Advice against thieves?

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: Rok.5260

Rok.5260

TL;DR: Melee dagger builds that are really effective against thieves? And please give some advice.

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I encounter, see and fight thieves the most in WvW out of any other classes, I face at least 5-10+ Thieves per hour no joking, they just bug the hell out of me since I lose a lot against them.

I prefer using daggers since I like to get up close to melee. So is there a dagger build out there that really works against thieves? I’ve read in these forums that we are supposed to beat thieves in close combat, but I honestly don’t feel that way. Even if I get a Thief down to 50-75% health, the thief usually just stealths, and then does a huge 3-6k backstab at me.

I’ve tried minion master but against thieves it honestly doesn’t help much. My minion take at least 2-5 seconds to react, and in a fight against a glass cannon thief 2-5 seconds is a lot! And when the thief stealths and reappears again, it takes another 2-5 seconds for my minions to react again. Also there are a lot of cases where my Flesh Golem just stops attacking in the middle of the fight.

I understand there’s only 6 more days until the culling nerf, but I honestly don’t think I can stand that long lol.

(edited by Rok.5260)

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Posted by: War Mourner.5168

War Mourner.5168

The main part is to immobilise them before they stealth. Well of suffering and just 1 or 2 auto attack chains will kill a glass cannon thief.

If they try to cloak with their heal, Doom them, that gives you 5 extra seconds to punish them before their heal cloaks them, which should be more then enough.

If they shadow refuge then drop a well(s) dead in the middle and auto attack around the edge, usually the far edge. When you start hitting them your auto attack will go from repeating the first part of the chain to doing the full chain. You can also spectral grasp them once you’ve found them since they’re dead in front of you. Also a golem charge/staff fear (and the other marks of course) are useful for refuge.

If they have dagger offhand make sure you burst them down from behind once you immobilise them, or they’ll C&D you then shadowstep/trait condition cleanse and make some space.

If you see a thief cloaking up to go for a backstab, you can make them waste it with spectral recall, use of marks, positioning and timing a golem charge correctly, or even a well placed dodge or two. Axe 3 is also useful here, as it will tell you if they’re close, and cripple them, letting you run away, and they won’t catch you until they decloak.

And when all else fails, DS is enough to sponge a full mug C&D backstab combo, but basically put pressure on them. Do a lot of damage, and they usually panic and try cloak and run. We have plenty of tools to interrupt cloaks, slow them down and gank them.

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Posted by: Rok.5260

Rok.5260

Is it possible to see your build please? You don’t have to use a website, just need to know where I should put my traits at. For some reason I can’t help but put 15-20 points in Blood Magic in most of my builds and I’ve been reading that the healing from the 20 points in Blood Magic won’t help much.

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Posted by: War Mourner.5168

War Mourner.5168

My build is heavily built for solo roaming, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Blood magic has great traits for some attrition through life steal and regeneration (also faster well CD’s are nice), but with thieves, or at least the ones you’re mainly concerned with the fight is going to be over pretty fast, one way or another (unless you want to be some very tanky build, but I don’t find that interesting, and you are unlikely to be able to hold a thief down that way anyway)

Don’t run from the them, that just opens you up to a few heartseekers in the back. You have to focus on being the aggressor, they can’t take much punishment. You can. Kill them, faster then they can kill you.

At least this is how I deal with thieves. Other people might have different opinions.

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Posted by: Rok.5260

Rok.5260

Tried out your advices and it has been really helpful not only against thieves but other professions as well.

There was one case earlier though where I was fighting a this thief near Redbriar and a in literally less than 2-4 seconds I went from 20k hp to 7k hp in a blink of an eye. And I’m wearing Full Knights Armour w/ Berserker weapons O_O

(edited by Rok.5260)

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Posted by: War Mourner.5168

War Mourner.5168

Yeah, you have to be quick to avoid/negate the big combos like that, but if you do, then you have the advantage.

