Guild Wars 2

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c2XBKKmDrQ

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAqaVl0MptpdPx0J0PNxLhw1PvXn+t2LCMA-TlDBwAdViI5EAgV5EgHAAOVbyqkIlegi7Pw4QAkwE0ElgbOCA6UTQvmgAAIAczbucbO0kCAmJAA-w

I notice there’s been a lot of interest in P/P, so I decided to tinker around with a P/P build.

The build I’ve come up with is terrible for solo roaming, decent at most 1v1’s, and viable in team play for groups up to sizes of 10. It offers decent bursts from unload and a lot of utility from panic strike, body shot, headshot, black powder, and needle trap.

Although the weapon set is still weaker than the other weapon sets, I think P/P is unique in its ability to proc panic strike easily and quickly, while maintaining good ranged burst. Similarly, I think P/D lacks the same burst potential and also lacks the smoke field and spammable daze that P/P offers.

With 6 points in Deadly Arts and +40% condition duration food, you get +70% condition duration. This means each panic strike is a 4.25 sec immobilize, each needle trap is a 5 sec immobilize, and each (spammable) body shot is a 1.75 sec immobilize. In addition, 6 points into Trickery give you all the standard utilities of the meta builds.

This is my first video with commentary (apologies for the poor quality mic), and this build is very much a work in progress. I welcome all comments, questions, and suggestions about both the video and the build.

Great use of immobs! Love that this is a 6 DA build with P/P, looks fun.

edit: it is interesting that you have shadows embrace with the one access to stealth, do you notice a big survivability drop without it even still? I’ll bet you’re tempted to go 2 in to CS for +10% pistol damage!

Woaden.9425:

Great use of immobs! Love that this is a 6 DA build with P/P, looks fun.

edit: it is interesting that you have shadows embrace with the one access to stealth, do you notice a big survivability drop without it even still? I’ll bet you’re tempted to go 2 in to CS for +10% pistol damage!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get good footage against condi builds, but when I fight against a condi build, I often swap to hide in shadows, and I’ll sit in my refuge longer. I’ll also clusterbomb my own black powder, so I have enough access to stealth that I think shadow’s embrace is worth it. Nonetheless, the build is definitely weak against condi, but if I play aggressively, it’s still manageable.

Against non-condi builds, I do use 62006, which I find to be very strong against other thieves. For general roaming purposes, however, I stick to 60206 just in case I need shadow’s embrace.

nice video
15

I know it would be sub par, but could this build work in PvP? Probably using zerker or barb amulets in place of the zerker/valk from your link.

Belzebu.3912:

I know it would be sub par, but could this build work in PvP? Probably using zerker or barb amulets in place of the zerker/valk from your link.

I usually play a meta build in tPvP, so I really haven’t tried it out. I honestly think this would play very similarly to the 60206 or 26006 builds in PvP simply because you’d spend a lot of time in SB, and you’d just swap to P/P to finish off the target.

The build is pretty weak when it comes to sustain, so I’m not sure it’s a great PvP roaming build, which is the role that thieves seem to be shoehorned into. On the other hand, if you hit the immobilizes correctly, I think this build could contribute nicely to team fights. I’ll give it a shot when I have time (and hopefully get some footage out of it).

Also, the zerk amulet actually offers better stats than the WvW counterpart, just because it gives me more health. Sitting at 12k health is very painful when fighting the abundant condi builds in WvW.

Yeah, that is what I was imagining, since I’m just PvPing casually, most of the times I’ll be in team fights during hot join matches, so the immob + a bit of AoE can be useful.

Belzebu.3912:

Yeah, that is what I was imagining, since I’m just PvPing casually, most of the times I’ll be in team fights during hot join matches, so the immob + a bit of AoE can be useful.

If you plan on playing in hotjoin and staying around mid fights, then I think this build will do just fine, especially with the abundance of immobilize it offers. You might also want to swap out bountiful theft for ricochet if you’re unsure about when to steal, since the extra aoe dps + 150 range is also very nice.

