Guild Wars 2

I have been a loyal thief for years now with 1.7k hours played. I’ve stuck through the bad, the good and horrendously bad. But it was not until yesterday that my spirits finally broke.

It was an average morning with my skype alight in orange. A friend had messaged me that venomshare thief is viable in raids. My heart jumped, I felt hope. Not only was I relieved that a lowly thief such as myself had a place in raids, I was excited at the thought that I could finally be the type of thief I always longed to be – a support thief. The thought of contributing to a fight in ways other than doing mediocre damage was silly to me moments before, but now my head was filled with so many possibilities.

Excited, I took to the forums only for that brief moment of bliss to be bursted down in seconds as if caught in the traps of a Dragonhunter. Fellow thieves were being still being kicked from raids, but why I wondered? What of the tale of the heroic venomshare pug that showered his squad in glorious CCs and condis, allowing them to win the fight? Was it all a lie? The more and more I read the more my hope died, like my chances of ever getting the legendary pistol HOPE it was all too out of reach.

Then I thought surely the damage isn’t that bad. Maybe I can still be viable, even if not optimal. But alas I discovered that if I were to begin the journey of the condi thief I would never be able to compete with the mighty engineer, the 20% damage loss was simply too great. But wait – I haven’t even tried a raid, how can I be such a fool to give up yet? I must push through! Feelings of fear then came over me as I began to wonder: would I be kicked too? What if I spent all the money required to make a set of viper or sinister ascended gear, only to never use it? That then lead me to a moment of realization… thief sucks kitten.

Now it is time to find a new path and begin a new journey. What path, I don’t know yet but at least I find peace in knowing whichever path I take will be much brighter than the last.

Signed,

A bored and frustrated ex-thief

Bro, I feel you

pfft who needs pve, i only play pvp… oh wait…

that gif tho.

I’m up for making only thieves raids, even if I don’t even know how to start it.

Lmao @ Kolly’s sig and that gif.

Also, yeah it does suck that Thief is not viable in Raids and just barely viable in PvP atm. I think part of the problem with Thief is that it relies too much on stealth and stealth attacks as a gimmick. One of the things I love about The Old Republic mmo is how they did the stealth classes. Basically while they do rely on stealth for their opening attack and for escaping sticky situations, throughout the fight they mostly use cc’s and snares to setup backstabs and bursts and when they do manage to setup a nasty burst, it’s arguably the strongest in the game which is how a rogue/assassin class should be(and what Mesmer kinda is right now, stupidly enough). They can also take hits for a bit meaning that while they are squishy compared to a Warrior type class, they don’t die as soon as something touches them. Whereas GW2 stealth gameplay revolves around constantly stealthing and hoping your enemy sucks at predicting attacks and that they won’t catch you without evades or stun breaks.

Well, just made an engi clone of my thief character. Looking forward to actually wanting to play and not just standing in LA and moping.

My guild and I beat the first boss. I was running full zerk staff venom share thief. It is perfectly viable and useful. Skelk Venom heals your party for a ton, and basi let’s you break bars really fast. Shadowstep let’s you quickly +1 the green circle if the need arises. My team was actually happy to have me.

I would not recommend pugging the raid. No matter what class or build you are playing, it is FAR easier if you have a group to consistently practice with. Join a guild that does the raid, because they’ll probably understand that skill and understanding is just as if not more important than which class you are playing.

@kaikalii, I am part of a guild that is planning on doing raids but since we’re also pretty casual I need to be able to pug it to get a feel of the encounter. I also have no desire to play a class that holds back my team in such a hardcore setting, which thief does.

Aguri.2896:

@kaikalii, I am part of a guild that is planning on doing raids but since we’re also pretty casual I need to be able to pug it to get a feel of the encounter. I also have no desire to play a class that holds back my team in such a hardcore setting, which thief does.

Like I said, I would argue that it does not hold your team back. Group heals through skelk venom, fast bar breaks through basi venom, quick +1ing the green circle via shadowstep, and all the while doing great dps with the staff allow the thief to contribute just as much as any other class.

I mentioned the necessity of playing the raid with an organized group because if you are pugging as a thief and losing, it’s likely not because you are playing thief. As long as you know how to play your role, you are not holding anyone back.

Aguri.2896:

Well, just made an engi clone of my thief character. Looking forward to actually wanting to play and not just standing in LA and moping.

Don’t worry. Once they add bandit outfit all classes will be able to fully replace Thief by getting the type of medium skin Thief shoulda always had as universal outfit for all classes.

Teef Revenant OP, You can be Teef Engi.

havent played thief in pvp for long.
I log in today to get any daily… i see Thief daily GREAT ok lets go… And had to switch to scrapper. Dying to f EVERYTHING is not fun, DEALING 0 DMG is not fun, any class outdmgs me and has 10000000000 of blocs/godmodes for real presetuped traps took 98% of my hp… I BET ITS F SKILL MATTER that i didnt consider DH laying traps on close and going to def mid… I bet is l2p issue that im not able to see future in my dreams so i wont be killed by traps//.//

Whats even funnier, dunno how much anet paid Caed to post his builds on thief forums to shut us up, problem is THEY WONT WORK kitten in soloq, with 0 condi clear even total NEWB with ANY CONDI BUILD will destroy you. I feel sick after waiting this long for any FIX to thief, they introduced nonstealth play? JOKE! Staff deals insane dmg and dies even faster, same as s/d EVERY thief dies to kittening aoe and condi pressure and nowadays meta is all about SPAM AOE WIN TEAMFIGHT. Dont even start saying “Thief is still great decapper” I can outrotate almost any thief on SCRAPPER, and can decap even faster than thief as Rev, no point in playing class that counters NOTHING wins vs NOTHING and has no strong points compared to any other class. Noobs will be happy with 12k vault im not happy with 1 12k vault when rest of the game i will spend respawning.

