Guild Wars 2

As title says, this type of thief gives me the most trouble in a 1v1 scenario. I use greatsword/longbow. Pretty decent crit % and crit dmg. Good toughness and power. With the kind of build I use, are there any strategies and/or utilities I can bring to make it easier to fight them?

Their shadowstep on sword is tough to fight against. I can’t cripple or chill them because it will be removed when they shadowstep back.

S/D thieves are OP,cause of #3…counter with patch i guess x)

btw it’s OP because:
1) cheap
2) hurts alot
3) unblockable
4) gives evasion
5) steals boons
6) amazing synergy with #2 (2,3,3,2 rinse and repeat until win)

ButterOfDeath.2873:

S/D thieves are OP,cause of #3…counter with patch i guess x)

btw it’s OP because:
1) cheap
2) hurts alot
3) unblockable
4) gives evasion
5) steals boons
6) amazing synergy with #2 (2,3,3,2 rinse and repeat until win)

This probably didn’t help him at all.

Over the numerous numerous duels I have had with the 2 best thieves that are sw/d on my server, we always come to a stalemate.

Being BM facing any player thats worth their salt will eventually end in a stalemate a majority of the time. he fights I recorded were easily 10-23mins long each. Ended in stalemate each time.

But given your wep set and you said you had chill? I can’t tell what kind of bm build you’re running without you providing more information.

I’ve slowly been pumping more offense into my build and taking points out of the bm tree. I was at 25 pts but at 20 now. Might go to 15, bu no lower than that. I love faster pet swapping. What is a good counter against skill #3? I use QZ, protect me, and sig of the wild for utilities right now.

I am willing to change things up if there is a good counter out there.

EDIT:
If I bring owl or alpine wolf, I have access to chill. But didn’t want to do so since they can purge conditions quickly.

well, my time with the ranger has been fairly limited, but i have yet to be bested by a thief since my condi-gen 313 build. Once they pop their port to get safe and cure condition. try to close the gap as fast as possible. Then put an alpine wolf on em and stay in sword/dagger the DD and cc from pet along with your evades and poison starves them of init. points once they get 1/3 hp drop entangle, and switch to axe/torch and #5 em at that point you can frost and bleed em till they pop.

Furajir.3815:

Being BM facing any player thats worth their salt will eventually end in a stalemate a majority of the time.

This is really the problem with the BM build. No real chase-down ability means that most enemies can just disengage freely once they decide they aren’t going to kill you.

I’m always kind of mystified watching the solo roaming WvW videos that you and other rangers post here because you’ve got all these clips of thieves who reengage at less than half health and end up dead. I realize you’re just choosing good clips out of hours of footage but my first impulse reaction to that is always “What server is this guy playing on where thieves actually fight to the death? I need to transfer there!”

yeah, stice . I agree with you. ive found that the people that play thieves tend to be cowards and/or crap players that spam rinse and repeat abilities. when their spamming one button method doesn’t yield desirable results they either panic or run.

and yes, us not having a gap closer is kinda rough, for now ive been spinning 180 and using lightning reflexes to close the gap. or do the same thing with sword 2 …which works pretty well.

So a good method is to stay toe to toe with this kind of thief?

thats what i would do, assuming you are S/D A/T like I am.

Also, with sword 2 target a mob that is behind you, doesn’t mater the distance, and just press 2 then deselect the target (assuming you have auto-targeting off) start running after the guy and press 2 again.

I just started playing ranger again so this is only video I have. However, in the 2nd fight you’ll see what i’m talking about, i use this method to gain some distance.

Don’t run longbow for duels. A s/d thief cannot be successfully kited if he’s any good. He’ll be in your face pretty often, and thus the value of your longbow is greatly diminished.

2 things about this thief:

- His main damage comes from the autoattack and the 2nd chain of his Flanking Strike (the stab attack after he evades).
- He can stunlock pretty well if you don’t bring stability and don’t position well to not give him your sides or back for his long kitten daze sneak attack.

Never wait to heal when you’re low against a s/d thief. They’ll stunlock your heal attempts and finish you off with the auto.

Basically, take the evade attack, and save the dodges for the stab and the final chain of his autoattack (also a stab). In other words, save your dodges for his stabbing animations, not his slashing ones (the stab part of his auto chain inflics weakness, which will cripple your endurance regen).

Zenith.7301:

Don’t run longbow for duels. A s/d thief cannot be successfully kited if he’s any good. He’ll be in your face pretty often, and thus the value of your longbow is greatly diminished.

2 things about this thief:

- His main damage comes from the autoattack and the 2nd chain of his Flanking Strike (the stab attack after he evades).
- He can stunlock pretty well if you don’t bring stability and don’t position well to not give him your sides or back for his long kitten daze sneak attack.

Never wait to heal when you’re low against a s/d thief. They’ll stunlock your heal attempts and finish you off with the auto.

