Livia – Ring Of Fire
Questions about Staff + P/P
I don’t know much about the meta right now but I heard D/P is on the rise. I’ve been trying some combinations and I think this one is really good. I only tried it on Maguuma but that was more damage than I expected. I am running full power on it and traits are Trickery, Critical Strikes and Dash Daredevil. Utilities are Withdraw, Assassin’s Signet, Skale Venom to inflict vulnerability, Blinding Powder and Dagger Storm for some situations ( Getting surrounded by enemies, foes with CC chains).
The combo is you use #4 to blind the enemy and 5 vulnerability stacks, then use Skale Venom with auto attack for quick vulnerability, use Blinding Powder and hit a little bit more and you Steal if they escape or if you are low on initiative.. If you do this quick, you can get to 25 vulnerability stacks in 4-5 seconds. Then you swap to P/P and unload the kitten out of your pistols with at least 20 vulnerability on them.
I know that might not be the best build but you can take Shadowstep instead of Blinding Powder if your foes escape.
What do you think about it?
First off, please use a constructor and post the link of your build here. For example this one
Secondly, for open world everything is fine. Literally everything.
I know every build is acceptable in PvE but I think stacking vulnerability that quickly on other team’s DPS could be very useful in PvP.
I’m on phone right now so I can’t generate the build properly.
Livia – Ring Of Fire
Staff and P/P is strong for PvE content. Staff gives you great AOE and dodge fram AOE for masses of trash, and P/P is easily maintained DPS pressure for single targets/bosses and is good on an unsupported thief. Plus I love the extreme flippy acrobatic feel of staff and the Pirate feel of P/P. I was one that wanted a thief Sniper, but I’ll have a hard time giving up staff and the dodges of DrD.
Unfortunately this combo has almost no mobility, and any stealth attempts outside of utility is clunky and expensive. Staff is great, but lends itself better where lots of small AOE pressure is needed. That is in PvE and small scale WvW, but not so much in PvP as most fights you’ll only catch one or two in a cleave. While it looks like Staff is mainly a means to prep P/P unloads, P/P is one of the most easily countered combos in the game making it weak in PvP. You’re on a channel in which you can’t dodge or use anything else or you’ll interrupt – this means they can dodge, interrupt, block, reflect to your face, or do their own big moves/combos knowing that you can’t p2 or 4 without interrupting your own channel first. You stopping your channel means you cost yourself more Initiative making it tougher to do more unloads. In short, unless you’re +1 and/or going against complete noobs that can’t or don’t know how to counter obvious channeled tells, your P/P will get your ass handed to you.
D/P on the other hand offers tons of mobility with 3 allowing you to stick to your target for your melee attacks, interrupts (pulmonary ftw), unlimited access to stealth with P5 + D2, and massive burst. And as D/P already gives you everything you want for most of combat, you can use SB for the powerful utility. SB5 for the ability to get to points quickly, SB4 for anti-res pressure, and SB2 for blasting fields/party stealth. Really, no matter the build, you’re crippling yourself giving up SB on a thief in PvP.
P/P is really good in PvE as it just burns down targets quickly. Really good when dealing with things that can chunk you in a single hit from melee range.
In PvP it’s a hit and miss.
Most people will claim that it is the most easily countered weapon set available. But the problem with it is that thief is all mind games when you take it. They -know- the thief has a massive damage output with it. They -know- the combination provides the thief with no form of mobility. What people keep forgetting about though is that this combo is pure aggression, or opening. It has a few things that will act as a parry so you can punish. And unlike bow, you really don’t need to keep your distance.
So that being said, you have an immobilize, an interrupt, a dps roid, and a blind. If someone gets into melee range of you, they run the risk of being unable to react to what the thief can do with dual pistols.
Ok I tried it today on sPvP. There was a support elementalist behind me and we destroyed the enemy DPS elementalist. I agree with you on the “locking yourself” part but I easily escape with Dash in the traitline. I know it isn’t the best build to play ( and I know D/P kills almost everything on it’s sight) but that is not a bad build either. I partly solved the Initiative problem with Steal +2 Ini ( in Trickery) and 2 Unloads can be done continuously.
Conclusion, decent build, but not meta.
Livia – Ring Of Fire
P/P does have it’s use in spvp, I’ve religously used it and although i’ll be the first to admit it’s not the best, it is best used when trying to quickly burst someone engaged with someone else, and is good to swap to from staff when people are trying to disengage and use a heal skill. It’s pretty useless when dealing with tons of blocks and reflects though.
I think that ranged weapons with condi stats are stronger in terms of dmg than Power ones: condi SB (especially if combined with Venoms) deals way more dmg than Power SB, condi p/d is safer to use in PvP than power double pistols and the dmg part is great too.
Get quickness running with p/p and the set becomes more then just a little dangerous if you pay attention to those reflects. The channel time drops considerably meaning it more likely you get the full thing in and that lowered cost even as you are better able to react with your own dodges.
The P/P channel is also one that allows movement as you use it unlike those that lock you in place. I do not PvP but use in WvW. I tend to come up on an enemy from the flank to trigger quickness, unload as I move towards or strafe and then when might stacks up switch to the other weaponset (currently s/d) port in and whack away.
With P/P I find RFI a must along with withdraw as the heal. You can use these to kite and stay at range even as you heal and restore ini just as long as you watch for reflects.
Given I do not trait DA in my p/p set as I take CS instead, I find QP works better then does SOH. If I need an interrupt I have one with #4 and if in a ranged set you really do not want to steal to an enemy.
Blocks are not as big an issue given blocks apply to all attacks outside those few that are projectile only.