Guild PvP Build Discussion / Help Thread

Hey all!

I'd be great if for now we can have a thread for ongoing build discussions. Ask about whatever professions you want, and we'll pool our knowledge to help eachother get better at building out their characters and learn the do's and don'ts.

It'd be good if guys who have PvPed a bit thus far can pitch in what they've enjoyed rolling with and why. I'll probably collect links to the finished builds in this OP (when builds get finished) along with any good quotes.

Don't worry if what you have tried isn't optimal, that is what this thread is for.

Collected Builds

I'm tossing around the idea of attributing an arbitrary sliding-scale rating for Direct Damage, Condition Damage, Survivability and Support values (out of 10) for each build posted. So if you see "| 10 | 1 | 5 | 1 |" they'll be in that order. (I'll be making this up as I go along and adjust them with time - they aren't scientific, but they should give newer guys a hand)

Ratings (/10): | Direct Damage | Condition Damage | Survivability | Group Support | - Note, there is no pre-defined total or maximum for the addition of these ratings, they're based off various factors and efficiencies.

Questions, Answers and Quotes

Q: About toughness...

This will be a great read for me, as I'm terrible at crafting my own builds for PvP. I'm alright for PvE because then it doesn't matter as much if I suck.

--------------------------(v moved here v)--------------------------

Yay! Sticky! Okay - I encourage future posters to follow my example below to some extent (not the exact format, but rather the formatting - keep your headings to a minimum and your big verbage inside spoiler tags).

I'm going to re-post my thread from GW2 Guru's Warrior forums here because this is now my favourite build ever.

After rolling with it for the entire stress test today through PUGs against guild members and multiple tournaments, I'm happy to post the most successful warrior build I have played yet (in terms of balanced damage / time to kill and survivability). I won't claim it as my own as I am sure others have theory crafted something similar, but I wanted to get the word out there as to just how powerful this combination is.

(Updated after 23/08 stress test)

My Main Melee Build (Axe+Warhorn / Sword+Shield)

Unimpressive looking, right? But try it out, I encourage you.

Playstyle Notes - Role: Direct damage in groups, secondary roamer

Matchups:

Notes:

Anyway,

@Maystack said:

This will be a great read for me, as I'm terrible at crafting my own builds for PvP. I'm alright for PvE because then it doesn't matter as much if I suck.

Yeah, I hope we can make this thread grow nicely - especially since GW2guru closed their build discussion threads.

@selfconfessedcynic So are you asking us to do a lengthy detailed post, then you will culminate just the link to the builds in the OP with ratings? I presume that's what you're aiming for. Also I will edit when I have time to write descriptions for my builds.

Minion Master Necromancer: | 6 | 7 | 9 | 2 |

Greatsword Warrior DPS Build: | 9 | 1 | 7 | 4 |

@selfconfessedcynic: The greatsword build isn't mine! I found it from like BWE2 or something. Also updated my two builds here now. Feel free to adjust the ratings.

@Chavtheworld said:

@selfconfessedcynic So are you asking us to do a lengthy detailed post, then you will culminate just the link to the builds in the OP with ratings? I presume that's what you're aiming for. Also I will edit when I have time to write descriptions for my builds.

Yup! and after people write up their posts we can give feedback etc and I'll update the link in the OP for the new versions.

The posts don't have to be too lengthy, I'm just a little crazy (though I don't mind if y'all go crazy too)

@selfconfessedcynic: Well, I'll never be able to match your detail because I just don't know as much about how Guild Wars 2 actually works haha :P But I'll add some tips on how I play that make the build work for me.

Okay I'm bored, so I thought I'd attempt to make a build. Keep in mind that my knowledge on the subject of theory crafting is pretty much at zero. The sigil/rune section in particular is probably lacking because I know nothing about which ones are the best.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYQQNAV4YlUmKP3cy4E+5Ex2DfKUey9wpKtpdFwKA;TsAg0CnowxgjAHLOOck4sqYQwODA

I based this off the build I used when I did a few matches of sPvP. The point is pretty much just to hit and run. Use bow when you have distance, but once within stabbing distance go to knives. I found myself relying on the bow's 5 skill a lot to get out of risky situations. You also have a few options for crippling when you need to either get away or close the distance. Let's see, bow's good for quick AoE condition spread also. For the traits I just made stealth and signets better. Hopefully with stealth buffed like that it'll mean that hitting 6 means an escape is possible the majority of time.

