Guild Wars 2

Please tell me the PROS and CONS of each and which traits are better.

s/p 1st skill is strong btw slow(for a thief) 2nd skill tp to target and back never really used it dont think its usefull 3d skill is death machine if u combine withHaste 4th skill adds 5 stack of vunvrability good doing it before the 3rd skill 5th skill is good with a group cuz every 1 can stand on it and blind the enemy.

d/d 1st skill fast and strong and can poison enemy + stealth u make a backstab which is strong 2nd skill on 30% hp on the enemy death machine 3rd skill do a mini aoe that bleeds and dodgeing while doing this 4th skill throw a dagger with 600 range that jumps to 3 target and criples them very good for pvp 5th skill pretty good dmg hit afterwords u can backstab or run away from combat – i’d say d/d us awesome and dont have any cons

Luchifer.8026:

s/p 1st skill is strong btw slow(for a thief) 2nd skill tp to target and back never really used it dont think its usefull 3d skill is death machine if u combine withHaste 4th skill adds 5 stack of vunvrability good doing it before the 3rd skill 5th skill is good with a group cuz every 1 can stand on it and blind the enemy.

d/d 1st skill fast and strong and can poison enemy + stealth u make a backstab which is strong 2nd skill on 30% hp on the enemy death machine 3rd skill do a mini aoe that bleeds and dodgeing while doing this 4th skill throw a dagger with 600 range that jumps to 3 target and criples them very good for pvp 5th skill pretty good dmg hit afterwords u can backstab or run away from combat – i’d say d/d us awesome and dont have any cons

He said S/P, not S/D. But, seriously, Infiltrator’s Strike isn’t good and D/D has no downsides?

S/P

1. - Excellent DPS auto attack that hits three targets and applies conditions.
2. - One of the most powerful thief chasing/movement skills, a spammable shadowstep/immobilize with condition removal on return. Tons of potential for skilled play.
3. - Pistol Whip trades DPS, mobility, and the free cost of auto attack for an evade, interrupt, and hit volume. Not a terrible ability, but not one you want to use for pure damage. Hard to get it to hit in PvP since it roots you. Use it as a situational utility.
4. - Headshot, low-damage interrupt on demand, great utility.
5. - Black Powder, pulsing blind field that offers good utility and combo potential, trivializes a lot of PvE, not as useful in PvP unless you can get your opponent to stand in it.

D/D

1. - Auto attack is about the same DPS as sword’s, but doesn’t hit three targets, a solid auto attack regardless since it applies poison and gives a little endurance.
2. - Heartseeker is the premier “execution” skill and a great mobility tool properly aimed. Its spammability leads some people to try and use it for damage at >50 % HP, which is usually a mistake.
3. - Death Blossom is great for condition builds and evasion. You can build around it entirely if you want to go heavy conditions, but it doesn’t get used as much in a power-based setup unless you need evade/AE.
4. - Dancing Dagger is pretty mediocre since the nerf, completely terrible unless you have at least two targets. With two targets it becomes a situational tool that can be good for cripple and ranged damage in a pinch but is still too expensive.
5. - Cloak and Dagger allows organic stealth, which is great for setting up a backstab, it also functions as a decent damage attack and applies vulnerability.

As opposed to a pro/con list, I’d compare the weapon sets on a few fronts:

Burst damage – Goes to dagger for backstab and Heartseeker. Sword doesn’t really have any burst capability as a whole.
AE damage – Goes to S/P for AE sword strikes.
Survivability – Depends on your build, D/D’s access to organic stealth is very useful with heavy shadow arts, but S/P’s blind field and in-place evade can save the day in some situations.
Control – S/P, for dazes, immobilize, and cripple.
Mobility – S/P, unless you’ve got some incredible Heartseeker skills. Infiltrator’s Strike and cripple on auto go a long way towards being able to dictate range.
PvE – Goes to S/P, blind field is amazing and sword auto attack is great for fighting groups of enemies.
PvP – Depends a lot on the build and situation. D/D is a more common choice because it is easy to go full glass cannon and assassinate people. S/P is arguably more malleable, but probably more difficult to pull off.
Utility – Goes to S/P, the pistol offhand has superior utility skills and the conditions sword applies on auto are quite useful.

Try both at once. These are the sets I am currently running in sPvP. Open with S/P and finish or escape with D/D (I actually prefer cleared target Heart-Seeking leaps to SB #5 as an escape as it is far less exhausting on initiative).

Forget all that, go P/D and turn godmode on.

Your basically trading single target burst for more CC, natural aoe and condt removal.

Daggers – Hit one target flipping hard, and heart seeker helps you finish them off. DB lets you evade for when CnD is too expensive or not safe to use. Dancing Dagger is an expensive waste of initiative save when there is 2 enemies.

S/P – Stun things in place, interrupt them, blind them, all while smashing them in the face with your sword. Use 2 to remove crappy conditions and hold enemies in place. In a pvp setting use it to get you out of combat safe-and-sound and/or break from immobilizes and stuns.

On a single target, you can kill them faster with D/D.
Multi targets on a power build are handled better by S/P.

In a pvp sense, S/P is going to give you multiple ways of cancelling out the opponents movement-utilities and attacks in exchange for that D/D burst. With the addition that if you get burnt or something nasty you can take at least 1 of them off for 5 initiative every now and again.

I don’t use either in my PvE but I like S/P for pvp. Very flexible, and can play almost like a sniper in how you can warp to an enemy, down them and then go right back to +1200 range. Let your ally finish them, and go about your way to the next scrap.