Guild Wars 2

Fluffball.8307:

I posted this in another thread. You have to assume the thief’s entire goal is to backstab you (unless you see he’s using different weapons or something.)

“You can use yourself as bait for the first C&D and then immediately Lightning Reflexes out of the Basilisk Venom. Sword 2 in 2 random directions will probably make the 2nd attempted backstab miss (it will never come before they unstealth) and then for the third one, Muddy Terrain yourself right before/as they unstealth. Possibly drop the entangle there as well.”

As Kilger pointed out, muddy terrain and entangle can be stealthed out of, so use it when they just come out of stealth or when you know where they are in stealth (muddy terrain only, since entangle needs a target.) You can use the drakehound howl in the same manner.

Also, rapid fire is your bread and butter for tracking stealthed thieves. If you see them low on health and know they are about to stealth, start the channel. It will follow themif you start attacking them before they finish stealthing. Turn with your RF so they don’t get out of your forward angle that RF works in. I.e. if you see them moving behind you, turn with it. You can tell how close they are to you by how fast your RF turns directions.

Don’t camp in LB against a thief. You’re pretty much only going to quickly switch to LB to make use of skills 2, 3, and 4, or autattack when they are circling around you before they attack. Only use barrage for area denial (i.e. to cut off an escape route when he’s stealthed, on Shadow Refuge, or on rare occasions use it on yourself to cripple him as he moves to backstab, then swap to melee and fight him in the AoE. That last use is very situational, be careful and do not default to using barrage.

Make liberal use of your melee sets movement skills. Be unpredictable if you don’t know where he is.

Work with your pets’ random CC, i.e. if your wolf knocks him down, follow it up with the LB4 knockback as he stands up.

Wolf fear is incredibly strong against anyone.

Hope any of that helps. Remember that their goal is usually to backstab you and reset combat if it doesn’t work, so get inside their head.

Testify Son. Really well put. Good advice. We’ll always be the Red Headed Stepchild of GW2. ;-)

Please Fluffy, stop trolling with DMG boosted screenshots…
You know what? 36k on 1 skill is what my TANK WARRIOR is capeable to do.
Not to mention how easy can it outrun any other class, mostly the rangers with that single “Swoop”.

It’s not worth to compare a twin-turbo Audi R8 engined WV Beetle to a Lamborghini, even if it seems to be competitive in the start of drag race…

I agree with most of the posts made here. A good thief NEVER has to die. They always have the option to disengage and reset until they can get the kill. I kill a lot of thieves but, it’s at the point now that, when I get the kill, I know EXACTLY what the thief did wrong and my skill played only a small part in his death. I hate the stealth mechanic in this game with every fiber of my being. However, it’s likely the only thing I hate so, I keep playing. ;-)

I have fantasies about this every time there’s a new balance patch…

“Thief:
– All Stealth durations reduced by half.
– Stacking Stealth will no longer be possible.
– Stomping an enemy will no longer be possible while in Stealth.
– Backstab now costs 4 initiative.
– Heartseeker range decreased by half”

Man…that would be sweet.

RoyalPredator.9163:

Please Fluffy, stop trolling with DMG boosted screenshots…
You know what? 36k on 1 skill is what my TANK WARRIOR is capeable to do.
Not to mention how easy can it outrun any other class, mostly the rangers with that single “Swoop”.

It’s not worth to compare a twin-turbo Audi R8 engined WV Beetle to a Lamborghini, even if it seems to be competitive in the start of drag race…

How am I trolling? For starters it was funny, someone posted that a thief being able to kill him with 3 attacks needed to be nerfed, so I showed him a ranger killing someone in a single attack. Sure, we need to be nerfed. Thieves achieve that damage by going glass cannon.

So many people are whining that a character with 900 toughness and 10k health can’t be killed. It takes three autoattacks landing to kill a thief. THREE. AUTO. ATTACKS.

This really is a learn to play scenario.

JaNordy.6149:

Condi trap bunker owns thieves, well it owns pretty much everything due to how condi stats work right now. One of my favorites is full glass cannon LB, let thief get you to less than 5k health, pop signet of stone, unload on him as he spams HS, if he is about to stealth barrage. It produces much rage from thieves cause they think they had a sure win, often times you will get party invites after that.

