Guild Wars 2

Hello, I’ve been away for about 3 months. I’ve played thief mostly in PvP but I want to start a new class, mainly for WvW solo and group fights.

Been browsing through the forums a little bit, seems like D/P is still the FotM build :P I did like the changes they brought to sword (with the boon stealing) before I left. However it doesn’t seem it got any more popular? Maybe it’s more suitable for PvP than WvW.

So what are you suggestions guys, S/D or D/P or D/D? Any links to up to date build would be great as well!

S/D got very popular for a while, but they removed the infinite range return and the stunbreak on sword #2. I don’t remember when they changed #3 on S/D, but it’s split into 2 skills now, the first costing 3 initiative, and after people started complaining since FS was tracking properly, the increased the initiative of the second half of the skill by 1 for a total of 2 for the second skill to reduce spamming. Overall S/D got better, but it certainly left a sour taste especially considering the stun and fear locking abilities of warriors and necros right now. I’m not saying those are overpowered, but it would be nice to have a counter to the counter.

Maugetarr.6823:

S/D got very popular for a while, but they removed the infinite range return and the stunbreak on sword #2. I don’t remember when they changed #3 on S/D, but it’s split into 2 skills now, the first costing 3 initiative, and after people started complaining since FS was tracking properly, the increased the initiative of the second half of the skill by 1 for a total of 2 for the second skill to reduce spamming. Overall S/D got better, but it certainly left a sour taste especially considering the stun and fear locking abilities of warriors and necros right now. I’m not saying those are overpowered, but it would be nice to have a counter to the counter.

Yeah, S/D is a pretty good weaponset but some of the CC right now can kill thieves if they make a single mistake.

As for builds…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Guide-to-Thief-Guides/first

The first S/D build is Jumper’s. It’s probably the most popular one right now, but I’ve always disagreed with it… But to spare myself from the flaming of the entire thief community, I won’t go into detail about that…

The second S/D is mine. The version there is the tank version, but recently I’ve been practicing with Zerker amulet/jewel. Maybe it’s just because I find it more fun with more offensive stats though.

Arganthium.5638:

Maugetarr.6823:

S/D got very popular for a while, but they removed the infinite range return and the stunbreak on sword #2. I don’t remember when they changed #3 on S/D, but it’s split into 2 skills now, the first costing 3 initiative, and after people started complaining since FS was tracking properly, the increased the initiative of the second half of the skill by 1 for a total of 2 for the second skill to reduce spamming. Overall S/D got better, but it certainly left a sour taste especially considering the stun and fear locking abilities of warriors and necros right now. I’m not saying those are overpowered, but it would be nice to have a counter to the counter.

Yeah, S/D is a pretty good weaponset but some of the CC right now can kill thieves if they make a single mistake.

As for builds…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Guide-to-Thief-Guides/first

The first S/D build is Jumper’s. It’s probably the most popular one right now, but I’ve always disagreed with it… But to spare myself from the flaming of the entire thief community, I won’t go into detail about that…

The second S/D is mine. The version there is the tank version, but recently I’ve been practicing with Zerker amulet/jewel. Maybe it’s just because I find it more fun with more offensive stats though.

The links do not work…

Didn’t know they removed the stun breaker, bummer that, although it’s understandable.

Other than that, I think the boon stealing on Sword is really nice and I always like the 2nd skill for movement., But I just wonder if D/P (or even D/D) for that matter does outshine the S/D builds or is S/D just as viable today.

The sword 2 skill shadow return is still very strong, it can still be used while stunned, it just doesn’t remove the stun effect. So you need to be intelligent about where you’ve placed your return point. Having the increased initiative cost of larcenous strike has just stopped the ‘spam 3 to win’ players. The total init cost is now 5, which is still less than cloak and dagger or black powder, which seems fair.