Guild Wars 2

Thinking about making a thief and wondering if this profession is good for solo pve leveling to 80.

Thought I would ask first before jumping into the profession because once I get started I don’t like to stop lol.

Not really. They are pretty much the worst at low levels. If you go with certain utilities, they can become much more playable at higher level, but even then it’s debatable how good they really are.

The biggest problem, again particularly at lower levels, is that they are melee-focused, extremely squishy, and have the worst Downed State in the game for solo PvE. As they get higher level, they get somewhat better utility but remain very squishy with a terrible downed state, and their offense isn’t substantially better than any other profession.

If you approach and study any profession with an open mind, it doesn’t really matter what profession it is.

Einlanzer.1627:

Not really. They are pretty much the worst at low levels. If you go with certain utilities, they can become much more playable at higher level, but even then it’s debatable how good they really are.

The biggest problem, again particularly at lower levels, is that they are melee-focused, extremely squishy, and have the worst Downed State in the game for solo PvE. As they get higher level, they get somewhat better utility but remain very squishy with a terrible downed state, and their offense isn’t substantially better than any other profession.

Thanks for the reply.

Sir Vincent III.1286:

If you approach and study any profession with an open mind, it doesn’t really matter what profession it is.

I hear you. It just seems some professions are geared for certain types of play style.

For example, I soloed a Guardian and Warrior to 80 relatively easy where as I’m currently at level 50 with a Mesmer ( soloing pve ) and its been brutal but fun.

Completely disagree with Einlanzer.

Because thief has access to spammable blinds with several weapon sets, when you fight against any normal/veteran(aside from dredge), you can build full glass cannon and still take literally no damage.
D/P leveling is just as easy as leveling Guardian.

Plus stealth gives you ways to escape if you get into a bad situation.

I do agree that thief downed state is completely terrible for PvE though.

phor.7952:

Completely disagree with Einlanzer.

Because thief has access to spammable blinds with several weapon sets, when you fight against any normal/veteran(aside from dredge), you can build full glass cannon and still take literally no damage.
D/P leveling is just as easy as leveling Guardian.

Blinds help, but it’s not as easy as leveling a Guardian, at all. It’s faceroll in comparison.

phor.7952:

Plus stealth gives you ways to escape if you get into a bad situation.

No it doesn’t.

Yes and no.

Black powder will just make any melee opponent that doesn’t have unshakeable trivial; you can take on several enemies and never get hit. Signet of malice with caltrops and short bow skills like choking gas will give you a ridiculous amount of healing when fighting large groups of enemies. Daggerstorm inside a blackpowder with signet of malice can also deal a lot of damage to large groups while healing you up and either blinding or reflecting most attacks.

The downside is dealing with champion mobs for example, where blind doesn’t really work. You can still kill these will good use of your evade skills, but it’s much more work and skill than say doing it on a guardian. Also, if you’re facing several ranged opponents, it’s difficult to mitigate their damage and a thief generally can’t take much damage.

Overall, there’s very little content you can’t solo, the profession just isn’t as forgiving as a warrior or guardian for example.

Took me less than 6 hours getting a thief to 80.

Just got 10g from my alt and some crafting.

GuildWarsPlayer.5608:

Sir Vincent III.1286:

If you approach and study any profession with an open mind, it doesn’t really matter what profession it is.

I hear you. It just seems some professions are geared for certain types of play style.

In open PvE, playstyle is not that much important — you just do what you find to be fun.

Of course in serious situations, you need to make some serious considerations.

For example, I soloed a Guardian and Warrior to 80 relatively easy where as I’m currently at level 50 with a Mesmer ( soloing pve ) and its been brutal but fun.

I soloed my Thief and 100% map completion and doing so is also relatively easy.

If you just give any profession a chance, you’d find that each one has their own way of clearing the same content. The ease factor may be with my Guardian, but the fun factor is still with my Thief.

I also have a Mesmer and I find GS Mesmer to be very boring, but that’s my opinion. I think I need to regear and pick up a Sword and a Torch to spice things up.

