Guild Wars 2

Heya,

I’ve been playing casually since the release, mostly just in PvE (ranger) and sPvP (necro). When HoT hit, I started to PvE with revenant, as I was fed up with pets. Now I would like to use that free level 80 boost thing and roll a thief, and use him in WvW, as I barely know this mode.

The thing is – I created a thief for test purposes, moved him to the sPvP lobby and tried a few games with some random build found on Metabattle (D/P Daredevil I think)… and got massacred each time. I fail miserably trying to kill anyone with half a brain or not busy fighting someone else – I just feel my character is made of paper and I don’t know how to get used to that “guerilla” gameplay, with jumping in, bursting, backstabs and dodging away, all done so fast. As my plan was to roam in WvW, it doesn’t sound well, I guess.

Now, could anyone recommend me any videos covering the thief basics that are not horribly outdated? I’m a bit lost with ArenaNet’s balance changes, and I see complaints about the recent patch all around. I would also love to see any build recommendations that are not necessarily meta etc., but offer better survivability and are easier to pick up for an utter noob so that I have a chance to learn a class and not die as soon as I encounter someone out in the field.

Thank you!

TL;DR Looking for hints on how2thief and a noob-friendly build that would allow me to learn the class, preferably in WvW.

Youtubers that come to my mind:
Terissimo – Velvet Miho – Kuroi.

Don’t try berserker thief in WvW unless you gain some experience, or you will be farmed by more experienced thieves and mesmers and scrappers and warriors.

I wouldn’t recommend thief now, especially after the latest patch. Class utility is just, gone really. All the old meta builds are out of date, and I have yet to see a build that’s good against anything other than other thieves in over a year. I think they are slowly trying to eliminate the class altogether, in favor of classes that out-thief a thief, like revenant. Only thing thief still has going for it is steal… of which the only things of minor value you’ll receive with stealing is health if you’ve got it traited, anything that will give you stealth, and the Mesmer potion thing. Basilisk venom has been made absolutely pointless now, same with devourer venom… backstab has been nuked beyond saving, and even our conditions have been nuked which is what anet was trying to push us toward (though very strangely, here… do condi, but we’re not going to nuke anything that applies condi… oy). I’d suggest trying revenant… I’d say slightly slower class, but then again, that’s no longer true. You get heavy armor, speed, and once practiced you can 3 or 4 v 1 fairly easily.

For power thief I’d recommend marauder weapons and armor with zerker trinkets (marauder amulet in sPvP). You can also try Valkyrie armor if marauder is too hard to get.

Second thing I’ll recommend is to take it slow and clear some maps before you go into PvP and WvW, cause you’ll need to try and get used to the weapon sets available before you decide on your personal taste in play style.

In pve I’d recommend Staff over D/P. There might be other sets that do a better job against different mob types, but Staff usually did one of the best jobs for me in pve cause it’s pretty powerful and has access to good mobility aoe and cleave at the same time. You can use Vault for mobility and evade and aoe-ing groups of mobs, but you can also use it to trigger leap combo effects on party member fields which is a way to boost your dmg and also to support your team mates.

For WvW and sPvP I guess it’s better for you to choose what’s more comfortable to your play style after you checked the weapon sets. That is for both gaining a bit of experience yourself with the thief and to know what you can expect from other builds if after you choose you own.

If you go D/P like you said and want more survivability/utility you can trade one of the dmg trait lines with one of the defensive lines. Like instead of going Tr+DA+DrD you can take Tr + SA or A + DrD, though DrD and A are sort of overlapping if you get the meaning. This will allow you a more lazy survivable gameplay, but you’ll need to put in some effort if you want to kill something more than braindead. Also the meta version is more risk more reward style, so if you get fed up with not being able to kill anyone and want to go guerilla you can always switch back to more offensive play style.

Also, for your future sPvP experience you should learn Shadowstep, Shortbow ’port 5 points on the maps, and to learn to use Sb as an overall as a disengaging defensive tool especially if you go D/P.

