Hey, hey, hey guys,
meepeY here with a new build for all of you to enjoy!
For over a week I’ve been testing this and that todo with the new Pistol buffs. Today I will finally “release” my newest build called The Gun Slinger.
With Pistol/Pistol & Dagger/Pistol you too can become a ruthless toothless killing machine in the eyes of your enemies. With your quick draws, blast away your enemies for Unload bursts of upto 11,000 damage. Yes 11,000!
“But meepeY,” I hear you cry, “Pistol/Pistol has no utilities and very low defenses, we’ll be sitting ducks!” Ah, this is where Dagger/Pistol comes in. We use this weapon set in coexistence with Pistol/Pistol to complement each other. The Raw damage which Unload brings and with the Stealth + blinds Dagger/Pistol brings, the two together provide an excellent combo.
Removing Shortbow from the mix leaves you with a low flight response to fighting but having Pistol/Pistol increases your damage and fighter strength to an utmost extreme. Something to take into account is that this weapon set will punish you for poor play. This is a weapon combo I’d only suggest to higher skilled players as this is not a newb friendly build.
What this build brings to the table the ability to surprise your opponent with a massive burst combo which can and will one-shot someone. Then it allows you seamlessly transition into a Stealthed Dagger/Pistol for easy access to a backstab. If at any point the enemy intends to still fight, but puts distance between you, switching to Pistol/Pistol for an instant Unload will usually cause them to panic as you’re still pressuring them at range. This works really well against Rangers, providing you position yourself so the pet doesn’t tank the Unload.
If they push themselves into melee, you can kite easily until you can switch back to Dagger/Pistol. It’s flawed but in some cases devilishly cheeky and works very well.
So,
Here is the GW2SKILLS build in visual form.
Utility Skills
- Blinding Powder
Amazing instant stealth with a blast finisher, which inside of Blackpowder grants you 7 seconds of stealth. A great tool to use to either blind important attacks (Warrior Eviscerate), or blast finish for a long time in a defensive measurement. This is a must use with P/P because it gives you a strong stealth access.
- Shadow Step
100% Must take. Don’t bother arguing.
Here are the viable changes you can make:
- Shadow Refuge or Roll for Initiative
Shadow Refuge allows you to reset the fight in a semi-risky sense, that you have a giant target marker over your refuge point. Survive the pulses and you’re good to go. You can also use it as an aggressive battlefield to fight on. Pistol 1 Sneak attack is a 100% Combo Finisher, so you can leech a lot of health when fighting on it. Another funny thing is that when Refuge goes down, the enemy instantly thinks they’re winning and you’re on the defensive. They wont expect you to suddenly blow their faces off with a Basi Venom Sneak attack + Unload combo.
Roll for Initiative is an amazing stun-break with an evade & condition removal built in. You’re getting the benefits of Withdraw WITH a stun-break, minus the heal… But hey, we also have Withdraw! We haven’t even touched on the 6-Initiative regeneration at the end of the roll. This gives us a free Unload or stealth stacking or whatever, it’s a great skill which is vastly under looked.
Trait choices
- Bountiful Theft or Trickster
If you’re taking Shadow Refuge, take Bountiful Theft. If you’re taking Roll for Initiative take Trickster. There is no two ways about either one of these.
- Practised Tolerance or Ankle Shots
Ho-boy, there’s been a lot of talk about Ankle Shots being weird and not giving you the DPS it should be… I’ve done some testing on this and I couldn’t quite tell, tbh. However, the Cripple that Pistol Crits apply is very, very strong. It gives you a viable defence from your opening bursts as you will always apply the cripple. This prevents a lot of players being able to walk up to you willynilly.
Practised Tolerance is nice because it benefits both weapon sets for your overall damage. To be frank it really doesn’t matter too much which one you take as they’re both very, very good.
Gear
Your runes are something you can have free reign over. The runes I used are just for “whatever” purposes. You can run almost any runes and they’ll be fine. However, Hoelbrak and Strength wont work very well because we don’t stack might very well. Rage runes suit it well because we get perma-fury which benefits No-Quarter + We get 5% extra damage. They’re pretty good.
If you’ve got Applied Fortitude then you don’t need to bother with Valkyrie gear. Keep the food and utility though.
We have an Intelligence sigil on our D/P so that when we Steal + Weapon Swap + Backstab, it’s a guaranteed crit. Massive damage. Good stuff.
Okay dudes, that’s everyting. I’m going to post some media stuff below.
My Twitch Channel, please support the stream with a quick follow
The Gun Slinger vs Axe/Shield Warrior
The Gun Slinger vs S/D Thief & Power Guardian (Warning: I get a bit kitteny)
The Gun Slinger vs Melee Power Survival Ranger (Warning: Pet makes me PJSalty)
Thanks for reading guys,
I’ll be happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have!
WvW Thief Aurora Glade – Mutli Bulid Streamer – 1PM – 4PM GMT, Mon – Fri
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