Guild Wars 2

Thank you for the insightful post panicbutton, you’re right, dual pistols have been given a helpful hand with this patch. I do wish they would have at least added something other than a vulnerability buff to pistol 2, because it’s not needed. Either weakness or access to torment would have been great (or forward mobility would have been great too).

Dahkeus.8243:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAqaVlUmSO3eS+E/5Ex2DgmTe6zgsit/wVB-jAyAYLioRySEpCCZJviox2GKiGruGT5SEVbvLiWtMAVLA-e

This is the exact build I have tested with P/P and it’s quite nice. People really underestimate the dps that lead attacks generates, especially when combined with first strikes.

Coloxeus.3480:

but s/d still viable to play 1on1 or tpvp

Can’t wait to see you in WvW man, it’s still viable there as well. Especially if you’re mixing in CnD’s and whatnot.

You do run out of juice a bit faster if you’re face tanking 4+ focusing on you, but with Withdraw and RFI you’re still fine. You seem to run a lot of vigor, which helps as well. Like me, you probably look back on videos and see when you had “too much ini” or “too much endur”, and I think there’s still a lot of play to be had within this style, we weren’t min/maxing it before, just taking full advantage of perma dodge, now we have to be a bit more smart, a bit more accurate. Why not? That’s why a well played thief is so fun to watch!

Vanchatron.2306:

I came up against Kholer in AC, and every time he pulled me towards him and did his whirlwind move, I died, without fail. Group leader said “omg noob learn to dodge”. That’s fair enough, but when his pull is pretty much INSTANT how can I dodge it?

That’s a tough boss for just that reason, so don’t feel too down.

I will say, D/D in dungeon is tough if you never swap to an offset ever. Some encounters work better with ranged, or at least specific phases of the encounter. Try swapping P/P.

Put Withdraw and Roll for Initiative on your bar. If you start to feel the heat as d/d, withdraw or roll for initiative, swap to P/P, and DPS like that for a bit, then go back in.

I’m mainly a pvp guy, but when I got into dungeons, I swap my zerk trinkets for pvt trinkets, and I run around 17-18k HP (my armor is still a mix of zerk and valk).

I run S/D, so I always have an shadowreturn up in case things get hairy. I’d suggest you run S/P, but if d/d is the way you want to go I’d really suggest just swapping to SB or PP when things get too hot.

For Kholer, it really does just come down to timing that dodge tho, not much of a way around that.

Also Pugs just suck man, find a casual guild that runs dungeons — they will be much more forgiving of mistakes. Good luck!

The thing is, the return is still usable in stun, which takes you away from the damage unless they are a ranged class. So it’s not that terrible! He’s got 2 stunbreak utilities, but I think he may now replace Infil Sig with Shadow Step, especially once he completes his WvW set since it’s so useful there.

Nice video! I got nervous for you with all the cooldowns up right at the opening of the necro fight but you pulled it out!

I don’t think LS for 2 ini will make much of a difference in Coloxeus playstyle. GJ man!

I totally agree, a friend and I were talking about bodyshot last night.

While I think P/x is helped by having another option for damaging condition, the buff to vuln is next to useless in this weapon set, since a condition build doesn’t need to decrease the enemies armor to be effective.

From what I recall, when he is dueling he goes zerker, when he’s tourney he goes soldiers, but I could be wrong— it’s a common affliction of mine.

With a mix of zerk and valk, you can get around 16-17k hp, with around 40% base crit, and 65 or so base crit damage. With food and perception stacks you get that to around 60-70% crit chance and 75% crit damage, which still hits hard for sure (this is wvw obviously). In spvp, it’s best to go bunker IMO, and harass as you say, being a boon stripper/node holder, like the esteemed double S/D player, Jumper.

My armor is around 900-1000 depending on if I swap a few soldiers in to replace valk.

10/0/10/20/30 keeps shadows embrace, which can certainly come in handy. But I typically just keep up infil strike and conserve my lyssa rune basilisk (which removes all condis), though I do get caught with my pants down sometimes. I’m thinking of trying this build tho, with the passive stealths from instinctual response and last refuge helping a lot at the top and bottom of a fight, and making blinding powder that much more boss. http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckmzc0zzmbrlmMrlvma0aGxcmMsMkb

edit: also, with a lack of armor, the only class that really hurts you is the instagib thief or glass warrior. They recently fixed instinctual response to properly apply a blind. Which means the thief misses their cloak and dagger=dead glass thief. With shadows embrace, it will also cure your poison and weakness that they apply on you! Potent indeed.