Yes, great idea, thanks for the suggestion.

very helpful. thanks for posting!

I just tested tonight the build with the ricochet trait and the berzerker amulet on PvP and for me it worked really well.
Just used the sigil of generosity in the pistol instead of accuracy to help with cond cleanse and done.

Belzebu.3912:

I just tested tonight the build with the ricochet trait and the berzerker amulet on PvP and for me it worked really well.
Just used the sigil of generosity in the pistol instead of accuracy to help with cond cleanse and done.

If only I could afford generosity for WvW….

I’m glad this worked for you though! I’m going to try it out myself soon.

look fun, thx for sharing.

doesnt the 4.25 sec round down to 4 sec and also the 1.75 sec to 1 sec
and also with -66% duration on melee classes its only 0-1 sec?

so guardian/warrior/ele wont notice it at all

?!

i played almost similar build but with smoke screen for perma blind

messiah.1908:

i played almost similar build but with smoke screen for perma blind

If it’s the build you posted here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/P-P-power-build-viable-check-this-out/first#post4492665

then we don’t play a similar build at all. In fact, they’re very different.

messiah.1908:

doesnt the 4.25 sec round down to 4 sec and also the 1.75 sec to 1 sec
and also with -66% duration on melee classes its only 0-1 sec?

so guardian/warrior/ele wont notice it at all

?!

I believe GW2 doesn’t round on condition durations. The tooltip won’t show you 1.75 seconds, but it’ll actually stay on for that long.

With hoelbrak and lemongrass, heavies get -60% duration, but you get +70% duration with my build. You could swap in giver weapons for +80% or +90% duration.

Even with dogged march (which a couple of the warriors had in my video), the immobilizes are still very significant. For example, in my duel against the eviscerate warrior, the panic strike actually immobilized his whirlwind, and in my duel against the d/d ele, panic strike immobilized his burning speed.

At worst, panic strike and needle trap are ~3 seconds of immobilize at full duration, which is still extremely powerful. Even if they cleanse the immobs, you can reapply it fairly easily.

i didnt mean the trap p/p

condition do round down and the enemies you fought with were without food as far as i notice

i do agree immobilize is much needed in the p/p set but try it against warrior with food duration and howlebrak runes with the trait -33% and you will notice immobilize doesnt stack to these guys

i am too try to find p/p useful builds but its hard if anet dont contribute to it

messiah.1908:

condition do round down and the enemies you fought with were without food as far as i notice

The tooltip rounds down because it doesn’t show 1/10 second intervals, but the condition duration itself doesn’t round down. So if you apply a 1.5 sec condition, the condition on the enemy will just show 1 sec. However, if stack two 1.5 sec conditions, it will still tick for 3 sec. Feel free to test this out.

messiah.1908:

i do agree immobilize is much needed in the p/p set but try it against warrior with food duration and howlebrak runes with the trait -33% and you will notice immobilize doesnt stack to these guys

I believe the evisc warrior I dueled in the vid was using -36% condi duration food with dogged march. The immobilize is still very good for confirming an unload, and my panic strike also immobilized his whirlwind.

Like I said, at worst, panic strike/needle trap are ~3 sec of immobilize, which is still very strong. You can stack even more condi duration with giver weapons if you really need it, but ~3 sec against hoelbrak/lemongrass/dogged march warriors is still more than enough. Against opponents without -condi duration food, the immobilize from panic strike/needle trap is borderline OP.

messiah.1908:

i am too try to find p/p useful builds but its hard if anet dont contribute to it

I think P/P is fine is in 1v1’s and viable in group play. P/P is just bad for solo roaming because it can’t self-sustain, which is what most teefs seem to want. If you play around a team or if you’re just dueling, P/P is actually not bad.

I think D/P + P/P is actually pretty solid.