Guild Wars 2

Because of culling, what you say is only theoretically accurate. they can use culling to bridge their non-stealth segments. pretty simple, actually.

Ive been maining a thief recently. Switched over from a Necro. One thing I have learnt to fear is the Warrior, particularly is he is packing a mace. Warriors are the only class I will avoid 1v1s with. 1v1 a guardian was difficult when I first started off, but learnt you have to play them a bit differently.

Most thiefs are getting around with between 10k and 12k health. A warrior seems to be able to burst this down before I can get into stealth with the charge ability (cant remember the name – the one that leaps at you and knocks you down). Then if I do manage to get into stealth its ground slam F1 style for the finish.

It seems alot of players feel this too. Ive noticed a trend where I pick up a few dolyak kills and kill the players escorting them and the reaction is to send a warrior to deal with it.

Mesmers are no issue imo. I had trouble with them at first, then I realised that if you steal from them, you get every boon in the game.

Another tip, if you are a ranger or the likes and you think a thief is about to stealth, use a burst skill like rapid fire (LB) and the rest of the burst will still deal damage when they are in stealth.

As for stealth, there is about a 20 second gap if you chain together stealth abilities, where you are not going to be able to be in stealth (not including cloak and dagger or stealth on steal). Thats with a full crit build, which seems to do alot more damage than condition build.

Thieves are easy to stomp.
Step 1: Start your stomp. Do it quick, don’t hesitate.
Step 2: When the thief teleports, cancel your stomp and dodge roll to his new location. Dodge rolling is important because you will probably be crippled.
Step 3: Stomp him. The stealth ability does not come off cooldown quick enough to prevent 2 stomps unless you’re being slow or get distracted by his teammates.

Sometimes the thief might be able to teleport to a location that is out of your line of sight (but not his) and be hidden behind a pillar or around a corner from you. Just learn to expect it and you can still stomp him in time before his stealth is off cooldown. Or, just DPS them like others have said. Most thieves are incredibly squishy.

Thieves are not hard to stomp, they have a very good downed state but they aren’t impossible to finish off.

First it was we do too much damage. Then it was culling makes us invisible forever (which is a complete and fabricated lie). After that it was we never die. Now it’s being argued that we cannot be killed while downed? Give me a break. A thief can move away from a player attempting to finish him but he can only do it once and if you honestly have an issue killing him after that you should probably uninstall this game.

The truth is, thieves are capable of massive damage but in order to do so he has to give up all means of survivability (i.e. zero toughness or vitality increases) so if you actually know how to play, glass cannon thieves are a cakewalk. Aside from Basilisk Venom and crippling effects, thieves have no real means of control. No roots. No stuns. Just movement impairing effects. Take some condition removal, which you should have already, and dodge to the left or right when he exits stealth on you. Burst him down and he will do one of three things.

1. He will likely pop Hide In Shadows. If a thief pops HiS he is committing to you as his target 100% so if he gets this off a good portion of your work to kill him has been completely in vain. As with any self heal utility it’s painfully obvious when a thief is casting this so if you have any stuns, immobilizes, interrupts, or daze abilities, use them the moment you see him cast this. It will put the ability on cooldown, heal for nothing, and likely give you the opportunity to finish him.

2. He will use Shadow’s Refuge. If a thief uses this ability it means he is likely trying to get away or trying to recollect himself before engaging you again. While in his Refuge AoE he has about 3 seconds of which he cannot exit this refuge or he will lose his stealth. If he succeeds in not leaving or being knocked out after this duration is over he will have 10 seconds of stealth and can move anywhere. AoE his location as much as possible and you can either down him or force him to leave the bubble.

3. He will Shadowstep away. If a thief uses this you haven’t killed him but you’ve scared him off completely. Pat yourself on the back.

Thieves are not broken and they are probably one of the worst classes at high levels of play as illustrated by the fact that NO ONE plays them at tournament level play.

The issue is that this is the wvwvw forum, not tournament.

Columba.9730:

The issue is that this is the wvwvw forum, not tournament.

