Guild Wars 2

From what I’ve seen, I still can’t tell. Never have I been so confused about what’s right and wrong. I can tell that thief is meant to be a fast moving killing machine with the disadvantage being incredibly fragile. But thanks to all the stealth, evasion, and mobility they have at their disposal, their lack of defense is hardly a disadvantage.

From what I’ve experienced as a thief, tanky builds do not work. I really can’t tell if a full tanky thief actually survives any longer than a full glass-cannon. There’s also the problem of how thief’s have one specific combo most of the time and that’s all they can do. However, these combos do work and they work well. Especially the stealth ones since being able to hide and bide your time allows for some unpredictability even if you are only spamming 1-2 buttons repeatedly.

So far I’m a bit siding with the people calling op since a skilled player with a thief probably can never be killed and a noob with a thief can still hold his own simply by copying the build and memorizing the combo of a thief build video on Youtube.

However, the arguments about copying and pasting other build can be said about all professions. So why do I think this is a worst case for thieves? Well… the reason is probably stealth, even if the thief doesn’t know how to use the build he can still hold his own by stealthing up and biding his time. With the exception of p/p, s/p, and sb (which are rare sights to see as the main weapon btw), all weapons sets have access to stealth. Other professions can’t do this, if they don’t know how to use their build than their dead. No shortcuts and no way to be useful until you actually understands the build you’re using. Plus most thief builds I’ve seen hit quite hard, making a nooby thief still a threat even if he is hiding in stealth 90% of the time and sneaking a hit whenever he feels like it.

I’m speaking from what I’ve seen when I’m playing as a thief, most of the time I travel in groups and the fights I have with thieves tend to end with them disappearing into thin air or me getting killed when a thief spots me with below 50% health. I’ve never fought a thief 1v1 long enough to tell how “op” they are. So far, I’m taking what I’m hearing. Despite seeing more supporters for the thief, I really believe the counterargument carries more detail in info. So that’s where I’m thinking towards as of now.

Thief OP ? no.
But stealth OP ? yes.
Why ? stack stealth and revelation applied only if you attack.
Stack stealth problem : infinite stealth with smoke combo or easy escape with multi stealth skill used in same time. 100% time stealth.
Revelation applied only if you attack : infinite cloack and daguer… 90% time stealth.

WTF ! ^^

Zacchary.6183:

Good thieves are OP vs scrubs.

This. Times a thousand.

Thieves have a high skill ceiling. Playing a thief is great if your opponent is worse at his class than you. But if he or she knows how to play his class and knows how to play against a thief, it’s not so great. If you know the weakness of each thief set, it’s rather easy to counter them. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I still think that a great player (besides perhaps a truely gc one) will NOT be killed or even forced of a point by a thief unless he get’s surprised or unless he gets punished for a positioning error in a team fight.

When a good thief fights a good thief, a lot of the times it’s just rather funny because then you see how ineffective most sets are when you know how they work. Both stealth builds and S/x builds rely on a very gimmicky type of play. It’s getting harder to burst people down, so we have moved to more sustained and prolonged fighting. So we have to rely on either stealth or evades to make up for the fact that we are made of paper, but even then prolonged fights aren’t the forte of the thief.

I think thieves are fun, but really not OP. We are getting nerfed to the point where I would rather play something else in PvP and PvE. Even in WvW I only feel really useful in small skirmishes or against bad players. Usually (no offense) people that think thieves are OP are those who can’t play against them.

We are however very good at annoying people. Evade all day or stealth away!

EDIT: by no means do I think thieves are bad, just not much we can do that another class or build can’t do better

As a player who mains a ranger 99.9% of the time and spends 99.9% of my time in WvW, the answer is no, they are not OP. They do have a high skill cap, so really good players can do amazing things.

I really enjoy fighting thieves and they are one class that does not have an OP build that I know I can’t beat. I almost always (19 out of 20 times kill or force thieves to flee in 1v1. But against good thieves, I’ll sometimes lose, but it’s not because of class mechanics—it’s because I was outplayed. I’ll sometimes be fighting a thief or a thief and a companion, and I’ll get someone on my side to wander by and join the fight. The thief often drops them nearly instantly, which tells me many folks are running builds that they shouldn’t be running if they want to roam. Thieves are better able to capitalize on bad builds and bad play than maybe another other class. But that doesn’t make them OP.

That said, thieves are annoying to fight, because they are very capable of escape if you are beating them and are able to troll you if they desire. But annoying does not = OP.

I have an 80 Thief and an 80 Mesmer both fully geared, I can easily kill any class as Thief and when playing Mesmer there’s absolutely nothing I can do vs a Thief.

So frustrating to be 1 shotted by a player I can’t even see or target

Vexd.1238:

I have an 80 Thief and an 80 Mesmer both fully geared, I can easily kill any class as Thief and when playing Mesmer there’s absolutely nothing I can do vs a Thief.

So frustrating to be 1 shotted by a player I can’t even see or target

I think Mesmers to be the thieves “natural” counter. But that’s up to the player.
Against “good” mesmers I usually have such a hard time I can’t do anything. But I agree that it is really difficult for a mesmer to actually KILL even the average thief.