Guild Wars 2

D/D power thief is an insanely fun build to play with but its also really the “all-or-nothing” build for thief. You don’t get any of the blind/stealth utility from D/P nor the evasions/porting of S/D. With that said, if you don’t get the numbers the first burst then you’re in some pretty hot water against most classes. As DeceiverX said, you’ll need a LOT of practice as it is arguably the hardest weapon-set to master on thief (for power).

Gear: I’ve seen most run either full Berserk or full Marauder. I don’t want to input much advice here because I made my gear after observing/analyzing my fights over many hours of WvW play. Your experience may differ but Berserk or Marauder gear should suffice!

Utility Skills: Withdraw (condi cleanse + positioning), Agility Signet (more dodges), Shadowstep (stun break), Infiltrator Signet (2nd Stun break), and Basilisk Venom (Unblockable + Stun) are what I run. As I said before, D/D doesn’t offer as much sustain as other sets so you’ll probably want a lot of movement utility skills. However, I’ve seen people run more stealth skills such as Shadow Refuge and Blinding Powder which also works.

Traits: DA 2-2-3. Trick 3-2-2. DD 2-2-2 (or 1-3-2, depends on what you want).

Basic Tips:
1) CnD + Steal is your best friend and main source of damage. Your steal will usually hit for about 1-2k and your CnD will hit for about 3-5k. Depending on your Back-stab hit (let’s say…. 6k), you’ll probably hit your target for at least 10-11k and that’s probably when things don’t go your way. If you’re traited for Impacting Disruption then add another 3k on top of that!

Take advantage of the stealth from CnD and make sure you land those.

2) HS only when they’re below 50% hp and don’t spam it because its a quick way to waste initiative.

3) Dancing Dagger cripple is amazing for harass and poke. I use it mid-fights to test what I’m going up against.

4) Death Blossom is pretty useless as a damage skill for power users but it comes in handy when you’re facing stealth classes. If your opponent is in stealth, use it for the evade frames + random damage. I can’t tell you how many times I’ll be fighting a stealth D/P thief and I use death blossom which procs a fire blast from my sigil of fire and tells me that they’re near me.

I’m still really new to D/D as I picked it up last week but this is everything I’ve learned and taught myself! Sorry I can’t link an actual build, not able to atm.

Speaking from a WvW perspective: The thief is in a good spot right now!

For Zerging: The class is meant for ganking so don’t expect to be running into 50-man blobs with the front-line and come out alive. Dance on the sides and pick off whoever is out of position.

For Roaming: You may have a hard time at first due to all the passive damage mitigation every class has nowadays but you’ll absolutely be able to win fights after learning and practicing. Like the posts above me said, the thief has a pretty high learning curve but if you are willing to tough it out then it’s really fun. Just be smart about your plays/the fights you pick and you’ll be fine.

I do recall Anet saying scoring will be addressed after they beta test the current changes. The things that they updated in WvW were the ones most requested by the community so they took prioritization. Also, they did reduce the grind significantly for PvE maps which should help us a bit, but I do agree with your thoughts. As for the other things, i guess we’ll have to wait and see. Overall, I believe Anet did a really good job with this patch and am excited to see future updates now if they follow this same strategy!

gennyt.3428:

iZakari.1076:

Anet has pushed out a lot of new changes with the newest update and are still live-beta testing a lot of it. Not to mention, we have more things coming to WvW come this Friday. I’m not saying that your problem isn’t a serious one, but give them some time to sort everything out.

As far as NA goes, I haven’t heard about any complaints of extreme skill or graphics lag since the update dropped. There were a few game crashes but they patched that up within a few hours of release.

Well you’re gonna hear about it now lol. I’m in T1 NA and my fps has tanked even on potato settings. I used to record gameplay in high quality and now I can barely just run the game on medium.

Oh? I haven’t been able to log today so I’m speaking solely from what I experienced yesterday. Maybe things have changed, but my game quality has stayed the same pre and post patch. Regardless, I don’t think Anet would be able to push out an update, live-beta test, fix new bugs, push more changes, and optimize all at the same time. Maybe they should be? Obviously not happening though haha.

Edit: Just mentioning that I’m in T2 which recently got that huge population boost and I haven’t seen this problem mentioned in map chat nor TS.

I think the changes have really made the Borderlands a lot better. Before, my entire havoc guild wouldn’t even touch those maps. Yesterday, all our raids and roaming parties were solely in the borderland maps! Deleting the barricades and simplifying the map makes it super easy to get from point A to point B. You can actually get to places fast enough to defend now. Is it perfect? No, but as far as I’ve read, neither were the Alpines.

As for those people STILL complaining about falling off cliffs… You’re doing something REALLY wrong. Stop putting your character on auto-run and LOOK at where you’re going; it really isn’t that hard.

Anet has pushed out a lot of new changes with the newest update and are still live-beta testing a lot of it. Not to mention, we have more things coming to WvW come this Friday. I’m not saying that your problem isn’t a serious one, but give them some time to sort everything out.

