Guild Wars 2

So I was getting tired of my backstab turned condition damage thief, and I was trying to decide on whether to go sword and pistol or sword and dagger. I’m running 30 Crit with executioner, 15 trickery, 15 shadow arts, and 10 power for mug. After doing some tests on the dummies, I couldn’t believe how bad pistol whip was compared to sword auto attacks. Wow that’s embarrassingly bad, but I was pleasantly surprised by sword 3 (cant remember the names) damage.

I decided against the shortbow in weapon swap as that is what I always run with, and decided to go dual pistols (trying to completely mix it up for me). My unloads are hitting for about 3k-4.8k in berserkers, which is meh, but I have an air runes on the pistols which helps.

Anyways, does anyone have any advice on my build if anything can be tweaked for better results? I’m running blinding powder, shadow refuge, and for my last spot decided on SOS which I don’t normally use in SPVP, but with the lack of Infiltrators arrow, and giving up shadow step (sad about it but figured it was uneeded with sword number 2). Is there any better utilities to use with this combo?

Sword and dagger is a blast to play. If you haven’t tried it give it a whirl, was winning some 2v1’s easier than normal. Any information or advice on build or utilities is appreciated.

Thanks

Depending on what you’re doing with your Acrobatics trait, Signet of Agility could be a better choice than SoS. SoA will give you a small damage boost as well as situational condition removal and, more importantly, two dodges that will each impart swiftness and possibly might. Each dodge will also refund about a third of another dodge thanks to the 15 Acrobatics trait, so two free dodges actually comes out to almost three.

If you are going to keep SoS on your bar, learn how and when to get the most use out of the triggered AE blind so you aren’t just running a signet for the passive.

I’ve been S/D since almost day one, then took a few days trying out D/D after the nasty S/D nerfs last week, but missed S/D too much and came back to it, nerfs be kitten

My build and thoughts:

I run 10/30/30/0/0 with a mix of zerker/valk/toughness gear (full zerker in SPvP).

Shadow arts includes -2 initiative on stealthing abilities, remove condition in stealth, and regen in stealth

Critical damage traits include +7% crit from behind, +5% vitality from precision, and +20% damage on enemies <50% HP. Mug from Deadly arts of course.

Utility skills: shadow step, shadow refuge, and either shadow signet or blinding powder depending on WvW/ SPvP situtations. Elite is usually Daggerstorm.

Playstyle: Mostly stealth dance with tactical strike in a 1v1, with lots of teleporting in and out of combat for group skirmishes. Rely on stealth for condition removal and health recovery, and chaining CnD’s can be an effective way to delay combat and regen until the fight is more favorable. Also, shadowstep is the ultimate anti-glass cannon ability – anytime a thief or warrior tries to instagib me I can get the hell out of dodge.

Damage from auto-attack is still pretty good, and boon stripping on #3 is great against bunkers. Overall, it’s an amazing duelist spec, and in large scale combat can do all sorts of damage with AoE. It starts to lose value in high level TPvP since those matches are usually all bunker or glasscannon or go home, but in WvW / SPvP and low level tournies it’s an amazing spec.

Cufflink.3985:

I’ve been S/D since almost day one, then took a few days trying out D/D after the nasty S/D nerfs last week, but missed S/D too much and came back to it, nerfs be kitten

My build and thoughts:

I run 10/30/30/0/0 with a mix of zerker/valk/toughness gear (full zerker in SPvP).

Shadow arts includes -2 initiative on stealthing abilities, remove condition in stealth, and regen in stealth

Critical damage traits include +7% crit from behind, +5% vitality from precision, and +20% damage on enemies <50% HP. Mug from Deadly arts of course.

Utility skills: shadow step, shadow refuge, and either shadow signet or blinding powder depending on WvW/ SPvP situtations. Elite is usually Daggerstorm.

Playstyle: Mostly stealth dance with tactical strike in a 1v1, with lots of teleporting in and out of combat for group skirmishes. Rely on stealth for condition removal and health recovery, and chaining CnD’s can be an effective way to delay combat and regen until the fight is more favorable. Also, shadowstep is the ultimate anti-glass cannon ability – anytime a thief or warrior tries to instagib me I can get the hell out of dodge.