I spend a lot of my time in Acro and Trickery, so this patch was a godsend! Check out my vids in the sig for some examples of these concepts in action.

Post patch, I’m running a very similar build 10/0/0/30/30. I’m also trying out the new Skale, but I’m underwhelmed.

A 20 second steal is very fun indeed! With Sword/Dagger you can steal+cnd+tacstrike and stack a longer duration daze, enough to get in 3 auto attacks and cast basilisk, then 3 more swings.

Best of luck with the build, post some vids!

Stooperdale.3560:

As you go up levels you should experiment with builds and switch weapons to see what you are missing. If you’re going to learn the class you shouldn’t pick a level 80 PvP set from day one and stick to it.

Hi Rossidis and welcome to gw2! As Stooperdale said, certainly make sure to experiment with lots of different builds/weapons as you level.

As a flat out answer same as above, pistol off hand is great for PvE, as that blinding powder is just too good. However, don’t take that as the end all be all. Even at 80, most of us swap gear and builds and weapons all the time! Thief playstyle can change drastically depending on your weapons/trait combo and that makes for a very interesting and constantly evolving class.

Truly, you want to be a master of all weapons and fighting styles, not least because you want to know how to counter those styles if you plan on PvPing any.

Good luck and welcome aboard.

ooohhhh my god if dancing daggers gets this I will be so friggan stoked.

I love the idea of living story, even if I don’t always participate in them. I also can see the draw of “one time only”.

I do wish, though, that we could all go back and experience the content again. I imagine at some point they will add some sort of “time machine” component to allow instanced versions of the content. Why wouldn’t they? That’s a lot of work to just let rot on the “virtual” shelves.

I think if they gave those that participated in the story one time only achievements and rewards, but allowed “time machine” to those who missed out, without all the cool rewards (maybe just gold/farming stuff), everyone would be happy!

What if steal worked differently depending on the MH or OH weapon you equip, that’d be a cool way to spice things up.

Well I gotta say, a shadow RETURN attached to steal would be baller, but probably too powerful considering we already have Infil Strike and Shadow Step for that. I’d love that though. But I’m a shadowstep addict so can’t get enough!

I’m definitely looking forward to this. Though if a warrior is able to remove conditions before he bursts (as their post suggests), this is going to make GC warrior the new king of sustained spike. Though a GC stealth burst thief will also still do well I imagine, at least at the opening (which is usually the closing as well)
:)

This may change with the trait changes, but you can increase your steal range with VI in trickery.

Or do you mean literally that you want to do away with the shadowstep, and just steal bundle skill from them at range? I’d be against that personally.

I’ll reserve my judgement for post patch, but as a high mobility player, this terrifies me!

Hopefully they don’t “make more builds viable” with one hand and ‘take away stealth-less mobility builds’ with the other. But who knows!

I can tell you one thing, a mesmer with confusion is already terrifying for a thief. Think about confusion+torment for a second.

edit: also, if the trait reworks keep “remove conditions on stealth” in SA, i can see that becoming even more necessary than it already is, further drawing builds into the SA line.

Hows that for hyperbolic pre-imperative QQ?

bobross.5034:

One of the great things about this build is the mobility. The frequent dodges make perma-swiftness possible without any extra gear (and no need for signet).
The high initiative makes spamming shortbow 5 easy.
Recharge and vigor on healing lets you turn around and use heal and roll for initiative to move forward fast and then have refilled shortbow.
Shadowstep for good measure.

This build can run faster than most things, and has good access to stun breaks. This is all important because stealth is harder on it.

For sure, SB 5 is good for the heals from assassins reward as well. Good way to “top off” when you start to feel a little pressure 1vX. Then if it gets too hot, withdraw/rfi and keep 5. You can skirmish like this all day!

I have been tempted to go back to S/D D/P since the shadowstep nerf lessened the importance of bow, and I would if I was in a 1v1 duel tourney or something, but SB is just too good for WvW roaming still, with this build.

Seetoo.9316:

I’ve been playing a peek-a-boo killshot warrior for a couple of months so bear with me.

I’m inching my way to 80 on a thief (crafted him to 35 and currently 45 via wvw karma train). Would healing power matter at all if I use signet of malice instead of withdraw (plan to use assassin’s reward and sigil of blood)?

