Guild Wars 2

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the sword/dagger build and that it can be used in almost every aspect of the game. I am wondering what is the best way to use this build for PvE Leveling and Dungeons? I just started a Thief today and was looking to get into this build. Any help is appreciated and if someone could link me an updated version of the build i would really appreciate it, thanks

Sword/Dagger is a decent weapon set but the content dictates both the play-style and the build.

In sPvP it’s all about maximizing your ability to spam dodges so you generally go 10/30/0/30/0. In PvE however that’s not nearly as relevant and you’re better off with Sword/Pistol and spaming Black Powder.

In general you should drop the idea of playing a particular weapon set. In PvE especially you should always carry all weapons with you, just so you can adapt, even if your build sin’t optimized for it.

Okay then, got any links to a good Sword/Pistol build? I’ll check it out

If you’re still leveling then a level 80 build with full traits will not help you.

For Sword/Pistol with blackpowder it doesn’t matter much as, but 15-20 in acrobatics is good for extra dodges from Feline Grace (blind doesn’t work against bosses) and acrobatics has several food Adept traits, trickery has some nice init related traits, you’ll want a bigger pool and more regen to be able to use BP and Pistol Whip frequently. Other then those, damage.

But do experiment with your builds.

Well can you link a build just so i can have a general idea on how to spec my points and see what insignias i should start using. Plus i would also have an idea of what i would look like at level 80. If you could throw a build together for me or just show me one i would really appreciate it, thanks.

UndeadCreepshow.5317:

Well can you link a build just so i can have a general idea on how to spec my points and see what insignias i should start using. Plus i would also have an idea of what i would look like at level 80. If you could throw a build together for me or just show me one i would really appreciate it, thanks.

25/30/0/0/15 full zerker scholar runes. 25/30/0/15/0 for extra survivability. Use signet of malice and life steal food.

You should check out intothemists.com. They have really great in depth guides there which also include a couple of leveling guides.

i owuldnt play s/d anymore. with the changes to IR…it doesnt have enough dmg avoidance/mitigation. risky buidl.

Pretty much the standard S/P build currently.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAsKlYmTOJdi/cCZ7RFqT8k3DyasMLtC0EA-ToAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNKYSB

Compared to 25/30/0/x/x, it has more sustain and more utility, slightly less dmg.

Travlane.5948:

i owuldnt play s/d anymore. with the changes to IR…it doesnt have enough dmg avoidance/mitigation. risky buidl.

I still use s/d after the nerf, here’s my video to prove its still viable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwdg6InQnTg

How do you do that jumping evade (like on 00:27)?

Mhh, Ok. I tried that manually but I suppose not enough at the same time. I think the R.A.T. doesn’t do simultaneous keypresses :s

Amonatory.2453:

Travlane.5948:

i owuldnt play s/d anymore. with the changes to IR…it doesnt have enough dmg avoidance/mitigation. risky buidl.

I still use s/d after the nerf, here’s my video to prove its still viable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwdg6InQnTg

s/d is still very playable against thieves yes i agree but its not thieves im worried about. in first fight i saw 2 zerk thieves and you were blinding them which is cool but not why s/d is risky. warriors/necros/guardians/engineers etc those are real problems and also the highest played classes in wvw/pvp. fight number 2 was against all upscales and i turned it off after that.

s/d is arguably BARELY viable but its too risky too play. any class with KDs or CCs or AOes and fear….they are going to own you no matter how good you are (if the are decent to good or better). s/d has to be played with high dmg and low defense relying on blinds to really stay alive. it HAS to be played with SS and sig of agility to drop those CCs . its a very pigeonholed build that leaves the thief very vulnerable especially in 5v5 or higher battles.

you will almost never see a thief video playing against decent zerg v zerg or 8v8s that have necros warriros engineers and the lot mixed in playing well and not using upscales on either side. they will fold up like a lawn chair or be invisible alot of it on the sidelines until everyone is being wore down which leaves your team at a sizeable disadvantage 8v7 etc. all the s/d videos left are 1 v 1 and against zerks/rangers/upscales and small small battles. if u do for some reason see a larger group in a video….its bc they are farther off and not in danger of hurting the thief or the thief is on edge of battle trying to pick off a loner that is bad or doesnt have the right build and had to exit combat.

all in all…. s/d is amazingly fun. it was my favorite build as it left the thief to his own devices and qualities/faults but now since we cant respond to CC/KDS etc we are sitting ducks with such low HP when good warriors/necros/engineers etc come into the fight.

