Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

in Thief

Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

So I’ve made some stupid decisions in picking my traits, putting way too many points into power and hardly any into anything meant to keep me alive. I need to respec, that much is certain.

But how to go about doing it? I’ve got a plan I can execute right away and one for the long-off future of level 80. But is it a good one? You tell me! Because I have no idea what I’m doing!

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MMkzMMM0MRLvoMrLvMVaaVVcz

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MMkzMMM0MRLvoMrLvMVffGfczcam

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Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

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Posted by: Wiser with Age.3714

Wiser with Age.3714

To be honest, I’m having trouble understanding the concept of your proposed Trait specs. Link #1 was only partially filled out, so it’s hard to comment on. Though the sprinkle of x5 pts into so many categories confused me. Then Link #2 fleshed out the concept of Link #1. You’re dipping into the T2 Minor traits of many lines, but going no further. Why?

Most of the successful specs will run builds that are either 30/30/10 or 30/20/20 between x3 trait lines. Your shotgun spread approach will prevent you from accessing T2 Major & T3 Major abilities, which will make you much weaker than your average Thief.

We are Test Group F. (Don’t ask about what happened to the previous Test Groups.)

Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

in Thief

Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

Well like I said I have no idea what I’m doing.

The first link is what I can right now at my current level. The second is where I was planning to end up.

But I have no idea what I should do, so I’m asking for help with it. I’m really struggling right now with everyday mobs so I know what I’ve got built right now is not working.

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Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

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Posted by: Wiser with Age.3714

Wiser with Age.3714

Okay. First off, you need to pick a general theme that compliments your weapons and utility skills. Then you need to build a general trait plan and a gear +Stat theme to go along with it.

Since your skill selection that you linked focused a lot on Signets, I’d suggest that you dump 30 pts in Critical Strikes. There’s a T2 Major trait which gives you +2 Init per Signet activation (while also lowering their recast timer). Another T2 Major trait gives you a 60% chance to Cripple your target for free on a Crit, which should be valuable to your build.

Beyond that, it’s really up to you. Seeing your D/P and P/P build, I’m getting the feeling that you’re going to need to be constantly mobile. One option is the Trickery line. It has a T1 Major trait that drops down Caltrops whenever you dodge, which will be another free source of Cripple to keep your enemies at range. Trickery also increases your +Condition Damage score, which could be useful on your Pistol #1 Bleed dots. Then you have multiple choices for your T2 Major slot.

Another option is Acrobatics. This line would help to keep your dodge meter full through the T2 Minor ability and it has many Major choices which increase your mobility, survivability, or +Init generation.

My personal suggestion would to be to run something like Critical Strikes 30 / Acrobatics 20 / Trickery 20 or something like Critical Strikes 30 / Acrobatics 30 / Trickery 10. These kinds of build would focus on keeping you mobile, slowing down your enemies, and you chain spamming skills like Unload while getting lots of bonus +Init generation from activating signets and from passive Acrobatics traits.

We are Test Group F. (Don’t ask about what happened to the previous Test Groups.)

Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

in Thief

Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

Great ideas thank you. What about for dealing with multiple foes? I hear death blossom is the best thing to use then, will I have fast enough initiative regeneration to use it enough to kill them before I’m swarmed?

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Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

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Posted by: Wiser with Age.3714

Wiser with Age.3714

Well that really depends. Both D/P and P/P are bad for AoE damage. Basically both of your weapon choices are about killing a single foe, then moving on to the next one.

Having said this, one of the more popular weapon combinations is D/D and P/P. This would give you access to AoE melee dps and high single target melee dps through the D/D set. Then you’re have high single target ranged dps, a way to AoE Blind spam from Pistol #5, and the ability to ranged kite foes.

I would normally suggest having at least one decent source of AoE damage. It doesn’t matter if your using a Shortbow or Dual Daggers. If I had my say, I’d tell you to drop the D/P and replace it with something else. But then again, I’ve never like D/P and I’m inherently biased on the subject.

We are Test Group F. (Don’t ask about what happened to the previous Test Groups.)

Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

in Thief

Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

I’m willing to try just about anything. The only thing I really liked about dagger/pistol was black powder which is how I even made it as far as I did to begin with. But double daggers have cloak and dagger which is even better because some enemy attacks ignore blindness. Stealth is much more effective.

Is this a better route to go?
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MMkzzMMzMFRvoMMRvo0xVGfVRkMsc

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Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

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Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

I’m ditching the pistols, they’re not at all effective enough. I read the short bow not only gives the class area-effect attacks but with elementalists’ attacks it’s the best support tool a thief can have.

Why is it important to max out an entire trait line? Some of the major traits at the end of the lines aren’t really that useful looking compared to ones like Preparedness which means more initiative and therefore more attacks/escapes and Assassin’s Reward which basically means free healing.

Most of the third tier skills except venom aura look like small stat boosts you can get just by equipping the right armor and weapons. Is there something I’m not seeing?

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Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

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Posted by: Wiser with Age.3714

Wiser with Age.3714

Tier 3 abilities are a hit or miss kind of situation. Some people love certain T3 Minor/Major abilities for their class, so they’ll run a 30/30/10 spec. However other people (like myself) are more drawn to the various T2 abilities in the various lines. This causes use to design 30/20/20 builds. (For a Thief, I’m not really impressed with a lot of their T3 abilities. Some things like the T3 choices for Critical Strikes and Shadow Arts will have a direct impact, but many of them just grant bonus +Init generation. However the T3 abilities of other classes can often be very game altering.)

Just as a FYI. Assassin’s Reward gives healing based on a complex formula which is based on your level, the amount of Init spent to activate an ability, and it is influenced by your +Healing score. While it’s a very strong ability on character builds which have some +Healing (from the Shadow Arts line or from gear choices), it’s much weaker on characters that haven’t increased that ability score.

We are Test Group F. (Don’t ask about what happened to the previous Test Groups.)

Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

in Thief

Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

Oooooooh. Did not know that about the assassin’s reward. Well that’s not too good a choice for me then.

Either of these a better idea?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MMkzMc0zMFrvoMFrvo0xGG0cRqVkMR

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MMkzMc0zMFrvoMFrvo0xaGacRqVMRm

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Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

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Posted by: Wiser with Age.3714

Wiser with Age.3714

I prefered Link #1 which was Critical Strikes 30 / Shadow Arts 20 / Acrobatics 20. Now I will admit that I’m not completely wild about all of your specific Major trait choices shown. However that point spread should give you some nice synergy in shifting around your Major trait selections (which you can always do for free at any time). Between your trait point spread and switching out which Major abilities are currently needed, that looks like a generally effective and versatile build.

We are Test Group F. (Don’t ask about what happened to the previous Test Groups.)

Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

in Thief

Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

I’m open to any suggestions, what kind of major traits should I look for? Status effect boosts, damage boosts, init regen?

I am next to clueless about how they all interact with each other so I’m just picking what looks good at the time.

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Trait plans, go ahead with these or back to the drawing board?

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Posted by: Wiser with Age.3714

Wiser with Age.3714

Soloing Melee Spec (always running at least 2 Signets)

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MMkzMc0zMnovMMFrvo0xGG0MRqVRMs

Soloing Ranged Kiting Spec

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MMkzMc0zMmrvMMFrvo0xGG0zRqVkVk

Grouping Spec

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MMkzMc0zMFLvMMFrvo0xGG0cRqzkMa


Those are some general character builds that you can all use with that specific Trait point spread. Each one of those builds will play very differently and can be instantly changed to adapt to the upcoming battle.

Dagger Storm is kind of a situational power. I know that people will argue with me about that statement, but it’s how I feel. If you’re knowingly running into a large group of mobs and you need lots of AoE damage, then Dagger Storm is a nice choice. But for single target dps, the Thieves Guild pets are brutally efficient. Also since one of them is a Dual Pistol build, you’ll get a lot of free Blind hits on the mob when your pet fires through one of your Black Powder clouds.

We are Test Group F. (Don’t ask about what happened to the previous Test Groups.)