Guild Wars 2

HI,

most of the links are dead in the build thread, and was wondering if anyone could recommend a build + weapons that is best at countering melee/thieves, etc…can be minions, etc…
Thanks in advance,
PS

I would recomend a sort of bunker build to you. I dont have an exact build, but Death Magic and Blood Magic should be your main Trait lines.

Just google Bunker build or point defender build

Well I have been destroying thieves lately, last night in an SPVP match I got stuck in a rapid fire fight, I had just killed a warrior and as I went to stomp him a thief showed up, it was a 100b warrior so I had used up my stun breaker. The thief stealths and pistol whipped me. I almost LOST IT laughing, he hit me for 20,113 damage!! I got hit by a 20k pistol whip, and I survived with 1.9k health and whipped his kitten with 1.7k health I was blown away that, that could even happen.

I run a 30 20 0 0 20 build, definitely not one I made up or anything, but power wells build is the way to go for fighting thieves IMO, when they stealth or pop down shadow refuge, pop a well inside they have no idea what is happening, I use D/D and staff, with well of suffering, well of darkness (amazing to stop heart seeker spam or when they blow haste) and corrupt boon.

It’s all about surviving the first few bursts. I have played against some decent thiefs lately that have hit me hard at first but have actually saved their haste and power moves for halfway through a fight, but for the most part death shroud is your friend in the first 30 seconds of the fight, wait till they set up to blow all their cool downs and use DS to stop their attack in their tracks.

I don’t think you should concentrate on a build… of course toughness is key against thieves. what you should try to learn is how a thief thinks. I rolled one to understand them and have no trouble killing thieves.

I think most thieves in pickup sPvP games are pretty horrible. They see a target and start spamming heartseeker. Probably people who just want to test it out. Once in a while you run into a really great C&D backstab thief. DS + chill is your friend here. Plus I used to have issues with thieves when I didn’t know how to use a staff properly. For C&D to be effective they actually have to reach you. Spam traps around you and I would purposely jump into my traps and he gets chilled or feared… also dagger #4… blind Best thing ever. Oh yeah you wanna dodge too against a good thief… if you stand there you are dead. Dodge when he is stealth so he can’t get a back backstab off on you.

I usually run staff and scepter/dagger… i find it great against all classes especially thieves.

You have two chills (staff trap and DS)
You have cripple (scepter #2)
You have blind and condition transfer (dagger #4)
You have 2 fears (staff and DS… yes they are short but effective against a thief, I want them to be desperate and waste heartseeker while I’m close to full HP… baddies)
If you really have issue with thieves use SW or SA.

Remember with toughness build, heartseeker hits for 2K ish. If you should be able to survive. If you see him spamming heartseeker, just dodge or throw fear trap on top of you. Or just hit him with blind… lots of options.

Thanks for the replies guys!

I play thief as one of my mains and it is a rare necro that beats me (Backstab build), but last night there was one who put me to shame, hats off to him!

Thanks Blueprint and Chidawg for the detailed hints, will definitely help me to learn this class faster.

I have just been messing around with a condition build and it feels pretty good to me for starters.
Cheers,
PS

Dagger/dagger theives should be really easy to beat. If you stay still, you’ll die. If you don’t know how to dodge, you’ll die. But they’re so squishy you’ll have them down in no time. Those who spam Heartseeker are terribad PvPers and you should smasht them with relative ease. Backstabbers are harder, but stealth is easy to predict. They’ll be chasing you at all times to land that back stab, so yo should have no trouble at all in knowing where they really are and dropping all your AoE circles down as you move to catch them in. Kiting is key and I find the Blind Well (Well of Darkness) and/or Plague( when spamming the 2 key) really, really effecting against Thieves and all melee really.

A good sword/pistol Thief should be more trouble for a Necro in my opinion. Root poison+Quickness Pistolwhips are going to wreck you or anyone else for that matter. The same tactics really, just be ready for the inevitable rooting and have your DS Fear, that works regardless if way you’re facing and being stunnned, to interrupt them. Whilst quickness remains up, run. If they lack a root and/or quickness you should be okayish, just keep kiting.

Pistol/pistol has fairly high damage for a ranged class, but they’re an absolute glass cannon. You don’t see many of these though, I haven’t – I can only say range them back and try to outlast them until they go melee or flee.

Shortbow Thief is annoying to fight due to all the escapes, but they lack for damage compared to all other Thief weapons. Pressure them and they’ll have to flee or go melee if done right.

Just keep it in mind Thief is a stronger profession overall, particularly in 1 vs 1s.

Pimpslapper.2047:

Thanks for the replies guys!

I play thief as one of my mains and it is a rare necro that beats me (Backstab build), but last night there was one who put me to shame, hats off to him!

Thanks Blueprint and Chidawg for the detailed hints, will definitely help me to learn this class faster.

I have just been messing around with a condition build and it feels pretty good to me for starters.
Cheers,
PS

Ha np,

I have a lvl 53 thief as an alt as well so I do understand the class faiy well, just like you pimpslapper. Sounds like you already know the ins and outs of the fights. I see you decided to go with condition build, good choice it’s a really strong build, my preference is power for my playstyle but there is no denying to effectiveness of a condition build. Have fun murdering thiefs it’s a lot of fun.

Necro is actually one of the stronger classes against thieves. The key is just surviving long enough to outlast the initial CD dump (on a backstab thief – heartseeker is just a bad spec that should give you little trouble). At that point you can just load them up with chills and conditions and they have very little ability to counter it.

Both golem and plague are very strong against thieves.

When I played around with a full minion build (like 30 points in death, 20 in blood, and 10 in the last tree to get life force from marks) I pretty much destroyed thieves. The trait which gives you toughness for every active minion helped a lot.

100 Blade Warriors were a problem to a much larger degree because the minions died to the 100 blade aoe