Guild Wars 2

I haven’t found a ton of quality info about dual pistol builds out there, could anyone recommend builds/utility skills/traits/stat focuses?

Currently, I’m just trying to get into the swing of things. My biggest issue so far (lvl 24 as of this post) is that I can’t seem to get my initiative to catch up to my use of Unload, which seems result in a lot of dead time, especially compared to the other weapon sets.

There is a trait that refunds ini on crit 20% of the time, as well as a trait that increases passive initiative regen by 1/10 seconds and yet another that gives you 15 base ini instead of 12. There is also infiltrator signet which also adds 1/10 sec passive regen. Not that you should go so extreme in that direction, however.

Crit and power supposedly works well, and I heard bleed on crit weapon sigils work wonders too.

Think there’s a trait at 25(?) in trickery that adds initiative every couple of seconds, plus there’s Infiltrator’s signet and Roll for Initiative is a great skill to have when a mob closes in as it gives you space and restores Ini.

Hmmm, I’ll have to try some of those, and see what sort of bang I get for my buck.

I’m also trying to feel out my openers in various situations. Is it generally considered best to stealth pre-emptively to try to stack the bleed from the stealth attack quickly? And is it worthwhile to use a Body Shot or two before laying down Unload?

Since you’ll be kiting with P/P a lot, you can’t really go wrong with the Roll for Initiative utility. It’s a backwards roll that breaks stun and gives you 6 initiative points. Combine with the 5-point Trickery trait that gives you 3 initiative on stealing, and you can dodge backwards, steal forwards (for 3 initiative) and then Roll for Initiative (6 more), that’ll get you almost a full bar back. Caltrops are also great to have as a utility. They have a big radius, and cripple and bleed on a pulse, making it easier to kite while you’re waiting for another unload to be ready.

Another favorite of mine is Smoke Screen, which blocks projectiles for 8 seconds and you can shoot through it for added blinds. Just remember that blinds don’t work on some enemies (like dredge).

Daveiezero:

1. When you’re stealthed, the “1” skill will be different breaking stealth;on pistols, this is a sort of mini-unload.
2. The Init on Crit Trait is a fantastic filler to help you get more unloads out.
3. In larger groups (big world events to kill 1 champion come to mind), make sure the target has 25 stacks of Vuln; if not, use “2” to help out
4. Shooting through fields like Dark (from Shadow Refuge or others) makes every shot you fire steal life and heal you
5. In PvE at least, get good at noticing large cast animations and stopping them with a quick “4”
6. For incredibly dangerous melee mobs, the Blinds offered by the “5” are fantastic; especially because nearby allies will combo through it for Blind as well, allowing you to carefully time its use and Blind-lock, at times.

Hope that’s some help. We’re not all damage, you know.

i would suggest this build for Dual Pistols: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/thief#10|0|2632|2645|6677|134|4485|0|0|0|0|20|1719|2386|0|0|0|0|0|20|2353|1692|0|30|782|1722|2359|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

here’s an explanation of the choices:

Healing Skill: Withdraw
- this is a ranged kiting build so Withdraw is the obvious choice as it creates alot of distance between you and the opponent and it gets you out of cripples/stuns/immobilizes. In this build the short (15 second) cooldown on this skill is important as well to take advantage of 2 of your traits (more on this later).

Utility Slot 1: Caltrops
- no brainer choice. this is an extremely potent cripple and bleed damage skill and kiting people through Caltrops is your bread and butter.

Utility Slot 2: Devourer Venom
- immobilizing people at range is very useful. This can prevent long ranged classes (like Longbow Ranger and Staff Elementalist) from running out of your range or it can keep melee classes at a safe distance.

Utlity Slot 3: Shadowstep
- this is an immensely useful skill with many applications. at minimum its an exceptional kiting skill, allowing you to put 1200 distance units between you and an enemy melee TWICE (once with the step, then again with the return). It can also be used as a chase skill and as an escape skill. Also don’t forget that the shadow return clears 3 conditions from you so this is a great way to drop poisons and bleeds that are draining you out.

