Guild Wars 2

I’ve started to play Guild Wars 2 full-time instead of casually like I use to. I rolled a thief (only level 16 now) but I’m having trouble with PvE because most of the personal story, events, skill challenges, etc. involve fighting multiple enemies. I can easily take down any enemy 1v1 but when I’m against say 1 “boss” and their multiple “minions” It’s impossible to do it. Is it because I’m playing thief? Or do I just need to build survivability? Or would I have this problem with any build or profession and I need to just try harder?

What do I do?

Especially when leveling, it’s important to have good gear of the same level. If you’re level 16, and all of your stuff is green and level 13-16, you’ll have an easy time.

If you’re still rocking those level 8 blues, you need to either play really well, or die a lot.

Put an emphasis on power equipments.

Try to use these utilities to your advantage: Ambush + Smoke Screen.

Smoke screen blocks projectiles so you’re able to kill those ranged mobs before their attacks hit you.

Consider using SB if you need to range, and Sword + Pistol to tank multiple mobs (Use the S/p 5 which gives you black powder, which can be a perma blind).

The right way of using black powder is cast it once, then count up to 5, then cast it again. Rinse and repeat.

Against a group use short bow. Lead with sb4 then blast with sb2 repeatedly. Keep moving and get good with dodge rolls.

If you’re leveling a thief, sword and pistol are your friend. Use the five skill to blind and the one skill to kill. NOthing else. Every time the 5 skill runs out, use it again. Nothing will touch you.

I fought six ettins above my level, including a vet without moving or dodging.

The only exceptions are AOE and range. If you get into trouble with a ranged created and a melee one at the same time, stack on the ranged creature. The melee guy moves in and you blind them both.

If you get into trouble with lots of creatures, LOS them and then blind them.

Warning: This doesn’t work at all on dredge.

Thieves are all about mobility. Of the four melee classes, they’re the most squishy and rely entirely on their stealth and rather large number of evade abilities. Warriors and guardians have the armour and utility skills to sustain a long fight (relatively speaking) while absorbing, at times, obscene levels of punishment. Invulnerability skills like Endure Pain and Defiant stance give warriors, for the duration of those stances, the equivalent of double their actual health pool allowing them to face multiple opponents at once in melee. Guardians have lots of blocks skills effectively doing the same as warrior, but they have to be a lot more careful since their HP pool is so low. Rangers have pets and the mighty signet of stone, which when traited makes both the pet and ranger invulnerable.

These skills make those three classes, with the right kit, able to absorb a lot of damage and still keep fighting.

Thieves are all about burst (unless you want to go condition thief which is also pretty good). So you want to be get in preferably burst down 1 opponent then get out before resetting yourself for another target. This is where stealth skills shine and shadowstep. The skill rotations need practice. For PVE sword pistol or even sword dagger are perfectly viable especially when coupled with shortbow. At level 16, you’ll have access to a couple of utility skills. The signets that improve power, run speed are very useful, the venom skills like drake and skale venom are also very handy to have. Venom skills can be stacked on 1 target or spread to multiple targets. At your level, using sword skill 2 to jump in to engage with your venom skills up and spread the conditions around, with sword and pistol you get Pistol whip which will burn down targets in a hurry. If it doesn’t, pistol 5 then blast with pistol 4 to spread area blindness. That should buy you precious seconds to burn that one target down. Then punch out by hitting 2 again which will shadow return you and remove a condition. Now that you have some distance, switch to shortbow and shoot at your targets for a while. Short bow 4 with AOE poison and blasting with short bow 2 to get lots of AOE damage going. When the recharge for weapon swap is cleared, swap back shadow step in and finish them off. This is just one possible set of skill rotations and every engagement is a chance to practice different combinations.

Thieves are all about timing, your initiative bar allows you to fire off a lot of skills quickly, but depletes quickly as well so don’t give in to the temptation to spam skills. Make liberal use of the auto attack. Dagger auto has a high attack speed but doesn’t cleave, sword attack is slower but has cleave and so for you is the only option.

The other resource thieves have are the stealth attack skills which require good placement to make best use. Sword stealth skill dazes your target from the front but stuns from the back giving you an opening to hit your target hard. If you can time it right and chain another stealth, without being revealed, you can dodge behind and stun them again. Dagger stealth is back stab which is one of the highest damage single target attacks in the game, timing that one right can end the engagement right there.

Dredge can be a nightmare to fight especially multiple ones. They’re immune to blind which is the Thief’s best friend. Fights against them are all about dodging and evading.

When you can get the healing signet sword/pistol makes leveling a thief super easy in pve. skill 5 gives you a 4 second point blank blind field and skill 3 not only interrupts and does a swift strong attack… you dodge during that whole attack. skill 3 plus the healing signet and you can pretty much fully heal off 2 or three guys in a group.