I only played a few matches with this build but managed to have a pretty good KD for all of them. But that might have just been me high tailing it out of there as soon as things started to look dicey.

This thread getting stickied over the roster one makes me a sad panda.

@Maystack said:

Okay I'm bored, so I thought I'd attempt to make a build. Keep in mind that my knowledge on the subject of theory crafting is pretty much at zero. The sigil/rune section in particular is probably lacking because I know nothing about which ones are the best.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYQQNAV4YlUmKP3cy4E+5Ex2DfKUey9wpKtpdFwKA;TsAg0CnowxgjAHLOOck4sqYQwODA

I based this off the build I used when I did a few matches of sPvP. The point is pretty much just to hit and run. Use bow when you have distance, but once within stabbing distance go to knives. I found myself relying on the bow's 5 skill a lot to get out of risky situations. You also have a few options for crippling when you need to either get away or close the distance. Let's see, bow's good for quick AoE condition spread also. For the traits I just made stealth and signets better. Hopefully with stealth buffed like that it'll mean that hitting 6 means an escape is possible the majority of time.

I only played a few matches with this build but managed to have a pretty good KD for all of them. But that might have just been me high tailing it out of there as soon as things started to look dicey.

If you want to hit and run, then let's see if we optimise for your style of play. The usual way thieves roll is when they are in melee range, they spam Heart Seeker, which is 3 initiative and does more damage the lower the enemy's health is. The problem with that is when you're done you're sitting at 0 initiative and have no real escape plan (especially when someone blocks all your heart seekers). What I suggest is you move from passive defence, which seems to be the weakest type in this game (so regen when in stealth, for example) to active defence, stay with being a ranged attacker (more efficient for the initiative expense) and have a couple of "oh fuck" skills which can win you fights without spending any initiative and allows you to get away when you want to.

Also, you probably need more vitality.

Taking from the thieves which gave me the most trouble, try out this build;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYQQNAV6YlUmCNneS3E9JFymiK8n4P4UeF+qeGXV8B;TsAg0CnowxgjAHLOOck4sEZ8xmAA

According to my excel sheet, your average passive bonuses to damage are the same if not higher, but you'll also have the ability to might stack to some extent, boosting your damage even further. Ranged does less damage than melee, but is much safer and harder to deal with (in fact, if you run this build like I see thieves run similar, then melee will never be able to touch you anyway - so it'll be ranged versus ranged in any difficult fight you are involved in, and they aren't too hard at all to take down).

What has changed? Well, a lot really - but aside from my suggested move to pistol (you don't have to do this for the build at all, you can run with whatever, keeping the sigils etc the same);

• Moved some conditional damage bonuses based on enemy health to conditional damage bonuses which compliment your playstyle (+10% damage when your endurance is not full, which should be at all times).
• You now gain might when you dodge, remove cripple and weakness from yourself when you dodge, leave behind caltrops when you dodge and most importantly, gain some endurance back after every dodge and gain half your endurance back when you swap to your 2nd weapon set (so the move from passive defences to active defences). Also, if you evade something by dodging you gain swiftness.
• Because of all of that active defence built into your traits you can move your utilities to something more badass. I pretty much put in the most powerful utilities available to thieves (aside from maybe the poison venom, though it is good as it slows down enemy healing - to be used when they hit about 60% health and will presumably try to heal).
• So now when you're in a fight instead of spamming your dagger skills, you can stay at range, summon a thief to help you out and instead of having the (okay) dagger storm elite, you now have the frankly OP Thieve's Guild elite, which can be stacked with the Ambush trap to have 3 summoned thieves with you when you need to fucking kill the shit out of something.
• Oh, and now you have 17555 health instead of 15kish, which is always nice.

