Guild Wars 2

So im making this post got get some advices about the best way to fight a thief, im currently using a boonspike build pistol/shield, but from everything ive tried nothing helps against that perma stealth.
What am i supposed to do when my opponent land 2 hits and run back to stealth? best i can do is to take half his health but stealth always interrupts the fight?

I believe thiefs shouldnt be able to attack while stealth is up.

They come out of stealth when they attack and cannot restealth for 3 seconds. But if you are in WvW culling often prevents them from appearing on your screen so you can target them.

Most people will likely say you need to immobilize them, for example with the net turret so that even if they stealth you have a better idea where they are. Having played a thief, they are more slippery than that. If a thief wants to get away, he will unless there are 5+ other people applying CC.

Another option is to make them kill themselves with retaliation and confusion. That’s certainly a deterrant against them bursting you down, but many thieves, once they see the boon or condition in question, will just go away until the situation is safer for them.

A third way of fighting them is to make use of blocks (shields), invulnerability (Elixir S), and well-timed dodges. The idea is to make him waste his initiative so he is rather powerless for a short amount of time. That takes more skill and still suffers from culling issues.

However in all this it is important to know that if a thief wants to end the fight, he may do so at his discretion. If things aren’t going his way, he will leave and try again later. You cannot kill him unless he decides to stick around, or he is of less than average skill (those two statements are equivalent). That’s the profession’s design, and it’s unlikely to change.

Imo, it is really hard to kill them with condition damage when their heal skill, not only heals but stealths them and cures bleeding, poison and burning.

But anyways, what Eviator said sums it up. They can run away whenever they feel like it. Unless you burst them down (Try 100nades).

yep i though of that, keeping a slot for bombs not grenades, bombs are helpfull if you need to run but i end needing the slot :S

Anyway thanks for the advices, if i see a thief going stealth over 3 times ill run for my life!

I use Bombs/Grenades and a Tool Kit. Bomb/Tool Kits are especially useful against them via Confusion.

But I agree, Stealth is ridiculous in GW2. Shouldn’t be able to perma-stealth in a game like this. Stealth should be a defensive/offensive cooldown, not a means of absolute escape. There should be no Stealth-stacking in duration just because how long it takes for players to fade in.

+1 to that Aristio

If you’re relying on pistol/shield as your main source of damage, it will be hard to put enough hurt on the thief to make him want to withdraw (and almost impossible to down him before he escapes). You’ll almost certainly want some AoE, whether grenades, bombs, or flamethrower. I’ve found all three to be pretty good vs. thieves.

WvW is tough because thieves know they have a couple seconds after coming out of stealth to position. I’m working on a rifle/grenades/net turret build right now that I think is going to end up pretty good, since the net turret would be able to hit the thief before he renders on the screen and keep him in one place until he does. In general though, I’d say take more dps, and especially AoE dps.