Q:
Question on P/P SB Thief
You might want to consider S/P rather than P/P and see how that works for a bit. I find that S/P offers more versatility and regarding what you said about getting owned in melee range, S/P is built to dart in and out of melee (the 2 skill for example). Moreover, once you trigger pistol whip (the “sexy skill” of the S/P build), not only do you do a line of sight AoE damage, you evade all damage during most of the animation duration.
Also the 5 skill with this build is very useful if you happen to be in melee range and want to avoid getting hit. It takes a little finesse but S/P offers a pretty nice burst damage that is technically “melee” but not the “i hit you and you hit me but I’ll out-tank/out-dps you” variant. More like “I hit you, but you can’t hit me, and now I’m going to dart out of melee range and shoot you with my SB until I want to dart back in again” melee.
I should also mention that for more advanced players there are combos that involve using blinding cloud in inventive ways (such as shadow step or steal into the mob before the animation finishes) to make it so that your enemies are ALWAYS in the AoE of blinding cloud as you pistol whip to your heart’s content, laugh at mobs as they flail away and miss, and then dart away.
Unfortunately I am not one of said skilled players, maybe someone else can better explain the mechanics and I know there are youtube videos that explains it better.
Also I should mention that I recommend S/P over P/P because P/P is more single target based, which in PvE and in dungeons are a liability because it’s more common to be dealing with mobs rather than single target.
You might want to consider S/P rather than P/P and see how that works for a bit. I find that S/P offers more versatility and regarding what you said about getting owned in melee range, S/P is built to dart in and out of melee (the 2 skill for example). Moreover, once you trigger pistol whip (the “sexy skill” of the S/P build), not only do you do a line of sight AoE damage, you evade all damage during most of the animation duration.
Also the 5 skill with this build is very useful if you happen to be in melee range and want to avoid getting hit. It takes a little finesse but S/P offers a pretty nice burst damage that is technically “melee” but not the “i hit you and you hit me but I’ll out-tank/out-dps you” variant. More like “I hit you, but you can’t hit me, and now I’m going to dart out of melee range and shoot you with my SB until I want to dart back in again” melee.
I have played s/p and i just dont like it. As for being destoyed, maybe that was not the best wording. I actually last fairly well when melee as im use to dodging attack’s on the guardian. The issue is when i am caught it doesent end well. I dont have anywhere near the survivability that my guardian does. Due to this im staying away from anything that puts me into melee range as im to use to how the guardian play’s and it screw’s with my melee play on the thief. Cant tell you the number of times i have went to hit my aegis skill’s just to remember im not on my guardian -.- then its to late to hit my dodge as the attack’s already here.
Ahh I gotcha. As far as P/P goes for the ranged option, unload is really fun I’ll give you that. At higher level areas and dungeons though I find that it gets tougher and tougher to use consistently. The 1 skill is… underwhelming and the 2 skill is… alright I guess? The offhand 4 and 5 skills are useful but you get those same utilities with sword or dagger as your mainhand.
Rather than waste your time talking about why P/P is suboptimal though, to answer your question I’ll contribute what little I know: P/P’s best attack is unload in my opinion, so anything that improves the burst damage from unload should be your goal. Haste + unload is pretty sick, problem is managing your initiative (and also kills your endurance so speccing into actobatics and trickery is a must, but you already do that).
Blinding cloud (5 skill) creates a smoke field, if you switch to SB and hit the 2 blast finisher in the combo field to trigger AoE stealth, which is useful for all the stealth benefit traits you get.
Ahh I gotcha. As far as P/P goes for the ranged option, unload is really fun I’ll give you that. At higher level areas and dungeons though I find that it gets tougher and tougher to use consistently. The 1 skill is… underwhelming and the 2 skill is… alright I guess? The offhand 4 and 5 skills are useful but you get those same utilities with sword or dagger as your mainhand.
Rather than waste your time talking about why P/P is suboptimal though, to answer your question I’ll contribute what little I know: P/P’s best attack is unload in my opinion, so anything that improves the burst damage from unload should be your goal. Haste + unload is pretty sick, problem is managing your initiative (and also kills your endurance so speccing into actobatics and trickery is a must, but you already do that).
Blinding cloud (5 skill) creates a smoke field, if you switch to SB and hit the 2 blast finisher in the combo field to trigger AoE stealth, which is useful for all the stealth benefit traits you get.
Thats what im aiming for currently. The sigil’s are really just my preference. Even though im only 66 at the moment i’ve been able to test unload. I can basically spam it without much issue. I’ve focuses on increasing my power when attacking with those pistol’s. If i read this setup right i have 20% extra damage most of the time and 40% when the mob’s below 50% health. With pistol’s anyways. Then i also have a good deal of initiative regen. Will be better once i improve my crit chance as i was using poison’s up to just a level or so ago so my crit chance and crit damage sucks currently. My only problem is im not sure what a good crit damage and attack would be. As on my guardian your doing good to hit 3-3.4k attack with 70-80% crit damage with how im set up. Which sadly i have no idea how that is when compaired to trying to go full out burn.