Any thoughts on the new 'meta build/s' since patch?

I know patch is brand new and we really haven't gotten time to adjust to not only their changes, but how the other professions have changed as well. Was just wondering if there has been any talk of the new top tier thief build (pvp/wvw roamer) to replace core s/d or daredevil d/p. Or are we still sticking to those? Ive heard some things around deadeye s/d rifle, deadeye d/p rifle....just speculations, but....yeah thoughts?

Just play the game and figure it out for yourself. It hasn't even been a dang day yet

I'm a noob and can't really answer your question but I had a ton of fun with a highly evasive condi d/d build today in the PvP arena, and as far as I understand condi isn't affected much by the nerfs.

Trickery: 1-2-3Deadly Arts: 3-1-1Daredevil: 2-2-1

Sigils: Venom (+25% poison duration) and Agony (+25% bleeding duration)Rune: Krait (or something else with lots of condi)Amulet: Deadshot (or Carrion for more health and condi dmg but much less condi duration)

Healing: WithdrawUtility: Needle Trap, Haste, Roll for InitiativeElite: Dagger Storm

All of Withdraw, Haste, Roll, and Dagger Storm are Trick skills and thus benefit from the 20% recharge reduction of the Trickery traitline, which is amazing.With Haste and Roll you have two stun breaks, Withdraw helps with evasion, and Dagger Storm offers projectile reflection plus high movement speed.Withdraw and Escapist's Absolution from the DD traitline offer some condi cleansing.Note that the trap recharge reduction from Deadly Arts is not just for Needle Trap but also the Lesser Needle Trap you cast when using Withdraw.

What you do is use the CnD+Steal combo to initiate which already applies poison via steal, then backstab or just use Death Blossom immediately from stealthed state (you rely on condi anyway, not dmg), then probably best wait for the opponent to waste condi cleanses before applying more condi via Death Blossom, Dancing Dagger, Needle Trap, and lots of jumping around to hit your opponent with Impaling Lotus and to drop some Lesser Caltrops.If your opponent is trying to get away you can close in via Heartseeker if your Steal is still on cd.Using Withdraw will put the Lesser Needle Trap where you land unfortunately, not from where you evade, so it's less useful than it could be, but with a bit of maneuvering you should be able to land it somewhere good and hopefully lure in your opponent if they're melee/close range.Dagger Storm is good for when your opponent is using projectiles, or just to spam them with some bleeding daggers to increase condi pressure even further. Some of the Rune options for this build (incl. the Krait one I recommended) apply even more condi upon use of an elite skill.

TL;DR: bit of a face-rolling condi evade noob build that will annoy the hell out of people. :innocent:

P.S. I'm really loving the trollish aspect of the traps.

@Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497 said:Just play the game and figure it out for yourself. It hasn't even been a dang day yet

Seriously? What's your problem with people just talking about thief builds on the thief forums? The guy was just asking for people's experiences and thoughts. He wasn't just asking for someone to spoon-feed him a build or anything.

All other builds than s/d were hardly touched... I still think in a proper team s/d will be best for the boon riping, but beside that anything but s/d will be better. The survival was hit hard and pressure. Not having that second steal lockdown at every steal cd hit me right in the feels. mby a S/D version with Daredevil could work, since it seems like they dont want core builds

S/D will most likely be the strongest thief build in AT type settings specifically to deal with Firebrand blocks as well as steal important boons. Solo q ranked remains to be seen. Playing a few matches, S/D has definitely lost a lot of its ability to stay in a team fight without any kind sustain from your teammates. Scourges hurt a lot more now.

If you're looking to put heavy pressure in larger fights, I would probably stay away from S/D this season. You're better off playing something like Deadeye. However with how strong and prevalent mesmers still are, sticking with S/D can't be bad idea. S/D deals with mesmers quite well on side nodes. Furthermore, the nerfed holosmith and druid make for much easier fights. I'd say if you are decent with S/D, you should be alright sticking with it. Before I'd always run Improv for the double steal skills, but depending on the enemy team comp, Executioner might be the better option now.

S/D Daredevil could be a thing I guess, but honestly don't know what you would give up - acro is still too good. Maybe I'll drop Signet of Agility for Assassin's signet and see how that works.....

@Lotus.1682 said:S/D will most likely be the strongest thief build in AT type settings specifically to deal with Firebrand blocks as well as steal important boons. Solo q ranked remains to be seen. Playing a few matches, S/D has definitely lost a lot of its ability to stay in a team fight without any kind sustain from your teammates. Scourges hurt a lot more now.