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Posted by: SupahSpankeh.8452

SupahSpankeh.8452

Retal, full PVT, 30/15/25/0/0.

I’ve only ever lost to a thief with this build when there’s been other players or mobs involved. Root n bomb is fine, but if you’re struggling with that (as you will against decent thieves) then retal is a very, very powerful boon to use.

29khp, 43kehp, and retal up most of the time. It’s actually hard to lose sometimes

Mad Skullz | 80 Necro | Piken Square

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Posted by: Bull Zooker.1672

Bull Zooker.1672

I have a condition build that destroys most of the thieves I come up against. so incorporating that effectiveness into your dagger play could work if you take a staff and greater marks, when they are in stealth anticipate where they are and drop marks, save your fear mark for shadow refuge and fear him out of it. then proceed to stab them in the face.
something to try?

Grandad Fester / Unruly Pigeon – Necromancer by trade

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Posted by: Lukin.4061

Lukin.4061

Why would you go melee as necro? Roll condition, get staff/scepter+dagger (or war horn) and it is almost impossible for a thief to kill you with the basic backstab build.

What utilities I am usually using – consume conditions as a healing ofc, well of darkness for aoe blind, spectral armor, for elite either golem or plague form (depends on what is your job in the team).

Usually it is very easy to guess what a thief is going to do: if he is putting on basilisk venom he will soon go steal->cnd->backstab, so you can avoid it by a well timed dodge, or you can stunbreak+well, or you can DS+fear, or even better put a fear mark on yourself so when he uses steal he gets feared. After the initial burst fail it is very hard for a thief to recover (45 sec. cd) so put some conditions and interrupt his healing, also dodge the occasional cloak and dagger (a very noticeable animation). That is it, a common thief died you still have 80-90% hp : )

P.S. Just now noticed this is a question about wvw – have no idea how to fight zergs there, so you can ignore this post if you are not planning on going to normal pvp.

(edited by Lukin.4061)

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Posted by: zainey.5021

zainey.5021

Yeah thief is tough and in general roaming ones will always be targeting necro because they are looking for the easiest kills. Note that necros are consistently ranked last or second to last as 1v1 opponents.

Hopefully you are 80 and in at least exotics right?

Step 1. If you see them coming have a mark or blind well up. I prefer Staff 3 (chill) and or Staff 5 (fear).

Step 2. If jumped and you have life force hit Death Shroud (remain stunned though). If you have a wurm up, teleport. Spectral Walk breaks stun including Basilisk Venom. Other stun breaks that you are less likely to have are Plague Signet (bad since need to have target and face it now) and Spectral Armor. You won’t always be stunned initially but it’s their strongest opener.

As per above you need to mitigate the initial burst and hurt them some yourself.

The tankier you are the better against thief though smart ones will avoid and dodge marks and stay away from wells. Thiefs prefer to target other GCs + necro and ele. MMs are bad against GC thief because minions react too slowly. Most thief will have decent condition removal.

I prefer axe to dagger against thief. If you start a skill against a thief and they stealth the skill will continue so Ghastly Claws (axe 2) is really good to hurt them and vulnerability is good for if you can land something. If you start dagger 3 (root) against them while visible it will root them.

Flesh golem is really the best elite just for the knockdown. Any good one will move away from plague and hit shortbow until plague is done.

Unfortunately this is just a bad matchup. Most well played good thief builds can beat most necro builds, d/d or d/p / shortbow with a good thief is nearly unbeatable by anything necro, especially if you don’t see them coming.

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Posted by: Daecollo.9578

Daecollo.9578

Thief is very easy.

Put marks under your feet.

