Guild Wars 2

s/p is better in open world.

s/d is better in pvp since its recent buffs.

I think Deadeye is pretty fun for what it is. It’s like I expected and does what it’s meant to do, and I feel the spec is extremely good with SA, but I do have a few issues with it that I hope get addressed.

1. Kneeling is too slow/feels clunky. Should be able to cancel it with WASD or at least give us a good sign that you’re kneeling, like the rifle 5 icon changing color or a ground indicator or something.
2. Stolen skills are very boring/weak, and I hate that they disappear after the mark is dead. I mean, I kinda understand why they do… but I don’t like it.
3. Most of the cantrips outside of the elite feel very underwhelming.
4. Malice needs to scale with other weapons besides rifle.
5. Deadeye mark should be instant cast.

Overall it’s alright and I like we’ll have something different, but I don’t see playing this over Daredevil in the long run the way it is now.

For zerging Mallyx is meta I think. For roaming Shiro’s mobility and evade/stunbreak is too good to not use. Since retri’s stab took a hit too Mallyx is even worse off than before.

If you’re only interested in zerging then there are better classes to play tbh. The most you can do for group support is venomshare and maybe SA for stealth resses/stomps and such. I don’t really play anymore but I assume Thief is probably still a top tier roamer, but if you’re dead set on zerging they’re really good at picking people off from the backline and such.

Doggie.3184:

So with recent changes this would make a lot more sense.

Leeching Venoms goes hand in hand with the theme of Lotus Poison, Potent Poison and Dagger Training traits in Deadly Arts since it’s all related to poisoning your weapons. Revealed Training is related to the stealth mechanic, which Shadow Arts is supposed to augment. Swapping these two positions would allow venom support users to decide weather they want to use a stealth build or an evasion build.

Really late here but I actually really like this idea.

Thief. Used to almost play thief exclusively until hot dropped. I just don’t like daredevil and it’s impossible to play a viable build without it.

Staff 5 is stupid and deserved the nerf. It was basically a 100 blades that ccs you and is pretty much instant cast and on top of all of that an evade. Staff was never meant to be a burst weapon, it’s more defensive/support in its playstyle anyway.

That being said, I agree it would be nice if they would split balance between all game modes, but for whatever reason they just refuse to do it.

Riposting shadows is the most broken thing about rev imo. That skill refunding a whole dodge with no cd is pretty absurd.

Precision strike is a bit too overtuned. It’s either really strong (in 1v1) or meh (in anything other than 1v1).

The entire retribution traitline. The whole thing is passive and it’s not fun to play against. Imo one of the worst traitlines in the game (design wise).

I’ve run mallyx/glint a bit in pvp. Shiro over glint can carry harder and shiros mobility is too good in pvp, but mallyx/glint does work well enough

Condi is absolutely still viable. Reapers can make it tough but it’s still doable and condi rev has one of the strongest plus ones in the game.

Power is better and easier though

Berserker amulet is too squishy imo. I prefer marauder or paladin depending on if the enemy team has reapers or not (which every one has at least 2 lately)

Running marauder and invo will increase your damage significantly but is a much glassier setup, however seeing as you mained thief before I assume you are no stranger to that type of playstyle (former thief main here as well). Invo and retri are both solid but with the massive necro uprising among us I have opted out of running retri most games.

Can confirm. The sixth bonus doesn’t work anywhere.

EDIT: Air runes appear to be not applying its swiftness on heal effect either.

kamix.4713:

b) They run D/D – its worthless spec in this kind of meta

Just because a Thief decides to run D/D it means they’re bad? No lol. I run it for fun, and I don’t consider myself a bad Thief. It’s a lot better than playing D/P all the time. You have no basis for saying anyone is bad for playing a weaponset they may find fun, even if it is vastly inferior to other sets.

I agree with everything else you said, but lol.

Same for the guy who said no “GOOD” Thief runs D/D. Pure ignorance.

S/D is worse off after the patch imo but it’s still playable and you can still rack up a body count. That said D/P outclasses every other Thief weaponset atm so it’s kind of a shame. Thief will always be a valuable profession in pvp just because of the way it’s designed, you just can’t be bad at it now.

It would be easier to give you tips if we actually saw you play. If possible you could record some footage of you playing and people can better help you improve that way, so we can actually see what you’re doing instead of just giving generalized tips. Just a thought.

