Thief - Core Power Thief

Weapon Variants

• Shortbow - provides good mobility and tagging, but very low damage overall. Replaces either weapon set.

Skill Variants

• - instant heal + evade
• - stealth
• - if condi cleanse is needed.
• - delayed AoE damage and CC.
• - alternative stun break + condi cleanse.
• - reliable stun break
• - cc
• - to escape from enemies or stealth past them.
• - high burst on a long cooldown

Variants

• - trades damage for sustain, requires Fury to truly work.

Acrobatics Variant

This variant provides additional defense in the form of extra dodges through and sustain from . But all the other traits are very situational, so pick whatever you want.

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

If you are gearing this character from zero, start with exotic quality gear. Search the trading post for "Nika" armor. Then search for the weapons you want to use: "Venomstriker" pistol, "Usoku's Needle" dagger, "Shattered Short Bow" shortbow. Upgrade to ascended gear as you progress. See also: Guide

• and are interchangeable.
• For Relic alternatives, you can consider to trade a minor amount of damage for sustain, or to start combat with boons.
• For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford. Use defensive food or skills if required.

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• /
• /

Defense

Farming

• Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
• /
• (and variants)

Dagger/Dagger

Open with to get close to your target, then , and . Then just auto attack until wears off. When the enemy is below 50% hp, and more so below 25% hp, you can start using , but don't use all your initiative on that because is still better.

Pistol/Pistol

Spam over and over. Try to land all projectiles to recover initiative. Use to break defiance bars.

General tips

• Use to destroy projectiles and blind enemies.
• Use for CC, especially when near other players so they can also gain its benefits.
• Always have a shortbow in your inventory to equip whenever needed. 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.

Combo Fields

Main article: Guide

Thief is one of the very few professions with access to smoke fields, such as . Using certain combo finishers in these fields provides . A blast finisher like gives AoE Stealth, while a leap finisher like gives personal stealth only.

To stealth your party with these fields, place down a smoke field such as or . Then, every player can contribute with their own finishers to gain stealth. 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. Five blast finishers are sufficient for max stealth. When using , click the skill icon on the UI to fire the bomb directly at your feet completely eliminating all travel time.