My 1st choice for armor was to go full knights, but the 14k hp isn’t sitting well with me (used to 19k hp on my full glass warrior). My only options for vit and prec is magi.

The general consensus is that Malice is the least optimal heal. It benefits the least from healing power (*0.5, versus *0.6 for withdraw, and *1 for HiS). It’s also generally agreed that using Malice along with a signet build is not optimal, because you need to activate Malice to gain a benefit from signet usage, but since it wont provide the passive heal while on cooldown, it’s believed that you should not activate Malice often, and instead keep the passive effect up.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t explore the possibilities and mess with builds to suite your playstyle! That’s just the general view.

Also, healing power is not usually a concern for thieves. You could always (and most do) go down the Shadow Arts line, which gives you plenty of healing power.

Knights is good gear, maybe mix in Valk for some HP and crit damage. I personally mix in Soldiers, Valk, or Zerker, 2 of the 3 depending on my build.

I’d say starting out, you should have your thief at around 18k HP and at least 1200 toughness, more if you feel too glassy. I run 16-17.5k and no additional toughness. Going full glass is also very doable if you go high stealth, as that playstyle is very forgiving.

Thanks for the feedback guys! I appreciate it. Since this video, I’ve actually made a few modifications to the build, and you’re on the right track!

Nime.2089:

I think you have clearly overdone it with Vigor.
My advice: replace “Bountiful Theft” with “Uncatchable”

Agreed, Vigor was overdone. I’ve since replaced Bountiful Theft with Uncatchable. The big weakness of Uncatchable was that it would reveal your position in stealth. But obviously this build doesn’t have a lot of stealth so it’s a non-issue! This is a good way to take advantage of some of that condition damage as you suggest.

I keep Vigorous Recovery. That paired with Feline Grace are the perfect combo. I dodge 90% of a fight and if I only access Vigor via Lyssa/Basilisk I notice it, since I save Basilisk for specific situations like lots of conditions or a need for stability/aegis/protection, which runs counter intuitive to “more dodge” since I can’t dodge out of damaging condi’s (would that I could!)

For someone who conserves their dodges more, though, I could totally see trading VR for Power of Inertia.

Nime.2089:

Also I would replace “Assassin’s Reward” with “Power of Inertia” and support might with the “Superior Rune’s of Strenght”.

Lyssa runes stay IMO, for sure. As does Assassin’s Reward. AR is great for shortbow retreat or FS/LS spam and takes full advantage of being so initiative rich. Your mileage may vary.

Nime.2089:

Last but not least: Your crit sucks anyway. So leave it and get Mug.

I have experimented with both Mug and Furious Retaliation.

It’s a hard choice, because Mug heal is real useful, as is the bit of burst AND the poison. Poison allows you to take more advantage from condi’s once more.

However, my crit doesn’t really suck, nor does my crit damage, but its CLOSE to sucking, and 10 in CS and furious retaliation push it over the edge to “decent”.

With 25 stacks of perception, with an accuracy dagger equipped, and precision food, I’m at:

Crit Chance 68% (88% with fury)
Crit Damage 78%

Granted, I get fury from steal and lyssa runes too, but I’m not gonna complain about stacking fury duration “too much” :p

Going mug, i’ll be at -10% of each, and obviously won’t have that one fury, so max I’ll get with my (less frequent) furies from steal/lyssa is:

Crit Chance 58% (78% w/ fury)
Crit Damage 68%

I prefer the boost to crit dam/crit chance than the poison or heal/damage (if you need either of these, it’s good to swap to SB, lay down a poison field, then shoot an unexploded clusterbomb and time a mug/steal to connect at the same time, which I’m still practicing).

Anyhow, I love talking builds so thank you for the suggestions. I may give mug another chance just to see. I used it a lot pre-nerf, you can see that in my “The Ripper” build vid.

Thanks again!

Great idea!

As I read this, I was wondering when these upgrades would come, would you need to have upgraded the walls all the way? Etc.

It would be cool if you could only keep the tower “claimed” if you completed a certain number of “yak escort” events (and it would give a non-OP reason to escort yaks), and you had to keep this escort count up, or the tower would revert.

This would encourage guilds who claim the structure to stick around, and if everyone logs, it would give other guilds a chance to claim.

