Guild Wars 2

Aside from the usual complaining, here is why Thief is broken:

Backstab

Attack your foe from the shadows, striking for double damage if you hit from behind.
Damage Front damage: 403 (1.2)
Damage Back damage: 806 (2.4)
— In-game description

Notes

1. Despite the fact that the description states that double damage will only occur if you hit the target from behind, testing on the PvP golems reveals that the double damage will still occur if you hit the target from the side.

It is too easy for a Thief to exploit this skill by lightly strafing around in face to face combat.

~ Would be nice if it was fixed

not going to happen..
This side is almost always the same, i bet the fractal mistlock where mobs and bosses deal more damage from the back will have the same results

Trevor Boyer.6524:

Aside from the usual complaining, here is why Thief is broken:

Backstab

Attack your foe from the shadows, striking for double damage if you hit from behind.
Damage Front damage: 403 (1.2)
Damage Back damage: 806 (2.4)
— In-game description

Notes

1. Despite the fact that the description states that double damage will only occur if you hit the target from behind, testing on the PvP golems reveals that the double damage will still occur if you hit the target from the side.

It is too easy for a Thief to exploit this skill by lightly strafing around in face to face combat.

~ Would be nice if it was fixed

Not a big deal…there are many more thing to fix before this..like necro condition spam and braindead warriors first..at least burst thieves die very easily when focused a bit and require skills to stay alive..

Thieves deal a lot of burst, but also take a ton of damage(a trade-off). Their skills have counters.

I feel like people are going to continuously complain over and over about thieves until they die if you look at them funny, stealth lasts half a second, and they tickle you instead of damage. They’re actually not that strong if you know how to play against them (Try hitting blocks or something like aegis when they go into stealth, because 3 seconds is not a long time) and I personally think the playstyle of thieves is extremely good for the game – high risk high reward, forced to run glass, no silly passive bunker kitten.

Writetyper.1985:

I feel like people are going to continuously complain over and over about thieves until they die if you look at them funny, stealth lasts half a second, and they tickle you instead of damage. They’re actually not that strong if you know how to play against them (Try hitting blocks or something like aegis when they go into stealth, because 3 seconds is not a long time) and I personally think the playstyle of thieves is extremely good for the game – high risk high reward, forced to run glass, no silly passive bunker kitten.

This.

Thiefs are NOT overpowered as we speak. Its very high risk with less reward with all those bunker builds floating around on warriors, necs and rangers. Thiefs needs need some love or better ranged options otherwise they will stop getting playd even in hot-join, in high end tpvp they been away for months.

I find it so amusing how these threads pop up from time to time.

Firstly, the hit from behind skill (and traits) have always functioned like this, even with ranger. It is working as intended. Besides, its not very hard to turn around unless you keyboard turn ( I hope there not people that still do this)

I play a thief (and many others classes) and I LOVE backstabbing people. When I do, it is almost guaranteed that I will be insulted, or thiefs will be called OMG OP BROKEN..

Thiefs are far from the most broken class especially in PvP.

Do yourself a favour, try to actually play a thief, you will then see its not so OP as assumed.

Dat overzealous moderation doe….

Let’s try this again.

Based on my tests from a long time ago, the “back” is a 180 degree arc behind the target. Flanking attacks are anything except the tiny 90 degree (maybe less) in front of the target. It’s not a thief specific game mechanic.

Mac Maritimus.8327:

This.

Thiefs are NOT overpowered as we speak. Its very high risk with less reward with all those bunker builds floating around on warriors, necs and rangers. Thiefs needs need some love or better ranged options otherwise they will stop getting playd even in hot-join, in high end tpvp they been away for months.

Thief is less OP than warrior, necro and ranger, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t OP. S/D damage avoidance and D/P perma stealth are both completely broken. They’re being hit on Dec. 10th, so we’ll see how that shakes out. Otherwise, I think thief is fine in sPvP due to the far lower effective power in the game mode. They’re still completely broken in WvW though.

Caffynated.5713:

Dat overzealous moderation doe….

Let’s try this again.

Based on my tests from a long time ago, the “back” is a 180 degree arc behind the target. Flanking attacks are anything except the tiny 90 degree (maybe less) in front of the target. It’s not a thief specific game mechanic.

Mac Maritimus.8327:

This.

Thiefs are NOT overpowered as we speak. Its very high risk with less reward with all those bunker builds floating around on warriors, necs and rangers. Thiefs needs need some love or better ranged options otherwise they will stop getting playd even in hot-join, in high end tpvp they been away for months.

Thief is less OP than warrior, necro and ranger, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t OP. S/D damage avoidance and D/P perma stealth are both completely broken. They’re being hit on Dec. 10th, so we’ll see how that shakes out. Otherwise, I think thief is fine in sPvP due to the far lower effective power in the game mode. They’re still completely broken in WvW though.

