Guild Wars 2

Honestly, Ive been playing thief for 2 years, MAINING thief as well. But it honestly feels like this class is dying, I see almost no one playing thief in GW2.

Warriors and Guardians everywhere, Mesmers everywhere, Elementalists everwhere, you even see more Rangers than Thiefs. It’s honestly sad, DD was underwhelming, reused animations, poor damage, etc. This sucks, thief is the only fun class to me.

But Arenanet is treating thiefs like utter garbage and it makes me sick.

Is their honestly any real reason to play thief anymore?

ANY AT ALL?

RIP Thief, you’re downfall begins now.

Time to afk in LA with my big stupid greatsword just like all the other warriors/guardians.

Fun! Cheer up man. We don’t have much to be thankful for at the moment. I also main thief, 95% of my hours on my thief since headstart, other 5% on 2 other classes. But every time I hop onto one of them I go back to my thief within the hour, because I get bored.

It’s about fun as you mentioned! I still have good success roaming in WVW and I still feel pretty strong in 1v1, barring a few builds that are seriously troublesome to fight against.

Can’t comment on DD though, haven’t played it.

I sure hope thiefs get some help man.

Because honestly the meta is now: Ele, Warrior, Guardian.

Everything else is so lackluster. (Decent, but compared to the above classes, stand no chance.)

Looking at where the game is heading, I personally wouldn’t expect it to change anytime soon. The 3 Traitlines bullkitten practically killed any classes’ weakness for burst damage and thus any incentive to play thief outside of coordinated PvP.

This game has gone full casual, so I wouldn’t expect any major buffs to a class that requires a certain player mindset and balancing environment to shine. From my experience thief players are on average the most competitive oriented players, which just conflicts with the overall casualness that GW2 has become.

Shelved my thief ever since this garbage patch and went for s/f fresh air, a build that feels closest to what thief once was like. Can’t be kitten d playing SA bullkitten, a spec that solely gets carried by tons of passive procs, just like any other meta spec. Jesus christ this game has gone full cancer, thanks ANet.

i feel ya mate.. i feel exactly the same. tho i totally gave up and re-rolled mesmer. but i dont enjoy it. and i keep thinkin to play Thief again. but whenever i create one and hop into hot join i notice its still the same crap. i’d understand if i’d be a terrible rookie player then i couldnt complain. but now? sorry. i played Thief for so long and i barely used to loose any 1v1s. be it medi guard ir dd ele. even 1v2’s i used to pull out. and now? with same build i can barely survive a 1v1. GW devs should really start thinking something cuz now its really obvious that Thief population is dying. and some people might just quit entire game cuz they cant really enjoy other classes. same as me.. i noticed i play alot less now, cuz i cant truly enjoy Mesmer.

laquito.5269:

Shelved my thief ever since this garbage patch and went for s/f fresh air, a build that feels closest to what thief once was like. Can’t be kitten d playing SA bullkitten, a spec that solely gets carried by tons of passive procs, just like any other meta spec. Jesus christ this game has gone full cancer, thanks ANet.

I feel ya man, the problem I have with this is that I spent thousands of gold and hours on my thief – multiple sets of ascended gear, legendaries, etc. I just cannot justify doing this for another toon – so I have decided to stick it out on thief for better or worse.

Still sucks though.

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Dave.6819:

i feel ya mate.. i feel exactly the same. tho i totally gave up and re-rolled mesmer. but i dont enjoy it. and i keep thinkin to play Thief again. but whenever i create one and hop into hot join i notice its still the same crap. i’d understand if i’d be a terrible rookie player then i couldnt complain. but now? sorry. i played Thief for so long and i barely used to loose any 1v1s. be it medi guard ir dd ele. even 1v2’s i used to pull out. and now? with same build i can barely survive a 1v1. GW devs should really start thinking something cuz now its really obvious that Thief population is dying. and some people might just quit entire game cuz they cant really enjoy other classes. same as me.. i noticed i play alot less now, cuz i cant truly enjoy Mesmer.

Yeah same here, I also play a lot less than I used to. I really tried to like the changes and make things work, but I simply can’t, it’s impossible. I’ve played S/D thief for almost 3 years straight, but it’s garbage now. Also tried the old Crit strikes D/P, it’s soooo lackluster and weak compared to the old, so that I usually end up rerolling to my Ele. S/F really isn’t meta, but it still feels so much stronger than my thief.

