Guild Wars 2

I’m having a bit of trouble with this profession, I found a pretty good build for P/D that uses the utilities you’d expect, the problem I’m having is the use of stealth and the damage output.

I feel like my mesmer can stealth my thief in that when I stealth with my mesmer, I can’t be seen. When I try using shadow refuge or 5 on the dagger and stealth, people are still hitting me as if they can see me along with necro pets and ranger pets. I may be doing something wrong, but I’m always pinpointed lol.

The damage output I feel like it’s almost there, I’ll have a really good head start fighting someone, they’re almost down, but as they get under the threshold I’ll be out of initiative and have nothing left that hits them hard enough to down them before they kill me.

I guess I’m in need of a bit of help on the playstyle of thief, suggestions of builds, weapon combinations, etc. are greatly appreciated.

Hm…being an optimist and assuming your post is honest—-

(main hand/off hand)

2/6/0/0/6 is your typical D/P spec which is the one of the more common specs. I do not know the S/D one so you may need to look that up or someone will provide below.
P/D is generally not good for competitive tpvp but I’ve seen it work a few times.

As long as you have the stealth buff and not the revealed debuff, you can assume that you are invisible and cannot be seen. You can still take AOE dmg though and/or dmg from channeled skills that have been casted on you before you stealthed.

If you go D/P, backstab is your main dmg source and then auto attack. The semi-full desc below:

D/P + Shortbow
Sigil of Air/Fire on both (you can change these, but this is decent to start with)
Rune of Strength or Rune of the Ogre or Rune of the Pirate
Zerk Amulet
hide in shadows / shadowstep / signet of infiltration / shadow refuge / basilisk

Basic tactic:
Cloak via Pistol 5 + Dagger 2 => Backstab => Blind Field with Pistol 5 near enemy => Auto attack spam => Dagger 2 before blind field ends => Repeat

Situational:
- Use shadowstep only when you are in a major jam or need that condi cleanse before you die. Learn all the blink spots because that’ll help you in the long run.
- Use steal for interrupting heal skills and/or significant boon strips. Don’t just spam it.
- Save shadow refuge for teammates, best anti-stomp skill.
- Use shortbow for traveling, poison fields on downed bodies, cluster bombs for great aoe cleave, and shortbow 3 for evasion spam.

Edit: You can get revealed debuff if you hit an enemy while in stealth or when you leave shadow refuge’s circle before it finishes. Also, heartseeker is best used below 50% or not at all. Autoattacks and backstab do much more dmg and requires barely any initiative which you can reserve for blind fields or shortbow escape/clusterbombs

mesmers use stealth differently than what thieves use it for. For mesmer its pop in and stay in stealh as long as you can until it wears off. Thieves are opposite, the big attacks are around getting out of stealth and getting revealed. Since i don’t find P/d to be good unless you’re in a 1v1 situation with someone who really doesn’t know the play style, id start with D/P/sb build above. It really shows you the mechanics of how to play thief and understand the class. Thief is more of guerrilla tactics to survive so have fun:D

Op you need to be pro with pd if you gonna bring it into a competitive match. Its really not a good choice if you are serious about winning.

Go SD thief its ridiculously OP