Guild Wars 2

This question is for those who are still playing as a Thief, who may or may not be Main-ing a Thief, and for people who generally love the Thief as a class.

I believe most of us here love the Thief as a class, otherwise it would not be so painful seeing our class being nerfed, neglected, always getting the short end of the stick, leading to us coming here onto the forums, venting our frustrations and disappointment.

So let’s have a change of mood for once in a while.

Those who hate thieves because they get back-stabbed all the time are welcome as well. (There really is no real reason why you are still QQ-ing, but oh well)
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The reason why I love playing as a thief is akin to why many people love Dark Souls. Make a mistake, and you will get punished for it. You will then proceed to learn from that mistake and get better. The on-edge gameplay feels thrilling -for me-, and when I do pull off something like a 1v2 or being the last person standing in a boss fight, and finished the job, it just feels immensely satisfying to me.

I’m a sucker for classes with a high skill cap, as well as an -arguably- high skill ceiling. (Used to play as a Tempest in Dragon Nest, despite being the hardest class to play)

I still carry on because it feels right. This is the only MMO that I can’t and have no desire to – alt kitten.

In Trinity games I had to roll all the classes because I couldn’t handle awfuls dragging my experience down. I just had to know where the bar could be as opposed to where everyone was letting it rest.

Here, I don’t care what the others are capable of. I’d rather steal their dignity and improvise uses out of it.

I play i Theif Becouse no mather the state of thief its the class i enjoy the most. I just Love core of the thief class. Seriously the one buff i feal the thief needs the most right now is better survivability and that shouldn’t be so hard to balance.

Because i spent so many hours on my thief, for 100% map, story dungeons, skins, items, and so on that i would never have balls to do it again.

Nice, another Dark Souls fan

- But it’s the same reason for me. A really high skill ceiling with tools to avoid damage rather than migrate.

- I really like the initiative system. We are called the spamming skills class, but in fact we are using less weapon skills than every other class (besides AA ofc).

- Because of the initiative system we don’t have such a strict rotation than other classes often have.

- Thief feels really rewarding to play for me. But sadly less and less powerful.

- No other class in the game dies as fast as a thief.

I play other classes and it can be really fun how easy they are compared to thief. Even the meta mesmer is not that hard anymore. But I get easily bored after some time on other classes so I’m unable to main anything else beside thief.

I always played assassin type of classes in every game (rogues in wow, stalkers in cov etc.). I love that sneaky cowardy backstabbing guy/girl with dagger concept :>
When that class becomes too frustrating and absolutely unplayable, i would just leave game for good.

I love the thief mechanics, at least idea of it. Every other class feels like your standard classic MMO: press butt 1 2 3 4 5, wait for CDs, press buttons 1 2 3 4 5, follow your standard rotation, if you fail there are plenty of safe nets (in form of passive, stats etc.). Thief on other hand feels like playing action game.

I like the high risk concept (not so much low reward that been the case lately).

I also love how mobile they are, it is very spoiling. Every other class feels so slow after playing thief.

I have to admit though, lately i been barely playing mine. It is just no fun unless i am with a good group. Atm just farming champion <class> achivements (currently working on champion magus) …. it is boring but at least not as frustrating as playing thief with pugs :|

Because decapping node X, shadow stepping to node Y, stealth ressing 2 people and winning the fight, shadow stepping to node Z, +1ing and winning the fight is one of the best feelings ever.

Thief is the best thing that happened to this game. The Thief is most original rogue-class character out of all the MMOs I have played., and GW2 has most the “realistic” gameplay, so it makes the profession even more challenging.

Fast paced, relatively easy to learn and certainly not easy to master.
The array of combos and rotations available to the Thief is really great and access to stealth allows for major mind games with your opponents.

Playing as a Thief in WvW really bring the cunning and determined character out of you. You start thinking in ways you never thought about before and I think it’s a funny bonus experience that other classes don’t get to have.

Let’s be frank, I don’t really care how the other professions can do X, Y or Z better than us.
They can’t be Thieves. period.

