Guild Wars 2

I’m actually fine with them being balanced around venomous aura, it’s our only real offensive support. They would have to basically remove the trait to make venoms viable for solo purposes (thought I’d argue the immobilize venom is pretty good for S/P builds).

My biggest problem with venoms is that THREE of them interfere with eachother- with the chill one, the immobilize one, and basilik venom, all of their major function is to inhibit movement. The main damage venom we have, applies torment, which deals more damage while moving. I think they should replace chill or immobilize (if they keep the chill one duration needs to be upped, that venom is trash even with Veomous aura) with a burning/bleeding some other kind of damage condi.

Come to think of it I think burning would be perfect- it doesn’t stack so it wouldn’t get out of control with VA,. And, since its a unique condition (one thief doesn’t already have) it’d be worth considering for solo builds even without VA traited.

Or maybe: Changed the trait to: "IF venom is not shared with anybody, durations/cooldown is increased/reduced by 20%. "

Due to the current trait system, I don’t think I’ll make another alt

It works on you as well

Elywood.9017:

Thanks guys I think I’ve come to the decision that I’m gonna use runes of strength. My question now is, what’s the best way to get my crit chance up because it’s sitting at a measly 25%~

I’ve been playing around with 0/6/0/5/3 for S/D and i’ts not bad. Basically trading mug + steal utility/cooldown for precision ferocity and executioner. Not sure if it’s better than 2/0/0/6/6 but it certainly does more damage and still works great with strength runes. I go 5/3 in acro/trcikery because I think the +3 initiative in trickery outweighs anything at the end of the acro tree. If sticking with 2/0/0/6/6 I’d consider maybe getting an assassins weapon and/or signet of agility (great active on that signet as well).

Heals in DS? New pvp meta: 5 Necro running transfusion and unholy sanctuary. If they just allow necros to get healing in DS they’d have to overhaul the entire class to balance around it. I think they should just buff the scaling or base power (or both) of existing healing traits like unholy sanctuary. I’d actually prefer it if they increased scaling, as of now no reason to even consider getting +healing power

Bhawb.7408:

War Mourner.5168:

One day, I hope, dagger two will not be literally useless. Ideally by completely removing what is there currently, and putting something useful in there. Like a small gap closer, or like, anything that isn’t an awful channeled ability that wastes valuable AA time.

I use dagger 2 all the time. Just because it isn’t part of a DPS rotation doesn’t mean its useless.

It’s great for power builds running fire/air sigils. Easy procs from range, I use it more to proc that than the healing/base damage

Scepter buff far outweighs PU nerf

Jackums.3496:

Because WvW allows you to attain ridiculously high stats to potentially compensate for a lack of skill, whereas PvP has much lower cap on the offense/defense you can attain.

But the people you’re fighting have inflated stats too, so I dont see this as a good argument

Anchoku.8142:

Axe auto-attack will see a 10% damage buff that may equate to 3-6% overall but axe is kind of a support weapon in that it applies vulnerability. Minions or groups without sufficient vuln application see a good damage increase because of it but axe is strictly single-target.

In contrast, the next shorter range weapon, dagger, does a lot of direct damage while the next longer range weapon, scepter, does a lot of condition damage. Axe is a group support weapon that multiplies damage for everyone.

Still, I run axe a lot mostly for the channel and the movement flexibility a little bit of range provides over dagger. Dagger’s short range means I have to constantly chase, and more often face-tank, moving targets or risk dps on missed attacks.

Actually, axe auto-attack isn’t getting a damage buff, that’s the axe #2 ghastly claws that is getting 10% damage buff. However, since the attack animation is becoming more “fluid” I bet the auto sees a bit of dps increase as well.

Right now I use axe for solo roaming because I do a lot of damage damage in death-shroud, and I heard the 10% damage increase while wielding an axe (master trait in spite) works for lifeblast in death-shroud. If it wasn’t for this trait working with DS I’d use the dagger simply for damage. After the patch both weapons get improved, but the dagger gets a bigger boost IMO. Really considering going dagger once patchhits but not sure.

Kahrgan.7401:

Dont bother, just reroll a guardian/mes, or warrior, because playing anything else is pointless.

It’s quite evident by now, that the anet balance team has no idea what they are doing, and lack creativity.

