Guild Wars 2

I just created my thief yesterday and it seems like the class for me. Now i need a build for leveling, searched the forum but all i can find is endgame build. Really need some help from you guys for trait order, good utility skills, and also weapon type. Thank you in advance

Get some movement skills like Drawback, Roll for Initiative, and Blinding Powder, to compliment the movement skills you get from the weapons. You’ll want to get in (if you play melee), deal some damage, and then get back out again. Don’t stay still for too long at a time, as this will most likely get you downed. Try and get into the habit of using steal as well, as it can provide you with additional helpful skills. The shortbow is a must have weapon when leveling up, as it is your main source of AoE damage.

Traits aren’t that important tbh and you’ll end up using whatever is most useful at that point in time since you can’t access the full trait line for most of your time spent levelling.

For weapon sets i find the most useful to be either a direct damage build using sword/pistol. This just involves using black powder to blind any mobs standing inside and using your auto attack to kill them. This makes any melee enemies without the unshakable buff trivial for the most part, you just have to watch out for opponents that attack more than once a second as your blind field doesn’t work as quickly. If you’re facing more than 1 ranged opponent this can be an issue though.

The other option is a condition build that spams leaping death blossom with dagger/dagger or using short bow. You can apply bleeds to groups of enemies while evading most of the time. Caltrops is very effective here but I would use them on any build while levelling tbh. They also work very well in tandem with signet of malice as they proc the heal whenever they apply a bleed to any any enemy within them. You may also find pistol/dagger using the auto attack and stealth attack to apply bleeds effective at dealing with one opponent relatively safely due to the range and stealth from this weapon set. In general i would experiment though since almost everything has some situational use, although some skills are frankly useless :P

Edit: Leaving this up for ideas but I like Alex’s suggestions above

This is my opinion only, may not be optimal, but if you are looking for a path

Pistol/Dagger, Dagger/Dagger, and Sword/Pistol are all good for leveling. Shortbow is an excellent alternative weapon.

Personally I prefer the P/D, Shortbow set up. Thieves can be very squishy. So range and condition damage is good in PvE. I killed most things through bleeds.

Sword mainhand is good, just enter every fight with sword 2 and jump out when you need to or before it drops the return.

You need 5 1 point utilities to open up the 3 point utilities. I recommend
Blinding Powder and Roll for Initiative the rest can be whatever you want.

For 3 point utilities I recommend
Caltrops and then whatever.

For 6 point traits
Shadow Refuge, Shadow Step

Elite
Thieves Guild

I put my first 10 points into Trickery for uncatchable.
Then 10 points into Deadly Arts for mug (not sure if this is still worth it.)
Then 10 into Acrobatics for Power of Inertia
Then up to 20 in Trickery for Bountiful Theft
Then up to 20 in Acrobatics for Quick Recovery

Once you open grandmaster traits, think about how you’d like to play end game and start playing around with that.

A lot of what you’re asking for is subjective. But here’s a general crash course.

1) Sword/Pistol & Shortbow – This is an aggressive tank ‘n spank build. You’ll use Pistol #5 for creating AoE Blind clouds and Combined #3 for the frontal arc damage and free evasion. Most of your dps output comes from Sword #1. Unlike most builds, this is a non-stealth build. (I would personally consider this to be an easy leveling spec against any non-Champion mobs.)

2) Sword/Dagger & Shortbow – This is an aggressive mobile build. Due to the recent changes to Combined #3, it’s now a viable attack move and it steals x2 boons from enemy mobs. Dagger #5 gives you access to stealth, so character builds can wildly vary.

3) Pistol/Dagger & (Shortbow?) – This is your ranged dps build that focuses on killing mobs through condition damage dots. You’ll have to constantly move around the battlefield and will often use Dagger #5 for access to the Stealth Pistol #1 attack.

4) Dagger/Dagger & Shortbow – This is a highly mobile melee dps build that also focuses on dealing out condition damage dots. Once again, you’ve got stealth options through Dagger #5.

