Guild Wars 2

I just made a WvW roaming video with voice commentary.

This is my first time doing commentary on a gaming video (and one of my first gaming videos), so I have no idea how I did. Input and criticism would be wonderful; I’d like to improve.

Have to say I enjoyed watching much of your video, and actually enjoyed the commentary. I have been playing D/D + SB, but this gives me an idea of how to play something a bit differently.

I had a few questions… but watching your first video and getting the link to your build/traits/armor, you have already answered them.

thanks for the great watch!

Only good part was that good mesmer fight. Rest are just simply put: “I screw up but I still kill em all lol.” and thieves on forums preach that other classes need to play perfectly and predict thieves actions to survive against them. It wasnt bad video but I got bad taste of it because if I do one mistake vs thief in PvP, I die on my class while you were allowed to do so much and yet rewarded for it.

“I spam shout and never die lol”

Flame warriors gogogo!

Seriously, knock it off. I’m not some gimmick burst build that kills you in 0.5 seconds.

hey dacromir.. nice job on the vid.. i dont have sound at work so i couldnt get the audio but good job with the footage..

i also run s/d with shadow arts traited. love it… so much survivability…i use the condition removal trait in spvp and now i never die from conditions. .

i also go 30 up crit line for executioner and the precision/crit dmg boost.. its just my personal opinion but i find the dmg boost is worth sacrificing all the boons you get from trickery

@Dacromir, yeah in its called tank/bunker warrior. He hardly ever dies yet neither he kills at all. While you never died and yet killed 1 vs 3 all of them while doing tonns of stupid mistakes. See what I am after? Of course you dont.

VictorTroska.3725:

Only good part was that good mesmer fight. Rest are just simply put: “I screw up but I still kill em all lol.” and thieves on forums preach that other classes need to play perfectly and predict thieves actions to survive against them. It wasnt bad video but I got bad taste of it because if I do one mistake vs thief in PvP, I die on my class while you were allowed to do so much and yet rewarded for it.

you say you do 1 mistake, I say you do multiple. you are making an argument based off your own judgement of skill level. I play a thief and I find that there are 3 skill levels to players. I will make my own judgement call since you made yours.

[bad] – you
[good] – me
[great] – people that post on you-tube [look at me I can 1 shot everyone 1v10] which I am presuming are 5% of the entire thief population.

So I get this feeling thief players are OK with make mistakes and still live policy. Alright, then why dont we check countless topics where players said they got insta killed by thief and thieves say “You failed dodge.” “You didnt use stunbreaker.” Well excuse me, where is my 2nd chance?

@ddrake; and you dont make argument based off your own judgement?

bomber.1540:

hey dacromir.. nice job on the vid.. i dont have sound at work so i couldnt get the audio but good job with the footage..

i also run s/d with shadow arts traited. love it… so much survivability…i use the condition removal trait in spvp and now i never die from conditions. .

i also go 30 up crit line for executioner and the precision/crit dmg boost.. its just my personal opinion but i find the dmg boost is worth sacrificing all the boons you get from trickery

The video actually has captions. I typed them in myself, so they’re accurate barring any typos. You can also click the “live transcript” button (on the same row as “About” and “Share”) for a text transcript of what I’m saying that doesn’t cover up my skill bar like the captions do.

VictorTroska.3725:

So I get this feeling thief players are OK with make mistakes and still live policy. Alright, then why dont we check countless topics where players said they got insta killed by thief and thieves say “You failed dodge.” “You didnt use stunbreaker.” Well excuse me, where is my 2nd chance?

@ddrake; and you dont make argument based off your own judgement?

Those thieves are full glass cannon thieves. They go for tons of burst and no survivability or utility. Against those thieves, you do have to be perfect. However, that’s balanced; if you can manage to avoid their burst, they have no chance of survival. So when fighting a glass cannon, there’s no forgiveness for error. If you mess up, you die. If you do it right or they mess up, they die.

My build is far from glass cannon. I take a really balanced build that has decent damage and mobility, and high control and self-healing. It’s well-rounded and performs well in almost any situation. This means that there is forgiveness for mistakes on both sides. I can mess up and still pull through, and so can they. Because I won, I simply made fewer mistakes than they did.

I didn’t even win with my gear; I have one piece of exotic jewelry and one exotic armor, rare weapons, and the rest is green (masterwork). I was also fighting people with +100 of each stat and +10% health. They had a big stat advantage. I just built my character better, and I played it better (except for that mesmer I fought; they were probably playing slightly better than me for most of the fight).

I noticed on your page that you have food for PvE use. Does this mean you run this build out in PvE as well, not just WvW and PvP? How does it fare in normal content and dungeon content?

