Thief WvW | Small Group Pistol/Dagger, Shortbow | Roamer Mordecai's P/D WvW Roamer
Table of Contents
Summary
An effective condition-based solo or small group thief. This build excels at applying high condition pressure with quick re-application and high survivability from Shadow Arts/High Toughness.
I've ran different variants of this build for 3-4 months now with much success.
I. Weapons and Skills
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
-
- Shadow ReturnReturn to your starting location and cure three conditions.Break stunRange: 1,200
-
- 0Vigor: 15 sDaze: 1 s
Weapon and Skill Details
- I have taken off Blinding Powder before and replaced it with Caltrops. I sometimes still do that. Usually I take caltrops if I am in a team fight or slightly outnumbered. I dont really like taking off Blinding Powder though, as it's a great escape tool and also allows me to set up stomps/bursts.
- I dont often have to swap off of Basilisk's Venom, but I will to Dagger Storm if there are a lot of projectiles that I need to reflect.
- I chose givers weapons for the extra condition duration. Its something I wanted to focus on from the beginning as most people wear -duration food. No longer running D/P off-hand (reasoning explained later).
II. Traits
Deadly Arts
Critical Strikes
Shadow Arts
Acrobatics
Trickery
Trait Details
- I used to run 10 in Acrobatics for fall damage trait, but Mug has proven to be more useful. The poison on steal and life steal make a huge difference. Poison is almost a necessity to combat healing signet warriors and guardians.
- I swap out Shadow Art's IV (Shadows Embrace) for VI (Cloaked in Shadow) depending on what I am fighting.
- Same goes for Trickery VII (Bountiful Theft). I don't get to use it very often as I have to swap out to X (Ricochet) because I am almost always fighting outnumbered being in T1.
III. Stat Specifics & Effects
Primary Stats
- Health 19795 (+8150)
- Vitality 1731 (+815)
- Armor 2746 (+766)
- Toughness 1682 (+766)
- Attack 2320 (+399)
- Power 1315 (+399)
- Critical Hit 14% (+14%)
- Precision 1216 (+300)
Secondary Stats
- Agony Resistance 5 (+5)
- Bleeding Duration 20% (+20%)
- Condition Damage 1846 (+1846)
- Condition Duration 290% (+290%)
- Confusion Duration 30% (+30%)
- Confusion Duration 30% (+30%)
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords -5% (+-5%)
- Damage 1005 (+0%)
- Defense 1064 (+0)
- Experience from Kills 20% (+20%)
- Healing Power 300 (+300)
- Steal Recharge Rate 30% (+30%)
Boons
Conditions
Control
Fields & Finishers
Stat and Effect Details
Normally my armor is borderline 3000 because I actually wear the new Dire prefix. (Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage) However, I do not see that prefix listed on this website so I have carrion instead.
Carrion also works very well. The trade-off is more survivability and less direct damage. I can play with both sets just fine, but recently switched to dire to try out higher survivability. Plus, condition damage does not scale with power so I didn't really see a use for it.
IV. Food, Armor, Trinkets & Upgrade Items
Food Nourishment
Condition Duration: 40%
Condition Damage: 70
Experience from Kills: 10%
- (30min)
- Condition Duration: 40%
- Condition Damage: 70
- Experience from Kills: 10%
Utility Nourishment
Gain Condition damage equal to 6% of your toughness
Gain Condition damage equal to 4% of your vitality
Experience from Kills: 10%
- (30min)
- Gain Condition damage equal to 6% of your toughness
- Gain Condition damage equal to 4% of your vitality
- Experience from Kills: 10%
Armor & Runes
- Defense: 97
- Condition Damage: 60
- Power: 43
- Vitality: 43
- Condition Damage: 25
- Confusion Duration: 10%
- Condition Damage: 50
- 25% chance when struck to inflict 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 25 seconds)
- Condition Damage: 100
- +20% Confusion Duration; when you interrupt a foe, inflict 5 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
- Defense: 97
- Condition Damage: 45
- Power: 32
- Vitality: 32
- Condition Damage: 25
- Confusion Duration: 10%
- Condition Damage: 50
- 25% chance when struck to inflict 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 25 seconds)
- Condition Damage: 100
- +20% Confusion Duration; when you interrupt a foe, inflict 5 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
- Defense: 338
- Condition Damage: 134
- Power: 96
- Vitality: 96
- Condition Damage: 25
- Confusion Duration: 10%
- Condition Damage: 50
- 25% chance when struck to inflict 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 25 seconds)
- Condition Damage: 100
- +20% Confusion Duration; when you interrupt a foe, inflict 5 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
- Defense: 157
- Condition Damage: 45
- Power: 32
- Vitality: 32
- Condition Damage: 25
- Confusion Duration: 10%
- Condition Damage: 50
- 25% chance when struck to inflict 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 25 seconds)
- Condition Damage: 100
- +20% Confusion Duration; when you interrupt a foe, inflict 5 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
