I love Hitzer's build!

It feels so rewarding to play, I think the second best part about it was Hitzer's guide on matchups, made me think about my other builds more closely in terms of what their matchups are (I play slightly off meta builds).

The best, was a scrub necromancer whinging about condition S/D thieves. So I go and dodge role over his body and say 'See, no Lotus Training!'

Hey thank you man glad you're enjoying the build.I was about to make a copy thread from the old forums but if you don't mind I'll use yours.

Well basically the build focus around 1v1s at far and then helping mid, obviously if you need to rotate to home you will have do it.This build focus on boon stripping while doing enough damage to pressure targets and evading a lot, it is really effective vs meta builds on point:

-DH or any Guardian variation(good matchup)-Ele/Tempest(good matchup)-Mesmer/Chrono(really good matchup)-Thieves(neutral but generally it’s a fine matchup)-Engi/Scrappers (really good matchup)-Rev(good matchup)-Core war(50/50 if equal skill, 100-0 if war is worse)-Necro/Reaper (usually good matchup)-Ranger/Druid (only matchup that isn’t worth taking, takes too long and good druids can just kite and stale)

Pros:-good 1v1-good mobility-good team fighter (strip boons/immobilize targets/high damage)-good kite (sword 2 and 5 are really good)Cons:-bad finisher (does worse than d/p vs low health players)-no stealth (no opener or stealth combos)-no dash (lul)

Stream : https://www.twitch.tv/elxdarkI try to stream as much as I can, and when pof comes out I'll stream even more with Deadeye S/D.

I was at one point rank 2 with 1900 rating but the more you play the more you will lose :anguished:

Build

I've been testing a S/D build like this one but using daredevil instead of deadly arts. It's been effective so far. The dd line gives me the 7% damage in melee range, condi clear dodge, and bound for damage buff and direct damage. I lose out on not having mug and poison application, but have you tested it with dd? I am curious to gear your pros and cons of that setup.

I tried acro dd months ago and just felt that there was nothing to gain as what you got from daredevil, you lost something in deadlly arts. Also daredevil dosnt suit s/d play style at all, especially if you go bounding dodger, that works best with staff or x/p. Intresting to see how deadeye works with s/d though but I still can't see da and acro being replaced for s/d

@Sontaran.5904 said:I've been testing a S/D build like this one but using daredevil instead of deadly arts. It's been effective so far. The dd line gives me the 7% damage in melee range, condi clear dodge, and bound for damage buff and direct damage. I lose out on not having mug and poison application, but have you tested it with dd? I am curious to gear your pros and cons of that setup.

IMO the dodges from daredevil doesn't fit s/d style at all, if you dash you better use d/p because it's better, if you choose bound then better pick staff or d/p s/p and lotus is condi so s/d really doesn't fit in any of the 3 dodges. And with that the only thing that I really like from daredevil, it's the condi clear from evade, anything else is pretty bad for s/d.

On the other hand, you have acro which has been unusable after the feline grace nerf but now it's way better than daredevil at least for s/d, you don't really miss the extra dodge because you dodge a lot and you actually do more damage with DA than you do with daredevil.Again this is my personal opinion, I have tested daredevil with s/d in the past and it felt weird.

It may sound crazy but I think normal dodges actually help to s/d dps rotation, it feels right and good when you dodge then use flanking strike and dodge again.

Yeah I can't imagine giving up improvisation!

I have a lot of problems fighting D/P thieves at the moment. I realized the issue may be because they initiate with 1200r steal, and I initiate with 900r infiltrator's strike.So lately, instead of saving my shadowstep to get out, I've used it to move into range to use infiltrator's strike at the beginning of the fight. It caught a lot of my opponents off guard.Thanks Hitzer! :)

@Elxdark.9702 said:It may sound crazy but I think normal dodges actually help to s/d dps rotation, it feels right and good when you dodge then use flanking strike and dodge again.

I am going to give it a shot with DA over DD in PvP and WvW and I'll let you know how it goes!

Edit: Are you going to use deadeye with S/D over this build? Will you drop DA for it?

Trick to fighting dp is to waste there inative. Most d/p thieves I fight will fight you as if you're another d/p thief so always keep at range for enough time to dodge shadow shot and keep IR up and jump on them as soon as they come out of stealth. Don't aa too much as they will try to head shot, also FS steal LS can sting them hard when they are in your face as they sometimes don't expect that combo in melee range.