They stated they wanted to add survivability, which could of been done through the blood magic tree. Increasing siphons dmg/healing, adding boons, or even group siphons

But nothing was done, again.

Warriors and thiefs got a net-nerf, and the rest of the classes got buffed. Mesmer and ranger got buffed more but probably needed it. The guard buffs seemed pretty big and I’m surprsied they were buffed so much. I think necros are in a good spot now, and will be in a good spot after the patch.

Yea- videos. There are incredible videos of guys 1v5ing with seeming ease. I’ve picked up a lot from watching them, but I still don’t have the skill to 1v5-10.

There was a video about a month ago of 2 thieves against 15-20 that was very impressive.

One of the first steps to becoming a good thief from personal experience even though I’m not great- Get familiar with the utility “Shadowstep”. I’d say about 90% of thieves use it and for good reason. It’s a double stunbreak/double teleport, its fun as hell, adn you can really pull off some crazy kitten with it. Also, learn to time pre-casting CnD/backstab with your teleports. It’s easy to do, but its improtant that you can do it with like 99%+ success, because if you miss time it your combo is kittened and you’re probably dead

Why the guardian needs a blink I’ll never understand

mango.9267:

Dahkeus.8243:

roamzero.9486:

oxtred.7658:

a d/P power doesn’t have 20k health and a ton of toughness.

Lol, it’s pretty easy to make a d/p Thief with 3k armor, 2.5k power, and almost 20k HP (assuming full guard leech buffs/blood lust). D/p is just as faceroll as P/d.

Seriously? Who would ever play a tanky D/P…

And there’s a reason that someone stacking pure condition damage traits will be tankier than someone stacking full power traits:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Berserker%27s_Amulet
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Rabid_Amulet

Actually, 3k armor d/p builds were popular for a while in WvW. Decent hp, high armor, 2k+ attack. Very low crit chance, but relied on Hidden Killer for the dps.

To respond to OP’s thread: the trait isn’t worth it. In WvW, SA is better than acro. Cloaked in shadow will deal with both CC’s against your sneak attacks and interrupts on your stomps.

There are many forums of CC in this game that bypass blind, perhaps even more than half of them? (idk not sure) That being said cloaked in shadow is pretty amazing for a 2 point triat, but IMO overall acro offers more to P/D condition builds. (I value the huge boost in sustain thru endurance generaion for my p/d playstyle to the healing/condi remove of SA)

For S/D I’d go with str8 zerker + 3-5 cavalier pieces. For runes, IMO the best 3 options are Strength, Rage, and Pack. If running acro tree definitely strength with might on dodge, if not- pack or rage. Don’t sleep on rage, can obtain pretty much perma fury with it, an does more damage on crits than pack runess. The ferocity + 5% damage on rage runes does more damage on crit than pack runes, with less precision (but more futy) and less damage on non crits than pack. I prefer the burst potential and fury uptime of rage.

All that being said 2/0/0/6/6 with strength runes and might on dodge food is probably what I’d run if I felt like investing in strength runes, but I’m having success with 2/6/0/0/6 s/d with rage

Sagat.3285:

SA d/p should win more and lose less than SA p/d,dire is what completes p/d.

The trait is not bad but I rather spend 6 points in Trickery for condition damage and steal,SA gives me enough sustain. Usable but mostly chosen by preference I prefer toughness since carrion and dire have enough vitality.

Well, 6 in trickery always for me, usually in power builds too, but always for condi. Most impactful traits for any build, but especially great for p/d with condition damage obviously.

so the question is acro vs SA rather than acro vs trickery.

I like toughness better than vitality too, but I like boon duration more than healing power, so the stats are kind of a wash for me (leaning towards vit + boon duration though). Thieves healing power scaling is kitten. As far as traits go i think an argument can be made either way for sustain.

SA- blind + condi removal (only 1 condition in most cases though), ~360-370 regen/second while stealth+ 1s longer stealth

VS:

acro- 33%+ vigor uptime+ free endurance form feline grace+ pain response + 2s stability attacking out of stealth.