Also, a courtyard guild banquet area should spawn so people could stop by and chew the fat around a table :p

Yes Jumper, how dare you contribute to the Thief community! J/K, this is good stuff. The patterns hold up in WvW as well, and the vulnerability times are very informative for the uninitiated (which this is of course intended)

I LOVE LS dodge, it’s a great way to do damage while still accomplishing avoidance. Kinda like an advanced Disabling Shot on SB.

I also like that you use FS as a small gap closer/evade.

Also, with a human/player there’s an interesting (and I guess obvious) maneuver I’ve used to great effect (and I see you using it in footage as well), and it’s the “flanking flanking strike”. Typically we always want to be behind the enemy, of course. And so they inevitably turn to face us, at which point you drop everything and LS again to stay behind them.

Another (since everyone loves steal/infil sig combos), is to start LS (or FS for that matter) and steal. This works especially well to “burst” boon steal, if you use Bountiful Theft, which I do (I’ve read your views on it, but I like the burst boon steal so I keep it).

I do both here: http://youtu.be/JksFoG5CsLQ?t=41s

Great job, keep it up!

Phantoms and Shatters are rough, as is Confusion, since we are so skill usage heavy.

What I typically do is switch to SB and bomb their clones while locating the real guy (being in a group and having the target over them helps, but is kinda cheap, unless you ARE in a group :p).

Find the right time and steal+cnd+tacstrike and just go bananas. Skip the 3rd sword swing, cast basilisk, and then finish an entire chain or cnd again. If it gets too hot, switch back to SB and evade backwards.

Certain bunker’s are hard. I had one I couldnt beat, but like all bunkers, that meant he couldnt hurt me, either. He used ranged clones, which hurt against my SB tactic, but I dodged most of their damage in between unexploded cluster bombs.

Awesome as always! Thanks for the vid.

Glad to see the blast finisher stealths, it’s so fun!

Sir Vincent III.1286:

How about your gears? Your link doesn’t include the type of gear you use.

The gear is in the info on the vid (click more)

Incurafy.6329:

I really don’t see the point of putting 30 in Trickery when it would be so much better off in CS

30 into trickery is for +4 ini on withdraw, AND +15% damage, and extra boon steal and fury (to make up for loss of 200 precision from CS). What you miss out on is +20% crit damage, that’s the sacrifice you make for those things. If we all stayed 30 in CS things would get very boring. This is a fun alternative with comparable damage.

Kolly.9872:

I think that your buld under pressure is not as good, the few times you were under pressure by 2\3 enemies focusing on you, well you were downed.

I agree that sustained pressure by 3+ on this build is not a good thing. You have the ini and endurance to stay alive, but you only really do damage from your auto attack (and LS) but both of these moments make you vulnerable to attack. You can survive indefinitely, actually, but you just won’t be doing any damage. That’s the catch 22 of internet vids. If I post my footage of “just surviving” now people will call it a troll build.

The point of the build in group dynamic is to keep dodging till they ignore you, then (with DPS and dazes and boonrips) you force them to pay attention again. I made the fatal mistake in that group fight of trying too hard to kill that guy before he made it back to his spawn.

1v1, however, it’s beast. With the style, you make sure they can’t pressure you, and you keep up the pressure on them, they start to make stupid mistakes just to try and scratch you (see that warrior at the end).

The key to this style and build is adapting. The strength is that you can do anything (plenty of ini) that the fight dictates. He has boons? FS/LS. He does a lot of channels? Daze. He does a lot of condis? Infil strike.

The weakness is being caught flat footed, you only have 900 toughness. Any mistake and you die. I’ve been playing too long to play it safe, this build is a challenge, and it’s rewarding when it all goes right!

Sir Vincent III.1286:

- Why 10pts in CS and not in DA given that you have 30% cooldown reduction on Steal?
- Why Quick Recovery instead of Power of Inertia?

I like 10 in DA, I think you could move 10 points over there for sure. In actuality, the core of the build is x/x/x/15/30 so you could really move anything else around. This combo takes the most advantage out of Withdraw, which has synergy with Lyssa (Vigorous Recovery/Hastened Replenishment) and gives high evades.

Power of Inertia I would consider in place of Vigorous Recovery before I would consider replacing Quick Recovery, it’s just too good, and ensures a steady stream of Ini recovery, which you need in this build.

