Guild Wars 2

Hi everybody

I just want to know what combo does the thief use to backup a backstab in order to deal a instant burst attack.

To make things more clear, magine the follwing situation (which happened today in a soloQ match on the battle of Kilho map when i was attacking the enemy treb):

1. I came up on the treb
2. There was a thief (in my case was Caed)
3. The thief attacks me while im attacking the thief
4. Thief takes too much damage an stealths an apparently retreats
5. Treb destroyed, i return get down to return to my team
6. Thief was waiting in stealth down and he eats half of my life on a single hit
7. i try to figth and fail miserably, thief (Caed) wins

Thats the situation, but betwen all the figth i couldnt see the combat log but im sure that whe used something else than just backstab, because i have 2940 armor and 18k health so thats not possible.

So my question is, what does a thief can do to support a backstab in order to deal more instant burst damage?

Usually a thief will use a steal traited with mug after a backstab and then auto attack for a sigil proc (air or fire) if It didn’t proc already.

It’s worth noting that steal has no activation time so you can get backstab and traited steal to damage at the same time. The damage you took was probably a combination of Steal + Backstab + Sigil proc.

Dunno what Caed happened to be running there, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he hit you with the signet burst. A D/X thief can run multiple utility signets and trait so the actives grant 5x might each while still running Hidden Killer (100% crit from stealth). He could’ve landed a monster Backstab + mug before you even saw him, and even with high vit and armor that can eat a huge chunk. If you add in an air sigil (or similar) proc that probably puts you at about half.

Don’t feel bad. You got gibbed by a really good player. It happens.

more then likely backstab – mug – heartseeker. If hs crits it can do as much as a backstab.

Caed is one of the best thief players at using the burst spec, however his survivablity is very low and if u had managed to evade him you could of probably turned it around.

Uri, the usual rotation for a thief, if the target is paying absolutely no attention that a thief is around, is to blackpowder, heartseeker + steal into backstab. Then usually the thief will switch to shortbow and use a few point blank clusterbombs to overload any late blinds, stealth, clones, aegis, etc. that get thrown up.

It is a lot harder to pull off blackpowder -> heartseeker + steal if the target is actually paying attention to what is going on. So they might blackpower into heartseeker, sit in stealth (and maybe apply bassi venom while in stealth), then backstab+steal or port signet. It does less damage, but is more unpredictable. If they sit in refuge for a while, they usually follow up with a bassi’ed backstab.

Keep in mind, this is all assuming backstab plays. There are many plays that a trickery thief can use that require shortbow. Depending on the situation, a thief might weapon switch to shortbow while in stealth.

Also as a side: To those necros out there, if you’re against a good thief, don’t place all your staff skills on one spot and sit in them. A good thief will dodge + steal into it to remove them.

goryhole.1389:

Thieves don’t just steal for the mug.

Not many thieves can successfully land these combos, most are HS spammers so they’re easy pickings. Don’t worry it happens and this is a good example how a well played thief can pick you off.

If you state your class and build, I’m sure someone here on the forums can give you some tips on how to survive and counter the burst.

Ok first of all, thanks for the feedback

And now to clarify even more the situation posted above , this is my build:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Fg-77FCwEFt-a2ZDV-0;9k6Y;3TT9;419A57B2;06-V46Rk0F-03F-034kG

My build is very sturdy against direct damage, thats why i was surprised of taking that much damage on a single hit, but as far as i see, it was just backstab + mug.

I feel you pain sir

With that build it’s better to run with soldier’s amulet. Since you have such low crit, crit damage bonuses from the valk amulet is useless. Are you going for a support with sustained damage build? With the soldiers amulet you get an additional 6k health so you’ll be able to take more hits. I’m not a ranger expert so maybe someone will have better suggestions in terms of how you traited your points.

No, soldier’s amulet will just increase my burst resistance, but i already have a lot of that, instead, i use valkyrie’s amulet because it increases my regeneration’s strength via healing power , which also increases my support since the regeneration affect allies too, my critical chance is 9%, 29% with fury up, so crits are not often but it increases my burst potential.

Because of all that is that i use valkyrie’s amule instead of soldier’s amulet.

Healing power scales poorly in general and it seems (and correct me if I’m wrong) that your only on-demand source of fury comes from Rampage as One. That’s 20s of fury every 3 minutes. Your runes give you a 5% chance to proc fury when you’re hit, so it’s an unreliable source of fury. Your other option is to change your offhand weapon to warhorn for 15s of fury, might, and swiftness every 35s just to make more use of the burst dmg bonus.

If you want to build for more survival then you would need to do more sustained damage and outlive your opponent. In the case against Caed, if you switch from axe/axe to sword/dagger, you would have more evades to survive the burst. That would be the only option if you wanted to keep your build as it is.

Yes, healing power scales poorly, but not that much for regeneration boon, which i have 100% uptime on me and on other 5 allies.
I used to run axe, horn but the damage is too low and has too long cooldowns and hunters call its single target only, and if i switch axe/axe for sword/dagger, then you are leaving me with no ranged weapon, which would limit me in many situations.

SuperHaze.4210:

HS spammers.

If there are any truely HS spammers out there that anyone is fighting against, then just simply use a cripple or a chill. They won’t be able to touch anyone and they will blow through their initiative quickly.

Chicago Jack.5647:

Uri, the usual rotation for a thief, if the target is paying absolutely no attention that a thief is around, is to blackpowder, heartseeker + steal into backstab. Then usually the thief will switch to shortbow and use a few point blank clusterbombs to overload any late blinds, stealth, clones, aegis, etc. that get thrown up.

It is a lot harder to pull off blackpowder -> heartseeker + steal if the target is actually paying attention to what is going on. So they might blackpower into heartseeker, sit in stealth (and maybe apply bassi venom while in stealth), then backstab+steal or port signet. It does less damage, but is more unpredictable. If they sit in refuge for a while, they usually follow up with a bassi’ed backstab.

Keep in mind, this is all assuming backstab plays. There are many plays that a trickery thief can use that require shortbow. Depending on the situation, a thief might weapon switch to shortbow while in stealth.

Also as a side: To those necros out there, if you’re against a good thief, don’t place all your staff skills on one spot and sit in them. A good thief will dodge + steal into it to remove them.

goryhole.1389:

Thieves don’t just steal for the mug.

Heh nice one.. didnt say so bro.. sorry