After looking at it I’d say SA is better if using Hide in Shadows in heal, where acro si superior with withdraw. I like withdraw for p/d. If using carrion though the +300 toughness would be a much bigger deal and stealth would be more important since squishier, so I’d go SA. But I can’t justify power as a secondary stat with no precision/ferocity

1. Buff unholy sanctuary, or replace with a viable non-minion related death magic GM
2. Buff dagger 2 (like your idea about cast time)
3. Buff siphoned power from 25% to 33%

It also significantly changes the dagger #4 animation and I love it. Instead of a swarm of insects it just throws the dagger similar to thief #4. I hope it doesnt get fixed, not because of any advantage, but I just think it looks cool. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was intended, the dagger is looks like it was designed with the necromancer in mind. Best non-legendary dagger skin in game IMO!

Dahkeus.8243:

Yea, to stomp with the trait, you’d have to CnD, backstab, then stomp…which means you’d waste a bunch of time casting CnD and backstab before even starting the stomp.

Thieves already have so many ways to secure a stomp that it’s not really worth a GM trait…especially when it’s often better to just let less squishy teammates stomp in team fights anyways. =P

Yea, but I’ll still be considering it for the heat of battle. Look at it this way, as far as defensive options its between this, shows rejuvenation (and maybe shadow’s resilience) for GM traits that could make sense with P/D. If the stability saves you from even 1 CC during the whole fight, I think it could mitigate more damage than rejuvenation will heal your for. For me, especially when outnumbered, CC is way more of a problem for me than general attrition

I would 100% use this over BV in pvp

oxtred.7658:

yeah, i was referring to bountiful theft. And no, at least for me 1vx aren’t stealth backstab, reset and come back. But anyway yeah, back on topic: I don’t think traiting 6 points for a trait like that is any good. You already have at least one breakstun and plenty of blinds on both d/p and p/d, and since most control skills are also hard hittings they are usually avoided. IMO, if a stomp is so insecured that you need stability even when stealthed, it’s probably a stomp you won’t get at all, so it’s really situational.

Ok, so I just reread the trait and its not great for stomping “When striking an enemy out of stealth” I thought it was just “when leaving stealth” so I would cnd, and the stability would kick in once stealth over, but it looks like I have to attack from stealth.

And yea, I wouldn’t trait 6 points just for assassins equilibrium but I’m already pretty set on at least 3 in acro anyway (I love feline grace and vigorous recovery, using withdraw). After reading the trait its still good for the heat of battle, but wont change stomping much I’ll have to rethink if I’ll be using it. And yea, I already run with 1-2 stun breaks, but I like to use those offensively sometimes

I just prefer 3 in acro for defense because evading is more fun than regening in stealth (and imo more effectivie) because every second I’m waiting in stealth for health I’m delaying my sneak attack and pressure, giving them time to remove conditions. Acro also has great synergy with caltrops on dodge I think SA is overrated for p/d (except blind on stealth trait).

oxtred.7658:

d/p isn’t that great in 1v1 for an average player. You need to time your skills carefully, and play cautious, wich isn’t the case for condis. d/p still get destroyed by some specs ( med guards, engineers), and has weakness. Condi doesn’t. d/p requires a good knowledge of the game mechanics (boon stealing, interrupt). Condi doesn’t. Recovering from a mistake as a d/p thief is insanely hard provided you’re not traiting in sa. So yes, D/P isn’t the best 1v1 set. Except if you’re fighting those warriors spamming aa in a blinding power and then asking for a nerf.

Even without bp you can almost shut a warrior down with just #3. Also, knowledge of game mechanics for boon strip? Explain this. Are you referring to bountiful theft? That’s not a d/p exclusive and i also often run that on p/d as well as s/d. As far as interrupt- I agree there. Properly using #4 really ups the skill cap on this set. Definitely think d/p has higher overall skill cap, but can still eyes closed most 1v1s.

As far as med guards- wort matchup for any power thief and guard has huge advantage. Every build has at least 1 bad matchup though and I’d argue d/p has the best matchups.

I’m not saying p/d is harder than d/p or that p/d is ifficult in any way, but for 1v1s (or 1v2s vs unskilled) don’t act like it’s anything beyond BP+heartseeker 1500 units away, steal+backstab, rinse+repeat with infil signet/shadowstep. In these situations you don’t even need to use your interrupt, which is one of the main things giving this kit its skillcap.

Anyway back on topic- what do you think of assasssin’s equilibrium?

