Guild Wars 2

sheng.2890:

We can’t kill them if they are good… because they: can hide, and they with dagger can kill u in half second. We havent enough life to reach 2 attack from a full damage thief
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBVN9WewPyM no one can beath he… look regeneration and damage/Health

This right here is exactly what everyone (not just ranger profession but all other non-thief professions) is talking about.

In my opinion the only way to deal with that kind of thief is to lure them in every single time that they cloak, stop their movements with as many AoE attacks as you have. Luckily rangers can do this, but only if your ranger has the toughness and healing power to survive all the incoming burst damage.

By the way, if the thief runs away, NEVER chase unless you have them running into a corner. If they choose to cloak and run, they are no longer a threat to you, so let them run. They may also choose to stealthily run back to you, as you basically stopped chasing them. Perfect, if you are in a group then lure the thief back into the wolf den, pretend like they don’t exist but wait for their attack. It is super vital to always be aware of thieves in your surrounding, so if you can do that I guarantee people will consider you valuable because everyone hates thieves.

A lot of bad advice here from people on how to deal with thieves. As a Thief there is no possible way a Ranger could kill me, ever. I still havn’t upgraded from my level 78 Exotic Beserker gear because there is no need to.

Quite honestly I’ve played a lot of overpowered classes in many MMOs, the Ranger in EQ2 during its worst, the Saboteur in Rift during its worse, among many, many others.

There has never been a class as powerful as the GW2 Thief that I’ve played, ever. It surprises me they allowed this to go through BETA honestly, but alas they have. My deepest concerns though is I can not get my brother to quit the Ranger, and like you guys, and him, you should.

They can’t fix the class for WvW, unless they do some major changes, and if Anet is anything like other companies, those changes could take years. Look at how long it took Sony to fix the Conjuror in EQ2, probably one of the worst PvP classes of all PvP games created.

Honestly the only way I bet they fix the Ranger is if everyone who has one just stops playing it, and plays something else, or doesn’t play for a month or two at all.

I just hope my brother decides to dump the Ranger, because the lack of feedback from developers on this broken, and worthless class is both daunting, and comical. We’ve had more developer participation on the Thief forum, asking us what they can do to make our stuff better. <amazed>

You will be targeted by 1xxxxxx rangers although I have to agree with what you said is truth.

Exarthious.5792:

A lot of bad advice here from people on how to deal with thieves. As a Thief there is no possible way a Ranger could kill me, ever. I still havn’t upgraded from my level 78 Exotic Beserker gear because there is no need to.

Quite honestly I’ve played a lot of overpowered classes in many MMOs, the Ranger in EQ2 during its worst, the Saboteur in Rift during its worse, among many, many others.

There has never been a class as powerful as the GW2 Thief that I’ve played, ever. It surprises me they allowed this to go through BETA honestly, but alas they have. My deepest concerns though is I can not get my brother to quit the Ranger, and like you guys, and him, you should.

They can’t fix the class for WvW, unless they do some major changes, and if Anet is anything like other companies, those changes could take years. Look at how long it took Sony to fix the Conjuror in EQ2, probably one of the worst PvP classes of all PvP games created.

Honestly the only way I bet they fix the Ranger is if everyone who has one just stops playing it, and plays something else, or doesn’t play for a month or two at all.

I just hope my brother decides to dump the Ranger, because the lack of feedback from developers on this broken, and worthless class is both daunting, and comical. We’ve had more developer participation on the Thief forum, asking us what they can do to make our stuff better. <amazed>

One of the main problem with thief is that they are allowed to go in stealth in combat at anytime, that should never happen and i don’t know who were the genius that think it would have been a good idea to let them have that ability. They have enough vigor that they can dodge most of the time, that alone should be enough, they can’t and shouldn’t have both. My first mmo had assassins that can stealth forever but once they enter combat they can’t re-enter stealth until they lose aggro, every and any class can beat them if played right because they can’t run away from you to hide once their HP is low. They can burst a class in 2-3 hits and be killed with 2-3 hits that is the way it should work, but somebody decide to give a class stealth ability ANYTIME if they are in combat or not and that’s poor game design.

The genius was someone frustrated of how thiefs suck in 80% of the mmo’s unless they are geared with the absolute omfg best gear possible.

Its just that one of the two devs who work on game’s balance happens to be playing thief. You can’t expect any serious nerfs to that profession.

Guess what is the second profession they play.

Drakem.1620:

…. really annoying fight this thiefs… they just keep invisible all the time… how you guys kill them?

Traps, and more traps. With my thief in pvp against a trap ranger I find it much harder to accomplish anything with it. Sure I can shadowstep to them but unless I got some way to remove that cripple they can easily outrun me. Not to mention if they spec in cond dmg, I’m running at them slowly getting eaten away and walking into my own death. That or just barrage on yourself or the area they plant shadow refuge and laugh as they/we stumble away.

NinjaEd.3946:

Drakem.1620:

…. really annoying fight this thiefs… they just keep invisible all the time… how you guys kill them?

