Guild Wars 2

as a dagger necro? after countless encounters with them i’m never able to do anything.
EDIT: now running bone minions and golem. proving to be lulzy. even beat a tankier condi necro.

With full soldier gear and appropriate runes, fight for a while until you see them cleanse a bit, then root with dagger and drop WoC and spam dagger 1.

With other gear sets, you’re probably at least a little bit boned.

As Dire/Rabid, just stack up the AoE until they run or die.

SupahSpankeh.8452:

With full soldier gear and appropriate runes, fight for a while until you see them cleanse a bit, then root with dagger and drop WoC and spam dagger 1.

With other gear sets, you’re probably at least a little bit boned.

As Dire/Rabid, just stack up the AoE until they run or die.

i run half knights half berserker’s. aka, a little bit boned. yay, necro puns.

Run Bone Fiend. Start with its immobilize, since it is highly unlikely to be dodged and the thief will be watching you, not your minion. Chain it with Dark pact and sit behind them, attacking until they die. Very few thieves actually run immobilize cleansing because Hide in Shadows and Signet of Malice are just so good and Roll for Initiative is their longest cooldown stunbreak.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Run Bone Fiend. Start with its immobilize, since it is highly unlikely to be dodged and the thief will be watching you, not your minion. Chain it with Dark pact and sit behind them, attacking until they die. Very few thieves actually run immobilize cleansing because Hide in Shadows and Signet of Malice are just so good and Roll for Initiative is their longest cooldown stunbreak.

no root or slow or anything will stop a stealth spammer thief they will almost always heal to full while only coming out to hit you a few times with huge crits and go to stealth again and doing this till you sooner or later die…… good thiefs like these are Rare.

The point with Immobilize is that even if they stealth, you still know where they are and can keep stabbing them.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

The point with Immobilize is that even if they stealth, you still know where they are and can keep stabbing them.

You would need to immobilize them while in stealth somehow, due to the condi meta, most of us run cleanse on stealth, so when we enter stealth we cure any condition, and an additional after 3 seconds. So im not sure immobilizing is going to be the real bane here, especially since he is a dagger necro, he still needs to walk up to the thief after which they would most likely cloak and dagger to :cleanse the immobilize, set up for a huge crit and gain a bit of health back.
If they run D/P then he doesn’t even need to get close they’ll cleanse right then and there. I personally think Well of darkness sets you up in safe territory to fight. Or a minion mancer but OP rolls dagger main hand so that wont cut it.

Agreed, immob is golden.

I’d advice against tanky specs though. It might allow you to live through the initial burst, but unless you can actually kill them, the thief can simply run, heal up and attack again, except this time you’re out of LF and cooldowns.

(I’m using a 30/10/…/30 build)
My advice is to go zerker, or as close to it as you’re comfortable with. Grab the thief, unload enough damage to down an elder dragon on it and do a little victory dance on your way out.

Things get a little tricky if the initial burst fails. The important part is to do as much damage as possible, as you’ll quickly run out of defenses if you play passively. Don’t give them an opportunity to go offensive!

When you can’t dagger them, DS them. Skill 1 has a huge range combined with amazing damage when traited for it, 2 slows them down while putting you in dagger range and 3 is an instant fear (use to burst and to avoid their burst). Finally you have 5 and 4, both of which do huge aoe all around you – even against stealth users. Use them once the thief stealths.

Another handy trick should they decide to go stealth and you happen to be carrying staff is to place a mark (an unimportant one!) at your feet and keep an eye on it. It’s easy enough to avoid by dodging through it, but it’ll give away their position. If the mark is triggered, either dodge or fear them with another mark.

Finally, I’d advice you give thieves a try in sPvP. It’s usually easy enough to predict what the thief will do once you know how they work.

RedSpectrum.1975:

Or a minion mancer but OP rolls dagger main hand so that wont cut it.

What’s wrong with dagger MM?

yski.7642:

RedSpectrum.1975:

Or a minion mancer but OP rolls dagger main hand so that wont cut it.

What’s wrong with dagger MM?

vs a d/d thief? quite a bit. when you’re in range you’re also in the thief’s range. aka, cloak and dagger and no more immobilize. oh and blinds. love those.

RedSpectrum.1975:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

The point with Immobilize is that even if they stealth, you still know where they are and can keep stabbing them.

