Guild Wars 2

Hey yall, I’ve been playing as a thief for about 2 months now (so still a noob). I’ve been reading a ton of forum posts, watching as many youtube vids as I can, fiddling around with different builds, weapon sets, etc. I’ve been spending my time in WvW and I like the idea of a thief roaming in small groups, or along the edges of zergs jumping in, dealing damage, retreating, stomping downed players, basically playing clean up, or assassin (but of course, being a roamer I will end up in outnumbered fights) . Here is where my problem comes in- I SUCK!! lol. I need sooo much more practice, but in WvW I run and run, find some action, get killed, and run some more lol. I don’t get to spend much time in actual combat.

I’m not really sure what i’m hoping for with this thread, but I guess my main question is: is there a better way to get more fights in? I understand I can do PvP which will be more action- but will it still be helpful to me, since i’m wanting to play the ‘cleanup assasin’ role in WvW?
Or- is there anyone out there that would take pity on a crappy thief and try to mentor them into being a not so crappy thief? lol

Right now I prefer S/P for the gap close/retreat and the black powder for a clean stomp.
I am low on gold, and haven’t bought any sigils or runes yet(any suggestions welcome here as well), but here is my current build if it helps- I thought maybe ‘might stacking’ with the sigils would help make up some of the crit nerf?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vYAQNAsaVl8Mp0pNOxyJ8PNRs9wnClneKI7Y7UcV5D-z0wAYrAm8KiGrqkIqGA-w

Thanks for takin the time to read this novel, any help is appreciated as I am almost at wits end with my goal of thief roamer in WvW lol

PvP is definitely a good place to improve. If you are good in spvp it only gets better in WvW where you can inflate your stats much much more.

Makes sense. I suppose the two would be different play styles, since it wouldn’t be as ‘assassin’ like, more 1v1 or group fighting, but I guess a lot of what I need is just plain practice fighting. I’ve been trying to learn off of other videos, but implementing what I learn is a whole other ball game haha.
I’m really concerned about going into PvP because I will be zero help to the team I am on and i’ll just end up making enemies, not friends haha

I’m definitely not a pro but sounds like the style of play I’m trying to go for too. I compliment you on not using a stealth build. I’ve purposely tried to not use stealth myself.

I’ve been messing around with builds and I tried a signet build. And I found that I died a lot too. The healing signet sounds good but it really doesn’t heal for that much and that long cast time is horrible – it got me killed more times than I can count.

I switched to Withdraw as the healing skill and added Roll for Initiative. So much better. Especially in the duck in and out play.

I also didn’t like pistol whip. I can’t stand that it roots me. But that may be just my own issue.

Pvp for sure. If you can survive and land kills there, you can do it anywhere.

Most of what makes a good thief is really two things, being able to read telegraphs from your opponents, and dodging. If you can avoid the damage, you prolong your death.

This is why a lot of the top top players still run d/d, for death blossom. It’s an extra dodge versus a hammer warrior ect.

Secondly, knowing what you can and can’t do with your initiative. Being able to know how much you’ve used without looking,

These two things, will set you on the right path.

Johje Holan.4607:

I’m definitely not a pro but sounds like the style of play I’m trying to go for too. I compliment you on not using a stealth build. I’ve purposely tried to not use stealth myself.

I’ve been messing around with builds and I tried a signet build. And I found that I died a lot too. The healing signet sounds good but it really doesn’t heal for that much and that long cast time is horrible – it got me killed more times than I can count.

I switched to Withdraw as the healing skill and added Roll for Initiative. So much better. Especially in the duck in and out play.

I also didn’t like pistol whip. I can’t stand that it roots me. But that may be just my own issue.

I’m just in the beginning stages of the signet build really… only fought a couple times like that… never 1v1, always in a group setting. The might sure did help me tho. You’re right about the cast time for the heal. I use to run with Withdraw and Roll for initiative too- it was two more stun breaks, and evades, and heal and initiative- I really liked it. Only reason I ditched em was to try this signet build. Pistol whip is something I believe takes practice- as long as u manage to get a tiny stun in there first (either from steal, or the #2 skill, or basilisk venom- then you’ve got a much better chance of not just standing there swinging into the air haha.
Lemme know if u find something that works well with you, maybe its something I haven’t tried yet I appreciate your feedback, thank you!

Bowflex.4502:

Pvp for sure. If you can survive and land kills there, you can do it anywhere.

Most of what makes a good thief is really two things, being able to read telegraphs from your opponents, and dodging. If you can avoid the damage, you prolong your death.

This is why a lot of the top top players still run d/d, for death blossom. It’s an extra dodge versus a hammer warrior ect.

Secondly, knowing what you can and can’t do with your initiative. Being able to know how much you’ve used without looking,

These two things, will set you on the right path.

