Guild Wars 2

Bazeleel.8219:

Still I was asking for a really good WvW build and no one seems to really know of one. I feel like the thief community kinda died due to the nerf bat over and over.

No offense, but I wouldn’t help out someone who just wants to “roflwin” and then subtly insult the Thief community for not pointing out a specific “win” build when all of the thief builds demand a different style of lay and has their advantages and weaknesses.

Look, I’m not going to go all formal on you because this game is supposed to be fun. [TG] of Dragonbrand is group of players that sits in all of your preferred slots of gaming. We have our own Teamspeak, play often, and have WvW raids 4 days a week. We have players who know the builds and are willing to help you get the gear you need to be competitive.

We’re organized and we come out in force. But we having doing it. We even host Karaoke nights… Here are our vids:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TERRORGVNG

If you like what you see, you can go to www.go-terror.com and join our forums. You can PM me and I’ll send you an invite.

[TG] is doing great on Dragonbrand! No internal server politics, no authoritarian “my way or the high way”, and just plain WvWing fun. We had a chance to communicate briefly with the new CD echelon. They’re doing fine without all of us and that’s great for them.

syugogetten.8297:

Is Krew still with us in DB? I am asia nightcrew,therefore need to update news.
Thank you for your telling.

Krew has gone to an EU server where the fights are more 20v20.

I created a 30/5/30/0/5 Venom-Crit thief. Valk+Rampager Gear. SB//DP. Withdraw/Shadowstep/Devourers/Skale/Basilisk. Very easy to switch from a Roaming to Venom-Share. More reliance on mobility than Stealth.

Kodel.4871:

I dislike SW alot. It takes alot out of using siege against siege. It turns an outmanned fight where you could be running aournd a tower thinking of the best siege/placement to counter it to standing on the wall watching them like a kitten It favours zerg warfare more and unbalances further an already unbalanced fight.

Pretty much this. Zergs don’t have to worry about returning fire from a heavily outnumbered garrison. The issue with this, however, is how big the AoE is for SW. All the other classes have to get the exact spot right. SW should be smaller.

Humorless.1573:

Sad because it’s the only real ranged single target damage thieves have (P/D involves a lot of melee range and Shortbow is aoe/utility) and can potentially be a very fun playing style. Even more sad because it’s easy to fix the issue, arenanet just doesn’t give a kitten.

You don’t need that much mobility for P/P. You can Blind your opponent and Daze them constantly. Since you’re likely not running a Stealthy Build, you would have Withdraw, and most likely Smokescreen for more blinds.

In my opinion, people aren’t really seeing how P/P can be complimented with your utilities. The only real issue with P/P is Vital Shot.

So how do you cleanse conditions without HiS? Blinding Powder traited for Condition Removal on Stealth?

I ask because I’m a Venom-Crit thief, SB with D/P, and I find Withdraw not being as useful as HiS for my current build.

Funeral.3604:

well congratulations are in order to yaks for taking there bay back a few minutes ago……me and one other from db held as long as we could at inner bay……to the commander leading it from [soul] yeah laughing at my corpse is real pro, no honor at all, you should salute the fallen brave not laugh and jump on there bodies.

Its funny you went and posted this. I was the the one that laughed on your dead body. Yes it’s true. You didnt like it did you? it’s funny cause when you and your 5 friends killed me in the camp then that was ok to laugh and dance on my grave? you get the same amount of respect as you give sir.

Now i have been dueling DB and SoS for weeks now.. and have showed great respect for them. cause they do the same. Dont cry about people laughing on your body when you do the same thing. you should learn to practice what you preach. and as a commander on yaks bend.. i like to teach other players the same. (show the same amount of respect as you get.

So for the future. if you dont like people dancing.laughing and any other emote. you should learn to do the same. you will find a lot less people will do it to you. Again.. sorry i couldnt show you more respect. i was just playing the cards you delt me.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. You just proved that you hold yourself to no higher standard.

Ugh, that video made me cringe because no one should be allowed such free movement when outnumbered. CC, Stun, Interrupt, whatever you can. As a thief, I have yet to find a D/D ele I couldn’t handle. I may not get the kill all the time, but that’s fine. Once they run away, that’s a win for me.

Almost all elementalists have a particular rotation. Once you interrupt or daze them, they get thrown off of their rhythm. As a thief, we have so many ways to immobilize/stun, it’s not even funny.

