Thief tanking builds
The first is a very strong bunker which can easily survive the largest of zergs (when not encountering skill lag) and is mainly for group anchoring. I call it Shortbus.
The second is a variation of Lowell’s Unicorn build, and relies more on conditions and stealth to wear enemies out through attrition, but lacks when facing enemies with lots of CC or condition removal. Fantastic for soloing camps though.
Hope you enjoy one of the two. These are my only true bunker builds, both of which can be adapted for PvP.
(edited by Viking Jorun.5413)
For direct damage (my preference) either S/x will work. For traits, just stay out of Shadow Arts. I prefer 10/30/0/20/10. S/D is more fun than S/P in my opinion. I find S/P in PVE to be easy mode, it’s very plant and spam while S/D feels like a much more “flowing” fight.
For condis go D/D, boost your condition damage and duration as much as you can. Take dodge trops, and caltrops for bleed stacking, if you take poison on steal you won’t really need to put poison on your bar. Even without it dagger 1 and Shortbow should give you plenty. For my condition spec I go power, vitality, condition damage on gear. But I’m not expert on condition builds.
Shortbow should always ALWAYS be your other weapon set. Packs larger than 3 or 4 will probably have you in Shortbow and kiting a fair bit.
How much you gear for survival just depends on how often you get hit. In my direct damage load out I’m to the point that even for solo pack slaying I’m full zerker, on all gear, with Wurm runes. For sigils I use air on my sword then swap between a bloodlust stacker and 5% on dagger. Air sigil is mostly because I don’t feel like changing it. Fire or another 5% would prolly be better. I run a hydromancy sigil on Shortbow since I tend to stay S/D until it gets thick. The chill on swap helps with getting some breathing room.
For utilities I have Shadowstep, the power signet, and swap the third around situationally (usually have run speed in there). Refuge is also a good one to have handy in case you get in trouble. For heals, Hide in the Shadows.
Thieves guild is almost always gonna be your best bet for elite in your desired situation. They tank for you, and give you get a good DPS boost. If you are doing some champ fighting you can swap it out for basilisk, it ignores defiant for most. It is flat out better than thieves in certain situations. . . Like Champ Aboms, or pretty much any mob that will one shot your posse.
If you are solo condis can be just as good as direct damage, if you are getting in on the big events go direct. Really big Zerg fights should be Shortbow shotgunnig with cluster bomb spam for the packs and tags, swap to melee for more DPS on fewer targets.
Keep in mind there’s no real stand and deliver tank build, even in S/P you are eventually gonna have to move. The tanking come more from how well you play, and how good your timing is. The best you’d ever be able to build for is taking 2-3 big hits.
What I did as I was learning was a mix of zerker/Valkyrie/knights stats, then gradually swapped survival stats for zerkers as I got better.
If you are soloing groups in PvE, and don’t care how fast you kill, I’d suggest a Death Blossom based D/D build with Caltrops. You have long-duration bleeds, AOE capability, and limited auto-evade. With Signet of Malice as your heal, you’ll have quite a bit of sustain. Dire and Apothecary’s are good choices for armor mods (I’d mix and match: a mono set of either is not ideal).
Bunkering isn’t really the right term. Thieves are generally just using different skills to negate damage. High dps builds can use skills based defense too but also make sure everything is dead before the skills expire. For PvE you’ve got
- area blinds- can be done a number of ways but black powder is the easiest
- evade based attacks – usually relies on dps rather than bunkering
- kiting – dancing daggers can cripple multiple targets
Signet of malice lets you heal up through multiple attacks and can be combined with caltrops or daggerstorm. Again this isn’t really bunkering as it relies on a multitude of of attacks and it is weak against single targets.
The same skills will not work on all mobs. A hard hitting ranged champion with defiant will invalidate kiting, blind, and signet healing and you have to take it all on the dodge.
Ya, I was thinking it when I posted mine that it’s not really “bunker” in the usual sense, but it works, and I kill packs, vets, and many champs easily. The real trick is “enough” survival is very specific to how you play.