Travlane.5948:

Amonatory.2453:

Travlane.5948:

i owuldnt play s/d anymore. with the changes to IR…it doesnt have enough dmg avoidance/mitigation. risky buidl.

I still use s/d after the nerf, here’s my video to prove its still viable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwdg6InQnTg

s/d is still very playable against thieves yes i agree but its not thieves im worried about. in first fight i saw 2 zerk thieves and you were blinding them which is cool but not why s/d is risky. warriors/necros/guardians/engineers etc those are real problems and also the highest played classes in wvw/pvp. fight number 2 was against all upscales and i turned it off after that.

s/d is arguably BARELY viable but its too risky too play. any class with KDs or CCs or AOes and fear….they are going to own you no matter how good you are (if the are decent to good or better). s/d has to be played with high dmg and low defense relying on blinds to really stay alive. it HAS to be played with SS and sig of agility to drop those CCs . its a very pigeonholed build that leaves the thief very vulnerable especially in 5v5 or higher battles.

you will almost never see a thief video playing against decent zerg v zerg or 8v8s that have necros warriros engineers and the lot mixed in playing well and not using upscales on either side. they will fold up like a lawn chair or be invisible alot of it on the sidelines until everyone is being wore down which leaves your team at a sizeable disadvantage 8v7 etc. all the s/d videos left are 1 v 1 and against zerks/rangers/upscales and small small battles. if u do for some reason see a larger group in a video….its bc they are farther off and not in danger of hurting the thief or the thief is on edge of battle trying to pick off a loner that is bad or doesnt have the right build and had to exit combat.

all in all…. s/d is amazingly fun. it was my favorite build as it left the thief to his own devices and qualities/faults but now since we cant respond to CC/KDS etc we are sitting ducks with such low HP when good warriors/necros/engineers etc come into the fight.

Once again you’re wrong, I duel almost everyday, and ive dueled some of the best Engis, Necros and warriors. Even If they CC im able to handle it, I rarely lose to a necro or an engi. Just because we cant return doesn’t mean anything…. S/D is still viable and I know for a fact it is behind a good player who knows how to play that spec. If you cant face anything with CC that is your fault completely, not s/d.

Also, fight number 2 was boring I agree, but if you didnt notice that was pre nerf and I only put it on that video because my friend wanted me too.. I urge you to watch further.

s/p for dungeons, occasionally d/d or sb but usually s/p.

s/d sucks for dungeons unless you’re doing some boonsteal farming, in which case it’s just a novelty.

d/d or s/p or sb usually for pve.

wvw…whatever build you like best, but there will always be professions/builds that you can NOT kill as a thief (hambow war, condi necro, condi engi especially) no matter what build you choose.

PvP…d/d sb or s/d, I don’t find d/p that useful anymore, and I still think s/p is gimmicky for PvP and often not effective.

Form.8741:

s/p for dungeons, occasionally d/d or sb but usually s/p.

s/d sucks for dungeons unless you’re doing some boonsteal farming, in which case it’s just a novelty.

d/d or s/p or sb usually for pve.

wvw…whatever build you like best, but there will always be professions/builds that you can NOT kill as a thief (hambow war, condi necro, condi engi especially) no matter what build you choose.

PvP…d/d sb or s/d, I don’t find d/p that useful anymore, and I still think s/p is gimmicky for PvP and often not effective.

I dont understand why you all say you cant kill necros, engis and warriors…… I can kill them usually with ease with s/d. Engis are really only powerful when they use perplexity, but you can still kill them.. I have yet to come across a build that I cannot beat.

Amonatory.2453:

I dont understand why you all say you cant kill necros, engis and warriors…… I can kill them usually with ease with s/d. Engis are really only powerful when they use perplexity, but you can still kill them.. I have yet to come across a build that I cannot beat.

A really good Necro, Engineer or Guardian with the right builds usually have the odds on their side, you can even find these chasing thieves. And some warrior builds in WvW are like fighting a stonewall; your fists bleed while you didn’t even scratch the wall. A skilled mesmer is usually 1:1 with thieves. A highly skilled ranger can also reach 1:1, but takes a lot of effort and experience.

I pretty much kill 92% of everyone I find 1v1, if the 92% of who,e I killed learnt from the 6% who killed me or I had to run from, maybe we would have less complaints about stealth.

Tested a different S/D build earlier in sPvP, was really fun to play it and worked better than expected.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYm6OncS6E/5Eh3DyO2wqVgmdP4qV1KA-TsAg0CtIKSVkrITRyisFNKYZx0CA

Credits to Arganthium.5638

Ghostwolf.9863:

Amonatory.2453:

I dont understand why you all say you cant kill necros, engis and warriors…… I can kill them usually with ease with s/d. Engis are really only powerful when they use perplexity, but you can still kill them.. I have yet to come across a build that I cannot beat.