I like to run ahead of a large group of allies or a zerg (ahead enough that the enemy doesn’t see them coming right away) straight into a bunch of thieves, the minute they see the solo ranger they all run like wild animals after me, using their utilities to close the gap and initiative. Pop that signet of stone, force them to start ganging up on me as they chase me around the corner of that wall over there….. and BAM 40+ allies pop out of nowhere… dead thieves everywhere. Party invite achievement unlocked.

Fluffball.8307:

RoyalPredator.9163:

Please Fluffy, stop trolling with DMG boosted screenshots…
You know what? 36k on 1 skill is what my TANK WARRIOR is capeable to do.
Not to mention how easy can it outrun any other class, mostly the rangers with that single “Swoop”.

It’s not worth to compare a twin-turbo Audi R8 engined WV Beetle to a Lamborghini, even if it seems to be competitive in the start of drag race…

How am I trolling? For starters it was funny, someone posted that a thief being able to kill him with 3 attacks needed to be nerfed, so I showed him a ranger killing someone in a single attack. Sure, we need to be nerfed. Thieves achieve that damage by going glass cannon.

So many people are whining that a character with 900 toughness and 10k health can’t be killed. It takes three autoattacks landing to kill a thief. THREE. AUTO. ATTACKS.

This really is a learn to play scenario.

It’s not rocket science, how does anyone expect to defend themselves against the potential for very high damage by wearing kitten see through panties for armor? It goes both ways.

awge.3852:

It’s not rocket science, how does anyone expect to defend themselves against the potential for very high damage by wearing kitten see through panties for armor? It goes both ways.

Exactly. That’s why I was saying ranger vs thief favors the ranger, since we have slightly more evasive techniques (whatever those may be, not just evades) than thieves do. We may not kill them, but at least they go away.

It’s just important to remind people. So many people think backstab thieves have 4k armor and 30k health.

(And on that note, good lord are tank thieves annoying to fight.)

Edit: Also your thief trap is hysterical.

I think a lot of times people just tend to panic and tyr to instantly heal / go defensive when they get backstabbed, when actually most of the time (though not always) its better to just fight back at that point. The theif has used their burst, almost certainly cant do as much damage as you can in a straight up head-to-head and cant stealth for a few seconds.

Obviously assuming you arent on the verge of death after a backstab, just fight back rather than heal.. you can heal when they inevitably stealth in a few moments time, but if all you are doing is getting backstabbed > playing defensive > they restleath before you start to attack back > repeat, you arent actually going to get anywhere.

awge.3852:

I like to run ahead of a large group of allies or a zerg (ahead enough that the enemy doesn’t see them coming right away) straight into a bunch of thieves, the minute they see the solo ranger they all run like wild animals after me, using their utilities to close the gap and initiative. Pop that signet of stone, force them to start ganging up on me as they chase me around the corner of that wall over there….. and BAM 40+ allies pop out of nowhere… dead thieves everywhere. Party invite achievement unlocked.

LOL guilty of that too. The frustration of not killing me because of sos overwhelms their reasoning and they follow me like lemmings to their doom. I suspect its because they feel entitled to the kill and dont know when to let go

Fluffball.8307:

awge.3852:

It’s not rocket science, how does anyone expect to defend themselves against the potential for very high damage by wearing kitten see through panties for armor? It goes both ways.

Exactly. That’s why I was saying ranger vs thief favors the ranger, since we have slightly more evasive techniques (whatever those may be, not just evades) than thieves do. We may not kill them, but at least they go away.

It’s just important to remind people. So many people think backstab thieves have 4k armor and 30k health.

(And on that note, good lord are tank thieves annoying to fight.)

Edit: Also your thief trap is hysterical.

Ranger vs thief favors Ranger? Maybe for you…and grats on being able to play so well.
If you polled 100 Rangers, how many do you think would say that a Thief/Ranger fight favors the Ranger? Ten maybe?

If you polled 100 Thieves, how many would say a Thief/Ranger fight favors the Ranger? Ten maybe? There is a reason that when a Thief sees a ranger among other classes he makes a beeline towards the Ranger.

If such an over whelming majority of both classes believe that a Thief normally beats a Ranger, how could your opinion trump that? Maybe you are the outlier? The exception.

It would be like Warren Buffet telling everyone how he doesn’t understand how everyone isn’t rich like he is. That if he can do it so can everyone else.