Hero {} Roleplayer {} Friend {} Professional Princess Saver
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Posted by: Soulgant.7689

Soulgant.7689

I’m sorry to say that you will almost never win against a good d/p shortbow thief (or d/p and s/d) 1vs1. Putting marks under your feet is nearly useless for dealing as they can just dodge roll through them and avoid the damage but they can tell you their position somewhat and give you time to react before a backstab. Rooting a good thief and well bombing them won’t work at all either as they will either Shadowstep out or use Infiltrator’s arrow to negate your full combo. Not to mention most good thieves will be running Withdraw (heal skill that removes cripple, immobilize and chill and evades attack, 15s cooldown). Conditions also won’t bother them at all if they are running Shadow’s Embrace (removes a condition every 3s in stealth). With it they can remove 2 conditions in every 3s stealth (providing they don’t chain stealth), one at the beginning of stealth and one at the 3s mark. Then even if you do manage to get them low, they can easily perma-stealth & regen all their health and proceed to whittle you down. My advice is never run solo as a necromancer as we are far from the best 1vs1 class.

Edit: Oops meant d/p thief

(edited by Soulgant.7689)

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Posted by: Daecollo.9578

Daecollo.9578

I’m sorry to say that you will almost never win against a good p/d shortbow thief 1vs1. Putting marks under your feet is nearly useless for dealing as they can just dodge roll through them and avoid the damage but they can tell you their position somewhat and give you time to react before a backstab. Rooting a good thief and well bombing them won’t work at all either as they will either Shadowstep out or use Infiltrator’s arrow to negate your full combo. Not to mention most good thieves will be running Withdraw (heal skill that removes cripple, immobilize and chill and evades attack, 15s cooldown). Conditions also won’t bother them at all if they are running Shadow’s Embrace (removes a condition every 3s in stealth). With it they can remove 2 conditions in every 3s stealth (providing they don’t chain stealth), one at the beginning of stealth and one at the 3s mark. Then even if you do manage to get them low, they can easily perma-stealth & regen all their health and proceed to whittle you down. My advice is never run solo as a necromancer as we are far from the best 1vs1 class.

1 You can’t dodge roll through marks and CnD because as soon as you get into the mark at the end of the dodge roll, it activates.

2 have you ever played p/d thief? they need to get in melee to stealth and hit you with CnD otherwise they can’t hurt you.

3 Marks under your feet means they have to hit your marks to hit you, thieves don’t have heavy condition removal, the pressure alone keeps most thieves at bay, especially if your a heavy condition user.

4 They have to be in melee to stealth without using utilities.

5 You forgot to mention “Reaper’s Mark.” which has less of a cooldown then thieves “Stealth/One-hit combo.” putting this mark under your feet completely negates it.

From your comments, it feels like you neither play a necromancer or a thief, and understand how neither work.

Hero {} Roleplayer {} Friend {} Professional Princess Saver
https://twitter.com/TalathionEQ2

(edited by Daecollo.9578)

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Posted by: Bull Zooker.1672

Bull Zooker.1672

both have valid points ^^ but I have seen people dodge through marks and take no damage from activating them. the trick is to keep your ‘important’ less spamable marks in reserve for when you’ve baited out a couple of dodges.
I have beaten a good condition thief on my necro, more than one actually. I have more trouble with burst thieves which I still can manage without too many problems.

Grandad Fester / Unruly Pigeon – Necromancer by trade

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Posted by: Soulgant.7689

Soulgant.7689

@Daecollo 1. Marks activate as soon as they dodge roll into them… the roll negates all the damage/conditions
2. I meant d/p thief (not p/d) which do not need to be in melee range to stealth
3. Again they can dodge roll to avoid any damage. They can remove a condition every 3s while in stealth with Shadow’s embrace. Conditions get removed according to a priority system, with bleeds (the main damage source in almost any condition build) always being removed first. A properly built d/p thief can remain in perma-stealth if you get them low enough (with Shadow’s Rejuvenation they regenerate ~330hp/s while in stealth) meaning your conditions are next to useless against them and once they resurface they will most likely be at full health.
4. Not true for d/p thief
5. Again they can dodge roll through them, the only way I see Reaper’s Mark hitting them is if they steal from you. There’s no such thing as a one-hit combo. I think you mean their backstab/basilisk venom/heartseeker combo which again will not be negated at all by fearing them for 1s, at best this will make them waste their steal if they used it against you.
6. Another note, you can’t always fear thieves out of shadow refuge (unless you trait for condition duration) since thieves can place themselves at the end of shadow refuge closest to you. Because of the way fear works, targets walk in the direction you are facing.

