Guild Wars 2

Haha jk, now that I have your attention we can actually discuss this like human beings.
Not five year olds (all players) yelling at their parents (anet) to fix their toy.(GW2)

Well ladies and gents. Today is your lucky day, today we are going to do something so vile and wrong that your mind will bend at the thought.

I would like my fellow trippy tricksters and slippery stealers to discuss how excactly do you counter said “devilish deceiver”? (thieves)

Thieves please discuss anti-thief tactics and how said classes can deal with them. The goal here is to create a FRIENDLY environment to discuss how there are indeed counters to thieves you just have to learn to play.

Starter topics: (other people should cover cuz I’m way too lazy)
Evades
Steal
Boon theft
Blinds
Stealth
Initiative
Shadowsteps

Example:
Shadow refuge: pulses stealth and heals.
Counters: knocking a thief out with a knockback or launch will reveal anyone inside.

Basi Venom: stuns 1.5 secs
Counter: when you see it on a thief anticipate the steal or infiltrators strike or some form if shadowstep

This is the Profession Balance subforum, wrong place. And People Dont want to learn, They want easy fights thru hardcounters.

It did not take long before the “friendly environment” changes to hostility.

Let me get the ball rolling.
Stealth: thief becomes disappears and cannot be targeted.
Counters:
If thief is low hp or have many conditions it will stay away long enough to regen/reset. Run away and regen/reset. Clear conditions also.
If thief is bad and does not stealth/blind spam, consider wasting time by fighting said thief. Caution: another thief may be permastealth nearby waiting for you to tale the bait.
If thief goes in and out of stealth almost all the time or if you are almost permanently blind, it does not matter. You will be dead soon enough. 1v1 or 1vX. Roll a thief and L2P.

There is no such thing as a friendly environment when you have players who feel they are entitled to a free kill.

This and every other thief related thread in this subforum needs to get dumped into the thief forums where they belong. All they are for is to get sympathy from equally bad players so they all can make loud noises.

RlyOsim.2497:

Zacchary.6183:

There is no such thing as a friendly environment when you have players who feel they are entitled to a free kill.

This and every other thief related thread in this subforum needs to get dumped into the thief forums where they belong. All they are for is to get sympathy from equally bad players so they all can make loud noises.

a thief main supporting his class, who would have guessed.
i main a condi necro, it is tough before your class gets hit with the hammer (see: dhumbfire) so i know the feels, i still miss facerolling people in wvw and im sure the thought of that going away must be difficult.

compassion aside, here are some tips that ive found to be helpful when fighting an unbalanced class:
- roll a PU mesmer and pwn everything
- make a thread on the forums asking why there is no counter to a spammable class mechanic
- l2p the overpowered class and do some facerolling of your own

hope this helps!

That’s what I did! I now main this this gorgeous PU mesmer in wvw. 0 1v1 lost till this day! I know this game is not balanced around 1v1, but just sayin’! So fun! I don’t even feel dirty!

I would like maybe offer some advice on the topic of fighting thieves that use evades instead of stealth as their primary defense mechanic. This advice does not only apply to fighting evade thieves either, but any class that is capable of dodging damage (read: every class).

Something a lot of players don’t seem to practice is timing their burst properly. Whether that burst comes in the form a hard hitting attack through a big crit, or a sudden load of conditions, I constantly see players failing to use their skills at the right times, and it’s probably one of the biggest contributors to people losing fights to thieves.

What you want to do when an evade thief is attacking you is simply auto attack, or use skills to block his damage while his evade animations are being used. But as soon as you see that animation end, that’s your opening, and you should take it. The thief is vulnerable to burst at that time. For example, if you’re attacking a S/D thief, and you see him use flanking strike, as soon as that evade is over, you need to dump damage on him and force him to burn his defensive utilities/heal. Rinse and repeat while using your own defensive cooldowns when you take significant damage, and you should be in pretty good shape.

You can even practice this against other classes, so it’s not like you need to fight a S/D thief to hone this mechanical skill. One of the easiest ways to practice this is that whenever you engage in a fight with an enemy, wait until you force their first dodge roll before you use a high damage attack. If you get in the habit of doing this, you’ll land you burst abilities much more frequently on all classes, especially thieves (since thieves don’t have their own access to protection/invuln/blocks).

godz raiden.2631:

I would like maybe offer some advice on the topic of fighting thieves that use evades instead of stealth as their primary defense mechanic. This advice does not only apply to fighting evade thieves either, but any class that is capable of dodging damage (read: every class).

Something a lot of players don’t seem to practice is timing their burst properly. Whether that burst comes in the form a hard hitting attack through a big crit, or a sudden load of conditions, I constantly see players failing to use their skills at the right times, and it’s probably one of the biggest contributors to people losing fights to thieves.