Every class has people that excel when playing that class. No single class attracts the most skilled players just as no single class attracts no skill players.
You can’t judge a class on the elite skilled players. You have to judge it on the average encounter.

Forzani.2584:

snip

You make some good points, but the answer is simple. Almost all roaming rangers use a condi bunker build, which is good for dueling (required even; I play condi bunker 98% of the time in sPvP.) It’s a solid build that gradually whittles people down.

That, unfortunately, is simply NOT going to beat a thief most of the time. I run a berserker build that is specifically based around roaming, and not dueling. This is exactly the kind of build a glass cannon thief does not want to face — another glass cannon. Yes, the thief can kill me if he lands the C&D, BS and HS HS HS combo, but that’s effectively never going to happen. I’ve played hundreds of hours on a backstab thief and know how it works. But he has no other options. He sure as hell can’t go toe to toe with me because my damage comes from autoattacks.

Can I kill a thief every time? Nope, they are really good at resetting and no one can deny that. However, since my build is based around CC, those 3 seconds that the thief can’t stealth from revealed give me an excellent opportunity to catch him. As I mentioned, it takes me a mere 3 autoattacks to kill a GC thief (2 if you’re lucky.) Other builds like a maul build could potentially do it in a single attack.

What I’m really advocating here is that rather than just rolling over and dying to thieves, give roaming in your PvE berserker gear a try. Who do you expect to lose to? You won’t lose to lost zerglings if you were naked and the only other genre of players you’re likely to run in to are thieves or guild groups. Run from guild groups obviously, and fight the thieves. Don’t knock it till you try it. With the upcoming removal of repair cost, you’ve got nothing to lose (perhaps after the WvW tourney if you’re worried about getting constantly stomped out.)

As an added bonus, berserker rangers are just plain awesome when they’ve got a few buddies with them. Just absolutely devastating when you pair with a shatter mesmer or nike warrior due to the chaos they create. Give it a whirl!

And the usual disclaimer, I’m talking about GC backstab thieves. I will lose most times to a condi thief who hides in stealth as I slowly die.

Fluffball.8307:

Forzani.2584:

snip

snip

I agree with you. To be honest it makes total sense. I think after a loss many people try and think of ways to last longer in the next fight…so they build more defensive.

To add to that it is my nature to be defensive. Although I do remember one night that supports your play style. I was out for a few wobbly pops. Came home, was bored so loaded up my Ranger. Got into a fight with a Thief….didn’t care if I won or lost so went hard after him. Pretty much 2 shotted him with my GS. So I buy your theory.

Still, for it to work you need to play well with your dodges. Myself and many others are average at best with timing dodges. Also, one of the main issues I have with Thieves is their blinds. Dunno how you get around that one consistently

Forzani.2584:

To add to that it is my nature to be defensive.

I’m a bruiser, the martial classes account for 96% of my PvP wins (just added them up.)

Forzani.2584:

Still, for it to work you need to play well with your dodges.

Surprisingly you don’t. What you need to do is break the C&D BS combo. This is where my first main as a backstab thief comes in to play. It’s friggen hard to get behind a player that doesn’t want you to get behind them. Like really hard. I have so much respect for the best thieves that can do it. And the best thieves don’t play backstab haha.

Fluffball.8307:

Surprisingly you don’t. What you need to do is break the C&D BS combo. This is where my first main as a backstab thief comes in to play. It’s friggen hard to get behind a player that doesn’t want you to get behind them. Like really hard. I have so much respect for the best thieves that can do it. And the best thieves don’t play backstab haha.

I got respect for them also. Usually my fights end up in a stalemate since they will stealth and reset. BUT there are times when I cant do a thing, like AT ALL. Im not talking about quick 3 hit kills too, I’m talking about that 1-2 minute fight where you cant do any damage and just get destroyed by the thief. I tip my hats off to those players. Last thief was from Kaineng, I mean WOW! Perma blinded and great condition removals.

Also like many have mentioned, If the thief is built for stealth, and they want to run, you will not kill them, unless they are bad.

Fluffball.8307:

It’s friggen hard to get behind a player that doesn’t want you to get behind them. Like really hard. I have so much respect for the best thieves that can do it. And the best thieves don’t play backstab haha.

You sure? Stealth up, and you’ll behind anyone.
What people do against thieves?

