Guild Wars 2

Is there a place where p/p Thief can really shine? Pve, Wvw, PvP? Or at least p/d? I really like the animations and style of double pistols Also i like to be a range thief, if possible. SB damage seems really low so i’m wondering about pistols …
Or do you more recommend me p/p Engineer?

PVP, Pistol/Pistol is viable, and it’s easy. It hits pretty darn hard even with paladins amulet.

“Viable” is matter of definition.

Speaking of WvW, cheeze builds such as permastealth condi trapper or dire perplexity is alot stronger in pretty much any situation. But does p/p work? Yes. Its actually quite fun and intensestyle of play. You can do it on stock thief too, no daredevil. I run my thief as trick based p/p/bow with some amount of armor (1400 toughness/vit I think) and will wreck squishies in +1 fights and even 1v1 dueling to a modest degree (thief isnt my strongest suite). I actually have near zero stealth, lol.

Between a thief and a p/p scrapper (screw that engie) the scrapper has the advantage 90% of the time. Thieves just flee like little girls when I am on my scrapper – or they accidentally die by tripping over a gyro or something.

Either way, both are fun.

From a WvW perspective. I run around with d/p, shortbow, obviously. But in some duel-situations p/p can really shine (btw I don’t change my build in any way for p/p, simply switch out shortbow).

Against Dragonhunters, espacially if they rely heavily on traps, it’s super strong.
Against some kinds of Druids, normally d/p is enough, but sometimes they play with a lot of sustain and you simply need something to keep the pressure up, then p/p can be very useful.

Other than that, you can still use p/p for other classes as well, but you have to figure out yourself if it’s what you want. I recommend playing with dash rather than with bound. Use channeled vigor and SoA to pace around.

At the beginning of HoT i played a Staff, p/p build. It has really good synergy if you want to give it a try.

It’s fun to play (my opinion of course) even if it has never been considered as a powerfull gameplay.

Those videos found on the net are closed to what I have tried with that kind of thief:

A classic vintage thief (without HoT): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwo4QhWBqyg
A build based on invisibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51l_gXEO-PQ
A build based on dodge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0_u96cKnCY

With a little effort you’ll find others on the net or by yourself (venom, etc…)

Have fun

I use it on multiple build times and it very viable. I would not use it as a standalone set. It is a set that makes other sets around them better. As example build might stacks with Unload and switch to headshot to proc higher PIs as the might lingers. Spike up might with unload and swap to an off hand weapon set with a sigil of intell and get three AAs off with might stacked all attacks critting.

In condition hybrid builds get your conditions on using AA or things like venoms then use unload to get might up to the conditions tick higher. If you have confusion/bleed torment on they all get boosted in damage. It akin to potent poison for everything and works on top of potent poison.

It an INI hog if you rely too much on unload so in my opinion you make up for that with utililties and weapon skills that do not take ini, those being things like venoms, fist flurry, caltrops , bounding dodger , lotus training and the AA on weapons.

in pvp and some wvw duel the problem with p/p is the reflect

engi, ele, guard have too many reflect

Viable ? No. fun to use and burst people down?, especially DHs Yes.

I like to use it in open world PvE so I have a ranged option for when I can’t get close with my Staff. Technically, Shortbow would be better for AoE tagging, but with P/P you can spam Headshot against Breakbars.

I have been running P/P this last week and it has been fun using a very classy build with Assassins Amulet DA/Tri/ CS with Skale Venom, Haste and Assassins signet, and BV. If you get caught you will most likely die, it is used a Soley a +1 build but I did find it is very strong against DHs, now Engies and Eles avoid like the plague you will most likely end up killing yourself if you don’t have a Melee option.

I don´t main thief but i play it for fun and enjoj it. It´s a real fun build and actually can kite a target to death. As you said DH is fun.
I am not a to good thief but this is what i currently use.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAqaVl0Mh2mYnTwsJQ/EH8El/IyiFkXCZwIoPzfIAA-T1iFABjoHAgTAgGaCse/BlU2g8hAQgHAAWKBZR9nkUKl9RAYdwBADI2ZnN2ZFCw8YA-w

I can escape or kite with it and its a base thief. :-). I play it on occasion in WvW.
And well since i main ele i have no fear shooting them. Just don´t unload into reflection ^^.
My classic opener is choking gas, swap unload then depending on reaction might be steal, sneak attack, unload, trap for stealth , sneak attack, unload ….
Especially the healing dodge is great.
A CC chain kills me. So if i am hit by a stun i can only pray that it´s not followed by another one and i can dodge out to run… But i can often dodge it or it´s only one CC which hurts but doesn´t kill me.

