Viable WvW Thief Build

Posting this mostly because Alice doesn't currently have a thief build up.  Maybe this'll be worth adding.

My current gear/build setup isn't optimal for either solo or groups, but to be honest, I'm in this just to destress from life.  Not really looking for an optimal effectiveness build, and I don't generally run with a dedicated group.  I spend a lot of time in PUGs.  Regardless, I still like to think I know how to build a thief pretty well.  My build reflects what I spend the majority of my time doing.  This one is different.

To be brief and get to my point, I was told to wear full PVT gear, and to look on these forums for a 'proper' build.  Wearing that much stuff might make me a tank, but as a thief, we're built to, well, kill things.  If we're not doing that, we're not very useful.  Regardless, I spent a bit of time searching, and the only link to a thief build I could find was the one on fort-aspenwood, namely:


This... is just bad.  I'm sure it'll work for someone, but it provides basically no group utility, low damage, and looks like its trying to spread out over a bunch of things without actually doing any of them well.  Small breakdown:

• "Cripple everything around you"
  Cripple from Dagger Storm lasts 2s, and a slightly more useful 5s from Dancing Dagger.  With a 90s cd, however, the former won't work past once (and indeed is not as effective as it seems in my experience, as anyone not trapped in a tight area tends to get away from thieves using DS) and the latter must be spammed to support this claim, which isn't very effective at all.
  
• "hand out boons"
  This is almost purely through his choice of runes, with Aegis given out once per Dagger Storm, though some might consider the healing from Shadow Refuge a boon.  You certainly aren't giving out much of use very often.
  
• "death blossom your foes into the ground"
  Ahh, I had fun seeing this.  It reminds me of newbie thieves, who think Death Blossom is the best thing since sliced bread.  However, with the low base damage of DB, a max of three targets, and the ability to use it all of twice before you have to use some form of initiative regeneration, its only real bonus is that you have a short period of evasion.  Whoo.  Assuming you DB twice and RFI/weap switch to get one more DB out, those 9 stacks (assuming you hit the same three people three times, and that they let you) need only remove your bleed stacks once for the damage to go from 'okay' to 'ineffectual'.  Death Blossom is better saved for condi thieves, which this build is clearly not.
  
• "remaining unseen by your foes"
  I will agree its easy to stay stealthed if you keep up blinding powder and shadow refuge, but aside from you staying alive to DPS or support in the future, it doesn't really help the group.
  
• "remaining at full health"
  I run an evasive build, where I have vigor up almost constantly and pump out dodges like warriors pump out DPS, and between that and stealth, my health still gets rather low.  Running this, you're more glassy than I am, but you do have 20k health.  Maybe you'll live a bit longer, but I doubt you'll stay at full health unless you stick to stealth for the duration of the fight.

I've spent a few hours putting together something I feel is more useful, though opinions may vary.  It is not finished, and a lot of things can be switched out for little detriment to the overall build.

gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAsalYmaP3ay0E/5EB3DnC1n6fgs6MupNB;TgAA1Ctouycl4K7VurkXB

Thieves have very few ways to actually support a group; either you give a few buffs to teammates via steal, rip a few boons, give regen when you stealth others, or you spec into venoms, as this build does.  I admit, I'm adverse to using venoms, as the effects are short, and while the cooldowns are also short, I don't feel their worth the investment over other things.  However, when you have a group running them, they become much more worthwhile.

I'll list the benefits of this build in short:

• Pretty high tough/vit for a thief (1860t/1725v) (going by what Alice said the night I ran with him, 1800 is about right, though you want as much as you can run)
• Attack isn't completely worthless at 3168
• Ability to provide powerful abilities to the group (Stone, Immob, weakness/vulnerability, etc)
  • 2 stacks of Might for 20s when you apply those abilities
  • Hitting enemies while venoms are applied restores health (325 + (0.2*healing power))
• Venoms on 36s cd, so you'll probably rotate them more than once per fight
• Sword provides good survivability, and when combined with pistol you get a seriously good control combo

Tactics:
You will mainly be providing the group with venoms before and during combat, which will help with their abilities, might, and some minor healing.  Your DPS will come from autoattack and maybe Pistol Whip, the former of which which is only slightly less damaging than dagger/x and even places weakness with the final combo attack.  With a careful eye, you can interrupt enemies during animations with Headshot, or drop Black Powder in a fight to mitigate some damage through blinds.  Pistol Whip may root you in place during the animation, but after the initial attack (the actual pistol whip part), you evade during the 4 slashes of the sword (about 1/2s, I think) doing 8 hits for respectable damage.  From stealth, you can blind and daze your opponents through Tactical Strike.  Infiltrator's Strike is a godsend; at 600 range you can immobilize an opponent, giving you the time to follow up with Pistol Whip to keep them in place that much longer, while dealing DPS, while retaining the ability to shadowstep a brokenly long distance back to where you set the return point while curing one condition.  Yeah.  Use it a lot.

Summary of Tactics:

• Provide group with useful venoms and a few buffs
• Stick enemies in place with Infiltrator's Strike, then bash their head with Pistol Whip to keep them in place for at least 2-3s and give your group a chance to break down their health
• Set Inf Strike before/during battle to return to a safe spot (behind a building, down a ridge) battle if you need a breather
• Pop people with Headshot to stop their much needed heal
• Put down a smoke field with Black Powder to put blinds about

I mentioned flexibility, and I meant it.  Some things you can change:

• Move the last 15 points (those in trickery) about: Crit Strikes for more effective crits, into Acrobatics for more dodging/might on dodge, etc
  • This is mostly because if you spec fully into team utility, your own ability to fight goes down. Allowing some customization still lets you bring what you want to the group
  
  
• 2nd weaponset is completely up to you, shortbow to provide aoe support and for stacking, /d for more stealth in battle, etc
• You can switch between whatever healing skills you want; I like Withdraw for the immob break and evasion on heal, but HiS is useful if you want to break from combat for a second, or to line up a Tactical Strike (stealth sword 1)
• While you should at least run Basilisk and one other venom (Skale (weak/vuln) or Devourer (immobilization)) to maximize on your group usefulness, you can still change your other utilities
  

I also mentioned it was unfinished, as here are some points I couldn't decide decisively upon:

• Runes and Sigils.
  • Runewise I was thinking Wurm or Warrior, to make up for the vit lost from not going into Acrobatics
  • Feel free to suggest Sigils.
  
  
• Small lack of Vitality
• you guys'll probably find something

I'm about done with stuff to say, so feel free to start ripping this build apart.