What are you running for OW?

[hmmz.4186]

Since I've returned to the game for SotO and never really played a thief longer than maybe two hours, I've decided give it a more serious try. Currently running as cele condi D/D deadeye. Although it's very hard to die running this build, it's also a bit boring spamming 3-3-3.

But I am also curious about another builds and what people are running since the implementation of weaponmaster. Any new cool interactions with weapons and builds?

Edited August 29, 2023 by hmmz.4186

[MrAmputatoes.6031]

P/P deadeye 100% crit chance to kill lesser mobs. While not as good as the past p/p builds it gets the job done and is decently quick. Anything mob stronger than a Veteran can be deadly though.

Sc/d Deadeye for strong boss/ single target stuff. However, with no piercing skills, building malic can be a crap shoot if you aggro 3+ mobs and its becomes SUPER unfun.This ones running full celestial as well.

However, both builds spam 3.

When it comes to weaponmastery? All are very lackluster besides scepter on deadeye. Deaths Judgements damage is poor without malic and staff is ok on deadeye I guess? The stealth sneak attack and cantrips with quickness are fun, but it feels "iffy" without daredevil dodges. Both are crap on specter with the reduced initiative. 

[Tails.9372]

P/P DE (I would highly recommend getting HOPE or a gen 3 pistol variant of choice for this one), I also tried Sc/P DE but the forced movement on 3 completely ruined the gameplay for me.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Tails.9372

[Antycypator.9874]

Staff/Rifle Deadeye, Dragon's armor, Marauder's trinkets, Surging runes, Relic of Thief.

Can't be one-shot, can run fast in every scenario, always 100% crit chance, still great healing through Invigorating Precision. Rifle for long-range dmg, staff for melee and heavy CC.

[Szymon.5369]

Since last buff to Bound, you can run basically anything with it and oneshot open world mobs on a power setup.

[Biziut.3594]

@hmmz.4186 If you enjoy Specter, I found a fun little build. Basicly copy paste alac specter from snowcrows with the exception of relic and few utility skills. I picked chronomancer relic for quickness from wells and I changed trap skill and one poison to green and yellow wells. Now I am unkillable machine, with cool support/dps damage, access to both quick and alac and few other boons, okay mobility thanks to the wells, and nice health and healing. You might want give it a try if you enjoy specter, I am having a nice time with this build.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I'm being a luddite.  I run rifle Deadeye for when I'm hunting treasure mushrooms, but when I need to do something more action-intensive I run D/D Condi Daredevil.  I swapped out Krait runes with Trapper Runes, and put Sigil of Agony over Sigil of Doom to give myself a nice 100% poison + 90% bleed duration mix.  Wearing relic of the mirage, of course, because this build is nearly permanently dodging.  I'm usually solo, so I have Needle Trap + Caltrops + Impairing Daggers, but I swap the last two with venoms when fighting a single boss in a group.

It doesn't get seen much, but condi daredevil is still a pretty solid option, especially if you want to cleave things down.  

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

I made a full diviner set for deadeye P/P, 100% boon duration feels pretty nice for that set and it lets me swap to a quickness spam build for groups with minimal faffing about. Other than that, celestial deadeye or specter is pretty strong, assuming you mean open world in a "what won't die or be hard to play" sorta way.

[Doggie.3184]

Currently? I'm running 12k DPS Diviner Staff/Shortbow Alac Specter with Chrono Runes because I'm bored and want an AoE heavy Power based Specter even if it's terrible. The whirls in Wells are cute at least.

Otherwise I'm typically generic Staff/Shortbow Daredevil with Bound, Shadowstep and Agility+Infiltrator Signet. Generally the same thing I been using since HoT.

Edited August 30, 2023 by Doggie.3184

[SoftPup.3048]

Full Marauder Daredevil or full Ritualist alac Specter. You can even run Chrono relic on Specter to get personal quickness.

[Stx.4857]

Due to m7 providing so many good boons and tons of initiative regen, and shadow arts providing tons of health leech, Condi cleanse, and even more initiative regen, I have found that nothing can compete with Deadeye builds for open world.  
 

I have seen recently the ritualist spectre build posted with solo 23-24k dps capabilities but I haven’t actually seen video evidence of this soloing tough mobs.  If it can actually survive with no toughness then I would have to say that would by far be the best open world build. 

[Tere.4759]

I just tried scepter/dagger specter and I finally love my thief again.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Tere.4759

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Staff deadeye. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PaQAYlFw8wuYmYJfd+6A-DSIYRYlREFQFJgtnFAA-e
Quite nice cleave and sustain with spam #2 (weakness/ invigorating precision) spam #5 is also viable with M7 if needed. While the stealth attack from staff isn't high DPS it gives nice quickness uptime (with haste too) and nails mobs to the ground. Rifle to disengage and to pew pew from range.

I tried a bit ritualist specter scepter/X with Relic of chrono; while it's fun to have some AoE on specter and alacrity/quickness, it's just too slow to ramp up and I still can't stand the iniative lost. Same with deadeye scepter/x, it gives huge numbers on golem but it's too slow alone, boring AF; may be I should try with FFF.
l prefer "dps" vipere specter or just condi daredevil ... Or staff deadeye.

Edited September 3, 2023 by Zhaid Zhem.6508

[Eekasqueak.7850]

I use shortbow a lot in open world, high crit with fire sigil for tagging everything. 

