The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Strike damage and Mobility
Designed for: PvP Conquest
Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds
Difficulty: Normal
This build was last updated on June 05, 2026 and is up to date for the June 2, 2026 patch.
Overview
A direct damage based Daredevil take on the already slippery Sword/Dagger playstyle. This PvP build mixes high mobility with evade chains, boon stealing and consistent damage output to get the job done.
S/D Thief is often used against comps with several bunker builds, as its 
侧翼打击 + 
侧翼突袭 chain can quickly work through the defenses of many high sustain specs thanks to the unblockable boon removal and high damage.
Skill Bar
顺手牵羊Stolen skill
Skill Variants
Utility
Viable choices for the optional slot:
-
渗透纹章 - primarily used to chase down targets. If you need to break stun with it and don't want to remain right next to your opponent, you can use NPCs and other players as targets to teleport to. -
毒蝎钩索 - a ranged pull on short CD. Good at closing gaps, interrupting skills and setting up bursts without spending initiative. Works especially well as a setup skill for 
隐秘突袭 ⇒ 
战术打击 bursts. -
阻碍匕首 - adds more burst damage to the build. Consider using 顺手牵羊 right before the first projectile goes off in order to cut down on travel time/distance, making the skill harder to avoid. -
敏捷纹章 - good passive bonus and extra cleansing/evasion on active. -
暗影传送门 - you become weaker in combat but gain an extremely powerful mobility tool that turns you into a decap machine.
Template Code
[&DQU2KywnBzkKAQAAGQEAAFgAAABXAQAAnwEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEBQA2AFoALwAA]Specializations
Equipment
Equipment Variants
Relics
烟花古物 - higher burst potential, but lower consistency.
Runes
全息师符文 - very similar to Vampirism, slightly lower HP for a bit higher crit chance. Higher risk/reward option.
Usage
General
-
The thief's role is to almost constantly keep moving.
渗透暗箭 and other shadowsteps make this build incredibly mobile. Decap unguarded capture points, +1 fights (rotate to outnumber the enemy team on a point, quickly ending the fight and then move on), interrupt foes with stability by landing 顺手牵羊, and gank targets in team fights. -
Dodge if you need
迅捷 or extra mobility in general while moving between capture points. -
The many dodges and evasions on weapon sets provide decent survivability for an otherwise very squishy profession.
Steal
-
顺手牵羊 is the most powerful tool in a thief's kit and should not be wasted! Do not start fights with steal, keep it for the right moment (mainly to interupt important skills such as heals or elites).
-
Steal refills some endurance, grants initiative, strips boons and provides a variety of boons for you and your team. Its most important function however is the instant, unblockable interrupt.
-
Steal procs the damage bonus of
烟花古物 (if taken), creating a burst window for you.
Sword/Dagger
The main set of the build
-
Most of the damage will come from a combination of autoattacks and the
侧翼打击 chain. -
渗透暗袭 is an excellent skill for initiating fights or just closing gaps. It's recommended that you start fights with this skill from a place that breaks line of sight (LoS), like a wall or a pillar. This leaves you with an escape route via 
暗影回归 in case you get focused, and IR even provides some minor cleansing. -
Don't spam
侧翼打击 mindlessly. You will become easily predictable and locked in an animation while your enemy can set up burst. Find a balance between your autoattacks and flanking strike. Both this skill and its chain 侧翼突袭 are unblockable. Larcenous Strike will be your main source of burst damage.- Blocking foes are an exception. Since enemies are unlikely to dodge while using blocking skills, you're free to spam these and punish them with unblockable boon removal.
-
匕首之舞 is merely a filler for ranged poking in case going into melee range would be too dangerous and weapon swap is on CD, or if you want to get rid of 
圣盾 / 
目盲 before jumping in. The bouncing attacks however aren't bad at all when it comes to clearing Mesmer clones. -
隐秘突袭 is strong in its own right. Being the only source of
潜行 in the build, this grants access to 战术打击 which can help with interrupting important casts (heal, stomp, etc.) when 顺手牵羊 is on cooldown, and the stealth in general can help you lose aggro for a short while or even leave the fight entirely without being chased. The damage itself is quite good both on CnD and Tactical Strike, which means chaining these 2 could act as a finishing move as well. With Steal added to the mix in the middle of casting CnD this combo becomes less obvious and harder to avoid.- This could be used on AI (clones, pets, minions) if all you need is stealth not the damage, as AI won't dodge it therefore the odds of getting a successful CnD off becomes higher.
- This skill gets to shine more if you're taking 毒蝎钩索 for one of the utility slots. SW pulls targets right into melee range and the brief CC is just enough to comfortably land a CnD with Tactical Strike as the followup.
Short bow
Utility weapon
-
集束炸弹 being a spammable blast finisher has high value for your team when it comes to blasting fields for 潜行 or healing (although they'll have to provide the fields). -
致残射击 provides cheap and spammable evasion in case you're being focused by the enemy team and your defensive skills are on CD. Remains usable even while Immobilize Immobilized. -
Use
窒息瓦斯 on downed enemies especially if they are being revived - Poison decreases healing gained by 33% which affects resurrecting speed. -
渗透暗箭 is the #1 skill for moving around the map in general, cuts down on travel time between capture points drastically.
Utilities & elite
-
暗影疾步 is easily the most versatile and one of the strongest skills in the build. It has 2 parts:- The first half is a stun break and teleport, which already has countless applications. A few applications include teleport to safety while pressured, extending your reach in combat, or using the instant mobility boost to decap enemy points before using the 2nd part of the skill to leave just as fast.
- The second half is called
暗影回归. This skill becomes available for 10 seconds after using Shadowstep, and cures 3 conditions in addition to breaking stun again before returning you to your starting location. - These can also be combined to safe stomp targets: begin stomping, 暗影疾步 away to safety, and then follow up with 暗影回归 at the end of the animation in order to finish the target.
-
先攻翻滚 is a situational skill. The evade can be used proactively to avoid damage, the stunbreak is a reactive part that breaks stun if you do get hit, and the initiative refill even gives it some offensive capabilities - you may choose to get greedy and use this skill to gain initiative so you can maintain the pressure on enemies.- Keep this ready for defensive purposes if no other stunbreak is available at the time, otherwise you can get more creative with its uses.
-
匕首风暴 is a defensive elite. The rather lengthy evade frame with increased movement speed makes it an excellent panic button when you're being focused by the enemy team. -
If taken
敏捷纹章 is your best souce of cleansing, as it instantly removes 3 conditions. In addition to that, this also gives an entire dodge roll's worth of endurance which can be used as a last resort option for squeezing out more dodges when you're out of endurance and don't have time to heal. Keep in mind that the active portion of this skill is AoE! Try to use it near allies whenever possible.
Related Builds
- Daredevil - Power S/D Roamer - WvW roaming version of the build.
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