As far as NA goes, I haven’t heard about any complaints of extreme skill or graphics lag since the update dropped. There were a few game crashes but they patched that up within a few hours of release.

Wow, thanks everyone! Really digging the builds that I’m seeing. I’ll be sure to try them out when I get home tonight! There’s so much to learn haha.

Razor.9872:

I think the build will change slightly between solo-roaming and small group-play. And I would totally provide a build to help, but It’s been forever since I’ve visited WvW xD

I’ll let someone else help with this.

Understood! I think I’m looking more for a solo-roaming build then Thank you!

Hey Druid community!
I’ve been playing thief exclusively since I started the game when HoT came out. And now, after about 7 months of only one class, I’m finally moving on from it.

I made a Ranger/Druid for a few reasons:
1) Wanted a break from pure melee style
2) Wanted a class that can hold its own in WvW
3) I’ve already made it and am really enjoying it

With that said, can anyone suggest a good build to use for WvW roaming/small-group play? I don’t go outside of WvW much. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

EremiteAngel.9765:

I’m witnessing one of the bloodiest fights in the history of WvW.
Massive Zergs facing off one another at every turn, name calling, insults, fist-waving, chest-thumping, war-cries.
These few days since reset has been a battle for the ages, full of hot blooded men of war, crashing into one another, sword striking on metal, shields slamming into shields, hammers swinging left and right.
The battlefield has been marked with shattered souls and crushed bodies.

Things have never felt more right.

Well said! As a solo roamer, it’s been a bit tough with the near 24/7 coverage of zergs running around, but the action has definitely been entertaining. Just yesterday I saw DB and TC clash in front of QL with each side running easily 40+ people. Even the Borderlands were teeming with players in all servers. Granted, this is probably due to the rebellion against TC but, hey, all is fair in love and war right?

Keep on fighting.

By now, I’m pretty sure ArenaNet knows what we want.

With that said, the one thing I want MOST is a reliable and constant stream of communication between the WvW community and the WvW Developers. Whatever form it’s in, I hope to see developers CONTINUOUSLY interacting with the community on HOW they’re working on a specific issue.

For example, instead of just saying “we’re working on population imbalance”, tell us “we’re currently working on fixing population imbalance by implementing server alliances. We will do so by _____________________________. Here’s our progress and testing report on that: _______________________.”

What I DON’T want is for the Developers/mods to keep saying “Yeah, we hear you” but never be told what’s going on. After-all, actions speak louder than words. I love that Gaile is constantly overseeing this thread but I still can’t help but feel that this community is “in-the-dark” about everything. Even the disabling of the oasis event in the BL wasn’t noted in the patch notes. As I said, whatever form it’s in, please do so. I don’t even care if its on reddit or another AMA as long as its reliable and constant.

Coronit.9432:

iZakari.1076:

Anomaly.7612:

Calaereth.6720:

Hi guys, I know thief often gets a bad rep and whilst this is not true in all cases, I was wondering whether the 2016 update has given back the thief profession a bit more power again to contend with other classes.

Thanks very much.

They underperform to Engi’s/DH/Rev/Necro by a big amount. The changes have helped a little, but it’s still a gamble to have one on your team, or to play one for that matter.

Okay I’m legit curious. Why do so many thieves find it difficult to fight reapers? I understand the others are a bit difficult but I would never consider reapers as a problem. Dodge through marks, kite out the shroud, use steal skill for interrupts and pi damage.. Pretty simple imo.

I think he was talking about how classes perform in PvP where these 4 classes a far easier to play then thief —> easier to have an impact in the match. A well played thief is devastating though.

Reaper are definitly doable in 1vs1, but it could not worth the amount of time/utilities it needs. A good necro is noticeable and when he has full shroud it becomes very difficult. Using dash over bound helps a lot here (bound is great to +1 a necro).
If you make mistakes it can be over quickly and if you die in that duel it gets your team in a worse situation.

Ohhh, got it. Sorry, I took it from a WvW roaming perspective, not PvP. Sounds good.

Anomaly.7612:

Calaereth.6720:

Hi guys, I know thief often gets a bad rep and whilst this is not true in all cases, I was wondering whether the 2016 update has given back the thief profession a bit more power again to contend with other classes.

Thanks very much.

They underperform to Engi’s/DH/Rev/Necro by a big amount. The changes have helped a little, but it’s still a gamble to have one on your team, or to play one for that matter.

Okay I’m legit curious. Why do so many thieves find it difficult to fight reapers? I understand the others are a bit difficult but I would never consider reapers as a problem. Dodge through marks, kite out the shroud, use steal skill for interrupts and pi damage.. Pretty simple imo.

The reason why they’re not putting gliding in WvW is because it would give HoT owners a huge advantage.

Sorry but I don’t see the problem that you see here. They’re just roaming as a group.. is that not allowed? I enjoy the challenge of outnumbered fights but I would never pick a fight against a group of 9 regardless of their profession. 1v9 nope.