Same reason as everyone else’s, I love the thief-concept in most MMOs, especially pared with conditions.
So I was totally freaking out about conditions becoming viable with the balancing-patch and enjoyed my new bleedingassassin happily ever after :>
I’ll just leave a link to my build here. Can’t wait for the daredevil-condi-dodge.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZUQNAoYVl0MhenYzTwtJQPHHUFl/CShSoHBBwBovxHYuA-TBTAABKcEAwWZW0nAAp1GAlSDrVXAgHAQHHCggUpZQdA9s/QbKBJEgi1A-e

Several reasons here. Not necessarily in this order.

#1: I’m looking forward to the Daredevil. I want to use Pai Mei’s five point palm exploding heart technique all over the place. Hearts will be exploding with reckless abandon. Also I’m looking forward to greater AoE direct damage via staff.

#2: I love the defensive utilities the thief has. I’m generally a defensive minded player, and the thief has several tools to deal with that. Copious weakness application, projectile stopping and reflecting, spammable blind fields, weapon evades, relatively high personal healing, and stealth. Stealth in PVE is underrated, as it is the best aggro management tool. Drop aggro from yourself or an ally, and put down a shadow refuge to rez the dead. The thief is really good at carrying pugs because of this.

#3: I love the open ended combos of the class. Initiative means my weapon skills can be chained in any number of ways, so instead of being limited by a ticking clock I can engage an enemy how I see fit.

#4: I love the finishers. The thief is the only class I know that has good access to every single finisher in the game. This lets me do some surprising things on occasion.

#5: No flashy effects. Playing other classes blinds me to all their bright effects, so much that I see them when I close my eyes. The tiny black trail behind thief weapons is unobtrusive, giving me an unobstructed view of whatever I’m fighting. Because of this, I find my skill while playing the thief is higher than other better classes.

#6: I like the condi builds, too. Currently they have greater AoE damage, but the venomshare build with a few NPCs can burst so much damage on an enemy that it is unbelievable.

#7: Though we should have better access to this, I like boon stealing. There’s just something so fun about getting over a minute of protection while fighting dredge, or retaliation against Karka.

#8: I love thief spear as an underwater weapon. The evade skill is solid, but nine-tail strike is extremely useful against champs in the lake.

I’m not playing gw2 at all anymore. Playing metal gear solid 5 and nhl16 on Xbox.

I think I’ve logged in once since thief beta weekend and that was cause wife was on Xbox…

Will login for next thief beta weekend… If thief still sucks by time hot comes out may no be playing gw2 very much anymore…

Mostly for large WvW fights. Thief still excels at opening bursts if you go glass cannon. Its especially effective against enemy ranged casters who are rarely speccing builds to cope with a forced 1v1 in a zerg.

I have been playing these types of games for years starting with the old pen and paper type games to the first text based online games and have always had thief archetype as my first choice.

Here in GW2 I love the combination of mobilities stealths and evades that lead to survival followed by quick sharp attacks. I am much more immersed in the action than what I feel with other classes that can be so forgiving when mistakes made. I find the thief in GW2 more a function of my own input than are many of the other professions which I find are more a function of what off cooldown (and yes this a generalization but it how it “feels”)

Indeed I am fully prepared to create number 4 thief for the rollout of HOT. I find it so much easier to just use a different toon geared a certain way than to switch up the gear every time I feel like trying some different build.

Well, from a console gamer (yes I also play the Souls Games and Bloodborne) this was my first PC game ever. In console games where some sort of class has been able to be choosed, I’ve always been the one to choose the swift, and often by association, assassin type character. Even in Skyrim, I duel wielded daggers and/or swords and wore Dark Brotherhood attire. So a friend of mine convinced our group to “try” this game out. Mind you I was really reluctant as I had never really played PC games before. They literally told me there is a class in this game I would like (Thief) where there were other classes they enjoyed. So I caved in finally and got the game.

