Guild Wars 2

Stealing from a Necro with a D/D build = Dead Necro before the fear wears off, unless you’re really bad. Steal w/ Mug > Fear > C&D > Backstab > Heartseeker until dead w/ Haste.

Stealing from a Warrior yields a ridiculously powerful AOE attack that also makes you immune to most (all?) sources of damage and grants stability, as well as doing some ridiculous dps. Hasted, I’ve managed to take a Warrior from 100% to downed with this ability when his defensive CDs were down. Unhasted and with defensive cooldowns you can essentially do 0 damage with this ability if they block, but you then have plenty of time to prepare for what to do next.

Steal from an Elementalist, apply a mild duration chill that slows them to a crawl and essentially makes them dead meat regardless of your build. I love chill.

Steal from a Guardian and daze them for 4 seconds.

Steal from another Thief and you get a free stealth attack in.

Steal from a Mesmer and you get all boons for a decent duration. That means 20% critical chance, regeneration, retaliation, protection, etc.

Steal from an Engineer and you get what I consider to be a relatively worthless ability since it can be easily avoided.

Steal from a Ranger and you get absolutely nothing. ~

Honestly though, use Steal. You’re hurting yourself bad if you aren’t, pvp especially, pve too to an extent.

I hate to sound all nazi on you, but if you don’t use steal you’re kittening yourself. You can make a lot of damage, conditions, boons, and combos happen when using stolen items.

metaphorm.6904:

PopeUrban.2578:

Steal is the difference between pretty good theives and great theives.

quoted for righteous truth.

i’m astonished to see people saying they don’t use Steal. its easily one of the most powerful abilities ANY class has access to. the stolen abilities it provides are INCREDIBLY POWERFUL. maybe people don’t get this because its semi-random what you actually steal. all of the abilities that you get from stealing are really really really strong though.

the trait bonuses to Steal are equally insane. every single trait build adds at least a couple of powerful bonuses here, and some builds add several.

saying that you don’t use this ability is like saying “i don’t understand how to play this game and i’m confused so i’m nerfing myself because this is too hard for me”

the fact that stolen items are OP and that Steal needs to be traited heavily have absolutely nothing to do with people disliking it.

/sarcasm

I have to pretty much agree that if you aren’t using steal, you’re neglecting a huge weapon in your arsenal. For those that are playing the thief as a ranged fighter, I can understand why it does not excite you. For melee, especially main hand dagger, it is insanely good. Properly traited, in the middle of a fight I can dodge away, steal (which grants me +4 initiative and stealth for 2 seconds), land a guaranteed critical backstab, and still have a free stolen skill to use at my leisure.

I understand the complaints with the 45s cooldown, but that is consistent with other thief slot skills. Stealing is amazing.

Mrbig.8019:

hex.3218:

Mrbig.8019:

hex.3218:

Daegranos.7451:

Syanda.3047:

How Not To Die When Utilizing Steal

Step 1: Target foe, hit F1
Step 2: Dodge backwards
Step 3: Examine shiny new toy
Step 4: Realize you’ve stolen an item that requires you to be in melee range
Step 5: Cry

Fixed.

If you can’t get back into close range you’re doing it wrong.

Sb + P/P thieves would have a word with you. Ah, and i would love to see you going into the zerg in WvWvW to use your class mechanic, because without any doubt “i’m doing it wrong”, since i don’t want to be in melee range.

How long does it take? I’m not suggesting STAY in there. What are you, nuts?

Against bosses, melee range for a sec means insta death.
In PvP, when i swap sets in order to support, melee range is the last thing i want to bump myself into.

I’m not saying it’s an unbearable issue, but it is an issue.

The worst thing about Steal is the CD , which makes it a forgettable skill, unless you’ve traited it heavily. In PvP it became good only after they made the items freaking OP.

Fact is that Steal is an horribly designed mechanic.

I just don’t agree with that at all.

