So I’ve landed on a build I really like that’s different from the typical thief. This whole build translates well into PvE and is pretty versatile in group/zerg based WvW. I’ll give the build and the synopsis after. I call it the shadow stepping thug – light on stealth, heavy on defense and decent burst.
Weapons 1: Sword/Pistol (power, tough, vit, this is your swinging away in the middle of a battle set)
Weapon 2: dagger/dagger (zerker type stats, this is your burst set)
Armor (P/T/V with 5 soldier runes and 1 rune of Ice)
Trinkets (Knights or Valkerie types – or if you have the badges get the exotic PVT and stack some more of that if you want)
Traits for WvW
Power: 10 – Mug
Crit: 30 – Signets of Power, Critical Haste, Hidden Killer
Shadow: 0
Acrobat: 10 – decent of shadows
Tricks: 20 – thrill of the crime, bountiful theft
Stats: 20k hps, 2000 power, 2400 armor, 18% standing crit (25% with daggers – I depend on food, hidden killer, and fury to boost crit crit, although you could swap in zerker trinkets and still be very tough to kill).
Signet of Malice, (swap slot here usually assassins signet), sig of shadows, infiltrators sig, and either basalisk or spin to win for larger fights
Base tactics: shadow step around the battlefield to stay hard to hit, and close gaps. Every fight starts with infiltrator step and if you’re in the thick of it make sure to use the return before it expires and renew it to get back in the fight or run and get out of combat to regen if you’re low – spam this to remove conditions.
1. Getting in and out of large zergs: infiltrator step, infiltrator signet, daggerstorm, hit remaining signets except malice, pick a target with some buffs and steal. infiltrator return away when spinning is almost over if you’re getting hit, otherwise take a few swings at people and shadowstep back before your 15 seconds are up.
2. Heaviest hitting burst combo with long range closing ability and a built in escape:
1. target enemy, infiltrator step (wait for return to load), switch to daggers, use malice, assasins, shadows, infiltrator signet, hit C&D+steal, backstab for 7-8k usually against most targets. Mug 5-6k, C&D like 2k.
3. More typical combo for a bit more damage spread out: get closer for the first step so that infiltrator signet is in range. Use it for the first C&D + backstab, autoattack for the full chain, then C&D+steal and back stab again. The 2nd one will take buffs from them and often you steal their stability if they popped it. If you land both backstabs most targets are down and if they’re not, you now have 2x normal crit (+20% from the fury on thrill of the crime) to finish them off with auto attack and heartseaker and the very common crit haste proc.
4. annoying people like other thieves using spin to win: load pistol whip and steal – takes their stability and then stuns them – they’re usually being targeted by something so they go down fast. Same for eles using their earth shield and teleport tactic.
I rarely die to any thief jumping me, and don’t often even need to run away unless there’s more than 1. I got 1shotted only once by a maxxed out glass cannon who I believe was using the above signet technique to get to 20 might because I had 2600 armor and got hit by a 9k backstab.
But, again, this is not a soloer build. It’s meant for battlefields where stealth isn’t all that important or useful other than what C&D provides for breaking targeting and landing backstabs.
For PvE, switch to executioner, and signet use, and the power trait that gives vuln on crits or something.
You can also swap in berserker gear to boost your burst. I just love being tankier, though, I rarely die in group or zerg combat unless we’re just all being wiped out, and I down people with the backstab combo if they don’t focus on me or stun people with pistol whip when they’re about to finish off teammates.
I also take out catapults attacking towers by jumping down by door, triple shadow stepping to them, taking swings and then infiltrator return back to rinse and repeat.
(edited by neclon.4510)