Guild Wars 2

I’m running a thief. It’s level 15 now, so I need some advice…

What’s the utility of stealth if you can’t be stealthy? Stealth for 3 seconds does not allow you to infiltrate enemies and strike a single “key class” like many people are used to expect from other games(ragnarok, wow, tf2). The only utility of 3 seconds stealth I found is to avoid attention in PvE(yeah, only in PvE, because in PvP, players still can target and attack you, hope this is a bug) and for stealth skill #1.

My question is: This is it? Is this the only thing that stealth is worth for?

You aren’t meant to perma stealth while you get all the way in behind enemy lines. It is a quick strategic stealth used to get away/behind from an attacker and get a little edge on him. I do agree 3 seconds is a bit too short though. Minimum 5 seconds would be nice.

in pvp, stealth actually makes you invisible and causes other players to lose their lock on you,

on their screen it’s like you’ve been erased completely

i’ve found this extremely useful because it gives me time to use skills that have a long cast time or buy time for initiative to regain and wait for cooldowns to finish

in pve it kind of worked the same way since monsters stop attacking you while your stealthed

I am used to play stealth classes in MMOs, but I think I have become accustumed to how it works in GW2. As Mesmer there is a trait to get one second more (as grandmaster), guess the Thief will also have such an option.

Currently I use one stealth on my weapons (Torch) and one from the Utilities (Decoy), those two the two dodge rolls and my illusions help to run through hostile zones (another utility to get rid of conditions like crippled could also be helpful).

Basically ArenaNet decided to go without perma stealth in favour of having a vanish option in combat more often. I like that approach, and it is part of how well I survive in PvP.

I find Shadow Embrace(Shadow Arts’ major trait IV) funny. It removes one condition every 3 seconds while in stealth.

If it was at least long enough to run through an enemies agro range and out the other side without being seen.