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 June 05, 2026 and is up to date for the June 2, 2026 patch.
Dagger/Pistol Thief is one of the oldest and most infamous roaming builds in WvW history. Nearly unlimited access combined with spam and the top tier mobility of Daredevil makes this iteration extremely hard to pin down, while having multiple strong burst skills and CC options at its disposal.
盗贼 (Thief)
[&DQUUKiwnBykMAQAAVwEAAFgAAAA0AQAAnwEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEWgAvAAUANgAA]
Heal
活力引导 - could be a better healing option if you don't need a mass cleanse or another stealth skill.General
in 1v1s your should take a defensive approach, dropping in and out of , slowly wearing down targets.
Shadow Arts enhances significantly. Entering/exiting stealth now grants you Initiative while cleansing conditions.
Steal
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).
Stealing grants initiative, boons, dazes enemies and refills a portion of your endurance among other things. Its most important function however is the instant boonstrip that prioritizes which goes off before the does, resulting in an instant interrupt.
Steal procs (or Relic of Fireworks, depending on your relic choice), creating a burst window for you.
Dagger/Pistol
Most of the burst damage comes from . Against low HP targets follow up with .
The most basic combo in the build is (BP) ⇒ (HS) for , followed by .
If you're not in , hitting a target with the BP + HS combo will deal damage to them and give you stealth after the strike went off, perfectly setting up a . However, if you already had stealth then the damage will instead reveal you and prevent the next stealth from being applied!
is a great gapcloser even in stealth.
Note: stats aren't set in stone, you're free to tinker with the gear, but it's generally recommended to have at least 16-17k HP in total (consumables included).
Sigils
Short bow
Runes
Relics
- a fine substitute if you can't get , but you'll have lower uptime on the damage boost.
- makes your bursts more reliable, but a bit less powerful than a relic with a damage modifier.
- adds a powerful damage proc to your combos.
Food
- good stats and frequent life steal which adds extra healing/armor ignoring damage to the build.
- same stats as above and passive damage mitigation instead of life steal.
Utility
Autoattacks and are the primary source of sustained damage on this set.
(HS) is seldom used to deal damage. It's mainly just a tool for comboing stealth by performing a Leap finisher in (BP) and sometimes adds an extra bit of mobility. Other than that it may be useful for finishing targets below 25% HP who are just out of melee range.
is a quick interrupt. On top of that it can be combined with one of your smoke fields for an interrupting + blinding attack, effectively shutting down the skill they are currently using, and the next attack as well. It's a very situational skill with no real pressure of its own.
is your primary source of stealth. Combo it with for self-stealthing or short bow's for AoE stealth. Another use includes dropping it on downed enemies in order to blind their interrupt skills - making stomping easier - or comboing it with for a near-instant long range .
It's possible to burst someone from range, even without line of sight with the following combo:
Short bow
Utility weapon
is a fine option for ranged poking in case going into melee range would be too dangerous. The bouncing projectiles provide decent cleave in teamfights and excel at removing Mesmer clones.
being a spammable blast finisher has high value for your team when it comes to blasting fields for AoE .
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 d.
Use on downed enemies especially if they are being revived - Poison decreases healing received by 33% which affects resurrecting speed and it dazes on impact.
is your #1 skill for moving around the map or disengaging in general.
Utilities
instantly cleanses conditions, this could even be used to break CC like .
is easily the most versatile and one of the strongest skills in the build. It has 2 parts:
is fairly simple. This is your second stun breaker, and another source of stealth. As a Blast finisher you can combo it with for more AoE stealth too. Just like Signet of Agility, this is a skill you can use to your allies' benefit by sharing its effect with them.
is both a defensive and offensive 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. On the other hand the skill deals heavy AoE damage whilst evading, which makes it great for pressuring melee targets in general with next to no risk.
