Guild Wars 2

So I run a s/p thief in wvw bc I find it more fun than the standard d/d build. Keep in mind this is an alt for me so I dont put huge amount of time into playing him which im sure is a factor. Do any of the you run s/p and how do you deal with other d/d thieves? despite a high armor they rip through me like butter.
I dont remember my traits offhand since im posting from my phone but ill lay out my gear and stats as best I can recall.
3k attack
2.9k armor
52% crit chance
@ 70 something crit dmg
@ 14.5k hp

knights armor with ruby orbs
zerker weapons (including short bow offhand
sigil of fire in sword and bow since I mostly run in a small group
sigil of accuracy in pistol
exotic valkyrie earrings and one ring
ascended knights ring
exotic berserker amulet.
rare cavalier back with ruby orb upgrade

signet of shadows (run speed one whatever its called)
blinding burst
shadow refuge
thieves guild

Any insight or help dealing with d/d thieves would be much appreciated. Yes they’re squishy so when I hit them I hit for a lot but they always seem to kill me in the end. T multiple stealths dont seem to help either since they seem to be able to move much faster/further than I can while stealthed. I have been having a lot of skill lag lately and wvw has been buggy for some reason lately and that doesnt help but I’m not goi.g to attribute all my losses to that. Thanks all.

For a majority of D/D thieves you encounter in WvW a simple combination of:

1) Place Black Powder down
2) Stay in the middle of it
3) Watch as they miss all of their attacks on you

Since a lot of thieves are pretty bad and will not swap weapons and will also stand inside the BP (Even though melee range is further than the radius of the skill)

Outside of that, timing Black Powder/Headshot/Dodges to avoid their Cloak and Dagger will screw them over, doing so twice in a row should make them free kills since they won’t have any initiative left.

thanks for the response. that seems so simple yet I have a tendancy to keep moving so they have at most one miss against me.

Holding still in PvP / WvW situations is a bit counter-intuitive, so your natural response makes sense. Beyond the parts listed, you can also switch up your skills for some more lock down opportunities. Devourer Venom can be useful. The same goes for Sword #2. I’ve even had some luck using Scorpion Wire in certain situations.

In the end, your goal is to simply make them fight on your terms and to not fight on their terms. Easier said than done, but mastering that should be your focus.

Agreed. I love sword 2 but they most classes seem to escape the immobilize before I have a chance to use sword 3 and im left wasting initiative and swinging at air. So bc of that I can see the appeal of going d/d. It just seems too cookie cutter so thats why I went for s/p. Even tho I think its a bit harder to pull off, it’s sweet when it does.

Basilisk venom, immobilize venom, steal, spam pistolwhip = Succes.

Depending of the amount of the thieves hp, you might need to dodge once or twice then skill number 2 into pistolwhip.

Im running full berserker gear with 12k hp.

I am by no mean a expert in Sword/pistol, i changed to it recently because it looks cool and as you say a rare sight in pvp, I am though an experienced glass cannon thief.

ill try the venoms out next time in wvw and see how it goes. my fear tho is that if im outmatched ill have little to means of escape which I currently enjoy with black powder and shadow refuge. but then again, I guess its more of a go big or go home class, at least the way I seem to end up playing it. too much time spent playing my guardian perhaps lol.

I’m P/D, but this will work for you too. I tore up a D/D thief last night by timing my dodges and stealth/blinds better than his C&D’s. If he whiffs his C&D, the initiative waste really hurts.

Does it really hurt that bad though? He won’t be able to do any death blossoms for a bit (that’s #2 right?) but the auto attacks still deal a good bit of damage.

Sword auto attack chain does more damage than a backstab. Use infiltrator strike—>one auto attack chain—>shadowstep back and repeat. Or something similar to that.

Also don’t underestimate the Skale venom utility. That’s like 15 seconds of weakness, enemy will do half damage to you in that time.

D/d burst wont be affected too much, crits are painful still.
Cond is only affected with p/d missed cnd

Blossomers will stack you in bursts.
Probably try and ride 7-12 bleeds on you, inf return 6-8 stacks, dont let them dodge on you. Get out of trops.

If you catch them mid third blossom with p/w , be prepped with headshot on hishadows.

D/d burst, dodge cnd. If stealth on you, stealth back if possible, or bp and count dancing in it.

Whats your offset?

Edit: first line referring to weakness.
Crits are still full damage.

My offset is a short bow but im running CoF to get tokens for other weapons. Do you recommend anything in particular? I was watching some thief videos last night and it definitely seems to be a case of darting in and out in stealth from enemies. An attack, retreat and repeat type of game play. That was on a d/p build tho. I cant seem to find any vids on s/p thieves.

You have to dodge or stealth their burst attempt then control the fight… use infiltrator and steal into the pistol whip. Hit the headshot on the heal attemp. PW/head shot the heartseeker and watch them sit there trying to figure out what happened.

If you know they are around and eyeing you throw up the infiltrator strike wait for the venom hit when they burst and infiltrator the f out then initiate pressure.

Aquin.3192:

If you know they are around and eyeing you throw up the infiltrator strike wait for the venom hit when they burst and infiltrator the f out then initiate pressure.

This basically. Do not underestimate Basillisk Venom though. From my experience, it’s pretty buggy atm… it’s a stun, but if u break stun, u feel dazed.. lol pretty messed up stuff. Sword main set should have an advantage over d/d imo. Given the fact that you take advantage of it’s mobility.

bladie.5084:

Aquin.3192:

If you know they are around and eyeing you throw up the infiltrator strike wait for the venom hit when they burst and infiltrator the f out then initiate pressure.

This basically. Do not underestimate Basillisk Venom though. From my experience, it’s pretty buggy atm… it’s a stun, but if u break stun, u feel dazed.. lol pretty messed up stuff. Sword main set should have an advantage over d/d imo. Given the fact that you take advantage of it’s mobility.

It’s not really dazed… it’s that you can’t dodge while that coloration is still on you (which is a bug).

Aberrant.6749:

bladie.5084:

Aquin.3192:

If you know they are around and eyeing you throw up the infiltrator strike wait for the venom hit when they burst and infiltrator the f out then initiate pressure.

This basically. Do not underestimate Basillisk Venom though. From my experience, it’s pretty buggy atm… it’s a stun, but if u break stun, u feel dazed.. lol pretty messed up stuff. Sword main set should have an advantage over d/d imo. Given the fact that you take advantage of it’s mobility.

It’s not really dazed… it’s that you can’t dodge while that coloration is still on you (which is a bug).

Didn’t say it was daze.

Aberrant.6749:

It’s not really dazed… it’s that you can’t dodge while that coloration is still on you (which is a bug).

I has been fixed nearly a month ago …

As Taril said: Black Powder. I can’t tell you how man times a D/D Thief has burn all their abilities when I use that. Another tactic is your Shawdow Return. Use it at every cost and you will more than likely see then run off after they burned up their abilities.