Are my skills still applicable...(PvP video within)?

[Zipzo]

Hello. I want to say I stopped playing GW2 pretty early on. I was really in to it when I was playing though and I took PvP very seriously and a lot of my friends (and salty opponents) thought I was one of the best thieves they'd ever seen or played with/fought at the time.

I'm considering returning to the game after pretty much not playing since then (maybe it was like after the first month or two), but I wanted to ask the general community of the game who has remained loyal and still plays to this day if the skills I had then (in the video) are still applicable or has balance/classes or the meta changed so much that what I'm doing here is considered elementary level stuff?



Reason I ask is I simply adored this play style and would love if it has remained intact despite such a long passage of time. Is the Pistol/Dagger Thief still played pretty much like this?

Thanks for any information you can give me, and enjoy the video I suppose as well

[Deleted]

A lot has changed. Especially now with Heart of Thorns release, everyone has new specializations. Pvp is - in my opinion - more of a challenge than ever. In a positive way, tho. I enjoy it SO much lately holy crap. I'm obsessed haha.

About your video, I cannot say too much. I rarely play thief in pvp. Also I just started pvp several months ago.
Your enemies almost seem different from what I meet. I wouldn't call it 'easy' but I do see tons of classic mistakes a vet wouldn't make. Obviously there are players out there that have been playing pvp since day one and are pretty damn good. Those make pvp really challenging and I'm sure it will be a challenge for you as well.

I am also really enjoying pvp, and obviously I'd reccommend anyone to come back. However be aware a lot has changed and balances may be a little bit off due to the HoT update.

I'm EU myself, but I have an NA account so you can poke me if you are interested in a match.

[Vaught]

With all due respect, you wasted 2 dodges within 10 seconds of the first fight.

People count dodges these days, people dont play P/D these days simply because it is an inferior play style.

Thieves are good at using their mobility to decap points and +1 fights to finish them quickly.

Most thieves i meet in unranked know this and play to their strengths. There is very little use for a p/d thief or one that wants to engage in 1v1s off point.

On a plus, the game is very busy in pvp, there are many skilled and active players too. Never too late to hone your skills and adapt as the game has.

[Zipzo]

With all due respect, you wasted 2 dodges within 10 seconds of the first fight.

People count dodges these days, people dont play P/D these days simply because it is an inferior play style.

Thieves are good at using their mobility to decap points and +1 fights to finish them quickly.

Most thieves i meet in unranked know this and play to their strengths. There is very little use for a p/d thief or one that wants to engage in 1v1s off point.

On a plus, the game is very busy in pvp, there are many skilled and active players too. Never too late to hone your skills and adapt as the game has.

With all due respect this was recorded like 2-3 weeks after launch. I don't think most people even knew how to properly take advantage of dodge in all situations and when and where and what was worth dodging.

But I see the point you're making. Obviously after years of time, people learn to seriously consider the use of dodge, the exact moments in which it's useful, and the exact moments in which you can punish because someone wasted one.

You're telling me P/D thief is bad these days though...? Eeeh...not sure how I feel about that...

[GW2Kenneth]

Yo I know this video is old but for anyone interested, check out metabattle (just google it) for new meta builds.

[Shakadam]

To be perfectly honest, the opponents you were fighting in that video were absolutely terrible with today's standards in mind. It's hard to say if you can make the playstyle of pistol/dagger work right now, thiefs aren't in a very good spot in general right now and the few that tend to do OK-ish are pretty much exlusively dagger/pistol or possibly sword/dagger. You gotta play to a Thief's strengths, which is mobility. You do not wanna get caught in a 1vs1 situation because pretty much every other class can outlast a thief, you wanna use your mobility and burst to +1 a teammate fighting someone else for a point and just generally keep mobile and pitch in whenever you can.
None of this really works with a pistol mainhand, which is mainly a condi weapon and not a very good one at that. Pistol doesn't apply that many conditions so the bleeds will just be cleansed (there are waaaaaay more condition cleanse available in the game now compared to years ago) all the time.

In short: The game has changed, a lot, since that video. If you're very skilled you might pull off some upset wins against lesser skilled people also playing something sub-par, anyone even averagely skilled playing a meta-build would walk all over a pistol thief.