And it seems like you are the one that doesn’t know how necromancers or thiefs or dodge rolls work. If you still think you can beat a thief with your necromancer, I would be more than happy to introduce you to good thieves so you can fight them yourself.

@Bull Zooker condition thieves can be beaten by necros, good thieves not running conditions with something similar to 0/20/30/20/0 not so much.

(edited by Soulgant.7689)

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Posted by: Daecollo.9578

Daecollo.9578

@Daecollo 1. Marks activate as soon as they dodge roll into them… the roll negates all the damage/conditions
2. I meant d/p thief (not p/d) which do not need to be in melee range to stealth
3. Again they can dodge roll to avoid any damage. They can remove a condition every 3s while in stealth with Shadow’s embrace. Conditions get removed according to a priority system, with bleeds (the main damage source in almost any condition build) always being removed first. A properly built d/p thief can remain in perma-stealth if you get them low enough (with Shadow’s Rejuvenation they regenerate ~330hp/s while in stealth) meaning your conditions are next to useless against them and once they resurface they will most likely be at full health.
4. Not true for d/p thief
5. Again they can dodge roll through them, the only way I see Reaper’s Mark hitting them is if they steal from you. There’s no such thing as a one-hit combo. I think you mean their backstab/basilisk venom/heartseeker combo which again will not be negated at all by fearing them for 1s, at best this will make them waste their steal if they used it against you.
6. Another note, you can’t always fear thieves out of shadow refuge (unless you trait for condition duration) since thieves can place themselves at the end of shadow refuge closest to you. Because of the way fear works, targets walk in the direction you are facing.

And it seems like you are the one that doesn’t know how necromancers or thiefs or dodge rolls work. If you still think you can beat a thief with your necromancer, I would be more than happy to introduce you to good thieves so you can fight them yourself.

@Bull Zooker condition thieves can be beaten by necros, good thieves not running conditions with something similar to 0/20/30/20/0 not so much.

Yes, because D/P thieves don’t need to be in melee to backstab.

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Posted by: Empiren.6401

Empiren.6401

You lose, thats it.

Thieves can steal fear from you and burst you down in that time period alone, much less a bunch of other annoying stuns/immobiles that will eventually kill you.

Your options versus a theif are this:
Try and prolong the point as long as possible and hope he doesn’t notice. and just burst you because your conditions can’t do any reasonable amount of damage fast enough.

Or

Try and counter burst him.

Either way, you probably lose.

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Posted by: Talentless.5708

Talentless.5708

You lose, thats it.

Thieves can steal fear from you and burst you down in that time period alone, much less a bunch of other annoying stuns/immobiles that will eventually kill you.

Your options versus a theif are this:
Try and prolong the point as long as possible and hope he doesn’t notice. and just burst you because your conditions can’t do any reasonable amount of damage fast enough.

Or

Try and counter burst him.

Either way, you probably lose.

You make a habit to troll necro forums with false information? Necros should never die to thieves 1v1.

Talentless Necro – Talentless Engineer
Jade Quarry – Strike Force | Wilsonian Institute
new video pending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDVc34_SFKM&feature=youtu.be

(edited by Talentless.5708)

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Posted by: Empiren.6401

Empiren.6401

You lose, thats it.

Thieves can steal fear from you and burst you down in that time period alone, much less a bunch of other annoying stuns/immobiles that will eventually kill you.

Your options versus a theif are this:
Try and prolong the point as long as possible and hope he doesn’t notice. and just burst you because your conditions can’t do any reasonable amount of damage fast enough.

Or

Try and counter burst him.

Either way, you probably lose.

You make a habit to troll necro forums with false information? Necros should never die to thieves 1v1.

