Guild Wars 2

I have found this build very effective in WvW. It offers excellent ability to escape and excellent access to CC. It uses rending shade with BT and can peel boons off an enemy in a hurry. The effect of being able to steal boons on an ongoing basis both degrades the enemies sustain and adds to your own.

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All of the utilities outside the elite offer a source of stealth. Shadowstep offers two sources. This allows more INI for shadowstrike/body shot and means a missed cnd not as harmful.

Number 2 pistol with high duration of conditions makes it very usable , not only to lock an enemy in place but to apply that vulnerability which acts as a cover condition and gets your ticks higher.

Using the traps in conjunction with this will stack might on yourself (you can generally run with 10) and 10+Vuln on the enemy. This combination goes a long way towards boosting the overall condition damage. (which starts low compared to most builds)

I found Improv more to my liking then potent poison as the duration add off potent poison does little and the 33 percent more damage results in only a few stacks worth a boost given there not any high poison access.

The boon theft is real. It rather easy to steal 5 off the steal and then continue peeling them off every time you do a sneak attack.

It weak to stuns and conditions so save those dodges. If used to DD it too easy to waste them. Your primary way of avoiding damage is to stealth and shift position on the battlefield. You will use SB for more then just escapes and mobility so that cleanse sigil adds a bit more cleanse.

It has excellent sustain against power builds, in particular if able to peel off protection and regen. Inherent swiftness is lacking in the build but this can easily be stolen and the hidden thief trait offers excellent speed while stealthed.

Avoid stuns and Immobs. Stealing stability can help to a degree with the former. There a lot of it around.

I like the concept of P/D particularly fighting bunker meta but it is a snack for conventional power thieves.

the build need abit more work, it is just not that good in its current state.
especially running leeching venoms when you do not have a single venom utility….

The advantage that venoms bring is a burst that can be loaded onto a thief. If they only run escapist’s then stop attacking and they will go down quickly.

My current build uses Rending Shade as the primary choice in many matchups. There are only a couple of targets I would not use BT and RS combo against.

Against necro and thief I would generally use Cloaked in Shadow because blind is very helpful (and against a necro avoiding getting hit avoids some of the condi transfer abilities they can have on them).

Xtinct.7031:

the build need abit more work, it is just not that good in its current state.
especially running leeching venoms when you do not have a single venom utility….

The build is not running leeching venoms. It runs hidden thief. This means extra speed in stealth and stealth on steal which in turn allows 5 boons to be stolen when I steal.

3 or 4 seconds of hidden thief can move you a significant distance on the map. It a faster speed then swiftness.

Stealth on steal also allows the 5 stack of bleeds sneak attack followed by shadowstrike away for 2 torment immediately after that steal.

Straegen.2938:

I like the concept of P/D particularly fighting bunker meta but it is a snack for conventional power thieves.

I am an older person and do not have the reactions of the younger set. Added to that I am old school in that I am a hunt and peck typist one finger each hand generally having to watch the keyboard. That said i do manage to use the keyboard for my skills over the point and click method.

I can state without reservation that In my time in WvW I have won far more battles against power thief using this build then I have lost. In fact when i am on another of my builds and see these Power thiefs ganking I go in and get this guy.

When fighting a power thief a LOT depends on who gets the first attack in but this build does have the ability to withstand such an attack if the other gets the jump on me. It also has a very deadly condition burst.

When I get off that burst I load on 5 confusion , 8 bleed , 2 torment and 3 poison along with a immob of close to 6 seconds. These are all long lasting and also comes with Vulnerability and weakness. A cripple is also easy to land. They better avoid this.

Most power builds use DA (no condition cleanse) or CS (no condition cleanse). They use DD (Condition cleanse only ON evade) and trickery (limited Condition cleanse). This means they rely on EA and Shadowstep for condition cleanse and it simply not enough to deal with that burst. That burst will also come faster then the Shadowstep will once used.

Trust me. I have seen power thieves miss their kill on the initial burst and then run for the hills once I get my own off. When I DO land my burst (No it will not always happen so there can be cat and mouse) I just stop my attacks so they can not proc an evade.

Now this burst uses only 4 ini. This build is very INI friendly meaning you will generally have more then will a power thief.

If that thief is not using UC or staff , then your Number 2 and high Immob access can shut down his immobility quickly. IMPROV means 2 more stealths on a steal against a thief meaning two more sneak attacks he has to dodge.

Power thieves will go on and on about the importance of their panic strike out of the DA line. I recognize fully how important that Immob can be in setting up a kill. This build has multiples of it. Indeed i used to use Panic strike as well and found it simply not needed as I had access in abundance and did not have to wait until “health under 50 percent” on a 20 second cooldown. I can use it at will when needed and it works just as well to set up a burst , condition style.

saerni.2584:

The advantage that venoms bring is a burst that can be loaded onto a thief. If they only run escapist’s then stop attacking and they will go down quickly.

My current build uses Rending Shade as the primary choice in many matchups. There are only a couple of targets I would not use BT and RS combo against.

Against necro and thief I would generally use Cloaked in Shadow because blind is very helpful (and against a necro avoiding getting hit avoids some of the condi transfer abilities they can have on them).

RS depends on how many boons the opposing thief runs. If he has a low number of Boons RS still allows that 10 percent damage mitigation. Where you use blind as a counter , I rely more on stealthing or using an immob.

In other words I find RS against a thief a wash with CIS. Both can work and the advantage to CIS just not enough IMO given its limited radius of 240 and the fact the theft of things like Fury off a thief who relies on TOTC to get it, can allow for less overall damage to ones self then that one time blind.

Necros are a differnt story. I would lean towards CIS for them.