@Fat Disgrace.4275 said:Trick to fighting dp is to waste there inative. Most d/p thieves I fight will fight you as if you're another d/p thief so always keep at range for enough time to dodge shadow shot and keep IR up and jump on them as soon as they come out of stealth. Don't aa too much as they will try to head shot, also FS steal LS can sting them hard when they are in your face as they sometimes don't expect that combo in melee range.

Nice! I'll try that. I feel like playing thief on this build will improve my mechanical ability to play on other ones. I used to rely on steal way too much for initiation.

That is also good just to put your enemy on defensive mode, and can also bait out passive stun breaks but there are some classes you have to be careful of like the mesmer anti cc trait or dh, shocking aura can be annoying at times too and eye for an eye from rev I just normally use signet of agilty to clear it. You can always just IS /steal and then back off a bit and use flanking strike on their counter attack.

Lol my first name has been turned into kitten, really anet lol!

Let me fix it for you (:

@Elxdark.9702 said:

-DH (30% for you 70% for him, usually a bad matchup) or any Guardian variation (radiant hammer is a fine matchup, just evade the ring and stay away when he use the heal)-Ele/Tempest (Against dps ele like fresh air, definitely a good matchup, against bunker tempest is not worth, you lack the interrupt for the water swap)-Mesmer/Chrono (good matchup, just way too long if the mesm is good)-Thieves (You can keep a meta D/P DrD busy for long enough to decap easily but after it you should run away because, if he is competent, he can still burst the shit out of you)-Engi/Scrappers (Mender? Not worth, not even in hundred years, way too long to put him down but you eventually will thanks to the unblockable shit S/D offer)-Rev (If you die to a rev you should reroll)-Core war (50/50 if equal skill, 100-0 if war is worse, 0-100 if you are worse)-Necro/Reaper (see rev description)-Ranger/Druid (LOL, he can "CC>immob>kill you" and at same time bang your gf)

Pros:-good 1v1-your mobility is always insane but it's a subpar version of the D/P meta teef-decent team fighter, still an AoE and you are kitten (strip boons/immobilize targets/high damage)-Amazing kite (sword 2 and 5 are really good)Cons:-No finisher at all-no stealth (no opener or stealth combos)-no dash, so immob can fuck you up badly if landed at low initiative

Edit#1: Typo

@Sontaran.5904 said:

@Elxdark.9702 said:It may sound crazy but I think normal dodges actually help to s/d dps rotation, it feels right and good when you dodge then use flanking strike and dodge again.

Yes, I tested a build at beta with deadeye and tbh it felt really strong and if they do some tweaks to deadeye then I'll probably use it instead core thief. I'll stream it anyways to show the build.

Can you expand on why it seems Deadeye will synergize with melee weapons so well? It seems like all Deadeye builds I see popping up have nothing to do with rifle.

The bonuses with quickness and tons of extra boons make for massive stat inflation on all weapon sets.

A melee weapon will be able to burst harder than ever and not worry about projectile hate.

Interesting. Is it worth giving up steal for though?

Isn't that about the same build as the one Sizer played in vanilla?

@Geiir.7603 said:Isn't that about the same build as the one Sizer played in vanilla?

what do you mean? you mean when he played pre-hot? or now? because if it's now I know someone in his twitch chat linked this build to him and he got bored after like 6 games.

Man first there's Hitzer and there's Sizer. Is this Guild Wars 2 or Dodgeball 2?

@Elxdark.9702 said:

@Geiir.7603 said:Isn't that about the same build as the one Sizer played in vanilla?

Meant back in vanilla. Wasn't meant to offend or anything, was just asking because I simply can't remember any more ><

@Geiir.7603 said:

@Elxdark.9702 said:

@Geiir.7603 said:Isn't that about the same build as the one Sizer played in vanilla?

sure dude no problem, sorry if my reply sound harsh I really didn't mean it but yeah it's basically the same build with roll for initiative instead infiltrator's signet.

DE with S/D is nice. You need to really see how the trait synergy comes together

@omgdracula.6345 said:Can you expand on why it seems Deadeye will synergize with melee weapons so well? It seems like all Deadeye builds I see popping up have nothing to do with rifle.

I don't know if it will help d/p but s/d with deadeye synergize really well.

I really don't want to explain further because I want to show it on stream, basically it does the same as this build but better.

Buf if you see all the traits on Deadeye you will notice there are some really good for 1v1 which along with an evasive duelist set as sd, it makes a strong build.