Guild Wars 2

I’m currently using 30/20/20 build with GS/SB when I roam. With Soldier gear (no runes, I’m not sure what to a lot yet!) and 1 berserker ring and accessory, with 1 knight ring and accessory
First question: I’m using 2 sigils of hydromancy- is there a better alternative?

Now, on to the topic: hello everyone! I’m looking on tips for fighting thieves 1 on 1. Was getting stepped on by back stabbed this morning in sPvP duels, and I got into a scuffle with an evasion theif this morning in WvW. The backstabbers give me problems because I don’t have very much burst to hit them when they pop out of stealth.
The acrobatic kept stealing from me and leaping through the water field. I made a few mistakes at the beginning of the fight and ended up sitting at half health the entire fight, but so did the thief.
Any suggestions?

Equip a longbow. It’s really that simple with your build.

Most go with fire for the AE, I prefer air since I’m more concerned with finishing my selected target than AEing. But fire is probably a better choice overall. I prefer inteligence for the greatsword, but most go energy for more dodges. I’d go energy after next patch probably.

I’d suggest traveler runes so you can drop signet of the hunt. The active is not that great and you can then equip something like zephyr or reflexes, or even sic em.

Just put on a longbow though and you’ll find thieves are probably your easiest fight.

First of all, in 1 vs 1 battles, any form of berserker gear or build will struggle against thieves. You need to trait to have very high toughness as your #1 or #2 stat. Next your approach to damage is always two sided, this is the nature of ranger battles: your damage + your pet’s contribution.

Since you are running a 30/20/20, your pet will not help you much with damage, only with its skills, that puts you at a disadvantage since thieves are sneaky. You want more than one source of damage if possible, but you’ll have to live without that. Also I would retrait for 20/20/30, since bark skin (wilderness survival grandmaster trait) is an absolute life saver.

Strategy: my advice against any thief is to use fire trap and stay on top of it until it is activated. It works everytime and has a very short cooldown. The fire trap shows clearly when its activated and when a stealthed enemy comes into it; which gives you that extra instant to counter their next move. Fire trap has a lot of condition damage (the highest) =, you can combine this by using off hand torch for an extra fire field, while your fire trap goes on cooldown. Using this will allow you to keep condition damage constantly on the thief, and if it is high enough it will hurt them hard (a second source of damage), they will think twice before stepping into it.

Pet choice is simple. I like to use canines against a thief, nothing like a very useful stomp or a fear (wolf) or regeneration (fern hound) or an extra canine (hyena) to stomp again. But to fight a thief, you must be good at pet micromanagement. You must absolutely keep that pet nearby you, if it is being kited by the thief then call it back but don’t wait for it, send it again right away, it will reset its pathing.

You need to have a melee weapon of choice: greatsword, sword/torch are best against thief. Greatsword will block their initial burst pretty well, and it will open a chance to stop their second with skill #5, which at that point will open your burst abilities. Sword will allow you to dodge out of their burst, but you need to save those dodges and not over use them, a thief that forces you to over use your dodges without working hard for them is a happy thief.

Now signet builds are tricky to burst with, because you need that perfect timing to blow your stuff into the thief. Plan to have two or three chains of controlled burst damages that you will apply to the thief, only and only when you know they came out of stealth and prior to them going into stealth again. A good thief will force you to waste these, so also think of a way to protect yourself until your cooldowns come back.

To properly burst, you must always lure the thief to attack you first. Typically at the beginning of a fight they always come knifes out – mouth hungry for that squishy ranger… wrong. Set the fire trap and stand on it, thief comes in for a burst or stealthed for a backstab. Make sure you time your dodge or block skill perfectly. Stomp them with your canine, right away use entangle, signet of the wild and pour damage into the thief. Remember, they will stealth away somehow and if they are smart they will use a survival skill to get out of entangle. They will probably use their heal skill to go into stealth, using blinding powder, whatever… all to confuse you, to turn the tables. Fire trap again, get ready for it, survive and when you get the chance, burst again.

Backstabbers will always come back quick, so you need to be ready, practice hard and good luck! If you are still struggling, maybe chance to a condition heavy build and see how that goes.

Beastmaster bunker with cleric or apothecary gear with corresponding weapon sets , or trapper . Trapper is actually quite good vs thieves due to trap activation showing where they are .

Chokolata.1870:

Beastmaster bunker with cleric or apothecary gear with corresponding weapon sets , or trapper . Trapper is actually quite good vs thieves due to trap activation showing where they are .

Sadly even with this set up the stealth spamming regen thief wins unless he is bad. Your best bet is Dive.

Dive in water. Win. Thieves lose to much when in water, while ranger gets boosted.

Look , chances are you are going to lose to any professions dueling build if the opponent is good enough . The only dueling build that can go toe to toe with opponents in 1v1 in WvW is the apothecary beastmaster .

As others said, equip a Longbow. It’s one of the best current counterplays to stabby thieves because as you start channeling Rapid Fire, it follows thief with fire even if he’ stealthed. Another good hint for longbow : If you can, try to call target for yourself(tag any critter/low hp/not dangerous mob) on some potential target for your Hunter’s Shot. Once thief goes stealth and you can feel he’s about to open, quickly swap target to previosly marked mob and stealth yourself. If executed right, thief may pop out of stealth seeing no target and you have the upper hand.
Also, IMHO signets are crap all together for power builds, you may find “Protect Me!” as helpful and efficient as Stone traited signet on 1v1, it doesn’t need trait investment and has lesser cooldown. Bring Muddy Terrain. Quite helpful vs. Thieves if you have any ranged weapon.

dont know why people need a longbow to kill a thief Oo
this weapon still sucks and better points to counter a thief is stay into your pet if its a backstap thief, much bs lands on your pet, put a trap under you, if its procs, just doge..
take a dog as pet, if he attacks you, he gets knockdown

some much nice way to counter thief and kill him

I play a spirit ranger and a well timed Drakeheound immobilize, a following Stone Spirit immobilize followed up with a Wolfs fear or Spiders immobilize, whatever is prefered, works wonders.

and the thief just presses stealth and then backstabs

In this time I apply about 15 stacks of bleed, 10 seconds burn, 15 seconds posion, 10 seconds weakness and 4 seconds chill. The most time he just gets revealed downed 10 meters away.