Guild Wars 2

Warriors, spirit rangers, and phantasm mesmers as a thief…How to do it?

Warriors have that nice little 3 second stun on a 7 second cooldown on top of their other stuns and blocks. They spam stuns so much my stunbreakers can’t keep up and then as soon as I’m helpless, they just hit me with a hundred blades and I die. Don’t say black powder because good warriors know that the range on their attacks is slightly more than the radius of black powder so they can avoid the blind entirely all while continuing to apply their constant stuns.

Spirit rangers resummon their minions before you can get any damage in on the ranger, and if you don’t focus the minions, they just eat all your backstabs and you can’t do any damage to the ranger. It’s just a stall match until you slip up because with those minions up, it’s not possible to kill the ranger, so you will lose all duels with a spirit ranger (who knows his stuff).

And finally phantasm mesmers, those phantasms don’t die to a backstab, but they can each deal around 30%~50% of my health with each attack. If they’ve got three phantasms and I stealth, then all the phantasm cooldowns go off while I’m stealthed and as soon as I unstealth, I get hit with all three phantasm attacks at once. The combined damage of those attacks instantly kills me from full health. Of course I can dodge, but dodges only go so far and if I also have to worry about the mesmer using his blurred frenzy or shatters, then dodging is no help at all since I can evade one attack to die to another.

Currently running 0/30/30/10/0 D/P. I feel like I should switch to d/d for the ranger and the mesmer, but I still can’t find a counter for those permanent stun locking warriors. I literally had a fight where I got stunned, shadow stepped, got stunned again, shadow stepped back, got stunned again, rolled for initive, got stunned again, then he just kept me stunned for the next 10 seconds while he killed me with mace auto attack. Advice?

Simplicity

Don’t say black powder because good warriors know that the range on their attacks is slightly more than the radius of black powder so they can avoid the blind entirely all while continuing to apply their constant stuns.

Radius, not diameter. c:

Just BP → stand near the back of circle → use range to your advantage.

Also, range in general and evading important attacks are both good ways to counter warrs.

i played a very good spirit ranger and beat him. i will say it was quite annoying bc for some reason the spirits like to stay VERY close to him …almost like a circle. i couldnt get a clear shot at him . still won but was very annoying. patience is the key for spirit rangers. AOE dmg or CONDITION dmg is what you want to beat them.

warriors…..well they arent great at removing conditions…im not saying to use bleeds…i am saying use sword to stun….or run stun on steal…..maybe a few venoms…..but blind is the best way. AOE black powder shot….if u need a reprieve…juust use BPS and dont stand in it…keep the field between you and him…he will have to cross it to get to you. then you get 2-3 free hits depending on what skill he uses to wipe the blind. spam skill 3 every 2 seconds on d/p….this willhelp too! another instance with d/p skill 3…..2 auto attacks…..skill 5….2-3 auto attacks….heartseeker ….backstab….. repeat. if u hes 100b just dodge and wait it out.

phant mesmers you have to be super aggressive or super patient. one of the other depending on what build ur using. if its SPVP theres not much i can help you with. they are slightly op in spvp. thieves slightly up.

hope this all helps somehow.

also if you use p/d there is just no way a warrior should win that battle. :P

I don’t get why ppl say they run a set .. without saying the second set.
Your second set is just as important as your first set. I run a S/P besides my D/P for multiple targets and when I need to stunlock the enemy myself (like your first enemy).

Warriors: A S/P or S/D setup could stunlock the warrior more than the warrior can stunlock you.
Also, bp does work, but you’re suppose to cast it when standing right on top of him. He has to back out of the field and swing once to get rid of blindness (while you are hitting him). This said, I don’t use bp a lot myself besides when I setup a stealth for backstab or for a blind-stomp.
I usually switch to D/P once the foe drops low enough for me to start my real burst with a low risk of him surviving.

Ranger: Again I prefer using my S/P setup ‘till the ranger loses his spirits. Spirits tend to stay in melee combat of the ranger (if he uses the “spirits move with the ranger” trait thing) so just target the ranger and you’ll hit 2 of the 3 spirits with him. They aren’t the worst enemies you see, but they are okay.

Mesmers: Stun the cast, kill the phantasm before others are up (preferable while hitting the mesmer along). Not much I can say about them since I’m not very good against them either. It’s mostly a 1/2 chance of winning or losing when I play against them unless they run zerk.

