Guild Wars 2

I always used d/d in melee situations, like, literally for everything, mainly because I like the feeling of this playstyle and I’m experienced enough to take advantage of every skill with this combination. Plus there is backstab. But I think I’m getting bored with it and after doing some tests with sword main hand, I’m starting to think that I backstab isn’t that strong at all, compared to a pistol whip for example. So I began experimenting with sword main hand, and I’d like to get some backup here about what’s the advantage in a strictly PvE only enviroment over the daggers, and offhand fits with it and why.

So, as I see:

Sword 1:
Is strong, plus multitarget while dagger autoattack is single target. The damage seems to be much higher too, but since cast time (animations) is slower compared to daggers, I’m sure about it. But feels higher.

Sword 2:
A nice condition removal and escape tool, plus saves undurance, allowing me to put points elsewhere in the traits, no need for condition removal on stealth anymore and the 3rd dodge. I can use those points for trickery or power traits for fury and might or some basic damage improvement. On paper it sounds good.

Offhand (Dagger):

S/D 3:
Now this one feels problematic. The dodge on it feels really weird and is too short to be a reliable dodge mechanism like d/d 3 (death blossom). I also find the boon ripping kind of useless, since most of the PvE targets barely have any boons, and even if, those are square icons that are special and cannot be ripped (like berserk, or stability).

S/D 4:
Same as D/D 4, not much use for it against bosses but can be a nice crowd control tool and a damage source for moments when you leave melee range for a second. I just fint it comfortable to throw in a bouncing dagger before jumping back to the middle of things.

S/D 5:
Stealth. Sounds good, but I don’t feel like I can benefit from it without backstab. Still a very good tool to lose aggro which is a key point in dungeons, and dagger offhand in general is nice for allowing mobility almost as much as D/D does. Also leaves the option aviable to remove condtions via stealth.

Offhand (Pistol):

S/P 3:
Pistol whip. Fantastic damage source, an interrupting tool (often not working on certain targets) and a dodge to protect yourself for a short time. But I really really hate being rooted, and losing the mobility just doesn’t seem to worth it, especially because canceling this move with a dodge (in case if I need, and we all know how critical dodging is in dungeons) it works weirdly with this skill. Feels like there is a delay, sometimes not even working which I cannot explain (maining a thief since GW2 relase). The damage really seems nice, but I find it really uncomfortable to use this skill.

S/P 4:
Daze. I don’t find much use for it, if I can interrupt why not do it with pistol whip?

S/P 5:
Smoke combo fields, blindess. Sounds good on paper, forces to root yourself in reality which again, I don’t really like. Trying to get used to it, but I’d prefer to have stealth here which sadly cannot be done with a sword main hand since there is no leap skill here.

So, that’s it. I’d prefer to go for dagger offhand instead of a pistol, simply because keeping the mobility and stealth seems to be better than a damage spike and a blind and being forced to not move anywhere during these. But I don’t really see how could I use S/D 3 (boon steal) in PvE. Or is the dodge on that enough, and I just need to get used to it to be effective? With a pistol here I could have that nice damage, but it’s also expensive because comes with other stuff I don’t like as much. Or should I like them? Or you think I give too much value for something I shouldn’t?

Discuss please, I’m really intersted.

I enjoy S/D with the dredge and any other boon making enemies (not that many though).

Otherwise I go D/D, and S/P.

Obviously the D/D is pure offensive single target set, but the S/P, that’s more than just multitarget…

If you are facing melee trash or melee with 1 ranged that is targeting you, P 5 is pretty much invulnerability.

Single target trash, S/P 3 can be the same if your interrupts and evade frames line up with their attack animations.

Well timed, S/P 3 can be used to dodge painful boss attacks.

Finally, some say that certain world bosses have more than 1 “hit” area that can be reached with cleaving weapons. In this case the sword autoattack would do more than dagger. Not sure if this is true though. However its not like you’re soloing world bosses either so not really important either way.

Personally, I enjoy the fluidness of S/D, D/P, D/D over the “tanky” nature of S/P. However I cannot deny how kitten powerful S/P can be.

Hell, my favorite thief build was the one I used leveling over a year ago, condition D/D.

Those were the days, pre nerf caltrops, training enemies into a clump, making them bleed so bad, and loling as they melted while in stealth, repeat as necessary.

D/D has highest direct damage. Nothing else matters in a pve sitation.

Big Tower.5423:

D/D has highest direct damage. Nothing else matters in a pve sitation.

It does actually.

I’m still not sold on the fact that D/D does that much more damage in PvE compared to S/P.

At least not in practice when you account for the odd Frontstab and other DPS losses. S/P on the other hand can spam Black Powder for easy mitigation, extremely useful when your group stacks, and Pistol Whip for the odd interrupts and DPS during boss-fights.

When I compare damage numbers between Sword and Dagger mainhand, I’m not sure the difference is as large as people make it out to be.

I bet if there was a damage meter in game, that S/P would out-DPS D/D in 9/10 dungeon runs. And that’s not even considering the mitigation coming from Black Powder, stuns and constant Weakness application.

If you have multiple targets, then yea, go S/P. S/P is also great on trash for the permablind that you can drop on them. However, when it comes to single target fights, D/D will be superior.

S/P for trash clearing and D/D for single target boss encounters.

No one kills trash lol. Single target damage is the only thing that matters. Migitation do definvility not count as damage. PVE = DPS

Big Tower.5423:

No one kills trash lol. Single target damage is the only thing that matters. Migitation do definvility not count as damage. PVE = DPS

Well, if you can damage the boss by standing in the aoe with pistol whip, I say it counts as damage. Also with sundering strikes PW packs vulnerabilty faster. Not to mention you can get back 5 initiative faster so you can stay over 6 init with PW easier, in other words you can do a PW after every autoattack chain, while you can’t backstab so often (at least not with 25/30/0/0/15).

S/P is beyond superior to D/D. D/D has better dps on a single target, somewhat, and thats it. S/P offers more. Caltrops, Signet of Malaice, some dragon candy/ omnom pie, and Pistol Whip will regen your hp and keep it above 90% for scholar runes in every encounter

If you mean open world pve then d/d and s/d are pretty good setups, but in fractals i would kick you for using these weapons.

“If you mean open world pve then d/d and s/d are pretty good setups, but in fractals i would kick you for using these weapons.”

Then you’re kicking out a number of good thieves who might know more than you do. Each time dungeon running comes up on the forums there is no consensus about weapons (beyond speed running CoF), meaning that the weapon sets are probably quite balanced. They all have their place. Sword/dagger + shortbow certainly seem like the prime weapons in the dredge fractal to me.