Guild Wars 2

I was on my thief when an engineer friend of mine challenged me for a duel… You can tell how this went…:( it was humiliating. I run the standard d/p trickery thief. Any tips on handling engineers in general? Turret engis are an exception. Was thinking who better to ask than engineers themselves.

In general engineer counters thief, so he’s actually supposed to win. It really depends on the skilllevel of the thief and engineer tho. If the thief is able to land a good opening burst and interupts the heal (which is rly hard probably) right after that he’s in a good spot. Otherwise the engineer will always be superior.

We are vulunable to conditions and stuns, due to lack of stability and condition cleansing. Also Blinds right before high damage skills are the way to go.

I’d say with S/D you would have a chance due to the many mobility skills.
But it’s not a hard conter, it’s a fair chance if you are good with that build.
With condition P/D you have a chance, due to the invisibility and condi spam.
But both is more like a decent chance, depending on the opponents skill/build.
Its like with rock-paper-scissors Engineer is a rock while the thiefs are scissors

Alternativly you just swap to necromancer and instantly kill us with loads of condis and fear chains =D

cele rifle…

welp, even if it sounds counter-intuitive, engis will always try to stick in mid to close range to you, so we can profit the most from blunderbus, jumpshot, nades and toolkit. even tho nades say they are on a 1500 range, their projectiles are that slow that we only use them in 2 modes:
carpet-bombing a point without specific target from afar, or nade-spamming a single-target on point black.
lessons to be learned from this: if a engi charges towards you, back off and kite him. and don’t just run in a huge curcle around him, switch your pattern often with teleports, leaps and stealth to avoid preemptive nades flying towards the point you’re running to.
use LOS to avoid the long-range auto of our rifle. we definitively will rely on it if we recognize that our nades will not hit efficiently. dodge our magnet-pull. if you don’t you end in downstate without any option to avoid that. always expect a second magnet-pull right after. if you dodge, good engis will interrupt the cast and have it available again after 4sec cd.
we don’t have a cd on weapon / kit swap, so always expect us having access to our full kitten nal. if we loose health too rapidly, we will trigger elixir S (invulnerability) or our shield-block. you have no option to work around that, but to back off and burst us again within 16-20 sec (traited or not). else our block is off cd, and every 60sec we have elixir S ready as well. Elixir S is our only stunbreaker on this build tho. try to bait it out and you can stunlock and kill us pretty easily, unless we get the option to do exactly that first.
always dodge if we come really close, else overcharged shot will knock-back and prepare you for impending death.

cele engis have a wide variety of skills to choose from, and some like to take utility goggles with them if they meet a stealth-heavy thief. the goggles have a 40sec cd, are a stunbreaker and give us immunity to blind for 10sec. additionally their toolbelt skill is called analyze, the one that inflicts 10 stacks of vulnerability for 10sec and also puts reveal for 6sec on you. analyze has a 1.2k range and is a insta-cast (it can be triggered even while we’re stunned). the cd of this skill varries between 30 and 23 sec, depending on how much points your friend decided to go into our tools-line.
Choosing it in duels against thieves or mesmers is a kittenish move, but if your friend decides to do so, you have little to no chance to gain control over the fight.

anyways, engineers are the natural hard-counter for thieves, so don’t feel bad about getting obliterated so often by them.

If you get hit by Overcharged Shot, you lose!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Honestly speaking, Engineer hard-counter thief. (except the venom theif may have a chance, but generally venom thief is stronger in WvW)

If your engineer friend lose to a thief in a 1 v 1 situation, he’s not a very good engineer.

As a cele engi i find it tough fighting warriors with hammers and shield charge and bulls charge etc. The stuns hurt. Not every class can beat every class and there’s no one build that beats all other builds. I guess that’s where the very top players separate themselves from the rest of us.

Royale.5863:

As a cele engi i find it tough fighting warriors with hammers and shield charge and bulls charge etc. The stuns hurt. Not every class can beat every class and there’s no one build that beats all other builds. I guess that’s where the very top players separate themselves from the rest of us.

hammer warriors are hard countered by prot injection, without it the fight will be more of a skill match, with it they just take time

Thief vs engi? You run away and better hope you don’t get reeled in.

It’s that simple. If you don’t vastly out-play the engineer (i.e., the engineer is just straight up bad), you WILL lose the fight. Especially so as anything D/x.

