Guild Wars 2

I’ve had to quit playing gw2 for a while but I remember before I left I really wanted to roll a thief. I love their animations, medium armor, the ability to do quick burst damage and then escape, etc.

It seems like since then however, the profession has been hard nerfed. Is it more viable to choose a different profession nowadays? I mainly PvE with a concentration on farming. I like to do fractals, exploration, but I also like to be able to jump into WvW.

My main alt is a mesmer but it doesnt seem like she is really worth investing any more of my time into nowadays..

as long as you don’t plan on pvping, thief is fine

Basically what Cynz said above except I still play thief in pvp it just takes a very high amount of skill. Anyway, for PvE and wvw thief is top tier, in PvE I would say it got buffed a lot. It’s mostly just pvp thieves crying right now and even there the SD nerf was blown out of proportion.

-Teef Teef Teef Teef

In PvE, full glass thief still holds the highest personal dps in game, so people still like it. In WvW, you can still roam extremely well, D/D was all but buffed, D/P is still viable, S/D maybe not as much, but people who love the set are making it work despite the changes. In PvP, thief is still viable, steal bugs, teleports bug and people may ask you to switch to another class but it’s w/e honestly. Solo qeue I guess. PvE exploration is probably the easiest on thief due to stealth. (Stealth capping skill communes, skipping mobs etc.) Farming is probably going to be the hardest for you to do on thief, but with the right utilities and shortbow it kittentainly be done. Anyways, don’t let thief being in a bad spot stop you from trying it out. Thief is the most fun class in game imo, and has a very different play style than other classes, and if you can master it, you can do amazing things.

Best of luck,
Ably

PS: The new leveling system is literally the worst thing I have ever seen implemented into GW2, and it will be painful to level an alt to 80. So be ready for that.

FLEUR.7458:

I mainly PvE with a concentration on farming.

You can face tank pretty much any PVE content in a thief, including camps, towers and keeps. Just blind them and melt them. Just watch out for AOE. Anything you can’t face tank you can usually kite with dual pistols or a bow.

In WvW new players are still easy pickings. That’s probably true of any class, but on a thief you can melt an unprepared opponent in seconds.

And if you can’t win you can get way from almost any fight, unless you get run over by a Zerg. If it took less than five people to stop you, you probably messed up.

That’s my experience anyway, and I have less time on my thief than most other classes.

Elitist.8701:

…
wvw thief is top tier
…

(Roaming)

CobOfCorn.6352:

…
In WvW, you can still roam extremely well
…

^ Roaming is basically the only thing you can do as a thief in WvW.

Zero Day.2594:

Elitist.8701:

…
wvw thief is top tier
…

(Roaming)

CobOfCorn.6352:

…
In WvW, you can still roam extremely well
…

^ Roaming is basically the only thing you can do as a thief in WvW.

only because wvw players suck at dueling
but as soon as you run into a half decent player…well disengage
still good for scouting and running around though

very bad in a zerg fight

WvW (roaming,squad) and PvE yes thief is more than usable I don’t pay much attention to conquest also never take 1v1 seriously . The biggest mistake a thief can make is disengage too late don’t limit your self to certain builds or variations.

I’m not a zerg type of thief but when I do I use ricochet p/p / SB with Smoke Screen+IP+Dagger Storm but obviously inferior to proper a zerg build and I mostly stay in the background,just here for unseen damage and blindness.

darres.8203:

still good for scouting and running around though

very bad in a zerg fight

Which is roaming.
WvW → Roaming.

Sorry if you want to do ANYTHING else in WvW, roll another class.

For organized zergs then the thief may have a lesser role, but I disagree that it “sucks in zergs”. Go with a shortbow with sigil of fire and the auto attack damage does wonder. Run with the commander while you spam cluster bomb aoe / use auto attack, or do some well timed dagger storms (bcuz of aoe caps ur able to stay in the front as long as u position urself among many allies). If you find the perfect balance between cluster bombs and normal auto attack aoe, youll be able to tag most for a high wvw rank points gain.

In situations where your zerg is dying you can much easier get out with mechanics like shadowstep, insta stealth / shadow refuge into a teleport to nearest wp for meetup (where you keep your bloodlust/wvw stacks). Another thing to note is that when in zerg on class X, if you dont position urself properly you can get stuck and die in zerg fights, whereas on the thief you can just infiltrators strike / shadowstep to the side/ closer to your allies, avoiding death.

Im lvling my wvw rank much easier on this class than any other, and more importantly im having a blast because it is so easy once you pay attention to above examples.

After quitting for 6 months and coming back to check up on what the devs come up with, it’s another round of nerfs and bad balancing for thief and some other professions as usual. I hold no expectations for whatever content they have and will continue to abstain from this terrible game. Maybe when they finally learn how to balance it better I can come back and have fun.