Using this for HoT & Bloodstone Fen.
PVE only.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQNAW6al0MhanYzTw3JQ/EL/Em3SYK8EmDgFwH42YKA8fA-TBSBQBFZ/hMq8DAPBATqE8BXAgFcQAQhuhAq+DpAMRZE-e
No stealth

It’s only good if you catch the enemy off guard/no cool downs or if the enemy is a sack of potatoes that dosnt dodge.

Dawdler.8521:

dire perplexity is alot stronger in pretty much any situation. But does p/p work? Yes.

Dire Plex is dead on thief more or less.

It’s viable for me! No it’s not Condition Damage…that’s disgusting. It’s Power, like anyone should play it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoaA5TcJm74

pistol without a good portion of power (2k+) would not feel right :-). But hybrid damage is quite ok.

I play my thief p/p in spvp and I have to tell you: i kittening love it! Never liked the thief that much.

P/P in sPvP brings out all the salt. I love it.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

P/P in sPvP brings out all the salt. I love it.

Until higher levels of play where virtually every point defense build laughs at it.

Straegen.2938:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

P/P in sPvP brings out all the salt. I love it.

Until higher levels of play where virtually every point defense build laughs at it.

Yeah haven’t had issues yet, I’m not running the pure Yolo build, and I kite, now if you dump absolutely everything into it and fail then yes you will die instantly but with Shadowstep, Blinding powder and positioning I can normally bait out all of the defensive Cooldowns to allowing me to open up for the kill. I have also ran Staff as secondary in some matches when I play DrD for this build and it allows me to burst/survive if they do close on me.

P/P produces strong single-target burst and not a whole lot else. I find it useful as a backup to staff for solo PvE, where the damage is more useful than the utility of shortbow.

Unfortunately, P/P is not a great set. Most of your damage is locked into pistol 3. Once you run out of initiative either by spamming pistol 3 or utilizing other skills, your damage drops off sharply. The other abilities in the set don’t bring much to the table and using them reduces your damage output significantly. And since P/P is all single-target damage, you’re at a huge disadvantage over the available melee options when taking on multiple enemies.

So, I use P/P because it’s better damage than shortbow, but I strongly advise against attempting to use P/P as your primary weapon set as a thief (It may be an option in PvP, however!). It’s boring and far less effective than the melee weapon sets.

I find P/P gets more use during bosses that force squishy thieves out of melee range. My goal is always to get back in close and switch back to staff, but when forced to range P/P can produce decent numbers for a brief period until I can get back into melee.

In any situation where you can safely be at close range and especially when facing multiple enemies at once, melee weapons are vastly superior for thief. You deal more damage to more targets and you aren’t as limited by initiative.

It works relatively well in WvW and the damage is obscene now that you can self-stack Might by using Unload over and over again. Bound + Black Powder allows you much more access to stealth too which only helps. However, your damage comes almost entirely from Unload, which is an initiative hungry skill, so as the poster mentions above, it’s not a great choice for your primary set but can be taken in place of shortbow…for fun. I do sometimes go P/P + shortbow, but I do take Impairing Daggers which offers more burst during initiative downtime.

P/P is an excellent weapon to use if you get boon durations up and use it as a supplement to other sets. head shot in a PI build should not be overlooked. With might stacked it will hit hard when it procs and has the added benefit of interrupting an enemies casts. This really works well on necros as they have a lot of high activation time skills. P/P might well be useful only against one enemy , but the might you can stack will work against every enemy when you switch to melee and use a cleave or vault. In order to lessen the need for unload I suggest here another form of gaining might used in conjunction (ie in WvW dumpling with a sigil of strength).

If you fixate on unload it diminishes.

P/P can be very effective as part of a condition set and in particular one with high condition duration. The issue is of course some means of gaining stealth which can be done via utilities or trapper runes or with the bounding.

If you take pressure strike and get durations up both 4 and 2 become very usable. just as example mixed with respite needle trap you can do something like precast your heal or needle trap when needed, steal to the enemy thus dropping needle trap get behind the guy and use 5 and start getting those ticks up higher with might off the unload. 2 can just keep loading on immobs or used in conjunction with a venom.