Anothier fun fact: If thief dies using HS or any other skill that lock us up in animation is considered NOOB trash tier thief, if rev dies using UA we have to add EVASION to UA cuz noobs will cry.

Dunno if its me but shadow shot seems to be even slower than before, i can cast it 2/3x before it lands and teleports me. Rly rly dumb. Lets make it as slow as cluster so we will see more counterplay… CUZ THAT WE WANT! MORE COUNTERPLAY TO THIEF less counter play to DH and COndi bullkitten… Every class shoult get reveal, on 20 sec cd with 10000 range, any class should get perma “if you get backstabbed by thief he dies in next 2 sec” You guys know that if you have confusion on then making BOUND evade or Condi evade will kill you cuz its considered attack…

While I respect the right to feel hopeless about Thief, it does reinforce the non-factual idea that it is “not viable”, which I doubt even ANet agrees about (whatever you may think about the Profession yourselves.) Some ideas have been expressed above already. Raids are about an organized team effort and practice, and there’s not one right, true way to beat them as far as team composition is concerned-be “disappointed”, but don’t spread the idea that Thief is NOT viable based on “pugging” experience, as the sheep masses have rately been right in the past as far as Profession “viability” is concerned, and they likely know even less now on this issue, especially concerning Raids.

Nothing against Engineers-I like my own-but Thief is very different, effective, and a highly enjoyable way to experience content. Only refuse to play it when it’s not fun anymore for you, for whatever reasons.

(If someone disagrees, please do so intelligently or else just ignore my post and agree to disagree.)

Star Ace.5207
Watch any esl since HOT. Count thieves/// Viable my kitten .

@Star Ace

Define viable…

Zero Day.2594:

@Star Ace

Define viable…

Fits a good players/good group’s composition that is able to eventually beat Raids with lots of practice as a whole team effort, just like any other Profession, but in different ways-as expected.

Thieves are not Engineers (or insert any other “better” Profession there), nor should they play like them-that doesn’t mean they are “not viable.”

Would I be in favor of boosts, especially regarding party wide support? Likely, but they are nevertheless viable even now.

Though “viable” has often been used inappropriately as “optimal”, the fact is no one can prove to you Thieves are NOT viable for Raids. I have seen different group compositions out there, and I am sure you could argue forever which is the most “optimal”-however, a Thief-less group must not necessarily be “sub-optimal” for a particular group that plays well together, and knows what each is doing and when.

(As far as ANet is concerned, what “people” think is “viable” is relevant as it relates to “Profession-perception”-players should feel like playing Thief/Daredevil in raids is effective and fun. Even though also, perfect Profession balance is more an ideal than a perfectly attainable goal, and one has to ultimately stick to whatever is enjoyable to play the most.)

Thief is trash tier mate. Every class can do thier job better while not beeing killed by everything. Im pretty sure next patch we will see Thief removed from game cuz why even bother. Anet doesnt care, never cared about thief, all they cared about is new players that were thieves prey, so they nerfed thief to the point its even or no chance to win vs newbs. For real i feel soo angry for wasting 3 years to play this class. If i played guard or ele or Engi instead i would be king of game right now. And there would be no time that my class was outmatched.

Feiyans.8312:

Bro, I feel you

lol, I love that pic.

Star Ace.5207:

Zero Day.2594:

@Star Ace

Define viable…

Fits a good players/good group’s composition that is able to eventually beat Raids with lots of practice as a whole team effort, just like any other Profession, but in different ways-as expected.

Thieves are not Engineers (or insert any other “better” Profession there), nor should they play like them-that doesn’t mean they are “not viable.”

Would I be in favor of boosts, especially regarding party wide support? Likely, but they are nevertheless viable even now.

Though “viable” has often been used inappropriately as “optimal”, the fact is no one can prove to you Thieves are NOT viable for Raids. I have seen different group compositions out there, and I am sure you could argue forever which is the most “optimal”-however, a Thief-less group must not necessarily be “sub-optimal” for a particular group that plays well together, and knows what each is doing and when.

(As far as ANet is concerned, what “people” think is “viable” is relevant as it relates to “Profession-perception”-players should feel like playing Thief/Daredevil in raids is effective and fun. Even though also, perfect Profession balance is more an ideal than a perfectly attainable goal, and one has to ultimately stick to whatever is enjoyable to play the most.)

Yeah. Viable is a bit hard to describe…

Player perception is just not where you say it should be either.

But I guess, we can leave all as is, and over time the player perception will change… Right? Because clearly everything is okay and it’s just the player perception that needs changing.