For condi specs I believe there are other more knowledgeable players, what I wrote above it’s only from my experience, so I can’t guarantee it will work for everyone.

You can checkout https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCblf2455O_q4QOz4-QfmsUg/search?query=thief for some more beginner useful things, and you can go Terissimo afterwards when you get some more understanding of the profession. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS4rgCRwCBw , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLFE4JKDEF8

Unfortunately since HoT the high risk more reward style of play has gone the way of the dodo.

Link.1049:

Unfortunately since HoT the high risk more reward style of play has gone the way of the dodo.

This times infinity + 1

Yay, thanks a lot, guys! Especially NuhDah, your post was very informative!

I’ll get down to the videos ASAP and will try exploring the PvE environment first, trying to at least learn the skills that way.

In the meantime – if anyone has any further suggestions/knows any up-to-date and useful guides for dummies, please share them!

Badly Mannered just posted about his thief guides – guide for every weapon set (no shortbow guide?).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdc9SmxWS0EMtljhqIER9gg/videos

How to master the thief:

Log out, create a new character known as the “mesmer”, find any decent stealth shatter condi build and enjoy face roll kills on typical WvW players.

My point here is that you must be exceptional to be decent on a thief while being average is pretty great on some other classes.

Straegen.2938:

How to master the thief:

Log out, create a new character known as the “mesmer”, find any decent stealth shatter condi build and enjoy face roll kills on typical WvW players.

My point here is that you must be exceptional to be decent on a thief while being average is pretty great on some other classes.

lol how pathetic, thief counters power shatter mesmer. Stop cluttering advice threats with your whiny pity parties.

Daredevils are among the most popular classes for roaming in WvW. Good luck disengaging from zerglings as a mesmer while trying to roam. Hope your blink and decoy take you far because that’s all you got.

Thief damage also doesn’t vanish into thin air the moment some aoe starts being used since illusions are made of wet toilet paper.

Zenith.7301:

lol how pathetic, thief counters power shatter mesmer. Stop cluttering advice threats with your whiny pity parties.

Daredevils are among the most popular classes for roaming in WvW. Good luck disengaging from zerglings as a mesmer while trying to roam. Hope your blink and decoy take you far because that’s all you got.

Thief damage also doesn’t vanish into thin air the moment some aoe starts being used since illusions are made of wet toilet paper.

Condi Shatter Chronos nuke most thief builds in duels. It isn’t even close outside of a substantially more skilled player on a thief and even then it is usually a draw. They are nearly impossible to burst or chip down and their condi clear as well as their constant AoE heals are fantastic. They also have fantastic stealth up time… I constantly see players standing around for 10s or more trying to figure out which way I went.

Dare Devils… yeah players like them because they run and kill weak or injured players. There are so few scary thieves left… so very very few. Even in sPvP, we hardly ever see any thieves in upper sPvP or ranked play.

I have played 3k hours in WvW on a thief (over 6k total)… call it QQ if you want but right now the thief is at best a marginal class good for +1, running and killing newbs. The days of utter destruction from the class are well behind us.

If you intend to pvp, either in WvW or sPvP, then the class is dead. Pick a different class and enjoy the game. I can log into my mesmer and let my cat walk across the keyboard and kill any skilled Thief in the game.

Straegen.2938:

Zenith.7301:

lol how pathetic, thief counters power shatter mesmer. Stop cluttering advice threats with your whiny pity parties.

Daredevils are among the most popular classes for roaming in WvW. Good luck disengaging from zerglings as a mesmer while trying to roam. Hope your blink and decoy take you far because that’s all you got.

Thief damage also doesn’t vanish into thin air the moment some aoe starts being used since illusions are made of wet toilet paper.

Condi Shatter Chronos nuke most thief builds in duels. It isn’t even close outside of a substantially more skilled player on a thief and even then it is usually a draw. They are nearly impossible to burst or chip down and their condi clear as well as their constant AoE heals are fantastic. They also have fantastic stealth up time… I constantly see players standing around for 10s or more trying to figure out which way I went.

