Guild Wars 2

Or are they literally just impossible? No matter what third trait line they pick, they are still a god in a different way.

Earth = Stone heart and high protection to mitigate our burst
Air = Extra DPS and much more passive CC, our stunbreakers are usually few
Fire = Blinds (taken from us, given to them RIP cloaked in shadow) and of course burning

I mean, I do have trouble with them but I just time my attacks and evades and usually win. In WvW at least. In PvP, you will probably end up losing the point if you try to win against an ele so it’s usually better to just disengage and backcap.

Someday though, Ele’s will not be able to score easy decaps on Thieves… I look forward to that day if it ever comes.

Even if you land all your bursts and the dd ele can’t land a single Burning Speed/Fire Grab, you can still lose to the DD ele, on SD anyways. This ia due to the sustained nature of the class, along with heavy burning ticks which you’ll be flailing back and forth with Flanking Strike. Lightning Whip also hits like a truck while being largely spammable with a huge cleave. It’s not an impossible match-up, but the odds are heavily in favour of the DD ele.

Generally always nail your steals. Be careful not to waste steal after a Blinding Ashes proc. Use Ice Shard after he’s rotated out of water/used water 5 for max effectiveness. Always stay on the offensive. You will never beat a cele ele in a battle of attrition, as they outsustai anyone while maintaining a plethora of different forms of damage. Your chances are to burst him down quick or keep o the offensive, although the latter is really hard if you don’t manage your burm stacks effectively. You generally don’t want to reset the combat too much with Sword 2/Stealth unlike other classes, or otherwise the ele just heals to 100% and the point is moot. Don’t walk in/out of RoF repeadetly, as it’s the easiest way to fail your encounter.

But all-in-all, fighting cele dd ele is all around stupid atm. In most instances
you’re just better off not fighting him alone at all.

Don’t try it. If they don’t make major mistakes I would say it’s impossible to win against a d/d cele ele.

The problem is not that the ele has an advantage, the problem is the advantage is sooo big.
I can log on my ele with like 5-7 hours of gameplay and destroy thieves with over 1000 hours without any problems.

apocom.3172:

Don’t try it. If they don’t make major mistakes I would say it’s impossible to win against a d/d cele ele.

The problem is not that the ele has an advantage, the problem is the advantage is sooo big.
I can log on my ele with like 5-7 hours of gameplay and destroy thieves with over 1000 hours without any problems.

And this, my friend, is Anet’s view of “balance”. Surely all those D/D eles are just of a godly tier of skill, and thief is in “a good spot right now” when it’s still the fastest decap World.

apocom.3172:

I can log on my ele with like 5-7 hours of gameplay and destroy thieves with over 1000 hours without any problems.

Most boring 1 vs 1: cele ele vs cele ele

I lost because I left my computer.

I’ve been playing thief since beta of gw2 and dd ele as 2nd class since release of gw2.
I got tons of duel exp vs dd eles, as Lord Asura, Intigo and other top dd eles.
Like previous posts says. The fight are in heavy favor to dd ele, but you can still win if he do a mistake and you play perfectly.

This is from a d/p pov. (both from spvp and wvw)
You have to hit every steal, if you miss one to blind or whatever, stealth and reset the fight until steal is up. (unless the ele is on low hp).
When you know he have Armor of Earth off cd, save your steal until he use it, you can bait him to use it with basi venoms. You also wanna time your steal if possible so you steal armor of earth when he swap to earth attunement. So you take all of his protection. That’s the time you wanna play really aggressive, he wont have protection but you do.
Save Ice Shard until he have done all his condi clears in water attunement (water 5 and water dodge). And it’s really important that you hit all your Ice Shards and don’t do 2 Ice Shards in a row (in case he condi clear it with traits or cleansing fire)
Always when he swap to fire, be very careful to not get hit by anything. And be ready to dodge burning speed + lightning flash.
Try to daze his water 2 and water 5, to give him less sustain and kitten up his rotation.
Keep blinding the ele with Shadow Shot, (in a smart way, you don’t want to spam) so he misses most of his stuff.
You want to save Shadowstep for updraft, because you can’t dodge updraft unless you know it’s coming.

Try to think a step ahead also, so you can predict what the ele will do. Most eles, are doing the same rotation all the time, so it’s easy to read what they will do. But you also have to notice when they are camping an attunement. That’s when they are up to something tricky. For example Earthquake + Lightning Flash into Fire burst.

In my opinion it’s always fun to 1v1 a dd ele as thief. Because then you get the chance to show that you can outplay someone that is playing a class with heavy favor to them.

I’m assuming you all are just talking about S/D or D/P thiefs vs D/D ele. As a D/D thief playing exclusively WvW, chances are very slim for me. These eles can kite really well and our lack of gap closers mean i must use up my utilities. If the ele is not down by that point, it’s hopeless cuz i have to wait for my cds to come back while their sustain is far more potent.
Need tips on anything that i’m doing wrong.

It’s simple.

Step 1: You don’t

If they run air, you get killed by your own burst. Just embrace your role as the waterboy of the team.

I don’t have many problems with DD eles, it just takes a very long time, as it would with any build that isn’t completely flat power. What I do is lure them off point and pressure them, until they switch to water. I then time my cc and interrupts so i interrupt their cleansing wave and 2 skill. That way they only get 2 heals, and I re-apply pressure after which they can’t really do much to survive after that. Thief has always been quite a good counter to elementalist.

Timiok.1048:

I don’t have many problems with DD eles, it just takes a very long time, as it would with any build that isn’t completely flat power. What I do is lure them off point and pressure them, until they switch to water. I then time my cc and interrupts so i interrupt their cleansing wave and 2 skill. That way they only get 2 heals, and I re-apply pressure after which they can’t really do much to survive after that. Thief has always been quite a good counter to elementalist.

to ele yeah but not to cele

MarauderShields.6830:

It’s simple.

Step 1: You don’t

This.

Their AoE is just as potent as our direct and they splash in great healing, condi removal and fields the fight is essentially pointless unless the thief is significantly more skilled than the ele or catches them on complete cooldown. Hard to kill a build that deals continual damage to anything within melee range and has incredible combat mobility.