Guild Wars 2

Is it just me or this game has the worst PvP I’ve ever seen?

I know I just been playing for around 3 weeks and with a Daredevil which it’s not the best class out there but I can’t seem to be able to do anything unless the other players don’t have any idea of what to do.

When I saw that this game didn’t had PvP gear like other MMO I thought that it would be nice to finally play a game where you are equal to your opponent from the beginning but it wasn’t like that, almost everything is able to blow me up instantly from 100% to 0% if I can’t do a perfect frame dodge, I don’t know how they do it but almost every class I see recovers health like crazy or I can’t do any damage to them while I just have a roll that heals me every 20 secs for 40% HP or a trait that heals me basically nothing when I evade an attack.

I know that I don’t have much experience but I can’t find any place to learn from it nor I learn from my games since I can’t even see what has killed me. Maybe someone knows where I can learn to play PvP or what I have to do to play a Daredevil correctly, unless the PvP here is truly unbalanced, I’m sure that at least it partially is, It’s impossible that every time I do a match 2 or 3 classes, mainly Necromancers and Revenants, are always there.

Hello, I play this game since release and PvP was great always, but ANET decided to test some stuff out with the actual PvP season and apparently they kittened things up. So for not try to avoid playing Ranked matches. You can start playing practice matches at the pvp server list and when u get better u can go play unranked.

On the other hand, You are playing against a lot of experienced people since the game is 3 years old. So take your time to learn about ur class, check ur class forums, watch youtube videos, visit Metabattle website for decent builds and explanations and practice practice practice. You can also talk to experienced Daredevil players for tips and help. I have some thief experience if u need any help I can give u a hand. Thief is a hard class to master so, take your time to learn it.

The gear req is great because no one will have advantage in terms of stats. I love that.

Good luck!

Watch videos, streams etc. One of the best tips I can give is play the class you want to play in pve, level it a bit, get a feel for the abilities. Helped me when I first stated the game!

Espidow.1729:

I can’t even see what has killed me.

If you have problems understanding what killed you, I would suggest to first start and play every other profession, at least, a bit.

Learn what they can do and how it look like.

While playing every profession, start with the builds featured on metabattle, but don’t limit yourself to it.

Learn the icons in your and your opponents boon and condition bar (including the profession specific icons like Glint’s Heal from the Revenant).

You have to be able to identify the spec the mesmer is probably using just by looking at him (e.g. will he confusion-burst me?).

Maybe start off with an easier to understand class first before you hop on thief.Thief can be incredible strong if played right,but it does take a while to learn everything going on this game and even then it can still be hard to accomplish.Grab an easier class i reckon so you can atleast stay alive long enough to figure out wth is going on and being able to learn how to counter it.

Otherwise stay on your thief but go 1on1 with some people to practice,best way to get your thief in shape.

Yes they make a few professions stonger than the rest to the point you are playing games against only those professions and you have to start playing one of those professions. Anet ignores any complaints about this until they feel like doing something about it and then make 3 other professions stronger than the rest, ignore complaints.. repeat.

Except Elementalist.. I’m sure one of the devs plays this because it’s been overpowered for the last couple of years.

No matter of the class your first steps into pvp will be very frustrating and you will die a lot. Once you figure out what is happening this may start to change. But yes, the pvp is broken for quite some time The best you can do is watch twitch/youtube daredevils and understand the play instead of trying to figure it out on your own.

Not my class but this one looks ok: http://www.twitch.tv/sindrenerr/v/39869100 also metabattle.com will help you with your build, there are also explanations of the builds. The thieves forum may also be helpful with all the info about the class you need.

In any case, pvp in GW2 is very frustrating experience.

Thief isn’t really the best class to start with in PvP. It has a very steep learning curve, in order to play it properly. I’d highly suggest playing an easier class to begin with, like Necromancer, Guardian or Elementalist.

Like everyone else has mentioned, there are plenty of tutorials on the web, for learning how to play Thief. In the wrong hands, Thief can be the worst class in the game. In the right hands, however, the Thief can be a vital part of a team.

The key thing to remember about Thief is, you’re not playing to have 1v1s with people, or to go in arms flailing like a Warrior. You’re playing to make fair fights, unfair. If you see a 1v1, go and make it a 2v1. If you see a 2v2, make it a 3v2 etc.