Mesmer all rounder build:

Mesmer confusion build:

Guardian offensive build:

Guardian balanced sPvP build:

@shinboy630 said:

This thread getting stickied over the roster one makes me a sad panda.

I requested for this thread to be stickied - the roster one is only useful for another 3 days, and it's staying bumped anyway. Plus, we have a roster in the guild thread >_>

@selfconfessedcynic: As always, you give some great feedback. I always prefer passive defense rather than active because it means I have less things to keep track of. I should get into the habit of having more useful skills rather than just being lazy. I chose dagger over pistol because that's what I'm used to. Plus, I love the dagger off hand skills. Pistol + dagger looks to be a great combo.

I chose the spinning dagger elite because it had a lot more info and I was confused as to what the thieves guild one does. Do the thieves just behave like minions?

@shinboy630 said:

This thread getting stickied over the roster one makes me a sad panda.

I requested for this thread to be stickied - the roster one is only useful for another 3 days, and it's staying bumped anyway. Plus, we have a roster in the guild thread >_>

@Maystack said:

@selfconfessedcynic: As always, you give some great feedback. I always prefer passive defense rather than active because it means I have less things to keep track of. I should get into the habit of having more useful skills rather than just being lazy. I chose dagger over pistol because that's what I'm used to. Plus, I love the dagger off hand skills. Pistol + dagger looks to be a great combo.

I chose the spinning dagger elite because it had a lot more info and I was confused as to what the thieves guild one does. Do the thieves just behave like minions?

Yup. Well, they appear out of nowhere, stay with you when you move (I think they just ignore you when you stealth, so they don't give you away or anything) and other than that, they chase your target to the ends of the earth.

But yes, I've recently moved from passive to active defence myself - in other games the benefits of active aren't as largely superior to those of passives like they are in GW2. It's kindof crazy really. But yeah, I'd say try this out and see how you like it - looking at how the thieves who used something similar pwned my ass, I'll bet it's mighty fun kiting fools all day.

@shinboy630 said:

@selfconfessedcynic

@shinboy630 said:

This thread getting stickied over the roster one makes me a sad panda.

I requested for this thread to be stickied - the roster one is only useful for another 3 days, and it's staying bumped anyway. Plus, we have a roster in the guild thread >_>

I dunno, something just bothered me about having a PvP thread stickied when the other stickies are much more important to the guild as a whole imo. Whatever, it's no biggie. We still need our own forums so we can set up subforums!

I actually kindof want you and noob to set up a Dungeon Runnerz thread or something similar to discuss PvE builds and comps. But again, that'll probably come when/if we get our own forums - if not, we'll sort something out.

Either way I want to see your crazy class biases in action.

Damn it. I hate writing, so I guess this post just serves as an example of how much I've been digging sPvP. Also, I'm gonna copy your structure wholesale. :P

Burn it to the Ground (Scepter/Dagger Elementalist)

Off the top of my head (feel free to re-evaluate this, Cynic):

• Direct Damage - 7
• Condition Damage - 7
• Survivability - 6
• Group Support - 2

Control Freak - Rifle Warrior - PvP

• Direct Damage - 7
• Condition Damage - 1
• Survivability - 7
• Group Support - 6 (it provides lots of offensive support through CC)

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/control-freak-rifle-build-warrior-rifle-control-mobility-3929.html

How To:

Role and Match-Ups:

Healing and Condition Removal:

Notes: The in-game armour for this build is 2437 not 2337 as the builder suggests, I'm not sure why there is a discrepancy.

I have a pretty sweet guardian build too that I used during BWE1&2, but I haven't tested it with any of the recent changes (there have been a lot) so I'll post that after release.

ED: - You kidding me GB Editor? You lost my notes? Argh.