Now for most of you, you just had to learn to play the class. I had to learn how to play with a keyboard, mouse, type responses really fast, all that PC jazz. So while learning the thief, I was also learning to play the game period, the two went hand in hand actually. How bad was I at playing PC games you ask? I was key-turning for a solid three weeks, trying to figure out how one could get this “backstab” down. If you have never fought someone while key-turning, it is very hard. I figured people were pressing a side movement key and a camera turning key at the same time to stick so close to enemies and circle them. I even tried PvP and used deathblossom builds, and I surprisingly won some fights that way, of course if someone zipped off-screen I’d be in trouble. But being a backstabber was near impossible for me, cloak and daggering and key turning. Here is me in my cute adorable learning days as proof.

Once I learned how to mouse turn (thank god) I noticed I was doing so so much better. I could actually cloak and dagger backstab! I could circle around people! When people zipped off screen I could face them immediately! Watching those thief videos of thieves doing dungeons and in pvp suddenly seemed like I could be in some of their boots. The power of simply learning how to turn a camera made me that much stronger. And the whole experience made me more adept with my keyboard- never would I have thought that I would know where some keys are without looking at the keyboard. 30% of this post was typed while looking only at the screen thanks to this game.

In short, I’ve invested too much time and enjoyment and triumph and falling and picking myself back up to just leave this class, so i will fight for it, because I want to see it become better. That thread I linked is a prime example of how nice our community is, I fully expected to get aggressive responses, and it was on the thief sub-forum no less. So I’ll be over here, watching you guys quibble and babble, and I may interject from time to time, but I’m not going anywhere.

TL;DR- Got game, got thief, got good, got money

I play Thief because i spent so much time and money on this character that i dont feel like starting over. They should just add something to the gem store that allows us to change class without changing the character.

EazyPanda.6419:

This question is for those who are still playing as a Thief, who may or may not be Main-ing a Thief, and for people who generally love the Thief as a class.

I believe most of us here love the Thief as a class, otherwise it would not be so painful seeing our class being nerfed, neglected, always getting the short end of the stick, leading to us coming here onto the forums, venting our frustrations and disappointment.

So let’s have a change of mood for once in a while.

Those who hate thieves because they get back-stabbed all the time are welcome as well. (There really is no real reason why you are still QQ-ing, but oh well)
_______________________________________________________________

The reason why I love playing as a thief is akin to why many people love Dark Souls. Make a mistake, and you will get punished for it. You will then proceed to learn from that mistake and get better. The on-edge gameplay feels thrilling -for me-, and when I do pull off something like a 1v2 or being the last person standing in a boss fight, and finished the job, it just feels immensely satisfying to me.

I’m a sucker for classes with a high skill cap, as well as an -arguably- high skill ceiling. (Used to play as a Tempest in Dragon Nest, despite being the hardest class to play)

Because of the followings:

One of the best 1v1 class.
The best PvP class. 1 thief is mandatory.
One of the best WvW roaming class.
Decent to good PvE class. It’s PvE, don’t give a kitten anyways.
Sexy in medium armor.

Gabriell.4856:

The best PvP class. 1 thief is mandatory.

Gonna call it now. If there are no significant buffs before HoT, the core thief class will not be seen in the moderate to skilled PvP scene. As it currently stands thief has 1 build that is used regularly in PvP. This one build struggles in 1v1 as is; it will be unviable after HoT adds additional reveal skills and class wide power creep granted by the elites.

An evasion spec might come back via Daredevil. The dodge mechanic is not particularly creative and the traits lack diversity, but it undoubtedly has potential to be pretty strong.

