Just want to start out saying that I think daredevil is strong and competes well against other classes in PvP / WvW. I would even go so far as to say its overpowered – but only relative to thieves other options. As such, core thief has a plague of issues. These stem mainly from a lack of sustain vs damage. Core thief is capable of good burst damage, but this never works in practice due to AOE, random cleave, invulnerabilities and strong down states.
I would argue that core thief has only 2 widely viable trait lines across all builds: deadly arts and trickery. Deadly arts gives a huge damage boost alongside utility functionality for condis / steal. Trickery is required to prevent initiative starvation and make steal into something useful.
Shadow arts is an exception under d/p power, due to reliable stealth access. Its considered “OP” due to how d/p allows a thief to effectively stealth camp. Under all other weapon sets, it is near useless due to lack of stealth access. Cloak and dagger is very high risk for low reward – it will not work against a competent player.
The critical stikes trait line offers similar dps to deadly arts, but none of the utility. The fury is nice, but fury can more easily be accessed via runes / trickery traits. Contains a handful of redundant / bad traits.
Acrobatics. The whole trait line is a mess. Its not even worth considering with daredevil. Pain response is goodish. Hard to catch sorta okay. But why are these traits superior in every way to the grandmasters in this line? The minors in this line are useless as is.
To surmise weapon set issues:
S/D:
- Damage output is low compared to mainhand dagger.
- Clunky auto attack.
- Sustain is okish, but nothing special.
S/P:
- Damage output unreliable, easy to avoid majority of pistolwhip damage.
- Clunky auto attack.
- Sustain is okish. Worse than S/D due to clunky pistolwhip frames / root.
D/D:
- Burst negligibly higher than D/P, but massive loss in practical dps due to a lack of chasing ability.
- Awful sustain due to lack of defensive mechanics..
D/P:
- Sustain is bad unless traited shadow arts. Otherwise lack of thief condi remove / heal shows.
P/P:
- Initiative hog due to being a 1 skill (#3) weapon set.
- Entirely reliant on utilities for sustain.
- Short 900 range exacerbates sustain issue.
SB:
- OK damage, but the projectile speed is unbearably slow on #2
- Sustain an issue when ranged DPS pressure is so low. i.e. enemy can safely ignore / avoid incoming damage.
- Shortbow #5 is why thieves can’t have nice things? (surely not….. looks at daredevil dash)
P/D:
- Weak in pvp due to lack of condi duration nourishments
- Mediocre condi damage. Reliance on utilities (venoms / traps / deceptions) for good damage.
- Reliant on gimmicky runes (trapper).
- Awful auto attack damage. Sustain an issue when pressure is so low outside of opening burst.
As it stands, I see daredevil staff provides manoeuvrability, cleave, auto attacks, evades, chasing ability and damage in a combination that makes it stronger than any other power based weapon set.
(edited by Gallant Pigeon.5807)