Right right because I forgot how everything I just said related 100% to WvW except my statement about them not being viable in tournament play.

Stop selectively reading what people are saying and drawing false conclusions from their arguments.

Well your central argument is that thieves are not popular in tournament play. I simply point out that this isn’t about tournament play.

Columba.9730:

Well your central argument is that thieves are not popular in tournament play. I simply point out that this isn’t about tournament play.

That was definitely NOT my central argument whatsoever. My central argument was that thieves are one of the easiest classes to outplay and I listed 3 scenarios that every player will run into when playing a thief. I simply added the tournament statement to further the statement that thieves honestly suck; most people are too busy whining to learn how to counter them.

Too Frisky.9165:

Columba.9730:

Well your central argument is that thieves are not popular in tournament play. I simply point out that this isn’t about tournament play.

That was definitely NOT my central argument whatsoever. My central argument was that thieves are one of the easiest classes to outplay and I listed 3 scenarios that every player will run into when playing a thief. I simply added the tournament statement to further the statement that thieves honestly suck; most people are too busy whining to learn how to counter them.

Bingo. Everyone complains about thieves being unstompable but they don’t even realize that they can get 2 stake attempts off before #3 is active (because they are really slow and bad at pressing buttan). This whole thread is a basic L2P issue.

I’ve yet to see what thieves give up for survivability, particularly in wvwvw.

Columba.9730:

I’ve yet to see what thieves give up for survivability, particularly in wvwvw.

That’s simply because you refuse to be reasoned with and your mind is already made up (your post history is a dead give away).

LOCO.1785:

Columba.9730:

I’ve yet to see what thieves give up for survivability, particularly in wvwvw.

That’s simply because you refuse to be reasoned with and your mind is already made up (your post history is a dead give away).

I roll a 30/30/30/30/30 thief they are pretty good you should try it some time.

Columba.9730:

yet again thief apologists chant l2p anything anything is questioned about thieves. just get others to help you kill the thief.

You’re everywhere when it comes to “thieves”
Like post said before thieves have a teleport you have a window to stomp him if he blinks use skills like(steal,blinks to finish him off without interrupting the cast time of the stomp.) there if you wait another 2 seconds he can go stealth but doesnt reposition himself, here is where you autoattack spam. Simple enough?

If you are a high dps class, you don’t stomp thieves. You kill them. It goes a lot faster. But this is pretty basic knowledge so i assume that you are not a high DPS class. In that case, you really have to force him into using the shadowstep skill. When that is done, you have to go to him very fast and stomp him. If you don’t do all of this quick enough, his stealth will be recharged. So if you know it took too long, don’t bother stomping from this point onwards. You just do full DPS and keep attacking when he enters stealth.

Basically, only do the second stomp attempt if you are fast and his stealth is still not recharged.

Jerks.3172:

Columba.9730:

yet again thief apologists chant l2p anything anything is questioned about thieves. just get others to help you kill the thief.

You’re everywhere when it comes to “thieves”
Like post said before thieves have a teleport you have a window to stomp him if he blinks use skills like(steal,blinks to finish him off without interrupting the cast time of the stomp.) there if you wait another 2 seconds he can go stealth but doesnt reposition himself, here is where you autoattack spam. Simple enough?

Columba.9730:

Jerks.3172:

Columba.9730:

yet again thief apologists chant l2p anything anything is questioned about thieves. just get others to help you kill the thief.

You’re everywhere when it comes to “thieves”
Like post said before thieves have a teleport you have a window to stomp him if he blinks use skills like(steal,blinks to finish him off without interrupting the cast time of the stomp.) there if you wait another 2 seconds he can go stealth but doesnt reposition himself, here is where you autoattack spam. Simple enough?

i usually get 5 dps classes to kill him while he's down.

I’m done replying to you, your way too stubborn and ignorant when people actually tell you how to counter thieves. Yet you still run to every thief forums and go ErMahGerd Thieves OP needs nerf.

GL ANet hope you dont fall for all this QQing Columba has made.