Guild Wars 2

Sorry in advance for probably being wrong.

Hello forum.

I’m a bit torn between maining my Thief or my Guardian. I’ve got both of them at level 55 right now, so I have a pretty good feel for the way each profession plays. However, I’ve also done extensive research on both of the classes and how they function in PvE and PvP. This thread isn’t going to be about which profession I feel suits me more as a person, or how they do in PvE, but I’m asking mostly about how Thieves do in PvP.

I have a relatively firm understanding of Guardian PvP. They’re extremely tanky due to their ability to easily gain boons, and they’re also a tremendous help to surrounding allies. Not only that, they have solid upfront damage with Greatsword/Hammer and a ton of support options through utility skills, elite skills, and other weapons like the staff and sheild.

My question is, what does a Thief bring to the table that a sPvP or WvW group needs? I’ve watched a lot of gameplay videos and they either instagib someone with a few crits and lack of skill on the other player’s part, or just kite around, stack bleeds through D/D 3, and hope they don’t die. Their inability to constantly go in and out of stealth due to the reveal debuff seems like the only suitable damage mitigation is dodging, which can be traited to essentially give a third dodge, but is still relatively limited. Thief doesn’t seem like it carries much damage aside from Initiative heavy spam skills like P/P’s Unload or S/P’s Pistol Whip. I can see that the Shortbow provides a ton of AoE damage if you’re okay with sitting in the back, but what can they do other than that? The only real group support they bring seems like Shadow Refuge, and a stun/immobilize through venoms, their assassination potential seems very limited since the Heartseeker nerf and the unreliability of backstab, not to mention the stealth delay. So what’s the appeal to PvP as a thief?

“So what’s the appeal to PvP as a thief?”

First off http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Larcenous_Strike
This allows us to tear down boon based bunkers.

The Thief has the highest Mobility (Back capping in sPvP, Scouting in WvW)

Redguard used them for Daggerstorm (GvG’s)

It sounds like you have not see the Dual S/D + S/D evasive thieves. If this is the case make sure to check some out. Jumper X is a well known player that uses this build.

“Their inability to constantly go in and out of stealth due to the reveal debuff seems like the only suitable damage mitigation is dodging, which can be traited to essentially give a third dodge, but is still relatively limited. "

Note it can be traited to do the following on stealth
Blind
Remove Conditions
Regenerate Health not to be confused with applying Regeneration boon

These are the more common damage mitigation for stealth users

Sigil of energy has a really nice synergy with the S/D+S/D for damage mitigation

Dodge + Dodge Standard
Extra Dodge from Acrobatics
Signet of Agility (full endurance regen aka 3 more dodges)
weapon swap (1/2 endurance)
The Evade on the weapon set 3 (just the first part)

Now this is not even including the traits for initiative regen.

Quick Recovery
Signet of the infiltrator
Quick Pockets.

This is getting kind of long so I will end it here. If you have any other questions I will be happy to help however I can.

That seems like a lot to take in. I understand more of the damage mitigation and initiative regeneration, but it seems like you’ll spend a lot of time dodging, blinding, debuffing, and avoiding death. But where is the damage? Is the Thief’s primary focus avoiding damage while scampering around the map taking objectives? Do you kill someone by simply negating their damage while poking them down with the damage from your S/D 3+3 and mixing in autoattacks? It seems that to focus on dealing damage you would have to sacrifice a lot of survivability.

And thanks for the input, I’ll make sure to look up Jumper X.

I think it would be best for you to see it in action. Because to explain it in text would take many many words. I even left out a lot from the above to be brief.

Jumpers Twitch Stream
http://www.twitch.tv/loljumper

You can look at recorded videos he has made.
There will also be a link to the builds he suggests. GL