Guild Wars 2

So yeah, topic title. Personally, I hate thieves with a passion. The other professions when I’ve fought them I don’t have too much of a problem with, and have had a generally enjoyable experience fighting against. Thieves though, I have never really enjoyed fighting them, and they are the majority of my fights in WvW. So now, i’m looking for some builds to allow me to better combat them when I have the unfortunate experience of encountering one. And yes, I know a build itself will not make me win 100% of the time against them, I still need to improve my tatics and thinking, but having a good foundation will do wonders. Thanks for all the help and here is a cookie. (: Also sorry for being a bit vague in my description but I was in a rush while typing this.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Condition_Roamer
This build is fairly effective against thieves. I’ve even facerolled those annoying p/d thieves with this. You still have to play decently to be effective, of course.

Bring Axe. Unholy Feast is a stealth detector and renders D/Ps when givinvg a nice retaliation refund to cheesy P/Ds.

Also, Rending follows in stealth.

Yeah most condi builds should get you along your way just fine, on my build i can usually 1v2 thieves without having to pay attention to whether they are power or condi users.

to kill thieves especially good ones who don’t overcommit and just reset until you make mistakes or run out of DS, you need to burst them.

for condi builds, essentially you want to get the thief down to at least 75% HP.
After that, try to chain fear him with this:
While on your staff, enter DS, fear him, leave DS immediately, press staff 5 to fear him again and follow up with staff spells spam on him which should have a good chance of killing him.

for power builds, essentially you want to get the thief down to at least 75% HP.
After that, enter DS and fear him. a couple of autos should have a good chance of ending him.

if your facing a theif that likes to spam his blinds on you (d/p) use your channel skill like life siphon or ghastly claws vs this type of theif. this theif will like to stealth a lot using his blind fields if you can save death shroud to interrupt his ability to go into stealth. interrupting the heal that gives stealth is always good

surprised no one has mentioned spectral wall, it does wonders against thieves

Couple things here….. probably not going to want to use spectral wall when roaming.

I was completely unaware that axe 3 is a stealth detector and “renders” d/p theives are these new features? If all that was meant by that was it hit’s them in stealth well ok. But the words “detector” and “render” are misleading.

The theives you run into in wvw are mostly d/p dire perplexity theives. They are a pain. BUT! We are well equipped to deal with them you just need to hit your condi transfers and use your channel skills when they go stealth. Also I really hate the Axe so I use daggers and a lot of the time when fighting a theif I’ll just run around spamming aa when the theif is stealthed just keep watching your ds bar. If it starts filling up you are right on top of him alot of the time they will just be dead at your feet.

ty for all the suggestions so far. Right now a condition build sounds better to me as it would give me more control over the fight. The standard attack pattern i’ve seen from thieves is that they enter stealthed, steal skull fear and use it at point blank to get the long stun, I then have to use a stun break or go into deathshroud to keep myself safe. If I go into deathshroud, I find they usually run away by porting or restealthing, then getting a safe distance until I am forced to drop out of it. After dropping out they port back in with shadow step or their one signet to try and burst.

If I use a stunbreak, the scenario is pretty much the same. So TO ME it seems like I’d have to screw up their initiation first. Would this be a safe assessment?

NeXeD.3042:

Couple things here….. probably not going to want to use spectral wall when roaming.

I was completely unaware that axe 3 is a stealth detector and “renders” d/p theives are these new features? If all that was meant by that was it hit’s them in stealth well ok. But the words “detector” and “render” are misleading.

The theives you run into in wvw are mostly d/p dire perplexity theives. They are a pain. BUT! We are well equipped to deal with them you just need to hit your condi transfers and use your channel skills when they go stealth. Also I really hate the Axe so I use daggers and a lot of the time when fighting a theif I’ll just run around spamming aa when the theif is stealthed just keep watching your ds bar. If it starts filling up you are right on top of him alot of the time they will just be dead at your feet.

About axe 3, i think he just means it will still hit when they are stealthed and im guessing that chomping animation will still appear at their location.

TheLastNobody.8319:

ty for all the suggestions so far. Right now a condition build sounds better to me as it would give me more control over the fight. The standard attack pattern i’ve seen from thieves is that they enter stealthed, steal skull fear and use it at point blank to get the long stun, I then have to use a stun break or go into deathshroud to keep myself safe. If I go into deathshroud, I find they usually run away by porting or restealthing, then getting a safe distance until I am forced to drop out of it. After dropping out they port back in with shadow step or their one signet to try and burst.

If I use a stunbreak, the scenario is pretty much the same. So TO ME it seems like I’d have to screw up their initiation first. Would this be a safe assessment?

When you get hit by that steal-fear or most stuns in general, you should make a habit of having a knee jerk reaction and instantly entering shroud and using the fear skill 3 on them which you can do while stunned/feared if you dont want to blow a stun breaker.

Also when carrying out a rotation keep in mind they will stealth as quickly as possible so do things like release shroud #2 skill towards the end of their reveal duration, the hand will track them during stealth even if they blink around. Once shroud #2 hits, you know you are at their location so what i would do is (I hold my forward direction button just before it hits so I know as soon as it hits i will be slightly in front of them, and them being chilled helps) land staff #5 on your position to fear, now remember they run away from you so land the rest of your marks behind you in a line, basically you can see that im getting at ways to 100% know their location when they are in stealth and in particular while playing condi do not stop bombarding them with attacks.

Lol apologies if that was a bit overly detailed.

NeXeD.3042:

Couple things here….. probably not going to want to use spectral wall when roaming.