1. Stand still and AA? – Easy Loot!
2. Running in circle? – Easy Loot!
3. Retreating Backwards? – Easy Loot NEXT Time!
   No scenario makes you dead as long as you’re not full kitten thief. It happens tho. 11yo!

I said “someone who doesn’t want you behind them.” Standing in place or running away if just giving the thief your back.

I played my thief in PvP a lot more than WvW though, I could definitely see some lost guardian just standing there wondering why the thief disappeared.

Fluffball.8307:

I said “someone who doesn’t want you behind them.” Standing in place or running away if just giving the thief your back.

I played my thief in PvP a lot more than WvW though, I could definitely see some lost guardian just standing there wondering why the thief disappeared.

….with a staff on their hand

If you’re condition, you will have to just wear them down and try to land all of your conditions when they are weak.

Tricare.2946:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y03hudKTyFI

If you’re condition, you will have to just wear them down and try to land all of your conditions when they are weak.

If I may… that was a good example on how to fight using a condition build (and boars for the regen/stuns), yet this goes for all rangers experienced and unexperienced: if you are running torch use bonfire wisely. That is one big bonus we rangers can use against thieves who depend on stealing for heals in order to survive a fight. Wait for them to approach (you can see that he always approached after using stealth), set a bonfire on the floor the moment he pops out of stealth. For better results make sure that you use a slow/cripple/stun/immobilize skill as well, this is to ensure they take as much fire damage as possible. Also in terms of bonfire use, it’s best to exploit it when you know the thief will do all they can to stay on top of you. Perhaps your health is starting to run pretty low, but you know you can avoid death, yet the thief may not expect you to come back from it, this is a perfect time to use bonfire since they will most likely risk it to get the kill.

you fight glass with glass. i get beaten sometimes by a thief, i wont deny that but it’s a matter of who made the more mistakes. RF can track thief on stealth. just follow where the arrows are going and that’s where the thief is going then use barrage as soon as RF stopped. that should be able to deplete the thief’s health and you’d see him lying on the ground. ranged attacks work for me. i’m not sure if it’s the same using mellee weapons.

awge.3852:

What to do against thieves overall? Do what I did:

Go into PvP 1 vs 1 arena with a thief friend, regardless of their skill level. Work your way to killing them, modify your build and gear as you deem it necessary. Use websites to build your character outside the game, so you don’t spend anytime in game looking for gear when you don’t know better. Put your ‘i think this works’ build in these forums so we can comment on your ideas. As you get better, challenge other thieves in the 1 vs 1 arena, until you feel strong enough, but do come back periodically to retest your skills and builds.

In my experience, I find that condition/toughness centered builds work best. There are certainly many variations in approach and I can share mine if you want, but it all will depend on your skill, your build can only take you so far as there are really skilled/experienced thief players out there.

Pro tip:
1. It’s essential for you to learn a thief’s approach, make a thief and practice with them in PvP, learn the flow of battle, or level them to 80 just for the single purpose of having fun.
2. Learn your ranger, we have a lot of (quite spreaded) survival options and damage options. When you have mastered your ranger, your weapon, utility and pet skills should flow as smoothly as an elementalist’s going through their elemental atonement rotation. The difference is that we can be more versatile since we have plenty of options, it’s just a matter of using them best the way that suits the situation AKA trashing the floor with that —- thief.
3. Learn to use your pet…. period.
4. Be open to losing, getting killed over and over by a thief until there is a permanent hole on your ranger’s back from all those backstabs, that’s how you will learn from your mistakes.

L2P?

How about you and anyone else who uses this phrase making youtube videos showing how instead of just ‘saying’ learn to play.

How is anyone supposed to learn without teaching in this or any game?

No, I can’t just “learn to play” – I have to have a mentor who is willing to show me how not just tell me to go learn how to play.

Kudos to everyone with their positive views on success versus thieves.

However, I feel that we need to be more realistic, because success depends on several factors— none of which are a guaranteed—and even if they were, the Ranger player needs to have a specific build(s) catered to thieves, which render the ranger less effective in many other situations.

The problem, is that the thief is able to achieve effectiveness (against most classes with ease) with a single build, but the Ranger needs a specific build(s) and needs to expend great effort to survive—let alone defeat—a thief. Balance issue!