Dare Devils… yeah players like them because they run and kill weak or injured players. There are so few scary thieves left… so very very few. Even in sPvP, we hardly ever see any thieves in upper sPvP or ranked play.

I have played 3k hours in WvW on a thief (over 6k total)… call it QQ if you want but right now the thief is at best a marginal class good for +1, running and killing newbs. The days of utter destruction from the class are well behind us.

Condi chrono is trash, it’s only good for duels. It can’t chase people let alone kill them in the time you can kill with a thief.

All you virtually have to do to a condi chrono is walk away and there’s nothing they can do to keep up with you, sorta like getting ganked by a condi necro, or some other slow class with limited mobility and condi ramp up.

Thiefs are far superior gankers than condi chrono, they can escape outnumbered situations far more easily, and the power of a thief goes up the more thieves are around in gank squads to share stealth and basilisk venoms to reduce enemy response times.

Thieves and scrappers and mongoloid zerker warriors are far better gankers for roaming.

Zenith.7301:

Condi chrono is trash, it’s only good for duels. It can’t chase people let alone kill them in the time you can kill with a thief.

All you virtually have to do to a condi chrono is walk away and there’s nothing they can do to keep up with you, sorta like getting ganked by a condi necro, or some other slow class with limited mobility and condi ramp up.

Thiefs are far superior gankers than condi chrono, they can escape outnumbered situations far more easily, and the power of a thief goes up the more thieves are around in gank squads to share stealth and basilisk venoms to reduce enemy response times.

Thieves and scrappers and mongoloid zerker warriors are far better gankers for roaming.

Where does thief shine? Killing other thieves from stealth, killing crappy builds, +1 a fight and catching other players hurt. The class which once upon a time was a fearful 1v1 class has become a vulture. Its main purpose now is to feed on the carrion left over from the work of others.

Most other roaming classes don’t even worry about an even number against thieves any longer. I actually look forward to seeing them close cause I know 99/100 times that fight ends with a dead thief or three. Condi Mesmers/Chronos: Thief runs most of the time and dies if they are not fast on the cleanse (prior to plex nerf that didn’t even save them). Bunker Scrapper: Thief runs or stands around wondering what to do. Bunker/Hybrid Druid: thief might as well pee up wind. Boon Duration Warrior: Just don’t even engage cause that fight will end badly for a thief pretty much every time.

Its not impossible to play well on a thief but it generally requires exceptional skill to be able to deal with decent players on other builds. Same great player running thief, will utterly dominate on a stronger 1v1 class. Seriously the class basically has only one effective weapon set left and it is the same counter play every decent roamer has seen thousands of times. I feel like a pre-cog fighting one now and I am so rarely surprised by their attack pattern.

NuhDah.9812:

Also, for your future sPvP experience you should learn Shadowstep, Shortbow ’port 5 points on the maps, and to learn to use Sb as an overall as a disengaging defensive tool especially if you go D/P.

That’s solid advice for WvW as well, there are spots that can cut travel time down by a lot and some spots that can mean the difference between a target getting away or not, or you getting away or not. Even just using jump + dodge/skill can maneuver terrain at times, like pressing jump and Flanking Strikes at the same time can clear a small step that I would have got hung up on otherwise. EB map especially has a lot of short cuts where Dash and Shadowstep shine.

Sure, thanks for the additional information kash, and you’re welcome OP.

kash.9213:

NuhDah.9812:

Also, for your future sPvP experience you should learn Shadowstep, Shortbow ’port 5 points on the maps, and to learn to use Sb as an overall as a disengaging defensive tool especially if you go D/P.

That’s solid advice for WvW as well, there are spots that can cut travel time down by a lot and some spots that can mean the difference between a target getting away or not, or you getting away or not. Even just using jump + dodge/skill can maneuver terrain at times, like pressing jump and Flanking Strikes at the same time can clear a small step that I would have got hung up on otherwise. EB map especially has a lot of short cuts where Dash and Shadowstep shine.

Has anyone put out a video of common thief shortcuts in WvW? Like the ones for sPvP.