If I was going to go 10 into DA, I’d actually take the last 10 from Acro instead. Replace one heal (Assassins Reward), with another (Mug) and gain that great poison on steal and some more burst in the process. I stick with 10 CS because I built this with high Crit Damage/Crit Chance in mind, so the additional fury helps, as does the passive 100 prec and 10% crit damage.

@MIrra.3604
I appreciate that your trolling is keeping this post at the top of the forum, thank you.

I recently joined [GRIM], yes. We have many great thieves (and mesmers and rangers and eles and so forth); but just like all things, you win some and you lose some. If you got the upper hand I congratulate you.

What server and guild are you a part of?

FinalPatriot.8034:

P/P offset is just amazing for single target damage

Agreed, my guildmate Diggen runs D/P – P/P recently and it lays down the hurt! You still get access to that x/P daze too, which is so nice. I think it works for him though since he’s also Dagger Mainhand, giving him more mobility with HS. With S/D – P/P you’d be killer in a duel but it’d take you forever to get there!

Rastaman.9015:

I’m haveing trouble finding the right sigil for my sword […] What do you suggest?

I run fire just for AOE overkill, Air is better single target damage. But it’s all to taste. Should have Perception and Accuracy in there somewhere (swap out), Rage? Quickness (not as good anymore), Givers? I’d stick with fire.

FinalPatriot.8034:

@Woaden,
Sadly, I’m one of those D/P or D/D thieves that only come out of stealth long enough to drop a backstab and then hide back into the shadows. I just depend so much on being able to get away if necessary that without all that stealth, I feel lost.

Thank you for the kind words.

I wouldn’t say sadly! D/D and D/P are the best thief sets, I don’t think that can really be argued with any vigor. Even as S/D you can fit in a high stealth style, which I may do in my next vid. It would depend a lot more on daze, since for raw DPS a dagger mainhand would be much better.

I think high stealth/daze would pair best with S/D & D/P as offset. But MAN do I miss Shortbow every time I try to drop it.

MIrra.3604:

Took you 20 secs to kill an uplevel warrior. Therefore, I deem this build useless outside of kill super noobs.

I was kiting 4 enemies (3 80’s) – you notice my health-bar during those 20 seconds, that was a group fight. The point of that section http://youtu.be/JksFoG5CsLQ?t=5m26s was to show evades. I call that out in the comments as well.

I spend the rest of the 15 mins in this video, aside from one other outnumbered group fight, soloing level 80’s.

here’s 1v1 level 80 warrior: http://youtu.be/JksFoG5CsLQ?t=13m25s
here’s a level 80 warrior and level 80 mesmer: http://youtu.be/JksFoG5CsLQ?t=12m11s
And here’s 2 80 bunker guards: http://youtu.be/JksFoG5CsLQ?t=10m3s

Lenn.6347:

jesus christ, that background music is ear drum shattering. can you load one where i dont have to listen to that awful noise?

Don’t listen to the music then, thank you.

Video: http://tinyurl.com/koledancer
Build: http://tinyurl.com/dancingkole
0/10/0/30/30

Please enjoy! I’d love to have a discussion around the merits or weakness of the build.

I’ll answer any questions to the best of my ability.

Challenge Accepted!

I think a “Guild Master” venom share build would go great here. Summoning thieves guild and the ambush trap gives you NPC allies, who’s stats and damage do not depend on your own stats at all.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mckMzc9cMxwgMMxwgMx0x0acRbmsbV

As a general response, stat-wise I feel like you want to be at around 2000 Power, 2000 Precision, 1100 Toughness, and 1300 Vitality. Critical Damage you want above 60%, and Critical Chance you want as high as possible, 60-80%

You can fill in gaps with food, or traits (need more HP, go into Acro, or take Practiced Tolerance in Crit Strikes).

I run primarily WvW with a guild of fellow thieves. So my input on this is based on personally being a “stealth lite” thief.

I run S/D, typically with valk/zerker mix gear. I am our guild’s “visible tank/kill bait” in most situations. Most everyone else is 20 to 30 into shadow arts and heavily utilizes SR.

My view is, it rarely saves you, but it often saves you the trouble of running away forever. By that I mean, if you don’t have Shadow Refuge, you should have Infil Signet, Shadowstep, Withdraw, or Roll for Initiative (or all of them), and dagger mainhand or shortbow, cause you’ll be spending a lot of time running.

