Guild Wars 2

Hey guys i started a thief alt kind of bummed out on my elementalist, but im having a hard time lvling im currently lvl 22 i down mobs easily however im really squishy currently using D/D with shortbow for aoe or multiple targets. Got10 in critcal strikes tree and im now filling up power, i tried condition build aswell but its still not smooth, don’t get me wrong mobs die but if its more then 2 mobs i struggle.

Q:My question is can anyone link me a good lvling build?And can thieves farm orr?

BruceyPoo.7853:

Sword/Pistol + Shortbow
Signet of Malice (heal) = heal on hit

Run up to a group of enemies and see how much life you can get back from them. Pistolwhip is GODLIKE because it hits each enemy nine times (Signet of malice gives you life per hit, per enemy), and the more enemies that surround you, the better heals you get. You can pretty much face-tank a group of enemies just by spamming pistol-whip… you’ll be surprised at what you can get away with.

This so much. Add in life steal on crit food and precision/power gear and you can easily tank 4-5 mobs at a time. Even higher lvl mobs. Pistol whip has a built in dodge as well. If the kitten hits the fan press haste and spam pw. Havent used anything else since lvl 30 when i first tried it. At lvl 80 its just brutal. 6-7k numbers (starts with lower, i know) poping over enemy head in rapid succession is insane.

Warpinky.6758:

Hey guys i started a thief alt kind of bummed out on my elementalist, but im having a hard time lvling im currently lvl 22 i down mobs easily however im really squishy currently using D/D with shortbow for aoe or multiple targets. Got10 in critcal strikes tree and im now filling up power, i tried condition build aswell but its still not smooth, don’t get me wrong mobs die but if its more then 2 mobs i struggle.

Q:My question is can anyone link me a good lvling build?And can thieves farm orr?

Sounds about right… I can only recommend you to switch from d/d to s/p and to start spamming blindness every time you get overwhelmed by mobs, swords auto-attack is prett powerful by itself(better then pistol whip post-nerf, it seems).

Well I play a thief aswell (alt) currently lvl 23 and I use D/D condition spec and I have no problems taking on 5 mobs. All you need is Caltrops and dodge out of their attacks

Dude don’t worry, up until 35 I struggled as well, but now it’s just smooth sailing.

good to hear it’ll get better later however what would u guys suggest for leveling weapons stats n traits?

I find that Ambush, Wurm, and Thieves Guild have been best for me in pve.

Use your C&D whenever you can and BS.

You could try D/P, I like to farm with this set. Black Powder>Heartseeker>Backstab is nice, you stealth in the rotation and are throwing down a blinding field. Take out 1 mob at a time but mitigate a lot of damage from blind/stealths. Critical traits are Shadow Arts 10 – Infusion of Shadow and Trickery 15 helps alot. At Tier 3 Critical Strikes 30 – Hidden Killer is great here. Gear for Precision and Crit Dmg %.

GL
Blood~

I found whilst leveling up that the condition damage from D/D’s death blossom was very good, and helped keep me alive longer with all the evasion.

Thief alone do enough damage. I traited into shadow and arcobatics when i lvled. I did go 10 into trickery for Caltrops on dodge. For skills i always had Blinding powder or Shadow refuge for my get out of jail free card. Thieves Guild was the elite i always used when i lvled.

It was pretty hard for me until my mid-thirties… when I got more skills unlocked and new methods to kill enemies.

Don’t be afraid to experiment! I was a dagger/dagger + shortbow thief in PvE for a while, thinking that this is THE BEST, but for my play style, there were more effective means of dispatching enemies.

I recommend trying:

Sword/Pistol + Shortbow
Signet of Malice (heal) = heal on hit

Run up to a group of enemies and see how much life you can get back from them. Pistolwhip is GODLIKE because it hits each enemy nine times (Signet of malice gives you life per hit, per enemy), and the more enemies that surround you, the better heals you get. You can pretty much face-tank a group of enemies just by spamming pistol-whip… you’ll be surprised at what you can get away with.

