Guild Wars 2

Hey there. Skip to the bold if you don’t want to read.

I’ve been playing since the beta weekends way back when, and began playing exclusively PvP as a thief since it was ridiculously fun (I’ll admit the insane backstabs were what got me into thieves in the first place). However, once I got into PvE I started doubting my abilities since it seemed as if the class can only fulfill a limited niche. I have a Warrior, Revenant, and an Engineer and they seem to contribute more than a thief. The relevance of the beta weekend bit is that as a thief, even to this day, I question my role in PvE.

I’ve even bought all of the medium armor cosmetics from the gem store for my thief, for whatever that’s worth lol.

What motivates you to play your thief considering the wide arrays of abilities other classes bring to the table, pre-HoT and post-HoT? What is it that keeps the class fresh to you? Is it the concept of the class? Or perhaps the combat?

honestly, the class is so fun to me, because it has so much mobility both between combat and during combat. I just feel like most other classes are so stationary and slow during combat itself.

And I cannot play tanky/bunker classes. Playing a class just to exist long enough on a point does not sound fun to me at all.

It’s the theme that got me started (always thief/rogue) and the no cd on weapons skills really felt great. That made me unable to play any other class for well over a year :p

Leohart.4610:

Hey there. Skip to the bold if you don’t want to read.

I’ve been playing since the beta weekends way back when, and began playing exclusively PvP as a thief since it was ridiculously fun (I’ll admit the insane backstabs were what got me into thieves in the first place). However, once I got into PvE I started doubting my abilities since it seemed as if the class can only fulfill a limited niche. I have a Warrior, Revenant, and an Engineer and they seem to contribute more than a thief. The relevance of the beta weekend bit is that as a thief, even to this day, I question my role in PvE.

I’ve even bought all of the medium armor cosmetics from the gem store for my thief, for whatever that’s worth lol.

What motivates you to play your thief considering the wide arrays of abilities other classes bring to the table, pre-HoT and post-HoT? What is it that keeps the class fresh to you? Is it the concept of the class? Or perhaps the combat?

I really enjoy the S/D weapon set, as well as being able to use my skills at will without cool downs. I just wish Anet would revert S/D to what is was about a year ago.

I also don’t bandwagon, so when thief got left behind I stuck with it. Thief, condi Ranger and Warrior have always been my favorites.

Thief, for me, is the only class which consistently flows and weaves. The fluid play style, teleports, burst combo’s and being able to slip into stealth at the drop of a hat.

It’s just so enjoyable…

It’s a shame we die so easily to random AOE spam.

Leohart.4610:

What motivates you to play your thief considering the wide arrays of abilities other classes bring to the table, pre-HoT and post-HoT?

Nothing, I’m simply a masochist. I enjoy eating all the unnecessary nerfs and playing an unloved class.

Leohart.4610:

What is it that keeps the class fresh to you?

The fact that ANet is consistent about giving no kitten about the class.

Leohart.4610:

Is it the concept of the class?

No, read previous answer.

Leohart.4610:

Or perhaps the combat?

No, read what was already answered.

Speed and combo damage is a playstyle I enjoy in games, thief suits my preferences best.

Speed of play and mobility, and the rush of what happens when you’re fighting tooth and nail for a victory by strategy and resource management when you’re exposed rather than rotating skills. Nothing more satisfying than winning a fight where your burst failed (at the least setting them into a panic) and you can only out-play your opponent for the win.

The precision thief combat offers, you can really pull of some good tricks with the class.

I only recently switched to Thief maybe a month ago, but I enjoy it because all of the gameplay is active. No passive procs or rng.

I can’t count the number of times I popped a SR over someones head to save them and save the team from death, or been the last survivor that takes out the boss etc. Thief has a good amount of utility but lacks some of the group buffs other classes have. I think with speed runs, thief is at a bit of a disadvantage. In Speed Runs, people in theory need to be rescued less because the content has been mastered. So then IT becomes more about classes that can sustain High DPS while take trash damage, or providing some sort of protection or buff to maximize damage.

But lets be honest the Dungeons become far too easy. Even Fractals becomes trivial.
I believe a great deal of thief’s usefulness depends on the level of difficulty for the group. So for speed runs, don’t expect to be meta per se, unless there is a part that remains difficult or a part that you can help a group skip with SR etc.

