Guild Wars 2

I just got enough material to make a set of ascended armor and now I am wondering what stat set to go with. At first I was thinking berserker for pure damager, but then several months ago I started doing a backstab build, but doesn’t really require precision as much. Thus, I kinda liked Valkyries for +HP instead of +Precision.

Should I go with Berserkers? Valkyries? A mixture? Some other set?

I just want to know what would get me the most versatile use all around, but be particularly good at WvW.

Thanks!

I made Valkyrie. Sure pure zerker is better in PVE, but i primarily play my thief in WvW anyway, and you only lose a couple %crit chance with valk over zerk which is nullified by HK. So is say ascended valk armor, ascended cav or zerker weapons, and all zerk trinkets

Cavalier pieces are solid choices as well. Not a full set, but getting some toughness is a good investment for a SA thief of any kind.

The stats aren’t that much different so if you like something in exotic, chances are you’ll like it in Ascended. But if you felt you lacked in some area’s you could take a few pieces in a combination that improves on it.

Carpboy.7145:

I made Valkyrie. Sure pure zerker is better in PVE, but i primarily play my thief in WvW anyway, and you only lose a couple %crit chance with valk over zerk which is nullified by HK. So is say ascended valk armor, ascended cav or zerker weapons, and all zerk trinkets

much this . . .

Yea valkyrie rules thanks to power being a major stat (1), Getting critical damage from it (2), and getting the health for some defense against conditions (3). Thief has a low hp pool so valkyrie is really a solid option.

Cavalier is nice too but the issue I found with it is that power is not the major stat so you can lack a bit if you decide on too many cavalier pieces. I’m assuming you’re in 30 SA (or 6 whatever ) therefore you will already have the +300 toughness from the tree itself so you don’t /really/ need the extra toughness.

That’s just my take I could be quite wrong as I haven’t seen your playstyle.

Keep in mind that Ferocity without Precision basically locks your Critical Strikes trait line to Hidden Killer, because without either Hidden Killer or Precision, Ferocity is mostly a wasted stat.
Now, knowing that trinkets are relatively easy to get, and armor is not, I would choose ascended armor so that I would not be locked into HK.

“Should I go with Berserkers? Valkyries? A mixture? Some other set?”

I would suggest Beserkers, if you are having trouble with that then try using a mix of beserker and soldiers until you get the hang of it.

I used to run Valkyrie gear too. I liked it a lot too.

But when it came to crafting Ascended gear I wanted something I can use both in PvE and WvW. So I rolled with Berserker.

And frankly, once you take Practiced Tolerance and Guard Leeching into account, the HP bonus from Valkyrie gear just isn’t all that huge. Guard Leeching especially has really devalued Vitality from gear.

Prior to all the buffs it would be something like 12.000 HP (Zerker) vs. 15.000 HP (Valkyrie). That’s a 25% increase and certainly worth sacrificing 15% of your crit-chance.

But after all the buffs etc. take effect, even a Zerker Thief is sitting close to 18.000 HP. And 21.000 HP from Valkyrie gear (only a 17% improvement) just doesn’t look nearly as appealing.

The thing is, Thieves rely mostly on active mitigation. Dodges, Blinds and Stealth are al used to avoid damage. At the end of the day, in terms of practical game-play, I just don’t find those extra HP making a huge difference.

For every fight I win with sub-3000 HP left there are two fights I would have won had my Heartseeker crit.