Daredevil - Power S/D

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Direct damage and Mobility

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on April 14, 2022 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.


Overview

A direct damage based Daredevil take on the already slippery Sword/Dagger playstyle. This PvP build mixes high mobility with evade chains, boon stealing, and consistent damage output to get the job done.


Skill Bar

Sword/Dagger
Shortbow
Utility


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Specializations


Equipment

Sword
Dagger
Sigil
Sigil
Shortbow
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet


Equipment Variants

Rune

  • - versatile rune which also provides better sustain.


Usage

General

  • is replaced by which inherits all the traits from Steal, but has half the range. To compensate for that, Swipe is unblockable! We're still going to refer to this profession mechanic as steal/stealing for most of the guide.
  • The thief's role is to almost constantly keep moving. and other shadowsteps make this build incredibly mobile. Decap unguarded capture points, +1 fights (rotate to outnumber the enemy team on a point, quickly ending the fight and then move on), interrupt foes with stability by landing , and gank targets in team fights.
  • Dodge if you need Swiftness Swiftness or extra mobility in general while moving between capture points.
  • The many dodges and evasions on weapon sets provide decent survivability for an otherwise very squishy profession.


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).
  • Steal refills endurance, grants initiative, inflicts Poison Poison, does damage, heals for ~2k, and provides a variety of boons for you and your team. Its most important function however is the instant, unblockable interrupt.
    • The instant boonstrip of prioritizes Stability Stability, which goes off before the Daze Daze does, allowing you to interrupt targets who have Stability with just one button!


Sword/Dagger

The main set of the build

  • Most of the damage will come from a combination of autoattacks and the chain.
  • is an excellent skill for initiating fights or just closing gaps. It's recommended that you start fights with this skill from a place that break line of sight (LoS), like a wall or a pillar. This leaves you with an escape route via in case you get focused, and IR even provides some minor cleansing.
  • Don't spam mindlessly. You will become easily predictible and locked in an animation while your enemy can set up burst. Find a balance between your autoattacks and flanking strike. Both this skill and its chain are unblockable. Larcenous Strike will be your main source of burst damage.
  • is merely a filler for ranged poking in case going into melee range would be too dangerous and Short bow is on CD, or if you want to get rid of Aegis Aegis / Blind Blind before jumping in. The bouncing attacks however aren't all that bad when it comes to clearing Mesmer clones.
  • - although rarely used - is strong in its own right. Being the only source of Stealth Stealth in the build, this grants access to which can help with interrupting important casts (heal, stomp, etc.) when is on cooldown, and the stealth in general can help you lose aggro for a short while or even leave the fight entirely without being chased. Its high cost and long cast time however makes it a very situational skill.
    • This is often used on AI (clones, pets, minions) because this skill is all about the stealth, not the damage, and AI won't dodge it therefore the odds of getting a successful CnD off becomes higher.


Short bow

Utility weapon

  • being a spammable blast finisher has high value for your team when it comes to blasting fields for Stealth Stealth or healing (although they'll have to provide the fields).
    • Its chain skill is a solid cource of downed cleave, or even ranged burst if you pre-cast aimed at your feet, near the end of the animation and then detonate at your target.
  • provides cheap and spammable evasion in case you're being focused by the enemy team and your defensive skills are on CD. Remains usable even while Immobilize Immobilized.
  • Use on downed enemies especially if they are being revived - Poison decreases healing gained by 33% which affects resurrecting speed.
  • is the #1 skill for moving around the map in general, cuts down on travel time between capture points drastically.


Utilities & elite

  • is your best souce of cleansing, as it instantly removes 3 conditions. In addition to that, this also gives an entire dodge roll's worth of endurance which can be used as a last resort option for squeezing out more dodges when you're out of endurance and don't have time to heal. Keep in mind that the active portion of this skill is AoE! Try to use it near allies whenever possible.
  • 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 applications. A few applications include teleport to safety while pressured, extending your reach in combat, or using the instant mobility boost to decap enemy points before using the 2nd part of the skill to leave just as fast.
    • The second half is called . 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, away to safety, and then follow up with at the end of the animation in order to finish the target.
  • is a defensive 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.
    • Note: skills like or are able to interrupt Dagger Storm, so don't be completely careless.


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Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 4 votes.
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3 stars
Barnacle Ed gave this build 3 stars • June 2023
IMHO, DP outshines this in just about every way currently. Sword 2 is a fantastic tool for roaming/decapping however - maybe a variant of this using SA instead of critical strikes as a focused decapper would "work" in some comps? It would still bring value to teamfights with boonrip on demand too.
4 stars
Goon gave this build 4 stars • February 2023
Probably should be a 3 but this build is just so insanely fun. It doesnt have the damage, cc or sustain of d/p but it has more mobility and unblockable damage. As such, can be a better pick over d/p verse comps with many blocks. With anet looking to nerf uninteractive builds s/d might become relatively better over other stealth spamming thief builds.
5 stars
Baescons gave this build 5 stars • April 2021
This build is still fairly good. It was like the best dh counter in the game, but still works well into any guardian and holo-actually better than d/p does much of the time and it may end up meta if mirage does also, again the version is still eh- as trickster is fairly beta at the moment, it just ends up being severely worse but an ok match up into dp which is the only reason mods picked that up. also you need to play shadow refuge in this meta, but still a good build
3 stars
Hanz gave this build 3 stars • July 2020
Nowhere to be seen these days, everyone plays DP or PD. That being said, it still works.

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