GW2. Raid Build. Power Staff Daredevil. DPS Thief PvE.
Last Update: April 2024
Role: DPS 
The Power Staff Daredevil is a DPS thief build that is simple, mobile, and can steal powerful skills from specific bosses which can allow it to situationally provide utility to its team.
Dodging deals damage and gives damage modifiers. Try to dodge before depleting initiative on the Staff 2 or Staff 5 (depending on whether you need an evade or not). Manage your dodges to keep up the damage modifier you gain from dodging, only dodging when the buff is going to fall off every 4 seconds, or when necessary to dodge to avoid a mechanic.
Activating Assassin’s Signet gives a short burst of damage which you want to stack most of your damage into. Wait to keep your initiative and then dodge, use Assassin’s Signet, and spam Staff 2 and Fist Flurry during it.
Skill Priority:
- Dodge to keep Bounding Dodger buff
- Steal to stay on target or to gain initiative
- Assassin’s Signet + Fist Flurry
- Staff 5 if not in range of target or for evade
- Staff 2
Share Basilisk Venom to your team when you need to CC or use your heal skill to enter stealth and enable the staff sneak attack.
Positioning and Timing
Position yourself at the maximum hit range while using Staff 1 so you can dodge through the boss and still be in range to damage them with your dodge and instantly use Staff 2 afterwards. You want to be right next to your target when using staff 2 so that your character does not move. The rhythm of pressing your 2 skill is important because of skill queueing. You can get locked in multiple staff 2 animations if you spam the button. Press it once per cast for better control, or swap weapon if you really need to cancel an animation.
Equipment
| Item | Stat | Rune / Sigil |
|---|---|---|
| Helm Berserker | ||
| Shoulders Berserker | ||
| Coat Berserker | ||
| Gloves Berserker | ||
| Leggings Berserker | ||
| Boots Berserker |
Primary Weapon Set
| Staff Berserker |
|
Secondary Weapon Set
| Shortbow Berserker |
|
| Item | Stat |
|---|---|
| Amulet Berserker | |
| Ring Berserker | |
| Ring Berserker | |
| Accessory Berserker | |
| Accessory Berserker | |
| Backpiece Berserker |
Relic
Consumables
Infusions
| Fractal x18 | |
| Optional x18 |
Skills
| Staff | Heal / Utility / Elite |
| Shortbow | |
Alternatives
- Utility: instead of Fist Flurry for performing mechanics instantly
- Utility: instead of Fist Flurry for ferrying allies between locations quickly
- Elite: when CC isn’t required
Traits
Alternatives
- Deadly Arts: for double stolen skills on fights that have really useful steals such as Qadim, Matthias, Cardinal Adina
Build Template
Chat Code: (copy/paste into in-game chat)
[&DQUcPSMbBzkMAQAAsBIAAFcBAAAzAQAADgEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]
Simple and straightfoward. Thanks for this guide, I’m a beginner thief and It’s real challenging starting with this class compared to the others. Chhers!
I believe “Dagger Training” might be wrong, since it’s a Staff/Shortbow build
it’s a minimal increase because you don’t get the doubled effect from daggers, but it’s still better than the other options
The real challenge is how to manage your dodges, since you also use them in your rotation, often I find myself in a bad situation because I used my endurance to make big numbers, and now I cannot dodge the mechanic (e.g Deimos Pizza).
The frequent animation locks are also annoying. Maybe I can cancel with Draw/Stow weapon, not sure, I will have to try that out, but i’m trying to do something and my character just wants to Weakening Charge 2-3 times because I pressed many times the button to deplete my initiative.
Do you have any tips, a way that I can use, to correct those mistakes?
basically to conserve your dodges you need to understand that the dodge is mostly used for the damage buff, yes it does good damage but so does any other of your attacks include auto attack, so its always better to use your dodge first if you don’t have the buff up, but its always better to use your 1 2 or 5 if you have the buff up. Prioritizing this will automatically manage your dodges pretty well.
And for the animation lock. There is skill queueing, meaning if you press a skill while another skill is in progress, it will queue it up and begin that next skill immediately after the first finishes. For thief this is different than other classes because you can use the same skill repeatedly, and therefore you can skill queue the same skill over and over. This means you should NEVER press a key more times than you intend to press it. Unlike other MMOs where you wanna mash your buttons so they go off as soon as possible, in GW2 you wanna press your buttons only as many times as you intend to use that skill.