I’ll touch on a couple general principles that apply to the answers below real quick before specifically addressing your questions.
D/P Thief excels because it does a few unique things exceptionally well:
- Quickly moves to points to make decapping a point advantageous to your team.
- Can jump into a fight and burst a low hp target before they can see you coming.
- Can strip stability to prevent many safety stomps/revives.
- Has access to headshot, which can reliably and frequently interrupt skills/revives/stomps.
D/P, no matter how you spec or build for it is not good at:
- Engaging in the middle of a big team fight for any extended time.
- Outlasting or out-sustaining fights.
- Being a 1 v 1 hero (even if you can win some 1 v 1s, this is seldom a good idea compared to what you could be doing otherwise).
1 – Bounding Dodger – why should I use Unhindered over it? I mean, I think that Bounding gives a lot better finisher and also increased the dmg/gives the “stomp” dmg, while Unhindered gives me only swiftness, reduced dmg taken, erases mov. imparing effects and gives u (useless I think) finisher. Bounding gives a lot more backstab potential and higher initiation dmg (standard combo – pistol 5, begin dodge > Steal, 1 [u get stealth for backstab]), also with the acrobatics traits I use (I will proceed to it later) also u gain some swiftness.
The basic reason for this is that while Bound is a really strong dodge for duels and actual combat, it comes at great expense to your mobility. You have all the tools you need to bring heavy burst to +1 and Bound just isn’t needed, even if it is helpful.
It’s pretty much the same reason you run Marauder’s amulet instead of Berserker. Yes, there are ways to increase your burst and Bound is one of them. You can bring Impairing Daggers, Fist Flury and then use Black Powder -> Impairing Dagger -> Bound -> Steal -> Backstab -> Fist Flurry to burst anything that’s not blocking/evading in a second, but that doesn’t mean that it justifies everything else that you can’t do by investing in these skills.
2 – Acrobatics – why would I take Deadly Arts instead? I don’t find (standard) double stolen usage more useful/ some dmg increase compared to stun break, a lot more endurance, 2s evasion (or condi cleanse every 20secs) and some bonus initiative (like really a lot if u keep in mind that u have as DD huge amound of dodges + you get huge amound of endurence regen with acrobatics).
There’s a couple reasons to this below, but in general, DA is a trait line build for bursting, whereas Acro is designed to help you win sustained fights. D/P is a burst weapon set and even outside of this, thieves generally don’t do well in sustained fights. Here’s how DA plays towards burst:
1) Mug applies burst on your basic steal combos
2) Panic Strike immob works perfectly for when you +1 a low HP target to keep them from line-of-sighting or fleeing damage from your ally as well as from you.
3) Even if you don’t like Improv, Executioner is again a huge damage boost to low hp targets.
3 – Distracting daggers – over ??? – Let me explain – after HoT I really don’t know which spell should I use as my 3rd. Some people use Impairing Daggers but it’s not very useful if you will keep in mind, that you will face so much condi cleanse other classes have (let’s be honest, it doesnt work for druids at all), the same goes with mesmers (not mentioning the invuln. this class has now) and eles. I find distracting daggers nice if you really know when to use it. It will increase enemy’s cooldowns and hit them with pulmonary impact which is both uncleanseable and unblockable. Some people also use Fist Flurry. but let’s face it. Noone will stand in one place and get that whole dmg it can make.
Distracting sounds great in theory, but the pre-cast restricts your window of opportunity and limits your ability to land an interrupt when you really need it (such as against an enemy heal).
As for what else to bring instead, that is easily Shadow’s Refuge, Blinding Powder, or even Inf Sig. I’d argue Blinding Powder is probably the best option since the instant stealth gives you an edge in a lot of situations. You can prevent stomps with it more reliably than SR by popping it at the last second if you have an ally that is still attacking in downed state. If you’re in a coordinated group or at least are playing with higher caliber teammates, it’s also great for AoE stacking stealth. Finally, while it’s not a stun break, it can save you when stunned often due to the blind and ability to use while stunned.
There’s two other things I would suggest for your build as well:
Impact Strike I strongly suggest playing with this skill a bit more if you haven’t. Here’s why:
1) With decent timing, you can fully spike a downed enemy as part of your burst rotation since it hits very hard. Even if a target isn’t downed after using Upper Cut, Finishing Blow will spike the target if it deals enough damage to down them.
2) The increased spike time in general will make or break so many fights, especially since the patch that eliminated quickness stomping since this is the only fast-cast spike in the entire game.
3) You have a decent window of time between each chain, so even if a target gets ported, such as a thief using downed skill or a ranger using Search and Rescue, you still are able to move to their location and finish the chain. Feel free to try this out in the mists by using the first chain on one golem, the second on another, then the 3rd on another.
4) Even outside of the spike capabilities, this is a great skill for general CC and damage. The short cooldown allows you to get the upper hand in fights and this is especially useful when fighting necros.
BV is good and the unblockable change is nice as well, but the cast time keeps you from ever really being able to land this to prevent a heal through shelter or anything like that anyways.
Daredevil Runes These aren’t doing you a lot of good when you’re running a marauder amulet. I mean, these are great for Valkyrie staff builds, but the toughness isn’t really helpful and you just don’t get much damage from runes that guarantee a crit on an attack that was probably going to crit anyways. I mean, take a look at your build. You have a 63% base crit chance, which goes up to 80% after Steal since you have TotC specced.
I’d recommend Scholar runes since they’re very strong for a bursty +1 playstyle, but Runes of the Pack are another good option. You can even consider running Flanking Strikes if you go with these since they give you access to fury.
edit @ Midi: I’ve noticed that life steal in general doesn’t seem to hit the combat logs, but I have seen the numbers appear on targets when this happens. I can’t remember Sigil of Blood specifically, but I know that I’ve seen this when playing around with Skelk Venom and Sigil of Leeching.
