Guild Wars 2

Hey guys
So I’m thinking of getting back to my Thief. But I’m kinda with a problem. To do this I will get back to it in PvP, area that I don’t play with Thief for so long that I think it’s safe to admit that I’m on a lvl a bit higher than a new player, but not that higher.

I used to used S/D, but I want to try and main D/P for PvP (sPvP and WvW). I know the 2 builds viable for the spec. What I want to know now is the main differences plus advantages and disanvantages of using a 2/6/0/0/6 D/P and a 6/0/2/0/6 D/P.

Also what tips do you have for me to get ona decent lvl of D/P again? I don’t do hotjoins in ages, are those still a decent training ground?

PvE I’m covered, I still know the meta which is D/D & S/P and SB.

mPascoal.4258:

Hey guys
So I’m thinking of getting back to my Thief. But I’m kinda with a problem. To do this I will get back to it in PvP, area that I don’t play with Thief for so long that I think it’s safe to admit that I’m on a lvl a bit higher than a new player, but not that higher.

I used to used S/D, but I want to try and main D/P for PvP (sPvP and WvW). I know the 2 builds viable for the spec. What I want to know now is the main differences plus advantages and disanvantages of using a 2/6/0/0/6 D/P and a 6/0/2/0/6 D/P.

Also what tips do you have for me to get ona decent lvl of D/P again? I don’t do hotjoins in ages, are those still a decent training ground?

PvE I’m covered, I still know the meta which is D/D & S/P and SB.

both d/p builds are burst-oriented in nature, but:
2/6/0/0/6 is straight burst damage. does more damage and does it faster.

6/0/2/0/6 is more sustained. it’s able to take care of itself better at the cost of some damage but still hits very hard.

i like 6/0/2/0/6 more personally.

First off, welcome back! Although thief suffered a few really undeserved nerfs last patch its still one of the strongest classes for any game mode. You just have to be that much better now. Forgive any mistakes as im typing all of this on my phone.

The advantage of 26006 i would say is team fights, specifically arriving to them late so that your enemies will have (hopefully) whittled through their defensive cooldowns and gotten them to 50% or lower. Until someone drops below 50% you should just be spraying the node with choking gas and cluster bombs, helping your team whittle them down. Once someone gets low switch to your dagger and you can make very short work of them. This build can 1v1 any power builds very well, but a condi engi or d/d cele ele will absolutely destroy you.

Thats where 60206 comes in. You have just as high burst, just lower crit chance (pack runes ftw) but you make up for that in your new 1v1 potential. Suddenly those cele eles and condi engis arent that tough at all anymore. You can actually withstand some crazy midfights now too. And with a semi coordinated team, panic strike is a GG for whichever unlucky players happens to get struck. Overall i much much prefer this build.

What follows will be a quick guide to D/p, and thief in general in spvp. First off: you shouldn’t be looking for 1v1s. Yes, you can 1v1 fairly well against most builds but thats wasting your potential as a thief. Your main focus should be +1ing fights and making short work of the attackers or making it an even numbered fight for your team. As soon as the person attacking is down drop black powder for your teammate to stomp and immediately move on to the next area youre needed most. Obviously this doesn’t apply if there are more than one attacker. You need to have a good knowledge of the matchups certain professions have against others, and in general ALWAYS be watching the minimap. There is so much you can learn from watching it, i cannot stress it enough. If you see that warrior rushing your home again but your ranger whos defending has already beaten him 1-2 times that match already you probably don’t need to help your ranger, and can go do something more useful. Keep an eye over there tho in case another enemy shows up and makes it a 1v2. If you see their condi engi going over to 1v1 your necro, or their thief going over to 1v1 your DPS guard, then you can almost always rest assured and help elsewhere.

Always always always be counting the number of enemies both on the minimap and that you can see. This is huge for getting free caps on their home. If you really get good at it theyll either send 2 people to deal with you in which case just forget about capping the point, your whole purpose is to troll those 2 people for as long as possible, letting your team 4v3 the rest of the map. If you mess up, or someone else joins then dont be afraid to get the hell away. A dead thief is a useless thief and every second you spend downed is a second you could be either free capping an empty point or +1ing a fight in your teams favor. (To add on to that, theres no point sticking around in a 3v2 once you down one of the 2 enemies. Just drop some poison and then go on to the next fight.)