A good Thief can keep the enemy team from keeping nodes, as the mobility provided by shortbow is incredibly good. It allows you to make a quick decap on a enemy controlled node, then get back to the team fight, or where you’re needed.

Make sure to learn when you should/shouldn’t engage with enemy players and your rotations.

Cyanon.1928:

Metabattle website for decent builds

Yep, there’s where I took my current build.

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Watch videos, streams etc. One of the best tips I can give is play the class you want to play in pve, level it a bit, get a feel for the abilities. Helped me when I first stated the game!

I leveled up to level 80 before even trying to play PvP and I searched on YouTube for guides and such but all of them seem outdated.

Teutos.8620:

Espidow.1729:

I can’t even see what has killed me.

If you have problems understanding what killed you, I would suggest to first start and play every other profession, at least, a bit.

Learn what they can do and how it look like.

While playing every profession, start with the builds featured on metabattle, but don’t limit yourself to it.

Learn the icons in your and your opponents boon and condition bar (including the profession specific icons like Glint’s Heal from the Revenant).

You have to be able to identify the spec the mesmer is probably using just by looking at him (e.g. will he confusion-burst me?).

The thing is where I can learn that? The wiki is really confusing, I can’t seem to find anywhere else to learn the skills and traits of every class and every class has a lot of different variations.

Thanks for everyone’s help but I feel like this won’t work for me, it seems that quite a lot of people agree that currently the PvP is unbalanced and I won’t change class just because others are just plain better, I always play as the thief/rogue/assassin in every game I play and this will be no different, if I can’t play fairly just because I don’t stick to the meta then I’ll just play when the meta is better or more fair or not play at all, at least I tried it since it caught my attention, at the end I didn’t like it but this things can happen, I won’t get frustrated trying to make this work if I see it won’t hahaha. The only problem I see here is that I’m not sure if most of the community is really salty or if there is really a balance problem in this game so I’m not completely sure on what to do.

Zynt.5769:

Thief isn’t really the best class to start with in PvP. It has a very steep learning curve, in order to play it properly. I’d highly suggest playing an easier class to begin with, like Necromancer, Guardian or Elementalist.

Like everyone else has mentioned, there are plenty of tutorials on the web, for learning how to play Thief. In the wrong hands, Thief can be the worst class in the game. In the right hands, however, the Thief can be a vital part of a team.

The key thing to remember about Thief is, you’re not playing to have 1v1s with people, or to go in arms flailing like a Warrior. You’re playing to make fair fights, unfair. If you see a 1v1, go and make it a 2v1. If you see a 2v2, make it a 3v2 etc.

A good Thief can keep the enemy team from keeping nodes, as the mobility provided by shortbow is incredibly good. It allows you to make a quick decap on a enemy controlled node, then get back to the team fight, or where you’re needed.

Make sure to learn when you should/shouldn’t engage with enemy players and your rotations.

Wow, you… you kinda broke my dreams here buddy hahaha, so a Thief is not a 1v1 class? Man, I’m used to the usual Rogue that most MMO (mainly WoW) have which is a 1v1 machine, high burst, lot’s of ccs but you’re really frail, according to your descriptions here the Thief is just a “teamplayer”, an offensive support if you will. So the only class I like doesn’t suit me it seems… Welp, now I’m completely lost.

Thief is a great 1v1 class, but different builds help different playstyles.

If you want to focus on 1v1 fights u can do it, or u can focus on supporting team fights with high burst by hit and run style, you will down enemies really fast.

However, thiefs are squishy, that being said, u should never ever be fighting anyone if u cant put smoke fields and restealths properly.

I was a good WoW rogue and a decend thief here in gw2, I have seen thiefs taking out 2 and 3 enemies constantly…. However, Thief learning curve is very high… but once u get it working it wont cange… u will be good using any build u want.

Dont get discourage by the meta… Meta is overrated imo…. if you wanna go serious with premades and voice comm or compete Meta is a must… but your skills as a thief and a build that fits your playstyle are a lot more important than a meta comp or a meta build.

At the end of the day, Meta builds are originated by creative players who tested many stuff and they came out with great builds that are later adopted by most of the community.