The Sic ’em skill is a step in the right direction, but four seconds is ridiculous—it needs to be six to eight seconds.

Pure Heart, killing a thief may require effort from the ranger, but scaring them off is easy, and then the thief is just wasting his time.

Yesterday a thief tried to gank me. After I hard CCed him a couple times and took him a hit away from the downed stage, I saw the totally expected shadow refuge come out. I just wandered off because I had a camp to take. He didn’t follow. Not only that, I ran in to the same thief several other times and he didn’t even try to attack me.

Out of 3 thieves I ran in to during that play session, two were unwilling to engage me after the first encounter (the third just died and I never saw him again.) Generally thieves aren’t looking for difficult fights, they’re looking for 2 or 3 hit kills.

(I also think CC is a lot more effective than Sic ’Em, but whatever works for you.)

First off don’t listen to any replies that are “hurr hurr I kill all the thieves on ranger always”

They kill all the bad thieves in SPVP and downlevelled thieves in WVW mainly and can’t actually understand the difference between a good thief that they used selective memory to edit out when they got ganked and the awful thieves that they are able to kill with that mentality.

It’s the moderate to good thieves that matter and those are who you want to learn to kill.

Speaking from a power perspective:

In S I run a 4/4/6/0/0 build, zerk amulet, vigor traits, condi removal trait and condi removal signet. You are not going to kill half the skilled thief builds at all if you die in the first condi burst. All life steal sigil and vampirism rune to help with the weakness of power setup which is sustain.

GS is awful because they can dodge the block kick and the maul just moving out of range easily and the cleaves are too weak. The leap is only good for running (and I find warhorn better in many cases) and a laughably predictable burst. Some players fall for that burst, but again, they are not the players that matter. I’ve had way more success vs. thieves with sword/warhorn. Sword for stickiness/unpredictability and warhorn for free bird hits out of stealth and resetting the fight a bit with the extra heal blast from spring as well as a bit of res/teamfight and movement utility. Sword/dagger is another good option for the long evade possible on 8 second dagger 4 with the right build.

Wolf/drakehound is also important for the maximum CC. I believe they are the best pet setup overall due to this but esp. with thieves as others have said.

This build can kill most classes and can take on most thieves as well. The very best d/p that are aggressive with blinds and s/p teleporting builds that are defensive with multiple teleports I still have trouble with.

Even mesmer invisibility and target drop/switch is not enough to escape the bow kb-rapid fire if you’re very fast as I am but thief still can evade or cause a lot of facing error misses by teleporting to my face constantly.

I could and have run a condi version of my spec and have an easier time against thieves specifically but I enjoy power too much. Thief with stealth and blind spam is the weakness of many a power class such as hambow and we’re no different. I’d rather have serious trouble versus a small percentage of setups and be able to kill everyone else than the alternatives.

We are Rangers and the build most of us want to play is at Range and that is our most unique strength to put out sustained damage but the thief has TP, blinds, and target drops with stealth for a heavy counter to our strengths especially in a power setup.

atheria.2837:

awge.3852:

What to do against thieves overall? Do what I did:

Go into PvP 1 vs 1 arena with a thief friend, regardless of their skill level. Work your way to killing them, modify your build and gear as you deem it necessary. Use websites to build your character outside the game, so you don’t spend anytime in game looking for gear when you don’t know better. Put your ‘i think this works’ build in these forums so we can comment on your ideas. As you get better, challenge other thieves in the 1 vs 1 arena, until you feel strong enough, but do come back periodically to retest your skills and builds.

In my experience, I find that condition/toughness centered builds work best. There are certainly many variations in approach and I can share mine if you want, but it all will depend on your skill, your build can only take you so far as there are really skilled/experienced thief players out there.

Pro tip:
1. It’s essential for you to learn a thief’s approach, make a thief and practice with them in PvP, learn the flow of battle, or level them to 80 just for the single purpose of having fun.
2. Learn your ranger, we have a lot of (quite spreaded) survival options and damage options. When you have mastered your ranger, your weapon, utility and pet skills should flow as smoothly as an elementalist’s going through their elemental atonement rotation. The difference is that we can be more versatile since we have plenty of options, it’s just a matter of using them best the way that suits the situation AKA trashing the floor with that —- thief.
3. Learn to use your pet…. period.
4. Be open to losing, getting killed over and over by a thief until there is a permanent hole on your ranger’s back from all those backstabs, that’s how you will learn from your mistakes.

