17 replies to this topic

[Mirror Owl]

This is a WvW roamer build that excels in 1vX fights.  Brutal high bleeds, constant passive heals, endless dodges, evades and stealth for backup.  Not a quick killer but outlasts multiple opponents.  Think P/D on drugs.

Updated build (9/8/13):
http://goo.gl/qLnykK

VIDEO:  Stay tuned for better video hopefully within a week.  NOTE, not objective-oriented play -- but you get the tempo and sequencing of the build and its survivability.  Also this is with outdated gear.



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Weapons

Spoiler

Dagger/Dagger, offhand Dagger.  3 stacks of bleeds gratis Death Blossom (3 mainhand), which also evades.  You can spam it 4 times in a row on this build.

Dagger stats are mainhand Dire, offhands Shaman.

Corruption Sigil in mainhand, and Geomancy on both offhands. 3 Stacks bleeds for 7 seconds on weapon swap = SO MUCH FREE DAMAGE it's cheating.  Credit to Ent for the idea. <3

Traits  [0/0/30/20/20]

Spoiler

30 in Shadow Arts:
(Passive: Blinding Powder when health reaches 25% (90-second cooldown); Stealth skills last 1 second longer; Gain might for 15 seconds on stealth)
IV -  Remove one condition every 3 seconds while in stealth
VIII - Stealing grants 2 seconds of stealth
XI - Regenerate healthin stealth

20 in Acrobatics:
(Passive: Gain 2 seconds of swiftness on evade; Dodging returns some endurance)
II - Might on dodge
X - Heal yourself whenever you use a skill that uses initiative for each point of initiative spent

20 in Trickery:
(Passive: Stealing grants 3 initiative; Increases maximum initiative by 3)
III - Caltrops on dodge
VII - Stealing grants you and all nearby allies vigor for 15 seconds. Up to two boons are also ripped from your target and granted to nearby allies

Gear

Spoiler

Armor: Blend Shaman and Apothecary armor (VITALITY/Healing/Conditions, HEALING/Toughness/Conditions).
Trinks:  Split Apothecary and Dire Ascended.
Undead Runes for Toughness and big Condition Damage boost.

Skills

Spoiler

Signet of Malice - Essential heal.  Procs 3 times per attack with Death Blossom.  This heal MAKES the build.
Shadow Refuge; Blinding Powder are my two prefered always-ons for free recharges.  Cycle through Roll for Initiative (great recharge/Stunbreak/evade), or Signet of Shadows (not the best but I'm a nerd for running fast + blind helps spike); Daggerstorm for camp ganking/bigger fights or Thieves Guild for smaller duely stuff.

Food

Spoiler

Master Tuning Crystals for sheer bleed damage/duration.  Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew for might (pumps bleeds) on Dodge and the 40% endurance refill rate.  Bowl of Tropical Fruit Salad also good for +100 Heals and +70 Condition Damage.  Use whatever as needed.

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Lots of synergy.  Endurance recharging from food and traits means near constant dodge-rolls.  Dodging then procs caltrops, swiftness, and might.
Signet of Malice plus traits heal per attack AND per initiative spent.  Death Blossom triggers 3 times.  Geomancy Sigils trigger this also.  Combine with evading constantly off Death Blossom and all the dodges. All on 1000 healing power after buffs... Basically I'm out-healing and straight-up evading any damage.
While maintaining 4-16 stacks of bleeds with 1600+ Condition Damage after buffs.

Dying is for suckers.  Give it a whirl.

Thanks for checkin' it out.

[Aazen]

This is pretty much my build. I have Caltrops slotted as well for extra Dottage/Healage. You need to take this thread down. We don't need anymore Thieves are too OP threads.

[Jinks]

I'd rather hit someone honestly


Also healing doesn't scale with burst finishers which is fucking bullshit

[Mirror Owl]

If you want to glass people, don't be upset when they're playing my build and don't care.    Not sure what you're saying with the finisher thing.  Every finisher I run is a whirl.  And the only fields I have are dark. I promise I'm not at a loss for heals.

Also, I've experienced a revelation.  My buddy Ent suggested I try out Sigils of the Geomancer.  I literally can't stop telling him how INSANE they are.  I get to play Dagger/Dagger with another offhand Dagger, Corruption sigil in mainhand, two Geomancer sigils in the offhands.  Three extra stacks of bleeds every 10 seconds.  Yayuh.

[Jinks]

Mirror Owl, on 01 May 2013 - 04:28 PM, said:

If you want to glass people, don't be upset when they're playing my build and don't care.    Not sure what you're saying with the finisher thing.  Every finisher I run is a whirl.  And the only fields I have are dark. I promise I'm not at a loss for heals.

Also, I've experienced a revelation.  My buddy Ent suggested I try out Sigils of the Geomancer.  I literally can't stop telling him how INSANE they are.  I get to play Dagger/Dagger with another offhand Dagger, Corruption sigil in mainhand, two Geomancer sigils in the offhands.  Three extra stacks of bleeds every 10 seconds.  Yayuh.

Healing build w/ group for blast finishers is what I was going to run.


