Guild Wars 2

Compared to almost every class I’ve played, I feel like Im getting face rolled leveling up in PvE. Is this normal?

For the first 15-20 levels yes, it is the hardest class to level. If I were you, I would make a B-Line straight for unlocking Caltrops, then everything changes instantly.

I think thieves are hard in the early levels. You can’t do the clever thieving until you have some more traits and skills. Find a few simple things that work (blind, cripple) and then experiment more once you get some traits.

Similiar experience here. I agree with Lordslack about Caltrops.

Another weapon set to consider is S/P or D/P for the blinktanking ability.

Just get the bad guys inside of the circle and stab stab stab using initiative to keep up the blinds.

Not the most exciting way to play though.

I did early levels using condition D/D, Shortbow, caltrops. Nice to be able to be able to blow all my initiative on lots of bleeding and then play defensively if necessary while they bleed out.

Besides, D/D # 3 death blossom off a ledge to your death, that is the opposite of boring blind tanking.

hahaha
d/d cond build against some random level 12 svanir on a cliff…
And then a scream!
Good times!

It always remained hard for me.
Not sufficient damage to kill anything fast, dying extremely quick, and actually was quite boring. I had to search other means to level up.

Once you got dagger storm, it gets better:D:D
Just gotta ball up these first 50 or so levels^^

I’ve been using a D/P on my thief for most fights. Focus on one target, usually any ranged enemy. #3 blind/teleport to them, dagger them a few times, dodge away if I see any melee crowding me, then as they run towards me again, #3 to my target again, finish off.

I was thinking of trying P/D as my alt weapon for the #3 there as well to jump away from target, but that means no shortbow, which works great against tight groups of enemies. Sometimes I feel like Thief needs 3 weapon sets…

Things that don’t work too well for me:
Smoke Field on pistol #5.. just costs a lot and leaves my lower lvl thief short on initiative.
Death Blossom – just never can get the timing right. Maybe it’s lag, but it doesn’t feel like it’s instant activation at all, causing me to get hit regardless. It’s also only a 1/4 second evade, so you have to be bloody accurate with timing.

That’s been the name of the game for me – avoid getting hit as much as possible. I started with blindness because the evade skills seem to require far more precise timing, which I lack, so I more often than not get killed.

I feel bad for those who are leveling thieves after all the updates.

I cannot accurate say that I know what you’re going thru since I was leveled up with my Thief way before Anet screwed with our profession, and just about any builds worked because stealth gave me the necessary breather when I needed it.

I would assume that without the aggro drop from stealth, our PvE survivability is severely crippled, if not broken. Even with my traits and gears, when I go back sicdekicking, I can tell that something is wrong in the low level areas.

I leveled my thief at this time :

- Stealth removed agro
- Pistol Whip didn’t get 15% damage nerf
- Caltrops lasted 15s and not 10s

I could have used that food giving HP on crits but I didn’t knew about it at the time. It was fun times. Get a group of risen, 2 pistol whips and bam, 3 dead risens. Rince and repeat

Try not to get frustrated, the thief in early levels are really a pain in the kitten to level because the tools you need to make thief “fun” don’t really kick in until after level 40+.

I agree with caltrops and d/d condi when leveling and I also agree with S/P, that also helped a lot.

I also recommend going through at least 2 starter areas to have an easier time leveling, I always go through the first 2 human and norn maps (since I did it so many times I’m comfortable with it). Very easy to do and by the time you get map completion on these 4 maps you will be level 33 ish, and will have an easier time.

1. Finish Queensdale, and if you’re having trouble tele to LA and go to the norn starting area, wayfarer foothills.
2. Finish Wayfarer foothills, and if you havent already finish queensdale.
3. Finish Kessex hills and if you’re having trouble (this is when the centaur mobs start to get really annoying) jump to the lvl 15-25 norn map touching wayfarer foothills (I forget the name lol).
4. If at any time you’re having trouble go to the sylveri starting map or the charr. The charr starting map just involves a ton of killing so if you’re in the mood for killing ghosts and things…

Map completion (getting hearts, doing some DE’s as they pop, getting vistas and undiscovered points of interests) I found to be the fastest way to level, and the most fun.

Goloith.6349:

Compared to almost every class I’ve played, I feel like Im getting face rolled leveling up in PvE. Is this normal?

If you want to play some kind of dancing finesse build, then the early levels are painful. Yet if you want to face tank with a relatively easy build, just go with the cliche combination of S/P.

Use Sword #2 or Steal to teleport into melee. Hit Pistol #5 to create an AoE Blind cloud around you that constantly re-applies Blind. Let Sword #3 swing through a full auto attack sequence. Then hit Pistol #5 again. Wash, rinse, and repeat. Against anything other than Champion mobs, dredge, or a mob with a non-targeting AoE (like the male bandits in Queensdale), you’re pretty much a god.

And when you hit level 20, put your first 10 points into Trickery and take the Uncatchable trait which drops more caltrops when you dodge. I use it offensively with D/D like this and it is a lot of fun to play:

Get within Steal distance, Cloak and Dagger, hit Steal before CnD goes off, you will shadowstep to enemy and attack and go into stealth instantly. Stand on top of them and dodge backwards dropping caltrops. Dodging does not break stealth and since you are invisible, the enemy will just stand in your caltrops and take 3 stacks of bleeding. Then backstab and just start beating them up, continuing to dodge and run them through your dodgetrops. It is free condition damage without casting anything and single mobs go down pretty quick. I still do this well into the 60’s.

Groups of mobs, just run into the center and pop the real caltrops utility, then deathblossom 2-3 times over them and dodge out of there. Mobs will melt and you won’t even be hit. For some reason this never gets old for me.

Thanks for all the advise guys! Ya I’ve been trying the P/D & Shortbow for condition damage, but it’s kinda tough going till low level condition gear becomes available. I try some of these ideas out!