Guild Wars 2

Sup,

I have always been trying my utmost best to keep up with all professions in game, and learning the tricks and appeal to them…
In PvP, I managed to feel comfortable on 6/8 professions, of which Ranger and Thief were out due to both disinterest and, honestly, because I could not get a firm grip onto them…

Now Ranger has been slowly getting to me… It being my third ever character created (out of 13), I got a close® understanding to the traits and how their combat mechanics work… Thief however is another story

I have played Thief a bit in WvWvW, but to be fair, it is not hard to succeed as a Thief or any class in WvWvW… What I did learn with it was certain combo’s, how to disengage and how certain traits work.
With this in mind, I decided to pick it up in PvP, because Mists is where the Heart is, and though I know the drill, I seem to fall short more than often…

I find it to be extremely hard for me to get adjusted to because it is either not suited for me to test when SoloQ-ing (case of having more than one Thief, or simply because I do not feel comfortable on it), and the same for TeamQ-ing as well, where I find myself swapping to a Bruiser because I simply feel as if I am not contributing much…

So trying to get into detail;
I am not new to PvP, and I think that some might know that… I am not new to the professions and am usually one of the few who tries to educate himself about the things that professions do (‘cause after all, knowledge is power) – and despite lacking experience on my Thief, I am not completely oblivious about it’s strengths…

But, how will I start becomming better within PvP? As in, what are some tips to make myself feel more comfortable playing it Solo and in Teams?

Buildwise speaking;

• With S/D, I cannot seem to figure out how and when to disengage properly, and find myself more than often with too many conditions on me… I am fairly certain my skill rotation is whack as well

• With P/D I feel more comfortable, but find myself too quickly drained from my defensive utilities or innitiative (of which the latter is a killer)

• With S/P… well, it was a fun ride, but I do not feel as if this is really that much of a build nowadays…

Not sure how much I can help. I had a year break from GW2 and I just started playing again around 2-3 weeks ago. I main a warr, but I used to play thief a lot in tpvp, both zerk D/P and evasion S/D. I’d suggest doing the same as I am atm, play a lot of unranked till you get the feel for it.

I’m playing a bit more bruiserlike S/D atm, just to mess with the meta D/P thieves. So far in lower plays/non-premade it works wonderfully.
For S/D rotation, this is what you want to keep in mind:

1. Always set up your infiltrators strike before engaging, that’s your condicleanse and a preemptive get out button when stuff gets too hot.
2. Don’t spam your Flanking strike→Larcenous strike. What you want is pretty much FS, Auto while rolling into dodge, get LS to run out and start with FS again. Only use LS when you’re sure you’ll hit it or precast it while moving closer/stealing.
3. You don’t have to avoid all of the attacks, evade ofc, but always keep something incase of some dangerous attack coming your way.
4. Feel free to use your Withdraw and Signet of Agility whenever you need it, but play more defensively when they’re on cooldown.
5. Before engaging always lay down some poison with sbow and start some pressure with sbow autos. While engaging in the start sbow 3 is a great way to avoid any ranged disables coming your way. Also, always lay down a poison field when someone goes down and if squishys start rezzing, spam that sbow 2 to keep up pressure.

But most important part to keep in mind is that you don’t have to 1v1 a target and think of yourself more like someone who gives that extra push and finishes targets, that goes both for playing squishy D/P or a more tanky S/D.

Build I’m currently using:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fZAQNAsYVl0MpwpdPx0J8PNBNB5dY+SZ0KAdfko0XA-TJBBwAB3fAwpAwcZgNPBAA