Guild Wars 2

I just can’t do it, I’m pretty sure I’m just playing the class wrong, and I’m bad at it. But from what I’ve learned going melee as a theif is asking to die, everything just one-shots me. It feels like going ranged is master race. Utility skills I just find no reason besides all signets, occasionally I do take out the 25% MS signet for the shadowstep but thats about it. I go 6/6/0/2/0, I recently made a warrior and its a breeze playing on it for PVE content. Theif it always seems like I just die immediately and its frustrating seeing the one class I like be destroyed over and over. Help a fellow theif out and help me love this class again.

If you use d/p or s/p, most of your damage will be from auto attacks. Use your pistol to keep blinds on the target. Targets that cannot be blinded, need to be dodged appropriately.

The big thing to remember playing thief is that unlike ezmode professions, your positioning and dodging actually matter for survival. The easiest melee weapon set for open world is S/D. But even it takes learning the timing well.

I also recommend for any profession you are learning there is no shame in going tankier until you learn the class. Can’t learn much if you are on your butt all the time.

I had similar issues when I first started playing thief (in beta). You just need practice.

Alright, so. Open world, I used to be a big P/P and S/P player. I still am! But recently I’ve swapped to D/D for my dungeon work, and I’ve adapted it to open world solo play, too. It’s really not too bad. I find my best thing to do is hit them with cloak and dagger, then follow into backstab. Auto attack til revealed is off, cloak and dagger again, backstab, heartseeker. That can generally be repeated however long is needed. If something gets low on health, heartseeker tends to take care of it. Managing your dodging carefully and don’t blow all your stamina at once.

If you’re playing S/P, I always liked to close in with infiltrator strike (Gives you a quick out to avoid an AoE), pistol whip for the evade, and black powder shot.

P/P is a bit… Trickier. Lots of kiting with unload for how I used to play it. I’m not sure if they’ve changed that weapon set up any, but Unload used to be just about the only real viable thing about P/P.

in my opinion thieves are the best pve class
they’re run fast, and they hit hard.
against ai’s thieves are great
u can go p/p, put 4 points in trickery, make sure you get ricchochet + the healing signet
unload will take care of everything

if that is a little diffcult for you
play p/d, condi or cele , or zerker will work but when it comes to pve, I prefer to kill fast instead of waiting for condi’s to tick in

put 6 points in shadow arts and get that Rejuvenation going, rest is up to u, condi or crit dmg.
u probably don’t need healing signet with this build, so i’d suggest use draw back for fast travel

tell me how it works out

darres.8203:

in my opinion thieves are the best pve class
they’re run fast, and they hit hard.
against ai’s thieves are great
u can go p/p, put 4 points in trickery, make sure you get ricchochet + the healing signet
unload will take care of everything

if that is a little diffcult for you
play p/d, condi or cele , or zerker will work but when it comes to pve, I prefer to kill fast instead of waiting for condi’s to tick in

put 6 points in shadow arts and get that Rejuvenation going, rest is up to u, condi or crit dmg.
u probably don’t need healing signet with this build, so i’d suggest use draw back for fast travel

tell me how it works out

All these suggestions aren’t good and will result in subpar DPS.
D/D is your best weapon set for single target DPS (and highest in the entire game), shortbow is good for AOE tagging lots of stuff with clusterbomb and sword/pistol is best for solo and trash in dungeons(or a boss you need to blind adds for) because of AOE pulsing blind and headshot.

is it not like pvp ?

dual daggers spam 2 till your finger bleeds ?

Kazeken.9264:

I just can’t do it, I’m pretty sure I’m just playing the class wrong, and I’m bad at it. But from what I’ve learned going melee as a theif is asking to die, everything just one-shots me. It feels like going ranged is master race. Utility skills I just find no reason besides all signets, occasionally I do take out the 25% MS signet for the shadowstep but thats about it. I go 6/6/0/2/0, I recently made a warrior and its a breeze playing on it for PVE content. Theif it always seems like I just die immediately and its frustrating seeing the one class I like be destroyed over and over. Help a fellow theif out and help me love this class again.

First thing I always tell new Thieves is to practice timing. Getting the timing right is the key to your survival. If you’re just dodging for the sake of dodging, then you’re more than likely going to die. You need to practice dodging at the right time to negate the damage.

Next is to practice the timing of your skills. For example, you need to know how far you can activate CnD so that when you get in range it will hit and not miss. If you get to melee range then activate CnD, you’re a sitting duck for the duration of the casting time — don’t do that. You need to stay in a safe range and only get in melee range when your skill hits. This will also help you avoid wasting initiatives because you failed to connect with your skill.

Next learn when to use Steal and to whom you should use it. Just because you’re attacking a Warrior doesn’t mean you should only steal from that Warrior when a Mesmer or Ranger is in range. You need to remember what stolen item you can get from what profession and mark that target before engaging. Their stolen items are the best IMO.

Lastly, always have an exit strategy. Learn to play with auto-targeting off and learn how to press ESC and heartseeker away when in a jam.