GW2 Thief Discussion

[PonyCannon]

Wanted to put together a build to play around with during the BWE.

This Build is intended to pull targets out of/into the fray then spike them before backing off a bit. Ripped part of the combat idea from a thief stream from the last BWE and it was pretty successful so I'm putting my own spin on it.

General idea for the build is to pull people out of the fight and into a trap to have bleeds stacked on them then jumping back or stealthing with the pistol/dagger off-set. More offense than support potential use in a team fight due to the pull and knockdown possibly being able to pull targets from safety into the middle of your team. I'll see what else I can use it for after more testing.


Decided to go more survival stats than crit since I don't have many crit based traits and thieves are naturally squishy.


Any thoughts or suggestions? Maybe more clarification if necessary.

[Glytch]

added a table of condition damage to the OP ill add dungeon levels when we know all the explorable mode levels

[vep]

Ok, seeing as there are 88 pages of stuff written, I really can't be annoyed to search for the detail I am looking for.

I am curious as to what kind of build I want to play with. What build provides most damage? Is it poisons, traps, conditions or pure skills? Do I want to focus on Critical Strikes + Acrobatics or something else? Do I want more survivability or more damage?

Oh an also - anyone has an idea for stat ratings? I mean, I haven't been following much to not be too excited so, what the crap is precision? :P I'm guessing it adds crit chance? How much? How much damage does 100 power provide? How much health does 100 vitality provide? What the hell are boons? How does healing from Shadow Arts affect a thief?
You know, that kind of thing!

Aaaand another also: what kind of advantage/gameplay do different weapon combinations give? It would be useful to make a list of such things for player to read and figure out what they want and how they want it.

[Lurker87]

Ok, seeing as there are 88 pages of stuff written, I really can't be annoyed to search for the detail I am looking for.

I am curious as to what kind of build I want to play with. What build provides most damage? Is it poisons, traps, conditions or pure skills? Do I want to focus on Critical Strikes + Acrobatics or something else? Do I want more survivability or more damage?

Oh an also - anyone has an idea for stat ratings? I mean, I haven't been following much to not be too excited so, what the crap is precision? :P I'm guessing it adds crit chance? How much? How much damage does 100 power provide? How much health does 100 vitality provide? What the hell are boons? How does healing from Shadow Arts affect a thief?
You know, that kind of thing!

Aaaand another also: what kind of advantage/gameplay do different weapon combinations give? It would be useful to make a list of such things for player to read and figure out what they want and how they want it.

There's lots of useful info here. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page

I don't want to tell you how to build your character because there's no real right or wrong way to do it, it just depends on how you want to play. There are some character builder websites somewhere that you can play around with to get a feel on how attributes, traits and weapons work for every class. I don't know which is the best one though since they may be outdated.

Precision adds crit chance. Each point of vitality adds 10hp. Each attribute point put into power increases the attack statistic by one. Attack is your weapon damage plus your power stat combined. I don't know how much damage this comes out to since it's different for each attack. Boons are buffs.

[DrakeWurrum]

I'm not sure there's really one specific build that "does the most damage" regardless of the situation.

[Deleted]

This is the most OP build I've used in PvP now so far.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYAQ...OYkwsCZEyujZHA

Spam 3 on Shortbow for perma cripple and evades, 3 dodges instead of 2 from endurance, removes conditions below 75% hp. Share Venoms with your team is extremely powerful though, probably what makes this build really.

[PonyCannon]

Yea, venom sharing builds seem to be the way to go for Thieves in sPvP. As for the pistol+dagger/shortbow it's still quite powerful 1v1 + the shortbows AoE in team fights and such.

Also, I don't think this video was linked in this thread yet. Probably should since it's a good vid and also relevant to my reply =D Not the exact same build but similar.

another match v Paradigm same PoV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjXq...w&feature=plcp

[solidsheep]

Hello fellow thief's, I was really enjoying playing my thief in this stress test. I put all my time into pvp and enjoyed it allot.

