Guild Wars 2

Hello any ideas for a thief build that is very survivable? What I mean by that is hard to kill even if fighting harder mobs solo. I see a lot of build about damage but I am a new thief used to completely different play styles and wanted a build that was good for leveling without dying. I die a lot when I try to use higher level builds at lower levels. Even if this is a build that leads up to a good high level build I’d be happy. Thank you for all the help!

I’ve recently started leveling my Thief after a Warrior (first char and main), a Ranger, an Engy and a Guard. I expected it to be really hard, but actually I have an easier time than i had with most of my other chars. Using Dagger/Pistol and Shortbow with full Zerker, single mobs or a couple of them are almost never an issue, and I can even kite and AoE bigger groups successfully with Shortbow. The main thing is to buy new green gear (with cheap runes and sigils) around every 5-10 lvls and to time your blinds, stealths and dodges carefully (a thing I’ve never had to care about on my warr).

It was a while since I leveled up but I used a d/d condition build with the talent that healed on imitative used and just rounded up mobs and spammed death blossom. It was pretty effective.

Well since the trait system has changed to what it use to be, there isnt that much you can do build wise for survival. All I can suggest is start of with some pvt gear mixed with berserker gear. Use short bow a lot vs multi mobs droping poision feild down then blasting it, even if the mobs do hit they are weakened so it isn’t that hard of hits.

sword is also a good weapon too for leveling up, #2 in, if you getting beaten up hard just port back out again. (thats bias though coz i main sword over dagger :p)

as for traits when you get them, I guess acro line would better, at least for feline grace as i think its better to rely on dodging mobs rather then to just chain stealth of them.

hope that helps you

Offhand pistol is really great for pve survival. I prefer S/P over D/P, but either way anything less than a champ can be simply facetanked in the area of your Black Powder. Fighting multiple ranged monsters could be an issue that’s where the long evade on S/P #3 can help. As tempting as it is, don’t spend all your init on pistol whip, you autoattack is pretty high damage.

As mentioned before, S/P is by far the most practical choice when leveling.
Black powder is extremely powerful, making you a tank. Just be sure to go right in front of a ranged attacker’s face before using it, melee mobs will just run into it an get blinded themselves.
Which is where skill 2 comes in, an instant shadowstep and strike to the target, which saves you the trouble of walking, and return, which allows you to retreat to safety without needing to spend a dodge.
Skill 3 pistol whip has pretty high burst damage, and gives you evade frames, though do not blindly spam it.

In general, I’d play like this.
Trash mobs: Infiltrator’s strike*optional*> Black powder > Auto attack >reapply black powder> repeat

For Champs and bosses I’ll use infiltrator strikes/retreat a lot more, as well as pistol whips, as the evade frames will sometimes really save your life.

Personally I’ll choose S/P even over D/D for bosses in some cases where survivability matters more then just pure DPS, or when i know I’ll need a lot of condition clearing. =)