Guild Wars 2

Hey guys (Jump to last paragraph if you want to skip the story of my life xD)
I have Thief and Guardian at 80, both my most played classes. Between thos 2 I’ve allways loved the Thief more and I have every reason to do so. I loved my personal story (from the 3 I’ve completed, the one on my Thief was my favourite so far), I love the playstyle. I love the PvE “meta” way more than with my Guard, I love it in WvW, but … then comes sPvP.

I’m nearly rank 40 in sPvP, I’ve played most time with Guard Bunker and I do really fine with it there, but when I play with my Thief there, it’s either the team I get (I mostly play Solo q) or the map or me, in 5 games, if I win 3 I’m getting really lucky.
I want my main classe to be the one I can play in all areas. Right now I’m not liking the Guardian so much because in WvW it’s mostly a zerg class, and with my computer I can’t play in zergs, since I’m not able to even understand what happening with 5 FPS or less, and I don’t like roaming with the Guardian.

I have over 400 hours with my Thief, for some this might not look much. How much time did you take to became decent to good with the Thief? I like direct damage and I plan for my build to be this for WvW (btw after patch I will put Bloodlust in the Shortbow, I also play D/D sometimes): http://tinyurl.com/q2jky3l
What are the most friendly builds for Thief in sPvP? Should I try to master it with team q, playing with my friends or with pugs, since in this scenario it’s easier to control my what my team will be? (since most of them know I play bunker I imagine I will be switching a lot of times) Any tips about sPvP and the Thief role with the diferent builds? Skill rotations with D/P in sPvP? I just want advise because I really like my Thief.

I have 1700 hours on my thief #1 and about 800 on my thief #2. So I kind of lost track of when I started to become good. However, I can say that, having played since launch, my opinion on how to learn the game is a bit skewed, as I was figuring It out with everyone else. I would recommend trying to make your own build for sPvP. This region is not my speciality, but I’ve played a pretty fun version of thief in which I use minimal stealth and a LOT of healing power. It wasn’t meant to kill people, just hold points so others can help you later on. I ran short bow/ sword/pistol, and ptv armor with clerics everything else. You don’t crit. At all. But on pistol whip I am hitting 3k. That’s not a lot, but I can never die. I use the two stealth skills, but don’t stay in stealth. I use it because I get 12 seconds of regen each time I stealth. Also, the immob on SB is awesome because then you switch to s/p and use pust whip and get a full burst. It’s affinity bud if you want to try it.

I have about equal time to oscuro on multiple thieves as well, and like him, I don’t remember exactly when everything clicked for me. It just eventually sort of does, but a lot of it relies on recognizing what your opponents are doing and avoiding their bigger hits while soaking the little ones (as best you can).

As for D/P, in sPvP, 5,2,1 autochain, 5,2,1 etc fits very well into a rotation due to the increased length of reveal, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend doing that as D/P can be a great reactionary set, which really goes back to reading your opponents, recognizing their attacks, and countering them. You can use headshot to interrupt long channels and heals, shadow strike to counterattack strong single burst attacks, and BPS to sit in semi-slow auto attacks. Typically, I like to (try to) use BPS to counter a combo/auto chain while autoattacking myself, then HS out of the BPS smoke field right before it ends (1 and 2/3 auto chain) or when they move away to deal damage and close the gap. Just remember that getting yourself into set rotations rather than playing the person in front of you essentially cancels out benefit of the initiative system: using the right skill at the appropriate time.

Remember that D/X auto is your best friend: 2nd attack restores 10 endurance, and 3rd attack poisons which is invaluable for those pesky healsig wars. Don’t feel bad about chaining Heartseeker when someone is close to down also (but please don’t chain above 25% health) since its intended as a finisher. You can also cue multiple before another thief or mesmer stealths and it will follow them so use that information as you will.

A lot of people swear by using 10/30/0/0/30 D/P trickery for sPvP, but I just don’t like that setup. My 2 favorites so far have been 0/30/10/30/0 (D/P) and 0/30/25/15/0 (D/D). 15 in acro with the D/X chain will let you sit on points and contest them longer through evades/blinds/dodges. 0/30/10/30/0 (Acro: II,III, IX since I don’t care for the gm traits) with zerker amulet gets you somewhere in the ballpark of 18k health, so it’s great for dealing with conditions. Really, just find what works best for you.

