Guild Wars 2

Yesterday I spent quite sometime in WvW, using D/D SB (0/30/30/10/0) build, and this is what I think about Thieves:

1- Enemy Thieves: As with every active borderland, there were a lot of roaming thieves. Not a single one lived in a 1vX situation against us, D/P lasted the most, but even those died afterwards without succeeding in downing anyone. I smiled everytime I saw my autoattack chaining, I even got a CnD off of a stealthed thief. When fighting them, just keep in mind that thieves don’t always instantly teleport after stealth, and when they stealth keep autoattacking, if it chains, then you are hitting them. Do not walk straight, do not stick to one direction, always keep turning around randomly. If you do so, most of the times they will fail their backstab and hit you for around 2k frontstab. Once they do, you have 4 seconds to down them.

2- Ally Thieves and zergs: What you can do is this, if your shadowstep skill and Dagger storm are ready, CnD + steal on someone in the enemy zerg, then daggerstorm, and when your health reaches around 20%, shadowstep out towards your allies. Do this when the enemies are running away, or when your allies charging. This will put a lot of pressure against the enemies. Otherwise, use shortbow to try and tag as many players as you can. AOE is your worst enemy, don’t push yourself unless you have a way out.

3- Backstab damage: My damage ranged between 5k and 9k. 5k was a common damage on level 80s where as 7k-9k was common against up-leveled players. Those who do way more damage have sacrificed their survivability and are susceptible to being downed faster.

4- Getting Downed: Did I live through the whole event? No, I died, and so did many other thieves. We aren’t Invincible, everytime we over commit we have a greater chance, than any other class, to die. I’ve seen warriors/Guardians/Elementalists run through my allies and actually live a long long time before they get downed, or run back.

5- Mesmers: Mesmers gave me the hardest time, especially when my shadowstep was on cooldown. They had this combo that immobilized me and threw a lot of clones against me. Guess that’s the shatterer build. If I had my shadowstep, I usually break out of it easily, and sometimes CnDing the clones breaks me free as well. I was roaming with my mesmer friend, we encountered quite a few mesmers, and some even were able to escape a 2v2 situation after we had the upperhand. Even my mesmer friend lived just as long as I did while we were fighting against zergs. So thieves aren’t the only slippery class.

In conclusion, thieves aren’t OP, not even close, especially if you know how to deal with them. Most of them are predictable, and not all of them are pro. To be honest, any class played by a good player will give you a lot of trouble whether it was an ele, guardian, warrior, ranger, or even a necromancer. D/P and S/x have more mobility than other builds, but even they aren’t that big of a threat. Did they run away? Don’t fret, there are tons of other players, including thieves, you can pick on. You never know, you might even encounter that same thief later on and take your revenge.

I wish I could fraps some of my fights on WvW.
I’m not the best thief out there, but I think I’m a decent player, and while on my thief I have some ways of escaping, other classes are just as slipery.

Some warriors are just impossible to pin down. Perma swiftness, nearly immunity to immo/cripple/chill and tons of mobility skills (that can even break immo). Be it with warhorn, shield block, sword or GS dashes, they can run like few others can.

Engies can be impossible to get also. Perma swiftness and vigor, tons of utilities to stun/immo/cripple you while running away and using tool-kit shield to block and/or elixirs to get invul.

x/D Eles are just a waste of time to run after. Even when you miraculously get them downed before they reach a tower they just vapor form to safety.

Rangers can be nearly impossible to get. Unless they are some dual-bow wielding zergling. The ones with GS//Sw/d can run a mile in stability while having their dogs cc’ing you. If they run a power build with signet mastery (active effects of signets affect the ranger) you wont get them when they run.

Any norn that decides to use his elite is gone across the map before he comes out of stealth.

Any time I face one of those people running away, I get really kitten ed. Not because they can run from me, thats no OP, but because people still say that the thief is the only one that can get away from fights…

I agree with you that any class, if built around mobility, can be slippery. The difficulty of applying it ranges though, for instance, mesmers can be just as slippery as a thief. They can easily switch up with their clone and stealth, then make a run for it. Guardians, Elementalists, Engineers, hunters, and warriors can dash forward using different weapon skills while applying different buffs. Necromancers on the other hand aren’t meant to run away, so even if built around mobility, it can be a bit hard to disengage. All in all, thieves definitely not the only slippery class.

I’ve recently switched from S/D to D/P just for the survivability in stealth. I’m still learning and I’m certainly not the best thief around, but D/P gives you all the stealth you need, on demand, it’s a huge advantage in outnumbered situations.

Another advantage is D/P probably has the best gap closers of any thief set. HS a few times to get in range and the 3rd skill will keep you on top of your target, I love it!