Also note that a good thief can deal out good sustain damage but has to work at it a bit harder. I know some people think Damage meters would be detrimental, but it would be fun to see some of the faces that frowned having a thief in their party, then seeing the numbers.

Trait, some of the few i possess.

Speed and mobility. I play the thief it does not play me.

I prefer INI to cooldowns for this reason.

Cobrakon.3108:

I can’t count the number of times I popped a SR over someones head to save them and save the team from death, or been the last survivor that takes out the boss etc. Thief has a good amount of utility but lacks some of the group buffs other classes have. I think with speed runs, thief is at a bit of a disadvantage. In Speed Runs, people in theory need to be rescued less because the content has been mastered. So then IT becomes more about classes that can sustain High DPS while take trash damage, or providing some sort of protection or buff to maximize damage.

But lets be honest the Dungeons become far too easy. Even Fractals becomes trivial.
I believe a great deal of thief’s usefulness depends on the level of difficulty for the group. So for speed runs, don’t expect to be meta per se, unless there is a part that remains difficult or a part that you can help a group skip with SR etc.

Also note that a good thief can deal out good sustain damage but has to work at it a bit harder. I know some people think Damage meters would be detrimental, but it would be fun to see some of the faces that frowned having a thief in their party, then seeing the numbers.

Knowing a class does high dmg doesn’t always help. Why? Before HoT, the thieves in parties we either 1. noobs that just got the game 2. exp thieves that were useful to the parties. Yeah sure you got that high ap noob from time to time too but most thieves knew what to do, blinds on trash, smokescreen, skips. Now in dungeons the first category still exists, but the 2nd transformed into vault only class. No blinds, no smokescreen, no mob pathing. I can see the guys know the dungeon but they simply don’t bother with party support.

What motivates me, considering what other professions bring to the table?

The style, gameplay and theme is what got me hooked. Other professions bring lots of team support that thief doesn’t, but we did have the highest single target damage, great cleave damage and life saving utility skills.

What keep the thief fresh for me?

Initiative. Without cool downs I need to use my brain before spamming skills in a given order. For every encounter I have to use all my abilities when I need them the most. This can be anything from blinding a crucial skill, interrupting a heal or resurrect to dropping my burst when my enemy least expect it or are at their weakest. There’s so much to the fight, and I can decide when it start and end.

I have all professions at 80 and a few hours in pvp with all of them, but my thief are a clear favorite. What thief really learnt me, which helped a lot when playing any other profession, is awareness. I learnt how to look for rotations, avoid hard hitting attacks and got a better map presence and awareness. As a thief you need to avoid that killing blow, because it will actually kill you. Standing in AoE madness as a bunker guardian is non-threatening, but deadly as a thief.

All this combined are the reason I love my thief. I don’t care if I’m considered sub-par in PvE, because thief really excel at pvp. Any good thief, however, will be a huge asset to his team in PvE too though.

Flexibility and mobility are what make the thief “fun” to play for me.

Each thief build/weapon set comes with abilities that combine damage with mobility in some sense. I would also throw in stealth as a “mobility” ability in the sense that being invisible can help with being in the right position to attack or escape. Usually, you can control where you end up in the fight and if you are good predict where they will end up.

When I fight other people, the “better” ones are usually the ones who are mobile and “dance” around like a thief has to.

If you are asking about more “group” utility, I would also say we have strong abilities in this regard. Take our cc venoms (immobilize and chill venom + basilisk’s) and venom share them in WvW in a small group or large zerg. Either way you will have guaranteed a few deaths on their side because a player could not escape / stay mobile. Our group utility is both about taking down players that fall behind the rest (assassination) and also ensuring that a few players fall behind in the first place. (Note this works wonders on break bars, generally).

Leohart.4610:

What motivates you to play your thief considering the wide arrays of abilities other classes bring to the table, pre-HoT and post-HoT?

I thought it would be funny to create a human noble who happen to be a Thief. Pure RPG reason.

What is it that keeps the class fresh to you?

Nothing. I stopped playing my Thief after beating HoT’s story.

Is it the concept of the class?

