Guild Wars 2

Will I have to play one to find out myself? Or is there some sort of trick?

With the majority of them, I don’t deal enough damage to kill them with a CnD>Mug>Backstab and then they BOLT out so kitten fast I wouldn’t even be able to reach them if I tried to close the gap with Heartseeker (it’d use my initiative up too, trying to do that).

When I run conditions, it’s still no good because they purge before I can get a large stack on em. So any tips my fellow thieves?

Cheers

Do a little digging in both class forums, this question has come up many times and some posters have been kind enough to provide answers. Conditions generally aren’t going to work well but any form of immobilize is extremely powerful against a D/D Ele especially after you’ve forced them to use up their utilities.

Most times I’ve fought a p/d + sb thief it ends in a draw. Most backstab thieves withdraw after their initial opening combo doesn’t down me. But there have been some exceptional thieves who have kicked my kitten in a heartbeat and I refuse to RTL away from them, they deserve the kill.

Generally speaking though it’s either the thief or ele who bails.

Edit: Try changing your rotation slightly, not sure if you’re running Basilisk Venom but if so try using it later in your rotation C&D > Steal > Backstab > Basilisk Venom > Haste and HS spam or open with a feint meant to get them to blow a utility then use your actual rotation. You basically need to be more flexible in the fight.

While D/D eles don’t follow much of a rotation, you CAN heavily disrupt their flow by using the steal ability from eles that gives a severely crippling chill. They either have to immediately wipe it or risk the heavy cooldowns on their key abilities. That can give a nice opening for you to immobilise and DPS in the midst of the ele’s panic to get rid of it. Of course, if they don’t sweat about it, it’s not much of a help, but it’s definitely very useful as a means of slowing them down.

Basilisk venom takes several seconds to apply and can be interrupted on application so has to be done before a rotation… Can’t be inserted mid rotation.

try S/D build 10/30/30/0/0 yes its glass cannon but the damage you can do per hit is pretty rediculously OP lol and when ur quickness activates it will take an ele from 100% to like 40% health easily i run with haste shadow refuge and sometimes caltrops to get warriors off my kitten but signet of shadows is good aswell. the key is to use infiltrators strike as often as possible to lock the ele down from moving if you can keep it up just keep on using it and auto attacking trust me ur hits will be enough to just auto attack him to death. make sure you use infiltrators srike from a distance aswell or its useless against them

It depends on the els, but generally you’re going to have a tough time taking them down. If you’re a GC backstab build, don’t open with the mug+CnD+backstab combo. Instead I suggest kiting them with short bow and wear their health down until you think you can finish them off with the combo. If they manage to avoid this I would either retreat or return to kiting them with shortbow and repeat.

This is how I fight D/D Elementalist. P/D condition/stealth or glass cannon D/D backstab. With D/D I just burst before they can do anything or after I dodge their first knockdown (ride the lightning or w/e). With P/D it’s a longer fight but 6/10 times they always flee from fight to heal and wait for skill cooldown. It’s annoying but whatever. The other 4/10 they just die from conditions (novice D/D elementalist). Also the skill you get from them when you steal is very good against them as it will chill them for a sec. It really depends on the opponent if they are skilled or not. And yes I hate fighting them but hey what are you gonna do? D/D Ele puts thief 25% speed to shame.

Just gotta outplay em, man, you know what I’m saying?
1. Dodge the first ride of lightning. They can’t get their combo off. If you do get knocked down, stun-break away before you get hit by Burning Speed/Fire Grab/Ring of Fire/Arcane BS.
2. Ele is going to switch to earth attunement. Watch out for magnetic grasp. Staying some distance away from it will help. Continue to short-bow, beat the crap out of it.
3. Next up is water attunement. Wait at a distance till the frost aura goes away. Proceed to spank. Post frost-aura while they are still water attuned would be the best time to land your burst.
4. At this point, either they are going to switch back to air attunement for shocking aura or go to fire for another attempt at a burst. If it’s the former, stay away till the shocking goes away and finish the ele off. If it’s the latter, run into them expecting another burning speed that’s going to completely miss you (or dodge while running into him if he dodge rolls away and is positioning himself to land it). Finish him off here before updraft gets off CD.