[Phyrak.7260]

Cele sceptre/pistol DD running running deadly/shadow arts.

11 stacks of poison really chunks down mobs well

[Xelqypla.6817]

Viper's D/D Daredevil with Deadly and Shadow Arts.

I can spam 3, but usually I autoattack while weaving in Dagger 5 for Stealth/Leeching Venoms/Cleanse/Healing/Superspeed. Leaves enough Initiative to react to whatever is going on around me.

[Zacchary.6183]

I am currently using this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PagAYRlFweYXMJmJW2XnvKA-DSRYiRFycOcZnRdShKUBm9PAAVA-e

The rotation is basically 2 spam until M7 procs , then use a stealth skill to use Malicious Hook Strike and repeat. It deals enough damage that you can sustain off of Invigorating Precision alone and does at least 12k per Weakening Charge. I might try it with Deadly Arts later.

[Eleandra.4859]

Reaper - I recently switched from thief to necro after nearly 11 years of maining thief. Gave up on "Thief is in a good spot! - CMC

It is like playing a completely different game. Where thief struggles to reach more than 12k sustained dps solo on single target, reaper easily sustains around 20k+ dps and goes up to *a lot more* as soon as you hit multiple targets.

In addition to that you have loads more survivability and have to sacrifice nothing. Reaper shroud, self heal on GS + healing skill, HUGE aoe damage (both the dmg and the aoe radius is huge), an aoe pull, enough cc to break a champion cc bar without even switching from the max dps setup, perma 25 stack of self might.

And on top of that: I have done fractals, raids, strikes, all the challenging content on my thief including Dhuum and EVERYTHING is easier with Necro. So much so, that I start to lose my reflexes because with the Necro health pool + shroud one can simply ignore many mechanics.

 

Also, with thief you often have to play around/against yourself: Want to to get the M7 bonus with staff? Better pack some stealth utilities, Want to get max dmg out of the DrD trait line: Say goodbye to your endurance bar or lose dmg. Whereas Necro (and more specifically Reaper) traits and mechanics beautifully enhance each other.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Eleandra.4859

[Zacchary.6183]

3 hours ago, Eleandra.4859 said:

Reaper - I recently switched from thief to necro after nearly 11 years of maining thief. Gave up on "Thief is in a good spot! - CMC

It is like playing a completely different game. Where thief struggles to reach more than 12k sustained dps solo on single target, reaper easily sustains around 20k+ dps and goes up to *a lot more* as soon as you hit multiple targets.

In addition to that you have loads more survivability and have to sacrifice nothing. Reaper shroud, self heal on GS + healing skill, HUGE aoe damage (both the dmg and the aoe radius is huge), an aoe pull, enough cc to break a champion cc bar without even switching from the max dps setup, perma 25 stack of self might.

And on top of that: I have done fractals, raids, strikes, all the challenging content on my thief including Dhuum and EVERYTHING is easier with Necro. So much so, that I start to lose my reflexes because with the Necro health pool + shroud one can simply ignore many mechanics.

 

Also, with thief you often have to play around/against yourself: Want to to get the M7 bonus with staff? Better pack some stealth utilities, Want to get max dmg out of the DrD trait line: Say goodbye to your endurance bar or lose dmg. Whereas Necro (and more specifically Reaper) traits and mechanics beautifully enhance each other.

Not gonna lie. I find myself on virt and vind more than my thief these days.

[Gadzooks.4687]

On 8/29/2023 at 5:18 PM, Antycypator.9874 said:

Staff/Rifle Deadeye, Dragon's armor, Marauder's trinkets, Surging runes, Relic of Thief.

Can't be one-shot, can run fast in every scenario, always 100% crit chance, still great healing through Invigorating Precision. Rifle for long-range dmg, staff for melee and heavy CC.

What is the 3rd specialization beyond Deadeye and Critical Strikes?

[GewRoo.4172]

I main thief since the beginning and don't enjoy it OW. Map Completion is ez but it feels like you can't solo anything but trash mobs since HoT. I play Zerk Staff DrD and Condi Specter since I'm used to it but it's not fun at all. 

[Antycypator.9874]

On 9/11/2023 at 8:06 PM, Gadzooks.4687 said:

What is the 3rd specialization beyond Deadeye and Critical Strikes?

It's always Trickery for utility.

 

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Yeah sadly (for other classses) reaper (both condi and power) are so strong and easy to play in Pve.

Insane sustain with regen on GS and chill, cripple, blind, fear everywhere, insane cleave/ denial aoe, 25 mights + 25 vulnerability + passive quickness + some fury, relatively easy rotation. It is a bit frustrating to gear any other class, for example here Thief, and can't even do half the numbers in OW alone.

[Xorthos.6947]

Condi D/D Deadeye is by far the most effective open world thief spec for pure soloing.   It has a very simple rotation:  Deadeye's mark, 3, 3, 3, stealth ability, backstab, repeat.

The sustain is very good, and the damage output isn't bad at all for a solo spec.   you also get a good bit of boon uptime with constantly triggering Maleficent Seven.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PawAgiVlZw+YIMJmJeUX3vKA-DyIY1ojvUyJCKLEiLBKsA85YQACXP8aAx0GoC-e

I'm not fully celestial with my build, and have viper still in a few armor slots, but even then it's very effective.  I've been able to solo champion bounties and T3 rifts with it.

[Zacchary.6183]

Spoiler

pvirt, pvind and hybrid vind :^)