Guild Wars 2

Posted on ranger forum aswell.

Hi guys!
Need some help on deciding which alt to make: )
I have always enjoyed playing the ranger/hunter/rogue class in other games, so i decided to make an alt as either thief or ranger.

I have been reading alot, and just cant decide on which one to choose.
The ranger has some big issues pvp/wvw wise that doesnt seem to be taken seriously by the devs, but i really like the playstyle tho.

The thief on the other hand has some issues Pve wise that makes it frustrating to level up and is a common class to be seen. But they have pistols!!

Both classes offers ranged and close combat, but i prefer ranged on my alt as i play close combat with my main (guardian).

I want to bo able to pvp with the class, but i have to be able to level up in pve before i can do so :P

Is it really that bad to solo pve as a thief?
Is the ranged builds viable?
Do you feel unwanted in dungeons?
Have any of you tried both, and how would you compare them?

Thanks in advance

thief is great just because u read some of these posts dont believe it yes we have our problems and yes some things need to be changed but we are just as effective at pve as to other classes.

Yes other classes are better at pve than us but some builds we have can simply faceroll pve as if it were a simple joke. So IMHO make one im sure ull love it

as to some of ur question ive tried ranger and i gotta say its pretty solid class even in pvp aswell but i found it pretty stright foward. like click and shoot click and shoot i mean thats just not me im sorry i know thier are other weapon sets u can use but meh i gave up after 60. As to comparing thief in WvW and spvp much more fun thats just me make a thief try it out u may or may not like it it never was for everyone welp GL and HF

OH and almost forgot most importantly if ur honestly a new player as to some are who just hit 80 then come here and complain we are bad at pve this and that lemme give u some advice.

if ur having an honest hard time engame wise try and practice on mobs to see wat u can take or not pull one mob ok u know he is easy fine u got that piece of cake. then pull 2 mobs at a time so on and so forth practice makes perfect. trust me it helped me loads.

Ah ok. thanks alot for your answer m8 : )
Helps me alot in deciding !

Thieves have trouble PvE wise? Hell no, Sword/Pistol + Shortbow, sigil that heals you per attack. Make sure you circle enemies to confuse AI (they attack half as often).

Can output more DPS in 1 fight then everyone else in the entire dungeon while having insane viability (just need to learn how to use black powder ect…)

I have both a ranger and a thief as alts. the ranger is level 24 the thief is 36. I wanted to try out both and while I like running around collecting the many pets the rangers have access to, I have more fun with the thief as d/d and p/p. Not saying the ranger isnt fun, axe/warhorn is a good combo with either the greatsword or either of the bows (short being a tad better).

I kind of regret making my thief a charr and my ranger a sylvari but the ranger “fit” better into the nature of the race. I had a sylvari thief in the last beta weekend and felt they fit the thief playstyle as well as looking decent.
I’d pay Anet a couple of bucks for a race change =P as i would like to try out either a necro (could fit with the sylvari) or an Eng (would fit with charr).

*just my opinoins on the “fit” and so forth

Thief is still mechanically good, the problem is that our abilities are in direct competition with each other due to the way initiative works. A skillset that would seem complete on any other class is often loaded with a redundant variety of utility skills which often has the effect of us picking one or two abilities that generally cover all situations while we ignore the rest of our skillset. Personally speaking, I find this to be boring in that it forces a playstyle of “hit 1 to attack, and 2 to not die” that isn’t very mentally engaging.

The most recent patch further emphasized this problem by removing many of the “burst” damage capabilities that we have giving us less tactical options to utilize in combat.

All of this said, thief does still do a good amount of damage. I just don’t find it very entertaining to play anymore either.

Thieves in no way are bad / have problems in PVE. Tell me another class that can kite and kill 10+ mobs together as easily as the thief?
And you don’t even need to build around it. Caltrops + Shortbow do all the work. The only problem are ranged mobs. For that I recommend using Dagger Storm and if they are not all dead after that, just run and keep a safe distance while kitting then.