Play Pistolwhip with 10/30/0/25/5
Utilities:
Withdraw
Shadowstep
Shadowrefuge
Infiltrator’s Signet

Stun them all the time

;)

also you can kill them with S/D or one shot them with D/P
you can check out my guides here
http://evisceratrix.webs.com

Hmmm, that’s one I never considered; a second weapon set. I’ve always done D/P & SB for mobility, but mobility is never an issue, so it probably would be wise to swap it out for something. I initially only used D/P to get used to it, but now that I’m quite adept at using it, I should definitely get a second weapon. Also, with the black powder thing “keep it between him & you”…That means you can’t hit him either, because dagger range/sword range is not great enough to reach him, in which case he has the advantage since warriors can just stall out the black powder’s duration all the while gaining some 800 hp/second from regeneration. I still don’t see how black powder is a good idea unless you use it directly on top of the warrior, but I can never get that close without getting chain stunned.

Simplicity.7208:

Hmmm, that’s one I never considered; a second weapon set. I’ve always done D/P & SB for mobility, but mobility is never an issue, so it probably would be wise to swap it out for something. I initially only used D/P to get used to it, but now that I’m quite adept at using it, I should definitely get a second weapon. Also, with the black powder thing “keep it between him & you”…That means you can’t hit him either, because dagger range/sword range is not great enough to reach him, in which case he has the advantage since warriors can just stall out the black powder’s duration all the while gaining some 800 hp/second from regeneration. I still don’t see how black powder is a good idea unless you use it directly on top of the warrior, but I can never get that close without getting chain stunned.

Yes, yes, I know what you mean; the comment was only a little interesting fact for you to consider, just to help show a lack of absolutes. However, my other comments, and those of the others here, should be quite enough to help you, I’d hope. c:

Sinister.5792:

you can check out my guides here
http://evisceratrix.webs.com

You may want to update the guide. I looked at the D/D and when I saw the reasoning on Improv I stopped.

Improv only benefits summoned Ele Bundles from my testing in the mists.

Improv is in a weird spot right now since it used to have synergy with steal.

Steal used to replaced your skill bar and give you a bundle that it would work with, however that was a very long time ago (possibly beta) and it’s only use I have seen is for RNG CDR

Travlane doesn’t know the difference between a daze and a stun. Both (stealth) sword 1 and steal have *dazes, not stuns.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Travlane doesn’t know the difference between a daze and a stun. Both (stealth) sword 1 and steal have *dazes, not stuns.

viking jorun. why do u always find me and troll me? im not into whatever you are thinking …plz stop talking to / about me its kind of creepy.

that aside obviously you missed the point. i/we am/are not talking about immobilizing a foe. we are talking about disabling/interrupting them. so the relevance between the 2 are erroneous to this conversation. interrupting a warriors skills its much more effective than immobilizing bc most/many of thief builds are melee type and need to get close. again…..immobilization does not stop dmg…..interrupting does. get it now? or am i mistaken? do they both not rupt?

if u play MMORPGs for years (since 1989 here) ….. you’d know that using the term stun is more universal. yes there is a difference but its not relevant in the conversation. they both at as stuns. dazing somebody stuns them… so to speak.

Arganthium.5638:

Simplicity

Don’t say black powder because good warriors know that the range on their attacks is slightly more than the radius of black powder so they can avoid the blind entirely all while continuing to apply their constant stuns.

Radius, not diameter. c:

Just BP -> stand near the back of circle -> use range to your advantage.

Also, range in general and evading important attacks are both good ways to counter warrs.

Except the war can walk 2 steps and reach you there anyway

Oxygen.5918:

Arganthium.5638:

Simplicity

Don’t say black powder because good warriors know that the range on their attacks is slightly more than the radius of black powder so they can avoid the blind entirely all while continuing to apply their constant stuns.

Radius, not diameter. c:

Just BP -> stand near the back of circle -> use range to your advantage.

Also, range in general and evading important attacks are both good ways to counter warrs.

Except the war can walk 2 steps and reach you there anyway

actually no. he cant. if u stay in the back of the diameter of BPS at all times and keep him infront of u at all times…theres no way he can reach you without becoming blind. this im sure of

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/PP-sd-Video-pawning-in-spvp-duels/first#post2541924 to the op check out my vid I duel a phant mesmer and war it might give you some ideas

vincecontix.1264:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/PP-sd-Video-pawning-in-spvp-duels/first#post2541924 to the op check out my vid I duel a phant mesmer and war it might give you some ideas

p/p couldnt beat him :P u didnt have enough dmg on the pistols. had to use the sword to win. if i ran that build i would have personally run something like 0 20 30 0 20 just for the ricochet. its pretty great against mesmers try it out