Guild Wars 2

So, I’ve been trying this out lately. I’m basically doing the meta S/D 20066 build except with pistol instead of dagger. Comparatively, it has superior burst and inferior mobility. PW does lots of damage if you land it, but it also roots you. It’s a fun, slightly simpler alternative to s/d imo.

What are your thoughts on the viability of s/p in Pvp and WvW roaming?

I think it’s better to run it 26006 or with Panic Strike than with Acrobatics – you really want the higher burst, and acrobatics doesn’t really help you chase people down to Pistol Whip them. S/P makes really good use of sword #2 to get in and out, which you need to keep on top of people to PW them.

I don’t think it is particularly well suited to the current meta, but is certainly powerful enough and has enough tools to be effective against competent players in sPvP.

In WvW, no – well, not if you’re actively trying, at least. Sword really suffers in WvW since you don’t have walls to blink across with sword 2, and your main strength (teamfighting) doesn’t really matter. I mean, you can run it and kill the random trash fighting near south camp with it, but you can do that with anything.

You can supplement mobility with Utilities and Short Bow. You’ll just have to keep an internal rhythm and maintain your dodges so that you always have your damage boosts but can always have a dodge ready. If you learn to dodge in a way that keeps you within swing range of your target and can maintain your damage boosts than it should work out fine, just keep in mind you can get complacent at times, especially if you’re just standing around blasting with short bow with the rest of the crowd or you get too focused on one thing and forget to evade/dodge or use up some endurance.

Edit: but Ensign is probably right about using 26006, it’s more a burst weapon set, although I disagree strongly about Sword suffering in WvW, especially in open field but even in tight spots, sword and especially sword/dagger is like playing the point guard position in basketball, you’re controlling the movement of everyone pretty much.

lol good luck getting stuck in an animation while necro’s place wells on you XD

I roam with s/p in wvw and from my experience acro isn’t very well suited for it, sure you’ll survive a lot more but the burst won’t be there

I use 2 current builds when roaming in wvw either 6/2/0/0/6 PS or 2/6/0/0/6 you can take either executioner or Invigorating precision depending on what you want (tend to take invigorating when solo roaming though)

I don’t recommend it in pvp though, while it does have quite a bit of utility it is hindered by the +1 initiate cost they added to it, which really adds up.

SP on 20066 is great in WvW. You can faceroll Rower-Rangers, Power-Necros and Mediguards, GS Zerker Warriors and most Engineer Builds with it.

I combine it with DD for mobility. Perma-Swiftness + Heartseeker + Shadowstep + Withdraw gives you a great mobility. No Greatsword Warrior and no DP Thief can chase you down.

But infight it is definitly inferior against a DP Thief. I avoid fighting against this build (which is pretty easy since he can’t catch me even if he uses all his gapclosers).

Nephrite.6954:

lol good luck getting stuck in an animation while necro’s place wells on you XD

You auto-evade during the whole animation (that’s why it is so great against the builds I mentioned before). You can jump in a zerg using sword 2, Pistolwhip, sword 2 again … no problem, you won’t die if the timing is right.

Nephrite.6954:

lol good luck getting stuck in an animation while necro’s place wells on you XD

Pistol whip has a 2.25 sec evade during the sword flurry, it works just like blurred frenzy, but for some reason after 3 years the tooltip still fails to mention this.

On top of that you can always cancel the animation if you really need to move, or you can use steal, infiltrator signet, and shadow step to teleport on top of your target if he moves without interrupting the pw, or to port on your target just as the stun is about to land (same thing as landing cloak & dagger from distance)

Not knowing any of this makes me think you never even tried to play a s/p build.

in pvp i wouldnt reccommend it in ranked, since d/p and s/d have way more potential

i personally wanna try out 60066 S/P when HoT comes out since it can use the immobilize (from panic strike) way better than S/D

I been using 20066 s/p for a while now and i love it, anyone that says its a waste is just plain bad imo, i dont care who they are. i have not had any trouble catching up to anyone, nor escaping them. i personally call my version of the build my “Escape Thief”, like the Escape ranger in gw1. Also i used this build in ranked and i have gotten up to top 60ish before i ended up working nights so keep using it it has the same potential as all the other meta builds and i know a few so called "pro players i rekted with it.

S/P in the “S/D Meta” build is great! Once they balanced FS/LS to only steal one boon I switched over to S/P for more burst and have great fun! I’ll generally run 30056 or 50036. S/P has a place in acro for sure. I find that picking up the weakness condi from 3 DA helps to mitigate damage further, especially since you get weakness from your “opener” steal, and then a few seconds in to the fight with your third sword swing.

New trait system will make it even better! 60066 with panic strike and executioner, and tricks remove condis, hard to catch is actually useful, and there’s a GM to evade projectiles??? WUUUUUT? Can’t wait. Gonna run the same S/P style with withdraw, roll for initiative, scorp wire and dagger storm (all tricks!), can’t decide if I’ll take Haste or Sigil of Accuracy for final util.

Well it all depends on what your play style is man, i tend to be aggressive and impatient so the longer the fight the more sloppy i get. If your cool headed and patient then acro can work for you. Although if you do stay acro S/P give 5/0/0/3/6 a try as well, the dmg is increased a bit more and i find Improve gives me more then the other 2 traits in acro.

This is my personal preference and opinion in case someone gets offended :p