Guild Wars 2

Hello Thieves,

I was wondering what you think would be better / optimal in fractals and larger instanced pve content, between the Daredevil Staff build and the Classic D/D build.
I am wearing full Zerker armor, but i might try other options later on.

My Daredevil Staff build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6an8lCNOhlOBWmCkmiFwiyLAOgGYLEXrRcu3H+lH

My Classic D/D build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVl8MhGnYpTw6Jw/EH0ElPL+iyYnnD3eqDgJMCA

I feel like they both have their strengths, but i wanted to hear other thieves’ opinions.

Staff:
-Evades = easier to survive
-AOE
-Guaranteed damage (compared to a back-stab missing the target’s back)

D/D:
-Sustained DPS
-Threat dump via stealth
-heartseeker spam below 25%

Also if there is anything to change in my builds let me know =)
Thanks

With the bigger bags of HP in raids, D/D daredevil is starting to look pretty darn attractive. I haven’t tested it, but in terms of just theorycrafting it looks like a possible DPS increase.

(traits only)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAoYVl8MhGnYpTw6Jw/ELjFl3AEAHw2GWWd48tH8FPA

Upside: easily maintain 17% +damage throughout the entire fight, pulmonary impoact damage ignores armor (so more damage than mug, but takes a bit more work to apply) and increased overall damage from bound. You also have the option to take fist flurry for increased damage during periods you’re out of init.

Downside: less +damage (3%) in the last 50%, Rotation is harder, and you’ve got to be more careful with your dodges when attempting to stealth disengage.

It’s possible (but would require testing) that you could get better overall fight dps out of the backstab DD, but it would be harder to play.

Raid perspective:

Staff will slightly outdamage Dagger on one condition – you can land all 3 hits of Weakening Charge consistently. Takes a bit of practise on learning the skill hitbox but otherwise it’s not that difficult. I got the hang of it after a couple of hours in the beta and took it to the Vale Guardian. Managed to hit him every time with no issue.

Bound -> 2x Weakening Charge -> 1x auto chain -> repeat

Other advantages of Staff include:

- Constant breakbar pressure (Weakness counts as a soft CC)
- Easy access to evade frames while dealing high AoE damage simultaneously using Vault (albeit still a small DPS loss)
- Easy repositioning during raid encounters where it is required eg. Vaulting in to the anti-wipe circles at Vale Guardian without needing to swap to Shortbow and reducing DPS considerably during the swap cooldown, also no need to blow a utility slot.
- Weakness itself for mitigating damage of adds and on-demand ranged blind that doesn’t require keeping an offhand Pistol around
- Vulnerability application
- More cleave

Main advantages of Dagger:

- Very simple rotation while being quite competitive with Staff (Dodge -> CnD -> Backstab -> Autos -> Repeat, no repositioning needed for Weakening Charges). Just easier in general.
- Aggro management with CnD Stealth (doubtful this will mean much since raids are emphasising importance of Toughness for tanking, allowing someone else to force aggro on themselves).
- Poison for situations where healing needs to be mitigated in a raid encounter (but out of 9 other team members someone is bound to have it covered, plus you can use Steal to apply it instead and that should be enough.)

I’m going to assume it’s just a toss-up between Staff and D/D depending on what you’re up against. I had no problem nailing the Vale Guardian constantly with a Staff rotation that would definitely outpace Dagger, but another boss in the raid might not allow for that. Should just be an encounter-by-encounter basis.

Fractals perspective:

Mostly the same opinion as with raids, but in Fractals I haven’t found any opportunities where Staff didn’t perform properly.

I’ve put together a build for Staff in this guide here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkihf_cpJaY