(side note: if pistol whip is still this awesome AFTER the nerf, then people complaining that it’s next to useless now have some serious issues).

If you see an enemy about to unleash a HOLYSHOMFGBBQ attack, a quick tap of the #4 skill (headshot) would put a stop to that right away. It does practically no damage, but it can at least prevent you from taking damage by interrupting the enemy.

A good distance-closer is still the #2 skill, except it does more damage to enemies at full health than heart seeker. Plus, it allows you to shadow step back and CURES A CONDITION. Great condition removal here.

The one thing about this build is that unless you’re traited to stealth upon stealing, there isn’t a reliable way to go into stealth using initiative or your heals. If stealth is important to you in PvE (it isn’t so much for me), look into skills that do so.

I have to say I’m stuck in a similar rut right now. I’m 54/55 and can’t find a setup that kills the amount of things I need quickly enough. Using Sword|Pistol/Shortbow right now, and it’s just meh. I also have all my points in Acrobatics/Shadow Arts. I might need to take a different track for leveling. Any thoughts?

Daedalus

I also have all my points in Acrobatics/Shadow Arts.

Many thieves seem to think that if they’re dying in PvE then pushing more points into defense is the obvious answer, but I’ve found quite the opposite. Slowing your kill rate so you can live longer is a zero-sum change. Acrobatics can be leveraged offensively if you take might-on-dodge (and Trickery caltrops on dodge), but by putting points only into defensive stat trees you’re lengthening your fights.

I usually end fights against level 80 mobs at near max HP not because I’ve stacked defensive stats (I wear mostly Berserker/Rampager), but because I can end fights against those mobs in just a few seconds. Offense is the best defense, especially in the case of the thief. You don’t need to make yourself 100 % glassy, but you aren’t doing any favors by not pushing any offensive stats/traits in open-world PvE.

Your best solution for survivability is not stacking more defense, but rather using your mobility and poor NPC AI to ensure you take very little damage during your short fights. Learning to dodge, strafe, and cripple/daze control is the difference between dying and easily finishing fights at 100 %.

As for the OP: Yes, thieves can farm Orr easily. I have no problems with >5 pulls.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll give it a try moving my points around a bit.

I didn’t take the time to read the whole page, but read the OP.

I was having similar issues, just hit 20 again….yes again. Originally I had dd and pp for weapon setups. This time around I have dd and shortbow, and loving it. I changed my playstyle into more of a backstabbing build for single targets (pistol/dagger for champions, or just stick to short bow). I think the new AS is a great improvement. Sure my ONE shot doesn’t hit nearly as hard but it and the next 4 extra hits are more than sufficient, it also lets me spread my damage much better with shortbows explosive arrow (love it). So my advice, try to continuously change/update your playstyle until you find a groove. Listen/read as many build topics you can. Try them out. Thieves are lucky to have so many viable builds that are so much fun across a nice spectrum of playstyles.

Yes, to echo others, I generally run with S/P and D/D. As others said, S/P with Signet of Malice is a godsend against trying to fight multiple enemies, and I find switching between the two sets as you fight (for good healing/evasion/condition) to be very effective. You can trade in the SB from time to time when you want to work from range, but I would avoid MH pistol, and D/P is decent but I find S/P to be generally more usable. Man, main hand pistol really needs some buffs.

Another thing I’ve found about thieves is that their damage-oriented utlity skills are very good, so grabbing something like Caltrops will also make a huge difference.

I’m lvl 40 and still often die in pve… T-T

Daedalus.3954:

I have to say I’m stuck in a similar rut right now. I’m 54/55 and can’t find a setup that kills the amount of things I need quickly enough. Using Sword|Pistol/Shortbow right now, and it’s just meh. I also have all my points in Acrobatics/Shadow Arts. I might need to take a different track for leveling. Any thoughts?

I’m 49 right now and I’m slaughtering mobs that are 57-59 no problem.

