Guild Wars 2

Hey all, I started playing ranger in pvp and am enjoying it, but I have trouble against thieves when they get close. This is my current build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNBjYD7kRFaYxWWwVQoaxA7B16AoAO7eDB3BeEKY1B-TpBFwACuAAMOCA12fYxBBoaZAAPAAA

I usually don’t have trouble disengaging from a fight with sword main hand, but as you know, with thieves its pointless. I try and kite them to make them lose initiative,but they never seem to run out. D/P thieves spam blind and s/d thieves spam evade. Any tips?

Your build is well prepared to combat thieves by default. I would switch out the warhorn for offhand dagger though, since it’s a subpar weapon which doesn’t offer much apart from a 50% uptime group buff.
First off, you don’t have to disengage from a fight vs a thief. Usually you can spot them coming at you from miles away, and you have massive range advantage. LB auto hurts like hell and baits dodges. If you see them randomly dodge your autos, proceed to rapid fire their face off. If they use their gap closers like signet of agility, PBS. Once they pop their steal and sig of agility, feel free to entangle.
When facing a D/P thief, abuse sword mobility while he’s stealthed, and when he’s performing the BP/HS combo, rapid fire. He can’t dodge, blind will only eat one hit and rest of the machine gun autofire will make him regret trying to stealth. A good combo you can perform is entangle on BP, wolf fear, PBS, rapid fire.
Versus S/D thieves, you have about as much dodges as he does. If he spams them, just wait for an opening like him using shadow retreat, and rapid fire.
In general, rapid fire is your best friend against thieves. It hits like a truck of bricks, tracks through stealth and makes kitten panic. Just don’t panic yourself, control your opponent and the surroundings. Oh and +1’ing thieves with rapid fire is probably the best thing you can do!

Lenor.8197:

Your build is well prepared to combat thieves by default. I would switch out the warhorn for offhand dagger though, since it’s a subpar weapon which doesn’t offer much apart from a 50% uptime group buff.
First off, you don’t have to disengage from a fight vs a thief. Usually you can spot them coming at you from miles away, and you have massive range advantage. LB auto hurts like hell and baits dodges. If you see them randomly dodge your autos, proceed to rapid fire their face off. If they use their gap closers like signet of agility, PBS. Once they pop their steal and sig of agility, feel free to entangle.
When facing a D/P thief, abuse sword mobility while he’s stealthed, and when he’s performing the BP/HS combo, rapid fire. He can’t dodge, blind will only eat one hit and rest of the machine gun autofire will make him regret trying to stealth. A good combo you can perform is entangle on BP, wolf fear, PBS, rapid fire.
Versus S/D thieves, you have about as much dodges as he does. If he spams them, just wait for an opening like him using shadow retreat, and rapid fire.
In general, rapid fire is your best friend against thieves. It hits like a truck of bricks, tracks through stealth and makes kitten panic. Just don’t panic yourself, control your opponent and the surroundings. Oh and +1’ing thieves with rapid fire is probably the best thing you can do!

Nice tips ill play around with my build and swap out warhorn and pack runes then. great advice thank you.

You are a glass cannon on this build anyways. Traiting 3 points to wild.surv. won’t help you. You need to focus on bursting things down asap, and let positioning be your #1 defence.

I would play a build like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8XnMqQFL2wCuCCXLGYPoWHAFwZz+DGhOw1WUwpK-TpRBwAROCAP3fg/DAgcZAAHEgHXAAA

You need to time you CC and sic’em very well, but if you do, you won’t have any problem dealing with thieves even if they open on you.

If you see them coming, it should be the easiest job ever.

Also if you stay immobile while channeling rapid fire, you will track them even if they go behind you. It is useful vs D/P thieves because they wont be able to backstab you necause you will always face them when chaneling rapid fire.

And don’t stop swinging your sword when stealths, they’re not invincible!

GS is very effective against them. Keep swinging when they stealth. I think I just got cursed out by a thief for that. Something like “kitten your kitten Arie!”

