Guild Wars 2

Hi to all thief fans.
I assume p/p thieves are few these days and that might happen for some reasons:
Init draining, no go in get out of combat mechanics, dmg isnt that gr8 compared to melee, single target dmg while sb is the swiss knife of ranged aoe.

Ricochet might change this reality a bit…. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ricochet_
…. basically i am advertising thief fans to use p/p because it might have its chances.

-First you can use glass cannon gear while staying ranged, spam 2 then 3.
-Second you can out damage sb because if the last hit of unload drops 7k practically u can do 21k the bullet can bounce to 3 targets. Even 2 bounces is good cos it doubles your dmg. As the tooltip says every of 8 hits has chance to bounce 3 times.
-Third you dont have the blast finisher (sb 2) on demand that you can use on water or fire fields. You dont have the sb4 + sb2 weakness spam, or the sb5 teleporting tool.
But you have lots of of projectile finishers, which can burn, poison, confuse, chill a lot through fields.

-Last but not least (…Each bounce has a separate chance to critically hit and trigger on-critical-hit effects). I have not tested it but i dont think Aoe Flame Blast will trigger 3 times if bounce occurs, i imagine Anet cant allow that, it would be 2 cool and on crit sigils all have cooldowns. It would be awesome to see 3 flame blasts do boom boom boom but that is just my dream. Sigil that can be exploited are Sigil of ice or blood cos they have 2s cooldowns.
It is verified that Shadow Shot teleports you up to 3 mobs and blinds them.

Below is my testing build, Pistol Whip for easy aoe cleave and Body Shot + Unload for when you need to stay at range, both dual wields can aoe and dps a lot.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqa8alcmSPHcy5E95Ex2Dg2Te6pgsiVTBNfJA-jgCBYfDimsI0UBBK5BK9hIjtqpIasakYaXAqXRWFLpSBExwI-e

I hope you guys understand my opinions and maybe bring more arguments to the table or otherwise say these are worthless. Every opinion is welcome!!!

shadow shot telepots 3 people? hUH?

shadow shot with ricochet trait can shadowstep YOU to 3 targets in a sequence. You blind 3 mobs. Below is the original from tooltip.
- Should Shadow Shot hit multiple targets you will teleport from one to the other until you reach the last hit enemy.

Instead of ranger piercing arrows or warrior piercing bullets you get bouncing bullets.

i use ricochet every day. wierd ill try that. do all of them dagger attack too?

you might attack your target but its not sure where you will land, you might bounce to second or even third target. Another good point is you blind them, and can teleport again like a hologram avoiding a heavy hitters.
I havent tested yet if for example the fire blast of sigil can proc three times on a single bouncing shot but I am 99% sure it doesnt, on crit sigils have cooldown.
In terms of dps, a chance for every shot (unload 8xshots) to deal triple dmg imo is an amazing sum of dps.
Also I dont know about shots with venoms, do the bouncing shots apply the effect or no. If yes it would be amazing, can anyone confirm the countrary?

very cool but not useful very much. i usually get 2 bounces about 90% of the time. VERY rare to get that third and whichever target you end up on is the one hit with the daggerstrike which is the only dmg part. not too useful. very cool tho

mishel.2574:

Also I dont know about shots with venoms, do the bouncing shots apply the effect or no. If yes it would be amazing, can anyone confirm the countrary?

Here you go^^

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Ricochet-works-with-Pistol-2/first#post3053364

Hey Mishel, I run a similar build on my thief with Sword/Pistol – Pistol/Pistol.

The same traits as your except I have 10 less in Deadly Arts and have that 10 in Shadow Arts for 20% reduced recharge on deception skills. As I use blinding powder, smoke screen and shadow refuge and the reduced cooldown is nice. Lol.

And if you run Superior rune of the traveler instead of Superior rune of divinity you basically trade 6% critical damage and +30 to all stats for +15% boon duration, +10% condition duration and +25% movement speed, which would enable you to run blinding powder instead of the movement speed signet. Which has basically the same cooldown with the trait that reduces cooldown on deception skills and it grants you stealth so you can get off a stealth 1 hit with your pistol while you regain some initiative for Pistol/pistol 3.

EDIT: And yeah, Ricochet is amazing. :P

P/P + Ricochet is great for boss encounters like Tequatl that have multiple point of attack because it allows the bullets to bounce between these individual points.

I’ve seen 15k Unloads on Tequatl during his vulnerability phase thanks to this.

But other than that the random and unpredictable nature make it less useful. However I’m always curious to see how consistent some of the traits works with unexpected abilities.

That’s something I like about GW2’s ability design.

@Tael, thanks 4 feedback. I was trying to make ppl think of different options about playing this class we like by trying different paths and you brought some arguments.