P/P is a considerably powerful set, particularly against other ranged players. The ability to Interrupt and Blind pretty much at will should be enough for any consideration. Have smokescreen, blinding powder, and withdraw/hide in shadows and you won’t have to be as stealthy as you will pretty much block/dodge/interrupt/blind the ranged attacks for most of the fight. The P/P set demands that you maintain range, just like the shortbow, but it also demands more use of your utilities. You can add Basilisk and Skale to give you a greater edge, gear toward Precision & Toughness, and you can get a pretty decent P/P build going for 1v1.

It should also be noted that Ranged Damage < Melee Damage as it should be because you do have the range.

The only problem they have is Stealth. They can’t stand an invisible attacker. So long as Thieves can stealth, they will complain. And for that reason alone, ANet should not have touched the Stealth debuff.

My prediction is the rise of the Venom-Crit-D/P//SB and it being called OP. 30/15/25. Basilisk Venom Stun? Check. Devourers+Skale? Check. Interrupt/Daze? Check. Blinding Powder+HS+Stealth+Backstab? Check.

Teamkiller.4315:

I tried using venom share in spvp, to be honest I think that the range needs a buff because it’s hard to stop and type out “Get close to me so I can buff your next attack with an effect that stones your target so you can get free deeps on them”.

Really it is!

When it works though it’s awesome. Like, super awesome. You’re giving your allies basically either free damage on their opponent or you’re giving them the ability to bust a free stunbreaker/condition removal off their opponent.

In a guild with TS or Vent or Mumble, it’s pretty easy. With a guild that stays stacked pretty tight, it’s even easier. Since the cooldowns are relatively short, imo, I don’t have any trouble popping my venoms when I don’t need them.

I got sick of these QQ threads. I was a D/D || SB Hybrid Condition/Precision Thief (10/0/30/15/15 w/ Carrion Armor & Rabid Jewelry). Obviously, the recent culling fix + 4s revealed has made my build practically useless in most instances of WvW (I haven’t tried dungeons).

NOTE: This is not a roaming build. But I assume that switching around the traits could make it so.

As a result, I’ve been working on properly gearing the Venom-Sharing build for WvW (and PvE). This is what I came up with. Since SB will be my main, it’s best to utilize the auto-attack as much as possible and since conditions are not applied in the auto-attack for the Shortbow like the other Thief weapons, I geared more for crits. I have been running with my guild since this update with this gear (I paid a lofty sum for everything) and I have been doing fairly well.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/thief/?7.3|5.1p.h17|a.1p.h1.8.1p.h1h|1p.7k.1p.7k.1p.7k.1p.7k.1p.7k.1p.7k|1o.64.1o.64.1o.64.1o.64.1o.64.1g.64|u48c.0.u49c.0.a5|3l.8|57.5a.5q.5s.5u|e

Now the venom-sharing build isn’t new, but I wanted to throw this out there because there are other options beyond the Dagger Offhand and Glass Cannon builds. What we’ve seen from most thief builds are that you’re on one side of the spectrum or the other Damage vs Condition; Toughness vs Vitality. It’s time to start thinking about other builds that don’t rely on Stealth and I want to see them and test them. It’s all we’ve got, so why not make the most of it?

Reducing the cost of siege would help against zerg balls, but it will be abused. Imagine having 20 ballistas built relatively quickly aimed at the spawn entrances.

As of now, a group of 15-20 can stop the recent pver zerg balls in their tracks with siege. Just look at the WvW guilds that know how to do it.

Wow, what’s with all the complaining. Who cares if you have to wait to get that +5 supply? You didn’t need it for 7 months, why would you need it now? Why would you need any of the bonuses now? You’re just another contributor to these massive zerg balls that attempt to flip towers and keeps endlessly, which I thank for btw for the massive loot I get when you run into my guild’s defenses. ;-)

Otherwise, big woop. Please go QQ more in PvE, please.

This is amusing. I figured something like this would happen. Culling forced players to end up fighting zergs despite numbers. You couldn’t see, so you couldn’t avoid. Once you’re in it, you’re committed. Now the side effect of it all? {AnotherNameForCat} zergs avoiding other {AnotherNameForCat} zergs because they can see all of the titles. I know what my guild is doing and they’re going to go right back to defending Keeps. No more GvG field battles, it’s all about how much you can farm off the enemy zergs.

From earlier reports, WvW crashed. Issues seem to point to the queue. Looks like they’ve disabled the queue for not until they can get that fixed.