Most of the time, I gain so much distance they just stare at me for a second and turn around. This gives me front row seats to the AOE fest over my poor comrade, some 3000 distance away, getting pummeled in their SR, dieing a painful, albeit invisible, death.

Much like shadow signet, SR is really nice to have, but not necessary. However, if you go away from it, you should be compensating somewhere. (When I don’t run shadow sig, for instance, I am 15 in acro for the endurance and swiftness).

Ramethzero.3785:

I don’t see any boasts here. He’s only posting what he’s playing, and enjoys.

You get it!

What I’d like from a forum post is a conversation on the build, it’s synergies, weaknesses, and maybe a discussion on what I did right or wrong against my opponents. I learn a lot from watching my recorded footage.

Fun to find other S/D styles and videos too.

http://youtu.be/drG_h02jLSA

Wanted to share the latest of my 30 Trickery build! Mug nerf toned down the burst, but the Flanking Strike fix is amazing, I think we can all agree!

I enjoy boon ripping as boon builds have always been a challenge. So I went Bountiful Theft in Trickery, and just for kicks added the daze on steal with a full 30 points. It’s an odd build, but the damage buff from the 25 point minor, and all the other useful majors and minors in that tree, make for a potent combo.

Without going 10 (at least 5) into Deadly Arts, I need to rely more on my Shortbow to lay down poison (which I still need to do more of), which helps greatly for heal mitigation.

I look forward to hearing your views!

Hi all,

Hope you enjoy my second video. Apologies for some audio glitch in the next to last song and otherwise a few transition effect issues. My vid editing program was on the fritz.

I run a 0/30/10/0/30 right now, you can see the build in the vid details.
I need to use larcenous strike more, been s/d a while now and got in the habit of avoiding 3 too much. I do miss mug damage but s/d is really fun now with larcenous strike.

RedSpectrum: He ends up popping that norn stealth and running away, so the whole fight is in the vid. I guess he got tired of our little game. I was having a lot of fun and learning stuff.. guess he just didn’t have the time

Wanted to share my first Thief video.

Build and songs in the about section. This was from one session. Currently collecting some group footage with friends to publish at some point.

Ya you know, I mean the thing is, nameplates display only one useful bit of information, their server.

Everything else is clutter. Something more subtle to represent their server would be ideal.

If we keep names, even just the server name is better than what we have no. I know they are invaders, no need to put that after each server name.

I think names should be done away with for enemy servers all together. I wouldn’t even mind if allies displayed no name, and we could see from mousing over or clicking, like with npcs.

I would prefer circles/dots above the enemies head, which would be red/green/blue. The only titles in wvw that anyone cares about are the wvw titles, to see how experienced someone is. So those titles could have a scheme within the circle, like a military rank or somesuch.

I proposed a change to this in the suggestion thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/newtopic

put circles above players heads, not long names and titles.

Fixing culling was fantastic! Thank you Anet.

There is now a new aesthetic problem, tag clutter. I propose a change:

Above each enemy’s head, a red/blue/green circle, instead of the server name and their title.

Within the circle could be their wvw rank signified by a symbol (swords cross, swords cross with laurel, swords cross with laurel and star, etc)

It would really cut down on the mess.

They really did pee in my cereal by messing with quickness without any buffs. There is now absolutely no viable 20 point skill in Critical Strikes tree (especially for a sword/dagger build), and the Sigil of Rage is now much less useful.

I’m considering going Sigil of Air or Fire now like everyone else.

I do not like this change for quickness in any form (TW mass quickness being the exception). Let every profession have our quickness, even if it’s at 50% do something about the duration!

Sword/Dagger now has zero burst damage, which is fine from a design standpoint, it’s all about control. Oh wait, daze duration sucks and now there’s an even bigger gap between daze expiring and being able to go back into stealth. Okay then, I’ll supplement that with Basilisk, nope. Oh wait I’ll supplement that with Scorp Wire, I might get off a successful pull once a night, on flat ground, with no wind, at the moons zenith, on one foot.

I suppose I could take venoms and spec out of CS line, but wait, the only two classes that I can’t even hope to beat (Guardian and Ele) laugh at all conditions.

Back to the drawing board.

Quickness attack speed bonus reduced from 100% to 50%, that’s fine.

Haste gets a duration buff to compensate, fair enough, this gives people time to react.

What about the CS trait line quickness skill? what about the sigil for quickness? These still have their super short duration (2s!) and now do half the effective damage they used to do!

