Guild Wars 2

TRAITS: I would recommend using Shadow’s Embrace (IV) and Infusion of Shadow (V) as your first two traits in SA. SE is so useful in WvW for condition removal and IoS should help with your initiative problems mentioned later – this cuts the initiative cost for BP → HS from 9 to 7.

In CS you have a couple of options – Furious Retaliation (I), Side Strikes (III), Practiced Tolerance (VI), and Critical Haste (X) are the most common in non-signet builds. Assuming that your 30 pt trait is Hidden Killer, PT and CH are the best choices out these imo. You already have a very high crit chance for a Hidden Killer build so the bonus crit chance from the first two aren’t necessary.

STATS: These seem fine mostly. High crit chance for Hidden Killer build so you could think about dropping some precision for vitality/toughness but it’s up to you, how tanky do you want to be?

UTILITIES: The 3 you mentioned are good. Shadowstep should usually be saved in case you get stunned and need a stun breaker but the condition removal and gap closing are good too.

STEALTH: If you’re going to play d/p you kind of need to learn how to do the BP → HS combo better. If you turn with your keyboard this will be basically impossible, learn to turn with your mouse instead. It can also help to pull your camera up as you do the combo – when you look down on your character the length of the HS leap is reduced and it is easier to get multiple leaps in. Maybe look up some d/p roaming videos on youtube to get an idea for how this is done.

It is also worth mentioning that Blinding Powder is a blast finisher, and if you use it in the smoke field from Black Powder (5 skill) you will get bonus stealth.

COMBAT: My typical opener is Steal → BP → HS → BS. This can be easier to land if you precast BP then hit steal right as it’s about to finish – you’ll appear with the blind field instantly on top of the enemy. This will make your combo faster and blinds their first counterattack which might help you land your backstabs.

People mostly use SB for mobility and because it’s nice to have a ranged option. You can use SB 5 to create distance or blink up hills which is really nice for running away. You can also use it to continue pressuring your enemy from a safe distance while you are low on health.

MOVEMENT: I don’t think swiftness is necessary, you should be fast enough with just traveler’s runes + HS + SB 5. Also if you are running 10 in acro you will have swiftness on dodge.

That sums up my thoughts. I’m hardly the best thief on the forums but I do play WvW a lot and have been roaming with d/p for a pretty long time. A lot of it just comes down to practice, if you like the playstyle just keep trying and you should get it down eventually.

First time coming to fight night for me, had a lot of fun! Thanks to yarr and co for the duels.

JonPeters.5630:

Infiltrator’s Return
The thing I have heard the second most discussion regarding. This is a big change to this skill, but we beleive it is a necessary one. In many cases this is not going to matter. There are only 2 situations where this is a truly impactful change.
1) It stops you from using this skill while stunned, which puts more burden on Sword/Dagger thieves saving their stun breakers. This is the kind of gameplay we want to encourage because it puts more risk in using a rewarding skill like Infiltrator’s Strike.
2) Mostly in PvP, this skill can no longer be used by S/D thieves to teleport stomp someone. This is actually the more impactful moment as it occurs more often, but I think it puts the burden on these players to run a second weapon set that can help them in these situations (OH pistol for instance.)

First I’d like to say thanks for coming here to explain some of this. I’m interested to see how the changes play out but some of them are a little concerning.

It seems like you’re pushing Hard to Catch as the new survivability option to replace some of what was lost on the Shadow Return change. Any comments on the feeling a lot of thieves seem to have that HtC is not desirable because it takes control out of the hands of the player and often hurts as much as it helps?

In a similar vein, will we ever have some comment on Last Refuge? So many thieves hate this trait and it very often acts as “Gain revealed when you fall below 25% health.” I was really surprised it was not even mentioned in the update notes.