Guild Wars 2

I’ve played other MMOs where in the stealth class had limited duration stealth, but never one that had such a short timer. Perhaps I’m simply not high enough level yet, but it seems none of my stealth triggering abilities grant more then 3 seconds, and several require I actually hit something to go into stealth in the first place (which honestly seems a bit counter intuitive, shouldn’t it be the other way around?).

As a result I’m having a hard time figuring out what I’m supposed to be doing with this aspect of the class. (note I’m primarily talking about from a leveling PvE perspective). I can’t use stealth to engage, as my only ability to trigger stealth without hitting something is also my heal button (and there seems to be no benefit to engaging from stealth anyway), 3 seconds isn’t enough time to scout out an area, or avoid more dangerous mob packs to get to safer targets.

It doesn’t work well as an escape either since best I can tell anything you agro immediately attacks you again as soon as those 3 seconds are up, and most of the time I take at least one additional hit after stealthing before it registers. While I hate to make the comparison, so far it simply feels like – in the aspect of being a stealth based class – my GW2 thief feels like a severely kitten wow rogue, with both wows stealth mechanics and vanish (despite its own long standing buggyness in that game) being much better implementations of the same skill concepts.

you do eventually get ways to get longer stealths than 3 seconds, but the point of stealth in this game is quick maneuvers. we dance in and out of stealth over the course of a fight. it can also be made (for thieves) to heal us, cure conditions and restore initiative. in PvE it isn’t that great unless you put points into shadow arts, 30 preferably which requires level 60.

for leveling dual daggers with condition damage gear and using death blossom and caltrops to bleed and kite things to death, or sword/pistol with power gear to evade/blind tank things are far more efficient than most stealth setups.

Edit: stealth is far more useful in WvW and PvP. it can be used to sneak groups to enemy siege, or avoid enemy zergs as example. it also confuses the crap out of people who don’t know how to react to it.

Just utilize shadowsteps together with a bit of stealth, the weaponset that grants you that is S/D, which I’d use for WvW. Stealth is pretty kitten useless in this game, it’s just for the stealth attacks you are able to do and traited stealth aspects like regen in stealth and cond cleansing and whatnot. ESPECIALLY in PvE it sucks. Funny how stealth is worse against AI than vs real players… I’d just use D/D (Spam #3 with cond damage gear) in PvE and not worry at all about stealth in PvE. The only reason you’d ever maybe would want to to utilize stealth is vs bosses, where single target damage is needed for some nice quick burst every 4 secs (Thank the unneeded nerf, was 3 secs of revealed before all this).

Gungnir Grimm.7123:

you do eventually get ways to get longer stealths than 3 seconds, but the point of stealth in this game is quick maneuvers. we dance in and out of stealth over the course of a fight. it can also be made (for thieves) to heal us, cure conditions and restore initiative. in PvE it isn’t that great unless you put points into shadow arts, 30 preferably which requires level 60.

for leveling dual daggers with condition damage gear and using death blossom and caltrops to bleed and kite things to death, or sword/pistol with power gear to evade/blind tank things are far more efficient than most stealth setups.

Edit: stealth is far more useful in WvW and PvP. it can be used to sneak groups to enemy siege, or avoid enemy zergs as example. it also confuses the crap out of people who don’t know how to react to it.

I see, I guess I was hoping it would be a more integral part of the class. Given it’s aparnt limited use in PvE, what healing skill is the better idea? Is vanish still useful or would another perhaps be a better choice. I am using D/D and S/P in my weapons at the moment.

The heal skill is really situational and based on how you’re traited. If you trait into shadow arts then you should probably stick with hide in shadows, its the best condi cleanser the thieves have in their arsenal + a free stealth so you can cleanse more condi or heal, blind on stealth etc, depending on your traits.

If you have nothing in the SA trait but still have ways of condi cleansing, then consider withdraw. Not as much healing as hide in shadows but only 15s cooldown vs the 30 in HiS. Also, a free dodge. Downside is that it doesn’t cleanse as many conditions as HiS does.

Signet of Malice is very situational. If you are running a signet based build then this skill becomes useful (can be down to 12s cooldown). Otherwise, not so much.

With respect to your original post, stealth can be used to gtfo very effectively provided you use an additional skill like shadow step or infiltrating arrow. Also, shadow refuge is in my opinion the best “oh crap!” skill in the game, PvE, WvW or PvP. This will grant you the longest amount of stealth. Very useful.

Stealth can be an integral part of what you’re doing but it only becomes strong when backed up by traits, mainly from the shadow arts line. For instance, there is a trait that gives a condition cure every 3 seconds when you are in stealth. This can work whether you use cloak and dagger for stealth, use a combo field for stealth, shadow refuge for stealth, blinding powder for stealth, and so on. By using a variety of skills you can dip in and out of stealth to get these trait benefits, plus some time to maneuver unseen, plus an attack from stealth that has high damage for zero initiative. It’s worth revisiting once you get to level 50 or 60.

As for escaping open world mobs, well if you get outside their roaming area they will reset. It sure makes it easier to run outside that area if you’re invisible and the mob doesn’t know where you’ve gone.

The main use is for stealth attacks, followed by the various benefits provided on stealth from Shadow Arts.
After that, it just depends on how clever you can be.
You can use it to out-maneuver and flank your opponent so they can’t attack back as effectively.
You can use it to help wait out various boons or skills that could wreck you.
You can use it to flee a fight.
You can use it to gain some breathing room and recover a little.
You can use it to help you sneak past someone combined with general careful maneuvering outside stealth.
You can use it to help you stomp someone in PvP.
You can use it to help get an enemy off you in PvE.
And so on…

You need grandmaster in critical hits and points in shadow arts. Deception utilities are also very vital to stealth builds. For leveling, Backstab is a good choice but you’ll need the infusion of shadow trait so CnD only costs 4 initiative.

Quxudais, stealth stacks. You can use stealthing abilities multiple times to prolong it. Later you’ll get Shadow Refuge, which works like that on it’s one.
Else was said above.