Guild Wars 2

Hey fellow rangers.

Just wondering how you guys best deal with enemy thieves.
They give me more trouble than any other class. I am speaking primarily from a WvW perspective.

I am so fed up with fighting thieves I am willing to respec my entire build, get all new exotic weapons & gear, whatever it takes. My hate for the thief knows no bounds.

Please share your thief fighting tips below!

The main issue is that making a WvW spec that works well against thieves will kitten your WvW advantages overall, or at least that’s the way i see it.

You can take the signet trait and Signet of Stone, Renewall and Lighting Reflexes…that should be more than enough to counter a thief.

I’m on the same boat as you, mainly because i run full bersekers with longbow/sword+horn and the only class that gives me real trouble are thieves, but i don’t want to spec into beating thieves only.

I usually have Axe/Horn equiped, aswell as a wolve in pvp.
So to deal with a thief the best way you need to chill him with axe 3, then use horn 5 and wolve petskill. This way you can run as fast as you can and try to escape while that theif is feared and chilled.
Hopefully you find some teammates that can deal with the enemy for you.
That’s actually the best tactic for every enemy in sPvP right now!
I used this special tactic for the past few weeks and it works pretty well.
Same should work for WvW

What race is your ranger?

Xsorus.2507:

What race is your ranger?

human
I don’t understand, what difference does that make?

Aeri.5738:

I usually have Axe/Horn equiped, aswell as a wolve in pvp.
So to deal with a thief the best way you need to chill him with axe 3, then use horn 5 and wolve petskill. This way you can run as fast as you can and try to escape while that theif is feared and chilled.
Hopefully you find some teammates that can deal with the enemy for you.
That’s actually the best tactic for every enemy in sPvP right now!
I used this special tactic for the past few weeks and it works pretty well.
Same should work for WvW

I was hoping for a more helpful strategy than ‘just run away!’

Dutch Master.7208:

human
I don’t understand, what difference does that make?

Use Kormir if that’s the case. Most daggers start out immoblizing you with venom.

Also try using Entangle. A lot of thieves are dagger spamming scrubs that they don’t even know they could port out of it.

If they’re dagger spammers, the best thing you can hope for is protect me or signet of stone’s invulnerability would absorb the bulk of their attack and you manage to burst them down. If they play a conditional cloak, hit and run spec, then good luck. Not a lot you can do.

I kind of wish pets would be able to track thieves even when they’re cloaked by picking up their scent. It’s just way too easy to cloak and dagger ATM.

Dutch Master.7208:

Xsorus.2507:

What race is your ranger?

human
I don’t understand, what difference does that make?

Aeri.5738:

I usually have Axe/Horn equiped, aswell as a wolve in pvp.
So to deal with a thief the best way you need to chill him with axe 3, then use horn 5 and wolve petskill. This way you can run as fast as you can and try to escape while that theif is feared and chilled.
Hopefully you find some teammates that can deal with the enemy for you.
That’s actually the best tactic for every enemy in sPvP right now!
I used this special tactic for the past few weeks and it works pretty well.
Same should work for WvW

I was hoping for a more helpful strategy than ‘just run away!’

Asura’s get Pain Inverter, which kitten most Thieves pretty horribly.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Thoughts-on-my-World-vs-World-Ranger-Build-i-ve-been-running/first#post608398

This was the thread I posted on it, that gives you kind of an idea of how I fight thieves.

Your problem is going to be coming up with a replacement for PI.

Darn dirty THIEVES! I get killed within one second of these little dirt bags attacking me; if they do not use stealth then I have no issue and can easily take them out or at least chase them off long enough to recover.

One possible way would be to use AoE abilities as soon as you suspect someone might be near; if you see one person nearby there can possibly be three others stalking you.

@Trishlicious, I read your first line in the voice of Peter Griffin and expected a cutaway joke. Scary.

Anywho, Asura’s Pain Inverter is amazing. I wasn’t a believer at first, but I’ve seen it in action and now I’m a convert. Some racial abilities are pretty good… not sylvari, but some are pretty good.

Thieves are the worst class to 1v1 in WvW, however, as most have the ability to drop in and out of combat, thereby deciding the encounter in their favor. I’d say don’t get too serious about finding a counter to them just yet; wait until November 15th when the new patch drops with fixes for our class.

Whaaat? Take Root is amazing. It’s probably one of the best racial abilities there is. Three seconds of invincibility, plus you summon four turrets that stack bleeds like a mother. It’s awesome.

My Ranger is a Norn. If you want to talk about crummy racial abilities, there’s the place to start.