DeceiverX.8361:

Jugglemonkey.8741:

On the plus side, at least we can run away better than any class still -.-

Depends on how you define running away. Land-speed-wise, gs/s warrior has superior mobility to the thief. Objectively, the only way to say they have the best running potential is if stealth is mentioned.

defined in practical terms- best tools for getting out of a sticky situation, I gotta say thief. Shadowstep is a double stun break that can really trick people, and shadow refuge is a broken free fight reset unless they have a knock back

DeceiverX.8361:

They’re both pretty facerolly.

It’s just you’re going to find even more P/D users after the patch because nothing was done to it and D/P’s powder nerf is going to make a lot of people move by taking away a solid amount of the faceroll.

Actually, pistol is getting +150 range on ricochet trait

oxtred.7658:

No. D/P is great in small groups and can work in 1v1, but condi P/D are just unkillables in the hands of a good player. a d/P power doesn’t have 20k health and a ton of toughness. Thing is, those two specs have opposite roles. Condi is a troll spec for either inexperienced players or people wanting to 1vX easily. It is built for attrition and huge survivability, and you can make a lot of mistakes. D/P is not about attrition at all. It’s a single target squishy dps with lot of pressure coming from blind spam and interrupt. But if you ever take a backstab or an evisc, you’re on the floor. D/P is powerful, but its advantages aren’t selfish, thus it’s harder to survive on your own.

but in 1v1 d/p is the god spec of guild wars. If you deny that you aren’t playing d/p properly. It’s a very high skill cap if you’re going into groups and actually being productive and putting yourself in danger. If you’re just 1v1ing people its easy as hell

T raw.4658:

Did I just read someone claim D/P is more faceroll than P/D?!?!!!??

ROFLMAO

Someone is trying to feel better about themselves

It’s easier to 1v1 somebody with d/p power spec. It is easier to 1v2 with pd condi spec. I play both. Are you arguing that d/p isn’t very powerful? It’s meta for a reason.

Sure the skill cap is high to outplay multiple people, but for 1v1s it’s ez-mode. Perma-blind + instant stealth without needing to be near your target, and 3 teleports. Come on.

If you play d/p and lose 1v1s to p/d more often than you win them…. thats an l2p issue. I can understand hate from the warriors, guards, etc. that can’t touch me, but if you play dd/p or even d/d you shouldn’t have a problem with p/x thieves

oxtred.7658:

Thing is what makes condi thieves op is mainly shadow arts regen and condi removal while being tanky, and SA is a really bad traitline for pvp, since being in stealth doesn’t help capping or killing. .

I’ve actually been running acro in WvW and I prefer it to shadow arts. I’d argue what makes them really good outside of PvP is DIRE gear, more so than the shadow arts traits. But I agree the SA traits are great in WvW but should not be used in PvP. Condi can work in PvP but they are barely tankier than berserker ammy thieves (especially if they trait invigorating precision) who provide way more damage.

So I don’t know if they’re terrible, but I’d say that it is definitely sub-optimal. Definitely recommend power build but if you insist on condi I’d go p/d.

oxtred.7658:

If you’re running P/d condi you can trait whatever you want, though. It’s already faceroll enough.

Nothing more faceroll in 1v1s than a d/p power thief though. Also, mainly due to the efficient dire stats, most condi builds will “faceroll” any non thief/mesmer power build 1v1

First off, I understand that this is a completely stealth related trait in the acrobatics tree. I’m not here to argue the logic of the trait’s placement, but only the trait itself, and why I’ll probably be using it in World verses World.

So Anet is buffing this trait from 1s, to 1.5s, but with the 30% boon duration ncrease from traiting in acrobatics, it’s effectively a 3/4 second buff. (1.25s to 2s).

When running P/D condition I was already speccing 3-4 in acro, but wih this change I’ll be speccing in 6 acro for this trait. The most obvious thing it help with is stomping. You can CND a target an close to guarantee the stomp.