The real issue about stealth was culling. Now that it’s fixed, why don’t we wait a week to see how it pans out? Eh? Eh? Too much common sense? Okay, carry on with your ramblings.

awgardner.9634:

So…

I spent some time in WvW yesterday, roughly about 5 hours consecutively and I must say. With a better understanding of the class mechanics, 1v2+ has become ungodly more controlled. I may not have one all of them, but I can assure you that I stood my ground, and presented much more of a challenge then I did before. I appreciate all who have contributed to this forum, helping to open my eyes!

Glad to see you improving. The next trick is to not spam CnD as often anymore and timing your dodges while you’re visible. What I enjoy doing is running into a relatively large group and seeing how long I can survive. Trait correctly and it can be a very, very long time.

Esprit Dumort.3109:

Diabolus Anur Kaya.8379:

I do hope that they find a way to buff the thief because when you can see them they are usually an easy kill but frustrating as all hell when in permanent stealth.

There needs to be a balance that makes it a fair playing field for all involved.

Because getting spiked for a 10k backstab, in toughness/vitality gear, is not enough. A thief can go full beserker with little to no danger with all the stealth and culling, and get away with ease, unless they mess up, and even then, they have to mess up bad.

Except the culling fix won’t change a thing with the zerker build; if you didn’t see him coming, he’s still going to hit you. Maybe, just maybe you’ll get in a swing or two, but that’s pretty much about it. If anything, it will encourage thieves to go to it now that the CnD spam will be negated with the “revealed debuff no matter what” being applied by the devs. So the P/D thief is most likely going to see less prominence.

ParaldaWind.4523:

Now this is the kind of thread Maguuma likes…

Honestly, though, how are the open field fights from YB, Dragonbrand? Are they anything close to FA’s? If so, I can’t wait. I know that YB seems to dominate NA primetime, and now that Mag has lost its fairweather players, we’ll probably get stomped then, too, but I just want good fights.

YB comes out of the gate on Reset Night knocking pretty hard. They pretty fast and they have some great players. We’ve enjoyed the fights against [Rawr], but [CL] makes our heads scratch. I won’t get into specifics, but I would like to see [CL] get better.

Also, I know some Mag players enjoy duels, so if you can, hit up |Luck| and |Fate| from [AI]. They’re pretty fun to duel. I won’t be able to kill either of them, but I can sure as hell make the fights last.

P/D Condition was my first build (used it before it became the FotM) and is one of the easiest to play. Since you heal and remove conditions on Stealth, you simply continue to use your CnD and use Blinding Powder or SR for prolonged stealth while you build up your initiative.

Going 0/0/30/20/20 means you practically have to screw up on purpose to die, imo. However, good luck fighting against Guardian bunker builds. I think the P/D venom build requires far more skill than the Condition.

The main premise is – stay away from your opponent, drop caltrops, run in circles, CnD and then Sneak Attack just as the stealth wears off.

Thanks to [AI] from Yaks Bend for setting up a Fight Club about 12h hours ago. I had a lot of fun. To the Asuran Ranger (Fate, I think), I was the PP // DD thief. Your conditions hurt, man.

Hi,

I will represent TG on Dragonbrand. I’m not going to go in depth because you really have to experience the guild yourself to truly enjoy it. However, we’re a close knit guild who love to have fun. We have our own forums, Teamspeak, and can muster 30+ players on WvW reset nights. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and banter is aplenty; we like to have fun.

Our players are always doing Fractals, Dungeons, and general leveling when we aren’t in WvW. Our forums are located at www.go-terror.com. To give an idea of the friendliness of the guild, I recommend watching this new video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/heathermxx8?feature=watch

If you want healing, go 30 into SA. Healing/Condition Removal on Stealth + Caltrops + SoM and you’d be hard pressed to die. This is pretty standard for most condition-based thieves.

Make sure you have Carrion or Rabid gear to up your Condition stats so that you’re at 100-base bleeds.

So several things, the traits you chose for Trickery, Acrobatics, and SA, aren’t going to help you at all in PvE or WvW.

For SA – Change to Shadow’s Embrace (IV). You need that condition removal.
For Acrobatics – Change that to Power of Intertia (II). Might on Dodge > 50% damage reduction/stealth on fall.
For Trickery – Change it to Thrill of the Crime (V).

