Guild Wars 2

hi my brother used to play this and has decided to come back an give it another try so i figured I’d come give it a shot as well

I’m thinking of playing thief and was wondering if anybody could help me with a decent pvp build

Thanks

In my opinion, thief in PvP is best (and most fun) to play as a high damaging build for that assassin play style. There is a learning curve to it though. Playing any sort of squishy build requires getting to know other classes and builds, how they fight, and experience at reading opponents. This is only achieved by playing a lot of matches. As a squishy thief, a very important element is entering a fight on your terms. This means being able to react quickly, escape quickly, engage quickly, and disengage/re-engage multiple times during a fight.

You’re not going to be learning if you’re busy dying all the time, or unable to recover after managing to escape or disengage which can be a problem for a new thief. So while there are a lot of different and diverse builds out there, such as back stab, classic d/p, s/d flanking evasion, s/p pistol whip, p/d venoms, shortbow condition, d/d bleed etc. I would advise starting with the D/P shadow arts build. That isn’t to say it’s not a good build - it is - but it sacrifices damage to allow you to easily recover, get your bearings, and try again. Fights will last longer, but that’s more time you have to learn. Eventually you can swap to higher damage less survival for greater risk/reward, or change to a different play style focusing on healing during combat rather than requiring stealth.

10/30/30/0/0, D/P and berserker amulet, of course. In Deadly Arts grab Mug for a heal and a bit of extra damage. In Critical Strikes take Furious Retaliation, Critical Haste and Executioner. In Shadow Arts take Shadow’s Embrace, Shadow Protector and Shadow’s Rejuvenation. If you find you need to stealth a lot at first, take Infusion of Shadow instead of Shadow Protector. Utilities vary but a good combination to take when starting out would be Signet of Shadows, Shadow Step and Shadow Refuge. Signet of Shadows for increased movement speed - very helpful when chasing a target (which is necessary most of the time even when they aren’t running away). Shadow Step for pursuing runners and it’s a 2x stun breaker with condition removal. Shadow Refuge is one you’ll want to get rid of once you have escape and disengaging down. It’s an easy escape method also providing you with healing, condition removal, but mainly it’s a safety net. It can be used to revive allies, but for the most part it’s a safety net.

The play style of the above build is similar to the classic 25/30/0/0/15 D/P, but fights toe to toe a bit more, has more toughness, regeneration, and when you think you need to, enter stealth to heal with Shadow’s Rejuvenation. Entering stealth periodically during a fight for back stabs can help sustain you by giving you 1-2 ticks of health, and removing conditions. Try not to spam heartseeker. If your opponent is up close, use black powder, heartseeker out of it before 4 seconds to gain stealth for a back stab. Shadow shot is great for quick blinds without interrupting your DPS, for pursuing runners, and for starting a fight when not sneaking up in stealth.

pro tipp: reroll warrior

will save you the struggle