This game is practically dead, the June patch was just the last straw that made a lot of people leave and with ANets inability or unwillingness to adress the obvious problems (see PvP forum), we may aswell quit alltogether and move on. It’s a shame, this game had huge potential but rather turned into Casual Wars 2.

It’s sad that we are losing a fun class. I have no plans on playing any other class. I will wait for them to rework the thief class.

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

That is not true at all. S/D with Daredevil line work very smoothly and it was the most fun I had in days.

Mobility is the only thing that thief brings to the table in 5v5 (Where Anet does all its balancing). It was my secret hope that one of the new spec lines would add mobility on par with thief highlighting its otherwise poor performance as it would no longer be a good choice.

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Warriors and guardians can still use bolt ^_^

Well I guess I picked a good time to start learning thief in PvP lol

Agemnon.4608:

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Warriors and guardians can still use bolt

And mesmers

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Actually, it’s the only spec confirmed to be useful with DD so far (other than some gimmicky Condi builds), so maybe you should have wasted that time and cash

I think most of the legendaries look bad—including Bolt—so that makes it easy for me.

On the PVE side I still see plenty of thieves. The rarest class by far is the engineer., which is weird because I’d argue strongly that it is the second best class in the game.

But in PVP I can understand the absence. With their new buffs, mesmers out-thief the thief. For awhile the reverse was true, though, so I guess it is their time to shine.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

But in PVP I can understand the absence. With their new buffs, mesmers out-thief the thief. For awhile the reverse was true, though, so I guess it is their time to shine.

With the difference that mesmers were build around their clones, or so I thought. So now they have invulnerability, their clones and stealth as defenses – doesn’t really make sense to me.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

On the PVE side I still see plenty of thieves. The rarest class by far is the engineer., which is weird because I’d argue strongly that it is the second best class in the game.

But in PVP I can understand the absence. With their new buffs, mesmers out-thief the thief. For awhile the reverse was true, though, so I guess it is their time to shine.

Classes shouldn’t be balanced around “it is their time to shine”.

Cynz.9437:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

On the PVE side I still see plenty of thieves. The rarest class by far is the engineer., which is weird because I’d argue strongly that it is the second best class in the game.

But in PVP I can understand the absence. With their new buffs, mesmers out-thief the thief. For awhile the reverse was true, though, so I guess it is their time to shine.

Classes shouldn’t be balanced around “it is their time to shine”.

Not balanced. Just is.

I feel you man. I’ve put in years – thousands of hours on my thief. I shelved my thief because it feels so under-powered to me, really glassy. Right now I’m using warrior, which I’m loving at the moment. Thief really needs some re-work. Also I hate the fact that Mesmers heavily out stealth thieves, kitten ridiculous. lol :/

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Fear not you can still make bolt as it can be used on Revenant the clearly better than thief in every-way class now lol.

Stinja.9612:

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Fear not you can still make bolt as it can be used on Revenant the clearly better than thief in every-way class now lol.

till next balance-patch…

I’m by no means a Thief master, but I’ve played enough to be able to chime in with my two cents.

I took a two month break from mid-May to towards the end of June. So when I came back, the new Masteries were a surprise to me.

I play exclusively WvW so hopefully I can cover that section for Thief gameplay. Oh boy, what a kittenfest it is for Thieves right now. We can scout, cap sentries and camps… That’s about it. Our dueling state is in a complete mess. We can hardly even gank players, as a lot of builds are super tanky or defensive. Only really glass builds die to Thieves as our burst potential has been kitten dramatically.

Yes, I can build my Thief to crit for 22k… But I also get less than 12k HP and all my utility skills are offensive, so even a lowly cripple can kill me, ezpz.

Anyway, it took me a long time to realise what the problem with Thief was. I mean, the big problem. The small ones are trait problems and choices… But I finally realised, the problem wasn’t Thieves. It was everyone other class being one-step-ahead of us.

Every class got a buff or upgrade in some sort. Some classes even got access to new extremely strong cheese builds. The burn condition got a massive buff, making cheese Guardians and Ele Condi builds unstoppable if you couldn’t instantly clear the 10+ stacks of burn (which tick for over 6k per second).

You know what we got? A buff to Trapper Thief. That’s it. That’s all.

Roaming in WvW is extremely difficult for Thieves, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Using D/P or any slight variation just isn’t as effective anymore. 6k-9k Backstabs don’t really do much anymore, we can’t burst hard enough because almost every class is farting out Protection, Blind or Aegis every few seconds. Mesmers are sweating perspiration made of invisible juice. They’re invis more than we are!

