Guild Wars 2

Hi there, returning player here. I’ve played GW2 since release until right about halfway through november last year, and now I’m trying to come back to playing this game. When I left, I had a level 80 thief and a level ~20 elementalist, with the thief being decked out in Valk+Berserk Exotics and magic find sigils/trinkets. Then I sort of quit her for a while and started the elementalist, after getting a bit bored of thief’s weapons and builds. (Ran S/D back then, when Flanking strike was still hella bugged)

Now, after playing elementalist a bit again and leveling her, I also started to get tired of her, also after learning how the changes this past year has punished having alts. WEXP, Laurels, and now recently the dungeon reward changes facilitates the use of only 1 main character. And now I’m having trouble choosing.

I like the idea of thief’s playstle, evading, being slippery and all, but the fact that they’re pretty much useless in high level PvE is a bit of a turn off. I wanted something more all around, but the playstyle was just attractive. Now I played wvw, found my character too weak to actually be of help roaming, doing ~4k backstabs with a 0/30/30/10 D/P build. PvP is sort of fine though.

But in that regard, the elementalist is more attractive for me in pvp, with all the fun button-pressing, bunker/fresh air builds, and just having to really “fight”. But trying to level her up so I can use her in PvE, dungeons, and WvW is just a daunting and unrewarding task.

So, is maining a thief still worth it, and can anyone recommend a few things I can do to get back into shape after all these months? Or should I just continue the elementalist and build her up instead?

boy this post got long

I’ve played thief since beta, and still rockin’ it!

I’m currently going with S/P for pistol whip build. My traits are 25/30/0/0/15. What major traits you select is completely up to you and the weapon set you’re using. I found that this build is viable with every single weapon set and the damage output is insane. I’m running full berserker, but you can have Valkyrie on some spots if you want the extra health.

This build is really squishy, so you gotta know when to evade, shadowstep, stealth and so on. It’s really hard in WvW and if you don’t know what to look for in dungeons. What any good thief should have, is every single weapon combination in his inventory. You’ll need them all for different situations in dungeons.

I always hear people complaining about thief being useless in high end PvE. That’s is not true. If you know what you’re doing you’ll be a great asset to the team! The thief is almost mandatory for some high level fractals!

Just add me in-game if you want some more help. Could alternatively just guest to your server to help

go for the ele, in my opinion

Hey man, here are 2 guides i wrote. The first is a sword/pistol build that makes really good use of interrupts and some okay evades, while the second build allows for perma stealth, high blind up time, and good backstab damage. Thief is a very versatile class, in my opinion, and you can find a decent build for almost any weaponset. (Plus our mobility is kick-awesome).

Sword/Pistol T/SPVP: http://intothemists.com/guides/294-rand_x_al_thors_swordpistol_build

Dagger/Pistol WvW: http://intothemists.com/guides/307-daggerpistol_backstab_by_rand_x_al_thor

Questions? You can always hit me up in game. IGN: rand x althor

Why don’t people use signet of agility a lot more? I don’t see it that much nowadays, even though it’s a condi cleanse in a condi world.

Icyie.9341:

Why don’t people use signet of agility a lot more? I don’t see it that much nowadays, even though it’s a condi cleanse in a condi world.

I definitely take it on my bar for some tpvp matches, I really like blinding powder and shadow refuge for the stomp denial, so if we have decent condi cleanse on my team I don’t take it with me.