Problem is they scale for shit, and you're better running damage stats over healing power

[Tzenjin]

Your better off going for boon duration of the thief if ur looking for a support build. Although the healing power is good. Helps group suriviability as well as your own (as long as you've balanced for toughness and vit as well)

[Drake Erif]

I understand this is a pretty late reply but I'm just curious as to your reason on using the signet of shadows over the signet of agility. Is that extra speed really important on a build with so much stealth? With those traits you gain swiftness on evade as well as vigor on heal so you should always have stamina to evade and gain swiftness if you need to move fast if you pair it all with signet of agility. Plus the added crit chance is always nice.

[matthen]

It's all personal preference. However, note that you will have significant downtime on swiftness even with "vigor on heal" and "swiftness on dodge". If you're in WvW and you want to traverse the map quickly to get where you're needed, you will need more than these abilities.

Now, you can use Heartseeker or Shortbow #5 in conjunction with swiftness on dodge to move pretty quickly across large distances. However, they take initiative... so you often burst to get to the fight, and then you have to wait to get your initiative back before you can engage in the fight.

Anyway, it's all tradeoffs, and either strategy works... hence my introductory statement about it being personal preference.

[Fireball000]

I would suggest glass cannon for PvE or shortbow or double dagger with good PvP armour for PvP.

[QueenEtna]

25/30/0/0/15 s/p full zerker gear = insta win roamer unless you are a mega noob

[Drake Erif]

QueenEtna, on 08 September 2013 - 03:38 PM, said:

25/30/0/0/15 s/p full zerker gear = insta win roamer unless you are a mega noob

Correction: it's insta win AGAINST mega noobs. Anyone who's anyone in wvw can easily counter this build. The only way you're getting kills with this is if you're fighting a bad or you attack someone who's engaged in another fight and has his skills on cool down. Once you waste your burst you're just running away :<

[QueenEtna]

Drake Erif, on 09 September 2013 - 02:53 PM, said:

Correction: it's insta win AGAINST mega noobs. Anyone who's anyone in wvw can easily counter this build. The only way you're getting kills with this is if you're fighting a bad or you attack someone who's engaged in another fight and has his skills on cool down. Once you waste your burst you're just running away :<

Nope I 1vs1 and even 1vs4 just fine ^o^

[Drake Erif]

QueenEtna, on 09 September 2013 - 11:41 PM, said:

Nope I 1vs1 and even 1vs4 just fine ^o^

... against mega noobs...

make a video showing how awesome it is then I'll change my mind, but as a thief player I can tell you that that build is pretty noob-ish and practically garbage in any competitive pvp setting.

[QueenEtna]

Drake Erif, on 10 September 2013 - 12:13 AM, said:

... against mega noobs...

make a video showing how awesome it is then I'll change my mind, but as a thief player I can tell you that that build is pretty noob-ish and practically garbage in any competitive pvp setting.

QQ moar you just suck at playing thief I used to be tank/stealth/healing thief that was good on survival but low on dps and I was hardly ever able to kill anyone before they ran away because I was hitting for only 400-500 dps but constantly at full health. But with zerker build I'm ticking butts and kicking names.

[Drake Erif]

QueenEtna, on 10 September 2013 - 12:22 AM, said:

QQ moar you just suck at playing thief I used to be tank/stealth/healing thief that was good on survival but low on dps and I was hardly ever able to kill anyone before they ran away because I was hitting for only 400-500 dps but constantly at full health. But with zerker build I'm ticking butts and kicking names.

I thought you were serious at the begging of this discussion, now I realize you're just a troll, my apologies for thinking you were worthy of a decent conversation.

EDIT: Sorry for the slight derail in your thread Mirror Owl.

[Mirror Owl]

No worries man.  Heck, the bump made me post some updates, so it works out.

I'm still putting together footage for a new roaming video.  The current one is pretty embarrassing, just noodling and not getting much done.  Also the Strapping Young Lad is a little brazen for some, haha.

FWIW I'm working on dropping some Vitality gear for Power.  I would kill for Condition Damage, Power, Healing stats.

Anyone feel free to comment/critique, I'm always down to tune and toss ideas.

[Aggro Master X]

Interesting, was actually running that same trait build in WvW, but was looking for a way to capitalize on it. I like what I'm seeing, so I'll try this out when I can.

Having done a bit with this, it does work wonderfully for survival, but unfortunately with the current condition meta, I'm having to do a lot of stealthing to keep my conditions down if I fight multiple enemies.

But to note, anything that gives a condition seems to activate the healing. Shortbow #4 and Caltrops activate the Signet's effect, so I'm running with Caltrops instead of Blinding Powder and the Shortbow instead of the 2nd set of Daggers. It's working really well like this.

An extra note, this build is powerful enough to 1v1 Menorah's Regen Ranger build. Had a fight with a Ranger who had that and the fight went on for 6 minutes before some Yak's Bend showed up, so I had to disengage. It went back and forth with both of us healing ourselves to max easily.

[Aggro Master X]

Due to Assassin's Reward being moved from Master to Grandmaster in terms of traits, this build cannot work as is right now. I'm doing the math in my head, and either we sacrifice Assassin's Reward, meaning no healing for initiative spent, or we take 10 points out of Trickery, forcing us to lose the Vigor and the boon stripping. Either way, this build got nerfed in survival.