Guild Wars 2

I am running a fairly aggressive condition build with d/d. I am focusing on bleeds with 30 points in Critical strikes, 30 in Trickery and 10 in Deadly arts. My skill setup is this currently

6 – Signet of malice – I like the short CD when combined with the trait Signet use

7- Infiltrators signet – The initative gain is to much to give up and the shadowstep is nice with d/d

8 – Signet of Shadows – The movement speed is nice because I tend to roam and back cap.

9 – Haste – Best skill theifs have imo… So strong

My real question is are there any skills which you think would help me improve. *

I was thinking maybe trade out the speed(8) for needle trap/Caltrops/Roll for initive/Signet of agility.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated

Well what are you doing? SPVP, WvW, PVE,dungeons?

Need some info before I can help.

sPvP.

I love the extra mobility of Signet of Shadows but I am thinking it might be better to pick up needle trap to immobilize them.

I am starting to lean towards Caltrops. The benefit of an AoE slow for getting away, reduce kiting in tight areas, and the bleed ticking is huge. I think it may outweigh the overall 25% movement speed and crappy blind.

Anyone have any experience in a similiar situation?

Actually for caltrops I trained in that they drop when I dodge which completely saves me from even having to use that as a utility option t is great to have.

I completely agree with you on sig of shadows the movement speed boost is great, but I’m actually thinking of dropping it for SPVP as the combat is usually close encountered. WvW would never drop it, going to do some testing on dropping it for SPVP

I think personally blinding powder is amazing. It’s great to have and stealths you immediately. But the poison for dps and maybe needle trap if you are looking for more conditions but traps seem pretty hard to reliably trigger in SPVP where everyone is moving around, unless you dump it right in the middle of the clock tower or something.

it was a difficult sell but i found dropping the speed signet gave me a super useful tool for either travel or resistance to being burned/bled severely and additional escape from these brutal roots i am getting from engineer and rangers.

Signet of malice, Roll for initiative, caltrops, shadowstep – dagger storm

Using SBow, and vitality runes, +heal and toughness, condition damage in amulet. I’m near impossible to catch without 3-4 getting angry and not giving up, so they can root me down after I run out of tricks.

Signet use is good but I find I can’t make it synergize in condition damage setups very well. You really can do well balancing power, precision, and vitality/+heal there. I like similar build when doing signet use and mostly capitalize on pistol whip for the extra avoidance. Maybe I just haven’t found the right mix but Sbow is doing awesome and has a lot of bang for the buck in my improved malice heals. I feel sturdier than ever.

In the off weapon set I’m keeping dagger and pistol, so I can use heartseeker as a sprint if I want, and so I can also blind, headshot, and do heartseeker through the blind field to gain more stealth.

Even if you have the points in Trickery to give you Uncatchable, I’d still strongly consider the Caltrop skill as well. Focus on sigils that extend bleed durations. Consider something like Rune of Melandru to give you some more uptime in a fight or if you want, take the risk at being glassier in exchange for runes that will affect your condition damage such as Rune of the Afflicted.

Double Dagger/Shortbow. The latter more for escape. Consider building this into your utility skills as well. Have something like Roll for Initiative or Shadowstep that can get you out of a fight if needed. Make use of tighter, enclosed areas and choke points if you really want to build you stacks high. The longer you can keep your enemy on your caltrops, the better.

Some match ups just won’t work in your favor (high healing Guardians, for example) but that’s how it goes.

Note that the trait Untouchable does not last for the full duration of Caltrops’ actual skill. It’s at best 3 seconds (I haven’t actually counted, but it feels like it’s more in the range of 1-2 seconds), which requires them to be very close to you when you dodge.

Many people I’ve talked to stopped using it simply because they claim it is too inconsistent.

The trait is definitely meant more as an escape utility rather than a means of attack.

Signet of Shadows kinda sucks for sPvP (better for WvW because of how roaming based it is), so I’d drop it. You should probably drop Signet of Malice as well; it’s better used in builds that have the right setup to take advantage of it, which usually involves at least Pistol MH and Assassin’s Reward.

I’m actually surprised you’re not running with Signet of Agility. With the CD up, it gives you a solid 90 Precision at max level. The active refills your endurance (good), and removes a condition for each ally nearby (even better). Remember: even aggressive builds need some survivability

Signet of Shadows is good if you’re not rolling with a Shortbow. The movement speed has uses and the on use ability is something of an ad hoc defensive cooldown.

Conditions deal damage over time, and to kill your target you need time. The build you propose, trait-wise is a glass cannon, which relies too much on the element of surprise and enemy error to deal with them. I have difficulties picturing this build have any chance against defensible point defenders (warrior guardian engineer), mesmers or 2v1 ambushes.

If you want the best of both worlds, condition damage and staying power, try this cheesy build first and then customise it further as you go - http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYEQNAoYVlcmKPHdy7E+JFCXBL0TxXNWaFkpuHclWJfA;TsAg2Croay0koJbTumkNt+YEw8AA

Bad link blabla - just copy-paste it to your browser. It’s a tool for PvP builds with separate tabs for skills, traits and equipment.

I’ve been playing with my condition build for quite a while and i’m doing really good with it. I’ll link you to a post about it with a PvP vid too.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/links/Bleed-Thief-D-D-P-P/first#post50715