Guild Wars 2

If you don’t see him coming?

…Well, let me ask you- how do most fights turn out when you let the other guy get the first shot? Probably fighting an uphill battle from that point, non?

Now imagine if it’s a class that is specced, equipped, and traited to load everything they’ve got into that perfect, leadoff shot scenario.

So, as has been pointed out to you ad nauseum here, the best way to deal with such a circumstance is

A. Get your head out and avoid letting the enemy choose the battleground.
B. Pre-emptive defensive measures to lessen the opening damage.
C. A survivability spec (every class has em) and commensurate defensive equipment to survive the initial (and only) onslaught of a glass cannon thief.
D. Pre-emptive use of defensive abilities to throw his perfect setup out of alignment, and thereby neuter his spec.

But you aren’t interested in those, especially C.

Which nobody is judging as bad nor good. But it is what it is. You don’t complain when your offensive spec helps you beat down on some enemy that YOU got the jump on, do you? Well, you don’t get to cry when your offensive spec takes a whipping because it’s not very survivable.

In the real world, we call that a “trade off”. There seem to be a LOT of those in GW2. Makes things much more strategic.

I know just the solution… I think.

Since Backstab thieves rely a lot on instantaneous hit in a short amount of time, all you need to do is somehow defend yourself during that time.

I’m not sure what the skill is called, but it’s an Elxir that makes you small and invulnerable. That is by far the best counter against the backstab. I’ve had some Engineers use it on me in sPvP. After missing my hits, I’m pretty much screwed and try to run away, but the Engineer never let me run.

The problem is though, you never know if they have that build or not, so you can’t really use it “before” the attack (unless it’s a stun breaker as well). Also, you must have at least some defensive skills in WvW, even if you’re offensive.

How can you “evade” their backstab when they are stealthed?

I’m giving you some really good advice, its very very easy.

First:
go make a thief and learn about his stealth skills, their animation and the duration. Than you will know how long your bells should ring when a thief is “gone”. This is not a troll, i could also tell you how long durations are, yet you wouldn’t be able to see the difference between cloak and dagger, blinding powder, Black Poweder & heartseeker combo, Hide in Shadows vica verca.

Once you know how to read the animation and the duration of the skills, you are one step closer to outplay the thief.

Second:
When you “see” a thief disappearing, it does not matter where he goes. He might runs away, he might makes a circle around you to hit you from the backside.

Simple trick: Never ever stand still to try to figure out where he went.
Just keep running in circles, never a straight line. This is what backstab thiefs like me makes mad like hell.

He will not land his backstab in 95% of the cases on you, when you keep moving and if he does, the odds that he hits you from the front & side are higher and therefor, lower Backstab damage. Also, the range of backstab (autoattack) ist merely 130 range, so might even miss the whole duration of his stealth.

The best encounter, is to “kite” a mele thief around. There are a dozen of situations how a thief will close the cap between you and him to hit you. Steal, Infilitator Signet, name it…

it does not matter if you keep moving because he will not be able to land his Backstab on you properly.

And if he does, he was really good timed/positioned and therefor you should give him the credit for killing you because both of you did fight to counter each other untill one of you goes down.

and just as a sidenote:
I hate fighting engis. I had yesterday a 5 min fight with a ping pong engi 1 on 1… but i died when the guardian joined the fight with a beloved spirit hammer… doh!

I honestly say that this game would be much better without “You failed to see, you die lol” style of play. Failing to see thief or any other burst class should punish you yes. But it should drop you dead instantly, specially not when you wear 2k toughness.

VictorTroska.3725:

I honestly say that this game would be much better without “You failed to see, you die lol” style of play. Failing to see thief or any other burst class should punish you yes. But it should drop you dead instantly, specially not when you wear 2k toughness.

The last picture you posted showed you taking two heartseeker hits after the backstab burst… that means a good 2 seconds at least, probably more when you factor in initiative costs, where you could have reacted after the burst, not even counting the ability to preemptively stop the burst. That’s not dropping you instantly. Guild Wars 2 pvp is a very fast paced game no matter what you play or play against (other than guardian… those kittens live forever) and you just need to work on quicker reactions. If you had reacted in time, stopped the burst, healed yourself, then went to town on the thief, it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel.

bwillb.2165:

VictorTroska.3725:

I honestly say that this game would be much better without “You failed to see, you die lol” style of play. Failing to see thief or any other burst class should punish you yes. But it should drop you dead instantly, specially not when you wear 2k toughness.

The last picture you posted showed you taking two heartseeker hits after the backstab burst… that means a good 2 seconds at least, probably more when you factor in initiative costs, where you could have reacted after the burst, not even counting the ability to preemptively stop the burst. That’s not dropping you instantly. Guild Wars 2 pvp is a very fast paced game no matter what you play or play against (other than guardian… those kittens live forever) and you just need to work on quicker reactions. If you had reacted in time, stopped the burst, healed yourself, then went to town on the thief, it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel.

Did you read what I said at all? I said it was lag or some exploit because whole game I was fine killing stuff and dying then suddenly I see this thief running towards me. I was ready to dodge as I saw him dissapearing close to me and BAM I was dead instantly, it felt like he unleaded all those skills in 1 sec. Thats why I reported this as exploit because my game wasnt lagging but maybe some server spike or something but I litterally died in 1 secound after he appeared.

I know how PvP works in this game I dont need you to explain that. But I am tired that thief can have this huge burst and we need to do all perfectly to avoid him while he spams 3 buttons as glass cannon with 14k HP and can make tonns of mistakes and get away or kill you. I cant do that kitten on my warrior, if I roll 100B glass cannon build and fail on using it corretly I die instantly, while thief can kitten up and still be effective or get away. This is what pisses me off in current GW2 PvP.

@VictorTroska, Endure Pain says hi. If you are playing a glass cannon warrior and not using Endure Pain, I don’t know what to say.

Krathalos.3461:

@VictorTroska, Endure Pain says hi. If you are playing a glass cannon warrior and not using Endure Pain, I don’t know what to say.

You are… I have no word for it. If I was thief and warrior pops endure pain, I just stealth and wait for 4-5 sec. Thieves can do that you know, or didnt you get memo?

CnD → Steal → Backstab has a 45 second CD after used. If you use Endure Pain whenever they use this combo, their initial burst and easiest way to hit with CnD is now ruined. It doesn’t matter if they stealth and run away. They have 3 seconds after using this combo before they can stealth again, by the way. That’s more than enough time to hit with Bull’s Charge and burst down the thief if you’re using a glass cannon warrior build.

Warriors have the best break stun ability in the game. Use it and abuse it.

VictorTroska.3725:

Krathalos.3461:

@VictorTroska, Endure Pain says hi. If you are playing a glass cannon warrior and not using Endure Pain, I don’t know what to say.

You are… I have no word for it. If I was thief and warrior pops endure pain, I just stealth and wait for 4-5 sec. Thieves can do that you know, or didnt you get memo?

I believe the word you are looking for but cannot find is “correct”.