Guild Wars 2

In a fit of masochism I have decided to shelf my Guardian and roll a Thief. I am very low level but was wondering if a WvW support build was possible or should I just go roaming. That being said I was wondering if P/P is really as bad as ppl on the forums make it sound and if a condi Thief was viable/if anyone had some good builds. Thank you.

Im rather new with the thief myself, and I don’t plan on playing anything else, but from what I see here on the forums… we are nealy useless…

Sorry about the bad news :/

I play thief in WvW in zerg and i’m pretty sure i’m doing better than most classes that just “sit” in their utility and nothing else. The damage is awesome, the spam blast is massive and u can just teleport everywhere in a second, also to help ppl downed.

If you wanna hang around in a zerg, just find some PVT gear and grab a shortbow. On demand blast finishers are always welcome in a zerg.

I would say a good “zerg support” build for a thief involves being able to drop targets quickly (not finish). Given that definition, P/P can both easily (and safely) circle the outskirts of a zerg (<900 range), and drop (most) targets within 4-5 seconds. Eliminating active enemy — especially back-line berserkers — and providing rallies to fallen allies, provides more overall “support” than any other setup I can think of.

if a condi Thief was viable

They’re not very effective in WvW. The larger the fight, the more (overall) useless your contribution will be.

just find some PVT gear and grab a shortbow

… if you prefer watching the fight, instead of contributing to its successful outcome.

Barfoi.9537:

They’re not very effective in WvW. The larger the fight, the more (overall) useless your contribution will be.

… if you prefer watching the fight, instead of contributing to its successful outcome.

What type of gear would you recommend then? The shortbow seems to be pretty helpful for blast finishing. Also it seems that most of the weapons mix direct damage with condition damage which confuses me on how p/p would be used without condi damage.

So far the Thief has been a lot more fun then the shouting, dodge healing immortal guardian stuff I am used to…but kitten ….we are squishy lol. I dont know if I could jump right into full berserker or something after laughing at death so long with my guard.

There are a few options, you can be a ninja nurse, you can be a ganker, you can be a tackler, and no matter what you choose, just remember, all you’re good for is your short bow spam :P

I keep thinking about going full Berserker, but I don’t think it’s necessary. With Valkyrie armor, and the rest Berserker (+5% crit sigil), and a high up-time on Fury, I still maintain over 80% crit-chance during fights, and have a small extra buffer of HP.

Due to 10/30/0/0/30 (no SA or Acro), I’ve sacrificed some damage for survivability from runes (Lyssa), food (on-crit heal), and utilities (Withdraw, Roll, Shadow Step, SoS, Basilisk). The sacrifice had to be made somewhere, but at least these sacrifices also have valuable offensive potential.

The shortbow seems to be pretty helpful

I off-hand shortbow because of what it provides, but they’re very situational of course.

confuses me on how p/p would be used without condi damage

Unless you’re using Perplexity runes, I wouldn’t worry about condition-damage at all. There’s really no sustainable (nor reliable) means of maintaining conditions on a target — especially since they can be easily cleansed.

but kitten ….we are squishy

P/P might lack weapon-skill mobility, and the player might have very low HP/toughness, but they can still easily out-live bunker-builds if played properly.

after playing all the build out there for a thief and playing only wvw as roamer and raid/zerg i can say that condition wont contribute to raids fights as other classes do it better.
i am using 0,30,0,20,20 build which give boons to my party when stealing and also fury, swiftness and might and vigor for 18 seconds so as you see it contribute a lot for the group. also i am running pvt armor and zerker jewels and using SB with skill 4 and 2 to spread poison and bleed and does 4-5k aoe dmg when crit
and when i see low health target i put it down fast with DD set

this build have lots of evades and dodges which much better than stealth while zerging

If you’re running with the zerg, P/P can be very effective in killing enemies quickly from a reasonably safe distance. Running a build like 0/30/0/25/15 you can have that initiative regeneration you need to keep unloading and have a potential damage bonus of +40% when you’re enemy is below 50% health and your initiative is above 6 and endurance is not full.

Technically you wont be supporting with dual pistols but I see it as support when you help to kill you’re enemies fast.

Thieves are a free rally for the opposing zerg, it’s a sad thing to note when my first (and only) fully ascended toon is my thief. However I have been practicing a new tactic encouraged by my guild, which is to infiltrate the enemy blob and stealth stomp anyone who goes down.

This is achieved by utilizing D/D and using Cloak in Shadows right as the stealth wears off to achieve semi-perma stealth. Mingle with the enemy and just as someone goes down stealth stomp.

You can get very creative with this type of play style. Drop caltrops, traps, smoke screen, etc, while in stealth to create advantages for your group.

Darksun.1054:

This is achieved by utilizing D/D and using Cloak in Shadows right as the stealth wears off to achieve semi-perma stealth.

Can you expand on what you are saying here? Utilizing D/D exactly how do you mean, and this “Cloak in Shadows”?

Do you mean Cloak and Dagger? Do you mean Hide in Shadows? Are you talking about a trait?

Sorry I meant CnD with x/D weapon selection. Use Cloak and Dagger right as the stealth effect wears off to go back into stealth and not get revealed de-buff.

Thanks for the feedback, a ranger in my guild said I should go venom share but I have havent seen any builds for it and all mentions of it I could find on the forums seem to be negative. Is it worthless to focus on venoms?

venum in small group fight is nice but dont give any edge in larger group

i can see maybe 4 thieves spreading each 1 on a group of guardian and warriors using it so the first burst is gonna do much torment and immobilization but again not mandatory

for group play i think thieves should focus on higher dmg and not conditions

untill anet buff the venoms it can be use only as roamer tool.

Is it worthless to focus on venoms?

Traiting heavily into Deadly Arts, and giving-up the majority of your utilities (for venoms), comes with its own limitations. I assume it’s effectiveness (in WvW) would primarily be defined by the player, and how well they cope with those limitations. IMO, I don’t see anything appealing about it.

Thieves are a free rally for the opposing zerg

If you’re melee (or short-bow), then probably so.