Guild Wars 2

I have only recently done level 50 Fractals. On occasion we will pug the last spot or two. I have never seen a thief in a fractal before until I did a 50. The person that played the thief did so really well. I was too busy to notice what they all did though as I was still nervous about doing a 50 and concentrating hard not to mess it up.

So could someone tell me what the Thief brings to the table and what specific fractals they really shine in. I am thinking about converting my thief to be one of my fractal characters.

Remove defiance stacks (all bosses)
Blinds (Urban Fractal example)
Stealth (Skip in Maw or Molten Furnace/Door in dredge fractal)

I think thief really shines in a few fractals
1: Cliffside(the one with the giant) They bring blinds for the bodyseal so you can stand in the middle without wiping. They can use shadow trap for the double arms seals to make it go extremely quick( http://www.twitch.tv/eco_r_i/c/5038020 ). Mesmers are better at the double arms but they suck everywhere else that it is not worth bringing them at the moment.
2: Dredge, you can literally avoid every single dredge in the beginning up to the clown car by stealthing.
3: Ascalon fractal you can stealth straight to dulfy, icebow burst her down without ever killing any vets. Past that you can literally stealth to the middle arena. Usually in the arena, you kill 2groups then you stealth again to make a bee line to the next spot to kill the 2nd group.
4: Thaumanova, They can do solo shenanigans in the turret room(Pretty hard to pull off).
5: Harpy fractal, if your group is good at jumping puzzles you can stealth all of that.

TL:DR thief is really amazing in organized groups and pretty decent in pugs where blinds shine since most pugs do fractals with full clear mentality.

Thieves are universally good in fractals. Highest single target dps, blinds with pistol 5, the ability to remove defiance stacks quickly with pistol offhand and not to mention stealth for skipping

As an Ele main, I love having a thief in my fractal party. You are great at removing that pesky defiance quickly and efficiently so the other person holding my ice bow can freeze again. This alone means I’d rather have a thief over something else.

Even if they didn’t have stealth or headshot, their black powder alone is so stupidly OP against anything non-dredge that having a thief in group is a boon to the party.

They also have a Blurred Frenzy on steroids (Pistol Whip) that can be chained several times for equal evasion frames on top of it having a stun as well so you can lock down targets while they are being DPS’d.

The only downside of a thief is that a bad group can really make it hard for you to land your backstabs with the flanking bonus since the idiots will move the boss around frantically for no reason whatsoever.

Zenith.7301:

The only downside of a thief is that a bad group can really make it hard for you to land your backstabs with the flanking bonus since the idiots will move the boss around frantically for no reason whatsoever.

nonono you see, it’s important to kite around skillfully while ranging from afar so that the boss keeps his agro on the tank. Also throwing in random dodges from time to time helps as well.

Zenith.7301:

Even if they didn’t have stealth or headshot, their black powder alone is so stupidly OP against anything non-dredge that having a thief in group is a boon to the party.

They also have a Blurred Frenzy on steroids (Pistol Whip) that can be chained several times for equal evasion frames on top of it having a stun as well so you can lock down targets while they are being DPS’d.

The only downside of a thief is that a bad group can really make it hard for you to land your backstabs with the flanking bonus since the idiots will move the boss around frantically for no reason whatsoever.

Blurred frenzy’s quicker activation is nice though, but yeah pistol whip spam can be sweet. Good to note the stun in it though for when defiance management is important.

Thieves in fractals have obvious functions such as very high single target DPS, stealthing, blinding and defiance management.

However there are also some niche scenarios where having a thief speeds things up
or makes them more smooth, for instance thief is arguably the fastest profession to solo the heat room in thaumanova fractal without the use of any racial skills, spamming pistol whip on Baron Von Scrufflebutt (4th golem to be activated by the raving asura in uncategorized fractal) keeps it fairly harmless especially at higher levels where it’s rockets can very easily cause a wipe or shadowstepping straight to the 2nd archdiviner’s level after the arm seals in cliffside fractal to deal with the 4 chanters before the rest of your party gets there.

However, bear in mind that thief needs to be within 130 units range to deal proper DPS and that given your low health pool you’ll more often than not be down after 1 hit from bosses like Mossman and Archdiviner, that also happen to have ridiculous cleave damage radiuses, which makes effectively DPS’ing bosses with thief hard for less experienced players so don’t be discouraged if you find yourself mopping the floor with your face often when starting out.

Nothing makes me laugh harder than the “No Thieves” fractal lfgs. Oh the pugs and their heavy-stacking shenanigans…

Honestly I can understand why no thieves. Most pugs have play how I want mentality which usually means your odds of finding a dual pistol/shortbow camping thief is just too high. Also I have yet to find a thief in a pug that runs meta weapon sets.

The common pug thief abides by these holy tenets:

• Thou shalt not stealth appropriately.
• Thou shalt drop Shadow Refuge during fights at random.
• Thou shalt not understand what blast fields and blasts are. While this may be a tenet for all classes when pugging, this is especially important on thief. Do NOT place smoke fields and/or blast them at any cost.
• If for whichever reason, somebody places a smokefield or firefield, proceed to glare at it and act confused as to what it is.
• If one wishes to range (as is endorsed by the holy scriptures of arena net game play), pistol/pistol is the weapon of choice as the great gods of ArenaNet have demonstrated its effectiveness.
• Thou shalt run at least 1 venom on the utility bar at ALL times, the more useless the better. If one wishes to live even more faithfully, proceed to equip more venoms.
• Thou shalt ALWAYS have the run speed signet equipped. It is crucial that you can run extremely fast at all times, especially when attacking and kiting around at range with your p/p.
• Thou shalt run double fire sigils on weapons at all times as this maximises damage, especially on pistol/pistol.

Thieves are awesome in fractals. They are masters of control and should be interrupting key skills from bosses, and removing defiance for deep freezes. They also have a crap tonne of blinds, make skipping a lot easier, and not to mention amazing DPS.

And don’t forget that dark field for Max hax. :x

EcoRI.9273:

2: Dredge, you can literally avoid every single dredge in the beginning up to the clown car by stealthing.

Is there a video showing that?

Fhaeris.9237:

[quote= ;EcoRI.9273:]
2: Dredge, you can literally avoid every single dredge in the beginning up to the clown car by stealthing.

Is there a video showing that?[/quote]

Blast stealth before dropping down. Run to the first elevated platform to the left of the entrance gate. Kill the 2 patrol mobs if they’re there.

SR or blast again, 1 person activates the button to let the others past the first gate.

Kill patrols on the catwalks as needed. Blast stealth again. One person gets the top button to let the others into the console room.

2 people stand on the buttons inside, thief SRs on the console.

Run outta the cage and up the ramp, blast stealth again and run to the turrets or into the bomb room.

Profit.

This is [YET]’s record run so, adapt accordingly, but it shows the general idea. They die intentionally in the video to speed things up, but you can do it slower without anyone dying for more casual daily runs.

Thief’s role in fractals? Shadow refuge to revive allies