Guild Wars 2

Part 1 has me fighting a Minion Master Reaper, an Engineer, a shout heal Warrior, and one of my buddies on his full glass D/P Thief.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/jsrt9NKfSFw

Part 2 has got some duels against another Reaper, a D/P+P/P from our friendly neighborhood Teef guild, and a D/P Thief who was running SA then switched to Full Glass.

Part 2: https://youtu.be/YgBGg_Vl7CY

And lastly a few WvW duels I managed to snag before ending my Beta Weekend session. Note that I had Traveler runes, and incorrect stats on gear thanks to some lame gear choices from Anet but oh well! The damage was still pretty good. Also, that warrior had 25 stacks of bloodlust AND guard stacks both times I fought him T_T

WvW: https://youtu.be/UXGOZGQPecU

Hope you guys enjoy and hopefully this helps prove that Staff can indeed keep up and even sometimes beat D/P!

I watched part 1, I’d say the level of play is lacking vs the opponents. But giving some benefit of the doubt that could just be unfamiliarity with Daredevil.

For the D/P matchup I didn’t see any good use of interrupts vs HiS or Vault, or even blind attempts vs Vault. D/P can beat staff easily between blinds, interrupts, sustain, and stealth.

The way that staff is designed, it’s more of a rushdown weapon. It’s basically go ham or die, the problem with that is oither builds like GS Warriors and DPS guardians do that way better than Daredevil, because of their survivability options.

You can’t use celestial, because you don’t have conditions or might stacking to go with staff. You could use soldier’s, but staff gives you nothing over other point holder builds on other profs.

Staff lacks the survivability that you see in other thief weapon sets like D/P and S/D. I haven’t seen anything over the weekend that has changed my mind about this. Unless staff is changed to somehow offer survival options on par with D/P or S/D, it will never have a chance at being used in a meta build.

Shockwave.1230:

I watched part 1, I’d say the level of play is lacking vs the opponents. But giving some benefit of the doubt that could just be unfamiliarity with Daredevil.

For the D/P matchup I didn’t see any good use of interrupts vs HiS or Vault, or even blind attempts vs Vault. D/P can beat staff easily between blinds, interrupts, sustain, and stealth.

The way that staff is designed, it’s more of a rushdown weapon. It’s basically go ham or die, the problem with that is oither builds like GS Warriors and DPS guardians do that way better than Daredevil, because of their survivability options.

You can’t use celestial, because you don’t have conditions or might stacking to go with staff. You could use soldier’s, but staff gives you nothing over other point holder builds on other profs.

Staff lacks the survivability that you see in other thief weapon sets like D/P and S/D. I haven’t seen anything over the weekend that has changed my mind about this. Unless staff is changed to somehow offer survival options on par with D/P or S/D, it will never have a chance at being used in a meta build.

Most of the players I dueled had either been watching me fight for a while, had fought me previously or I explained to them what each of the staff skills and utility/elite could do so they could fully understand how to fight me. I even showed them the difference between Bound and Vault so they can try to see whether to dodge or interrupt/blind.

And yeah the staff is designed as a full frontal fighting weapon even a bit more so than the sword but they do give you plenty of tools to survive and retaliate. Skill 3 on staff is amazing and even more reliable way of evading than both Death Blossom and Flanking Strike. Plus it deals decent damage and removes Immobilize which is HUGE. If you watch my WvW video, you will see me drop to 500 HP and survive long enough to heal and win. So the survivability IS there.

Too bad 1vs1 duels means nothing.

The duels were entertaining, it show how staff, although I am skeptical, has the sufficient tool to fight openly. Staff #3 combined with dodges is priceless, mastering those two is the real crucial point.

GG. well done.

The music is definitely inspired by video games boss fights lol.

Daendur.2357:

Too bad 1vs1 duels means nothing.

It’s not bad in group fights either. The amount of cleaving potential you have is really good, not to mention Vault annhilates enemies caught in it. I had moments where I came into a fight, used Impairing Daggers and proceeded to Vault enemies to death. Then when their buddies tried to rez them, I vaulted them as well while at the same time killing the downed players in the process.