This is a crazy huge nerf to that trait and sigil, can these please get a corresponding duration buff?

First of all, I’m sure many have/will respond that zergs are fine, or zergs are like RL armies, or zergs are what wvw is all about, or zergs are massive battles and we just want to run in small groups, so take that stuff to spvp. Those people have too broad a definition of zerg.

“Bad zerg” is 20-40 people all occupying the same little space, taking advantage of aoe buffs and culling and aoe stealths, without the drawback of being exposed to aoe.

“Stack, Stack, Stack” “Fire fields only”

It’s this (very effective) type of strat that must be fixed in the mechanics. I’ve posted a few times ideas on how to spread out formations.

AOE damage target uncap would help.

There also needs to be a more immediate and recurring drawback to this.

I wish there was a speed debuff “pressed” or something, where if too many allies occupy the same small area, they get a speed debuff. This will force people to spread out, but still be a “massed group of players” just not all on a needle point.

If you get bunched up by the enemy and get a speed debuff, well that’s what being “pressed” is all about.

If you all try to run out of a chokepoint at the same time, you’re going to collide at the door and be slowed. Makes sense to me.

ensoriki.5789:

Not a fan of your build tbh, to me it lacks specialization, and is a mish mash of ini regen and fortitude without real benefit. Primarily for 1v1’s in the middle of nowhere.

Thank you for your input Enso, I got some good tips from your post. Concerning your opinion of my build, what suggestions do you have?

I would really like to keep 30 crit strikes as is. I am also a dodge fiend, and run with orrian truffle soup for the might on dodge, so I’d like to keep at least 15 in acrobatics (plus, I love the HP!). I usually take 20 in acro for either the ini regen, or the pain response. I play a bit reckless in crowds so the pain response can be helpful.

I dipped back into SA line for the blind on stealth, but also love the +1 sec stealth and 2 ini on stealth, but I think this is the main area where I take the build off focus.

Thanks to everyone for their replies. Here are the main tips I gleaned, which I had not considered before your input.

*Stand outside the ring of bp, sword has longer range
*Don’t try to force a C&D, adapt to the situation
*Use flanking strike when anticipating a backstab
*Use an interrupt utility skill when they pop BP

After everyone’s input, I’ve decided to go back to my old steal/fury/quickness build, and I will situationally replace Shadow Refuge with Scorpion Wire (I run SR a lot because I run in a small group and SR is great). I’ll never quit Shadowstep/Shadow Return, and will always use RFI or Infil Signet for the stun breaks.

In this new build, I will greatly miss “blind on stealth” from the Shadow Arts line, but I feel like I was relying too much on that anyhow, which made me lean even heavier on C&D.
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Synopsis of original question:
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Seeking tips for 1v1 dueling a d/p thief. I am an S/D-SB thief. This is my current build. My main issue is that I’m blind locked and can’t get off C&D in order to daze.

When I swap to Shortbow, they generally swap to a pistol ranged and outdamage me, further shifting things in their favor. I’m thinking of swapping my shortbow for a pistol offset, but would greatly miss the mobility of SB.

This is not optimal, but as a d/d kiter, you’ll be dodge kiting near your enemy (which I’d actually term dodge tanking, or just dodging :p).

Take Caltrops.

You might consider 15 in acrobatics for more dodges
You might consider 10 in trickery for more caltrops on dodge
Use dancing dagger when enemy are not in caltrops

Use leaping death blossom a lot. Stack bleeds.

What is your ranged weapon you want to kite with?

Depends on my weapon set.

My current set is S/D-SB, and the occasional mesmer really hurts (if high burst, or I stupidly pop daggerstorm in the middle of a mes who has built for illusions to damage on death). Nothing else really, the occasional hammer guardian or warrior is hard, but only because SB isn’t as good at kiting for damage and it just sets them up for another hammer jump.

Also with S/D, a good d/p can beat me if they are blind lock (blind on stealth etc etc) because they are usually set up to duel and I’m more of a generalist. (I drop back into SB range, they pull out P/D or P/P or just drop into black powder extendo stealth)

With P/D it was bunker ele/guardian

With d/d it was anyone who could survive my cooldowns (but they couldnt kill me)

With P/P my biggest enemy was my own dislike of the style. (though if you like the style, I think people underrate p/p, the only useless skill is p2, unless fighting a camp boss with righteous :p.