Thief Weapon Series: Sword

Before I begin there is something that I need to get out of my system...

ONLY FIVE MORE DAYS UNTIL PRE-PURCHASE!!!

Yeah, I'm pretty excited. And if I really think about it, it's pretty silly to be excited for that date. All I'll really be doing on the 10th is handing over $60 to ArenaNet. Ultimately I'm much more excited about the actual release date (or three days before it) of Guild Wars 2, but I suppose that my excitement for the pre-purchase date is some sort of strange anticipation for the game's release. Whatever, don't judge me.

For this Weapon Series article I will primarily focus on the sword while also talking about the skills associated with its two offhand options. Let's break it down one skill at a time...

Sword

1) Slice > Slash > Crippling Strike (0i)
    A very nice little "combo" that will cripple every third strike. That's actually rather significant because it is very feasible that you could maintain a perma-cripple on someone by simply spamming the 1-slot skill. I'm not exactly suggesting that is a good strategy in most cases. But at least it is an option if for example you are trying to keep an enemy from escaping the punishment of your teammates or if you are trying to keep your enemy off of your teammates.

2) Infiltrator's Strike (2i) > Shadow Return (1i)
    This skill is simply amazing. Not only is it one of our best tools to maintain melee range on our target, but it has a type of avoidance baked into the skill. How annoyed would your enemy be if you spammed this skill repeatedly? Again, I'm not necessarily suggesting that as a fantastic strategy. But it certainly provides a LOT of options.

dagger-3) Flanking Strike (4i)
    At four initiative this skill is not something you can just hammer on repeatedly. But similar to the sword's 2-slot skill, this one again has avoidance and damage all rolled into one skill. I won't go into all of the supporting traits for this skill because I still feel that the traits aren't as solid as weapon skills at this point in time. That being said, the current traits can really make this a devastating skill.

pistol-3) Pistol Whip (5i)
    Stuns are always respected and feared in PvP. On the other hand, this stun (similar to most in gw2) only lasts for one second. And under normal circumstances this skill will eat half of a full initiative bar. This is obviously a great skill if timed well versus any profession requiring a channeled cast time. The only problem with that theory though is that you'd have to maintain five initiative at all times just in case. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I'm really torn on this one. Stuns are great when the only associated resource is a cooldown, but maybe not when they require a large chunk of your primary resource.

s) Tactical Strike (0i)
    This is one of my favorite stealth skills. This skill alone will shut someone down for 2-3 seconds and costs zero initiative. In other words, if you are able to get into stealth often enough, you can really make someone rage at you, all thieves, and ArenaNet all at the same time... FOR FREE!

In summary: The sword provides a great deal of mobility as well as offensive and defensive utility. I personally feel like the dual skill provided by the dagger gives enough defensive and offensive utility on its own to outshine the pistol dual skill. Also, the stealth skill is really quite punishing when paired with the dagger's 5-slot on-demand stealth skill. Really, what is there to complain about?

Sword/Dagger Ranking: I really love this weapon set. It will be extremely useful in small scale PvP while still providing enough mobility to perform well in larger scale WvW PvP.

Structured PvP (5v5)

WvW


Sword/Pistol Ranking: This one was hard for me. I really love the sword while at the same time I have completely mixed feelings about the offhand pistol skills. The uncertainty regarding the dual skill makes it even worse. To be completely honest, I'm going to punt on this one. It may have some balanced mobility and utility, or it may have so much going on in one weapon set (for extremely high initiative costs) that it's impossible to use effectively. In other words, I'd like to get my hands on this one to make a better judgement.

Structured PvP (5v5)

WvW


I will write one more pre-release weapon series covering the remaining two weapon sets I have yet to go over: Dagger/Pistol & Pistol/Dagger. If you've been following along, you may already be able to guess which one I love and which one I feel is just ok.

Thief Weapon Series: Shortbow

I'm actually rather excited to go over the shortbow skill set. As mentioned in my previous post, while watching early Guild Wars 2 alpha videos, it was the shortbow skill "Infiltrator's Arrow" that really made me do a double take on the thief profession. You mean to tell me that I can point to any spot within my standard firing range and shadow step there? And I can do this whenever I feel like it assuming I have the initiative?!? PvP utility aside, can you imagine how useful this will be for those random jumping puzzle skill challenges? I can, and it'll feel like cheating. Anyway, let's break it down a skill at a time...

Shortbow

1) Trick Shot (0i)
    A very nice 1-slot spammable skill for large scale PvP like WvW zergs. On the other hand, it is rather weak in a 1v1 situation as it would require three bunched targets (maybe only two) to get the full damage out of this ability.

