SA or DA for S/D Core Thief

[Karma Crimzin.5079]

What do you guys use now with the new changes to SA? just a question I asked among my friends and Guild mates and wanted to get the opinions of the community. I tend to bounce between the two but ive been lately leaning towards more SA the stealth and cooldown reductions to smokescreen and shadowstep seem to help me out a lot in Pvp. Im also not running Condi S/D so i feel DA might be missed on me even though the extra poison is super good.

[Yasai.3549]

I tried both.

If yu are highly confident at playing S/D, DA will always be better.

SA might be good for beginner S/D players because yu can get some minor heal off Shadow Savior, 2 Ohno buttons with Hidden Thief and Heal skill, as well as ini and health regeneration in Stealth, which when using Hidden Thief and Heal skill, will be around 6 seconds of Stealth.

Or yu can be a memer and run both SA and DA and throw away Trickery.

[Alatar.7364]

SA doesn't compliment S/D.DA is simply much better option for power core S/D.Taking SA over DA in S/D build is lowering on stuff that S/D already does mediocre and shifts it toward something it doesn't do at all because it is practically completely useless to its playstyle.So in the end you just lost something and gained something else so useless that it almost equals gaining nothing at all.

[kash.9213]

I had usually gone SA, DA, TR with core SD but that was for Rending Shade mostly and came down to how I played. I'd chose DA over SA though if it's between the two for core SD.

[Karma Crimzin.5079]

@Alatar.7364 said:SA doesn't compliment S/D.DA is simply much better option for power core S/D.Taking SA over DA in S/D build is lowering on stuff that S/D already does mediocre and shifts it toward something it doesn't do at all because it is practically completely useless to its playstyle.So in the end you just lost something and gained something else so useless that it almost equals gaining nothing at all.

I see your point. I ran with SA for the stealth and it helps but ive gotten better at playing S/D so I use DA for the Poison since the heal from Mug didn't do much for me in saving my life IMO. Now i just bounce between Blinding Powder and Smokescreen depending on if I want to stay and hang out and fight longer or stealth for a quick daze. Even Smokescreen im seeing sometimes i get hit depending on if they hit me with some explosion like a holosmith blowing every cooldown they have to nail me so im trying more Blinding Powder. Still is fun with SA to survive a bit and harass until my teammates show up to assist.

[Alatar.7364]

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:

@Alatar.7364 said:SA doesn't compliment S/D.DA is simply much better option for power core S/D.Taking SA over DA in S/D build is lowering on stuff that S/D already does mediocre and shifts it toward something it doesn't do at all because it is practically completely useless to its playstyle.So in the end you just lost something and gained something else so useless that it almost equals gaining nothing at all.

I see your point. I ran with SA for the stealth and it helps but ive gotten better at playing S/D so I use DA for the Poison since the heal from Mug didn't do much for me in saving my life IMO. Now i just bounce between Blinding Powder and Smokescreen depending on if I want to stay and hang out and fight longer or stealth for a quick daze. Even Smokescreen im seeing sometimes i get hit depending on if they hit me with some explosion like a holosmith blowing every cooldown they have to nail me so im trying more Blinding Powder. Still is fun with SA to survive a bit and harass until my teammates show up to assist.

You can of course use anything you like, but know that the build you are talking about, power core s/d, was built to decap, boonrip and to +1, so neither smokescreen nor Blinding Powder complements it just as SA doesn't for the very same reason.However as I said you can use whatever you like, just mentioning those points in case you were wondering about why S/D is Meta.

[Karma Crimzin.5079]

@Alatar.7364 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:

@Alatar.7364 said:SA doesn't compliment S/D.DA is simply much better option for power core S/D.Taking SA over DA in S/D build is lowering on stuff that S/D already does mediocre and shifts it toward something it doesn't do at all because it is practically completely useless to its playstyle.So in the end you just lost something and gained something else so useless that it almost equals gaining nothing at all.

I see your point. I ran with SA for the stealth and it helps but ive gotten better at playing S/D so I use DA for the Poison since the heal from Mug didn't do much for me in saving my life IMO. Now i just bounce between Blinding Powder and Smokescreen depending on if I want to stay and hang out and fight longer or stealth for a quick daze. Even Smokescreen im seeing sometimes i get hit depending on if they hit me with some explosion like a holosmith blowing every cooldown they have to nail me so im trying more Blinding Powder. Still is fun with SA to survive a bit and harass until my teammates show up to assist.

You can of course use anything you like, but know that the build you are talking about, power core s/d, was built to decap, boonrip and to +1, so neither smokescreen nor Blinding Powder complements it just as SA doesn't for the very same reason.However as I said you can use whatever you like, just mentioning those points in case you were wondering about why S/D is Meta.

Yea I understand why its Meta. I just was wondering since im trying to make a build thats just as viable in PvP/ WvW as the Meta build. I know I want to get the most out of my thief so I need to use a little imagination. Since I take the term "Meta" more so as "Basic go to build" if I wanted to do ok in those areas but I always feel like Meta builds or all builds for that matter always have room to grow.

[kash.9213]

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:

@Alatar.7364 said:

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:

@Alatar.7364 said:SA doesn't compliment S/D.DA is simply much better option for power core S/D.Taking SA over DA in S/D build is lowering on stuff that S/D already does mediocre and shifts it toward something it doesn't do at all because it is practically completely useless to its playstyle.So in the end you just lost something and gained something else so useless that it almost equals gaining nothing at all.

I see your point. I ran with SA for the stealth and it helps but ive gotten better at playing S/D so I use DA for the Poison since the heal from Mug didn't do much for me in saving my life IMO. Now i just bounce between Blinding Powder and Smokescreen depending on if I want to stay and hang out and fight longer or stealth for a quick daze. Even Smokescreen im seeing sometimes i get hit depending on if they hit me with some explosion like a holosmith blowing every cooldown they have to nail me so im trying more Blinding Powder. Still is fun with SA to survive a bit and harass until my teammates show up to assist.

You can of course use anything you like, but know that the build you are talking about, power core s/d, was built to decap, boonrip and to +1, so neither smokescreen nor Blinding Powder complements it just as SA doesn't for the very same reason.However as I said you can use whatever you like, just mentioning those points in case you were wondering about why S/D is Meta.

Yea I understand why its Meta. I just was wondering since im trying to make a build thats just as viable in PvP/ WvW as the Meta build. I know I want to get the most out of my thief so I need to use a little imagination. Since I take the term "Meta" more so as "Basic go to build" if I wanted to do ok in those areas but I always feel like Meta builds or all builds for that matter always have room to grow.

If you're trying to land on a build for both game modes without switching builds all the time than build for spvp and play that role in wvw. Unless you're infiltrating keeps or something you'll only need quick stealth for traited and other loaded modifiers or to mask direction and I don't think you'll miss the reduced cooldowns all that much as you learn to read ahead in a fight.

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

@Karma Crimzin.5079 said:What do you guys use now with the new changes to SA? just a question I asked among my friends and Guild mates and wanted to get the opinions of the community. I tend to bounce between the two but ive been lately leaning towards more SA the stealth and cooldown reductions to smokescreen and shadowstep seem to help me out a lot in Pvp. Im also not running Condi S/D so i feel DA might be missed on me even though the extra poison is super good.

Power S/D Core doesn't benefit from SA since stealth is not the main playstyle of this build, rather evasion and steal.

D/x and P/D build benefits the most from SA. DE D/P + Rifle is cashing in the most from SA.