I’m currently using P/D and P/P with 20 in Deadly Arts and 19 in Critical Strikes

A bit of a glass cannon build but that’s what cripple from DD and Caltrops is for (plus DD+Caltrops demolishes multiple mobs)

The P/P is more or less there for events and dungeons for the unload spams and head shots when someone else has the agro.

kk ty guys for the replies! il try the famous pistol whip

Tulisin.6945:

Daedalus

I also have all my points in Acrobatics/Shadow Arts.

Many thieves seem to think that if they’re dying in PvE then pushing more points into defense is the obvious answer, but I’ve found quite the opposite. Slowing your kill rate so you can live longer is a zero-sum change. Acrobatics can be leveraged offensively if you take might-on-dodge (and Trickery caltrops on dodge), but by putting points only into defensive stat trees you’re lengthening your fights.

I usually end fights against level 80 mobs at near max HP not because I’ve stacked defensive stats (I wear mostly Berserker/Rampager), but because I can end fights against those mobs in just a few seconds. Offense is the best defense, especially in the case of the thief. You don’t need to make yourself 100 % glassy, but you aren’t doing any favors by not pushing any offensive stats/traits in open-world PvE.

Your best solution for survivability is not stacking more defense, but rather using your mobility and poor NPC AI to ensure you take very little damage during your short fights. Learning to dodge, strafe, and cripple/daze control is the difference between dying and easily finishing fights at 100 %.

As for the OP: Yes, thieves can farm Orr easily. I have no problems with >5 pulls.

Tulisin what’s your build?

I run primarily S/D with a 10/30/0/20/10 trait distribution.

I actually prefer D/P + [Hide in the Shadows] to S/P + [Signet of Malice] while leveling.

[Shadow Shot] lets you get from one mob to the next quickly and if you use it each time the enemy attacks (you can let your auto attack chain finish once in between each use), the enemy is blind nearly 100% of the time and you literally take no damage.
If you aggro more than 1 enemy, use [Blinding Powder] and kill one at a time or switch to shortbow (especially for events so you can tag everything from range).

The reason why I don’t level with [Signet of Malice] is because if you build for power/precision, then conditions totally wreck you.
A single burn from a destroyer could do 3/4 of your hp.
[Hide in Shadows] removes all three damaging conditions on a relatively short cooldown.
The only other condition cures we have are [Signet of Agility] which cures 1 condition but there’s no guarantee it’ll remove the one damaging you, [Shadowstep] which is tier3 and has nearly double the cooldown, and 10 points into Shadow Arts to pick up {Shadow’s Embrace} which is a waste of traits for leveling IMO.

With this strategy, if you have good gear for your level, there are sections of the game where you can hit #3, auto chain once, #2 and mobs will die in less than 4 seconds without even having a chance to hit you. It’s crazy fast.

For traits:
Fill up Critical Strikes each time you can and take I, X, and XI as you get to them. (X makes a pretty huge difference in killing speed)

If Crit Strikes is full, you can either fill Deadly Arts and take any of I, III, VI, IX, or X depending on preference or put 10 in Acrobatics for II or IV and then fill Deadly Arts the rest of the way.

S/P can cure a condition for 3 init with shadow return from sword #2.

D/P works great at low levels

At higher levels (60+, and especially in Orr, etc), I find that the heal from SoM is necessary, unless I want to spend all my init on Black Powder and a lot of time auto-attacking. When mobs take 5 cycles of Pistol Whip (or 10-15 sec of sword auto attacks) to kill and are hitting you for 5-10% of your health every attack, you need evasion and/or mass healing.

SoM+Pistol Whip provide that

S/P actually uses 5 init to cure a condition (3 for infiltrators strike, another 2 for return), and there’s no guarantee it’ll remove a damage condition instead of say weakness or cripple.

It’s definitely nice that it has essentially no cooldown though.
S/P + [Signet of Malice] gets a lot better once you can pick up {Assassin’s Reward} without having to give up {Furious Retaliation}/{Opportunist}/{Critical Haste}.

S/P is definitely my favorite weapon set for the Thief.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to try it after the nerf to Pistol Whip but it doesn’t matter…