Guild Wars 2

In WvW and to a somewhat lesser degree in sPvP, AoE is all the rage right now. I’m struggling greatly to handle the sheer amount of it, and still be effective. I used to play a role with my guild/small group to do good single target dmg (but not GC) and then be a staker when we downed someone. Sadly, Im finding it nearly impossible to do either in the current meta, as I cannot remove condi (Save shadowstepping) and everyone just keeps dropping aoe if someone is down or if I get onto a dps target. Does anyone have any ideas as to how we can mitigate the current meta?

I currently run a variation of Yishi’s D/D, So 10/30/30/0/0 with all the stealth goodies. Full Valk Armor with Divine, Shadow Refuge, Speed signet and Shadowstep utilities.

No one else is having this problem?

Stealth condition removal. Signet of Agility. Shadowstep. And the cleansing sigil are all ways for your build to remove conditions. As for downed people I can only suggest stealthing them or using the revive trait.

Archon.7516:

No one else is having this problem?

It’s not that, you’re just a bit late since the horse was beaten to death when the SB range got nerfed and now it’s dead. Let the horse rest in peace.

Disclaimer:
“beating on a dead horse” is a figure of speech, no actual animal was harmed during this post.

I use stealth condition removal, stealth health regeneration, health regeneration boon upon entering stealth. I have Melandru runes, condition duration reduction food and run with 31.55% damage reduction (0/10/30/30 with Knights Helm, Leggings and Rings). This is sufficient to survive through most intense area-of-effect damage from 2-3 sources.

It may seem excessive, but a glass cannon thief as most thieves are simply die under a little pressure. I have chosen to purposely lower my damage output and rely on more damage migration to do steady damage over time, instead of spiking someone down, and this does work out extremely well for me. I do notice that the other thieves I run with cannot withstand the pressure for more than a few seconds, so you’ll have to pick between burst and taking a pressurization role.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to ask

I pretty much quit my Thief all together in WvW, but I decided to come up with this build:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-c;4VwkZ0K5wOVd0;9;5JJJ;227-23-28;24Nk0P;16TsW6TsWBBlVsAuYV;1VTVT0cXcYn3o_6F-370HV8V-X8a;9;9;9;9;9;4VA-6K

It’s not actually 119% crit damage, the pistol tooltip is wrong. It’s more around 60% crit damage. There’s 10 points leftover to put in whatever you want and the food isn’t really set in stone (alternatives Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup, Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew).

It focuses on condi removal and regen+evades while still maintaining high DPS. You’d basically be immune to cripple, chilled and immobilize no matter who you’re fighting. It sits at 3.1k armor which is really good for a Thief, and 59% crit chance, 66% if you’re behind them, 2.9k power also.

The playstyle would be mostly D/P for 1v1+ but switch to S/D for mostly 1vX to rip boons and C&D/S2 for heavy condi removal if necessary. I think that’s all I need to tell you since you’re using Yishis’ build, so I assume you know something about the thiefs general playstyle, but I will say the last 10 points can actually greatly affect the playstyle of this build, you could go for Hidden Killer and maintain high backstabs, or go for Mug and get that bit of DPS/heal, or go for the heal in stealth. A lot of options. Up to you.

Also keep in mind I was going to try this out later personally to decide for myself if this was even viable, but if you want to beat me to the punch and tweak or test it out for yourself, feel free.