Guild Wars 2

Hi folks!

I roam a lot solo, and thief’s drive me nuts with their ability to reset fights and pretty much follow you around until they can kill you.

As a solo roamer, is there a class/build that can win against the thief and still tak out supply camps etc alone?

Do I need to play a thief in order to solo against them?

Thanks for your opinions!

Travesty.8237:

Hi folks!

I roam a lot solo, and thief’s drive me nuts with their ability to reset fights and pretty much follow you around until they can kill you.

As a solo roamer, is there a class/build that can win against the thief and still tak out supply camps etc alone?

Do I need to play a thief in order to solo against them?

Thanks for your opinions!

What class are you?

Generally anything that blocks is good in order to avoid the spike damage and hard crowd control to lock them down.

Or roll a cheese condition build and kill them with that.

warriors can, shatter mesmers can but its harder, d/d 0-0-10-30-30 elementalist with a right gear setup is a nightmare for a stealth thief due to high hitting random aoes and too much protection to get hit hard and the stustain. condi engineer builds(perplexity if ur looking for easymode) meditation guardian> no meditation guardian should lose to a stealth thief, necro if u stop their black powder + hs combo. thief can do it with alot of specs, OR just learn to play? if u dont want to learn to play just run away when and ignore his blackpowder+hs, if u have some toughness u wont 1 hit you with backstab and if he keeps stackign stealth he cant keep up with you. if he can ur probably not using the right build to roam. btw dont go ranger for gods sake.

Thanks for the feedback. I play a meditation guardian. The problem I have is that they just keep resetting the fight until I’m occupied with something else and jump me lol.

I just have difficulty killing them before they “poof” away. Maybe it’s a L2P issue =D

If you face a good thief, you will never going to kill him, you will only force him to run away or stealth and reset the fight over and over.

I you aren’t a thief, even if the thief need to try 30 times to kill you, sooner or later you will die.

You need another infinite fighter (like GS warrior, D/D ele, PU mesmer), and always will be a tie or a “run away victory” never a kill.

Welcome to guild war 2 amazing combat mechanic.

Travesty.8237:

Thanks for the feedback. I play a meditation guardian. The problem I have is that they just keep resetting the fight until I’m occupied with something else and jump me lol.

I just have difficulty killing them before they “poof” away. Maybe it’s a L2P issue =D

You should be able to kill d/p thiefs with a medi build, but if you face a p/d perplexity thief you’re screwed.

Depends on the build…

I have the most success against the basic SA thieves with my mesmer, either playing a PU (power GS, S/T variant) solo or shattering build in groups. They have the tools to avoid the initial round of backstabs, deliver a massive spike when the the thief makes one mistake or runs low on initiative or endurance, and can easily knock them them out of shadow refuge. Those are the keys to beating an SA thief with a power build.

P/D perplexity and really good sword / trickery (whatever the build is called) thieves are tough to beat with power builds though, if not impossible. I also fear SA thieves will be much harder to kill when the new -50% damage trait in stealth. If you’re trying to beat a thief (any) with a condi build, the only good one is an engi because they have the tool kit pull to grab runners and shield knockback for refuge. Other condi builds are very easy to refuge, clear condis, and run away from.

On your guardian, the key is is binding blade on refuge to pull them out, and setting up spikes that combine whirling wrath or zealot’s defense with the ending damage from shield of wrath, then getting in some more damage with your leap and teleports as they try to run away. A meditations beserker guardian has three skills to block backstabs and two prots from courage activation in a normal fight. It’s another great class to beat power thieves, but can quickly succumb to heavy condi damage.

Travesty.8237:

I just have difficulty killing them before they “poof” away. Maybe it’s a L2P issue =D

Is not a l2p issue. Is a design issue.

The l2p is the excuse of thieves to justify a broken mechanic.

I have a lot of success on my ranger using a LB, as the 2 skill (Rapid Fire) follows them in stealth. They are going to have trouble mitigating the built up damage of the weapon skill. This being said, I run a trolly power build, which is pretty bad for general roaming besides thieves.

I take it, you are talking about the regular D/P stalker trash, which keeps trying and trying till the stars align or you get bored of them and make a mistake.
If you are talking about seriously good players, possibly with 25/30/0/0/15 or 10/30/0/0/30 and probably D/D, who will slam into you from ~3k range with chained shadowsteps, oneshot you and blink back immediately, no single profession in the game will save you. If they want to kill you, they will.

On my D/D thief, if I see an engineer, I run.
I won’t check, what kind of buff food he has, I won’t check, what kind of stacking sigil he has, I will simply run like hell.(of course, if he has no buff food and no sigil, I will carefully take a shot at him to see, what he’s made of)

Let’s look at the possibilities.
Condition engi: duh… As soon, as a thief got both burning AND confusion on him, he’s toast.
Grenade/bomb engi: No way to backstab this one. He will just spam his feet and you got no angle to attack from.
SD engi: omgwtfbbq.
Tanky build: Have fun with that lol

Engineers are really strong against thieves. Their AoE counters stealth, and their CC makes it hard for the thief to do anything when out of stealth.

Engineers and necros do well against thieves. I win probably 80-90% of my fights against thieves on my zerker necro, and I’m not even good on my engi and can still win against them too. They both have so many AOEs.

In my experience there is no class that I cannot beat with my build. Some are definitely harder than other though. Condi builds are harder, specifically engie and Mesmer, but they’re not impossible. I would not recommend trying to do a glass build vs a backstab thief because it’s easier for a thief to burst you than it is for you to burst them. Low mobility builds have a harder time to kill thieves because they simply can’t catch up. Bunker guards can be annoying but their damage isn’t very good.

IMO, I find condi Mesmer to be the absolute hardest thing to fight IF thy are exceptionally skilled.

When I’m roaming on my Necro I look forward to finding a solo thief.

Forget about winning because ANet empowers the dairy farmers.

Just roll a Thief yourself and have fun doing nothing.

lol, i play a thief. 1 v 1, you won’t beat me unless you are a thief. Welcome to thief wars online.

Mesmers can eat thieves

Burst guardian and condibunker engi are our direct counters, give them a try

I have yet to find a solo power thief that can threaten my warrior:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vIAQNBMhNakpjWP78wyDORDIoHaYVkFqCwR6BawGpBA-zACBogCi0Cgk0QUHApnFRjtaqIas6ZER16jYBAQAmZZWmzMwQH6QH6QHaDdoDdoDdolCAmpRA-e
(I use s/s for dueling, but for roaming traited wh is much better, because of the perma swiftness and condi clears, as well as the additional adrenaline from shouts)
Now, before saying this build can’t kill thieves… it can. Easily. While taking a supply camp. And the build is infuriating to people. I have had people partying me and accusing me of being a no skill noob much more than when I was roaming on my s/d SA thief.