@Asomal
Warrior. LOL dnt even need to kite sit thier pull 15 mobs and hundred blades yay i won…. >.>

Lordryux.9785:

@Asomal
Warrior. LOL dnt even need to kite sit thier pull 15 mobs and hundred blades yay i won…. >.>

Also to add onto this Warrior has better range in form of Rifle than Ranger or Thief.

I think Thief is quite varied..yes BS build is the biggest hitter but I’d be loosing my fun utility skills, and thats where thief shines fights full of movement and variation. Fought a ranger last night (was a poor approach from my point as I was mucking around switching abilities) but he had me pounded 50% down then boom heal and stealth and called in the calvary, Ambush and THieves Guild, poor guy didn’t know what was happenning with 4 thieves at him..good times. I wouldn’t roll around with those abilities all the time at all but its fun to change up which a thief does well imo.

Elmuerto.9840:

I think Thief is quite varied..yes BS build is the biggest hitter but I’d be loosing my fun utility skills, and thats where thief shines fights full of movement and variation. Fought a ranger last night (was a poor approach from my point as I was mucking around switching abilities) but he had me pounded 50% down then boom heal and stealth and called in the calvary, Ambush and THieves Guild, poor guy didn’t know what was happenning with 4 thieves at him..good times. I wouldn’t roll around with those abilities all the time at all but its fun to change up which a thief does well imo.

After playing with a BS thief while we were farming I have to say they are barely the heavy hitter in PvE and they sacrifice so much in order to get that extra 1000 damage.

Confirmed above BS thief isn’t for PvE frankly. It can work but you’ll find for most of the time you’re actually confined to shortbow.

Thanks for the answers guys

Katsumoto.9452:

Confirmed above BS thief isn’t for PvE frankly. It can work but you’ll find for most of the time you’re actually confined to shortbow.

I used to feel this way until I started spamming CnD and waiting for NPCs to go after other players then hitting them in the back.

The only problem is that when you fights mobs with huge AOE. They usually hurt and you need to have good judgement to avoid those attacks.

CnD, wait few seconds, maybe CnD again if it wears off, then BS the first mob that attacks a friendly player. CnD again, bs it again. Keep doing that until it’s dead. If you get damaged, vanish and pull off for a moment.

If you get damaged and vanish is down, pull off and use shortbow until vanish comes up again, etc…

BS thief can work very well in dungeons and pve…

All you read about both Ranger and Thief is wrong.
I’ve played both the profession to a decent level and I can say that Thief do quite well in PvE and Rangers are competitive in PvP as well.

To be honest, I find Ranger quite enjoyable both in s/tPvP, thanks to some sweet build with nice damage output coupled with the additional damage of your pet, and also in WvWvW, in which, in my opinion, the Ranger shines thanks to longbow and its insane range.

Thief, also, is quite good in every part of the game. In PvE thief actually do well, the point is that most people play the thief like it is a guardian or a warrior.
They don’t use shadowsteps, don’t stealth, don’t evade neither dodge damage, then, thanks to the not-so-tanky tendency of the thief, they fail hard and blame the profession to be weak in PvE, which is untrue.
In WvWvW they can do quite good with shortbow on the walls and they are great to burst down lonely guys, but also groups if you are enough skilled.
Nothing to say about s/tPvP because it is well-known that thieves perform extremely good in that part of the game.

Just choose the profession you like most.

Thief+Scorpions wire+siege+players on a wall=Pull Down GG.. funny as crap i tried it yesterday boy i had myself a good laugh..

Thieves have only one real range weapon set, Pistol/Pistol, and imo it’s not good.
With Pistol/Dagger you frequently want to be in melee range to stealth yourself with C&D, and with Shortbow you often shot Cluster Bomb in front of your feet to maximize DPS.
With his bows and the axe a Ranger can always fight from distance without losing power or utility.

Rangers also excel at lower levels; Beastmastery gives a massive boost to your pet and nothing hits hard enough to warrant a dodge but at high levels the clunky pet control and non-existing dodges for your pet really start to hurt.

The Thief is superior in anything but 100% ranged combat and low level content, better damage, better support, better survivability.

Shortbow is totally a real ranged weapon. More real than P/P, really. It’s just also good up close.