Traps, and more traps. With my thief in pvp against a trap ranger I find it much harder to accomplish anything with it. Sure I can shadowstep to them but unless I got some way to remove that cripple they can easily outrun me. Not to mention if they spec in cond dmg, I’m running at them slowly getting eaten away and walking into my own death. That or just barrage on yourself or the area they plant shadow refuge and laugh as they/we stumble away.

Sigil of Purity + Sigil of Generosity
Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew + Feline Grace

Conditons won’t ever be an issue for you, and you’ll be able to dodge often enough that they can barely even hit you, with very little chance to ever kill you.

From one Thief to another, you are welcome.

i should make a guide about this, bc, tbh totally honest, a ranger should not die to a thief, unless u get absolutely jumped by a thief and u stood stand still.

Why and when should u die to a thief?
1- When you are in combat with half health and get heart-seeker spammed/one shoted by back-stab.
2 – When u r running 3 traps and entangle.
3 – When ur stun breakers r out of CD and u have no way to avoid the whole rotation of basilisk venom>backstab.
4 – When u stand still and get hit by cluster bombs.
5 – Thief Guilds (elite)
6 – When u get outplayed
7 – Misplaced traps

What!? All of that is true?

1- The less health u have, the more damage heart-seeker does, and backs-tab can crit for 9k-11k more or less and that is without factoring haste on thieves.

2- Why on earth r u running 3 traps on PvP when 70% of the players do stuns/stunlocks and can kill u in under 1 second? Signet of Renewal and Lightning Reflexes are VERY viable utilities instead of poison/freeze/cripple traps. U already have cripple and poison on short-bow, learn to use them >.<

3 – For starters, if u run 3 traps, u should die by all means, well deserved. U get stunned by eles, warrs, mesmers, and thiefs, u deserve all of it. 3 traps is a PVE thing to aggro mobs and kill them super fast. In PvP, 3 traps should only be used when u know that ur team is going to be there for u, or* STABILITY* is given out, or u r timing ur RAMPAGE AS ONE for TEAM FIGHTS/1v1 and not Moving from point to point.

4 – U r a ranger, with a ranged weapon, and pets, yes, pets. MOVE, AUTO ATTACK *and USE UR PET*. if the thief is out of the point, no need to stand on the point and get hit by AoE. ur pet becomes an annoyance to any glassy builds out there.

5 – Well, sorry, but this is a legit reason why u should die in 1v1 against a thief, he poped the elite and out healed you. that elite can turn the table when fighting a thief.

6 – kitten right, u got outplayed, learn from your mistakes.

7 – Placed the traps on u, basic stuff to fight a thief. they open with steal most of the time, so they eat ur traps. u will still die if they used the backstab rotation and u have no stability or way to break stuns, so u need better strategies. After the open up, try to cover ground with traps instead of stacking them up on one spot

^^^^^

I would kill that guy 100 out of 100 times.

Traps are useless against us Thieves because we will just Cluster Bomb you if you plan on sitting inside it. If you move back, we will dodge through the trap, causing it to do zero to us. Your pet gives us the best possible target for CnD because he can not dodge it.

Rampage as one is nice, against other professions, but as a Thief, I am not trying to CC you, and I know bad thieves run Basilisk Venom, but good Thieves do not. Thieves guild is a MUCH better elite to be running.

Also something to know, Entangling Roots is worthless because Infiltrators Arrow, Shadow Step, and Infiltrators Strike allows us to teleport out of it with ease.

If you ever face a Sword/Dagger Thief who also uses Shortbow, you’ve faced a good Thief, and you will never win that fight.

Exarthious.5792:

^^^^^

I would kill that guy 100 out of 100 times.

Traps are useless against us Thieves because we will just Cluster Bomb you if you plan on sitting inside it. If you move back, we will dodge through the trap, causing it to do zero to us. Your pet gives us the best possible target for CnD because he can not dodge it.

Rampage as one is nice, against other professions, but as a Thief, I am not trying to CC you, and I know bad thieves run Basilisk Venom, but good Thieves do not. Thieves guild is a MUCH better elite to be running.

Also something to know, Entangling Roots is worthless because Infiltrators Arrow, Shadow Step, and Infiltrators Strike allows us to teleport out of it with ease.

If you ever face a Sword/Dagger Thief who also uses Shortbow, you’ve faced a good Thief, and you will never win that fight.

this is why, u cover field with the traps, and u don’t stack them up, they can be dodge. another reason to place fire field before spike trap xD

another reason why i don’t use Rampage as one, i use spirit, bc Thief Guild is OP in 1v1, but self rez is even more op xD. no need for stability when lightning reflexes avoids stuns/damage that follows

i can mitigate roots as a ranger by just spamming the dodge abilities on the swords xD

and that is why I run shortbow with high crits/bleeds and ravens, bc theifs think that cluster is more powerful than a raven with 11k crit damage. xD i love that part.

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

^^^^^

I would kill that guy 100 out of 100 times.

Traps are useless against us Thieves because we will just Cluster Bomb you if you plan on sitting inside it. If you move back, we will dodge through the trap, causing it to do zero to us. Your pet gives us the best possible target for CnD because he can not dodge it.

