Guild Wars 2

I fought only a few Thieves with builds like this, but I can tell you how annoying and frustrating it was to get nearly insta-killed everytime.
This playing a Soldier build.

The only counter I could think of, is when I see the Thief coming, and I quickly pop Virtue of Courage for an Aegis as soon as I see him going stealth. At least I don’t get down’ed in 1 sec, it takes another whole second for that!

I found this while browsing the Discussion forum and I’m posting it here so everyone can roll their thieves tomorrow. Hopefully if everyone is a Thief we can finally have a balanced game.

Ever heard of endure pain? Stun breakers? Or knights amulet? Or shield stance, counter blow – and goes on, and goes on…
You could have asked – that you need help to learn dealing with thiefes and learning2p. But no, u just had to whine it.

You do realize he plays a Guardian and not a Warrior? Also, Soldiers > Knights for bulkiness as it gives Power/Vit/Tough, not Power/Pre/Vit.

This build is why basilisk was nerfed, there were no ways to escape the burst prior to basilisk being irremovable.

I regularly toy around with this type of thief in PvP, it’s 100 times worse to play against than the Pistol Whip build, the CDs are up more frequently, the time frame in which you can get away is also smaller. It’s way easier to set up and they have a harder time seeing it coming due to stealth and the culling issues with it. Your burst move is back stab meaning you still have heartseeker to finish people with.

Don’t know why they nerfed pistol whip when that isn’t even cheese in comparison to this, it was only threatening when they have quickness to boost it. The problem is quickness, not the whip itself.

Only tip I can give you is, if you can mess up the thief’s opener, then you’ve won. Stand your Ground! (If you’re a god with reflexes and can pop so his venom is wasted without being CC’d at all, then GG) He’ll either have to retreat and escape or eat dirt. You probably also want to keep mobile, the harder it is for him to aim for your back, the better. Also, I regularly use Hammer/Mace/Shield on my Bunker guard, sometimes it pays off to use focus, being able to block the key hits will destroy their rhythm.

Its not any player’s fault who’s running a thief.The fault goes to Anet.This thing is ridiculus,just watched the video and for one moment thought to roll a thief,but i said no…If that was the case lets just all roll thieves!!!!!!!I calmed my self and said,‘boy’ just dont go to spvp until they fix the balance thing.That’s what i m about to do,no spvp until this farce with glass cannons and insane burst dmg is over.If not,i ll just quit.End of story.

Great video btw m8 and thank you for showing us this.Hope Anet can see it and change mind.

@Lumines – Am sorry, “Soldier build” got me mixed up. But then… dying as a guardian against such a thief is even more sad – no hard feeling intended. I’m just saying we all know guardian with soldiers amulet has around 20k hp, and backstab with signed + steal does 13-14k to you at maximum. So you still got 6k hp to smash his face. Which guardian usually does against power based thiefs.

kittening forum just deleted my entire post as I was typing it. So I will just sum up what I was saying with this: It is not reasonable to give a character such ridiculous burst with no way to counter. Hundred blades warriors are imo a perfect example of a burst that can be countered.

Part of the problem is the stealth bug which leaves thief invisible when they are supposed to be visible, this makes the entire burst done while invisible, a lot of people don’t even know they are under attack before they die because the thief is invisible the whole time and your eyes can leave your health bar for a split second and you will lose all health in that amount of time, or at least an irrecoverable amount of it.

Fix the stealth bug first, then we can see if its still op.

Agree on that.Good to know m8 that u care about balance.

Joined an spvp random match yesterday. Other team had 7 thieves and 1 mesmer.

My team, 3 thieves, 1 elementalist and 3 guardians (and me, a warrior).

It’s getting pretty ridiculous.

