Guild Wars 2

What is the point of having a 3rd skill for sword, dagger, and pistol on a thief? seems silly that if you put anything in your offhand it is replaced with an offhand weapon skill. and you have only 3 skills for how long in pve 2-3 levels that take 15min to go thru. or is there a way to make it so offhand doesnt trump it?

What? The last two sentences do not make much sense.
15 mins to go through what? 2-3 levels in pve? what?

You are saying you prefer to have just 1 weapon with no off hand , then 2 weapons of your choice?

I read a while back the way main-handed weapons are coded they always affect skills 1 – 3, so even though thief normally has a dual wield skill in slot 3, they needed to toss something in that 3rd slot for consistency when the thief has no off-hand.

I’m not sure how true that is, but there you go.

The one weapon #3 skills are all subpar to what combinations have to offer.

BIRDPUNCHER seems to be on the dot. and Shanks also; with an offhand the #3 skills are just buffed up versions of their no-offhand counterparts. You get a lame spin attack for dagger #3 which is replaced by death blossom (twirl + evade). Sword #3 is just a stab which is a lamer version of Flanking Strikes + Larcenous Strike (stab and steals boons)