Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

I fought a really good S/D Thief in WvWvW with my D/D Ele and I like to ask some pointers.

He was in Gold Something Rank and he knew what he was doing.

At the beginning he was very aggressive and I was able to bring him to %10 then he started stealthing and kiting me, he dodge my magnetic grasp, after I used my RTL and LF he just open the distance again with the bow and nuke me from the distance with the shortbow.

While I was poisoned and because of the short bow nukes I could not heal to full and next time he steal from me I was out of CDs and he got me down.

Now I was thinking what I did wrong, I have a feeling if a thief just runway that way, I just turn and go away? Or just spam Lighting Whip and dodge 3s after he stealths.

Because I try to put him burning or hit with AOE but he evades everything with S/D number 3.

So any advice what to do differently?

Most of it just comes from experience, but here are a few tips.

- Tapping left and right while he’s in shortbow will cause his autoattacks to miss
- The only moments you can reliably hit an S/D thief is during the last half of the SB 3 and sword 3 animation.
- Try to stay on top of your condition management. Both chill and poison are very dangerous for an ele. Handling them well will make sure you keep the upper hand.
- Don’t waste your shocking aura. This is the best way to deal with constant shortbow resets. Shocking aura has a relatively short cooldown, and if you manage to sync it up with his steal, you’ll stop his assault dead in its tracks.

As you said, it may be wise to not chase him too hard when he’s in shortbow. Use the time you’re given to stack some might. Maybe try a churning even.

I wish there was a way for us to keep condition management and get to the ‘Rock Solid’ then this matchups would be so much easier but giving up the GM traits from Water and Arcana hurts so much.

posthumecaver.6473:

I wish there was a way for us to keep condition management and get to the ‘Rock Solid’ then this matchups would be so much easier but giving up the GM traits from Water and Arcana hurts so much.

I’m unsure of why you would think ‘Rock Solid’ would help you in this matchup. My best guess is that you’re running ether renewal, which would be a terrible idea. I could go on for a whole page about ether vs signet, but take it from me that ether is vastly inferior vs a power thief. If he’s at all capable he’ll just jump on you while you’re channeling it and completely negate the healing you do by the 3s of free cast you give him. Not to mention he could just interrupt it with steal.

By the way, on almost every S/D build, steal will rip stability and then daze, meaning not even stability will ensure your ether goes off unhindered.

0xx66 is all the cleanse you’ll need. Either soothing wave or soothing disruption will compliment the burst cleanse from water attunement nicely.

Mainly because of the Daze after every steal and venom.

make him waste initiative chasing you instead.