Hope some of this helped. Stick with it and welcome to the club.

Playing a non-bunker is harder than playing bunker.

There’s no viable Thief bunkers in the meta currently. So you’re not only shifting from playing a profession, you’re also shifting roles.

I feel like the best way to learn is to just jump in go. I’m not sure how many arena matches you’ve done with your thief, but that’s where I’d start.

Another good option for you, since you’re comfortable with your guardian, is to run a dps roaming build on your guardian until you feel comfortable with the roaming role. Then swap to the thief and figure out how to apply what the thief does to what you were doing with the guardian while roaming.

Thanks for the feedback guys, really helped. 10 more victories on my Guard and I get the title, maybe after I go for Thief. I’ve done 79 arenas (all in solo q) and only won 31. I feel like bunker i such an important role, most games I don’t go bunker my team loses. In solo q if there are more than me as Thief nobody cares to switch and if I don’t do the other will not too and we will most likely to lose. Them Idk when we lost it’s either my fault when I’m on a Thief or it’s my fault when I’m on my bunker (kittenty PvP comunity, this is why most times I don’t look for team chat).

But I’ve found 2 guys that I play team q regularly now and maybe I’ll be able to pratice my Thief in a less hostile enviroment.

Bunker is more important than roamers.

That said though, a team with 5 bunkers is less likely to win than a team with with 4 bunkers and 1 roamer.

3 bunkers / 2 roamers
4 bunkers/ 1 roamer
^ Are the best ratios to have. Between these two ratios profession comp determines which is actually better to use. In my opinion though, 3/2 is better as long as 1 of the roamers isn’t a super squishy build.

Shockwave.1230:

Bunker is more important than roamers.

That said though, a team with 5 bunkers is less likely to win than a team with with 4 bunkers and 1 roamer.

3 bunkers / 2 roamers
4 bunkers/ 1 roamer
^ Are the best ratios to have. Between these two ratios profession comp determines which is actually better to use. In my opinion though, 3/2 is better as long as 1 of the roamers isn’t a super squishy build.

Okay but for roamers Thief is allmost all times super squishy. I’ll try the builds suggested here, I’m curious about those, but when it come to the meta builds, in solo q are awful. Teams are random and it’s hard to get a good team there. But I’m also a player that doesn’t play sPvP allways. I’m playing a lot now because no update till April 15 and the WvW Season isn’t captivating as much as I thought it would so this leaves me with sPvP. Behing a player that doesn’t play sPvP allways is hard to find a fixed team that can help me with Thief. This is one of the problem that makes me after a while go to Guard bunker again, even it’s just me in the team Bunker, it will up our chances of winning anyway :S

Don’t start off full glass cannon; that’s something that requires skill and is something you should work into. Have enough defense that you feel comfortable, and then slowly start dressing yourself up for more damage as you get used to the mechanics.

Try not to get so wrapped up in what you’re doing that you let a little death ruin your fun. Be positive. I realize that’s lame advice, but sticking with it is important to becoming decent, and it’s a lot more difficult to do that if you’re raging every time you get hit with a blue shell.

Warkupo.1025:

Don’t start off full glass cannon; that’s something that requires skill and is something you should work into. Have enough defense that you feel comfortable, and then slowly start dressing yourself up for more damage as you get used to the mechanics.

Try not to get so wrapped up in what you’re doing that you let a little death ruin your fun. Be positive. I realize that’s lame advice, but sticking with it is important to becoming decent, and it’s a lot more difficult to do that if you’re raging every time you get hit with a blue shell.

Oh the blue shell, that kitten xD

Anyway thanks guys this is more than I thought I would get, Thank you for all the advice, lame or not it’s important if I really want to main this class

The biggest thing you should know about thief for sPvP purposes is this:

Your role is to end the fights your teammates start very quickly.

The number one thing I see beginner thieves do is try and fight 1v1s on enemy capped nodes. The fact is that thief is best played as hard to avoid burst on a target already engaged in a fight with other teammates.

As a beginner thief, generally the best plan of action is to stick between home and mid and burst down people, and only go far if you see it’s open and you can get a quick decap.