I created a hybrid Condition/Precision thief. My build is not like yours:

10/0/30/15/15. I was D/D // SB (or P/P). Armor was all Carrion, Accessories was all Rabid. I was still able to deal 100 base bleeds and BackStab Crit up to 3K at times (with might buffs).

My advice to you, put more into Shadow Arts and less into Critical Strikes.

Eles and other Thieves. They’re a nuisance and if allowed to go unchecked, will cause issues for your zerg.

Soryuju.8164:

Suralin.3947:

Look into the Venom-Sharing Build (30/x/30/x/x where x is the remaining 10 traits) for group play. It relegates the thief to a consistent DPS/Support Role due to the fact that their Venom Skills are shared across their allies (Immobilize, Weakness, Vulnerability, Stone, Chill). This isn’t a very tanky build, though, and the main weapon to use would be Shortbow (due to the Venom’s Extra Strike trait). You will also get stuck with the base Initiative Pool, which demands a bit more awareness on managing your initiative.

You would have to play with gear stats to find something balanced between DPS and Survivability. I go Carrion Armor w/ Rabid Accessories.

If your friends want to play the medic/stealthy/condition build, going (x/x/30/20/20) is also viable. This build is what most P/D thieves tend to use, normally making sure they have Caltrops and Shadow Refuge or Blinding Powder.

Finally, there’s the High Burst class, which I do not have any experience with, but it’s generally (30/30/10/x/x) and includes the Venom ultimate and Shadowstep.

One of my friends is used to support classes from other games, so a Venom Share build might definitely appeal to him, and I’ll be sure to suggest it. A few more follow-up questions here:

-I can definitely understand the desire to balance DPS and survivability, but why do you use condition damage gear? The Shortbow has some Bleeding on it, but it can deal lots of direct damage too, and most of the Venoms rely on control conditions, rather than damaging ones. Wouldn’t a mix of Berserker/Knight/Valk be more effective for keeping pressure high on groups of enemies?

-What secondary weapon set would a WvW venom share most likely use?

-Which/how many venoms should a Venom Share build take? I assume you would want at least Basilisk Venom and one of the others, but you probably also want room in your utilities for stealth skills and stun breakers, right? If you’re only taking 1-2 Venoms besides Basilisk, which ones get priority?

Much thanks! Any input anyone has about other builds or potential group tactics is very much appreciated.

- I run my Venom Share build for WvW and it’s been a recent thing with my guild for most of the thieves to run the build. I was originally a D/D & SB Condition Thief, hence the Conditions. However, I play as SB // P/D thief, having the Pistol helps me stack bleeds. I also continuously drop poison fields, and my Weapon Sigils are meant to deal more conditions. With my current stats, I can still do 100 base bleeds, which come in handy when the enemy can’t remove all of the conditions I stack.

- My recommendation for Secondary is P/D, but it is purely up to the play style of the player. I know some Venom-Builds utilize S/D, but S/P and D/P are also good options.

- For me, I like to live so my utilities are generally Hide in Shadows, Blinding Powder, and for Venoms: Devourer (Immobilize), Skale (Weakness/Vulnerability), and Basilisk (Stone). However, since your traited for decent healing, I can see the use of Signet of Malice in place of HiS. I am still messing around with situational utilities, so sometimes I’ll swap out Blinding Powder for Caltrops (since I’m still geared for decent bleed damage).

Be careful of using Devourer and Basilisk at the same time. They do the same thing, but popping Devourer/Skale first and then Basilisk after immobilize wears off tends to work best. Ice Drake and Spider are kinda wasted since the thief can pop AoE poison and Chill will only slow down your opponent.

Look into the Venom-Sharing Build (30/x/30/x/x where x is the remaining 10 traits) for group play. It relegates the thief to a consistent DPS/Support Role due to the fact that their Venom Skills are shared across their allies (Immobilize, Weakness, Vulnerability, Stone, Chill). This isn’t a very tanky build, though, and the main weapon to use would be Shortbow (due to the Venom’s Extra Strike trait). You will also get stuck with the base Initiative Pool, which demands a bit more awareness on managing your initiative.

You would have to play with gear stats to find something balanced between DPS and Survivability. I go Carrion Armor w/ Rabid Accessories.

If your friends want to play the medic/stealthy/condition build, going (x/x/30/20/20) is also viable. This build is what most P/D thieves tend to use, normally making sure they have Caltrops and Shadow Refuge or Blinding Powder.