If you have hidden thief traited that combo will reveal you because your steal is applying stealth, which occurs before the heartseeker hits, hence revealing you.

I agree that queue times along with being forced to sit in hotm is a little ridiculous and is my main gripe with pvp. I don’t play pvp more than I do because I hate sitting in hotm waiting for queues lasting upwards of 10 mins at times. If you dare take your eyes off of the screen for a few seconds the queue will inevitably pop and you have to start all over again if you don’t accept within 20 seconds. I loved being able to roam wvw or w/e while I waited.

IGN: Kat Beth
Playstyle: WvW/PvP
Server: Northern Shiverpeaks
Experience with thief: I’ve mained Thief since day one as it has always been my favorite class. I have over 4k hours on my two thieves combined, so I’d like to think I’m fairly knowledgeable and well above average at the class.

Your job as a thief is to use your mobility to +1 fights and decap points when the opportunity presents itself. You really shouldn’t be trying to 1v1 so much as a thief, especially if you’re not experienced at it. If you have to 1v1 on a point, only do so if you’re confident you can win fast. Against anyone you can’t burst down quickly enough, just leave, as they’ll have much more on-point presence than you. Don’t be afraid to run from a losing fight. kitten off and go elsewhere that you’re needed.

If you’re being kited by a mesmer with 1200 range, remember that you have tons of gap closers. It’s really easy to stay glued to a mesmer as a thief, that being kited should rarely be an issue.

If you’re really having trouble staying alive you could try 6/0/2/0/6, it gives more survivability with the condi clear in stealth along with a long undodgeable immob at the cost of some burst damage. It’s a bit more newbie friendly, but I’ll encourage you to play whatever you want.

Franke.8147:

Rune of the air gives swiftness on heal. Combine this with withdraw and 3 points into vitality line and you have permanent swiftness. The added ferocity on crit builds is also nice, but power would have been preferable.

Air runes can reveal you at bad times with the sixth proc, especially if you run a stealth heavy set up. Not saying one shouldn’t use them if they want to (though I personally think there are better options), but I feel like that’s something that should be mentioned as they can potentially screw you over. If you want something like that I think Centaur runes are better. They also add power and reduce the duration of those pesky cripples.

I personally use pack for almost everything. I use speed on my old D/D SA build (which I rarely play anymore).

2/0/6/0/6 has better utility than 2/6/6 for reasons already covered. I’d just like to add that with air/fire sigils, the 2/0/6/0/6 does some solid damage. We’re in a meta where crit strikes isn’t as necessary as it used to be.

as for the video, not really impressed, moving along.

26006 has little condi clear outside of utilities and heal so you’ll struggle against condis which are much more powerful in wvw with stuff like perplexity and 40% condi duration food.

if you’re struggling to live in wvw try allocating points into SA and pick up embrace and rejuvenation. 20606, 26600, 06620, 60206 are all good trait allocations for d/p. plenty of other options so try different things and see what you like.

used t3 for ages. swapped out for another set and loving it. 1st new 2nd old

20606 is probably the strongest trait spread a Thief can use currently. Air and fire sigils give the build good burst w/o having to invest in crit strikes, along with the survivability of SA and the utility of trickery. Steal becomes very powerful when traited with trickery, it does so much for only a 21 sec cd, and it’s good for sustain too combined with mug.

26600 is good too and has its place. Hidden Killer is amazing for landing a guaranteed backstab crit. You’ll have more base hp via Practiced Tolerance. Crit strikes gives precision and ferocity so you’ll have a lot more of that too, enough to where you shouldn’t have to worry about precision as much (especially taking Hidden Killer), so you can invest in tankier gear, if that’s what you want to do. 20606 doesn’t have the same flexibility with stats.

Crit strikes offers more damage, trickery offers more utility. Both are fine, it really just comes down to your play style and what you want out of your thief.

1. Thief
2. Thief
3. Ele

Make way Thieves, for the Ranger uprising is upon us!

no seriously almost every solo Q I’ve been in for the past week has had at least 4 rangers.

SirKomar.2094:

You guys were right about it lol. I couldn’t play it for long than a day and i switched to d/d.

Thank goodness. I remember the day I tried p/d condi for fun. Never again.