A really good Necro, Engineer or Guardian with the right builds usually have the odds on their side, you can even find these chasing thieves. And some warrior builds in WvW are like fighting a stonewall; your fists bleed while you didn’t even scratch the wall. A skilled mesmer is usually 1:1 with thieves. A highly skilled ranger can also reach 1:1, but takes a lot of effort and experience.

I pretty much kill 92% of everyone I find 1v1, if the 92% of who,e I killed learnt from the 6% who killed me or I had to run from, maybe we would have less complaints about stealth.

Tested a different S/D build earlier in sPvP, was really fun to play it and worked better than expected.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlYm6OncS6E/5Eh3DyO2wqVgmdP4qV1KA-TsAg0CtIKSVkrITRyisFNKYZx0CA

Credits to Arganthium.5638

That comes out to 98%, but it wasnt your fault, I stole the remaining two.

I suggest using D/D when levelling, since it deals more damage overall.
S/D is better when you need more mobility and control, so you should use it in more challenging content. Levelling is somewhat easy, so a full damage spec would be better.

So. basically people do not use s/d + d/d builds in wvw? I am getting a bit tired of running with a sb without using that for 99% of the time so I thought using s/d as a secondary set.

aspirine.6852:

So. basically people do not use s/d + d/d builds in wvw? I am getting a bit tired of running with a sb without using that for 99% of the time so I thought using s/d as a secondary set.

The thing is to use a sword usually requires a build specifically for the sword, this is because SD can be very initiative hungry. DD can hold up with a minimal initiative based build, so if you’re using DD, you generally wouldn’t use SD as you’ll quickly ind yourself running out if resource, that and you’ll be downright confused as to what to do. Give a stealth thief a sword and watch how cute and confused they look. The sword promotes non stealth play and it’s stealth attack isn’t as powerful as backstab so you’ll downright want to and not want to go into stealth because you want to and not want to use that stealth move you aren’t built for and use those acrobatics you aren’t built for

Amonatory.2453:

frans.8092:

How do you do that jumping evade (like on 00:27)?

I have it set to jump and dodge roll at the same time with my naga

You might want to review this post;
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Policy-3rd-Party-Programs-Multi-Boxing-Macros/first#post1532762

Note: “For example, if you Press A and it results in the casting of a single skill, you’re ok. If you Press A and it casts multiple spells, you’re not ok.”

It might save your account.

RedSpectrum.1975:

aspirine.6852:

So. basically people do not use s/d + d/d builds in wvw? I am getting a bit tired of running with a sb without using that for 99% of the time so I thought using s/d as a secondary set.

The thing is to use a sword usually requires a build specifically for the sword, this is because SD can be very initiative hungry. DD can hold up with a minimal initiative based build, so if you’re using DD, you generally wouldn’t use SD as you’ll quickly ind yourself running out if resource, that and you’ll be downright confused as to what to do. Give a stealth thief a sword and watch how cute and confused they look. The sword promotes non stealth play and it’s stealth attack isn’t as powerful as backstab so you’ll downright want to and not want to go into stealth because you want to and not want to use that stealth move you aren’t built for and use those acrobatics you aren’t built for

That is quite helpfull thanks. I think I need to see if armours could match or else I will get another set for s/d. I have seen some vids and I think I will like the gameplay. Thanks again.

Frans you can jump dodge by pressing both keys manually, that’s how I do it and I’m still improving but I get it 80% of the time now. It’s almost the same time but you press jump before dodge. S/D works fine I still use it to great effect in high rank team/solo queues. If you’re still running dual signet try dropping the signet of agility for shadow step I swear by it!

Trickery d/p is better than s/d in my estimation but s/d is good enough that if you like it there is no reason not to play it still.

I suggest you try S/P for pve/dungeons #3 skill spam is op :p

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Amonatory.2453:

frans.8092:

How do you do that jumping evade (like on 00:27)?

I have it set to jump and dodge roll at the same time with my naga

You might want to review this post;
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Policy-3rd-Party-Programs-Multi-Boxing-Macros/first#post1532762

Note: “For example, if you Press A and it results in the casting of a single skill, you’re ok. If you Press A and it casts multiple spells, you’re not ok.”

It might save your account.

Oh I’m sorry, I never realized that jumping was a skill…

Amonatory.2453:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Amonatory.2453:

frans.8092:

How do you do that jumping evade (like on 00:27)?

