Guild Wars 2

I have toyed around with p/p but i am not one to state any opinions for the simple fact is that im a noob. But i do have a hard time with any p/p builds what so ever, i just cant seem to find any. the builds i am looking for is either pve and or pvp.

Thanks for your time and any imput and what gear i need to be heading towards would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

There’s a video in this thread that details the P/P – S/D build I run with. Build, gear, etc are at the end of the video. It’s for wvw but can adapt to pve.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/P-P-S-D-WvW-Video-Something-Different/

Im running P/P + D/D in WvW atm. Full crit exotic bersker + ascended build with runes of the scholar and deception and toughness in the traitline. Its extremely squishy, but it does so much damage. Im relatively new to the thief, but this last week Ive been playing him in WvW and for a char that only has around 11k health deception skills making him extremely survivable. To compare that to my Necro who has 34k health, Id take the Thief. But if your a “noob”, I dont know that I would recommend that build because it is pretty unforgiving.

I’m working on leveling a P/P + D/D build now. It’s not bad, just a little “interesting” to use. 1v1 I can pretty much do whatever I want, but when fighting groups, I tend to stick to D/D. Only lvl 25 atm with this one, so most of the time, I’ll stack up conditions and evade (skill perk that allows me to drop caltrops every time I dodge). NPC’s never seem to learn to flank and the caltrops eat them alive. Mainly, you just have to pay attention to the battlefield at all times because you’re going to have to be extremely mobile to survive. It’s still pretty fun when you get the opportunity to toy with a mob for a little bit before their own stupidity gets them killed.

No, there really isn’t.

P/P has poor damage, very little utility besides blind that many just move out of and high end bosses ignore, and a high cost daze.

In PvP, Thieves P/P is probably the worst weapon sets in the game, this is comparing to almost every other classes weapon sets.

Daecollo.9578:

No, there really isn’t.

P/P has poor damage, very little utility besides blind that many just move out of and high end bosses ignore, and a high cost daze.

In PvP, Thieves P/P is probably the worst weapon sets in the game, this is comparing to almost every other classes weapon sets.

To be fair, P/P excels at taking out extremely dangerous individuals – such as Keep lords, Siegerazers or rampaging Beserker Warriors.

It is a support single-target DPS weapon set however: it only excels when your group outnumbers the enemy, or if the enemy can’t reach you.

Iohanna.4863:

Daecollo.9578:

No, there really isn’t.

P/P has poor damage, very little utility besides blind that many just move out of and high end bosses ignore, and a high cost daze.

In PvP, Thieves P/P is probably the worst weapon sets in the game, this is comparing to almost every other classes weapon sets.

To be fair, P/P excels at taking out extremely dangerous individuals – such as Keep lords, Siegerazers or rampaging Beserker Warriors.

It is a support single-target DPS weapon set however: it only excels when your group outnumbers the enemy, or if the enemy can’t reach you.

I could pretty much put any weapon besides P/P in that and say it does it better. Also what does P/P do to make the enemy not able to reach you?

I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter what weapon you use if you outnumber the enemy.

Daecollo.9578:

Iohanna.4863:

Daecollo.9578:

No, there really isn’t.

P/P has poor damage, very little utility besides blind that many just move out of and high end bosses ignore, and a high cost daze.

In PvP, Thieves P/P is probably the worst weapon sets in the game, this is comparing to almost every other classes weapon sets.

To be fair, P/P excels at taking out extremely dangerous individuals – such as Keep lords, Siegerazers or rampaging Beserker Warriors.

It is a support single-target DPS weapon set however: it only excels when your group outnumbers the enemy, or if the enemy can’t reach you.

I could pretty much put any weapon besides P/P in that and say it does it better. Also what does P/P do to make the enemy not able to reach you?

I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter what weapon you use if you outnumber the enemy.

The Thief’s other weapons require the Thief to be in melee range: which can often be suicidal regardless of the Thief’s skill or the no. of allies (see Siegerazer).

I do consider P/P to be the least practical weapon set, but one must at least recognize its strengths. It is bad practice to rashly dismiss the weapon as inferior.

Iohanna.4863:

Daecollo.9578:

Iohanna.4863:

Daecollo.9578:

No, there really isn’t.

P/P has poor damage, very little utility besides blind that many just move out of and high end bosses ignore, and a high cost daze.

In PvP, Thieves P/P is probably the worst weapon sets in the game, this is comparing to almost every other classes weapon sets.

To be fair, P/P excels at taking out extremely dangerous individuals – such as Keep lords, Siegerazers or rampaging Beserker Warriors.

It is a support single-target DPS weapon set however: it only excels when your group outnumbers the enemy, or if the enemy can’t reach you.

I could pretty much put any weapon besides P/P in that and say it does it better. Also what does P/P do to make the enemy not able to reach you?

I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter what weapon you use if you outnumber the enemy.

The Thief’s other weapons require the Thief to be in melee range: which can often be suicidal regardless of the Thief’s skill or the no. of allies (see Siegerazer).

I do consider P/P to be the least practical weapon set, but one must at least recognize its strengths. It is bad practice to rashly dismiss the weapon as inferior.