Rampage as one is nice, against other professions, but as a Thief, I am not trying to CC you, and I know bad thieves run Basilisk Venom, but good Thieves do not. Thieves guild is a MUCH better elite to be running.

Also something to know, Entangling Roots is worthless because Infiltrators Arrow, Shadow Step, and Infiltrators Strike allows us to teleport out of it with ease.

If you ever face a Sword/Dagger Thief who also uses Shortbow, you’ve faced a good Thief, and you will never win that fight.

this is why, u cover field with the traps, and u don’t stack them up, they can be dodge. another reason to place fire field before spike trap xD

another reason why i don’t use Rampage as one, i use spirit, bc Thief Guild is OP in 1v1, but self rez is even more op xD. no need for stability when lightning reflexes avoids stuns/damage that follows

i can mitigate roots as a ranger by just spamming the dodge abilities on the swords xD

and that is why I run shortbow with high crits/bleeds and ravens, bc theifs think that cluster is more powerful than a raven with 11k crit damage. xD i love that part.

You do know I can kill the Raven in less than 2 seconds, right? He might hit me once, while I teleport to avoid his damage, while running Omnom Pie to counter the damage you do from the Life Steals.

Running Sigil of Purity on my sword, and shortbow, with Sigil of Generosity on my dagger, I don’t ever notice conditions. Your traps are utterly worthless.

Exarthious.5792:

You do know I can kill the Raven in less than 2 seconds, right? He might hit me once, while I teleport to avoid his damage, while running Omnom Pie to counter the damage you do from the Life Steals.

Running Sigil of Purity on my sword, and shortbow, with Sigil of Generosity on my dagger, I don’t ever notice conditions. Your traps are utterly worthless.

I lol so hard, of course, PvE, end of discussion xD. There is no point on talking about competitive gameplay in PvE

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

You do know I can kill the Raven in less than 2 seconds, right? He might hit me once, while I teleport to avoid his damage, while running Omnom Pie to counter the damage you do from the Life Steals.

Running Sigil of Purity on my sword, and shortbow, with Sigil of Generosity on my dagger, I don’t ever notice conditions. Your traps are utterly worthless.

I lol so hard, of course, PvE, end of discussion xD.

PvE? I’ve leveled 7 toons to 80 in WvW alone, and the few times I’ve done sPvP, I had to hear how I was hacking when I wasn’t.

I have roughly 11k kills on my Thief account, with less than 100 deaths.

But I’m ok with you thinking I’m bad, even though you’re giving bad advice.

Exarthious.5792:

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

You do know I can kill the Raven in less than 2 seconds, right? He might hit me once, while I teleport to avoid his damage, while running Omnom Pie to counter the damage you do from the Life Steals.

Running Sigil of Purity on my sword, and shortbow, with Sigil of Generosity on my dagger, I don’t ever notice conditions. Your traps are utterly worthless.

I lol so hard, of course, PvE, end of discussion xD.

PvE? I’ve leveled 7 toons to 80 in WvW alone, and the few times I’ve done sPvP, I had to hear how I was hacking when I wasn’t.

I have roughly 11k kills on my Thief account, with less than 100 deaths.

But I’m ok with you thinking I’m bad, even though you’re giving bad advice.

sorry, but WvW is not competitive gameplay >.< there is nothing competitive about killing scaled and under armored players or zergs for that matter. anet got it wrong including WvW as PvP. and hot join? were u have under r10 feast time?

edit: and better advice than saying give up ranger or run away when u see a thief (if u see them) or resign when u get killed by one.

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

You do know I can kill the Raven in less than 2 seconds, right? He might hit me once, while I teleport to avoid his damage, while running Omnom Pie to counter the damage you do from the Life Steals.

Running Sigil of Purity on my sword, and shortbow, with Sigil of Generosity on my dagger, I don’t ever notice conditions. Your traps are utterly worthless.

I lol so hard, of course, PvE, end of discussion xD.

PvE? I’ve leveled 7 toons to 80 in WvW alone, and the few times I’ve done sPvP, I had to hear how I was hacking when I wasn’t.

I have roughly 11k kills on my Thief account, with less than 100 deaths.

But I’m ok with you thinking I’m bad, even though you’re giving bad advice.

sorry, but WvW is not competitive gameplay >.< there is nothing competitive about killing scaled and under armored players or zergs for that matter. anet got it wrong including WvW as PvP. and hot join? were u have under r10 feast time?

Yeah because them having to nerf so many abilities, and disallowing racial abilities so you can cope with a watered down version of the game for sPvP is competitive? You do sPvP because you can’t be bothered to level a toon, and because they make the PvP for it easier for you to cope with.

I’m glad you’re having fun with a nerfed, weaker version of the game.

Exarthious.5792:

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

You do know I can kill the Raven in less than 2 seconds, right? He might hit me once, while I teleport to avoid his damage, while running Omnom Pie to counter the damage you do from the Life Steals.

Running Sigil of Purity on my sword, and shortbow, with Sigil of Generosity on my dagger, I don’t ever notice conditions. Your traps are utterly worthless.

I lol so hard, of course, PvE, end of discussion xD.

