Guild Wars 2

From what I’ve seen, Thief might be the class with the most options. There’s your usual D/P build. And then you have the team fight oriented staff build. Then there’s the S/D Acro build, a build all about evading. And lastly the D/D condi build with the main goal being to stack bleeds. A lot of options to play if your a thief.

actually the only competitive build for thief is still d/p

staff is still more or less of a gimmick even as it becomes more popular

both s/d and d/d are not serious s/d doesnt do enough damage and s/d 3 barely offers something what staff 5 doesnt,

d/d loses against other condi spammers (hi reaper) and its way too focused on applying a single type of condition – bleed, which grants it easily removed while a prerequisite of a good condi build is spamming enemy’s condition bar with every possible red icon existing in the game

ranger can go power, condi, druid, shout

guard can go zerk, burn, bunker

war can go zerk, condi, shout, hambow

every class has at least 3 or more builds they can run

but are they all viable? no. same as d/d or s/d thief

Lexander.4579:

actually the only competitive build for thief is still d/p

staff is still more or less of a gimmick even as it becomes more popular

both s/d and d/d are not serious s/d doesnt do enough damage and s/d 3 barely offers something what staff 5 doesnt,

d/d loses against other condi spammers (hi reaper) and its way too focused on applying a single type of condition – bleed, which grants it easily removed while a prerequisite of a good condi build is spamming enemy’s condition bar with every possible red icon existing in the game

Yeah true lol 4 was kind of a stretch but I’ve seen some condi thieves absolutely wreck the opposing teams because they just evade everything. But, imo, D/P and staff are the more serious and competitive sets. I got to legendary using staff. It does a lo of dmg, has blind on demand and good for team fighting. D/P is D/P. S/D, well it’s still too early to tell. I’ve seen some really solid play with S/D

do you even read?
The guy said “viable” no competitve.

D/P is without doubts the choice for high level tournaments/scenarios followed by staff then s/d.

One can make competitive any set if it is good enough at it imo.

Shovel Face.4512:

From what I’ve seen, Thief might be the class with the most options. There’s your usual D/P build. And then you have the team fight oriented staff build. Then there’s the S/D Acro build, a build all about evading. And lastly the D/D condi build with the main goal being to stack bleeds. A lot of options to play if your a thief.

I’ve been running S/D and it is not much better than it was. Of course I’m playing without HoT so no DD traits. Viable? In very skilled hands perhaps. Not in mine. The problem with S/D is that dodging all day long and giving yourself regen does not really accomplish anything in PvP.

I’ve actually had better luck with D/D, using the newly buffed Assassin’s Reward with a healing rune and Carrion amulet.

Shovel Face.4512:

From what I’ve seen, Thief might be the class with the most options. There’s your usual D/P build. And then you have the team fight oriented staff build. Then there’s the S/D Acro build, a build all about evading. And lastly the D/D condi build with the main goal being to stack bleeds. A lot of options to play if your a thief.

I’m afraid you are inexperience. There are no viable builds. Viable meaning that equally skilled people with split wins 50%.

Lukas.7159:

ranger can go power, condi, druid, shout

guard can go zerk, burn, bunker

war can go zerk, condi, shout, hambow

every class has at least 3 or more builds they can run

but are they all viable? no. same as d/d or s/d thief

war can also go to trashcan, doesn’t matter what build he runs

The key to making d/d condi build work is not the number of condition types or stacks it can apply. It is how rapidly they can be reapplied and how rapidly incoming conditions are removed.

Using db with escapists and training into acro for PR and the new GI and dA for constant poison applications you can peel off incoming conditions rapidly even as you are applying the same.In order to do this and remain in the fight assassins reward should be traited along with some degree of healing.Done right and you can easily get 2k heals per DB.

The enemy is not other condition builds as you will fare well against them. It is AOE as enemies with ample access can easily predict where would will land and ensure you land in it.

