Guild Wars 2

… recently, the overall Thief-skill-level has increased. A lot. Or I just happend to run into skilled Thieves more often. I dunno. Thing is, I was thinking that I’m getting a hang of fighting Thieves. But recently, I’ve found that often, I get utterly destroyed by them; especially by D/D-thieves. I don’t know how… it appears that they constantly are somewhere behind me, manage to go into stealth even when I wouldn’t think that they have anything to CnD on, they backstab me (even though I’m moving and trying to dodge and stuff and not let them get my back) and I often don’t even see them during an autoattack-chain (I do hear it, though lol). It happens so fast sometimes. I’m kinda baffled that I’m getting outplayed that much. I mean, I have a Thief as well. Was trying P/D first, but then found that it’s often nearly impossible to get a CnD without eating lots of damage while trying to get near my opponents. So now I’m running S/P with my Thief. My main is Mesmer btw. But yeah… I found it’s hard to land CnD, but more or less glassy Thieves seem to stay on top of me no matter what I do and CnD all the time. Also, yesterday I could swear I was actually backstabbed in the middle of my own shadowstep-animation (I tried to get away with shortbow 5 lol). Eh… so either I just happen to run into very skilled Thieves recently… or I just have a lot to learn. I think it’s a mix of both. I also wish I could practice somehow… but the bad thing is, if you get killed, you can’t just fight them again. So practicing is nearly impossible.

Any tips? Suggestions? Or maybe confessions about secret D/D-special-forces-trainingscamps happening recently? ;P

My opinion is that the average thief you meet in WvW are below average. CnD is hard to land and require a lot of practice to really master. If two stealth thieves meet up it usually rely a lot on luck and who has more stealth. To me it sounds like you’re doing most things right. It’s about reading the other player and evade at the right moment. What I often find very usefull and quite safe is to count to 2 and then quickly turn around and hit CnD then evade. That usually let me hit the thief and gain stealth myself. Then it’s all about my positioning to get in a backstab and kill him.

It really comes down to how well you read your opponent regardless of your profession. It seems that the Thief you’re fighting against can read your every move very well.

Saturn.6591:

I also wish I could practice somehow… but the bad thing is, if you get killed, you can’t just fight them again. So practicing is nearly impossible.

Any tips? Suggestions? Or maybe confessions about secret D/D-special-forces-trainingscamps happening recently? ;P

Duel some thieves in Obsidian Sanctum. Honestly tho, if you want a fight that would help prepare you against thieves while out in the borderlands, try it. Imo it’s better than spvp IF you are preparing for WvW battles, just because spvp really isnt similar enough and it is a totally different playstyle (+If you find any good d/d thieves in spvp lemme know :P )

Cynz.9437:

i will tell you what happend recently… all bad thieves rerolled warriors

+ 1

The thief can hit your sides for the backstab as well, so 3/4 of your character is a successful backstab opportunity, at that rate he’d have to be legally blind to miss the hits reliably.

You need to really play a build that uses back stab for a while to get to know where the opposing thief is likely to be going while in stealth. It doesn’t matter whether you use D/D or D/P for the experience.

There are ways to counter it, just like there are ways to counter basilisk venom. The trick is to see it coming. You can sit in a black powder field while they are stealthed and heartseeker out at the last second. You can use evades while they are stealthed (works best with S/D and at least 15 in acrobatics), and if you see "Evaded!" you can risk turning and trying to cloak and dagger them.

I wouldn’t waste shadow step or the initiative for infiltrator’s arrow to get some distance. They will still be able to close that gap at less cost that it was for you to make it, and you’d have lost valuable survival resource(s). If you put a 900 unit gap between you and an attacking thief, D/P can shadow shot to you still dealing significant damage, and S/D can infiltrator’s strike to you.

Generally speaking though, D/P counters all other thief builds, especially with shadow’s embrace vs condition builds. P/D would probably have the hardest job fighting D/P. For D/D it would come down to who lands their skill first - their cloak and dagger or your shadow strike.

Oh and you can more reliably land cloak and dagger if you hit it, then half a second later hit steal or infiltrator’s signet. With a trickery build and reduced signet recharge, you can do it every ~12 seconds.

Impact.2780:

P/D would probably have the hardest job fighting D/P. For D/D it would come down to who lands their skill first – their cloak and dagger or your shadow strike.

I’d probably disagree, blinds are much more effective against the nearly 100% melee d/d thieves (100% minus the almost useless 4 “dancing dagger”). P/d can clear blinds from range and gain distance from u just as fast as u can close it. Either way, d/p can outstealth both giving you a huge advantage in 1v1 situations. Don’t restrict yourself to d/p though just because we said it on here, try out everything and play what you like. D/p felt way too slow to me, and also very prone to interupts. I liked the d/d playstyle more and went with it, so try everything and find what u like.

The things is, this is probably true. With a drop in thief activity, it is most likely (as previously stated) that most thieves are re-rolling as a different class because they simply aren’t good at thief. This leaves behind the good thieves.
Second, you said you tried p/d and didn’t like it? Lost health fast? I have found p/d to be very fun, while still taking skill to play. If you are having trouble landing Backstab, it is usually best to chain steal into Backstab then stay just out of melee range until you want to Backstab again. I would personally recommend going back to p/d but try out a full dire set. I run with 1400 Condi damage, 3.1k toughness, and 20k health in buffed. I feel like a god when I play my thief

Cynz.9437:

i will tell you what happend recently… all bad thieves rerolled warriors

LOL have a +1 Sir

XPGAMER.7324:

Either way, d/p can outstealth both giving you a huge advantage in 1v1 situations.

You realise you opened with “I’d probably disagree” and then supported what I was saying, right? That D/P would be a hard match i.e because it has the advantage VS. most thief builds, P/D included.

“P/D would probably have the hardest job fighting D/P.” <—-Too lazy to use quote block

Impact I was disagreeing with you saying p/d would have a harder time than d/d. p/d is not 100% melee like most d/d builds, and therfore you have an easier ranged blind clear. I still said that d/p outmatched both bc of the stealth advantage. Not sure why that confused you, perhaps I worded it wrong?