Guild Wars 2

Hi peeps,

I’ve decided to get intimate with the thief profession and master it in (a lot of) time. However, as it is with beginners, I’d have a couple of questions.
My build is the following: http://tinyurl.com/hvqkc5e

• as I see it the profession’s role is still to quickly +1 fights and play the map, nothing more, nothing less
• my weapon sets are S/D + SB: I can’t help it, but feel crippled without shortbow as I seem to lose even that tiny advantage I have over Revs in terms of mobility.
  Plus with the new change to “Lead Attacks”, I might as well stack that multiplier while travelling across capture points.
• I currently run Eagle runes and am well aware that there are potent alternatives. I just don’t feel comfortable enough on the profession to maintain the health threshold for utilizing Scholars and the idea is to burst down low HP targets, so Eagle’s bonus come in handy anyway. I am open to suggestions though as I feel this is something that could be improved.
• need help with my 3rd utility skill. I know that Shadowstep is the go-to choice, however having a skill with 50s cooldown on a thief which is mainly used as a teleport (read a thread about how its condi cleanse feature and how it’s not the best to use, which I agree with) feels a lot like a waste to me. I’m well aware of the benefits of having that skill on the toolbar, but it doesn’t feel that rewarding for such a high cd
  My question here would be: any suggestions for the 3rd utility slot? Fist Flurry came into my mind as the general issue with S/D (which everyone seem to agree on) is the relatively low damage output/burst potential especially compared to D/P (I’m just simply not suited for D/P so let’s leave it at that).
  However, I haven’t seen anyone using or mentioning that skill. Is it the long cast time or rather the fact people favour Shadowstep over anything else?
  I feel the skill would already benefit from the Physical trait and could be a decent damage booster for bursts given the fact that this build has a ton of access to immobs/stuns so landing it would actually be no problem.
  Is it the long cast time?

• I need to vary my rotations and stop spamming in favour of more strategical skill usage. I have troubles with off hand dagger though. It seems…useless somehow. Like why would I use dagger #4 and #5 at all? Stealth does not seem to be that important in this build (can be nice to rotate unnoticed) and #4 is just simply terrible in my opinion, but I could be wrong.
  What are the advantages of off hand dagger? Do you use #4 and #5 and if so, when?

I think that would be all for now, but I’m sure more question will arise with the discussion.

Thanks in advance for your valuable inputs!

So, here’s my 2 copper:

If you want to play the role of +1, you’ll generally pull that off more effectively with a D/P build. S/D can +1 as well, but it’s more of a brawler type build that sacrifices burst for the ability to survive a messier fight and strip boons. D/P, on the other hand, will jump in a fight with more burst and excels at quickly downing a low HP target or at least shutting it down with stuns.

If you want to play burstier as a +1, you’ll also want to run with scholar runes. For S/D, something like Rune of the Pack would probably be better.

Shadow step is also definitely worth keeping. The cooldown seems high, but it will still be worth the slot since you shouldn’t be stunned that often anyways. It’s a versatile skill, so don’t just think of it as a stun break. A couple general uses for it are:

• Travelling the map faster to ensure you decap before an enemy can respond.
• Shadow stomping to prevent interrupt, such as against a guardian or when enemy is in the middle of a team fight.
• Condi clear when in a fight where a stun break is less important (such as against a necro)

The more you get used to shadow step and the better you get a feel for when and why to use it, the better you’ll realize that the skill is.

Dagger #4 is very rarely useful, but ever once in a blue moon, you can use it to finish off someone at range or to snare them if you’ve already used the shadow step from #2.

Dagger #5 is primarily for dazeing an opponent from your stealth attack. This is best used when you’re fighting with an ally and expect the enemy to heal or use a defensive cooldown when they’re getting low and allow your teammate to keep up damage without any resistance. If you’re solo, it’s a bit less useful, but it’s still also helpful for disengaging from a fight if things aren’t going well.

