In Guild Wars 2 the Thief is the stealthy, ninja-like profession. This class is perfect for players who like to avoid taking too much damage yet still want to be able to deal out critical damage in short bursts. While the Thief is a very useful class it can also be tricky to play with. It tends to work exceptionally well against individual enemies but can get in trouble when large mobs come into play. Today we’re going to look at a great GW2 Thief leveling build. It’ll help you maximize your damage output and level quickly.
The Thief Leveling Build
For this build we’re going to rely on heavy damage and high crit chance to really deal serious damage to enemies. This works well because you’ll be able to take targets out quickly and not get overcome when bigger mobs come up. Let’s take a close look into it..
Weapons
With this build we’re focusing on fast, high damage. The best weapons for quick burst damage are the Dual Daggers and the Dual Pistols. Use the daggers as your primary weapon set and the pistols as the secondary set. Both have fast, strong attacks but the daggers are especially useful in combat.
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Traits
To maximize the strength of this build and start off the on the right foot you’ll need to follow a specific trait progression. The order is important for building up attack strength, critical strike chance and your stealth ability. Here is the order to follow:
- Assign 15 Points to Critical Strikes
- Assign 10 Points to Shadow Arts
- Assign 5 Skill Points to Trickery
- Assign Another 5 Skill Points to Critical Strikes
- Assign Another 10 Skill Points to Shadow Arts
- Assign Another 5 Skill Points to Critical Strikes
- Assign Another 10 Points to Shadow Arts
- Assign Another 10 Skill Points to Trickery
Why This Thief Build Works for Leveling
Remember, this build is almost entirely reliant upon obtaining high critical chances. This is why so many points are assigned to Critical Strikes even from the very beginning. The best skill to obtain is by far Hidden Killer. This skill significantly increases your chance of getting crits while using stealth. Another skill to unlock is Executioner which provides a powerful attack that can be used primarily to putting the final blow on targets for quick and easy kills.
The points toward Shadow Arts are also a vital part of this Thief build. You need points in this skill tree to improve your stealth. Stealth not only allows you to avoid taking too much damage in content but skills within this tree give the Thief the ability to push a high DPS with power attacks that rely on stealth levels. The best skill unlock progression for this build is Infusion of Shadow (+2 initiative for stealth skills), Patience (regenerates initiative faster) and finally Hidden Killer (100% chance of getting crits when in stealth).
Assigning a small amount of skill points to Trickery is also very useful. This is mainly just for increasing your Thief’s survival rate. One of the best skills to unlock is one called Uncatchable which gives your character the ability to drop Caltrops while dodging which bleed enemies. These Caltrops don’t last as long or have as big of a radius as normal ones but they are still incredibly useful for getting out of tough spots. Another useful survival skill is Hide In Shadows which puts you back in stealth and drops all debuffs on your character.
Signets & Utilities to Use for the Thief
Assigning the correct signets and utilities to your Thief is another essential aspect of this leveling build. Below we’ve listed the best ones to use and a short description of why we say that is.
1st Utility (Signet of Agility) – The reason we chose this signet for the Thief is, of course, because of the increase in crit chance. This build relies heavily on getting crits so this signet was a clear choice.
2nd Utility (Shadow Trap) – This is a neat and very useful little ability for the Thief. It allows you to place a trap, disappear for a short period then return to inflict even more damage to the enemies around you. Great little bonus for getting out of low health trouble and dealing extra damage.
3rd Utility (Shadow Refuge) – This is incredibly useful for low health situations, too. Shadow Refuge provides both your character and friendly characters with health regeneration and stealth.
Elite (Basilisk Venom) – This is a great thing to have on the Elite slot. It actually petrifies enemies (turns them to stone) for 30 seconds. It does have a 45 second recharge time but can be useful when used correctly.
And that’s it for this GW2 Thief leveling build for now. We may add additional builds to this page in the near future for a better variety.