Other tips:
1. Churning Earth: A lot will run lightning flash with it, so dodge after counting to 3. If you have a pistol off-hand, beat the kitten out of them while they cast this and interrupt it at 3. Watch out for stability.
2. Never open with your burst. They will be expecting it. Sometimes, I like to fake my burst to get their mist form out of the way. This will help enormously.
3. Immobilize screws them up sooo much. Hide in Shadows + Bow 1 to immobilize and proceed to cluster bomb from a safe distance. Check their attunement to see what gap closers they are going to be using and be ready to deal with it (Fire – Burning Speed, Water – Frozen Burst to slow you down or nullify your HS, Air – RTL, Earth – Magnetic Grasp).
4. Caltrops will help enormously. Criple screw them up, and they will need to condi-cleanse from water. Make them switch to water attunement and burst them down once they do.

I’m a ele, here because I have a theif alt. I play S/D but basiclly same build as DD. To be honest if the Ele is good it will be at best a draw.

Mogar.9216:

I’m a ele, here because I have a theif alt. I play S/D but basiclly same build as DD. To be honest if the Ele is good it will be at best a draw.

Same story. S/D alt tanky but yeah should end draw.

S/D shockingly has all the tools to drop a DD ele its just going to take a min.

Avoid D/D Eles unless you are a D/D backstabber who can kill them before they can get 5-6 boons up.

When vsing a D/D Ele with 2 other playrs ith them it’s tough, which to kill is the hoice, the others then the Ele will ahve his setups completed, he’ll have all his boons up and be too hard to kill, how to handle it in a group, you might take a few down, but youeven if you kill the Ele or down him he’ll get picked back up, how to initiate is to back of, change your utilities.

You need at least 5 or 10 into Power> Apply poison on each steal, and 10 if you want potent poison = 22% increase on venom duration.

You need on your utilities Spider Venom is a must to take out D/D Ele as a Condition/Crit Damage build, make sure you do not waste this skill, watch out for mist forms, need to use steal, or hold steal if you are speedy and apply poison each time he tries to kite you when hes down to 75% HP they will begin to kite and heal up with every cast, ts about how you play mainly, if you can bait him, make him think like hes pushing you back, hide behind trees, use mobs in wvw to get the backstab up, or the pistol blleed stacking skilll, keep pressure all the time and they panic between skills, to either switch between damage or to heal over the damage or to use mist form, or even to use ride the lighting to escape, the problem with ele is that they ahve 4 attunement, once you got him panicking he will mix his order up, his skill rotation.

Hope this helped, you really do need Spider Venom you won’t kill any good Ele’s who know what there doing without it.

Negated.4105:

When vsing a D/D Ele with 2 other playrs ith them it’s tough, which to kill is the hoice, the others then the Ele will ahve his setups completed, he’ll have all his boons up and be too hard to kill, how to handle it in a group, you might take a few down, but youeven if you kill the Ele or down him he’ll get picked back up, how to initiate is to back of, change your utilities.

You need at least 5 or 10 into Power> Apply poison on each steal, and 10 if you want potent poison = 22% increase on venom duration.

You need on your utilities Spider Venom is a must to take out D/D Ele as a Condition/Crit Damage build, make sure you do not waste this skill, watch out for mist forms, need to use steal, or hold steal if you are speedy and apply poison each time he tries to kite you when hes down to 75% HP they will begin to kite and heal up with every cast, ts about how you play mainly, if you can bait him, make him think like hes pushing you back, hide behind trees, use mobs in wvw to get the backstab up, or the pistol blleed stacking skilll, keep pressure all the time and they panic between skills, to either switch between damage or to heal over the damage or to use mist form, or even to use ride the lighting to escape, the problem with ele is that they ahve 4 attunement, once you got him panicking he will mix his order up, his skill rotation.

Hope this helped, you really do need Spider Venom you won’t kill any good Ele’s who know what there doing without it.

Hahahaha NO! that doesn’t happen. In fact that never happens. How long do you think it took our muscle memory to kick in? I’m at 300 hours I don’t mix up attunements (good ele run some general rotations so no we won’t mix them up). Ranger requires me to push one more button than ele. Honestly ask on our forums you get used to it.