First, in a boss fight I’m not alone. If I leave before the red circle gets activated I’m fine. Jump in, pop the effect from steal, and I’m out.

In PvP, who said anything about swapping sets? Pick a central target, bop in with steal, drop it and get out. I do it all the time.

Again, do I get nabbed from time to time? Yup. But if you ain’t dyin you ain’t tryin. And most times I’m the LAST person they’re looking at because I’m NOT THERE until I hit steal.

The mechanic is… Hit steal, go to target and get a prize. How is that broken? You mean you don’t LIKE the mechanic because it’s not what you want to do.

Kevin.1574:

To be honest the steal skill doesn’t even seem remotely interesting to me as “special skill” Ive had over 100 hours of game play already and have only used the skill 2-3 times just to see what it did. Just the positioning on the screen as well, i just forget it completely.

That is completely ridiculous. It’s extremely powerful, even un-traited, in PvE and pretty OP in PvP. Even as a shadow-step you should be using it constantly. Traited properly it can be giving insanely good group buffs, stealth, a massive burst opener, not to mention the items. You’re ignoring 1/3 of your class, that’s what you’re telling us.

I use to forget that I even had steal until I made myself remember by putting a post it on my comp

Steal is amazing for closing the distance especially if you are condition build thief since it applies venom

Use steal. Wtf. You can trait it to stealth you, poison them, give you initiative, and more… Plus free teleport to enemy, and can absolutely destroy people in PvP, like when you steal a warriors whirlwind.

Steal is amazing. I run sword/pistol. Infil Strike in, Pistol Whip, target usually dodges away about 1/2 or maybe 3/4 of the way through. Pistol Whip again, Steal back in (that’s right, you can steal DURING the Pistol Whip initial cast).

Traited with Mug, I’ve stolen for 8k+ before. Whatever I steal from them is just icing on the cake. Although the warrior aoe and mesmer buffs IMO are the best and I tend to go for them.

Since I like to be in stealth a lot more than most Thieves I tend to spam Cloak and dagger very often, and so using that ability together with Steal, its the best way to make sure I get that hit to get into stealth. Basically you Que up cloak and dagger so that when your off hand dagger is in mid swing you, hit steal and get the item + the stealth.

So for me steal is a very handy.

Liav.7598:

Stealing from a Necro with a D/D build = Dead Necro before the fear wears off, unless you’re really bad. Steal w/ Mug > Fear > C&D > Backstab > Heartseeker until dead w/ Haste.

As a necro mainer myself, i can tell you that i have more than 4 spells to make you cry before you can even cast and 3 more to remove that fear, but if you do steal from a necro and SW or HS to another person or plain run to a new enemy, most will get eaten by the aoe fear (especially eles).

Early game I think steal is good for just shadowstep but it really shines once you start adding traits. And I find that I know what just about every icon does by now, some are meh but others are very helpful.

I’m able to get 3 initiative and poison my enemy when I steal.

I beg to differ…steal is one of the most hax abilities around if traited properly. You can get poison, stealth, aoe blind, a free ability, weakness, and a shadow step all at the same time. That’s insane, especially followed up with whatever skills you like to use out of stealth.

Some people here are mad. Steal is a great ability and it makes thieves actual thieves as we STEAL STUFF FROM OUR SURROUNDING.
- We get to use some high burst abilities.
- Boons.
- Combo fields.
- Replenishment for ourselves and more…
Not to mention it shadowstep you right next to the target which can put your opponent in abit of confusion if you do it as he follows you, AND you can spec into it making it deal damage, poison and bunch of other stuff that makes the steal ability a big part of the thief.

I agree about one thing though with the negative side of this discussion, which is if you’re using a ranged weapon it shouldn’t shadowstep you cause you can get downed by bosses and such at melee, but the game has been out for 2 weeks now and it’s still going under some development, and skills are being changed daily.

As for using it, really once you use it alot you’ll find steal a really big part of your thief, and you’ll always have it on cd in combat.
Honestly, do you have another unique F1 ability for us thieves that isn’t a skill on any other mmo? For me this type of steal is a first.