In my case I always use variants from meta builds that are switted for me….. I even have a non Meta guardian that is incredibly effective at team fights and 1v1s.

Anyway, if you wanna practice a few stuff, add me in game ill get on my thief try to identify what might be causing u troubles.

If you decide to go try another game, that’s ok Gl. current state of ranked pvp is a shame… however, Unranked pvp still nice and fun.

Cyanon.1928:

Thief is a great 1v1 class, but different builds help different playstyles.

If you want to focus on 1v1 fights u can do it, or u can focus on supporting team fights with high burst by hit and run style, you will down enemies really fast.

However, thiefs are squishy, that being said, u should never ever be fighting anyone if u cant put smoke fields and restealths properly.

I was a good WoW rogue and a decend thief here in gw2, I have seen thiefs taking out 2 and 3 enemies constantly…. However, Thief learning curve is very high… but once u get it working it wont cange… u will be good using any build u want.

Dont get discourage by the meta… Meta is overrated imo…. if you wanna go serious with premades and voice comm or compete Meta is a must… but your skills as a thief and a build that fits your playstyle are a lot more important than a meta comp or a meta build.

At the end of the day, Meta builds are originated by creative players who tested many stuff and they came out with great builds that are later adopted by most of the community.

In my case I always use variants from meta builds that are switted for me….. I even have a non Meta guardian that is incredibly effective at team fights and 1v1s.

Anyway, if you wanna practice a few stuff, add me in game ill get on my thief try to identify what might be causing u troubles.

If you decide to go try another game, that’s ok Gl. current state of ranked pvp is a shame… however, Unranked pvp still nice and fun.

It’s obvious that my skill is a factor here, I was a great Rogue back in WoW but that was because I played 4 years with just that class, but I can’t have even fun in Unranked while I learn when I can’t do anything, for example, an hour ago I did a match, from out of nowhere a Ranger from a distance that I could barely see him starts shooting, in an instant 50% of my HP is gone, it took literally less than 0.5 secs for me to start dodging when I saw him yet I was half dead, I use Steal, after 1 sec of Daze (in which I did around 25% of his health) he proceeds to knock me down and him and his his pet kill me in less of a second without any way of getting out of that situation, maybe you can tell me what you would have done but I feel like either I take down people who are distracted or in an unfair match up (while they have low health or It might even get ugly for me) or every time I see someone I have to start running away without doing anything.

It’s not like I want to follow the meta as if it was a rule, but I won’t play with a class that doesn’t do anything (again, I’m sure that It has a lot to do with my skill but I can’t seem to find any successful Thieves, most of the high skill players use either Necro or Revenant and the others use a couple of other classes).

It will be quite difficult at first, but don’t be discouraged. What weapon setup are you using? Unfortunately Dagger/Pistol & Shortbow are the only viable weapons in PvP right now. However, the Dagger/Pistol & Shortbow combo, gives you access to a LOT of stealth and amazing maneuverability (thanks to Shortbow skill 5).

You’ll want to stay in stealth for as long as you can and get the jump on people when they’re at lowish health, and burst them. A lot of Thieves start by using the Elite Skill Basalisk Venom, so that your first attack petrifies the enemy for 1 second. This lets you burst them quickly, then pop into stealth again to reset. It can be very annoying dealing with a Thief that constantly bursts you from stealth, then stealths after their burst, waits and does it again etc. That’s how a Thief plays, to keep getting quick bursts on enemies, then disengaging.

There are some videos on YouTube about how you can increase your stealth duration. Also you should be aware of the classes that are a counter to you, such as Guardians. If you happen to see a Guardian/Dragon Hunter, do NOT engage them 1v1. Chances are they’ll be running a trap build and will kill you with their traps.

Experienced Thieves can actually bait out their traps and evade them, but for now it would be best to avoid them.

Your priorities should be the squishies, such as Mesmers. You can burst them down pretty quickly.

For killing other plays and 1v1ing you may actually like World vs World better. ALOT of the pvp community will say that WvW is pve and is ridiculously imbalanced. (and it is but basically everyone can be OP there) But it DOES have that pvp feel but in more of an open world environment. There you can 1v1 to your hearts content. WvW has a long history of roaming thieves, each trying to kill the other. Along with any other roamers or havoc squads.