Thief - Dagger/Pistol
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Contents
Overview
D/P Thief provides superior single target burst and great access to AoE stealthing.
In general try to avoid duels, gank squishy or low HP targets in teamfights, rotate to skirmishes in order to +1 (outnumber) your opponent and quickly end the fight, revive allies/prevent stomps with Stealth, and decap unguarded capture points in Conquest using the mobility offered by
.
Skill Bar
First Weapon Set
Second Weapon Set
Specializations
Equipment





Variants
Dagger/Pistol
Shortbow
- over Air if your role is team-play based and not far-point assault.
- over Air.
- over Air.
Usage
There are many intricacies and combos to using D/P on Thief, however the main role of the build is to win 1v1 duels and finish weak players in team fights. Scroll down to the 'in-depth' section for more information, examples, and combos.
Concise
Dagger/Pistol
- Use out of stealth to spike foes down. (Works from any flanking position).
- Dagger auto has good DPS, restores endurance, and applies poison to limit your foes healing potential. (Very important against classes that rely on regeneration).
- does more damage the less health the foe has and closes gaps.
- blinds and teleports to a foe. Does decent damage.
- is an incredibly fast, but short daze. Use it to stop players from healing, ressing, or finishing.
Shortbow
- out of stealth will immobilize your foe.
- does better damage the more targets there are. Good in team fights or against foes with pets/minions.
- is good AoE damage (5 targets) and counts as a blast finisher. Detonating this will hit 3-9 times and cause bleeding, but removes the blast finisher.
- Disabling Shot helps you evade away and cripples the enemy.
- applies a pulsing AoE poison. Useful on downed enemies.
Steal
- Bait your opponent to waste their dodges to help land this skill.
- Strips two boons from target and shares them with you and your party.
- Dazes target (after prioritizing the Stability boon strip).
- Applies poison.
- Applies boons to yourself and allies even if used without a target. (If nobody gives swiftness at the beginning of a match, Steal can improve mobility).
Utility and Elite
- can be used on downed party members to prevent a finish.
- can be used as a gap closer (like steal) or as a stun breaker (does not require target).
- applies a strong stun.
Advanced
- Learn your cooldowns. Many thieves will abuse steal and
- Abuse stealth when needed. You can often beat a mesmer by outstealthing them. You can often reset your heal and other powerful cooldowns while removing conditions and still keeping your enemy in combat. Be patient if you're playing on the defensive and stay in stealth as long as you can.
- Learn to stack stealth four times in a Video Guide
- Stealth >
- > SB 1 > Damage > Stealth: The arrow fired from shadow refuge will not only immobilize the target but also leech some health from them. Lead up with strong damage from detonating cluster bomb or swap to dagger for strong damage. Right before your reveal comes off cooldown your SR will pulse and grant you 3s of stealth again. Again practice on golems to get an idea of how quickly after SR you must reveal yourself.
- > Stealth > Return: There are many methods to stealth. However this particular method can cause the enemy to think you've gone further ahead, when in reality you've returned to your original position. Inexperienced players will be off point long enough for you to decap it with this juke. Experienced players will notice the circle has disappeared and that you have returned in stealth.
In Depth
Damage
- Dagger/Pistol
- does bonus damage from the back or the sides, also known as "flanking" positions.
- ⇒
- is not only a great source of damage for foes below 50% health, it is also a gap closer. If you can catch up to your opponent and do damage at the same time it's a win/win. Counts as a leap finisher.
- can teleport you 900 units. Blinds foe. Does decent damage. Should be used if you need to close a further gap than heartseeker or when trying to teleport to a target. Can also be used to blind big attacks like hammer swings on warrior.
- Shortbow
- does below average damage in 1v1s. However it's not bad against players with minions or pets. Is very good damage in team fights and allows you to stay further back.
- does very good AoE damage (hits up to 5) and counts as a blast finisher.
- does very good AoE damage (hits up to 3-9) and applies bleeds (but does not count as a finisher).