@Dark_Lord_Spam - that spec is actually really good, way better than I'd thought when you first described it. Just some notes;

• Your ratings are about right - direct damage is a bit lower, condition damage is correct (though not for the reasons you have noted) and your support is actually potentially much higher (upping your damage through rotation as I state below will allow you to spend more time in water etc and DPS just as well).
• Reading through your playstyle notes, and looking at your stats I think there's something you're missing that will drastically increase your potential. Earth Magic's auto-attack. Your stats are 1000+ power and 1000+ condition damage, which means earth's auto attack is the most damaging thing in your build (by a significant margin compared to anything in fire). Why? Well, for one your +damage to burning targets? That transfers to all of your attunements : D
• Start in fire, inflict the burning auto-attack a couple of times, flame tooth, switch to earth and start auto-attacking, hit signet of fire to extend the duration of burning and keep stacking the bleeds. After that you'll be averaging 7 stacks of bleeds considering misses, so over 660/second from bleeding + the damage of the autoattack and during the burn that's another 300+/second and the burning itself is 595/s. Rinse and repeat. If it's a squishy target, you can let the burning drift out until the signet comes out of recharge, use it, switch to Air, ride the lightning, switch to fire, flame grab and that's your burst for the build as well.
• Once you start truly attunement dancing, which takes over 100 hours to get used to by some estimates, you'll be a force to be reckoned with and that's why I increased the "support" rating by a bunch because you'll eventually be dealing more damage than you did yesterday WHILE doing way more in terms of enemy control, blinds, and general support.

The ele is such an awesome, versitile class. Oh, and the above will overwhelm any enemy's condition removal (as you can stack burning + bleeding so quickly it's ridiculous). Oh, and if they do have a bunch of condition removal? THEN you stay in fire and nuke 'em out with direct damage fire spells. Also, when against a group fire is better than earth as you probably already know (at that point consider dancing between fire and water for the vulerability, aoes, etc on very low cooldowns).

@UssjTrunks: Nice! added to the OP. I think you do a bit more support than I do if you're bringing Rampage and have a bunch of immobilise, so I'll bump it to 6.

@Benny - I'll have to read up on those to get a feel for them.

@selfconfessedcynic: I had a feeling I wasn't using Earth to it's full effectiveness. Thanks for the advice, duder!

@Chavtheworld: A guy on GW2 Guru wants to know your hundred blades warrior spec as you're still the only one that's beaten my melee build : P

Get on it!

@Dark_Lord_Spam said:

@selfconfessedcynic: I had a feeling I wasn't using Earth to it's full effectiveness. Thanks for the advice, duder!

NP. I can't wait to see how you do next time we get a chance to play.

ok i will post my ranger build i have been using, i dont know the scores it would get. i am not sure what type of build it is other then conditions, meaning would i be good as roaming, point holding or what.

The Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fMEQNAnYVjEVx11VaWs2BiVBB1ekp+jJ2DD5oHlyLySaLA;TsAg1Cqo0yolQLrWOtkatqYUx8DA

so at the end, i would say i went for some ok power, a lot but not most condition damage, and very slight survivability. attack: 2395 Crit. chance 62% Armor 2280 Health 18372.

-silentdante

@shinboy630 said:

@selfconfessedcynic

@shinboy630 said:

This thread getting stickied over the roster one makes me a sad panda.

I requested for this thread to be stickied - the roster one is only useful for another 3 days, and it's staying bumped anyway. Plus, we have a roster in the guild thread >_>

I dunno, something just bothered me about having a PvP thread stickied when the other stickies are much more important to the guild as a whole imo. Whatever, it's no biggie. We still need our own forums so we can set up subforums!

I actually kindof want you and noob to set up a Dungeon Runnerz thread or something similar to discuss PvE builds and comps. But again, that'll probably come when/if we get our own forums - if not, we'll sort something out.

Either way I want to see your crazy class biases in action.

@selfconfessedcynic said:

@shinboy630 said:

@selfconfessedcynic

@shinboy630 said:

This thread getting stickied over the roster one makes me a sad panda.

