Guild Wars 2

As a pure PvP player with an extensive amount of experience, I’ve come up with some tips for those who are struggling against the alleged “OP Heart Seeker” thief. As BG PvP (spvp) is a zerg style of play, this will rarely apply :P

HS is a skill combo finisher, thus the damage is greatest when used to deal the final blow to an opponent. The skill information shows a significant increase in base damage in correlation to the health remaining on the opponent. Although the common knowledge is to “dodge” the heartseekers, many believe it is impossible to do so. But that’s not true.

Don’t worry when the first one or two HS hit you. Remain calm and respond with the following:

IF Haste is applied to HS thief: immediately dodge roll TWICE as soon as you realize the thief is using HS. The duration of haste will deplete completely and thus you mitigate any damage dealt and they are instantly put in a horrible position (0 – regenerating initiative and no endurance).

IF No Haste, spend your precious endurance dodging the critical heart seekers (aka when you drop below a “safe” health point count). Determining what is safe and what is not is by your own judgment.

When in the difficult situation of facing more than one opponent, one being a HS oriented thief, use your cc (crowd control) skills on the thief ( or the highest threat target), and escape to safety to either help another teammate or backdoor a point.

Thieves who spam Heart Seeker are not good thieves. Those who wait before using their 3-initiative cost skill to finish an opponent are the ones that succeed. HS was not meant to be spammed when your opponent is full health, the damage it deals is not considerable in comparison with some other skills. With exponential growth, a well timed dodge + heal will protect you from sure death.

As for the fact that you just cant run away from a HS thief, average distance covered by an average HS thief is 4 Heart seekers. Without trickery spec.
As dodge rolling increases distance between your opponent and yourself, your best bet is to use your CC after they spam their heart seeker and after successfully dodging the 4. Count.

I’ll edit with more information as I’m currently busy but this should help some of you become better at dealing with HS build Thieves

Feel free to add me in-game if there are any additional questions as well as other thief related questions or comments.

I’ll also post a video if I get positive responses/requests here for additional information.

Questions are welcome! Discussions as well. Additional tips from other players are also welcomed!

That was a nice Constructive Guide.
I would like to copy this thread on my forum and I will give you all the credit.
I would also like you to register and add you Stream to my stream list.
My goal in all of this is giving good constructive information and a good way to help PvPer like us.

Link to my website is in my signature thank you,

Regards,

Droite.5694:

That was a nice Constructive Guide.
I would like to copy this thread on my forum and I will give you all the credit.
I would also like you to register and add you Stream to my stream list.
My goal in all of this is giving good constructive information and a good way to help PvPer like us.

Link to my website is in my signature thank you,

Regards,

Thank you very much. I am very willing to provide you with additional information about other topics regarding PvP if you are interested!

I really am!
You can register to my Forum and advertise your Stream and guild if you want.

I would like to have some links or having you to post the original on my website it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,

Droite.5694:

I really am!
You can register to my Forum and advertise your Stream and guild if you want.

I would like to have some links or having you to post the original on my website it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,

No problem! My in game is in my sig and my skype is kvinh0u if you want to contact me out of this

so what do i do when the thief lands 2 heartseekers for 9k dmg and i am dead because i was half health? do i not worry about those 2 first heartseekers?

Oh wait, that is right, NO OTHER CLASS IS PUTTING OUT THAT MUCH DMG, THAT FAST FOR THAT LITTLE OF INVESTMENT.

/thread

That sounds like a very large amount of information to execute and plan for, just to counter a single skill.

Lewk.8359:

so what do i do when the thief lands 2 heartseekers for 9k dmg and i am dead because i was half health? do i not worry about those 2 first heartseekers?

Oh wait, that is right, NO OTHER CLASS IS PUTTING OUT THAT MUCH DMG, THAT FAST FOR THAT LITTLE OF INVESTMENT.

/thread

IF youre sitting at half health, with no heal skill up, and youre in range of a thief to hit you with his first heart seeker, then you need to work on your map awareness. In that position, you’re pretty much dead unless you have all ur cooldowns up, such as escape utility

Plague.5329:

That sounds like a very large amount of information to execute and plan for, just to counter a single skill.

It’s actually a simple thing. Timing your dodge for when it would mitigate the most amount of damage and knowing when to use your cc.

It’s not Heartseeker alone that’s the problem, it’s the combination of burst damage, inability to heal that damage if you’re poisoned (which you probably are) and stealth that’s the issue. A Dagger/Dagger Rogue with 20 points in Shadow Arts (Last Refuge->Infusion of Shadow->Meld with Shadows->Patience) can Cloak and Dagger quite frequently, leaving you with very little time to fight back.

Erenax.2354:

It’s not Heartseeker alone that’s the problem, it’s the combination of burst damage, inability to heal that damage if you’re poisoned (which you probably are) and stealth that’s the issue. A Dagger/Dagger Rogue with 20 points in Shadow Arts (Last Refuge->Infusion of Shadow->Meld with Shadows->Patience) can Cloak and Dagger quite frequently, leaving you with very little time to fight back.

The main complaint of most players in structured and tournament pvp is that HS spamming thieves are auto win. The other builds for thieves, such as backstab oriented, db condition oriented are also extremely viable and maybe even the best. Pistol whip is another build that can be taken into consideration as “over powered” by some, but in my honest opinion after playing all these builds, there really is no different to power as it is the player skill. Each build has its own pros and cons.

