Guild Wars 2

Siphon.8405:

Byakku.9187:

[…]

I knew i could bait you into telling me your build so I can try it out! Thanks

I LOVE this build. So much lulz fun! I am in the process of crafting it right now, any tips on runes? You are right though that music makes me want to go choke a clown!

This build should be labeled the “Gingerbread man”!

You are welcome. For the best results I highly recommend Nomad gear (for that oh-so-fabled 3k9 armor stat) along with Roasted Parsnip and Furious Sharpening Stone as comsumables (the former makes it so that the two seconds of de-facto invulnerability provided by a certain trait cannot be outlasted by common 3-second-stuns, which, if memory serves me right, was the cause of my character’s death in the video linked above).

I’m confident you will be able to puzzle out the rest. It really is quite simple, as you have put it.

Edit: Here’s a(n) (unlisted) playlist of a few more of my videos for anyone interested in learning more (the previous warning regarding the music applies to all of them, so beware and lower the volume of your speakers before watching; also, the URL contains a “bad” word the forum algorithm would censor so I had to opt for a tinyurl solution): http://tinyurl.com/theyoutubeurlcontainsabadword

Hey there, figured I’d be in a position to contribute to this discussion.

Siphon.8405:

[…] Staff/Staff with sigils of endurance
Runes are adventurer for 100% daredevil stamina heal with channeled vigor. […]

Truth be told, I wasn’t using Adventurer at the time. I was on a test run with Runes of the Earth to find out whether or not I truly need the extra endurance; same goes for the daredevil heal which is usually too risky to take in fights involving multiple competent enemies since random/targeted rupts can pretty much kill you instantly.

Here’s a video (along with UTTERLY terrible music added in a feeble attempt at replacing the original file’s audio with something even more cringeworthy, you HAVE been warned) of how this usually goes (and ends): https://youtu.be/vlIXP81Hx9Y?t=1m15s

Also, the OP might want to remove any references to account names from his post, else this thread will soon be deleted.

Traiting “Warrior’s Sprint” makes “Bull’s Charge” remove Immobilize on activation as advertised, but the character doesn’t move during the charge animation if the trait in question triggers, which makes this skill completely unreliable for this purpose. Every other utility skill affected by “Warrior’s Sprint” (such as “Kick”) behaves correctly.

I apologize in advance in case this has already been reported—the search function didn’t return any comparable results when I used it.

Altaïr for best pony assassin (see attachment).

Judging by the video you provided, the spider’s immobilizing ability seems to “pulse” (i.e. it hits two times with a short pause between each individual hit) and ignore evasion skills. You could test this by letting yourself get hit by this attack again and watching the immobilize’s duration: if it is reapplied before it first runs out, the above theory is likely to be true and Withdraw working as intended.

Utility Skills
I will not cover every single Utility Skill of the Thief class here—instead, I am going to focus on those skills I’ve used for a long time myself (I’ve never used Poison Skills extensively) and try to give reasons as to why I think they benefit a Condition Thief or not.

Shadow Refuge: Pretty much the most used Thief Utility Skill there is, the reason(s) for why this is should be obvious. Some of its drawbacks are a long CD and the possibility of one being pushed out of it prematurely. That being said, I rarely use it myself.

Signet of Shadows: Mostly used for its movement speed increase, it’s also useful for instantly blinding opponents trying to interrupt one’s stomp (which can also be achieved on a single target by interrupting them via SoH). Basically a long-range AoE blind with a nice passive effect, but regular access to Swiftness pretty much negates what makes this skill so useful.

Shadowstep: Stunbreaker with a long-range teleport that can be used twice in a 10-second interval. May also be used for precasting on moving enemies (given proper “training”), creating gaps between one and one’s enemies, or closing up on the latter. I highly recommend using Mouse Targeting for this skill since it reduces the amount of keystrokes needed to one.

Infiltrator’s Signet: Basically a watered-down Shadowstep with a lower CD. While its passive effect is decent, its main utility lies in its precasting potential (and stunbreaker functionality of course)

Blinding Powder: A watered-down Shadow Refuge without a heal, multiple pulses of stealth, and an area of effect but a shorter CD. Unlike SR, it can be used when stunned and act as a pseudo stunbreaker. Even though it may seem far more situational than SR, I prefer it over the latter (as with the weapon sets, this choice is mostly based on personal preference).

Caltrops: Highly situational skill with practically no use against high-mobility opponents. Few enemies will fall for it—even fewer will stay inside its AoE long enough for it to dish out decent damage. It can be used to keep some players at bay and precasting it is an option, but it rarely pays off. It’s pretty nice to “pin” down downed opponents with it, but doing so is rarely necessary. However, it does come in handy for Healing Power builds designed solely for trolling or larger fights, as it triggers Signet of Malice once for every opponent within its AoE each second.

Healing Skills

Hide in Shadows: The standard Healing Skill of the Thief class. It has a fairly long CD of 30 seconds and an activation time of one second, making it interruptible. Its healing capabilities are good (it removes damaging conditions before the heal is applied) and stealth is always nice, whether one prefers it over Withdraw comes down to one’s play style.

Withdraw: A very short CD of only 15 seconds makes this skill superior to HiS in terms of health per second (disregarding the possible heal and condition removal through stealth), though it does not remove damaging conditions such as Poison before its heal triggers. On the other hand, it offers a long-distance dodge roll for 0.75 seconds and removes mobility-impairing conditions. Its animation can be interrupted manually by switching weapons and proper alignment of one’s character allows it to function as a situational gap-closer—speaking of interruptions, this skill’s heal cannot be interrupted due to its nonexistent activation time. Furthermore, traits such as Vigorous Recovery are more useful with Withdraw due to its shorter CD mentioned above.

