Guild Wars 2

Hey, I am to a degree a bit ignorant of a Thieves role in WvW. I was wondering if a Thief can play any role aside from roaming ganker.

For instance a sneaky Mesmer can stay inside a Keep and put a portal out assisting in the take over. Thieves can get in and stay hidden, but can they do anything for the team on the inside?

cap the keep end thread/

Yes he /she can rez a dead mesmer. A hidden mesmer can be stealthed (with Shadow Refuge for example) to go unoticed and teleport inside the rest of the party.

Hawkeye.9687:

Yes he /she can rez a dead mesmer. A hidden mesmer can be stealthed (with Shadow Refuge for example) to go unoticed and teleport inside the rest of the party.

Essentially it hinges on the Mesmer still. If there were no Mesmer and you were by yourself you can’t do anything. Whereas if you are a Mesmer and happened to stay hidden well enough you could get the team in.

Not really,

Thieves are somewhat pigeonholed into roaming, Dolyak farming, keep-tabbing. Outside of that they don’t bring much to the table and in zerg fights they’re often more of a hinderance than a help.

The best they can do there is help stack Might , Daggerstorm and then harass the back-line. But all that’s fairly dangerous with all the AoE and cleave damage flying around in GW2.

The best they can do there is help stack Might , Daggerstorm and then harass the back-line.

Maybe if you’re a melee thief. A mostly ‘zerker P/P thief is devastating in massive (T1) fights, and can easily down targets (6-10k unload spam), while being extremely difficult to touch. It’s one of the reasons I’ve stuck with it for so long — it’s very versatile in any situation.

The melee/heavy-stealth thieves are… less useful IMO. The main-hand SB thieves are just confused. ;P

Barfoi.9537:

The best they can do there is help stack Might , Daggerstorm and then harass the back-line.

Maybe if you’re a melee thief. A mostly ‘zerker P/P thief is devastating in massive (T1) fights, and can easily down targets (6-10k unload spam), while being extremely difficult to touch. It’s one of the reasons I’ve stuck with it for so long — it’s very versatile in any situation.

Completely agree – I run a very powerful p/p build and I can stay alive in the zerg as long as the warriors and guards, take down enemies at in a couple of unloads and use stealth to rez downed team mates. Thieves just have to be much more mobile than the rest of the zerg.

It is true however that we don’t contribute much to removing conditions or giving boons.

Go Venom Share, if you wonna be part of the zerg.
Pick up any build, if you wonna hunt down enemy backline.
Pick up p/p, if you are too afraid/bad @ surfing through battle field and reading the situation.

And don’t listen to anybody who says “thief is worst class for zerging”. That is wrong.
Thief is best class in taking down targets.
Go and take down those zerker eles that can crit your zerg for 7k with each meteor. You can save some kitten, if you do it quick enough.

BTW roaming ganker – sounds too simple minded. You are a mobile scout. You can know where enemy will come before anybody else and can react accordingly. For example: you can deploy supply traps @ legs of enemy zerg and go to treb to throw them some cows. They’ll be happy and port back.

My “team oriented” WvW thief usually finds himself rezzing with SH and spreading out damage/combo field bursting with Cluster Bomb on far targets while using S/D in melee. I tend to open with Smoke Screen, two Choking Gas shots right in front of the opposing Zerg, then bursting with Cluster Bomb so that a good chunk of the enemy is Weakened.

Solo roaming, I’ve fallen in love with my own approximation of BattleAxe’s P/P build. It’s linked to his sig and his videos are both hilarious and awesome. I’ve also taken a more team friendly P/P build into Zergs, but I feel more useful with SB as my alt set when doing so, using P/P for focused fire on particularly annoying players or to crush down Necros in Death Shroud.

On an unrelated note, I absolutely love teaming with Elementalists when I use P/P. I have way too much fun standing in the middle of combo fields and spamming unload when I have Ricochet traited. In fire fields, That 20% chance to projectile finish might as well say that Unload is 20% stronger. Not sure if the math would corroborate that, but it’s a lot of fun.

Use a shortbow and learn which fields need blast finishers spammed. You can do a fair bit of AoE healing, for example, if you’re paying attention

Okay well it sounds like they do quite a bit. The whole roaming bit doesn’t appeal to me, I’ve done it with my other classes and it’s fine just not my thing.

I’m debating on whether to go Mesmer or Thief as my new character, Mesmer I’ve had a little more experience with as the Thief I’ve never leveled over 15. Between the two it sounds as if Mesmer has more team assist thru utilities where as Thief is more offensive in it’s “assisting”. My only problem with that is I know Mesmers can dish out really good damage as well.

Ragnar.1546:

Okay well it sounds like they do quite a bit. The whole roaming bit doesn’t appeal to me, I’ve done it with my other classes and it’s fine just not my thing.

I’m debating on whether to go Mesmer or Thief as my new character, Mesmer I’ve had a little more experience with as the Thief I’ve never leveled over 15. Between the two it sounds as if Mesmer has more team assist thru utilities where as Thief is more offensive in it’s “assisting”. My only problem with that is I know Mesmers can dish out really good damage as well.

If roaming really doesn’t have any appeal to you and you’re mainly focused on WvW, then something like a Mesmer may be a better choice. Thieves are far from useless in large groups, but there are still other classes who have a bigger role to play in these situations. If you haven’t yet, also consider Necro and Engineer.

Dahkeus.8243:

Ragnar.1546:

Okay well it sounds like they do quite a bit. The whole roaming bit doesn’t appeal to me, I’ve done it with my other classes and it’s fine just not my thing.

I’m debating on whether to go Mesmer or Thief as my new character, Mesmer I’ve had a little more experience with as the Thief I’ve never leveled over 15. Between the two it sounds as if Mesmer has more team assist thru utilities where as Thief is more offensive in it’s “assisting”. My only problem with that is I know Mesmers can dish out really good damage as well.

If roaming really doesn’t have any appeal to you and you’re mainly focused on WvW, then something like a Mesmer may be a better choice. Thieves are far from useless in large groups, but there are still other classes who have a bigger role to play in these situations. If you haven’t yet, also consider Necro and Engineer.

Yeah, I’ve got an 80 Warrior (Main) 80 Necro (Bit bland withthe playstyle for me… Not enough action) 80 Ranger (Meh).

I do like the Thieves playstyle, it’s similar to the Mesmer only in the sense that there is a lot going on.

If you don’t want to roam, a thief is not the best choice. We absolutely can contribute to zergs, but other classes are better. If you want a more action-based playstyle, in groups/ zergs, take long looks at engineers and elementalists. Both have higher skill requirements than your warrior or necro.

Oghier.7419:

If you don’t want to roam, a thief is not the best choice. We absolutely can contribute to zergs, but other classes are better. If you want a more action-based playstyle, in groups/ zergs, take long looks at engineers and elementalists. Both have higher skill requirements than your warrior or necro.

I have tried really hard to like Engineers but they aren’t my thing. I know what you mean with Ele’s but they always say how crap their class is kinda not really motivating to rolll the class when most of them I’ve spoke with dislike the state of the class.