Guild Wars 2

so can we say failry that p/d thief is the meta now?

with the add of confusion and krait runes and other stuf as well
p/d life became more easy going lately

Certainly seems that way in WvW, in terms of roamers. I don’t see a lot of backstabbers anymore.

P/d is superior for dueling when it comes to thief condi builds. However for group play d/d condi is better bc of death blossom.

I don’t know it’s the new meta or not. But it’s new ez-mod for the thief that I’m certain of. Easy cheap build. No-brainer rotation. High survivalbility. The most challenging targets are other condition builds especially condineers.

Out of curiosity.. what would be the secondary weapon?

^ Your choice, but D/D is good. Gives you AOE for objective-clearing, and HS for overland travel.

I play p/d and d/d myself as in a Condi build DB is devastating and especially when you lay a few down on a group. The PD remains the focus but that 3 stacks of 10 second base bleed as AOE is killer.

As to Krait runes in a P/d build, I would not overlook focusing on all durations as well. Using a Giver weapon with a sigil of malice one can get 20 percent to ALL conditions.

If you like your bleeds at 100 percent just imagine ALL of your conditions at 100 percent. The increase to your confusion damage off BA and torment off the shadowstrike is noticeable.

For pvp i use SB as sec setup, for the fast travel/blink… to tired to remember name… 5 on sb? :P

Celestial, strength/krait have made it a lot stronger. Like any ranged condi build it’s low risk, and high reward.

Can someone please post a good build for P/D thief for WvW roaming? I need all the help I can get

Anyone have a build that reflects this?
I am new to thief and was trying d/p but it just doesn’t fit my playstyle. P/D might.

I run with p/d and d/p.
As for meta I don’t know… There are few playing this spec in spvp but I’m very successful with it so it works for me, it’s MY meta.

I started to run this build like 10 min after the patch ;p. For me works perfectly and even i would say too perfectly. More to say – IT IS OP AS HELL. Compering to other condition spammers / roamers. Engies – more about kiting nice dmg, nice aoe, sustain, but not many cleanses and stunbreakers (even none). Necros – just spam and kill or be killed cause of lack of active defence. Mesmers – very powerful, similar to thieves, BUT lack of mobility (out of combat), stealth, not as much condi cleanse and much clones counterd by thief. Ranger – kiter again, nice mobility, sustain, condi cleanse, but lack of dmg. Thief – very nice mobility – able to kite (immobile and torment spam) or play aggresive, very good sustain in stealth, stealth itself, very good condi cleanse. Usually i play as an dd ele (my main since v long), but playing as thief it feels just op (and not the dagger/x meta or sword/x meta). It should be nerfed, i killed 4 (not underleveled) ppl like nothing at all (using my healing spell only to get to stealth and make a combo). Don’t like anet making ppl suffer for skillful play because of condispam classes easy mode.

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Can someone please post a good build for P/D thief for WvW roaming? I need all the help I can get

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAqYVlsMp0pdPxzJ8PNBNRxdNUCzg3XxXshaFAA-TVSAABKcIAo4BAoomAAODAhq+zYK/6Z/BC1D0mSQSBAxyK-w

That’s what I use (simmilar, cause lack of ascended). Go and be op…

Rudy.6184:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Can someone please post a good build for P/D thief for WvW roaming? I need all the help I can get

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAqYVlsMp0pdPxzJ8PNBNRxdNUCzg3XxXshaFAA-TVSAABKcIAo4BAoomAAODAhq+zYK/6Z/BC1D0mSQSBAxyK-w

That’s what I use (simmilar, cause lack of ascended). Go and be op…

That build has a few problems, in my opinion. I’m not sure why you’d want to use carrion armor, that extra precision isn’t doing much for you. I get that you have sigil of earth, but you could probably replace it with a sigil of bursting and slot dire instead. You’ll get way more out of the 4.5k health than the 30% crit chance.

You’re also at 120% bleed duration, which is 20% overkill. You can drop the 20% bleed sigil and replace it with whatever you want. Probably the 10% condition sigil.

