Guild Wars 2

99% of this is l2p but I am hoping you guys could give me some hope and insight in playing my thief in fractals and dungeons. In spvp and wvw I am very comfortable on thf, but in fractals 1-9 range I get downed at least once every boss fight I am using the metabattle build s/p d/d build and I am executing my rotation correctly but I am so squishy. This also goes for world events and other enemies I just can’t spam blind on… Am I just horrible at timing my dodges? (Half the time I don’t know when the boss is using a powerful attack). Is there some survivability trick I’m missing? Did any of you ever have issues staying alive but found some tricks and tips that helped you? Thanks.

Did you try speccing into shadow arts with the remove conditions and healing with shadow refuge? A lot of it is just how cheap fractals can be. How about taking haste it’s like thief’s version of shake it off. I go sword/dagger and aim for blinds, stuns, and boon stealing and works great in Silverwaste. I don’t dungeon or fractal very often though but like to watch for tells. In the dredge fractal you should stealth and hit the switch, I bombed it by hitting them, more getting summoned, and died. It’s cheap though how you lack the resources to solo four elite trash mobs, especially since they’re immune to blind in the dredges’ case. It isn’t PvP where four vs. one should be a guaranteed death sentence for the one even if Magic Toker is the one and four mobs should be managable for one player. I was doing it alright until more were summoned probably because the instance assumed more than one player in that spot fighting mobs.

Max-melee, hit from behind, and dodge for bosses.
Blind for trash mobs

For boss : learn tell, dodge on tell. Its easy, thieve is probably the profession with the most dodge in game.
For trash : blind them.
For every mob that can hit from range : use smoke screen.

Tips : do not rely on stealth except for trash skip.

Swag.5483:

99% of this is l2p but I am hoping you guys could give me some hope and insight in playing my thief in fractals and dungeons. In spvp and wvw I am very comfortable on thf, but in fractals 1-9 range I get downed at least once every boss fight I am using the metabattle build s/p d/d build and I am executing my rotation correctly but I am so squishy. This also goes for world events and other enemies I just can’t spam blind on… Am I just horrible at timing my dodges? (Half the time I don’t know when the boss is using a powerful attack). Is there some survivability trick I’m missing? Did any of you ever have issues staying alive but found some tricks and tips that helped you? Thanks.

First of all, you need to carry a ranged weapon, I prefer P/P, but others prefers Sb, either way, you’ll need.

In Fractals, it’s all about awareness and most of the time you can use LoS to your advantage. You have to play hit-and-run most of the time allowing your team mate take aggro and always to engage last letting your most tanky member get the most hate.

Also, when it comes to Thief, it’s more important to evade attacks than to complete your rotation. I personally prefer burst so I choose D/D over S/P. I still bring a sword with me, but only during the dredge fractal. Speaking of the dredge, relying blind as your form of defense will get you killed — they can’t be blinded.

Similar case in dungeons, just have an awareness of your surrounding (stay out of the red circles), finding obstacles you can use for LoS, letting your team mates take aggro and be the last to engage.

In the end, it’s just a matter of knowing the fractal and dungeon mechanics.

Dadnir.5038:

For boss : learn tell, dodge on tell. Its easy, thieve is probably the profession with the most dodge in game.
For trash : blind them.
For every mob that can hit from range : use smoke screen.

Tips : do not rely on stealth except for trash skip.

actually standard pve build has just as many dodges as any class (nobody plays acro in pve)

Shadowstep.6049:

Dadnir.5038:

For boss : learn tell, dodge on tell. Its easy, thieve is probably the profession with the most dodge in game.
For trash : blind them.
For every mob that can hit from range : use smoke screen.

Tips : do not rely on stealth except for trash skip.

actually standard pve build has just as many dodges as any class (nobody plays acro in pve)

Silverwaste requires Acro. :/

Shadowstep.6049:

Dadnir.5038:

For boss : learn tell, dodge on tell. Its easy, thieve is probably the profession with the most dodge in game.
For trash : blind them.
For every mob that can hit from range : use smoke screen.

Tips : do not rely on stealth except for trash skip.

actually standard pve build has just as many dodges as any class (nobody plays acro in pve)

Except for the part where the standard boss dps build is d/d, and one of the more popular trash killing builds is unicorn, and the people that don’t run d/d often run d/p, and dagger auto actually grants endurance, so you actually have more dodges than every other class without taking acro any time you’re wielding a MH dagger, which is literally 1/3 of all thief melee builds.

My setup for Dungeons:
66002
My setup for Fractals:
06602
I’m using SA because I can’t deal with all the conditions in fractals. You can do without if you have a really good team – but that is one in a million.
In dungeons I use D/D and SB
In fractals I use: D/D and SB or S/P and SB or P/P and shortbow. Depending on what enemy lies ahead. Against single bosses D/D, against trashmobs and Mai Trin S/P, against ranged Bosses P/P. I wouldn’t use D/P and I actually rarely use the smoke field of pistol, I rather spend my initative on interrupt or unload, of course.
If you insinst on running S/P and DA, CS, T, use #2 more to get rid of condis. Otherwise; you’ll get the hang of it eventually – I did too =)

“Use Invigorating Precision over No Quarter if more survivability is needed.”

This usually helps a lot.

Signet of Agility is a skill that never leaves my skillbar in high level fractals.
But thieves can do really well against some of the harder fractal bosses. We can thrive against Mai Trin, and the grawl fractal boss if we spec into shadow arts. I generally run d/d, d/p against trash. Sb, with withdraw, shadow refuge, signet of Agility, and the 3 slot depending on the situation. And dagger storm is awesome in pve
Like in Pvp, it’s all about practice

P/P, signet of malice and assassins reward on acro. Take trickery for the added initiative if you’d like, but crit strikes and deadly arts = a ton of damage. Signet of malice and assassins reward heal for about 1.5k per unload. Have a necro share that leech aura and you can quite literally face tank anything that isn’t intended to one shot you AND deal a ton of damage.

Berserker stats. Trickery, Deadly Arts and Critical Strikes. Invigorating Precision.

You heal a ton.

Shadowstep.6049:

Dadnir.5038:

For boss : learn tell, dodge on tell. Its easy, thieve is probably the profession with the most dodge in game.
For trash : blind them.
For every mob that can hit from range : use smoke screen.

Tips : do not rely on stealth except for trash skip.

actually standard pve build has just as many dodges as any class (nobody plays acro in pve)

Maybe I’m wrong but there is more than 1 or 2 skills on each weapon set.
D/D have an evade skill
S/D have an evade skill
S/P have an evade skill
SB have an evade skill
There are evade on some of the thief utilities skill.
Nobody said that you need to use acro to be able to have more evade than any other profession in game. Outside maybe of greatsword rangers. And yes I count evade skill that have a minimum of reactivity as dodge.