If you took BA in trickery this is 5 confusion , 3 bleed, three poison, weakness and an immob in a single steal. headshot can be used to apply more torment and you will have multiple sources of immobs to lock the enemy in place. Once you get the stacks on use the unload to add might for harder ticks.

With max might stacks on the damage delivered by the AA from bleed and the base damage increases significantly.

If you immob a foe and keep him like that, you can move in behind and do a boatload of harm without him being able to attack in turn.

Note this will not work against the warriors with perpetual resistance.

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Yeah haven’t had issues yet, I’m not running the pure Yolo build, and I kite, now if you dump absolutely everything into it and fail then yes you will die instantly but with Shadowstep, Blinding powder and positioning I can normally bait out all of the defensive Cooldowns to allowing me to open up for the kill. I have also ran Staff as secondary in some matches when I play DrD for this build and it allows me to burst/survive if they do close on me.

Sounds nice at low level unranked play. I wouldn’t bring that into ranked play particularly at the higher levels. The first point defense Druid, Scrapper, Tempest, Guardian, etc just tears through them. Its not like those other classes don’t have an answer for Shadow Step. When I play thief I have to keep Shadow Step and SB up just to get a slight distance from Druids.

Straegen.2938:

BlaqueFyre.5678:

Yeah haven’t had issues yet, I’m not running the pure Yolo build, and I kite, now if you dump absolutely everything into it and fail then yes you will die instantly but with Shadowstep, Blinding powder and positioning I can normally bait out all of the defensive Cooldowns to allowing me to open up for the kill. I have also ran Staff as secondary in some matches when I play DrD for this build and it allows me to burst/survive if they do close on me.

Sounds nice at low level unranked play. I wouldn’t bring that into ranked play particularly at the higher levels. The first point defense Druid, Scrapper, Tempest, Guardian, etc just tears through them. Its not like those other classes don’t have an answer for Shadow Step. When I play thief I have to keep Shadow Step and SB up just to get a slight distance from Druids.

I have used it in Ruby this season (have only been playing for kittens and giggles this season mostly have been in WvW)and up to diamond last season, I haven’t had issues with kiting people, when playing with the DrD variant the BP> Bound is amazing I lose out on some burst but it allows even more kiting, I don dump all I in in to unload spam. Then with Blinding powder or BP/Bound before Shadowstepping They have to guess where I went and can’t just port to me, right now the only classes that give me issues with the build are Scrappers and Eles.

Normally I will engage with one unload most times they will start popping their defensive CDs I stealth wait out the Defense open up with Sneak Attack see if they waste more CDs restealth so on normally I can burst most DHs in a matter of seconds, while keeping them at range, the Druids are a little harder to crack mostly have to play LoS games with them, I won’t go after certain points if a Druid is on it, I have found this build works best on Khylo and Forest for all of the LoS spots.

If I run the Core Da/Tri/ Cs build I will stay range focusing targets down with quick 100-0 bursts, normally act as a ranger pet to another player, and decap empty nodes or harass players trying to travel to nodes since they don’t try to fight most times.

On either of the builds a good Thief will give me issues, since they can employ similar tactics as well as stick on me easier while I kite.

P/P is viable but forget about it if there’s a tank ele in the other team, i speak from experience, i can get 20 seconds straight of reflect with my ele (party members included) and P/P thieves tend to go crazy with the spam and usually they die without noticing.

Do you think that P/D is much weaker than P/P in PvP? Looks like as the most useless weapon set in the game …

p/p is viable till diamond
it is also must have set for some high lv fractals since you are forced to kite boss and can’t nuke them in seconds

Sifu.9745:

Do you think that P/D is much weaker than P/P in PvP? Looks like as the most useless weapon set in the game …

I would not know about PvP bt p/d works very well as a condition set WvW and can be deadly against all classes barring those with high resistance uptime (resistance is OP IMO as it compromises ALL conditions)

As a power set it underwhelming.

babazhook.6805:

Sifu.9745:

Do you think that P/D is much weaker than P/P in PvP? Looks like as the most useless weapon set in the game …

I would not know about PvP bt p/d works very well as a condition set WvW and can be deadly against all classes barring those with high resistance uptime (resistance is OP IMO as it compromises ALL conditions)

As a power set it underwhelming.

There used to be a Power P/D set built around kiting and Shadow Strike to keep distance. I also remember someone having a video posted, but it was years ago. Something like this would probably be close enough to what it was. High cripple uptime and gap openers for pretty decent keep away.

Even then, it would probably work better as a hybrid set with Carrion or something.