Guild Wars 2

Skill 3 is mostly for kiting melee foes, while skill 2 is a team skill more than anything. When with allies I can reach the vulnerability cap very quickly, allowing my team to quickly take down the target. Also, a few shots of Body Shots and a Shadow Strike can hit quite hard too.

I agree with Deathspike and Bjornen, Sword Pistol + Signet of Malice is very good in PvE. Here’s the build I use, it works well in PvE and I can easily swap utility and healing skills around to change roles without needing to change traits or gear.

Hi rogerwilko,

There is not a lot I can add to what others have already put, but here are my thoughts on the PP set.

Mostly I run DP/SB, but on occasion I will swap one set for PP. However, unlike the others above I tend not to use it for damage, though it can deal good damage, but I tend to use it mostly for control. When with a group of allies I will focus on locking down our target with Headshot, putting Black powder down on allies being attacked by melee and stacking vulnerability when spiking. To me PP is an excellent control set, but also has the benifit of being a decent single target damage set.

However, it does lack mobility, so I always carry either dagger mainhand (for Heartseeker) or shortbow on my other set for when I need to move fast.

Personally I prefer 10 points in Deadly Arts with Mug, for the extra damage output and that little bit of healing when needed. Adding 100 vitality points only adds 1000 HP, which is not a lot in the grand scheme of things, plus with all the stealth and regen my build provides, I do not miss that 1k health. Also, I feel that Heartseeker/Infiltrator’s Arrow are much better in terms of mobility than 2 seconds of swiftness, though I do not deny there are a couple of good traits in the adept Acrobatics trait line.

However, if I was to choose something other than Deadly Arts I would choose Trickery for the Thrill of the Crime trait, as I feel adding more functionality to our profession mechanic would be more benefitial overall.

@Merchant,

Sorry for not replying for a while, for some strange reason Anet has seen fit to terminate my main account, when I have not done anything wrong!

Anyway, with regards to your question. For me I like to output as much damage as possible, so I tend to balance my gear more towards that than defense. Stealth and the regen gained from traits is my survival, plus all the blinds, so I don’t feel the need to have a lot of points in vitality and would rather have them in power.

For my gear I have gone for mostly berserker gear and half berserker and half valkerie trinkets (though in the build editor I chose full berserker). On my armour I chose beryl orbs for extra power, crit damage and a little extra vitality, but recently I have been thinking of changing these to runes. I have been toying with the idea of taking Runes of the Pack, as it gives better power and a nice amount of precision as well.

For sigils, along with the fire sigil, I decided to take bloodlust for a nice chunk of extra power, though there are plenty of other sigils that can be useful if you feel your survivability needs a boost, such as sigil of energy for extra endurance to dodge with.

With regards to Mug and putting points in Deadly Arts or Acrobatics, it’s really down to what suits you best. If you can survive well without the extra vitality and swiftness then I would put more points in power to maximize your damage, plus the added bonus of stealth giving a little heal and still doing some damage (even if it is not as strong as it was, it is still useful I find). But if you find you need more survivablility then Acrobatics is a good choice and loosing 100 power will not drop your damage too much, you should still be able to hit relatively hard. Also, you may find the swifness on dodge helps you to get into position faster or catch up with fleeing foes better. Me personally I find Signet of Shadows gives me enough speed + the occasional Heartseeker, and the extra blind is often useful. Also, with Dagger Pistol it is very easy to keep up with your target using Shadow Shot.

@Engel Angel and Merchant – Regarding perma stealth. To remain stealthed permanently takes practice, but essentially boils down to using the smoke field and leap or blast finisher.

So to start with you place Black Powder down, then use Heartseeker to leap out of it (granting 3 seconds of stealth). You then need to make an about turn and leap back into the same smoke field and then leap back out again to gain another 6 seconds. With the 2 ini return from the trait you only need 8-9 ini to perform this, so I tend to wait until I have 9 ini (3 ini not recharged) then perform the combo routine again.

If you find you do not have enough ini for the next combo you can suppliment the routine with Blinding Powder and Shadow Refuge if needed, but bear in mind that these have a long cooldown so I’d advise only doing this if you have to.

Be warned though, when using this method to stay perma stealthed your initiative will not be full when you engage an enemy, unless you pop one of your utility skills or share the ini cost with another thief.

Another couple of things to be aware of: A smart enemy will see the smoke appear out of nowhere and know a thief is about. You may be invisible but your smoke is not. You can also use Black Powder and then swap to the Shortbow to use an undetonated Clusterbomb on the smoke to cause AoE stealth for you and other nearby allies. However, the stealth I believe only lasts 2 seconds, but you can usually get 3 blasts off before the smoke ends, if you’re quick enough.

A quick note about Shadow Refuge. Be very aware that smart players will see the Shadow Refuge effect go up and promptly use fear/AoE knockback to push you out of it (prematurely ending stealth). It is a very useful skill, but be prepared to dodge while inside the circle to prevent enemies foiling your plans.

I hope that helps, and as others have said, practice in the mists and sPvP matches to hone your build. Try different set ups and even practice with both of you stealthing each other. Alternating who drops Black Powder to conserve initiative even more. Two thiefs running side by side should be able to easily stay stealthed without needing to use their utility skills.