Krait runes are nice, but I’ve found perplexity and slight of hand to be infinitely more useful. Interrupting an important heal and slapping them with a ~14 second confusion is crazy. The Krait 6 piece is also extremely so-so, honestly. As P/D we already have good poison, bleed, and torment application. The 45 second cooldown is not worth it. The 45% bleed duration is the only saving grace, but I’m not sure it really pushes it above perplexity.

Uncatchable seems cool in theory, but doesn’t appear to provide too much in actual fights. Long reach, combined with a 21 second steal, seems way more useful, but I guess this one could be a toss up depending on the player.

This is all assuming you actually wanted to “go on and be OP”.

p/d condi has become fairly popular for solo roaming, but it’s not the meta for PvP settings, and it’s not the meta for group roaming.

In WvW roaming, the only thieves I encounter are running P/D 30SA now and it’s really boring to play against. With my S/D, I can avoid their Sneak Attack, clean most stacks and evade their CnDs, but I don’t deal enough damages in a burst to put them down while they’re visible so they just stealth and regen anyway. It’s just a matter of who get bored (or take a zerg to the face) first.

2/0/6/0/6, with a mixture of Dire/Rabid stats, preferably dire trinkets.

Runes seem to be either krait or perplexity, but P/D only form of interrupt is the traited Steal, or scorpion wire/trap, but that waste a slot when you can take Blinding Powder, a break stun, or the poison venom.

I’ve been running 0/0/6/4/4

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZQQNAqYVl0Mp8pdOx0J8PNRSRw9SQintzd2dC-TVzAABWoEEhTAgEPAAAM/dj+AoPEABcACMS9HV0wsz+DbfEAeS5nAHIACBsYOA-w

Dire/Rabid, you can mix it whatever the way you want, i did pick rabid trinkets over dire because i had a lot of karma and no gold. :/

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZUQNAqYVlsMp0pdPx5J8PNBNRxdNkCXo3XxXshaFAA-TRSAABKcEAi+BAkj+AAOBAdcIAQS9nJVCOmyve2fgUALqsC-e

that’s what i play now
For zerg fight change BV to dagger storm
For solo roaming change resiliense of Shadows to shadow rejuvenation .
Change Clatrops for any other utilitie you want

CHEESE spec for sure .

randomly.6395:

Rudy.6184:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Can someone please post a good build for P/D thief for WvW roaming? I need all the help I can get

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAqYVlsMp0pdPxzJ8PNBNRxdNUCzg3XxXshaFAA-TVSAABKcIAo4BAoomAAODAhq+zYK/6Z/BC1D0mSQSBAxyK-w

That’s what I use (simmilar, cause lack of ascended). Go and be op…

That build has a few problems, in my opinion. I’m not sure why you’d want to use carrion armor, that extra precision isn’t doing much for you. I get that you have sigil of earth, but you could probably replace it with a sigil of bursting and slot dire instead. You’ll get way more out of the 4.5k health than the 30% crit chance.

You’re also at 120% bleed duration, which is 20% overkill. You can drop the 20% bleed sigil and replace it with whatever you want. Probably the 10% condition sigil.

Krait runes are nice, but I’ve found perplexity and slight of hand to be infinitely more useful. Interrupting an important heal and slapping them with a ~14 second confusion is crazy. The Krait 6 piece is also extremely so-so, honestly. As P/D we already have good poison, bleed, and torment application. The 45 second cooldown is not worth it. The 45% bleed duration is the only saving grace, but I’m not sure it really pushes it above perplexity.

Uncatchable seems cool in theory, but doesn’t appear to provide too much in actual fights. Long reach, combined with a 21 second steal, seems way more useful, but I guess this one could be a toss up depending on the player.

This is all assuming you actually wanted to “go on and be OP”.

