Guild Wars 2

DeceiverX, I feel like you are trolling people here…

How can Backstab deal less damage than AA chain, if Backstab and Lotus Strike have same 1/4 cast time? Actually Lotus Strike also have long pre-cast and aftercast delay and damage wise Backstab + 2 AAs > 2 AAs + Lotus Strike, while using same amount of time.

As for SS + AAs – it is a good option for mid-combat, but never for openning strike. Yes, there are different situations on sPvP or WvW, but most of the time as thief with D/P you want to enter stealth, stack Lead, use Basilisk Venom and Backstab enemy with Steal from distance. And then depending on situation you keep AA or disengage and reengage with SS + AAs.

Also Shadow Shot + Backstab is still there and it is viable, when your Steal is on cd.

On topic:
Yes, Backstab is still completely viable and with right build on WvW you can easily 1HKO paper players with Backstab, while having good chunk of HP and good dueling potential. The most simple way is to just get full Marauder set. More complicated way is to swap some armor for Valkyrie and some accessories for Berserk + Valkyrie stats. Also always use food/utilities for power. And always stack Bloodlust from sigil.

For sPvP P/P build imo better than D/P just b/c you can’t properly itemize thief on sPvP, so he lacks power stat super hard, while P/P allows you to get 25 stacks in no time. Also arena is kinda chaotic – half of the time people just don’t dodge or block your Unload, so you deal insane damage. This more likely won’t happen, when you roam on WvW.

For PvE use P/P 3 for single target damage, Staff 5 for AoE damage, always take Critical Strikes specialization, as for equipment probably go full Berserker.

Edit: forgot about P/P 4 – use it to deplete Defience bar fast.

Well, I would say, that thief isn’t a reliable profession for noobs, unless you play one of these condi-spam builds and yolo other noobs.

For sPvP I would recommend using popular D/P SB setup and Marauder/Paladin amulet. Do not ever use Berserker amulet. It might look fun at first to 1HKO squishies, but fun quickly ends, when you meet somebody even slightly tanky.

Thief main role on sPvP is decap and so called +1. For decaping use Dash Dodge and SB 5 to quicky travel over the map. +1 tactic is kinda tricky: you need to pick right targets at right moments and KO them fast. Often when +1 doesn’t go well (enemy get reinforcements or you/your team mess up) it is better to just backoff and again go for decap.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoaWn0MBFOhFmCmOBkmiFYCbuDeCXhaJgAQGwLMcGaDA-T1SBQBXRZmJVCmQ1KyoSDKpqCA3fAAHBgFcIByn+iF+AAewJAYzwAwQICgZmZmGRERIFQEjBA-w

Currently I am usually roaming or trying to solo/duo camps, sometimes run with a blob and try to pick off lone targets. With this build wanna also try to Vault/Bound with Staff in blobs for heavy AoE damage.

The first thing, that bothers me the most: is it possible to roam on WvW with a Thief without any movement speed buffs? Does anybody tryed it and how well it performed? Personally for me these buffs looks like an addiction. No matter how fast you are – you always want more.

Actually I’ve made some calculations, and in theory it looks like you already can move approx 25% faster out of combat and 42% in combat just by using Vault every 5 sec. As for combat Swiftness for sticking to your target, I feel like Thief already have enough of stickiness via skills on D/P and Staff – Swiftness shouldn’t matter that much here.

Another thing, that I can’t figure out is: how much crit.chance is optimal for roaming?
With current build it is 65%, which, I think, isn’t bad at all, especially if I go with blob, where I can easily rise my crit.chance upto 100%.

But for roaming my Fury uptime is super low with Burst of Agility, so I took Rune of Daredevil to counter it and get 100% crit.chance on my Backstabs (Black Powder + Bound in combat) and Vaults.

It is a bad idea to cleanse conditions with most stacks instead of last one applied to you, and I can easily explain why.

First of all, if you face a condi-build, you better rely on something stronger, than just Signet of Agility. People tend to use Withdraw with Trickster to cleanse chilled, crippled, immobilized, torment plus one more condition every ~15 sec. And ofc there are also Shadowstep in pretty much every single Thief build, it cleans three conditions on way back. In rare situations you can also go for Escapist’s Absolution in Daredevil tree for extra condition cleanse every successful dodge including Withdraw.
Second, there are two control effects, that are counted as conditions: Fear and Taunt. Those can be cleansed by Stun-breakers, but using something like 50 sec cd Shadowstep to do so is a bad idea. Same goes for Withdraw – it will cleanse Fear/Taunt, but will also roll you in opposite direction and heal you, when you probably don’t need it.

Now let’s look at Signet of Agility: it cleanses one last applied to you and your team-mates condition. If you predict enemy actions or you are just fast enough – you can cleanse enemy Taunt/Fear right after it got applied to you. If it was AoE Taunt/Fear, then you will also cleanse it from everybody (upto 5 players) around you in small radius (360).