Guild Wars 2

A thread for Thieves having trouble verses XYZ. Whatever it may be. Everyone can offer up their advice.

Anyway i’ll start. I have issues with Warriors and Guardians truth be told. I find it extremely hard to survive inside that much CC coupled with that much ability to tank. Both have invulnerability skills, heavy CC, Guardians have multiple access’s to aegis and warriors can get up from dead even if I do kill them (grr).

I play WvW mainly, but the scenario’s I speak of are 1v1. I run a 25/30/0/0/15 build currently because I find the damage from cluster bomb in sieges both defending and attacking is too valuable. I also love rapid Dolyak sniping, the ability to take NPC’s fast and therefore also supply camps with a tiny group.

Weapon sets are D/D and SB. Yes currently I play a backstab style when in melee as picking off a cloth wearer or a lowbie from the zergs outskirts is useful, as it takes one either another person out of the zerg to res them (or many), drawing them into danger also, or simply removes 1 from the zerg.

SKIP TO PAST THIS SENTENCE FOR THE TROUBLE

So. I run into a warrior. And I can’t pull off my bs rotation because of knockbacks or whatever it may be. I literally don’t know what to do. I get CC’d so much that shadowstep isn’t enough, but I do not want to give up a signet or shadow refuge really for another stun breaker. I can’t deal enough damage to engage in such a fight. I’m downed far faster than they are, as even in full berserker’s with the odd valkrie accessory to bolster hp, and those runes that add 5% damage to my weapons I can’t deal the damage.

Help.

Perhaps use shortbow more in these warrior situations, remember that SB 3 is a cripple and also an evade, so if you need to dodge cc or them big hits you can always fall back on this if you’re short on endurance. Keeping your distance will be key, because much of the warriors CC is a LOT easier to dodge if you have some distance

I’d say also turn off your arrow’s auto attacks by holding ctrl and right clicking the skill, if he’s running shield and puts up the reflects, you can do yourself a lot of damage. It means you’ll need to hit 1 to fire, but it might save you a few k hp or a panic dodge when he starts reflecting.

Remember you can steal and use whirlies for some invuln time if you’re desperate.

Finish when possible, or maybe swap to daggers when he’s burned through some heals/invulns.

Sorry if I’ve gone over stuff you’re already tried or am not specific enough. high offense D/D builds are not what I primarily run.

I guess my ownly other tip would be to get a buddy who has a warrior to join you in an empty spvp server, match up your equip and fight them over and over.

Good luck

Stolen whirlwind doesn’t provide any invulnerability at all.
I can suggest to OP to use D/D and P/D. (Keep your SB in your backpack and equip it before sieges).
when you understand you are facing a tank perform a 3x death blossom, then swap (put the bleed on swap sigil in your pistol) roll away and go for autoattack.
If he’ll come close Shadow Strike to take distance, stealth when you can and 1-1-1-1-1 again …

I’ll give both of those a shot. Thank you.

@Daendur, is P/D good for a power build? I’ve used it before when I played condition Thief but was always under the impression that the SB is the, on average, better ranged weapon for a power/crit thief.

Anyone else with troubles feel free to post

i’m running a precision build and found p/d better than d/d against tanks.
I just used carrion pistol and dagger to have a + 180 condition damage.
Not a great condition damage but it does its job.

P/D destroys warriors unless they hit you from behind while distracted.

P/D works with any build you want really. The amazing part of P/D is the constant ranged pressure and melee/stealth slips. Different stats just changes where the majority of the dmg comes from. You can have power/crit and sigils to synergies off crit and do just fine. Having vit and tough will never hurt surviving a 100b instagib combo though.

Always slot Shadowstep and if you do get caught with it down, start your heal right away because you will need it to survive and will die in the cast time if you wait till you are at 50%.

Also getting down C&D timing and when you can roll to cancel the rest of the animation but still keep stealth helps a lot. You can time it to hit them on their way to you and roll (in stealth) before they hit you. Many times they will blow 100b into nothing thinking you are still there rooted or stunned.

hmm never had trouble with a Guardian or a Warrior, I got full knight’s (Main-Toughness, Precision, Power.) and probably the only thief out there with 3.3k toughness. traits 10-30-30-0-0 and I roll S/D. CC and conditions aren’t a issue because of Infiltrators Strike.

Wait a minute…….

I thought the backstab build was almighty and there was no stopping it.

You must be lying…..backstab builds are completely OP and unbeatable. You should be downing those opponents inside of 1 second……..

In all seriousness though. You need to surprise those targets for the BS build to work. You have out maneuver them and surprise them. If you can do that you have a chance to pull one out, but its an uphill battle.

Jinks.2057:

Wait a minute…….

I thought the backstab build was almighty and there was no stopping it.

You must be lying…..backstab builds are completely OP and unbeatable. You should be downing those opponents inside of 1 second……..

In all seriousness though. You need to surprise those targets for the BS build to work. You have out maneuver them and surprise them. If you can do that you have a chance to pull one out, but its an uphill battle.

There are two great hammer warriors in my guild. They love those BS thieves, because they can literally and figuratively crush them into dust with ease. They take enough defenses to survive the initial burst, and then they keep the thief controlled while they pound the life out of them. I’ve seen them utterly destroy BS thieves time and time again, but only once or twice have I seen a BS thief catch them off-guard/vulnerable and win.

Dacromir.6207:

Jinks.2057:

Wait a minute…….

I thought the backstab build was almighty and there was no stopping it.

You must be lying…..backstab builds are completely OP and unbeatable. You should be downing those opponents inside of 1 second……..

In all seriousness though. You need to surprise those targets for the BS build to work. You have out maneuver them and surprise them. If you can do that you have a chance to pull one out, but its an uphill battle.

There are two great hammer warriors in my guild. They love those BS thieves, because they can literally and figuratively crush them into dust with ease. They take enough defenses to survive the initial burst, and then they keep the thief controlled while they pound the life out of them. I’ve seen them utterly destroy BS thieves time and time again, but only once or twice have I seen a BS thief catch them off-guard/vulnerable and win.

Everyone can be taken by surprise.

Backstab glass-cannons get owned hard by Hammer Warriors or Guardians since a single stun can be chained into another and result in your helpless death.

Some might say this is the price you have to pay for playing a glass-cannon but in fact using your ranged weapon makes one hell of a difference. A lot of Warriors and Guardians especially don’t like using ranged weapons so the Shortbow is really good for keeping them at a safe distance.

The BEST, by far, way to deal with class X, is to open their forum, and WHIIIIIIIIIIINE as loud as you can. If the nerf is not powerful enough(it will come guaranteed, so that is out of question), repeat the whining.
The algorithm is as follow:

while(!IsClassXNerfedEnough)
{
Forums.ClassX.WHINE();
Thread.Wait(timeUntilPatch);
}

Daendur.2357:

Stolen whirlwind doesn’t provide any invulnerability at all.

It doesn’t? Was it nerfed?

I’m sure it does (not “Invuln” but “Evade”), or at least did.

Yes, it was nerfed. It now only reflects projectiles.

Ahhh, my bad, must’ve missed that note

vs hammer warrior/guardian i often use withdraw than hide in shadow because the cripple/chill/immobilize remover and bonus long range dodge then shadow refugee for stealth