Ok, it’s not maximum op’ness. I made this build quickly 10 mins after patch, making it as cheap as possible (thats why
agony, earth, rabid etc. not dire) and worked for me well (i mean too well). I don’t like condi builds and with that in mind if you can make more powerful build it would be more broken. As for the runes, i would say perplexity overrated, cause bleed is your main condi and u want to make as much other condis to cover that as possible (on elite 2 diff condis, which u arent applying so much). Other thing i think that dire set is an overkill – i dont need more vitality as i have with applied fortitude and hillarious regen in stealth. Thought about sigil of torment + sigil of earth (sigil of bursting gives much less, around 100+ cond dmg compering to ~3 stacks of bleed and/or 1-2 stacks of torment). I myself got no dire set mixing rabid with carrion.

basic build
1,0,6,0,6 full dire set with 1 venum SR SS – -easymode
6,0,1,0,6 full dire set full venums – not so easy with no stunbreaks so only cnd to stealth but can down ppl in 3 seconds – fun/hard mode but not for 1v1 or big group play

How does it work in zergs, blobs and guild raids? Are condis bursty enough to gank squishies in serious fights? Is dmg (with all the aoe cleanses) enough to tag when I just want to farm wxp/bags?

So much cleansing in zerg/blob fights. I found that if you really want to make a difference, you need to run a power build in those situations.

I’m running a power P/D + SB build with Sigil of Blood, SoM, Omnom Pie and Invigorating Precision, and have been finding that I make more of a difference in large fights, and survivability is excellent with so much life steal/gain during visible periods, and the usual healing for stealth.

I typically run a heavy condition P/D build, but I wanted to try something different.

Well in guild raids, a thief is primarily using SB for poison fields and blast finishers. Usually a power build is better since you can swap to S/P or D/P to kill squishies on the sidelines. P/D doesn’t really have that option.

For smallscale/solo p/d is basically it at the moment. Stealthy ranged condi-spam with a very easy rotation and hardly any risk. It’s boring as hell but there we go.

Tachii.3506:

Well in guild raids, a thief is primarily using SB for poison fields and blast finishers. Usually a power build is better since you can swap to S/P or D/P to kill squishies on the sidelines. P/D doesn’t really have that option.

You can actually see some decent damage with P/D.

Lead in with a CnD for 3Kish, Sneak Attack for around 2.5K-3K, Shadow shot for around 3K, then steal with mug for 1.5k-2k and another Shadow shot for 3k. Auto attacks are around 1K.

It’s not backstab damage, but it;s decent.

Luranni.9470:

For smallscale/solo p/d is basically it at the moment. Stealthy ranged condi-spam with a very easy rotation and hardly any risk. It’s boring as hell but there we go.

I tried p/d condi before the patch. While I found the first few hours hilarious due to the high offence and survability, it eventually ended with me salvaging the armour to sell runes 2 days later. I can’t play to be bored.

messiah.1908:

basic build
1,0,6,0,6 full dire set with 1 venum SR SS – -easymode
6,0,1,0,6 full dire set full venums – not so easy with no stunbreaks so only cnd to stealth but can down ppl in 3 seconds – fun/hard mode but not for 1v1 or big group play

i run 2/0/2/4/6, i moved from venoms to traps. the 2 in shadow arts is for the remove condi on CnD… but you’re right, the moment you stop relying on the stealth mechanic, p/d isn’t so easy, its a slow burn where you’re constantly active in the fight. if you run venoms, not so much a slow burn XD, but its still more active the moment you take 300hp a second in stealth out of the equation and remove SR from your utility bar.

You need stealth for the sneak attack, otherwise you’d be better of going P/P with a x/D or D/P set as alternative for when you need to get out.

in zerg fight my SB poison filed tag ppl for 300 dps so i got plenty of loot
also i can down sideline in 3-5 seconds
as i can immobilize them for 10 seconds so surely more ppl will kill them with me and even alone i can drop health bar in few seconds with 5 stack of confusion 7 stacks of torment, 5-10 stack of bleeding and poison its about 5k dps
if i target the melee train its hard as they constant cleanse but again D/D thief can run to the melee train and do dmg either

messiah.1908:

basic build
1,0,6,0,6 full dire set with 1 venum SR SS – -easymode
6,0,1,0,6 full dire set full venums – not so easy with no stunbreaks so only cnd to stealth but can down ppl in 3 seconds – fun/hard mode but not for 1v1 or big group play

Do you have a link for this build?

Fade.7658:

Tachii.3506:

Well in guild raids, a thief is primarily using SB for poison fields and blast finishers. Usually a power build is better since you can swap to S/P or D/P to kill squishies on the sidelines. P/D doesn’t really have that option.