In crazy, hectic, AoE, condi spam team fights shortbow is your absolute best friend. Your primary targets should be the other teams glassy people, primarily mesmers and other thieves, although staff and scepter eles are also very easy prey. In general i like to follow this list for who to focus

Mesmer>
Thief>
Necro>
Engi>
Ranger>
Warrior>
Ele>
Guard>

Obviously that list can very easily change depending on the builds of each specific person in your match but if theyre all running meta builds then i would generally follow that list. There are also some exceptions of course, like if their warrior is already at <25% and already burned through both endure pains then you really wanna focus them down first.

Speaking of downed, as soon as you get someone down you should immediately start cleaving the body, either with choking gas+cluster bomb or using the dagger autoattack (cleave buff is awesome). If their teammates try to res immediately use headshot, saving steal for when (or if) they pop stability. Protip: you can be mid stomp and interrupt an enemy resser with steal and still get the stomp off. In general, let your bunkers do the stomping unless someone dies off point. Then its up to you to either blackpowder/shadowstep stomp or to just DPS a bit and let them bleed out.

The way to 1v1 people with trickery dp is to keep them blinded AT ALL times. Dodge the stuff you can’t blind, and dont be afraid to use steal defensively if you need to. Another protip: you can use steal on someone/something out of range and it will break stuns, but putting steal on cooldown for 4 seconds. But yeah, just keep them blinded at all costs, and get good at predicting and interrupting heals with headshot. If theres someone you just cannot beat, for w/e reason, dont bother giving them a free 5 points from your death. Be useful somewhere else. Switching up to shortbow is also a very good strategy as not many people are used to it. The difference between a good and a bad thief is their shortbow use. Its not just to move around the map faster.

Things I kinda strugle
Games with more than one Thief on team, from my experience are a lost, and so as I’m less experienced I tend to switch, which makes me pratice even less.

Thing I tend to also do worng is start up with D/P instead of Bow. For what youa re saying I will try to start in team fight on the edge with bow and then spike ppl with D/P

Btw I know duels aren’t supposed to be our focus but they tend to happen sometimes. How am I supposed to react at this times being I so inexperienced? Flee?

I might try 6/0/2/0/6 first since I never really tried it that much, but it seem to be among the favourites around here. From Thief using that that I faced I must admit, Imrpovisation is a really good trait to have

In games with you and another thief (any more and you really should switch) try roaming together and focusing down the same people. No one can withstand tht amoun of pressure for any length of time, so essentially you always will have more people than the enemy does in team fights because both of you can down a squishy together before they can even do a thing. I never switch unless i actually want to play another class, because you can never really trust the random people you get in queues to play their class well (especially with thief) and yet a good thief is a massive asset to the team. I trust myself a lot more than the typical thief and so i never switch unless we have like 3+thieves and a mes or something, in which case the game is probably already lost.

As for 1v1s, it depends on what the 1v1 is. If its a condi/cele/turret engi, or a Dps guard, or a good d/d cele ele (i say good on ele because you should be able to beat the bad-average ones fairly easily with 60206). Any of those there really is no point attempting a 1v1 as in almost every single case you will lose the fight, lose the point, and give their team a free +5 points from your death. The best you can do is try distracting them off point and hoping for a teammate to come help. However anything other than those you should be able to beat with relative ease. Again, keep them blinded AT ALL TIMES. Blind>>>>>>>> stealth, and shadowshot is ALMOST always >>>> than HS both for finishing off and chasing.

Hi guys!

Could you just post your builds in a build constructor? (Because of patched runes, traits etc.)

I’m really curious about the D/P 6-0-2-0-6 builds in WvW and PvP.

I mean I’m also a returner and i would like to try some new things after i came back. My only build, that ever used the entire Trickery line was a condi thief, but I would really like to give it a try in a power based build.

Greetings!

Darigen.2309:

Hi guys!

Could you just post your builds in a build constructor? (Because of patched runes, traits etc.)