2) Cluster Bomb (3i)
    A rather cheap AOE that be double tapped for even greater damage versus very large groups. Ground targetable skills can be a little more difficult to use effectively in small scale PvP though, unless you know how to take advantage of "smart casting" which will remove the step of clicking a spot on the ground after activating the ability. Instead, the moment you activate the ability, it will fire off wherever your mouse cursor is already pointing. Also, if I recall correctly there should be a way to instantly fire it off centered around the thief, maybe while holding down shift?

3) Disabling Shot (4i)
    This is a great kiting tool for those who'd like to play a primarily ranged thief. The cost is fairly balanced for what it does. Unfortunately, it will not function well as an anti-kiting tool unless you can manage to turn your back on your target and thus leap backwards and toward them.

4) Choking Gas (4i)
    Another phenomenal AOE ability at a very decent initiative cost. If you can't tell already, the shortbow is shaping up to be an amazing WvW weapon.

5) Infiltrator's Arrow (6i)
    I already talked about this one in the opening paragraph. I obviously love this skill. The cost is really high at six initiative, but I'm holding out hope they'll drop it down to five. The possibilities with this skill are endless. The only downside is that it is not unique to the thief. Those silly elementalists get this skill in the form of "Ride the Lightning" with a fifteen second cooldown. The blind component to this is sometimes easy to overlook as the skill is already amazing without it. But it is worth mentioning in case you ever need to use this defensively to escape an uncomfortable situation.

s) Surprise Shot (0i)
    It would be really hard to complain about a free immobilize. The damage is a little on the low side though when compared with the other stealth skills.

In summary: This set of weapon skills is hands down the best WvW set for the thief, and perhaps even when compared to the other professions. But as I'm less familiar with the others, I won't go quite that far. Of course in almost every situation where a set is good for large scale PvP, it usually means that it fails pretty hard in small scale stuff. While there are certainly useful utilities, the damage is much too low for 1v1 situations.

Ranking: These scores should be obvious if you've read the rest of the post.

Structured PvP (5v5)

WvW


In my next post I'll consider what the sword adds to the thief's arsenal.

Thief Weapon Series: Pistol/Pistol

Today I'm going to cover one of the more popular thief sets we've seen used by various beta testers. Why does everyone like it so much? My only guess is that firing two pistols at once just looks freaking cool. Then again, how stealthy can someone be running around unloading their pistols on everyone they see? *shrug* Let's break it down a skill at time...

Pistol/Pistol

1) Vital Shot (0i)
    An on-demand bleed stacking skill with zero initiative cost. This is quite good especially if used in conjunction with malice gear/traits.

2) Body Shot (3i)
   Another on-demand condition stacker, except this time we get vulnerability. Obviously the cost is a bit prohibitive to attempt full stacks of vulnerability. Definitely a good skill regardless. After all, if your build attempts to focus on condition damage, the more conditions you stack the better (reducing the effectiveness of condition removal).

3) Unload (5i)
    A flat damage ability that in my opinion is just a little overrated. Perhaps that's because it is such an easy ability to use. At 5i this skill is much too expensive for what you get. Fortunately there is a trait that should reduce its cost. I expect to see many thieves utilize this dual skill heavily, but I doubt you'll see me using it much at all.

4) Black Powder (5i)
    A very nice AOE defensive utility. I like this one a lot for large scale PvP such as WvW zergs. But for small scale 1v1 or 2v2 I feel like the cost is rather high.

5) Head Shot (5i)
    Daze is another nice defensive utility, but again the cost is high for only one second of safety. That said, if they were to reduce the cost at all this skill would fall dangerously close to overpowered once you start stacking initiative regeneration and maximum initiative. According to the current wiki description, the damage is very low causing this skill to be unusable in most situations.

s) Sneak Attack (0i)
    A decent stealth skill that does not require positioning, which is usually preferred for a ranged set. I can't confirm how many stacks of bleeding this applies, but it is hopefully more than one as the non-stealthed 1-slot skill also applies bleeding. Really though... how sneaky can a pistol be?

In summary: Much like the previous article, I really like one half of this set while I feel like the other leaves a little to be desired. The 1-3 slots are all very effective in small scale PvP and possibly even larger scale battles when you consider the need to keep your distance. The 4-5 skills are really costly and provide utility for both large scale and small scale PvP which means a lot of the time, one of these won't be very useful. And because the dual skill is dependent on the set as a whole, I likely won't be using it much either.


Ranking: Let's just say this set is not my favorite...

Structured PvP (5v5)

WvW


In my next post I will talk about the shortbow "set". I don't want to give too much away, but let me just say that it was one of the bow's abilities that turned me on to the thief in the first place.