I do not Pvp but I do not see why it can not work there. Most of my time is Wvw and this build does very well against condi opponents.

that baby stealing dingo.7216:

Shovel Face.4512:

From what I’ve seen, Thief might be the class with the most options. There’s your usual D/P build. And then you have the team fight oriented staff build. Then there’s the S/D Acro build, a build all about evading. And lastly the D/D condi build with the main goal being to stack bleeds. A lot of options to play if your a thief.

I’ve been running S/D and it is not much better than it was. Of course I’m playing without HoT so no DD traits. Viable? In very skilled hands perhaps. Not in mine. The problem with S/D is that dodging all day long and giving yourself regen does not really accomplish anything in PvP.

I’ve actually had better luck with D/D, using the newly buffed Assassin’s Reward with a healing rune and Carrion amulet.

S\d works much better with DD. It also fun. Whether it can be competive in Pvp I do not know. I never used it much in Wvw until recent additions of runes and sigils along with DD and acro revamp. It performs much better there than it used to.

I am thinking some Pvp builds will develop over time.

Lexander.4579:

actually the only competitive build for thief is still d/p

staff is still more or less of a gimmick even as it becomes more popular

both s/d and d/d are not serious s/d doesnt do enough damage and s/d 3 barely offers something what staff 5 doesnt,

d/d loses against other condi spammers (hi reaper) and its way too focused on applying a single type of condition – bleed, which grants it easily removed while a prerequisite of a good condi build is spamming enemy’s condition bar with every possible red icon existing in the game

Bleed might be easily removed but the thief can easily reapply it in stacks. Second most DB builds also spam cripple which makes it easier to land more bleeds. DB, when played right, will have a higher chance of causing players to spend their clears in a panic. So i’ll have to disagree with you here.

yolo swaggins.2570:

Lexander.4579:

actually the only competitive build for thief is still d/p

staff is still more or less of a gimmick even as it becomes more popular

both s/d and d/d are not serious s/d doesnt do enough damage and s/d 3 barely offers something what staff 5 doesnt,

d/d loses against other condi spammers (hi reaper) and its way too focused on applying a single type of condition – bleed, which grants it easily removed while a prerequisite of a good condi build is spamming enemy’s condition bar with every possible red icon existing in the game

Bleed might be easily removed but the thief can easily reapply it in stacks. Second most DB builds also spam cripple which makes it easier to land more bleeds. DB, when played right, will have a higher chance of causing players to spend their clears in a panic. So i’ll have to disagree with you here.

Do not forget the poison. I used to trait trickery over DA for the confusion on BA but found this did not work as well. The reasonw as you could only apply that Confusion once every 30 seconds. Poison with D mastery works better because on every DB that applies bleeds you are applying poison for the same INI spent.

This in turn keeps weakness on.

Now you can get both cripple and more bleeds off uncatachable but I found its limited field made it less reliable. Cripples come off impaling in any case.

Skeletor.9360:

Shovel Face.4512:

From what I’ve seen, Thief might be the class with the most options. There’s your usual D/P build. And then you have the team fight oriented staff build. Then there’s the S/D Acro build, a build all about evading. And lastly the D/D condi build with the main goal being to stack bleeds. A lot of options to play if your a thief.

I’m afraid you are inexperience. There are no viable builds. Viable meaning that equally skilled people with split wins 50%.

I stopped reading when you said “no viable builds.” I think your the inexperienced one here buddy.

Is S/D really not viable? It’s so sad cause i love the playstyle with de Dagger offhand CnD is awesome!
Anyone havin a good S/D build for sPvP?

