Guild Wars 2

I think being able to hold your own in open world is important to a lot of players, but when they ask for advice the well-meaning players on the forum usually direct them to the PvE meta build. These are group-centric builds that assume some degree of support and are somewhat ill-suited to solo play, in my opinion.

My goal here is to provide the ideal solo survival build based on what I’ve found works best so far (take that with a grain of salt, because I’ve only been playing since January!).

The idea with this build is to allow the thief to hang in there solo against champs, group events, etc. Damage output takes a hit, but it’s still bursty enough to 1-shot smokescales, pocket raptors, etc. The build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFqiaO73+yvrnCgGYLHHsqD-TxBBQBnUJoCV/RjK/My+DA4iAEgnAg+0NQKABVGB-e

Key traits:

- Invigorating Precision (15% of crit damage as healing)

- Assassin’s Reward (heals on initiative)

With ~100% crit rate, healing on offense is very strong and damage is consistent. Virtually every move you make restores endurance. You have solid CC with Bandit’s defense, impact strike, and pistol 4. 100% swiftness uptime, near-100% fury uptime in combat, solid regen and vigor uptime as well and access to might stacking on pistol 3. The acrobatics line also adds a passive stun break on top of the 12s cooldown stun break on bandit’s defense, as well as some condi cleanse.

You will be doing most of your work with staff. Pistols are particularly useful on tough single targets. I recommend also carrying a shortbow for faster moving about when you aren’t facing a tough single target from range (which is 90% of the time!), but it makes a rather poor combat weapon, in my opinion.

The link shows full ascended marauder (which is my personal goal), but I recommend some marauder gear. How much is up to personal taste, but having 19-20k health rather than 12-13k gives your thief a considerable boost in durability and allows you to hang in there longer and put your heals on offense to work.

Please feel free to share your own solo PvE builds (or whatever builds you think a new player might find useful!) or critique this one! It’ll provide much better information to struggling thief players than simply directing them to the meta build and telling them “It’s open world PvE, do whatever you want.”

Thanks!

My build is very similar to the Metabattle ones, except I run trickery as opposed to Deadly Arts.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFqiaO73+yvrnCgGYLHHsqD-TxBBQBnUJoCV/RjK/My+DA4iAEgnAg+0NQKABVGB-e

It’s super squishy, and not at all solo-friendly, and relies on interrupts and the evasion during pistol-whip, but since you can literally dodge out of the constant dodge you get from pistol whip, you can just dive in and out of an encounter.

Since you are super squishy, you are relying on positioning and evades.

My usual rotation:
Auto-attack → Pistol-Whip(interrupt) → Steal(interrupt) → Pistol-Whip → Dodge(Disengange) → Get an overview, pick a target and repeat.

Pulmonary impact usually leaves most mobs dead at this point, and if they aren’t, one or two auto-attacks usually finish veterans off. If they can’t be interrupted, oh well.

It’s not very survivable, but it’s super fun to play risky and keeps you on your toes since you have to be reactive with your playstyle and cannot afford to stay at all passive.

This is what i’ve been running lately, wondering about changing the runes though:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn8lCFOhVmCOOBkmilxiabDLrbzbACgDY+279iH-TBSBQB5THQCV/xMKBBwTA4KK/inmgHcJAA4+DBAQAu5NDAIFgeatA-e

I found P/D viper weapons and armor with krait runes and carrion trinkets works well for solo play, DA Trickery DD. You can stay at a safe distance and just spam sneak attacks, venoms/needle traps/impairing daggers and autos, and kite with 3 and dash while your condis tick. SA over Trickery would give more sustain, honestly I like having the caltrops on dodge more but it depends what you’re comfortable with. You’ll have up to 18k health and around 85% duration on bleeds, so you shouldn’t need toughness if you know what to dodge already. It’s fun, and a more relaxing approach than staff imo.

TwiceDead.1963:

My build is very similar to the Metabattle ones, except I run trickery as opposed to Deadly Arts.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCFOhFmCOOBkmiFqiaO73+yvrnCgGYLHHsqD-TxBBQBnUJoCV/RjK/My+DA4iAEgnAg+0NQKABVGB-e

It’s super squishy, and not at all solo-friendly, and relies on interrupts and the evasion during pistol-whip, but since you can literally dodge out of the constant dodge you get from pistol whip, you can just dive in and out of an encounter.

Since you are super squishy, you are relying on positioning and evades.

My usual rotation:
Auto-attack -> Pistol-Whip(interrupt) -> Steal(interrupt) -> Pistol-Whip -> Dodge(Disengange) -> Get an overview, pick a target and repeat.

Pulmonary impact usually leaves most mobs dead at this point, and if they aren’t, one or two auto-attacks usually finish veterans off. If they can’t be interrupted, oh well.

It’s not very survivable, but it’s super fun to play risky and keeps you on your toes since you have to be reactive with your playstyle and cannot afford to stay at all passive.

+1 for S/P, it’s a very fun set

Here is my solo pve build. Not as tanky as full dire, but using viper armor with rabid trinkets, I can kite pretty well, absorb some physical damage that gets past the evasion, leaving 4 condi types behind me. . . although it is weak to condi damage itself.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVn8lCFNhdOBWNB8PhlWCbuEuCfhenh2wcQLAcAWAA-TxRBQBN7MA6BWx+DeR5HAeEA7RTQBV/JNKBJFggKjA-e

Sometimes change out the chill venom for Infiltrators signet if in a higher cc situation. The point of the buildis to push out as much condi damage and types as possible, then leave them ticking to reset and roll again and also have some power backing up the strikes themselves, especially when doing a steal or shadowstep + CnD (good way to gain some space and let 2 seconds of condi tick roll down before the backstab).

Would appreciate any feedback from you guys btw.

I find this build pretty east to handle for solo’ing pretty much everything
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVn8lCFOh9OBOPB0PhFqiy7CShtrrnCgDYO77+wH-TRRAABA8AA6Z/h+PEAecEAW4EAQKgFVWB-e

This build is kind of an easy to play (boring-ish)cop out build, it will get you though all the heart of thorns solo. Every time you kill a foe you’re endurance is fully recharged so you can just dodge and kill everything.
I use Carrion equipment, but you can go anything with condition damage if you want (Viper’s, dire, carrion, Apothecary, Rabid, Sinister)