- Defense: 218
- Condition Damage: 90
- Power: 64
- Vitality: 64
- Condition Damage: 25
- Confusion Duration: 10%
- Condition Damage: 50
- 25% chance when struck to inflict 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 25 seconds)
- Condition Damage: 100
- +20% Confusion Duration; when you interrupt a foe, inflict 5 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
- Defense: 157
- Condition Damage: 45
- Power: 32
- Vitality: 32
- Condition Damage: 25
- Confusion Duration: 10%
- Condition Damage: 50
- 25% chance when struck to inflict 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 25 seconds)
- Condition Damage: 100
- +20% Confusion Duration; when you interrupt a foe, inflict 5 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
Armor Stat Totals
- Defense 1064
- Condition Damage 594
- Confusion Duration 30%
- Power 299
- Vitality 299
Rune Bonuses
Superior Rune of Perplexity- Condition Damage: 25
- Confusion Duration: 10%
- Condition Damage: 50
- 25% chance when struck to inflict 3 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds. (Cooldown: 25 seconds)
- Condition Damage: 100
- +20% Confusion Duration; when you interrupt a foe, inflict 5 stacks of confusion for 8 seconds. (Cooldown: 15 seconds)
Accessories & Jewels
- Condition Damage: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Condition Damage: 5
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords: -1%
- Vitality: 5
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords: -1%
- Condition Damage: 5
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords: -1%
- Vitality: 5
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords: -1%
- Condition Damage: 5
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords: -1%
Accessory Totals
- Precision:130
- Toughness:466
- Vitality:346
- Condition Damage:712
- Agony Resistance:5
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords:-5%
Weapon Set Sigils
- Weapon Strength: 876-1029
- Condition Duration: 120%
- Precision: 85
- Vitality: 85
- Weapon Strength: 924-981
- Condition Duration: 120%
- Precision: 85
- Vitality: 85
Weapon Set I
Sigil of Minor CorruptionYou gain +10 condition damage each time you kill a foe. (max 25 stacks and ends on down)
Sigil of Superior AgonyBleeds you apply last 20% longer.
- Weapon Strength: 905-1000
- Condition Duration: 239%
- Precision: 171
- Vitality: 171
- Weapon Strength: -
Weapon Set II
Sigil of Superior EnergyYou gain 50% of your endurance when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (This effect cannot trigger more than once every 9s)
Upgrade Item Details
WEAPONS:
There are arguably some better choices, but this works perfectly for me. I used to run D/P off-hand and different sigils to guarantee my safety in undesirable situations. However, with the December 10th changes coming to that weapon set I have been trying to ween myself off of using it. The Sigil of Superior Energy gives me that extra dodge on the off chance I miss a few Cloak and Daggers because of Aegis, etc. Plus, the shortbow is great for mobility, manipulating map terrain,AoE poison, etc.
ARMOR:
I didn't initially use perplexity runes when I first started with the P/D weapon set. Some other viable options I have used/found effective are:
4x Krait Runes
2x Afflicted
These focus heavily on the bleeds which is the upside and downside of the set. P/D has quick re-application of bleeds, but they can easily be cleansed by pretty much every class in the current meta.
The plus side is you have very long bleed duration and damage. Given I am able to stack 5+ stacks they will tick around 1400.
6x Balthazar Runes
This is such an underrated runeset. With thieves being limited on their conditions and often within close quarters of the enemy, the Balthazar runes provide a very strong burn on heal to make the condition thief a little more diverse.
6x Traveler Runes
Pretty much self-explanatory. The movement speed on a thief is amazing.
TRINKETS:
Unfortunately the precision is wasted here as we have low critical chance and damage, but I wanted the extra vitality on each piece. With Applied Fortitude stacks I have 21,000 HP.
V. Basic Gameplay
Main Skill Rotation
That's the basic rotation I used to apply a quick amount of bleeds/torment. Due to the strength of the perplexity runes you are more than likely going to apply confusion during some part of this rotation.
Most people tend to dodge immediately after Basilisk's Venom has run out so I try to save my steal until they waste their dodges. This ensures the land/interrupt to apply more confusion/torment via Shadow Strike.
- Note* I often have to precast Cloak and Dagger with steal to set up the sneak attack which alters this rotation.
- Note #2* The Body Shot immobilize is incredibly useful when it comes to setting up torment through Shadow Strike as well as chasing a fleeing target.
Secondary Rotation (If the main rotation isn't an option.)
This is typically what the rotation looks like if I have to precast the Cloak and Dagger with Steal.