What you want to do when an evade thief is attacking you is simply auto attack, or use skills to block his damage while his evade animations are being used. But as soon as you see that animation end, that’s your opening, and you should take it. The thief is vulnerable to burst at that time. For example, if you’re attacking a S/D thief, and you see him use flanking strike, as soon as that evade is over, you need to dump damage on him and force him to burn his defensive utilities/heal. Rinse and repeat while using your own defensive cooldowns when you take significant damage, and you should be in pretty good shape.

You can even practice this against other classes, so it’s not like you need to fight a S/D thief to hone this mechanical skill. One of the easiest ways to practice this is that whenever you engage in a fight with an enemy, wait until you force their first dodge roll before you use a high damage attack. If you get in the habit of doing this, you’ll land you burst abilities much more frequently on all classes, especially thieves (since thieves don’t have their own access to protection/invuln/blocks).

Nicely said, I agree with most of what you said. +1

RlyOsim.2497:

Zacchary.6183:

There is no such thing as a friendly environment when you have players who feel they are entitled to a free kill.

This and every other thief related thread in this subforum needs to get dumped into the thief forums where they belong. All they are for is to get sympathy from equally bad players so they all can make loud noises.

a thief main supporting his class, who would have guessed.
…

That’s cool, so I’m guessing the opinions of those that play thieves class are valued less, than those that don’t? Or is it that opinions of those that don’t align with yours are worth less?

Hey I can call you out too, as stereotypical poster that says “x main supporting their class”, trying to undermine what they’ve posted. “Millions” of your “type” out there.

RlyOsim.2497:

…
compassion aside, here are some tips that ive found to be helpful when fighting an unbalanced class:
- roll a PU mesmer and pwn everything
- make a thread on the forums asking why there is no counter to a spammable class mechanic
- l2p the overpowered class and do some facerolling of your own

hope this helps!

Look at that, spectacular! Someone found some sort of counters (anything is better than nothing at this point)… There may be hope for the forums yet… Though two things:

1. “make a thread on the forums…”,
If you’re going to do that please do it here (also linked in signature), I have made that post specifically for those kinds of occasions, since they seem to happen very often so we might as well help keep the forums a “clean” and tidy place.

2. “l2p the overpowered class and do some facerolling of your own”
Possibly the best suggestion out of the three! Seriously, people that complain about said class should roll one for their own, just to see what’s up and how it’s done and what not… maybe you can learn something useful out of the experience.

Domey, aste, and Zacchary posts pretty much sum it up though.

Their posts are not far from the truth, since lots of advice (at first polite) on numerous occasion was given and were rejected in a blink of an eye (and over time the advice became more mocking). Both sides (class supporting side, and anti-class side) are kind of tired of each other, can’t be blamed really since neither of the sides are getting anywhere – nor will they, since devs will just do w/e they see fit.

Everything beyond those posts will be basically either starting the very old flames or feeding the very old flames.

Example:
Shadow refuge: pulses stealth and heals.
Counters: knocking a thief out with a knockback or launch will reveal anyone inside.

Counter the counter: Evade / dodge the knockback or launch.

Aside from the usual q.q-topics, there also were already multiple threads made in the Thief subforum where people ask for advice in fighting Thieves. And they were given really good advice. There are also similar topics in the subforums of the other classes about how-to-fight-Thieves. Last but not least, I remember there once was a topic made in the Thief-subforum that pretty much did what this topic was made for: It lists a lot of hints and tips on how to fight Thieves.

Oh, and I also remember how once some Warrior made a topic there with a video of him playing and he was like “I really don’t understand the problem people have with Thieves… for me, they are usually free kills.”

And before you ask: I main Mesmer. I also have a Thief, though. And a Necro. Leveling an Ele and an Engi too. The other classes I also have, but they are around level 10.

So uhm… some advice, which counts for fights against all classes:

If you win a fight, be happy. Be respectful towards your defeated opponent (aka don’t use laugh- or dance-emotes or the like).
If you lose a fight, try to find out why. And no, “that class is so op” isn’t the reason. Look at what led to your defeat. Recall the fight. What mistakes did you make? What could you have done better? What could you have done that would probably have screwed your opponent in that situation? Or maybe your build has a weakness? Or it just doesn’t fit your playstyle completely yet? How could you improve that? Also, practice makes perfect. Or at least much better over time. ^^

Saturn.6591:

..
If you lose a fight, try to find out why. And no, “that class is so op” isn’t the reason. Look at what led to your defeat. …

This would actually be good advice if there was proper combat log , you know… one that logs combat with proper resolution(1 min resolution is laughable) and logs everything not just direct hits(condi ticks, what applied them, when they fade, what buffs you’ve got and where you get them from, when they fade, regen ticks, heal usage – both enemy and your, interupts etc).

My 2 cents to countering evade/shadowstep thieves – ofc depending on your class:
-when thief engages and shadowsteps away if possible move to place he got his shadow step returns to – directly counters his “hit’n run” strategy
-if you can see thief and you know he is going to engage try to stop his initiation/dodge /block/stun and get close – you don’t want to eat these sigil procs right away.