Guild Wars 2

During the developer live stream, Anet stated that pistol whip will be separated into two separate components. One of these components will be the stun and the other will be the slash/evade.

I am just wondering what the practical applications would be for an on-demand stun? Sure, the initiative cost would be lower by one point compared to head shot (if flanking strike/larcenous strike’s split is a sign of what is to come) and you will impede the target’s movement for half a second, but sword/pistol already has a one second immobilize for the same initiative cost (assuming the stun will be worth three initiative and the slash/evade will be two just like flanking strike/larcenous strike).

What about interrupting a skill? Well, as of right now the cast time for the stun on pistol whip is 3/4 of a second while head shot’s daze is almost instantaneous and the skill can be used on a target up to 900 range versus pistol whip’s 130 range.

I can see the practical application in flanking strike’s split. I have forgone using the boon steal simply because there was no boon to steal on my target and have just used the evade (even though more likely than not I do end up using the steal boon).

Personally, the stun on pistol whip that automatically follows into the blurred fr- I mean, evade/slash is what makes pistol whip viable. Currently, the stun allows just enough time for the target to take most, if not all, the damage from pistol whip. The split the developers are proposing just seems very… unnecessary and will force players to spam the #3 key in order to have pistol whip flow from the stun into the slash/evade.

What do you guys/gals think? What are some of the practical applications (if there are any) you can think of for having pistol whip become two separate, but chained, skills with their own initiative cost?

Link To Ready Up Cliff-notes: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1vharm/ready_up_livestream_notes/

Since it’s the Pistol Whip thread I’m just going to paste my last post back here…

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t destroy Pistol Whip.

I can’t play S/D anymore because of how they split the #3 skill. I just hate it so much. Now they want to take away S/P from me? =/

Thief WAS my favorite class but for the past couple of months I’ve only been using my warrior instead. I’ve been trying to get back to it recently and Pistol Whip is the only thing that doesn’t make me feel completely useless.

im not looking forward to this change. as you say it would just lead to people spamming the 3 skill because they dont want to lose time between the stun and the flurry.

pistol whip is in a good spot right now. if they want to change something they should either revert the damage nerf or lower the after cast again.

That’s up to how it will affect the weapon set’s DPS.

Because, just like in P/P, S/P’s 3rd skill is the weapon’s main DPS skill, it’s to be spammed as if there were no tomorrow.

As I’ve seen with S/D change, the weapon set’s survivability dropped INSANELLY, up to the point the weapon set became useless (no survival, no dps… who needs it?).

These are grim news. I can’t avoid comparing the mistake they did with S/D. If it goes as bad, then we can say goodbye Swords for Thieves. But anyway, having to press twice for a single skill which I’ll have to spam… will be annoying. This will just be bad.

I don’t like it. Pistol whip is in a good place right now.

I actually thought this was a good change to begin with, but you made me a bit sceptical. I guess they’ll atleast need to reduce the aftercast / casttime of the first part to bring it on par to its current version.

As much as I like s/p for its utility & damage, pistolwhip still is somewhat clunky to use and it encourages to spam the flurry because of its rather long evade frame. Maybe we’ll be able to move during the channel (with adjustments of course), but who knows…

I can only see 1 use for it atm:
When you missed the first part, you won’t have to waste your time being rooted there while eating damage by certain skills that bypass the evade

Gwalchgwn.1659:

I can only see 1 use for it atm:
When you missed the first part, you won’t have to waste your time being rooted there while eating damage by certain skills that bypass the evade

I really had not thought of that considering I tend to look on the negatives of what an implementation will cause and not really its positives. Although, allow me to rebuttal that with this:

You can easily break the root with by using A and D, sheathing, healing, Roll of Initiative, or any movement skills. So, even then, the practicality of the skill split seems nonexistent.

However, what you have said did spark the idea that you could potentially bait stun-breaks out of players expecting the inevitable blurred frenzy that will occur, but only to find out you saved it after you immobilized the target. Of course, this really only works against players. Having this affect carry over to PvE seems even more unnecessary as mobs are pretty much brain-dead. I can only see this becoming viable, to a small degree, if they implement major changes to how mobs without defiant or stability can react to players.

It would probably be okay if the Slashing part allowed you to MOVE

My main issue is just following the adage." If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!". They finally got pistol whip in a good place. I could see the PvP implementations of this but it just seems so unnecessary. When was the last time you saw real complaints about landing pistolwhip?