Maybe I just need to get use to it.
And I never believed it to be weak and the whole steal thing is not a bad idea. The last thing I am curious about is your opinion about inviormental weapons. Because they resemble the steal skill.

There are two kinds of thieves in this game. Those who joyously use steal correctly… and bads.

While most everything that needs to be said has been said, I have one thing to add. If instead of steal, the thief skill was just “3 more initiative on a ~40 cooldown”, I would still be in love with it. Add a shadowstep and many very sweet (and the occasionally disappointing) 1 shots, plus all those things I didn’t spec for (poison, stealth, etc), and I really see nothing to complain about except the miniscule amount of effort one must put into learning the ins and outs of this magnificent skill.

Also, I’m actually quite glad the thief gimmick is 1 button. I did my keybinds based on that, and now have to teach myself how to use others for shattering on my alt. I don’t even wanna think about attunement juggling yet.

I tried a thief for a bit.

I found steal to be very forgetabble. I kept seeing on screen and kept going “man I need to use you once in a while”.

I think it suffers from being too melee orientated and requiring too many traits to work properly and to even be worth using.

I’d honestly cut its cooldown to 30s.
I’d make F2 called “Shadow Return”, which simply returns you to your original place that you stole from.

Seems simple enough.

Steal is awesome and with the right traits it gives initiative… ftw?

STEAL.

Seriously, you’re a Thief, the skill is made for you. I feel like a dufus for taking so long to realize its utility. Once you start doing it regularly you’ll have so much fun stealing you’ll look forward to it in every fight; you’ll alter your build around your steal, or vice versa; and you’ll wonder what you were doing before you discovered it.

Jack of Tears.9458:

STEAL.

Seriously, you’re a Thief, the skill is made for you. I feel like a dufus for taking so long to realize its utility. Once you start doing it regularly you’ll have so much fun stealing you’ll look forward to it in every fight; you’ll alter your build around your steal, or vice versa; and you’ll wonder what you were doing before you discovered it.

It seems you’re a thief only every 45 secs.

The rest of your time, you’re an assassin.

Gryf.6387:

its so funny to read all the thiefs who play sword pistol / shortbow cause they not good enought to play meleethief and this game hates melee….. it always makes me laugh….. learn your class and you can do dagger dagger in pve even against bosses that hate melees …. oh and btw f1 is a must for thiefs that know their class …..

you’re so right! in the beginning of my career as a thief i’ve tried all available weapons, almost ignoring F1. the shortbow… well, never liked this. sword and dagger/pistol… don’t like it either. so i started using double pistol and double dagger as my favourite weapons.
for most of the time i used double pistols a lot more often than double dagger. however, as time, and levels, went by, i got more and more used to my daggers, and now i seldom use my pistols. and the more i did (and do) melee-fights, the more i use F1. and i love it.

in every MMO i used to play a ranged profession (mage). but the thief changed me. i just love to fight eye to eye (or back) with even a veteran. sometimes i even manage to kill a champion on my own ;-D

for me, F1 and double-dagger is my first choice.

Mrbig.8019:

It seems you’re a thief only every 45 secs.
The rest of your time, you’re an assassin.

I also set down and lure enemies into traps, have stunning attacks, dodge in and out of combat like a mad man, summon other thieves to help me gang up on people in combat. Nope, I’m a thief all the time, but people only have so much stuff in their pockets to steal.

I play a warrior mostly and I can’t tell you how much I notice that thieves who don’t use steal on me are easy kills.

Not because they get a “win button” from me when they steal, but because the ones who actually use it usually know how to play a better thief. They know how useful the skill is, so they use it at opportune times.

Mrbig.8019:

It seems you’re a thief only every 45 secs.

The rest of your time, you’re an assassin.

Anet was going to call the profession ‘Batman’ instead of ‘Thief’, but there were some copyright issues.