I’ve actually had better luck fighting medi guards because at least you can disengage a lot easier and force them on long cooldowns.

I thank you people for the feedbacks and I agree with what most of what you have stated but I really don’t want to use any conditions against engineers unless if it’s a hybrid build if not meh as I do prefer power over condition. I actually gave the p/d build a chance but my friend had a significant amount of condition removal surprisingly. As in matter of fact I do have an level 30 alt engineer then again I rarely get on it. Anyhow the whole point of this forum was to increase my chances of winning against one when I’m forced to face an engineer because I hate the fact that you absolutely have no chance when faced against a good one. Rock Paper Scissors… God… I loathe that idea. So I’ve gotta retreat when I face a good one while roaming(wvw)? kitten if I have to…:’( we have enough hard counters… Diamondback ele,medi guard, shout bow warrior, engineer and possibly the revenant.

All for nothing burst specs works against bad AI/lesser skilled players. If it’s duel don’t stick to conquest meta where you could just use SB to just cap, use duel spec. You could try 6 0 2 0 6 s/d. I don’t know what condi spec you used but having played them all thief does fine vs cele.

A thing to keep in mind, KEEP POISON UP at all times.

ellesee.8297:

If you get hit by Overcharged Shot, you lose!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Only if shadowstep is on cooldown or not on your skillbar.

Thief has a decent chance against cele engi. It dies instantly to condi but cele is more or less fair matchup.
Just try to shortbow auto a lot. Their range options are pretty bad so they will try to get close. Kiting with shortbow is a legit tactic to pressure while denying their counterpressure.

“Go in for the kill” or so to speak when you see them go defensive. Just take a hit and run tactic by pressuring and kiting. They will miss everything if you aren’t close and constantly moving which forces them to resort to autoattacking which is very low dps.
Basically try to outplay them.

For WvW – Go full out cheese – p/d – d/p perplex cheese w/ 0/0/6/2/6. You can give engi’s a very strong run for their money and if not, you just walk away.

For sPvP – all comments above.

Amins.3710:

For WvW – Go full out cheese – p/d – d/p perplex cheese w/ 0/0/6/2/6. You can give engi’s a very strong run for their money and if not, you just walk away.

For sPvP – all comments above.

This build is really predictable:/

If he wants to duel you, play a cheese condi build! Engineers are weak to conditions, so you should be fine. Don’t forget to take the trait for condi cleanse on stealth, and confusion on Steal: a confused engi kills himself, especially if you land your condition just after he used his turret.

On d/p, your only chance is to NEVER get hit by Overcharged Shot. So try to use your #3 skill when he switches to rifle, and to be constantly jumping behind his back. But you’ll probably lose if your skill level i similar (unless you are both noobs, then the thief always have the advantage).

Sorel.4870:

If he wants to duel you, play a cheese condi build! Engineers are weak to conditions, so you should be fine. Don’t forget to take the trait for condi cleanse on stealth, and confusion on Steal: a confused engi kills himself, especially if you land your condition just after he used his turret.

On d/p, your only chance is to NEVER get hit by Overcharged Shot. So try to use your #3 skill when he switches to rifle, and to be constantly jumping behind his back. But you’ll probably lose if your skill level i similar (unless you are both noobs, then the thief always have the advantage).

He lost a few rounds at the beginning when I was using my p/d cheese build but quickly caught up to my tactics and beat me continuously the few rounds afterwards after that I proceeded with changing different builds against him … In the end he still countered me in every way till I got on my engi. We were both equally skilled, we’re not the best but we get the job done when we’re in ranked.

Use trap condi thief(WvW) then or you are using the wrong traits/utilities for condi thief(PvP).

Nephrite.6954:

He lost a few rounds at the beginning when I was using my p/d cheese build but quickly caught up to my tactics and beat me continuously the few rounds afterwards after that I proceeded with changing different builds against him … In the end he still countered me in every way till I got on my engi. We were both equally skilled, we’re not the best but we get the job done when we’re in ranked.

By noobs I meant new players, and you obviously aren’t, so it’s normal for you to lose on a power-based build.