:/ Thief burst in WvW will generally equal a win(with crit damage being as-is).
————-
That being said, if you go to spvp and such it really depends on the scenario.

Do you have full LF? Does the theif know what he’s doing? Is he specced burst, are you?

Its really a 50/50 chance for the theif, but necro’s generally all play either power or condition.(MM would definitely lose thanks to that ai against stealthed).
————

Power: Sure if he remains out of stealth you have a good chance. If you meet the requirements you can always pop lich and auto attack. He gets the drop on you, you probably are going to die though.

Condition: VS stealth you lose. Condition won’t stack enough per time out and condition removal/regen while in it. VS burst….eh, you might win. It REALLY depends on his utilities, build, and everyone’s c/d’s. If he has his ult and you don’t, probably gonna die. Other way around you have a chance. But conditions are very iffy, Necro’s larger hp pool won’t really matter when the guy can burst through that difference.

Odds are if a theif gets the drop on you, as a necro, you will die. If he steals after he burst you, i’m going to say its for certain.

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Posted by: Bull Zooker.1672

Bull Zooker.1672

when thieves steal to me and fear me, if I have a couple bleeds on them to proc the 50% damge in terror… they die. if not they have to use all their condition removal /stun breakers. my reapers protection trait procs fearing them for 3-5 second doing 1300ish dmg every second. I can then follow that fear with my other fears. if they survive that they generally are very low and easily finished.

you sound very biased to thieves. they aren’t as OP as you think though granted fhey can be very annoying.

Grandad Fester / Unruly Pigeon – Necromancer by trade

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

Burst Thieves = dead. You’ll be able to fear them yes.. Maybe cripple him and stun him if you’re lucky. 1 second and he jumps back on you. I’ve been roaming in wvw in full PVT gear. 28k health and 3000 armor. I encountered that thief 2 times he had 25 stacks of the power sigil. The first time I died in 2 seconds, the 2nd time I knew what was coming but not much I could do, it took him 4 seconds. 8k backstab and 8k hearthseeker.. And people tell me I should go rabidgear? Haha!!! I’ll be dead even faster :/ Ofcourse I’ve won against any class in 1on1, but stop pretending we can win whenever we want cause you may have all the right skills and be the best player, you’ll loose fights against much better 1vs1 classes then the necro. To be competitive we should be able to change our skillbar, gear and traits depending on who we’re facing and still have to be on the tip of our toes to win. We do not have a OP build like the confusion mesmers and engineers, d/d ele’s, bunker rangers or burst thieves. I’m not complaining I love my necro, but we are a supportclass who can do a wide variety of things and are very helpfull in groupplay.

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Posted by: Bull Zooker.1672

Bull Zooker.1672

I have success solo roaming with my condition necro. I dont play support. Although the pressure we provide in bigg fights through AoE conditions can be seen as support. if u are fighting a thief without utilising ur blinds and snares you will die. its timing and practice.

Grandad Fester / Unruly Pigeon – Necromancer by trade

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

Timing inbetween your ennemy’s random dodges? What the hell are you talking about? You can’t time your stuff because you’ll be dead before you even cast your 2nd skill. Post some vids of you killing those burst thieves who stick on you like glue. Riiiight.. If lucky you can blind him for 1 attack and maybe fear him for 1 second, I’ll give you that.

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Posted by: Talentless.5708

Talentless.5708

sigh… focus #5, wall, focus #4, axe #3, ds.

then warhorn #5, darkness well, dagger #1, warhorn #4 then finish.

Talentless Necro – Talentless Engineer
Jade Quarry – Strike Force | Wilsonian Institute
new video pending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDVc34_SFKM&feature=youtu.be

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

sigh… focus #5, wall, focus #4, axe #3, ds.

then warhorn #5, darkness well, dagger #1, warhorn #4 then finish.

Saw your video, you fight noobs, if you turn around and cast your slow skill #5 on focus you’ll be lucky to be able to cast your precious wall.