Damage from auto-attack is still pretty good, and boon stripping on #3 is great against bunkers. Overall, it’s an amazing duelist spec, and in large scale combat can do all sorts of damage with AoE. It starts to lose value in high level TPvP since those matches are usually all bunker or glasscannon or go home, but in WvW / SPvP and low level tournies it’s an amazing spec.

it was exactly my build. it was kinda like one of the best thief tournée builds before they nerfed TS and the OH dagger so bad.

now it’s totally unplayable at tourney level but it can still be used in w3 as a good duelist build, but still inferior to d/d

I switched from D/D to S/D a couple of days ago too and im having a blast with it.

i’m using 0 / 30 / 30 / 0 / 10

Traits are

- Blind when stealthing
- -2 Ini cost for stealth skills
- +20 Dmg when opponent below 50% hp
- Stealthed when using Steal
- 5% Precision converted to Vitality
- Stealth when gettin hit >20% of max HP in a single strike
- Gain Fury when opponent below 50% ho

Utility Slots i use Hide in Shadows, Blinding Powder, Shadow Step and Signet of Shadows (i cant play without it anymore no matter how hard i try =( ). Elite im using the Thiefs.

A lot of Stealth and Blinds with this. I have the feeling that S/D is a very utility based weapon set which requires you to control ur opponent. You have a lot of stealth which means you can hand out a lot of dazes.

For WvW i use a mix between Valkyrie and Knight armor sets. For sPvP i go with the Mesmer runes + Superior Sigill of Paralyzation. Soldier Amulett with Jewel of Berserker.

S/D is amazing. It’s the most versatile build we have that can fit and perform really well in almost all situations. It’s primarily skill based so a pretty high ceiling. Best thing to do is to balance survivability with damage with S/D because you are all about sustained damage, not how fast you can burst.

I am using Dacromir’s build, which has been working for me great. Here is he link to it.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Dacromir

windwalking.2674:

Best thing to do is to balance survivability with damage with S/D because you are all about sustained damage, not how fast you can burst.

Mostly because, as of the last balance patch, S/D no longer has a way to burst.

Qouting myself here:

First thing you should know is that Infiltrator’s Signet is not meant to be used alone; you combine it with Acrobatic’s Quick Recovery for another 0.3 initiative per second. Base initiative regen is about .6 per second, so that’s 0.9 initiative a second. Throw on Signet of Malice giving you another 2 initiative every 12 seconds (traited) and you have a grand stinking total of 1.05 initiative per second.

I like to use Signet of Malice on cooldown or every 12 seconds because of how I am traited. I am getting 2 initiative and 5 stacks of might for 6.5 seconds (I am traited fully in acrobatics as well) out of every 12. So “half” of the time I have an extra 175 power/malice just from one trait. This is a really significant sustained damage increase by itself, and if these traits only worked with Signet of Malice I would probably still take all of them. It gets better though because they do work with more than Signet of Malice. I could activate 4 signets for a whopping 700 power for the next 6.5 seconds which is a ridiculous amount of burst damage. I can make even the most well fortified guardian stand in astonishment of his sudden and swift destruction. I can do this every 24 seconds.

That’s not all though; Because I’m using Signet of Malice every 12 seconds I also have the availability of several runes which offer very good bonus effects for using a heal ability. Runes of Centaur gives me and those around me Swiftness for 13 seconds, or indefinitely. Runes of the Adventurer would give me another stack of might for 26 seconds, long enough that I could sustain 2 stacks of it on top of the 5 I already get from just popping Signet of Malice. Runes of Lyssa gives me a random boon every time I heal for 13 seconds and allows me to make Basilisk venom really ridiculous by giving me every single boon in the game whenever I use it. Rune of Vampirism bulks up my heal and adds a bit of damage by giving me a 975 health drain on my next attack.

By the way, 3 signets restoring 2 initiative every 24 seconds is another .25 initiative per second, so my total initiative regeneration is at 1.3 initiative per second. Most of my initiative goes into timing flanking strike, so not only am I wtf-murdering someone every 24 seconds while still maintaining a healthy steady damage increase from Signet of Malice, I’m also evading pretty much the majority of what is thrown at me between Flanking Strike, and Acrobatics/SignetofAgility/Dodging. This is great whether I’m in PVP or PVE.