And I’m glad to know that people understand thieves are useless in wvw (I participated in GvGs to know the class better) now other than a gimmicky annoyance. Everything that I predicted for thief back then came true, making me realize the devs are most likely never going to fix the class because they don’t know how to.

LoneWolfie.1852:

After quitting for 6 months and coming back to check up on what the devs come up with, it’s another round of nerfs and bad balancing for thief and some other professions as usual. I hold no expectations for whatever content they have and will continue to abstain from this terrible game. Maybe when they finally learn how to balance it better I can come back and have fun.

And I’m glad to know that people understand thieves are useless in wvw (I participated in GvGs to know the class better) now other than a gimmicky annoyance. Everything that I predicted for thief back then came true, making me realize the devs are most likely never going to fix the class because they don’t know how to.

useless in WvW? Maybe in mindless zergs. But a single roaming thief can harass, annoy, distract a much larger group, making it a net gain for your server. They are great at kill people semi close to spawn. This is also a huge boon, because usually when someone get wrecked 3 times in 15 minutes trying to catch up with his group, he’ll log out and not WvW for a few days- another net gain for your server.

Thieves are totally awesome in WvW. if pvp is your main thing though OP than stay away from thief.

thief in WvW: Possibly best class? easily most fun, if WvW is your main game mode you’ be crazy to not have a thief. If wvw zerging is your thing- POWER NECRO

in pvp: Possibly worstest? the pvp game mode conquest discourages stealth usage which is our main form of defense. Roll engi if you want to obtain a high in rate easily.

Cam Ron.4170:

LoneWolfie.1852:

After quitting for 6 months and coming back to check up on what the devs come up with, it’s another round of nerfs and bad balancing for thief and some other professions as usual. I hold no expectations for whatever content they have and will continue to abstain from this terrible game. Maybe when they finally learn how to balance it better I can come back and have fun.

And I’m glad to know that people understand thieves are useless in wvw (I participated in GvGs to know the class better) now other than a gimmicky annoyance. Everything that I predicted for thief back then came true, making me realize the devs are most likely never going to fix the class because they don’t know how to.

useless in WvW? Maybe in mindless zergs. But a single roaming thief can harass, annoy, distract a much larger group, making it a net gain for your server. They are great at kill people semi close to spawn. This is also a huge boon, because usually when someone get wrecked 3 times in 15 minutes trying to catch up with his group, he’ll log out and not WvW for a few days- another net gain for your server.

Thieves are totally awesome in WvW. if pvp is your main thing though OP than stay away from thief.

thief in WvW: Possibly best class? easily most fun, if WvW is your main game mode you’ be crazy to not have a thief. If wvw zerging is your thing- POWER NECRO

in pvp: Possibly worstest? the pvp game mode conquest discourages stealth usage which is our main form of defense. Roll engi if you want to obtain a high in rate easily.

I forgot to mention that I was in one of the busiest servers, where roaming is usually pointless and zerging is highly encouraged. Anyone who “roams” for fun is usually seen as not contributing during server resets. To actually make sure that I was at the top of my game, I actually created a calculation system to serve my own purpose and had repeatedly confirm my observations in GvGs and practical field battles in WvW.

While I am certainly not an elite player, I am very confident in my calculation system (although it might be seriously outdated now because of 2 major changes) and the strategies that I had came up with using it. Well, it’s all in the past and there’s really nothing else to talk about.

A top level GvG right now has no real place for a thief and even if there is, it is seriously limited to an elite player who doesn’t make mistakes in his skill set. An ordinary player like myself will not be able to do that, so I retired.

I forgot to mention that I was in one of the busiest servers, where roaming is usually pointless and zerging is highly encouraged. Anyone who “roams” for fun is usually seen as not contributing during server resets. To actually make sure that I was at the top of my game, I actually created a calculation system to serve my own purpose and had repeatedly confirm my observations in GvGs and practical field battles in WvW.

While I am certainly not an elite player, I am very confident in my calculation system (although it might be seriously outdated now because of 2 major changes) and the strategies that I had came up with using it. Well, it’s all in the past and there’s really nothing else to talk about.

A top level GvG right now has no real place for a thief and even if there is, it is seriously limited to an elite player who doesn’t make mistakes in his skill set. An ordinary player like myself will not be able to do that, so I retired.

but gvg/zerging isnt all wvw is about. Its more efficient to have some of your resources (players) spread around the map taking multiple objectives at once, spawn-camping and demoralizing enemy servers, etc. than it is to have one giant zerg. As a thief I can solo take camps as good as any class, and if I get discovered by an enemy zerg I can escape easily and warn my server of their position. To me, solo-capping a camp is more valuable than that one extra guy in a zerg that probably didny have a direct impact on whether it was a winning or losing fight. If zerging is your thing thief isnt a great choice, but there is a lot more to wvw than that ( i play on FA, pretty busy server). If zerging gvg is your thing, I cant stress enough: NECRO. piercing life blasts doing 20k total damage per in zergs, nuff said