Guild Wars 2

Right, expert thief players, I’ve just rolled an alt thief, he’s level 80 out of the box with tomes but has zero gear and no build. (Also haven’t unlocked DD yet) I’m going to craft him exotics and give him a PvE build for mapping and general stuff. Hit me with builds and gear choices, need to cover as many PvE bases as possible with one set so I can work towards getting him 100% map and ascended down the line. =)

If u have expansion get DD asap. As it comes to gear go full berserker and traits Da/cs/tr (since u dont have dd yet then replace tr with it) and for fast exploring use withdraw(then DD healing skill) shadowstep, iniltrators signet and agility one. D/d b4 u get DD then staff and second slot sb.

For map completion and general PvE I like a dagger/dagger condi thief with Carrion gear. Once you unlock Daredevil stuff you can try the staff out.

Map completion means you’ll be fighting lots of mobs by yourself, including some veterans and champs. The evading, AoE and sustained condi damage that you get with dagger/dagger really helps here.

Here is just one build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVlsMhanYvTw5Jw+EHtElOAOgFovYNaV4fj7IFB-TJxCABAcCA0qMwxPAAU2fAA

The Caltrops along with Death Blossom give you good AoE. The Scorpion Wire helps you pull enemies to you one at time, without aggro-ing the whole mob. Thieves Guild gives you both offense and defense by way of creating two new targets for the enemy to pay attention to.

Whatever you do, equip either a sigil of Corruption or sigil of Bloodlust. These are cheap from level 1 and invaluable in general PvE.

Full glass (as PanZ suggests) is also viable for map completion, but takes more practice and skill, and attention to what you’re doing. I prefer to play open PvE with a drink in one hand, so….

Thanks for the tips guys, I’m an experienced player so this isn’t my first map completion, also not my first 80 alt but I’m getting bored with my Druid so wanted to try something on the other end of the support/damage spectrum for a change.

Nighteyess.2149:

I have got 2 HoT maps done ,65% world completion and do lvl 50 fractals with my full Zerker DD and haven’t had any issues. S/SB makes map completion very easy.

Content that u’ve done isnt proving anything tho

I’m also going to say D/D Carrion. Carrion (or Rampagers) is the premier leveling stat array. Even though you’re level 80, still consider your situation as leveling because your character isn’t set and ready.

The number one want for leveling is aoe damage. D/D is one of the better aoe options sans Daredevil. In addition, you have fantastic single target with dagger auto. You have the power to easily both tag and kill enemies and the condition damage and base duration to kite if needed (or zerg surf larger events like in Cursed Shore). Power is ideal against enemies you out level. Condition Damage is ideal in pve when enemies out level you, or when you need to kite. Carrion and Rampagers have both. Daggers don’t require precision to apply their conditions, so the precision from Rampagers isn’t necessary.

You’re going to want DA and Trickery for Dagger Training, Potent Poison, and Uncatchable mainly. Those three traits will allow you to get your damage in against single targets (like bosses) or both damage and control mobs of enemies for xp and loot. Anything else is whatever you feel like.

Once you get Daredevil, you can switch to full power, add staff gives you your needed aoe. At that point power is a good option, but Carrion is cheaper and you won’t have to reinvent yourself midway through. You can make that decision when you get there. DD also helps conditions a lot, so there’s plenty of benefits to be had.

I think Carrion D/D can cover what you want out of pve for the time being. It gives you hybrid damage, some defense without pulling aggro, both single target and aoe damage are good, and the stat is cheap to buy/craft.

Having not played the DD yet I don’t know how much I’ll enjoy staff. What’s the general opinion on S/D + SB or S/P + SB? The sword and off-hand pistol or dagger appeals to me aesthetically but I don’t really know where it’s role sits on the thief.

Quick edit, going to make some gear now, I have the materials and I’m thinking of making Marauder’s exotics for now over Zerker. Thief is super squishy at the best of times and using Marauder’s armour and ascended amulet with zerker weapons and back item yields a good 30-40% more HP. Is a force multipler of naff all still naff all though? The other upshot to this is I still need to do some discoveries on my leather worker to get him to 500 and this will help

Something like this for now:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZEQNAsaVl0MhenYZTw2JQ/EH8El+M/hAoHEJ4N4TisoKA-TBiDQBfQfQXUC6DlY4T9HAYiBiKD2x+DORpBA-e

I’m not too bothered about being completely min-maxed so long as it “works” for now and is fun to play. Unless I am missing something critical that will hamper me significantly?

I would just swap acrobatics for critical strikes, it’s the most important pve traitline in core thief. And then just play with different utils.

Thief plays completely differently to a druid, with a druid you need learn to do damage, because your defense is already ok, but thief you must learn to survive because your damage is already ok. I would just suggest take the meta build and instead of focussing on doing damage, just focus on survival to begin with. I learnt how to thief when I learnt to stop dieing.

Rumor is the patch today will nerf staff power DPS by nerfing the auto attack, but condi builds will get buffed from venoms going baseline.