Here is a link to the build I usually run with after the most recent patch:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAsY6alcmCOncS8E95Ex2DfKUeqVgmdPuqV1KA;TABA2ynEOJdS9kyJqZMzImxOjbG5MLKGUsLYGB

Some things to add to my qoute: I use hasten instead of another signet because I feel like it compliments the more bursty nature of my build. I could use Assassin’s Signet instead, but I feel like 3 signets is enough for most scenarios, and Hasten gives me the extra “oomph” when I really need it. If quickness is ever nerfed like it probably should be I’ll likely switch to Assassin’s Signet or Scorpion Wire. Scorpion Wire is just plain fun to use.

I’m using Runes of the Centaur which means I don’t need to use Signet of Shadows. It’s faster than just using the Signet and gives utility that the whole team appreciates without sacrificing any offensive capabilities. If there’s another Rune you’d prefer to use consider taking up Signet of Shadows again for 25% movement increase. Or just do whatever, I’m not your boss.

For Sigil’s I like Air or Fire, depending on my mood. Fire doesn’t do much less damage than Air and is usually better in wvwvwvwvw, while Air is better in PVP for single targets. Earth isn’t’ bad either, and we definitely have the malice to back it up with all our stacks of might. Experiment and see which you like better.

Sigil of Perception is the in-game name for Sigil of Minor Accuracy. In PVP you get +5 stacks every time you kill an enemy, but it may still be difficult to keep up depending on how good you are. Consider replacing it with Superior Sigil of Accuracy which gives you +5% critical hit rate without having to do anything special to keep up the stacks. Actually, consider keeping a Dagger with that enchantment anyway as there’s nothing stopping you from just unequipping the Sigil of Perception weapon once you got full stacks of what you want. Sigil of Bloodlust is also another option if you’d prefer power to perception, but I’m pretty sure I’m hitting some kind of diminishing returns on power as it is.

Assassin’s Reward is the final ability I take in the Acrobatics tree and worth a mention as a lot of people are iffy about taking it. It restores about 69 HP for every point of initiative you use. To give some better perspective that’s about 276 HP every time you use a Flanking Strike, and 828 HP if you blow through your whole initiative bar. It’s not enough HP return to let you just facetank everything and you’re still going to be mostly relying on Flanking Strike and dodging to mitigate most of your damage, but it does help take some of the edge off when you do mess up and definitely helps you outlast your opponent in a PVP scenario. Still, I can understand not wanting to take the ability if you have something else in mind.

I think that’s it for now. if you’re interested in my build and have any questions on it, lemme know.

S/d 10/30/10/0/20
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsYVlUmiO3cy9E9JFx2jeqTeyVIpeKI7Y1KQTA;TsAg0Cno4ywlgLLXOukctsYUw0CA

I hope to correct flanking strike.

Well I was having good success with my build this morning but wanted to try out the 30 30 0 0 10 build everyone suggested, the healing is pretty kitten nice, but I’m having a hard time with the stock amount of initiative. Since I am running p/p in my weapon swap I am trying to whittle them down with a few unloads if the battle is larger, before jumping in the middle to finish a target off. With the base initiative I can get off an unoad or 2 but then I am tapped when I jump in.

Man this set up is great thanks for all the info and tips everyone I’m definitely going to be making some changes based on the info here. P/p actually has some pretty decent synergy with S/D for me as I am able to spam a few head shots throughout the fight to keep the target off balance. Head shot is a great insta cast to interrupt heals. Start of with a few unloads and head shots, then infiltrators strike in and start dazing and flanking striking to put some pressure on the target. Get out when the heat gets to hot with number 2.

Ha this set up has renewed the thief for me. Thanks everyone.

Warkupo.1025:

Some things to add to my qoute: I use hasten instead of another signet because I feel like it compliments the more bursty nature of my build. I could use Assassin’s Signet instead, but I feel like 3 signets is enough for most scenarios, and Hasten gives me the extra “oomph” when I really need it. If quickness is ever nerfed like it probably should be I’ll likely switch to Assassin’s Signet or Scorpion Wire. Scorpion Wire is just plain fun to use.

I’m using Runes of the Centaur which means I don’t need to use Signet of Shadows. It’s faster than just using the Signet and gives utility that the whole team appreciates without sacrificing any offensive capabilities. If there’s another Rune you’d prefer to use consider taking up Signet of Shadows again for 25% movement increase. Or just do whatever, I’m not your boss.