Finally, there’s the High Burst class, which I do not have any experience with, but it’s generally (30/30/10/x/x) and includes the Venom ultimate and Shadowstep.

RockonHarder.7235:

i think Dragonbrand finally getting more organized i.e. getting there own forum set up… this might actually be drawing in more people into our WvW because we are really starting to controlling more of the PPT then ever before. Specially during times in which we would normally be getting a lot less.

Our best time used to be from 6am till 10am PST tops now were really stretching that out a alot more.

I’m pretty sure it’s a combination of the weekend and our fairweathers jumping back in. DB won its first WvW match in months. And maybe I’m missing something, but it seems that the main guilds on DB are getting larger through active recruitment. I know that we in [TG] came to DB being able to field 10-15 players on Reset Night. Now we’re capable of fielding 25-30 on that night. And I seem to run more and more into [TFV], [NNK], and [krew] (I apologize to the other guilds I didn’t mention because I can’t remember them).

pot.6805:

Reflections and Shadows are the biggest FPS killers in my experience. I turn them both off completely.

Shadows, yes, but the biggest impact on your FPS is Shaders and Anti-Aliasing. The FPS difference between Medium and High for Shaders is substantial, but so is the look and feel of the game. Disabling altogether will result in some crappy looking armor and buildings. Setting shadows to Medium will help, and setting to Reflections for Terrain and Sky tend to fair better.

However, depending on your card, you might be CPU-bottlenecked as well. So you might not see major increases in FPS when you mess with some settings.

I wouldn’t recommend you main as P/P, but it’s not useless. Condition thieves can benefit from P/P against Bunker Eles and other thieves as the Headshot’s daze interrupts skills (Bunker Eles can’t escape as fast). And although P/P itself doesn’t have a stealth-me skill, you can still use Blinding Powder and Hide in Shadows to stack those bleeds faster.

Jester.3928:

Hi, just finished my thief and was wondering what is a decent amount of condition damage (going p/d as a preference), haven’t got an exotic set for it yet but was thinking carrion armor and weps with knights trinkets. I really don’t want to go full out carrion as I think some toughness might be needed too.

cheers

100 base bleeds is my baseline when it comes to Condition Thieves. You could use Rabid instead of Knight’s, which is Precision/Toughness/Condition(main).

Great and interesting condition builds here. Each one requires a different approach to playing the thief (the no-stealth condition thief is interesting).

Still, I love stealth so I abuse it.

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vd33V;1RwkZ0J5VOVd0;9;49-TEE2;303A1;04;0WN17;2dZm9fRk01Vw

Breakdown: 10/0/30/15/15

Armor is Carrion, Accessories are Rabid (or equivalent specs)

This gives me 100 base bleeds + 22% base Crit Chance. Stealth is my friend and as you can see from my utilities, I use a lot of it. You’ll also notice I don’t use Caltrops on dodge. The enemy can still see you drop those when you dodge, so to eliminate that telltale sign, I trade it for Fury on Steal, which pushes my Crit Chance to 42%. Not great, but still well enough for me to deal more crit hits during DB or swap to my SB and cluster bomb for additional bleeds and Crit hits.

I will also swap out Signet of Shadows before entering combat. Normally, I’ll use caltrops, but in sieges I’ll use Scorpion Wire, Smokescreen, and I will occasionally use RoI for duels.

In hindsight, my build targets low-armor/low-health builds since I still can do quit a bit of physical damage. In the case of Bunker Eles and other Tanky builds, I’ll switch out SB for P/P for the Daze and constant bleed stacks.

Dasorine.1964:

Suralin.3947:

Crit Thieves tend to be very glassy and their survivability is laughable. A tanky thief, even in Dungeons (whether they’re Condition or not), is more acceptable.

In WvW, if you’re not a solo roamer, the Condition Thieve is incredibly good at stacking the conditions. Cluster Bombs, Caltrops, Dagger Storm, Poison AoE, Death Blossom, you’ve got plenty in your arsenal. Make it better by increasing your Condition Durations and adding some additional Conditions. Don’t let Bleeds be your Thief’s one-trick: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition_Damage

Its just a shame we have no reliable access to burn or confuse Wheres my burning venom or fire traps

Yeah, I know what you mean. It’s why I look out for fire fields and such.

Crit Thieves tend to be very glassy and their survivability is laughable. A tanky thief, even in Dungeons (whether they’re Condition or not), is more acceptable.