L2P?

How about you and anyone else who uses this phrase making youtube videos showing how instead of just ‘saying’ learn to play.

How is anyone supposed to learn without teaching in this or any game?

No, I can’t just “learn to play” – I have to have a mentor who is willing to show me how not just tell me to go learn how to play.

Find me in game we can train together, I am personally not fond of making videos and I’d rather show-and-tell, but I do what I can on the forums so I hope that’s alright with you.

Pure Heart.1456:

Kudos to everyone with their positive views on success versus thieves.

However, I feel that we need to be more realistic, because success depends on several factors— none of which are a guaranteed—and even if they were, the Ranger player needs to have a specific build(s) catered to thieves, which render the ranger less effective in many other situations.

The problem, is that the thief is able to achieve effectiveness (against most classes with ease) with a single build, but the Ranger needs a specific build(s) and needs to expend great effort to survive—let alone defeat—a thief. Balance issue!

The Sic ’em skill is a step in the right direction, but four seconds is ridiculous—it needs to be six to eight seconds.

Agreed, also an important thing you need to do is lure the thief into your pace, blow down it’s utilities (especially refuge) then save your fear or traps for that moment, and follow through with a kill. Every thief fight is a challenge, some easier than others, some do come ready for a ranger fight. In the end you really need to expose yourself over and over again until you feel comfortable fighting them, then work on your build from there.

Uhm… Thieves usually try to escape (~80%+ Chances) when they attack us without success. I think it is US wasted time with a thief when they just walk away. Same with the mesmers and eles.

Pure Heart has my +1. We can’t operate well ~everywhere with the same build.
Yet I try to use my… Power Ranger? build, it is just not enough powerful than my oponent’s basics, meanwhile I miss only 1 ascended gear of all and can’t sacrifice more defense for dps.

RoyalPredator.9163:

Uhm… Thieves usually try to escape (~80%+ Chances) when they attack us without success. I think it is US wasted time with a thief when they just walk away. Same with the mesmers and eles.

Pure Heart has my +1. We can’t operate well ~everywhere with the same build.
Yet I try to use my… Power Ranger? build, it is just not enough powerful than my oponent’s basics, meanwhile I miss only 1 ascended gear of all and can’t sacrifice more defense for dps.

It’s not just thieves who will try to run away, the fact remains 80% of the players will use hit and run tactics, hit because they think they can win, run because they realized they’re not willing to lose, rinse and repeat. Thieves are simply notorious at this because stealth mechanics allow for easy hit and run to occur… yes I mean to say it allows for cowards to sit behind their keyboards and run away much more easily. Now if you are being heavily outnumbered in WvW I wouldn’t blame you.

If Glass Cannon Power Ranger: You need to initiate first. GS/LB recommended. You are able to burst a thief very quickly, open from a distance and attempt to burst them before they reach you. Remember to use your five on SR. Once in Melee (if they make it) you GS will mitigate a bit of damage, you should also have some sort of secondary defense, most common is Signet of Stone or Protect Me. SotF has a immob and LR. Do not blow Mual right away.

Spirits: Easier fight, survive is all you have to do. Your protection uptime and tankier stats will make it a hard fight for them. Condi pressure will force them into SR or to flee. They will likely cry to their team and target you if they are bad in an infantile rage. I’d suggest going to YOUR team where your buffs WIN TEAM FIGHTS. Thats where this spec is most effective.

BM Bunker: BM bunk birds see Thevies like a shiny new Ferrari. We all know what birds do to cars. /sleep or /laugh if they run away. You arent going to catch them, Sic ’em applies revealed and they can not stealth, when they stand there in SR not stealing they give you the saddest confused looks. And the angriest tells.