I am aware of rune of the traveler slot freeing but i just need 60g to do that.
Your point in deception cd is right, they add a lot in survability, a lot of blinds, blinding power + sneak attack add some dps as well. Plus you have a blast finisher, a smoke field and a dark field( pistol shots leech health here). Personally i prefer ambush (for distraction and gathering mobs while i and unload from distance), caltrops for rooting them in that spot, and sometimes sig of agility when insome dungeons.

I tried some Cursed Shore events yesterday, s/p p/p ricochet included. Switched withdraw with Signet of malice and let me say it is awesome. You are 90% hp plus all the time (wich may make me try scholar runes), unload and pistol whip shoot a lot. Unload is easy life cos you are away of the mess and ricochet adds a nice amount of dps. go infiltrator strike and pistol whip when you can handle and you have always a way back. Practically you see nice numbers on your screen. The init comes short after some time but with the new init regen you are better.
Lastly i must admit this kind of thief gameplay is less risky but less brainy than seeking to backstab or other thief stuff but compare pistol whip to the infamous 100blades or unload to ranger’s rapid fire and come again to my point. If we can play more safe on glass cannon why not…

In conclusion im in favour of ricochet for some points
1) adds considerably dps when against 2 plus opponents or like Dee Jay said against multitarget bosses like Tequatl.
2) in vemon builds has chance to apply the venom effect to bouncing target but in venomshare builds you must take off the extra venom strike (Residual Venom) which is a gr8 loss, but you decide it.
3) it is good for … ON CRIT traits and gear which have no cooldown like Sundering Strikes. More shots, more chances to happen.
4) nice in Steal & Stealth build (10/0/30/0/30) because you spread the bleeds and other applied conditions as well.

For WvW, I still prefer Bountiful Theft over Ricochet. P/P is mainly single-target, and boon-stealing w/ vigor is much more effective on a long-term basis (IMO, of course).

For your build, I would recommend trying -10 from DA, and +10 into Trickery for Sleight of Hand. An instant-interrupt Steal on a 21~ second recharge is very valuable in any situation (whether PvE or WvW).

It is a great trait but at the same time it is a brain-dead trait. I don’t use Trickery and I wouldn’t go 20p deep to get it either.

Dee Jay.2460:

P/P + Ricochet is great for boss encounters like Tequatl that have multiple point of attack because it allows the bullets to bounce between these individual points.

I’ve seen 15k Unloads on Tequatl during his vulnerability phase thanks to this.

But other than that the random and unpredictable nature make it less useful. However I’m always curious to see how consistent some of the traits works with unexpected abilities.

That’s something I like about GW2’s ability design.

p/p is best for fractals., bosses, farming. ricochet plus SOM + RFI + sig of agility

10 30 0 30

@Barfoi, we all know what bountiful theft does, we have lived enough days with that.
Still in Pve there are few mobs with boons, and that 10s vigor is useful in hard content, but how much content is hard in GW2? Maybe high lvl fract where you need to avoid those aoe’s. Ricochet adds chance to do extra dmg or extra bullet effect, so the question is do you want to add survability (vigor) or make their life harder?
For PvP ,,, WvW i agree bount theft is better.
@Siva Mira , i wrote above ricochet in concept is no brainer but maybe you passed that.
You believe the ranger’s piercing arrow trait or warr’s piercing bullets trait are more brainy?

It is not that the trait in itself is bad but it is not something I must have. Specially I won’t waste 20p into Trickery just to get it. I have tried it and it felt good when you are hitting something that doesn’t try to hit you back. While wasting 20p in Trickery my DPS isn’t going to look good specially anything outside of Unload. Therefore I must resort myself to use Unload even more than I should. If you are fighting someone who are truly know how to play GW2, spamming Unload isn’t going to win you a fight.

20p in Trickery is not a waste at all, moreover in a Critical Build.

Your gain The 5 and 15 traits (2 initiative on Steal and 3 more initiative max) and, with Ricochet, you can use Thrill of the Crime, that is a really nice trait.

My build is a 0/30/0/20/20 with Traveler’s Rune on Gear and Furious Retaliation on build. With these build you got +35% boon duration and 13.5 seconds Fury at least. With FR and TOTC, you can nearly be on perma Fury (at least 25 secs on 30 you got Fury by your own if you manage your Steal).

So, no 20 points in Trickery for rushing Ricochet is not a waste, at all. You just have to play the right build with it.

I have tried it. Did it work? Yes it did. But was it versatile as I want it to be? No it wasn’t.

20p in Trickery isn’t cheap and specially when you are not even use Lead Attack.
25/30/0/15/0 will do way better DPS than 0/30/0/20/20 and that is the different right there.