Guild Wars 2

Heya instead of whingeing im trying to figure out what the best way to beat reapers is. Or at least get constructive help on how to beat them.

Playing s/d
One fight i did against a chillomancer , i kited his shroud and he did no damage to me while it was decaying, i burst and cc’ed him outside of shroud and without stability for cc’s, dodged ‘all’ his heavy hitters and warhorn daze, yet still succumbed to his persistent dots, essentially only chill and bleeds from staff marks.

Locked him down with dazes and basi venom outside shroud to get a great burn, however he didnt dodge any of my abilities, he kinda just stood there mostly. He didnt even use the staff fear to get me off him.

I did hit him a few times in spectral shroud to give him life force once he hit 50%, he used it all up while being kited and popped it again towards the end but it didnt matter at all since i melted slowly to dots.

Am i doing something wrong here?

I think you took too long to kill it and stayed in too long. A lot of good thiefs actually burst me down very quickly and then retreat to prevent me from counter. Wait a bit, reininitiate their burst rinse and repeat. It’s a bit more complicated like that but it is the general strategy seen against me. Sometimes they burst me down so much I’m not even in the state to counter fast enough and then finish me off.

All up it was probably about 25-30 seconds for the fight though, mostly delayed by kiting.

Are these thieves dagger/pistol? I know it has more burst but sword is far more gratifying to play.

I’l try some hit and run tactics a bit more often maybe

Imo it’s thieves worst class match up especially 1v1 gets even worse if they’re using rise up I’m not trying to be a negative nancy but imho currently how the game is at this point and time it’s almost impossible to beat a reaper that has cds up and is semi competent

Not only does thief have pretty lousy access to meaningful condi cleanse there hp is to low to duke it out with a reaper, and while reaper really doesn’t have much to disengage fights with it has no need to vs a thief. So ultimaetly my advice is legit avoid them if possible or go in with another person if solo try to draw them off a point is the most useful think to do pretty much.

it’s a problem with thief

any build that limits mobility is a thief hard counter and boy do we limit mobility

Reknarok.7582:

any build that limits mobility is a thief hard counter and boy do we limit mobility

Not necessarily. Most thieves run Unhindered Combatant these days, and that makes even the reaper’s absurd chill uptime a non-issue.

@larocca:
Aside from the obvious (good cleansing), the key to beating a necro is to starve them of life force. And by that I mean try to not get hit by life force generating skills, if possible don’t trigger marks at all (not even by dodging through, because necros are usually running Soul Marks), don’t hit them when they have Spectral Armor, don’t kill their minions, and generally bait them into depleting their lf pool naturally.
All of that means you have to be extremely patient, keep your distance, resist the temptation of duking it out in a slugfest and only look for openings that allow you to land damage without being hit yourself.
Also, keep in mind that in regards to PvP, this type of stategy usually means you can’t fight on, contest or hold a point against a necro.
And last but not least, be aware that necros can only defeat an evasive type of build like sword thieves by trying to land stuns in between their dodges and follow up with a condi bomb and life force regenerating skills. So from a thief’s perspective, save your Shadowstep and/or counters for those moments.

As long as thieves run Dash, they hard counter necros(for the ones saying its a bad matchup). Just kite their Shorud and spam evades when he’s out, necros have really slow attacks. Also, d/p definitely works better against reapers cause blind and interrupts, but you should be able to take down a necro with s/d anyway thanks to dash

Cheers for the advice everyone it seems to be very strategic and at times a game of attrition which can quickly go balls to the wall with damage.

Going to need a bit more practice..

One mistake very many thieves do, is that they simple don’t attack enough. They keep porting in and out and spamming evades to draw out all or at least many important skills (which is good) but fail to capitalize on it because they dont realize when they have to focus on attacking instead of spamming random evades.

larocca.8391:

Heya instead of whingeing im trying to figure out what the best way to beat reapers is. Or at least get constructive help on how to beat them.

Playing s/d
One fight i did against a chillomancer , i kited his shroud and he did no damage to me while it was decaying, i burst and cc’ed him outside of shroud and without stability for cc’s, dodged ‘all’ his heavy hitters and warhorn daze, yet still succumbed to his persistent dots, essentially only chill and bleeds from staff marks.

Locked him down with dazes and basi venom outside shroud to get a great burn, however he didnt dodge any of my abilities, he kinda just stood there mostly. He didnt even use the staff fear to get me off him.

I did hit him a few times in spectral shroud to give him life force once he hit 50%, he used it all up while being kited and popped it again towards the end but it didnt matter at all since i melted slowly to dots.

Am i doing something wrong here?

ask the thief that made me cry rivers of blood yesterday. Went against a team and said, good! 2 thieves! seconds later, i was stunlocked and killed in no time. And it happened every teamfight, and even 1v1 one of the thieves was just unbelievable and stomping at the speed of light. I want to learn to play like him.

Aenesthesia.1697:

larocca.8391:

Heya instead of whingeing im trying to figure out what the best way to beat reapers is. Or at least get constructive help on how to beat them.

Playing s/d
One fight i did against a chillomancer , i kited his shroud and he did no damage to me while it was decaying, i burst and cc’ed him outside of shroud and without stability for cc’s, dodged ‘all’ his heavy hitters and warhorn daze, yet still succumbed to his persistent dots, essentially only chill and bleeds from staff marks.