Funny you should ask… Just last night I was sneaking (well, I thought I was…) past an enemy tower to gank an unguarded supply camp. Sure enough, right after I crossed a bridge I get the telltale sudden loss of health and see not one, but two puffs of smoke. Oh kitten!

I had my SB out, so I targeted nearest and hit 3 to leap away and get some speed under me to high tail it back to base. Well, they weren’t having any part of that tactic and were right on my heels. So, I dropped a spike trap and a HS, switched to GS, threw up Counterattack, and hit my wolf’s fear.

First thief hit before the fear got him and got sent sprawling. I pounced on him, swapped pets for quickness, and unloaded everything that wasn’t on CD. I managed to down number one (not defeat), but number two had recovered from the fear by then and proceeded to beat the kitten out of me before I could turn to run again.

So my answer is: greatsword plus a healthy dose of toughness. I got killed, but at least I know I could have handled one of them…

Take Root is fun, but the turrets die easier than our pets, attack everything a mile away and do not focus a single target. So while the invulnerability for 3 seconds is nice, I’m not doing anything for those 3 seconds and creating damage that I have no control over – save for a few situations.

And I wish our Grasping Vines would work on moving targets. Instead, it misses. Very disappointing.

deepwinter.9015:

@Trishlicious, I read your first line in the voice of Peter Griffin and expected a cutaway joke. Scary.

Anywho, Asura’s Pain Inverter is amazing. I wasn’t a believer at first, but I’ve seen it in action and now I’m a convert. Some racial abilities are pretty good… not sylvari, but some are pretty good.

Thieves are the worst class to 1v1 in WvW, however, as most have the ability to drop in and out of combat, thereby deciding the encounter in their favor. I’d say don’t get too serious about finding a counter to them just yet; wait until November 15th when the new patch drops with fixes for our class.

hehe, did you start using PI recently?

Blows your mind out powerful it is huh

I’m no expert, but I believe the problem is the rangers lack of condition removers and thieves condition bursts/precision.

You could try the following:

- Shared anguish + Hide in plain sight + wilderness knowledge (wilderness survival traits)
- Nature’s bounty + Nature’s protection + Evasive purity (Nature magic trait)

These require 30 points in both wilderness survival and nature magic. So you get kind of defensive build. Or at the same time a condition / boon duration build if you prefer?! The last 10 points could go to primal reflexes (skirmishing).

Pet: Brown bear for its “shake it off” + krytan drakehound for its immobilize

skills: Healing spring + lightning reflexes + protect me + signet of renewal + entangle

Armor and weapon: not sure. Maybe something to counterweight your defensive build or go defensive all the way!

Build

again, i’m sure more experienced players have better suggestions. But give it a try and good luck :-)

Sleepy really has the right of it. Blow your horn run for run speed and dps buffs, hit him with the birds, then run. If anything just put protect me on your bar so you have more time to run in circles while the rest of the group solves your problem for you. You should never be by yourself in WvW, and there are people better able to deal with thieves. A nearby warrior should be more than happy to bulls charge and hb for you.

Spvp is a different story, there go a condition and trap build, its a bit more close in fighting style which doesn’t lend itself as well to WvW. But on the other hand maybe it would be fun to see 20 people walk into your traps. Just don’t die resetting them. =)

Lightning reflexes + 1h sword = dead thief. Soon as they steal they usually stun, use lightning reflexes and then serpent strike. All the while pet is hurting him, thief will be forced to stealth most of the time. I do that then switch to longbow and point blank him into a rapid fire. Then my raven tends to finish him off. Even if thief kills you, if you can down him its gg for ranger. Only warriors can beat a ranger in the downed state, or a ele near water ( vapor form into the water rez ).

Thieves aren’t too bad to deal with – whether they are condi or power builds. I run a shortbow + axe/torch condi build and when out of combat swap to my horn just for swiftness while travelling. To take thieves down though, you need some type of aoe to keep dealing damage whenever they refuge, use invis, etc. Your torch helps you out here as using #5 over a refuge and spamming split blades it is quite amazing. Plus you need to run with a bear (condi removal bear) and wolf. The bear is great to start the fight with, as noted above the theif will typically try to burst you down asap, which you can use your bear + protect me to easily absorb damage and burst out your own. Then typically you can swap (5 pts at least in BM), gain quickness, and aoe fear the theif out when he uses his first stealth. Switch to shortbow, pew pew, then near end of fear stun (you’ll be behind), keep pew pewing, start kiting with shortbow, rinse/repeat. I typically run with protect me/condi pet removal/quick zeph – but if you’re having a ton of trouble, you can switch quick zeph out for spike trap. Hope those tips help and good luck.