Guild Wars 2

i used to be ok vs thieves, for example on my condi engi. but sthing has changed recently, i believe since dec iniy buff. either there are more of them, or their game has evolved, i dont know…

whats thief counter? for example d/p trickery thief?

Engineer is strong against thieves. If you keep track of when they heal and use their Shadowstep you can condi load them at the correct time for a quick down. Use LoS and time your blinds as best you can. If you manage to land Supply Crate or the immobilize from it then you should always win, if you cannot then it may be detrimental as Trick Shot will bounce off the turrets.

DPS Guardians are extremely effective against thieves. They have ample access to blinds, blocks (Aegis/Shelter/Focus O-H), burning, retaliation, counter-burst, sustain, invulnerability, and a decent amount of mobility with meditation/Great sword leap. It’s a very unforgiving match up for the thief.

Necromancer’s aren’t a counter, but if they get the jump on a thief then they can drop them quickly with relative ease.

As in all match ups it’s a good idea to learn the habits of the person playing the class and read them (anticipate what they’ll do). Any class can beat a thief but from playing the class those are the most difficult match ups in my opinion.

Narcarsis.5739:

DPS Guardians are extremely effective against thieves. They have ample access to blinds, blocks (Aegis/Shelter/Focus O-H), burning, retaliation, counter-burst, sustain, invulnerability, and a decent amount of mobility with meditation/Great sword leap. It’s a very unforgiving match up for the thief.

In sPvP only bad Thieves will try to fight you 1v1, especially if you’re an Engineer. A Thief excels at “cheap-shotting” unprepared enemies and helping focus down individuals in team-fights.

Generally conditions and CC counter Thieves pretty hard, especially if you can just spam them non-stop like most Engineers can. Thieves don’t have much outside of Lyssa Runes to deal with condition spam.

DPS guard. Not a super strong class all around, but against thieves its probably the hardest counter.

Dee Jay.2460:

In sPvP only bad Thieves will try to fight you 1v1, especially if you’re an Engineer. A Thief excels at “cheap-shotting” unprepared enemies and helping focus down individuals in team-fights.

Generally conditions and CC counter Thieves pretty hard, especially if you can just spam them non-stop like most Engineers can. Thieves don’t have much outside of Lyssa Runes to deal with condition spam.

This, Thieves are only good at finishing 2 vs 1s super fast and stealing empty points. Most tanky meta builds should easily kill a power Thief and decap/cap whatever point the moron is on.

Just about anything except for an elementalist or a non-Spirit ranger can kill or otherwise defeat a thief in a significant number of situations (and those two can’t only because they’re classes in dire need of help right now). Contrary to popular belief, a mesmer can very easily kill a thief, and I do it all of the time on my mes toon. Otherwise, I’d have to agree with Caed’s analysis on which builds are the most effective against thieves.

Narcarsis.5739:

DPS Guardians are extremely effective against thieves. They have ample access to blinds, blocks (Aegis/Shelter/Focus O-H), burning, retaliation, counter-burst, sustain, invulnerability, and a decent amount of mobility with meditation/Great sword leap. It’s a very unforgiving match up for the thief.

I play DPS Guard and I approve of this message. Thieves are cake vs dps guards mwahahahahahaha

Nah dps guardians don’t counter thief. I have played with several very good dps guardians and they stuggle vs good thieves like anyone else. They melt worse thieves and can survive better vs thieves in team fights. But there is no chance a dps guard has an advantage vs a thief. Thieves have an advantage vs everyone. In 1v1s thieves are maybe worse (although still the best). In team fights, a pistol whip thief is just dominant. Completely dominant. The most OP spec in the history of gw2

Lordrosicky.5813:

Nah dps guardians don’t counter thief. I have played with several very good dps guardians and they stuggle vs good thieves like anyone else. They melt worse thieves and can survive better vs thieves in team fights. But there is no chance a dps guard has an advantage vs a thief. Thieves have an advantage vs everyone. In 1v1s thieves are maybe worse (although still the best). In team fights, a pistol whip thief is just dominant. Completely dominant. The most OP spec in the history of gw2

I have gone against top thieves and it’s still really hard not to get destroyed by the burst, though i usually came out on top (treb fights and such). It just takes good timing and some good ish dodges to avoid the burst then try to lay some burst down once they’re out of stealth

Another thief. But seriously a good thief will never die because he will reset the fight before you can kill him.

Im gonna get hated for this but basically

1. A brain

Morderger.6298:

Another thief. But seriously a good thief will never die because he will reset the fight before you can kill him.

This and this. Both sentances are correct. Good thieves don’t die because they constantly reset the fight. Port in, pistol whip/spam attacks, port out, port in, etc etc. They can port from behind a rock, or anywhere. It really is broken (sword 2)

Lordrosicky.5813:

Morderger.6298:

Another thief. But seriously a good thief will never die because he will reset the fight before you can kill him.