Control
- Profession Mechanic
- will strip and share two boons from the enemy to yourself and nearby players. It will also daze the target. And it does not break the current action (though it can interrupt certain skill activations). It is useful to daze players under stability. E.g. D/D Ele's channeling ether renewal, Warrior/Guardian stomping a team-mate, or Power Necros using Lich Form. It can be used while finishing a target on another foe that is reviving the enemy. In addition it also does apply poison, which you can read the next point on.
- Dagger/Pistol
- , the dagger auto-attack's third hit, will apply poison, which is very helpful against targets that "regen" health such as warriors with healing signet and adrenaline heal trait or ranger's that have activated Troll Unguent. In general players that have the regeneration boon will suffer a 33% reduction in healing. This is a great skill to use on downed players as it reduces the efficacy of enemy team-mates ressing their downed. See 'Choking Gas' below for a ranged poison.
- is an incredibly fast short daze. It can be used during duels to "confuse" players. If an ele was about to attune swap and you dazed them, they may fuddle their keys and fail to swap. Can be used very effectively to stop heals. Very good against big healers like Ranger's Troll Unguent, Engi's A.E.D., Thief's Hide in Shadows, Mesmer's Ether Feast, and Ele's Ether Renewal. Can be used when you see an Engi drop Healing Turret to interrupt further actions or confuse them on whether or not it was activated. Is great to use on player's reviving enemies or finishing team-mates. Will not work against players with stability.
- Shortbow
- can be used on the Shortbow out of stealth to immobilize a target. This can be led up with cluster bomb / detonate cluster combo. It can also be used to help land powerful attacks like heartseeker. Immobilized enemies cannot "turn". So staying on a flanking position is a good idea.
- is helpful to evade well telegraphed attacks while crippling the target.
- is helpful because it applies AoE poison. But in addition it can be blasted to provide AoE weakness (reduce cleaving damage on downed team mates) and can be leaped through to apply a longer duration single-target weakness against power strong opponents. Since this skill 'pulses' it is a strong choice to use on downed players. If the enemy attempts to cleanse the poison and the skill continues to pulse they will have wasted a skill.
- Elite
- is a strong stun. This prevents enemy players from moving or activating any skills aside from a stun breaker.
Support
- Profession Mechanic
- Again is one of two primary methods through which a thief can support it's party members. It can be used at the beginning of a match to provide a short amount of swiftness (ideally use it before the gates open, perhaps around 3-4 seconds so there is some swiftness but it can also come off cool-down in time for an encounter). This skill not only provides strong boons for your party members by stripping it from the opponent, but also provides vigor and fury. Fury provides a strong boost to damage for team mates.
- Utilities
- is the second way through which thieves support party members and themselves. It can be used on downed players to prevent a "finish" (though it will not negate cleave damage). It can be used at the start of a match (5+ seconds on timer) to dis-orient the other team on your team's position. It also provides some healing and a dark field. Projectiles and whirl finishers used inside a dark field will leech enemy health to you.
- is not only for the stun-break teleport but also for the triple condi cleanse on return. This only applies to the thief, but can be crucial in 1v1s where you are condi-spammed and must remain on point (very difficult or a thief) or to quickly cleanse condis against a longbow warrior's burning if they are close to being finished. Otherwise it should be used to create a gap between you and the damage source or to break a stun.
- can be used to break stuns on a decent cooldown.
Mobility
- is an incredibly useful teleport. It can be aimed at any object and can be used to do many of the same teleports that a mesmer's blink can offer. Since this can be used repeatedly it allows a thief to quickly decap a point and come back to the team fight. Arguably it should not be done if your team will lose the point in your absence, but can be helpful when you know you will lose the point and can quickly fortify a new position or if you're sure it will pull a respawning character to their home point (leaving them out of the team fight for longer) fast enough. Very effective on Khylo, with it's shorter distances and excellent teleport positions. This skill on it's very own is why the Thief meta has used a swap Shortbow since quite possibly the very first meta in open-beta. (900 units; teleport)
- works similarly to Infiltrator's arrow but can travel 1200 units. It should not be spam clicked, as a second activation will return you to the original position.