For DPS this is going to be a kitten spamming 3 twice for not apparent reason. S/D was originally having a lot of issue landing the second part of the skill. In this case splitting it will likely have the same effect. When was the last time you say there and ate a warriors 100 blades? Well have to spam 3 to land any of it in the first place so basically either the buff the stun and do a proper split or remove all after cast from the flurry portion and we still hit 3 twice to land anything. It will just become Illusionary leap → Swap→ Blurred Frenzy.

I do not see a buff in this. We have head shot if we need a real interrupt. This just seems like over thinking it.

You thieves are a bunch of idiots.

Look at Anet track record. They buffed S/D #3 only to make it kitten later.

The best thing you can ask for on the S/P is to keep it the same and no changes because once it become good, they will nerf it to the ground.

Viking Jorun.5413:

I don’t like it. Pistol whip is in a good place right now.

i disagree.

i think we need to unroot it and give it a -20% speed movement so gives other players a lil chance to get away. basically cripple players are the only ones who will truly be caught.

This is literally my favourite change. Why would you have a problem with MORE utility? If you want to stun+slash, just hit it 2 bloody times. If you want to say, burn the stun > Infiltrators strike in > slash instantly while opponent is stuck for 1sec compared to 0.25 or 0.5 or w/e the stun is, you can.

Seriously this allows for way better hit-and-run. I already run PW in PvP, I’m so psyched for this change.

Not to mention timing evades is a LOT easier if you don’t have a 3/4s cast time on the stun to deal with. I’m simply curious as to how long you have the option to slash after using the stun.

I mean for one thing; the stun barely holds anyone for 3 hits anyway. The application of Infil > Straight into slash is waaaaaaay better.

Stop being so negative, you make all the other thieves sad to come near this board.

Well op mentioned the #2 immobilize and that’s basically what I was thinking. Why bother splitting the skill if a .5 second stun is just about the same as 1 second immobilize? End result immobilize will win and you can get that flurry off. Truthfully I dislike PW and think it isn’t thief fitting at all. If we are supposed to be nimble fighters how is a channeled root skill fit into that? Even if it has an evade in it still it seems silly imo. I say nimble to shorten up the description of thief from the wiki.

Viking Jorun.5413:

I don’t like it. Pistol whip is in a good place right now.

This.
I’ve enjoyed PW excluding that October break, changing the feel of PW is no bueno. I’ve yet to see options on the other sets (excluding SB) change in a way that is attractive. No S/P, no thanks thief.

If it wasn’t that I still like to explore Ele and Engi when im not playing S/P, I’d just delete the game come next patch. GW1 made many skill changes and not all I agreed with, but this rubs me the wrong way.

NinjaEd.3946:

Truthfully I dislike PW and think it isn’t thief fitting at all. If we are supposed to be nimble fighters how is a channeled root skill fit into that? Even if it has an evade in it still it seems silly imo. I say nimble to shorten up the description of thief from the wiki.

Swashbuckling pirates steal stuff too and are thieves too. S/P is more a pirate than an assassin

Although I no longer main my thief (original toon) when I heard this I thought that a lot of the thieves out there would love it. Sure it’s another button press extra every few seconds when dealing with PvE trash but surely this opens up more character control in PvP?

It appears I was wrong lol…

Travlane.5948:

Viking Jorun.5413:

I don’t like it. Pistol whip is in a good place right now.

i disagree.

i think we need to unroot it and give it a -20% speed movement so gives other players a lil chance to get away. basically cripple players are the only ones who will truly be caught.

In a team setting where your team mate can lock down the enemy the current pw is really good. It also great a interrupting and killing stealth/un stealth ressing. The evade is really handy. Sig of malice and pw ftw I’ll upload a vid when I get home.

Gwalchgwn.1659:

NinjaEd.3946:

Truthfully I dislike PW and think it isn’t thief fitting at all. If we are supposed to be nimble fighters how is a channeled root skill fit into that? Even if it has an evade in it still it seems silly imo. I say nimble to shorten up the description of thief from the wiki.

Swashbuckling pirates steal stuff too and are thieves too. S/P is more a pirate than an assassin

I like s/p, I don’t like pw though is what I meant. Granted its got its uses (mostly pve imo) but its a rooted channel skill. Not saying I think you should be able to move while in flurry but the skill as a whole is lame for a profession who is supposed to be dancing around the enemy.

NinjaEd.3946:

Gwalchgwn.1659:

NinjaEd.3946:

Truthfully I dislike PW and think it isn’t thief fitting at all. If we are supposed to be nimble fighters how is a channeled root skill fit into that? Even if it has an evade in it still it seems silly imo. I say nimble to shorten up the description of thief from the wiki.