I fondly recall duelling a Warrior who was hitting harder than my Backstabs. 8k Rush? 7.5k Whirlwind? 3 or 4 hits of 100 Blades? 10~k ish?

My HP? 14k.

Their HP? 20k.

Are you kidding me? ?_?

I have to roll Wurm Runes, almost full Valk armour and Furious Maintenance Oils just to get some decent health at the cost of useful Runes and crit chance.

It’s killing me inside to play Thief. I love it so much but it’s getting really annoying to play. I stream every single day and the only builds I get decent success with are cheesey builds with specific niches. The Ghost Thief comes to mind.

I’m really considering rerolling sometime soon. I cherish my viewers who only come to watch Thief gameplay but dying or losing a fight purely based on class, not skill, is really kittening annoying to a very competitive person like myself.

When it comes down to the bottom of it, some days I lose every one vs one because I’m constantly running into PU Mesmers or some days I have relatively okay days where I’m performing well enough.

I shouldn’t have to run away from players purely because of their build. That’s just not good grounds for PvP in an MMO. Thief needs some loving, and it needs it fast, unlikely as it will be. Also, as Anet wants to balance classes around PvP, they should at least look into balancing in WvW, specifically towards things ONLY AVAILABLE in WvW. Perplexity Runes, I’m lookin’ right at you.

I could go on for hours on how to balance a Thief from a WvW stand point, but there’s no point right now. When Anet opens up for idea’s, I’ll personally post a 10,000 word essay on Thief balance if I need to.

Apologies for the long post.

Good! I want less players playing thieves. I’ve played thief for long enough that I can still 1v1 most faceroll builds as of today. The less thieves there are the more room for me as a thief.

Tykngr.8502:

Good! I want less players playing thieves. I’ve played thief for long enough that I can still 1v1 most faceroll builds as of today. The less thieves there are the more room for me as a thief.

thats the way i saw it when warriors got nerfed lol but i just got tired of it now

koSTEEZ.2041:

RIP Thief, you’re downfall begins now.

/snip

Saying it begins just now is being very, very, very, very late to the show.

If it’s any bit reassuring: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/so-how-do-you-kill-ele/first#post5445425 (In case you haven’t seen it already).

Midi.8359:

If it’s any bit reassuring: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/so-how-do-you-kill-ele/first#post5445425 (In case you haven’t seen it already).

Don’t get my hopes up with stuff like this – in the end I will be left crying!

Shogun.7401:

It’s sad that we are losing a fun class. I have no plans on playing any other class. I will wait for them to rework the thief class.

Ranger players waited over two years to get marginal class updates. Still my favorite GW2 fan video is the Ranger Hitler video:

Lets hope this type of video isn’t needed for the thief class.

Straegen.2938:

Shogun.7401:

It’s sad that we are losing a fun class. I have no plans on playing any other class. I will wait for them to rework the thief class.

Ranger players waited over two years to get marginal class updates. Still my favorite GW2 fan video is the Ranger Hitler video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htHRErZM7QM

Lets hope this type of video isn’t needed for the thief class.

lol it is long overdue

Agemnon.4608:

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Warriors and guardians can still use bolt

I made Incinerator though. :o Wish Guardian got a Dagger spec. I can use it on my Necro though which is my 2nd favorite class but everyone hates them in PvE. ;s

I been Thief main since beta though and play it probably 95% of the time and still rekt people with my kitten y builds. Hoping Staff and Dagger can work well together. Really wish I could wield my Dagger along side Rodgort though. /sigh

Straegen.2938:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htHRErZM7QM

Lets hope this type of video isn’t needed for the thief class.

Not sure I’m okay with Hitler being a player of the same class I am even for the sake of a joke, but the point that we’re basically going to need to use goofy comedy to get anyone to notice our kampf is just sad.

Personally, it’s not entirely the fact that Thief is “useless”. I think a large part of the problem is that the areas that were supposed to be the Thief’s “niche” are slowly being intruded upon by other professions – namely Mesmers.

I personally feel as though Thieves aren’t “horrible” by any stretch of imagination, but it seems to me that we’re losing our identity. I’m beginning to become confused as to what our actual place in the game is, is anyone else thinking this?