Elite Skill: Thieves Guild
- this will work better than Daggerstorm. you don’t want to be whirling around near your enemies. you want to be running away from your enemies while your Thief buddies take potshots at them.

When i used dual pistols a lot, i went very stealth heavy in utilities – blinding powder, shadow refuge and hide in shadows, steal granting stealth. Then take the trait that gives 2 ini when you go stealth. With all these stealths, you gets heaps of sneak shots (a great miniunload which bleeds too for zero init) AND every stealth gives you more init. Shadow refuge is huge – it does a stealth pulse every second, giving you 2 init every sec. So if you stay in it for the whole duration, you pretty much always gets all your init back. Must admit i have now moved onto shortbow for more AoE and dodgy goodness, but pistols are good fun too.

My suggestion for dual pistols: put them away. The shortbow is a better ranged option with its damage potential, utility, and mobility.

And if you’ve already got a shortbow… P/D and D/P are far more effective than P/P in single target damage.

jazzbrownie.6049:

My suggestion for dual pistols: put them away. The shortbow is a better ranged option with its damage potential, utility, and mobility.

And if you’ve already got a shortbow… P/D and D/P are far more effective than P/P in single target damage.

I disagree.

It depends on the situation.

Large pack of average or weak mobs or solo kiting: Short bow.
- Poison cloud for large aoe damage
- Can combo the poison cloud with explosive shot for wide area weakness
- other team mates can also combo with the poison cloud
- Best kiting kit in the game, not only do you get a slow which launches you away from the mob, but you also get infiltrator shot to give you even more distance.

Single target (boss mobs) or large packs of hard hitting high HP mobs (dungeon mobs): pistols every single time. Powerful mobs can pretty much 1 shot people on your team. If someone makes one mistake, it can cost them their life. With pistols you get:

- Bleeds
- Greater single target damage (combine this with swiftness buff and you can cast multiple unloads in less than 5 seconds)
- a somewhat spamable interrupt for those huge 1 hitting abilities
- a blind cloud which can essentially make it impossible for a mob(s) to hit anyone if your whole group is comboing through the smoke cloud.

You COULD technically make up for the lack of pistol kitability with caltrops, but that’s not as sustainable in longer fights.

A rather fun thing I’m using are the traits that give a chance for quickness on crit, bonus damage on dual skills, then upping precision as much as I can. When quickness triggers, Unload finishes well, unloading, in slightly under a second. With the +3 initiative bar, this means I can trigger unload up to four times for a pretty fun damage spike. Even if I don’t have enough initiative, quickness speeds up the autoattack too, stacking about 5 or 6 counts of bleed in the few seconds.

I’m not really sure about pvp but for pve (specifically groups) i use a 20/30/0/0/20 trait set up with

Power : Sundering Strikes and Combined training
Precision: pistol mastery, practiced tolerance and executioner
Trickery: Flanking strikes and initial strike

thanks to the precision trait for 20% ini regen on crit and your 7% chance to regen ini and the utility signet u will almost always get your full regen back after one or 2 #1 shots between each unload which gives u room to daze and blind if needed and although it is a bit of a glass cannon i feel this build is worth giving a try. also my reason for the other 2 utilities i chose is roll gives a initiative boost (for those moments u get a lil trigger happy i know I’m guilty of it =3) and is also a good get the hell outa dodge skill and the skill shadow refuge is good for hiding near dead ally’s or picking up downed ally’s when in groups. I also chose sigil of strength because might and force for more damage since the crit chance is already 66% and the Crit bonus is 85 remember though if you find yourself getting downed often maybe this build set up isn’t for you as most glass cannons get downed in one or two hits if not careful

almost forgot keep short bow as a weapon swap for groups that are 3+ this is the best weapon for aoe situations while pistols are more suited for 2 or less

I’m really, really liking the flexibility of roll for initiative, and getting Preparedness→Uncatchable has really given both my initiative and kiting a shot in the arm.

Since I think I’m going to to go for a high precision build, I’m looking down the road at the critical strikes trait tree. Ankle shots actually looks pretty cool at the master level for a super kitey build. Has anyone had a chance to play around with that trait, or is it too much to give up for another slow vs the other options?