Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone,

So after a long break from playing, I deleted my old characters and switched servers so I could play with some friends.

I decided my new starting character would be a thief. My big issue with playing so far is that he is incredibly squishy!

When doing the starter area PvE content, I find myself getting fairly beat up in just 1v1 fights. In 1vX (X being more than one), I get destroyed if I use daggers or swords in my main hand. I can’t even begin to say how bad boss fights and stronger monster fights have been. I find myself just using a shortbow and kiting things to death which is very booring.

So is this how thieve-hood begins for everyone? Does it improve over the levels?

Thanks

try using a dagger/pistol set. Its full of blinds making PvE 1v1’s a breeze.

It improves as you level up, yes, but the most solid advice I can give you is that you need to use blind. Blinding negates all the damage and you have a near-infinite supply of it using an off-hand pistol (Black Powder). It is an area-of-effect so you can pull a bunch of monsters into it and hit them all at the same time with it. Your main hand is your choice, but the auto-attack of sword hits like a truck on multiple targets and works well. Branch into defense traits as soon as possible, you want to get higher initiative gain asap to keep up blinding even more.

Dredge are your worst fear (cannot be blinded), bring a buddy.

Starting out can be rough; and yes, it does get better as you level up (and become more accustomed to playing with a thief mindset as well).
Here’s a thread with some really good suggestions for you:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Thief-forums-are-depressing-and-a-question/first#post1732948

To answer your question, I would have to say yes.

It seems to me that you are wasting initiatives. A D/D weapon set should take down anything up to 2 levels above you. A D/P weapon set should allow you to survive better. Using a sword should kill things rather fast too.

Two things you need to keep in mind; 1) Upgrade your weapons often, use the karma weapon as much as possible 2) Upgrade your chest piece and leg piece armors at least every 5 levels.

And lastly, tell your friends that the reason you are in this server is to play with them so they need to start playing with you. But even without them, you should be fine. Just use your skills and dodges wisely.

S/P + Shortbow + signet of malice + caltrops. You’ll be almost invincible.

You’ll eventually learn that the only threatening creature that roam Tyria for a thief are the dredges that you’ll soon be calling “forking dredges” and maybe the kraits.