Einlanzer.1627:

Blinds help, but it’s not as easy as leveling a Guardian, at all. It’s faceroll in comparison.

How exactly do blinds “help”? Against normals/vets blind is actually BETTER than Aegis because it’s spammable. You can apply it in AoE with virtually no cooldown.

I have played both GS+Sword/Torch Guardian to 80 as well as D/P+SB Thief and I’m telling you, it’s JUST as easy to level.

Of course it’s a different story when you fight champions or do dungeons, but while solo leveling you can ignore them.

Einlanzer.1627:

phor.7952:

Plus stealth gives you ways to escape if you get into a bad situation.

No it doesn’t.

Yes it does. It doesn’t drop aggro, but mobs don’t follow you. You can easily get far enough away while you’re stealthed to leash mobs when you get in trouble.

Actually 100% map completion with a Thief is super easy mode because how many hard fights at skill points in orr and other maps you can simply skip with Shadow Refuge.

As others said BP would help you while leveling as you’re nearly invulnerable while inside it (it gets bit boring to just auto-attack and throw BPs, but very effective if you don’t want a set that makes you move).

Another great thing is your shortbow’s 5th skill that will save you whenever a horde of risens are immobilizing you which adds to the “super easy mode” feeling I had when completing the map.

I enjoyed my 100% map completion and I do a lot of PvE and chest routes with my Thief and he works fine.

I actually enjoyed leveling my Thief to 80 more than any of my other professions (against anything without Unshakeable). Map completion was a breeze, and I usually had all manner of ways to take out mobs (blinds/dazes/stuns/evades). It took a little more effort than either my Guardian or Warrior, but it’s not a disaster in comparison like some people say.

Leveling my thief was super easy in august, im not sure how much has changed. I pretty much just stacked condition damage and dropped caltrops while running around as large a gathering of angry monsters as i could round up. There was that one signet that lets them run faster all the time and they can stealth.. so travel is quick and death is usually not an issue.

I hit 80 after about 3 days. Though I did cheat for the last 20 levels by crafting with mats I had accumulated on my elementalist.

It basically comes down to your preferred playstyle and how you want to build it.

Solo PvE is fairly easy and straight forward as soon as you accept you will have to use your heal skills now and then, outside of that all professions can solo pve.

If you go for the high burst backstab thief build right away you’ll have a harder time at first but once you start getting traits into your stealth it soon becomes a good defense against the npcs and such.

Just keep in mind that you can’t face tank things like you can with say a guardian but you do get stuff like stealth capping skill challenges to make up for that.

I agree with those who say you can pretty much solo level with any class in PvE. Most of my leveling was done solo in PvE. I leveled a warrior, thief, mesmer, and necro, in that order. All worked fine. Pick the class the fits the way you like to play.

For thief, while I’d try out all the different weapon combos out as you level… make sure to get really comfortable with the shortbow. Most thieves will either being using it, or at least carring one around, at level 80.

Good luck.

I really don’t know why anyone is saying anything BUT “leveling a Thief is the most ridiculously easy and enjoyable thing you can do in Guild Wars 2.”

Seriously, DD death blossom + Caltrops + Signer of Malice + SB = faceroll the entire game solo including solo most champions.

I used a crafted lv50 set to level my thief from 50 to 80 just because I couldn’t be assed to go back to a city whle progressing through ascalon.

Thieves -never- have a problem with dying unless the spec/weapon choice is bad.

Lvling a thief isnt “hard” and there are a few good ways to do it.
But its no way as easy as a guardian.
I could solo group events with my guardian while my thief would get smacked.

In the beginning I found it really hard to level as a thief. Especially at lower levels trying to use D/D. And especially before I had access to all skills and knew how they were working. Then I got used to it and it was a breeze. The learning curve is a bit steeper than some other classes, but that is also part of why thief is so fun. It is not as forgiving as for example a guardian.

I appreciate all the replies.I’m gonna go with the Thief over the Ranger so I’ll have a third character to join the Order Of Whispers with. That’s the last order I need to join to get the last flag.