PvE? I’ve leveled 7 toons to 80 in WvW alone, and the few times I’ve done sPvP, I had to hear how I was hacking when I wasn’t.

I have roughly 11k kills on my Thief account, with less than 100 deaths.

But I’m ok with you thinking I’m bad, even though you’re giving bad advice.

sorry, but WvW is not competitive gameplay >.< there is nothing competitive about killing scaled and under armored players or zergs for that matter. anet got it wrong including WvW as PvP. and hot join? were u have under r10 feast time?

Yeah because them having to nerf so many abilities, and disallowing racial abilities so you can cope with a watered down version of the game for sPvP is competitive? You do sPvP because you can’t be bothered to level a toon, and because they make the PvP for it easier for you to cope with.

I’m glad you’re having fun with a nerfed, weaker version of the game.

because it’s COMPETITIVE GAMEPLAY xD and do tournaments/paid tournaments (lol, wut, free gems xD)

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

You do know I can kill the Raven in less than 2 seconds, right? He might hit me once, while I teleport to avoid his damage, while running Omnom Pie to counter the damage you do from the Life Steals.

Running Sigil of Purity on my sword, and shortbow, with Sigil of Generosity on my dagger, I don’t ever notice conditions. Your traps are utterly worthless.

I lol so hard, of course, PvE, end of discussion xD.

PvE? I’ve leveled 7 toons to 80 in WvW alone, and the few times I’ve done sPvP, I had to hear how I was hacking when I wasn’t.

I have roughly 11k kills on my Thief account, with less than 100 deaths.

But I’m ok with you thinking I’m bad, even though you’re giving bad advice.

sorry, but WvW is not competitive gameplay >.< there is nothing competitive about killing scaled and under armored players or zergs for that matter. anet got it wrong including WvW as PvP. and hot join? were u have under r10 feast time?

Yeah because them having to nerf so many abilities, and disallowing racial abilities so you can cope with a watered down version of the game for sPvP is competitive? You do sPvP because you can’t be bothered to level a toon, and because they make the PvP for it easier for you to cope with.

I’m glad you’re having fun with a nerfed, weaker version of the game.

because it’s COMPETITIVE GAMEPLAY xD and do tournaments/paid tournaments (lol, wut, free gems xD)

No, they give you the illusion of balance, nothing more. There is a reason you’re not going to Vegas, to compete brother. I doubt GW2 will ever enter into the eSports arena remotely close to games like League of Legends, or Starcraft 2. Those are the game I play when I want REAL competitive play.

Exarthious.5792:

No, they give you the illusion of balance, nothing more. There is a reason you’re not going to Vegas, to compete brother. I doubt GW2 will ever enter into the eSports arena remotely close to games like League of Legends, or Starcraft 2. Those are the game I play when I want REAL competitive play.

1 ) i don’t expect to go to vegas with guild wars 2 any time soon, only a dreamer will do that. GW2 is no were near e-Sports, and the community knows this
2 ) LoL and Starcraft 2 are over populated with a solid barrier of established teams that have play the game since day 1, and few people have been able to shine (outside the stablished circle) in the competitive world. u need to dedicated ur living days to play the game at competitive lvl, i have a social live
3) PvP with no racial classes is to distinguish PVE/WvW, bc devs now that it won’t be called PvP if they allowed those and the extra equipment slots. it won’t be fair, and it won’t give the sense of balanced. that is why u have 5v5 people, to make it competitive enough, without being a 8v8 zerg feast hot join.

Lelouch.8452:

i should make a guide about this, bc, tbh totally honest, a ranger should not die to a thief, unless u get absolutely jumped by a thief and u stood stand still.

Why and when should u die to a thief?
1- When you are in combat with half health and get heart-seeker spammed/one shoted by back-stab.
2 – When u r running 3 traps and entangle.
3 – When ur stun breakers r out of CD and u have no way to avoid the whole rotation of basilisk venom>backstab.
4 – When u stand still and get hit by cluster bombs.
5 – Thief Guilds (elite)
6 – When u get outplayed
7 – Misplaced traps

What!? All of that is true?

1- The less health u have, the more damage heart-seeker does, and backs-tab can crit for 9k-11k more or less and that is without factoring haste on thieves.

2- Why on earth r u running 3 traps on PvP when 70% of the players do stuns/stunlocks and can kill u in under 1 second? Signet of Renewal and Lightning Reflexes are VERY viable utilities instead of poison/freeze/cripple traps. U already have cripple and poison on short-bow, learn to use them >.<

3 – For starters, if u run 3 traps, u should die by all means, well deserved. U get stunned by eles, warrs, mesmers, and thiefs, u deserve all of it. 3 traps is a PVE thing to aggro mobs and kill them super fast. In PvP, 3 traps should only be used when u know that ur team is going to be there for u, or* STABILITY* is given out, or u r timing ur RAMPAGE AS ONE for TEAM FIGHTS/1v1 and not Moving from point to point.

4 – U r a ranger, with a ranged weapon, and pets, yes, pets. MOVE, AUTO ATTACK *and USE UR PET*. if the thief is out of the point, no need to stand on the point and get hit by AoE. ur pet becomes an annoyance to any glassy builds out there.