It can be really helpful though – you can cause effects that you can’t always cause with thief skills and it doesn’t cost you any initiative.

But most importantly, it has a long range which makes it perfect for attacking ranged enemies because you can teleport right next to them and start blinding them.

Mrbig.8019:

Jack of Tears.9458:

STEAL.

Seriously, you’re a Thief, the skill is made for you. I feel like a dufus for taking so long to realize its utility. Once you start doing it regularly you’ll have so much fun stealing you’ll look forward to it in every fight; you’ll alter your build around your steal, or vice versa; and you’ll wonder what you were doing before you discovered it.

It seems you’re a thief only every 45 secs.

The rest of your time, you’re an assassin.

In real life, stealing something every 45 seconds means you’re totally a thief! A compulsive thief! That’s a steal a minute. If I play for 4 hours, I could steal 180 things!!!! I’m the best thief in the world at even half that rate. Get right out of town.

And how many ‘thief’ classes in MMOs actually ‘steal’ stuff without killing stuff? Come on, admit you’re just a hater.

hex.3218:

Mrbig.8019:

Jack of Tears.9458:

STEAL.

Seriously, you’re a Thief, the skill is made for you. I feel like a dufus for taking so long to realize its utility. Once you start doing it regularly you’ll have so much fun stealing you’ll look forward to it in every fight; you’ll alter your build around your steal, or vice versa; and you’ll wonder what you were doing before you discovered it.

It seems you’re a thief only every 45 secs.

The rest of your time, you’re an assassin.

In real life, stealing something every 45 seconds means you’re totally a thief! A compulsive thief! That’s a steal a minute. If I play for 4 hours, I could steal 180 things!!!! I’m the best thief in the world at even half that rate. Get right out of town.

And how many ‘thief’ classes in MMOs actually ‘steal’ stuff without killing stuff? Come on, admit you’re just a hater.

oh yeah, go tell this to a necro using his mechanic every 10 secs.
Or to a war, using his mechanic every 10 secs.
Or to a guardoam, having 3 abilities every 30-60-90 secs that awards passive bonuses if you don’t actively use them
Or to a ranger, having a permanent companion to manage, while having the chance to activate one of his abilities ( that are all on shorter CDs than steal)
or to an engeneer/ele, having a so difficult mechanic in swapping sets/attunement + 4 toolbelt skills.
Or to a mesmer, that, altough bugged and clunky , has 4 F skill + illusion summoning.

Yeah, stealing every 45 secs definitively makes you a thief.
/sarcasm

in WoW, with my rogue, i could steal ( lol) every time i went in stealth. Surely more often than GW2 THIEF ( not rogue, THIEF).

Just say you have no clue about other classes.

I like steal but only with certain traits does it become anything really useful. It lacks consistency with what skills it gets. I don’t know if it ports you to the back of the person but it definitely should

I love steal, I just wish they’d add more items for the ghosts, I feel at a disadvantage when fighting them because all I can steal is that fear ability and then i end up not using the item and getting stuck with it for a while.

Thieves who don’t shadowstep ITT.

Some of the skills are nice, but steal can be sort of bald in places like AC where the only thing you can steal 90% of the time is fear.

A gap closer with potential for some very useful skills? Why aren’t you using it? For PvP, it can be very useful, especially once you know what you’ll tend to get. You can really plan things well. Going up against a Necro? Have Runes of the Thief? Enjoy using that fear ability and attacking his back for more damage (and higher crits if you have Side Strikes).

See that warrior on that tight ramp? Shadowstep to him, use Whirling Axe for some initial burst, then Blossom a few times, drop caltrops, and watch as your stack of 20+ bleeds take them down.

I use d/p so steal is hardly ever viable seeming as I can just use shadow shot anyway :/

Mrbig.8019:

hex.3218:

Mrbig.8019:

Jack of Tears.9458:

STEAL.

