Guild Wars 2

I played the 0/30/0/30/10, but I couldn’t really 1-1 much. Could be partly L2P issue, or just incompatible play style.

So here goes, my personal take of S/D. It trades off 10% damage for a little more survivability especially vs. condition/warrior meta.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAsY8YlYmCO3dS5E95ExmidKUOFM1pdP4qVrKA-TwAg0CnISSlkLJTSyksJN+Y9xugJBA

The idea is to use stealth sparingly, and rely mostly on evade/roll, but not abandon it completely.

Strength:

1) Condition remove on stealth
2) Condition remove on “2”
3) Semi permanent regeneration
4) Tougher armor than the standard S/D.
5) Ability to mix your dodges with stealth for more confusion.
6) You have all 5 weapon skills, rather than relying on only 3.
7) You can take a power rune, rather than lyssa for better dps and still have better condi removal.

Weakness:

1) You give up the GM trait in critical. In justification – I’m not a big fan of executioner since it’s not the most reliable source of damage. Besides if enemy is at 50%, you’re already winning, it just helps you win a little faster. Hiden killer is useless w/o backstab.

2) You cannot spam stealth, use it judiciously to remove condi or maintain perma regeneration or confuse enemy by stealthing and disengage via. “2”

3) There is no 1-click disengage w/o SR. This build is meant mostly for 1v1, and I’m of the opinion that if you run, you lose. So either win or die trying, but either way keep your honor :P And they said there’s no honor among thieves, sheessh.

4) There’s no caltrop spam – again goes back to (3), but also I find a lot of warriors have zerker stance, that practically makes caltrop practically useless. And warrior is meta right now. Similarly vs. necro the caltrops is only helping them heal faster which just works against you. Again, necro is the meta right now.

5) You lose some initiative regen from steal vs. traditional build.

Comment, thoughts or critique?

This isn’t a criticism, since I’m still new to S/D. More a curiosity. Do you find yourself needing that much initiative gain? I find it to not be a particularly hungry set so far, but I could very well be doing it wrong.

I went 30 in acro, because I kept swapping weapon to get more endurance (dodges). Also helps me dishout 10% more damage – so why not.

The dodges are 33% off because of acro trait 15.

The dodges helps me maintain semi-perma swiftness in addition to bailing me out from constant death.

The swiftness helps me to stay on target, also allows me to take a more aggressive runes.

Pack was chosen due to added precision, which helps in init regen. The 20% + swiftness duration from pack also helps you maintain the swiftness boon from your dodges.

It’s not a hungry set, but sometimes when you see a guard / ele with 12 + boons, you can’t help but spam 3. The init regens helps you. In a pinch you can also spam “2” + stealth to get rid of about 3 condi in 3 seconds (pretty good I think)