I came up with this build http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYAQ...uak1sIYQwmgZHA

I'm hoping someone has time to go through it and give me some suggestions on runes,traits and utility skills. I'm trying to get more survivability with out losing too much on dps.

[Grable]

I played with my Dagger/Dagger stealth backstabber thief build this stress test - http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/thi...|0|0|0|0|2|10|

I just enjoyed going stealth literally every time it was off the global cooldown (2sec) and backstabbing for major damage. It's a really fun builds if you like backstabbing and well, stealth

PS my max crit on backstab was about 8000 or so, with the 150% damage signet

[Keldrath]

I have a question for all you thief guys. I noticed in the past BWE that the downed state was a bit strong, teleporting out of one finisher, then smoke bombing, the next, then teleporting again on the third.

But my friend plays a thief and he is adamant that no matter how far away you port it still goes off and hits you. Is he right? did the finisher go off even if you ported as far away as you could? It didn't in my experience but he was the thief and he says it happened to him every time.

also what exactly were the changes? I heard there were some changes that made it into the stress test.

[Deleted]

Is it only with the thief or all classes have few stages of their main attack ability? Like after the first cast the ability turns into another spell and then resets back?

[Grable]

Is it only with the thief or all classes have few stages of their main attack ability? Like after the first cast the ability turns into another spell and then resets back?

A lot of weapons/classes have multi stage main attack, not sure if all

[Keldrath]

Is it only with the thief or all classes have few stages of their main attack ability? Like after the first cast the ability turns into another spell and then resets back?

I know necro's have some and I think just about every class has at least 1 weapon that does that.

Edit: I looked into it in a build calculator. Every class except Elementalist and Engineer have some weapons that do that. You could count Ele and Engi if you count the lightning hammer and mine kit, but that seems like a stretch to me.

[the-manager]

im not happy thief vulnerable for condition damage so much

[Durzlla]

im not happy thief vulnerable for condition damage so much

Hide in the Shadows removes all damaging conditions, you got quite a few other condition removals too like shadow step...

[Reborn Anew]

I have a question for all you thief guys. I noticed in the past BWE that the downed state was a bit strong, teleporting out of one finisher, then smoke bombing, the next, then teleporting again on the third.

But my friend plays a thief and he is adamant that no matter how far away you port it still goes off and hits you. Is he right? did the finisher go off even if you ported as far away as you could? It didn't in my experience but he was the thief and he says it happened to him every time.

also what exactly were the changes? I heard there were some changes that made it into the stress test.

He wasn't porting far enough, there is a decent range on finishing. And anyone not horrible wouldn't give a downed thief time to stealth and teleport again.

[DrakeWurrum]

Is it only with the thief or all classes have few stages of their main attack ability? Like after the first cast the ability turns into another spell and then resets back?

Basically every melee weapon has a chain attack.

I think 1-2 ranged weapons have it, too, but they're usually very short range.

[Deleted]

im not happy thief vulnerable for condition damage so much

Thief heal removes Burning, poison and bleeding. On a 30sec CD, it's our best heal no doubt.

[DrakeWurrum]

Thief heal removes Burning, poison and bleeding. On a 30sec CD, it's our best heal no doubt.

Gotta remember that it's also our stealth move, and our self-heal. If you blow it to remove conditions, you can't use it to heal or to stealth for 30 seconds.

Multi-purpose skills rarely work out so well as we'd like to think. Learned that the hard way from playing an Enhancement Shaman over the years.

[Deleted]

Gotta remember that it's also our stealth move, and our self-heal. If you blow it to remove conditions, you can't use it to heal or to stealth for 30 seconds.

Multi-purpose skills rarely work out so well as we'd like to think. Learned that the hard way from playing an Enhancement Shaman over the years.

If you're using it to remove the conditions, you've probably taken enough damage to need the heal though. Thieves are the squishy.