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

Oh man it’s realy funny how some guys here think they are so good. As I said: backstab 8k and heartseaker 8k on full PVT necro, that’s full health on your rabidgear my friend. You can’t cast a slow spinal shivers (1,2 seconds) on a jumping thief. If you’re lucky and you cast it inbetween his dodges and manage to get a couple of feet away from him, he will close the gap SOOO fast, and you’ll die on his second burst for sure.

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Posted by: Talentless.5708

Talentless.5708

Oh man it’s realy funny how some guys here think they are so good. As I said: backstab 8k and heartseaker 8k on full PVT necro, that’s full health on your rabidgear my friend. You can’t cast a slow spinal shivers (1,2 seconds) on a jumping thief. If you’re lucky and you cast it inbetween his dodges and manage to get a couple of feet away from him, he will close the gap SOOO fast, and you’ll die on his second burst for sure.

you shouldnt be in PVT gear

Talentless Necro – Talentless Engineer
Jade Quarry – Strike Force | Wilsonian Institute
new video pending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDVc34_SFKM&feature=youtu.be

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Posted by: Talentless.5708

Talentless.5708

sigh… focus #5, wall, focus #4, axe #3, ds.

then warhorn #5, darkness well, dagger #1, warhorn #4 then finish.

Saw your video, you fight noobs, if you turn around and cast your slow skill #5 on focus you’ll be lucky to be able to cast your precious wall.

  1. w/ trait is 1200 range and used on inc so that the application is done at 1200 – begin out of range. I left out the thief 1v1 because I didnt get to stomp him before a JQ zerg strolled by. I have more thieves try to run from me than kill me. That is not an elitist comment. My “video” was just fights from one night… I am not a forum warrior saving clips over months to make myself look amazing… I have posted ways in which I kill thieves (not all of them are baddies, but most are), and if you dont like it, oh well… keep dying then.
Talentless Necro – Talentless Engineer
Jade Quarry – Strike Force | Wilsonian Institute
new video pending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDVc34_SFKM&feature=youtu.be

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

Ok so now you’re saying you actualy get the first hit on the thief? What game are you playing?

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

Oh man it’s realy funny how some guys here think they are so good. As I said: backstab 8k and heartseaker 8k on full PVT necro, that’s full health on your rabidgear my friend. You can’t cast a slow spinal shivers (1,2 seconds) on a jumping thief. If you’re lucky and you cast it inbetween his dodges and manage to get a couple of feet away from him, he will close the gap SOOO fast, and you’ll die on his second burst for sure.

you shouldnt be in PVT gear

What’s the point of this post? If I had something else I would insta die. What should I wear then?

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Posted by: War Mourner.5168

War Mourner.5168

I kill most thieves just fine and I’m in berserker. The damage you offput from having soldier gear isn’t enough to compensate for the lower damage, if you can’t kill the thief fast enough they can gib you, or safely cloak and survive.
Not that I’m saying berserker is the best, but higher damage has its uses.

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Posted by: Mattamis.8143

Mattamis.8143

Great advice from everyone, what I do if they stealth is switch to staff and throw a fear on the ground with staff 5 then switch back to dagger/focus. If I get the jump on them (lol when does that happen) I spectral grasp them to pull them straight into a well of suffering then unload auto-attack for 2 chains, then DS 4 then DS 3 to get more space. If they aren’t dead by then, switch back to dagger/focus and use dagger 2 while cooldowns are ticking away. Rinse and repeat. Not going to give too much about my gear and setup because I found something that works very well for me and don’t want to fight against it lol.

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Posted by: Bull Zooker.1672

Bull Zooker.1672

dont assume that because you cant kill thieves they are unkillable. and blinding 1 attack? you sed well of darkness? (I dont use it now but I used to) that skill alone will buy you 5 secs to negate the damage from the thief. if you come back and ay “how will I cast it if im dead in a second” then u need to spend some time in spvp and practice. and switch out some of that gear to be more offensive, you wont kill anything if you cant hurt them. try switching out some of ur gear (maybe a piece at a time so u can adjust) for knights if you like power builds. condition gear if u wanna try something else.

