Guild Wars 2

I have a level 31 thief and I was wondering what the best weapons and spec to level was at the moment, I am currently using s/d and sb with a variety of different runes on it and 1 point in Critical strikes. What do I need to improve? Note this is purely PVE with some dungeon now and then.

I myself have wanted to ask this question. I have a 50 thief at the moment and I’ve switched load outs several times, always thinking the grass must be greener on the other side whenever I see a thief playing anything other than what I’m doing.

But I’ve observed that for PvE in general, you cant really go wrong with a D/D condi build. Throw yourself some condition gear w/ a decent pair of Daggers that match your level (within 3-5 levels) and go to town making everything bleed, put your traits in extra condition damage, and maybe purchase yourself a skill from the trainer or two that add to bleed damage (caltrops comes to mind, its what I use so every time I dodge, I drop crippling/bleeding caltrops).

I’ve switched to a precision build a couple times, shortbow, messed w/ P/P but ultimately, the ability of bleed is just too powerful when you can round up 4-5 enemies, death blossom them as much as possible, and watch them all die. The precision set up always gave me grief as I was forced to deal with the enemies more 1 at a time and hope no other enemies see you and want to join in, all while trying to stay alive, and I didn’t last long. Though I might have been going about it all wrong.

I’m in no way a pro, but I thought I’d offer my two cents. . . its probably only worth that. . . two cents.

I feel your pain. Thief was by far the hardest class for me to level (even more so than ele). Imho, your best bet is to use S/P for the blinds, which help a lot to keep you alive. The cleave is also a huge bonus. As far as equipment goes, if you’re not having too many issues staying alive, then go Zerker (or Power/Precision if you’re not high enough level). This’ll help you learn the most important thing about thief: dodging. Dodging is your #1 best friend. Learn how to dodge the really painful stuff, you it’ll make your life a lot easier.

Zerker gear, S/P+Shortbow+brain. Fill Dark arts and Crit strikes. Thats it.

For PvE leveling use Sword/Pistol and it’s pretty much all you need (don’t even need a ranged weapon). Black Powder (weapon skill #5) creates a blind field in melee range making essentially every melee encounter a breeze. With Signet of Malice you can get most of your heals just from using Pistol Whip (especially when cleaving through 3 enemies).

You need to get the utility Smoke Screen if you have ranged attacks on you (it blocks projectile).

If you want to play it really safe you can have shortbow and use #3 when you need to disengage from monsters or just get Shadow Refuge as an utility when you’re under critical health.

The thing about leveling any character is you must have your weapon and armor and trinkets up to your current level, say, like every 5 levels or so, or your damage really drops and everything takes longer to kill. Use all Power/Precision stats, get bloodlust sigil (even the minor sigil gives 125 power when fully stacked), and runes that increase your power.

I’d say Thief is one of the fastest levelers in open world content just because they can completely nullify damage from their opponents with a button and is fast on their feet.

Tachii.3506:

…
If you want to play it really safe you can have shortbow and use #3 when you need to disengage from monsters …

What you really ment was:

If you want to play it really safe you can have a shortbow and use #3 when you need to show your moonwalking skills to the monsters :P

Nah, from all seriousness to joking: (no the other way around) These 3 last posters have it figured out for you, S/P for leveling! Have fun! Good luck with the moonwalks.

shortbow for clearing 3+ man groups and D/D for 3 people or less

clusterbomb can hit 5 people, D/D has the highest single target damage