Most people complain that since the stability kicks in after you stealth its impossible to time it with cc from oppoennt, which is true. But for me, as P/d, my combo is generall: CnD > steal > sneak attack > then #3 skill into kiting. I like to stay in the opponents face after sneak attack so I can land the #3 for 2 stacks of torment. However, while unloading my sneak attack ALWAYS seems to be when I get CC’d by decent players. This trait will allow me to get my fell sneak attack off and torment off in their face much more safely. Also- if you’re stealthing every 6 seconds its like 1/3 stability uptime. So it’s great for downing people, great for lading sneak attack at close range so you can #3 and dodge into them with uncatchable after without getting cc locked, and I’m sure itll randomly end up saving my kitten throughout the fight. It will also be nice not blowing shadowstep or BP to stomp.

So it might not be as godly as executioner, or slight of hand, or bewildering ambush but like the other newer trait: Resilience of Shadows, you guys are underrating it IMO. (Both of which i think are on par with fan favorite Shadow’s rejuvination)

EDIT: I misunderstood the trait, which reads “When striking an enemy out of stealth”. This means the ability WILL NOT proc in the CnD stomping scenario. I still think it will be useful during battle, however I’m not as high on it was when I made this topic. Still may be viable though

Roe.3679:

Muchacho.2390:

Roe.3679:

Muchacho.2390:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

We don’t need mobility. Dark Path could use a tracking buff and Spectral Grasp could use a reliability change, but we really don’t need mobility.

I wonder if it is enough. I mean you could still dodge dark path and deny so any chances of chasing for the necromancer (we are supposed to hard to get away from). While i also dont think that necromancer need mobility skills that work without targets, having some reliable gap closers would be nice, especially for mainhand dagger. Personally i would change dark pact to be something like teleport (or a leap for more counterplay) to your target and immobilize it for 2 seconds but it would need a target to work. Something similar to the teleport of the guardian one-hand sword. I think comparing things to guardians is the most reasonable since they also not supposed to have good mobility.

But as you said our defensives are, at the moment, more important.

I really don’t see that as necessary. I never have problems closing on a target even without a gap closer.

Also that skill you described is essentially the mesmer sword #3 skill.

Yeah it isnt necessary and i also dont expect any major change in that direction but netherless it would be nice.

Please let me dream a little bit…

I’ll admit, I am trying to push the idea of tempering expectations so we don’t get people having bad reactions to what could be a solid patch for us. I’m expecting good things.

Just not mobility or vigor.

Vigor is such an underrated boon IMO. Necro’s need it least of all, easy vigor access would be OP……

That being said if mesmers are getting freaking TORMENT on auto-attacks anything is fair game

Blueskylightdragon.4876:

Well. Some players will still exploit things anyway. I ever saw a thief using all signet and activate all of them at once for 25 stacks of might and then find a target , C and D and backstab = instant down. No one gonna help because it always target the weakling.

Yep. Thief deserves more nerfs. (I main PvP thief by myself but did not use exploit technics.)

LOL exploit? It’s how the trait is MEANT to be used. Also, zero stun breaks and weak for anything other than eliminating single targets.

Also: p/p may actually be viable. Their main damage skill got 20% reduced cast time (pretty darn big), as well as getting a 150 range buff (14%). So now, Blinding power isnt as good/cheap, but they can pump out their damage 20% faster from 14% farther away.

Fear the Haste + unload spam (thats what Ill be using an you’ll be complaing about around november)

Warrior- Dodge CC, kite with SB, blind, and use stolen F1 for when they pull out LB.

Med guards- Assuming equal skill he should destroy you. I don’t know how to beat these guys either. My only bits of advice are boonstip retaliation, and always pop aegis with SB or melee auto before stealing. But in reality if thieves are scissors dps/med guards are rocks. Steep uphill battle

TORMENT on AUTO-ATTACKS, and clone attacks…… So, picture yourself fighting a PU build now…. now picture yourself fighting that same PU build except you have 10 stacks of torment on you.

Abuse this cheese in solo q to pad your winrate while you can, it wont last too long before it gets nerfed

I was so ready to complain about this insane, over-the-top buff to scepter…. Instead I’m just going to roll a mesmer and shlt on you guys.

Also to the people saying it wont matter in organized pvp: How many people play organized pvp, 100 people? lol. Condi mesmer will absolutely massacre solo Q, were 95% of the population resies

if you want to maximize winrate in soloq- turret engi

ErazorZ.5209:

I just played some solo tPvP.

And as per ussuall all you see is stunlock condispam.
Why doesnt anet realise that thats literally whats killing pvp.