Grandad Fester / Unruly Pigeon – Necromancer by trade

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Posted by: Kilger.5490

Kilger.5490

You have to take any advice on here with a grain of salt. There is a very wide range of skill levels with thieves, and people who have zero problems probably havent encountered the better ones. I personally have fought thieves where I am like “wtf they dead already?” and those kitten culling ones where i can barely touch them because I cant target them and they dodge out of wells etc invis all the time (this is coming to an end March 26 hehe).

Wait it out till the culling nerf, many thieves will quit after they see their “mad skills” evaporate. You can always travel in zerg formation until then.

Make sure your equipment is all exotic. Soldiers should work fine for armor but you need some dps too, I go berserker on the accessories and it seems a good mix.

Also good to have is well of suffering, if they are full berserker they will not like it. Plague form (blind) is also great if you are outmatched and want to drag it out or get to safety. It will burn out their initiative and they will have to rely on normal attacks.

I only worry when I get 2 or more on me, even the good kind.

Kilger – Human Ranger
alts: Fangyre (Necro), Hardrawk (Ele);
Jade Quarry

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

You guys are missing the point and undoubtably never came across good players. I said I can easily kill a random thief or whatever. But not the burst ones who jump on you with the 25 stacks of power sigil, those who actualy know what they’re doing.
If he suprises you, you’ll be dead and there’s nothing you can do about it. The only thing I can think of is if you got 30 points in soulreaping and you happen to encounter him with full life force, then maybe yes. But he’ll get away and he’ll jump you again.. whenever he wants.

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

And yes plague is maybe the key in running for cover. But if you think a thief will just stand there in your little circle you’re naive. If you use it and your 20 seconds run out be sure to have found some cover or he’ll jump you again, when plague is on cooldown.

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: Bull Zooker.1672

Bull Zooker.1672

no your wrong. your assuming we haven’t encountered good thieves because we have killed them?
and you think other classes dont think the same about certain necro builds when we corrupt their boons and give 15 stacks of bleed for their efforts? or a 8k auto attack as a zerker? you just need to learn to fight each class accordingly, sounds like you have most problems with thief.

Grandad Fester / Unruly Pigeon – Necromancer by trade

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: War Mourner.5168

War Mourner.5168

You guys are missing the point and undoubtably never came across good players.

Yes, I’m sure I’ve never come across any good thieves ever since release unlike you. I apologize for my dreadful ignorance, and my foolish belief that it’s possible for a necro to kill a thief.

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

Come on guys show me some vids of how you get jumped by those thieves and easily survive. I can’t wait to see how you dodge the backstab and how you cast that spinal shivers and blind his attacks and easily kill them. Or should I just assume you guys rock as hard as you claim. A thief can blind too you know.

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: Mattamis.8143

Mattamis.8143

some of us are built to survive a little more than others

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Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: War Mourner.5168

War Mourner.5168

By default a necro has enough LF (when it’s full) to absorb a full mug/C&D/backstab combo.
Sadly I don’t record myself in wvw much because fraps makes obese file sizes, but I might to prove my point if I can remember to.

I won’t comment on other people’s builds because I don’t use them, but my build does 8k or so each auto chain, well of suffering ticks 2k something. Combined with dagger root, cc from warhorn, DS and golem most thieves are safely dead before they can get more then a brief combo off. Except P/D thieves, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

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Posted by: zainey.5021

zainey.5021

WvW videos lol. You can find plenty of youtube vids of anything rolling WvW. Post spvp or tpvp please.

Anyway the new thief thing is endless dodge w condition. It’s hilarious. In most spvp games last night there were at least 2 or 3 running around doing this. They dodge and heartseek and … that’s all.

I just so happened to be playing a tanky necro with Darkness and Power wells so I could fight off one but it was a handful when 3 of them were doing this on a point.

