Guild Wars 2

For PvE, I’m loving Caltrops! Especially on packs of mobs. What are yours?

Yep, caltrops was the first thing I unlocked I think. Loved it in beta and with a LDB condition damage build I just get a group of mobs together, drop the caltrops and go to town with the bleeds.

Though I have to say the signet which gives 25% movement speed as a passive is also insanely good!

25% movement speed signet and shadowstep.
No one can catch you in pvp.

25% movement for me! Also the talent that drops caltrops when you dodge is possibly the best thing ever.

I’m using Shadow Refuge to help friends when they’re in need of being revived and I put the trait into it that grants then regen when I stealth them so its a nice little combo. I alternate my last two slots.

I use the movement speed signet, shadow refuge, and my favorite is the skill that lays down the field that blinds foes and blocks projectiles.

I use the dodge caltrops, what does the utility caltrops do?

I find it real hard to give up shadow refuge, shadowstep, and signet of shadows for any build. Refuge is just such a great tool for ressing people, getting out of bad situations, and laying down a great combo field. Shadowstep is just about the best escape tool you could ask for, clears up your condition removal and stun breaker requirements, and is just nice for mobility in general. And I feel slow as molasses without signet of shadows, plus the blind can be nice. I’ll switch out signet of shadows for smoke screen in dungeons and other specific situations though.

Caltrops and Signet of shadows seem nigh on irreplaceable to me, absolutely love them. Also like shadow refuge as a group utility and to combine with dagger storm xDD.

I agree with everyone about Caltrops. Using a Pistol/dagger build you can kite things almost to infinity. I haven’t stacked condition damage, but I’m sure its a valid build for killing things en masse.

My other new favorite is Blinding Powder. I’ve recently changed over to a crit/stealth heavy build and love being able to go stealth twice as often (I also use “Hide in Shadows” for heal utility). The extra second that traits give you for going Shadow heavy are very useful for running around a map gathering resources.

25% movement, shadowstep – these two a must for me for any buid. For movement and condition removal AND stun breaker. of critical importance. third utility gets swapped between scorpion wire in WvW, blinding powder / shadow refuge for stealth, to complement my stealthy d/d power crit toughness crit dmg build.

Cool responses. I’m only level 29, so I haven’t unlocked some of the mentioned skills yet.

Daredent.2961:

I use the dodge caltrops, what does the utility caltrops do?

It allows you to scatter caltrops that bleed and cripple foes on a 30 second cooldown. I think it lasts 14 seconds.

Signet of Shadows is nearly a necessity for convenience and survival (you can dodge lots of mobs attacks by backing up/strafing, without wasting a dodge). It definitely gives you that thief-ey edge that’s characteristic of a profession that’s designed to be harder to trap than a greased pig. Other than that it’s up to you, but it really depends on the situation.

• Scorpion Wire for WvW, always. (oh and shortbow, but that’s weapon, not utility)
• Signets for spamming weapon attacks as you learn at first to control Init (kept on passive, and ignored, they do a lot of good for you).
• Traps (especially Ambush) as you get better, lending you more frontloaded potential.
• Venoms for utility and control (or for support if you trait 30 into Shadow Arts).
• Refuge, smokescreen, etc. if you go crazy for support (in my opinion thief isn’t a good backline character, compared to others).

madsamurai.6795:

I’m using Shadow Refuge to help friends when they’re in need of being revived and I put the trait into it that grants then regen when I stealth them so its a nice little combo. I alternate my last two slots.

I have such a hard time taking Shadow Refuge off my bar. With Pistols, the Life Leech from this is insane, often like a second heal-skill. Or the general utility of being able to stand in it for ages in stealth, if you really need to hide.

Using D/D build and my skills are: Hide in the Shadows, Blinding Powder, Infiltrator’s signet, and shadow refuge.

Since D/D is mostly a back stab build, it’s better to have as much stealth abilities as possible, and the abilities really shine when you have the “Hidden Killer” (100% crit chance) trait. Infiltrator’s signet regenerates my initiative much quicker, allowing my thief to spam my abilities more efficiently. The damage output is ridiculous. Also, my thief heals when in stealth, so it’s nice to have that as a backup.

Shadow Refuge is AWESOME.

Signet of Shadows is a given, but only for the passive, the active is pretty terrible really considering all the other ways we have to blind.

