Initiative

Initiative is a profession mechanic of Thief. It replaces the recharge time of Thief's weapon skills, which instead use Initiative points as a resource for their activation. Initiative passively self-replenishes over time at one point every second; some skills and traits also restore a number of initiative points.

Thief has a base of 12 initiative points (15 with the trait  Preparedness) which serve as a combined resource pool for all weapon skills. Whenever a weapon skill is used, it will consume a certain number of initiative from the available pool. The "Initiative cost" of a skill is indicated in its tooltip.

Initiative allows Thieves to use their weapon skills in quick succession for high bursts of damage, limited only by the resource pool size. Combined with the high mobility of the profession, it enables the Thief's playstyle of dropping in and out of combat, dealing damage in that short timeframe.

Skills which use initiative

Weapon	Equipped in	Skill	Initiative cost
Dagger	Main hand	Heartseeker	3
	Off hand	Dancing Dagger	3
		Cloak and Dagger	5
Pistol	Main hand	Bola Shot	3
	Off hand	Head Shot	4
		Black Powder	6
Sword	Main hand	Infiltrator's Strike	3
		Infiltrator's Return	2
Short bow	Both hands	Cluster Bomb	3
		Disabling Shot	4 (PvE) 5 (PvP/WvW)
		Choking Gas	4 (PvE) 6 (WvW) 7 (PvP)
		Infiltrator's Arrow	6 (PvE) 8 (PvP/WvW)
Staff	Both hands	Weakening Whirl	3
		Debilitating Arc	4 (PvE) 5 (PvP/WvW)
		Dust Strike	4
		Vault	5 (PvE) 6 (PvP/WvW)
Rifle	Both hands	Skirmisher's Shot   Spotter's Shot	3
		Double Tap   Three Round Burst	4 (PvE) 6 (PvP/WvW)
		Death's Retreat	4 (PvE) 6 (PvP/WvW)
		Sniper's Cover	4
		Kneel	1
Harpoon gun	Aquatic	Deluge	5
		Escape	4
		Crippling Shot	4
		Ink Shot	5
Spear	Aquatic	Flanking Dive	3
		Nine-Tailed Strike	5
		Break Stance	2
		Tow Line	4
		Hooked Spear	3
		Shadow Assault	5

Dual skills

Main weapon	Off-hand weapon	Skill	Initiative cost
Dagger	Dagger	Death Blossom	4 (PvE) 5 (PvP/WvW)
	Pistol	Shadow Shot	4 (PvE) 5 (PvP/WvW)
	None	Twisting Fangs	4
Pistol	Dagger	Shadow Strike	4
		Repeater	3
	Pistol	Unload	3 (PvE) 6 (PvP/WvW)
	None	Repeater	3
Sword	Dagger	Flanking Strike	4
		Larcenous Strike	2
	Pistol	Pistol Whip	5 (PvE) 6 (PvP/WvW)
	None	Stab	4

Skills which restore initiative

Weapon skills which restore initiative

•   Unload — 2 if all attacks hit (PvE) / 1 if all attacks hit (PvP/WvW)
•   Kneel — 1

Utility skills which restore initiative

•   Infiltrator's Signet — 1 every 10s
•   Roll for Initiative — 6 / 4 (PvP/WvW)
•   Mercy — 3 plus 1 per spent

Stolen skills which restore initiative

•   Eat Egg — 8

Related traits

Traits that restore Initiative

• Signets of Power (Critical Strikes) — Signets grant initiative.
• Shadow's Rejuvenation (Shadow Arts) — Gain initiative when you enter or exit stealth.
• Upper Hand (Acrobatics) — Gain initiative when you dodge, and gain initiative and regeneration when you evade an attack. Evading can only trigger this trait once per interval.
• Kleptomaniac (Trickery) — Stealing gives you initiative.
• Quick Pockets (Trickery) — Gain initiative on swapping weapons while in combat.
• Maleficent Seven (Deadeye) — Increase the maximum malice-stack count. Restore initiative and gain boons upon reaching the maximum number of malice stacks.

Traits that improve Initiative

• Preparedness (Trickery) — Increases maximum initiative by 3. Gain increased expertise.

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Skill types and profession mechanics