Daredevil and acrobatics weapons in WvW

[Sontaran.5904]

Everyone is talking about deadeye, which is great, but this is a post about daredevil. I currently run a staff build using acrobatics, trickery, and daredevil with bounding dodger in WvW. It works great, but I'm finding that I need to get a different weapon on swap instead of shortbow. Sb is great and all, but in roaming fights, I find that it's not super useful. I don't really like d/p, so my question it's in regards to d/d. Does anyone have success with d/d as a weapon set with acrobatics along with bounding dodger? Or should I just swap acrobatics to DA and switch to dash with this set?

[Cirrion.8951]

P/P seems like a natural fit here. It gives you a ranged option, might stacking, on demand imob, on demand daze and on demand stealth. I don't see what D/D would offer to a staff Daredevil.

[Fat Disgrace.4275]

There really is no point going dagger and acro, even with bounded dodger as you really have no means of eacape or kiting ability, also there is nothing in acrobatics that offers anything for dagger, deadly arts would far better. That being said, S/p would be a good choice as both acro and daredevil have traits that sync well with sword (swindles equalibaim) and as you said, bound for smoke feild leap. Although the initiative would be heavy as both staff and s/p require a fair bit of inative. Could use infiltration signet to help a bit with initiative and also trait for upper hand

[Sontaran.5904]

Thanks for the replies. The reason I asked about d/d is that I'm a brawler and I don't usually run from fights anyway. If I see a zerg and have to run, I can always shadowstep and then bound for swiftness and then vault twice etc. It doesn't move as fast as sb, but vault covers a surprising amount of ground. I tested it last night, and d/d helped me win a few fights because of steal combined with dagger 5 followed with backstab. I used it on some rangers that were trying to kite me.

I'm a big fan of a full melee build, which is why I'm testing it. The ideas for sword are good too. S/d might even work for resetting steal in acro line and then more boon rip. I really like having dagger 5, backstab, hs, and db though because they help in various situations when I need to jump off staff because it's not working for a certain fight.

[Sioul.4276]

I personally run d/p staff when I play this build. d/p offers great control in a fight, and you can combo pistol 5 with bound or hs for stealth. I am curious as to why you don't really like d/p.

[Turk.5460]

@Fat Disgrace.4275 said:There really is no point going dagger and acro, even with bounded dodger as you really have no means of eacape or kiting ability, also there is nothing in acrobatics that offers anything for dagger, deadly arts would far better. ///

Before I swapped to S/D Power as my main build, I was Staff and D/P. I was extremely successful with d/p as an offset for both engages and escapes. Your escape is swapping to D/P and stealthing - in which you can use both bounding dodger and heartseeker to stack more than enough stealth to retreat or reposition. D/P is also by far the best offset to staff for chase potential thanks to shadowshot.

[Fat Disgrace.4275]

@Turk.5460 said:

@Fat Disgrace.4275 said:There really is no point going dagger and acro, even with bounded dodger as you really have no means of eacape or kiting ability, also there is nothing in acrobatics that offers anything for dagger, deadly arts would far better. ///

Before I swapped to S/D Power as my main build, I was Staff and D/P. I was extremely successful with d/p as an offset for both engages and escapes. Your escape is swapping to D/P and stealthing - in which you can use both bounding dodger

and

heartseeker to stack more than enough stealth to retreat or reposition. D/P is also by far the best offset to staff for chase potential thanks to shadowshot.

well yeah, if thats all you';re going to use the d/p set for then ofc it will be better. but you can do that with shortbow anyway so there is no point ^^

[Turk.5460]

@Fat Disgrace.4275 said:

@Turk.5460 said:

@Fat Disgrace.4275 said:There really is no point going dagger and acro, even with bounded dodger as you really have no means of eacape or kiting ability, also there is nothing in acrobatics that offers anything for dagger, deadly arts would far better. ///

Before I swapped to S/D Power as my main build, I was Staff and D/P. I was extremely successful with d/p as an offset for both engages and escapes. Your escape is swapping to D/P and stealthing - in which you can use both bounding dodger

and

heartseeker to stack more than enough stealth to retreat or reposition. D/P is also by far the best offset to staff for chase potential thanks to shadowshot.

well yeah, if thats all you';re going to use the d/p set for then ofc it will be better. but you can do that with shortbow anyway so there is no point ^^

In terms of escape, maybe. Though I personally don't think so - shortbow escape requires at least 11 initiative, as you can't just IA once and be safe if you need to escape. A D/P stealth only requires a minimum of 5 initiative, as you have the option to bound if you are low on initiative (which can be spammed with the help of CV and SoA), and supplemented with Heartseeker if the initiative is available.

In terms of engage, well, SB can't even begin to compare with D/P burst opener before switching to Staff.

[kash.9213]

If you're already using Bound, you can carry a dodge through Shortbow 5 for chasing or cleaving and between SB5 and SB3 you can work a blob for a minute. I've always felt that Staff and SB are one of the best two sets to put together, they nearly mirror each other functionally skill for skill and they're great together in melee range or to manage a radius. If you're set against SB I guess P/P would do alright since you have Bound to stealth with and you'll get headshot and Unload.

[Sontaran.5904]

@Sioul.4276 said:I personally run d/p staff when I play this build. d/p offers great control in a fight, and you can combo pistol 5 with bound or hs for stealth. I am curious as to why you don't really like d/p.

I think it's just a matter of never really playing the set or a stealth focused build as I started on d/d, moved to p/d (for Condi) then went back to power s/d and staff depending on what I'm doing. I haven't done much with pistols, but I'm starting to see the benefit of having it and using stealth to my advantage. I just tested d/p on swap and it was actually nice against a deadeye that was trying to snipe me because I was able to stealth and then surprise him after.

I will keep trying it out and see how it goes. I carry an extra dagger, a sword, and a shortbow with me, so I'll just keep swapping things around to see what I like the most. I definitely like acro, and I only trade it out for deadly arts when I'm using s/d with dash.

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

@Sontaran.5904 said:Everyone is talking about deadeye, which is great, but this is a post about daredevil. I currently run a staff build using acrobatics, trickery, and daredevil with bounding dodger in WvW. It works great, but I'm finding that I need to get a different weapon on swap instead of shortbow. Sb is great and all, but in roaming fights, I find that it's not super useful. I don't really like d/p, so my question it's in regards to d/d. Does anyone have success with d/d as a weapon set with acrobatics along with bounding dodger? Or should I just swap acrobatics to DA and switch to dash with this set?

This is just my opinion. Swap to CS instead of DA. You only really want to take DA if you're going Condi or Hybrid.

[Sontaran.5904]

I should have been more clear. I'm full power with mostly marauder gear.