As of the p/d cheese build, the problem could simply be that he’s used to his build and you are not. Especially if you never play d/d or s/d, you won’t be used to landing CnDs. If you really want to beat him one day (we all have that one friend who destroys us on our favorite profession, making us rage!), p/d is still your best bet. One more advice: play carrion and not rabid. Vitality is superior to toughness against conditions, and your stealthed attack on pistol deals great power damage as well.

Nephrite.6954:

I was on my thief when an engineer friend of mine challenged me for a duel… You can tell how this went…:( it was humiliating. I run the standard d/p trickery thief. Any tips on handling engineers in general? Turret engis are an exception. Was thinking who better to ask than engineers themselves.

Did you try p/d perplexity with thieves guild? Or a zerker build, force him to use supply crate, stealth reset the fight with no turrets open with thieves guild.

Thieves guild is almost insta win 1v1.

xDudisx.5914:

Nephrite.6954:

I was on my thief when an engineer friend of mine challenged me for a duel… You can tell how this went…:( it was humiliating. I run the standard d/p trickery thief. Any tips on handling engineers in general? Turret engis are an exception. Was thinking who better to ask than engineers themselves.

Did you try p/d perplexity with thieves guild? Or a zerker build, force him to use supply crate, stealth reset the fight with no turrets open with thieves guild.

Thieves guild is almost insta win 1v1.

he wont be able to pull a crate without dying because of that

..at least, in a fairly skilled fight

Yeah guys it’s a fair match up if the engi doesn’t pull crate up… But come on what are the odds.

Burst them first then spam head shot and auto hoping that you interrupted their heal . Also it’s good to shadow shot when they go rifle you suspect a overcharge shot. Plus watch for slick shoes by keeping max melee distance. Reset if your in trouble and repeat first process. You can retaliate faster than a engi can cause you run off of inti.

SnowCow.5914:

Burst them first then spam head shot and auto hoping that you interrupted their heal . Also it’s good to shadow shot when they go rifle you suspect a overcharge shot. Plus watch for slick shoes by keeping max melee distance. Reset if your in trouble and repeat first process. You can retaliate faster than a engi can cause you run off of inti.

Its a common misconception that a thief can win a reset fight against a 2-3 kit engi. For example a pistol-shield, toolkit, elixirgun + x engi can easily initiative starve a thief and will never run out of good defense or offense cooldowns.

Sorel.4870:

By noobs I meant new players, and you obviously aren’t, so it’s normal for you to lose on a power-based build.

As of the p/d cheese build, the problem could simply be that he’s used to his build and you are not. Especially if you never play d/d or s/d, you won’t be used to landing CnDs. If you really want to beat him one day (we all have that one friend who destroys us on our favorite profession, making us rage!), p/d is still your best bet. One more advice: play carrion and not rabid. Vitality is superior to toughness against conditions, and your stealthed attack on pistol deals great power damage as well.

It only works if his friend doesnt know that he plays p/d. If he does he can switch to a max range traited elixir gun condi spec. Max range spamming him with weakness/bleeds witch makes it really really obvious when he tires to get a cloak and dagger of.

Sorel.4870:

Nephrite.6954:

He lost a few rounds at the beginning when I was using my p/d cheese build but quickly caught up to my tactics and beat me continuously the few rounds afterwards after that I proceeded with changing different builds against him … In the end he still countered me in every way till I got on my engi. We were both equally skilled, we’re not the best but we get the job done when we’re in ranked.

By noobs I meant new players, and you obviously aren’t, so it’s normal for you to lose on a power-based build.

As of the p/d cheese build, the problem could simply be that he’s used to his build and you are not. Especially if you never play d/d or s/d, you won’t be used to landing CnDs. If you really want to beat him one day (we all have that one friend who destroys us on our favorite profession, making us rage!), p/d is still your best bet. One more advice: play carrion and not rabid. Vitality is superior to toughness against conditions, and your stealthed attack on pistol deals great power damage as well.

Lol of course I took carrion. Rabid is pretty much useless to a thief. What made you think I took rabid anyway? XD good news is I made a condition troll build and actually outplayed a condi necro :o who knew XDlol the build was 2/0/2/4/6 p/d and off hand d/d krait rune n carrion amu. Reason why I placed 4into acro was because of feline grace and master trapper oh n pain respond. Was running 6in SA previously but either way it works well. Oh and 1!death blossom + krait rune is 5k damage though bleeding. Potent stuff.