Guild Wars 2

It seems redundant in my opinion to use duel Pistols…. Ranger/Warrior classes better at range plus have better survivability. The duel pistols seems well boring when compared to other ranged class options.

Please enlighten me why anyone would use a p/p setup when there are better higher dps/surv builds out there that are so not as boring to play.

We use duel Pistols because they are fashionable in duels.

We use Dual Pistols because they look cool. Other than that, they really are a little underpowered.

Higher dps ranged? As which one?
+ fully agreed with previous dude.

I saw a really cool video of a dual pistol theif that was owning people 1v3 & 1v4 (even mesmers and other theifs).

It seems if you pair this with stealth you have tons of kiting/survivability skills along w/ decent damage.

That said I still have absolutely no clue what weapons I’ll use on my theif (I love the sword, daggers, pistols, and sbow)

^That’s probably Pistol/Dagger. It’s a condition build based off stealth, the stealth attack and auto attack. Pistol/Pistol doesn’t have any way to reliably enter stealth other than utilities, which all have insane cooldowns. Pistol/Pistol also has no real reason to enter stealth, since if you’re using Pistol/Pistol, you’re a DPS build, and a DPS build has no real benefit from using the stealth attack.

I like it because of the unloads o.o also 1 attack bleeds also don’t need to worry about getting knockeddown every 3 seconds by meelee people o.o

I use them actually. In my experience, it’s higher damage than my shortbow and when I pull too much agro with my daggers, it lets me kite and debuff the mob (often a champ that’s become too amorous) while the rest of the folks around beat on it. When they regain agro, the daggers come back out. All weapons are situational. The trick is figuring out which situations you like and arranging for those ones to occur.

I’m PP/SB Thief since the start and i just use this combo because i love the range between me the enemy and combined with rest of the thief’s utility skills its a really good play style which fills all my needs for all situations.

Main dmg. source are the pistols while the sb is a way to retreat from the battle and kite your enemy and a viable AOE source when needed.

for self sufficient long range blinds via smoke or if you’re worried about being swamped by mobs in pve but want to remain ranged.

Honestly, unload is meh and dual pistols is more of a “I want to look cool” as opposed to “I want to be as effective and synergistic as i can be”

The only build i’ve found useful for P/P is machinegun unload, which btw is fun as hell

P/P looks and sounds cool. I may feel different as I gain experience. Three times now I have accidentally pulled boss aggro into groups who were not ready or waiting on friends to join the party… so I’m an idiot and my opinion means nothing.

P/p is sweet in w3. Build for sustained init gain and lifesteal traits/sigils/sig of malice.

signet of malice + high initiative regen + high healing power + unload = you’ll never have to press 6 again.

i carry my pistols exactly for that reason. if i get low on health and dagger storming, caltrops, and death blossom spamming don’t cut it (usually because there aren’t enough enemies around to make the area effect strong enough), i just move to range and start using unload.

Umm…I ran across quite a bit of them earlier today. They used quickness and the age old tactic of “Spam 3 to win!”

Edit: i just spent an entire match following around an elementalist and interrupting as much as i can with head shot and that worked surprisingly well. People just go “WTF!?!?” when they try to heal and it gets interrupted.

Shadow refuge + unload spam heals surprisingly well too.

I just like playing from range opposed to melee. So, I’m PP/SB as well. I’ve finally found a combo that works well so that Steal isn’t useless. As long as I have 3 initiative, I Steal (F1) + (Use Stolen Skill) + Black Powder (5) + Dodge + spam Sneak Attack/Unload. Having traits in Trickery, like Uncatchable, really helps.

I’m only 55, but this is the build I’m going for:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYQQNAqaVlUmCP3dy8E95Ex2DgqTe6p4rjtTxVtKA;T8AA1ynEOJdS9kyJKcM4IwxijDHJOLKGEMJA

I’ve tried PD (Pistol+Dagger), and it is a fun effective condition build. However, I found to be effective I had to get into melee range too often to land Cloak’n’Dagger, which that coupled with the Sneak Attack is what makes that build shine.

Dee Jay.2460:

We use duel Pistols because they are fashionable in duels.

We use Dual Pistols because they look cool. Other than that, they really are a little underpowered.

By underpowered, you mean less overpowered than pw and backstabbuilds.

No, I mean that Body Shot and Head Shot are underwhelming abilities in my experience. That’s 2 out of 5 skills. That’s quite a lot.

i use them couse i have the feeling nothing else left for me, i would love to have melee weopons for use, but it would just make my life harder if i can have it better, faster and easier why should i get any other weopons to get owned in wvw?

i ended up P/P + Shortbow and it sucks, i know it, but cant do anything about it since they killed the S/P for me -_-

Dee Jay.2460:

No, I mean that Body Shot and Head Shot are underwhelming abilities in my experience. That’s 2 out of 5 skills. That’s quite a lot.

The fact that p/p auto attack have no synergy with 2 and 3 really make it underwhelming, compared to other build…
Also for such a fancy name head shot do too darn little dmg…

Ok so the cool factor is the main reason followed by like staying at range….

Perhaps one day Anet will fix the synergy of the weapon

I don’t think PP is that bad.
Used it in sPvP, full initiative gain build, stack 20v, 3-4 unloads target dead and he can’t use healing skill (except for other thieves using withdraw).

