Guild Wars 2

I have a lvl 45 Thief. My main weapon is D/D with SB or S/P as my offhand. I am trying to decide if I should play a dungeon or two, but found myself in a position of not understanding what my thief’s role in dungeon really is?
While playing Warrior, I don’t have such misgivings about his role or what should he do while in dungeons. It’s more or less pure damage dealing with only difference in range he is at.
Is it the same with Thief? Can I play him in pure DD role without gimping the rest of my group? I like using pistol’s Black powder and beside Shadow refuge’s role in helping others in reviving I don’t see my char doing much more in terms of group utility. So, I am more or less only DD thief.
Is that enough for dungeons on this stage?

it was a few pages down.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Thief-PvE-guide-by-Xukk-Jeremy-Chase

highly suggest reading through that. It will give you a good idea of what you are heading to and what you are capable of.

Keep leveling would be the big one. many of the thief traits that make them so formidable are found in the grand master tier.

Have faith! Thief is a great class and can be a staple in Dungeon groups.

That guide is the speed runners elite level 80 dungeon guide. It doesn’t tell someone what to do at level 45! The main thing it ignores is blind. A new thief should by default blind the trash until the enemy attacks are learned. A new thief might want to stay at range for bosses while learning the animations and then move into melee after learning when and where to dodge (although melee is better when possible).

Steal all the loot

Dont do dungeons at 45. Unless you have someone to do it with and they dont mind.

Ask your group if they mind if you change your character at the end of a dungeon, then switch to your Thief to get a free ~3/4 level.

If you want to take part in the dungeons regularly, bring Sword/Pistol for the AoE Blind, it makes trash mobs much easier.

In general the Thief’s job is to provide Stealth (Smoke Screen + Shortbow #2 and other blast finisher, and then Shadow Refuge), AoE Blind (Pistol #5) and conjured weapon user (only if you’re level 80, though).

You can still stealth and blind at lvl 45. CM is a dungeon which is made a lot smoother and faster by having a thief for these reasons.

In short thief’s role is dps, stealth skips and blinds.

S/P is perfect for pve, you can blind mobs and if your group stacks on you, it greatly reduces dmg taken from mobs (except dredge and champs). Throw down black powder and use sword autoattack, the full aa chain deals tons of dmg. On boss fights, either use D/D if it’s possible to backstab it or spam pistol whip, don’t bother with blinds on boss fights. If you get a group with somewhat competent ele, blast her fire fields with your short bow (skill 2). Eles usually stack might just before the fight.

I recommend doing the explorable mode when you reach lvl 80.

Thieves don’t provide the usual group utility such as boons etc. We are rather a more selfish role. When you get your traits, use sundering strikes trait, it puts vulnerability on mobs = boosts the dmg the mob takes from the whole group.

That guide made me facepalm. You put in only one build in that guide, and it’s for speedruns of all things?

symke, do not think your role in dungeons is only DPS, you can play support as a thief as well (despite what people think). With a 4/0/6/0/4 venom share build, you can provide some powerful support if you know how to dodge and what to expect from enemies. For such a build, it’s best to take the following traits.

Venomous Strength, Quick Venoms, Shadow Protector, Leeching Venoms, Venomous Aura, Thrill of the Crime, and Bountiful Theft.

With that setup, a set of Soldier’s gear (until you’re confident and skilled enough to upgrade to Berserker), and with the skills of Skelk Venom, Shadow Refuge, Skale Venom, Blinding Powder, and Basilisk Venom, you can support a party really well.

Also, Venomous Aura gives other party members the effects of Venomous Strength and Leeching Venoms as well, so you can give the party 6 stacks of Might and the ability to gain some HP back with their next few strikes with it all combined. Weapon sets are up to you, but I do suggest a close-range setup and a long-range one.

I counted 5 builds in that guide.

learn to read.

It is a Dungeon Guide which is what Symke was asking for. Yes it is geared more to the fast run style of play. However the skills and technique apply to PvE in general.

I understand you are trying to advocate Venoms as a viable support build. And it certainly can be. If you have a party built Solely around YOU.

Symke:
Thief is a wonderful class that has a place in all of the game modes. And a very effective one at that. If you are looking at doing dungeons more than anything I still strongly suggest that guide. If for no other reason than Knowledge of what you can do now, via weapon skills. and what you can do later, as you level up and have your traits unlocked. If you choose to run varients on the sets by all means do so. Have fun with it. Experiment, its what those guys did in the beginning. We just have the benefit of their knowledge now .

GOOD LUCK!!!
HAVE FUN!!

Rope, you’re acting as if any support build is all about themselves. It’s not, it’s about buffing the party, helping out the party, and working with whatever builds they have. You can have numerous support builds that help each other. The only selfish builds I see are the ones dealing around damage, as they don’t help the party at all, they only focus on YOU killing the mob.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Rope, you’re acting as if any support build is all about themselves. It’s not, it’s about buffing the party, helping out the party, and working with whatever builds they have. You can have numerous support builds that help each other. The only selfish builds I see are the ones dealing around damage, as they don’t help the party at all, they only focus on YOU killing the mob.

In gw2 pve, what sort of support is really needed? Heals? Just dodge, most heals are completely useless when some mobs 1 shot players no matter what HP/armour they have. Other classes are a lot more efficient in providing boons to their party then a thief. Every shortbow thief can give 6 might stacks just by blasting a fire field. He doesn’t even have to sacrifice his utility slots/trait pts to achieve that. Since venoms are used at the beginning of a fight, the heals are not even fully utilised.

It is the full support builds that contribute to party the least. Why? Their support is negligible while they deal very little to no dps, thus prolonging the fight, people tend to make more mistakes in longer term, they miss a dodge. Aoe hurt more since it has more time to take effect.

