Guild Wars 2

I started running not much time ago a Full Zerker SD Build in WvW. I love this build, but i feel like a soap bubble for any thief roamer. I have killed a lot of people, and also thefs too, but do not think that they were skilled.

Anyway some of them just went to stealth, after i started my bursting chain. Then backstab, stealth, backstab, and i die

Do you have any suggestion to facing these killers?

I prefer to run knights armor and everything else zerker. I do alot of solo roaming and the extra survivability is nice. In a team setup all zerker is more viable then solo. But it can still be used while solo roaming, this mix just works better for me while solo roaming.

There are a few tricks you can use while fighting thiefs. With out knowing your build im gonna assume your running tool kit, rifle turret+whatever. And most SD builds also run Accelerant-Packed Turrets. You can place your Rifle turret down and hang around that and blast it when a thief starts 2 engage. You could even place both your healing and rifle down and get a nice spike right as they engage.

Most times they will pull back and stealth, if you have your toolkit out, you blast turrets and then magnet pull/pry bar. Remember, if you use magnet pull before they go stealth it will still pull them assuming they don’t dodge roll.
In Theory this all sounds nice but thief has alot of slippery skills and i dont normally burn my heal turret that way. So use your healing turret like that offensively at your own risk

Changing out your last utility skill for Utility Goggles is another thing you can do. And using box of nails is never a bad against any melee classes . predicting the back stab and using jump shot is another thing.

In a nutshell, most DPS thief’s need 2 be spiked down quickly. over all timing your CCs and spikes is what it takes to win against a good thief. Because if not they will stealth, reset health/CDs and chip away at you if not spike again

What utilities are you running?

Absolutely fixable. Your playstyle isn’t suited to full zerk atm and that’s ok, swap a trinket to cele or anything with toughness and continue to add a trinket until you find your sweet spot. Eventually you’ll be able to run full zerk But I prefer cele as it’s magnificent on an engi.

Full zerk gear with cele trinkets = fun

here’s the build that I currently use:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1UxtLseRCdBN6wMluAyFUBRtwPFAA-TlBFwACeAAI3fU+hS9nM6AAcBAuqEEA-w

Thiefs are the only class that annoy me. I can burst each other classes, except for Guardians and sometimes other SD Engi.

Thieves are a problem when running SD.

Some tips :
Land your toolbelt reveal and burst HARD while he can’t invis.
You can try swapping Goggles for Elixer gun, as soon as the Thief engages you drop skill4 and cancel the animation, then hit him HARD. Elixer4 deals insane damage.
You can do this with Rifle 5 too. But less reliable and less damage, but it should pressure him enough on the engage.
Also protection injection and protective shield is pretty good for survival, ESPECIALLY protective shield vs thieves. You should swap Power wrench for it if you want to give it a try.
Runes of the Scholar are not suggested either in my opinion, especially if surviving is an issue. Rune of Vampirism is great for full zerk. Runes of the pack is better than Scholar too in my opinion.

I second running knight armour/zerker rifle/zerker trinkets. Like Novuake says runes of the Pack gives more reliable dps too.

I use this 6/0/0/2/6 – SD grenadier. The bit extra defense really helps against backstab thieves.

Slick shoes help too. If the thief disables on engaging, stun break > oil slick > burst >follow up cc > burst (in an ideal world)

Novuake.2691:

Thieves are a problem when running SD.

Some tips :
Land your toolbelt reveal and burst HARD while he can’t invis.
You can try swapping Goggles for Elixer gun, as soon as the Thief engages you drop skill4 and cancel the animation, then hit him HARD. Elixer4 deals insane damage.
You can do this with Rifle 5 too. But less reliable and less damage, but it should pressure him enough on the engage.
Also protection injection and protective shield is pretty good for survival, ESPECIALLY protective shield vs thieves. You should swap Power wrench for it if you want to give it a try.
Runes of the Scholar are not suggested either in my opinion, especially if surviving is an issue. Rune of Vampirism is great for full zerk. Runes of the pack is better than Scholar too in my opinion.

Yes atm, i’m using the pve gear, bcs i’m lazy :P

And yes, i will try R. of Vampirism bcs it suits perfectly with SD build. Thank you all for the help. I will try your tips

to easily deal with thieves what you want to do if you know one is nearby is put down your rifle turret and stand near it, if you think the thief is about to burst get next to it and wait, once they break stealth bamm knock them down and 1 shot them instead altearnativly put up your gear sheald and let them hit it that way you know they are close then quickly jump shot on the spot, there is a good chance you will hit them with both the take off and landing and assuming air/fire proc you should 1 shot them or hurt them so bad a quick surprise shot/analyze should finish them

also for runes i recommend getting a set of the new defender runes and taking med kit, they dont cost to much to craft and the benefits from them in a SD roamer build are amazing and incase you havnt seen them befor the stats are healing (yea it sucks) gain 1 sec regen when you block an attack, gain agies when you heal on a 10 sec cd (absolutly amazing for a zerker engineer useing med kit since you can use it at any time whenever to block an attack) and the best part heal when you block an attack 30 sec cd (the heal is around 3500 which is also amazing) add this rune with the GM tools trait armour mods and youve got so much block that thiefs wont touch you ever again.

personally after getting my hands on those defender runes i droped utility goggles completely for elixir S since all the blocks and heals you can actually run a pritty tanky full zerker build also just my personal preference take bunker down over invigorating speed for me its such an amazing trait for SD builds and i feel like its highly over looked either traits are great but i allways found the extra damage they can pump out is amazing.