The no skill builds where u just perma stunlock and then spam condis ontop.

I love seeing scrubs justify how ‘good’ they are by saying theyr on the top of the leaderboard but aslong as people play this godawefull meta style. there is literally no skill involved so any ranking is null and void.

And what are they doing with engis? are they nerfing them? because asof now it seems that its the only viable proffesion to even use in pvp if you want to win. (maybe thats why 3/5 ppl on a team now roll engi)

Except power builds are generally stronger than condi builds in pvp

Atherakhia.4086:

Dahkeus.8243:

Just because someone isn’t blocking when you use FS doesn’t mean they won’t be blocking when you decide to use LS.

I agree, but I also agree that it should take 2 boons again given the added difficulty in using the skill.

They’re trying to make it weaker, they perceived it as too strong. It is now more difficult to use, but doubling the utility would be an overall buff to the set.

That being said, if ENGIs are getting buffed, then by all means buff us too

I still use shadow trap in PvP sometimes, especially on temple. The teleport cast time is like 2-3 seconds which sucks, but its overall an extremely useful utility. if someone steps on it 10 stacks of might is nothing to scoff at either. I think its really underrated and surprised it isn’t used more.

The main probably with traps is that they’re so visible. If they were invisible I’d love them, and probably run the knockdown trap and shadow step in pvp. 3 second knockdown on a 30second cooldown (24 traited) is no joke with a thiefs damage, but they are just too easy to avoid at the moment.

Idk, I think 2s of stability coming out of stealth will be quite useful, especially stomping in wvw

Descent of shadows is great in certain situations, but vigorous recovery is a reallyyyy good minor trait. Most of the time when you need it heal its after you expended some or all of your endurance bar. With heal on a 15 second cooldown, this trait alone gives you 1/3 vigor up time. I’d also recommend going 6 in crit OR 6 in acro. I know, acro grandmaster traits suck, but you’re missing out on the 5 point acro trait: 10% damage while endurance is not full. This is more useful than anything in the crit line besides the crit GM trait. At the same time, if you’re putting 4 in crit strikes, might as well put and extra 2 to get that executioner GM. Also- mug is great for 6 in trickery builds (especially with slight of hand), can use the damage and heal more often with the low cooldown. I suggest 2/6/0/0/6 or 2/0/0/6/6. I just feel critical strikes is an all or nothing trait line, and that mug is too good when steal is on a 21 second cd

WvW:

Power: centaur- I use withdraw so have 100% swiftness up time, fast than traveler and also gives +175 to power. For power builds, I feel that I can’t afford to use speed signet so need mobility in my runes.

Condi: Krait- 3 utilities (mainly infiltrators signet) don’t feel manditory so I use speed signet and go for other stuff on runes. Have been experimenting with a lot of runes but I like the bleed duration. Also really like sunless, balthazar and aristocracy (havent farmed them yet)

sPvP:

Strength runes because with might on dodge in the acro trait line + strength runes you can do high damage and have good survivability

Well, I think I’ll be using assassin’s equilibrium on my p/d condi build (wvw). The trait isn’t great, but I think I’ll find it useful, especially for stomping. Right now I run 4/0/0/4/6, because the first 4 traits in acro are already great (especially combined with uncatchable), so Ill just move 2 from the power line into acro. 90% of my deaths seem to start with heavy CC. Now, most of the CC will probably still hit me as stability uptime won’t be high, but I think it’ll do me better than 9 seconds lower cooldown on basilik venom, and I also prefer to the other GM acro traits. I think its fine that a stealth trait is in the acro line, if it was a dodge-related GM trait it would be OP combined with feline grace + vigor access (+ dagger auto attack if using dagger).

Also is it getting buffed to 1.5s or 2s? Everybody is saying 2s, but does that include the 30% boon dration from 6 in acro line?

