Guild Wars 2

This is just a short guide. I just felt it was worth pointing out since there are still so many people talking about how difficult it is to fight a thief. I’m not saying “do this if you want to win”, but for those running with a sword, this will greatly increase your chances if you are currently having issues with thieves.

When a thief stealths, they normally won’t immediately attack you. A vast majority of the time, they will wait at least one second trying to get a good position on you. Wait one second after the thief stealths and then use sword 2 skill. This will put them slightly out of position and cause them to waste another second or so repositioning themselves for their burst. After they’ve been stealthed for 2-3 seconds, use sword 2 skill again to fly forward and throw them even more out of sorts. This is usually right when they are choosing to burst you again or losing stealth, and it will save your hide more often than not. Note: Try to throw yourself in random directions to make it tougher for the thief to predict where you will be.

This is the strategy I usually use against thieves that I’m having issues with, and for the most part it’s the positioning that let’s me win (or run from) the fight. I can’t tell you how often it makes it seem like I can read the thief’s mind by dodging their attacks the moment they unstealth when in reality it’s just me counting in my head and playing the probability game.

Also, when they pop shadow refuge, I’d suggest waiting even longer to use this positioning technique since a lot of thieves either heal during this time or use it as a reprieve since they have extra long stealth.

Lastly, I’d suggest playing a thief if you haven’t already. Guides are helpful, but knowing all their skills is what’ll really work magic on your gameplay.

Thank you for the advice Faux You are a legend among these forums and always helpful towards the community. I appreciate the effort you put into helping all of us.

Very good tips… I’ve been trying to “mind read” thieves lately. They typically stealth at about 1200-1400 units away so do you allow a few extra seconds to close that ground or is it assumed theyve stealth jumped or something? Seem to come up pretty fast.

I always throw down a bunch of aoes to keep them company in shadow refuge

Actually thieves I usually have good fights with, its guardians, necros (some) and mesmers that give me more trouble.

I usually do this, it’s a pretty good technique most times and with that said I was just backstabbed for 10,2k damage xD absolutely ridiculous damage on someone with over 3k armor.

Manekk.6981:

I usually do this, it’s a pretty good technique most times and with that said I was just backstabbed for 10,2k damage xD absolutely ridiculous damage on someone with over 3k armor.

With 3500 armor, I get pretty kitten ed when a single hit drops half my health too.

Faux Sheaux.6179:

Manekk.6981:

I usually do this, it’s a pretty good technique most times and with that said I was just backstabbed for 10,2k damage xD absolutely ridiculous damage on someone with over 3k armor.

With 3500 armor, I get pretty kitten ed when a single hit drops half my health too.

Indeed, I was really sloppy and in a false sense of security from playing a rabid bleed build wich most times just melt teefs before they can do much but this guy was bleepin fast, stealstunned then 5,8k cloak and dagger, 10,2k backstab and 6,5k heartseeker in a split second I never had time to react at all xD I would scream nuuurf! but I actually saw him coming and ignored him (cause I sure as hell wasn’t expecting a backstab like this) so I’ll just eat my crow and shut up this time…

As a fellow thief, I can also tell you that if you can land an interrupt on their heartseeker immediately after their blackpowder goes down, then you will be in a very good position. Point blank shot is perfect for this.

There are plenty of different tactics to use when fighting thieves. However, it all depends on what weapons sets they are using. For example, if a thief is running d/p backstab, you’d want to evade a second or two after they go into stealth to avoid a quick shadowstep-backstab combo. For s/d, you should time your dodges correctly to avoid getting immobilized and bursted every few seconds, same goes for s/p and sb.

Going with what faux said, using s2 is very situational given the amount of teleports thieves usually have. While this may work against a d/d spec, it wouldn’t necessarily work with a s/x one. I would rather save s2 as an extra evade for when I really need it rather than waste it as a way to escape a burst skill that might or might not come.

Smarter thieves will wait for us to blow our evades while they’re in stealth and then follow up with a heavy burst attack. By then, the fight would have just gotten a lot harder.

Also, you should try to know how much initiative everything costs, as well as the cds on their utilities. For example, if you see a thief use both teleports from the shadowstep utility, there’s about 30-40 seconds left before they can use it again. This gives you the opportunity to get some damage in before they have the chance to pop away.

