Guild Wars 2

Traveller or Trapper is the Question.^^

Pack.

When you play as a thief, you should always keep an aggressive mentality. “Best defense, is good offense” kind of mentality. Holding back almost always gets you killed in this profession.

Rune of vampire does not hold this value whatsoever. Not only it’s about healing yourself, but the internal CDs are not satisfactory at all.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_Vampirism Might.

The only good thing about this is turning into mist to save you a few precious seconds to for your next healing skill… or run to your allies.
When i see my target in Mist form, i count literally 3 seconds and press Shadowshot (D/P #3) . It will make you too predictable, so be careful.

Now Pack Runes truly hold this aggressive mindset behind.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Pack

It has Swiftness, Precision, and Might every 20 seconds in combat. Plus passive precision and swiftness duration. These are reasonable tools to help you kill and survive.

Again.Pack.

Usually Pack, with ToC and SoH (Trickery Thief like you said) you are getting close to perma fury and swiftness which is awesome for any melee power build

Vampirism is only good if you have team mates that can heal you while you’re in the mist (and also take of condis if needed). Thats why it’s often used in competitive pvp and coordinated teams, there it works well.
Does not work that well if you are solo roaming in wvw or solo queuing in pvp, there i’d always say pack > vamp

It depends on who you’re running with.
If you play with people that can work together to get your back up on your feet, Vampirism works. The Mist Form is actually the only thing that in my opinion makes Vampirism good to play with.

This is because when you play with people that you can’t properly communicate with, the Mist Form is mostly just kitteneless waste of time (unless you for example know that those few seconds are just enough for your heal to come of cooldown), Vampirism will just add a little extra time to accept the fact that you’re going to die.

Now, that means (again, just my opinion) that Pack runes are much better for solo roaming, or roaming with people you’re not communicating with.
I’d also just like to toss it out there that if you’re a good player with a strong understanding of positioning, Pack is MUCH better than Vampirism. It has more synergy with the Thief traits (proccing Fury which you can extend “infinitly” with No Quarter). It also bolsters your Precision, unlike the Vampirism rune (+125 precision is a LOT). The added Swiftness duration’s also nice for a bit extra mobility/moveability.

That’s a reason why many folk in better guilds’s focus parties will use riskier setups like Pack Rune (or Scholar even) with DA/CS/TR.

So it comes down to how skilled and confident both you and your fellow teammembers are. the more skill/confidence, the better of you are with Pack.
Also you’re solo, Mist Form is really just 3 wasted seconds most of the time (though it may also be smartly triggered for a safe stomp!).

I prefer Pack Runes myself for WvW and I’m considering to put Scholar Runes on a second set once I got the gold for another set.

If just comparing pack to Vampirism in very general terms I would take pack BUT it depends on the build.

The lifesteal from Vampirism on its own is just not enough to take it to justify it in a build but that lifesteal after heal is very nice if you take withdraw. If your build also uses other sources of lifesteal (venoms. ip ,ghost and the like) the stuff adds up .

The problem with Vampirism is that mist form can be as much a detriment as a boon as you can be forced into it at a bad time.

In most instances I would take Pack over Vampirism for the precision and the swiftness. The fury/might is not all that significant (unless it shared)

I myself used Vampirism in a p/p build using IP in all my trials at trying to get PP to work again and it was ok. Trappers is better though

Magira.6390:

Traveller or Trapper is the Question.^^

I am #traplord and I approve this message.

reinforever.8902:

Magira.6390:

Traveller or Trapper is the Question.^^

I am #traplord and I approve this message.

#TrapMasterFlex has spoken.