Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone. So I played GW2 for a really short stint and then got super hooked on league of legends, and now I’m back! But, I’m still pretty new to the game, and there’s apt I don’t understand. So here are a few questions for ya:

I’m level 45, and dear lord dungeons are difficult. I’m trying to do the story of the catacombs (and a big problem is people keep leaving) but I just feel useless. I hang back and use my SB and detonate combo fields with my blast finisher and whatnot. I’m super squishy so if I get close to a champion I’m pretty much done for. This is especially a problem in the fight with the two champions that are stronger when they’re together. They area light night storm damage just kills me. Outright. No hope for survival.

So to be fair, I’ve been 100% focusing on precision and power, to try to get my
Most out of crit and backstab damage. So do I need to redo most of my build to be more survival oriented and maybe focus on power and toughness?

Also, and I know this is a tender subject on thieves… But seriously, how do I remove conditions. Everything that does it just seems to have such a long cool down.

Well, those are the big questions I’m wondering. Any help is greatly appreciated. And no, I’m not going to abandon my thief at any time. I want to do a ton of pvp with him eventually. But I’d like to be able to help my team in dungeons and whatnot, too.

They can be difficult even for lvl 80 players. Dungeons are also about a good party composition, there are other classes that can handle condi removal a lot better and for others too.

Are you on EU or NA server?

Yea, thief is pretty squishy, so it’s not a bad idea to just stick to Pistol/Pistol and/or
Short Bow as your weapons of choice while you learn the encounters.

As for condition removal, you shouldn’t need too much. Hide in Shadows is a good heal for when you’re facing a lot of conditions and the stealth will synergize well with pistols since they have a solid stealth attack. Outside of that, Signet of Agility is your best bet.

Technically, you could take at least 10 points (or after the patch today, 2 points) into Shadow Arts for the condition removal on stealth, but that’s generally more of a PvP trait.

Really, your best defense against conditions is avoiding them in the first place with dodges/evades/etc. or having party members with condi cleanse.

The basics are actually straightforward although it might not look like it. At the moment you can’t sort out what you need to dodge and what you need to heal/cleanse, but with experience that decision is easier.

Basic #1 – If you can blind trash mobs then blind them. There are lots of ways to blind mobs. Do it. You then need to dodge the big/repeated hits that are not covered by blind.
Basic #2 – Missile defense is really good. It blocks a variety of stuff like grenades and tow lines too. Use it wisely in dungeons.
Basic #3 – Pick the dodges. This means learning the boss animations, knowing what to watch for, knowing how fast to dodge (as you can time most of them).
Basic #4 – Thieves have mobility so don’t only stand in the right place, think ahead to where you want your mobility skill to take you once things get dangerous.
Basic #5 – Use mobility to avoid the multiple conditions and then slot condition cures to cleanse the most dangerous. There aren’t so many skills that cleanse so using Shadow Arts to cleanse on stealth brings a lot more options. It’s ok to use survival traits while you’re learning the game.

Don’t try to max your dps all the time. The forums talk about it a lot and it is the best way to go for experiences players (since all the mobs are dead before your defenses drop). However if you can’t stay alive then you need to get yourself into safer positions, watch more carefully for the dodges, and stay on your feet.

^ Good advice.

Also, if you do go melee on trash mobs, then Sword/Pistol is a great option since it gives you cleave to AoE while also allowing you to drop blind fields, which essentially allow you to facetank anything standing in the field. Just remember that this doesn’t work on Champions or anything above (blind is only a 10% chance to make an attack miss on them).

This is all wonderful advice guys. Thank you for all the pointers.

A nice weapons combo/spec is Pistol/Pistol, Sword/Pistol. You can spec for combo moves (3 on your hotbar) to deal more damage, making Pistol Whip and Unload both much more viable. With this combo you also have constant access to Head Shot (interrupt) and Black Powder (the most OP blind in the game by far).

Throw down black powder in a group of minions, go through a few auto-attack rotations. Then use the stun/evasion on Pistol Whip for some burst/CC/evasion. It’s quite fun.

My biggest tip: Don’t get too hooked on being the “stealth high damage melee class” like a Rogue from WoW. A Thief is a Thief, and that can mean ranged DPS/combo detonator as well as good melee burst.