Guild Wars 2

So I have been surfing the forums for a couple days trying to find all the info I can on a good, viable PvE build. The 3 most common builds are

- Backstab
- Condition
- Pistol Whip (now nerfed though)

I like to pick a main build and really focus on it for PvE, and what i cant seem to make a decision on it that Backstab builds seem to be glass oriented (maybe a tougher Backstab build would be fun), and condition builds require massive spamming of DB which isn’t much fun for me and seems to not do well in dungeons.

Hoping to get suggestions on builds that are a little different, maybe using D/P, S/D or a tougher backstab build maybe?

(ie. I actually do have trouble with pve, even though people will say I can do any build and win, mostly just trying to stick with one build I like)

Backstab isn’t much of a PvE build. For all its high-damage-in-one-hit awesomeness, backstab sucks compared to AE abilities in open-world PvE.

Personally, I do most of my open-world PvE just spamming sword #1 and dodge with Signet of Malice.

I’m noticing the same thing. Backstab just isn’t …excuse the pun…cutting it for me in PvE. Pistol Whip used to be my brad-n-butter build for surviving in PvE but, it got the nerf bat due to PvP whine-age and I had to figure out a better way to be both survivable and do damage. I am finding I use sword/dagger or Sword/pistol on one set and shortbow on my second set. And, like Tulisin said above, Signet of Malice is VERY useful. The main auto attack actually ends up doing more damage now than pistol whip as long as you don’t interrupt it and let it go through all it’s stages.

Ive been wondering if Backstab build was viable in PVE. I need to get some money and get gear for it x.x

I use a P/D condition build for pve right now. 0/0/30/20/20. Caltrops takes care of all my aoe problems and if its aoe spam events, I just spam cluster bomb o.o ’

All you really need is to autoattack as you get closer, c&d →dodge then use the stealth attack. 2nd time you do it, the enemy will have something like 15-18 bleeds in a few seconds.

I love my backstab build in PVE. I run 0/30/30/10/0. With aoe blind on entering stealth, being able to enter stealth every 3s, being able to stay in stealth for 4s to regen hp/remove conditions, you can take on large packs of mobs even though most of your damage is single target. In a pinch you can also fall back on #4 ability to kite up to 4 mobs keeping them perma-snarred. It also does decent damage on multiple targets. I use SB as a secondary weapon for extreme situations that call for a lot of AoE.

I don’t understand what you mean by “I use Signet of Malice to dodge”… Are you “using” it for the passive heal, or actively, somehow?

I agree on Caltrops as an “oh, crap!” button – dropping one when you pull too much agro is indeed useful. I usually toss Dancing Dagger right beforehand so I can at least buy myself a few split-seconds before I’m mobbed. Assuming I see the extra adds coming, that is. I still have issues with getting beat to snot during Caltrops’ long kitten animation, something that CnD doesn’t really help with I’m finding – sure I’m Stealthed for a few seconds, but if the mobs can inflict a bunch of bleeds or a cripple, I can’t do much to get away…

0/30/10/20/10 (executioner, quick recovery, replen or cond removal on stealth, dodge-a-trops) is my default build that can be built to work w/ practically any setup since it has both high init regen and decent offense and defense options.
If you want a build that stealths more constantly (CnD, blind powder + leap, etc), then swap around condition removal on shadow arts for the 2 init on stealth trait and pick up some cond. clearing utilities like shadowstep. I mix knight gear w/ some valkyrie gear if I want more balanced stats for w/e setup I’m using (if mixing, its better to have valks on the gloves/boots/shoulders cause its more crit dmg% per stat allocation than it is on chest/helm/legs- unless I’m missing some hidden decimal values on the stat somewhere..).

Full glass cannon isn’t really a grand idea in pve, imo, unless all you use are our ranged options and never wade into melee-you aren’t a GS warrior or guardian. Being melee can be really perilous in this game, and there’s not enough dodges/escape moves to cover every single thing thrown at you when w/ a cannon build one mistake can cost you dearly, esp once you hit Orr.

