Guild Wars 2

Several questions really.

1. How do you guys deal with condition damage builds? (most namely, burn guards and condi engineers)
2. In the case where you are forced to fight and win an essential 1v1 (as in the person has seen you and is coming for you on point), what is usually the best way to engage them (especially classes with stealth and huge burst like engineer/ mesmer)?

3. How well does Sword/dagger perform against pistol dagger?

I’m not complaining that thief is essentially a +1 role at the moment, but the inability for an inexperienced player to challenge against the current meta is a bit disheartening.

You shouldn’t deal with condi damage build in 1vs1.

You have low chance to win and basically no chance to keep the node.

So leave and go to help your team mates in another node.

You should be looking to get decaps on other nodes if you have a 1v1; since thieves have the best mobility in the game.

You should post your build. Can’t really give a good answer without knowing that.

For #2 though I want to say that it helps to save your stunbreaks, if you run any, for until you actually get stunned/knocked down. Also try to contest stealth. Stealth doesn’t make you invulnerable. Landing a few hits off onto someone when they’re stealthed will help swing the match in your favor. Also, if you’re willing to, it’s good to practice 1v1’ing against those builds you’re having trouble with in dueling rooms.

1. you try to dodge as most as you can (as its your only way to survive in general…). If you get high amount of conditions use shadowstep return to remove 3 conditions.
   After that – just run away.
2. Go 1v1 only against another thiefs. Other 1v1s you’ll probably gonna lose or you’ll have to run away or it will take you way too long to kill it and you’ll get outnumbered.
3. Not so good – If thief is a good player he’ll use his blinds way too often and you’ll have problems landing your hits.

In general – as thief you only enter fights when numbers are on your side. If you see mass fight 3v3+ either:
a) run on the free point
b) Be patient and wait for some1 to get low hp and jump on it to down it.
If you jump in 2+ red circles you’ll probably get downed before you realize it…

Thiefs are not so good this days in pvp

Weo weo.6378:

Several questions really.

1. How do you guys deal with condition damage builds? (most namely, burn guards and condi engineers)
2. In the case where you are forced to fight and win an essential 1v1 (as in the person has seen you and is coming for you on point), what is usually the best way to engage them (especially classes with stealth and huge burst like engineer/ mesmer)?

3. How well does Sword/dagger perform against pistol dagger?

I’m not complaining that thief is essentially a +1 role at the moment, but the inability for an inexperienced player to challenge against the current meta is a bit disheartening.

1.) You don’t at all/don’t alone. You bring an ally with AOE cleanses. Though you should probably be doing your job and looking for open points instead of fighting.

2.) You don’t. No 1v1’s are essential. If you’re forced into a 1v1, either you or your team is slacking. You are there to cap points that are not defended and 2v1/gank when outnumbering your enemy if it’s necessary if all points are being defended, and your allies can sustain the damage. Pretty much boils down to not attacking and hoping they blow cooldowns once you leave stealth every few seconds (if you can afford the risk/are not on point), and then stealthing up again.

3.) Eh. I’d argue it’s a skill matchup this way. S/D has enough mobility and evades to not die and let the S/P gut burn all of his initiative, but lacks a lot of the offense needed to take down someone playing S/P without running them dry of initiative first. Assuming both keep up with their stunbreaks/withdraws and IS/IR’s, with the amount of time spent baiting initiative/skills from each other, someone else is likely to enter the fray and tip the scales. S/P might have a very slight advantage, but again, it’s still pretty slight, as it pretty much would depend on the S/D player screwing up more than once.

It’s not you/your skill level. The class itself is just straight up bad at fighting in sPvP, and currently based on the WvW meta, even pretty weak there. You look at the best thieves in the game, and they pretty much skip the fighting and just take points, because they also know they’re not going to win if the opponent is any good.

That said, spamming D/P 3 is a pretty good way to kill isolated targets. A constant blind/gap-closing/high damage/unblockable skill at 4 initiative is pretty good. Mathematically better than trying to backstab if you’re just looking for damage.

1v1’s for a thief aren’t nearly bad enough to where it’s sound advice to run from and avoid every 1v1 scenario possible. Thieves can get a lot of momentum from unexpected initial bursts, in actual fights your opponents skills and stunbreaks can be on cd, and generally speaking there will be times where it’s better to try and 1v1 for 15-20 seconds rather than trying to force yourself to go for +1’s that aren’t there. Ye it might be your team’s fault if the optimal things for you to do at a given moment aren’t what your role is optimized for. But at the end of the day you’ll still have to do those things if you want to win.

This thread basically sums up how bad thieves are, assuming all the advice was given in good faith.

Oh, I didnt the realize things were like this for the thief. Thanks for the input guys, despite all things against it, I still find it a highly enjoyable class to play.

Im simply playing meta build http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Thief_-_Dagger/Pistol except I’ve been using a cele amulet over marauders from old habit.

I’d definitely not recommend cele for that build. Cele is normally for builds that have a balance of condition, healing on traits, and direct damage. That build is all direct damage.

Ye, drop cele for Marauder. That’s probably why you’re having such bad results. Thief gains little to nothing from the toughness/healing/condi of cele. Most classes that run cele anywho compensate for the low stats by their ability to stack might.

Also some more advice for that build in particular. Keep in mind that you clear condi’s and gain initiative in stealth. So if you’re stacked with conditions use steal (you’re traited to stealth on steal), black powder → heartseeker, blinding powder, or shadow refuge to clear your condi’s. You can also quickly use shadow step/shadow return to clear three conditions if you need to (Good against burst condi appliers). Also try to prod your enemies/get free hits in by using the sb. Not a lot of classes can heavily apply condi’s from afar. If you can force your opponent to swap to a ranged weapon by using sb, you can swap to d/p and quickly gapclose for an advantage. Honestly the meta d/p thief has enough condi clear to where it shouldn’t have a problem against burn guardians. But if you want even more condi clear you can equip a sigil of generosity on your sb.

Also against mesmers/engies/warriors keep in mind that Shadowstep functions as two stunbreaks. One on cast and one on return. You’ll want to get good at stunbreaking the instant you get dazed, snared, or knocked down. Most people follow up their stuns with burst, so you’ll gain a lot from stunbreaking as soon as possible (Mesmer’s in particular are traited to deal extra damage to you if you’re stunned/holding still. So if you get stunned by a mesmer you better be expecting a burst followup). Also try save shadow return for as long as possible so that you might be able to break another stun with it. Most classes that bring hard cc bring more than one, so you’ll want to save shadow return for as long as possible in case they use another hard cc on you.

Last suggestion I’d have is to not contest invulns. If you see a ranger’s who’s proc’d signet of stone, warrior who’s using endure pain, mesmer’s that has distortion, or engy that went mini then don’t fight them and try to disengage until it runs out. Black powder → Heartseeker x3 if you have to. Only invuln you can contest is a guardian’s meditation, since thrill of the crime let’s you daze through the stability.