Looking for a high survivability high damage world-PVE build

[Axl.8924]

Hopefully one of you can answer, is double pistol supposed to be trash? was trying to get it to work got deadly arts 213 trickery 312 critical 131 got assassins signet.

Idea: steal for buffs get fury and might gen and then press Assasins signet for extra 540 power and attack, but the damage is pitiful, am I missing something?

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Play the condi daredevil double SB : gw2skills.net/editor/?PaUAUhRsj5gjtVXzD-zVJYmRBfZEZBkZCYwA-w Spam 4, dodge, swap weapon !Is it fun ? Yes ! Is it effective ? It's okai ..but it's fun ! Survivability ? You spam dodge and foes are constantly dazed.

Or yes yes ... deadeye rifle or p/p spam 3.... too easy :s

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

@"Axl.8924" said:I was just messing aroudn with P/P have a feeling not viable for core or daredevil.

The point is to chain foes ; chain F1 with deadeye and get the quickness (be quick or be kill) + might/fury (thrill of the crime); or malicious seven on elites/champions.It doesn't work well with core or daredevil, you're right, there are not very good spec for range weapons. The facts Steal doesn't recharge and you have trouble to maintain fury without No Quarter break the LOL of the build.

I use this "variant" gw2skills.net/editor/?PaBBoqhrjFYSGmdhlt15rF-zRIYR0zXGRUBVkC2uKlH-eNo quarter or Invigorating Precision, depends of tastes. Rifle is not bad too, a bit more range for a bit less DPS standing. D/P F1+#3...works well too on trash mobs.

[Black Frog.9274]

P/P, high crit (I have 100% uptime), and invigorating precision make PvE easy. Just keep pulling the trigger. Crit Strikes, Trickery, and the third is up for grabs but stay away from condi and go full damage and crits/ferocity. Your goal is to burn things down one a time and use your shortbow for low HP mobs that can be pulled close together. This means you need to have good "footwork" when you're working your targets. Aggro things, pull them together, shortbow AoE, death blossom, then clean up with the pistols. Anytime you want to get together and do a little PvE, message me, I'll show you how it's done.

[Burnfall.9573]

@"trianglecubed.3750" said:It's taken me years to come anywhere close to liking the thief. Compared to every other class I always felt like I did far too little damage for how impossibly squishy it was regardless of what I ran. This has caused me to try and delete the thief for another character numerous times through my GW2 life, that is until I finally had at least one of each class. At that point I decided "Eh, may as well" and slogged through leveling it primarily with dual dagger. And I died. A lot. Way more than I ever have on any other class.

I tried PvE builds from meta battle but can't seem to quite do the stats correctly as I'm just buying Exotics from the TP for the most part instead of going full ascended and in such they don't seem to offer quite what I need, not to mention they're all specifically focused on damage, leaving me rather vulnerable, as they're raid builds and that's the only PVE that sort of site really cares about.

I made this character specifically in anticipation of the Deadeye. so I saved up hero points and fully unlocked it day one. Unfortunately, I've found the same problems I had before have carried over. I don't do enough damage to most Veterans or higher and can't avoid getting hit enough to stay up long enough to kill them without some delaying tactics to allow for heals.

Not all Veterans are this way, mind, just most I've run into in POF.

So with all that in mind I'm looking for a build that has a lot of survivability and does a lot of damage. I'm not talking top of the charts, but enough to generally solo veterans, elites, and maybe even champs with the adds they often come with/spawn. This means, in general, I'm going to need AOE and a fair deal of it, something I find the thief lacks in spades. Yet with enough single target damage and re-targeting I can see it being viable against small groups of four or less, though I fully admit to not knowing at all as my expertise, despite lots of reading and looking at builds on metabattle, is highly lacking.

I've found or figured out great builds that generally suit my needs for most of the other classes, yet thief still feels so impossibly lacking. Rifle feels like it attacks too slow and it feels really restricted with having to kneel to put out the best damage and d/d, while better feeling, generally still tends to get two shot by things like those veteran+ awakened canids due to having to be in melee range and me not being able to take a hit.

So, again, not looking for super DPS, but respectable damage combined with respectable survivability. If needed I'll even grind to get Daredevil, though I'm really going to miss the mark from Deadeye, yet if it means I might actually get some damaging aoe attacks it may be worth it.

Thanks for your time and patience for reading this and thanks for any suggestions you put my way that aren't "Just do X class, instead" because that is not an answer.

[KrHome.1920]

On any signets of power + invigorating precision + signet of malice build you should never die in pve.

The cool thing is, that for all this cheese you need only one traitline and one skill while the rest of your build is customizable.

[Antycypator.9874]

Just take invigorating precision.

[itspomf.9523]

Decided to offer up what I've been toying with since they remade Thief traits back in 2014, and carried me through most of Path of Fire.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PaQAQlVwgYXMMmJW2XnvfA-zxQYBFTBsT4DhOcYKgWmAqZA-e

Went with Deadeye as well, after being very unenthused with Daredevil, and I've been using Invigorating Precision since it was added to the game.

Key points to keep in mind:

• You can't take huge hits, or many hits in sequence, so choose your targets and engage from afar -- and dodge the nasty stuff. Cripple and immobilize are your friend.
• Remember that daggers hit two targets at once with their auto attack, and you heal on both hits. Swords can hit three if you want a bit more damage and healing.
• Stealth attacks and heavy hits heal you quite reliably, but don't wait for them if you're hurting; if you need to, slap 4 on Rifle ("Death's Retreat"), and then use "Malicious Restoration."
  • If you're running Pistol / Dagger, then "Shadow Strike" can be a good way to escape, too (and get a bit of extra damage in via "Repeater") -- but only if you manage to hit them, first!
• Pistols have the fastest attack cycle of all Thief weapons, or near enough, which means healing more regularly despite the dip in damage. Unload is also a cheesy way to heal off of beefier targets, due to its ratcheting damage output and the Initiative recovery if all shots hit.
• "Invigorating Precision" heals on critical hits, so having high precision, high ferocity, and high power means better healing and negating what damage you take -- but don't get too aggressive, as you can only heal off of what you can hurt!
• "Deadeye's Mark," when traited via the Trickery line with "Sleight of Hand," causes Daze -- this is a free interrupt! You can use it in a variety of situations to proc the sigils on your weapon(s) with this build, gaining a pile of damage output in the process and softening up foes.
• This is a "group-hug" build -- your Steal has been traited to give you and your allies piles and piles of boons. Keep near friends, or try to use stolen skills when your melee fighters are near the enemy, to ensure they get the biggest possible effect! However, this also means getting used to opening fights with it, since having Might, Fury, Swiftness, and Vigor up makes you harder to kill, so don't be afraid to strafe!

Tiny Disclaimer:

You might also notice that most of this build is a template; that's intentional. The Ascended rifle is easy enough to get on your own or with a bit of help (and lucky timing, for certain events), but not necessary in the least. All exotics is more than sufficient for most Lv.80 content, but if you have the time and energy, collecting Ascended trickets does mean a slight bump in stats. I'll also be honest that the Berserker / Assassin split seems really counterintuitive and really would be, outside of a build designed to exploit its own damage output.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

gw2skills.net/editor/?PagAgilFw+YKsDmJO2WbvMA-zRJYmRDfZEZBUZCYwA-eI'm trying this. It's not as OP as power spam3 p/p or rifle but more brainless than the daredevil variant, and effective when you chain mobs or pull a lot.

[Raizel.1839]

Wait next patch before learning a new build, everything will change.

[Dante.1508]

What changed sorry to necro but been away 9 months and wondering what they changed on Thieves after this thread.