Guild Wars 2

I’ve noticed that stealth utilities can provide a great pace setting tool. Any build I make using the hidden killer trait at 30 critical, gear for high power but not have to stack precision crit chance- so if someone is trying to cheese me, i can break the cc, stealth, and able to re enter the fight with a powerful critical from either backstab, unload, pistol whip, whichever strong attack I have (these are the main ones I can think of at the moment).

Starting there the best anti cheese build, or as I like to say the best setup for cheesing back the cheesers, I’ve found is 30 shadow 30 critical, for extra stealth healing and condition removal.

What are some other thief tactics you guys have used for thwarting the cheesy glass cannons in pvp?

sadly, only first hit of any multi-hit or aoe attacks will benefit from 100% crit in stealth

Condition builds eat glass cannons

Outplaying them works if they dont get the drop on you. Keeping up Infiltrators Strike to be able to instantly create distance and break stun ( this will save your life).
Going 30 into Shadow Arts is a good soft counter that rewards you for stealthing. Playing S/D is generally the anti-Thief build in general.

Typical Scenario against noob Backstabber:
He uses Steal-CnD-Backstab, but misses BS because I used Shadow Return from IS. I use CnD-Steal-Tactical Strike for a 3 second daze, and then pound his squishy face into the ground with the Sword autoattack.

Condition thief. Run the chill venom, poison venom and basilisk venom. Also signet of shadows for general speed and the blind.

Battle starts, poison them.
They close in, basilisk venom.
Get as many bleed stacks from dagger skill 3 during their stone as possible.
Chill venom when they break out of stone, either stopping them closing the gap on you, or running away.
Blind them if they get to you.
Victory.

I do exactly the same as Zunhar, they don’t stand a chance. Once you get out of the initial cc they seem to loose the keyboard or something.

S/D with 30 Critical Strikes, 20 Shadow Arts and 20 Acrobatics. That’s what I run almost all the time, and it nails glass cannon thieves. I have a plethora of stealth and shadowstepping opportunities that will break a glass cannon’s opener every single time. I also have the Shadow Arts major that blinds upon stealth, so when they go in to 2-spam mode, I hit C+D and suddenly they don’t know what the hell to do. Cue stealth sword daze, and at some point Critical Haste might have procced, in which case I tear them up instantly. If not, they die in a few more seconds.

@obtuse
yes your absolutely right.. i use soldiers amulet with hidden killer and can still punch out massive numbers while being alot more tanky.

the s/d is my favourite weapon set .. the auto is so strong when combined with the daze .. the only time a burst thief can beat me is if im rezzing a teammate or if im balls deep in a different fight

All of you know this bleeds can be dispelled? Almost all class have a good condition remover then i don’t think build only on condition is a good idea.

Hi, I think that “instinctual response” ( II of trickery ) is a great defensive anti glass cannon trait.
It can be your life saver even against an unseen c/d-steal-bs

Daendur.2357:

Hi, I think that “instinctual response” ( II of trickery ) is a great defensive anti glass cannon trait.
It can be your life saver even against an unseen c/d-steal-bs

It can be.The problem is that it kinda favors the same type glassy thieves.A guy like me
with 20k hp(19245 to be exact) will almost never get C&D over 4k,so will anyways “eat” the signet+BS.That will leave me with less hp,than a glass cannon thief who have generally 6k hp less than me

I suggested one possible anti cheese “economic” solution for all those thieves with less than 20k hp … I have 14/15k hp and 2.2k defense and I was hit for over 3k with steal.
In this scenario steal triggers instinctual response and c&d misses. Now I am a stealthed thief against a visible one that has probably triggered assassin’s signet.

Lucky B*****d.(off topic)

Why would you 30 critical strikes when your HP is so low :|

I play P/D and D/D on swap. I use P/V/T armor and P/V/C everything else. Puts me at highest possible vit and a good amount of toughness (with traits) which alone is a counter. I run 10/0/30/30/0.

My anti thief is simply the acrobats 30 point passive and blinding powder. If they are a cheese pistol whip thief or they use any sort of CC poison as a back-stab glass cannon the 30pt acro trait will trigger and completely blow their opener. Then they are easy to melt down.

If that’s down then instantly using blinding powder as soon as they attack is a good counter. Puts you on the offensive and usually they will have blown their opener since BS thieves need to use like 4 CD’s at once and pre-cast them.

@Stiv the problem with the Hard to Catch trait is that it procs from Fear and Daze.
I would give my left hand for those 2 things to go away from the proc list.

ZLE.8293:

@Stiv the problem with the Hard to Catch trait is that it procs from Fear and Daze.
I would give my left hand for those 2 things to go away from the proc list.

Yea I agree. It would be a much better ability if those weren’t included but even so it’s amazing. Take someone using Daze in 1v1 as it’s meant to be used or instance. They will do it right before they feel you are going to heal and then try to burst you. Being ported away on the daze screws that all up. In WvW when you are just fighting a bunch of scrubbies it sucks that it procs off those though.