Sweet! Thank you for the tips I guess it wouldn’t hurt to roll some different classes into pvp myself and see their mechanics, since i’m not sure what animations other classes make while they are attacking- so I don’t know what to look for to dodge lol

sPvP is a great environment for increasing your roaming skills.

You should play more hotjoin sPvP, and maybe even solo queue after you get quite a few ranks under your belt. You will always find fights in sPvP.

Few things on the build you posted.

1. If you’re running full zerker and find yourself running more than fighting, its probably one of your top issues. Full zerker on a thief leaves little room for error, and being a “noob” as you say makes learning the play style much more difficult. Mix in some valkryie gear, you will maintain the crit damage (or ferocity) and power, with a small loss in precision but a nice bump in vitality. I’d throw in a chest and leg piece for valk or an amulet and rings or earrings, not too much to where you lose any hope of critical hits but enough where you see some bonus to vitality. Another alternative would be swapping one of your traits in critical strikes to practiced tolerance to turn some of that precision into vitality which in your case, is a lot (126 vitality or 1260 health).

2. No rune selected, no sigils and no sb. Rune/sigils is probably just a little mistake, I’m sure you’re not actually running without those but it would help to know as far as giving you a suggestion on which to choose. However the sb is a good helper especially if you like poking at zergs without being on the frontline. The aa and the poison field work great but you have to be aware of 2 very important things; where the enemy train is heading and where the enemy backline is. If you have good awareness of your surroundings then you’re in good shape.

3. No foods, no oils/stones. Since you wvw, you have to get into the habit of having these. I personally hate being put on an arms race with it but it does make a big difference. There are a ton of foods to choose from, and some could work really well in your case such as orrian truffle meat stew (passive endurance regen + might on dodge), or carrot soufflé (power on kill, critical damage). Again this could just me a slight error and you haven’t posted it, but idk. If you go into pvp to hone your skills in there is no foods so probably best to try it there with less factors to take into account.

Outside of that it’s just learning a rotation to fire off your skills without spamming them because that leads to easy to counter behavior which is one of the lovely aspects of thief, little room for mistakes especially on a stealth-less build.

NinjaEd.3946:

Few things on the build you posted.

1. If you’re running full zerker and find yourself running more than fighting, its probably one of your top issues. Full zerker on a thief leaves little room for error, and being a “noob” as you say makes learning the play style much more difficult. Mix in some valkryie gear, you will maintain the crit damage (or ferocity) and power, with a small loss in precision but a nice bump in vitality. I’d throw in a chest and leg piece for valk or an amulet and rings or earrings, not too much to where you lose any hope of critical hits but enough where you see some bonus to vitality. Another alternative would be swapping one of your traits in critical strikes to practiced tolerance to turn some of that precision into vitality which in your case, is a lot (126 vitality or 1260 health).

2. No rune selected, no sigils and no sb. Rune/sigils is probably just a little mistake, I’m sure you’re not actually running without those but it would help to know as far as giving you a suggestion on which to choose. However the sb is a good helper especially if you like poking at zergs without being on the frontline. The aa and the poison field work great but you have to be aware of 2 very important things; where the enemy train is heading and where the enemy backline is. If you have good awareness of your surroundings then you’re in good shape.

3. No foods, no oils/stones. Since you wvw, you have to get into the habit of having these. I personally hate being put on an arms race with it but it does make a big difference. There are a ton of foods to choose from, and some could work really well in your case such as orrian truffle meat stew (passive endurance regen + might on dodge), or carrot soufflé (power on kill, critical damage). Again this could just me a slight error and you haven’t posted it, but idk. If you go into pvp to hone your skills in there is no foods so probably best to try it there with less factors to take into account.

Outside of that it’s just learning a rotation to fire off your skills without spamming them because that leads to easy to counter behavior which is one of the lovely aspects of thief, little room for mistakes especially on a stealth-less build.

Thanks for the response!
I agree, I shouldn’t be running full zerk, especially since I am still making so many errors. Valk only loses out on precision, I see what you’re saying…. gain some vitality and lose a lil precision. I think that would be a fair trade, let me take a few extra hits before getting toasted haha.
I guess I forgot to select the shortbow, my bad lol. But as far as runes and sigils go- I don’t have any at the moment. Ive been buying exotics as I earn the gold, and haven’t earned enough to buy runes yet. I’m not even 100% sure what runes I want to use to be honest. Was thinking about scholor or strength, but I am not very good at doing the calculations so it just becomes guess work for me. And the sigils I was thinking about Air and Fire, only because I’ve seen other people talking about how it works well with bursts. I don’t even know how much damage a lightning strike does tho lol

thank you for your input, I like to get as much info as I can so I can make my own build and playstyle that works for me