Swashbuckling pirates steal stuff too and are thieves too. S/P is more a pirate than an assassin

I like s/p, I don’t like pw though is what I meant. Granted its got its uses (mostly pve imo) but its a rooted channel skill. Not saying I think you should be able to move while in flurry but the skill as a whole is lame for a profession who is supposed to be dancing around the enemy.

A lot of situations in PvE don’t let you do that though. When your group pushes a boss into a wall and stacks, you can’t exactly stand behind the boss and dodge all around + roll for initiave, etc. You can dodge roll into the wall like everyone else and stand there and DPS. Pistol Whip is our only option for that, since the healing with Signet of Malice is the only thing that keeps us remotely alive.

I’m looking forward to the change myself.

Though I initially hated the change to Flanking Strike + Larcenous Strike, that was more on execution than anything else. I had a hard time actually using the skill, but as time went on… I didn’t actually get better. But nonetheless, I consider that a “me” problem more than something Anet should fix. FS/LS was boss back when they made the change, and the only reason it has fallen out of use is because the boon stealing aspect was cut in half. It is still a decent skill otherwise.

I’m looking forward to the pistol whip change myself, due to one fact: the evade portion of Pistol Whip is on the second half of the combo.

The hardest part about using pistol whip in PVE has always been that the evade was nigh impossible to time. Enemies would get stunned then retaliate precisely when you weren’t evading, and the awkward pacing of the attack meant that it was extremely hard to use against enemies with defiant.

Splitting the stun portion and the damage portion would, in effect, split the stun portion and the evade portion. Since the evade is on the second half of the chain, this means that I can continually spam the stun portion inbetween enemy attacks, and then use the frenzy at the right time, allowing me to dodge their moves. The overall timing would still be difficult due to the length of the attack as a whole, but it would actually be possible now.

I would find this preferable to FS/LS, since with Larcenous Strike you are locked out of the evade, but with pistol whip you would be locked into the evade until it was used. Though it won’t be as spammable, so maybe S/D will still find a place for me in PVE.

What they want to Do: increase the stun duration on whip. So that the whole skill can Land without utilities.
Thats why they Split the skill.
They cant increase stun time now cuz you could stunlock to death.

But we All Know what will happen to this skill…

Domey.9804:

What they want to Do: increase the stun duration on whip. So that the whole skill can Land without utilities.
Thats why they Split the skill.
They cant increase stun time now cuz you could stunlock to death.

But we All Know what will happen to this skill…

Your right. However this is how I see it. In PvE it is just an extra button push serving no purpose. In PvP it is a buff. That will inevitability lead to a nerf. Why you ask? All main hand sword thieves know how awesome slice is. Animation is stupid short and it actually hits hard. We can literally achieve good good damage with auto attack not unlike sword for DPS guardian, ranger, and warrior pre the final thrust move from auto attack chain.

I think a possible combo could be Stun -> slice-> slash. Target just ate half a PW while stunned in roughly half the time. This will likely lead to an auto attack nerf or some other nerf to compensate. I can see the complaints now about getting stun locked by thief and how this is Mc/Sh + GS warrior all over again. I can see anet coming in here and doing what they usually do nerfing gimping our dps further in PvE to help PvP. I can see the flood of stun spammers (new to the class) saying it isn’t OP while some vet thieves resort to it for the sake of viability. Others say some thing along the lines of,“We’ll it is not stealth and you can counter it with stability.” So we see a slight of hand + bountiful theft nerf to compensate. All the while people kitten about stealth and how thief is so OP.

Before all of that let me say the skill is fine as is. In strong language leave it the kitten alone.

Out of curiosity, assuming Sword/Pistol does get “balanced” as they often like to put it, what weapon set will be your fallback.

But if it does end up coming out better than before like the person above suggested, I can just feel the complaints coming. Give one class something, some complaints here and there but whiners are usually shot down. Give it to a thief and boom, instant uproar.

Ooh, new genius plan. Maybe they should split unload so you have to press it for each bullet.

Necrotize.2974:

Out of curiosity, assuming Sword/Pistol does get “balanced” as they often like to put it, what weapon set will be your fallback.

But if it does end up coming out better than before like the person above suggested, I can just feel the complaints coming. Give one class something, some complaints here and there but whiners are usually shot down. Give it to a thief and boom, instant uproar.

Ooh, new genius plan. Maybe they should split unload so you have to press it for each bullet.

