Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I have just started playing GW2 and I play pvp a few times and I am getting completely destroy like in seconds. I am playing with a thief.
I am trying to understand why my health bar goes down sooo quickly. is it because I am not at top level and it does not scale up well? need some specific gear?

I remember a ranger that came from no wehere and killed me in like 3-4 seconds with rapid fire.

But generally, every profession kills me quickly, it feels like there is too much damage.

Any tips will be appreciate it

1) You are new at GW2

2) You picked the most glassy of glass cannons and probably decided that damage only gear and traits with zero survivability seemed like a great idea for sPvP.

So yeah, there you go. Thief take quite some time to learn. We’re talking many months to even start getting used to the basics. You can check builds on metabattle.com. I really wouldnt recommend a Thief as the first class to play, but he if you like it keep working at it. After 2000 matches or something it might get better

Sidenote: Everyone is equal in sPvP no matter the level, so dont worry about that.

1. don’t play thief, it can’t 1v1 atm and one of the hardest professions in game
2. it is normal to get destroyed when you are new to pvp… it takes time to learn classes and learn how to fight them…. if you have issue with ranger, try to play them and see what they can do and what their weaknesses are….
3. check http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki , it has most common pvp builds with short guide

People like burst meta. It’s cool and edgy.

I personally think it’s stupid, and just about everything in the game needs to be toned down a tad bit, in just about all extremes. You could argue it balances itself out, where there’s gross condition application, there’s also gross removal, and gross burst, there’s gross tankiness/evades, but in the end you just get a mess of spammy, bursty, proccy and particle covered mess on a node, then you move on to the next one.

I watched a 2013 warrior PVP stream by two of the devs the other day and nearly cried. I could actually tell what was going on.

I would also suggest any class but thief to start on.

Hello and welcome to the GW2 PvP community!

In sPvP your actual gear level does not matter. All you need is in the PvP build tab (the helmet icon at the top of your screen when you enter The Heart of the Mists).

A good site with some builds is metabattle.com (this site also has build guides to the most popular ‘meta’ builds as well as links twitch accounts to those who play said build for you to watch and learn from).

Thieves typically are not a class in which to fight in the open with. You have many evades, blinds and stealth skills which are there to aid a thief.

A thief’s job will consist of quickly entering a fight, quickly getting off a powerful spike or burst of damage, stomp other downed opponents discreetly and roam around capturing easy to grab points.

If you wish to wade into battle and wreak havoc or rely less on sneaky glassy builds, or are having trouble winning 1v1 fights due to inexperience, try Warrior or other ‘tankier’ classes at first for a general awareness and experience.

Here are some vids for you;

Guide to Thief in general.

Guide to Dagger Pistol Thief, most popular Thief build in GW2 PvP atm.

I would also suggest to watch some battles on youtube from previous PvP tournaments, especially with thieves like Sizer (from the pvp group TCG). There is a lot to learn from them that can not be underestimated.

The damage really is a bit too high sinc last big patch. If you are new to the game and you insist of playing a Thief, go with more defensive than offensive stats and traits, like Vitality, Toughness or Healing and Power. You can take Celestial Amulet, best one for begginers. Don’t forget to use Stealth as much as you can to avoid dmg. Your dmg won’t be great but you will survive longer.
Avoid Sword. Take D/P + SB or if you want to have easy time try double pistol and try to not stay in melee range, because melee attacks hit harder than ranged ones.

Better advice: start with a Warrior, Ranger or Necromancer. Thief only has 12k base health, while Warrior and Necro both have 18k and rAnger 15k or something like this.

As a Thief your job is to Blind and Weaken your opponents to avoid big hits …

Cynz.9437:

1. don’t play thief, it can’t 1v1 atm and one of the hardest professions in game

There are some builds that are complete cheese in 1v1, making it virtually unkillable.

WEXXES.2378:

Cynz.9437:

1. don’t play thief, it can’t 1v1 atm and one of the hardest professions in game

There are some builds that are complete cheese in 1v1, making it virtually unkillable.

you mean pd? i hardly doubt new player can pull it off

Cynz.9437:

WEXXES.2378:

Cynz.9437:

1. don’t play thief, it can’t 1v1 atm and one of the hardest professions in game

There are some builds that are complete cheese in 1v1, making it virtually unkillable.

you mean pd? i hardly doubt new player can pull it off

Condi p/d thief only exists in WvW due to Dire,food and runes it’s complete trash in PvP for real this time not just an opinion someone thinks they did a good job balancing. Yes I wouldn’t recommend thief as a starter class.

Play a different class.

Even good thieves down against most classes in the current meta.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Play a different class.

Even good thieves down against most classes in the current meta.

what a lie

edit: need to add /sarcasm to it

Cynz.9437:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Play a different class.

Even good thieves down against most classes in the current meta.

what a lie

Good thieves OP, need a few fingers chopped off or something.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Cynz.9437:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Play a different class.

Even good thieves down against most classes in the current meta.

what a lie

Good thieves OP, need a few fingers chopped off or something.

aye, havn’t you seen all the thief threads and everyone claiming how OP ans “fine” thieves are xD

ronpierce.2760:

People like burst meta. It’s cool and edgy.

I personally think it’s stupid, and just about everything in the game needs to be toned down a tad bit, in just about all extremes. You could argue it balances itself out, where there’s gross condition application, there’s also gross removal, and gross burst, there’s gross tankiness/evades, but in the end you just get a mess of spammy, bursty, proccy and particle covered mess on a node, then you move on to the next one.

