Guild Wars 2

Exposed Weakness (10%)
Dagger Training (5%) Pistol Mastery (5%)
First Strikes (10%)
Executioner (20%)

is 45% additional damage, 25% additional damage if the target has above 50% health.

Has anyone else built their Thief using these damage boosts and if so how’s the damage performance?

The average backstab build uses all of the above, besides pistol mastery of course.

Just see any backstab whine thread.

I was thinking more for a P/D thief for C+D and general vital shot spams. backstab thiefs are…meh overdone.

Run a few matches in SPvP and let us know how it works. I would imagine it affects condition damage as well.

I was thinking more for PvE. Might try out a P/D and D/D build that utilizes backstabs with stuff like sneak attack, etc. Would be good for crowd control and single target burst damage…in theory/

I run P/D in wvw and for the past couple days I haven’t lost a 1v1 yet. I still win at least 50% of my 2v1s and occasionally 3 and 4v1s. I sat outside our enemies spawn alone last night and got 42 kills before a group of 5 took me down

I run a similar style I think. p/d. And have similar results with it. 0/0/30/20/20 or 0/0/20/20/30. There is a lot of flexibility involved in picking traits too. I prefer (my must haves) vigor on heal or vigor on steal. 33% speed in stealth, and 2 init regen when stealth. With this build I went 3/3 krait/aff, all carrion gear… all. And +10 condition/kill, and 10% bleed duration sigils. Offset shortbow.

Very nimble, has massive number of dodges. Goes in and out of stealth, to leverage those extra seconds the enemies are disoriented and to sneak attack to pump a large stack of bleed up quick. I never really use body shot, it is too slow and doesn’t offer enough for the cost imo, use dancing dagger instead if/when have initiative to spare. Caltrops skill (not trait) is unbelievably amazing, shadow refuge ofc. + any of your choice, elite whichever.. theyre all good for diff reasons.

Edt: Oh, and always eat your Pizza!

Most general backstab build: 25/30/0/0/15.
-Dagger Training (5%)
-Exposed Weakness (10% if target has a condition)
-First Strikes (10% damage if user has 6 initiative or more)
-Executioner (20% damage if target has 50% or less health)

Steal applies poison, Kleptomaniac and Preparedness supports First Strikes and CnD + Steal should be enough to proc Executioner.

Hmm I may say screw it for the Shadow Arts and put the 15 into trickery 9since I’m stacking 25 bleeds by myself the condition boost could be beneficial as will the extra initiative)….yeah I’ll just use my jewelry to boost up my toughness/vitality and use berserker armor to cover my crit/power.

I run P/D and D/D, don’t use D/D too often but for single target backstabs spam it could be useful.

remove one condition every time u go in stealth it’s too overpowered to not pick it,awesome trait

Exposed Weakness (10%) -> only on a conditioned target, pretty much all classes have this.
Dagger Training (5%) Pistol Mastery (5%) -> standard of all classes cept they get 10%
First Strikes (10%) – only when initiative is over 6, aka never after 2s into a fight
Executioner (20%) -> I don’t think anyone uses this instead of Hidden Killer, failing to crit a backstab is a much bigger fail than anything on a thief.

So in reality it’s 15% on the first 2 hits, then only 5% real damage bonus for the rest of the fight, or 15% IF target has a condition AND only on a full Deadly Arts build.

Pretty much the same as other classes have.

PS: GS Warrior has 22% unconditional damage bonus from 2 low-tier traits in the same line, permanently, plus 10% on conditioned targets.
On non-conditioned targets it’s 5% vs 22%.
On conditioned target it’s 15% vs 32%.
Amagadz wuriur owahpowahreed nurfzzzz XDDD

Red Falcon.8257:

Exposed Weakness (10%) -> only on a conditioned target, pretty much all classes have this.
Dagger Training (5%) Pistol Mastery (5%) -> standard of all classes cept they get 10%
First Strikes (10%) – only when initiative is over 6, aka never after 2s into a fight
Executioner (20%) -> I don’t think anyone uses this instead of Hidden Killer, failing to crit a backstab is a much bigger fail than anything on a thief.

So in reality it’s 10% on the first 2 hits, then only 5% real damage bonus for the rest of the fight, or 15% IF target has a condition AND only on a full Deadly Arts build.

Pretty much the same as other classes have.

I think you’re downplaying this a lot.
If you don’t mash your skills then you’ll have initiative to spare. (10%)
Vital Shot means your enemy will ALWAYS have a condition (bleed) (10%)
Then there’s the 5%
Hidden Killer can be replaced by investing points into Critical Strike and having decent gear (I’ve seen people with 95% chance to crit before) this combined with Executioner doing more long-term damage means its more viable.

All-in-all it’s not 5-15% damage, it’s 25-45% damage if you play smart.

OP, could you please delete that top post for me? I run a build using that and I really dont wanna see it nerfed XD

Honestly though, It is a very powerful concept if you play it right. Ive been playing with a build based on this concept since I hit 80 and Ive Solo’d 5+ defenders in Wvs with it, coming out on top.w
Here it is if you want to see what mine looks like.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/thief#3|3|3537|4004|4217|3997|4989|25|1707|1704|0|30|1195|1193|1728|15|2384|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|2|3|1|28035|28024|49965|49965|49965|49965|49965|21031|48788|21080|21080|48788|21080|

If you have got any questions about it, feel free to ask me in game. My tag is Kallist there as well.

I’m thinking as well of getting 5 superior runes of the Infiltrator for my exotic set…boost that 25-45% additional damage to 25-65% additional damage.

Basically if I build it right…once you hit 50% hp you’re screwed in the worst way.
(I’m using the trait that converts some of per precision to vitality, it’s already making a noticeable difference…around 900 health difference at lvl 62)

“If you don’t mash your skills then you’ll have initiative to spare”

No, if, halfway in a fight, you have more then 50-60% of initiative you are not using your thief’s abilities right. Ergo, not a very useful trait.

frans.8092:

“If you don’t mash your skills then you’ll have initiative to spare”

No, if, halfway in a fight, you have more then 50-60% of initiative you are not using your thief’s abilities right. Ergo, not a very useful trait.

You’re implying I do one of the following

1) When the enemy is immune to C+D/Backstab/Sneak attack I should keep using it (no)
2) Spam Heartseeker (at the cost of more backstabs, so no, not unless its to finish my target off)
3) Spam Deathblossom/Dancing Dagger (vs a single target that is horrible)

I’d rather manage my initiative properly rather then go lawl SPAM IT ALL NAOW INSTANT GRATIFICATION, gain a consistent 10% damage and be able to backstab/Sneak Attack/C+D more often.

Wouldn’t the added % be multiplicative instead of additive?

BabelFish.7234:

Exposed Weakness (10%)
Dagger Training (5%) Pistol Mastery (5%)
First Strikes (10%)
Executioner (20%)

is 45% additional damage, 25% additional damage if the target has above 50% health.

Wait what provides the 25% when they’re over 50%? And isn’t that only active when executioner isn’t and vise versa?

Exposed weakness, first strike and dagger/pistot=the 25% only catch is I have to not spam the crap out of my initiative or spec into trickery so I get more initiative. As far as I’m aware it all stacks.

I tried P/D, the tank + condition aswell a crit/power build, against some classes it is nice. But you get 3 shotted by backstab thiefs…(well the usual bs pvp)
http://img6.imagebanana.com/img/0k8uwmvd/gw113.jpg

..with the power build and honestly the tank condition build does for me low dmg and certain classes did outdmg me.