Guild Wars 2

Hey guys just started playing s/d thief in PvP! I’m liking it but i finding more often than not I’m getting recked. I of course assum this is a l2p issue but i can’t seem to get the hang of it. I was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction with possibly some gameplay to watch (i’m using the meta rn) or even point me in the direction for guides. Thanks in advance!

S/D thief in PVP is the most reliably viable in terms of survivability in PVP. It is loaded with evades, stealths, and even has a boon steal.

It is also a very difficult combination to play because of how hard it is to keep track of even what you are doing. If you ever don’t get dizzy watching yourself whirl around the battlefield, then you’re doing it wrong.

A great guide for S/D is http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_Sword/Dagger. I personally prefer Blinding Powder to SR, but they both grant area stealth and in PVP there is little difference aside from the dark field and regen that SR provides.

If you’re new to thief I would recommend trying D/P first, and if you still have trouble trying with an alternate build like going into Acrobatics or even Shadow Arts instead of Trickery, just until you get a feel for it and doing your role. Some would argue D/P has a higher skill cap, but either way it’s surely an easier set to start with. When I went from D/P to S/D over a year ago now, I actually dropped short bow and ran D/P + S/D for a while so I always had D/P to fall back on when I messed up or found I didn’t know how to fight a particular build with S/D yet. It worked for me, and when I felt comfortable enough I swapped D/P out for short bow. Basically the best advice you can get as a beginner is to make it easy for yourself, and then make the necessary adjustments toward the meta as you get better.

S/D play style is basically that of D/P in the sense of the "get in, deal damage, get out," but it’s also capable of "being in" longer due to the fact that evades evade everything for a few hundred milliseconds while blinds (for the most part) will only cause one attack from the affected foe to miss, and as a result, S/D is much better able to switch targets during combat. The current popular 2/0/0/6/6 build for S/D can also fight on points more to keep them neutral.

Tips... Always keep an infiltrator’s return point handy, either to retreat or just leave it somewhere you plan to return to e.g to decap a point; it’s usually a good idea to have it behind an obstruction to escape/obstruct ranged attacks/burst. When you know the opponent is going to use a big hit with 0.5-0.75s cast time soon, don’t use flanking strike when they aren’t attacking because it can be timed during flanking strike to hit you. Instead, use flanking strike after they start it to evade it while still attacking. Watch multiple opponents and dodge the important stuff, don’t get tunnel vision. Remember you have a lot of dodges so don’t be afraid to dodge auto attacks as well, but try to do it right after you land a hit, thereby evading instead of being a sitting duck during the after-cast. Don’t spam 3, do use auto attack.

As for gameplay you can watch, there’s youtube of course, but those aren’t sure to be much help. The best source would be past broadcasts of some good thieves who stream on www.twitch.tv.

Thanks for the help gents! Do you know of any good S/D thieves to watch on twitch in general?

There were links to streamers at the bottom of that guide Kavu linked you to.