I watched a 2013 warrior PVP stream by two of the devs the other day and nearly cried. I could actually tell what was going on.

if you think that the burst meta is a real thing post-2012 you have a severely distorted perception of whats going on.

the most dominant builds in the game right now are all literally non-burst, varying levels of sustain-oriented builds:

• celestial ele – sustain
• bunker guardian – paradigm of sustain
• celestial/mm necro – sustain
• soldier’s engie – sustain
• SA thief – sustain
• PU mesmer – sustain
• NM/WS/BM ranger – sustain
• Discipline/Str/Def warrior- sustain(ish) (can’t really compare to the old shoutbow though)

every single profession is running two defensive traitlines (or one defensive and one utility traitline) and an offensive traitline, and an amulet that has at least one or more defensive stats. glass cannons are completely non-existent, they’ve been pushed out viability almost entirely.

so if anything, sustain is shaping the meta, because as it stands the meta is entirely shaped by how much sustain you can fit in your build while remaining offensively strong; which is why elementalist and necro are dominating the meta while you also have things on mesmer, ranger, and engineer that are also going to need nerfing.

also OP, don’t play thief. it’s arguably the hardest profession in the game to get good at and play well, and is under-rewarding in the current meta because of how many overpowered professions there are in need of a varying levels of nerfs while thief is in need of slight buffing.

sinject.4607:

ronpierce.2760:

People like burst meta. It’s cool and edgy.

I personally think it’s stupid, and just about everything in the game needs to be toned down a tad bit, in just about all extremes. You could argue it balances itself out, where there’s gross condition application, there’s also gross removal, and gross burst, there’s gross tankiness/evades, but in the end you just get a mess of spammy, bursty, proccy and particle covered mess on a node, then you move on to the next one.

I watched a 2013 warrior PVP stream by two of the devs the other day and nearly cried. I could actually tell what was going on.

if you think that the burst meta is a real thing post-2012 you have a severely distorted perception of whats going on.

the most dominant builds in the game right now are all literally non-burst, varying levels of sustain-oriented builds:

• celestial ele – sustain
• bunker guardian – paradigm of sustain
• celestial/mm necro – sustain
• soldier’s engie – sustain
• SA thief – sustain
• PU mesmer – sustain
• NM/WS/BM ranger – sustain
• Discipline/Str/Def warrior- sustain(ish) (can’t really compare to the old shoutbow though)

every single profession is running two defensive traitlines (or one defensive and one utility traitline) and an offensive traitline, and an amulet that has at least one or more defensive stats. glass cannons are completely non-existent, they’ve been pushed out viability almost entirely.

so if anything sustain right now is shaping the meta, so right now the meta is entirely shaped by how much sustain you can fit in your build while remaining offensively strong, which is why elementalist and necro are dominating the meta while you also have things on mesmer, ranger, and engineer that are also going to need nerfing once ele and necro are put in line.

Builds gravitate towards those builds because damage is globally too high to survive without it. In a scenario where offensive stats scale better than defensive stats, active defenses become the standard. With a few exceptions, such as D/D ele, which run celestial because of maximizing potential, most builds still run fairly glassy amulets and the idea is to insta-gib someone. The traits are merely a means of preventing said burst. D/P and PU mesmers are not “sustain” builds, they’re just safer burst builds.

When you play D/P thief, you have to think like an assassin. Your job isn’t to tank damage. Your job is to assassinate and finish the fight. You also got utility skills that can save your friends like stealth.

Go to places where you are needed. If you think the battle is hopeless, go somewhere else. Decap a empty point, +1 on someone else battle and finish it quickly. If you realize that it won’t be a quick death, stealth away.

Remember, you are an assassin, not a tanky warrior.

ronpierce.2760:

Builds gravitate towards those builds because damage is globally too high to survive without it. In a scenario where offensive stats scale better than defensive stats, active defenses become the standard. With a few exceptions, such as D/D ele, which run celestial because of maximizing potential, most builds still run fairly glassy amulets and the idea is to insta-gib someone. The traits are merely a means of preventing said burst. D/P and PU mesmers are not “sustain” builds, they’re just safer burst builds.

2 out of 8 builds being spike damage oriented does not make a burst meta.

“In a scenario where offensive stats scale better than defensive stats, active defenses become the standard.”

ok so you’re decrying a burst meta, but at the same time saying an increased effectiveness of offensive investments would bring about the proliferation of active (skillful, the kind we want) defense? it sounds like you want a meta of boring sustain builds.

sinject.4607:

ronpierce.2760:

Builds gravitate towards those builds because damage is globally too high to survive without it. In a scenario where offensive stats scale better than defensive stats, active defenses become the standard. With a few exceptions, such as D/D ele, which run celestial because of maximizing potential, most builds still run fairly glassy amulets and the idea is to insta-gib someone. The traits are merely a means of preventing said burst. D/P and PU mesmers are not “sustain” builds, they’re just safer burst builds.

2 out of 8 builds being spike damage oriented does not make a burst meta.

“In a scenario where offensive stats scale better than defensive stats, active defenses become the standard.”

ok so you’re decrying a burst meta, but at the same time saying an increased effectiveness of offensive investments would bring about the proliferation of active (skillful, the kind we want) defense? it sounds like you want a meta of boring sustain builds.

Lets not get all buzz-wordy over this. Its a fairly objective stance to suggest that, in its current state, active defenses VASTLY over power defensive stats, and Power stats vastly over power defensive stats (in all game modes). Whether or not you want to hear it or not, and if you like bursty gameplay revolving around who can have the most blocks/stealth/invulnerabilities/best openers, Damage is still high…

Liking or it hating it is a totally different situation. I’m not hating you for liking fast kills. I personally think there’s a better medium to be had of less passives in the game (procs, both offensive and defensive) and a better stat balance.