Toughness > Vitality IMO. Coming from someone who used valk armor + zerk everything else for over a year and recently switched to cavaliers. The amount of healing in your kit and toughness scale with eachother in a sense, and since 90% of theives use shadow’s rejuvination, its a kitten good stat on us. with the 100power + 70 vitality food I use (pure damage and doge food too expensive, but better) I only have like 12k hp but don’t feel squishy at all with my toughness. Mixing valk and cav is a good idea, definitely better than full valk, but if you’re going to choose one: toughness all day!

after watching Amon’s S/D Roaming video, I was inspired to: Drop vitality, increasy my damage and thoughness. I am VERY pleased so far. I use to run full valkyrie armor with zerk trink and weapons, now I run all zerker except for 2 exotic cavalier accessories, and a toughness (main stat), power, precision ascended ring (ettinband- random chest drop I got!). So I went from 6 non-zerk items with valk, to 3 non-zerk items in cavalier, can do more damage, and feel just as if not more survivable. I’m porbaly going to add one more piece of cavalier gear thats how much I like it.

That being said, Valk + Cavalier is very good for hidden killer builds because you don’t really need precision. For non-hidden killer specs though where you can only drop a couple zerk pieces Cavalier > Valk

This is what I run for PvP (thought mostly use sword in pvp)/WvW with dagger dagger

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAoYVlsMp0pdPx8J8PNBNBt9wbQI4uGrYGaFAA

It’s actually similar to the one you posted. For PvP/WvW I think a thief should always have the utility “Shadow Step”. Double stun break, double teleport, condition cleanse. Yeah, it’s pretty OP.

I use 2 in power for poison on steal, mug, and the 100 damage, but if you’re going 2 in trickery I’d recommend “Thrill of the crime” for the trait. 10 seconds of might fury swiftness on steal is pretty rad for 2 point skill.

Vestar.7293:

Thanks for the answer.
So, the best way to play is using D/D in PvP/WvW and S/P in PvE?
I would like to have had the possibility to play D/D in PvE, but seems like it’s not so efficient.
Too bad
So, can you suggest me a good S/P build for PvE?

PS: However, my major problem, is to survive in PvE.
Most of the times i receive attacks that takes me 2/3 or 1/3 of the health away in one hit.
Seems strange to me.

You can absolutely go D/D, some parts (mobs) will just take longer because of your i single target attacks, where as a sword can simultaneously blind and attack 5+ enemies. Like someone else said though- d/d is great for boss that you can melee without dying. Also, highly recommend Withdraw or SoM for heal skill, i prefer withdraw. It’s only a 15 second cool-down and a free evade (which can save you from about 4k damage). Very short cd for such a potent tool

For survival, the best things for a thief are blind and dodges, if you dont want to use pistol offhand, 3 in the acrobatics trait line with wthdraw and “vigorous recovery” should help.

Also for pvp and WvW any weapon-set can be good

Geiir.7603:

You have a lvl 80 thief, but you have only played him for 30 min? Please tell me, how did you manage that?

I’m currently saving up those leveling scrolls until I get 79 and leveling a class 1-80. Haven’t decided which yet… I’m guessing he did the same

I’m not sure how attached you are to D/D for PvE purposes, but it is generally worse than sword simply because dagger is only single target, where sword cleaves.
For PvE S/P is outstanding. Massive cleave damage and blind field, lots of damage. If you’re looking for efficiency, save your daggers for WvW/pvp. For PvE thief survival, nothing beats blind. Switch to pistol offhand, or trait for blind on stealth

For WvW stealth is extremely useful for staying alive and they’re one of the best dueling classes in the game. Can also be a great offensive support with a venomous aura build, and has very effective weapon sets for both power and condition, each offering unique play styles. Couldn’t see myself playing another class in WvW

They are competitive in PvP as well, particularly Sword + acrobatics builds. Stealth isnt great in conquest mode because you can’t cap while stealth, so it makes more sense to rely on dodges for survival.

It’s not really the 6s revealed that bothers me, but how blind immunity and reveal are on the same skill. That could shut down sa builds pretty hard. Not too worried though as engis usually have 2-3 and less open slots. Also, the ranger skill never revealed me pre patch so perhaps it needed a buff

Evan Lesh.3295:

I consider this a different problem than the readability of Asura animations.

I agree it is a different problem, and a much less important problem since it applies to every race. However, is something being fixed to work on the problem of the “readability of Asura animations?” This is a much larger problem that puts 1 race at a distinct advantage over other races.

Why aren’t racial abilities in PvP? For balance I assume. Asura’s tiny size is way more game breaking than any kittenty racial elite could be. Please make them large in PvP OR make their casting animations more flamboyant/obvious

Will thieves be getting nerfed again?