New D/D Power Daredevil Experimental Build for instanced PvE!

[TheThief.8475]

Hello!

I really enjoy Dagger/Dagger on Thief, but I can't stand Deadeye's Mark anymore, so I decided to try D/D on Daredevil and see how it performs.

After hours of trying I figured a 39.1k DPS rotation (I think a better player could reach 40k), It's not the best, I know, but it's really fun!

• You have to manage initiative and endurance and decide what variation of the rotation you want to follow to have the resources needed for the next rotation loop;
• The rotation is relatively low APM (except the opener), so the resource management is not too hard to keep track of, and playing it felt satisfying 🙂.

 

Here is the guide I created:   https://indy-.notion.site/D-D-Daredevil-Guide-f751eb3f215e48f6808be689b24f4d05?pvs=4   (can't insert clickable link 😞)

There's a comment section in the "Questions & Discussion" section where you can leave questions about the build or give tips to other players (and me) too!

And a rotation video: D/D Power Daredevil Benchmark - Aug 2023 - 39,1k - YouTube 

 

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Edited September 7, 2023 by TheThief.8475

[Strutter.2719]

Really interesting. I really miss old school core thief and the dd deadeye build(and deadeye in general) always felt pretty junky.

I also love daredevil so this is certainly intriguing. 

[Doggie.3184]

Best thing about builds like this is no Quick Pockets dependancy. Hate having to equip same weaponset twice.

[TheThief.8475]

18 hours ago, Strutter.2719 said:

Really interesting. I really miss old school core thief and the dd deadeye build(and deadeye in general) always felt pretty junky.

I also love daredevil so this is certainly intriguing. 

It really feels great to play once you're used to it!

You can react faster and adapt to situations immediately with daggers freedom of movement (0 animation lock in this build) where on Staff you have to wait until the last queued Weakening Charge, which makes it very hard (almost impossible for me) to react to things unless you predict them because you know the encounter perfectly

Maybe I'm biased, but ATM it's my favourite DPS buils for Thief 🙂 

[TheThief.8475]

17 hours ago, Doggie.3184 said:

Best thing about builds like this is no Quick Pockets dependancy. Hate having to equip same weaponset twice.

That happens only on condition builds usually, since Trickery is a condition trait line, but there are also condi builds where you swap weapons off-cd for sigils proc (condi Daredevil for example), not a very good system IMO...

A good way to fix this could be to grant more initiative (say 6+), but only if you swap to a different weapon;

It would be cool to see Thief builds that use more than one weapon set for the rotation

[Vidit.7108]

Yeah I've seen it before, people have gotten it to bench nearly the same as staff or slightly better. The reason you don't see it much is that it doesn't cleave like staff, revealed in actual encounters is obnoxious and in Snow Crow's case they don't double up on builds anymore.

[TheThief.8475]

12 hours ago, Vidit.7108 said:

Yeah I've seen it before, people have gotten it to bench nearly the same as staff or slightly better. The reason you don't see it much is that it doesn't cleave like staff, revealed in actual encounters is obnoxious and in Snow Crow's case they don't double up on builds anymore.

I haven't had much problem running this build in every encounter where I'd run Staff DD

There are some exceptions like OLC, where if you get fixated you can't stealth until the boss goes away, but you can just avoid those bosses, I'll update the build while I keep playing the build and find optimal and non-optimal encounters 🙂 

As of now I've run it in :

• W1: went perfectly (I also managed to get top dps in all bosses, but it's a pug run);
• W3: went very well at KC, not so good at Xera because Thief loses a lot of stats when below a certain HP treshold, and healers are not great in pug, but I'll test more to be sure;
• W4: not recommended on Cairn (forced movement is bad there because of teleports), went perfectly from MO to Deimos;
• W5: went very well too (I had to adapt the rotation a bit on desmina, to dodge when needed), statues and Dhuum went perfectly;
• W6: can't be used at CA because arms and the boss are not "defiant enemies" so backstab does front damage to them, Twin Largos in unplayable with melee weapons (for Nikare), Qadim 1 went perfectly;
• W7: Adina is perfectly doable, but avoid the CM with this build (you may dodge into a hole and die lol), Sabir went smoothly in CM, didn't try at Q2 yet because I'm a main pylon there, but i'll test this week (and I expect it to work no problem, unless there's some debuff that reveals players) ;

 

In fractals I run D/D and Staff so I cleave trash mobs with staff, and then swap to D/D for bosses because I personally do more dmg with them than with Staff (and I have mroe fun with them too), but I avoid using it in fights that favor ranged DPS like Silent Surf and Sanqua Peak;

In strikes you have no problem with this build because there is no need for cleave, so I use it everywhere except fight that reveal you (like OLC if you get fixated), and fight that prefer ranged DPS (if you want to optimize for more DPS);

Like most builds it has encounters where it excels and others there it's bad / unplayable but when you can play it, it is strong and fun 🙂 

Edited September 11, 2023 by TheThief.8475

[Marckan.9526]

On topic: I like that you put your mind to creating a build that you prefer rather than what achieves the highest DPS.

Off topic: There is something really wrong with PvE if the best DPS is achieved through auto-attacking rather than using the weapon skills. This yet again reminds me why I detest PvE, it's all rotation and no reaction - so predictable, and boring.

[DeceiverX.8361]

On 9/27/2023 at 9:05 AM, Marckan.9526 said:

On topic: I like that you put your mind to creating a build that you prefer rather than what achieves the highest DPS.

Off topic: There is something really wrong with PvE if the best DPS is achieved through auto-attacking rather than using the weapon skills. This yet again reminds me why I detest PvE, it's all rotation and no reaction - so predictable, and boring.

Has more to do with D/D skills being a mess on 2/3/4 rather than anything else.  The kit has the same issues in the competitive modes.

Heartseeker not making sense at higher boss HP makes sense being that it's supposed to be an execute.  Death Blossom is just kind of underwhelming in general outside of condi 3spam, and DDagger is filler and mostly designed as a cripple source for P/D to keep pressure.  The entire gameplay loop around D/D is damage on 5->1 and if needing almost anything else... swapping to another weapon set lol.

The AA used to be even stronger and an even bigger part of the success of MH dagger some years ago before they nerfed it a ton.

[Doggie.3184]

On 9/27/2023 at 9:05 AM, Marckan.9526 said:

On topic: I like that you put your mind to creating a build that you prefer rather than what achieves the highest DPS.

Off topic: There is something really wrong with PvE if the best DPS is achieved through auto-attacking rather than using the weapon skills. This yet again reminds me why I detest PvE, it's all rotation and no reaction - so predictable, and boring.

You can thank Quickness and the extended Reveal timer for that. Used to be one AA chain and Cloak and Dagger, Backstab which was very fluid in timing. Now the timing is all anti-OCD on all the weapons and encourages more AA chains and isn't consistant since you wont always have Quickness.

Quote

The reason you don't see it much is that it doesn't cleave like staff

Also looses tons of Whirl finishers. Too bad Death Blossom is still annoying and bad on power/strike builds unlike the god tier GW1 version that didn't throw you off cliffs and only did power damage.

Edited October 4, 2023 by Doggie.3184