Guild Wars 2

I play a Necromancer as my main, I’ve got to lvl 26, but I want to start an alt. And I have come down to the Warrior or Thief, because they are melee, but they both play entirely different. I don’t want to play the Guardian because it’s quite similar to the Necromancer but at close range, it supports the group and can take hits. I like both the Warrior and Thief, they both do a great deal of damage, I have leveled them both to 10+ and I still can’t decided which to do first!

What do you think? Your answer may be biased but I want to hear why I should be a Warrior or Thief!

Thank you everyone

Many views now but no response?

If you want to do only PvE a warrior is a little better in my opinion. If you are planing to do also some PvP the thief is far superior in damage output (conditions or pure damage) and escapes. If you want do try some PvE and PvP a Thief is a better choise.

Thanks, Silentnight warrior

I only play a mesmer, but one of my favourite professions to team up with is a warrior. Their banners and shouts are really helpful for me and they cross-combo really well with my own skills. It’s awesome teaming up with them in a group. If I’m competing against a warrior in PvP, I am usually successful in defeating them, though it’s always a close call once they figure out that they can pommel illusions quite easily.

Though I do prefer the warrior, I have success running around with the thief in WvW. Their party invisibility skills are really useful for setting up an ambush, or trying to escape. And they smack down foes real nice.

Personally I find a Thief much harder to play ‘right’ or with its full potential, but I guess that also means the reward will be much more satisfying. On the other hand, their damage seems to come largely from a single weapon skill, meaning you will find yourself spamming it a lot.

I view Thief as a more solo character, mainly having skills that benefit himself in different ways, with only a few skills that are really useful in a team. A Warrior is much more diverse, being able to dish out quite a bit of damage if he chooses the right utilities and traits, while other builds allow for a more supporting role with healing shouts and banners.

I have both a Thief and Warrior at lvl 80, and must say I prefer the Warrior for its diversity. Often I find myself spamming the same single skill too much on a Thief to make it really enjoyable for me.

Thanks Flaux and Late For Tea

Play both and make up your own mind. But, that said, early on..a thief can be challenging. A warrior is pretty op & easy in low levels. You’ll need to get both to at least level 30, imo, to make a good decision.

I have one of each of those classes right now and intend to keep on playing both…

I play a thief as my main, but I can’t speak for warrior, as I haven’t played one much since beta. What I know is, first of all, that both warr and thief are good at range in addition to melee. Secondly, the warrior being one of the first classes revealed in the “profession reveal” sequence, is designed to be more straightforward, more simple.

I am always grateful to a warr that brings banners or shouts to buff the party in a dungeon. I’m equally satisfied, however, when a guardian brings similar shouts, and Light symbols which I can combo some area Retaliation off of. All of these tactics, though, require sacrificing a little bit of selfish glass-cannon type choices.

Thief can be the same way. I tend to be impatient so I’m usually running with signet of shadows, and I tend to run with untrained pugs so I have to use Shadow Refuge to save peoples’ butts a LOT when they get downed. Both those can be changed to venoms though. I always bring spider venom, and boost the party’s damage with Leeching venoms (armor-ignoring damage + heal) which I share along with two stacks of might, and I’ve also got a number of ways to help tank for my party or provide invisibility for a run. Yup, I play a support thief, and I’ve seen most dungeoneers doing the same.

Honestly, I get the impression from your original post that you play a support-loaded necro, so you might want to try a selfish character to get the feel for it, and both professions have builds that do just that (cookiecutter signet builds, mostly).

Signet warrior is quite common, which leads me to believe that, outside of dungeons, warriors prefer to strongarm their opposition by quickly unleashing control and spike weapon skills, and continuing to spam them on recharge the same as Late For Tea is suggesting a thief is played. A good tactic, to be sure, but a little bland. Thieves can also be played that way too, either by spamming 1,2, and 5 on the dagger skills, and 2 with the shortbow for range. For a cookiecutter signet thief that would be the typical playstyle: bland, selfish.

Might I humbly suggest starting out with playing dagger necro for a change? Or axe-spam? See first if you like the playstyle. See if you can find specific scenarios where you would want to be using just one of your weapon skills much more than the others. If yes, then thief, if no, then warrior.

The reality of the Initiative mechanic is that a thief has the choice. One does not simply spam all the skills on recharge. One might choose to spam a single skill. One’s choice of spamming a single skill might be the thing holding them back… Choosing to hold back on your trigger finger can give you the edge in battle. Do you dodge strategically, or spam it? When you fight on your own terms, and when you save your resource for the right moments, it’s almost the same as using the dodge button wisely. Take your queues, plan your attack, always be ready to retreat or to push. A competent thief is fluid in battle, from range to melee equally slippery, still contributing instead of spamming Heartseeker then getting downed.

Wow! Awesome write up, Starfleck. I thank you for the explanation.

I have been enjoying how I can just appear behind a mob and do it from behind. Sounds bad, but it’s fun from playing a Necromancer as my main and to make sure I place my condition in the right place or I am toast, playing the Necromancer requires a lot of preciseness.

Then I also like the warrior because it’s hack and slash then I’m through with it. So what I prolly need to find is a good build for my thief so once I poke things and they fall over(this would be cool, lol). I find the warrior to be a little too easy, but that’s my opinion.

Playing warrior is only easy on PvE. A good warrior in PvP is a skilfull player and it´s not easy at all. If you want to test your skills just choose warrior.

in terms of efficiency
An skilled warrior with experience is better then an skilled thief with experience
an newbie thief will be able to survive more in battle then an newbie warrior.
For Pve – warrior > thief.
As well guardian can output good damage , after you get some experience on it.