Guild Wars 2

Okay well I got GW2 back when it first came out and spent most of my time bouncing between 5 different profs trying to figure out which one I enjoy the most to make that my main. I didn’t get a whole heck of a lot of playing time in because of exams and doing crap for the Army, but now I’m back and have deiced that the thief is what I enjoy the most.

What I am not so sure on is how exactly to build mine up. I do enjoy D/D and Short-bow and from what I have seen that uses the stealth and back stab type of set up. All well in good, but from some of the online “guides” (I use that term loosely) they make some odd choices and didn’t provide any explanation as to why they choose something and how it would fit into the rest of the build.

I also spent some time trying out a condition build after seeing another thief in game that used a Short-bow to great affect and then would finish someone off with D/D most of the time. I made a build to what would seem most logical to do that with, but it probably wasn’t exactly what the other player I saw was set up as.

Basically I’m just looking for a few ideas on builds, what to get for my gear, and a basic idea of when it is good to link cretin abilities together and things of that nature. Any and all advice is appreciated. Ooo, and I had my thief since I installed the game so I didn’t just pick the prof because everyone is QQin’ that it is OP….. I’m not the greatest player, but I don’t see how it is OP, I just enjoy the playstyle.

well, what thief playstyle do you enjoy the most? for high damage there are builds like D/D and S/P, condition damage has D/D and P/D. there is S/D for control, and venom share builds that can help amplify the power of groups. it is ultimately down to what weapons/style you prefer so let me know what play style within the thief profession you would like, and I will help you out to the best of my ability.

Ahh, okay cool. Well I enjoy conditions and being able to kinda slip away and keep reapplying them. The high damage build I tried wasn’t bad, but it was really repetitive as to just restealthing and back stabbing, works well, but I found it to be a little boring. I’d like to stick with D/D and Short-bow.

well, as far as condition damage, and being able to slip away, pistol/dagger is amazing. you use sneak attack from stealth to stack bleeds, and CnD when revealed falls off to do it again. your dual skill can get you out of AoEs quickly if you are out of endurance, and with dancing dagger you have access to a cripple. D/D can be used, but you can’t stealth anywhere near as much. death blossom is a more powerful source of bleeding, but eats initiative and is far easier to avoid. one thing I like to do is use both P/D and D/D in my weapon slots, and keep a short bow in my bags for when it is needed. you can open with pistol/dagger then switch to D/D, spam DB, utility into stealth, and swap back to P/D.

gear should be either carrion (condition damage/power/vit) or apothecary (Vit/condition damage/healing power) and I think there is a condition damage/toughness/healing power set. any of the three work well.

the basic build is 30 into shadow arts for 2 initiative on stealth,condition removal every 3 seconds in stealth, and healing while in stealth. 20 into acrobatics. and 20 into trickery. start there and change it to match your style. general utilities are shadow refuge, caltrops, blinding powder, and shadow step. but don’t forget to switch to others as needed.

another thing to take into account is that all pistol bleeds get an extra tick every 25% condition duration, while death blossom gets one every 10%. so plan your runes/sigils accordingly.