Seriously, you’re a Thief, the skill is made for you. I feel like a dufus for taking so long to realize its utility. Once you start doing it regularly you’ll have so much fun stealing you’ll look forward to it in every fight; you’ll alter your build around your steal, or vice versa; and you’ll wonder what you were doing before you discovered it.

It seems you’re a thief only every 45 secs.

The rest of your time, you’re an assassin.

In real life, stealing something every 45 seconds means you’re totally a thief! A compulsive thief! That’s a steal a minute. If I play for 4 hours, I could steal 180 things!!!! I’m the best thief in the world at even half that rate. Get right out of town.

And how many ‘thief’ classes in MMOs actually ‘steal’ stuff without killing stuff? Come on, admit you’re just a hater.

oh yeah, go tell this to a necro using his mechanic every 10 secs.
Or to a war, using his mechanic every 10 secs.
Or to a guardoam, having 3 abilities every 30-60-90 secs that awards passive bonuses if you don’t actively use them
Or to a ranger, having a permanent companion to manage, while having the chance to activate one of his abilities ( that are all on shorter CDs than steal)
or to an engeneer/ele, having a so difficult mechanic in swapping sets/attunement + 4 toolbelt skills.
Or to a mesmer, that, altough bugged and clunky , has 4 F skill + illusion summoning.

Yeah, stealing every 45 secs definitively makes you a thief.
/sarcasm

in WoW, with my rogue, i could steal ( lol) every time i went in stealth. Surely more often than GW2 THIEF ( not rogue, THIEF).

Just say you have no clue about other classes.

You have no clue about this topic, just leave mate.

A lot of the skills you steal are worthless. Some of them are nice, though, such as “throw gunk” that causes random conditions in an AoE and gives a ComboField: Ethereal. Plus its a free shadowstep, so I won’t complain about that.

I like Steal

I love Steal, especially traited. Sure, it’s not as useful if you don’t Trait, but it’s just fits the improvisational and kinetic nature of the profession.

Sharpclaw.7510:

A gap closer with potential for some very useful skills? Why aren’t you using it? For PvP, it can be very useful, especially once you know what you’ll tend to get. You can really plan things well. Going up against a Necro? Have Runes of the Thief? Enjoy using that fear ability and attacking his back for more damage (and higher crits if you have Side Strikes).

See that warrior on that tight ramp? Shadowstep to him, use Whirling Axe for some initial burst, then Blossom a few times, drop caltrops, and watch as your stack of 20+ bleeds take them down.

This Thief knows what’s going on. I do enjoy seeing Fear and the Axe icon pop up in PvE and PvP.

steal is simply amazing in pvp, as you always get the same abilities from each class so you eventually learn what you are getting and all the abilities are useful. the axe spin one from warriors does insane damage and is great for finishing someone off if you arent a crit build, for example
the guardian one gives a 3 second daze which is amazing
mesmer = ALL boons for 10 seconds!!!
ranger = regen, kinda weak but meh
thief = additional stealth and blind
etc…

and if you trait it gives you sooo many other buffs. i used to hate it now i love it

Steal is one the best profession mechanics in the game, I don’t care if it’s random, its limited random and it allows so much synergy with traits. HANDS DOWN AMAZING.

the issue is if you’re running dagger/dagger, you have no gap closer but steal.
But opening with steal is wasting the 3 initiative u get from kleptomaniac, if you’re at full initiative.
Another concern is if you’re traiting into trickery for lower steal cd, it does advantage condition based builds at the expense of stealth burst build.
I’m currently trying to create a stealth/backstab/steal hybrid build (http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fYEQNAoYVlUmaOXcS7E/JFBnCjiUPFkdsaFoZnCsKfA;TsAg0Cno4ywlgLLXOukctgYQxsAA)
But i’m afraid that beside mug, my backstab and other skills will hit like wet noodles. Any advice on this?

A way around that bntapoo is to use scorpion wire. Not only does it pull an enemy to you, it supposedly doesn’t even realize it’s been attacked at first and the other enemies in a group shouldn’t be alerted. If my source is correct.