I like the idea of using the sword. Whats your guys opinion on S/P vs S/D since pistol whip is nerfed, but it may still be viable.

ImagoX.4718:

I don’t understand what you mean by “I use Signet of Malice to dodge”… Are you “using” it for the passive heal, or actively, somehow?

“Signet of Malice with dodge”, which is to say, with Uncatchable, which turns the combo into a substantial heal.

castillle.5248:

Ive been wondering if Backstab build was viable in PVE. I need to get some money and get gear for it x.x

I play a backstab PvE build since a good month, and i like it much more than the upfront fighting builds.
I created the build long before the PvP backstab QQ started, and i play it for the same reason i picked Thief as class.
I want to be sneaky, i want to strike from the shadows, and i want to kill fast.

As offhand i use SB, for events (AoE) and champions (range, if you are sick of getting onehitted as Thief).

You just have to create a “consistent backstab build” (which i also use for PvP, since i don’t like the one trick pony feeling), other than the uber burst Assassins Signet build some use for PvP.

Meaning you don’t have the ridiculous backstab dmg, but you can do stuff beside that.

Healing powa + toughness + sword/pistol + venoms is what I do in PvE. thats 30/20/20. You have perma weakness on mobs, you have crazy amounts of heals through signet of malice + venom lifesteals, and you basically need just to autoattack and pop venoms when health is low. For anything you can’t outheal with passives theres aoe and single target blind to spend initiative on. Big nasty things are to be interrupted with 4th skill. For single targets switch sword for dagger for a more reliable heal and weakness. If you are not lazy and willing to press many buttons and time your actions shortbow outperforms any other weapon combination as long as there are at least 2 targets with crazy heals, evades, aoe

Ichishi, do you have details for the build, like what venoms and traits you use? That seems like a play style that will suit me pretty well.
Thanks.

I gnerally go with the Wild Bill spec which is Pistol / Dagger+Shortbow. The Build is:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckMzc0z0MMxvMMMxvMx0GG0mRboscR

And here’s a link to the guy doing PvP with it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnqE7xnqsyI&list=PLdRu-1piROblxmQL9HcyqJKzgITtf9TTg&index=1&feature=plpp_video

It’s not a fast killing build, but it’s not really slow either. You can swap out traits all over the place depending on what you’re doing. It’s mainly a PvP spec build for 3+ people at once (I’ve done 2 at once a couple times so far learning the build). You can take a lot of punishment and can evade for a very long time. It’s ranged, the bleeds and poison hit for a lot of damage and you have full stealth abilities for escapes. If you want fast killing with less dying, Sword is probably the way to go, but for a more tanky type Thief that can solo just about anything (use Thieves Guild as your Elite), give this one a try.

Houligan: i am not using any side resources and do everything myself so you will have to read to know:
30 in deadly arts and talents are: 2 might when using venom (Venomous strength), venom recharge (Quick Venoms), and 1 more use on every venom (Residual Venom).
This maximizes venom usage.
20 in critical strikes – i dont use any preci gear so this much gets me to crit rate needed for reliable use of crit procs – for first talent one I take either fury (Furious Retaliation) when I am alone with sword or Side Strike for shortbow and group situations. And shiny second talent – quickness on crit – Critical Haste – faster kills and more heals.
20 in shadow arts – cookie heals – sadly no first tier trait that benefits directly – second trait is Leeching Venoms, the key trait of the build.
I run full healing/tough/power gear (cleric’s). Depending on where you are and wether you need as much heals you can switch few items for damage ones. Currently I run full set of monk runes, because it is my support set for wvw. For purely pve purposes lyssa runes or any healing runes may do.
Sigils: fire blast for shortbow and either sword or pistol. Other weapon – stacking bonus you want – life for harder things, power for damage, luck for drops.
Skills – malice, spider venom – must have, most ticks = most heals and weakness from trait, scale venom – more damage, more weakness, haste – for those nasty times when extra heals or stun break is needed. Elite – basilisk venom (though you can have anything that suits your need there)
At around 1300 healing your malice heals around 160 per hit and each venom proc heals for 600+.
Never use poisons together, rather save them for healing.