Hahaha, our burst worth not mutch. Even if you go by a full DMG spike build, you’ll found yourself on ground-locked where you wish your dmg being your defense

As a thief I hate traps, especially stacked on one another, I hate dogs, they knock me down, I hate counter on greatsword, only thing i hate about longbow is point blank shot…and if I’m not a sword dagger thief myself, I hate sword torch axe dagger as a dual dagger thief needs to get close to you and sword ranger has amazing mobility in combat. All mentioned above are steps to a counter to thieves, it should be noted they won’t necessarily be guaranteed to work, just nice measures to have a much better chance of working. lighting reflexes is a pain as well. Now if I’m Dagger pistol the fight would become harder for you but still winnable…you just have to worry about blinds. If i’m sword dagger things start to get a little frisky here, now I will constantly be on you no matter what weapon set you use no matter how mobile you are since due to initiative, I will always be more mobile than you and will always be the gnat in your face……use that to your advantage, set traps, set bonfires, make me go right into your conditions and set up counter measures because sword dagger doesn’t have as reliable condi clearing as the previous set ups and a good amount of sword dagger thieves are a defensive bluff, they go heavy into our vitality tree but zero into our toughness tree and also may have very little toughness trinkets. What I’m saying is, they get hit hard. And if its a Pistol Dagger, just run, we even hate these guys, nothing new here

maybe anet should use head and fix some our skills like axe 5 which if stolen by thief they have full mobility why we are rooted to the ground which makes that skill completely useless as a lot other ranger skills

RedSpectrum.1975:

As a thief I hate traps, especially stacked on one another, I hate dogs, they knock me down, I hate counter on greatsword, only thing i hate about longbow is point blank shot…and if I’m not a sword dagger thief myself, I hate sword torch axe dagger as a dual dagger thief needs to get close to you and sword ranger has amazing mobility in combat. All mentioned above are steps to a counter to thieves, it should be noted they won’t necessarily be guaranteed to work, just nice measures to have a much better chance of working. lighting reflexes is a pain as well. Now if I’m Dagger pistol the fight would become harder for you but still winnable…you just have to worry about blinds. If i’m sword dagger things start to get a little frisky here, now I will constantly be on you no matter what weapon set you use no matter how mobile you are since due to initiative, I will always be more mobile than you and will always be the gnat in your face……use that to your advantage, set traps, set bonfires, make me go right into your conditions and set up counter measures because sword dagger doesn’t have as reliable condi clearing as the previous set ups and a good amount of sword dagger thieves are a defensive bluff, they go heavy into our vitality tree but zero into our toughness tree and also may have very little toughness trinkets. What I’m saying is, they get hit hard. And if its a Pistol Dagger, just run, we even hate these guys, nothing new here

I like this guy. Honest and giving good advice. As a trapper Ranger, thieves are relatively easy to dispatch given they’re not being creative (which most aren’t). What I usually like to do is trick the Thief in to thinking that I’m running away from them but in actuality I’m dropping all my traps behind me while they run through them all. Then I turn around, shortbow #5 to prevent them from stealthing (works at least 70% of the time), lay some poison on them and if they manage to survive all that, which a lot of the time they won’t, I fear them out of any chance they had left to survive with wolf F2.
Thieves have a very low health pool so their health bars will fluctuate a lot. Stacking poison on them, even if you’re not a condition build, is always a good way to keep them on their toes. Same goes for immobilizing them, throw some Muddy Terrain, a Spike Trap (traited will give it immobilize), Jungle Spider F2, Entangle (although I don’t recommend it it has it’s moments).

I just wanted to summarize a couple of tips that might help for thief encounters.

1. Signet of stone really helps
2. Lightning reflexes
3. Flame trap*
4. Off hand torch for bonfire*
5. Greatsword skill 4 to block and counter, 5 to stun.
6. Offhand axe! Pop skill 5 when they spike you, knuc, knuc, down
7. Serpents strike will roll you behind someone who hits (tries to) you in the back
*8. Maximize bonfire and flame trap by leaping into them GS-3 and S-2

Keep pets close when they stealth, like Prysin said. Also try to get a leap on your fire field. The fire Aura is a real game changer. I usually chase after thieves in WvW. Always a fun fight, win or loose.

Edit:

9. Trait Malicious Training and bring Wolf/Hound/Spiders
10. You can sometimes chain SB-5 and GS-5 after Wolf Fear, or Hound Immobilize
11. Traps!
12. Don’t try to run after taking single hit massive damage, attack, attack, attack!
13. Follow dodge roll with attack, GS-3 or S-3. Keep pressure up.

Don’t be afraid to loose, and try again. Find the thief hang-out spot and hunt them. Even if they keep killing you, at first. You’ll eventually get to the point where you can give them a run for their money. Practice makes perfect. I’m not saying L2P, but practice to get better. There is always room for improvement, and a little practice doesn’t hurt.