The big problem i think players are having right now on thief is not actually that it is bad in pvp( because it is not) BUT, it is not fun at all to play in pvp anymore. Most of the match you spend 1v0 or running from everyone. Your sick ganks consist of seeing some one at 25 % hp and pressing f1 1 for the gank. This as other classes have argued is why we are not able to fight anything anymore. Which is total bullkitten even when we were able to fight 1v1 only one of us was taken for the reason we can not fight on points WHICH IS FINE i do not think any thief thinks we should be a point fighter class. People argue that we put builds out of meta, with the current state of thieves it is not thief holding other dps classes back anymore. Now look at the meta builds people run oh only thief and mesmer wow where are all the other zerk classes you were going to play when thief got nerfed so hard that they have to play 1v0. The truth is thief is not bad just an awful experience to play currently.

I used to have hope but at this point it is what it is. You can only play d/p and be nerfed so many times, for so many years, before it’s time to move on.

I only play it at the moment because I am waiting for HoT to play Rev now. I truly do love thief at heart and love the game what it was, not what it is currently.

Maybe months from now, the balance team can make things better but track records leave me skeptical to say the least. It will be hard to forget the acro gut just to bring it back as a recycled asset elite spec. Like-wise though i also will remember all the intense fun WvW fights/duels ive had with the class over the years.

I used to play a thief (or the game in general), because it was a fun agile and (just a right amount) of challenging class. Way back when, I used to feel on par with other classes running dungeons and zerging (yes, zerging) in WvW. (Played since the 2nd last beta weekend event before the release.)

Eventually the waves of nerfs came around, I began to struggle in dungeons, when zerging happened in WvW I was usually just a road kill (see picture below) and was called out “oh look Zero Day died again” (began to feel like a dead weight, or a drag to the guild/team, they would go back and try to pick me up sometimes, sometimes dieing in the process) and was told to do the boring/unrewarding job of roaming because thieves are really good at that. Left WvW.

Did straight up sPvP, hotjoin/unranked for a while, became decent at it for a while (no longer the case.) From time to time went back to WvW zerging/pugging only to realize the day and night difference of PvP skill between the two groups (like take the time to go to town on sPvP, then go back to WvW and you WILL wreck kitten up). Waves of nerfs continued.

Frustrated, I took a break, one that’s been continuing for at least a year now, all the while watching the development of this game and the decisions that they’re making around balance and other things (like the whole revealing/hyping of HoT). Also started to flip sometime around doing sPvP, though stopped that as well as playing a spread sheet became kind of boring.

#storyofmygw2life

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I play thief because of the fast-paced twitch gameplay, as well as the ability to base everything you do around a single weapon set.

Also, I believe a lot of the complaints about thief being underpowered are exaggerated or unfounded, as I have not experienced such uselessness in game. I do better on Thief than on any other class.

Because 80% of my account’s life span has been spent on my thief and I like a challenge. I use celestial thief time to time just to kitten around

I used to dismiss Thief because glass cannons didn’t appeal to me. Playing Hotline Miami and its sequel, however, changed this.

Now if Anet would just release animal masks and a baseball bat skin to the gemstore, all would be right in the world.

Mostly playing thief on Open world PVE where getting around is easier than other classes.I let PVP , Dungineering to Engi,War,Guard.

Because I love the stealth mechanics in games. I’m an old DAoC vet., Infiltrator class.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Because I love the stealth mechanics in games. I’m an old DAoC vet., Infiltrator class.

If only we could do half of what we could there…

PA for daaaaaaays!

PopeUrban.2578:

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I dont know what class your playing but between weapon swaps, kits, and attunements I never had that issue.

I still play thief because revenant isn’t here yet. Stealth was fun but in hot almost everyone have revealed skills.

Technically, my main is still a thief, but I’m strongly considering going engi as main once HoT lands.

This isn’t because of any balance issues specifically, but rather because I think the DareDevil specialization is way too far off from matching the look and feel of any decent martial arts staff wielding combat and I don’t think it really brings anything unique to the profession. Scrapper, on the other hand, is much more appealing, even if the gyros are very underwhelming.

Coz you love the class, gameplay and theme like many people seems in this topic. When you love playing a class you just don’t care others professions can do some things better than you and nerfs. In all the case the balance is endless.