And why is that? Spectral wall, when placed right can help you escape, fear multiple times, handle 2v1’s, etc. If you are a power necro, yea maybe not. But if you see a thief approaching I would always swap one of my utilities for it, if it wasn’t on there already

And I must be in the wrong WvW, because in my last couple of weeks of roaming I have not seen any pistol/perplex thiefs :/

NeXeD.3042:

I was completely unaware that axe 3 is a stealth detector and “renders” d/p theives are these new features? If all that was meant by that was it hit’s them in stealth well ok. But the words “detector” and “render” are misleading.

SA gives thief stacking might while in stealth. Unholy Feast removes whole stack, cripples them, forcing to either Shadow Shot or Steal/port to close the distance for Backstab (as you’re running at full speed).
It also applies retaliation on hit, so if I get the retaliation upon cast, I know that Thief is near and preparing for opener, so I can prepare myself or do any counter-action, which leads to overall advantage. Damage isn’t bad, too.

Ghastly Claws follows, yep. But the same goes for Rending. Your AA will often show you general direction where the Thief is heading, so you can react better.

Zetsumei.4975:

TheLastNobody.8319:

ty for all the suggestions so far. Right now a condition build sounds better to me as it would give me more control over the fight. The standard attack pattern i’ve seen from thieves is that they enter stealthed, steal skull fear and use it at point blank to get the long stun, I then have to use a stun break or go into deathshroud to keep myself safe. If I go into deathshroud, I find they usually run away by porting or restealthing, then getting a safe distance until I am forced to drop out of it. After dropping out they port back in with shadow step or their one signet to try and burst.

If I use a stunbreak, the scenario is pretty much the same. So TO ME it seems like I’d have to screw up their initiation first. Would this be a safe assessment?

When you get hit by that steal-fear or most stuns in general, you should make a habit of having a knee jerk reaction and instantly entering shroud and using the fear skill 3 on them which you can do while stunned/feared if you dont want to blow a stun breaker.

Also when carrying out a rotation keep in mind they will stealth as quickly as possible so do things like release shroud #2 skill towards the end of their reveal duration, the hand will track them during stealth even if they blink around. Once shroud #2 hits, you know you are at their location so what i would do is (I hold my forward direction button just before it hits so I know as soon as it hits i will be slightly in front of them, and them being chilled helps) land staff #5 on your position to fear, now remember they run away from you so land the rest of your marks behind you in a line, basically you can see that im getting at ways to 100% know their location when they are in stealth and in particular while playing condi do not stop bombarding them with attacks.

Lol apologies if that was a bit overly detailed.

oh no no, I find overly detailed better than overly vague, or underly…detailed. If that makes sense. Also! quick clarification, I do usually run shrouded removal, so when I enter deathshroud it does break me out of the fear.

Personally I find the best way to deal with them is to land a good burst on them. Otherwise they’ll keep resetting.

I’ve been using a specific burst rotation for quite some time that’s more like reflex at this point. It has a lot of steps but it can be cast in only a few seconds once you’ve gotten good at it. And if the entire rotation connects, there aren’t many people that will survive it.

(Condition build)
Start with Dark Path as soon as they’ve used up their dodges, follow with a Life Blast to apply burning via Dhuumfire, then with Tainted Shackles for Torment and Doom forcing them to move thus making the Torment hurt even more (and either forcing them to use a stunbreak or suffer the torment + other conditions for the duration of the fear). Leave Death Shroud, use Grasping Dead while they are still being feared, Enfeebling Blood should follow and should hit about the time the fear has ended, swap to staff, fear them again it’s very unlikely they will survive unless you miss some key steps in the rotation.

Honestly I find Dark Path to be one of the strongest openers for a fight. It puts you right in peoples faces, chills them to prevent them from backing off too fast and immediately puts the pressure on. If you get good at landing Dark Path and following it with the rest of the Death Shroud rotation, you should be able to tear your opponents health bars down to nearly 50% before they can even retaliate in most cases.

It all depends on the skill of your opponent and the situation though. You’re definitely not always going to win. But practicing a good rotation is a good way to make you a bit more scary to deal with. For myself, nothing is more satisfying than landing all the steps in my rotation on someone. Because if they fail to dodge any of it.. Their health bar just evaporates and it never gets old seeing how fast they melt.

I recommend a condi build as you require much less control to win. I actaully take the trait where dark path corrupts boons; it seems to put them away the fastest especially the more popular trickery thieves. The metabattle link is quite nice and I use something similar to moderate success (for a bad player like myself at least), except there are no dire trinkets? On a power build, you really need to use life transfer at the right time.

As with all thieves, you must pressure their shadow refuge. Bomb the crap out of their stupid house! Also, never be like “omfg a thief! Run!” because not only do many thief builds get bonuses for flanking you, you’re not going to be able to run anyways. And don’t do stuff like step in black circles.

In the end, I think the best way to beat a thief is to learn how a thief thinks (by playing them), but not everyone has the time to do that.

Spectral grasp, dark pact, well dump, spam dagger 1, stomp.

Good anti-thief ? Just go Condi, issue solved

So many people pointing to a condition build….

…you should try full berserker 62006 build. Take at least dagger mainhand.
You interrupt their (stealth) rotation with a fear. Then you lock them down and burst.
Fe: Doom > Dark Path > (lifeblast) > Dark Pact > (well on your feet) > Dagger AA.

When you see them being very low on HP and try to hide in stealth, you can use Tainted Shackles, Life Transfer. When Tainted Shackles ends, they are probably downed (especially if there is still a Chill of Death proc in there as well).

Having Flesh Wurm and Spectral Walk/Armor on your utility bar will also help.