Thief - Core Power Thief

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Open World, Open World General and Open World Core

This build was last updated on August 18, 2022 and is up to date for the February 14, 2023 game patch.
Track your dailies using Metabattles brand new ➢ Daily Tracker Tool

Overview

A solid core thief build that can be used in most areas of open world. This build is ideal for playing by yourself or with a small group but thanks to its high mobility and the nature of it can perform very well in zergs.


Template Code

[&DQUcPSM7LCeFAAAAVwEAADMBAABZAQAADgEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]
Copy Template Code


Skill Bar

Sword/Pistol
Shortbow
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Dagger (mainhand) - high mobility if paired with pistol, higher DPS if paired with Dagger (offhand)
  • Dagger (offhand) - can provide extra evades and Stealth via ; pair with Dagger (mainhand) for high DPS, or with Sword for spammable evades and boonrip.
  • Pistol (mainhand) - grants access to if paired with Pistol (offhand); very high burst damage


Skill Variants

  • - instant heal + evade
  • - stealth
  • - alternative stun break + condi cleanse.
  • - reliable stun break
  • - cc
  • - to escape from enemies or stealth past them.
  • - high burst on a long cooldown
  • - strong crowd control if there are allies nearby.


Specializations

  • is a massive damage boost but at the cost of most of your sustain.
  • / - use if taking daggers


Acrobatics Variant

This variant provides additional defense in the form of extra dodges through and sustain from .


Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.


Standard Equipment

This set uses gear similar to Build:Daredevil_-_Power_DPS, making it an excellent option for general PVE.

Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Sword
Berserker
Pistol
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Shortbow
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6



Variant Equipment

Gear

  • Knight Knight - defensive trinkets
  • Marauder Marauder - trades some damage for higher survivability.

Runes

  • - budget DPS
  • - defense

Sigils

  • - budget DPS
  • - Strong defensive sigil that allows for more dodges.

Tagging
Equip your shortbow with and for an excellent tagging build.


Consumables

Food
  • Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions. Budget versions of these foods exist and are acceptable.
  • - farming
  • , - DPS
  • - defense
Utility
  • (and variants) - farming
  • , - dps


Usage

  • This build is very easy to play. Spam as your main source of damage and defense. It evades for a long duration and deals decent damage while also healing you from and stacking .
  • Against groups of trash mobs, use followed by two full auto-attack chains. Repeat until dead.
  • Use to destroy projectiles and blind enemies.
  • Use for CC, especially when near other players so they can also gain its benefits.
  • Shortbow gives you excellent ranged tagging potential, mobility, and even some CC.
    • Use to get around quickly. This skill can take some effort to use, but having your abilities set to Ground Target with Range Indicator (quickcast) can be a good help.


Blasting

A lot of new thieves are unaware how potent their Combo Blast potential is.


What is Blasting?

Blasting allows you to use a skill which is a Blast Finisher inside a Combo Field to produce an effect. There are lots of combinations, but the two most relevant for thief are Fire Fields and Smoke Fields.

  • When Blasted, Fire Fields grant Might Might to the blaster and nearby allies. Might is a massive damage increase!
  • Smoke Fields grant the blaster and nearby allies stacking Stealth Stealth duration. This means you can help your party bypass some encounters entirely.


How to Blast

Some classes have a lot of different ways to blast, but most of them don't match thief's blasting potential. Thief blasts through the use of on Shortbow.

  • Aim the into the combo field and release it. Some combo fields are tricky to hit; if the skill doesn't land just right it may not grant the bonus.
    • To get the maximum potential, you need to blast quickly. However, has a second set of damage that the thief can activate by using the skill while a charge is still in the air.
    • In order to blast quickly, you must wait for the existing charge to explode before using again. If you re-activate it before it lands, it will not blast.

This method can take a bit of getting used to due to the small delay on 's landing. Practice using the skill in fields to get it down just right.


Thief Combo Fields

The most reliable combo fields for thief to use are and . By using these, you can stealth up to five people, including yourself. This stealth has a maximum duration, so it's a good idea to stack it and then move, finding a spot to stack again before the existing stealth runs off.

In a good party, the thief will only need to use a few blasts; the party will contribute some of their own. Five blasts is sufficient for max stealth, so a common tactic is to use with a few blasts from the thief and a few blasts from the party to very rapidly stealth before moving to a new area and repeating the process.

  • Note that you must have Autotarget turned off in the settings to do this efficiently.
Retrieved from "https://metabattle.com/wiki/index.php?title=Build:Thief_-_Core_Power_Thief&oldid=6492"


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 2 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
N7x gave this build 5 stars • June 2022
Been playing this build for a while now. I tend to not play meta build xD. It's good IMO I have even taken this build into IBS Easy 3 strikes. I'm not like hardcore or like a crazy good player I don't know the rotation all that well and I haven't looked it up. I tend to get 5k-8k usually, everyone now and then 9k! This is with the marauder equipment and dagger/dagger. I did bring it into KO normal mode strike and I didn't die the evade skill on dagger/dagger can make me dodge mechanics like the sniper shot and help me during the second time we fight Minister Li, again the evade baked into the dagger/dagger is spicy. Going to try the Sword/pistol version right after this comment probably will still be able to hold its own in KO strike I'm guessing. Especially with the evade on the pistol whip. Again, the other theif specs are better but if you want to play core or want to play something not meta but can still hold its own this build still very fun and decent. Edit! Just did it with full marauder and with the sword/pistol very cool. Oh and I guess the other difference in my version is the rune I am using rune of the golemancer because I like an extra backup muscle. But if I want to push for more damage or if anyone reading this then you should probably follow the actually build rune.
4 stars
Onlywrin gave this build 4 stars • June 2020
A solid core variant for thief that abuses Sword/Pistol's perm-evade and extreme survivability to get by. It isn't as effective as some of its counterparts, but it gets the job done.

Comments

Get MetaBattle Premium
Enjoy an ad-free experience & support the website, for less than $1 per month! Upgrade to Premium
Builds by Game Mode
Builds by Profession
Guides
Tools
General
Network Sites