Guild Wars 2

Hi so I got bored and was playing around with new builds and came across this, its lots of fun and uses flanking strike as a very useful tool.

utilities are hide in shadows, shadow step, shadow refuge, signet of shadows, and bas venom.

traits are

Deadly arts 10- mug
crit strikes 30- furious retaliation, practiced tolerance, executioner
shadow arts 10- infusion of shadows ( these 10 are really just optional I took this out of preference)
trickery 20- thrill of crime, bountiful theft.

Gear is berserkers amulet, rune of scholar x5, rune of divinity x1, sword/bow with sigil of fire, dagger with sigil of blood lust.

the idea is to open with infiltrator’s strike, cloak and dagger, stun ect the normal but save steal, as soon as your target pops there boons precast flanking strike then hit steal you get fury, swiftness, might from thrill of crime and 2 boons ripped from enemy + vigor, strip an additional boon with flanking strike and do a combined damage of about 9-10 k from flanking strike and mug.

good for when a ele pops tornado, or necro in plague, thief dagger storming can strip stability and interrupt the elite. anyways I like it so far maybe some of you will enjoy it as well

Bootysweat.2371:

Hi so I got bored and was playing around with new builds and came across this, its lots of fun and uses flanking strike as a very useful tool.

utilities are hide in shadows, shadow step, shadow refuge, signet of shadows, and bas venom.

traits are

Deadly arts 10- mug
crit strikes 30- furious retaliation, practiced tolerance, executioner
shadow arts 10- infusion of shadows ( these 10 are really just optional I took this out of preference)
trickery 20- thrill of crime, bountiful theft.

Gear is berserkers amulet, rune of scholar x5, rune of divinity x1, sword/bow with sigil of fire, dagger with sigil of blood lust.

the idea is to open with infiltrator’s strike, cloak and dagger, stun ect the normal but save steal, as soon as your target pops there boons precast flanking strike then hit steal you get fury, swiftness, might from thrill of crime and 2 boons ripped from enemy + vigor, strip an additional boon with flanking strike and do a combined damage of about 9-10 k from flanking strike and mug.

good for when a ele pops tornado, or necro in plague, thief dagger storming can strip stability and interrupt the elite. anyways I like it so far maybe some of you will enjoy it as well

Flanking Strike? What attack is that? Is that the same as backstab? I love to backstab.

/joking

I rarely use flanking strike as it the one of the most unreliable ability the thief has. If you can make this work for you, awesome.

It strips one boon, not two, at least according to the tooltip description. And despite it’s reputation, it doesn’t miss more then any other attack according to my combat log.

The reputation of flanking strike is justified as it do miss very often. Flanking strike consists out of 2 attacks.
A tiny stab with the dagger which removes one boon and after that a clumsy whirl which gets followed by the stronger hit with the sword. The second his is the one which tends to miss very often while the first hit doesnt.

yeah,flanking strike is hard to land depending on how your enemy is moving but I use it a lot if i know it is gonna land the second strike. I run something similar to your build but its a little more rng burst.

deadly arts 10-mug
crit strikes 30- practiced tolerance, critical haste, executioner
trickery 30-thrill of the crime, bountiful theft, sleight of hand

beserker amulet with divinity runes, sigil of rage on sword and bow, bloodlust on dagger offhand. utilities are shadow step, shadow refuge, and haste.

with quickness, flanking strike only moves you half of the distance it normally would which actually lets you hit an enemy with second strike. So its pretty much as strong as a heartseeker hp< 25% hp on top of your quickness and boon stripping. Since you have 2 procs of quickness from trait and sigil, you have a 21% chance on crit of activating 1. I use sleight of hand for some gw1 mesmer-style interrupts on heals, stomps on teammates, enemies trying to interrupt your stomps (hilarious to do on warriors bull charging you). I almost always save the haste skill for autoattacking downed enemies so they don’t get rezzed or quickness rezzing teammates. Although,I haven’t tried it but sword 2 then spamming flanking strike with haste and basalisk venom (I use thieves guild) then steal when they try to heal could instagib someone in theory.

frans.8092:

It strips one boon, not two, at least according to the tooltip description. And despite it’s reputation, it doesn’t miss more then any other attack according to my combat log.

He was talking about saving steal to strip 2 boons with bountiful theft.

I can confirm Noctis is annoying.
I like to run inf signet and shadow step with my sword thieves so flanking strike is generally very easy to land. The two shadow steps, + steal and inf strike make landing the second hit child’s play.

