Guild Wars 2

Hi,
Curious why most thieves I talk to are surprised that someone would run P/P or believe that P/P is not viable (pve speaking).

I am able to chain 9k+ unloads, totalling about 27k in a matter of seconds. For a non-warrior, isn’t that at least halfway decent if not almost on par with a warrior hundred blades?

For PvE, even with Richochet, Warrior will probably easily out-damage you — especially against multiple targets. P/P is still mainly single-target, and being ranged, it intentionally does less damage than melee.

For WvW, however, P/P can down targets much faster, and much more easily than Warrior. That is, when the warrior isn’t against opponents that just stand in one spot (or remain stun-locked) until they die. ;P

I’m going to go ahead and assume your talking about pve here because you compared it to 100b. 1. If 100b is only hitting 27k, your not built right. 2. 27k for 15 initiative is VERY VERY bad. Lets do some math and compare. I’ll also assume were going for average, not min/max party composition.
p/p = 15 initiative for 27k = 1.8k per initiative
d/d = 6 initiative for 40k = 6.7k per initiaative
You also have to take into account the time spent. CnD+BS can be done in less than 1 second. I’m not sure exactly how long unload takes but lets say 1 second (it takes longer). For basically 1/3 of the time, d/d outdamaged p/p by nearly 50% and spent 9 less initiative.
So tl;dr: p/p is not viable in pve.

(side note: P/p is viable for certain aspects of fractals like taking hits off legendary grawls shield or molten duo’s anger(?) stacks.)

cloak and dagger + backstab = about 25-50 thousand damage in a second (Full might and bloodlust fulldps spec

For pve, it all comes down to what “Viability” means to you.
1. does it mean you can play it with ease and killing as fast as you can?
or
2. does it mean you can use the set in pve and able to survive in pve?

IMO, any sets from any classes in the game is viable in pve but that does NOT mean every sets are equal.

P/P drain initiative way to fast to be useful in PvE for a main weapon. Its better ranged DPS then shortbow but leaves you with little initiative to play with and no utilities(eg teleport and evade).

Personally, I really love playing with dual pistols on a thief both in PvP and WvW. I also love it in PvE, but I almost never run it in dungeons or fractals.

For PvE roaming, however, it can be a whole lot of fun. You can mark large numbers of enemies in events with Ricochet and spamming unload. My current build for that is right here:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYEQRAqa4alcmCO3ey4E+5Ex2DgKUe69gsiNsdF4KA-jgyAYrBRTMgJIAkFQ6DUyrIasF3ioxqWwUlER1ejioVLFwoKjA-e

Basically, it’s made to use D/P for stealth when needed and use signet of malice/stealing to add on extra initiative when you either begin to run low or start dropping below 6 initiative (for the 10% DMV boost in the minor trait). Popping signets will restore one initiative, also, and if you prefer then you can swap the alt weapon set to shortbow for combo fields, as well as Shadow Refuge for smoke screen or another signet. I swap pistols out when the bloodlust stacks are maxed out for a sigil of stamina for dodges.