I recommend replacing Furious Retaliation with Mug. Mug is too good not to take with Sleight of Hand imo. The burst is nice and the healing actually becomes fairly good at that point for sustain. You don’t really need Furious Retal, especially with Rage Runes.

I would also replace Cloaked in Shadow with Shadow’s Embrace. Embrace is one of the best traits Thieves have and if you plan on speccing at least 2 into SA I would personally shoot for that instead of Cloaked.

Regarding runes, consider Pack. With Pack and Thrill of the Crime you can nearly keep up perma fury in battle, making Furious Retal even more redundant. It also gives extra precision along with power which is pretty cool. And swiftness duration, which is also pretty nice.

Cruelty is worse than Bloodlust. Stick to Bloodlust.

I don’t think it makes you or anyone a scumbag for playing something you enjoy. Personally I judge the attitude of players over whether or not they are ‘scumbags’, as opposed to what build they are running. It’s a game, play whatever you like and don’t worry about what anyone thinks.

That said, I do agree that the skill cap is very low on those types of builds and is sort of a ‘training wheels’ spec. When you play something like shatter you really have to have a deeper understanding of the game mechanics and of your own capabilities in order to perform well. With PU specs it’s easier in the sense that the traits carry you, therefore it’s simple to do well with PU builds. If that’s the way you like to play, then hf and go ham.

omg you just copied Yishis

In all seriousness, great video and commentary. It’s been done before but it is still a very solid video. I used to main D/D for a very long time and I like seeing other good D/D Thieves. I enjoyed it.

D/P is similar to D/D but is played differently. If you’re worried about D/D’s lack of options, try D/P.

S/D isn’t useless, you just don’t like it or haven’t tried it.

But yeah, sounds like you just don’t like Thief and should probably try another class.

I don’t use venoms because they’re terrible on their own and aren’t worth taking over other more useful utilities. Venomshare can be good in a coordinated group, but you sacrifice a lot of utility to use them.

D/P itself is fine and a perfectly viable weaponset, it’s combined with SA that gives it a great deal of sustain, as many others have said already. I do think that Shadow’s Rejuvenation is a very forgiving trait and should be toned down, but with all of the other arguably more cheese builds in this game, I won’t complain about it. Since the change to Infusion of Shadow a while back, I don’t find it to be quite as over-the-top as it used to be.

I played D/D thief for the longest time. The set almost requires SA to play effectively due to how predictable it is. Almost everything banks on landing Cloak and Daggers, otherwise you’re a sitting duck.

Rank 1017

4 ascended rings
3 ascended weapons (zerker, soldier, dire)
2 ascended armor (zerker, sentinel)

D/P is generally accepted as being superior to D/D in every way except for burst damage. D/D offers a bit more burst via Cloak and Dagger. a small price to pay for the utility pistol offhand provides imo. Cloak and Dagger is also a cheaper method of stealth, but you have to hit something, which isn’t always that easy.

consider the trade-offs. D/P offers a blind field, an interrupt, and a gap closer that also blinds. D/D offers a 1/4 sec (I think?) evade that stacks bleeds, a ranged cripple that bounces targets, and of course Cloak and Dagger. D/P has a use for almost every skill, but I’m struggling to find a use for Death Blossom in a power build. unless you land your CnDs with D/D you’re basically a sitting duck. the playstyle can be fun though, and two daggers look pretty kitten. if you love living on the edge and just wanna drop people fast, go ham.

D/P is actually a hard counter to D/D builds as the blinds can shut down D/D users. assuming equal skill, I would guess the matchup would be 8/10 in the D/P user’s favor.

it’s not needed. i run builds from 6 SA to 0. when solo roaming i prefer to use it since i expect to be in 1vx fights. depends on what you want to do.

Bacon.4918:

This skill should function like the decoy skill/desperate decoy trait mesmers have which stealths the player despite the revealed debuff.

the problem with last refuge is that it procs at the most inconvenient times, namely when attacking. this triggers the revealed debuff because technically said thief just attacked from stealth, so it wouldn’t really fix the problem at hand.

when i first started thief this trait used to kill me all the time. it still kills me a lot. i won’t lie though it has saved me a few times, but 90% of the time it’s either a nuisance or deadly to me. i trait out of SA just because of that one trait. it sucks cause you gotta take it if you want to trait into SA. fix it plz.

