Guild Wars 2

Just curious what everyone thinks. I’m by no means an expert thief but I think thieves are very predictable when it comes to duels and it makes them suffer in 1v1 situations. I feel like any competent player who has played thief before can easily evade the backstabs and play around the stealth.

Do you guys think Thieves are good or bad? I hear some people saying Thieves are the best profession for duels but then I also hear people say that Mesmers or Engis are. What do you guys think?

they are considered to be among the top dueling and solo roaming class currently.

individuals with great skill at the class can appear to be unstoppable, even more so with certain dire based gear builds.

please refer to the weaponless thief dueling threads.

Xtinct.7031:

individuals with great skill at the class can appear to be unstoppable

But what about when you’re going up against another individual who is amazing on their class? For the most part when I see thief videos it’s just them fighting scrubs.

It “makes them suffer” if you see them coming. A thief getting the jump on you will instantly eat at least 50% of your HP, forcing you on the defensive. A thief getting jumped on by you will try and reset the fight to gain the upper hand. We may not be the most “honorabru 1v1” fighters, but our main strength is dictating the terms of the fight. A thief will not fight if he doesn’t want to.

Ignarel.7916:

It “makes them suffer” if you see them coming. A thief getting the jump on you will instantly eat at least 50% of your HP, forcing you on the defensive. A thief getting jumped on by you will try and reset the fight to gain the upper hand. We may not be the most “honorabru 1v1” fighters, but our main strength is dictating the terms of the fight. A thief will not fight if he doesn’t want to.

This.

If you’re gauging thief viability on preorganized, bow-first duels, note that the thief in this instance is watered down because he has agreed both to reveal his presence beforehand and not leave the arena during, both of which are key tenets of a thief’s general playstyle.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

If you’re gauging thief viability on preorganized, bow-first duels, note that the thief in this instance is watered down because he has agreed both to reveal his presence beforehand and not leave the arena during, both of which are key tenets of a thief’s general playstyle.

Well said. I guess this is what I was trying to say by saying Thieves are “predictable” in duels.

depends on build, some builds are better at dueling than other
then there are hardcounters….

What above posts said.
Every profession have different strengths and weaknesses, a few examples:

Thieves strength is being slipperly/agile with high burst dmg.
Engineers strength lies in controlling their opponent, making great use of terrain.
Rangers excell at wearing down opponents at range, rocks wide open fields.
Warrior/Guard strength lies with their passive&active defenses along with high dmg.
Elem are the masters of AoE dmg/support, except s/f which is single target mostly.
Mesmer brings gimmicky utilities and can be confusing to play against, high burst.
Necros bring high damage both AoE and single target, death shroud can soak up a little bit of damage.

Tried to bring up some typical strengths while keeping it short..

Reason to why i summarised the professions is to highlight the different areas where certain builds and profession thrive.
Thieves does not thrive in forced/set fights, however no one travels to point A to B as fast nor brings as much spike damage to a single target as a thief and gets away if it fails as smoothly.

Xtinct.7031:

individuals with great skill at the class can appear to be unstoppable, even more so with certain dire based gear builds.

Dire PD handicap thieves are now considered “players of great skill”? Wow.

Anyways, Thief is one of the best classes dueling-wise. Most of the zerker builds are of high skill-floor, but also reap high rewards. Zerker weakness is usually against overly tanky specs like shoutbow warrior or a bunky condi class. Quite funnily though, thieves also have the option to slot into an easier Condi and/or bunky perma stealth to overcome these weaknesses.

They’re not predictable when they play P/P cleric’s/dwayna healing power.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist. It makes them rage all the time when they fight a thief they physically cannot kill :p

But yes, they are very lackluster in structured duels. Then again, so are most DPS-based builds without much CC or stability.

Ritt.3069:

Xtinct.7031:

individuals with great skill at the class can appear to be unstoppable, even more so with certain dire based gear builds.

Dire PD handicap thieves are now considered “players of great skill”? Wow.

quote taken fairly out of context, I agree, any player that learned how to play a thief as dire pd handicaps themselves. In turn, they may never reach a level of great class skill potential because they never felt what it was like to be full glass, to carefully pay more attention to positioning and endurance for dodges.

On the other hand, players that have trained in full glass zerk builds have in time strongly developed a blind/evade playstyle. When these individuals get into dire, yes, they can seem unstoppable.