Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I’m not a brand new player; I got the game when it was released in 2012 and played a Warrior for a few months but I found it very boring.

I wanted to try the game out again and I was torn between Elementalist and Thief (Still kind of am) and I am starting to think I’ll enjoy Thief more. I prefer faced paced gameplay with high mobility. I enjoy open world PvE/PvP in most games as well as small scale PvP. I don’t know anyone that plays this anymore so I will mostly be solo for a while.

I’m new to the forums and the first post I read here on the thief boards is, “Which class will you reroll to.” Obviously this doesn’t make me feel too comfortable. Is this class in a really bad state right now? Should I just go Elementalist instead? I was looking forward to some fast paced shadowstep + dagger slashing mobs and players.

If there is another class in this game that fits my playstyle more can someone recommend it? I don’t like pet classes at all by the way…

Thanks

I don’t want to discourage you from playing Thief, but yes, right now we’re in a bit of a bad state PvP wise. A lot of people say it’s a matter of L2P issues but there’s a lot of match-up’s a Thief simply can’t take regardless of your build choice.
You’d need to be a monsterly good player to compete vs some cheese builds which don’t require much skill to play. You can’t afford to make mistakes, as even little ones cost you an arm and a leg + 60% of your health pool.

I mean, playing Thief is pretty kitten fun, but dying to a PU Mesmer or D/D Cele Ele isn’t very fun after the 6th or 7th time.

If you choose your battles carefully, and practice a lot with a specific build then you should be golden…

If you find yourself getting royally romped by specific builds, just try avoid them or think of a counter play-style with your build.

Whether I would recommend Thief to new people, I dunno, Ele is really strong right now. Thief might make a come back if we get some buffs in the right places.

Thank you for your response. Of course the class I finally decide to play is at a weak state, lol =P. Well I’m going to try out Thief for now, if I keep hearing from everyone that they aren’t worth playing then maybe I’ll consider Elementalist instead. I’d hate to spend countless hours leveling up only to find out how frustrating my class is to play compared to Elementalist

If you just take a look at this forum section, you’ll realize Thief is in a pretty bad state. But hey!, look at the bright side, pretty much every 1 v 1 you win at this point is rewarding your play so much more than other classes. So every victory or duel won should be extra delicious for you.

If you play thief currently expect it to be hard; thief’s always been a difficult but skill-rewarding profession however given the majority of other professions have builds that are not only easier to play but vastly more rewarding (unfairly so) than even thief’s strongest build, you can expect your experience to be trying.

don’t let that discourage you if you’re interested in playing with integrity by foregoing the fairweather options though, hotter flames forge stronger steel: sticking to thief and playing with this disadvantage will only make you get even better. once the appropriate nerfs are in place and playing thief is no longer a game of punching upwards, but laterally, you’ll love it.

Showbiz.9725:

Hello,

I’m not a brand new player; I got the game when it was released in 2012 and played a Warrior for a few months but I found it very boring.

I wanted to try the game out again and I was torn between Elementalist and Thief (Still kind of am) and I am starting to think I’ll enjoy Thief more. I prefer faced paced gameplay with high mobility. I enjoy open world PvE/PvP in most games as well as small scale PvP. I don’t know anyone that plays this anymore so I will mostly be solo for a while.

I’m new to the forums and the first post I read here on the thief boards is, “Which class will you reroll to.” Obviously this doesn’t make me feel too comfortable. Is this class in a really bad state right now? Should I just go Elementalist instead? I was looking forward to some fast paced shadowstep + dagger slashing mobs and players.

If there is another class in this game that fits my playstyle more can someone recommend it? I don’t like pet classes at all by the way…

Thanks

Just as long as you don’t expect to have a easier time than other classes (or even some other weapon sets on thief) you will be fine. Play the game the way that suits you, which sounds like a thief, or maybe a melee ranger? Like I said neither are a top class but if you enjoy them, go for it.

Showbiz.9725:

Thank you for your response. Of course the class I finally decide to play is at a weak state, lol =P. Well I’m going to try out Thief for now, if I keep hearing from everyone that they aren’t worth playing then maybe I’ll consider Elementalist instead. I’d hate to spend countless hours leveling up only to find out how frustrating my class is to play compared to Elementalist

In most cases, everything that a thief can do can be done on other classes and done easier/better. In some niche cases the thief excels. But that’s about it. It also has one of the highest skill-caps and a wide gap between godlike and good, and between good and terrible.

By that last line, just roll an ele.

If ya don’t roll an ele and plan to stick around, join the [TEEF], I’m sure someone can/will help ya.

Oh and lube up, cuz the nerf bat will not only hit you… but will go in places you never knew it could go.

~ Welcome to the thief community.

Do it.

The thing I dig about this class is it’s the underdog or black sheep of the family. I knew that at release and nothing has changed. It’s a hard and brutal class to main and expect to be the bane of the community…..but I love that.

If that’s your buzz and you enjoy the play style and the challenge the class will bring roll one and enjoy.

If not play Warrior, Mesmer or Elementalist. Easymode.

Generally thief is pretty fun (hence why i spent 90% of my time on main/alt accounts on thief), they are fast paced, have great moblity, escapes and are very risky but as posters above me said other classes can do most things better than you, however i must say playing them is just boring.

Now, in pve anything works. Really. Thief is also in decent spot there, some dungeon groups actually want thieves for their stealth and skipping capability. Their dmg is also quite high. Even in pve however you can get one shotted if boss just looks at you so kind of need to be careful.

PvP/wvW is different story: players are not mobs, they don’t follow same rotation, they use strongest builds their class has to offer usually. It just happend that thanks to consistent QQ over past 3 years devs nerfed this class almost every single patch which led thieves to their current state: very risky, not really rewarding in most cases, given same skill level they can’t 1v1 any class right now really, can’t participate in big fights either, they heavily rely on their team to be good. Thieves still do have fixed spot in tournament teams. Why? They are very fast despite being otherwise rather a lackluster. Their main role is
- to get to other points fast and decap them while enemy is not watching,
- get to teammates fast and create outnumbered situation like 2v1 so you could gank enemy fast and move to next point
- thanks to SA minor trait they are really good at rezzing teammates in downed state
- they have few ways to grant stealth to teammates
- they are capable of stopping rezzes/stomps even through stability thanks to steal/trickery trait line

The problem is as i said, you need a good team that you can rely on. If you play/queue alone as thief or do wvw solo you will find yourself being hardly useful most of the time. It takes great investment and skill to be actually effecient on thief and any team right now that want a thief, want really really good one. Mediocre, just good won’t cut it. As new player you will have to invest thousands of hours and games to be somehow ok thief.

Also, while i can faceroll and make a lot of mistakes on dd ele right now for example, on thief i have to play every other class to know how they work so i know how to fight them because 1, max 2 mistakes on thief usually ends up with thief being dead. So it is extra time investment.

Bottom line, if you want just to have some fun atm play anything but thief. Thief is only fun when you are actually really good at it and can get that awesome feeling of confirmation that you are good when you beat classes that you shouldn’t have ( THAT satisfaction i get when i beat dd eles mmmmm).

Oh, and i forgot to say, that thieves are most hated class in gw2: other classes hate us for our mechanics and for what we did in first year of this game so get ready to be constantly verbally harassed by players; devs keep promising us things and even post those things in patch notes but actually never implement them.

Roll a mesmer. Far more effective in the types of fights you list and their mobility is quite good at least in a combat setting. The current skirmish ele builds… well… single build (cele D/D) are very good but rely on tankiness and sustained AoE damage to win.

avoid the forums and you’ll enjoy thief a lot more.

Yes, roll a Mesmer.