Guild Wars 2

So, a few hours ago I started my brand new thief (which I streamed, and will continue to do so on http://www.twitch.tv/motrokarg/new after a break) and I had a lot of fun while getting him to level 10. Here are my thoughts so far.

I started as a human, because I dislike how Asuras look, I already completed the Sylvari starting area, and I don’t like Norn’s snowy-mountain-theme. And Charr thieves look plain ridiculous. I picked my background as a Noble, my divinity, branded myself as a charmer, and set off into the big world.

First few hearts weren’t hard, they aren’t supposed to be anyway, but right from the beginning I noticed a few things:

- GW2 thieves aren’t supposed to be just squishy damage dealers like in most other games. They can be tough, and they don’t deal THAT much damage. And certainly they don’t seem to be designed around crit.

- Stealth is a mechanic that the class does have, but it isn’t built around it either. You can use stealth, take some advantage with repositioning or a big hit/root/snare, but that’s about that. Forget about sneaking everywhere.

- At least for these first 10 levels, our unique class mechanic, Steal, feels kinda gimmicky. Sure, it’s nice to have, but you can go on without even noticing it’s there. I even forgot about it for several levels. Perhaps 1 minute CD is too much?

- You have a LOT of control over your enemy. Wielding a Pistol allows you to blind, snare, confuse, and even root an enemy I think? Thats great. Many mobs cannot touch you.

-Backstab from stealth is insane. INSANE.

- There seems to be a lack of AoE for the class, which is similar to what most rogue classes suffer in other games. Sure, the Shortbow autoattack is AoE by nature, but if I wanted to use a bow, I’d be a ranger.

- Pistols are GREAT. I mean, GREAT. Not only they have some nice skills (Black powder, switch to daggers, heart strike into stealth, and backstab. Amazing.), but also look very good. I felt like a true bucaneer. In this game, being a thief means you can be a pirate. Yarr.

- Wielding a Pistol and a Dagger so far seems to be the way to go. It gives you mobility, control, and damage. BUT, this is the class with which I’ve most had to switch weapons, and that may turn some people off, but I find it a lot of fun.

- Swords aren’t bad, in fact, I like how they have a wide arc damage, and flank strike is frankly very good, but again. If I wanted to be a warrior, I’d be a warrior. Sword/Pistol is pirate material tho. Yarr again.

So far the class has been amazing. Tried some PvP but, as expected, those Infinite Battlegrounds are no place for a level 9. Will go back to them later on.

I love how the class keeps you on your toes, you always have to be doing something, as opposed to my Ranger, where my pet tanks while I just randomly press some button. Yawn. More interactivity = better.

I would like some advice on slot skills. So far I’m running with the signet that gives me Precision and the one that gives me Power. I figured that you can’t go wrong with passive dmg and crit, but perhaps I’m missing something. Also, I may be missing something cool that the class can do. Feel free to instruct me.

I will keep sharing my experiences, probably my next post will be when I reach 15 or 20. See you at the stream. Bye!

TL;DR: Class is great, pew pew, I’m a pirate yarr!

Welcome to the brotherhood!
Wish you the very best experience!
I remember when i started thief Steal looked awful too, but it ended up being one of those things that gets better and better as you go.
You have plenty of traits that empower Steal and encourage using, and the instant shadowstep makes it the best pvp opener.
Other than that,Cloak and Dagger my friend, Cloak and Dagger

I just started thief too lvl 12….im going d/d and s/p with the smoke bomb(?) Utility skill that gives u stealth and evade move that gives me quiet abit of initiative. I do agree with u that thief feels like every control heavy class compare to other classes. U actually have to think which I like. Like the other post that I wrote, it feels like assassins creed dont u think?

Sword/pistol is pretty effective for leveling, it can get boring though. Caltrops and blinding powder are solid choices for those early levels. I want to mention Smokescreen too, but that comes a bit later.

With a little creativity, steal is something that just gets better the more you use and understand it.

The only other bit of advice I can give is for you to practice your dodge timing and learn how to take advantage of the evades on the weapon skills that have it available.
Spamming blind is effective, just don’t forget dodge.

Tricks I wish I knew at launch:

http://www.gw2thief.net/#!tips/cee5

Thanks everyone for the input. Also, some of those tricks are awesome and I would have never figured them out on my own Dingo, thanks!

Stream is back up, now with some argentinian tango to go with it!

http://www.twitch.tv/motrokarg/new

While I agree thief is very fun to play, I’d say most of your analysis is wrong. Thieves are meant to be squishy damage dealers. Sure the others exist but they aren’t that effective. I also feel thief is based on stealth, seeing as our best trait line is Shadow Arts, which heavily utilizes stealth.

Well, its the analysis of someone who played the first 10 levels, so its quite possible I am wrong

I think thief was the most class I died with while leveling, especially coming after leveling a necromancer, guardian, and a warrior. All three classes can take beating, but for a thief, I died every time I get attacked by more than two enemies. But things starts to get WAY better as soon as you get access to shadow refuge. That would be around level 30 give or take.