5 – Well, sorry, but this is a legit reason why u should die in 1v1 against a thief, he poped the elite and out healed you. that elite can turn the table when fighting a thief.

6 – kitten right, u got outplayed, learn from your mistakes.

7 – Placed the traps on u, basic stuff to fight a thief. they open with steal most of the time, so they eat ur traps. u will still die if they used the backstab rotation and u have no stability or way to break stuns, so u need better strategies. After the open up, try to cover ground with traps instead of stacking them up on one spot

I don’t know why you have to get me an infraction point; we agree on almost everything and I really think you need better writing skills. Seeing “u” instead of “you” makes me cringe, nevertheless, good luck out there.

*Before a mod. deletes this thinking it adds nothing to the discussion thus earning me another infraction point, listen, heads up people: re-read the quote and be a better ranger. This copy pasta is to spread knowledge.

Their isn’t much you can do against them. Traps and Longbow is good at getting them in stealth, the #2 ability of longbow (Rapid Fire) will still do damage to them if you do the attack before they go stealth. So Barrage is good if you know the general area there in. Most times when they go stealth they’ll be taking a route around you to flank you and back stab you. Use that to your advantage and throw a trap behind you? ;D

But really 9/10 if your playing a good thief you’ll lose the fight.

I haven’t had much luck killing them in PvP or WvW. What I did find that works to end the fight is taking the trait that halves my fall damage, sticking to ledges and, if attacked, work on getting them between you and ledge (this usually requires lots of dodging). Then, knock them back w LB and jump down after them or continue on your way w/o finishing the fight. I run w traps most of the time and LB while making my way to a point in WvW. I will typically use Sword/Warhorn as 2nd. I frequently change my weapons while in WvW too.

In PvP, I just play what I’m most comfortable and tail my team around the map or jump on the Treb after laying down my traps to slow down anyone hoping to take out the treb.

In the end, I think it’s a LOT about environment awareness and playing what you’re comfortable with. I am always change up pets too in between battles depending on what I’m about to head into.

Ranger is the worst Profession to counter a thief.

The pet give them the target to do all their utility, while the steal give them a heal.
Some more points:
target skills only (exept lb 5)
slow reaction of pet
low damage

There is not a single skill or trait or anything else that can help you to win.
A draw (surviving by running) is the max you can archive

Leucetius.8231:

I haven’t had much luck killing them in PvP or WvW. What I did find that works to end the fight is taking the trait that halves my fall damage, sticking to ledges and, if attacked, work on getting them between you and ledge (this usually requires lots of dodging). Then, knock them back w LB and jump down after them or continue on your way w/o finishing the fight. I run w traps most of the time and LB while making my way to a point in WvW. I will typically use Sword/Warhorn as 2nd. I frequently change my weapons while in WvW too.

In PvP, I just play what I’m most comfortable and tail my team around the map or jump on the Treb after laying down my traps to slow down anyone hoping to take out the treb.

In the end, I think it’s a LOT about environment awareness and playing what you’re comfortable with. I am always change up pets too in between battles depending on what I’m about to head into.

The devs made a post that handed us on a silver platter exactly how to beat thieves: AoE when they stealth, root them with Entangle, then unleash your pet, damage, and conditions on them. You can hit stealthed players…I only mention this because it sounds like you didn’t know based on the fact that you’re losing to thieves which really shouldn’t happen—assuming we have the typical cloaking thief build vs. a condition/defensive ranger build.

Honestly, though, you don’t even need that build though. As an example, I was testing glass cannon builds yesterday and a guy on sanctum of rall found me roaming and jumped me. I did not see him coming. He got a big hit off me (I think heartseeker) and I was down to half health with all my cooldowns popped since I had just finished a fight.

I managed to dodge some of his bigger attacks (2 seconds of protection on dodge), now that my cooldowns are back, I root him, burn, poison, and hit him with my cat. I was downed but he was almost too.

I downed him from the ground. I had my pet attack him. I’m getting close to death so I have my pet move 2 feet to me to lick my wounds. I struck the thief with lightning granted by Mother Nature, then close by throwing dirt. Thief died even after jumping me while my cooldowns were popped. I rallied and saluted my fallen foe for almost beating me. Thieves almost never beat me so I was pretty impressed.

Ranger beats cloak and dagger thief 1v1. The only thing a stealth thief can really do is continue evading such that it’s a stalemate and no one kills each other. But as soon as they try to stop blinking and instead damage me, it’s GG.

To be fair, I’m only just now researching builds and tactics since I’m now delving into PvP and WvW. I’m just not terribly adept at those fights yet. I take the half damage trait cuz it’s fun to drop off a cliff I just knocked them off of and save most of my health or survive a fall that killed them. While I rarely taunt them when I’ve done this but I have been known to occasionally throw down some sick dance moves on their corpse, but probably only because so many people have done that to me.

Lelouch.8452:

Exarthious.5792:

No, they give you the illusion of balance, nothing more. There is a reason you’re not going to Vegas, to compete brother. I doubt GW2 will ever enter into the eSports arena remotely close to games like League of Legends, or Starcraft 2. Those are the game I play when I want REAL competitive play.