Nope. The profession has no concept. Currently it’s all over the place because ArenaNet can’t decide on what to do with the Thief. Core release, the Thief is mobile assassin type. Now it’s a wanna-be-warrior-with-passive-defense relying on AA to deal decent DPS.

Or perhaps the combat?

Nope. I played GW1 and I have an MM Necro, so my first pick in GW2 was Necro. But after finding out that Necro cannot even minion master like in GW1, I deleted it and rolled a Thief. Post-HoT, the Reaper rekindled my love for the Necro so I have not played my Thief ever since.

One reason why I started a thief was the character look for the (male) Sylvarie Thief at the profession selection part. (http://imgur.com/a/0iqMP#6).

Gameplay-wise: Even though I’m rather terrible at active dodging, I like the mobilty and fluidity. I enjoyed D/D or D/P before I switched weapons while leveling due to the fast animation. I want to play at least so far until I have Daredevil maxed.

I’m unsure I’ll fare well during the HoT personal story fights as I had already a rough time with pet professions in some.

Its the only class that I dont get bored of playing in pvp.

It’s both. Ive put to much time and effort learning how to master thief to just abandon it. There is so much potential in the class that they arent really using. If you love thief, ya stick with it. Plus, they are sexy!

While S1 I got diamond playing Staff/SB. In S2 I’ll go with d/p I guess. It had more utulities as compared with Staff before and now due to the AA buff it looks even more superior…

I love the playstyle, especially in PvP. The mobility, active defense, burst damage, and the mind games that you can play with people using stealth are all tremendously enjoyable for me.

However, in PvE, I really have trouble enjoying any profession that’s just not the best of what I can bring to the table, so I’m a lot more likely to bring an alt when thief is under-tuned due to balance patches. I’ve thought about playing with thief in raids since the patch, but there still doesn’t seem to be a ton of reason to do this since the dps is still less than an ele and we don’t bring anything else unique to the group to make up for that.

In theory it is an action oriented high risk/high reward class that requires precise timing to execute big burst. In reality it is a high risk class with exceptional mobility that allows players to enter and exit fights as needed in WvW.

I don’t know why anyone would want to play one in PvE or PvP since their combat mobility is partially useless and their overall group abilities are nearly nonexistent.

Leohart.4610:

What motivates you to play your thief considering the wide arrays of abilities other classes bring to the table, pre-HoT and post-HoT? What is it that keeps the class fresh to you? Is it the concept of the class? Or perhaps the combat?

It’s the only class in the game that largely rewards reactive play. Most other classes with the exception of some odd warrior builds can boil down their playstyles to a rotation of skills that deals with healing, damage, and blocks, but thieves reward cerebral play and cleverness more heavily.

It suffers from a number of very unfair advantages when compared to other classes, both in PvE or PvP, which is why I took a strong liking to it after Anet broke the hell out of elementalist.

I originally started playing elementalist at launch, because it had a much higher skill curve than the other classes. Like I could easily just make a warrior and GS2 my way thru most of PvE or create a reaper to facetank champion mobs, but that’s pretty boring to me.

Daredevil has some really high damage potential, particularly after the last patch, but it’s also very punishing to play. The survivability of it is built into the number of dodges and sheer amount of mobility it has. This is also what I’ve noticed is the biggest complaint about it, because when you fail those dodges, you get mega punished.

To me, however, that’s a source of challenge, because it’s tying your success to your skill level. The overall potential of surviability of the class is actaully very high with mechanical mastery making you close to untouchable, but it’s dependent upon you getting good with it and not just overpower game mechanics you can use to win while drinking coffee and reading Reddit.

I straight up quit the game for a month or so after HoT released and still won’t be playing if Daredevil hadn’t captured my interest.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Leohart.4610:

What motivates you to play your thief considering the wide arrays of abilities other classes bring to the table, pre-HoT and post-HoT? What is it that keeps the class fresh to you? Is it the concept of the class? Or perhaps the combat?

It’s the only class in the game that largely rewards reactive play. Most other classes with the exception of some odd warrior builds can boil down their playstyles to a rotation of skills that deals with healing, damage, and blocks, but thieves reward cerebral play and cleverness more heavily.

Thief vs thief is one of the most intrinsically rewarding duels because of this, assuming your builds are roughly equal in capability.

Gotta go fast/mobility.
High risk high reward in PVP.