Guild Wars 2

I’m thinking of going D/P for leveling with a SB as my secondary, and I was wondering if it’s viable for leveling and dungeons. In addition, if anyone has any build ideas, that would be wonderful, as I have no idea what to go for. Thanks!

I would suggest going Sword/Pistol for levelling with shortbow in reserve.
Aim for 25/30/0/0/15 traits or 10/30/0/15/15. Black Powder is your tanking skill for mob and auto attack when you need to regenerate initiative for Black Powder. Caltrops for AoE Bleeding, Scorpion Wire to pull ranged into your grasp and Signet of Shadows for speed and additional AoE blind with Signet of Malice to regenerate health with your attack.

Note: The utility skills listed were chosen because they are easy to get at low level, i suggest experimenting with all of your skills to train for future use, and to also try different weapons as you go and read your major traits.

Dagger pistol is good for levelling as well but Sword hits three targets hard whereas d/p hits one target fast.

I’d basically agree with Elthurien. S/P + SB is a very versatile setup. I do use D/P if I want a bit more mobility and enemies are less clustered together.

why would you ever go D/P when you can go S/P?

I’ve been leveling with D/P S for a few days now and it’s a lot of fun (PVE). I was looking at the forums yesterday and surprised that there weren’t many posts with people running it. It may not be the “best” build, but I hardly ever die and can pretty much walk through most content solo. I started out mostly as DD/PP (which is probably my favorite combo), but after 60 levels I wanted something new.

With D/P (and I am running about a 0/20+/20/0/15 going to be 0/30/20/0/20 all purpose build when I hit 80) I can use my 3 skill to get in melee distance quickly and then just rock the mob from there. Drop 5 and auto a few attacks, mobs are blind so can’t hurt you, then 2 heartseeker into stealth. Cures my conditions and I get to backstab the mo fo I just like the flow between quick melee and multiple stealths and invulnerability from blind. Throw a steal in there for the buffs and item, but almost don’t need the stealth from it. It’s a good time! Oh, this is roughly what I’m running now: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYUQRAoa6alUmiP3cy8E95Ex2jdqTiypwpI1TBZBLA (probaly have to cut/paste to browser).

EDIT: Underlining is unintentional… don’t know why it’s showing up. Also, I like most of the combos a thief can play and would suggest trying them all out when leveling. That’s one reason I like a flexible build, I get bored and will switch up my weapons, or go all range on a big-bad with PP/S.

Thanks for all the help, I can’t decide between S/P and D/P with shortbow as secondary, because I like the playstyles of each. So, i’m just going to carry a sword, dagger, and a pistol with me.

My first run through I did D/P-SB. I decided I wanted a second thief so I could use the first for PVE/Dungeons with a cannon build, and another for WVW with a completely different build / armor / weapon sets.

I think D/P is good against single targets and pretty safe. Single target damage output is better than S/P, and let’s face it – if you want multiple target damage, cluster bombs is just so good so a simple weapon swap is easy enough.

But… on my 2nd thief I decided to go fully ranged glass cannon while I level (I’ll switch build when I get 80). I’m loving P/P for single targets and SB for multiple targets so far.

Your playstyle is yours to choose though. I’m just giving you one more point of view.