My backup plan is GS + Axe/Mace.

Or possibly Ranger if they fix sword auto-attack.

Necrotize.2974:

Out of curiosity, assuming Sword/Pistol does get “balanced” as they often like to put it, what weapon set will be your fallback.

But if it does end up coming out better than before like the person above suggested, I can just feel the complaints coming. Give one class something, some complaints here and there but whiners are usually shot down. Give it to a thief and boom, instant uproar.

Ooh, new genius plan. Maybe they should split unload so you have to press it for each bullet.

If they “balance” PW, my fallback is staff. On mesmer.

TheGuy.3568:

Domey.9804:

What they want to Do: increase the stun duration on whip. So that the whole skill can Land without utilities.
Thats why they Split the skill.
They cant increase stun time now cuz you could stunlock to death.

But we All Know what will happen to this skill…

Your right. However this is how I see it. In PvE it is just an extra button push serving no purpose. In PvP it is a buff. That will inevitability lead to a nerf. Why you ask? All main hand sword thieves know how awesome slice is. Animation is stupid short and it actually hits hard. We can literally achieve good good damage with auto attack not unlike sword for DPS guardian, ranger, and warrior pre the final thrust move from auto attack chain.

I think a possible combo could be Stun -> slice-> slash. Target just ate half a PW while stunned in roughly half the time. This will likely lead to an auto attack nerf or some other nerf to compensate. I can see the complaints now about getting stun locked by thief and how this is Mc/Sh + GS warrior all over again. I can see anet coming in here and doing what they usually do nerfing gimping our dps further in PvE to help PvP. I can see the flood of stun spammers (new to the class) saying it isn’t OP while some vet thieves resort to it for the sake of viability. Others say some thing along the lines of,“We’ll it is not stealth and you can counter it with stability.” So we see a slight of hand + bountiful theft nerf to compensate. All the while people kitten about stealth and how thief is so OP.

Before all of that let me say the skill is fine as is. In strong language leave it the kitten alone.

Interesting post, never looked at it that way tbh. Although i saw it as you did, a pvp buff but an extra button press in PvE.

great pw already kills any toon I play that dosen’t have an evade/block rdy. Combined with immobilize stacking that thieves seem to be able to do (just had 1 match where the eng I was playing was immobilized for the full duration of pw) and great, more risk free ganking for a class that has too much of that already

“Pistol Whip possibly split into two-part skill with separate ini cost (stun and then slashes separated)”

By separating PW into a two-part skill with separate ini cost, I wonder if/how much the ini cost will be in total. Will they increase the cost or keep it the same? If they increase the cost then this is a nerf. I don’t mind having to press #3 twice for the total effect of PW. I actually like having the option to either use the full PW ability or to just use it as a stun. Always hated locking myself into an immobilize/stun for the duration of PW while my enemy runs out of it.

dylan.5409:

great pw already kills any toon I play that dosen’t have an evade/block rdy. Combined with immobilize stacking that thieves seem to be able to do (just had 1 match where the eng I was playing was immobilized for the full duration of pw) and great, more risk free ganking for a class that has too much of that already

You were immobilized the entire time and didn’t do anything? That’s like 2-4(depends if they had haste trait) seconds where you were just standing there eating pistol whips. Its hardly free risk, not to mention nothing is really free risk on thief when it comes to burst. If the enemy sees you coming or sees you stealth, “lol block” and you have a 3 second block that will out last stealth. Heck if you see a thief with sword coming towards you and start to cast pistol whip, just tumble. Odds are they’ll teleport to you with steal or signet and you’ll already be out of the attack range. But seriously, when immobilize is the only worthwhile condition the thief is gonna put on you, why not cleanse is…

@ Necrotize
There are a lot of assumptions in your post so maybe I came across as inexperienced. Im not a pro, but ive also been playing, on all proff’s for 1yr or so. Yes I was immobilized till dead by a pw’ing thief. This was with rabid, so not full glass and it took 1 whip and some auto attacks to go from 100 to 0. As you’re post implies a thief has a lot of options to land its burst, not limited to yet including several different types of teleports. As to risk/ reward, there is less risk for a class that teleport/ stealth when engaging than say my ranger. I would think that much is obvious. There are a lot of different forms of mitigation, you’re correct. That being the case, my trapper ranger should be able to 100-0, during say the spiders immobilize, anything under 2k toughness right? Or do we need to account for cooldowns?

The change to PW is going to be awkward.

