246 replies to this topic

[Quack530]

Phenn, on 01 April 2013 - 05:12 AM, said:

I don't know why I wrote s/p since his post was about p/p.  Thanks for calling me out on this.
Edit: Also, yeah I was serious about my compliments.  His dungeon advice is good.

Edited by Quack530, 09 April 2013 - 07:06 AM.

[Toche]

The Shadow, on 15 September 2012 - 10:07 PM, said:

ivj. Dagger/ Pistol

Honestly this is my favorite weapon set currently. I used to hate D/P. I used to think it was made redundant by other mechanics we had access to naturally. I also thought it was too expensive to manage. I was partly wrong.

I decided to give this weapon-set another go as a result of the dagger-offhand nerfs. It became a debate of; what can I do with D/P that I can't do with D/D and vice versa. I came to the conclusion that D/P is more versatile. Said versatility comes at the cost of needing more initiative. Thanks to Trickery and Shadow Arts this becomes possible.

What this means is, D/P isn't too good. Until you build around it. That means investing fairly heavily into trait trees that you might not necessarily want to invest in. The outcome is extreme survivability while still dealing amazing DPS.

Main tip while using this set, don't just spam 5, time it properly, heartseeker through it to get into stealth and then backstab only when appropriate, please note, this doesn't work if another combo field is on top of the black powder field. The interrupt and daze we have access to is simply amazing, you can effectively kill a mob by pressing nothing other than 4. This however requires good timing and latency, you also need to be able to read enemy animations. The problem with this is that most of the time it simply wont work on bosses/ legendaries/ champions.

Either way, I'm greaty enjoying this set in both PvE, PvP and Dub Vee Dub.

First of all I apologize if my bad English made ​​me lose the information I'm asking for.

You say that your currently favorite setup is Dagger/Pistol. In this case I have two questions.

Do you think a leveling build based on this setup is viable? and if the answer is yes, could you help me build one or share yours? At least some tips on rotation, traits, skills... I am a noob on this type of games

Thanks in advance. Great guide!

[Loperdos]

Toche, on 22 April 2013 - 01:11 PM, said:

First of all I apologize if my bad English made ​​me lose the information I'm asking for.

You say that your currently favorite setup is Dagger/Pistol. In this case I have two questions.

Do you think a leveling build based on this setup is viable? and if the answer is yes, could you help me build one or share yours? At least some tips on rotation, traits, skills... I am a noob on this type of games

Thanks in advance. Great guide!

First off, welcome to the wild world of thieves!

Since The Shadow hasn't been super active in the Thief sub-forums lately, I will do my best to answer.  I'm no expert on thieves, but I've picked up a thing or two in my couple (hundred) hours of play two different thieves.

You can definitely level with D/P, its actually the weapon-set I used to level on my second thief for quite a few levels.  I combined it with P/P to give it a combination of range and melee synergy.  A leveling build a lot depends on your skill level as a player.  I would say though to max out the Critical Strikes line first, before any of your other lines as you are leveling.  Beyond that, its up to you whether you want to focus more on damage, then you would put your points into Deadly Arts.  If you want more survivability, then go Acrobatics.

IE as you level:

10 points into Critical Strikes (CS-III, Side Strike for the +7% crit chance from the side or behind)
10 points into Acrobatics (Acro-II, Power of Inertia for the Might when you dodge)
5-9 points into Deadly Arts (no major trait here because once you get enough trait points for the major, you'll be resetting your skills via your book)

This will put you at level 40, when you have to buy a new book and your traits automatically reset.  Past that:

20 points into Critical Strikes (CS-III; CS-I for Fury or CS-VIII if you find yourself really short on Initiative and are using Signets or CS-IX Combo Critical Chance for increased crit chance on Shadow Shot)
20 points into Acrobatics (Acro-II; Acro-IX Quick Recovery if you are short on Initiative)
5-9 points into Deadly Arts (Trickery if you find yourself low on Initiative in a lot of fights)

This will get you to level 60 and once again, you'll be resetting your traits via your book...from here on out, you should start working towards whatever lvl 80 build you want to do, so these will change depending on your choice of build:

30 points into Crit Strikes (CS-III; CS-[whichever your chose from above]; CS-XI Executioner for better sustained dmg or CS-XII Hidden Killer for better Backstabs)
AT LEAST 15 points into Acro (Acro-II) <~~ this is highly recommended because of the minor trait, Feline Grace.  If its not in your chosen build, go ahead and get rid of it.

Your other points, as I said, will then go into whatever chosen build you want to run.  For a good resource for thief builds, the Thief Guide and Build Index has a good number of threads that have both builds and discussions about the builds, which will give you a good place to start so you can tweak a build to fit your own personal thief play-style!

As for rotation and all that jazz, I would suggest taking as many stealths as you can possible run with, so put Blinding Powder and Shadow Refuge on your bar for utilities.  The third one I would suggest taking Smoke Screen because if you use dagger #2 (Heartseeker) through a Smoke Field, you get stealthed and can then line up a backstab really easily.  Other than that, watch out for overusing #5 on the D/P (Black Powder), its nice in a pinch, but it costs a LOT of initiative.  You can also get stealth from using #2 through Black Powder.

Hope this helps!

[Toche]

Wow man, thank you so much! I'll try this out for sure, you've been really helpful.

[Reoku]

Very helpful guide, it inspired  me to make my own build:
http://gw2skills.net...DYzVUt6Bz6DDA-e

I would love to have some opinions on my build and my choice of gear, since this is the first build i ever made

[Loperdos]

Reoku, on 07 June 2013 - 03:18 PM, said:

Very helpful guide, it inspired  me to make my own build:
http://gw2skills.net...DYzVUt6Bz6DDA-e

I would love to have some opinions on my build and my choice of gear, since this is the first build i ever made

Figured I'd give you some feedback since there has been a significant lack of feedback on your build.

Its a decent build, no glaring things that will make it horrible.  Its not that GREAT either.  Its a very average, balanced build.  The only thing that I would suggest swapping (equipment-wise) is the Explorer Earring you've got going on, as MF is largely a wasted stat slot.  I'd say swap it out for a Beserker's earring.  And any other Magic Find things you've got, I'd say get rid of them for something more useful.

Also, I'm not really sold on the use of Divinity Runes for a PvE thief.  They are decent in some other areas, but in PvE on a thief, they don't seem to really pay off that much.  If you aren't set on them, you could pick up Ruby Orbs instead for some added dmg.

Only thing about your traits is I'm not really sold on the usefulness of Shadow's Embrace either, its just kinda meh.  It makes it so you have to stay in stealth longer in order to take advantage of it, which could be good or bad in PvE.  But on a D/D build, it does reduce your DPS because Revealed doesn't start until...well...you are out of stealth (IE Revealed...).  Its just kind of a 'meh' trait.  If you dropped that and picked up Infusion of Shadow instead you could probably drop Roll for Init and pick up Sig of Agility which takes care of your condition clearing as well as giving you extra endurance plus a passive bonus to prec, just an overall good utility option.

Edited by Loperdos, 15 June 2013 - 02:20 PM.

[Elrathan]

Great guide. I'd like to comment on a few things though.

Firstly, some recent testing I've done indicated that the smaller explosions of the detonated cluster bombs only hits three targets, hence it would probably be better to use undetonated cluster bombs against 4 or 5 targets.

Also, the stuff about S/P is no longer true. Using pistol whip will not produce more damage then regular auto attacks normally. This changer a bit with on-crit stuff like sigils of air or fire but the difference is still minor. This greatly changes the usage of the weapon from a spam damage weapon to one based on avoidance with infiltrators strike, and denial with black powder and headshot.