Haste can be good with pistol/pistol or sword/pistol but due to the downside is very limited in when it can be used.. still.. it can stack impressive numbers when you pistol whip something 3 times in a row with haste up.

Shadow Refuge is great, the fact that it’s a darkness field for lifesteal can really boost a backline of ranged attackers in a boss or wvw situation, healing them up a bit while they shoot, it’s also a way for me to stack some bleeds.

Scorpion Wire, it’s a niche use but, in WvW, you see that pesky elementalist nuking your allies from the walls? Bring him down to your level and implode him before he realizes what just happened.

Smoke Screen, another niche use utility that I thought I wouldn’t like too much but has turned out pretty handy. Blocking projectiles and acting as a smoke field to blind people through with your own projectiles, is useful. It allows me to work in a rotation with guardians for defending my allies in boss fights like one in Explorable mode Cadecus manor.

Another nice thing about smoke screen is that if you heartseeker through it to stealth + backstab as soon as you put it up, your revealed debuff will be gone before smoke screen goes away so you can do it again. If I had 4 utility slots, smoke screen would pretty much always be in there.

I liked Signet of Shadows a lot more when the active included an immobilize as well as a blind. Now I take Signet of Agility instead because it passively gives a little extra crit chance but also refills all your endurance on a 30 second timer. Combine that with the Expeditious Dodger trait and you can dodge 6 times in a row, which pretty much guarantees you’ll have gotten out of danger since it also gives 12 seconds of swiftness (2s per dodge).

Other than Signet of Agility, I run Smoke Screen or Scorpion Wire and Shadow Refuge. I also run Haste in PvP, but only with either Signet of Agility or a Sigil of Energy (refills all endurance when you get a kill) to counteract it’s downside. I also think some of the traps are pretty strong, but I don’t like having to have the enemy walk into them for them to activate.

The best thing about the dodge caltrops is, they don’t push you into combat while running away but they cripple your opponent forcing them into combat! You remain your speed if you were out of combat + 33% movement for 2s by trait, too

For PvE i just use signets, since everything dies to the ridiculous sustained damage of a short bow.

For PvP i often find myself using Caltrops on Legacy of the foefire (Graveyard fights are so funneh) Shadow Refuge is a must for everything, it’s amazing utility and Scorpion wire, the utility from scorpion wire and the fact it counters other thieves is amazing.

I try to work blinding powder into places like battle of kyhlo, cause of it’s small spaces and short fights. But it’s so buggy and it rarely works as intended, i usually avoid it and just get the MS signet. Obviously i take the Spinning Dagger throwy thing (Name slips my mind) as my elite skill.

Ambush (that 2nd thief is so useful with scorpion wire / blind / dmg, and often mobs agro it too), scorpion wire (PvP) caltrops (PvE), signet of shadows.

Shadow refuge and smoke screen have pretty much become mandatory when I am doing dungeon runs.

I tried it a few times to experiment and now it’s pretty much expected that when one or more people go down, a shadow refuge drops on them for stealth rez and life-steal field. And during initial pulls smoke screen goes up for everyone to combo through to blind melee and to lure in ranged. Generally, if smoke screen isn’t on cool down, then it goes up somewhere.

Roll for initiative is also really really handy. Particularly in the Waves and Citadel dungeons.

I haven’t checked it much in other dungeons yet, but in Ascalon catacombs, scorpion wire will let you pull mobs out of a group without aggroing all of them.

Pro-tip: In the Crucible of Eternity dungeon, smoke screen is one of the only skills that RELIABLY blocks the final bosses one-shot kill ability “Kill shot”. Dodging is difficult, reflecting does not work, interrupt does not work, and breaking line of sight on pillars does not work.

Shadow Refuge. Just wished that other players learned of what other class’s skills do. If they need healing, refuge them but they just reveal themselves through attacking, mostly when I am ressing them and they are spamming their 1 skill

Acrobatics was my first enthusiasm followed by trickery. So I first got withdraw and roll for initiative. Had to have signet of shadows, can’t give it up in any build for the 3rd slot, which does make me a little sad. Another very nice tool for me is the signet with the shadow step to target and passive initiative regen. I can roll for initiative and step right back for more attacks, or use it to break lockdowns

Otherwise liking scorpion wire, caltrops, shadow refuge. I’m up to level 30 but can barely tear myself away from the pvp