Locked him down with dazes and basi venom outside shroud to get a great burn, however he didnt dodge any of my abilities, he kinda just stood there mostly. He didnt even use the staff fear to get me off him.

I did hit him a few times in spectral shroud to give him life force once he hit 50%, he used it all up while being kited and popped it again towards the end but it didnt matter at all since i melted slowly to dots.

Am i doing something wrong here?

ask the thief that made me cry rivers of blood yesterday. Went against a team and said, good! 2 thieves! seconds later, i was stunlocked and killed in no time. And it happened every teamfight, and even 1v1 one of the thieves was just unbelievable and stomping at the speed of light. I want to learn to play like him.

Maybe equip rune of nightmare? xD If I see two thieves or know I am entrusted to hold home against a thief, I bring that rune. Fear/chill!

If I get basi stunned/dazed I tend to pop plague signet on instinct too lol then hit them with warhorn if they weren’t feared or scepter pummel them or quick switch to staff which hits them with my weapon swap sigils and drop marks on them. If he escapes I drop marks at my feet while hitting him with my slowwww moving claw of darkness to build up lifeforce.

Thieves deserve to die.

Death deserves to be necroed.

Run dash OR (not both) unhindered combatant [would recommend dash imo] and you’ll be fine. If the DoTs still get you, pick the trait in the daredevil lines that removes a condi on evade and you’ll be fine lol.

Also, pick the heal that pulses and gives vigor and evades back so you can continue to cleanse condi.

Gotten all of those, it’s just the sheer amounts and a condi bomb from signet of spite i think with a condi geared neco is a literal death sentence, considering there’s no real tell for it to evade.

Plus there’s 2 people saying here to do hit and runs and to do more damage, its nigh impossible to do both.
Hit and runs will keep you alive at the cost of damage
The opposite will do damage to the reaper, if unlucky recharge his life force and get the thief killed or make them do more hit and runs.

I’ve done a lot of games recently against a few necros, both power and condi and it’s the condi that seems to be significantly more difficult.
Gravediggers and that swirly death thing are easy to avoid, persistent hard hitting condis are hard to avoid without blowing all my evades on daredevil cleanses.

Smartest move imo is simply to run away, unless its a 2v1

Hendrix.9763:

Run dash OR (not both) unhindered combatant [would recommend dash imo] and you’ll be fine. If the DoTs still get you, pick the trait in the daredevil lines that removes a condi on evade and you’ll be fine lol.

Also, pick the heal that pulses and gives vigor and evades back so you can continue to cleanse condi.

Not sure if this post was serious or not, but just in case:
Unhindered Combatant is the trait that turns your dodge into Dash.
Also, there is no healing skills that both pulses and evades.

larocca.8391:

… a condi bomb from signet of spite i think with a condi geared neco is a literal death sentence, considering there’s no real tell for it to evade.

There is actually. The signet pops up over their head during the cast time.

In general, you don’t really want to pick up a 1v1 as a thief, especially if it’s a necro with full ds.

That being said, it’s not an impossible match-up. But you’re making it hard by playing s/d. It’s a dueling set, meaning it can’t burst, and you’ll lose the sustained fight against the reaper.
You need to play Unhindered Combattant if you want to be effective in this meta (unless you play staff, maybe). It removes Chill on every dodge, no need to tell you why it’s useful.
Your best chance is to play d/p with Impacting Disruption. Reapers are really easy to interrupt, especially if you save your Steal for when they go into Reaper Shroud.

Anyway, I would advise not to duel the necros, but to wait till they duel someone (or they peel from a team fight), and then burst them to death. You’d be more useful.

flow.6043:

Hendrix.9763:

Run dash OR (not both) unhindered combatant [would recommend dash imo] and you’ll be fine. If the DoTs still get you, pick the trait in the daredevil lines that removes a condi on evade and you’ll be fine lol.

Also, pick the heal that pulses and gives vigor and evades back so you can continue to cleanse condi.

Not sure if this post was serious or not, but just in case:
Unhindered Combatant is the trait that turns your dodge into Dash.
Also, there is no healing skills that both pulses and evades.

larocca.8391:

… a condi bomb from signet of spite i think with a condi geared neco is a literal death sentence, considering there’s no real tell for it to evade.

There is actually. The signet pops up over their head during the cast time.

I’m going to have to watch necros far closely for this because i had no idea.
Also maybe learn cast times for the best time to dodge that. Cheers!

Am i right in assuming the only source of stability for a reaper is in Chilled to the Bone?
So avoiding that, they have no stab and essentially are susceptible to interrupts regardless of DS or not?

larocca.8391:

Am i right in assuming the only source of stability for a reaper is in Chilled to the Bone?
So avoiding that, they have no stab and essentially are susceptible to interrupts regardless of DS or not?

Reapers will always have Infusing Terror (pulsing stability) in Reaper’s Shroud.
There’s also Foot in the Grave (stability on Shroud entry) but usually Reapers don’t take this trait. And sometimes people use Well of Power, which has 1 sec of stability to cover its cast time and there’s a chance for fear to be converted into 3 sec of stability.