While we’re still extremely mobile, other classes offer more mobility. Okay, so we’re primarily a single target spike, but slowly and surely, Mesmers and Elementalists are beginning to offer the same level of single target spike damage Thieves are capable of – even Revenants are looking as though they might be a viable single target spike profession, with the level of isolation mechanics Shiro offers. Okay, well we still have our stealth – but that’s being kitten ’d as well, it’s “OP” people said. So it was stripped away from us, made to be less formidable. Now, other professions (again, namely Mesmers) are being given stealth that, in many situations, competes with what Thieves are capable of. Stealth was our one line of defense as well, and now that that’s been toned down, we’re much more susceptible to damage than any other profession in the game. We had very little condition cleansing available to us, and an extremely low health pool, meaning conditions are extremely lethal when used against us. Well, that’s okay – at least our condition cleansing (or lack thereof) is on par with Engineers, right? Well no, that’s changing as well with the introduction of Scrapper – the developers felt as though Engineers needed a more sustainable way to cleanse themselves of conditions – and here we are, sitting by the wayside.

Thieves are slowly losing their footing in every area of the game they were supposed to excel in, and being surpassed in other areas that were supposedly designed as “counter plays”; we just get to sit back and watch while areas of weakness are buffed within other professions so they’re able to remain competitive, while we get three dodges that lack functionality and sloppy-seconds for our elite specialization animations and the developers call it a day.

Thieves aren’t inherently horrible by design, but we’re losing our identity. We’re getting stale, while other professions are not only getting their rough edges smoothed out, but given utility that encroaches on the few aspects of the game we’re supposed to remain the “best” at to make up for any hint of survivability or sustain.

Doggie.3184:

Agemnon.4608:

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Warriors and guardians can still use bolt

I made Incinerator though. :o Wish Guardian got a Dagger spec. I can use it on my Necro though which is my 2nd favorite class but everyone hates them in PvE. ;s

I been Thief main since beta though and play it probably 95% of the time and still rekt people with my kitten y builds. Hoping Staff and Dagger can work well together. Really wish I could wield my Dagger along side Rodgort though. /sigh

Elementalist can use incinerator too. I made The Dreamer and sadly the only other class that can use it is ranger I think elementalist should get shortbow too because I use the class and weapon but obviously at different times.

Necro should be super popular in PvE because they have lifesteal wells, meaning damage enemies and healing the team all at the same time in addition to other wells. Next big weapon to make on my list might be Mjolnir, but it’s super expensive on the TP for a reason (precursor money last time I checked) since I like using hammers on guardians and warriors.

Agemnon.4608:

Doggie.3184:

Agemnon.4608:

Smollett.6270:

Thank God i didn’t waste my time and cash on Bolt…S/D thief dead in HoT

Warriors and guardians can still use bolt

I made Incinerator though. :o Wish Guardian got a Dagger spec. I can use it on my Necro though which is my 2nd favorite class but everyone hates them in PvE. ;s

I been Thief main since beta though and play it probably 95% of the time and still rekt people with my kitten y builds. Hoping Staff and Dagger can work well together. Really wish I could wield my Dagger along side Rodgort though. /sigh

Elementalist can use incinerator too. I made The Dreamer and sadly the only other class that can use it is ranger I think elementalist should get shortbow too because I use the class and weapon but obviously at different times.

Necro should be super popular in PvE because they have lifesteal wells, meaning damage enemies and healing the team all at the same time in addition to other wells. Next big weapon to make on my list might be Mjolnir, but it’s super expensive on the TP for a reason (precursor money last time I checked) since I like using hammers on guardians and warriors.

I try to like Elementalist but I just simply don’t. They were my 2nd favorite in GW1 and I dislike the way they changed them for GW2 to basically force you to use and swap between all Elements instead of making all of them well rounded and usable for damage/control/defense individually. Dagger is also my least enjoyed skillset on them. The only style I ever found remotely fun is Fresh Air build and it lacks use throughout all content when you have no aoes. Only thing I truly like about my Ele is that he’s the cutest Asura in existence.

As for Necro, which was my 3rd fav in GW1 who replaced Ele forever; I’ve been putting more work into getting his Ascended zerker armor. It helps me like him even more when their power dagger style feels similar and as destructive as Thief. Is Reaper really able top Death Shroud though? I can basically deal backstab damage from far distance with that. Reaper must 1shot people to compare if it’s going to be melee.

