Thief sPvP | Tournament Dagger/Pistol, Shortbow | Roamer 2014 Current Meta thief build
Table of Contents
Summary
This is the current "meta" thief build for competitive play on North American servers.
I. Weapons and Skills
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- Wild StrikeStrike your foe again. Gain endurance with a successful strike.Damage: 286Endurance gain: 10Range: 130
- Lotus Strike¼Strike your foe and inflict poison.Damage: 286Poison: 4 s (336 damage)Range: 130
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- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
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- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
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- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
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- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
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- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
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- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
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- Shadow ReturnReturn to your starting location and cure three conditions.Break stunRange: 1,200
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- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
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- 0Fury: 10 sMight: 10 sSwiftness: 10 sVigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
Weapon and Skill Details
Heartseeker: Terribly overrated skill, only use for the leap finisher or to finish a squishy target below 25% hp. Never use for pure damage above the 25% threshold, it actually does significantly less DPS than your Auto attacks. (cast time of HS is .75s, AA are instant and hit for roughly the same amount). Also don't use against target if they have Protection buff.
Shadow Shot: You're going to be using this more than pretty much anything else. With the buff to initiative regen, you can keep blinds up pretty much 100% of the time against mid-slower atk speed weapons (hammer, mace, staff, sword, ect...). Watch your targets HP bar and just use this whenever the previous blind gets removed. Super hard counter to hammer warrior.
Headshot: An interrupt on a 0s cooldown. Use vs condi builds in place of Shadow shot, try to interrupt heals @ last mili-second. This also interrupts rezzing of downed players; which makes it detrimental in 1v2 situations. Very effective on tanky Low hp targets (spam every 2 AA just to get random interrupts on def skills they may try to use).
Black Powder: Before the init regen buffs, I would have said use this over shadow shot. Now I'd say just use it in cramped fights for AOE blind and to get stealth (heartseekering through this grants stealth). Can be good against GS warriors if you know their berserkers stance is on CD.
Heals
Withdraw: This is ideal for higher-skill level players, you can do a lot more with this defensive-wise that you can with hide in shadows.
Hide in Shadows: Nothing wrong with this skill, it's almost just preference and team comps that make 1 better over the other. (take withdraw if they are running classes with lots of immobs; you can use withdraw to evade most damage while immobed).
Utilities
Shadow Refuge: A must have for competitive play, use it to escape sticky situations, right before you get downed (you'll be stealthed+healed long enough to rez yourself), or to rez your teamates. DO NOT use for stomping unless you are super low HP in the middle of a teamfight and feel greedy.
Shadowstep: Another must have for competitive play, this is your stunbreaker. Use it to save your ass when you make mistakes with positioning and get stunned/knocked down/feared/ect... Can also be used for the condi removal if you're going to die otherwise.
Infiltrator's Signet: This is an optional pick, you can go with assasin's signet if you're new to thief (it helps with positioning tons), roll for initiative, really doesn't matter it is all preference.
II. Traits
Deadly Arts
Critical Strikes
Shadow Arts
Acrobatics
Trickery
Trait Details
These traits basically give your steal a ton of utility, and go up the crititcal strikes tree for huge boost to crit chance and damage. -It's not a competitive dps build if you don't take 30 in crit strikes on thief.
You can swap out Critical Strikes I: "Furious Retaliation" for w/e you want, this was just preference for me.
Practiced Tolerance: Probably going to be an uncomfortable pickup for newbie thieves; it boosts your hp by about 1.2k hp (That's a really big deal in competitive play for thief).
III. Stat Specifics & Effects
Primary Stats
- Health 13125 (+1480)
- Vitality 1064 (+148)
- Armor 1980 (+0)
- Toughness 916 (+0)
- Attack 3436 (+1515)
- Power 2391 (+1475)
- Critical Hit 57% (+57%)
- Precision 2116 (+1200)
Secondary Stats
- Condition Damage 300 (+300)
- Condition Duration 10% (+10%)
- Critical Damage 82% (+82%)
- Damage 1045 (+4%)
- Defense 1064 (+0)
- Ferocity 1235 (+1235)
- Steal Recharge Rate 30% (+30%)
Boons
Conditions
Control
Fields & Finishers
IV. Runes, Sigils, Accessories & Jewels
Armor & Runes
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
Rune Stat Totals
- Power 175
- Ferocity 35
- Damage 4%
Rune Bonuses
PvP Rune of the Ogre- Power: 25
- Ferocity: 35
- Power: 50
- 25% chance when struck to summon a rock dog. (Cooldown: 90 seconds)
- Power: 100
- Damage: 4%
Accessories & Jewels
- Power: 0
- Precision: 0
- Ferocity: 0
- Vitality: 0
Accessory Totals
- Power:1200
- Precision:900
- Ferocity:900
- Vitality:0
Weapon Set Sigils
- Weapon Strength: 924-981
- Weapon Strength: 876-1029
Weapon Set I
Sigil of Superior Fire50% chance to cause flame blast on critical hit causing AoE damage. (This effect cannot trigger more than once every 5s)
Sigil of Superior BloodlustYou gain +10 power each time you kill a foe. (max 25 stacks and ends on down or weapon change)
- Weapon Strength: 905-1000
- Weapon Strength: -
Weapon Set II
Sigil of Superior Fire50% chance to cause flame blast on critical hit causing AoE damage. (This effect cannot trigger more than once every 5s)
Upgrade Item Details
Runes: Preference, you can take anything with +crit damage and be pretty much fine. Lyssa runes are decent too. I like Ogre cas the rock dog does good damage and can finish off downed players in 1v2 situations.
