Guild Wars 2

A little about me. I play Thief and Guardian. I would like to choose one as my main, but I can never decide which one I like more.

Any way, when I play Guardian, it’s pretty constant. Going into matches, I can typically guess how well I will perform based on the enemies comp and based on which players I see on the other team.

Thief however, is the exact opposite for me. Some days on thief, I feel super confident and I play awesome. I’m getting decaps, I’m causing the +1 on figts, I’m dropping squishies, etc. People PM me and thank me for a job well done. Then there are certain days where I feel like I can’t do anything. I try to get a decap and a cele engi shows up and wrecks me, I try to +1 fights and I get blown up before I even realize I was being focused. I try to shadowstep out of danger and I accidentally try to step somewhere that I cannot access. Map chat rage starts and I can pretty much guarantee that I’m not going to play well for the rest of the day.

I was just wondering if this is a common situation for thief players and I was wondering what steps they take to combat this.

Master the art of running away.

It’s your most essential tool.

Drennon.7190:

A little about me. I play Thief and Guardian. I would like to choose one as my main, but I can never decide which one I like more.

Any way, when I play Guardian, it’s pretty constant. Going into matches, I can typically guess how well I will perform based on the enemies comp and based on which players I see on the other team.

Thief however, is the exact opposite for me. Some days on thief, I feel super confident and I play awesome. I’m getting decaps, I’m causing the +1 on figts, I’m dropping squishies, etc. People PM me and thank me for a job well done. Then there are certain days where I feel like I can’t do anything. I try to get a decap and a cele engi shows up and wrecks me, I try to +1 fights and I get blown up before I even realize I was being focused. I try to shadowstep out of danger and I accidentally try to step somewhere that I cannot access. Map chat rage starts and I can pretty much guarantee that I’m not going to play well for the rest of the day.

I was just wondering if this is a common situation for thief players and I was wondering what steps they take to combat this.

I feel your pain
Character wise, my Thief is my favourite character of all 7 I have. I’ve made the perfect choices with it. I loved the story I built around it, I love to roam with it (reason I did it in the first place but nowadays I play a lot more PvP than roaming), I have all SAB done on him, 100% map done and all story dgns done, like these small things that you pretty much only have on your main … Then comes my Guardian too, and nowadays my Warrior. I just can’t decide my main. When I try to do it via PvP Idk why, Thief is almost out of option. I have the title but most games go bad with it. I get bad teams and do bad plays because I pretty much can’t know where I am needed because of bad team plays. I’m not skilled enough to engage on most 1 v 1 so I try to avoid those too and after 2 or 3 games like these I just give up, and it makes me really sad because I love the play style and I love my Thief, but I also love PvP and want to do great in there but I just can’t with Thief

I don’t have bad days, i have bad teams sometimes when i am consistently 1v3 and my team gets farmed at spawn point.

Certanly i am not best thief out there and can still improve a lot but issue with thief in general is that they can’t hold points so if your team doesn’t hold them you can’t win matches no matter how amazing you are.

See examples for 2 situations below:

Kurow.3076:

Master the art of running away.

It’s your most essential tool.

^^ Very much this…

Although it’s hard how our class has been nerfed to oblivion before in the past I still do my best to come up with new builds for 1v1s. I guess it’s cause I’m very optimistic and therefore always tend to be stubborn when I’m about to give up on something I like. Trust me there are days so bad I feel like changing my main to an asura engineer but meh My bond with thief is just too strong thus I remain a thief in gw2 even if all my alts own matches in spvp.

Thanks for the responses everyone. I feel that I need to stick it out and always look for ways to improve. I also need to accept that sometimes, it’s just better to leave a point and run.

Zero Day.2594:

Kurow.3076:

Master the art of running away.

It’s your most essential tool.

^^ Very much this…

much this…. not the best feeling but much this.

I have bad days.
Then I watch toker and sizer play and I feel better then I go and wreck face.
Then I make a good day

It’s all up to the team honestly. I understand my mistakes and sometimes I admit that if I did something different we could have won a close match. Still, there are a lot of times in which your team comp is just terrible, or in which the players in your team wipe while outnumbering the enemy. Or when the close holder gets decapped 24/7, or when he just decides to sit on point and and do nothing the whole match. There are also times in which you have the hero who pushes far all the match and dies without even decapping the point, or those in which half your team gets destroyed by a turret engi because they don’t know how to handle them, and by the time you realise the reason you’re losing the game it’s usually too late to tell them.
There are also times in which people can’t read chat and just don’t want to listen to you.
All in all, soloq is a real PITA. I really don’t bother much though. I might rage at times but I usually cool off pretty quickly.
I think that most of the times it’s because I believe I have a pretty high MMR, so I get matched with people that I’m lucky if they are using proper “meta” builds.

I just had a game on foefire in which I said “1 close, I escort the guy at close, then go mid if they don’t push. Rest mid”. The result was, we had 1 zerker Ele push far and only 2 went mid, and they both got destroyed by a turret engi and a zerker Ranger. By the time I joined the mid fight, our Ele at far was already dead, and we had already one person down in the mid fight. They got mid soon afterward and then it became basically impossible to do anything as people kept zerging mid (instead of focusing on side points). Again, by the time I realised the reason we were behind, it was already too late as they were leading 300-100 or something. I just akitten after that.

