Guild Wars 2

Im about to hit rank 80 now and looking at my pie chart I can see that thief is my 3rd most played prof after necro and warr. Yet I feel like I am worse at thief than my 6 other chars. I can sorta play s/d but d/x builds seem too difficult. I also like to roam wvw.
So I need some basic advice and maybe video guides on how to play effectively. What build do i need? 26600 26006 006206 ? I couldnt decide but mostly played with 26600 cause it seemed more survivable. My other problem was running out of initiative for BP HS combo. And most importantly i seem to backstab from front like a third of the time.
I really appreciate any help, links to guides or maybe in-game help.

It really depends. If I have to run d/p, I prefer the crit strikes of 26006. It’s going to depend on your personal preference, and the situation of the arena, as well as your/the enemy’s team comps.

Consider these options:

1. How much condition clears will I need?
2. How much blinds can I land?
3. Will I be focused consistently, or will I have time to leap back and out of stealth?
4. Does my team have sufficient sustain/bunkers that I can abuse a full traitline of SA for on-point fights?
5. What is more important, survival or spiking?
6. How glassy is the enemy team? Are there more spikes that need to be taken down fast, or do they have a lot of heavies?
7. do I want stuns on steal? Mug? Or do I want more evasions?
8. Will I be able to decap their far if they decide to guard it?

Those questions will determine which d/p build you’re going to bring.

For sPvP, trickery is almost mandatory for the initiative gains and utility it offers while not using stealth; sPvP makes using stealth detrimental more than helpful most of the time. Obviously if you’re just playing for kill score, though, it would be more beneficial to use SA. This only really applies in the map with no objectives, though.

Otherwise it’s really just practice and learning what the other professions often respond to your damage with, as well as the individual players themselves; learning to adapt to your opponent’s weaknesses on a personal level is huge when playing as a thief.

For WvW, 2/6/6/0/0 D/P Shadow Arts is one of the easiest builds you can play, hate to say. It’s pretty much just practicing.

In Spvp never run SA. It limits your damage amount and you can’t offer as much support to your team as trickery. Its a very selfish traitline.

Probably the best option if you’re having trouble with the other specs would be 6 0 2 0 6 d/p sb. Allows for greater condi cleanse with the removal on stealth and allows for withdraw to be chosen as the heal.

I’ve said it before, but if you’re trying to learn thief don’t take SA. It really is a crutch of a traitline and promotes passive play and bad habits especially if you start grouping and roaming.

Overall don’t get too discouraged if you die a bit while learning thief. Since the amulet for thief is going to be berserker pretty much always, it leaves a little bit less margin for error while learning the class.

As far as people to watch, I’d recommend http://www.twitch.tv/narcarsis/. He’s an excellent thief and is willing to answer any questions you have as long as they’re not just “how do I play thief.” He has also started to save past broadcasts so he doesn’t need to be live for you to watch him anymore.

It sounds like you’re either not using your auto attack enough, or staying in a fight too long. You need to manage that initiative so you can always either stealth or infiltrator’s arrow away.

In bigger fights, D/P to skirmish the freecasters around the edge. SB to bomb the middle. When someone reaches 50% health and you can end them, then swap to D/P. Be lined up already, black powder, heartseeker+steal/signet/shadow step, backstab, drop them. Leave a blinding field there and cleave or pressure another target, interrupt banners, or get out. If you have weapon swap after downing someone, swap and lay a poison field to slow revival attempts and spam cluster bomb.

When you’re going to be beaten, you’re already beaten. Leave. Survive to enforce somewhere else.
Don’t overextend without cool downs. One wrong move and you’re a goner.
Pick your fights, and engage on your terms, not theirs’.

Thanks for the replies. I switched to 06206 and it seems more useful in pvp. I still overextend sometimes and get too aggressive which results in me being focused. Also how do i decide whether to rez an ally or gtfo? Sometimes i get cleaved to death and sometimes i can pull it off.

akaCryptic.2389:

Thanks for the replies. I switched to 06206 and it seems more useful in pvp. I still overextend sometimes and get too aggressive which results in me being focused. Also how do i decide whether to rez an ally or gtfo? Sometimes i get cleaved to death and sometimes i can pull it off.

Learning when to extend and not comes with some practice and knowledge of your teammates/situation. Same goes for the rezzing. Its definitely a feel thing. Dropping an Sr on a teammate whos down can make a huge difference even if you can’t rez immediately as well, since it does heal them and allows them to not be stomped for a while.

I’m running d/p 6/6/2 in spvp… 3k auto attacks are fun.

I mostly played S/D and couldn’t get the hang of D/P for a while but I’ve been learning. In general, thief is a lot harder to have success on than other classes and will require a good amount of practice.

I think the biggest change in my game has been to stop actively trying to use backstab. Despite what every non-thief denizen of the forums would have you believe, backstab is not that great. You stop DPS to use one and it costs a massive amount of initiative to get into stealth, which can be totally wasted if they use a block skill. The combo is also highly interruptable.

The power of shadow shot can be easily under estimated. It hits hard, applies a long blind, and teleports you to target to keep the pressure from your auto-attack up. If you’re not using shadow shot often, consider using it more.

To touch on Shadow Arts: the main reason to not use shadow arts is that the tree actually awful. Last Refuge is can get you killed. Meld with shadows has no effect on stealth combos, and Hidden Assassin is underwhelming as far as five-point traits go. Shadow’s Rejuvenation makes you regenerate slower than Warriors except you can’t do any damage while doing so. Infusion of Shadow is potentially justifiable to change the initiative deficit from 4 to 2 after using BP + Heartseeker x 3 if you are going deep behind an enemy zerg and need a lot of stealth uptime to stay close.

However, Shadow’s Embrace is actually amazing (2-points in SA req.) and in WvW I would highly recommend it. You can’t break combat with conditions on you and 30-sec combat lock because you got hit with a cow is annoying and dangerous for a thief.

akaCryptic.2389:

Thanks for the replies. I switched to 06206 and it seems more useful in pvp. I still overextend sometimes and get too aggressive which results in me being focused. Also how do i decide whether to rez an ally or gtfo? Sometimes i get cleaved to death and sometimes i can pull it off.

You answered your own question. If you’re going to get cleaved heavily, don’t try. If you’re not, try. Usually you only want to risk it if there is only 1 opponent, and you can res while they try to stomp, or when your opponent(s)’ collective damage is not enough to present a threat. In a team fight, you really only want to even consider trying if you have an elementalist or guardian with you, who can provide protection while you res with them and any other allies in the area. Also being mindful of positioning can alert you to whether it’s possible to get a res off and escape dying i.e. is the downed ally near you and other allies, and are the enemy players a bit too far away to start stomping and cleaving immediately?