Guild Wars 2

I made a sylvari thief. Used scroll getting to lv20 and went to LA, now lv45. I would like some suggestions on how best play thief in pve.

First and foremost is zergy events commonly found in LA. I learned how wonderful is to have a spammable blast finisher (shortbow #2) and wished I started this character back in Escape from LA where zergs were bigger. I like to res downed players because of the exp and the easy access to stealth.

Second. Boss fights like the Knight and Hologram. I find the lack of 1200 range weapon is quite annoying. P/P #3 is cool and dandy, but unfortunately there is virtually no utility skill that can effectively augment my own damage. Hologram fight is more fun due to shortbow #5 bypassing beam mark aoe’s, so higher prime attunement uptime. Lack of 1200 range weapon continue to be an issue… but the most hated part is when ultraviolet drops tactical strikes to everyone that is not dodgable. Being low level with low health, it’s in an instant down.

I didn’t do a lot of open world solo pve and personal story stuff. From what I see, stealth around in PS instances don’t do much good. What I would like to know is how thief plays in dungeon. Obviously using stealth to bypass certain steps is a logical thing to do, but is the class a good dps/support apart from that?

Closest to support you will get is in your trickery line which isn’t too bad but not our main role. Outside of that your main focus is just straight dps, as a thief I make sure to always catch downed players immediately, even just dropping shadows refuge quick enough can res a player without any one helping in a second or two. Fir weapons pay around with p/p, s/p, d/d, and sb in pve you will often be swapping between them all the best suit situations.

I’m wondering how to make a build for dungeons… it doesn’t feel melee weapons are good at aoe attacks…

Thieves have two of the best weapon sets for dungeons: S/P for aoe trash clearing along with an OP blindfield and D/D for top notch single target damage on bosses.

For dungeons, just use the meta, 25/30/0/0/15 or the 25/30/015/0 one. Dps-wise, we are one of the best.
Thieves do fairly good on the support front. Blinds, vulnerability, weakness, a spammable blast finisher, a projectile blocker, a pull and ofc stealth.
The sword is a great mob clearing weapon, paired with a pistol and SoM, you can basically “tank” mobs infinitely. Swap to daggers for bosses and keep a SB for might stacking.

Can anyone post that meta build please?

Since this topic’s title is quite general, I think I’ll post here instead of opening a new topic.

First of all, I came back to thief after a looong break playing mostly warrior and necro and sometimes other alts. I guess I was missing the class. I was quite disappointed about the buff to initiative passive regen when it came out but now I’ve changed my mind, now thief feels much more fun to play and I’m more willing to use skills and spend initiative.

Now, on the matter of the post. I had some trouble in dungeons at first, especially considering the stacking meta, but now I feel comfortable again with the class. At first I used this build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYEQRAsa4Yl0Mp7pFOx0J0PNhs9YnqQeS/AO1zgrkPA-zQCBYLFRjmgAjII0UBCRJPSrZPChlhFRjVXDT5iIqGA-e

Then, since I’m used to play zerker warrior, I switched to this build seeking more damage:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYEQRAsa4Yl0Mp7pFOx0J0PNhs9YnqQeSnBO1S9H4KA-zQCBYLFRjmgAjII0UBCRJPSrZPChlhFRjVXDT5iIqGA-e

I’m also packing a shortbow and bloodlust stacking weapons.

I tested the damage output for both builds on veteran risen giants at cursed shore, without any bloodlust stack or food.

25 acro (keeping Fluid Strikes up) averaged

Backstab: 6392
Bacstab + Executioner: 7681

Wild Strike&Lotus Strike: 2288
Wild Strike&Lotus Strike+Executioner: 2786

Cloak and Dagger: 3692
Cloak and Dagger+Executioner: 4292

25 deadly arts averaged
Backstab: 6804
Bacstab + Executioner: 8479

Wild Strike&Lotus Strike: 2456
Wild Strike&Lotus Strike+Executioner: 2951

Cloak and Dagger: 4009
Cloak and Dagger+Executioner: 4717

I was quite disappointed with the not so great damage increase. 25 acro has 1000 hp and you can trait Pain Response to have cleanse, which I found quite helpful in AC and CM and very useful in the fight against Mai Trin. Also it can cleanse weakness if needed with Fleet of Foot. It loses 412 dmg per backstab, 798 per backstab+executioner, 168 per wild/lotus strike, 380 per C&D, 424 per C&D+executioner.

Do you guys think is worth to run 25 DA instead of 25 acro to gain around 1400 dmg per rotation?

You’re talking about just one rotation, friend. Against bosses like the golem in CoE, or the Arah P2 Abomination which are both damage sponges, you will be pulling off substantially more rotations. Also, in group settings where you have access to warrior banners (usually) and other buffs that gap will further widen.

Hmmm… didn’t think about that. With more rotations the difference definitely sums up and creates a huge dps gap.

One more question: how does the thief 25/30/0/0/15 fares against warrior’s 30/25/0/0/15 dps wise? I heard somewhere that warrior has lower single target dps compared to thief, but honestly I can’t see how that’s possible since warrior scores about 25000-30000 on hundred blades alone every 10 seconds with HB, plus axe auto goes for about 2700 every chop and hits for 5000 on the last chop, and crushing blow hits for about 4000… Plus warrior can keep his chain up indefinitely.

I mean, if I look for “thief vs warrior dps” I find only threads with people arguing without getting to a conclusion. Did someone actually do some real and objective calculations? Also, I’m not talking about burst, I’m talking about sustained dps.

Correct, but you are also forgetting that HB and the axe chain both take a good 3.5 seconds to fully execute. Thief rotations only include one auto chain (which itself takes about 1 second to complete while still doing respectable damage) between CnD and Backstabs, and when your target goes below 25% health you start spamming Heartseeker instead because it does nearly the same damage as a backstab at this point and as I said, spammable.

I currently don’t have access to my computer (typing this from an iPad) so I can’t conduct any testing to provide proof right now.

Addendum: While the 1 second auto chain seems too fast for Revealed to wear off, you need to account for the after-use delay of a Backstab and the auto chain’s last hit, along with the use time of Cloak and Dagger. These factors ensure that your CnD will hit just a split second after Revealed wears off, unless you are under the effects of Quickness, which borks your rotation.

EDIT: This is within a group setting, if it’s solo style a warrior will win due to his crazy self buffing power that a thief lacks.