Cloak and Dagger is 6 initiative, which is half of a standard initiative bar and just under half, when traited. Add in the Revealed debuff that stops stealth for 3 seconds and it’s not THAT frequent. You actually need to LAND C&D in order to stealth as well, which is not always the easiest thing to do vs skilled players. If you miss it, bye bye 6 initiative.

What people fail to realize about Heartseeker spamming thieves is that these guys are utter pushovers. They run around with 10-14k health and < 1000 toughness. Look at them wrong and they crumple. Congrats, you win. Instead of going on the defensive against HS spamming thieves, try going on the offensive. If you get multiple thieves on you, then you are probably dead – try to gtfo. If that fails, after you die, be on the lookout for them and avoid them unless you have the numbers to confront them.

Adapt people. Glass cannons are just, what the name implies. Throw 1 cc on them, hit them hard and they will be history.

Kentra.8625:

Cloak and Dagger is 6 initiative, which is half of a standard initiative bar and just under half, when traited. Add in the Revealed debuff that stops stealth for 3 seconds and it’s not THAT frequent. You actually need to LAND C&D in order to stealth as well, which is not always the easiest thing to do vs skilled players. If you miss it, bye bye 6 initiative.

What people fail to realize about Heartseeker spamming thieves is that these guys are utter pushovers. They run around with 10-14k health and < 1000 toughness. Look at them wrong and they crumple. Congrats, you win. Instead of going on the defensive against HS spamming thieves, try going on the offensive. If you get multiple thieves on you, then you are probably dead – try to gtfo. If that fails, after you die, be on the lookout for them and avoid them unless you have the numbers to confront them.

Adapt people. Glass cannons are just, what the name implies. Throw 1 cc on them, hit them hard and they will be history.

This is absolutely correct. The important part is to remember that every build has pros and cons. When you’re able to find the weak points of a particular build and capitalize upon it, you’ll be able to defeat the player playing that certain build and ultimately feel better about yourself.

Kentra.8625:

Cloak and Dagger is 6 initiative, which is half of a standard initiative bar and just under half, when traited. Add in the Revealed debuff that stops stealth for 3 seconds and it’s not THAT frequent. You actually need to LAND C&D in order to stealth as well, which is not always the easiest thing to do vs skilled players. If you miss it, bye bye 6 initiative.

What people fail to realize about Heartseeker spamming thieves is that these guys are utter pushovers. They run around with 10-14k health and < 1000 toughness. Look at them wrong and they crumple. Congrats, you win. Instead of going on the defensive against HS spamming thieves, try going on the offensive. If you get multiple thieves on you, then you are probably dead – try to gtfo. If that fails, after you die, be on the lookout for them and avoid them unless you have the numbers to confront them.

Adapt people. Glass cannons are just, what the name implies. Throw 1 cc on them, hit them hard and they will be history.

Well, I play a glass canon thief (about 15k health), but hardly ever die in spvp because as soon as I am in any danger I can get away. It is almost impossible to lock me down. I have numerous cc breakers some that also take me far away from danger.

My shortbow basic attack (trick shot) hits as hard as Ranger’s long bow, but also hits three targets and is nearly twice as fast. The cluster bomb aoe comboed with poison field lets me crit groups for 3-4k and I can spam it. When someone is low on health I can teleport and HS *3 stealth and stomp, change to SB and teleport away (or use another teleport skill).

It is quite easy to dominate as a thief, high survivabilty great burst damage, pretty much no downside. Perhaps that is where some of the agnst is coming from; but it sure is fun to play one.

Well, you play keepaway with shortbow. I’m happy it’s working out for you. Kudos for thinking “outside the box”, the “box” being your typical backstab/hs spam that seems to be the only thing 90% of thieves out there are capable of doing. People have not gotten to the point, where they complain about our escape possibilities yet, but rather HS glass cannon builds. What I described applies to 99% of those playing that build. Thieves playing defensively in spvp right now are far and few. Most won’t even know how to pick their fight, but rather, bolstered by the awesomeness that is HS, will seek to engage any fight they come across. All that needs to happen is that they start dieing to cc and counters.

bump

infantrydiv.1620:

bump

-_-

interesting, that is quite usefull I guess not to waste dodges on the initial heart seekers.

But its the backstabs that I have trouble with, they stealth stab and I’m dead.
Or when I can predict their every move they stealth and teleport away.
What do you do against a thief who has 3 teleports 5x stealth and good condi removal and regeneration while in stealth? He always teleports away while in stealth making it impossible to pinpoint his exact location when he’s in stealth. Downed him twice but he stealth rezzed himself and then I figure I’ve had enough go fight another one of his buddies and he backstabs one-shot me.
Heartseeker spamming noobie thieves aren’t the ones that bother me. Its the skilled thieves that cause 100% of my deaths in 12 matches that bother me.

Nevertheless thanks for the guide and sorry for the bit of raging on my side.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

interesting, that is quite usefull I guess not to waste dodges on the initial heart seekers.

But its the backstabs that I have trouble with, they stealth stab and I’m dead.
Or when I can predict their every move they stealth and teleport away.
What do you do against a thief who has 3 teleports 5x stealth and good condi removal and regeneration while in stealth? He always teleports away while in stealth making it impossible to pinpoint his exact location when he’s in stealth. Downed him twice but he stealth rezzed himself and then I figure I’ve had enough go fight another one of his buddies and he backstabs one-shot me.
Heartseeker spamming noobie thieves aren’t the ones that bother me. Its the skilled thieves that cause 100% of my deaths in 12 matches that bother me.

Nevertheless thanks for the guide and sorry for the bit of raging on my side.

You’ve been trolled really hard, I’m sorry to say.