Essentially if you play with a lot of shadow steps, traps (excusing bugs) or dev venom FS is easy to hit. Haste and scorp too. Shouldn’t be missing with it unless they dodge

Panacea.4927:

The reputation of flanking strike is justified as it do miss very often. Flanking strike consists out of 2 attacks.
A tiny stab with the dagger which removes one boon and after that a clumsy whirl which gets followed by the stronger hit with the sword. The second his is the one which tends to miss very often while the first hit doesnt.

I sat down and actually watched the animation today to check for these misses, because that’s how I thought the attack was myself. It’s not.

When you use Flanking Strike, you first do the whirl without attacking at all. Once you’ve spun around the opponent, you’ll stab with the off-hand dagger (which removes one boon), then stab with the sword in an attack that looks like the auto-attack chain finisher, which does higher damage. Both attacks occur after the whirl.

Panacea.4927:

The reputation of flanking strike is justified as it do miss very often. Flanking strike consists out of 2 attacks.

I can read my combat log just fine. Flanking Stab rarely missed (that’s the second one), actually neither did Flanking Strike (that’s the first of the combo).
This was in PvE, I doubt Wvw is any harder.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

Panacea.4927:

The reputation of flanking strike is justified as it do miss very often. Flanking strike consists out of 2 attacks.
A tiny stab with the dagger which removes one boon and after that a clumsy whirl which gets followed by the stronger hit with the sword. The second his is the one which tends to miss very often while the first hit doesnt.

I sat down and actually watched the animation today to check for these misses, because that’s how I thought the attack was myself. It’s not.

When you use Flanking Strike, you first do the whirl without attacking at all. Once you’ve spun around the opponent, you’ll stab with the off-hand dagger (which removes one boon), then stab with the sword in an attack that looks like the auto-attack chain finisher, which does higher damage. Both attacks occur after the whirl.

that’s why it works well with the mug combo when you precast it cause the whirl is usually what makes it miss, but steal puts you right on your target landing the first and second hit immediately, it doesn’t miss with precasting hitting, steal just at the end of the whirl. first hit strips a boon and crits for 2k second hit hits for 3.8-4k

frans.8092:

Panacea.4927:

The reputation of flanking strike is justified as it do miss very often. Flanking strike consists out of 2 attacks.

I can read my combat log just fine. Flanking Stab rarely missed (that’s the second one), actually neither did Flanking Strike (that’s the first of the combo).
This was in PvE, I doubt Wvw is any harder.

Yes because players in WvW will stand still and do nothing the whole time. As soon as your target moves, the second hit will very likely miss.

Panacea.4927:

frans.8092:

Panacea.4927:

The reputation of flanking strike is justified as it do miss very often. Flanking strike consists out of 2 attacks.

I can read my combat log just fine. Flanking Stab rarely missed (that’s the second one), actually neither did Flanking Strike (that’s the first of the combo).
This was in PvE, I doubt Wvw is any harder.

Yes because players in WvW will stand still and do nothing the whole time. As soon as your target moves, the second hit will very likely miss.

I’ve found that during flanking strike you can slightly “move” while in the animation, it takes a little getting used to but you can make work for you and you’ll rarely miss. Now if they dodge…try again

after the first strike you can move freely the second strike your not locked in place, when mugging during the whirl mug and first strike hit same time, immediately followed by the strike you can move with

With Haste, flanking Strike can be a monster for those 4 seconds.

After that, prepare to fly to the right half the time.

Flanking Strike is best saved for PvE or those rare 1v1s that may show up. Though every now and then I accidentally initiate a fight with sword/dagger since I was using sword’s shadow step for mobility and forgot to swap back to dagger. I tough it out and fight, and sometimes I’m surprised by what flanking strike can do.

But tactical strike is and never will be on par with backstab, even with the stun, so it makes me sad every day.

I’ve been trying ton convince the thief community for months that FS is actually really good and can be used reliably. Practice with it ALOT and you’ll start to see the pattern to it. Very rarely miss with it now unless my opponent actually dodges. Also helps to keep in mind that after the first strike you again have control of your character, allows for minor adjustments to ensure hit #2 lands.

Darxio.5672:

With Haste, flanking Strike can be a monster for those 4 seconds.

After that, prepare to fly to the right half the time.

