Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing the game for a while, and of all the nine classes I’ve never been comfortable playing a thief.

I used to feel the same way about Necro, but when HoT presales came out, and it came with the additional character slot I finally bit the bullet and decided to at least become competent with that. PoF is here and I’ve decided to finally get competent with Thief.

I’m having a hard time finding up to date guides. The ones here on the forum look to be at least 1 or 2 years out of date. Elsewhere I can find guides that are even older. But nothing really since the latest meta earthquake.

Are there any guides that are up to date? Has Thief really not changed that much in the past year to two?

I am almost exclusively a PvE player. I will occasionally do a karma run in EotM. I’ve never darkened the doorstep of the PvP lobby except when it used to be a convenient and cheap place to run through to get to Lion’s Arch (WvW queues were a thing back then).

I am also not planning to use my library of character boosts, I actually want to learn the class and not just insta-80 and run with full ascended/legendaries.

Where should I start to actually learn the class? Condition builds? Power builds? Stealth builds? I did read through the Guide to Thief Leveling (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Guide-to-Thief-Leveling/first#post2673266) but again that was written 4 years ago.

Thanks

Theres is no this or what way to do it. And you will play pve exclussively so you may not have that pressure pvp-mapchat throws at you. I would just open my Hero menu and look at the traits and skills, that way you can get a good grasp what possibilities lies out there in the traits and how each differ and give, as with how each weapon functions, because as you said you wanted to learn from the scratch – and I dont think theres one guide out there to cover it all. Try everything and get a feel for it, either start or stick with power or condi, up to you. Personally I prefer power, but that’s me. If thats the case for you, try out dagger or staff when you get daredevil, while you have shortbow as offweapon as extra movement around the maps.

You mentioned stealth build, generally such isnt really needed in pve as going stealth aka Shadow Arts traitline will also reduce your dmg a bit. Sometimes going too much utility aka stealth may not be needed, it depends on the content you’re in. But it’s good to remember, while it may be so for all classes, thief is really the class where you dont want to take hits, it’s not designed to be rugged like a brawling warrior, it has its own ways, a finesse or a dance you will learn over time.

Im sure there are others here though that could point you in direction of more specific guidies.

Couple things here. For leveling I would only look to power stats. Condi doesn’t really come into its own until you are 80 and geared (imo). Stealth builds are fun but mainly reserved for pvp.

Check out metabattle.com for some high level thief build concepts. For talents I would take Deadly Arts, Critical Strikes and Trickery as you level up and play around at 80. Obviously once you get DareDevil you will learn the staff but for leveling those are the three trait lines i would take.

Small tip but for great healing take signet of malice and the invigorating precision talent (critical strikes). Equip P/P and unload to refill your health bar.

Thanks for the advice.

I main a squishy, viper/sinister elementalist (use to be zerker), so I’m use to dodging, and getting out of the way of things. That’s definitely a class that can’t take a hit, and with dagger main hand you’re always up close and personal.

I did make a thief the other day to try out the starting instance. It was definitely a different experience then I remember. I watched some complete beginners trying to face tank minotaurs (Norn start) and getting pasted, as I was running around not taking damage. Knowing the telegraphs, and cones of damage allowed me to just dodge out of the way and attack.

Even the final boss of the instance (the wurm), was a piece of cake with the thief. I felt like yelling out to the other players: Large spin…. get ready to reflect…. since the animations are the same for the Great Jungle Wurm and 3 Headed Wurm. It was down in at most 15 seconds, a very anti-climatic fight.

So what I’m saying is that I’m not afraid of the squishiness of a thief. I will also probably go through all of GW2 core story & LWS2 before picking up daredevil. I am a bit of a role player / author too and I’ve been feeling the story telling itch get at me. I might just write something down, fiction wise, about my character’s progression through the game. Maybe I’ll be done by PoF but I doubt it.

Durrik.4679:

Thanks for the advice.

