So I decided to try a venomshare thief in sPVP. The concept behind venomshare is running either three poisons + thieves guild or 2 poisons + ambush + thieves guild. On top of that, you want the 30pt shadow arts skill Venomous aura, which applies your poisons to the attacks of all nearby allies. You may also want to pick up the 20pt shadow arts trait Leeching Venom, which makes your venom attacks steal life, the 30pt Deadly Arts skill that makes all venoms last for an additional strike and the 20pt deadly art trait that makes your venom skills recharge 20% faster. On top of that, you're also getting the 15pt deadly art minor that makes your poisons give vulnerability and the 25pt that makes you do additional damage to things that have conditions.
Now, venom conditions don't stack in intensity (boo), but they do stack in duration. And pets/minions count as allies. And all allies benefit from the traits you gave your venoms (last an extra strike, heal on attack, weaken on poison).
I tried running with a swarm necromancer and popping my 3 poisons in short succession. Dear god, everything melted. EVERYTHING. It's not as bursty as heartseeker crit spam. But if you have an ally or two nearby the short-term dps is through the roof.
Next up I'm gonna try out Leaping Super Immortal Death Troll Legendary Unicorn Blossom™.
It's a double-dagger build running signet of malice, calthrops, roll for initiative, shadowstep and dagger storm. With energized sigils to regain stamina and maxed acrobatics/trickery. Fun skills will be:
Assassins reward which heals you whenever you use initiative.
Uncatchable, which leaves behind calthrops when you dodge.
Quick pockets, which gives you more initiative when you swap weapons.
Slowed pulse, which gives you regeneration when you have 5+ stacks of bleeding
Power of inertia, which gives you might when you dodge.
Also the minors Shadow refuge (free smoke bombs @ 25% hp), Feline grace (dodge returns some of the stamina used), Kleptomaniac (stealing gives 3 initiative) and preparedness (+3 maximum initiative).
Between signet of malice and assassins reward you should easily outheal the paltry amount of damage you'll receive in the few split-seconds you're not either dodging (and dropping calthrops) or spinning in the air with death blossom.
Of course, both builds rely heavily on conditions, so any guardian running save yourselves/contemplation of purity is gonna be a right pain. D:
But then, guardian pretty much hardcounters thief no matter what setup the thief is running.