In WvW, if you’re not a solo roamer, the Condition Thieve is incredibly good at stacking the conditions. Cluster Bombs, Caltrops, Dagger Storm, Poison AoE, Death Blossom, you’ve got plenty in your arsenal. Make it better by increasing your Condition Durations and adding some additional Conditions. Don’t let Bleeds be your Thief’s one-trick: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition_Damage

Ketharius.9018:

As of 9 minutes ago from this post… TC IS GOOD TO GO TO T2!!! Woooo!~

Now, hopefully SoS doesn’t pull out a nuke and flip everything to green in T2.

Congrats TC. Enjoy your next WvW match next week. :-)

I’m curious to see how SoS does in T3… it hasn’t fallen very far behind from the other servers in T2 (at least, it’s not as lopsided as it is with the current T3 match-up). Then again, Yaks is moving up and Mag down – a blessing and a curse. Are SoS people nice?

I’m a DD/SB (or PP) condition thief and the class that gives me the most trouble are Mesmers due to the fact that they have skills that work just like our shadowstep where they teleport and increase their distance. It just burns my initiative when they do it just as I start using a skill and I hit nothing but their illusion.

All of the others tend to just be a quality fight. Eles, I CC. Necros, so long as I dodge through their marks I’m good. Warriors are a toss-up, depending on their armor. Rangers have to commit and if they don’t, they’re easy to chase down. Other thieves tend to be overly predictable, especially P/D thieves. I know their tricks and so I am better able to control the flow of the fight. It doesn’t mean I’ll win all of the time, but I generally do not have trouble against P/D thieves. Engineers can be difficult, especially with the immobilize of their turret. And Guardians? I see a guardian, I just turn the other way around. It’s pretty useless for me to fight one.

I just want to say thanks to TC For some great fights last night. [TG] and [Krew] portaled into EB last night with everything all green. A couple hours (and retaking our third of EB) later, a great battle around the TC keep. Most of us in the guild (at least in [TG]) was laughing and having a good time, despite getting downed, not making much progress, etc. It was a blast! [TG] was getting burnt out fighting FA all the time, so having new opponents made things fresh and we have been getting great turnouts for our WvW raids. So, thanks TC. :-)

Lebannen.8325:

Jinks.2057:

Lebannen.8325:

First of all, Spvp has nothing to do with WvW. This game revolves around WvW, if that disappears this game folds.

From a WvW perspective as having a thief and playing against them. They need a nerf, I quit playing mine after I can take on 2 and 3 people killing at least one then run away. The class is broken, it needs to be fixed. I deleted it after spending about 35g to level and gear one up. I couldnt stand to have a class that is that out of balance.

Only killing 1 vs 2-3? Then get away?

Any class can do that.

But can they do it at 90% health? no they cant. Keep defending it, either three things will happen.

1) Anet will cave into pressure -Least likely
2) People will finally rage enough to quit the game over game imbalance. 2nd place
3) People will ignore the threads and continue to be abused by game mechanics until you have a dire overpopulation of thieves. Most likely to occur

Believe it or not, WvW is a mere Fraction of the total players that play the game. If WvW actually mattered to the majority of the players, you wouldn’t have population imbalances between servers that define their tiers. There is a reason why plenty of PvE and sPvP content has been released, but WvW is just starting to get major updates. They will fix culling, but they aren’t rushed to do so and the class balances are based on sPvP, not WvW where culling issues come into play.

I’m starting to think this thread should be “Forums Warriors: TC vs Mag”. DB loves you both…favoring TC more (in my opinion).

Xsorus.2507:

Suralin.3947:

Lol @ thread.

If a thief is stealthing a lot, not just P/D, they will almost always have 30 in Shadow Arts and trait for Remove Condition every 3s and Heal in Stealth. They also will most likely have Hide In Shadows (if they don’t, then great!), Blinding Powder, and SR or SS.

Step 1: Thief runs at you. Dodge.
Step 2: Crowd Control – knockdowns/immobilize/chill/cripple. Thief stealths, removes condition, heals a little. Dodge.
Step 3: Stack on the AoE. Thief stealths more, removes condition, heals. Run around.
Step 4: Dodge/Block/Drop more AoE/Kite
Step 5: Repeat Step 2 until thief is no longer around or on the ground and dying.

The thief will eventually burn through all of his utility stealths and will be forced to use CnD, which doesn’t really do a lot of damage anyways (and if he’s hitting you, then he’s in range of anything you’ve got).

