Guild Wars 2

I have been playing thief since the beginning because I hate cooldowns and usually play rogue classes in games. I am also a build hipster and because of that, I dont play D/D backstab builds. I play PvE and WvW most and have a lifesteal build I run, with SB and S/P as my weapons. The trait build is 2/6/0/6/0. The link shows you my build [url] http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAV8al8MprplPxxJ0PNBNRt9w1AVoWBQ37QR0EA-TBBFwACuAAy3fgwTAAwBBAA-e [/url]

Their are two things that make the build work. The first is the healing skill of Signet of Malice. The second is the last trait in the critical strikes tree, Invigorating Precision. I use zerker gear for the damage and precision with a couple valk trinkets for vit. I like this build because I still do damage while not being a squishy thief. As for skills it is really preference, but I use Dagger Storm ultimate. Dagger storm damage procs the life steal while the damage of thieves guild does not. It is fun to run into a zerg and use dagger storm and lifesteal through all the incoming damage while tagging a bunch of people with bleeds. This is a thief build that can engage the enemy zerg on the front lines, cut through them with dagger storm, then move to the back lines or flanking positions and short bow people down. Remember though, if you are not doing damage you are dying.

You could probably move around the 8 trait points not in the critical strikes tree if you have tankier gear, are comfortable with a smaller life pool or have some pet traits you really like. But I like the little extra burst of heals in the acrobatics trait line with Assassins Reward and the extra 3k health.

The main weapon of the build is short bow. The ricochets of the auto-attack to other targets and AOE of cluster bomb help proc heals while doing alright damage. I use sword/pistol for single target melee damage, but you could use your preferred single target weapon set.

This is more of a sustained damage/heal build then the spike damage/heal builds I have seen posted before. Comment if you want.

Hello!

Beeing a build hipster is a good thing, but I have a few questions/remarks for you:

How do you deal with conditions in this build? With no points in shadow arts, and no traits and no skills that remove conditions. I would at least switch out “Quick Recovery” for “Pain Response”, for removing burn, poison and bleeding at least. If you meet a necro or condi engi, I don’t see how you would survive?

And:

“You could probably move around the 8 trait points not in the critical strikes tree if you have tankier gear, are comfortable with a smaller life pool or have some pet traits you really like. But I like the little extra burst of heals in the acrobatics trait line with Assassins Reward and the extra 3k health.”

Maybe you were tired writing this, but it does not make sense removing points in the critical strikes tree if you have tankier gear, so I guess you were ment to write: “You could probably move around the 8 trait points not in the acrobatics tree…”

And one more thing that comes to my mind is, you also say: “I like this build because I still do damage while not being a squishy thief”, while you run with zerker armor with valk trinkets and no Shadow Arts for toughness. The reason most people go for Valk gear is for those nasty conditions out there, but again, you ain’t got no condi cleeear.

In PvE world events/bosses etc, I see this can work, and in WvW to an extent, before you meet a condi player (which 95% of people are using, unfortunately).

Just my two cents, BRRAH!

Necros are a problem, I will admit that. If you get feared, you probably are dead. Minion necros are a bit of a toss up because they have so many targets you can heal on aoe. I have been testing out pain response in the acrobatics tree and it seems to work well against the builds that try to stack fast conditions on you.

An auto attack with the short bow will heal between 280-350 health, and a cluster bomb/detonate cluster hit will heal about 800-1200 health. You obviously heal more the more targets you can hit per attack.