Part of the current metagame
Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great
Focused on: Strike damage and Mobility
Designed for: WvW Roaming
Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds
Difficulty: Normal
This build was last updated on March 28, 2026 and is up to date for the June 2, 2026 patch.
Overview
A Daredevil take on Sword/Dagger Thief for WvW roaming. This mix of evasions, boon stealing and unblockable damage makes for a rather slippery build and a great duelist. S/D allows the user to briefly go toe-to-toe with their opponents while jumping in and out of fights as they see fit.
Skill Bar
顺手牵羊Stolen skill
Skill Variants
Utility
For the optional slot:
-
毒蝎钩索 - a ranged pull on short CD. Good at closing gaps, interrupting enemies and setting up skills like 
隐秘突袭 without spending initiative. -
先攻翻滚 - stun break, evasion and Initiative refill. -
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. -
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.
Template Code
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Variants
刺客奖赏 trades some initiative regen for higher sustain, it's an equally viable and popular option.
Equipment
Eqipment Variants
Stats
- The ratio of Marauder Marauder and Berserker gear pieces partly comes down to personal preferences. As a general guideline, try to aim for ~17k HP when getting the gear. Rune options and traits like
劫掠强韧 can both affect your maximum HP so plan with those in mind.
Relics
-
克达之爪古物 - better burst damage, lower consistency. -
烟花古物 - a fine substitute if you can't get Relic of the Claw, but you'll have lower uptime on the damage boost.
Sigils
Shortbow
Consumables
Food
-
黑胡椒粉真空烹调肉排 - good stats and passive damage mitigation. -
芫荽柠檬真空烹调肉排 - same stats as the food above except with life steal instead of damage mitigation. -
碗装甜辣冬南瓜汤 - non-ascended version of the food above, without the sustain. -
怪异莓幽灵 - crit chance bump with armor ignoring damage procs which also heal. -
碗装鲜肉冬菜煲 - mainly a budget defensive food that provides more frequent access to dodging.
Utility
Usage
General
-
Dodge if you need
迅捷 or extra mobility in general while chasing someone down or disengaging. -
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 endurance, grants initiative, inflicts
中毒, does damage, heals for ~2k, and provides a variety of boons for you and your team. Its most important function however is the instant, unblockable interrupt. -
Relic-dependent
顺手牵羊 procs 克达之爪古物 (or Relic of Fireworks), 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. If the terrain allows for it, it's recommended that you start fights with this skill from a place that break 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.- Against dangerous targets with a lot of damage, keep jumping in and out of melee range with 渗透暗袭 to minimize contact.
- Against dangerous targets with a lot of damage, keep jumping in and out of melee range with
-
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. -
匕首之舞 is merely a filler for ranged poking in case going into melee range would be too dangerous and Short bow is on CD, or if you want to get rid of 
圣盾 / 
目盲 before jumping in. The bouncing attacks however aren't all that bad 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 burst combo as well. With Steal added to the mix in the middle of casting CnD this combo becomes harder to avoid.- CnD 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.
Short bow
Utility weapon
-
集束炸弹 being a spammable blast finisher has high value in groups 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 mostly used for leaving fights if you're losing.
Utilities & elite
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
Related Builds
-
Daredevil - Power S/D - Conquest PvP version of the build.
-
Thief - Core S/D Roamer - core Thief WvW version.
Top Streamers
- Twitch: Blacksteeel