Guild Wars 2

While I wouldn’t say you’re a liability, there are definitely FAR better utilities to choose from when playing in a group. Personally I feel as though a 4 second immob on a 45 second cooldown is a complete waste of a utility slot unless you’re traited specifically for venom use or venomshare and are running in a small man group, in which case all your utilities should be venoms. Also if you were playing a one trick pony burst build you might have use for it but even then I wouldn’t recommend. Additionally, other classes are far more capable of applying good immobilise without having to sacrifice a utility slot.

With regards to shadow refuge, it is true that it is sometimes difficult to pull off a save without good communication but i’ve found that it’ll work more often than it doesn’t. Also it’s a terrific escape and clutch heal for yourself as well as a pulsing blind field if you trait for it. SR is definitely a powerful utility but it is in no way necessary, especially in larger groups.

Just my 2 cents, likely biased though because I prefer to have defensive utilities.

I like the sound of this, my vote goes for Isle of Janthir!

While I feel as though executioner is actually better statistically in a lot of cases, I almost always take hidden killer for another reason. When hit by a large burst from a crit backstab, the enemy will usually freak out, pop their heals and cooldowns and generally go on the defence. Even if the the overall damage is less throughout the entire fight, the psychological effect of a sudden large drop in health does more to help me win the fight than an extra 20% damage once they’re low. IMO.

Yeah, you shouldn’t have rushed in for the stomp. Also, this is just a personal preference but I would never run with 2 signets unless you’re traited for signet use. Other utilities just offer far more capibility, both defensively and offensively.

If SR is being used to simply delay the fight for the full stealth duration and regen some health with Shadow Rejuvenation then I disapprove if its use in duels.
However if the thief uses it for a rapid stealth attack, pulsing AOE blinds via Cloaked in Shadows or as a combo field then I believe it is a legitimate utility skill for duels.

Steal is an excellent gap closer and comes with awesome utility if traited. It is also an instant cast so you can use it during any skill with a cast time to ensure you hit your target or make a quick getaway.

Additionally, all of the stolen items are extremely useful and easily predicted (a particular class will ALWAYS give you the same item).

Guardian – 4s daze, what’s not to like?

Necro – our only access to fear, perhaps the most useful CC in the game. Can also be used in stealth (ensures the the enemy’s back is facing you for an easy backstab)

Thief – A free blinding powder, awesome.

Ranger – The regeneration is pretty bad but try leaping through it or using some blast finishers in it, this can make for some excellent self and group healing

Warrior – Repels projectiles (good for a getaway) and extreme melee damage, a no brainer.

Ele – TEN seconds of chilled is just plain awesome (can be hard to land though)

Mesmer – This is excellent for a getaway (swiftness, vigor), ensuring a stomp (stability) as well as some extra healing, damage and condition buffers. All around awesome.

Engie – Heartseeker through the gunk for chaos armour, provides lots of condition buffers and supplementary damage. Very useful.

So in summary: Yes, I do use steal regularly, and to great affect. You should too!

Yeah, like everyone else has said, he was probably simply chaining well timed cloak and daggers. While this may seem OP, he is effectively cutting his damage by at least 75% to gain this ‘permanent’ stealth, which I believe is fairly balanced.

Additionally, this tactic is easily countered, especially with mesmer greatsword. Sit on top of the yak and when you see the thief disappear, start counting. At about 3.5 seconds use your illusionary wave skill. This should push him away from the yack just before/as he comes out of stealth. His cloak and dagger will miss and you will have an opportunity to pop your phantasms/illusions and cc the kitten out of him preferably.
I don’t play mesmer but I have a friend who uses this tactic regularly so i’ve seen it work.

Also, given the 15k backstab, he was likely a full glass thief and only one window of opportunity would have been necessary to kill him.

Good luck out there!

wish.1027:

Youre not losing anything by doing that, so its totally fine. The 30/30/10 set uses Valk weapons, bers/bers trinkets, you simply traded 128 VIT for 128 PREC on weapons and 90 PREC on Trinkets for 90 VIT. So slightly more EP slightly less EHP compared to what I posted. The only advise I will give you is to check your precision and try to match it to a point where you gain exactly 1% crit chance so you dont waste precision. You might need to switch 1 Trinket or infusion, but it would be worth it.