I main a squishy, viper/sinister elementalist (use to be zerker), so I’m use to dodging, and getting out of the way of things. That’s definitely a class that can’t take a hit, and with dagger main hand you’re always up close and personal.

I did make a thief the other day to try out the starting instance. It was definitely a different experience then I remember. I watched some complete beginners trying to face tank minotaurs (Norn start) and getting pasted, as I was running around not taking damage. Knowing the telegraphs, and cones of damage allowed me to just dodge out of the way and attack.

Even the final boss of the instance (the wurm), was a piece of cake with the thief. I felt like yelling out to the other players: Large spin…. get ready to reflect…. since the animations are the same for the Great Jungle Wurm and 3 Headed Wurm. It was down in at most 15 seconds, a very anti-climatic fight.

So what I’m saying is that I’m not afraid of the squishiness of a thief. I will also probably go through all of GW2 core story & LWS2 before picking up daredevil. I am a bit of a role player / author too and I’ve been feeling the story telling itch get at me. I might just write something down, fiction wise, about my character’s progression through the game. Maybe I’ll be done by PoF but I doubt it.

Once you unlock daredevil you’ll have a strong powerspec, it has two GM traits where one gives swiftness on dodge and the other gives dmg on dodge. One is good for roaming and the other is good for those story instances where u need that extra dmg. You have more dodges with daredevil, and with staff auto attacks u hit like a truck, while staff #5 inbetween the dodge dmg does some sick dmg and evades, Im even soloing most champs in HoT maps with it.

Deadeye does look interesting, but I fear it may be too single target focused, we’ll see. In any event shortbow #2 spam up close with autos are a good lootstick weapon for events where swarm of mobs spawn.

But as the other guy said, in general pve, esp roaming the maps, try out power. Dagger is a good start, either with pistol offhand (#5 gives good blindfield, and dagger #2 through it gives stealth, where you can quickly dagger #1 for backstab from stealth for more dmg) or you can go offhand dagger for #5 stealth into #1 dagger from stealth for backstab, as #1 changes when in stealth, and you wanna hit from the sides or back.

Until level 80, run power for most of your items. After 80, you can go full berserker (which I don’t recommend but your choice), full condition (insane damage with Dagger/Dagger) and Marauder or Valkyrie. Marauder is the best choice in my opinion, because it has good damage and gives you almost 5k HP. Valkyrie is a little bit more defensive and what Arenanet recommends when you use your level 80 boost.

Dagger/Pistol and Shortbow is the most used and the most powerful build in today’s meta. It is not easy to use but if you learn how to use it, the reward is almost perfect. For this build, I recommend using Trickery, Deadly Arts or Critical Strikes, Shadow Arts and when you are level 80 replace Shadow Arts with Daredevil.

For the utilities, it really depends on your playstyle, but you can use Withdraw as healing and cleanse, Spider Venom or Assassin’s Signet – depends on you, Assassin’s Signet is very good for bursting down targets and Spider Venom stacks 4 poison if I remember correctly – Caltrops for a little bit more damage or Signet of Shadows for some movement speed and some conditions, Signet of Agility for some precision and endurance regeneration or Blinding Powder for stealthy plays and at last, I recommend Basilisk Venom or Dagger Storm as your Elite skill. These really depends on your playstyle as I said but my Dagger/Pistol build is;

Trickery – Deadly Arts – Daredevil
Withdraw as healing
Signet of Agility, Spider Venom and Caltrops – For PvP, I use Shadowstep instead of Caltrops -
And Basilisk Venom for PvP, Dagger Storm for PvE.
My gear is full Marauder right now but if you want to one shot someone with this build, you can go full Berserker.

Tips;
Learn how to use Pistol #5, Dodge and Dagger #2 for stealth.
Learn when and how to engage with #3 and Dagger #2.
Don’t be greedy, learn when to go all-in and when to fall back.
Most of these come with experience, but you can watch professionals like AikijinX and Terissimo. Aikijin’s video link is on the forum right now – I couldn’t find the link – and Terissimo has a Youtube channel with 8K subscribers.