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wait wait wait wait…..99% of D/P thieves run 25 30 0 0 15 ???? really wow. tell me what is the “meat and potatoes” of this build? where does the dmg and defense come from? im gonna love this one. :P
It’s a tPvP spec obviously. It’s pretty much the regular backstab spec that is very similar to D/D. Only difference is that it has much more utility than regular D/D. Main combo is (basilisk) 5-2-steal-1, execution speed is around a second. Dazespam to autoattacks against single players is quite effective finisher aswell, shuts down very slippery targets pretty well. It’s not played like the wubwub “permastealth” build where you stack up invis.
Combo damage comes from:
- Steal gives you fury/might/puts a condition on target (+10% damage)/mug non-crit damage
- 5-10% dagger damage (force on mainhand+dagger training, you can use an “Improvisation” or “Back fighting” as alternative if you don’t want dagger training)
- Can use might for Assassins signet trait if you prefer it. Personally I don’t like it, staff guard can buff you well enough in midfights.
- +20% damage from executioner when target is below 50% (heartseeker from the combo will take target below 50% when you don’t do the burst against a full hp target).
- +10% damage when you’re over 90% hp from Scholar runes (you’ll do your burst from full hp usually)
- As a bonus Sigil of Air on offhand that can proc from mainhand skills
Your main active defense is shadowstep for stunbreak, sbow for mobility, spamming from offpoint and Z-axis abuse and d/p 5-2 for stealth to drop target, but again 5-2 chain plays a much lesser role in tPvP than in hotjoin/wubwub for example. If you fail your combo you retreat and try a clean opener a bit later.
Shadow refuge plays both an offensive and defensive role. Offensive uses are solo or group stealthed bursts. Defensive uses are of course clutch target drop when getting trained (needs very clever placement, since the area will get nuked hard), as a distraction (positive side of the last reason), very good clutch stomp prevention (someone is almost finishing stomp on your guard->drop SR and cancel their stomp attempt->2 people rez and get him up in 1.5 secs).
Since this is not wubwub spec, you’re not on ini regen/stealth focus. 15 points in trickery is to accommodate the quite expensive opener combo. It relies more on positioning/mobility as an active defense rather than stealth chaining. It’s because you don’t have the time to play around as a roamer, target must be dead in less than 10 seconds in sidepoint fights.
my point is you are basically relying on auto attack …..if u miss 5 2 steal 1 then ur out of initiative and a sitting duck. might as well use shadow refuge and try again 15 secs later. costing your team -1 man. its a bad idea and hurts the team. you have no initiative control in that build and in spvp/tpvp you are hitting a good BS around 6k maybe more depending on armor n runes etc. 9 initiative if u miss is huge. ur a sitting duck afterward :P