Guild Wars 2

I took a break from GW2 shortly after the September Feature Patch which was when many people believed that it was the death of S/D. I come back after two months and it seems that there are even more S/D thieves that there was before! Was this caused by the D/P nerf? Also fighting a S/D thief seems to be even more difficult than it was pre nerf, but that could just be me being rusty.

larcenous strike’s “unblockable” status is now there mostly for show since flanking strike will not chain unless it deals damage. if you use flanking strike on a blocking/invuln opponent or you use it when blinded, it will not chain.

the biggest complaint about s/d was that people would mindlessly spam flanking strike so now they made it chainable (like shortbow’s #3) and made it cost lest initiative to spam repeatedly. great fix.

the d/p nerf was in my opinion far less destructive. it was a bit unnecessary since all you had to do was stand outside the small aoe and attack (something every weapon in the game could do) but apparently that was too hard. overall it’s not so bad when compared to s/d, which has literally seen a nerf on every single skill except the auto attack.

sinject.4607:

the d/p nerf was in my opinion far less destructive. it was a bit unnecessary since all you had to do was stand outside the small aoe and attack (something every weapon in the game could do) but apparently that was too hard.

The black powder nerf was probably targeting its use in securing stomps.

S/D focuses on evasion and generally not dying vs. running full glass

so people will tend to gravitate toward it until people realize that it actaully requires some skill to use.

sinject.4607:

the biggest complaint about s/d was that people would mindlessly spam flanking strike so now they made it chainable (like shortbow’s #3) and made it cost lest initiative to spam repeatedly. great fix.

They made FS cost MOOOOOORRRREEEEE initiative dude….. making you deplete initiative even faster if you miss.

This is a pretty good time for thieves because both d/p and s/d are 100% viable in tpvp. Panic strike d/p tends to be a bit more common than s/d in high end tournaments in my experience.

The most recent changes to s/d certainly did increase the skill cap. I’d argue the changes did decrease the effectiveness a bit though. D/P got panic strike recently and good thieves have adapted to using shadow shot more rather than trying to tank inside blackpowder.

Both specs are a lot of fun, I’m playing s/d personally.

Does anyone know if assassin amulet is ever used in Panic Strike builds? I would think that the higher crit from that item could be more advantageous in a build that has a low trait investment to the crit tree.

Dahkeus.8243:

Does anyone know if assassin amulet is ever used in Panic Strike builds? I would think that the higher crit from that item could be more advantageous in a build that has a low trait investment to the crit tree.

Nobody uses that amulet. The massive drop of vitality’s not worth it. For Panic Strike people usually just take Pack runes.

witcher.3197:

Dahkeus.8243:

Does anyone know if assassin amulet is ever used in Panic Strike builds? I would think that the higher crit from that item could be more advantageous in a build that has a low trait investment to the crit tree.

Nobody uses that amulet. The massive drop of vitality’s not worth it. For Panic Strike people usually just take Pack runes.

That and if you use the number on the tooltip, and your crit chance and multiplier in the pvp build page, Zerk is more average damage anyway, plus has more defense from vitality.

Imo the S/D buffed it overall even though it’s a dps hit, but yes it is still meta.