Guild Wars 2

I was one of those thief players that just couldnt quite seem to make thief work. I mean, I was leveling, but I was dying a TON and just felt like battles against even 2 mobs my own level, were a real challenge.

To start with, I play a melee thief. So if you are a P/P or Shortbow thief, this wont really apply. Ive read about lots of builds and guides, but at lower levels, you dont get a lot of trait points, and are limited by how far into the trait lines you can go. My suggestion in fact, doesnt do much to help those thieves under level 40, because of this limitation.

However, if you do reach 40, I discovered 2 traits made ALL the difference in my thief and making him feel playable and actually capable of doing most PvE content without a huge struggle. These arent some revolutionary concept, many end builds include them. I was still amazed at how two little minor tweaks to the system, caused thief to feel like a solid, complete class finally. Those 2 traits:

1. Preparedness (15 point trickery) – This trait was the one that had the biggest impact. Having these 3 extra init points suddenly opened up a whole new world of combos I could use before running out of init. It almost makes me feel like thieves should start with these 3 extra points, because imo they dont feel like a complete class with what they do have before this trait.

2. Opportunist (15 point Critical Strikes) – I crit a ton on my thief. Our base init regen is pretty darn slow. With how fast we attack, and how often we should be critting, this can seriously help get our init back up faster without the need to run and kite while waiting for it to regen.

So for me, and maybe for others, playing well on my thief came down to simply not having enough base init, and not being able to regain it at a decent speed. (again, this is low level we are talking about)

Perhaps if you are struggling as a thief, and have hit level 40, you might give these traits a try, especially Preparedness. I know its hard to pass up a lot of the traits from the Deadly arts and crit strikes tree (damage always seems good), but for me, being able to chain together more unique ability combos really rounded out my thief and made him feel like a solid class. My death rate went way down, and Im actually having a ton of fun on him now.

Handling multiple mobs at low levels is easy if you know how to stay alive. Don’t rely on traits to fix your problem if you suck at surviving low level pve without them.

Thank you Drake, for that helpful, kind hearted post. It really added to the helpful, suggestive tip I gave in my own post.

I’m a level 46 condition D/D thief and I absolutely love it. I only put my trait points in trickery and acrobatics and it just allows my to put down lots of bleeds with death blossom and gain some more distance by dropping caltrops as I dodge. Most of the time I can take about 2-3 level 50’s with no trouble at all.
It really all depends on the timing of you dodges and managing your initiative so you can make a quick exit if things get too hairy. Yeah it’s no huge number dps strategy and it might take a while to get things down sometimes, but I’ve found it a solid way of staying alive!

Personally I had a little trouble at super low level with more than one mob just 1 level higher. Once you get to lvl 10/11 you HAVE to upgrade your gear. And again at 20. I use sword/pistol – black powder makes you take no melee damage followed by pistol whip for stun and DPS. When fighting multiple mobs DO NOT let them get behind you- back up so your attacks hit them all. If you pick up a ranged mob use steal if it is up (no initiative cost) to take them out while the melee are finding their way to your new spot. I keep dagger/dagger on my alt set for just melee and death blossom gets all the mobs in FRONT of you. I usually use armor with vitality and add power/vitality stones, but armor with power is ok if you get a decent drop. I run signet of malice for constant heals during the fight and the boost heal if it gets rough. No issues taking down Veteran mobs even with an add or 2 or 3-5 regular mobs even a few levels higher. BUT it does require timing, resource management and running to kite for a minute now and then. It isn’t “easy mode” but it is fun I rarely die unless I port to a ranged and pick up another nearby ranged or go to kite heal and pick up fresh mobs- even then you con sometimes rally from downed.

If you are having PvE issues/deaths make sure you gear is current- add stones all those bonus stats make a big difference at low levels, make sure you have good accessories, add vitality (there is no back up pure heal class to save your squishy butt) Look for the big move animations in mobs and get the heck out of the way. I played Mesmer also and that is just silly easy mode and even ranger with a tank pet requires way less thought. Thief requires you to be attentive, no random button mashing, scout the area for a second before blazing in, but all in all I find it fun and challenging enough where it isn’t frustrating. If I die it is usually because I screwed up. In that sense thief is less forgiving, but easy mode is boring and “grindy”…. Thief is engaging.

Note: for events etc I use short bow for AoE damage credit etc… no matter how mobile we are it is hard to cover that much ground in an event to get enough credit for gold going melee only

Actually Gadzooks, it’s even simpler than you think. Just equip D/P and use Shadow Shot for fighting single foes (even in melee range), and Black Powder for fighting multiple foes. You’ll have to space them out enough to keep from exhausting Initiative but not so much that you take more than one hit in between applications. If my Initiative gets too low I’ll use Smoke Screen to let it recharge. I also use Signet of Malice to regain any health I lost from taking any hits.

The traits you described will make things even easier.

All you need to do is go D/D, take Caltrops, and spam LDB. Points in trickery helps for the extra 15 int and initiative return on steal (which means don’t open with steal).

Grab gear with condition damage (which is on practically every karma merchant and can be easily made by a leatherworker.)

That’s what you’ll use 90% of the time while leveling and it will work on practically everything. If you need to kite a champion or something, take a shortbow, or p/d, or be a man and blindtank it with d/p.

Black Powder is so stupidly overpowered. I’m really not sure if Anet intends for it to be this effective. My thief is still kinda low level, but she’s been able to facetank everything, including multiple mobs. Basically zero risk. Sword autoattack actually has pretty good DPS and AoE too.

My post wasn’t really meant to be “helpful” exactly, because there’s really not much I can extrapolate on. Most people who are struggling, instead of thinking “kitten I must be doing something wrong,” are leaping immediately to blaming the profession, or blaming the game mechanics.

Most of the time, the only thing a person can do to stop struggling is to keep playing, keep trying, and get better. Practice makes perfect.

If you’re struggling, it’s absolutely true that traits won’t solve the problem. They will merely treat the symptoms, and you will still end up struggling in many situations.

Right, my post was sarcastic at your troll response. Your second reply actually offers some kind of minor advice, which is better.

People do struggle. Just because you didnt, doesnt change that. My post was here to offer some of my personal experiences that I found made things better while playing a thief. Others have done the same (ie: the suggestions about caltrops, and blackpowder for more than one mob, etc etc).

However, your opinion that traits cant help someone who is struggling, I believe to be a situation of circumstance, depending on the player. I struggled, and the traits made that struggle a lot less for me.

For many, skills such as steal arent helpful to their struggle, but after they trait it (for damage, and init gain for example) suddenly they find it much more worthy of using and actually adds to their ability to perform as a thief.

Struggling doesnt always mean someone is a bad player. To treat it as such is just ignorance. To post it as such is just trolling.