Guild Wars 2

Only it isn’t like that at all.

Minion Necromancer builds are mediocre at best, and there are better builds for competitive play. Meanwhile, Mesmers have always been clone-centric, and that won’t change, and can’t, without damaging the actual gameplay of Mesmers. Spirit Rangers are pretty strong right now, but there are alternative builds. No one is running the build because it’s giving them minions to do the work for them, they’re doing it because it’s simply the superior build right now.

AoE damage is pretty negligible, as focusing a target should be your priority. Aside from the AoE downed cleave, I don’t really recall anyone going for massive AoE unless they’re fighting over a point, in which case it provides zone control and helps deny enemies from the point; which means the AoE’s are serving their intended purpose.

I play a 0/30/10/30/0 Thief that I stole from someone a while back with minor changes. It uses S/D and Shorbow, and similarly to what you mentioned in the OP, S/D’s 3 skill steals boons, which makes dueling a lot easier.

Build Here

I can’t stand Cruuk’s build, as I think the playstyle is really choppy, and I get bored easily. This allows for 1v1 skirmishes over the point, and results in a lot more fluid playstyle that just feels a lot less dirty than D/P thief.