My main gripes with thief is in WvW. They have blatantly op escapability and I have complained about it since day one. But then again, a-net can’t balance for kitten, so…

Caffynated.5713:

Based on my tests from a long time ago, the “back” is a 180 degree arc behind the target. Flanking attacks are anything except the tiny 90 degree (maybe less) in front of the target. It’s not a thief specific game mechanic.

^^
Hitting the “side” is the side of the back. If you hit someone from the front 180 degrees, it’s the front…

In this forums every profession is OP… except thief. Thief is the most balanced class in this game.

Good, Try to hit two backstabs in a row to a good player, without receive any damage.

silentnight warrior.2714:

In this forums every profession is OP… except thief. Thief is the most balanced class in this game.

And ele is worse than having an afk player, don’t forget that :P #forumlogic

Another backstab thread? Why?

Hate to say it, but there are deep seeded l2p issues if backstab is ganking you that badly.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

You are the 1,000,000th person to post an uninformed Thief complaint thread! Click here to claim your prize!

Relentless.7023:

Another backstab thread? Why?

Hate to say it, but there are deep seeded l2p issues if backstab is ganking you that badly.

While this is true, it does need to break stealth on block/evade/etc. I mean what’s the point in countering it if they just do it again. :P Not saying I find them OP but cmon, people who say it doesn’t have a counter does have SOME point to be made if skillyfully dodging a STEALTH attack allows them to just try again :P

Nobody can pull off a backstab without having to stealth first and within the FOV of anybody paying attention to what’s going on. Stealth duration isn’t very long, unless they’re goofy enough of a thief to pop SR to sneak up on a point when it’s better used somewhere else or on someone else. The black powder heartseeker thing is gonna be dead on Dec. 10 too so nobody’s really going to be able to sneak up from a huge distance away to backstab without blowing a 60s cooldown.

Also, you have to be close to the target so if a thief is on the map, never stand still. It’s annoying as hell to try to backstab someone who is moving, as opposed to the silly goofball standing still and then whining about taking 10k damage.

There’s also cone/PbAoE CC, traps, bombs, Marks, symbols, etc. to lay around you when you know the thief is around so they are pressured into moving to SB, raising their TTK significantly.

People actually need to put effort into learning how to fight a thief

don’t worry you won’t see any thieves after dec 10th
Anet made sure that all thieves either quit or reroll after patch just to pleasure lazy clueless QQers like OP

also, if they “fix” this, then every class should be able to attack only when they face target from front, otherwise they would do reduced dmg…just to be fair :P

@OP: l2p dude, seriously. I multiclass every single profession in this game and thieves (especially backstab) are only strong in wvw right now (and even there they aren’t as broken as condi mesmers/necros/warriors or pretty much half of the stuff you see roaming).

S/F Zerker ele, glkittenter mesmer, Static Discharge engi, DPS meditation guardian, and I am pretty sure there is a number of other specs. All of these DO deal MORE DAMAGE than backstab thief does.

Not to mention the backstab spec is not even the apex build for pvp right now.

Silferas.3841:

@OP: l2p dude, seriously. I multiclass every single profession in this game and thieves (especially backstab) are only strong in wvw right now (and even there they aren’t as broken as condi mesmers/necros/warriors or pretty much half of the stuff you see roaming).

S/F Zerker ele, glkittenter mesmer, Static Discharge engi, DPS meditation guardian, and I am pretty sure there is a number of other specs. All of these DO deal MORE DAMAGE than backstab thief does.

Not to mention the backstab spec is not even the apex build for pvp right now.

Also just wanted to say, 10/30/0/0/30 I believe it is, is D/p and it does pretty well in pvp, and it uses backstab. Just cause it’s not D/D doesn’t mean it doesn’t use backstab. There are viable dagger builds. Not saying they’re OP, I’m just saying they’re more out there than you think. Also, I’m fairly certain 10/30/0/0/30 builds will be a little better off after the patch because it doesn’t use any initiative traits, so they’ll have better init gain. (Unless I’ve forgotten about some other nerfs that would hurt them specifically)

ronpierce.2760:

Silferas.3841:

@OP: l2p dude, seriously. I multiclass every single profession in this game and thieves (especially backstab) are only strong in wvw right now (and even there they aren’t as broken as condi mesmers/necros/warriors or pretty much half of the stuff you see roaming).

S/F Zerker ele, glkittenter mesmer, Static Discharge engi, DPS meditation guardian, and I am pretty sure there is a number of other specs. All of these DO deal MORE DAMAGE than backstab thief does.

Not to mention the backstab spec is not even the apex build for pvp right now.