1 ) i don’t expect to go to vegas with guild wars 2 any time soon, only a dreamer will do that. GW2 is no were near e-Sports, and the community knows this
2 ) LoL and Starcraft 2 are over populated with a solid barrier of established teams that have play the game since day 1, and few people have been able to shine (outside the stablished circle) in the competitive world. u need to dedicated ur living days to play the game at competitive lvl, i have a social live
3) PvP with no racial classes is to distinguish PVE/WvW, bc devs now that it won’t be called PvP if they allowed those and the extra equipment slots. it won’t be fair, and it won’t give the sense of balanced. that is why u have 5v5 people, to make it competitive enough, without being a 8v8 zerg feast hot join.

I don’t get where this became a pride fight between rangers/thieves, or wherever this lead to. We rangers are here sharing our thoughts on how to kill thieves from our OWN personal success experiences, so that other rangers can understand how to kill thieves if that is what they choose to fight against. This may be an open forum but please make an effort contribute , if you have nothing to contribute here then go somewhere else and contribute there.

Once again, rule of thumb:

1. Never underestimate a thief’s potential, they can burst you down and they will if you let them.
2. Can’t survive? Guess what, run a survival build (traits), get some interesting combination of equipment that helps to support your survival (healing power/toughness) and gives you enough dps (power/condition damage) of your liking.
3. Be a good ranger, for yourself, for your pet, for your group. If you know there is a potential thief coming to you (you are in a large fight, you are alone running in the middle of nowhere) then eyes open at all times, otherwise enjoy being caught with your pants down.
4. If you spot them, call it. You never know if it is going to be one of those strong ones who get away with anything (pistol/dagger). If you know you are not ready to fight one, run. If you cannot outrun them, make a stand and learn from what it is that you are not doing right during a fight versus one.
5. Pet control is not just important, ITS VITAL. Get good at using your pet, and I mean reeeeeeal good. But how? go out there, stay close to it. I like to make thief think that because I sent my pet far away from me to chase them, I don’t know they can stealth and run back to me and kill me. Pop that second pet!
6. When fighting a thief (or a number of them) timing is absolutely vital.
7. Never show your back to them, if you are doing to die, then let them stab your face not your back.
8. Evade, evade and more evade equals a thief with no initiative left. So what now? kill them. If they stealth, get ready for wave 2 of initiative burst. Are you clueless to what they will do? Play a thief and learn the ins and outs. I can pretty much blindly predict their next possible moves because I played a thief just to understand them better.
9. Remember, thieves can still kill you even if you are good, all it takes is bad timing, being caught off guard, etc.

If you manage to find success, please share it with other rangers, let’s keep this profession growing strong in the midst of being called the weakest link. Prove them fools wrong and when you kill a thief (especially if you do it by yourself) do a little dance ;-)

Agree or not, the only way to beat thief is —-— Overplay him. When equally skilled, you have 0 chance no matter what builds/gears you use.

One of the main reasons Rangers die to thieves is they have no way to negate there burst damage. As a Ranger you have two ways of doing it effectively. SoS traited and “Protect Me”. Those are the only two ways to stop a thieves burst. If you are glass cannon or have very little toughness or low vitality, then a thieves burst will eat you alive. You have to make a choice, are thieves my problem? Then trait and stack your stats accordingly. I have no issues with thieves. SB until he’s on me, weapon swap to Sword/Warhorn with sigil of geomancy(freeze them for 3 seconds), SoS if hes doing major damage, QZ and spam sword 1. I do anywhere between 6k-15K damage total in 3 to 4 seconds. Yes, a Ranger can burst…not like a Warrior or GC Thief, but they can burst if done right.

use zephyr and sword 1 skill.

Chopps.5047:

Leucetius.8231:

I haven’t had much luck killing them in PvP or WvW. What I did find that works to end the fight is taking the trait that halves my fall damage, sticking to ledges and, if attacked, work on getting them between you and ledge (this usually requires lots of dodging). Then, knock them back w LB and jump down after them or continue on your way w/o finishing the fight. I run w traps most of the time and LB while making my way to a point in WvW. I will typically use Sword/Warhorn as 2nd. I frequently change my weapons while in WvW too.

In PvP, I just play what I’m most comfortable and tail my team around the map or jump on the Treb after laying down my traps to slow down anyone hoping to take out the treb.

In the end, I think it’s a LOT about environment awareness and playing what you’re comfortable with. I am always change up pets too in between battles depending on what I’m about to head into.

The devs made a post that handed us on a silver platter exactly how to beat thieves: AoE when they stealth, root them with Entangle, then unleash your pet, damage, and conditions on them. You can hit stealthed players…I only mention this because it sounds like you didn’t know based on the fact that you’re losing to thieves which really shouldn’t happen—assuming we have the typical cloaking thief build vs. a condition/defensive ranger build.

Honestly, though, you don’t even need that build though. As an example, I was testing glass cannon builds yesterday and a guy on sanctum of rall found me roaming and jumped me. I did not see him coming. He got a big hit off me (I think heartseeker) and I was down to half health with all my cooldowns popped since I had just finished a fight.

