Guild Wars 2

So I’m a lvl 20 Sylvari thief. Through my questing I’ve tried almost every conceivable weapons combination and in all of them I still run into the same problem:

Mobs

D/D, P/D, D/P, P/P, D, Sb, all of them work swimmingly against 1-2 opponents, maybe 3 if you’re really on your game, but any more than that and I simply can’t survive it. And it’s not that I’m Death Blossoming like a kitten , it’s simply that my Cooldowns aren’t fast enough to keep up with the DPS my enemies are doing to me.

Furthermore my frustration is compounded when I’m panting in a corner, forked as Zabuza, and some warrior just breezes through the camp killing the entire thing and the boss to boot without breaking stride. I mean…wha?How?What am I doing wrong here?

I’m not engaging more than one enemy at a time. I’ve tried spinning both condition as well as burst builds, I’ve tried range as well as melee, and yet still I find myself being swarmed over and murdered by 3+ enemies on the regular.

Generally speaking my two main methods of attack are:

Ranged: Pistol them up with bleeds using an offhand dagger to slow them and then shadowstepping away when they get too close

Melee: Pull them in with the Scorpion tether, then Stealth/Backstab/Heartseeker/Heartseeker.

I mean are respawn timers that short? Is there a magic thief trick I’m missing? Is it a level thing and after a certain level threshold things improve? Or do we really take hits like wet noodles? Is there anything I can do that will boost my survivability?

And yes, I’ve been religiously buying new gear from the Auction House as I level up. Every 3-4 levels I buy new gear to try and keep myself not quite as dead as often.

Anyway, whatever help you’re willing to offer to a very beleaguered Sylvari trying to make her way in Tyria is appreciated.

Well, comparing anything to Warriors is a bad idea. Much grumbling surrounds warriors, and I will leave it at that.

The focus on single target DPS is probably the problem here. That, and condition thieves, while they can work with an extremely specialized build set or two, tend to be a bit on the underwhelming side in my experience. Try a Sword mainhand, slap on blind on stealth, and you can take on three mobs at a time, alternating with CnD from Dagger Offhand and skill 1 Sword with very steady DPS. Very low initiative requirements, and Sword offers superior long term DPS to Dagger IMO. Alternatively, going Pistol offhand with Sword main, you can rush up to enemy mob clumps, pop Black Powder, and spam pistol whip inside the blind zone to your hearts content – it just does not work particularly well outside of PvE and eats initiative. Dagger is all about the burst damage whereas sword is about the slower, sustained damage game.

As for ranged approach, if you go pistols you want the ricochet trait. Otherwise, it is also a single target weapon system and you can get more bang for your buck out of shortbow. You can agro an entire pack and ground target Cluster Bomb behind you as you run to kill off swarms of enemies pretty easily, assuming they are melee only mobs.

Try sword/pistol with signet of malice should make things alot easier fot you.

You need to pack a Sword and Pistol, Power and Precision gear and then just stand in your Black Powder combo field and auto-attack for the win.

Sword/Pistol is really hard to beat in PvE. Black Powder allows you to kill most melee mobs without taking damage at all. Ranged mobs can be tricky, but that’s what Infiltrator Strike and Pistol Whip are for.

Like everyone has say: Sword/pistol for leveling up in PvE, also you can use caltrops to managing groups of mobs meanwile you dps then with pistol whip. D/D is good in pve too but a more high levels when you have access to more traits. And for range use caltrops + shortbow and, if you want to use pistols, wait until level 40 when you will have access to riccochet which is very usefull for pistols in PvE and WvW.

thieves do get stronger as they lvl up via traits

a simple 15 into trickery will gain you more initiation points and a easy caltrops on dodge that bleeds and cripples mobs around you

personally im always using a shortbow, i find my self pulling more than 4 mobs with it and getting 0 dmg from any of them.

I engage with poison gas, then i kite them in a nice pile of mob,and then i spam my cluster bomb. i do activate it right before it hits the ground so the bomb deals 3 stacks of bleeding instead of just 1.

The trick arrow 1 skill is also a nice way to deal with mobs.

As for other weapons it repends where i am and what im doing.

If im in lower lvls i usually go with d/d and simply burst mobs quickly. but all in all, S/P is a great way for dealing with mobs on equal lvl.

For lvling utilities i use some that are great with dealing with multiple mobs,

Trip wire is a nice trap that knocks down everyone for 3 seconds
Ambush summons a fellow thief npc that deals nice dmg and distracts mobs from you.

dagger/pistol, full stealth and blinds, and after some practice mob will never even hit you. Shortbow for 3+ mobs, godbless sb

You just have to understant – thief can’t just autoattack enemy to death, you’re actually have to play, use utilities, dodge.

what i’m currently doing while levelling is using shortbow and pistol/dagger and using the thieves guild elite and the trap that makes a thief when triggered when getting into a big fight and cluster bombing them down and finishing the odd ones left with shortbow auto and maybe kiting with p/d number 3 if it hits too hard.

it’s doing ok, there’s probably a better way though, i’m still learning and going to watch this topic for ideas :-)