Guild Wars 2

Can someone point me to a guide for the most basic intro to D/D? (Or explain it if no guide exists.) I play a lot of different characters, so I am far from expert on Thief at the moment. When I do play I usually go S/P with shortbow secondary. (Though I did to a ton of D/P when deadeye farming was around.) I need to know the mechanics of the timing behind the high damage D/D builds I’ve been hearing about. (For example, after CnD to backstab how do you get the timing right before the next CnD with revealed hanging about?) I’d like to try it both in PvE vs. bosses (where the multiple targets I hit with sword won’t help me and neither will the blind from the pistol) but possibly in PvP or WvW. I’d need ground up basics. Does a guide exist or could someone advise?

In PvE you can just rotate CnD > Backstab > AA chain > repeat with Infusion of Shadows (10 in SA), optionally you can add 10 points to SA for Cloaked in Shadow which is semi-perma AoE blind.

Traits: 30/30/10/0/0 or something to that affect.
Gear/Trinkets: Zerker everything, mix in some Soldiers gear if you don’t like how squishy you are.

So even if you’re in position quick for the backstab, revealed will be gone by the time of one autoattack chain? Thank you.

Yup, the AA chain on Dagger takes almost exactly 3 seconds to complete, and revealed is 3 seconds in PvE/WvW.

The same can be done with 2 shots of a Pistol AA (with a very short addition on the end to make it 3 seconds) and about 3/4 of a Sword AA chain. You’re better of just letting the Sword AA finish for the big hit a the end (Crippling Strike, gives cripple + weakness as well), but you can cut it short if you really need to.

Is CnD —> Backstab better than spamming HS?

Kwak.4810:

Is CnD —> Backstab better than spamming HS?

If you’re being serious, the answer is as long as the target is > 25% HP.

At 25% HP heartseeker does nearly the same damage as backstab but costs much less initiative, is heat seeking and you don’t need to wait for revealed to fall off.

Hey, im a wvwvw human d/d thief from far shiverpeaks, i saw the tread and tought hey il come with some answers, so here you go.

so well, the good d/d thieves use the autoattack to determine revealed, cast cloak and daggre just after one chain of autoattack. Backstab is allways better if you need high damage, however if you need some quick easy to hit damage use a heartseeker or two. but il never reccomend use more than 2 hs at once, unless its for escape. Hs is never that good when your foe is over 50 %, and try to carry heal in shadows, shadowstep, shadowrefuuge and shadowsignet, if you got traveler runes you can use assasin signet or somthing else, for example shadowsignet if you need a really long jump. but id just stick with somthing easy, a good way to open a fight is to look for the sqishyest target, then precast cloak and dagger + steal (click cloak an dagger then steal right after), after that you follow up with a backstab from behind, then you do a autoattack restealth, then you adapt to situation if you are in trouble and are getting nuked, you cloak and dagger once, then wait out stealth and do it once more, then you backstab + hs. if they dont adapt them selves just do another backstab at stealth right after your first revealed. sometimes i love to use 4, for cripple against high moblity builds, sword + greatsword warriors anyone? XD But nice to see others try to repick the cool d/d set, you might think why play d/d? becuse the meta which is D/P may seem better by first eyelook, but if you go close into it you will know why, becuse d/p will way often do heartseekers, and what cant you do during an animation? DODGE, and you know how crucial dodges is in this game? it the butter. but cool. cya

Maybe it’s because I wasn’t using the steal to CnD trick, but I was trying last night to do CnD, backstab, then one 3 part autoattack chain, and it seemed like I wasn’t coming out of revealed in time. Maybe I was just screwing up but I guess it might depend on how long it takes to move around the target to get into the backstab position (like I wasn’t side stepping enough for a proper hit from behind so revealed hadn’t finished.) Do you move through the target when trying to hit from behind? Is there something else I could be doing off?

If you were in PvE or WvW then I’m not sure what you were doing wrong. You can hit CnD and then Backstsb the instant it becomes available and it won’t be any different, in fact, that’s how you get high DPS.

Keep in mind that the range that counts as the back if a target is quite large and encompasses some of their side as well.

the revealed is done when the cloak and dagger connects, remember it got a animation.

I figured out what it was and it was just a noob mistake, I was hitting cloak and dagger after the 3rd slash, not the full autoattack (not realizing the first part of the auto attack has the dual animation due to “double strike”.) Thank you everyone for the help, it works really well!