I have it set to jump and dodge roll at the same time with my naga

You might want to review this post;
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/account/Policy-3rd-Party-Programs-Multi-Boxing-Macros/first#post1532762

Note: “For example, if you Press A and it results in the casting of a single skill, you’re ok. If you Press A and it casts multiple spells, you’re not ok.”

It might save your account.

Oh I’m sorry, I never realized that jumping was a skill…

If you read it, you’ll find this.

“This means that if you program a macro, it must require one keystroke per action. You may not program a single key to perform multiple functions.”

Suit yourself. I hope that reasoning convince them. Good luck.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Suit yourself. I hope that reasoning convince them. Good luck.

This is going a bit off topic about an imaginary event that is not going to occur.

frans.8092:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Suit yourself. I hope that reasoning convince them. Good luck.

This is going a bit off topic about an imaginary event that is not going to occur.

Let’s just hope you are right.

I just find it odd that he claim that S/D is still viable yet he require assistance from a 3rd party macro.

Let’s not pretend that S/D is still viable, because it’s not.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

frans.8092:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Suit yourself. I hope that reasoning convince them. Good luck.

This is going a bit off topic about an imaginary event that is not going to occur.

Let’s just hope you are right.

I just find it odd that he claim that S/D is still viable yet he require assistance from a 3rd party macro.

Let’s not pretend that S/D is still viable, because it’s not.

Dagger dagger masterrace? or not yet?

Sir Vincent III.1286:

frans.8092:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

Suit yourself. I hope that reasoning convince them. Good luck.

This is going a bit off topic about an imaginary event that is not going to occur.

Let’s just hope you are right.

I just find it odd that he claim that S/D is still viable yet he require assistance from a 3rd party macro.

Let’s not pretend that S/D is still viable, because it’s not.

Well, if it’s for a nice looking visual effect while dodging then it’s not assistance in combat.

Amonatory.2453:

Travlane.5948:

Amonatory.2453:

Travlane.5948:

i owuldnt play s/d anymore. with the changes to IR…it doesnt have enough dmg avoidance/mitigation. risky buidl.

I still use s/d after the nerf, here’s my video to prove its still viable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwdg6InQnTg

s/d is still very playable against thieves yes i agree but its not thieves im worried about. in first fight i saw 2 zerk thieves and you were blinding them which is cool but not why s/d is risky. warriors/necros/guardians/engineers etc those are real problems and also the highest played classes in wvw/pvp. fight number 2 was against all upscales and i turned it off after that.

s/d is arguably BARELY viable but its too risky too play. any class with KDs or CCs or AOes and fear….they are going to own you no matter how good you are (if the are decent to good or better). s/d has to be played with high dmg and low defense relying on blinds to really stay alive. it HAS to be played with SS and sig of agility to drop those CCs . its a very pigeonholed build that leaves the thief very vulnerable especially in 5v5 or higher battles.

you will almost never see a thief video playing against decent zerg v zerg or 8v8s that have necros warriros engineers and the lot mixed in playing well and not using upscales on either side. they will fold up like a lawn chair or be invisible alot of it on the sidelines until everyone is being wore down which leaves your team at a sizeable disadvantage 8v7 etc. all the s/d videos left are 1 v 1 and against zerks/rangers/upscales and small small battles. if u do for some reason see a larger group in a video….its bc they are farther off and not in danger of hurting the thief or the thief is on edge of battle trying to pick off a loner that is bad or doesnt have the right build and had to exit combat.

all in all…. s/d is amazingly fun. it was my favorite build as it left the thief to his own devices and qualities/faults but now since we cant respond to CC/KDS etc we are sitting ducks with such low HP when good warriors/necros/engineers etc come into the fight.

Once again you’re wrong, I duel almost everyday, and ive dueled some of the best Engis, Necros and warriors. Even If they CC im able to handle it, I rarely lose to a necro or an engi. Just because we cant return doesn’t mean anything…. S/D is still viable and I know for a fact it is behind a good player who knows how to play that spec. If you cant face anything with CC that is your fault completely, not s/d.

wow im so dumb sorry i didnt even notice this…but umm…. where is the duel part of the game?> ive only been here since release ….of both games for that matter. cant believe i missed this. where or howdo you get to the dueling portion of the game. so far i can only find the spvp/tpvp/wvw/pve sections. can you please post screenshots of how to get there? thanks

Post script – lawl.

RedSpectrum.1975:

Dagger dagger masterrace? or not yet?

Might as well. What else is out there?

frans.8092:

Well, if it’s for a nice looking visual effect while dodging then it’s not assistance in combat.

That would be for Anet to decide.