I noticed on your page that you have food for PvE use. Does this mean you run this build out in PvE as well, not just WvW and PvP? How does it fare in normal content and dungeon content?

I actually use this for just about everything. To be honest, some of the traits (particularly trickery and the focus on boons) make a little more sense in groups than for solo roaming. They’re strong boons to me, but they’re crazy powerful when I give them to my group.

This obviously performs well in WvW/PvP. It does pretty well in solo PvE. I never die to slow-attacking PvE mobs, but the single-target damage leaves something to be desired. However, my AoE with the sword is great, so if I pull multiple mobs at once I can kill at a respectable pace.

In dungeons it’s wonderful. I have good sustained damage, tons of self-healing, lots of stun breaks, and group support. AoE stealth is awesome for reviving downed allies, and Steal grants great boons to the group. With my frequent AoE blinding and my dazes, I can really lower the damage mobs do to my allies. It’s not healing, but it does really help keep my group alive. I also have the defenses to be right in the thick of the melee without dying.

Hrm. I was gonna go dagger/dagger on my thief, but now I wanna give this a try, haha. How is it as a levelling build or is it better to wait until you’re 70-80 before respeccing into this?

Looks pretty solid but the SB seems to be a bit of a mistake, you almost never use it.

Why not try S/P and D/D?
S/P gives you head shot for interrupts, black power for defense vs msemsers and rangers (which gave you the hardest time) and pistol whip if they’re bad enough to try to tank your damage (which also gives you a interrupt). It also lets you keep your shadow return.

D/D gives you your DD, CnD (since stealth is very important for your build), heart seeker (excellent for closing gaps and finishing off opponents) and DB for AoE, which you situationally need (and the evade/bleed stacks).

For fast traveling you could always carry your SB to spam infiltrator’s arrow and when you’re about to enter battle swap it out for another Dagger.

To me at least it seems this would fit your playstyle a bit more (I also use this build but I’m traited into acrobatics instead of shadow arts so I use Sigils and dodge heavily instead of stealth).

Great vid:D keep em coming:) I know u have the reason for keeping the none combat material in the vid, but imo u can delete it:)

IceBlink.4317:

Hrm. I was gonna go dagger/dagger on my thief, but now I wanna give this a try, haha. How is it as a levelling build or is it better to wait until you’re 70-80 before respeccing into this?

D/D will give you better single-target damage by quite a margin. However, S/D gives you better survivability and AoE damage. If you’re having trouble staying alive, definitely use S/D. Otherwise, they’re about equal. If you’re fighting three or more mobs, S/D kills faster than D/D. Against one or two mobs, D/D kills faster.

BabelFish.7234:

S/P gives you head shot for interrupts, black power for defense vs msemsers [sic] and rangers (which gave you the hardest time) and pistol whip if they’re bad enough to try to tank your damage (which also gives you a interrupt). It also lets you keep your shadow return.

I’m really not a fan of S/P. For one thing, black powder is largely only good in PvE. In PvE, the nice little mobs will obediently stand in your tiny powder field and eat constant blinding. However, in PvP, no player that’s even half-decent will stand in that field. It’s good if you can lay it down and then shoot through it, but for S/P that’s trash in PvP except against enemies so bad that it doesn’t matter what weapon set I’m using.

Pistol Whip also isn’t that amazing. It dose slightly more damage than one full auto-attack chain, although in something like 2 seconds in stead of 3. However, Pistol Whip roots you for the duration, so it’s easy to avoid for any competent enemy. One stun break or dodge and you’ve only done a fraction of the damage. It also eats up initiative in a hurry, which is bad because my build is heavy on initiative.

This would actually make me worse against mesmers. Pistol Whip is great for clearing out clones, but it would never hit a good mesmer; they’re too hard to catch. S/D allows me to remain mobile, which means I do more damage to the mesmer and less to the clones.

Finally, I love the offhand dagger skills. Using my stealth attack, I can daze my opponent for 25% of the fight or more, which is really powerful. Without CnD, I won’t be able to stealth nearly as much. I prefer to save utility/heal stealth skills for healing or saving myself. Dancing dagger is amazing ranged AoE cripple and damage, as well as a great combo finisher.

BabelFish.7234:

For fast traveling you could always carry your SB to spam infiltrator’s arrow and when you’re about to enter battle swap it out for another Dagger.

I don’t just use my SB for travel, I use it as an escape. Having my SB out allows me to exit the battle any time I feel like it. I also use it much more frequently than these videos show. The spammable blast finisher is absolutely invaluable, and it’s really my only tool for attacking a keep. It also gives me access to a poison, which is great if I’m fighting someone with too much self-healing to down.

