I suppose I can put my share of knowledge in there.
For the Engineer:
With all the combats I’ve seen, Engineer is probably amongst the best when dealing with Thieves due to a rather unpredictable CC spam and burst.
-All the weapon sets are viable when fighting one, but Rifle is a weapon of choice, especially if traited with range, and cooldown reduction, the Net on 7s cooldown and the Overcharged Shot not far behind are devastating interrupts.
-The Tool Kit is one of your best friends in there, an undodged Magnet hit will help you having the upper hand in fights, open up to more combos like Pry Bar or Overcharged shot, and catch the fleeing ones. But the most important part is the Gear Shield, if you’re not P/S, it will be essential, especially against the glass cannon ones. If the Thief is running straight to you, do the same and raise it; if you’re the one engaging, play offensive then directly raise the shield as the Thief will definately attack right after your first shots.
-The flamethrower comes next in helpfulness, often for conditioners because Thieves are very sensitive to oftenly reapplied conditions, especially burning, and Engies excel at applying burns. The push-back is on a rather short cooldown, and a smoke vent triggered at the right time will get your opponent to miss a CnD. On top of this, the Flame Jet itself can help you detecting a stealthed Thief if you check the damage logs in the same time, it can help you giving a direction on where to hit next.
-While I’ve never been a fan of bombs, they’re the second biggest bane the Engineer can offer to Thieves as they envelopp anything melee into a huge condition shaitstorm that includes movement conditions. The Smoke Bomb can grant a stealth if you make a Blast in it: Rocket Boots for a stealthed escape, Big Ol’ Bomb, and Supply Crate to make a homemade Thieves Guild as it grants you stealth while calling ‘reinforcements’.
Some really underrated gadgets can also make a difference:
-The Slick Shoes are a bane to any melee characters and Thieves are no exception when attacked or when attacking, with something like a Magnet as example, for maximum crowd control.
-The Rocket Boots, yes, I’m serious. If you’re pistol/shield, this gadget gives you one of the most brutal counter-attacks with its Rocket Kick after you block a hit and therefore stun your opponent.
As for the Elixirs:
-The Elixir S, of course. Your most reliable anti-gank solution, but its full potential is affected by RNG, as the Throw Elixir version is splitted in 50/50 between Stability and Stealth, if it’s the latter well, good job.
-And the Elixir R comes next, giving you a potential to dodge two more times and to rez yourself if carefully timed. If you have 15+ in tools, with even more careful timing you can rez yourself twice.
-The Supply Crate itself is very annoying for Thieves to deal with, most likely due to the Net Turret randomly crippling them and the Flame Turret next to it causing damage, a Thief would be mad to fight you within your materials. You’d want to keep this Elite in store though unless you fought poorly enough for the Thief to get the upper hand. Keep it why? Because it’s amongst the best interrupts. If a Thief looks to make a run for it and starts stealthing, drop the over his head, if too late, the stun will give you a bit of time to try to catch up, if early enough, the stealthing process will be interrupted and your Thief will be immobilized on top of it and served to you on a silver platter.
But for the most part, an Engineer is as unpredictable on what he’s going to pull off, and a Thief is unpredictable on WHEN he’s going to pull his tricks off, which turns the fight into a huge mind game that is directly decided at the start of the fight if both ennemies are glass cannon. Which is why I recommend to watch how the Thief is looking to engage the fight, if he runs toward you, drooling at you like if you were cattle (advantage to you) or if he’s cautious (advantage to him).
In what concerns P/D Thieves, even a glass cannon Engineer can potentially outlast them, as they often only apply bleeds, which are removable easily through the Med Kit’s antidote, and your huge amount of CC will disrupt their attempts to CnD you.
You may have a hard time catching a D/P Thief though, the mind game remains sensitively the same, except that in trade of the ability to nearly go perma-stealth while being independant, they can’t really afford to mess anything up due to the costs in initiative, anything interrupted will iterally break their scheme as these builds require careful timing.
PS: I’d like to post videos but I barely handle the game correctly in low graphics, I’m getting a full respec of my computer in 10ish days, if the thread still lives, I’ll eventually try to make explanations with videos.
Disgruntled Charr Engineer and Thief – Jade Quarry.