Basically, take the evade attack, and save the dodges for the stab and the final chain of his autoattack (also a stab). In other words, save your dodges for his stabbing animations, not his slashing ones (the stab part of his auto chain inflics weakness, which will cripple your endurance regen).

That is helpful thank you. I normally would stay in greatsword against these thieves. Maybe switch to longbow to get off a knockback or try and burst with rapid fire. Maybe Sword/dagger would be better against them instead of longbow.

Yeah both s/d and greatsword are better weaponsets against him since you can counterpressurehim and negate his damage.

S/D thieves don’t burst — they have really high sustained damage and mobility in exchange.

The only builds that can really realiably kill these thieves are phantasm mesmer and P/D thief because both of those bring the spike needed to constantly force him into the defensive, and both of these classes do their spike without needing to land CC to hit with it.

Tricare.2946:

Also, with sword 2 target a mob that is behind you, doesn’t mater the distance, and just press 2 then deselect the target (assuming you have auto-targeting off) start running after the guy and press 2 again.

I just started playing ranger again so this is only video I have. However, in the 2nd fight you’ll see what i’m talking about, i use this method to gain some distance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXeGYemkKcI

The person who made that “song” deserves to be shot for it

Zenith.7301:

Don’t run longbow for duels. A s/d thief cannot be successfully kited if he’s any good. He’ll be in your face pretty often, and thus the value of your longbow is greatly diminished.

2 things about this thief:

- His main damage comes from the autoattack and the 2nd chain of his Flanking Strike (the stab attack after he evades).
- He can stunlock pretty well if you don’t bring stability and don’t position well to not give him your sides or back for his long kitten daze sneak attack.

Never wait to heal when you’re low against a s/d thief. They’ll stunlock your heal attempts and finish you off with the auto.

Basically, take the evade attack, and save the dodges for the stab and the final chain of his autoattack (also a stab). In other words, save your dodges for his stabbing animations, not his slashing ones (the stab part of his auto chain inflics weakness, which will cripple your endurance regen).

Having stability will just feed it to him no? sounds like you don’t want to have any boons at all to me, also I hate good thieves.

Stice.5204:

Furajir.3815:

Being BM facing any player thats worth their salt will eventually end in a stalemate a majority of the time.

This is really the problem with the BM build. No real chase-down ability means that most enemies can just disengage freely once they decide they aren’t going to kill you.

I’m always kind of mystified watching the solo roaming WvW videos that you and other rangers post here because you’ve got all these clips of thieves who reengage at less than half health and end up dead. I realize you’re just choosing good clips out of hours of footage but my first impulse reaction to that is always “What server is this guy playing on where thieves actually fight to the death? I need to transfer there!”

Whats wrong with not being a wuss and staying to fight? At least they are trying? I could upload the fights between myself and Xeviel etc to show stalemates, and he stays to fight, we just end up drawing.

90% of the player base is bad and don’t know what they are doing. I played a Thief, and have fought enough thieves to predict their movements and understand stealth timers and take a pre-amptive strike before they try to bs or re-open, it’s not difficult. I’m not choose “good” clips per say, just clips, what you see in my videos is literally common occurence, I had over 20+hours of wvw roaming footage and just pick and chose, I didn’t really sift by any measure.

loved the video…as a side note that Rap song made me want to Rob an Old Lady and drink some malt liquor.

I would have stayed in sword a bit more , going to axe torch just long enough to put weakness/burns on. but yeah…lookin good!

Manekk.6981:

Zenith.7301:

Don’t run longbow for duels. A s/d thief cannot be successfully kited if he’s any good. He’ll be in your face pretty often, and thus the value of your longbow is greatly diminished.

2 things about this thief:

- His main damage comes from the autoattack and the 2nd chain of his Flanking Strike (the stab attack after he evades).
- He can stunlock pretty well if you don’t bring stability and don’t position well to not give him your sides or back for his long kitten daze sneak attack.

Never wait to heal when you’re low against a s/d thief. They’ll stunlock your heal attempts and finish you off with the auto.

Basically, take the evade attack, and save the dodges for the stab and the final chain of his autoattack (also a stab). In other words, save your dodges for his stabbing animations, not his slashing ones (the stab part of his auto chain inflics weakness, which will cripple your endurance regen).

Having stability will just feed it to him no? sounds like you don’t want to have any boons at all to me, also I hate good thieves.

If you follow what I told him and dodge his larcenous strike (the stab part after flanking strike’s evade) he wastes initiative and DOES NOT steal your boon.

S/D only steals boons if they land Larcenous Strike. They don’t steal any other way unless it’s via steal trait.

All great advice. The problem is I think I have my camera pulled too far back. Just recently I read a post about a dungeon encounter with some boss. It advised players should prepare to dodge when the boss lifts an eyebrow…that the big damage attack is happening. Seriously ?

With my camera pulled back so far I would never see that. I rarely see any player animations like heals etc. so slashing motions compared to stabbing motions is not even on my radar…especially against thieves who I don’t even see half the time. Either that or it is a graphics problem…or a combination of both.