Furthermore, that new Elite skill is AMAZING! I was able to secure stomps without the need of my Shadowstep and I was even able to get insta-kills by landing the last hit on the chain on the enemy while they were really low preventing them from going into down state and just killing them instantly. One moment in particular had my team losing a fight for Tranq in Temple and I got clutch rezzed by my buddy. Then I saw the enemy’s Ele was low, so I got the Impact Strike chain off on him, killed him instantly and that changed the tide of the battle and allowed us to wipe them and grab Tranq. Clutch moments like that are the reason this spec shines for me.

Kocoff.7582:

The duels were entertaining, it show how staff, although I am skeptical, has the sufficient tool to fight openly. Staff #3 combined with dodges is priceless, mastering those two is the real crucial point.

GG. well done.

The music is definitely inspired by video games boss fights lol.

Haha yeah! Since your normal dodge was changed to Bound, it’s really nice having the Skill 3 on Staff which essentially acts like the old dodge but also removes cripple and immob.

Thanks and yeah Cruel Deity in particular writes a LOT of music that would be perfect for boss fights.

oh look what do you know, there is someone out there who uses Runes of the Centaur.
how are those runes working for ya’ll, is -50% cripple duration worth it?

I love them. I have them on my S/D Acro set right now with Don’t Stop and I have near invulnerability to cripple On my Daredevil they also work really nice though as you can Hide in Shadows, gain swiftness, and speed right over to the enemy for a knockdown or vault. The power is really nice too and on Staff, it’s crucial to be able to stay on the enemy so -cripple duration and swiftness helps a lot. You can also have permanent out of combat swiftness with Thrill of the Crime.

Rain.9213:

I love them. I have them on my S/D Acro set right now with Don’t Stop and I have near invulnerability to cripple On my Daredevil they also work really nice though as you can Hide in Shadows, gain swiftness, and speed right over to the enemy for a knockdown or vault. The power is really nice too and on Staff, it’s crucial to be able to stay on the enemy so -cripple duration and swiftness helps a lot. You can also have permanent out of combat swiftness with Thrill of the Crime.

I found Runes of speed work well too given we need that vitality that said…

Regarding the Kick in for the swiftness when healing on The Centaur Runes. Do you gain tnat swiftness as soon as you start the heal or as soon as you finish? I am wondering how they would work with the new heal as in get one channel off have swiftness and run.

I did get some of my own time in with staff and found it a lot better then suggested by many. It needs a bit of work but even in its current state it was effective.

The vault is the killer and as you said very useful when one tries to rez another.I fought a pair of DD eles and they kept dying when one would try and rez the other letting me vault on them.

All of those dodges using the Staff mastery trait are also handy. I was going back and forth between that and the Pulmonary Impact trying to determine which worked best. I did not trait Escapists Absolution at all which would likley be quite effective in the set. It will be hard to choose which to take.

Nice videos!

babazhook.6805:

Rain.9213:

I love them. I have them on my S/D Acro set right now with Don’t Stop and I have near invulnerability to cripple On my Daredevil they also work really nice though as you can Hide in Shadows, gain swiftness, and speed right over to the enemy for a knockdown or vault. The power is really nice too and on Staff, it’s crucial to be able to stay on the enemy so -cripple duration and swiftness helps a lot. You can also have permanent out of combat swiftness with Thrill of the Crime.

I found Runes of speed work well too given we need that vitality that said…

Regarding the Kick in for the swiftness when healing on The Centaur Runes. Do you gain tnat swiftness as soon as you start the heal or as soon as you finish? I am wondering how they would work with the new heal as in get one channel off have swiftness and run.

It happens after you finish your healing skill. I considered Runes of Speed as well but I really like having that bit of extra power from Centaur and -50% cripple is a nice bonus.

Yeah some of the stuff on DD is a bit clunky and it does need some work but overall, staff a really effective weapon! Idk why people are hating on it.

And thank you for watching

with daredevil i think this are the most viable runes for thief:

vampirism
wurm
pack
ogre
centaur

I just really dislike how the primary source of damage and mobility on the weapon is through the same skill.

The fact that spamming 5 is often a good thing to do for damage makes me cringe a little, seeing as HS-spam is just as poor by design.

DeceiverX.8361:

I just really dislike how the primary source of damage and mobility on the weapon is through the same skill.

The fact that spamming 5 is often a good thing to do for damage makes me cringe a little, seeing as HS-spam is just as poor by design.

Depends on the situation. Against smart players, spamming Vault is going to get you no where except drained of initiative.