Here are some popular and key traits:

Mug (Deadly Arts 10) – Although this can’t crit anymore and its dps output was reduced, the trait also gives you a heal. As a backup ability for dps and healing, the trait isn’t a bad choice.

Shadow’s Embrace (Shadow Arts 10) – If you’re running a Dagger in your off-hand slot, then this trait will act as your main source of condition removal.

Expeditious Dodger (Acrobatics 5) – For most Thief builds, you’re constantly running all over the place and the temporary Swiftness is a game changer.

Uncatchable (Trickery 10) – This trait is one of the stable choices for condition builds. Even if you’re not running around that much, the free damage and Cripple on enemies is always useful.

Utility skills really depend on your trait and weapon choices. As a soloing player, take a look at our Signet powers. Smoke Screen is a situational power. The same goes for Shadow’s Refuge, though it becomes a staple power in group situations. Caltrops is often used to condition builds, which has great synergy with the Uncatchable trait.

You can build a Thief a lot of ways. For example, I run the S/P & SB set up while focusing on the Venom powers. This is an AoE buffing spec that pretty much needs Deadly Arts 30 / Shadow Arts 30 / ? 10. However my specific character doesn’t play like a traditional Thief and I’m really not the best person to give advice in that area.

for leveling there are two builds usually considered the most effective.

the first is dagger/dagger focusing on condition damage. you use death blossom and the caltrops utility to bleed and kite enemies until they drop dead from the bleed damage. it can take on enemies with level advantages because bleeds don’t glance, and rips groups of mobs apart with ease, though it does kill slowly until you get access to decent condition damage gear, caltrops, and some trait points. for utilities, caltrops, signet of shadows, and roll for initiative are very useful, and signet of malice for your heal makes the high hit volume of death blossom and caltrops put out great healing. using a shortbow to drop a poison field before you get started can make it even better. traits wise, acrobatics will increase your survivability quite well, so 15 points into it as soon as you can helps immensely, trickery increases condition damage, and gives access to some nice traits like a smaller, weaker version of caltrops on dodge. deadly arts can also help, as every 10 points into it give your death blossom bleeds an extra tick, but you dont get much from it outside of that, so if you can’t get 10 points into it, getting to 15 acro or putting points into trickery takes priority. D/D is obviously your main weapon set, but pistol/dagger can be used for soloing things like skill challenges, and short bow brings a poison field and cluster bomb, allowing even more AoE damage.

the other build is sword/pistol. it uses black powder to blind enemies, and the swords ability to hit multiple opponents to kill without taking much damage. PW is a nice evade/interupt you can use to finish off an opponent instead of dropping another BP or if you need the hit volume for things like signet of malice. once again caltrops comes in useful, more for the hit volume than the bleeds this time, as signet of malice is a good heal for this build too. power is your priority on gear. good utilities are caltrops, signet of shadows, and signet of agility for extra dodging when you can’t blind or evade everything with just the weapon set. for traits, max out critical strikes, 15 points into acrobatics once again increases survivability quite a bit. after that it is largely up to you. points in deadly arts can increase damage, points in trickery can increase your initiative pool, give you access to fury on steal, and even vigor on steal. sword/pistol is of course the main weapon, but shortbow makes a great second weapon. you can spam cluster bomb at point blank range to kill groups of weaker melee range enemies quickly, just make sure you have some way to defend yourself while you do it,though with signet of malice you will out heal most enemies damage short of the big hits.

for universally useful utilities, shadow refuge is great for avoiding enemies around resource nodes, the channeled skill challenges, and getting out of a tight spot. signet of shadows increases movement speed, which is great, but it can be hard to learn to live without it if you get used to it. signet of agility refills endurance and clears a condition, so you can use it if you need more dodges, or in combination with haste.

with all that said, these are just the most common leveling builds, and the open world PvE in this game is easy enough most anything can work if you want it to. if you find something you find more enjoyable then by all means do it instead, or the leveling grind can just kill your motivation to play the class.

One additional point to Grimm’s excellent post. Blinking powder will reblind enemies in the field. So if they attack you in the field, they are immediately blinded again.