Unfortunately in gw2 pve, killing the mob asap is the best support for whole party.

1. Blind spam on stacks. If they are immune to blind (dredge) have bountiful theft on and steal that protection for your group and just cleave.

2. Stealth to skip trash mobs.

3. Stealth to rally allies if needed.

4. Solo bosses when your group dies unexpectedly.

5. Revive the dead poets society with your deeps.

6. Tag things with sb.

7. Loot.

NinjaEd.3946:

1. Blind spam on stacks. If they are immune to blind (dredge) have bountiful theft on and steal that protection for your group and just cleave.

2. Stealth to skip trash mobs.

3. Stealth to rally allies if needed.

4. Solo bosses when your group dies unexpectedly.

5. Revive the dead poets society with your deeps.

6. Tag things with sb.

7. Loot.

Best comment in this thread so far!

And I totally agree! I’m currently working on leveling a second thief (mained thief since beta) and I’m doing fine in dungeons. Just go all power, presicion and ferocity, S/P + SB, use food for extra xp and a small damage boost.

Your main role are dps, that’s just how thief are. But you are also a revive bot (shadow refuge is on your skill bar, right?), AoE poison and weakness bot (poison field and 3 points deep in deadly arts), you can blast combo fields like no one else so stack might when a fire field is up and heal your teammates when a water field are up.

With S/P you are practically an immortal god except for when you’re facing champs or dredge. Also, smoke screen against ranged enemies are quite fun. Remember smoke screen or black powder and a whirl finisher (dagger storm) means AoE blind everything = your team takes no damage.

Jayden Ennok.3687:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Rope, you’re acting as if any support build is all about themselves. It’s not, it’s about buffing the party, helping out the party, and working with whatever builds they have. You can have numerous support builds that help each other. The only selfish builds I see are the ones dealing around damage, as they don’t help the party at all, they only focus on YOU killing the mob.

In gw2 pve, what sort of support is really needed? Heals? Just dodge, most heals are completely useless when some mobs 1 shot players no matter what HP/armour they have. Other classes are a lot more efficient in providing boons to their party then a thief. Every shortbow thief can give 6 might stacks just by blasting a fire field. He doesn’t even have to sacrifice his utility slots/trait pts to achieve that. Since venoms are used at the beginning of a fight, the heals are not even fully utilised.

It is the full support builds that contribute to party the least. Why? Their support is negligible while they deal very little to no dps, thus prolonging the fight, people tend to make more mistakes in longer term, they miss a dodge. Aoe hurt more since it has more time to take effect.

Unfortunately in gw2 pve, killing the mob asap is the best support for whole party.

You’re obviously a speedrunner, meaning your mind is made up because apparently 4 more minutes in a run equals a lifetime for you. I get you’re a min/maxer when it comes to times in dungeons, but not everybody is, so stop trying to force the ridiculous “zerker or bust” mindset that no thief support build can help in a dungeon when they obviously can.

After some testing, I realized thieves are best at headshotting more dangerous mobs and removing Defiant. Stealth skips are fine but it is a pain especially with people who have no idea how thieves work…. which is like 80% of the population.

Trash Killing – Blind spam, sword cleave, SP3, and their healing signet makes all trash completely trivial. Other than Dredge…

Stealth – Shadow Refuge is a very valuable tool to rally allies or to skip mobs. It can also deaggro. Smoke Screen can also be used as a preemptive stealth if you have enough Blast in the party.

Best Blast Finisher – SB 2 is the best blast finisher in the game bar none. Use and abuse those combo fields. Stack might before fights in a fire field, blast water fields to heal up, blast poison for the glancing, blast smoke for stealth, blast dark for blind.

Shadow Step – Creative use of SB5, Shadow Step skill and trap can make a lot of things easy. Things like skipping the laser room in CoE, rocks in CoF, and soloing the light orb in Arah.

Defiance “Cleaner” – Thief has the most accessible way to shed Defiance stacks off of champs with Pistol 4 and SP3, but be careful as they can easily stack them back on.

RyuDragnier.9476:

Jayden Ennok.3687:

RyuDragnier.9476:

Rope, you’re acting as if any support build is all about themselves. It’s not, it’s about buffing the party, helping out the party, and working with whatever builds they have. You can have numerous support builds that help each other. The only selfish builds I see are the ones dealing around damage, as they don’t help the party at all, they only focus on YOU killing the mob.

In gw2 pve, what sort of support is really needed? Heals? Just dodge, most heals are completely useless when some mobs 1 shot players no matter what HP/armour they have. Other classes are a lot more efficient in providing boons to their party then a thief. Every shortbow thief can give 6 might stacks just by blasting a fire field. He doesn’t even have to sacrifice his utility slots/trait pts to achieve that. Since venoms are used at the beginning of a fight, the heals are not even fully utilised.

It is the full support builds that contribute to party the least. Why? Their support is negligible while they deal very little to no dps, thus prolonging the fight, people tend to make more mistakes in longer term, they miss a dodge. Aoe hurt more since it has more time to take effect.

Unfortunately in gw2 pve, killing the mob asap is the best support for whole party.

You’re obviously a speedrunner, meaning your mind is made up because apparently 4 more minutes in a run equals a lifetime for you. I get you’re a min/maxer when it comes to times in dungeons, but not everybody is, so stop trying to force the ridiculous “zerker or bust” mindset that no thief support build can help in a dungeon when they obviously can.

Well, I am not a speedrunner and I didn’t even say everyone should go “zerk or bust”.

My response was to your post in which you completely shunned dps dealers as the most selfish builds ever. In gw2 this is simply incorrect. Blame Anet for designing pve in such a way that dps is all that’s needed, flaming me for telling you this won’t change it.