PS: I was a noob with my thief, maybe if I knew all the tricks and tips with D/D I wouldn’t have suffered that much :P hehe. But was a nice experience!

PsionicDingo.2065:

Tricks I wish I knew at launch:

http://www.gw2thief.net/#!tips/cee5

Tagged for future reference. Very cool website.

I got to level 15 a while ago, amd a few of my initial impressions have been modified. While still having a LOT of fun with the class, things seem to be getting harder for me. Being squishy and melee is not a good combo, so I had to stick to pistol/dagger or even two pistols most of the way.

Initially I had gone with both signets of power and precision for more damage, but I realized a few levels ago that Caltrops ends up doing more damage, plus a much needed snare, and to top it off, its AoE with very low CD.

I have been trying to get a high crit build, just because I figured a rogue class should work well with that and, to be honest, I’m still not sure how is it going. I am sitting at 51% currently, and maybe I’ve sacrificed too much survivability to get there.

Another thing I noticed is that its quite hard for me to stay alive on events that have a big boss (Troll, Oak on Queensdale) due to being squishy and having no natural regen. Do we get some kind of passive regen later on?

I’ve just finished Queensdale and am moving on to my next zone. Will try to do some WvWvW and see if I can survive a bit (my last attempt at level 9 was awful, got RAVAGED by most people)

Below are a couple of screenshots of my adventures.

I’ll be streaming tonight for a good while on http://www.twitch.tv/motrokarg/new , see you there, and thanks to all the people that joins regularly and chats a bit and gives advice!

I go with blinding powder (?) And the evade move that regenerates 6 initiatives with s/p and d\d as main spamming stealth and back stab with few black powder to blind them and do aoe slash with sward. With lots of stealth and back stabs, veteran and champion mobs are doable for me. Im currently lvl 16:)

You are realy wrong about that we are not build around stealth, now you are low level, wait untill you got dual daggers and infusions of shadows, and cloak and dagger. hehe

Wat does that do?

Motrok.1247:

And Charr thieves look plain ridiculous.

I beg to differ sir!

There are two ways you can regenerate health, one is Signet of Malice (Heal Skill), and Shadow Arts traits (Shadow’s Rejuvenation Regenerate health while in stealth). The later one will take sometime before you can get it, but it regenerates a nice amount of health while stealthed.

Advice:

Stealing may seem kinda tacked on in the beginning, but you’ll find that once you unlock traits you can attach a lot of very useful things to that button. in addition, the items you steal, especially in harder areas or PvP are quite useful. What separates a mediocre thief from a good thief is the knowledge and proper use of stolen abilities, and how they work for your build. Most of them are fairly powerful and designed to be integrated in to a chain with your other attacks. Start using steal regularly, and every time you see a new icon take a moment to mouse over it and learn about what it does so you can use that knowledge in the thick of combat.

Also, when you’re talking about survivability in events, you’re looking at three flavors of mitigation as a thief:

Regen Through traits in either the stealth or acrobatics trees, as well as the option of the Signet of Malice healing skill, thieves can get some pretty good healing just for doing stuff they’d already do, like spending some time invisible or hitting dudes. This alone will not allow you to facetank like a guardian however, but does a nice job of keeping you alive when paired with…

Evasion Pound for pound, you have access to more evasion based abilities than almost every other class (that’s not ranger) You’ve got vigor on steal, traits that refund half of the endurance used to dodge, multiple weapon skills with build in evasion, and even a dagger autoattack that gives you endurance. Thieves shouldn’t mitigate damage from trolls and oakhearts, they should never be hit in the first place And if you screw up and DO get hit you’ve got the comfy option of…

Stealth many thieves are habitual stealth users. Dagger offhand has an on-demand stealth, and in general you’ve got the ability to stealth in a variety of ways. Even if (like me) you’re not built around it, keep in mind that stealth is an integral part of being a thief, and is best used to set up a stealth attack or get a break from a fight to let a heal cooldown tick, find cover from ranged attacks, make distance between you and melee attackers, or just give you a head start running away.

Motrok.1247:

I would like some advice on slot skills. So far I’m running with the signet that gives me Precision and the one that gives me Power. I figured that you can’t go wrong with passive dmg and crit, but perhaps I’m missing something. Also, I may be missing something cool that the class can do. Feel free to instruct me.

I will keep sharing my experiences, probably my next post will be when I reach 15 or 20. See you at the stream. Bye!

TL;DR: Class is great, pew pew, I’m a pirate yarr!

Have at least 5 points in trickery so steal gives you initiative. Get Caltrops as soon as you can. Caltrops + Death Blossom x2 + Steal + Death blossom will kill a bunch of mobs quickly and effortlessly. For veterans or multiple veterans do the same thing but then switch to shortbow and circle kite until Caltrops is off CD then switch back to D/D and rinse and repeat.

Caltrops + Death Blossom is crazy good multiple mob killing. Just have to know which mobs are ranged and which ones are melee. Run at the ranged ones and the melee ones will chase you — allowing you to herd them up nice and tight for Caltrops. P.S. Scorpion Wire helps a ton with this too by pulling ranged mobs into your death spikes.