EDIT: oh i got ninja’d. hi.

yes it works.

it reduces the damage you receive while in stealth by 50%. this is only for power damage, condi damage is not affected. it also applies to up to 5 allies that you stealth.

it lasts for the duration you are in stealth.

That’s me in one of those screenshots above. I’ve gotten a lot of heat about this in-game, so I felt I should post here to clarify a few things.

1. We did not transfer to AR to spy, steal your siege, or report your zerg’s whereabouts. I literally could not care less about PPT. PPT is broken in this game and any half-wit can probably realize that, so lighten up. I play wvw to have fun. And iirc, the zerg actually approached us in that segment. So to say we were ‘always in proximity of your main forces’ is bs.

2. I personally transferred to AR for the week to have fun. It’s interesting fighting against a server you’re usually allied with, seeing them with red names. Like someone above said, taking advantage of the free transfers for the week to mess around. We had no ill intentions doing this. Sorry if I offended some people lol.

3. I NEVER gave out info that could change the course of the match. I was never in contact with any DR in the matchup other than my guildies, and they share the same belief I do with PPT.

That’s my side of the story. I’m not ashamed to come here and post because I know I did nothing wrong. It’s not the first time I, or my guild, have done this. Believe whatever you want, but I thought I would clear this up because I’m getting kinda sick of hearing about this in-game.

Lucky Shot.7650:

I think it’s the only trait in the entire game that hinders you instead of being useful.

Hard to Catch.

As long as I have played Thief, this trait still occasionally kills me. No one would complain about Last Refuge if it wasn’t a requirement if you plan to invest in Shadow Arts. Hell, just remove the trait entirely and don’t even put anything there. It would at least be more useful than it is now.

The idea with Valkyrie is by taking Hidden Killer, it allows you to sacrifice some precision in favor of more HP because your backstab is guaranteed to crit. As others have pointed out, it also means your attacks outside of stealth are not going to be critting as often.

As a general rule of thumb I use, I shoot for at least 45% crit chance, then opt for more defensive stats. I play primarily through WvW, so my decision reflects on that. Depends on what you plan on doing.

Figured this thread could use more drama.

lol @ the DR BRL thief who accused me and my buddy of hacking, killed me in a 2v20, bragged about it like it was some kind of accomplishment, then chickened out of a fair duel. It’s okay, I’ll let you bring your zerg.

Stay classy <3

Kabuki.9103:

Bazzoong.7145:

You can skip all initiative regeneration traits now actually for those kind of builds the change is pretty awesome.

Are you saying you don’t need Infusion of Shadow for DD builds now if you chain CnD? If initiative regen is that big, then I’d love to swap in condition cleanse.

Yeah. I swapped out Infusion in favor of Embrace after the patch. The buff is noticeable enough for me. I haven’t missed Infusion at all, and I’m loving the condi clear.

For the specs that made good use of opportunist though, I can see how this change could have hurt those specs.

Cloaked in Shadow isn’t needed so much for D/P, as the weapon set itself already has a load of blinds. It would be more beneficial taking Infusion of Shadow for the extra initiative while stealthing.

Unless you plan on backstabbing all day, your damage out of stealth will leave much to be desired. I feel I have more survivability by simply finishing my fights faster. I just feel all of that armor is wasted on a Thief. Arganthium pretty much covered that. I would recommend a mix of Berserker/Soldier armor and Berserker trinkets, as I believe someone here has already done the math to prove this setup is the most optimal. Feel free to mess around though until you get stats that you’re comfortable with.

Good luck out there. It’s a dark world for Thieves these days, but the true Thieves will prosper.

WvW – 10/30/30/0/0 D/D + SB
PvP – 10/30/0/0/30 D/P + SB

I used to play D/D + S/D in WvW, but the nerf to Sword 2 ruined the entire fluidity of the set for me. My favorite playstyle (D/D) hasn’t seen any nerfs in a while, though. In fact, I feel my D/D spec was buffed.

Thief is my main and always will be. It’s the only class I can truly get a grasp of how I want to play. I’ve adapted nerf after nerf, and I will continue to adapt. If there ever comes a time where I am unable to continue playing my Thief, that will probably be the end of the road for me in this game.