If you're looking to put heavy pressure in larger fights, I would probably stay away from S/D this season. You're better off playing something like Deadeye. However with how strong and prevalent mesmers still are, sticking with S/D can't be bad idea. S/D deals with mesmers quite well on side nodes. Furthermore, the nerfed holosmith and druid make for much easier fights. I'd say if you are decent with S/D, you should be alright sticking with it. Before I'd always run Improv for the double steal skills, but depending on the enemy team comp, Executioner might be the better option now.

S/D Daredevil could be a thing I guess, but honestly don't know what you would give up - acro is still too good. Maybe I'll drop Signet of Agility for Assassin's signet and see how that works.....

If you could design and fight around obtaining quickness at the same time you make assassins signet active , that might be a thing. DE with s/d maybe , mark for the quickness activate the Signet port in and get hits in, port out. With BQoBK kick in you get 740 added power when combining assassins add and the trait. This outside of any might stacks.

@babazhook.6805 said:

@Lotus.1682 said:S/D will most likely be the strongest thief build in AT type settings specifically to deal with Firebrand blocks as well as steal important boons. Solo q ranked remains to be seen. Playing a few matches, S/D has definitely lost a lot of its ability to stay in a team fight without any kind sustain from your teammates. Scourges hurt a lot more now.

If you're looking to put heavy pressure in larger fights, I would probably stay away from S/D this season. You're better off playing something like Deadeye. However with how strong and prevalent mesmers still are, sticking with S/D can't be bad idea. S/D deals with mesmers quite well on side nodes. Furthermore, the nerfed holosmith and druid make for much easier fights. I'd say if you are decent with S/D, you should be alright sticking with it. Before I'd always run Improv for the double steal skills, but depending on the enemy team comp, Executioner might be the better option now.

S/D Daredevil could be a thing I guess, but honestly don't know what you would give up - acro is still too good. Maybe I'll drop Signet of Agility for Assassin's signet and see how that works.....

Yea, rifle deadeye with S/P or S/D secondary is a thing now. Just not a huge fan of rifle - I like my SB too much. Haven't really tested any SB deadeye builds with S/P or S/D though. The issue is without steal, you're pretty much running a full damage build and you lose pretty much all the utility that S/D has to offer with DA/Acro.

I'm more interested in testing whether or not running a damage utility on a core S/D spec would be viable. Wish Assassin's signet provided a stun break though....

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQRAsa6an0MBlOh9OBGOBkmilriq7mmuAYO6z+v3bDygPA-jpBHQBz7BAAgTAATKDIuDCgN2fIgHBAA

I’ve been running this lately, it’s a fun duelist build that can really help in most +1’s.It’s a heavy survivability build that focuses on heavy burst damage with interrupt damage.The survivability comes from the evades and high vitalityI opted away from using short bow as it only helps with mobility where having both S/P and P/P gives some great confusion to your enemies who think they are fighting a P/P thiefOne of my trait skills also instantly gives a 100% cool down on my steal skill when I dodge with sword, giving an extra inturupt and a extra port to your enemy.

Awesome build lots of fun.

@"Kirochique.9186" said:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQRAsa6an0MBlOh9OBGOBkmilriq7mmuAYO6z+v3bDygPA-jpBHQBz7BAAgTAATKDIuDCgN2fIgHBAA

I’ve been running this lately, it’s a fun duelist build that can really help in most +1’s.It’s a heavy survivability build that focuses on heavy burst damage with interrupt damage.The survivability comes from the evades and high vitalityI opted away from using short bow as it only helps with mobility where having both S/P and P/P gives some great confusion to your enemies who think they are fighting a P/P thiefOne of my trait skills also instantly gives a 100% cool down on my steal skill when I dodge with sword, giving an extra inturupt and a extra port to your enemy.

Awesome build lots of fun.

The loss of SB kills it for me, but it's a very good build for 1v1.

Yeah I thought having no SB would mess with my rotation ability, but the mobility is still there with the daredevil spec.It’s way more fun to have options in enemy encounters, so instead of ignoring contested points I can engage the enemy and stand a chance of winning because I have so much attack versatility with 2 useable weapon sets

all these one trick gimmick builds are a huge crisis to thief. you can make it work in wvw roaming bc you only have one fight with the guy so you can catch them off guard but as far as legit dueling in pvp or wvw were you dont fight them just once, these builds are garbage bc they can be adapted to easily. The fact that everyone thinks these builds are great means thief wont be getting anything buffed to make a legit build. Like i said if you are just trying to gank people sure it works but if you want to play with any kind of skill and more then once you best find another class.