Also just wanted to say, 10/30/0/0/30 I believe it is, is D/p and it does pretty well in pvp, and it uses backstab. Just cause it’s not D/D doesn’t mean it doesn’t use backstab. There are viable dagger builds. Not saying they’re OP, I’m just saying they’re more out there than you think. Also, I’m fairly certain 10/30/0/0/30 builds will be a little better off after the patch because it doesn’t use any initiative traits, so they’ll have better init gain. (Unless I’ve forgotten about some other nerfs that would hurt them specifically)

all tPvP thief builds use initiative traits. Do you even play thief?

wow that is not what I expected to read when clicking on this post…
when I think of how broken thief is it tends to be of how garbage they are, not so much how op they are, but whatever back to my 1v4 warrior !

jkough.7316:

wow that is not what I expected to read when clicking on this post…
when I think of how broken thief is it tends to be of how garbage they are, not so much how op they are, but whatever back to my 1v4 warrior !

hmmm, no, back to my 1v10 thief. oh wait, wvw uplevels that way>>. bro.

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Arganthium.5638:

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Oh god, please never pretend Kill Shot is a reliable/good skill. I don’t play warrior and even I know that move is an absolute joke… >_>:

ronpierce.2760:

Arganthium.5638:

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Oh god, please never pretend Kill Shot is a reliable/good skill. I don’t play warrior and even I know that move is an absolute joke… >_>:

If you’re talking about the cast time, then I could always mention that you first have to, y’know, see your enemy coming, and then you have to react extremely quickly; not burning all of your evades is probably going to be necessary, because the effects of being 1-shotted are disastrous otherwise.

Either way, that’s over 150% of BS’s damage; of course it should have some weaknesses.

Arganthium.5638:

ronpierce.2760:

Arganthium.5638:

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Oh god, please never pretend Kill Shot is a reliable/good skill. I don’t play warrior and even I know that move is an absolute joke… >_>:

If you’re talking about the cast time, then I could always mention that you first have to, y’know, see your enemy coming, and then you have to react extremely quickly; not burning all of your evades is probably going to be necessary, because the effects of being 1-shotted are disastrous otherwise.

Either way, that’s over 150% of BS’s damage; of course it should have some weaknesses.

i wonder why rifle was never a viable weapon in tpvp.

Lighter.5631:

Arganthium.5638:

ronpierce.2760:

Arganthium.5638:

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Oh god, please never pretend Kill Shot is a reliable/good skill. I don’t play warrior and even I know that move is an absolute joke… >_>:

If you’re talking about the cast time, then I could always mention that you first have to, y’know, see your enemy coming, and then you have to react extremely quickly; not burning all of your evades is probably going to be necessary, because the effects of being 1-shotted are disastrous otherwise.

Either way, that’s over 150% of BS’s damage; of course it should have some weaknesses.

i wonder why rifle was never a viable weapon in tpvp.

I just used it in sPvP. Created a warrior 20 mins ago, was too lazy to find a good build online. I just created a GC rifle build and it worked extremely well compared to other BS’d builds I’ve made in the past.

Arganthium.5638:

Lighter.5631:

Arganthium.5638:

ronpierce.2760:

Arganthium.5638:

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Oh god, please never pretend Kill Shot is a reliable/good skill. I don’t play warrior and even I know that move is an absolute joke… >_>:

If you’re talking about the cast time, then I could always mention that you first have to, y’know, see your enemy coming, and then you have to react extremely quickly; not burning all of your evades is probably going to be necessary, because the effects of being 1-shotted are disastrous otherwise.

Either way, that’s over 150% of BS’s damage; of course it should have some weaknesses.

i wonder why rifle was never a viable weapon in tpvp.

I just used it in sPvP. Created a warrior 20 mins ago, was too lazy to find a good build online. I just created a GC rifle build and it worked extremely well compared to other BS’d builds I’ve made in the past.

and i run my thief naked in spvp, real cool story.

Lighter.5631:

Arganthium.5638:

Lighter.5631:

Arganthium.5638:

ronpierce.2760:

Arganthium.5638:

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Oh god, please never pretend Kill Shot is a reliable/good skill. I don’t play warrior and even I know that move is an absolute joke… >_>:

If you’re talking about the cast time, then I could always mention that you first have to, y’know, see your enemy coming, and then you have to react extremely quickly; not burning all of your evades is probably going to be necessary, because the effects of being 1-shotted are disastrous otherwise.

Either way, that’s over 150% of BS’s damage; of course it should have some weaknesses.

i wonder why rifle was never a viable weapon in tpvp.

I just used it in sPvP. Created a warrior 20 mins ago, was too lazy to find a good build online. I just created a GC rifle build and it worked extremely well compared to other BS’d builds I’ve made in the past.

and i run my thief naked in spvp, real cool story.

I can tell you that if I played my thief as terribadly as I did that warrior, I would have died instantaneously. But with heavy armor and +400 HPS, I didn’t have to worry about that.

