9 replies to this topic

[Shadow209]

Hi, I have a thief alt and I'm now around lvl 50, so it's time to start thinking about a build. I think leveling works just fine without a real build, but when I reach lvl 80 I may want to play dungeons.

I took a look at this thread: New to playing thief? check out a summary of each build!
Unfortunately I don't really like any of this builds. They seem to be too onesided and rely on one single skill. The most important thing is, I don't want to have to wait for a certain skill's cooldown. I also have a Mesmer and it's annoying, when the schatter abilities are on cooldown, since i like to go form one opponent to another, without having to take a break and wait for a cooldown.

At the moment I play Dagger/Dagger and Shortbow. I have a Necro with Dagger/Dagger and Staff and a Mesmer with Sword/Pistol and Staff, so I really want to keep the Shortbow for some diversity. Also, there are a lot of cool Shortbow skins and I want to be able to use one of them

I'm not sure about the other weaponset. I like dual daggers, but I don't see other thieves using them in dungeons a lot, so I don't know, if it's a viable choice.

At the moment I only play dungeons with my necro, because I like having some survivability, so I think, I would't be too happy with a full glass cannon build. Some defensive options are nice to have, but I don't know, if I should get some defensive stats on the armor, or concentrate on stealth.

I hope you can give me some advice.

[Sagramor]

Had you not stated that your Thief was level 50 I would have asked if you had ever even played the class. I'm not sure what you're talking about when you refer to not wanting to wait for an abilities cooldown. Weapon skills for the Thief have no cooldowns. While my Thief is not quite 40 I've done my fair share of reading and experimenting with various weapons. The pros can correct me if I'm wrong, but  the Thief design leads itself to being focused on a single ability/combo for the most part.

Regarding your Mesmer, if you don't want to wait for Shatter to cooldown don't play a Shatter build.

Back to your Thief, maybe if you posted a list of what you do/don't like about the various builds out there someone could help you. Or perhaps what you want to get out of your Thief. Saying however that you don't want to rely on a single skill because you don't want to wait for it's cooldown may just get you laughed at since Thief weapon skills have no cooldowns.

[Shadow209]

With the cooldown I was refering to the Pistol Whip build from the video in Khalifs thread I posted above, because he said, you heavily relay on Haste (which has a 60 sec. cooldown).

Other than that I just think, that spamming a single attack can be a bit boring. I like Heartseeker, but I don't want to only spam 2,2,2,2,2 all the time, there's no diversity in doing this. Apparently some builds are really focused on one skill, at least thats the impression, I got from the video, it may be wrong though. That's, what I meant by "only one skill".

At the moment I use mainly Dagger[1] and Heartseeker, sometimes Death Blossom. My utility skills are Shadow Refuge, Signet of Shadows and Smoke Screen. My healing Skill is Hide in Shadows. That way I can avoid damage with doding and blinding. When I'm low on health I use stealth and switch to Shortbow for ranged combat. Playing this way is really fun, though I don't know, how viable D/D is for dungeons.

[Sagramor]

The thing with many of the builds you'll see is that most rely on (or are at least most fleshed out) at level 80, and may not be suited to leveling.

If you want diversity I'd recommend playing something other than Thief. The initiative and cooldown-less system means that in order to get  the best bang for your buck you'll be focusing on 1-2 (weapon)skills. Thieves are blessed with the ability to spam a single skill, and when the business is killing efficiency beats diversity.

I'm currently playing D/D focusing on DB, but before that my preferred was P/D. Using that example my primary focus is to get into stealth with Cloak and Dagger(or other means) so you can stack bleeds up faster with Sneak Attack. Using Body Shot was kind of a waste of initiative, and before the nerf Dancing Dagger was a viable AE but now it's mostly another dead button unless you need the cripple.

For D/D you're not going to focus on stealth and/or big crits, but use DB. It'd be a waste of initiative. The same could be said for focusing on conditions, and using stealth/Backstab. Using Heartseeker in a DB/condition build though is viable if a bit of burst would take down the target faster than stacking any more bleeds.

It's really the nature of the Thief design and you're not gonna get a whole lot of variety as far as skills used goes compared to other professions. For every spec there is usually one ability that shines above the rest, and to ignore that wouldn't be very smart.

[Shadow209]

I'll definitely continue playing my thief. Even with some lack in diversity it's still fun. I guess, since I want to keep my Shortbow, I'll have to get a condition build.

My first attempt: http://gw2skills.net...O2wqpQmtsTxVtKA

I guess, it needs a lot of improvement...

