Guild Wars 2

Before you guys get angry at me for posting yet another one of these threads, I have done some research and read some threads on these forums before posting this.

I’m currently playing a x/30/30/x/- thief, either D/P + Sb or D/D + Sb. I enjoy the burst that comes from backstab builds. I’m mainly doing WvWvW and PvE. I’ve recently turned lv80 and I have a good understanding of my traits and skills, the only thing I’m unsure of is how to gear, especially for some survivability.

I very well understand that Thieves are not designed to take a lot of damage and that our survivability comes from active avoidance, but I’m looking to strike that balance of being able to survive that extra little bit that in case I screw up or make a bad decision and at the same time, I don’t want to sacrifice my damage for that bit of survivability.

I have read some other threads about gearing, some from this thread and the links within https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Build-Back-to-D-D-Infinity

I see that going with some soldier pieces gives overall best benefits but my biggest problem with this is that soldiers lacks in % crit damage, which is something I highly value in my playstyle of Thief. I’m willing to sacrifice some precision for the survivability instead, as I can just trait to have guaranteed backstab crit.

So how should I go about gearing for this and what runes should I be using? Are there any optimal numbers for HP and toughness that I should aim for?