Sword/Dagger PVE (Solo/OW)

Hi

Sorry for the dumb question... but can someone please explain to me why S/D core/daredevil/deadeye is not good for open world/solo?I would love to pair S/D with SB for solo playing but everywhere I look it's P/P, D/D or Staff DD.

Is S/D really so bad you can't make it work against more challenging mobs?If you can roll with it would you go Power or Condi?

cheers guys

I play S/D everywhere. I'd rather have S/D against challenging mobs, it can clear distance forward and back, it has an evade on top of a really good skill sequence, and Dancing Dagger is good for kiting the front of the squad/group/mob cone or on runners. Also Cloak and Dagger feels very crisp and responsive to use and can travel with other skills like Steal. I'm taking health constantly through food and interrupts though, sword/? might feel a little sluggish especially on auto, without modded secondary effects coming off of stuff you're already doing.

IMO, most places you find build suggestions are going to be for WvW or PvP content and not open world. For open world, you can pretty much play whatever combination that you want that works for you.

Ok, so I've tried playing S/D Power DD now with SB as utility and while it's flashy and looks cool spinning around and evading (and you don't die) the damage is so just low compared to my GS Reaper that it's not even fun.

Dunno what to do with this build. I don't want to use staff really even though I'm considering it..

@GreenZap.1352 said:Ok, so I've tried playing S/D Power DD now with SB as utility and while it's flashy and looks cool spinning around and evading (and you don't die) the damage is so just low compared to my GS Reaper that it's not even fun.

Dunno what to do with this build. I don't want to use staff really even though I'm considering it..

Are you going for an optimal build for open world or trying to make S/D work? You can take Shadow Arts up to Cloaked in Shadow and stagger out Cloak and Dagger in crowds. I use Sigil of Draining everywhere with Tactical Strike, the blind on the front side will still leech, but it's nice with Choking Gas also. Rune of Surging is fun and can clutch heal sometimes. Rending Shade is nice if you're being alert about target buff bars and the fear can interrupt multiple targets if it goes off, and it also takes full boon stacks like Larcenous Strike, but Cloaked in Shadow is probably better overall.

@kash.9213 said:

@"GreenZap.1352" said:Ok, so I've tried playing S/D Power DD now with SB as utility and while it's flashy and looks cool spinning around and evading (and you don't die) the damage is so just low compared to my GS Reaper that it's not even fun.

Dunno what to do with this build. I don't want to use staff really even though I'm considering it..

Trying to make S/D work for Open World/Solo story.

I know that people say that "everything works in OW" but IMO that is not the truth.

If you can faceroll elites in PoF on one Class/Build and struggle on another because of lack of damage then "everything does NOT work in OW ".

Reaper has been such a faceroll speedy clear build for me that I got spoiled :P

It is more that S/D doesn't have any particularly useful utility for PVE. It's main gimmick is the evasion and boon stealing, and while the evade is good the boon steal is noticeably less so. Though I did once hijack 24 hours of quickness from the Karka Queen, so that was something. The weapon set doesn't have any way to increase DPS, and everything it offers is utility, so S/D play is mostly just auto attacking.

X/P gets recommended because Black Powder makes PVE faceroll easy. Staff gets recommended because of its high DPS with a simple rotation.

S/D is not bad for Openworld, but yu will find the lack of cleave a little underwhelming, as well as the lack of single target damage.I recommend using Sword / Pistol instead.

@Yasai.3549 said:S/D is not bad for Openworld, but yu will find the lack of cleave a little underwhelming, as well as the lack of single target damage.I recommend using Sword / Pistol instead.

Hi

I used to play S/P long time ago but was interested in making S/D work but it just does so little damage (singel target) against PoF mobs ?

It's tanky though so it has that going for it at least!

Again, SA can energize a life leech build and can handle crowds. You can take CS and the usual Trick or SA-CS-DA and keep up the Vulnerability with Cloak and Dagger, Sundering Shade, and Even the Odds to hit up a boss while leeching adds around them. You can stagger that with slow Dancing Dagger kiting to Torment their movement while they funnel into a cone shape to mow down.

@kash.9213 said:Again, SA can energize a life leech build and can handle crowds. You can take CS and the usual Trick or SA-CS-DA and keep up the Vulnerability with Cloak and Dagger, Sundering Shade, and Even the Odds to hit up a boss while leeching adds around them. You can stagger that with slow Dancing Dagger kiting to Torment their movement while they funnel into a cone shape to mow down.

Damage is still so low though...

@GreenZap.1352 said:

@kash.9213 said:Again, SA can energize a life leech build and can handle crowds. You can take CS and the usual Trick or SA-CS-DA and keep up the Vulnerability with Cloak and Dagger, Sundering Shade, and Even the Odds to hit up a boss while leeching adds around them. You can stagger that with slow Dancing Dagger kiting to Torment their movement while they funnel into a cone shape to mow down.

How would you know if the damage is too low if you haven't even taken a build out yet? You can do what you want, can't do much for you if you're not even going to ask questions beyond, how make sword good.

@kash.9213 said:

@GreenZap.1352 said:

@kash.9213 said:Again, SA can energize a life leech build and can handle crowds. You can take CS and the usual Trick or SA-CS-DA and keep up the Vulnerability with Cloak and Dagger, Sundering Shade, and Even the Odds to hit up a boss while leeching adds around them. You can stagger that with slow Dancing Dagger kiting to Torment their movement while they funnel into a cone shape to mow down.

Ok, if you want to I'd love if you could post a GW2skill build page so I can take a look at what big damage you are referring to.I've had an idea of using Deadeye with S/D and see if it works better just haven't unlocked Deadeye fully on this character yet.

Problem with Torment is that we are playing a Power build which means we don't have increased condi damage and mobs doesn't really move around that much which makes Torment less effective than using it on other players.

@GreenZap.1352 said:

@kash.9213 said:

@GreenZap.1352 said:

@kash.9213 said:Again, SA can energize a life leech build and can handle crowds. You can take CS and the usual Trick or SA-CS-DA and keep up the Vulnerability with Cloak and Dagger, Sundering Shade, and Even the Odds to hit up a boss while leeching adds around them. You can stagger that with slow Dancing Dagger kiting to Torment their movement while they funnel into a cone shape to mow down.

It's not "big damage", I'm not trying to sell anyone on anything, I'm just saying S/D works fine if you want the mechanics of sword main hand.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PaxAwiVlNw4YgsN2JOsLbrTA-zVRYBhmDUM6Om+OjulphrsE5BIgfbvmJcGB-w Trick-DA-CShttp://gw2skills.net/editor/?PaxAwiRlNw4YgsN2JW2WnvKA-zVZYBhmDcICGxojY67Q6TI0tKNcJlIPAB8b71MhzIA-w DE-Trick-CS

Those are roughly the two versions of the build I use everywhere except I think I messed with my stat thresholds on health and precision the other day but gw2efficiency won't take an API for me right now to check. The Torment just compounds your damage a little visually so they tense up a bit but Dancing Dagger bounce is nice with multiple targets.

In open world crowds you could take Be Quick or be Dead if you're trying to do something with DE instead of M7 since you'll Mark stuff a lot and that quickness makes sword auto look and feel less sluggish compared to other weapon autos. I like Premeditation usually but I wanted more precision the other day. I saw a thief on another server a couple of days ago with Swindlers Equilibrium and Mercy but I don't want to have to mess with my stats that much right now to work in Acro. Sometimes I'll take SA so I can leech off of blinds during waves if there's a boss with adds or something because I'll likely not be able to duck out and reset but it also cleans up pretty fast.