Lighter.5631:

Arganthium.5638:

Lighter.5631:

Arganthium.5638:

ronpierce.2760:

Arganthium.5638:

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Oh god, please never pretend Kill Shot is a reliable/good skill. I don’t play warrior and even I know that move is an absolute joke… >_>:

If you’re talking about the cast time, then I could always mention that you first have to, y’know, see your enemy coming, and then you have to react extremely quickly; not burning all of your evades is probably going to be necessary, because the effects of being 1-shotted are disastrous otherwise.

Either way, that’s over 150% of BS’s damage; of course it should have some weaknesses.

i wonder why rifle was never a viable weapon in tpvp.

I just used it in sPvP. Created a warrior 20 mins ago, was too lazy to find a good build online. I just created a GC rifle build and it worked extremely well compared to other BS’d builds I’ve made in the past.

and i run my thief naked in spvp, real cool story.

tbh i don’t think it would matter if thief has armor on or not, they get one shot either way haha

Cynz.9437:

Lighter.5631:

Arganthium.5638:

Lighter.5631:

Arganthium.5638:

ronpierce.2760:

Arganthium.5638:

I’m sort about Backstab’s coefficient of 2.4. You must have difficulty defeating thieves with your Rifle’s Kill Shot’s coefficient of 3.75. :c

Oh god, please never pretend Kill Shot is a reliable/good skill. I don’t play warrior and even I know that move is an absolute joke… >_>:

If you’re talking about the cast time, then I could always mention that you first have to, y’know, see your enemy coming, and then you have to react extremely quickly; not burning all of your evades is probably going to be necessary, because the effects of being 1-shotted are disastrous otherwise.

Either way, that’s over 150% of BS’s damage; of course it should have some weaknesses.

i wonder why rifle was never a viable weapon in tpvp.

I just used it in sPvP. Created a warrior 20 mins ago, was too lazy to find a good build online. I just created a GC rifle build and it worked extremely well compared to other BS’d builds I’ve made in the past.

and i run my thief naked in spvp, real cool story.

tbh i don’t think it would matter if thief has armor on or not, they get one shot either way haha

hahaha funny bcuz true.

Excalibur.9748:

ronpierce.2760:

Silferas.3841:

@OP: l2p dude, seriously. I multiclass every single profession in this game and thieves (especially backstab) are only strong in wvw right now (and even there they aren’t as broken as condi mesmers/necros/warriors or pretty much half of the stuff you see roaming).

S/F Zerker ele, glkittenter mesmer, Static Discharge engi, DPS meditation guardian, and I am pretty sure there is a number of other specs. All of these DO deal MORE DAMAGE than backstab thief does.

Not to mention the backstab spec is not even the apex build for pvp right now.

Also just wanted to say, 10/30/0/0/30 I believe it is, is D/p and it does pretty well in pvp, and it uses backstab. Just cause it’s not D/D doesn’t mean it doesn’t use backstab. There are viable dagger builds. Not saying they’re OP, I’m just saying they’re more out there than you think. Also, I’m fairly certain 10/30/0/0/30 builds will be a little better off after the patch because it doesn’t use any initiative traits, so they’ll have better init gain. (Unless I’ve forgotten about some other nerfs that would hurt them specifically)

all tPvP thief builds use initiative traits. Do you even play thief?

Actually, D/P 25/30/0/0/15 and 10/30/0/0/30 only use Infil Sig, Opportunist and Klepto for ini regen, both traits just being a minor trait consequence, not intentionally taken.

Incurafy.6329:

Excalibur.9748:

ronpierce.2760:

Silferas.3841:

@OP: l2p dude, seriously. I multiclass every single profession in this game and thieves (especially backstab) are only strong in wvw right now (and even there they aren’t as broken as condi mesmers/necros/warriors or pretty much half of the stuff you see roaming).

S/F Zerker ele, glkittenter mesmer, Static Discharge engi, DPS meditation guardian, and I am pretty sure there is a number of other specs. All of these DO deal MORE DAMAGE than backstab thief does.

Not to mention the backstab spec is not even the apex build for pvp right now.

Also just wanted to say, 10/30/0/0/30 I believe it is, is D/p and it does pretty well in pvp, and it uses backstab. Just cause it’s not D/D doesn’t mean it doesn’t use backstab. There are viable dagger builds. Not saying they’re OP, I’m just saying they’re more out there than you think. Also, I’m fairly certain 10/30/0/0/30 builds will be a little better off after the patch because it doesn’t use any initiative traits, so they’ll have better init gain. (Unless I’ve forgotten about some other nerfs that would hurt them specifically)

all tPvP thief builds use initiative traits. Do you even play thief?

Actually, D/P 25/30/0/0/15 and 10/30/0/0/30 only use Infil Sig, Opportunist and Klepto for ini regen, both traits just being a minor trait consequence, not intentionally taken.

Those are all ini regen traits/skill and you’re just arguing semantics now.