You would need to immobilize them while in stealth somehow, due to the condi meta, most of us run cleanse on stealth, so when we enter stealth we cure any condition, and an additional after 3 seconds. So im not sure immobilizing is going to be the real bane here, especially since he is a dagger necro, he still needs to walk up to the thief after which they would most likely cloak and dagger to :cleanse the immobilize, set up for a huge crit and gain a bit of health back.
If they run D/P then he doesn’t even need to get close they’ll cleanse right then and there. I personally think Well of darkness sets you up in safe territory to fight. Or a minion mancer but OP rolls dagger main hand so that wont cut it.

Not at all. Locust Swarm provides plenty of cover for immobilize and Barbed Precision usually means that there’s a bleed that gets removed first.

1. start casting Locust Swarm.
2. if the thief is dodging, let him. Otherwise, pop Rigor Mortis.
3. after immobilize lands, Fear or Daze him, then chain immobilize, running up to the thief as you do so (if necessary).
4. Slash away at the thief’s position. He’ll be dead before the immobilize wears off or very close to it. Even if he stealths, all that gets removes is cripple which gets reapplied twice before another condition gets removed.

And how exactly does dagger/dagger thief blind?

As a spectral zerker build I tend to out-dps thieves. Only trouble I have is when I try to catch them when they’re running away.

The problem with the perma stealth build is they have decent burst and a high level of sustain, to the point that they can actually outlast tank builds due to avoid so much damage and resetting the fight when they get to ~50%. I really don’t have a problem with burst, the disengage, or the ability to selectively choose which fights they begin. It’s the combination of the three I find troublesome. Even more so when as a lifesteal build my sustain is very much contingent on actually hitting my enemy. Constantly avoiding channels, etc. makes it even more difficult. If lifesteal builds were stronger I could accept having a hard counter, but do only passable builds really need such a hard counter?

Maybe its because I main one, but I never have had issues with thieves. Not very many thieves have toughness on their gear, or vitality for that matter.

When Im playing power/dagger builds I usually run dagger/dagger – axe/horn. I have wells and spectral stunbreakers. I use mostly knights gear with a little zerker for crit damage.

I find that my high armor plus lots of DS uptime is more than enough to tank thieves, and my damage is high enough to burst them down quickly.

Axe/dagger #2 will track them in stealth if you cast it before they vanish, and DS4 hits them in stealth as well. Dagger root is great for putting damage on them, DS fear has a short cd so use that to your advantage.

I don’t always run with Golem, but when I do.. the charge > dagger root > horn daze > DS fear is a nasty cc combo on them, they will be forced to use shadowstep or another stunbreak, and chances are you will have damaged them enough to force a retreat.

I am not the kind of player that gets frustrated when a thief is able to get away. In my mind, if I forced him to run away, I won. He is not a threat to the objective at hand. If he comes back, either he will be too late or I will just squash him again.

Oh and I forgot to mention another important thing for killing thieves.

Keep weakness on them. Half the reason I run dagger offhand is for the weakness, it is crucial for surviving against thieves/warriors.

Between dagger offhand and the trait in curses that auto casts enfeebling blood when entering DS, I can keep up weakness on thieves when they try to burst me, it helps a lot.

I used to have lots of trouble wth thieves and I kept searching for builds on how to kick their kitten and I finally found one, go Fear nuke. The traits are 0/20/20/0/30 if im not mistaken. Full condition/vit/toughness + nightmare runes (possibility to fear) and you will be able to almost constantly fear anyone + your fear deals damage. this way thieves or any other class will have the hardest time killing you.

I roll 0/10/0/30/30 with runes of exuberance and a soldier/zerker mix of gear.

I got 2k power, 28k hp + 22k hp in DS (with wvw buffs) and a pretty mean burst too with that 40+50% crit and 70% crit dmg. Any thief that gets caught in that Wells + ds 5&4 is pretty much boned whether they stealth or not.

Oh also its a verrry good idea to get some cover conditions on first before the immobilize. I try to lead with dagger 5 for the weakness and bleed first. That way they don’t instantly get out of immobilize when they stealth.

Lorelei.3918:

Any thief that gets caught in that Wells + ds 5&4 is pretty much boned whether they stealth or not.

This is a very effective way of killing thieves. Also, if you know one is about to attack, you can even drop all of your marks on yourself and wait for the backstab. Many will underestimate the marks and attack anyway. This gets a few conditions on them and pretty much ensures that by the time you get done with DS 4, they’re down.

The thief is a dangerous profession that can give necros real problems with their mobility but most who play the class are dagger 2 spamming morons running glass cannon builds and practically kill themselves.