- is already mentioned as a good gap-closer. (450 units; leap)
Stealing & Stolen Skills
Steal will prioritize stripping defensive boons. Stability is top of the list, followed by Aegis and Protection. Might is often very low on the list of things stolen and it is helpful to wait for the opponent to lose some of their other boons before attempting to steal their large stacks of might. Boon stripping is complicated and has few "hard-set" rules aside from Stability comes off first. Depending on whom you're stealing from and what skill they activated it is possible to get a different array of boons. Practice makes perfect here.
The skills stolen by a thief have a strong correlation with countering their foe's meta build (with the exception of Engineer). However be creative and use them for multiple scenarios. E.g. Steal to a warrior and reflect a ranger's longbow burst, Steal to a necromancer to fear foes away from stomping your team mate, Steal to a Mesmer for stability, which can itself be used for many purposes.
- Warrior: Whirling Axe. This does very good AoE damage and reflects projectiles (thus making it suitable for a duo finisher, where you reflect their downed skills and another player successfully stomps them). Will work very well in fields
- Smoke: Blinding bolts
- Water: Healing bolts
- Dark: Leeching bolts
- Poison: Poison bolts
- Ethereal: Confounding bolts
- Fire: Burning bolts
- Light: Cleansing bolts (will not cleanse you, but your team-mates, can help clear poison off downed players being ressed)
- Ice: Chilling bolts
- Lightning: Brutal bolts (applies vulnerability)
- Guardian: Mace Head Crack. Amazing 4s daze with good damage.
- Engineer: Throw Gunk. Not very good damage. Provides an Ethereal field which can provide chaos armor for you or your allies. Should be utilized with leap finishers when possible, but not mandatory to position around.
- Ranger: Healing Seed. This is incredible for healing and removing conditions. You will get 3s of Regen and remove a condition for each of six pulses. In addition it acts as a water field and can be leaped through or blasted for healing. Be careful to not attempt a leap stealth by placing a black powder second on top of this field (it will not work) as the bottom most field will take precedence.
- Thief: Blinding Tuft. Primarily used to enter stealth. Though it does apply a short blind it is very rarely used for that purpose (if at all).
- Elementalist: Ice Shard Stab. Does good damage like the Guardian's stolen skill, but more importantly applies an 11s chill on your opponents. Really strong against d/d eles that like to spam a lot of skills at once, tripling their remaining cooldown. Also slows movement speed against foes that like to leap away.
- Mesmer: Consume Plasma. Provides most boons for about 10 seconds, retaliation for 5s, and stability for 3s. (Note: Protection reduces direct damage taken by 33%).
- Necromancer: Skull Fear. It will cause targets closer to you to flee for a greater duration. They will always run away from you, so if you try to backstab them, they will continually turn away from you. However this can be used to make people walk off edges by fearing them from one position and then moving to another to turn them away.
- 0 to 200: 3.25s
- 200 - 400: 2.25s
- 400 - 600: 1s
Jukes & Combos
Juking is the act of positioning enemy players in a way that benefits you or confusing them about your whereabouts to pull off a decap/cap or res/finish. Combos may help you maximize damage and control. (Note: for all combos be aware of "haste" which speeds up the activation of many skills).
- Stealth > Shadow Shot >
- > stealth > Return: There are many methods to stealth. However this particular method can cause the enemy to think you've gone further ahead, when in reality you've returned to your original position. Inexperienced players will be off point long enough for you to decap it with this juke.
Stomping
In general it is good enough to drop a black powder for your team mates to safely stomp. However, if it ends up falling to you here are some helpful tips:
Stealth Stomp with in Black Powder. This is useful against Rangers.
- In the very worst of situations (dire need to res a bunker that has "tagged" a nearby downed enemy) it is possible to Shadowstep 900-1200 units after initiating the stomp and activating Shadow Return prior to finishing the stomp.
- Use your teleports to help stomp Thieves. This can actually be used on well timed stomps against Mesmers and Eles as well (Initiating a split second before they activate).
- It is possible to heartseeker or shadow shot to invisible mesmers. Initiate a split second before they go invisible and it will take you to the correct downed body. Continue to cleave and apply poison or to simply increase your awareness of their whereabouts sooner.
Counters
- DPS guardian
- Celestial elementalists
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