You can actually see some decent damage with P/D.

Lead in with a CnD for 3Kish, Sneak Attack for around 2.5K-3K, Shadow shot for around 3K, then steal with mug for 1.5k-2k and another Shadow shot for 3k. Auto attacks are around 1K.

It’s not backstab damage, but it;s decent.

CnD does 3k with a dire set? :| That’d have to be crit right? Which dire set has like maybe 30~% crit chance at best? Or would you have Rabid with Dire stuff on? :o

Tachii.3506:

Fade.7658:

Tachii.3506:

Well in guild raids, a thief is primarily using SB for poison fields and blast finishers. Usually a power build is better since you can swap to S/P or D/P to kill squishies on the sidelines. P/D doesn’t really have that option.

You can actually see some decent damage with P/D.

Lead in with a CnD for 3Kish, Sneak Attack for around 2.5K-3K, Shadow shot for around 3K, then steal with mug for 1.5k-2k and another Shadow shot for 3k. Auto attacks are around 1K.

It’s not backstab damage, but it;s decent.

CnD does 3k with a dire set? :| That’d have to be crit right? Which dire set has like maybe 30~% crit chance at best? Or would you have Rabid with Dire stuff on? :o

No, sorry. That’s my power/life leech setup critting (~53% crit chance). A dire setup hits like a wet noodle.

I am working on a condition set with enough crit chance to be able to use Sigil of Blood/Signet of Malice/Omnom Pies, but still maintain a good cond damage/duration setup. The plan is to have decent healing out of stealth to match the good healing whilst in stealth. So far, I’ve gotten a 1650 cond dam./50% duration, with 41% crit chance with ~19K health and ~2900 armor. I plan on running a Sigil of Generosity in addition to the sigil of blood as well.

Preliminary testing with an incomplete setup is showing decent results, at least on PvE test subjects.

What pistol/dagger offers to zerg fights ?
Ok i’ll answer that because i made the statement .
i changed my build above a little so it’s this

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZUQRAqY4alsMp0plPx5J0PNBSBxdDCw79+F3Y+dFCA-TRSAABKcEAi+BAkj+BAOBAkcQAQS9nJVCOmyve2fgUALqsC-e

well it may not be an optimal build but it does fine.

DPS burst is not better than a power D/D or D/P or any other power spec for sure BUT a dead thief, which is easy to happen in zerg fights by a single position mistake, is NO damage at all. With this spec i can stay IN the zergs and survive (better and longer than a power spec at least).
The best thing is the constant AoE Bleed and LONG cripple duration through caltrops and daggerstorm and clatrops on dodge (two energy sigil might fit better for this) . It is situational i know, but it is EXTREMELY irritating for the opponent zerg .You are gonna get focused for this reason remember that.
Specialy at choke points is even better .You will notice that combined with your allies damage.even in outnumbered situations they can not pass through cause it ticks continiously for 15 seconds .and that’s for Clatrops utility only . The bleed does a lot of damage and remeber that it’s the last condition that is being removed and if it gets removed it will more likely be reapplied so the opponents will have wasted some usefull condi clear utilities .
At open field battles you are the Poison Assasin so change daggerstorm to BV . the combo is simple precast BV + steal -dodge – sneak attack – shadowstrike .Great presure to the target with all these condis ticking on him .If he doesn’t have condi clear he will heal or drop dead.

Variations

For weapons i suggest shortbow with energy + sigil of poison (for 5 sec poison) .
(D/P is my escape – o kitten tool)
D/D for more offensive play .
BV- instead of daggerstorm for more quickly condi burst (but single target).
Blinding powder to Shadowrefuge for offensive or defensive use
Sigils of Battle or Energy as an alternative to the weapons.
Resilience of Shadows for Shadow rejuvenation for heal( i prefer the first because i don’t stay in stealth much and makes me tanky) .
Fleet shadow for whatever you like or for 10 points in deadly arts, but speed on stealth is great imho.

Choise is yours.

TL:DR
condi thief doesn’t kill fast but it really makes the situation VERY messy wherever he/she fights and can be IN the zerg fights.