Today while killing a vet in WvW a P/D thief “jumped” me. Spammed venoms etc. Let me tell you how it ended. Him down me at 80% health and he force logged. We were the same level he got me to 50% He kept his gaps and venoms up but none of that will help. We both get the option to bail at any time he didn’t.

Your advice is bad not because it will never work but it wont work vs an experienced ele.

Let me break it down. Just like when a zerg chases me (happened earlier today) and cant kill me it comes down to 1 thing. Either you have immobilize or you don’t. If you don’t forget it. Its not going to happen give it up.

One build will drop a DD ele backstab burst. As long as shocking isn’t up you just got a free kill unless we see it coming.

The number of wipes most DD have equals a lot! Here’s what your likely going to deal with http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Fire http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Wave_ http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Wave and via http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Evasive_Arcana and possibly http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Water and http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Water

Figure at least 3 of these.

Best option is using immobilize immobilize immobilize. the more you use it the more pressure you put on the ele. Once you realize this you can pressure and win.

TheGuy.3568:

Negated.4105:

When vsing a D/D Ele with 2 other playrs ith them it’s tough, which to kill is the hoice, the others then the Ele will ahve his setups completed, he’ll have all his boons up and be too hard to kill, how to handle it in a group, you might take a few down, but youeven if you kill the Ele or down him he’ll get picked back up, how to initiate is to back of, change your utilities.

You need at least 5 or 10 into Power> Apply poison on each steal, and 10 if you want potent poison = 22% increase on venom duration.

You need on your utilities Spider Venom is a must to take out D/D Ele as a Condition/Crit Damage build, make sure you do not waste this skill, watch out for mist forms, need to use steal, or hold steal if you are speedy and apply poison each time he tries to kite you when hes down to 75% HP they will begin to kite and heal up with every cast, ts about how you play mainly, if you can bait him, make him think like hes pushing you back, hide behind trees, use mobs in wvw to get the backstab up, or the pistol blleed stacking skilll, keep pressure all the time and they panic between skills, to either switch between damage or to heal over the damage or to use mist form, or even to use ride the lighting to escape, the problem with ele is that they ahve 4 attunement, once you got him panicking he will mix his order up, his skill rotation.

Hope this helped, you really do need Spider Venom you won’t kill any good Ele’s who know what there doing without it.

Hahahaha NO! that doesn’t happen. In fact that never happens. How long do you think it took our muscle memory to kick in? I’m at 300 hours I don’t mix up attunements (good ele run some general rotations so no we won’t mix them up). Ranger requires me to push one more button than ele. Honestly ask on our forums you get used to it.

Today while killing a vet in WvW a P/D thief “jumped” me. Spammed venoms etc. Let me tell you how it ended. Him down me at 80% health and he force logged. We were the same level he got me to 50% He kept his gaps and venoms up but none of that will help. We both get the option to bail at any time he didn’t.

Your advice is bad not because it will never work but it wont work vs an experienced ele.

Let me break it down. Just like when a zerg chases me (happened earlier today) and cant kill me it comes down to 1 thing. Either you have immobilize or you don’t. If you don’t forget it. Its not going to happen give it up.

One build will drop a DD ele backstab burst. As long as shocking isn’t up you just got a free kill unless we see it coming.

The number of wipes most DD have equals a lot! Here’s what your likely going to deal with http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Fire http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Wave_ http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Wave and via http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Evasive_Arcana and possibly http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cleansing_Water and http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Water

Figure at least 3 of these.

Best option is using immobilize immobilize immobilize. the more you use it the more pressure you put on the ele. Once you realize this you can pressure and win.

That thief is down right pathetic, if he spammed his venoms then he doesn’t know what he is doing lol. What server do you play on, the only Ele’s that are good that come against my thief, end up retreating or bringing more back.

It is true what you saying, I have a hard time to drop your class due to not using immobilization skills/venoms. Only because I’m always fighting 3-5 players at a time, can’t sacrifice utilities that help me survive just so I can kill your class,

Don’t bother fighting them 1v1 unless they’re attacking your supply camp or something.