I never played around with venoms yet in the game but the tics from weakness + signet of malice seems interesting. Im gona play around with it.

Wondering if its worth it to have less crit and more power via deadly arts for a build using a sword.

Sword/pistol with signet of malice and the heal trait in acrobatics is pretty nice. Sure, the damage was nerfed some, but the thing about pistol whip is that it heals you for every hit with this setup and it evades attacks while you do your damage. It’s quite good for pve grinding, and you have black powder as well to fall back on for blinding. Toss in utilities of your choice and a shortbow to fall back on, and you’re good to roll.

I just want to echo Cyricus’ statements above regarding sword/pistol.

I haven’t played with pistol whip before the nerf, but kitten as amazing as it is now… I’m inclined to think that the nerf was warranted. I don’t want to get anyone mad, but seriously this skill is amazing for these reasons:

1. Decent damage. Not overpowered, but in line with the rest of the skills. Did the nerf impact the damage of PW? I don’t remember the patch notes or when they came.

2. 9 hits per enemy! NINE HITS! the first hit is the stun, and the next 4 attacks do two hits each. With the signet of malice and some points into healing (though i don’t think Healing scales as well as it should in this game), you’re simply not going down.

3. AoE damage – couple that with the nine hits per enemy AND the signet of malice, you’ll easily be healing yourself for a third of your health bar when you’re swarmed by enemies. I actually soloed two veteran harpy matriachs just by spamming pistol whip at them, thanks to the fact they spawn 3 little harpy adds that give me more health.

4. You evade when you’re pistol-whipping. I don’t think it says this in the tooltip, but as you’re busy slicing away, you evade all attacks.

5. You can “pre-cast” it like Cloak and Dagger, then use “Steal” to teleport to the enemy you want to lay the hurt on. Just hit 3 -> F1 for SURPRISE PISTOL WHIP PARTY!

So this is why Sword/Pistol easily replaced my dagger/dagger solo PvE build.

I use shortbow as my swap… cluster bombs are also great with signet of malice: remember, it’s life PER HIT, PER ENEMY. So if you ’splode the bomb over a group of enemies, you can get a LOT of life back. Plus, the cripple is great for kiting champion mobs.

BruceyPoo.7853:

2. 9 hits per enemy! NINE HITS! the first hit is the stun, and the next 4 attacks do two hits each. With the signet of malice and some points into healing (though i don’t think Healing scales as well as it should in this game), you’re simply not going down.

I really haven’t found healing to be a worthwhile investment, even running Signet of Malice and Assassin’s Reward. It does something, and it is nice to see a few points difference with my divinity set, but I wouldn’t pursue it at the cost of other stats.

PW is still pretty solid for PvE, especially with SoM, as you’ve noted. However, it should be noted that regular sword attacks do about the same DPS and cripple/weaken instead of selfroot/evade. Once you’re pretty good at dodging attacks there’s not a lot of reason to use PW over auto attack unless you need the interrupt. This frees you up to use S/D for the superior damage and stealth/daze that the dagger offhand offers.

I do agree that the sword seems to be a very good option when it comes to PvE and from all the suggestions i’ve tried S/P and S/D for the last 10 levels. I must say though that I dont understand S/P. Its…so….boring. I feel nothing like a thief, I just sit there PW and blackpowder until dead (it is quite effective though no question).

I have started a D/D condition build that Minion put on the Gw2guru forums but if I dont like it im going to go S/D. I agree with Tulisin about S/D, its effective and still makes me feel like im a thief

Again, thanks everyone for the input

I agree. S/P is very effective but on the same level of boring and cheese as all the other classes. I play thief because D/D gameplay pace is faster and more exciting than others. The constant strafing, dodging and positional awareness is what sold me on the class. I dropped my 80 warrior to level a thief. After hitting 80, I realized I should’ve made a human, so now I’m leveling another one :P