Guild Wars 2

The devs made a point to show this off in their livestream, but I don’t immediately buy that this will be any good simply because it can kill NPC’s. They obviously want us to want to use a D/D condi dodge spam build, but this build has always paled in comparison to other thief builds because the D/D #3 is the only real condi attack on the weapon set. My question here is, with the addition of Daredevil, can we finally make a thief build that doesn’t want to ignore D/D #3?

Death Blossom is a little bit crooked right now, but they gave us Thieves enough incentives to try it out. This might be an opportunity to fix D/D #3.

I am really expecting D/D condition thieves to start popping all over the place. It could work and like you said, we can finally make a thief build that doesn’t want to ignore D/D #3.

I think some of it depends on how Impaling Lotus works, whether it shoots out the three projectiles vs. a solo/duo target or not. The description lists 3 impacts and up to 3 targets.

I doubt it because Death Blossom’s evade is terrible and the aftercast is long.
So if you’re facing an opponent with the ability to see based on the animation when your Death Blossom’s evasion frame is over. Yeah… If such a person has any form of interuption at hand, you’re probably going to take a beating.

Fixing Deathblossom itself would go a long way towards making D/D DD viable. Changing that skill to a Whirlwind Attack style skill with a 0.5 second evade at the beginning and a 0.75 animation overall would make the skill useful for both power and condi, and raise the skill floor and cap of the set.

I currently run a D/D condi Thief, with Death Blossom being one of my main sources of damage. the answer is yes – it’s relatively viable in most of PvE (some areas are a no – high up places like dry top, or when stacking), and can work sometimes in PvP, but is generally not as good as a power build, as far as I can tell.

also, you will die a lot. even building some defensive stats. if you can deal with that, then go ahead, it’s still kinda fun.

This from a pvp pov.

One thing that I think is worth mentioning, that I’ve yet to see brought up in this manner, is the fact that impairing lotus has a near identical animation to death blossom. D/D #3 now has a new use – faking people out. You could potentially bait some dodges by mixing up impairing lotus with death blossom. DB is also good for applying that devourer venom with its multi-hits.

I plan to stack as much torment as I can, cover it up with usual stuff. Will it be viable? Maybe. Too bad bleeds dont do diddly squat. At least poison reduces heal effectiveness while sucking at dealing damage.

No props for hybrid thief?

I think finding your split between power and condi would make the PvE side alright especially if you can obtain some might. As for PvP, not sure if I’d recommend hybrid or DD deathblossom spam. But mixing in the new dagger physical would be real nice to add to your condition pressure plus you’d do some alright damage.

You can make a build that doesn’t want to ignore D/D #3 now; Caltrops + Death Blossom spam is perfectly reasonable for doing open world PvE and is actually pretty good against high HP veteran and elite mobs.

Will the addition of Daredevil suddenly make such a build competitive in PvP? I highly doubt it – it’ll still be extremely one dimensional with no burst, defense, or escapes.

As a fun casual build though, sure, I’m sure it’ll be fun.

Leo G.4501:

No props for hybrid thief?

I really like the idea, but given that Thief can’t even support a proper full condition build in SPvP right now, a hybrid build is even more out of the question.

In PvE you can just do whatever, though. One of the nice things about GW2.