I’m run a crit p/d build and i gotta say, with all the d/d eles everywhere, I’m glad I found this build out. When the eles are all up on me, I CnD them for 3k stealth and fart around for a couple secs sneak attack them for 3k and auto them for 1k each, and usually by then, they’re in mist form running from me while I’m chasing them. If they run they usually get away and those that don’t and come back for more, they pretty much made a bad decision and go down.

Rome.3192:

Just gotta outplay em, man, you know what I’m saying?
1. Dodge the first ride of lightning. They can’t get their combo off. If you do get knocked down, stun-break away before you get hit by Burning Speed/Fire Grab/Ring of Fire/Arcane BS.
2. Ele is going to switch to earth attunement. Watch out for magnetic grasp. Staying some distance away from it will help. Continue to short-bow, beat the crap out of it.
3. Next up is water attunement. Wait at a distance till the frost aura goes away. Proceed to spank. Post frost-aura while they are still water attuned would be the best time to land your burst.
4. At this point, either they are going to switch back to air attunement for shocking aura or go to fire for another attempt at a burst. If it’s the former, stay away till the shocking goes away and finish the ele off. If it’s the latter, run into them expecting another burning speed that’s going to completely miss you (or dodge while running into him if he dodge rolls away and is positioning himself to land it). Finish him off here before updraft gets off CD.

Other tips:
1. Churning Earth: A lot will run lightning flash with it, so dodge after counting to 3. If you have a pistol off-hand, beat the kitten out of them while they cast this and interrupt it at 3. Watch out for stability.
2. Never open with your burst. They will be expecting it. Sometimes, I like to fake my burst to get their mist form out of the way. This will help enormously.
3. Immobilize screws them up sooo much. Hide in Shadows + Bow 1 to immobilize and proceed to cluster bomb from a safe distance. Check their attunement to see what gap closers they are going to be using and be ready to deal with it (Fire – Burning Speed, Water – Frozen Burst to slow you down or nullify your HS, Air – RTL, Earth – Magnetic Grasp).
4. Caltrops will help enormously. Criple screw them up, and they will need to condi-cleanse from water. Make them switch to water attunement and burst them down once they do.

As a D/D ele, listen to this advice. Seriously. It is exactly what you’re looking for.

TakeCare.3182:

Rome.3192:

Just gotta outplay em, man, you know what I’m saying?
1. Dodge the first ride of lightning. They can’t get their combo off. If you do get knocked down, stun-break away before you get hit by Burning Speed/Fire Grab/Ring of Fire/Arcane BS.
2. Ele is going to switch to earth attunement. Watch out for magnetic grasp. Staying some distance away from it will help. Continue to short-bow, beat the crap out of it.
3. Next up is water attunement. Wait at a distance till the frost aura goes away. Proceed to spank. Post frost-aura while they are still water attuned would be the best time to land your burst.
4. At this point, either they are going to switch back to air attunement for shocking aura or go to fire for another attempt at a burst. If it’s the former, stay away till the shocking goes away and finish the ele off. If it’s the latter, run into them expecting another burning speed that’s going to completely miss you (or dodge while running into him if he dodge rolls away and is positioning himself to land it). Finish him off here before updraft gets off CD.

Other tips:
1. Churning Earth: A lot will run lightning flash with it, so dodge after counting to 3. If you have a pistol off-hand, beat the kitten out of them while they cast this and interrupt it at 3. Watch out for stability.
2. Never open with your burst. They will be expecting it. Sometimes, I like to fake my burst to get their mist form out of the way. This will help enormously.
3. Immobilize screws them up sooo much. Hide in Shadows + Bow 1 to immobilize and proceed to cluster bomb from a safe distance. Check their attunement to see what gap closers they are going to be using and be ready to deal with it (Fire – Burning Speed, Water – Frozen Burst to slow you down or nullify your HS, Air – RTL, Earth – Magnetic Grasp).
4. Caltrops will help enormously. Criple screw them up, and they will need to condi-cleanse from water. Make them switch to water attunement and burst them down once they do.

As a D/D ele, listen to this advice. Seriously. It is exactly what you’re looking for.

Also as a d/d ele main, this is pretty much the best advice. Only thing I’d add is that most D/d eles build quite tanky and rely on their healing for longevity, so keeping poison up (especially when it’s so easy to apply as thief) is also key.