Guild Wars 2

So yeah, I see thief is in a bad place, but disregarding our current state, do you see any strengths in the staff kit for DD which translate to PvP? I am a little confused because it doesn’t look like it provides anything useful.

When I use the thief in PvP, I always go Staff/SB with DA/TR/DD lines.

The biggest issue of Staff vs D/P is the disengaging, since with Staff you don’t have a lot of means to get into stealth on demand opposed to D/P. But by judging the right moment, you can do it with staff too.

Well, it has superior and easier to access burst damage compared to D/P, has 2 evade skills, one of which is an AOE which hits as hard as a backstab, a long ranged blind, and a pretty high damage auto-attack. And it had a knockdown if you have access to stealth.

Compared to D/P, you get higher overall damage, some AOE damage, more evade frames, more dodges (staff master trait), by sacrificing stealth and Shadow Shot.

Unlike D/P, which is mostly a hit-and run weapon set (unless with shadow shot abuse), staff forces you to stick to the fight, and provides some means for you to survive in the chaotic, swirling mass of AOE damage that is mid.

While disengaging with staff is not as easy as with D/P, with good timing, our trusty shortbow can help us disengage from anything (until you get a true shot to your back i guess).

As for which is better, I found that the greatest strength of the staff is that it is not affected by reveal, and is best used when there are classes with reveals on the table.

It is however, to some extent countered by D/P thieves. Fighting a good D/P thief with the staff is hard, harder then fighting dragon-hunters, heralds etc.

Tldr: staff boosts your effectiveness against all classes aside from D/P thieves.

I consider it a must. Againts D/P thief, once I land a hit its gg. The power you get with staff is unmatched. You can vault for 10k dmg!! Weakening Charge is great when u master it. Disengage is no problem with Dash dodge. In fact IMO thief is no long the stealth class but the most mobile class. With Dash and SB you are by far the fastest person in the map and you can use that to ur advantage.