a weakened opponent. Even though you have literally 0% extra crit damage and 4% crit chance, you’ll still be hitting harder than a feather with right around 3k attack power. Originally, I had spent 10 points into Deadly Arts instead of Trickery and Mug was in the build. However, I honestly believe that the reduction in overall Attack and damage from Mug (negligible in this build) is less than the increase in damage from Flanking Strikes. Kleptomaniac also helps regain your footing if Steal is up.

Anyways, that’s enough rambling for me.
Leave your thoughts below.

P.S. What is the colour of night?

Bumping this because of my selfish desire to gather knowledge.

Edit: Woops, forgot to mention that this build was made in SPvP.
2nd Edit: Also forgot to mention that I was using the Soldier’s Amulet, with a Solder’s Jewel.

Thief Bunker… that sounds so bad…

Tested the build extensively tonight. Very please with what it brings to the table in 1v1’s. Had a 10 minute session with another good thief, neither of us could get the kill. Also held a capture point for a good 5 minutes while a necro and warrior tried to cap it.

It can’t hold a point seeing as it relies on stealth heavily to survive, therefore it’s absolutely useless as a “bunker”. If you were thinking of going somewhere around the line of cantrip eles and indefinitely contesting far point, it’s not going to work either, seeing as the enemy will slowly cap the point under you as you stealth yourself to survive, so no “far bunker” either. You cannot survive focus fire, cannot hold a point and your damage is suffering because of the trait choices, so no burst damage either. You threw away shortbow, so you lack in any sort of mobility, and the choice of soldier’s amulet implies you have no reliable sort of HP sustain (as it lacks healing power), so if the enemy catches you, you will die regardless of those tanky stats.

This build might work in hotjoin, if your purpose is just to “survive”, but I wouldn’t even try it in tournaments. If you want a tanky build that has actually proven to work (even if only against opponents of lower skill level), try the 0/0/30/30/10 d/d signet of malice bleed caltrops build, or get a dps friend (warrior for example) and run venom share build with him.

Don’t take this too harshly please, I am just trying to save you from wasting your time learning to play a build, that isn’t going to work in the end.

The thing with stealth builds is that they’re not good as bunkers, in stealth = losing point. That’s pretty much why thieves end up being the roamer in PvP matches. I’ve tested out a S/P 0/0/10/30/30 build lately, focusing on heavy initiative and health regeneration combined with dodges and blinds to infinity. Works great so far at holding points! The key to win is to hold a point, right? So it would be stupid for a bunker to rely on stealth to survive.

I will probably finish the build in a few days and post it in the forums when it’s ready ^^