I requested for this thread to be stickied - the roster one is only useful for another 3 days, and it's staying bumped anyway. Plus, we have a roster in the guild thread >_>

I dunno, something just bothered me about having a PvP thread stickied when the other stickies are much more important to the guild as a whole imo. Whatever, it's no biggie. We still need our own forums so we can set up subforums!

I actually kindof want you and noob to set up a Dungeon Runnerz thread or something similar to discuss PvE builds and comps. But again, that'll probably come when/if we get our own forums - if not, we'll sort something out.

Either way I want to see your crazy class biases in action.

Does this mean I can make a WvW tactic thread with large scale maps showing ways of attack and weapon placement... God WvW is the best!

@shinboy630: You're crazy. Basically all the PvP builds I'm working on are for WvW. That said, I didn't get much of a chance to try sPvP, so maybe that'll change after release.

@Ragnarok512: Be sure to include the falling damage traits, they're almost specifically for WvW.

Question time!

@Lolzowned said:

So, I've been reading up on the Toughness vs Vitality thread on GW2Guru and someone said that 2000 toughness was gonna be mandatory for Competitive Spvp.

Now, I can't remember whether or not he was referring to specific class or not, I'm hoping that's what it was because some of my builds don't even come close.

In two of my builds, I have under 1000 toughness, (Power Mesmer and Condition Engineer) While my condition Ranger is just under 2000 Toughness. Which makes me think that you either can't have a general number for everyone, or it needs to be lower than that.

So basically, I'm just wondering what people's opinions are about the must have Toughness rating, either for each profession itself, or as general number for every profession?

Answer:

What they are referring to is the damage formula, which is along the lines of (Enemy Damage Potential) / Total Toughness = Damage. (there's a formula for the damage potential, but it's shaky at the moment)

"Total Toughness", or "total armour" or just "armour" is actually class armour + your character's toughness, which is 916 base (independent of class) at lvl80. Class armour values are as follows;

Light: 937 (Ele, Necro, Mesmer)

Medium: 1084 (Ranger, Thief, Engineer)

Heavy: 1231 (Warrior, Guardian)

Which means, your base Total Armour is

Light: 1853

Medium: 2000

Heavy: 2147

As it stands, I would agree that you kindof need 2000 total armour for any decent build. Warrior and Necro have a bit of leeway as they start with the highest health, so you can afford to absorb some damage that way, but - for example - my current build crit's Dourin's elementalist (which has 2098 armour) for 7200, which is like half of his health in 1 hit (on my Eviscerate).

ED: Oh, and needless to say, the more armour the better - but not at the sacrifice of too much damage. Damage scales better than armour - so if you max everything out and get to approx 3300 total armour, and I max everything out and hit 2200 power, 1900 precision and 50 prowess (crit damage), I will actually out-damage you on a stat-level. This is disregarding healing, how glassy I am and skill of play.

@Benny

Okay, I can't really judge your Mesmer builds because mesmers have had some significant trait changes since you made them.

For example, in the Duelist line, Blade training is now Tier 1, Sharper Images is now a minor trait instead of a major (minor trait for tier 2 duelling) and there are now a bunch of traits which reduce the cooldowns of mesmer weapon skills, all of which are good (that I'm sure you'll have to consider when re-building).

These changes are not in that character maker, sadly - I don't think they're in any of them (except maybe GW2DB but that isn't worth nuffin' as it doesn't have gear that I can see).

ED: Okay, I think everything is on there now.

@project343 - do you have an engineer build for us? You're one of our few engineers and seem to know what you're about : P

@Dourin - wanna do a writeup for your ele?

Also, who was playing Lzybyth again? I started to know him as Lyzbyth, hah.

Here is my brick wall guardian build. As long as I am not fighting multiple people with burst builds I am very hard to kill.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUEQRAse5elYgSDHHSEEm4ESWBDE7BHRgV01DIaiaIA;TABA1ytEaJ1S1kiJKbM2IsxajzGpNrCGCsFYWA

I feel that the build is kinda self explanatory and is meant to be unkillable. I just kinda stand there heal through all of the damage that is done to me while I slowly kill my opponent or wait for help. During the stress test the build was fine until I fought more than 2 people with high burst damage at one time. Maybe you guys can see something I am missing.

