Kingdeath 80 Mesmer
Sobeknofru 80 Guardian
Justice Hole 80 Thief
I personally have always enjoyed the style of shadowy assassin. The Subtlety Rogue in World of Warcraft, the dual dagger sneak build in Skyrim, Evelyn (pre-nerf) in League of Legends, or like the Assassin's Creed guy. So in honor of that very enjoyable legacy I have tried to recreate that play-style effectively here in Guild Wars 2.
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/shadow-stealth-shadow-stealth-9194.html
The focus of this build is both team support and individual assassination. Double-Double Daggers is used for weapon swap runes, Intelligence + Doom on each set for a guaranteed critical with +30% damage on each cooldown of weapon swap. Gear is built around +Crit Damage and Power with some defensive stats from Valkyrie and Divinity Runes, also the +healing on Valkyrie+Divinity Runes will enforce Shadow Refuge's healing on your team.
Utility Section: I like to use Hide in Shadows for my heal as it can double as a vanish to escape a losing battle as well as be another source of on-demand stealth for backstab.
- Shadowstep: Probably one of the most useful utility skills the Thief has, and I seriously consider it a no-brainer as the first.
- Shadow Refuge: Pretty much the mainstay of the Thief support skills so far, can seriously change the tide of a team fight with it's healing factor plus stealth for the whole team.
- For the final utility, it is really up in the air, I have seen a lot of people use Assassin's Signet but with the cooldown on it I don't like it in sPvP as utility for the team or some manner of control is a lot better. I personally have enjoyed Smoke Screen, 7 seconds of blindness is no joke plus if placed well can cut off ranged projectile users from reaching your team trying to capture/defend a point. Blinding Powder is a good alternative and acts as another source of stealth.
-Elite- Basilisk Venom, I use this as my opener with Steal, as with the Mug trait it will proc this and prevent the target from attempting to dodge yer opening ambush backstab.
Trait Section: 10/10/30/0/20
- Deadly Arts: Mug, very important for using Steal with Basilisk Venom as an opening initiator
- Critical Strikes: Executioner, after that opening massive critical more times then not they will be hanging around 25% so this just goes without saying when it comes to finishing off the target after you ambush them.
- Shadow Arts: Hidden Thief, this is the trait that matters in this line and the reason why 30 points are spent here, this is the final piece of the ambush puzzle. This trait will allow you to Steal shadowstep to your target both unseen and allow for backstab to be used. The other traits are up to preference.
- Acrobatics (skip)
- Trickery: Thrill of the Crime + Bountiful Theft, these are the big support traits right here, every time you use Steal your whole team will gain Fury, Might, Swiftness, Regeneration, and Protection for 10 seconds (5s for Protection).
Now I know a lot of people been clamoring over the condition/bleed builds since BWE2 but I want to prove that there is more than one way to play a Thief effectively and still win games. From what I have seen, played, and read each spec is good in it's own right and a whole lot of it has to do with the playstyle and skill of the person playing. Where the condition build gets completely shutdown from a cleanser on the enemy team, the Assassin build doesn't.
Again almost everything right now is theory and not a lot of actual combat testing I will of course modify my post after BWE3 if things change (which they most likely will).
» Edited on: 2012-12-17 05:26:38
» Edited on: 2012-12-17 05:39:15
» Edited on: 2012-12-17 05:40:15
» Edited on: 2012-12-17 05:41:08
» Edited on: 2012-12-17 05:44:38
Kingdeath 80 Mesmer
Sobeknofru 80 Guardian
Justice Hole 80 Thief