The only situation i could imagine the split being useful is for using your sword 2 immob your target then hopping right into the slashes. Then again this would require you to burn your stun before shadow stepping.

Another downside is that if you happen to miss your stun or immobilize you will be walking around with the slashing evade frames that you’ll probably be forced to burn your ini on if you wish to reclaim the stun skill.

Optimally I would like if pistol whip were just separated into 2 different skills rather than a chain skill but that’s not going to happen.

ill likely keep running PW thief post patch as 25 20 0 25 0 build for capped p?ysical damage (yea im one of those rare thief who run acrobatics and get things done realy well with it, you people should run dodge thief more often)

WHY MAKE PISTOL WHIP A 2 BUTTON SPAM SKILL.

WTF is the point in that, EVERYONE is just going to SPAM number 2 EVEN faster than before.

There is no need to change Pistol Whip, PLEASE do not change it,.

Thief has been nerfed enough, Please, ANET YOU ARE MAKING ME CRY FOR REAL.

All is vain!

Faux the reason should be simple even to you. Its to provide a low cost fee interupt to sword/pistol build and allow better management of the initiative. In pvp this is gunna be epic, In pve it will likely help lvling up your thief and fighting trash mob more effectively (pve mobs auto attack are predictible and as such a well placed stun make them unable to score their hit, then you only need to use the flurry at the right time to block the next blow, I noticed a while ago that because flurry and the stun are poorly timed togueter there is a opening time between the two wich leaves you vulnerable to interupt, stuns, and what not. Separating the hits and making the stun a faster animation could actualy be a good idea)

kyubi.3620:

Faux the reason should be simple even to you. Its to provide a low cost fee interupt to sword/pistol build and allow better management of the initiative. In pvp this is gunna be epic, In pve it will likely help lvling up your thief and fighting trash mob more effectively (pve mobs auto attack are predictible and as such a well placed stun make them unable to score their hit, then you only need to use the flurry at the right time to block the next blow, I noticed a while ago that because flurry and the stun are poorly timed togueter there is a opening time between the two wich leaves you vulnerable to interupt, stuns, and what not. Separating the hits and making the stun a faster animation could actualy be a good idea)

We will see how it goes on Tuesday.

You can also space other skills in between. For instance, pistol whip initiate interrupt, auto attack 2 times, pistol whip evade, auto attack 2 times, pistol whip initiate interrupt, auto attack 2 times….

You can basically permanently stun-evade lock any non Defiant target nonstop. At present you can only stunlock using headshot, as pistol whip’s intiative cost is too high – but doing so means you can’t have pistol whip’s DPS.

If the initiative cost is the same, this is a buff. As long as they don’t do something like nerfing it later I’d see it as a Good Thing.

dylan.5409:

@ Necrotize
There are a lot of assumptions in your post so maybe I came across as inexperienced. Im not a pro, but ive also been playing, on all proff’s for 1yr or so. Yes I was immobilized till dead by a pw’ing thief. This was with rabid, so not full glass and it took 1 whip and some auto attacks to go from 100 to 0. As you’re post implies a thief has a lot of options to land its burst, not limited to yet including several different types of teleports. As to risk/ reward, there is less risk for a class that teleport/ stealth when engaging than say my ranger. I would think that much is obvious. There are a lot of different forms of mitigation, you’re correct. That being the case, my trapper ranger should be able to 100-0, during say the spiders immobilize, anything under 2k toughness right? Or do we need to account for cooldowns?

Sorry if it came off as a lot of assumptions, I was trying to figure out ways to get immobilize other than venom and Sbow sneak attack and realized the only other one would be panic strike which would mean if pistol whip could knock you down below 50% that immob would restack assuming this thief actually built for that. I wasn’t aware you were running a glassier spec than most engineers I come across(most of them are full of tanking utilities and such) so it would make sense pistol whip would do a lot. Squishy classes really don’t have much hope against pistol whip if they don’t play preemptively. Most squishies can be burst down with a few teleports and PWs before they even realize what happened thanks to haste on crit.

But ya, against squishies PW is killer. But keep in mind, apart from shadow refuge, these sword thieves most likely don’t have stealth and they rely on teleports to land PW so if you see them casting PW out of range, tumble. Otherwise they’ll steal as soon as its about to hit and PW you. I’m not too familiar with rangers but I do know their damage abilities are fairly underwhelming so it might not be a fair comparison. I’ve personally never had trouble with a ranger. I’ve had a few that can hold on for a while but most of them drop the second I interrupt their heal with steal+PW.