I have no weapons to work towards as far as Thief goes. No interest in Bolt and the SB and Pistol Legendaries make me very unhappy doge. Was holding onto all the mats, including precursors, for Rodgort and Kamohoali’i Kotaki in hopes of Thief getting Torch or Landspears, which was unlikely but had nothing else to do. Now that Staff is revealed I have Chaos Staff to use forever since I don’t want a Rainbow Staff. Hopefully the new Legendaries are more serious. :|

Al Shamari.7234:

Personally, it’s not entirely the fact that Thief is “useless”. I think a large part of the problem is that the areas that were supposed to be the Thief’s “niche” are slowly being intruded upon by other professions – namely Mesmers.

I personally feel as though Thieves aren’t “horrible” by any stretch of imagination, but it seems to me that we’re losing our identity. I’m beginning to become confused as to what our actual place in the game is, is anyone else thinking this?

While we’re still extremely mobile, other classes offer more mobility. Okay, so we’re primarily a single target spike, but slowly and surely, Mesmers and Elementalists are beginning to offer the same level of single target spike damage Thieves are capable of – even Revenants are looking as though they might be a viable single target spike profession, with the level of isolation mechanics Shiro offers. Okay, well we still have our stealth – but that’s being kitten ’d as well, it’s “OP” people said. So it was stripped away from us, made to be less formidable. Now, other professions (again, namely Mesmers) are being given stealth that, in many situations, competes with what Thieves are capable of. Stealth was our one line of defense as well, and now that that’s been toned down, we’re much more susceptible to damage than any other profession in the game. We had very little condition cleansing available to us, and an extremely low health pool, meaning conditions are extremely lethal when used against us. Well, that’s okay – at least our condition cleansing (or lack thereof) is on par with Engineers, right? Well no, that’s changing as well with the introduction of Scrapper – the developers felt as though Engineers needed a more sustainable way to cleanse themselves of conditions – and here we are, sitting by the wayside.

Thieves are slowly losing their footing in every area of the game they were supposed to excel in, and being surpassed in other areas that were supposedly designed as “counter plays”; we just get to sit back and watch while areas of weakness are buffed within other professions so they’re able to remain competitive, while we get three dodges that lack functionality and sloppy-seconds for our elite specialization animations and the developers call it a day.

Thieves aren’t inherently horrible by design, but we’re losing our identity. We’re getting stale, while other professions are not only getting their rough edges smoothed out, but given utility that encroaches on the few aspects of the game we’re supposed to remain the “best” at to make up for any hint of survivability or sustain.

I second all of this and it is exactly what I have been feeling..

People cried about “perma-stealth” thief. They cried that it was a pain in the kitten to cap a tower or a keep, and have to find a “perma-stealth” thief who was hiding inside. Anet and everyone were SO adamant that perma-stealth thieves needed to go! They went, save for one annoying trap build that doesn’t really accomplish anything.

It started with classes getting anti-thief reveal skills. Congrats! Two classes each got an insta-cast, non-telegraphed very long EZ mode button to use against Shadow Arts thieves.

Fast forward to now! Welcome to the rise of perma-stealth mesmers! Forget that one annoying thief you have to find. Mesmers can now perma-stealth (arguably better than thief can) AND, not only can they be a pain in the kitten to find and kill when hiding in a tower/keep but they can port other people inside! What did thieves never get? A reveal ability! With more classes getting access to stealth, and some of those others having “anti-stealth” (started as “anti-thief”) skills, why do I not have a way of revealing an EZ mode PU garbage mesmer, or other thieves for that matter? The classes that have reveals aren’t even weak against thief.

I lost count of how many times my guild had to defend SMC the other day because after we wiped them inside, no matter how many mesmers we killed inside there was always another one perma-stealthing around ready to port more inside.

Crying about thief perma-stealth and giving mesmers a better version of perma stealth along with them simply being more useful at it is a disgusting display of a double-standard.

Then reading all the changes every patch (since forever). Every class gets so many synergy traits/abilities all rolled up into sweet trait combos. One of the only ones thief had that they needed was screwed over by some clowny kitten decision to move “master of deception” and require you to choose that OR condi clear when the whole point of those 2 traits was to synergize together. It’s almost like they purposely suppress thief from being on par with other classes for some reason. Look at other classes and all the multi-faceted abilities they have that apply like 4 or 5 different effects with one skill (looking at you again Berserker).

What needs to happen is, a dev needs to get with the thief community and actually hear what WE want AND WORK WITH US TO MAKE THEM HAPPEN. There’s a lot of quality of life changes they could make that would bring us on par with other classes that really have no reason to not exist/be implemented.