Steal is crazy in WvW or sPvP… this is what Steal does for me (lvl 80) :

-45 sec cooldown
-900 range shadowstep
-Damage (1-2k)
-Poison (10 sec)
-Weakness (3 sec)
-Gain 3 initiative
-Gives Vigor to all you/allies (15 sec)
-Rips 2 boons from target and gives them to you/allies

AND THEN
-Gives you item based on target’s profession, which could be:
-all buffs (mesmer)
-stun (guardian)
-aoe fear (necro)
-stealth/blind (thief)
-aoe axe spin (warrior)
-aoe healing tree/condition removal (ranger)
-long chill (elementalist)
-aoe condition field (engineer)

…. that’s a lot for 1 skill imho… and I’m not even completely spec’ed for a better Steal, I’m a condition/power dodge thief. So for those that think it’s not useful/underpowered… look again.

I’m currently level 46 and gain three initiative and apply poison with stealing.

Shooopa.5632:

A way around that bntapoo is to use scorpion wire. Not only does it pull an enemy to you, it supposedly doesn’t even realize it’s been attacked at first and the other enemies in a group shouldn’t be alerted. If my source is correct.

Yep I do have it for www. I just don’t like the cd tho.
What do you think of my build? will i backstab for crap if not putting alot in power/precision?

Steal is great even if you know you will get a poor item, it’s a crazy good gap closer… if you aren’t using this at all you are bad :P

What do you think about steal looking same as environmental weapons?

DangerMonkey.3158:

Mrbig.8019:

hex.3218:

Mrbig.8019:

Jack of Tears.9458:

STEAL.

Seriously, you’re a Thief, the skill is made for you. I feel like a dufus for taking so long to realize its utility. Once you start doing it regularly you’ll have so much fun stealing you’ll look forward to it in every fight; you’ll alter your build around your steal, or vice versa; and you’ll wonder what you were doing before you discovered it.

It seems you’re a thief only every 45 secs.

The rest of your time, you’re an assassin.

In real life, stealing something every 45 seconds means you’re totally a thief! A compulsive thief! That’s a steal a minute. If I play for 4 hours, I could steal 180 things!!!! I’m the best thief in the world at even half that rate. Get right out of town.

And how many ‘thief’ classes in MMOs actually ‘steal’ stuff without killing stuff? Come on, admit you’re just a hater.

oh yeah, go tell this to a necro using his mechanic every 10 secs.
Or to a war, using his mechanic every 10 secs.
Or to a guardoam, having 3 abilities every 30-60-90 secs that awards passive bonuses if you don’t actively use them
Or to a ranger, having a permanent companion to manage, while having the chance to activate one of his abilities ( that are all on shorter CDs than steal)
or to an engeneer/ele, having a so difficult mechanic in swapping sets/attunement + 4 toolbelt skills.
Or to a mesmer, that, altough bugged and clunky , has 4 F skill + illusion summoning.

Yeah, stealing every 45 secs definitively makes you a thief.
/sarcasm

in WoW, with my rogue, i could steal ( lol) every time i went in stealth. Surely more often than GW2 THIEF ( not rogue, THIEF).

Just say you have no clue about other classes.

You have no clue about this topic, just leave mate.

He’s just mad because he’s dead wrong. If we could steal every 20 seconds, Thief would be way too over powered.

He’s trying to make the case that we should be able to steal at will because, hey, they said thief right? Right? Okay sure pal. He’s bad at playing the class and has to blame the special ability having a long cooldown… as if 45 seconds is like a 3 minute timer.

Honestly, I’m not sure what he wants. Maybe to go back to WoW? The character definitely feels like a thief to me. I don’t see his point.

Steal gives me back 3 initiative when I use it so I love the skill personally

Stealing makes me invisible for a few seconds, gives me back 5 initiative and shadowsteps me to the enemy.

That’s awesome!

EDIT:

The dmg it does and the things you steal and is just a bonus.