Well s/d is more of a sustained build snd its a zerker meta so tby the meta isnt going for it currently either

yolo swaggins.2570:

Lexander.4579:

actually the only competitive build for thief is still d/p

staff is still more or less of a gimmick even as it becomes more popular

both s/d and d/d are not serious s/d doesnt do enough damage and s/d 3 barely offers something what staff 5 doesnt,

d/d loses against other condi spammers (hi reaper) and its way too focused on applying a single type of condition – bleed, which grants it easily removed while a prerequisite of a good condi build is spamming enemy’s condition bar with every possible red icon existing in the game

Bleed might be easily removed but the thief can easily reapply it in stacks. Second most DB builds also spam cripple which makes it easier to land more bleeds. DB, when played right, will have a higher chance of causing players to spend their clears in a panic. So i’ll have to disagree with you here.

condition thief is simply so unreliable and situational that you cant even call it a “gimmick” many classes do its job better and with more survivability while others just stomp him into the dirt

Shovel Face.4512:

Skeletor.9360:

Shovel Face.4512:

From what I’ve seen, Thief might be the class with the most options. There’s your usual D/P build. And then you have the team fight oriented staff build. Then there’s the S/D Acro build, a build all about evading. And lastly the D/D condi build with the main goal being to stack bleeds. A lot of options to play if your a thief.

I’m afraid you are inexperience. There are no viable builds. Viable meaning that equally skilled people with split wins 50%.

I stopped reading when you said “no viable builds.” I think your the inexperienced one here buddy.

You are right. Few months ago he was raging in all chat in sPvP because he got Moa-ed by the Engineer on our team and called it hacks. When I tried to explain it to him, he said he didn’t have access to the class as it was p2w. Take what most people say here with a grain of salt. I have screen shots to prove it ;p btw.

All of these builds are viable right now imo ( other than condi :P) but the dagger/ staff auto attack is just too strong. d/p is probably the strongest but staff is a very close second. staff takes a little more effort to stick to some one with the 3 jump cancel the roll for perma cripple. but honestly thief is so strong now that I have been doing fine as a one dagger thief. you can just auto attack trade with almost any class. The burst of bound steal auto is so high probably not worth backstabbing anymore tbh.

Playing a bit of da/dd/tri s/d but having to use glass runes like scholar. The dmg just enough with other power based like scrapper or dd runes.

IMO balancing D/D condi with poison over extra bleed makes a huge difference (e.g. Rune of Thorns or Rune of Orr instead over Krait). Top it off with carrion amulet and condi duration sigils and you have a decently powerful build. I’m running it in sPvP and tbh I like it a lot. Also, I run Deadly Arts in the place of acro for the poison util.

I win almost all my 1v1s.
There’s obviously still gotchas’, like Diamond Skin, or druid’s cleanse capability, but for most opponents I end up constantly dumping heaps of condis even after they remove them. Most of the time I maintain a steady ~10-15 stack bleed and ~6-10 stack poison, with occasional 4-8 stack torment (and cripple) from Lotus Training.
IMHO the problem is people aren’t playing condi thief right, so to say. I see people who run, say, Rune of the Krait instead of Thorns or Orr, then overlook Deadly Arts, ultimately producing a heavily bleed-reliant thief, which is all too easy to counter.

Just my 2 cents

Army of Ninjas.1580:

IMO balancing D/D condi with poison over extra bleed makes a huge difference (e.g. Rune of Thorns or Rune of Orr instead over Krait). Top it off with carrion amulet and condi duration sigils and you have a decently powerful build. I’m running it in sPvP and tbh I like it a lot. Also, I run Deadly Arts in the place of acro for the poison util.

I win almost all my 1v1s.
There’s obviously still gotchas’, like Diamond Skin, or druid’s cleanse capability, but for most opponents I end up constantly dumping heaps of condis even after they remove them. Most of the time I maintain a steady ~10-15 stack bleed and ~6-10 stack poison, with occasional 4-8 stack torment (and cripple) from Lotus Training.
IMHO the problem is people aren’t playing condi thief right, so to say. I see people who run, say, Rune of the Krait instead of Thorns or Orr, then overlook Deadly Arts, ultimately producing a heavily bleed-reliant thief, which is all too easy to counter.

Just my 2 cents

yeah The reason to run Orr/Thorns is not the 6 bonus. It poison durations so as to make poison a competitive condition. You can also go trcikery with pressure strike using distracting daggers so as to get confusion and more troment but it much harder to pull off.

Ktait in my opinion is too focused on bleeds and the duration bonus it gives goes to waste because belled duration base is already high.