Guild Wars 2

Hi I’m pretty new to the game and after leveling an engi to 32 I fell in love with the theif ankitten ow 54 on him. My problem has been finding weapon sets that I like.

I am currently using d/d and s/p.
I really like the daggers auto attack and CnD is quite a cool ability, but backstab damage feels low and the overall dps just feels rather inadequate.
I like s/p a lot due to sword #2 and all the easily available interrupts.

My questions are:

How do you play d/p? I tried it when I first started but didn’t like it. Stealth costs a lot of initiative and again the dps feels low (is it because I’m a lower level?)

Is having short bow necessary or can I get by not using it.

I don’t play pvp a huge amount but am planning on playing more of it and I’m assuming short bow is required for that due to its. utility.

I did not like s/d.. It just felt clunky. I’m planing on trying p/d and p/p as soon as I get the pistols.

Any advice would be great, thanks in advance.

In Pve there is not much reason to use d/p over s/p, as the latter has cleave and pistol whip and both have the near invincible blind field. D/D comes to full expression when you can max out gear and traits, and against bosses.

PvE is most of the time S/P and D/D, against bosses P/P and for aoe Shortbow isntead of daggers. D/D deals more damage than S/P, backstab does much damage, however you obvously need to stay behind the enemy to really feel the damage. Then dagger 2 at 25%> HP is outdamaging everything.

I WvW mostly. Personally I run D/P with D/D as the alt set. I hate shortbow. I have one in my inventory for group play but it’s situational (to blast water/lightning fields) and unless we have our staff ele running with us and are heading into a fight where the odds are against us, I don’t have it equipped.

D/P is more about being patient and not mashing all of your skills blowing all your initiative since you do need a large amount to stealth. Usually you use pistol 5 dagger 2 for the opener to stealth and backstab, then you use the standard “autoattack” to drop DPS. If they’re a tanky target you’ll stealth up again when you regain initiative and backstab, otherwise a squishy target may have already dropped.. Everything else is situational. Headshot to interrupt heals/etc. Black powder to make those warriors miss that CC, heartseeker/shadowshot as a gap closer/finisher. Etc.

In my experience, you should bring all weapon available and switch up when necessary.

Weapon set specialization is only important in PvP scenario, i.e. tPvP or solo-roaming in WvW. Fortunately, you don’t have to do that in general PvE and WvW.

Here’s my weapon set of choice depending on the situation;

Large group of melee mobs in PvE? Siege engine in WvW?
S/P + Shortbow

Large group of ranged mobs in PvE? Supply camp in WvW?
D/P + P/P

Single target boss mob in PvE? Tower boss in WvW?
D/D + P/P

Boon heavy mob(s) in PvE? Elementalist, Necros, Guardians in WvW?
S/D + any

High toughness mob(s) in PvE? Warrior, Eng in WvW?
P/D + Shortbow

I hope that helps.

All weapon sets are good at certain niches. Here’s a breakdown of Thief weaponsets and what they are best suited for:

Dagger/Dagger – In PvE, this is the absolute highest DPS single target weapon, which makes it popular in high end builds. In WvW, this is a strong weapon set for roaming, particularly when used with a build that traits into Shadow Arts for the blind on stealth trait. In sPvP/tPvP, this is a mediocre weapon. It has strong burst, but relies heavily on stealth and since capturing points wins the game, you don’t want to spend too much time in stealth (you can’t contest points in stealth).

Dagger/Pistol – In PvE, this is a pretty weak weapon set since it requires more initiative to stealth than D/D (Blinding Powder + Heartseeker instead of Cloak and Dagger with D/D). While the blind field is great for non-boss mobs, it’s a bit of a waste for single target fights. In WvW, this is also a strong weapon set for roaming. In sPvP/tPvP, this is also a very strong weapon set. The blind field from the pistol offhand is great for team support as well as for handling melee-based enemies in 1 v 1 scenarios.

Sword/Dagger – In PvE this is a relatively weak weaponset since it provides the lowest single target DPS of all melee weaponsets. In WvW this is a mediocre weaponset for roaming, but in capable hands, it can work well. In sPvP/tPvP, it used to be very strong, but it has been toned down significantly. It can still work well in capable hands, though.

Sword/Pistol – In PvE this is one of the best weapon sets for AoE and trash mob encounters. This is because you have a strong cleave attack from Pistol Whip as well as a blind field that nearly makes you immune to enemies standing in it. This is also a great weapon for solo leveling since you can just keep the blind field down and auto attack to kill almost anything. In WvW this is a strong weapon set for roaming due to the effectiveness of Pistol Whip. In sPvP/tPvP this is a strong weapon set that has seen increased popularity recently.

Pistol/Pistol – In PvE this is the best ranged weapon set for single target encounters. Melee weapons will deal more damage, but when you decide to stay ranged, this is your best option. In WvW this is a relatively weak weapon set that can be decent in some zerg encounters. In sPvP/tPvP this is a very weak weapon set.

Pistol/Dagger – In PvE this really only shines as a weapon set for soloing difficult enemies since you can stealth, gain distance, then use the stealth attack for high damage. In WvW this can be a mediocre weapon set for condition builds. In sPvP/tPvP this can be a mediocre weapon set for condition builds.

Short Bow – In PvE this is a secondary weapon for using against large AoE packs of enemies. The blast finisher on Cluster Bomb is also great for stacking might (from fire fields) or getting other combo field bonuses. In WvW this is a great weapon set for following a zerg since it gives AoE ranged DPS and also allows you to stack might in fire fields or swiftness from air fields with Cluster Bomb’s blast finisher. In sPvP/tPvP this is an awesome secondary weapon that is a stable of most builds since it gives you AoE dps from a safe range for team fights, a poison field to prevent downed enemies from healing, and amazing mobility from Infiltrator’s Arrow. The short bow is one of the main reasons that thieves are the best class for roaming.

For PvE you need the blind on stealth trait to get as much out of the offhand dagger as the offhand pistol. It should then feel more mobile and damaging than the pistol but you are using a trait to do that.

Thanks for all the great detailed responses everyone. Great to know d/d isn’t great for sPvP as I was occasionally using it because it was what I was used to (I knew stealth wasn’t good). Definitely going to stick with d/d s/p for leveling as it feels the best to me and that has been confirmed by several posts.

It was kind of hard getting used to switching weapons after engineer, despite all the kits I only using 5-7 abilities consistently.

Thanks again for the useful information.