Dahkeus.8243:

So, here’s my 2 copper:

If you want to play the role of +1, you’ll generally pull that off more effectively with a D/P build. S/D can +1 as well, but it’s more of a brawler type build that sacrifices burst for the ability to survive a messier fight and strip boons. D/P, on the other hand, will jump in a fight with more burst and excels at quickly downing a low HP target or at least shutting it down with stuns.

My biggest grief with Dagger main hand is that I find it hard to land Backstabs in the chaos of a team fight.
There is just so many particle effects flying around that I literally don’t see if the enemy shows me his back or not. This results in missed Backstabs, however, I’m sure that here the problem is with me.
On the other hand the #5 + #2 combo for stealth feels clunky and slow – it can be seen from a mile away unless I stack stealth, but then I run out of ini and bet everything on that Backstab, which I’m not particularly good at landing…* sigh *…

CnD into Backstab feels much more “fluid”, but there we have the problem with off hand dagger not being that good, especially compared to Pistol’s Head Shot
It just feels like Dagger main hand is not suited for my taste :/

…which is a shame as it seems Dagger main hand is the weapon to use given the current spot of Thief in the meta…

Stop,duck and reroll before you get burned by the thief.

glorius.1235:

Dahkeus.8243:

So, here’s my 2 copper:

If you want to play the role of +1, you’ll generally pull that off more effectively with a D/P build. S/D can +1 as well, but it’s more of a brawler type build that sacrifices burst for the ability to survive a messier fight and strip boons. D/P, on the other hand, will jump in a fight with more burst and excels at quickly downing a low HP target or at least shutting it down with stuns.

My biggest grief with Dagger main hand is that I find it hard to land Backstabs in the chaos of a team fight.
There is just so many particle effects flying around that I literally don’t see if the enemy shows me his back or not. This results in missed Backstabs, however, I’m sure that here the problem is with me.
On the other hand the #5 + #2 combo for stealth feels clunky and slow – it can be seen from a mile away unless I stack stealth, but then I run out of ini and bet everything on that Backstab, which I’m not particularly good at landing…* sigh *…

CnD into Backstab feels much more “fluid”, but there we have the problem with off hand dagger not being that good, especially compared to Pistol’s Head Shot
It just feels like Dagger main hand is not suited for my taste :/

…which is a shame as it seems Dagger main hand is the weapon to use given the current spot of Thief in the meta…

Backstab is more of a play style than the best tactic these days. Just shadowshow → autos xD

Staff is a better brawler alternative to s/d. Slightly less mobility, but a lot more damage. Staff struggles 1v1 vs good players though. It lacks CC and is highly telegraphed. d/p is the best +1 set atm.

You could play d/p + s/d. You can jump cancel s/d #2, making it almost like shortbow.

Gallant Pigeon.5807:

Staff is a better brawler alternative to s/d. Slightly less mobility, but a lot more damage. Staff struggles 1v1 vs good players though. It lacks CC and is highly telegraphed. d/p is the best +1 set atm.

You could play d/p + s/d. You can jump cancel s/d #2, making it almost like shortbow.

I’ve been considering Staff a lot these days team fight-wise as the inbuilt evade on its highest damage skill would theoretically let me stay in fights for a longer time, while also applying continuous pressure.
On the other hand, it seems to be a one-trick-Pony, but who knows…

The boon steal and shadowstep on S/D is hard to give up though…

Staff is pretty versatile once you get experience with it. It may seem like a 1 trick pony but it can put a lot of pressure. The only thing it’s lacking is a smoke field that’s very powerful in x/p. If you can stand the long CD of blinding powder(I can’t), stealth 1 and you can get a free vault. Other tricks is linking weakening charge with ports. Wait a half second after casting weakening charge, then steal/infiltrator’s signet and you will root in place landing all 3 hits. That’s an easy 6-7.5k dmg if all are crits and they should be since your crit should be high enough. Use debilitating arc when you’re on the defensive and run out of endurance(it happens). Very few instances when you can vault spam. Vault spamming in refuge is one of them. Another is after you steal from a ranger and using healing seed on top of them. There’s pros and cons of all weapons. Right now, I think staff is very strong.