I managed to dodge some of his bigger attacks (2 seconds of protection on dodge), now that my cooldowns are back, I root him, burn, poison, and hit him with my cat. I was downed but he was almost too.

I downed him from the ground. I had my pet attack him. I’m getting close to death so I have my pet move 2 feet to me to lick my wounds. I struck the thief with lightning granted by Mother Nature, then close by throwing dirt. Thief died even after jumping me while my cooldowns were popped. I rallied and saluted my fallen foe for almost beating me. Thieves almost never beat me so I was pretty impressed.

Ranger beats cloak and dagger thief 1v1. The only thing a stealth thief can really do is continue evading such that it’s a stalemate and no one kills each other. But as soon as they try to stop blinking and instead damage me, it’s GG.

Quit giving bad information bro.

We can get out of entangle with abilities like Infiltrators Strike, Infiltrators Arrow, Shadow Step to name a few.

AoEs are only going to put them on cooldown, and your number “5” abilities which gives you your AoEs are easy to dodge out of, with minimal damage.

There is no possible way you could kill a good Thief. I’ve never died to a Ranger on my Thief, Elementalist, or Mesmer, and have killed two Rangers at once. I just don’t see how a good player could ever die to a Ranger, ever.

I’ve never seen worse information given on any forum, for any game ever.

Here, I’m going to give some great advice that will help you against Thieves. This will help you beat the average player, and give you a slight chance to beat players of equal skill.

Pay particular attention to your conditions, and those that matter most. Poison, Chill, and most importantly Weakness. Lucky for you, your Axe gives you both Chill, and Weakness all in one package. You want to be able to have the highest uptime on those three you can.

Once you find the most efficient ways to apply those three conditions in a couple seconds, you can move onto the other solutions. Your pets.

The Wolf is really the best pet to use against Thieves, one for its knock down, but most importantly its fear, when the Thief stealths. Your second pet should be the Alpine Wolf for its knockdown, and it’s Chilling Howl ability once you see a Thief stealth.

Finally, dodge. Do not blindly dodge, you need to time this. Even if that means taking a hit from a Thief in stealth so you can see them once they come out of stealth, allowing you to use your dodge when you see an attack animation, do so. Save your Lightning Reflexes for when a Thief goes into stealth, and use it after you tell your wolf to howl. This will put you out of range of backstab. This is the period of time you call your pet to you as well, afterwards.

Pay particular attention to your pet. If you’re out of range of the Thief to land Cloak and Dagger, call your pet to you as you’re opening the gap between you wider. That pet is the best source of Cloak and Dagger we have when fighting you. Don’t forget to send it in to attack as well, when you know the Thief is ready to stay visible, and fight.

Even with 2.9k armor, some thieves hit kitten hard. Surviving the initial burst isn’t much of an issue, but when they’re low on initiative they retreat to stealth, regroup, then come lunging back for you all over again. It’s been my experience that fighting thieves is more of a battle of attrition – and one that I’ve never won. They can’t burst me down with a single bar of initiative, but since my build is focused on pet damage, I can’t burst them down either.

Changing out utilities and elites hasn’t been particularly productive for me. Rampage as One? They’ll wait it out in stealth. Healing spirit? It’ll be dead shortly after it’s spawned. Vines? I mean, what thief doesn’t run with a shortbow? They zip right out of it with Infiltrator’s Arrow or Steal. Lightning Reflexes, while useful, just seems to prolong a fight I know I won’t win anyways – it’s not enough.

All the suggestions to counter thieves I’ve seen presume you’re packing specific utilities, specific weapons, specific builds, and/or specific pets. While I think certain builds should certainly excel in some areas and fall short in others, I’m not particularly keen on the idea of rearranging everything on the off chance I might 1v1 a thief, especially since nothing I’ve tried rearranging has made much of a difference. One thief guildmate told me that when he’s looking to pick off a lone ranger he’ll change out his utilities to include at least one stun breaker if he spots a greatsword or a wolf pet – they bring counters to my counters. How does a ranger cope with that?!

is not a balanced fight
thief(high attack can steath,have a lot of healing skill or heal into steath, recharge endurance faster than all and can run faster into steath medium health low toughness Good elite pvp skill guild thieves) >Ranger (medium/high attack, haven’t good defensive and evasive skill, medium health medium toughness have a pet)

From my experience, you can kill a thief if:
-They’re bad and you’re good (if both are good or bad, thief will NOT die)
-f2 fear on wolf procs (which is pretty rare with that long kitten animation)
-they are bursty and insist in getting the kill after the burst fails (which falls into 1)
-they are condition damage AND insist on getting the kill
in any other case, dont bother 1:1. you might not die, but they wont either, due to how stealth is uncounterable

It really depends on the type of Thief you fight and the Type of Ranger you play.

Rangers can go toe-to-toe with Thieves. The biggest problem is our difficulties in chasing one down to decides to disengage. Entangle is great for this, as are the Shortbow, Axe+Warhorn, and Greatsword weapon sets.