I’m really curious about the D/P 6-0-2-0-6 builds in WvW and PvP.

I mean I’m also a returner and i would like to try some new things after i came back. My only build, that ever used the entire Trickery line was a condi thief, but I would really like to give it a try in a power based build.

Greetings!

Spvp:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVl0Mp7pVOx0J8PNBMBxVP8ONnpNangdHAA-TpBFwACOBAEOCA12fYxhAoaZAAPAAA

WvW:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVl0Mp7pVOx0J8PNBNhwdtSz8O83yaFA-TlCFABrpJAgHAwVKBRS53jq/IwJAom9HSTPABHBgFOEAECw8EA-w

No, i dont have guard stacks and yes i run around with 11k health.

Carpboy.7145:

Darigen.2309:

Hi guys!

Could you just post your builds in a build constructor? (Because of patched runes, traits etc.)

I’m really curious about the D/P 6-0-2-0-6 builds in WvW and PvP.

I mean I’m also a returner and i would like to try some new things after i came back. My only build, that ever used the entire Trickery line was a condi thief, but I would really like to give it a try in a power based build.

Greetings!

Spvp:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVl0Mp7pVOx0J8PNBMBxVP8ONnpNangdHAA-TpBFwACOBAEOCA12fYxhAoaZAAPAAA

WvW:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVl0Mp7pVOx0J8PNBNhwdtSz8O83yaFA-TlCFABrpJAgHAwVKBRS53jq/IwJAom9HSTPABHBgFOEAECw8EA-w

No, i dont have guard stacks and yes i run around with 11k health.

just go full zerk )) balls deep.
Been awhile since I’ve seen someone link a somewhat decent build here on forums :P
But then again D/P isn’t my boat.

Evalia.7103:

Carpboy.7145:

Darigen.2309:

Hi guys!

Could you just post your builds in a build constructor? (Because of patched runes, traits etc.)

I’m really curious about the D/P 6-0-2-0-6 builds in WvW and PvP.

I mean I’m also a returner and i would like to try some new things after i came back. My only build, that ever used the entire Trickery line was a condi thief, but I would really like to give it a try in a power based build.

Greetings!

Spvp:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVl0Mp7pVOx0J8PNBMBxVP8ONnpNangdHAA-TpBFwACOBAEOCA12fYxhAoaZAAPAAA

WvW:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVl0Mp7pVOx0J8PNBNhwdtSz8O83yaFA-TlCFABrpJAgHAwVKBRS53jq/IwJAom9HSTPABHBgFOEAECw8EA-w

No, i dont have guard stacks and yes i run around with 11k health.

just go full zerk )) balls deep.
Been awhile since I’ve seen someone link a somewhat decent build here on forums :P
But then again D/P isn’t my boat.

The reason i use cavalier is because most of the time im never fighting 1v1s. A lot of my time roaming involves either solo or duo zergbusting with another thief. But if i could find a lot of fair 1v1s then id just roam with the panic strike build too

Hey
Yesterday I decided to try it our again. I’ve been having more success in solo q than what I expected. Also tried some team q with friends and boy… ppl there mean business.

Also I really don’t know why but I can’t get used to Panic Strike build, everytime I try it I change right after to CS again.

Another problem I’ve been having is that I think I don’t stay long enough in SB. In 1 v 1 I usually never use it because I want to keep the target blind as much as possible but in team fights whats the right time to switch from Sb to D/P? When a target is below 50%?

Well there is no rule “you have to use shortbow at least 80% of the time or youre bad.” For 1v1s it is very useful vs some of the builds that hard counter you, like engi or DPS guard. In team fights, you use it when not using it would mean suicide. Thats pretty much it. Also, what is it about the panic strike build you can’t get used to?

The imobilize. I sometimes don’t even notice it and the burst is a bit less

As a returning player metabattle might be a good place to start, especially for PvP. It’s a site that collects viable builds for every area of the game.