Okay that’s good to hear. I’ll look into tweaking my precision, cheers!

I run a build similar to your 0/30/30/10 build, wish. From what I’ve seen, most people have zerk/zerk trinkets. However , I’ve already invested in a full set of zerk/valk ascended trinkets. To account for this I use zerker weapons and it seems to even out okay. Even so, I’m not sure if i’ve put myself at a disadvantage getting zerk/valk trinkets. What do you think?

Here’s the build:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.0|8.1g.h2.8.1g.h17|c.1n.hd.8.1n.h4|1c.71j.1g.71j.1c.71j.1g.71j.1c.71j.1g.71j|2t.d13.2t.d13.3t.d17.3t.d17.2t.d13.2s.d13|0.u36c.u56b.a6.0|39.1|57.5c.5b.5h.0|e

Also, ignore the secondary weapon set, I like to have a bump in toughness on weapon swap as I use it when I go on the defense.

Given that we have access to 3 primary hand weapons but have only 2 choices for offhand, I believe that a new offhand should be made available to thief.

I have 2 suggestions:
Torch: I feel that the torch suits the thief profession. Skill names could be stylised as arsonist skills to maintain the ‘thief’ motif. e.g. ‘slash and burn’ or ‘smoke out your enemies’. The skills could apply burning or boons, niches that are not filled at this point for the thief. Alternately, this weapon set could account for the lack of AOE within the profession (with the exception of cluster bomb).

Focus: In GW1, the assassin had access to a number of half-range spells that could make some awesome ‘mage-assassin’ builds. Given this, giving thieves focus as an offhand choice would fit stylistically with thieves. Additionally, this could allow for more support skills skills and offhand skills that add increase mobility. e.g. more shadowsteps to account for the loss of stealth through offhand dagger/ pistol, or the ability to apply stealth/boons to an ally at range.

Either of these additions could allow for more synergy in group play and less reliance on stealth-heavy builds, two aspects of the thief that could use addressing.

Edit: Also, another weapon choice would add some more variation to the thief and be generally awesome.

I mostly play a D/D thief and rarely use mug. While it’s current damage output is significant, I could never justify spending 10 points in deadly arts for only an extra 3k damage every 45s. Perhaps it is worth it for glass builds focused only on their initial burst, but in sPvP and WvW I feel as though sustain is of greater importance. As such, there are far more reliable and less situational trait choices than mug.

However, with the introduction of the heal on mug, its potential used are expanded. Rather than using steal as an initiator, it could be moved further down in the rotation to be used as an in-combat gap closer and secondary heal once your initial burst is over. Though, I believe the cooldown should be reduced.

Scootabuser.4915:

Klabbo.6927:

The dagger auto attack chain takes almost exactly 3 seconds so before the nerf the usual rotation was cnd>backstab>auto attack chain>cnd. With infusion of shadows you could keep this up indefinitely. There was negligible downtime between the attacks so the 4s nerf really killed the flow of the build.

The 30th can’t come soon enough

30/30/10/0/0 traits too

I actually use 0/30/30/10/0, I prefer a little less glass haha

Also on the subject of heartseeker, I primarily use it sparingly as a gap closer in combat and as a finisher if they’re left on 10%ish after a burst.

The dagger auto attack chain takes almost exactly 3 seconds so before the nerf the usual rotation was cnd>backstab>auto attack chain>cnd. With infusion of shadows you could keep this up indefinitely. There was negligible downtime between the attacks so the 4s nerf really killed the flow of the build.

The 30th can’t come soon enough

In WvW all players are scaled to level 80, there is also currently way to display your world rank to your own team. As such, having your world rank display next to your name instead of character level could be an easy way to have this happen.

I’m not bothered by the fact that I can’t show my rank, but it could give further incentive for new WvW players to continue playing!

From the wiki:
Tribal weapons are exotic weapons found as loot in higher level areas. They are most commonly found in the Maguuma Jungle. Their required levels range between 62 and 80.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tribal_weapons

So basically if it’s not on the TP you’re gonna have to get lucky with a drop, unfortunately. Goodluck!