@aterangelus said:

Here is my brick wall guardian build. As long as I am not fighting multiple people with burst builds I am very hard to kill.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUEQRAse5elYgSDHHSEEm4ESWBDE7BHRgV01DIaiaIA;TABA1ytEaJ1S1kiJKbM2IsxajzGpNrCGCsFYWA

I feel that the build is kinda self explanatory and is meant to be unkillable. I just kinda stand there heal through all of the damage that is done to me while I slowly kill my opponent or wait for help. During the stress test the build was fine until I fought more than 2 people with high burst damage at one time. Maybe you guys can see something I am missing.

There we go! Sup. Man, you need an easier to say name.

Okay, looked at the build - aside from the fact that you can only have 1 accessory on a PvP character (so the stats are artificially inflated there), I'd only suggest a couple of changes;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUEQRAse5elYgSDHHSEEm4ESWBWC7BHRgV01DIaiaIA;TwAA1CtosxYjwGrNObk2sKYUwOkZIA

Switched up your sigils slightly, removed the dud accessories and changed 1 trait - 3s retaliation on disable to Spirit Weapons Last 50% longer (because hammer is still rigged).

Thoughts? (leeching sigils steal 1000 life when you swap to them, which is great combat advantage material).

@selfconfessedcynic: Yeah I know!

@aterangelus: Check mah editz! (see edited post above)

@selfconfessedcynic: I like the changes and was thinking about the leech rune. I just did not know how much health it took.

@aterangelus said:

@selfconfessedcynic: I like the changes and was thinking about the leech rune. I just did not know how much health it took.

Yay - I'll add it to the OP.

Any guardians out there have any critiques? It seems fine to me, but there may be some more tweaking to do. @Benny@Tarkhein ?

It's pretty good, essentially very similar to what I created as a guardian variant to Taugrims' Captain Hammer. I prefer the use of more control over more damage on a defensive setup, but to each his own. The use of a spirit weapon is something I probably should have iterated into the defensive guardian earlier, but never bothered to do. The only glaring thing I can see is that you chose Honor VI - Pure of Heart (Aegis heals on removal) as a major trait; the last time I tried using this, the heal was very weak despite the fact that Aegis is hard to come by (once every 40s on your build). While that may have been changed, I believe it is better served with Honor X - Writ of the Merciful (Symbols heal allies). The Mace can apply a symbol every 8s and (at last check) it heals for far more than the other major trait, it seems the better choice, though it does nothing for you while wielding the sword.

For comparison, this is my v1 Guardian variant to the Captain Hammer:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUAQJASWlYgSD3GSOEm4EhVBCi9QjZ8jXPgYEbIA;ToAA1CtosxYjwGrNObk2sAZAC

New Guild Wars player (pretty new to mmo's as well) so could someone give me some tips (or direct me to a useful guide) on the best way to set up combat for a warrior? I'm having a bit of trouble selecting my attacks all while moving/strafing and dodging.

@ChillyUK7 said:

New Guild Wars player (pretty new to mmo's as well) so could someone give me some tips (or direct me to a useful guide) on the best way to set up combat for a warrior? I'm having a bit of trouble selecting my attacks all while moving/strafing and dodging.

• Chavtheworld's (vVv Guttzu's) "Come At Me Bro!!!" Hundred Blades Warrior - Page 1 - | 10 | 0 | 7 | 2 |
• Cynic's Melee build (Axe+Warhorn / Sword+Shield) - Page 1 - | 9 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
• UssjTrunks' Control Rifle Warrior - Page 1 - | 7 | 1 | 7 | 6 |

Timing is crucial on the warrior, so you might want to start on a slightly slower class first, like the guardian (that's how I did it). You'll get better with practice though. If keybinds are an issue, you might want to look at an MMO mouse (Naga, Hex, G600, M90). I'm also new to MMOs, so this casting/moving at the same time took some time to get used to (GW1, the only other MMO I had played before, was a lot slower paced). But again, all I can say is just give it some time.