I play a D/D+SB condition Thief primarily for open WvW, and I hardly ever struggle to fight a Ranger, as a Ranger main, I know that Healing Spring is a powerful ability and don’t fully commit to a kill until after I see it drop.

Vecuu.2018:

It really depends on the type of Thief you fight and the Type of Ranger you play.

Rangers can go toe-to-toe with Thieves. The biggest problem is our difficulties in chasing one down to decides to disengage. Entangle is great for this, as are the Shortbow, Axe+Warhorn, and Greatsword weapon sets.

I play a D/D+SB condition Thief primarily for open WvW, and I hardly ever struggle to fight a Ranger, as a Ranger main, I know that Healing Spring is a powerful ability and don’t fully commit to a kill until after I see it drop.

You’re one of -those- thieves… I see how it is…

Against most thieves I try to not heal until low health because I know I can purge their poison and eat their burst, and because of kitten holes like this guy who purposely wait xD.

PS: I’ve noticed Guard is pretty amazing against thieves because they second they show their ugly face the pet B-lines it to them an continues their man handling of the thief.

I’ve come around to the belief that the biggest issue with thieves in WvW is culling. It turns 5s stealth to 8s, etc. They probably should just halve all stealth durations in WvW until culling is dealt with.

-Jeff

Durzlla.6295:

You’re one of -those- thieves… I see how it is…

I’m also a Ranger Main, but usually opt out of WvWing on my Ranger due to my inability to disengage from a large-scale conflict. She’s strong, but a fair bit unconventional as far as Rangers go. Most Rangers usually opt for either a glass-cannony approach, or a Healing Beast Master build.

-My Ranger has 22k Health, 3k Attack, and 3.2k Armor.
-My Pet would win a 1v1 against most Thieves.
-I use Troll Unguent rather than Healing Spring.

I deal with Thieves quite simply: I auto attack them a few times, let my pet knock them down, at which point I pop Greatsword #5 and swap Pets for Quickness (pet swap before the skill lands so that the new pet with quickness has the 50% attack buff). After eating the quickness burst, they usually get knocked down again by the fresh canine, panic, stun-break, and run away. If they don’t stun-break, I use Quickening Zepher and they die.

Smart Thieves only fight targets they think they can defeat, which leaves you the option of either opening with tons of burst so they run, or auto-attacking until they think they have an edge, then go in for the kill.

A good thief can kill your ranger in 1 sec if he is lucky enough.
Check my guardian’s experience:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/This-is-why-Armor-is-useless/first#post1245852

what he need to finish you is just 1 more HS, all these shouldn’t take more than 1 sec(of coz before you can see him in wvw).

Vecuu.2018:

Durzlla.6295:

You’re one of -those- thieves… I see how it is…

I’m also a Ranger Main, but usually opt out of WvWing on my Ranger due to my inability to disengage from a large-scale conflict. She’s strong, but a fair bit unconventional as far as Rangers go. Most Rangers usually opt for either a glass-cannony approach, or a Healing Beast Master build.

-My Ranger has 22k Health, 3k Attack, and 3.2k Armor.
-My Pet would win a 1v1 against most Thieves.
-I use Troll Unguent rather than Healing Spring.

I deal with Thieves quite simply: I auto attack them a few times, let my pet knock them down, at which point I pop Greatsword #5 and swap Pets for Quickness (pet swap before the skill lands so that the new pet with quickness has the 50% attack buff). After eating the quickness burst, they usually get knocked down again by the fresh canine, panic, stun-break, and run away. If they don’t stun-break, I use Quickening Zepher and they die.

Smart Thieves only fight targets they think they can defeat, which leaves you the option of either opening with tons of burst so they run, or auto-attacking until they think they have an edge, then go in for the kill.

You don’t, thieves are 99% unbeatable with Ranger 1vs1 you’ll die, even 3 rangers vs thief the thief will win 99% why i consider ranger not viable in PvP situations..

I own both classes at 80 and i agree stealth is broken..

Vecuu.2018:

Durzlla.6295:

You’re one of -those- thieves… I see how it is…

I’m also a Ranger Main, but usually opt out of WvWing on my Ranger due to my inability to disengage from a large-scale conflict. She’s strong, but a fair bit unconventional as far as Rangers go. Most Rangers usually opt for either a glass-cannony approach, or a Healing Beast Master build.

-My Ranger has 22k Health, 3k Attack, and 3.2k Armor.
-My Pet would win a 1v1 against most Thieves.
-I use Troll Unguent rather than Healing Spring.

I deal with Thieves quite simply: I auto attack them a few times, let my pet knock them down, at which point I pop Greatsword #5 and swap Pets for Quickness (pet swap before the skill lands so that the new pet with quickness has the 50% attack buff). After eating the quickness burst, they usually get knocked down again by the fresh canine, panic, stun-break, and run away. If they don’t stun-break, I use Quickening Zepher and they die.

Smart Thieves only fight targets they think they can defeat, which leaves you the option of either opening with tons of burst so they run, or auto-attacking until they think they have an edge, then go in for the kill.

I like it! That’s what i do with my sPvP build (not exactly, but close), i use a shortsword + warhorn though, it’s really fun watching them squirm as they try to escape.