I’m haven’t myself found my main class in 2 years of gw2. Engineer was my favorite but really lack of something. Something i finally found in the revenant. In this class i’m going to have all the things i love: versatility, ritualistic theme, connection with the lore of Tyria, GW1 mecanic, smooth gameplay…
Even if it’s going to become the less powerfull classe of all i just planing to play him day and night coz it’s just the main i was searching since 2 years. When you love a class nerfs and ups doesn’t really matter.

EazyPanda.6419:

The reason why I love playing as a thief is akin to why many people love Dark Souls. Make a mistake, and you will get punished for it. You will then proceed to learn from that mistake and get better.

Well I hope it’s not the PvP aspect of Dark Souls or its second game. I’ve had my share of havel buttface mages.

Because SPEEEEEEEEEED!

I’m a fairly casual player, I’ll admit. Very little PvP-ing, and I tend to stick to the zerg in WvW. But the sheer mobility of Thief is what makes me enjoy it, and it’s only going to get better with Vault on Daredevil.

It’s the best class for PvE roaming, but worst for everything else though :( It’s like I’ll hit something, then something else would join the fight and I’m all, “Dude if I wanted to waste time killing you I’d hit you!” Then kill that thing too, notice it doesn’t drop anything good, and regret losing seven extra seconds. It’s good for gathering and shadowstep and shortbow skills help maximize tagging. Elementalist is good too but it has no stealth and isn’t as fast so you’re forced to fight more unwanted battles.

“I still play thief because revenant isn’t here yet. Stealth was fun but in hot almost everyone have revealed skills.”

+1. The best way to totally invalidate the other team’s reveal skills is simply not bring anything optimized for stealth.

I love thief because of the initiatieve which is basically stamina in the Souls games. Feels alot more realistic, every swing takes energy to use (cept AA)

Thief is fun, S/D in particular is awesome being so actively engaged in the fight by using your evades and what not to survive.

Out of all the other classes S/D Thief has got to be the most fun I’ve had in the game and the fact that I only have to run a Sword and Dagger as opposed to weapon swapping every 9 seconds to something else is awesome.

The only other class that has had a similar effect to me is Revenant and I feel that in terms keeping you on your toes in a fight, Revenant and Thief are on par.

I still play my thieves because of my D/D ele. There’s just something to be said for extremely active skill caps and playstyles. Since then, almost all of my other toons I have a found a way on them to be more active in their approaches as well. For a while I gave up signets because of that, back before they actually had better abilities.

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I dont know what class your playing but between weapon swaps, kits, and attunements I never had that issue.

I sure do. On non-thieves you run rotations not because it’s an efficient use of resources, but because you’re hard locked in to a system of cooldowns. There’s never any choice between “do I use my dash or my ranged cripple?” You obviously use the one that’s off cooldown, and if that doesn’t work you use the other one.

Playing other professions is essentially playing with a full bar of less powerful utilities. I cringe every time I use mesmer GS 4 and 5 for the DPS rather than the utility on a single foe. Sure, I could hold those skills, but in the end I’m just wasting damage because I can’t in stead choose to prioritize my character’s resources on single target attacks.

I’m not saying it isn’t skillful. Knowing when to hit buttons and how to prioritize the use of those cooldowns is still skillful play, but I like thief and rev because they’re more complex than choosing which order to hit buttons in, as I choose both what order to hit buttons in, how many times to hit the buttons, and what buttons to not hit at all based on the situation I’m in. In stead of being loaded with more buttons, the skill there is choosing when to use the buttons and whether it’s worth the cost compared to the other buttons.

Still playing cause it was my main, and i noramlly stick to my main.

Also, i feels so much better to win uphill battles than ez modes .

How is it, I’m specced zerker, and myself and a warrior are beating on an ele and he literally stands there and takes no damage? His health bar doesn’t move and he killed us both in about 6 seconds. WTF?

bennedict.4892:

How is it, I’m specced zerker, and myself and a warrior are beating on an ele and he literally stands there and takes no damage? His health bar doesn’t move and he killed us both in about 6 seconds. WTF?

bennedict.4892:

I’m specced zerker

bennedict.4892:

Ele

This is why. a Zerker thief against anything, especially Ele, is a big no no.

