Guild Wars 2

Hello,it’s over a month (and more than 20 characters x.x) that i’m trying to choose wich class should be my class…and i ended up about deciding between these two.
After the 1st one will reach lvl 80 i’ll probably bring the other one to 80 too…but idk wich one should be the 1st one! Of course the decision is for PvE.

The issue is that i hate mana/energy (in this case,it’s initiative)…and i hate long cooldowns;i love to be mobile,but i also love to have something for any situation,being versatile,while i love to dominate my opponents while being able to tank them if needed.

The issue is that the Engineer and the Thief have both something i love and something i hate!

In your opinion,wich one should i choose and why? Your answer will help me greatly!

P.s. i’ve brought an Engineer to lvl 21,and a Thief to level 15.

From what you told i would suggest engineer. Thief has no way to tank oponents damage, and has innitiative shared in both weapeon sets so you will end up closer to 1 trick pony then 1 versalite build in any case.
Engineer on other hand can swap through his weapeon sets almost indefinetly having few sets, which save you from lots of trouble as they are very versalite. But engineer has longer cd’s if you want to stick to 1 weapeon.

Stin.9781:

From what you told i would suggest engineer. Thief has no way to tank oponents damage, and has innitiative shared in both weapeon sets so you will end up closer to 1 trick pony then 1 versalite build in any case.
Engineer on other hand can swap through his weapeon sets almost indefinetly having few sets, which save you from lots of trouble as they are very versalite. But engineer has longer cd’s if you want to stick to 1 weapeon.

The issue about Engineers is that kits don’t care about your weapon’s stats…also an engineer can’t do everything at once…i mean: or you burn an enemy,or you’ll launch it grenades,or you’ll support allies with elixirs…or anything else.
Also,i’ve heard that signets and such will not affect kits too! It may be very,very handy with the early levels…but i think it could become very bad after a certain level :x

Thieves have,instead,a very hard time early…but then,after some traits they are able to spam much more…

I just can’t decide

Well 2 weapeon sets + weapeon kit + 3 class skills + 5 utilitys make up to 23 skills.

Thief makes up to 16 + 1 skill gained from steal in tottal, which changes depending on whom you steal from. Engineer keeps preasure through diffrent weapeon sets and skills in them, while thief keeps preasure with 1-2 damage skills, in each weapeon, Others are utilitys. You wont see too much change in how damage is applied in early learning phase and in endgame. With thief you need to learn how to survive, damage is kind of easy to apply.

On engineer, you need to know all of your skills and which is best for certain cases. It is a harder job for sure. Yet i could say it gives highter maximum skill cap, then thief.

In PvE thief is harder to play then most classes. Mesmers and thiefs beeing somehow decent in PvP arent PvE pros. While engineer can keep decent gameplay in PvE all through out the game if used correctly.

I myself play thief for 1 personal reason:
In my opinion avoiding damage tottaly is “leveled up” version of healing up damage. This class in my opinion has potential to beat anything if played correctly, and if not beat anything then at least runaway. It isnt a win if you run away in Tpvp ofcourse, but im awaiting diffrent game modes where less bunkerish, gamestyles are able to rule.

“Well 2 weapeon sets + weapeon kit + 3 class skills + 5 utilitys make up to 23 skills.”
you can’t swap weapons,kits take 1 class slot.
so 5 skills+15 skills+4 from toolbelt+5 if you use the healing kit and elite=30

and…it’s totally not tottaly x)

and yeah,i still have doubts :<

ButterOfDeath.2873:

“Well 2 weapeon sets + weapeon kit + 3 class skills + 5 utilitys make up to 23 skills.”
you can’t swap weapons,kits take 1 class slot.
so 5 skills+15 skills+4 from toolbelt+5 if you use the healing kit and elite=30

and…it’s totally not tottaly x)

and yeah,i still have doubts :<

I did not count in elite, and 1 of toolbelt skills somehow ><

I like either class, although I tend to prefer thief. Thieves are plenty defensive, they just require a much more active timed-dodge style of play to be effectively alive. Both classes are very much utility based and have a lot of ways to deal with every scenario. Initiative regenerates pretty fast and has plenty of traits and abilities you can use to get it back even faster.

Compared to other classes, thieves are quite active, and I don’t consider initiative a limitation similar to a traditional mana-bar. It does take some management to play properly, but you’re never just sitting around waiting for mana to regenerate, and you still aren’t ineffectual just because you ran out.

Engineer isn’t any slouch either though. While it does rely on cooldowns, and it can’t switch out its’ weapon in combat, it does have access to a bunch of other weapon kits which more or less act like different weapons and don’t have any cooldown between swapping through them. To use a metaphor; you are the Batman of combat, with a ready contigency for kitten near anything that gets in your way. If you want to be, that is. You can also just throw grenades at everything until the problem goes away. Up to you.

Thief has less variety of mitigation techniques, but the ones it has tend to be very effective and quite spamable due to the way initiative works. There’s less memorization needed as you usually just hit one or two buttons that deal with the problem. Whether or not this is a good or a bad thing depends on how mentally stimulated you want to be when you play.

If you do go Engineer (and because it was brought up earlier) a good sigil series to look into is the “On Kill Stacking Effects” (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil). When you kill an enemy with the weapon out that has this sigil on it you accumulate stacks of a buff which increase your base stats. These remain on your character regardless of whether or not you switch out a weapon. Other sigils still work to some degree, but I find these have the best synergy with a weaponkit heavy build.

Stin.9781:

From what you told i would suggest engineer. Thief has no way to tank oponents damage, and has innitiative shared in both weapeon sets so you will end up closer to 1 trick pony then 1 versalite build in any case.
Engineer on other hand can swap through his weapeon sets almost indefinetly having few sets, which save you from lots of trouble as they are very versalite. But engineer has longer cd’s if you want to stick to 1 weapeon.

You can’t “tank”, as a thief, but that doesn’t mean thieves have low survivability.

If you can blind it, thief can tank it. Pistol off-hand for Black Powder lets you “tank” even a large number of critters forever without taking any damage at all, IF they aren’t immune to blind. That pretty much means you can tank everything except Dredge and Champions. Anyone that played FFXI/Ninja will find this to be second nature. Oh, mobs that have a high volume of attacks or attack faster than blind pulses can be difficult, too: the first swing will be blinded away, but the rest will land. There are only two that I can recall: karka and there’s one Orrian whose name escapes me atm (the one with “fast attacks” description).

Versatility?

Engineer.

It’s not. even. close.

While you can’t technically do everything at the same time, you can do just about everything with a simple change of your selectable traits (don’t have to respec if you’ve chosen a general Engy spec, simply swap your choices for your spec) and different utility skills selected. Literally can make it like an entirely different class, without ever having to respec.

Jack of all trades. You won’t ever get that with a Thief. While Engineers have plenty of bugs, and other balance problems… there is always *some*thing you can contribute in any and all situations.

Anyways, that’s my 2c having both an 80 Engy and Thief.

For PvE, engineer, imo. Thief mostly shines in PvP and WvW. In a dungeon, thieves aren’t really that great.

The problem with thieves in PvE is first off, thieves are naturally squishy. Yes they have stealth, but the amount of times my stealth has caused things to reset is stupid. It’s very glitchy, and at best only de aggros the mob for a few seconds(or if you run, meaning they reset completely). Shadow Refuge is helpful for reviving downed players, however.

Second, thief stealth can be achieved using ash legion spy kits(you can purchase). Basically it stealths you for 10 seconds unless you move. It’s extremely effective, if for some reason you were to need stealth.