Guild Wars 2

Hi there all.
I been playing the game since beta, and still could not pick a decent class to play.
Now lately i played with friends and by accident happen to be playing a lot with thief.

It is quite afine class, but insanely boring to me right now.
Besides i really wish to use rifles, i would love to be of some sort of “support”.
Is there even a single damn thing as support in this game?
Or all it stands for is : Spam boons, go bunker, give some aoe regen if you are necro or some speicific class.
I would surely say quite dissapointin, but i dont really care anymore.

Soooo my question is : Are there any viable heal or support builds?
No i dont care for permablind, the 90% time i need heals, blind is only usefull in like 20% of the time.
My second question is : Are there any decent range dd builds? Currently my pistols suck, but they dealt low dmg anyway. Bow is even worse. Any suggestions?

(if yes, what are those…..)

Auron.2657:

The Thief isn’t supposed to be support orientated, even in GW2.

10 in Deadly Arts for ‘Venomous Strength’
30 into Shadow Arts for ’ Shadow Protector’, ‘Leeching Venoms’, and ‘Venomous Aura’.
20 in Trickery for ‘Thrill of the Crime’ and ‘Bountiful Theft’.

Using a Venom skill now grants the same venom to nearby allies.

• Anyone who received your venom now also receive Might
• Use of granted venom steals health

Using Shadow Refuge, you can give allies stealth.

• Granting allies stealth now also grants them Regen.

Using Steal, you now grant:

• Fury, Might, Swiftness, and Vigor to nearby allies.
• Up to two boons may also be stolen from your target and given to you and your allies.
• Note: Boons applied to allies nearby where you warped from, not where you warped to

That’s the full extent of how much a player can dedicate themselves to supporting allies.
Support =/= Just Healing in GW2. It includes boons and buffs.

Shadow refuge is nice for group healing. It’s great for reviving downed players. If you trait for Shadow Protector, it’s even better, and blinding powder will be a healing skill too. Steal will give might, fury and swiftness when traited.

If you really want support, you could look into guardian or ele.

Bow is very strong against groups. (3 hits per auto attack+clusterbomb hitting really high AoE)
You could try pistol/dagger for condition damage.

Healing wise a thief only has shadow refuge and the trait shadow protector (grants regen) for allies.
However thief does have some other methods of support…
Venom sharing can be extremely powerful in certain situations
You can stealth allies, (stealth ressing is extremely strong)
You can trait stealthing allies to remove conditions
Signet of agility is an AoE condition removal/endurance regain (excellent in dungeons where rolling is required)
Smoke screen can block projectiles (very useful skill)
When traited stealing can grant might, fury and swiftness
Cluster bomb on shortbow is a spammable blast finisher, this can be used in water fields for a spammable heal, fire fields for many stacks of might and many more combo fields.
People just overlook these traits and abilities but if you really wanted to fit a support role here are just some of the things u can do

This is probably the closest you can get to a support build with a thief.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYEQNAV6alUmaPHfS0E/JFB3Dmm0n6pgsjVXQ/BsC

Sorry, but “Support” is not synonymous to “Healing” in GW2.
Some supports (mainly Guardians) will be stronger in healing then others.

A proper, more encompassing, definition of “Support” is:

• Someone who makes it easier for DPS and Control players to do their job.

Support Thieves do that by granting the following:

• Stealth, with Shadow Refuge
• Venoms, with Venomous Aura
• Boons, through specific traits.

If you want to focus on healing, you’ve picked the wrong profession. Try Guardian and go Tome of Courage.
Each profession differs slightly in how they support – IMO, that keeps things interesting and boosts overall replayability.

The Thief isn’t supposed to be support orientated, even in GW2.

thief specced for healing can heal allies about 12k (not burst heal) every 40 or so seconds
regen on stealthing people, health on venoms, health on shadow refuge

Yes whell, the 90% time i needed heal as support. I had all the rest i needed. Or didnt need anything at all besides a slight heal or regen.

All the replyes are totally awesome. All the support you describe sounds pretty kitten.
I will keep using bow then i guess. What counts as water field? the 3 Ele-water-staff aoe? Are there any other? Might ask my friend to play that then.
Does anyone have a decent combo field-finisher list?
Whitch venom should i use, with what weapon, and how to spread?

“The Thief isn’t supposed to be support orientated, even in GW2.”

After hearing all these posts i dont agree. All these things are more then i could wish for actually.
I will propably come back here and make notes, or wishlist what to try.
Thank you again all. Plussed all posts,i dont know what to mark as anwsered, i could mark like 3-4.
THy again.

ranger has the best water field
it lasts 15 seconds and has a 30 second cooldown
play a laugh track and spam blast finishers in it

staff elementalist has two water fields. one is really small and lasts 2 sec with 20 sec cooldown, and one is huge and lasts 6 and has a 45 sec cooldown

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo
page has links to lists of combo fields/finishers of each type

as for the venoms question, it’s pretty situational. but spider venom lasts for 5 hits at base, so it’s the best for healing people

You can do amazing heals and support and damage with the proper venom share build.

umm combo fields seems people don’t pay attention to these very often in the thief forums, → shortbow. atm theif is the only class in the gam that can spam blast finishers consistently over and over that give heals and insane amount of buffs a lot more then venom share and 1 stack of might/swiftness/fury.

you with a guardian can give 25 stacks of might to the party well you are still doing dps and aoe retaliation. you with a necro can do aoe blind in ridiculous amounts well still doing good aoe damage, or buff the group with endless amounts of retaliation. you with a ele can aoe heal for about 2k well still doing lots of damage per blast finisher, also can stack loads of might and swiftness. you with a ranger can spam heals aswell and might stacks. with theifs you can stack weakness not very usefull in pve, and canalso aoe stealth witch can be good if you are stacking regeneration on allies when you stealth them. mesmers you can give long durations of chaos shield to every 1 in group.

if you are looking for a support role the only way to really go to be actually affective and still do damage is to focus on being supportive on there fields well using a shortbow with initiative regen and melee spamming cluster bomb into there fields.

I find that Combo fields are very neglected overall in this game.

I like to try and use them as much as I can, but I haven’t memorized which skills cause what Combos and such yet.

I play a modified healing unicorn build using cleric gear for tanking purposes, and i find that when someone throws down water field (healing spring, water ele) i heal pretty well when i use cluster bomb, pretty much saved the my group from wiping.
My usually group that i do dungeons with knows this well enough and throws thems down often because of it. Shadow refuge also heals a good chuck too.

Ranger Stolen ability → Clusterbomb Spam = Thiefpriest

I am actually practicing (right now still araund 30-40)
Tanking – Healing support in general pve.
My party still didnt try instances yet ( excluding me) but seems to work quite well.
The first time i can “tank” as a Thief actually after long time eq.

THe shortbow combo seems quite impressive considering the posts, i am getting more sure on what legendary weapon to pick….

Trough i would love to see some Glaivle (staff sword) weapon we could use in some swift manner like Darth Maul used his doppel bladed sword.
And a sniper rifle for a long range Spiking single target nuke, to expand ranged skill availability.