About your last question. Shortbow is bit of a panic/teamfight weapon – skill 3 can save your life if you’re being focused, you can evade attacks even while immobilized. It also provides nice AoE cleave on a downed enemy + a poison field which makes it harder to res the enemy. You can also stay in shortbow until you decide which target to pick in a fight. In 1v1s people often use it after they got bursted and don’t want to get into melee range and want to reset a bit. (but I’m not a thief expert)

And in general watch top streamers play You can learn a lot from them. If you go to metabattle there are multiple top streamers listed on every build’s page that play that build.

Thanks again for the advice
And about WvW roaming? The reason I did this Thief in the first pace was that area of the game. Now that I’m all geared up again, I want to know what do you guys think of this build?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoaVl0Mp0pdPxyJ8PNBNBt9wbQI8OMfpMaFAA-TlCFwAAOBAXVCiUJkgnUgTlP12fIj2m06AWcIAUp+TAAEA25O3ZIFgALAA-w

Traits are the same that I use in PvP (with exception to Hidden Killer, I don’t use that in PvP). Gear is a mix of Valkyrie, Berserker and Cavalier because, mainly because I don’t feel much confident in going full Zerker

If you scroll up youll see i already posted what i use for WvW, but here it is again

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfZAQNAoaVl0Mp7pVOx0J8PNBNhwdtSz8O83yaFA-TlCFABrpJAgHAwVKBRS53jq%2FIwJAom9HSTPABHBgFOEAECw8EA-w

Im sad/disappointed you play without 6 in trickery :’(

Carpboy.7145:

If you scroll up youll see i already posted what i use for WvW, but here it is again

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfZAQNAoaVl0Mp7pVOx0J8PNBNhwdtSz8O83yaFA-TlCFABrpJAgHAwVKBRS53jq%2FIwJAom9HSTPABHBgFOEAECw8EA-w

Im sad/disappointed you play without 6 in trickery :’(

What do you mean? The build I listed is 6 into Trickery

My bad. In any case, you need condi removal. “Oh, but ill just play smart and dodge/blind the conditions”. It doesn’t work that way, at least in WvW. Trust me, 20606 dp is probably the best 1v1/1vx build in the game. I have been roaming with this build for almost 4 months now, and have lost only one 1v1 against a condi burst warr, while also winning too numerous to count 1v1s, 1v2s, 1v3s, even a few 1v4s. You can barely 1v1 with 26006, let alone 1vX. WvW is just too different from spvp

Carpboy.7145:

My bad. In any case, you need condi removal. “Oh, but ill just play smart and dodge/blind the conditions”. It doesn’t work that way, at least in WvW. Trust me, 20606 dp is probably the best 1v1/1vx build in the game. I have been roaming with this build for almost 4 months now, and have lost only one 1v1 against a condi burst warr, while also winning too numerous to count 1v1s, 1v2s, 1v3s, even a few 1v4s. You can barely 1v1 with 26006, let alone 1vX. WvW is just too different from spvp

Why don’t more builds use traveler runes or signet of shadows?

I would think that either would be a must have for WvW.

EnderzShadow.2506:

Carpboy.7145:

My bad. In any case, you need condi removal. “Oh, but ill just play smart and dodge/blind the conditions”. It doesn’t work that way, at least in WvW. Trust me, 20606 dp is probably the best 1v1/1vx build in the game. I have been roaming with this build for almost 4 months now, and have lost only one 1v1 against a condi burst warr, while also winning too numerous to count 1v1s, 1v2s, 1v3s, even a few 1v4s. You can barely 1v1 with 26006, let alone 1vX. WvW is just too different from spvp

Why don’t more builds use traveler runes or signet of shadows?

I would think that either would be a must have for WvW.

Most builds do use signet of shadows, however most people will also swap it out to something more useful like infil signet or blinding powder before they begin a fight. In combat swiftness is covered by steal and pack runes. Traveler runes are garbage on a thief

Carpboy explained it perfectly!

My best tip: learn to love the shortbow! I use like 90% of the time. I only swap to d/p to burst or duel (after poison and weakness is applied).

2/6/0/0/6 has more burst potential while 6/0/2/0/6 has more survivability and a nice debuff from 3 in deadly arts. I use both, it all depends on the enemy comp. Lots of conditions? Panic strike build. Lots of squishies? Executioner build.