Thief PvE Meta question
For up to 3 targets use Sw/p and just cleave stuff down with the autoattack while dropping black powder down. For more than 3 targets use shortbow
Right. What should I do regarding trait distribution?
As you are leveling really anything. I like the drop damage reduction because i like to fall a lot. other than that I am just loading power then precision for leveling. I am 75 so its working well. Also make sure that at least every 10 levels you upgrade your armor and weapons to your level, makes a world of difference and only costs about 10-15 silver total even at 70.
6/6/0/0/2 d/d for bosses, Sw/p for trash. Keep signet of agility at pretty much all times, other good ones are SR (for skipping) or smokescreen (for skipping or projectile reflects). Assassins signet is fairly good as well. Save the active on it for bosses <25% HP and spam heart seeker. All berserker gear, scholar runes, life steal food. Be aware the main thing a thief brings to a group is trash mob skipping, so know the places where thats helpful
Also the rotation for d/d is CnD?backstab?1 full auto chain?repeat. For Sw/p pistol whip does slightly more DPS than the auto chain, however the difference in dmg is very slight. On top of that the sword auto gives perma weakness, so that if an attack does somehow sneak through, its not going to hit hard at all. so youre better off saving your initiative to benefit from 25 in crit strikes, as well as the blind field helps your whole team stay alive. However if you do somehow get stuck in a boss fight with Sw/p pistol whip is the way to go, since bosses are basically immune to blinds. Dont just spam it tho, watch animations to get the best use of it. In case you didnt know, pistol whip evades all attacks for the second part of the skill. Signet of malice is also a pretty good choice of heal with Sw/p, due to pistol whip hitting multiple times, and healing up with crit procs and that is great when trash can’t even touch you cus theyre permablinded. Keep a shortbow on hand as well, just not as your main weapon. Cluster bomb is essentially a spammable blast finisher, which is awesome to use in fire fields to stack up might, water fields to heal everyone up, or smoke fields to skip a certain part of the dungeon (thats where smokescreen comes in) below is a video guide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoD6aOhzu7M
For open world PvE, you cannot go wrong with sword/pistol.
Auto attack with Pistol Whip is really all you need. You get cleave, evades and do a shed load of damage. Run with either dagger/dagger for more damage or shortbow for a nice blast finisher, in the second weapon slot.
Lvl 80’s: Ranger; Guardian; Mesmer; Necromancer; Thief
Gandara Megaserver
Shortbow is nice for most open world AoE needs, the blastfinisher is also good for events. Sometimes you may want the extra defense from the blind on Sword/Pistol #5.