Anyway it’s funny now but it might not be so funny when they refine it more.

thread and vids

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

Ye that’s kinda the one I faced but he had 25 stacks of power and he did a backstab at the beginning. You may fight him off if he doesn’t have that good jump on you but you’ll never kill him if he knows what he’s doing.

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: Brando.1374

Brando.1374

I run a strait up Cond dmg build for PVE and WvW (rabid gear)
Now im not saying I have faced the best thieves in the game but not 1 has taken me down solo.

my advice it to predict his movement and set marks on where you think he would be to keep applying bleeds. he will run away or come back up in downed state. if he has build some disatance but still in my reach I change up to S/D to cripple/weaken and apply 6+ bleed stacks which will just make his/her HP drop in no time. Fear is great especially if you have Terror to dmg the thief for 800-1k dmg

Xxkakarot [GF] Good Fights
Dark Wizard Incar [GF] Good Fights
http://www.twitch.tv/xxkakarot

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

Riiiight, your marks will make him run away. Guys noone has a video to show us how to fight those thieves? I’m serious, i can place all my marks down, go deathshroud fear him more, run away with spectral walk but he keeps on jumping me.

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: Brando.1374

Brando.1374

Riiiight, your marks will make him run away. Guys noone has a video to show us how to fight those thieves? I’m serious, i can place all my marks down, go deathshroud fear him more, run away with spectral walk but he keeps on jumping me.

my laptop (desktop is not working atm) wont run Fraps and Gw2 without bringing me down to 10 fps. once I get my desktop up and running again ill make a video.

Xxkakarot [GF] Good Fights
Dark Wizard Incar [GF] Good Fights
http://www.twitch.tv/xxkakarot

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Posted by: Mattamis.8143

Mattamis.8143

meanwhile danger, why not post a video of your gameplay against thieves and have the people here (who are obviously just trying to be helpful) critique what you are doing, couldn’t hurt

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Posted by: Bas.7406

Bas.7406

Riiiight, your marks will make him run away. Guys noone has a video to show us how to fight those thieves? I’m serious, i can place all my marks down, go deathshroud fear him more, run away with spectral walk but he keeps on jumping me.

I go away on vacation and the negative nancy trolls came back. I guess you heard the news that our forums were becoming a positive helpful place and figured you needed to return.

To the op, the tips given by talentless, war mourner, and others about successful thief killing is correct. I do it in tournaments and wvwvw. Is it tough? Sure, but there are way worse classes for the necro. I consider anytime a thief runs from me a win. I have been hit for a total of 22k once by a thief the amazing thing was I was still alive and he wasn’t by the end.

Have I died to really good thieves? Sure, especially the cannons who surprise you and your fingers lock up and you have no ds. Does it happen all the time, like the trolls suggest? Not even close. Most really good thieves avoid necros, unless you are already in a fight with someone. I actually know one of the few top tournament thieves (it’s really rare to have a thief in a top tournament team) he prefers to avoid them unless they are focused elsewhere.

Advice against thieves?

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Posted by: Bas.7406

Bas.7406

meanwhile danger, why not post a video of your gameplay against thieves and have the people here (who are obviously just trying to be helpful) critique what you are doing, couldn’t hurt

Danger is a monthly troll, if we wait him out a few days he goes away.

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Posted by: dangerdoom.3862

dangerdoom.3862

meanwhile danger, why not post a video of your gameplay against thieves and have the people here (who are obviously just trying to be helpful) critique what you are doing, couldn’t hurt

I’m not finding it helpfull because I know there are thieves around I can easily kill. That’s not the point. And I’m sorry for those who think I’m trolling but I’m serious. You guys keep forgetting what I posted before and are ranting on the fact that I think you haven’t encountered the thief I’m talking about.

I’ll try and make a video of me dying in 3 seconds, if that is what you want. I’ll put in some other duels maybe. I’ll see in what I encounter 2night.