I'm hoping to bring some new builds in here as I ramp back up into PvP later this week.

I'll be posting updates to my build and probably my rifle build and a hammer build (all for Warrior, because, uno, that where it's at for me).

@selfconfessedcynic said:

I'm hoping to bring some new builds in here as I ramp back up into PvP later this week.

I'll be posting updates to my build and probably my rifle build and a hammer build (all for Warrior, because, uno, that where it's at for me).

Can't wait to get some tournies going with you guys. I've done a few with randoms over the past few days and have been quite successful. Rolling with an actual, organized team with voice chat should be a cake walk.

Always ready to go.

I may add one or two Ele builds. Got some pretty decent Staff and S/D stuff going on at the moment,

Thief Build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYMQRAoY6alUm6NHcy5E95Ex2je+TiyzwoI1/AZB;TwAg0CnowxgjwKLOOck4sEZUymgZGA

+Focus on daggers

+Constantly in stealth

+Huge focus on backstab crits

+Almost bottomless supply of initiative

Admittedly, I've only played about 5 hours of sPVP. An Elementalist friend and I skyped when I rolled with this build and we completely destroyed the other teams. I didn't take a lot of time to flesh out the runes/sigils with this link here because the build and dual dagger setup is the important part. During any particular fight, I spent about half of the time in stealth. Each backstab comes in at at least 5k. Going against everyone except Necros and Guardians was easy mode. Because of the reliance on stealth (with the sigil for refreshed endurance for 4x dodge roll), you can easily get away if things get too nasty.

I should note that there is a cooldown on stealth for single target. This may be basic knowledge to you, but, In other words, you can't spam stealth skills back to back. There's something like a 2-3 second window where the target becomes immune to stealth after being stealthed. During that window, throw down a Death Blossom to bleed them, throw down another or a Heart Seeker, and by that time you're ready to pop back into stealth for a backstab. Rinse. Repeat.

-----------

Looking ahead, the Trait that really intrigues me is Assassin's Reward in Acrobatics Tier II: "Heal yourself whenever you use a skill that uses initiative. Heal yourself for each point of initiative spent." If you could do the bottomless initiative build above with that... you could get some pretty damn good life regeneration. I'll test it out sometime soon.

@mikeeegeee: Hmm...

I'm going to have to look at this a bit more to get my head around it. I'll add it to the OP some time later today.

@mikeeegeee said:

Thief Build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYMQRAoY6alUm6NHcy5E95Ex2je+TiyzwoI1/AZB;TwAg0CnowxgjwKLOOck4sEZUymgZGA

Righto, so only a couple of things I'd suggest;

• The bug where sigils all share the same internal cooldown is still in the game, so purity and battle don't synergise, as if purity triggers, you won't be able to get the benefit from battle for 10s (and since it's a proc with a cooldown, you can't really trust it too much). In addition, battle only gives you 105 power for 20 seconds (so +5.7% damage) when activated, which can be stripped or taken from you, compared to Force (static +5% damage) which doesn't have any synergy problems as it's static and cannot be stripped. Those are some options.
  I would actually suggest Air + Accuracy on the daggers (it calcs in at about +8-10% damage over time) and Force + Accuracy on the pistols. I just don't like purity, though sometimes it CAN save your life.
  Why accuracy? I've found that 60% crit chance is somewhat of a breaking point, it may be my perception, but meh. It seems to really feel like you're critting most of the time when you hit 60.
• I would totally pick up the full Eagle set rather than taking 25 precision on your helm. 5% damage is way more than it sounds like, and if you take Accuracies you can afford to lose some precision.
• Just for reference, I should note that this build isn't for tournament play as it's way too glassy - but it'd be hella fun in PUGs, even with the nurf to Heartseeker.

My suggestions;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYMQRAoY6alUm6NHcy5E95Ex2je+TiyzwoI1/AZB;TwAg0CnowxgjAHLOOck4sKYQxmgJBA