Guild Wars 2

Hi. I’m a PvE centered thief and you’d be lucky to get me in your dungeon run group :-)

My Current PvE Team Build

Now note that I have not done any optimization of this setup and it is not my style to do so. I play rather casually and, as such, do not really have the deep knowledge of every skill and ability that many other have or claim to have.

What I do have is (a) a mastery of the dodge mechanic, (b) and understanding of combo fields and finishers, and © an insatiable desire to aid my party.

If you want to try the build, here’s my advice:

1. When approaching a mob, use your speed to get a little ahead of the group and set Caltrops. Dodge back (behind the rest of your group) and let the mob run through. This will clump them all up, apply bleeds & cripple, and set up the fight for your casters.

2. Vs. generic mobs – once the group engages, have your shortbow ready. Throw down a Choking Gas field and spam Cluster Bomb. Let the first one hit in the field to cause Area Weakness and burst the rest right before they hit the ground, causing 3 stacks of bleed per bomb per foe. I haven’t done the necessary scientific research but it hits pretty much every enemy in the mob. I used to kill centaurs in Hirathi before the nerfed the event (they used to come all at once…all 7 waves. I was never able to solo the 100+ centaurs that would show up in a line over that bridge but I made it to wave 6 a few times).

2a. Make sure you keep poison on the mob (though I’ve found that others often apply poison regardless of whether or not the target is already poisoned) and watch for teammate’s combo fields. The best ones to watch for are fire and water. Get right in those and spam your bombs at your own feet so that there is no wait between shooting them and their detonation. Stack as much area might or healing as you can. Ring of Fire (elementalist) lasts 6 seconds so you can get 9-12 stacks of area might from that. Healing Spring (ranger) lasts 15 seconds so will get you 5-8k area health from it (obviously stop doing that if everyone is healed or ignoring your heals). Ignore the enemy and hit those fields. Your team will love you for it even though, most of the time, they have no idea what you are doing. Here is a list of blast finishers and you should know them and what they do.

Remember that Cluster Bomb is you can fire in any direction. You don’t have to be facing your target. Also remember that you are unique in that you have a repeatable blast finisher which always applies boons/conditions to the entire area. Additionally, it only costs 3 initiative. With your 15, you can use this pretty much as much as you want.

2b. Almost every attack you have is a Projectile Finisher. Some are small and some are full but pretty much every shot you fire should be through a combo field if possible. Position yourself wisely.

3. Vs. veterans, and difficult single targets – Pistols are your friends. The main things I use them for are Body Shot (for stacks of Vulnerability), Headshot (you can chain these together with a regular Vital Shot in between and lock down an enemy for a good 5-8 seconds or more), and Unload. Occasionally I’ll use Black Powder but it’s expensive and generally not worth it in a group setting. The main thing I make sure to do is interrupt their big attacks if possible and, given the nature of initiative, it often is.

4. Vs. bosses – These are the battles in which you won’t shine but I’ve found that most other players are set up for direct damage so the loss of damage from you is not so big a deal. What you can do to help is keep the boss poisoned, bleeding, crippled, and vulnerable to some extent. In addition, set yourself up as the main utility/healer of the group. Make sure you use combo fields as always and and make sure nobody dies. Alert your group in advance to retreat to any ranger Healing Springs if they are in trouble and area heal like mad if anyone needs it. Grant area armors, buffs, and debuffs often.

5. Things to note – The utility skills I’ve picked are the ones which work best for the way I play. I use Caltrops often a like to herd my enemies into them or just roll in, throw them down, and roll away before carpet bombing the area for damage and bleeds. Shadow Refuge is on there because I like to be able to hide people who go down (even though they often don’t get it and just reveal themselves) and I like to have a last resort to keep myself alive in case of disaster. Signet of Shadows, well obviously you can replace that with something else if you like but I generally find moving fast to be of great benefit to me.

That’s pretty much it. I generally don’t have groups wipe on my watch and also seem to keep them alive quite often without them even noticing that I’m doing so. The truth is most people who play do not understand combo fields so don’t expect praise of any sort. Usually the melee players will just think they are awesome and the glowing bubbles are surrounding them because they are just that awesome. Elementalists who are on their game will notice you using their combo fields and start placing them more often and more dependent on what finisher will aid the party…elementalists really are your best friends out there.

Overall this build is highly mobile. It’s a kiting build for solo play and a util build for team play. Are there better builds? Most likely. This one, however, really plays off team dynamics and utilizes the tools that your teammates lay out for you.

Feedback is welcome so long as it’s constructive As I’ve said, I’m no pro so I’m fully willing to try new things so long as they don’t change the style of my play from utilitarian to a straight up aggressive berserker stereotype.

Thanks all!