P/P Thief build for Fractals
That’s what I’m doing with my thief. Berserker build with P/P and Staff. You will likely end up using staff much more than pistols. For me, it’s not unloading for the might and then switch to staff anymore. It’s rather clubbing the mob and dash backwards when my health is low, then shoot to heal, then back to his toes. With the right traits, you deal more damage with staff than with Unload. In fractals, if you don’t stack to your group, you might cause difficulties because the boss jumps around. Also, you want the boons and heals from team members. If you face several adds, you use staff anyway.
I switch from Deadly Arts to Trickery and back, depending on the fractal. Deadly Arts is best if you go melee most of the time, like Molten Bosses. At Mai Trin high levels, I will always be as far away from her as possible. So when I do that fractal, I use Trickery, it’s awesome for initiative, and has value for the team. Basically, I decide which weapon I will use most, and adjust the traits accordingly. Most of the time, I choose staff over pistols.
Unload is not more dps than staff, sad truth. You can deal awesome damage with pistols though. Last week, I partied with a thief and she only used P/P, outdamaging everybody else with a large margin. I don’t know which traits she chose, but she had that Nourishment that gives more damage to Molten Alliance, and of course fractal potions. But I was using potions too, and the difference could not have come from that Nourishment alone. She was also not ranging the bosses, staying close at boon providers. Maybe I would have come closer to her damage if I had chosen pure staff traits. I played a compromise between staff and pistols. Or maybe I just suck ^^
Herleve – Ruins of Surmia
Hey guys – I’m interested in creating (if its not made already) a P/P Staff DPS build for Thieves for Fractals.
The general idea is to spam Unload – Get 25 stacks of might -> swap to Staff -> AA -> Swap to P/P once initiative is full -> Unload to 25 stacks again -> repeat.
For some fights that have mechanics @ certain percentages, camping P/P can be hugely beneficial for DPS. Just Unload -> dodge for the damage boost from DD traits -> Unload some more and repeat.
Ankle Shots over Practice Tolerance would be interesting to explore as well – unless anyone has any other info on this I think PT is the better, safer choice here.
I also run Infiltrator’s Signet for fights that don’t need the CC.
Thoughts? Suggestions? I run standard DD staff traits for this build.
That’s basically the idea, but I personally like D/D simply because of cheap AoE dmg + DoTs having 25 stacks of might. In a boss fight, it’s easier for me to reposition with D/D than with Staff and the CnD + BS with Might stacks is nice too. Staff vs D/D really is just a matter of preference, from what you’re doing, it seems very effective too — more raw dmg and less DoTs.
As for Ankle Shots vs Practice Tolerance; In my opinion, Practice Tolerance has better damage output since the cripple from Ankle Shot only lasts 4.5s (base) with an 8s cooldown. Also the randomness of the Cripple application might be counterproductive if it triggered in the middle of an Unload. You can roughly squeeze only 2 Unloads within the 4.5s window to get the 10% dmg boost. As for Practice Tolerance, you get a constant damage boost whenever you crit. However, if you have other means to cripple, like dropping Caltrops for instance, then Ankle Shot is your pick since Caltrops has a base of 14.75s of cripple — that’s a lot of dmg boost right there.
http://sirvincentiii.com ~ In the beginning…there was Tarnished Coast…
Full set of 5 unique skills for both dual-wield weapon sets: P/P and D/D – Make it happen
PvE – DD/CS/AC – If that didn’t work, roll a Reaper or Revenant.
Full set of 5 unique skills for both dual-wield weapon sets: P/P and D/D – Make it happen
PvE – DD/CS/AC – If that didn’t work, roll a Reaper or Revenant.