Signet of Malice: Its passive healing capabilities depend on how many hits one manages to land and its active effect is rather weak compared to HiS and Withdraw as it does not have any effects beyond the heal it provides. That being said, it shines when used with proper traits und Utility Skills like Ricochet and Caltrops, as every hit (no matter what caused the attack, be it a trait or a skill) heals one once. Last time I checked, it actually healed for far more than what it said in its description (the passive heal at least). Pretty fun for trolling enemies, just stack Toughness and Healing Power along with some Vitality and you are ready to go.

That pretty much covered everything I wanted to say. As I said, the above text is just my opinion on the matter and I don’t claim to have any “authority” or anything like that regarding how the Thief class should be played.

I too have been using and experimenting with various P/D specs over the last year or so and would like to add some points to this discussion. As always, what I’m writing here is based solely on my experience and opinion (I emphasise this so I don’t have to write “imo” a hundred times)—please don’t be agitated if you happen to find yourself in disagreement with me; I’m open for discussion.

That being said, I will speak strictly from a WvW-roaming perspective.

Sleight of Hand vs. Bewildering Ambush
In most cases, SoH beats BA in terms of utility and versatility. Even when running a spec without Perplexity, its instant interrupt (which can be used while stunned) and 20% CD reduction for Steal are far superior to 5 stacks of confusion since a shorter CD both means more frequent usage of our class’ F1 skill and more potential precasting opportunities in general. With a CD of only 21.5 seconds, Steal can become pretty powerful; especially with traits such as Thrill of the Crime, Bountiful Theft, and possibly Mug.
BA gets into “decent” territory when running a P/D-D/P Perplexity build that relies on Headshot for interrupts or setups without D/P that rely on Basilisk Venom (or even Scorpion Wire) for this, but these setups come with some distinct drawbacks I will not fully elaborate on in this post (for brevity’s sake).

Uncatchable vs. Thrill of the Crime
To me, TotC seems more beneficial than Uncatchable in most situations. With Steal on an already short CD because of Trickery and SoH, the frequent applications of Swiftness help one maintain a decent amount of speed in and out of combat while Fury increases one’s possibly very low Critical Chance to a at least decent amount (the effect of this is greater when one’s gear consists mostly of Carrion items however), thereby increasing one’s physical damage output. TotC is also useful for buffing allies such as other players or even the NPCs summoned by Thieves Guild. Uncatchable is pretty short-lasting, inflicts negligible bleeds and—against semi-experienced players and better ones—does not hit that often (that clink sound it makes also drives me nuts). For hybrid builds, TotC is almost essential as a frequent (and reliable) source of Fury and because of its Swiftness effect, Signet of Shadows becomes less useful and open for replacement.

Trickery Master Traits
The Master Traits of the Trickery line is where personal preference seems to be the biggest factor when opting for a certain trait. Bountiful Theft is my favourite since it rips two boons off one’s opponent and grants Vigor, which in turn allows for more dodging. BT also makes it possible for SoH to interrupt skills such as Dagger Storm and Stomp—skills that grant Stability on activation. Ricochet offers a sort of gimmicky compromise: for losing one’s ability to steal two boons and gain Vigour, one’s pistol attacks can hit multiple enemies. This, of course, is pretty much useless in any 1v1 scenario (meh against Mesmers, one would probably be better off with more dodging), but its main strength lies in fighting outnumbered—one once ricocheting bullet means a free hit (and bleed) on another enemy, it even applies combo effects such as Burning to every hit as long as the original projectile was affected by them. However, the ranges of said projectiles are pretty limited and your experience with Ricochet may vary; I consider it highly situational.

Weapon Sets
Since P/D is the subject of this topic, I’m going to assume that one weapon set is always P/D; for the second slot, there are many options with different drawbacks and benefits:

P/D: A second P/D set allows frequent usage of Weapon Swap Sigils such as Sigil of Battle, Doom, Geomancy, Hydromancy, or Energy. However, one sacrifices the mobility that comes with D/D and SB (along with their respective skills) in return, which, by some players, might be considered more essential for their play style.

D/P: Mostly used for Headshot as a substitute for or along with SoH when running Perplexity, this set allows one to stealth freely without having to land Cloak and Dagger or use Utility Skills. However, the damage output of this set in terms of conditions is (Perplexity aside) abysmal and I consider it a niche weapon set for a standard P/D build. In terms of mobility, it is on par with D/D but some players might consider it superior to the latter due to easier access to multiple stacks of stealth for getaways or ambushes.

Shortbow: Aside from access to damaging conditions (Bleed and Poison) and an on-demand evasion skill (Disabling Shot), the SB provides good (albeit costly) mobility with Infiltrator’s Arrow. It is the most commonly used secondary weapon for condition thieves and almost always a good choice.

When I was deciding which legendary to work towards, I ultimately chose Quip and have never looked back. I went for it mainly because I did and still do not really like the looks and effects of Incinerator (Welding torch.. yeah..) and how Bolt’s sound effect got nerfed (Lightning surrounds you all the time, yet remains completely silent unless you hit something? No thanks). As for the Dreamer, I just don’t like ponies and rainbows that much—apart from that, I think it’s still unique and overall nicely designed.

Quip itself is a matter of taste, sure. I can understand why engineers or pistol thieves who’d rather have something more “serious” are hugely disappointed and/or even mad about it. Yet I don’t get tired of firing a barrage of confetti and colourful stripes while making completely out-of-place sounds and glowing purple. The latter is especially true for WvWvW.

Quip has the same problem with its aura. Sometimes, it just disappears or does not even trigger at all when entering combat. The Predator and the pistol seem to share the same aura (with all its mechanics) with just the respective colour being different. Fixing this issue for the rifle would certainly fix the pistol’s as well.