Sigils: These are best sigil choices for DPS, getting a flame blast proc is like criting off a crit. It offers a big boost to your burst potential.
Amulet: Not negotiable, this build will not work with anything other than zerkers; your a glass cannon that metigates dmg with blinds and cc, you don't need a defensive amulet anyways.
V. Basic Gameplay
Backstab rotation: Bass venom-> Black powder-> heartseeker+steal (steel mid-heartseeker)-> auto attack in the back.
Vs. Casters: spam auto attack + 4 in downtime between backstabs (precast backstab animation into steal if you get stealth without your black powder combo)
Vs. Melee: spam auto attack + 3. depending on wep sets, you’ll wanna use blind as a spam or as a gap closer. Eg; you see warrior swap to hammer, hit 3 every time the blind wars off between attacks; very easy to do since init regen buff. Against a staff mesmer just use it to close gaps (they usually don’t have anything that you’d really wana blind when they are in staff).
Matchups
Necro: they give you a long kitten fear when you steal, you can blind their fears, and their heal is long cast time (easy interrupt with 4). Some ppl complain about this matchup but imo thief does well against necro.
Ele: They have low health pool, open with backstab rotation and just blind up when they go earth attunement, spam 4 when they go water attunement. Backstab as often as possible, their steal skill is a massive slow and makes landing backstabs super easymode.
Guardian: their steal is a huuuuge daze, get them to around 1/2 hp by dropping a blind field and just auto attacking, then steal – daze – auto attack until daze wares off – then auto attack and daze spam with 4 until they are dead dead. You might not need black powder against some guards, but if they are rocking a hammer it’s usually a good idea.
Mesmer: A good mesmer will usually outplay any thief, they have immunity to damage on command with sword 2 and f4 and blink on 8s cd + they burst for like 1/2 our hp. If you’re in hotjoins, you can usually get away with just spamming 3 and auto attack though.
Warrior: Easy matchup for thief. all you have to do is spam 3 when they go hammer or mace or LB and you win, straight up. Drop black powder if they go gs, you can also precast black powder into steal and then use that axe aoe to do dps and spam aoe blinds. Watch their hp bar for berserker stance buff (it looks like this) -it will make them immune to blinds for short period (like 8s) -just kite or drop shadow refuge during this time period, it’s easy to play around if you’re patient.
Ranger: This is a long fight, basically just use steal off CD, drop the tree when you get around 50% hp and heartseeker through it. You can choose to spam 3 or just drop blind fields and auto attack, but it’s SUPER important that you save enough initiative to interrupt their heals with 4. You have a lot of control over the fight -you can basically reset it every 20s with steal, but so can they if you let them heal.
Engineer: Like mesmer, a good engineer will usually be pretty tough for a thief to deal with. You’re gonna wanna ditch this fight in ranked games.
Thief: so good news is that most thieves you’re gonna meet in spvp are pretty bad. Just keep pistol 3 up for the majority of the fight and you’re gonna win. If they go stealth, drop a black powder and stand in it to blind their backstabs. Whoever lands most backstabs usually wins (takes like 2).
Stomps
Drop black powder before you stomp a: Guardian, Engineer, Warrior, Necro, Ranger (they all have interrupts in their downed state that can be blinded with pistol 5).
Prepare to shadowstep mid-way through when you stomp a Thief.
Do not stomp Mesmer until they use their invis. Also, do not stomp Ele until they burn mist form. Just auto attack them until they burn these abilities.
In 1v2+ scenarios, drop black powder and stealth off it with heartseeker before stomping. You can use 4 to interrupt if they try to rez the downed body.
Main Skill Rotation
Use steal mid-heartseeker, this will cas you to get HS+mug damage at the same time while setting you up for backstab. It is idea to start your rotation from behind your target -it doesn't matter how far away you are, but if you can get your burst off without having to run circles around them before backstab, you will be getting dps out faster.
AA>AA>shadow shot is a pretty good down-time rotation to do between backstabs, it will blind your target, do good sustained DPS, and keep you on them.
Note: The third auto attack for thief blows, it has a .25 sec cast time and does basically the same dmg as your instant cast normal attacks. The reason for this is that it applies a poison, which is only worth getting off if they have regen on them. If you're going for raw DPS cleave, you should cancel your AA progression with another skill every 2 hits. This is the only time I advocate the use of HS over shadow shot, basically just use it if the blind you applied with shadow shot is still up on your target after 2 AA's. Don't tunnel on this though, it's not the end of the world if you get off a 3rd auto attack, and in a lot of cases it might be better TO get off that 3rd AA just to give your self better timing on interrupts or blinds. This is just for max DPS cleave.
VI. About me
My name is Neglekt and I used to (might start back up again sometime) do guide videos on GW2 sPvP with pro players for Esportsgaming.net. As a player, I tend to bounce around the top 1000-300 of the NA ladders just duo queuing with RL friends. I have about 1k games on thief.
Esport guide videos can be found here.
Also he has made it clear that you steal MIDWAY heartseeker, ending the HS attack animation at your target whilst still granting stealth.
I might be missing something in the build for more stealth if so, please kindly point it out!