For Sigil’s I like Air or Fire, depending on my mood. Fire doesn’t do much less damage than Air and is usually better in wvwvwvwvw, while Air is better in PVP for single targets. Earth isn’t’ bad either, and we definitely have the malice to back it up with all our stacks of might. Experiment and see which you like better.

Sigil of Perception is the in-game name for Sigil of Minor Accuracy. In PVP you get +5 stacks every time you kill an enemy, but it may still be difficult to keep up depending on how good you are. Consider replacing it with Superior Sigil of Accuracy which gives you +5% critical hit rate without having to do anything special to keep up the stacks. Actually, consider keeping a Dagger with that enchantment anyway as there’s nothing stopping you from just unequipping the Sigil of Perception weapon once you got full stacks of what you want. Sigil of Bloodlust is also another option if you’d prefer power to perception, but I’m pretty sure I’m hitting some kind of diminishing returns on power as it is.

Assassin’s Reward is the final ability I take in the Acrobatics tree and worth a mention as a lot of people are iffy about taking it. It restores about 69 HP for every point of initiative you use. To give some better perspective that’s about 276 HP every time you use a Flanking Strike, and 828 HP if you blow through your whole initiative bar. It’s not enough HP return to let you just facetank everything and you’re still going to be mostly relying on Flanking Strike and dodging to mitigate most of your damage, but it does help take some of the edge off when you do mess up and definitely helps you outlast your opponent in a PVP scenario. Still, I can understand not wanting to take the ability if you have something else in mind.

I think that’s it for now. if you’re interested in my build and have any questions on it, lemme know.

Wow

Thanks for all this info warkupo. I’m definitely going to mess around with some of this and see what works well for my playstyle thanks.

25/20/10/0/15
Withdraw, SoS, Blinding powder, Scorpion wire
I’m amusing myself in WvW with this setup Kept a group of 2 warriors and 1 ranger busy just shadowstepping around and always focus attack on 1 person ’till he died … too bad my initiatives ran out after that

Gwalchgwn.1659:

25/20/10/0/15
Withdraw, SoS, Blinding powder, Scorpion wire
I’m amusing myself in WvW with this setup Kept a group of 2 warriors and 1 ranger busy just shadowstepping around and always focus attack on 1 person ’till he died … too bad my initiatives ran out after that

Ha this sounds great. I love withdraw, what armor stats are you rocking with this?

My build:
30/30/0/0/10
Mug, Dagger Training, Combined training
Side Strike, Critical Haste, Executioner
Flanking Strikes
But my build is focused around killing stragglers in WvW and is absolutely pathetic in dungeons.
Power/Prec/Crit Dmg armor + weapons
Power/Vitality/Crit Dmg trinkets

I however am thinking about re-traiting to 20/30/20

My Build

It’s a fantastic jack-of-all trades build. You lack burst damage, but you have everything else. No matter what tactic or build the enemy is using, you have a method of dealing with it. High mobility, lots of utility and flexibility, good support. Works great in both solo and group play, for WvW or PvE/Dungeons.

I got tired of typing out a description over and over in different threads, so I now have a detailed write-up on the wiki that I keep updated. It’s easier this way, and the ability to use icons and links in the wiki is fantastic. Now if I mention a trait and you want to know more about it, you can just click on the trait in the write-up and it takes you to the wiki page.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Gwalchgwn.1659:

25/20/10/0/15
Withdraw, SoS, Blinding powder, Scorpion wire
I’m amusing myself in WvW with this setup Kept a group of 2 warriors and 1 ranger busy just shadowstepping around and always focus attack on 1 person ’till he died … too bad my initiatives ran out after that

Ha this sounds great. I love withdraw, what armor stats are you rocking with this?

I don’t have an armour for it yet. Right now I’m just running full explorer set.. Probably would go for beserker set though. And if I wasn’t using pirate runes, I’d probably go for runes with vitality ’cause this setup runs low on health.

Been playing it more today, I rly like S/D right now Saved me against some d/d setups few times just because I kept interrupting them and shadowstepping when they got stealthed.

I really enjoy S/D, I just really wish they would address Flanking Strike by either making it follow the target or speed up the animation. It’s very powerful attack potentially, but the pathing makes it fairly unreliable.