This is pretty much how you fight any thief, no matter the build (heck, this is how I fight D/D Eles). P/D thieves that CnD and then 1 are giving themselves the revealed debuff each time, so they are just as targettable even if they haven’t rendered. BS thieves need to land that first blow. Otherwise, they’ll run. And DD / SB or DD/PP condition thieves like me, well, you’re not going to have an easy time with me due to Death Blossom’s evade giving me an extra 2-3 dodges, but time your skills right and you’ll take me down just the same or I’ll run away.

Heals a little?

I’m over 600 HP/S while stealthed… If you run no healing power it’s Heals a Little.. if you run Healing Power though…

To get that, you’re sacrificing Pwr, Vit, Toughness, or Precision. You can only stay stealthed for so long, even at 3s, you’re getting 1500 HP. If you have no Vit or Toughness, straight DPS is all that’s needed with Conditions limiting your ability to heal (such as Poisons and Bleeds), and if you have no Pwr or Precision, all I’d have to do is kite. And since I main as Thief, it’s made even easier for me.

I’m already liking TC. Can we keep you guys?

Well, I’m sure my guild would love Bender (we seem to have plenty of alcoholics), but I’m going to nominate Stewy for DB. :-D

Lol @ thread.

If a thief is stealthing a lot, not just P/D, they will almost always have 30 in Shadow Arts and trait for Remove Condition every 3s and Heal in Stealth. They also will most likely have Hide In Shadows (if they don’t, then great!), Blinding Powder, and SR or SS.

Step 1: Thief runs at you. Dodge.
Step 2: Crowd Control – knockdowns/immobilize/chill/cripple. Thief stealths, removes condition, heals a little. Dodge.
Step 3: Stack on the AoE. Thief stealths more, removes condition, heals. Run around.
Step 4: Dodge/Block/Drop more AoE/Kite
Step 5: Repeat Step 2 until thief is no longer around or on the ground and dying.

The thief will eventually burn through all of his utility stealths and will be forced to use CnD, which doesn’t really do a lot of damage anyways (and if he’s hitting you, then he’s in range of anything you’ve got).

This is pretty much how you fight any thief, no matter the build (heck, this is how I fight D/D Eles). P/D thieves that CnD and then 1 are giving themselves the revealed debuff each time, so they are just as targettable even if they haven’t rendered. BS thieves need to land that first blow. Otherwise, they’ll run. And DD / SB or DD/PP condition thieves like me, well, you’re not going to have an easy time with me due to Death Blossom’s evade giving me an extra 2-3 dodges, but time your skills right and you’ll take me down just the same or I’ll run away.

Is this for WvW or PvE?

I have been a Condition thief for a long time and I went 0/0/30/20/20 P/D // SB, all Carrion Gear.

Recently, I have been toying with a new build – 10/0/30/15/15 DD//SB(or PP depending on soloingVS zerging) with Weps & Armor being Carrion (PWR/Vit/Cond) and My accessories are Rabid (Prec,Toughness/Condition).

I have less Vit in my new build, but I gain greater Critical Chance (I also traited to gain Fury on Steal). I also use the Sigil to gain more Condition damage upon Kills. Rune wise, I go 2x Krait, 2x Centaur, 2x Afflicted.

Cornholio.2463:

Hi guys,
I am just about to finish leveling my thief and I honestly have no clue how should I gear/build my hero.

I am having a lot of fun using double daggers/double pistols as for now, my aim is to be effective at PvE without being useless in WvW.
I also dislike glass-cannon builds.

Any suggestions for me?

I run D/D & P/P when I solo, D/D & SB in WvW when in zergs. These weapons have heavy condition-centric skills and so I built a condition thief.

10/0/30/15/15
Weapons/Armor – Carrion (Pwr/Vit/Condition) (Armor Runes : 2xKrait/2xCentaur/2xAfflicted)
Jewelry – Rabid (Precision/Toughness/Condition)

Altogether, I crit chance 20%, death blossom bleeds for 11s with base bleeds doing 100 damage a tick (before buffs). I stealth a lot, running Hide In Shadows, Blinding Powder, and Shadow Refuge with my #9 being any of the three depending on situation (Signet of Shadows, Caltrops, Scorpion Wire), and #0 tends to be Dagger Storm. HP is ~16K.

Most condition thieves will go all Carrion.