I believe for the Dec. 10th Collab, Jsharp said that if they split the skill, that would possibly allow them to bring the stun up to a full second.

Which sounds pretty good for me….

The pistolwhip (short Story in 11 chapters)

1.it will be good
2.many thieves will try this Set in pvp
3.warrior: “kitten cant Do anything. Dat teef stuns me den evades evrythin, nerf dat anet!!!”
4.anet: "warrior has Problems, we need to “shave” pw"
5. Ini cost goes up by 1
6. Warrior: “teef still stuns me n evade All my hamr attacks, nerf more”
7.anet: “hm…better we reduce stun time back to 1/2sec But leave upped ini costs untouched”
8. Thief: "but…you wanted to buff pistolwhip? "
9. Warrior: “So many stuns, so many evades, clearly op”
10.anet: " ok we nerfed pw twice after buffing it, so its Not pw what makes thief op. We better nerf other skills from this Set. Blackpowder 2sec casttime to add counterplay. Sword AA dmg reduced by 15%"
11.thief: “i didnt want this buff, i knew what would happen…”
End

Domey.9804:

The pistolwhip (short Story in 11 chapters)

1.it will be good
2.many thieves will try this Set in pvp
3.warrior: “kitten cant Do anything. Dat teef stuns me den evades evrythin, nerf dat anet!!!”
4.anet: "warrior has Problems, we need to “shave” pw"
5. Ini cost goes up by 1
6. Warrior: “teef still stuns me n evade All my hamr attacks, nerf more”
7.anet: “hm…better we reduce stun time back to 1/2sec But leave upped ini costs untouched”
8. Thief: "but…you wanted to buff pistolwhip? "
9. Warrior: “So many stuns, so many evades, clearly op”
10.anet: " ok we nerfed pw twice after buffing it, so its Not pw what makes thief op. We better nerf other skills from this Set. Blackpowder 2sec casttime to add counterplay. Sword AA dmg reduced by 15%"
11.thief: “i didnt want this buff, i knew what would happen…”
End

+1 Love this post. Been playing PW thief for a few months now. When I started playing it back in September I thought I found a “secret” kick #ss build for thief that no one knew about. Now it’s out in the open and we will be seeing more and more PW thieves, especially if it’s buffed. Guess it’s time to find the next “secret” OP build lol.

Luto.1938:

Domey.9804:

The pistolwhip (short Story in 11 chapters)

1.it will be good
2.many thieves will try this Set in pvp
3.warrior: “kitten cant Do anything. Dat teef stuns me den evades evrythin, nerf dat anet!!!”
4.anet: "warrior has Problems, we need to “shave” pw"
5. Ini cost goes up by 1
6. Warrior: “teef still stuns me n evade All my hamr attacks, nerf more”
7.anet: “hm…better we reduce stun time back to 1/2sec But leave upped ini costs untouched”
8. Thief: "but…you wanted to buff pistolwhip? "
9. Warrior: “So many stuns, so many evades, clearly op”
10.anet: " ok we nerfed pw twice after buffing it, so its Not pw what makes thief op. We better nerf other skills from this Set. Blackpowder 2sec casttime to add counterplay. Sword AA dmg reduced by 15%"
11.thief: “i didnt want this buff, i knew what would happen…”
End

+1 Love this post. Been playing PW thief for a few months now. When I started playing it back in September I thought I found a “secret” kick #ss build for thief that no one knew about. Now it’s out in the open and we will be seeing more and more PW thieves, especially if it’s buffed. Guess it’s time to find the next “secret” OP build lol.

I’ve been running PW for nearly a year (was the first set I used when I started my thief and switched from warrior) and I honestly can say that I don’t think you’ve found some “secret” build that works magically. I’d love to see it and have you prove me wrong, but I’ve been running a no-stealth 10/0/0/30/30 for ages (10/30/0/0/30 in PvP because CS is what makes an effective thief in that mode) with loads of success, especially with the PW buff December 10th.

What I mean by a “secret” build is that it used to be that no thief really ran 10/30/0/0/30 in pvp. Now they are springing up like weeds! I originally made this build to buff the hell out of stealth while using s/p for an attempt at stunlocks. When I was trying to come up with a “new” build I was reminiscing the days of old when I used to be a mace rogue in wow with stunlocking capabilities. I was looking for something to that effect in GW2 to counter Warriors and Guardians. What I found was this build that not only provided all the stuns I was looking for but also mobility and a steal that would make all classes envious, not to mention better condi cleanse than my previous d/p build.