Guild Wars 2

As a former Gladiator and High Warlord in WoW (Rogue), and having played this game since beta but quitting two months after release to return a month or so ago, I usually hate to admit that I’m still a noob. But the point is, even 3 80’s later and plenty of time spent playing, I’m still really new and out of practice with this game.

A few days ago, as much as I love my Guardian, I decided to roll a new class for WvW roaming. As a former WoW Rogue and beta Thief player, I went with Thief… especially after a lot of people on different forums, in my guild, reddit, etc. proclaimed Thief to be a better choice for WvW roaming than my other choice, Engineer.

Long story short, I’m still learning the ropes and find myself dying A LOT, even in PvE (I’m level 60 now so I don’t really count my WvW deaths). Will this be a common re- occurrence at 80 in WvW and in solo PvE?

I certainly hope not, that’s why I’m here to ask for your help. Are there any guides out there (yes, I’ve seen the stickies) or videos/streams that can really help out a new Thief that you’d suggest?

At 80, I was thinking of going with http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoaVlUmaPHdy5E/5Ey2jeqC5JvHk1YZWaFoJA-TsAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNoYZxkAA as I’m not really a HUGE fan of sword unless it’s in PvE (this is a d/p build taken from another thread floating around since the patch).

tl;dr What guides, tips, and tricks would you recommend for a total newbie Thief?[

well, for the PvE side of it a condition based build using death blossom and caltrops to kite and bleed is one of the better ways to level.

as far as your trouble, a lot of it comes from going from guardian to thief. you have gone from a class than can face tank things to a class that is 100% evasion based for defense. one good way to get started is to take 15 points in acrobatics. it will let you dodge more often and give you a bit of an hp boost. another thing is in PvP and WvW learn to disengage. I get the feeling you are over committing to fights, and thieves generally can escape it things aren’t going their way. another way to get used to playing a thief that uses dagger main hand is to use a build putting 30 points into shadow arts. it makes you much much harder to kill, though you often give up extra dodge,initiative, or even some damage because you end up dropping 30 points into a survivability tree. you will still be able to hit hard though, and the added sustain is great for small group fights. also, mixing in some valkyrie or soldiers gear is never a bad thing, and don’t use full berserker gear until you feel you have learned enough about the thief to be able to avoid most serious damage. most thieves that run it are screwing themselves over, though a truly skilled zerker thief is fun to see in action, (even on the receiving end as far as I am concerned). as a foot note, I really need to get off my but and write an into to and basic thieves guide since no one else seems too willing to.

I do die a lot as a thief in WvW but only because I feel I should be able to take on 4+. You should strongly consider 30 in shadow arts as a d/p thief. Healing in stealth is so strong. I have done 30 in critical strikes and 10 in acrobatics (zerk armor) or 20 cs and 20 acro (vitality) but won’t consider dropping 30 in shadow.

I like the laela blackbird roaming d/p thief on youtube lately. Check it out and you need to play a lot to get proficient but it’s a lot of fun! My 80 mesmer is on the bench right now as well as my 80 warrior, eng, and guardian.

Sarej.3802:

As a former Gladiator and High Warlord in WoW (Rogue), and having played this game since beta but quitting two months after release to return a month or so ago, I usually hate to admit that I’m still a noob. But the point is, even 3 80’s later and plenty of time spent playing, I’m still really new and out of practice with this game.

A few days ago, as much as I love my Guardian, I decided to roll a new class for WvW roaming. As a former WoW Rogue and beta Thief player, I went with Thief… especially after a lot of people on different forums, in my guild, reddit, etc. proclaimed Thief to be a better choice for WvW roaming than my other choice, Engineer.

Long story short, I’m still learning the ropes and find myself dying A LOT, even in PvE (I’m level 60 now so I don’t really count my WvW deaths). Will this be a common re- occurrence at 80 in WvW and in solo PvE?

I certainly hope not, that’s why I’m here to ask for your help. Are there any guides out there (yes, I’ve seen the stickies) or videos/streams that can really help out a new Thief that you’d suggest?

At 80, I was thinking of going with http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAoaVlUmaPHdy5E/5Ey2jeqC5JvHk1YZWaFoJA-TsAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNoYZxkAA as I’m not really a HUGE fan of sword unless it’s in PvE (this is a d/p build taken from another thread floating around since the patch).

tl;dr What guides, tips, and tricks would you recommend for a total newbie Thief?[

This is the build i run with when i use s/p and sb in spvp, but i dont know thakittens ideal for d/p. D/P is a very initiative hungry build and i would recommend you take some skills that give you more initiative. It also has the easiest access to stealth so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take some points in the shadow arts trait line. For WvW i run this build here:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-c;4Rw-1-J5R-Fd0;9;5JTJ;202-34A58;26Nl0;9-o-FS-A-6;2Vd-i0o1sYzZ3a-30C70H;2V6Ts;9;9;9;6kkkkkk;9;0V8k3D

the general strategy is to place a black powder shot on the ground use your mouse to aim your view straight down and heart seeker through the black powder 3 times (after some practice 4 times is even better) and then back stab your enemy. My opening attack is generally to do my 4 heartseeker through the black powder to gain stealth and then i steal to the enemy (to get a sweet new skill that can be very helpful depending on the enemy. Guardian for example has an AMAZING steal skill. its a 4s daze) and i backstab them. After you land your back stab drop a black powder, and most people will stand in it long enough for you to get a couple of auto attacks in and then to heart seeker through the field after revealed is gone. The cool part of the heart seeker black powder combo is you dont get revealed on hit with the heartseeker if you do it correctly! So you get extra damage from the heart seeker plus the back stab! And you lose 1 condition after entering stealth and another after 3 seconds, so if you ever get over loaded with condi you can 1) shadow step out 2) heal up and remove your condi with the hs + bp combo 3) shadow step back in and reengage!

This build is very easy to be decent with, but pretty hard to be very good at. I recommend you always carry a sword and dagger in your inventory if you are going to be solo roaming in wvw. I swap short bow for sword dagger if i see that im going to fight a 1) ranger 2) guard 3) ele 4) engi. The #3 skill on your sword is a 2 part skill that will do damage and evade on the first hit and steal 2 boons with decent damage on the second. It will absolutely shut down a class that relies on boons for their defense, but i cant completely get rid of my short bow for its wonderful movement skill (which can work in the z axis) and its great utility.

This isnt really much of a guide, but i hope you can at least get some of the basics for wvw with it. My biggest advice is find other dagger/pistol thieves and fight them as much as possible to learn some cool tricks. Having trouble fighting a certain class? Phantasm memsers maybe? or bunker rangers? Find one in wvw, add them to your party and ask for some duels. It will make you a MUCH better player overall. And dont be afraid to go to spvp dueling arenas to practice even more! Good luck and I hope you enjoy your thief!

Gungnir Grimm.7123:

I really need to get off my but and write an into to and basic thieves guide since no one else seems too willing to.

I have been thinking this too. We could really use to have a stickied threads about playing different builds effectively in pve, wvw, and tpvp.

pve: S/P or D/P —> 5-1-1-1-5-1-1-1-5-1-1-1-5-1-1-1 …

wvw: don’t push too much, don’t wait the very last second to use your teleport/stealth and go away and you will not die too much.
learn when to attack and when to retreat and you’ll be fine.

Here’s a thread from a day or 2 ago asking the exact same thing you’re asking and it has many answers. Read my posts if you want to be good and useful in dungeons.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Requesting-80-thieves-help/first#post2298193