Guild Wars 2

Hi guys

I’m about to start a Thief as a main character, and because I’m not very familiar with this profession, I was hoping you good Thieves gave me some guidance.

When I reach 80 I will do mostly WvW (roaming mostly) and SPvP (although I know thieves aren’t the best for this).

What specs are the most efficient for solo roaming, and SPvP? If you can link a guide/build, that would be very appreciated.

Also, because I’m starting it, what build should I follow for leveling?

If you have any additional gameplay tips for Thiefs, or know a link for it, it would be very welcome

Thank you in advance for your help

I can’t help you with PVP that much since I prefer PVE but here are some general thief tips which helped me:
- d/d is good against solo targets. Stealth yourself with 5 and use 1 on the backside or your opponent for some nasty backstab. But beware: PVE in open world you better pack some gooood Power/Prec stuff or it’s not worth your time
- Shortbow is awesome in PVE. Poison everyone and then use 2 to send out grenades. Don’t forget to detonate them midair on the pack at your heels – it’s well worth your time. (5) is nice to get away in any situation if some monster pins you on the spot
- Sword/Pistol works fine – try (3) and (5) to see why

Also: Healing Signet of Malice will get better than you think at first. Use it in combination with your (2) shortbow to heal chunks of HP on trash mobs or (3) on d/d (Deadly Blossom). If you go with it also consider daggerstorm as your elite since spinning while getting Hp for every hit makes you an indestructable storm of daggers – NICE.

Roll another profession… unless you want to know how they work.

Zacchary.6183:

Roll another profession… unless you want to know how they work.

lol lame advice, I just rolled a THF as well and im enjoying it.

tattoohead.3217:

Zacchary.6183:

Roll another profession… unless you want to know how they work.

lol lame advice, I just rolled a THF as well and im enjoying it.

Considering the upcoming changes/rework the thief is supposedly gonna have, i would postpone any levelling or gearing up.

Why do you say that? For what I’ve seen it was mentioned that good things will come for Thieves… There was only the whip nerf

I’ll say this, learning thief isn’t something you can learn from youtube or forums. As many hints as you can soak up its just like any other profession, you have to just jump in and start learning how things work together. A few tips I can suggest for building

DA is best known to have mug which deals damage and heals you on steal, don’t bother going more than 10 points here unless there is something you really want to try.

CS is our dps tree, due to crit damage and executioner. You can go with hidden killer but executioner is just the boom to your nuke as far as traits go.

SA is for stealth builds. If you dislike stealth, no worries as there are ways to avoid it (although in reality you will need it to some small degree). I’d suggest going atleast 10-15 into here for on demand condi removal.

Acrobatics has its uses but the main thing is 15 in with Vigorous recovery, 150 vitality 15% boon duration and a good solid source of evasion. You can build further into it but its not nearly as good kitten as far as defensive traits go imo. Mix the two up if you wish, see what you like.

Trickery is for steal spec’s. If you don’t like them, don’t go into this trait line. If you like them, try going atleast 20 into it for bountiful theft and something else, nothing like turning the tides with boon steal.

D/d is primarily a power spec, don’t fool around with condi d/d, its a waste (except maybe open world pve)

D/p is also a power spec, some say it’s cheesy but that’s if you follow the trend of spamming #5+#2 which you don’t need to. #2-#4 is a great amount of utility at your disposal, and #3 on d/p is the perfect gap closer (unblockable, teleports, blind, dmg).

SB is almost mandatory but depending on what you’re doing you can sub it out. SB is a great utlility weapon just like staff to guardian or necro, its good to have on the side. Look through the skills and you will see why.

S/x is more so to dance with your target and control. Whether you get s/d or s/p, you will be up in their face to annoy them. I wouldn’t bother with s/p in spvp but if you want to give it a try by all means go for it. The whole point is to try everything out before knocking it.

p/x is just…. weak. Don’t bother unless its pve with p/p.

Best of luck to ya. Oh and don’t be surprised if a build you finally feel comfortable gets nerfed, it’s in the fine print when you make this class.

The whip nerf was just a re work, they never said it would cost “more” initiative just that the cost would be split. Also having the stun and the bust split could be usefull in situations.

The only nerf I saw was the nerf to choking gas and Poison is getting changed across all classes.

Ill agree that THF has some issues but its really good at its job… being annoying!

Just go Shortbow and put anything else in the other weapon slots for fun and testing until you get used to them, then there, you mastered Thief.
I don’t know builds, go whatever, the traits aren’t worth much attention anyway.
Thief is all about how much your patience and willforce allows you to put effort on playing and suffering.

Have fun, suffer well.

^
That’s actually a really good tip.
Thief, like some other professions (looking especially at Mesmer and Ele), is a class you can only learn by doing. It works radically diffrent from all the others professions.
Mostly because
- there is no cd. You need to learn how to manage your Ini
- you have to rely on stealth really often.
- you’ll trade in good survivabilty for good damage and disspear in thin air in a heartbeat

→ This results in maybe the most “high-risk-high-reward” class I have ever seen in any videogame I have ever played. GW2 is already a game where numbers climb and fall really quickly but thief crosses even that line by constantly cheating death. Look at it as Warrior – just instead of “easy mode” it’s “hard mode” minus the unbelievable amount of button-presses the ele requires (you need to press buttons but Ele needs 4 more since you rely on 4 elements instead of stealth).

I’d say it’s easly one of the more enjoyable classes (it’s debateable if thief’s state at the moment needs some reword tho) but not for everyone. Wanna trade in brute aggression for elegance and acrobatics? Welcome to our flock!

thanks a lot for your feedback guys!

I will still give it a try!

My choices for main were Thief or Elementalist, but I think I will stick with Thief