Guild Wars 2

Hi. I see it’s becoming popular to trait for Trickster despite only using Withdraw as the only Trick skill. I myself do it from time to time, but I’m left wondering if the 1 condition clear and 4 seconds reduced cooldown of Withdraw is really worth losing all the benefits that Bountiful Theft would bring.

Granted you know what you are getting with Tricker + Withdraw and sometimes the boonsteal on Bountiful Theft can be situational (target might not have boons to steal, or you miss your steal due to a dodge, etc.) On the other hand, stealing that Aegis and interrupting the bunker guardian ressing mid fight might swing the outcome of the match.

Discuss! Share your thoughts.

I have a feeling we’re talking about d/p with shadow arts here? s/d might have different preferences since they have innate boonstripping from Larcenous Strike (Although that requires getting flanking strike off first which doesn’t always happen).

I personally go for bountiful theft even though I run crit strikes d/p. My way of thinking is that if the opponent is willing to put in effort to boon themselves up, I should respect that and put in effort towards stealing those boons. I can’t imagine the extra condi clear and regeneration being particularly useful for a shadow arts d/p thief. I’ve played that variation a few times and it already has plenty of condi clear and sustain imo (For the +1 roaming playstyle that it normally has that is. The extra healing could be nice if you like to 1v1 over extended periods of time).

Hi Midi, yeah i forgot to say my build. I run D/P normally with CS, but sometimes switch to SA if I think I might face a condi heavy comp. For CS the extra condi clear on Withdraw might be more beneficial.

Ofc the thing I forgot to mention is Trickster becomes very strong with the Flanking Strikes trait, since the CD of 36s is bugged. Haste almost twice a minute becomes very strong with Trickster trait ofc.

yeah i’d say traiting withdraw with trickster is only really necessary when you’re not running shadow arts with SE. As it stands, withdraw is already a very effective heal compared to a lot of other classes. Clears immob, chill, and cripple, evades, heals for ~ 1/3 base HP and is only 18 sec CD untraited and an extra condi clear and reduced CD is very helpful. As for the boon ripping part, I think at the moment a lot of players feel they need to play a bit passive and focus on self preservation. Of course, it’s very situational but with the recent shake-up of our traits, I see a lot of thieves playing a little more cautiously to be on the safe side. At the moment it seems for the best since SA doesn’t remove immob and other CC’s anymore, but withdraw does so why not make it better.

Trick is, With impro you can reset tricks cd so for that chance only i feel like i dont need to trait tricks. BT is great, even on low endu regen builds like D/P you still get Vigor and it STEALS STABILITY 1st. Its insane tool to counter kitten like Lichform/Rampage/Plague/Juggernaut/Armor of Earth. 1 condi clear on trickster its not even worth considering cuz you must be mad to use heal(even with lower cd) to clear 1 condi when you can JUST restealth to clear 2 condis…

TL:NR
BT>Trickster