Guild Wars 2

Alright so Gimmick Warriors are easy enough to handle now. But how the heck do one handle Thiefs with their 8.3k Backstabs n 3.6k steals etc? Just give up n die or is there a way to actually fight them?

Not a problem now after i i switched from a dps build to pvp armor with vit/toughness/pow gems and accessories.

They need to kill you within 4-6 seconds, after that they are out of initiative and usually try run away ( which if they are any good they can easily )

The problem is against good thieves they will do their burst, run away, and before you go out of combat come back and kill you. This is my experience with defending a point and in team fights, btw.

1v1 you have to do damage to them in the short period while they’ve waste their burst on your invulnerability/dodge/toolkit shield, and hopefully land a immobilize as well. But against good thieves built for 1v1 and burst you can expect a shadowstep/inflitrator’s arrow away the moment you gain any sort of advantage.

Also, if you think thieves are bad to 1v1 try a good mesmer built for dueling. I still have no idea how to beat those.

what i do vs mesmers which helps alot of to make sure you put a target on him the little crosshair really helps and

I found for burst melee thieves Elixir S will win the fight for you. If you pop it right when they get on you. Even against good thieves they’ll spam 1-2 abilities into you after it goes up before they can stop their attacks.

This guts their initiative and if they don’t drop into stealth right away and flee you’ve pretty much won. It works well whether you run conditions or power. To be honest elixir S is pretty much a most in any 1v1 situations since you can use it to gut most damage rotations without burning your dodges.

I’ve found that 1v1 I can usually force a thief to abandon their attempt to kill me, if I haven’t already killed them first. Been using this build:

Firearms: 30 : Hair trigger, Rifle Mod/Rifled Barrels, Go For The Eyes/Coated Bullets
Inventions: 20: Energized Armour/Protective Shield, Protective Shield/Reinforced Shield
Alchemy: 20: Fast Acting Elixirs, Cleaning Formula

Italics = pistol set up.

Skills: Elixir H, Elixir B, Slick Shoes, Net Turret, Supply Drop.

Up to you if you use rifle or pistol. If you go for rifle then you have the option of dropping net turret and taking Elixir S to help with dodging. Personally I keep net turret on my bar since combined with the rifle it gives me 4 chances to root them, in between using overcharged shot to KD. Usually combat goes like this:

Use net turret skill on toolbelt to root and begin to chip away at their health, drop net turret and let that root them for a second time. Usually I find they try and stealth so a soon as they reveal themselves I KD them with overcharged shot then as they’re getting up fire the net turrets electric net to daze them for a second or two. By this point they’re either near enough dead or trying to flee so a net shot from the rifle solves this problem.

Pistol and shield works the same except you use the shield’s Magnetic Shield and Static Shield to KD and stun. Advantage of the pistol is you have a easier way of blinding along with the conditions to chip away at their health.

If you do find yourself fleeing then slick shoes and their toolbelt counterpart should give you the means to flee along with dropping a net turret if it isn’t on CD.

Personally, I have some serious trouble with quickness/dagger storm thieves.

I am somewhat tanky, yet they drop me so mind bogglingly quickly… by the time I actually notice the thief teleporting towards me, he already fires off his full combo before I get any chance to counter. Toolkit block is a nice counter, but it is so incredible specific for this one situation, I don’t want to be forced into it just because of one build.

Any other ideas how to deal with this specific type of thieves?

I have had good success with thieves by strafe kiting (so they can’t get behind me) them while dropping bombs constantly. They usually kill themselves before they know what they’re doing. I have a hard time with good mesmers, anyone have tip for them?

@ Shep
I deal with mesmer using a few ways, one is to mark them with ctrl+click. The second is careful observation, clones don’t strafe or run backwards, just turn and forward.

If they dual wield, you can also look for offhand weapon, clones don’t have those.
When they are downed, and this is the good part, never go for the 1st one to come out of stealth, that’s the clone. Mesmer will always be the 2nd person to come out of stealth because of cooldown on attack/animation.

We don’t have any reliable speed buffs(i’m a 50 mesmer), so I always found a good solution to use Elixir B for swiftness and a flamethrower or bomb kit to stick close and aoe, the clones die fast.