A quick tip on the trap part for you guys, make sure your standing in one. Often on my thief a ranger will drop traps and continue backing up past them ( leaving the traps between the two of us) The second he steps outta the circle, I steal/step to him bypassing all his defense which is now on cooldown. Another quick one off the top of my head is barrage is NOT a deterrent at least for me (even as a full glass teef) The dmg i take compared to the dmg i can do you in that time frame is tipped way in my favor, however i see allot of rangers do it none the less. Any ranger wants a thief to spare against please hit me up in game, ill guide you through my defenses the best i can to help you out.

Dina Van Heyr.3018:

maybe anet should use head and fix some our skills like axe 5 which if stolen by thief they have full mobility why we are rooted to the ground which makes that skill completely useless as a lot other ranger skills

I agree with this….if thieves stole ranger axe 5, we steal warrior axe

I am having the most success in SPVP in a power setup using PVT amulet and a BM centric build with might stacking.

I have tried so many variations of power LB setups specifically against thieves because they are rampant and the ranger’s greatest counter class IMO since easy blind application and stealths really screw bow. It doesn’t matter what you can do against other classes if a thief can press three buttons and you fall over dead so you have to design against them IMO if you want to play power.

I have switched off wolf/spider to cats due to the best bleed stacking. Wolf fear and kd are awesome but cats have the most precision and bleed trait to be able apply the most pressure and you can rely on none of the wolf cc so the bleeds have the most probability of being useful consistently among RNG evils. BM line maximizes the effectiveness of Sic Em and is the ranger’s answer to the ease of thief stealth in a power setup. The slight healing boost helps.

Wolf fear vs. thieves becomes a niche situation in which you’re getting a couple seconds hoping pet is in proper position for refuge, or desperate on the ground or trying to save a teammate. It’s sort of planning for failure against thieves in a power setup as I usually kill them now before the refuge.

The cat bleeds are there all the time and especially for every sic em. I also use vulnerability sigil which on ranger stacks up FAST due to rapid fire/opening strike and provides cover conditions for the bleeds from pet. I’m considering dumping sigil of battle for on swap poison is the only change I’d make at this point.

GS is a must, I did a very long stint with sword/dagger and wh and only if you are a bunker I believe are those any good to reset the fight with total healing with evades. Otherwise, their evades are just putting off your death for a few seconds. weak hits and putting you out of position a lot get you killed in a power setup vs. thief as well as you fly past a stealth drop to present a perfect back target. OH Axe locks you in place on #5 which is also a death sentence usually in power. Condi/bunker sure, but not power. You need the burst from maul, you need the positional and daze to land it, and you need the block to counter blinds mainly.

In any zerker setup you cannot be fast enough to mitigate and dodge every single thing so your margin of error is too low to be useful for long. 6 seconds of sigil build protection is not enough either as warrior/ele have this kind of thing for days and heavy armor or massive healing ability so you’re way outclassed on that front. A thief has 15-18k with stealth for days and you have 18k with a blockable stealth on 9 seconds…you’re a glass duck.

Upon making the setup changes below my success against thieves rose dramatically.

I am killing a LOT of thieves out there and my counter classes now are down to the best condi classes such as necro, strong p/d thieves, and sword warriors applying torment to stop LB kiting (I really can’t stand that they put torment in the game to weaken kite centric builds further). I absolutely love this style of ranger and will keep making it as useful as I can in spite of the meta.

I don’t really care about e-sports level of competition and tactics primarily involving dumping mass aoe and pets on a point because that is what made Warhammer Online a crappy PVP game in general, though it had many shining moments. I will play the way I want to play.

So if you’re a casual PVPer like me and just want to kill thieves as power, give this one a try. I seriously went from dying to most of the above average ones to hunting 95% of them down. Of course I’ve killed a lot of thieves in zerk setups but never any that were well above average.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRnMqQLL2KIGsAXLGAQoWFAtnhWIGePtVbRfxVptA-TJhGwAIeEAf2fAaZAAXBAA

In the meta too if you can power roam and counter a thief roamer, your meta usefulness went way up IMO. You can be at home/mid almost simultaneously and stop/protect stomps easily from range and maximize vulnerability at range before going into a victim with GS in this build. It is a ton of fun.