Daredevil - Power Axedevil Roamer

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Focused on: Strike damage and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

Overview

A burst focused Power WvW Daredevil build designed for roaming using the most recent addition to Thief's arsenal, the Axe.

Skill Bar

Weapon 1: Axe

Weapon 2: Pistol

Weapon 3: Sword

Weapon 4: Dagger

Healing skill: Hide in Shadows

Utility skill 1: Blinding Powder

Utility skill 2: Shadowstep

Utility skill 3: Signet of Agility

Elite skill: Dagger Storm

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Specializations

Critical Strikes: Top, Mid, Top

Trickery: Bot, Top, Mid

Daredevil: Mid, Mid, Mid

Variants

• Bounding Dodger sacrifices mobility and survivability for obtaining a new Stealth stacking method via dodge + Black Powder while providing extra damage. With this you could also consider replacing Critical Strikes with Shadow Arts for better initiative regen and sustain, but at that point you might as well just play the Celestial version of the build.

Equipment

Rune: 6 Superior Rune of the Deadeye

Infusion 1: 18 Mighty WvW Infusion

Infusion 2:

Relic: Relic of Fireworks

Weapon 1: Axe

Weapon 2: Pistol

Sigil 1: Superior Sigil of Air

Sigil 2: Superior Sigil of Blood

Weapon 3: Sword

Weapon 4: Dagger

Sigil 3: Superior Sigil of Cleansing

Sigil 4: Superior Sigil of Energy

Main stats: Marauder

Head stats: Dragon

Shoulders stats: Dragon

Chest stats: Dragon

Hands stats: Dragon

Legs stats: Dragon

Feet stats: Dragon

Amulet stats: Dragon

Stats

• Other combinations of Marauder/Dragon/Berserker stats are also perfectly fine (in case you don't want to invest into a new set of gear), just try to aim for 17k+ HP and 90-95% crit chance with Fury and Signet of Agility's passive.

Runes

• Superior Rune of the Scholar

• Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter

Consumables

Food

• Peppercorn-Crusted Sous-Vide Steak - extra burst damage and some passive damage mitigation.

• Slice of Candied Dragon Roll - cheap crit chance boost and armor ignoring damage procs that also heal you. Might want to trade another piece of Marauder gear for Dragon if you go with this, as we don't really need more crit.

• Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew - defensive option with endurance regen.

Utility

• Superior Sharpening Stone

Usage

General

• Axe/Pistol is your main set, most of the time you'll be camping this.

• Sword/Dagger is more of a defensive/backup set. It has decent damage and even survival tools of its own, plus it provides an alternative when facing builds with projectile-denial against which Axe simply doesn't work.

Steal

• Steal is the most powerful tool in a thief's kit and should not be wasted! Do not start fights with steal, keep it for the right moment (mainly to interupt important skills such as heals or elites).

• Stealing grants initiative, boons, dazes enemies and refills a portion of your endurance among other things. Its most important function however is the instant boonstrip that prioritizes Stability which goes off before the Daze does, resulting in an instant interrupt.

• Steal procs the damage bonus of Relic of Fireworks, creating a burst window for you.

Axe/Pistol

Main set

• Axe has its own weapon-specific mechanic. Autoattacks and Venomous Volley leave behind spinning axes on the ground. You can stack these up to 6 and check your active axe count above your utility bar.

• Spamming the auto Spinning Axe is going to leave behind axes even if they hit nothing. This allows you to stack axes for free while your target is in stealth or out of range.

• Venomous Volley is a cone-shaped attack and therefore needs to be used in melee range for maximum effectiveness. Stealing at the end of the animation can help with that.

• Orchestrated Assault is your finishing move, pulling all of your axes into your target. Try to use it with 5-6 axes whenever possible.
  • This skill also evades attacks when used, allowing you to use Initiative defensively in desperate situations.

• Headshot is a quick interrupt. It's a very situational skill with no real pressure of its own.

• Black Powder doesn't play a big role in this build since you hardly have any combo tools for Stealth other than Blinding Powder. Some niche uses include blinding downed enemies you're about to stomp, or dropping a BP under yourself when you expect a stealth opener from an enemy. It's also quite handy for taking camps if you can manage to ball up all the NPCs, heavily mitigating their damage.

• Try to weave in Spinning Axe casts frequently while using your 3 dodge bars to avoid counterpressure. The hyper aggressive playstyle of Venomous Volley and Orchestrated Assault spam could leave you Initiative starved in no time. Autoattacks deal decent damage and stack axes for free while allowing your Initiative to regen.

• The stealth attack on Axe restores Initiative if it hits. Sometimes you could sacrifice Hide in Shadows or Blinding Powder when you're going for the kill and need some extra fuel for Axe skills.

Burst combo example:

1. Venomous Volley
   1. Steal right before you finish casting VV, ensuring that all projectiles hit the target
2. Spinning Axe x0-3 depending on how many axes can you afford to stack
3. Orchestrated Assault to pull in the axes

Utilities

• Signet of Agility instantly cleanses conditions, this could even be used to break CC like Fear.

• Shadowstep is easily the most versatile and one of the strongest skills in the build. It has 2 parts:
  • The first half is a stun break and teleport, which already has countless uses. A few applications include teleporting to safety while pressured or extending your reach in combat.
  • The second half is called Shadow Return. This skill becomes available for 10 seconds after using Shadowstep, and cures 3 conditions in addition to breaking stun again before returning you to your starting location.
  • These can also be combined to safe stomp targets: begin stomping, Shadowstep away to safety, and then follow up with Shadow Return at the end of the animation in order to finish the target.

• Blinding Powder is fairly simple. This is your second stun breaker, and another source of stealth. As a Blast finisher you can combo it with Black Powder for AoE stealth. Just like Signet of Agility, this is a skill you can use to your allies' benefit by sharing its effect with them.

• Dagger Storm is both a defensive and offensive elite. The rather lengthy evade frame with increased movement speed makes it an excellent panic button when you're being focused by the enemy team. On the other hand the skill deals heavy AoE damage whilst evading, which makes it great for pressuring melee targets in general with next to no risk.
  • Note: skills like Shocking Aura or Line of Warding are able to interrupt Dagger Storm, so don't be completely careless.