[Sagramor]

I'm actually working toward a similar trait line breakdown albeit with different major trait picks, but I have a few different slot skills. So far they're working out well for solo pve leveling though. While you previously mentioned Heartseeker a condition build would revolve around DB, which I hope you're using for the new build.

Here's what I'm working towards. http://www.guildhead...nbvop9MfxcsMcVR

[Shadow209]

Yeah, of course I'll use DB (maybe Heartseeker if I need a Leap Finisher). I'll move 5 points from Acrobatics into Deadly Arts to get Exposed Weakness.
I don't know, if Mug is better than Potent Poison, I think, I'll keep Potent Poison though.
On the other major thraits and skills, I think, I'll just try them and keep, what I like better.

What about armor and trinkets? On my condition necro, i use rabid (cond, tough, prec), but on my thief, I think, I should get some vit. Also prec is't that important, since there is no bleeding-on-crit trait, like the one, the necro has. Sure you can use Sigil of Earth, but it's even better, when it stacks with the trait.
So on the thief, carrion (cond, vit, pow) may be better. Maybe I should mix it with some rabid.
Other choices are Apothecary (healing , tough, cond), for more survivability, though don't really like this one, since healing power seems like a waste or Rampager (prec, cond, pow) for more offensive. On this two types of armor cond is only a minor attribute, I prefer having it as major attribute, but I think, I'll neet some tough.

I'll be using rune of the undead, pretty sure about this.

And last thing is the sigil. Since I don't plan to stack prec, an on-crit sigil won't be too effective. I also don't like loose on down sigils, so I don't really hav any ideas here.

[Sagramor]

From what I've read of this type of build Carrion gear seems best fit. Especially since, as you mentioned, there's no bleed on crit traits like Engineer/Necromancer/Warrior.

While leveling I've been picking up Ravenous(Pow/Vit) armor, and so far I have runes of Adventurer(Con/Pow)/Necromancer(Con/Vit)/Elementalist(Pow/Con). For Sigils I'm using Corruption and Water.

Trinkets are a little tricky because I've been going with Ravaging(pow/vit), and getting some condition damage through the mods.

Regarding Potent Poison vs Mug I guess it's a matter of preference. Since applying poison is usually secondary for me in D/D I just instinctively went with Mug, and keeping up poison is pretty easy in SB so poison duration isn't really an issue there.

[Shadow209]

With full carrion armor, trinkets and weapons health would be over 17k, that's far too much, you won't be able to heal that much, once you loose it.
I think, either carrion armor or trinkets are enough vit. The rest should be something with cond/tough, so rabid is the best choice, I think.
Rabid armor is a pain to get, weapons even more, let alone trinkets.
I have some spare TA tokens and Jugs of liquid karma, so I think, could get 4 pieces of rabid armor right away. Then I just need to grind for 2 more pieces, but I'm not willing to grind another 990 tokens for 2 daggers and a SB.

So I think, I'll go with rabid armor, carrion trinkets and rune of the undead. Not sure, if I should get carrion or rampager weapons.
For sigils, sigil of agony (+bleeding duration) seems to be a good choice, or if I get rampager weapons sigil of earth (bleed on crit).
Other options would be sigil of accuracy for the OH dagger, if I decide to use sigil of earth on the MH dagger or sigil of venom on the SB, though I already have +poison duration form the trait, so this may not be that useful.

Sigils, that trigger on weapon swap may be worth looking at as well.

[Shadow209]

I've now reached level 66 and bought the grandmaster manual. I've altered the build a bit:
http://gw2skills.net...Dy 1wqzQmts/wVB
I don't have all the Deadly Arts traits yet, since I don't have enough skill points.

I like the build a lot, but I also have a serious problem with it. Basically it works fine, I can even kill a group of higher level mobs without taking much damage, because DB is evasive.
With BD, caldrops, 3x dodge and caldrops on dodge I can cause a lot of bleeding. It's also fun, since there is far more, than just button mashing, especially the SB with it's cluster bomb is a science in itself. The possibility to use dodge offensively is also quite awesome. But the bleeding cap is a real problem. I saw bleeding going above 20 stacks, a friend of mine plays a condition-build ele alt, he can cause a lot of bleedings as well.
Together we always reach the cap of 25 bleeds and I think,  we are wasting a lot of damage. Since we almost always play dungeons together, we will most likely play dungeons together with our alts as well, so it may be a better idea to get a power build.

What do you think about this?

Since I want to keep D/D and SB, there are two possibilities: Heartseeker and Backstab.
If I switch over to backstab, would this be a good build?
http://gw2skills.net...jdqTe6fAs6MwZLB

Would you rather use conditions or power in my case and how can I improve my build?


ANet, please remove the bleeding cap... not gonna happen, I know