Sic’ Em is all you should need to combat a thief….
Unless they know what they are doing the following should be an easy win for you:

Sic ‘em -> Hunter’s Call -> Call of the wild -> rapid fire -> hunter’s shot -> stomp

or
Sic ‘em ->point blank shot -> Rapid Fire -> Hunter’s Shot -> Stomp

If you are having a trouble finishing them before sic em wears off, use barrage immediately as soon as they pop shadows refuge or another stealth skill.

p.s. same strategy works flawlessly against mesmers since you keep your target on them ^-^

Path Of Scars → Winter’s Bite → Point Blank Shot → “Sick ’Em!” → Rapid Fire.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT3XnEqQLL2xCuCCXLGIPoWHAJwpzuDygTw1XUyKiC-TpRBwAeOCARuAAP3fgcZAAHEgHPAAA

Don’t use “Sick ’Em!” unless they are CC’d and unable to dodge it. Only use Whirling Defense if someone is using projectiles against you. It does very low damage otherwise. Point Blank Shot and “Sick ’Em!” are just fine to use without first using Path Of Scars and Winter’s Bite but the longer combo, albeit more difficult to pull off, is significantly more deadly. Try to keep your opponents chilled/crippled/immobilized as often as possible to get the most out of Predator’s Onslaught trait. Muddy Terrain is especially great for this.

I decided to use a dagger offhand for the extra evade and the cripple. What i normally do is when i get hit i will switch to sw/d and try to evade spam/auto attack. The thing is, there auto attacks hurt much worse than mine. I guess the best thing I can do is try and gain some distance and then switch to longbow and use sic em. This is the build ive decided on.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8XnMqQFL2wCuCCVLIYPoWHAFwZ3h7APCu2iCeUB-TZBFwACeCAA3fYxBBoaZAAXAAA

The dps with owl with sic’em is really good. I save my stabilty signet for when I use sw/d. Sword is nasty vs ele’s when they can’t cc you. I will just have to keep practicing and eventually ill get the hang of it. Can’t become great in a day I suppose.

If i roam i always take sic em with my ranger. 9/10 thieves suck it and its also good against mesmers! (And 80% of the roamers are thieves and mesmers)

Archon.6480:

GS is very effective against them. Keep swinging when they stealth. I think I just got cursed out by a thief for that. Something like “kitten your kitten Arie!”

No it is not. GS is not even viable in ranked pvp. Ever player with a bit of brain can dodge maul. Then you’re useless untill it comes off cd again or swap weaps. I would not recoment GS for any reason. S/A or even S/D is far superior.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Archon.6480:

GS is very effective against them. Keep swinging when they stealth. I think I just got cursed out by a thief for that. Something like “kitten your kitten Arie!”

No it is not. GS is not even viable in ranked pvp. Ever player with a bit of brain can dodge maul. Then you’re useless untill it comes off cd again or swap weaps. I would not recoment GS for any reason. S/A or even S/D is far superior.

Stun or go invisible, fear, root, push to the wall etc… Btw you are right. I think maul is the best telegraphated skill in this game

As a thief main, just CC the kitten out of them and they will die or you’ll blow all their stun breakers then your buddy will kill them and probably revive you. =)

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Archon.6480:

GS is very effective against them. Keep swinging when they stealth. I think I just got cursed out by a thief for that. Something like “kitten your kitten Arie!”

No it is not. GS is not even viable in ranked pvp. Ever player with a bit of brain can dodge maul. Then you’re useless untill it comes off cd again or swap weaps. I would not recoment GS for any reason. S/A or even S/D is far superior.

No that’s clueless. 3 and double tap 4 does more than enough damage against thief. s/d and s/a work fine.

McWolfy.5924:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Archon.6480:

GS is very effective against them. Keep swinging when they stealth. I think I just got cursed out by a thief for that. Something like “kitten your kitten Arie!”

No it is not. GS is not even viable in ranked pvp. Ever player with a bit of brain can dodge maul. Then you’re useless untill it comes off cd again or swap weaps. I would not recoment GS for any reason. S/A or even S/D is far superior.

Stun or go invisible, fear, root, push to the wall etc… Btw you are right. I think maul is the best telegraphated skill in this game

Maul is easily dodged when you spam it.