No, your forgetting about the Short Bow, which does everything you said the pistol did above, but better.

¹ To be fair, P/P excels at taking out extremely dangerous individuals – such as Keep lords, Siegerazers or rampaging Beserker Warriors.

The Short bow can cripple, while dodging backwards, kiting the enemy if they get close and dealing more damage then pistols ever dreamed to, this cripple is spammable.

² It is a support single-target DPS weapon set however: it only excels when your group outnumbers the enemy, or if the enemy can’t reach you.

Short bow can lay down combo fields that can poison entire raids of enemies, and if your outnumbering the enemy, short bow can cripple or infiltrator’s arrow to chase them.

Its absolutely inferior, in almost every way. (which is very sad, because its what attracted me to the class.)

The Shortbow applies conditions, but it can never out-damage P/P in ranged single target damage.

Iohanna.4863:

The Shortbow applies conditions, but it can never out-damage P/P in ranged single target damage.

I agree that P/P has serious burst, but after its gone all you have left is dinky crappy vital kitten.

Short Bow can do so much more, and over a minute + fight, it outdamages it simply because of multiple blast finishers combined with the combo fields the thief has.

Daecollo.9578:

Iohanna.4863:

The Shortbow applies conditions, but it can never out-damage P/P in ranged single target damage.

I agree that P/P has serious burst, but after its gone all you have left is dinky crappy vital kitten.

Short Bow can do so much more, and over a minute + fight, it outdamages it simply because of multiple blast finishers combined with the combo fields the thief has.

Then we are mostly in agreement.

Check out a video I’ll be posting soon on the forums; it illustrates a situation where we really could have used some P/P.

I think P/P is very viable when used in combination with S/D, D/D, etc. I mostly roam solo in wvw and have rolled with PP/SD with very good success.

Lofat.2406:

I think P/P is very viable when used in combination with S/D, D/D, etc. I mostly roam solo in wvw and have rolled with PP/SD with very good success.

I feel like you might be on to something with treating P/P as a swap for another weapon with built in control and gap closing. In theory I guess you could utilize unload’s burst as a ranged opener to soften up a target once, then swap to your main set, swapping back to P/P whenever it’s tactically sound to do so.

It’s like the inverse of the way most of us use shortbow. We use it as a defensive swap to get out of combat. This sort of use of P/P would be as an “opener swap” which would make using the on swap sigil effects for your main set potentially highly valuable in a burst chain setup.

I tend to open with a few unloads and hit them with a headshot as soon as I see them going for the heal. After that I switch to S/D and either get them with an infiltrators strike followed up by a flanking strike, or i’ll precast flanking strike so it hits as I steal. It’s a very easy combo but requires a switch halfway through. I’ve also done the opposite and opened S/D infiltrators strike, auto attack, and swapped back to pistols after using shadow return.

I wouldn’t rely solely on P/P, but it’s a great set to have and use in any power/precision build.

Not sure about WvW, but I find that a dual pistol/shortbow build is the strongest for DPS in dungeons/fractals while maintaining high survivability.

You can actual trait for high initiative generation, use roll for initiative, and the infiltrators signet and you’ll end up with an almost constant stream of Unloads of around 7-10k a burst (more at enemy less than 50% with executioner trait).

So that’s usually around EIGHT Unloads in a row… which works out at 8 × 7-10k damage in the space of 14 seconds. Not to mention you are ranged, so can avoid big hitting bosses/mobs.

Put the points into acrobatics so that you have might on dodge, and party might on steal. You get endurance back on dodge, so you can do more. Infiltrator’s signet gives you back full might too when activated. So plenty of dodging to avoid being touched,

Shortbow for mobs of 2 or more and you’ve got an extremely effective PVE DPS build.

I’ve tried. P/P just sucks for PvP relative to any other option. Nothing can be done about it. It’s a PvE or Zerg weapon-set at best.

20/30/0/20/0 or 15/30/0/25/0, it’s pretty much a staple in high-level fractals.

25/30/x/x/x is decent too if you don’t feel refunding traits constantly, but once you get to 20+ you pretty much always be using P/P + SB anyway.

I run P/P and D/D (D/P pistol sometimes too) in WvW and I LOVE IT. P/P is definately viable imo. You just have to see it for its strength – a high (note that it is not the highest) burst damage single target range weapon. Think of what you want to do, how you want to play and pick a weapon set that suits that.

Im new to GW2 only starting around Xmas and halfway through levelling i switched to P/P simply because it was lots of fun. Now ive managed to get up to lev20 Fractals and spend alot of time in WvW and i still run P/P as it continues to be fun.

Im doing 0/30/0/20/20 although after reading this thread ill probably give another build a go

However, it really does feel that im laying out less damage than everyone else around me (both in Fractals and WvW). It also feels like its a build which hasnt had any love by the devs, its kinda been thrown in there and hasnt been taken seriously.

I think they need to add a more control for PvP build and more sustained damage for PvE. At the very least someone at Anet needs to sit down and take a serious look at Thiefs P/P and give it some love!