It also helps to understand and know thief traits. If a thief steals and dazes you, they must have at least 30 points in Trickery. This usually means that they have sacrificed a bit of ini regen to gain some extra damage from traits in Critical Strikes. If they dodge three times in a row without switching weapon sets, they have at least 15 points in Acrobatics, and the list goes on and on…

It really all comes down to timing and practice… If you fight enough thieves you will eventually get the hang of it. I fight them quite a bit and I hardly have any trouble with them.

Hope this helped!

-S H A D O W F A L L

I don’t know.. I’m kind of partial to just spamming 1 on the sword while the are invis since the leap locks onto them lol (but seriously, don’t try this at home; more of a troll tactic lol)

Very good tips! Since i use dual bow myself i tend to use rapidfire on them to pinpoint their location while they are in stealth, then the rest is the same as faux’s suggestion.

one more tip. i use a spider pet as my main and a wolf as secondary. when the thief is running strait to your pet he want to use it for stealth. in such a situation press F4 and switch your pet. he looses initiative and stays visible. after that in 90% of the cases he will run strait to you. hammer F2 to interrupt him with the fear shout. more time he cant stealth. in the end he has to use up his shadow refuge ( if equiped now is the time for sick’em ) or run away. i havent lost a single 1on1 against a thief for ages. 50% win, 50% they run away and add into a fight later

Nice tips !
I might add : Bring the wolf with you, it’s very helpfull to force them out of shadow refuge and ruin theyr plans

Faux Sheaux.6179:

This is just a short guide. I just felt it was worth pointing out since there are still so many people talking about how difficult it is to fight a thief. I’m not saying “do this if you want to win”, but for those running with a sword, this will greatly increase your chances if you are currently having issues with thieves.

When a thief stealths, they normally won’t immediately attack you. A vast majority of the time, they will wait at least one second trying to get a good position on you. Wait one second after the thief stealths and then use sword 2 skill. This will put them slightly out of position and cause them to waste another second or so repositioning themselves for their burst. After they’ve been stealthed for 2-3 seconds, use sword 2 skill again to fly forward and throw them even more out of sorts. This is usually right when they are choosing to burst you again or losing stealth, and it will save your hide more often than not. Note: Try to throw yourself in random directions to make it tougher for the thief to predict where you will be.

This is the strategy I usually use against thieves that I’m having issues with, and for the most part it’s the positioning that let’s me win (or run from) the fight. I can’t tell you how often it makes it seem like I can read the thief’s mind by dodging their attacks the moment they unstealth when in reality it’s just me counting in my head and playing the probability game.

Also, when they pop shadow refuge, I’d suggest waiting even longer to use this positioning technique since a lot of thieves either heal during this time or use it as a reprieve since they have extra long stealth.

Lastly, I’d suggest playing a thief if you haven’t already. Guides are helpful, but knowing all their skills is what’ll really work magic on your gameplay.

On top of this, if your build allows it use fire trap, it’s the #1 tool that I know is really effective against a thief. Drop the trap under you, or in the direction that you know the thief will come at you from, but always plan to keep them in the fire field. The trap will always pop whenever the thief is on it, so you get a chance to see them coming at you when they stealth. It allows for more efficient use of your dodge and burst skills. Not only that, but it recharges very quickly even when not traited, so you get to use it very often during a fight. If you can survive a fight against a thief for long enough, you will see that they eventually fear having to step close to you, due to the fire trap.

It goes without saying that you need to mind your dodges and never to waste them unless you really need them. Sadly when using sword, many rangers run through their evade combo in one shot, which is exactly what a thief would lure you into doing.

Thanks for the suggestions Faux. My main issue has been experienced stealth spamming burst thieves who are out to 1v1. I have not run sword/x much in wvw as it doesn’t suit me as well kitten on switch, but due to your points here I think I will drop SB now.

awge.3852:

On top of this, if your build allows it use fire trap, it’s the #1 tool that I know is really effective against a thief. Drop the trap under you, or in the direction that you know the thief will come at you from, but always plan to keep them in the fire field. The trap will always pop whenever the thief is on it, so you get a chance to see them coming at you when they stealth. It allows for more efficient use of your dodge and burst skills. Not only that, but it recharges very quickly even when not traited, so you get to use it very often during a fight. If you can survive a fight against a thief for long enough, you will see that they eventually fear having to step close to you, due to the fire trap.

It goes without saying that you need to mind your dodges and never to waste them unless you really need them. Sadly when using sword, many rangers run through their evade combo in one shot, which is exactly what a thief would lure you into doing.

Yeah the fire trap is a great one. I used to use that when I was running traps.