On topic:

I have a small sliver of hope that it may actually bring me some enjoyment.

PopeUrban.2578:

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I dont know what class your playing but between weapon swaps, kits, and attunements I never had that issue.

I sure do. On non-thieves you run rotations not because it’s an efficient use of resources, but because you’re hard locked in to a system of cooldowns. There’s never any choice between “do I use my dash or my ranged cripple?” You obviously use the one that’s off cooldown, and if that doesn’t work you use the other one.

Playing other professions is essentially playing with a full bar of less powerful utilities. I cringe every time I use mesmer GS 4 and 5 for the DPS rather than the utility on a single foe. Sure, I could hold those skills, but in the end I’m just wasting damage because I can’t in stead choose to prioritize my character’s resources on single target attacks.

I’m not saying it isn’t skillful. Knowing when to hit buttons and how to prioritize the use of those cooldowns is still skillful play, but I like thief and rev because they’re more complex than choosing which order to hit buttons in, as I choose both what order to hit buttons in, how many times to hit the buttons, and what buttons to not hit at all based on the situation I’m in. In stead of being loaded with more buttons, the skill there is choosing when to use the buttons and whether it’s worth the cost compared to the other buttons.

I think you may be prasing thief a little more then what the truth is, I have played thief and you still have to utilize certain rotations for the situation and the same goes for many classes, and you still have to manage initiative, on my characters I do not use the same rotations either, it depends on the situation not to mention abilities can have many uses to the group and myself, I think if anything your only seeing more of an illusion of choice as there are no cooldowns but stop saying other classes do not have the same amount of choices because they do, and you do realize you lower cooldowns on allot of abilities once you spec right?

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I dont know what class your playing but between weapon swaps, kits, and attunements I never had that issue.

I sure do. On non-thieves you run rotations not because it’s an efficient use of resources, but because you’re hard locked in to a system of cooldowns. There’s never any choice between “do I use my dash or my ranged cripple?” You obviously use the one that’s off cooldown, and if that doesn’t work you use the other one.

Playing other professions is essentially playing with a full bar of less powerful utilities. I cringe every time I use mesmer GS 4 and 5 for the DPS rather than the utility on a single foe. Sure, I could hold those skills, but in the end I’m just wasting damage because I can’t in stead choose to prioritize my character’s resources on single target attacks.

I’m not saying it isn’t skillful. Knowing when to hit buttons and how to prioritize the use of those cooldowns is still skillful play, but I like thief and rev because they’re more complex than choosing which order to hit buttons in, as I choose both what order to hit buttons in, how many times to hit the buttons, and what buttons to not hit at all based on the situation I’m in. In stead of being loaded with more buttons, the skill there is choosing when to use the buttons and whether it’s worth the cost compared to the other buttons.

I think you may be prasing thief a little more then what the truth is, I have played thief and you still have to utilize certain rotations for the situation and the same goes for many classes, and you still have to manage initiative, on my characters I do not use the same rotations either, it depends on the situation not to mention abilities can have many uses to the group and myself, I think if anything your only seeing more of an illusion of choice as there are no cooldowns but stop saying other classes do not have the same amount of choices because they do, and you do realize you lower cooldowns on allot of abilities once you spec right?

This isn’t a contest. It’s just a matter of how these classes feel to me personally. I prefer having a resource bar to track rather than multiple cooldowns. It just feels more intuitive and less limiting.

Calm down. You’re acting like I’m saying “all those other classes suck” I’m just saying I don’t like playing them.

I’m glad other people do! A game full of nothing but thieves and revnants would be pretty boring.

Two reasons:
1) Initiative
2) Shadowsteping

PopeUrban.2578:

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I dont know what class your playing but between weapon swaps, kits, and attunements I never had that issue.

