Guild Wars 2

For those that have dabbled in extensive pvp since hot launch with your “elite” specializations, how do you fight a fellow daredevil if you both are bounding your hearts away? The thief forums has been in ruins lately (I may or may not have contributed >_>) so as for an actual constructive thread, how do we counter a thief AS a thief, specifically the Daredevil.

The staff is easily kiteable. So to avoid the burst of vault I would keep my distance and make sure I hit steal. If roaming you would probably be using SB. But if a duel go p/p.
Thief vs Thief is really all about hitting steal. So if using staff/SB, keep distance and avoid vault, since it is pretty easy to see. And make sure to dodge the steal.

You just have to outplay them as usual.

Besides rolling a DH/Reaper/Scrapper/Druid/Glint?

Just play pistol/pistol shortbow. If they are playing staff bound, then time your headshot to when Vault opens up and remember your Dash is longer than Bound by enough not to take damage. Most Thief players take a lot of time to recover from getting headshot during vault (guess they don’t believe its possible). If they do 3 vaults, they are outta initiative. Assuming skilled? They will pre-queue weakening Strike before tapping Steal (otherwise you go through target), the second you see it Steal into their Steal or just dash. It’s very easy stuff.

If its the condi lolz- one dodge on their second DB or LB will nullify all the conditions or most. It will also put you far out of range.

I always say this to my friends in game, but I can say it on forums a lot too- winning a duel is about calculating advantage. Did they burn 2 dodges? Cool, what did you trade? Did they blast cooldowns/lots of initiative? Great, what did you trade? Personally, I have found the most success on Pistol/Pistol+Shortbow. I can roam, vaporize squishies (wire-fist or steal-takedown), and with a great deal of focus shut down a considerable amount of specs. Still sucks that I can outplay so hard, then swap to my Reaper and go to autopilot for the same result. =/

Hope I helped, pm me in game or forum if you want build/more details.

I personally think its all about who hits the other first, especially when up against another staff thief.
The one who messes up first will surely lose.

However, I found dueling another good staff thief is a waste of time. We both survive for so long, evading everything that you are better off doing something else.

Just now I dueled another staff daredevil, and after 2-3 mins of dueling we just silently conceded to a stalemate, and ignored each other unless we have teammates with us.

EDIT: spelling

The key to Thief vs thief duels has always been making sure to hit steal for me. If one of the thief miss his steal, he’s in big trouble. Which sometimes require quite a bit of patience.

Right now the staff build or the D/P build are pretty heavy on finding a good time to unload your burst, so try to out play the other thief around this. Evade his burst and secure your own. Don’t rush it, count dodges, count the ennemy steal cooldown, try to know where his initiative stands during the fight.

Obviously it depends on opponent thief’s weapon set. Also all dodges have a very small frame you can take advantage of. Learn the animations greatly. Same goes with staff #5. You can actually interrupt that before the damage goes off during the animation.

It all boils down to that 1 instinct dodge that turns the tables/wins the fight.