Guild Wars 2

Hi All,

This vid takes the same point spread as the previous Vampire, but goes back to Sword/Dagger main with that tasty tasty shortbow companion. I’ve found this build to be very fun, I hope you enjoy the video.

The Matador
Build

I was surprised by the amount of healing Invigorating Precision gives, especially in moment of high sword cleaving and cluster-bombing. Dagger storm also makes for crazy heals, especially when combo’d within a shadow refuge for life leaching.

IP, with Pain Response, along with aoe blinds and a condi clear on stealth make for a ridiculous amount of damage mitigation, all while hitting like a truck. That said, the super steal from 2xxx6 is painfully missed — definitely a different style.

It’s a struggle to fit enough footage in to short, single song vids, but I like the format. I’ve got another hour of interesting gameplay in this build that I may continue to release before I go on to another point spread.

If you’re looking for some longer footage of this build, I posted another a week ago: Here.

Interesting concept; I’m a big fan of invigorating precision for P/P and S/P. I’m surprised you opt for roll for initiative over infiltrator’s signet. Seems like you could engage a lot more often with the signet, and you should have enough sustain that losing roll for initiative isn’t a huge deal.

I agree with mango, you didnt use roll once in the video while there were several times you could have used infil signet to close a gap and finish a kill quicker

Hey guys, thanks for your feedback.

Yes I get some grief from my fellow thieves in game as well, for running RFI instead of infil sig, or even BP or sig of agil.

To be fair, there are three fights in this video, and in the first two I didn’t use any of my utils! The fights were just that fast.

In the last fight, I do use RFI, a couple of times iirc. This lack of usage is more a symptom of the 3 minute length.

The thing that bothers me most in this vid is my fight vs that p/d dire 20606 perplex thief, where I blow a withdraw heal while stacked with confusion and poison… all while a perfectly good shadowstep sits there unused!

RFI is also used throughout the other, longer matador video.

RFI is there, I believe, to keep up pressure even when I’ve blown all the ini, such as in that opening fight with the ele in the first vid.

However I take your point, I’m sure many folks would take infil sig in this build, and I’m sure it would work out fine, maybe even better!

Hi, I’ve running this build for a few hours now and it is suprisingly good and fun. I don’t know, but I think it doesn’t look that good on paper.

And I agree with mango and Carpboy. Swapping RFI for IS was one of the first things I’ve done. Feels smoother for me.

Roll for Initiaves is that one skill I have yet to try. I think this skill is too specific for a good, well rounded use. Signet of infiltration would be a better option.

This build sounds promising thought.

apocom.3172:

Hi, I’ve running this build for a few hours now and it is suprisingly good and fun. I don’t know, but I think it doesn’t look that good on paper.

And I agree with mango and Carpboy. Swapping RFI for IS was one of the first things I’ve done. Feels smoother for me.

I’ve ran this build quite a bit in the past myself. The damage is higher than 20066 but in the end, sleight of hand is just too good of a trait to pass up. The damage isn’t THAT much better either

I just have a quick question/comment. It seems that fights are often over fast enough that you aren’t really benefitting from IP a lot of the time, and notably during the fight against the 2 mesmers, 1 of them would have been down much more quickly with executioner as he sat at a sliver of health for a while. Do you find the added sustain from IP is worth giving up that damage boost?

Maugetarr.6823:

Do you find the added sustain from IP is worth giving up that damage boost?

It’s really more about making sure a build has a few main components when I build.

It’s gotta be traited for at least one, ideally two “bonus heals”. That can be mug & shadows rejuvenation, mug and pain response, etc.

So with this point spread I didn’t have much better options than IP and Pain Response.

I think that, no matter the point spread, 6 points in CS line would always do more damage with executioner, sure! It’s certainly better in a glass duel, there’s not a lot of time to heal in such situations.

However this build works good in glass duels (they die fast, and mistakes are more costly than traits), and it works great in small groups or in the ganksquad of zergbusting, etc, where the sustain can work it’s magic.

Interesting. I haven’t used s/d in a long time cuz i got bored with the usual build, but i’ve been looking to get back into using the set. I’ll definitely try this out.