Guild Wars 2

I play a D/D backstab thief, but my skills could use some polishing. Any advice or tips given by fellow thieves, will be greatly appreciated. I run 0/6/6/2/0, almost full zerker.

1. Positioning. I struggle with it. When roaming out with havoc, I have more targets to CnD and backstab, no problem. But out on solo, I have a very difficult time getting close. The people I practice with are very good at making sure I can’t land a proper backstab. By the time I’m in a position to strike, my stealth is over. There must be something I’m missing, to get behind them in a timely manner. I usually waste my attack into a facestab.

2. Secondary weapon set? SB feels wasted, since I don’t optimize condition damage. Right now I use offhand P/D, and P/D 3 has saved my life more times than I can remember. But it doesn’t do any damage, and just serves as utility. What would you advise for the offhand weapon(s)?

One job as a havoc thief is to run into an enemy group that’s trying to capture a point. I distract and disrupt enough people away from the point, maybe pick of stragglers, and buy time for my group/zerg to get there and wipe them out. It’s kamikaze suicide – I need range, and a quick escape. P/D seems best to fit this need, but it’s not helpful if I go out solo roaming.

3. I’m wondering if there’s any other viable builds for D/D. I like daggers – they’re pretty. That’s the sole reason I picked D/D. But I wouldn’t mind trying out something new.

4. Any changes to options menu, that can assist in gameplay? Already sped up my camera, but I haven’t toyed with other options. What do you guys have it set to?

Any advice? None?

Meh.

Are you in NA or EU?

i have/had a similar position issue with d/d but mostly because i’m on a macbook with a trackpad that is probably not helping matters. like you said, it’s less of a problem in group fights due to targets being less aware of me, but 1v1 i miss backstab a lot.

ended up switching to a power p/d spec when solo and it’s been decent. doesn’t hit as hard but is much more forgiving of non-perfect positioning. pistol mastery, infiltrator’s signet, auto targeting, and lock auto target on seem to help with this set as well. cast CnD, steal or infiltrator’s signet, unload, shadow strike, kite, repeat.

harley quinn and oscuro both have great power p/d posts on these forums. you might want to check them out.

i’d be interested in advice to your questions too. hopefully they don’t all involve expensive gaming mice…

D/D only really does well in group situations when you have others to take all the attention while you do your thing.

But in solo roaming it’s just not that good. Today most other roaming builds have a number of defensive cooldowns, traits and effects to mitigate your damage. This isn’t 2012 anymore where you could kill most enemies with a single Cloak and Dagger + Backstab combo.

Builds and players have evolved. Dagger/Dagger has not.

D/P fares much better when solo. It uses the same gear and roughly the same traits, so switching isn’t a big deal. The play-style takes getting used to as it’s quite a bit different than D/D. D/P excels at going toe to toe with enemies and tanking them with Blinds, rather than constantly stealthing.

I’d recommend you give it a shot.

I agree that Shortbow really doesn’t help much in solo-roaming scenarios. There are very few situations nowadays where I ever switch to the Shortbow. Mostly it’s just a Bloodlust-stacking weapon and used for Zerg fights.

P/D might be a very viable alternative weapon-set.

sword pistol is a good offhand set for the chase and control. Also black powder. S/D is also good.

If you are Not sure you will Hit the back, just Dont atk. Let your stealth Run out, cnd again, safer…more dmg than facestab.
Sb is still a good offhand weapon. If you face a decent engi you will need it.

I’m just much too aggressive sometimes…I gotta learn to be patient.

I switched to a s/d offhand for non-kamikaze roaming, and my goodness, I love it. It’ll take me awhile to get the timing down.

To verify, I was practicing in PvP – does the reveal there last an extra second? It feels like my timing is off.

Yes, revealed is 4 seconds in spvp.

Dee Jay.2460:

This isn’t 2012 anymore where you could kill most enemies with a single Cloak and Dagger + Backstab combo.

Not entirely true – people who actually dodge my obvious signet burst when I run straight at them seem to be a rare breed.

yski.7642:

Dee Jay.2460:

This isn’t 2012 anymore where you could kill most enemies with a single Cloak and Dagger + Backstab combo.

Not entirely true – people who actually dodge my obvious signet burst when I run straight at them seem to be a rare breed.

DD is still beast against mediocre or worse players. The field where it, imo, lacks is fighting people that actually anticipate CnD and dodge it. I played SD/DD for a very long time so I know it inside-out. I still play it from time to time just because it feels cool but its skill ceiling is pretty low compared to other sets. SD/PD have been my combo of choice for quite a time now, just fyi.

^Agreed, for the most part. I’m just having a hard time finding those good players in random WvW roaming

I was playing S/D + P/D earlier with 2/0/6/0/6 full zerker with some knight stuff, had quite a good time, omnomberry ghost and maintenance oil to get some extra damage and my crit chance up. I’m however quite annoyed at the low mobility, so would probably pick D/P as offset for stealth on demand and HS spam for mobility.

I think it was some vid by Amonatory or what he is called who inspired me.

Also heard Rune of Strength with min 25 Shadow Arts along with 10 Acro for Power of Inertia is a really nice way to go with D/D or D/P currently, thieves have been having around +15 stacks of might which gives quite handsome backstab numbers.

To answer your issues.
1. Be patient with your backstabs, judge when you enter stealth if you will be able to land one or if you are better off heartseekering to keep pressure, or simply if you will need to land another cloak and dagger after the opponent has wasted defensive mechanisms to go in for another backstab.

2. SB is still my favourite offset, might be a habit from tPvP, but in WvW with dagger mainhand P/D can serve you quite well too, if you feel it has low damage you have misjudged it try land a #3 on someone, sometimes it hits for 4k+, S/D and S/P are also really nice offsets with their own pros and cons, S/P can be used together with D/D well, but it doesn’t benefit much from SA, so I like D/D + S/P most with 5/6/0/0/3.

3. 2/6/6/0/0, 0/6/6/2/0 and lastly 6/6/0/0/2 and 5/6/0/0/3 if you wanna be hardcore.

4.
-Camera Rotation speed, get as high as you are comfortable with, it’s quite useful to be able to spin quickly.
-Turn off melee attack assist, this one is quite hax, since you can avoid melee attacks by hugging someone and walking through them or around them. It might be harder to position yourself for backstabs though. Also you will be able to walk through people while in stealth, without dodging.
-Instant ground targeting, learning to use this function will hone your performance as thief slightly more since it will let you respond quicker with ground targeting skills. Like for instance when you wish to perform and CnD combo with Shadow Step.

And a random hint: Many opponents will try to counter basilisk venom (if you use it) so a good way is to enter stealth and put it up, and walk after them while in stealth, then CnD and Backstab when the previous stealth ends or CnD>Steal>Backstab, this is good in particular against other thieves. Guardians will often put aegis up when you enter stealth though.