Guild Wars 2

What is the best strategy for an ele to win in a skirmish with a thief? I’m currently a d/d with an earth/water spec for survivability in up close fights and i like my build. I just have a problem when it comes to thieves in WvW. What skills should I be using in order to burn them down? Should I rely more on spamming ccs like knockdown/stun etc? It seems as soon as they vanish, I try to aoe but it doesn’t help.

Just wondering if any eles out there have an effective strategy for dealing with thief pvp.

Thanks.

Yeah. Follow this guide very closely

There’s no “reliable” way to deal with them. As far as I know, it widely depends on how good they are.

Basically yes, use all the knockdowns you can, all the fights I win with thieves are the ones which I was able to break out of the initial burst, either by knockback (earthquake, I usually roam in earth) or mistform, using signet of earth to get them to stay where I need them to (I’m S/D) and unloading fire – then as soon as they pop out of stealth, ride the lightning, updraft and try to finish. (or updraft first if they didnt run away and tried to open again)

It’s all very subjective, every fight is different from the last, but yes, use them CC’s as much as you can – if you give them more than 3 or 4 seconds of burst time on you, you’re dead :/

Its not just elementalist, nearly no one can deal with a thief.

Elementalists must have the highest number of knockdowns and blinds in the game.
If you’re dagger/dagger: shock aura, earthquake, updraft
If you’re scepter/dagger: dust devil, blinding flash, earthquake, updraft

You also have cantrips to survive their bursts, mobility skills (burning speed, air attunement bonus, ride the lightning, magnetic grasp) to confuse them (or run away), and a single attack with 8-point bleeding.

Show those thieves no mercy!

I used to really struggle against the Thief but as I got better with my Elementalist I don’t fear them like I used too. Playing defensively though the start of the fight is key! I almost always dodge before I even attack. When I go to attack (I’m D/D btw) I’m less aggressive than I would be against a Mesmer or a Ranger. Well timed evasive skills, dodging and creating gaps while letting their initiative run out and you conditions weaken them. Somewhere around 5 to 10 seconds into the fight I got all out on them. If the take off running and RtL or Mag Grasp are on CD I’ll just let them go and heal up in case they come back.
I pretty much on D/D in s/tPvP and it took me some time to really adjust to the style. Being melee your instinct is to always hump the target and unload the burst. This is a good tactic against ranged but when fighting another melee we need to be more defensive. I feel we are the squishiest of melee builds (I’m not suggesting that’s a fact just my opinion) so dodging, having escape/cleansing utilities and traiting for at least some survivability is important.

lol that video is funny

I hear Arcane Shield is a decent counter to spamming Thieves. Of course you need be ready to do something after they trigger the explosion.

1) Ditch the daggers

2) Get a Staff

3) Spec Splish Splash

4) If Thief is Pistol Whip spec, save swapping to water until he blows his teleport as this will remove the 2 conditions (one being a 3 second immobilize) he just put on you and immediately dodge roll the incoming Pistol Whip. Proceed to laugh in his face.

If Thief is Heartseeker, rotate attunements dropping as much AoE as you can to stop him from auto-attacking you to 50% at which point he gets a free kill. During this point, blow both dodge roll making him think he has a free win; swap to fire and hit 4, or swap to water and hit 4 laying it between him and you, or pop Mist Form when you see him leap at you and laugh while he wastes his initiative because he inherently spams his #2 three times.

Did I mention never use your heal unless its a last resort, try to do healing by comboing your dodge rolls into Geyser or Healing Rain.

5) …

6) Profit, he will either run away because he realizes you will eventually kill him or he will scream bloody murder and get his team to zerg you. He also has the option of gaining 10 sissy points and running away (let him, you have demoralized him and you can’t catch him anyway).

Actually thieves are the easiest to kill, because 98% of them are running a burst build and dont know what to do when they cant heartseeker.

Running D/D I open with Shocking Aura. That’ll usually net you 1-2 stuns. They sometimes open with a stun, so that’ll negate that. If they dont, follow with a Shocking Touch and Updraft. Usual combo in fire, then Earth and as soon as he stealths Knockdown and Ring of Earth. Move away from him and wait for stealth to end, Magnetic Grab and Churning Earth. Land it with Lightning Flash and its game.

Thats only against pubs, good thieves are quite different.

Dont heal till you have removed posion btw