Flanking Strike is best saved for PvE or those rare 1v1s that may show up. Though every now and then I accidentally initiate a fight with sword/dagger since I was using sword’s shadow step for mobility and forgot to swap back to dagger. I tough it out and fight, and sometimes I’m surprised by what flanking strike can do.

But tactical strike is and never will be on par with backstab, even with the stun, so it makes me sad every day.

S/D is not a brute force dps set, it’s about finesse and actually timing abilities.
That daze from tactical strike that’s just “meh” when just randomly spammed becomes WOW when you start using it to interrupt heals from your opponent, revives, and stomps.

Oh don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic in a real 1v1.

But in WvW, you don’t usually have the time to dedicate to the finesse, intricacies and beauty of combat. It’s do your combo and get out, especially when you have a commander tag on you like I do. Paints a ‘Kill me now’ target on a class that doesn’t want to be targeted.

Now if it hit 3 targets like the autoattack did, I’d be all over it like white on rice for WvW fights, even if it fails the back hit.

When I am PP/SD flanking strike is one of my go to moves to down someone. Infiltrators strike then an instant flanking strike will usually put someone down after I’ve harassed them with the pistols enough. I use a sigil of paralyzation on my sword that gives me an extra second on daze so hitting flanking strike usually works great unless they broke the daze.

Darxio.5672:

Oh don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic in a real 1v1.

But in WvW, you don’t usually have the time to dedicate to the finesse, intricacies and beauty of combat. It’s do your combo and get out, especially when you have a commander tag on you like I do. Paints a ‘Kill me now’ target on a class that doesn’t want to be targeted.

Now if it hit 3 targets like the autoattack did, I’d be all over it like white on rice for WvW fights, even if it fails the back hit.

I can’t speak to commander tags, but I do utilize all of those thought processes even in zerg combat. Perhaps it’s due to my having a build that can’t be just killed on a whim, too much armor rating for that.
I know most thieves run a bit less substantial of a character and taking a hit is a bad idea for them, but for me it’s simply a calculated risk that pays off very well most of the time.

Darxio.5672:

Oh don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic in a real 1v1.

But in WvW, you don’t usually have the time to dedicate to the finesse, intricacies and beauty of combat. It’s do your combo and get out, especially when you have a commander tag on you like I do. Paints a ‘Kill me now’ target on a class that doesn’t want to be targeted.

Now if it hit 3 targets like the autoattack did, I’d be all over it like white on rice for WvW fights, even if it fails the back hit.

It’s easier and takes less “finesse” then backstab really, I think what shadowkat means has more to do with timing a counter or control rather then just setting up for a spike hit. If you’re s/d you definitely get used that feel that ‘now is the time’ to land tactical strike, or flanking strike, or even #1 when one of your quickeness goes off. Especially in the case of tactical strike, you don’t want to waste that stealth unless you’re doing damage, plus interrupting or locking down a siege operator.

In the case of flanking strike, and let me say this in my manliest voice, think of it as hoola hooping, you have the hips and rhythm to do it or you don’t. After awhile you learn when to use it, and when to turn, hold down pan camer, or just leave it alone during it. After an even longer period of use, you might even learn to use it as an evade plus reposition in a team fight or an evade plus target change. Just use it.

kash.9213:

Darxio.5672:

Oh don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic in a real 1v1.

But in WvW, you don’t usually have the time to dedicate to the finesse, intricacies and beauty of combat. It’s do your combo and get out, especially when you have a commander tag on you like I do. Paints a ‘Kill me now’ target on a class that doesn’t want to be targeted.

Now if it hit 3 targets like the autoattack did, I’d be all over it like white on rice for WvW fights, even if it fails the back hit.

It’s easier and takes less “finesse” then backstab really, I think what shadowkat means has more to do with timing a counter or control rather then just setting up for a spike hit. If you’re s/d you definitely get used that feel that ‘now is the time’ to land tactical strike, or flanking strike, or even #1 when one of your quickeness goes off. Especially in the case of tactical strike, you don’t want to waste that stealth unless you’re doing damage, plus interrupting or locking down a siege operator.

In the case of flanking strike, and let me say this in my manliest voice, think of it as hoola hooping, you have the hips and rhythm to do it or you don’t. After awhile you learn when to use it, and when to turn, hold down pan camer, or just leave it alone during it. After an even longer period of use, you might even learn to use it as an evade plus reposition in a team fight or an evade plus target change. Just use it.

Well spoken. Yes this is in essence what I’m trying to say.