Guild Wars 2

So im new to thief and need some help learning. To begin with i know playing the class more will help but id still like some advice. In the videos of most good thief players ive seen they hardly ever use their mouse point which leads me to believe they are using the mouse to control their characters movement? If mouse moment is the correct thing to use how should i target people because tab targeting kinda sucks.

I guess i just really need help learning how to move and not feel so clunky. So mouse movement yes or no, and what sort of key bind setting work well.

Tab-targetting or temporarily release the movement button and click on whoever you want.
(Azerty/qwerty)
z/w forward
q/a strafe left
s backwards
d strafe right
Mouse button right for movement.

Just saying ahead in case you do this: Use 1-2-… for skills and not by clicking on them.

Im am aware not to click skills.

there are some general ways to set up keyboard and movement that certainly help as a whole in gw2, not just playing thief. I didnt come up with all of these, just listing the ones I use.

1)remap keys – 6-9 skills are hard to reach on the keyboard. assuming you use wasd for movement, remap them to nearby letter keys, or if you have a multibutton mouse map them there. I use q,e,z,x,c for these, after a while, you get used to it, and using that elite becomes something trivial, rather than requiring moving your whole hand.

2)dodge roll…this is important in general but especially for thief. mine is mapped to middle mouse button. I also took off double tap to dodge roll because it was not working consistently and hurt me during jumping puzzles.
3)replace turn with strafe. if you use mouse to turn, a and d can strafe instead, which is more useful for mobility.
4)get rid of backwards. this took some getting used to, but was a great change. walking backwards is slow. strafing while looking sideways accomplishes the same thing (i.e. being able to attack your target while moving away), but it also lets you move at full speed. As others have put it, walking backwards = self crippling. I remapped s to quick-turn, rather than move backwards. it took about two days to get used to, but it has really payed off in effectiveness and damage mitigation.

there are more little things but that should get you started.

The mouse wheel for roll is a great idea should have though of that.

What ive been using for a while has benn 1-5 for weapons skills r(right strafe) e(forward) and w( left strafe) QASFG ( for my other skills) ` for weapons swap.

Im not oppressed to switching to different key binds if need be but is there anything wrong with that ones ive been using?

So i do need to get used to controlling character movement form the mouse and only switching to keyboard movement when i have to select something with the mouse?

Eon.5428:

The mouse wheel for roll is a great idea should have though of that.

What ive been using for a while has benn 1-5 for weapons skills r(right strafe) e(forward) and w( left strafe) QASFG ( for my other skills) ` for weapons swap.

Im not oppressed to switching to different key binds if need be but is there anything wrong with that ones ive been using?

So i do need to get used to controlling character movement form the mouse and only switching to keyboard movement when i have to select something with the mouse?

if your keybinds work for you, no need to change them…unless you are really seeking a perfectly optimized set-up, which probably doesn’t matter except at the highest levels of play in any game.

Regarding mouse control, I use mouse to turn, but use wad to move forward and side to side. Then I also use mouse/tab to target (depending on how many opponents / how lazy I’m feeling). I also use mouse to ground target. Since you have strafing on the keyboard, it is trivial to move in reaction, even while selecting an opponent. The only thing you can’t do is move the camera around while selecting opponents…not a huge deal, really.

OP: The clips you’ve seen where players don’t click target with their mouse are misleading. Fraps and other similar programs give you the option to remove the cursor completely. So these good thieves probably use a combination of tab/click targeting, but you just can’t see it.

So been practicing playing and it feels smoother with the binds and such after i tried it in spvp some so i could have all my skills and such. The mouse wheel for dodge rolling has helped a lot really great tip. Also wasn’t aware of how fraps works so thanks for that.

I guess now its just practice and picking a build so thanks for the help guys.