I sure do. On non-thieves you run rotations not because it’s an efficient use of resources, but because you’re hard locked in to a system of cooldowns. There’s never any choice between “do I use my dash or my ranged cripple?” You obviously use the one that’s off cooldown, and if that doesn’t work you use the other one.

Playing other professions is essentially playing with a full bar of less powerful utilities. I cringe every time I use mesmer GS 4 and 5 for the DPS rather than the utility on a single foe. Sure, I could hold those skills, but in the end I’m just wasting damage because I can’t in stead choose to prioritize my character’s resources on single target attacks.

I’m not saying it isn’t skillful. Knowing when to hit buttons and how to prioritize the use of those cooldowns is still skillful play, but I like thief and rev because they’re more complex than choosing which order to hit buttons in, as I choose both what order to hit buttons in, how many times to hit the buttons, and what buttons to not hit at all based on the situation I’m in. In stead of being loaded with more buttons, the skill there is choosing when to use the buttons and whether it’s worth the cost compared to the other buttons.

I think you may be prasing thief a little more then what the truth is, I have played thief and you still have to utilize certain rotations for the situation and the same goes for many classes, and you still have to manage initiative, on my characters I do not use the same rotations either, it depends on the situation not to mention abilities can have many uses to the group and myself, I think if anything your only seeing more of an illusion of choice as there are no cooldowns but stop saying other classes do not have the same amount of choices because they do, and you do realize you lower cooldowns on allot of abilities once you spec right?

This isn’t a contest. It’s just a matter of how these classes feel to me personally. I prefer having a resource bar to track rather than multiple cooldowns. It just feels more intuitive and less limiting.

Calm down. You’re acting like I’m saying “all those other classes suck” I’m just saying I don’t like playing them.

I’m glad other people do! A game full of nothing but thieves and revnants would be pretty boring.

You did not state it was only your opinion you where implying other classes do not get as much choice, and I am calm sir, maybe your not calm?

Because when played well, we are the absolute best class at creating a snowball effect, and snowballing is fuuuuuuuuun!!

The truth is, I no longer main thief. Not as a result of some patch here or there, but I’ve been shifting more and more to ele (zerker, no cele) over the past few months. I played thief only for first 1.5year and I think eventually I got bored. Plus zerker ele is way more punishing for mistakes than zerker thief and I like kamikaze builds.

I still play the thief because it fits my play style and I like it. I really enjoy fast-paced action games such as devil may cry, darksiders, etc. This class gives me that experience which I enjoy so much.

Because I’m not ready to give up yet.

This dude’s been my main since day 1. I’m good at him, I’m good at my class. Because I’m still stubbornly trusting that it’s -working as intended- that I have to try thrice as hard as other classes in order to perform to their standards.

That I’m MEANT to blow every trick in my Batman utility belt in order to kill another player.

That maybe, just maybe, the team behind balance have got Thief as their top priority after HoT ships and they can stop focusing on Elite Specs.

Because it’s my favorite class and I’ll be kitten ed if I’m gonna jump ship, even if I spend half my time in downstate and nobody wants to raid with the de-facto wimp of the class roster.

I was an Assassin in the original Guild Wars with over 4,000 hours on that character alone. I got 50/50 in the HoM and GWAMM’ed it up.

I play Thief because it’s the evolution of that profession. Sure, we’re back-alley bruisers instead of disciplined assassins but we’re still spiritually the same profession. I’ve been playing this style profession in Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 since 2006 when Factions launched. I have overwhelming faith in ArenaNet’s ability to make great professions.

Just because we’re in a lull period in the profession doesn’t mean we’ll stay here forever. With sPvP becoming a higher priority for ANet I have no doubt that regular balance passes will even out all OP builds and make every profession closer to true balance.

Balance aside, it’s fun being fast. I enjoy the profession’s thematic elements and the feeling of being a martial artist. Now if we can only get martial arts animations and medium armor that’s not steam-punk/cowboy/pirate themed I’ll be truly impressed, lol.