This and this. Both sentances are correct. Good thieves don’t die because they constantly reset the fight. Port in, pistol whip/spam attacks, port out, port in, etc etc. They can port from behind a rock, or anywhere. It really is broken (sword 2)

This is why thief is op compared to other burst specs, besides maybe vs guadian burst. A staff ele cant kite or use ledge advantage when a thief can just teleport to them whenever they please. O you missed your backstab? keep spamming it. Missed pw? better hit 3 again. Need stability or aegis? Better use that elite for lyssa runes, its only on shorter cooldown then most Ele Defense utility skills. This is boring and unfun to play against. I’ve had a couple games over the last few days that didn’t have 1 thief and it was actually pretty fun games and close.

gesho,

Nades hurt. Bad. Nades can be dealt with easier though if you have some range on the engie. Besides, it’s very dangerous to play d/p against an engie (bombs), so most (good) d/p trickery thieves will try and pull out some cooldowns from you via shortbow – so time your kitten. Also, as caed said, using LoS is huge step in the right direction since Steal is an LoS skill. It won’t trigger the good stuff if the thief doesn’t have a LoS on their target.

Pretty much every class will beat a thief 1v1. A thief excels at spiking targets softened targets in teamfights as well as ganking unsuspecting players traveling between nodes. Because of a thief’s high mobility, they are great at capping undefended nodes and if you are trying to assault a node 1v1, a thief’s help will end the fight pretty quickly. xD

DPS guardian counters thief for the most part. However there are a couple of thief builds were you can still easily lose if you don’t play right. It depends on number of factors.

Against an unskilled or average thief, then its pretty much a one sided fight. However when I play people like Toker, Caed, or someone of the caliber not so much. Guard isn’t an instant “I win button”, you can easily lose depending on the builds or if you make any mistakes.

Carpboy.7145:

Im gonna get hated for this but basically

1. A brain

So tell me can you kill a thief using an elementalist, would love to hear from you again after.

Thank you

AoE and anticipation.

Ham-bow!
Beserker Stance if they use blind.

good leads, thx folks. prob part of a change is that i changed my builds but havent change playstyle.

I see a lot of build suggestions but no real pin point at what the counter is.

The best counter to the Thief, which is one of the games highest dps and mobility classes, Is first and for-most, Aggressive and PROactive play. Thieves rely on this play style to keep YOU on the defensive, flipping the tables can easily negate their entire set up and what they are used to. (Mesmers work in much the same way but have a much easier time at switching gears from Pro to Reactive)

At full health a thief has work to do (specifically D/D spammers) to get you into a danger zone of low health where they can more easily down you. This give you at the opening an advantage. Thieves are typically very glassy and will rely on : Evades, LoS denial (AkA Stealth) : to avoid damage.

A Stun, a Daze, an Imob or Knock Down, even a Knock Back is often enough to throw them for a loop and give you the crucial time to unload.

digressing.. Being Proactive with defenses at the opening or with a quick set up once a thief is spotted are easy ways to increase the length of the fight.

Being Aggressive means punishing the thief at every opportunity, unload CC’s and damage when they miss an attack or a cheesy c/d to lock them up and make them panic. a player in a panic state will even more likely to make mistakes. Yes, thieves have many “easy outs” to reset a fight, but often they will not attempt a “second angle” at bringing you down and will attempt the exact same combos a and attack chains again and again and again.. etkittenil either you win, they win or they give up and look for an easier target.

In a 1v2, where the thief is a “cleaner” its a lot harder to deal with. the best defense here is pretty much the same but make sure not to hyper focus on your first target and keep watch for help from either side. If you do have a thief jump you, it may be prudent to refocus on chasing it out or bringing it down (hope you kept some of your big guns at the ready).

Lotus.1682:

Pretty much every class will beat a thief 1v1. A thief excels at spiking targets softened targets in teamfights as well as ganking unsuspecting players traveling between nodes. Because of a thief’s high mobility, they are great at capping undefended nodes and if you are trying to assault a node 1v1, a thief’s help will end the fight pretty quickly. xD

Lies lies lies, play those broken weapon set and see for you’re self how brave thief is xD

Ugruk.4069:

Carpboy.7145:

Im gonna get hated for this but basically

1. A brain

So tell me can you kill a thief using an elementalist, would love to hear from you again after.

Thank you

Its called Skillfull brain macro eles

On topic, if class Mesmer and Necro
if ingame skill Confusion and Condi bomb.

You can beat thieves as an ele, but you have to spec more bunker. Like Swish suggested it requires the ele to be aggressive and if the thief over commits he will lose. But like I said before, a good thief will never die, because he/she will run to another point and/or disengage to reset.
I have killed and been killed by many a thief as an ele. I actually enjoy it if i am on my D/F bunker vs D/X thief. S/x thief on the other hand, needs a nerf bad

Morderger.6298:

a good thief will never die, because he/she will run to another point and/or disengage to reset.

Thief never die sounds godly to me, agree better nerf thief too overpowered and
face the fact that gw2 structured peebeepee has only one game mode teach you how to play your class choice and force you to do Conquest rather than Killing (the way thief meant to be). yet you’re a Thief stealing left and right makes you win either Kills or Pointnode remember the saying? Hold your point cease theirs? or Do i have to draw you a picture?. give them another game mode and it will be fine as long as capnode is not concern or better play Wvw and try to assassinate a Commander with his zergling beside him, much fun.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/%22Sic_%27Em%22

this get`sm hardest counter IG

Chapell.1346:

Ugruk.4069:

Carpboy.7145:

Im gonna get hated for this but basically

1. A brain

So tell me can you kill a thief using an elementalist, would love to hear from you again after.

Thank you

Its called Skillfull brain macro eles

On topic, if class Mesmer and Necro
if ingame skill Confusion and Condi bomb.

So cheating is the suggested method? Thanks

Spooko.5436:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/%22Sic_%27Em%22

this get`sm hardest counter IG

Thieves stealth in sPvP? That’s news to me.