Guild Wars 2

Hi guys. I m rolling a thief ( just reach 80, my 3rd pg, after a necro and mesmer). i stopped play a lot of months ago ( an year, more or less) and i wanted to exp thief cause i remembered very well the tons of backstab ’s damage.
Right now i exped my thief and i do a berser/valkyrie build for a D/D old school build.
I wanna try to focus in wvw with a playstyle like Yishis.
I like his clip a lot, but, today, in playtest, i wonder bout the backstab damage.. a poor 4,8k
( my traits and build is the same of Yishis.. i need just rune of divinity/ traveler to complete it.. ) i remember something like 12k or more..
so, is there a way to improve this damage?? cause this is the only build i like and it s the only one i wanna play.
Llet understand that, if i wanna a brutal noob-friendly pg, i should roll an hammered warrior, but i wish see what i can do with this thief.
Could u help me??
ty a lot

If you want to increase your backstab damage, your gear is already exotic and you have copied Yishi’s build, here’s what’s next:

- Ascended mainhand weapon. The increased weapon power makes a difference

- Gain many, many WvW ranks and invest in guard killer. This gives you a second set of bloodlust stacks

- Oh, yeah, make sure you get your bloodlust stacks before you start frapsing, then replace that weapon with something that adds damage

- Roll with someone who can help you stack might, and stack that might high

- Look at your foods/ consumables, and make sure you’re adding all the power you can. There are also foods that add +crit damage, though they are pricey

- Do grab those runes. Both Divinity Traveler have decent amounts of +crit damage

And remember, it’s mostly down to who you hit. Within a few minutes last week, I popped on two different elementalists. One backstab was 11.9k, and the other was 4k, both crits. There’s nothing like upleveled glass builds to make you feel mighty, right?

Anytime you watch WvW, just be aware that most of the time when you see huge numbers, it’s because someone hit a leveled up enemy.

That being said, you get your best burst from D/D when you use CnD -> Backstab instead of just Backstab alone. You pull this off by stealthing, getting behind your enemy, then timing your CnD to land just as your stealth wears off so that it doesn’t trigger revealed, but doesn’t leave you unstealthed long enough for your enemy to react.

Also, patience is key to success with D/D. In a tough 1 v 1, don’t be afraid to let your enemy burn some cooldowns before you go very offensive. You can easily CnD, then wait for the stealth to go away by itself early on in a fight if you want to be defensive so that you can stealth early when your enemy uses a big attack. After they’ve used up things like Shield Stance, nail them with Basilisk Venom and heavy burst while their defense is on cooldown.

P.S. Don’t forget that you stack might in stealth. This means that sitting in Shadow’s Refuge for a good while will buff you up with a good bit of might.

@Oghier: in his clip there are no bloodlust stacks.. i’ll buy the runes, but is pretty anoying recharge everytime, but is not a big problem..
but i’m pretty sure that his 8k of damage donesn t hail from livelled enemy, so, has backstab been nerfed?
anyway, i’ll buy food, i’ll finish runes ( maybe not divinity.. 10 gold/ rune is too expensive), i’ll full bloodlust and i see the ascendent weapon.. when i left gw2 there weren t and right now i hust see how i can spend leaurel

@Dahkeus: i m sure i m in stealth, cause at the beginning i didn t backstab cause my invisibility went down before i attack, but now i can backstab without problem..
for example, i try it on pvp area against a golem and the damage isn t better then 4.8k.

i tested my damage on pvp, but cannot improve him.. simply nerfed then??

anyway, ty for answers. reading thruogh the forum i saw a lot of venom/ trap builds, but i odn t like very much them. i really like the assassin classic build.. i just wanna try t master it.. but is just frustrating see that when i roll a pg, he’ s ain’ t good like when i saw it against me XD

If you can point out the video and where the 12k hit is, we may be able to explain it better, but backstab hasn’t been nerfed.

There are a lot of factors that go into how much damage a target takes from a backstab, so you can’t compare something like a golem in sPvP getting hit to an up-leveled lowbie in WvW getting hit by someone with ascended weapons.

ok. u r right.. so, is possible reach a o high critical backstab in pvp??
i m trying a new trait way:
25, 30, 10, 5 ,0
the point is: the 25 points in deadly arts ( VI, IX ) are usefull??
i’m losing a lot of survability
according to you, hoe much are differents the assassin build for pvp and wvw??

I wouldn’t recommend going for such a glassy build unless you’re either very experienced with the class or are ok with getting absolutely crushed in the blink of an eye.

Because of this, I would say either go with a full glass build to get high backstabs (25/30/0/0/15 or 10/30/0/0/30) or stick with a SA build (0/30/30/0/0 + 10).

For WvW, a SA build is really still better overall, even for an experienced player because of how useful all the extra utility that the SA build gives.

As for traits to take in Deadly Arts, go with Mug III and Dagger Training IX. The vuln from sundering is pretty weak.

No matter how you cut it, there’s a trade-off that you must decide on. Which is more important to you: Higher backstab crits or more tools to control the fight and survive the burst?

well.. playing thief i disovered that i donno if is better blast down ur opponent faster that u can or do it slowly but with less danger.. SA is amazing.. and 30 points there are well spent.. i did few tests and i could crit at 7500 ( with executioner and DA boost for dagger and last minor trait) but AoE blast me down very quicly, so i tought to run mud.. but in this case, no points in SA.. maybe in pvp i can dare 25, 30, 15,0,0
is, maybe, better??
and in wvw, only 15 in SA are too poor.. donno.. ur experience is more important than my assumpion

Yea, the more you play, the better you’ll get at dodging in and out of fights…but don’t underestimate your short bow. One of the biggest mistakes a lot of thieves make in PvP is to jump into high AoE group fights as melee when they can do a lot more with their short bow.

i love the bow.. 3 target at once is a lot of!! anyway.. i wanna try 25,30, 15, 0,0.. is it a coimpletely suicide??

Sparda.9750:

i love the bow.. 3 target at once is a lot of!! anyway.. i wanna try 25,30, 15, 0,0.. is it a coimpletely suicide??

There is no build that is too squishy if you know how to use it. The builds I mentioned before (25/30/0/0/15 and 10/30/0/0/30) are/were top tournament builds for D/P and they ran with the Berserker amulet.

Survival on the thief class is 90% how you play and 10% defensive stats since you live by avoiding hits and not by absorbing them (such as with classes like Warrior/Guardian).

i wish see someone plays a build like this… just to see how they play