I use Pistol/Pistol for PvE dungeons. Pistol/Pistol is terrible in sPvP, Shortbow, Dagger/Dagger, Sword/Pistol and Sword/Dagger dominate sPvP.

I rarely do WvW so don’t know how useful it is there, but I hope Arenanet improves Pistol/Pistol because it is my favorite set when it comes to esthetics.

I used them for a long time, and the conclusion I reached was this: Once I actually started using the shortbow properly (standing on top of people and spamming cluster bomb at my feet for maximum DPS) I couldn’t do more damage than I could with pistols. The main benefit they have is that you can move and still do continuous DPS to your target. Against people who have trouble catching up to you, that can be really annoying. I recommend using withdraw, taking the trait from acrobatics that gives you vigor when you dodge, using Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew as your food for the extra endurance regen, and trying to keep them at range. You’ll probably need caltrops in your utilities slots for the cripple to help keep them away, and Shadow Refuge (as a Dark Combo Field) does wonders for healing with the Main-Hand Pistol stealth attack (Heal myself for 3-5k? Yes please!).

PS – Dancing Dagger + Shadow Refuge is amazing.

If you play w3, this build = profit.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQJAqalcmaPHfy8E+5Ex2DgmTe6f4r9MuqWB;TIADMmUA

Basically provides a ton survivability (health on hit, Blind Powder) sweet damage (unload, sneak attack), and the ability to escape easily (caltrops, uncatchable, exped dodger) . You can obv change out utility skills/sigils/runes/elite to fit your playstyle. The Blood/Air sigils provide more DPS and lifesteal. The abilities in the crit strike tree can be changed around for more utility, DPS or balanced.

-Protip: keep a stealth in the bank by stealing from a rabbit or another thief so you can utilize unload.

Berserker gear for full DPS or you can add in some Valk for more survivability/healing. You will be suprised how fast your health bar moves back up and at the sustained damage you can dish out.

Your link is broken.

There’s nothing wrong with the idea of using health on hit and stacking berserker gear + unload spam, but the idea that sneak attack is going to be particularly effective as a damage source with no condition damage is a little silly. With that in mind, you’re basically posting another power + unload spam setup. It works, but it isn’t amazing.

Compared to some builds (d/d and p/d particularly) the P/P is not as effective. But it is still a build you can run with for most sPvP and be competitive. I do it sometimes just for fun. P/P is fun.

The link isn’t broken, the redirector guidwars2.com uses is. Copy and paste it.

(Nice PP build btw!)

Of course, it is helpful to have + condition damage for sneak attack, but you can still utilize it and do good damage. It is common to hit for 6-7k range. Plus necros won’t rofl stomp you.

Body shot and head shot are indeed underwhelming, but the other abilities are quite nice.

Head shot is super useful when timed right. Body shot needs to be fixed!! 10 stacks at 10 seconds would be <3

head shot is trash in PvE, but i can see it being amazing on PvP, being a near-instant interrupt. body shot is just lame, unless you trigger quickness, and then it’s kinda average.

unload is good for signet of malice builds like mine, and skill #5 (forgot the name lol) is good to either blind distant enemies, or lay a bunch of smoke fields around during a zerg (though i’d rather lay poison fields with my shortbow and deny the enemy their heals)

I used it today with my 10-15-20-15-10 Divinity Celestial build because I’m frustrated with everything else. Lazily sitting there and strafing away while blasting up 3k or more crits and my thief summons wailing on them too. I’m like so this is why you might want the pistol pistol

Dual pistol can be pretty good in some situations. The stealth attack on main hand pistol is great (an unload that bleeds? Yes please.) and the offhand pistol attacks are both great (ranged interrupt and PBAoE blind). The 3 skill is kind of boring. It’s good with combo fields and decent with haste, but could still use some work.

I use dual pistol in pve because Alpha is an kitten and I don’t feel like melee-ing a boss who aoe’s all day while diverting my attention to actually hitting the boss or not. Also, unload is such a simple skill to use since it’s damage is through channeling that I can watch the ground for boss aoe effects and dodge them in time. Can’t do that on SB. Did I mention Alpha’s an kitten?

I like the run and gun style of P/P for pve, also I’ve done most of my gaming with a field happy, confusion lovin’ mesmer, and unload stacks those confusions up like nothing else.

pp with haste on a glass cannon build is just straight out awesome

and thats about it imo

“head shot is trash in PvE”

Tell that to the Ettins two levels above me who couldn’t get off their nasty stun attacks. Or to enemies that are fleeing in events. It’s situational, but that interrupt is pretty useful at times.

I’m really liking PP as my second weapon set, after being told how “indispensible” SB is supposed to be.

It looks good, that’s all I can think of.

Pistol/dagger gives you the same bleed effect on your default attack but with the added benefit of stealthing.

BrunoBRS.5178:

signet of malice + high initiative regen + high healing power + unload = you’ll never have to press 6 again.

i carry my pistols exactly for that reason. if i get low on health and dagger storming, caltrops, and death blossom spamming don’t cut it (usually because there aren’t enough enemies around to make the area effect strong enough), i just move to range and start using unload.

this! plus they are fun to see and i like playstyle :P

Pistols + Enemy has Retaliation = Dead Thief.