Guild Wars 2

Hello guys!

Basically i started to play GW2 few days ago. And my class decision was Thief. I realy dont know why, perhaps because i liked Rogues in WoW. But now i can see that GW2 and WoW Rogue are two different things.

Anyway, whant to add that i realy like this game and class for now! Already got 20level and i absolutely enjoy every thing that this game provides!

I started with dagger/dagger and still doing it. But now, reading the forum, i am starting to consider, are dagger/dagger realy main weapon set for thief? I have read lots of guids, and still cant figure out, should i continue with d/d or start to use some new weapon set.
Skill combos are still like dark place in mine understanding of game, but i think that will come in time. I know that i am just in the beginning on the Thief path, but i am afraid to make some significant mistakes, that will cause some trouble later.

Thief can use any of his weapon-sets as ‘main’ with good effect. But for leveling Sword/Pistol is a strong set, the Sword cleaves up to three critters and the offhand Pistol provides a blinding smoke field from Black Powder (#5) that makes you almost invulnerable to most (melee) mobs. The dual skill on #3, Pistol Whip, is very damaging.

An infamous and often used combo is in Dagger/Pistol, with the smoke field from #5 combined with the leap from #2 (Heartseeker). Other combo’s are the blast finisher from the Shortbow #2 Clusterbomb on top of the #4 poison field for AoE Weakness, or Clusterbomb blasting a smokefield for AoE stealth, or blasting a fire field for AoE Might. For general, open world PvE events with other players you’ll (eventually) like the Shortbow a lot.

Play around with all weapon combinations and try to figure out what weapon you want. Almost all weapon sets for the thief have some sort of use and all provide slightly different playstyles, so the best would be for you to try them all out and make your own educated choice.

Generally, the main hand weapon provides most of the damage (most of the thief damage comes from autoattack/skill #1) and the offhand weapon provides utility skills. The dual skills (#3) also changes depending on which two weapons you use in combination, but as a complete newbie, I wouldn’t prioritize these just yet (However, do play around with them.)

First off, welcome to GW2! Here are some basics you should learn. Incoming wall of text.
Firstly, there is a huge difference between the combat here and the combat in WoW and most other MMOs. A few things of note:
The combat in this game is much more action-oriented- you can avoid attacks by strafing and dodging as you fight, and using skills to counter enemy attacks. It’s more important to avoid attacks than to heal them. You can avoid attacks via blind, blocks, teleports, and evades/dodges. Every class also has their own healing skill, which is your #6 slot.
There is no healer/tank/DPS trinity. Everyone is responsible for their own survival, for DPSing the enemy, for coordinating support and control to make fights more manageable.
Your success in this game depends largely on your skill as a player, rather than your gear.
I highly recommend giving this a read: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/GW2-Combat-system-101-Guide/first
In addition, GW2 is highly unlike WoW in many other respects. The game’s meant to be more of a journey- you take your time and enjoy the process of leveling, explore to your heart’s content, and when you hit 80, there aren’t tiers of raids and gear to chase one after the other. You pretty much find what you enjoy doing and do it.
All classes #1-5 skills are affected by your weapon choice, with main hand weapons affecting #1-3 and offhand are your 4-5 skills. Twohanders use all #1-5. All classes also have their own heal skills, which is the #6 slot. All classes also have 3 utility skills, which are the 7-9 slots. These youll unlock as you level up, the first at lvl5, then lvl 10, and the last one at lvl 20. Lastly, every profession has an elite slot. These are typically very powerful, game changing skills and as such have large cooldowns. Youll unlock this at lvl 30. In these slots youll put skills that youve unlocked via skill points. Dont worry about spending them incorrectly, as by the time you get to lvl 80 youll have more than enough points for every single skill. If not, skill points are still extremely easy to get at lvl 80.
Triple or dual signets are the best for leveling, btw. Assassins signet, signet of agility, and signet of shadows. For the most part leave them just as passive buffs, but be aware of what they do in case you get in a pinch. For example if you run out of endurance and need to dodge that ettins hammer, you can pop signet of shadows and blind his attack so that it misses. if you get a nasty, long lasting condition on you (aka bleed, poison, burning, and others) you can use signet of agility to remove 1 condition, as well as refilling all your endurance. Shadow refuge is also extremely helpful while leveling, allowing you to grab some tougher skill points guarded by a veteran or champion with absolutely 0 combat. Its also a great skill to reset a bit and refresh yourself.
As for weapons, sword+pistol is easily the best for leveling. You can get up on mobs with Sw #2 and then drop black powder, your #5 skill so that theyll miss almost every single attack and you can just autoattack them down. If there are multiple mobs or ranged mobs, use LoS to pull them behind a corner and do the same thing. The #3 skill, pistol whip, also evades any incoming attacks for the duration of the second part of the skill. If also advise using mighty gear at lvls 1-26, strong at 26-65, and berserkers at lvl 65-80. Update your gear every 10 levels or so by buying green quality gear from the Trading post, with the prefixes i described.

assuming the game is still similar to when I was playing, dagger dagger is the highest damage output by far. sword pistol is great for multiple enemies, dagger pistol is great in wvw but not so much in pve (except a few situations where it’s godlike). Shortbow is amazing. Learn to use the blast finisher to stack might, stealth, and others, and you’ll do amazing things.

I was a dungeon lover so all my advice is for the “higher levels” of pve. Quote marks cause once you get used to it all, they’re all at level 0.

Other then that, focus on dodging to survive. you don’t need much if any defensive gear (although a little is nice). Just focus on damage and kill things before they can kill you. Enjoy yourself

90% of the time S/P ist your best choice for PvE. It has cleave, evades, damage and most importantly Black Powder for Blind fields.

D/D is the signature weapon set and what all Thieves naturally lean towards at first. But it really fills a very small niche of single-target DPS with litte/no utility that I find myself switching to it very rarely.

Thankfully the builds between the two don’t vary much so switching is easy and quick.

But yeah, S/P + Shortbow should have you covered for most of PvE. Still, you should acquire every weapon-set eventually just so you can be flexible when needed.

Lel he said thiefs. d/d is supposed to be the bread and butter of thief. Just get the feel for thief and you’ll be fine. All you need to worry about is the stigma attached to it. Killing someone as a thief is taboo and players will hate you for it.