How to play thief
Well, thieves are made for stealth, so you should probably let your thief use his ultimate stealth skill called “Hide out at the end of the character select menu.”
It’s kind of self explanatory.
Think of your thief as the head of a crime syndicate. He never gets his hands dirty, hanging out in character-select-land, but instead sends out revenants and warriors and the like to do the dirty work. (cue Godfather-style killing montage with non-thief assassins)
Still working on new builds since latest patch. So far for warriors I suggest condi (p/p usually). Keep your distance as they are likely to pop invuln and then start swinging their hammer to one shot you. For ranger/druids, interrupts and condi cleanse… thief isn’t the best at condi clear, so dodge, get up in their space, utilize bandits defense when they inevitably barrage you, and continue with interrupts and punching (d/p). Kinda two different builds for each of those classes… in a match up when you get countered, you’ll get countered HARD, and there’s no real use in changing your build between matches as the next match you’re just as likely to be against the opposite side of the spectrum again where you have a moderate chance. Particularly against rangers and ele’s if you’re noticing that you can beat the tar out of them without it denting them, just walk away as they’ve likely got a bunker build that you’re not going to be able to solo and will likely end in a stand off or a dead thief if you slip up at all. Go plus 1 a fight then that second person should be a help to take down the problematic one. Also against ele in particular, use the steal skill you get from them to slow their cooldowns, it looks like an icicle. I’d suggest the physical interrupt dagger skill if you were running daredevil, except it’s incredibly unreliable so you’re better of using skill 4 on dagger/pistol. Combine that with trait line 3 in the second column of daredevil to have your interrupts do some damage. For rev make sure you have bandit’s defense going into the fight, as they’re going do unrelenting/prevalent strike or whatever that will track you through shadowstep and stealth (though it’s not supposed to on stealth anymore…but it does lol) After their assault ends, DON’T use the second half of bandit’s defense as 99.9 percent of the time it has no effect on them. Interrupts again are helpful, d/p for the backstab. On mesmers, unless you can identify the spammer behind the mask, stealth out and avoid. Still working on how to counter them since latest patch. If they get a condi-shatter on you you’re likely insta-downed, so try to keep distance. I’ve been trying to keep my distance with my bow until I’m sure which one needs punched then in and back out quickly. If you’ve got a dragonhunter in match, be aware that pretty much any point that’s unattended is going to have their trap on it… dodge through the point and pop bandits defense/shadow step out to clear… doesn’t always work as sometimes you’ll get stuck anyway. If a dragonhunter is sitting on a point, assume he has traps on top of himself already, and as soon as you trigger the first set he’s going to drop the second set and pull you in so save something to try to get away from that. I need to test condi on them again, as d/p vs them usually is best saved for a 2 on 1 situation where they’re on cooldown.
Also, be aware that thief does have a lot of odd bugs, so even though you’re “evading all attacks” or have stability, etc… doesn’t actually mean you’re evading all attacks, have stability, etc… it just means a guardian hasn’t used a bathroom stopper (chain thing on you) or you haven’t been hit with a hammer.
I don’t see many thieves running d/d anymore… too many classes just have to swing wildly (as most do) to counter it anymore and you have to connect to get your stealth… with the new cooldown, totally not worth it.
Continuing, for necros it depends on their build… for minion masters interrupts have been helpful, but if they’re not running minions usually condi the crap out of them. I don’t encounter many engi’s lately, and don’t really have a counter for them worked out. Keep in mind that with all of this, at best the odds are typically against you.
Any profession you play with, do read the combat log for what skills best thieves used when they downed you.
Badly Mannered has recent guide videos. He posted here within a month.
The thief’s job is basically to make sure that during a PvP match, your team never has to face a fair fight.
The thief has extremely high mobility, so you run to decap points that are left unattended, run to team mates engaged in a battle and out number the enemy ( focusing one down ).
Or at least that is the idea. However, with the amount of stability and invulnerability in the game, that becomes extremely difficult since a Guardian for example can pretty much stay alive for 20-30 seconds based on pure mechanics of the class alone. Warriors can be even worse. With Mesmers and Necros, you get eaten alive by their condies just by being in their general vicinity. It’s like trying to fight a tank with a toothpick.
Some general advice because OP didn’t specify sPvP or WvW.
Rule 1 when playing thief: don’t over commit. If you can’t kill instantly try to keep pressure up without over extending yourself.
Rule 2 when playing thief: know when/how to disengage if fight turns against you. Thief has best disengage in the game, learn to predict when you should use this advantage.
Rule 3 when playing thief: know your enemy to help with 1 and 2. Don’t hard engage a Dragonhunter, for example.
Rule 4 when playing thief: know how to use each of the stolen skills to your advantage against the class you are fighting.
To get to next level on thf you need to put allot of time in. Unlike most so called hard classes to play all you got to do is understand your rotations and ability. Thf you need to know you burst ability initiative count, enemys build in seconds when encountering and all the map around you. Because of this thf is not Meta, meta is something that you can pick up the build spend day Lear ING the rotation and do really well. If you want to be a good thf and I mean a good thf, you make thf your life no room for any other class. You first spend time in hot join days there then 1v1 server you watch other meters fight to understand them as much as fighting yourself, and most importantly you learn your needed role in the team setup given, if you have point holders and 1v1 classes u don’t do the same. You +1 decap and wait avoid anything that takes to much of your time.
[UNTY] Unity guild -AG server
Asura -Thief
Asura -Thief