Guild Wars 2

Hello everybody!

This is one of my first messages on this forum, but I have been reading it for a long time. I’ve been playing thief since I began GW last year. I really enjoy WvW (especially WvW) and I discovered SD thief a few months ago (the classic build , 26006 or something, I forgot already…). I became quite good and really enjoyed the moves and fights this class could bring.
I played D/D at first for a long time, but it feels far less rewarding and fights are not as classy with double dagger. I tried D/P but I definately don’t like this.
I was about to finish my full zerker ascended set when the trait update came in.
Now, I feel that there is NO synergy in the traits for SD and NO sustainability – at all.
So here are my questions. If I want to enjoy WvW again:

-Is there a way to efficiently play SD thief at this moment? (I’ve a build that enables me to sometimes kill people, but I’m really far from what I was before)
-Should I trade some zerker items with something else?
-Is there another solution with thief that does NOT include playing DP?

OR

-Should I play another class to wait for some fixes? I have 3 other lvl 80: necro, mesmer and guardian. I’ve not really played them in WvW yet and I don’t know the builds.
-Which of these classes is the funnier and stronger at this moment? With what build?

I know I ask a lot but I’m really disappointed at this moment, and I really want to find that smooth feeling I had when I played my thief back then…

Thanks for any advice guys, cheers!

Al Kalim

PS: and yes, english is not my mother tongue, I do what I can

As a S/D thief you have to be really good and know how all classes work. This is especially so due to/since the nerfs to Feline Grace AND Vigour. No more random dodging, really, really high skill cap on it now. I’d advice against using S/D if you don’t even know builds for your other 80’s, sorry.
Sadly S/D is far from what it used to be. You can make it work with DA, CS, TR and Acro (in any combination really) but the risk vs reward makes it so that S/D is hardly wever worth it.

If you do want to stick with it, keep in mind that S/D relies more on sustain than damage, therefore you might be better of trading some of your zerker pieces, for Valkyrie pieces.

Are there other solutions outside of D/P? Yeah…they all involve heavily outplaying your enemy though… Anything can be made viable if you’re good enough. Between the other classes you stated, mesmer is in the best spot right now. Everyone and their mom plays mesmer now though…

Really, just play what you like and what works for you. If you’re having fun, you’re doing the right thing!

Vornollo.5182:

As a S/D thief you have to be really good and know how all classes work. This is especially so due to/since the nerfs to Feline Grace AND Vigour. No more random dodging, really, really high skill cap on it now. I’d advice against using S/D if you don’t even know builds for your other 80’s, sorry.
Sadly S/D is far from what it used to be. You can make it work with DA, CS, TR and Acro (in any combination really) but the risk vs reward makes it so that S/D is hardly wever worth it.

If you do want to stick with it, keep in mind that S/D relies more on sustain than damage, therefore you might be better of trading some of your zerker pieces, for Valkyrie pieces.

Are there other solutions outside of D/P? Yeah…they all involve heavily outplaying your enemy though… Anything can be made viable if you’re good enough. Between the other classes you stated, mesmer is in the best spot right now. Everyone and their mom plays mesmer now though…

Really, just play what you like and what works for you. If you’re having fun, you’re doing the right thing!

^Hits everything right on the button more or less. Prior to the patch, I never ran s/d in part due to its ability to random dodge. Since the patch I’ve been more or less maining s/d DA/Acro/Trickery simply because its the most fun thief build for me currently.

There is emphasis on the fact that I play it because I find it the most fun, not because its the most optimal or best set currently. As mentioned above you really do need to know your matchups for each class (which a lot currently because of the number of changes that came at once recently) since you no longer have as many dodges.

As long as you know your stuff and are having fun while playing s/d I’d say go for it! Its still a fun spec and still has that s/d feel that makes it unique imo.

A minor change which helped me was to also put Air and Fire sigils on the shortbow. This allows me to drop back to recover endurance and initiative during a fight while maintaining decent dps on the target. I usually only have to do this for roaming warriors and guardians.