S/D gives me all the tools I really need in a typical fight. D/D could give me some more single-target damage, but I’d be giving up the AoE and a lot of flexibility to get that. I’m willing to stay with low single-target burst in exchange for all the control and utility of S/D, and use SB for fast-travel and other assorted awesomeness.

I suppose the beauty of crafting a pair of daggers, a pair of pistols, a shortbow and a sword ensures you can always swap whenever you feel like it, haha. Since the thief doesn’t have as many weapon choices as a warrior (my main), it means it won’t take up too much room in your bag designated for equipment.

Yeah, I’m carrying one of each at all times. My pistols and my secondary dagger are only rares (since they hardly get any use), but it’s nice to have the option.

For the record, D/D and S/P is what I use for farming in Orr (or any solo PvE) because PvE mobs are a joke. My only priority with them is maximum down speed.

Really nice video. Informative and easy to follow. I always appreciate players who are willing to share their tricks.

IceBlink

Hrm. I was gonna go dagger/dagger on my thief, but now I wanna give this a try, haha. How is it as a levelling build or is it better to wait until you’re 70-80 before respeccing into this?

I’m using it to level my thief now, level 20. Love it (though haven’t spent much time as d/d) Reasons:

1. Infiltrator’s Strike removes conditions and is semi-spammable. So any time I fight something whose portrait says it does conditions, I either open with IS, or kite with the Shortbow. With IS, if you get a condition, just shadowreturn back to your starting point to remove it, then IS right back to your mob/s instantly. Repeat as necessary. Like a yoyo sometimes.

2. Can easily escape overpulls. Open with IS, if you’re about to die, Shadowreturn back to your opener location, then run away with Shortbow. If Shadowreturn has expired, then Dagger 5 for stealth, make some distance, then Shortbow away.

3. Dancing Dagger does really good damage, can 2-shot most regular mobs with it, meaning you can 2-shot most groups of 4 world mobs. Sword 1 is also frontal AoE, so if they aren’t quite dead yet then spamming 1 will finish the job.

5. If you go up the Acrobatics tree first, then from level 15 you will have almost 100% uptime on travel speed, either via Swiftness from dodging or SB teleport. The few gaps in between are usually no more than a second or two.

6. At low levels it’s Infiltrator’s Strike that really makes this build. I love classes with Charge/Leap/Teleport abilities, and nothing can match a Thief with IS for the amount of Teleports available. It’s almost spammable, even from level 1.

Another interesting use of IS is – say there’s an event where you have to guard 2 things, like guarding the mortars outside Black Citadel (southern entrance near Tomb where the Charr starting story happens). The mortars are about 1200 apart and you have to guard them from attacking harpies. So, stand exactly in the middle, and IS to the first attacking group, kill them, Shadowreturn, tab target the harpies attacking at the other end, IS to them, kill them, Shadowreturn, re-tab-target next group, repeat. Really fun, and effective.

I’ve been going between p/d and d/d in sPVP and think I want to try a S/D build next. One question I Have is Steal vs. Infiltrators strike. It seems to me you want to infiltrators strike into a fight quite often so that you have the escape route and the condition removal… however, steal is pretty awesome especially with mug. I suppose there’s no reason not to IS then steal but it seems like a waste of two gap closers and closing gaps with S/D seems pretty important because you need a lot of up time? Probably a noob question but figured I’d ask :P

I’ve tried both. S/D for me was much more, “muahahaa! Back, BACK! You scurvy dogs!” D/D was rather. “Come here everyone! death blossom spam Evade kittenol!”
Both are fun

Great video!
Still watching it and I’m about 4:30 in. So far so good. It’s nice to see something new that I have yet to see from a thief. And that’s the Sword/Dagger It’s interesting due to the fact I generally take pride of my knowledge of both my skills (A lvl 80 P/D thief in full exotics who lives on WvW) and those play-styles of other professions.

You’re speech is clear and your play-style seems solid with a new and intuitive build.

Can’t wait to see more!

1 Suggestion after watching more…

Note: I’m a Pistol/Dagger thief and use allot of stealth myself. I’m also big on watching other people play and learn from them, so with that said, a suggestion!

Try moving a but more unpredictably with stealth. Quite often I noticed you continuing your path of motion once stealthing. Having stealth allows us (as thieves) to be much more unpredictable than that. A suggestion to me is try to be where ley least expect you. Running in a straight line can be more harm then good. (In exception to your shadow return with your sword)

Any who! Again great stuff!

Dacromir, I really enjoyed the video and really liked your guide. Would you mind going into greater detail on your armor/weapon/jewelry pieces? Even though you are using greens I would be interested in knowing your slot allotment (berserker, knight, valkyrie or whatever). Your wiki touches on this some, but I am curious to know what you chose.