Guild Wars 2

xxx = Anything

What am i doin wrong? im sick of using d/d and sb and i love the look for 1h swords but i cant find a build for dmg and and survivability that is on par with dd/sb or isnt completely rendered outgunned by warriors (in pve).

Is Sword / Anything viable?

IN wvw forget it, its either dd/sb or quit.

Please Teach me to play ( T2P)

S/P – 0/30/0/20/20 + Crit/Vit or Tough gear. Boon sharing + good survivability + insane consistent AoE damage.

Auesis.7301:

S/P – 0/30/0/20/20 + Crit/Vit or Tough gear. Boon sharing + good survivability + insane consistent AoE damage.

Good stat allocation, the gear should be power/tough/vit
you definitely need something funky for accessories like emerald orichalcum insert name of the berserker.

As for traits, it depends. The build is pretty versatile, you can go for signets of power+signet use+trickster and spam PW+Signet of Malice in PvE for the ultimate “I’m a thief and I can face tank better then your silly bunker guardian” build.

Or you can focus more on control using black powder constantly for blind fields and let the auto attack do all the damage (which at the very least is on par with PW, if not slightly higher)

I use my WvW build (25/30/0/15/0) for dungeons, and it works just fine. I use S/D in WvW (lots more fun than D/D, and arguably more effective).
In dungeons I tend to switch between S/D and S/P, both have major control abilities. CnD + Tactical Strike is excellent for pretty much neutralizing any single big (non-boss) enemy you fight, and Black Powder is great for facetanking groups of weaker enemies.
A nice tactic vs stunnable bosses (the final bosses usually aren’t, but some are) is to tear down their anti-CC stacks with PW, then hit them with a tactical strike. If you’re lucky with getting stealthed, you can keep the boss dazed for a good ~30% of the fight (I run with a Sigil of Paralyzation, so my stun is longer).
My other weapon is always a SB however, so I don’t believe you can ever get rid of that. It’s simply hands down the most amazing, versatile weapon we have!

I play S/P and SB just because I like it. I do no where near any 18K in 2 seconds damage and don’t even haste. But eh I do well enough and like the mobility in my build, it’s fun.

I do just fine in PvE and WvW with S/D, SB, I go 0/0/20/30/20. With and usually take Shadow Refuge, Infiltrator’s Signet, Withdraw and Thieves Guild. I generally go Caltrops or Scorpion Wire as my last utility slot (been experimenting) and switch to Dagger Storm if there’s a lot of ranged attacks flying around.

Sword has probably the best slot 1 attack for pure damage against a single target. Then you multiply the damage by 3 for mutli-target hits. This is very useful in PvE and not without its use it WvW (Stabbing 3 people in the ankles with Crippling strike is VERY useful). This means you’re free to use those expensive blackpowder and CnD moves pretty recklessly.

Sword #2 isn’t very useful in PvE, but it’s incredible in WvW for keeping yourself in one piece, since it gives you that get-out-of-trouble-free ability, allowing you to get stuck into the middle of zergs and do big damage and get out the moment it goes sour. The immobilise on the initial strike is pure gold too, particularly at stopping enemies retreating into their portals when you’re attacking a tower.

Pistol whip is a nice combo of interrupt and Shish kebab, but is actually less powerful than the normal chain and has that annoying habit of routing you to the spot. Most players will dodge roll the moment they recover from the stun. I prefer to stay mobile, but there’s a lot to be said for the interrupt, even if headshot is sat there in slot 4.

Flanking strike is actually really good for damage and boon stripping, and the dodge can work…. only the homing on is flaky as all hell. I’ve had quite a bit of success however with using steal part way through the move to close the gap so that the move hits properly though. Makes a decent ghetto spike.

That’s why you should use a sword in a nutshell.

Great S/D thief build here. That’s currently bad for sPvP (patch nerfed almost everything about it :P), but it’s fantastic for WvW and PvE. You get good damage, with high AoE and sustained but low burst. You get great active defenses, meaning that you can avoid damage all over the place but you still can’t sit there and absorb hits. You can counter any enemy build; range, melee, conditions, burst, sustained direct, control… this build has tools to deal with each of them.

I’ve been using S/P with a 0/30/0/20/20 build. With vaylk armor and beserker accessories with Runes of the Wurm. This gives me 18k health, and 88% crit dmg which lets you take a few hits while still dealing good dmg.

However upon getting into lvl 10+ fractals I am seriously considering switching to 15/20/0/20/15 to pick up the weakness traits, and switching out my Wurm runes for Doylak ones to get some extra toughness