Like what everyone else said. Its all about the team. I was stuck like you and wanted to pick thief or guardian. I chose thief because I loved the mobility and the pure burst. Although you are a bit squishy there still are ways to get out but the same cant be said for gaurdian. Plus I’ve always liked to play a dps character and dps gaurd isnt really needed in pve. In pvp I consider myself to be better than the average with about 2k games on my thief. Its just fun having to quickly decide what to do so you die.

When I solo Q on my thief in pug matches I find more success when i play based off of where the pugs go instead of trying to make a plan. I feel that thief is the best class to do this with because we have high mobility.

For example, if 1 heads to home on foefire i usually run with him. Or if i go with the other 2 out towards mid and one cuts to far, i just go to far with him cause you’ll just get slaughtered in mid anyways. Better off to only have 1 man down than two. Ideally the last person going to mid will see us cutting to far and bail mid anyways and let them free cap it and hopefully sides will be won by then allowing a +1 on side points.

Whenever i have bad days on my theif its mostly because i just make dumb decisions over and over again… those are the days i go play a different character for a bit.

The only “good day” that Thieves will have is when they rest of the team carries them.

Even in tournament-PvP, if you watch closely on what the Thief is doing and how the rest of the team babysits them, you’ll see that a Thief is a liability in most cases.

Disappointing really.

I have 3 Thieves and I’m playing my Guardian — it’s really sad.

My bad day, is usually when I wake up and log in and still haven’t had full cup of coffee, my awareness level isn’t there. Other than that, my other half of bad day is when against 2-3 lb rangers that have tracking arrows all impaling me with rapid fire, since our stealth does jack to lose the arrows.

Other than that, I usually have really good times, and days, even when in ‘team play’ getting focused fire I allow enough distraction for team to do some damage.

I have bad days too. On these days, I miss IAs, I get killed for no reasons, and can’t get a decap. When it happens I usually switch to my engi or my warrior. Thief is one of the most difficult profession to play in pvp, so you should only play it when you’re feeling confident. Also, I sometimes get a 0.5s lag on every skill, and on these days I play warrior. If it gets even worse, I play spirit ranger.

I’ve definitely had the same experience as the OP (also played a lot as both Thief and Guard). However, Think it’s mostly because Thief is harder than Guard due to the degree of which a small mistake can matter. It’s easier to recover from a missed dodge, for instance, on a guard, but that same mistake on a thief will send you to the graveyard.

I’m really glad that others have also experienced this. I thought it might just be me.

Drennon.7190:

I’m really glad that others have also experienced this. I thought it might just be me.

Just stay positive and perfect your play:) defeating other classes may be difficult but not impossible I’m sure of it.

Aside from P/P healing power trolling, in sPvP every day is a bad day on the thief because I realize I could be contributing way more on another class.

As far as rotations and positioning go, I’m usually pretty solid- as far as skill rotations and landing bursts, I’m usually pretty solid. My ping jumps up and down every now and then, so sometimes I’ll be hit with skill lag mid-game. But yeah, some games I will really just play poorly and whiff everything. Really don’t know why I do it- I’ve been playing the same build for over a year now, but who knows. The only thing I kitten up consistently is double tapping head shot in excitement.

Cynz.9437:

I don’t have bad days, i have bad teams sometimes when i am consistently 1v3 and my team gets farmed at spawn point.

Certanly i am not best thief out there and can still improve a lot but issue with thief in general is that they can’t hold points so if your team doesn’t hold them you can’t win matches no matter how amazing you are.

See examples for 2 situations below:

^ Pretty much this.

I won’t say that I don’t have bad days, but the primary difference between Thieves and other professions is that they have one role: Decap. Granted, it’s an important role and takes skill to do effectively, but a Thief cannot carry a game on their own. To win, your teammates have to hold on to the points for as long as possible. When you have people who understand that fact and work together, you’re a lot more likely to have a good game. If you have teammates who are more concerned with chasing down the enemy and getting revenge kills on the other hand, thus leaving your team’s points open for capture, then there is not a kittening thing you, as a Thief, can do to change that. We just can’t hold points. And whenever I forget that fact due to my teammates running around like chickens without heads, I am quickly reminded by an enemy Thief who knows his place.

TL;DR: I wouldn’t stress your Thief win ratio too much. Focus on what you’re supposed to do and try your best, but at the end of the day, if your team loses, chances are good that the blame can’t be laid solely on you. Any teammate who tries to claim otherwise is likely just raging.

I disagree with the notion that thief doesnt do jack in pvp. Ive carried so many trams and preformed a lot of nice saves that lead to wins. If a teammate is losing or down I can quickly kill that person in like 3 secs. Earlier today the score in a room was 200(us) to 492 and we came back and won. Also if you dont know how to play thief then obviously you cant contribute much.

A popular tip on the forums for you guys: L2P