Firstly, stealth is bugged in favor of the thief, this needs addressed before a stealth based nerf can be rightfully done.

secondly, nerfing backstab itself is NOT the way to go. just nerfing backstab would indeed result in lowered burst, but it would create and reinforce a existing issue with thieves (especially backstab thieves) that the only viable way to play is to go glass cannon. you nerf backstab, they still go glass cannon because non glass cannon builds would do such low damage as to be unplayable. No, what needs to be done is a nerf to specific traits/utility skills that cause backstab to get so high in the first place. things like power signets (5 stack of might when you use a signet, 5 sec duration), and most notably assassins signet (150% damage on next attack)

lets say he can get a 10k backstab crit, for no other reason then ease of math. with assassins signet its 15k! moreso with power signets and other traits.

thirdly, what Lumines said is incorrect, this build is more fragile then S/P builds and is much weaker in between its Cd’s. not too mention its Cd’s on which are reliant all have to be popped which means its a one hit wonder spec. gets the kill and is if anything a detriment to the gruop for the other 45 seconds of its existance.

S/P players do NOT have to rely on haste, tho it is one Cd they can abuse effectively. things like preloading PW+steal, devourer venom, haste, even basilisk venom also. basically a backstab build uses all/most its Cd’s for one kill while a S/P thief only has to use 1 at a time paired with P/W

so let me recap, fix stelath bugs, then fix the specific traits/utility skills that cause backstab to get such high damage. if this is done, then i think people will stop complaining about it so much.

preemptive dodge roll, enough said. If not preemptable, stun break and dodge roll twice, and faceroll him. He gets one of those every 45s – 1 minute and for every one he dies because he is fodder after. It is not like he just roams the field killing at will.

The problem is not backstab, it is the might stacking with the signet, a1900dmg backstab should not in any case crit for 8x its normal damage. Wolfe sums it up nicher than I can above, but he is completely right.

If Anet is smart they will not nerf BS, but rather reduce the stacking of might with the signet, or eliminate it. That is the real issue.

People rolling glass cannons should not be surprised when they get pimped down in seconds by another glass cannon. I am sure you feel your glass cannon is bigger than everyone elses, but there is always a bigger cannon.

Pimpslapper.2047:

preemptive dodge roll, enough said. If not preemptable, stun break and dodge roll twice, and faceroll him. He gets one of those every 45s – 1 minute and for every one he dies because he is fodder after. It is not like he just roams the field killing at will.

this.
you should look at this build utility in a tourney where every second of playing count for the final score.
your team should play 4v5 till you hit someone to just 4v4 for 10-15 secs.

For me, I use the basis for the build, instead of the utilities. Meaning, I build off of the CnD > Steal > Backstab combo, but as far as utilities, those are dumb.

You know what happens if someone is set up just like that? They get stunned, and die. And as far as utilities, he’s blowing everything pre-Backstab. Considering if he pops Haste, he will have no endurance.

You know how hard it is to hit someone with backstab when they’re only a couple steps ahead of you? And in the fact he has no endurance, or acrobatic traits, one dodge roll and you’re completely out of reach for backstab.

But with all of the range on Killshot with Warriors, that’s just hilarious. I made a warrior and took her to PvP last night. Hitting killshot on Necros and other squishies running around while I’m up on a ledge. Boom! 14k! Dead.

I did get a nice chuckle out of it though. xD

Well … this video is showing a Thief farming people in the sPvP 8vs8 zergfest while he did cut it so that it just shows his nice Crits … nothing else. If we at least could see all the deaths he had to suffer while he was on CD or all the deaths while he couldn’t oneshot someone.

+ this Video has been BEFORE the Basilisc Venom Nerf… who ever gonne get caught by this poison now and eats a backstab while being in it really deservs that 150% dmg crit backstab

hehe I love it when people still defend such a thing. Next you will tell people to buy a tarrot deck so can try and divine when they get stolen+ backstabbed ^^

However, it is not just a problem of thieves. The burst damage is simply over the top. There are classes which have moves that kill you nearly instantly when you eat them in an unfortunate moment (e.g. when your stunbreaker) – on the other hand there are classes which do not have such extreme things nor have they something similar fight deciding. Which makes a poorly balanced game.

Don’t get me wrong, burst belongs into the game, though.

Arenanet NEEDS to nerf this build. It ruin’s the fun for everyone. Except the thief.

I make this build specifically to go in hotjoin and kill other thieves, only other thieves.