Not trying to blame it on l2p issues because I know the thief class is currently at a large disadvantage when compared to others, but just play smart. I’ve dueled/skirmished and beaten every class in the game so far. I have the toughest time fighting Dragon Hunters though. Whether you want to keep it as your main or not is up to you though!

illenos.5134:

Have fun roaming on your thief in WvW. There are a lot of classes/builds which will just melt you. That’s okay for me but actually every class will just faceroll you if they are on the same skill level as you. The only balanced fights I find are against other thieves or warriors.

BTW you are an expert in running away as fast as lightning on an daredevil spec but good revenants will still catch up and kill you 90% of the time. It’s so broken, it’s almost fun! Can’t wait for the balance patch…or the release of some other mmos…

You’re either doing something wrong or need to change your build up a bit if you’re letting revs catch up to you lol. If you’re using s/d, just use IS, SS, Inf Sig, sb5, and turn around to /laugh because you’re pretty much 2000+ range away in a matter of seconds. But even sb 5 should be enough to run away from classes. Only class I’ve had a hard time fighting against are Eles/tempests and the occasional outnumbered fights.

Depends on what content you’re trying to play in my opinion. Thief is the only character I play for WvW and PvP; its amazing! I personally love the role that thief plays in both PvP matches as well as WvW so I may be biased. I rarely touch PvE (Raids, dungeons, etc.) because I know that it doesn’t really offer as much utility as other classes. Only other level 80 I have is a Herald which I only touch when there’s huge battles in WvW and that’s because my fps drops to like 15-25 when there’s 100+ people fighting over SMC so its hard to gank with my thief.

Lots of classes have skills that follow the player if they move after downed state. For thieves, you can use Infiltrators signet. Start the stomp and if they move, just use your signet and you’ll be right next to them. Timing is important though of course.

I can tell that s/d requires a lot more skill and thought while fighting. I’ll probably stick with it though because 1) it looks cooler and 2) i enjoy the style of play

Hey all! I’ve been playing around with both s/d (da, trick, dd) and d/p (sa, trick, dd) lately in PvP/WvW. I can’t seem to choose which one I like better. What do you guys think about the two different builds? Is one clearly better than the other? Which do you prefer?

Hey Caed, what are your thoughts on S/D builds?

Hey everyone, looking for some help/suggestions here. My game’s ping never jumps over 65 yet I’m getting delays ranging from 30 seconds to 1-2 minutes on all skills, ports, spawns, etc. I’ve read the post about abnormal ping issues but the people posting there are actually seeing their pings jump. I assumed that the GW2 ping reading in the menu was just way off but all other online services are working normally for me. Like I said, no ping jumps, just a steady 40-60 reading but huge delays.

Thief player here. In fact, I only have one character and that’s a thief. I can tell you that they aren’t the absolute best in any way or form. All other classes trump us in one way or another. However, that doesn’t mean we suck or are unplayable. I hold my own in all areas of the game whether it is SPVP, WVW, or PVE. The important thing is to know how to play your character in each situation at hand. I rotate and change my build multiple times throughout the day depending on what the gameplay is looking like. I love my thief and probably won’t quit it unless Anet just decides to take it entirely out of the game, but that’s not going to happen lol.

dotsforlife.7683:

My Human Male Thief – Accolade (modeled after the assassins creed characters)
Mixed armor set
Shadow Abyss dye and Celestial White dye
Currently I have him temporarily wearing the Halloween hoodie but normally it’s the starter hood

what armor are you wearing?

Sir Vincent III.1286:

iZakari.1076:

I’m trying to maintain at least 15k hp with enough zerk gear to give me around 2.3k+ power, 50% crit chance, and 200% crit damage but can’t seem to balance it enough where I don’t sacrifice one completely.

Here you go all Exotic piece: 15k HP, 2.4K Power, 50% crit, 222% Crit dmg.

Enjoy.

Wow thanks! Would you say that these stats are good for PvE/WvW? I’m not planning on doing any crazy content since I spend most of my time in PvP.

I forgot to specify that this is for PvE since I already found a good build for PvP haha. What do you guys think about the Divinity rune? I’m trying to maintain at least 15k hp with enough zerk gear to give me around 2.3k+ power, 50% crit chance, and 200% crit damage but can’t seem to balance it enough where I don’t sacrifice one completely.

Edit: I only have 1 ascended soldier ring and everything else is exotic. Just started playing last week :/

Hey everyone! I’m new here as I just picked up HoT yesterday after being F2P for a little over the week. My main is a d/p – p/p thief right now and was wondering what the best runes/sigils would be to use for my zerk gear? I heard scholar is the best for dps but I rarely stay about 90% hp when I fight. I’m currently running golemancer on my armor and whatever I find for my weapons. Any advice suggestions would be appreciated.

I don’t know about anyone else but I freaking love thief in PvP right now. I’ve been running DA, Trick, and DD with d/p and p/p off-hand. It may not be the most effective or build but i’m having a ton of fun with it while also just wrecking most people I come across.