Guild Wars 2

Ok, I’ve been trying really hard to enjoy myself on my d/d thief, but since HoT it has become impossible. So hear is my rant about the problems with d/d.

First and foremost, its in combat mobility is lacking when compared to the competition. Every other weapon set thieves have is more mobile sans p/p which has the luxury of fighting at range. This is used to be an acceptable trade off when it was king of burst, but now it’s just another sad note.

Next, it used to have easy access to stealth via #5. This skill was balanced, it did superb damage and wasn’t impossible to land, and missing was only a big deal if it happened twice. Now it does kitten damage for its cost and it is far harder to land given the number of blocks, invulnerabilities, dazes, stuns, blinds, and dodges that exist. If you do manage to connect, you deal meh damage and got 3-4 seconds to line up a backstab.

Backstab, it used to do phenomenal damage, but now merely does acceptable damage(thanks ferocity patch). I used to get 8k+ crits now 4-6k is the norm. Did you know that Dragon hunter bow #2 does more damage on a 2 second cd?

Then there’s the #3 skill, it’s a kittening condition damage skill on a power set. At least they buffed the evade back up to .5s, but still, it’s almost a waste of ini.

number 2 has no complaints from me, I miss the old 66 and 33% damage thresholds, but w/e

number 4 kitten this skill, it used to do decent damage and had a decent cripple. Now it does kitten damage with a kitten cripple. Oh the part where it almost almost never lands at range is still an issue.

Then there’s 2 trait changes in particular that really hurt this spec: The mug nerf and moving CiS to grandmaster.

the mug nerf removed a lot of burst this spec had, but at least they gave us a decent heal in return.

The CiS change, however, is just pants on head kittened. kitten you arenanet. There was no call for making this trait, which used to be adept grand master. It didn’t even help the meta thief build d/p, only p/d and d/d used this trait, and it helped make us viable. Arenanet logic: let’s combine a Master trait and a Grand master trait to make a new Grand master trait: Shadow’s Embrace. Let’s Combine an adept trait with an adept trait to make a new Grand Master trait: CiS.

d/d used to have 3 different viable play styles: condition, attrition, and burst. CiS and Shadow’s Rejuvenation allowed us to whittle opponents down at the expense of damage, but we still had decent burst. After the June patch we lost this option.

Now with all of the new elite specs, d/d burst is gone. I don’t consider this a viable option at all. It’s gone from not meta to bad. There are far to many ways of flat out denying the burst, denying stealth, and locking this build down for it to work. Not to mention that other classes can burst harder while maintaining greater survivability. DD is a nice addition, but it’s not enough to save this weapon set on the power side.

Thanks Anet for slowly rendering my favorite weapon set useless. kitten you.

I hear you man!! We really need a dev who is passionate about our class.

The 0 response to major crisis is fun. We are worse than warrior, but they got buffed. Bright side, first patch in a while with 0 nerfs. Counts for something right?

Serious Thought.5394:

The 0 response to major crisis is fun. We are worse than warrior, but they got buffed. Bright side, first patch in a while with 0 nerfs. Counts for something right?

Undocumented changes?

I checked, we’re safe this time. I think. rechecks

Serious Thought.5394:

I checked, we’re safe this time. I think. rechecks

Improvisation rate dropped due to the new skill type.

DD can’t roll inside SR using any kind of dodge mid fight.

Action Camera hates Steal.

Withdraw still missing 10%.

I meant THIS patch. Today.

Serious Thought.5394:

I meant THIS patch. Today.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhh

True that!

Power D/D is no more viable in pvp since long time. CnD almost impossible to land in current meta (for the reasons u said) its damage is ridicolous and it has cast time too..
The mobility is comparable to a crippled snail, u will die often to passive aoe.
The set would need a massive buff for pvp but then how do u balance it pve side? it’s still one of the best choices for pve dps.
Maybe CnD should be made unblockable, just dodgeable…
About backstab, i dont think this skill has any meaning in today pvp. It’s damage is so low for his requirements, many many professions have higher dmg skills easier to land.

For me, the main problem with Dagger/Dagger is the lack of a FULL gap closer on the actual weapon set. Dagger/Pistol has Shadow Shot. Shortbow has Infiltrator’s Arrow. Sword/X has Infiltrator’s Strike. Getting close enough to actually use Cloak and Dagger is an issue for me. I have to rely on Steal and Infiltrator’s Signet. So if I dodge to evade a melee attack, I just took myself out of range to Stealth. And if I’m fighting a ranged opponent with things on cooldown… I’m in serious trouble.

Not only does it lack the ability to Blind, but it also lacks the ability to Interrupt.

I used to be a die-hard d/d backstab power burst thief. Landing those bursts, it felt good. Or missing the burst, then you had to outplay your opponent with your limited set – it was difficult, but once accomplished, it felt good. It was fun, clean and effective. Proper assassin kitten.

Now I am a cowardly, try-hard d/d deathblossom spammer condi dodger. Seems more viable now, alas that is what my d/d thief has been relegated to.

I feel dirty. Like I poisoned their drinks while they weren’t watching. But it works better that way, less risk.

Now that they fixed the evade on DB, I think they should just un-nerf Dancing Daggers and perhaps increase the damage on Backstab a bit to compensate for the powercreep in other classes.

I picked up thief because I wanted to be ultra stabby. I liked backstabbing the Dredge fractal boss for 100k+ damage. In PvP, landing a 12k backstab was always a dream, but now they’re just measly 5k when everyone has at least 18k health. I don’t know what D/D needs to function competitively, but I just wanna stab people for high amounts of damage IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR?!

How have I just now seen this thread? I agree one thousand percent. You hit the nail on the head with CiS, DP had no need for it, the set naturally blinds the kitten outta people anyway. It was used to avoid a potentially hard hit after stealth that the person would likely panic out. And now with the sheer amount of blocks,invulnerables, dmg mitigation etc. cloak and dagger is too risky to pull off, especially since other classes can hit viciously now. D/D was also my favorite set, heck it was our iconic weapon set, and they killed it. I’ll miss the sister brawler builds X/30/30/X/X, but immense luck if you try them now.

EDIT: And I know I used 30 traits points instead of 6, that’s how far these builds went back, how many memories they’ve spawned. It was my WvW, PvP, and PvE

I miss the 30 points. 6 per line. Give it back, 6 more for the elite line- bada bing. Viable again. Specialization killed us because we lost more than 3 points- we take an entire line. See my post =P Its informative and QWARK-tastic =P