Guild Wars 2

Hi all, I’m a newbie to GW and haven’t really done much PvP (nor have I established the terms you all use for the different kinds of PvP..!) I have played WoW basically from vanilla, and had quite some success achieving gladiator a few times and having a high rank pre TBC arenas. However, I find myself a little lost with all of the different abilities I can prune to make my own spec.. basically, are there any cookie cutter builds I can use that allow me to survive enough to not get destroyed from a tiny mistake, let me burst quite hard, do SOME (not a lot, but some sustained DPS) and give me the swift movement a Thief should have? not to mention be stealthed a lot. I’ve seen people mention a Trap build, and that being perma stealth (?) how do you achieve permanent stealth, I’ve only just hit 80, and this is my first toon so I have no idea.. can anyone point me out several specs with different play styles so I can have a look please?

Regards

Z

For some builds you can look at (especially meta builds), you can go to this site…
http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

As for a trapper build, you’re going to use Runes of the Trapper which only exist in PvE and WvW. They stealth you when you lay a trap. I use Needle Trap, Ambush, and Shadow Refuge in my utility bar. I have the traits Trapper’s Respite and Deadly Trapper in the Deadly Arts traitline. The Shadow Arts traitline is also recommended.

Dagger/Pistol allows you to stealth on demand by using Black Powder, then Heartseeker through the Smoke Field it leaves. You can actually Heartseeker up to 4 times through the Smoke Field if you practice. You’ll have to have no selected target and also point the camera straight down to shorten the leaps.

Shortbow #5 is what gives you the most mobility. It’s a utility weapon, so don’t rely on it to do enough damage.

Also, if you wish to stay permanently stealthed as well as do damage, you’re going to have to rely on traps, Caltrops, and other “attacks” that don’t do direct damage. For instance, Deadly Arts causes your Steal to poison the enemy. Just don’t use the trait Mug or stealing will Reveal you. The Trickery traitline has Bewildering Ambush which causes Steal to give the enemy Confusion. Also in Trickery, the Uncatchable trait lays a smaller version of Caltrops when the Thief dodge rolls. They cause Bleeding, but no direct damage, so it will not Reveal you.

Just know that doing damage while perma-stealthed is not easy, nor is it very effective. It really does rely on Condition Damage. But you’ll probably have better success with direct Power/Critical damage, though you won’t be able to maintain Stealth indefinitely.

The key to thieving is to really understand when to do what. Also when to press on with the attack and when to run away. It just takes practice. Good luck! :-D

Roll a different class before you become a masochist like the rest of us. Best advice I can think of giving with the current state of things.

Normally I would give a new comer good advice for the thief. But there is nothing good to say anymore. Roll a new class unless you want to use 3 times the effort and skill as any other class and still lose 1v1’s to people passively killing you with ease. Anet seems to think its ok for good thief players to have to do an increadible amount of work and put crazy amount of thought into their attacks to land a kill. I would be ok with this if other classes had to even do a fraction of what we have to do in order to kill something. Do they just expect all new players to be playing thief like veterans with tons of experience? Because that’s the only way a thief is doing kitten in pvp anymore.

All I can say is I hope you enjoy your Thief in PvE (I know I do), because it’s probably not going to be a satisfying profession to PvP with anytime soon.

Hello, welcome to the Titanic, enjoy your trip!