Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone I made a similar thread in the Warrior forum and it had a great turn out (aside from the little bit of arguing that occurred). I’m hoping for a similar effect here.

I will be making topics in the other profession forums as well because I want to aggregate all the comments and the best way to do so would be to post in each profession’s individual forum instead of just placing it in Players Helping Players because the professions’ forums get more traffic and are filled with players most knowledgeable about that particular profession!

Anyways, now with that out of the way I would like to know: What makes the Thief appealing to you?

Why do you enjoy playing the profession? It could be based on its theme or for other gameplay reasons, perhaps you enjoy the diverse amount of options available to the profession? Tell me anything and everything!

I’ve always been drawn to Rogue-like classes in RPGs, I enjoy being sneaky and agile. The thief delivers really well on this and I also love how you can also play one without having to rely on stealth. Thieves have such great movement capabilities in combat and I enjoy that they get to wield a sword and bow as well as daggers.

Initiative mechanic, active defenses, I get called cheese no matter what, I am not forced to play an all out glass duel wielding rogue, stealth is better than other mmos, I can easily find out if my foe is good or bad, I am part of the collection that comes with the Nerf Bat. Can’t forget I have specs for all 3 modes.

I’ve only been able to play thief for the last 3 years. IMO, thief has the highest skill ceiling, it’s the most rewarding class if played right, it has the highest mobility available in pvp, there are tons of builds available, it has the highest personal dps in PvE, thief is extremely good for roaming and it’s the most fun for me. I also think that the animations are super aesthetic.

• Sneaky, underhanded combat
• Ninja-esque teleportation abilities
• Looks badkitten with a duster and dual pistols

I love sneaky skirmishing type classes so I’m naturally drawn to thief. I also like the initiative system over cool downs, I hate complicated classes so it’s nice to be able to sink all my initiative into one skill (pistol whip for instance) instead of juggling cooldowns on multiple skills.

Not saying the thief has no complexity to it, just saying it CAN be played very simply for those with little experience.

It’s simple, depsite the constant “balances” the profession is just plain fun to play

Visual – Stealth, shadowstep, and stylish dodge/evade animation. Nothing more to say about this.

Combat – Initiative gives more challenge compared to other professions. Basically, a Thief starts with 12s-15s cooldown to be used any way we want to. Other professions have reserved cooldowns that when one skill is used over and over again, it doesn’t drain resources from a global pool of cooldowns. As Thief, if you use a skill over and over again, you’ll eventually hurting yourself once your Initiative is exhausted.

Example, Warrior Axe skill vs Thief Dagger skill. When a Warrior uses Cyclone Attack every 6s, it doesn’t affect the cooldown on Throw Axe. But when a Thief uses Heartseeker every 3s, they cannot use Death Blossom because Heartseeker is using 3initiative out of 4 initiative that Death Blossom needs (assuming of course that the Initiative pool is depleted).

This what makes the profession unique and contrary to the common beliefs that Thief’s skills are spammable, doesn’t really know how the profession works.

Steal – This mechanic was interesting during the reveals video before launch and was one of the main reason I’ve decided to main this profession. However, it is very disappointing to see that what shown in the video highlight didn’t really made it live, instead we received something so buggy that some traits that relied on this mechanic were left broken (i.e. Improvisation).

Game Play – IMO, this is the profession that brings out the best from the players playing Thief. I’ve seen the same build played many different ways using different weapon combinations. And many more players trying to make the Thief work despite all the unfair, unbalanced, and unjustified nerfs and changes the class have received over the years.

Showmanship – Honestly, Thieves make better and non-boring videos compare to other professions. For the record, Warrior videos are boring.

-The fast pace playstyle
- Mobility
- Stealth = easier to roam in WvW
- Initiative = manage skills to better adapt to situations…hate CDs

Mainly because the initiative system is more fun to use than rotationfest cooldowns. It also has good concepts that were poorly implemented.

First: Speed and mobility.
I’ve always hated slow classes (god knows why i have a necro -.-) , Thief has the highest mobility in the game, that much is uncontested. Thief attacks are fast, yet still heavy hitting. Paired with some traits, signets of shadows, stealth and high burst damage, we are pretty much optimized for world exploration/completion.

Second: Damage
Thief probably has the highest damage potential of any other class, simply because thieves hardly ever rely on might stacks. Other high dps professions such as warrior and elementalists rely on might stacks to gain their ‘high dps’ rank, while thief does not. So when thieves gain access to Might stack and vulnerability, our DPS skyrockets. The satisfaction of seeing the boss’s health drain when you are in pure dps heartseeker mode is just satisfying to no end, as you know you ae probably dealing most of the damage.

Third: Reliability
The freedom given to us by the initiative system is simply unparalleled. Unlike most other classes where you need to wait for cooldowns to use your favorite skills, thief do not have to worry about this (aside from utility skills). the skill you want to use is right there when you need it, allowing you to react quickly to various situations, which is important for a thief. The only downside of this is that you need to learn to manage your initiative use effectively (Personally i found that this will become second nature once you’ve played the thief for a while). Oh, and next to unlimited blast finishers, need I say more?

Fourth: Survivability
Sure, thieves are among the squishiest class in the game. Which is why we posses some of the strongest if not most annoying active defences in the game, namely stealth, blinds, shadowsteps and a kitton of dodges. A beginner thief will probably find themselves dying everytime a strong mob so much as sneezed in their direction, but an experienced thief can dance around his target, soloing bosses sometimes even without taking a single hit. which brings me to my fifth reason.

Fifth: Satisfaction.
While some may argue that thieves are not squishiest class in the game, in most cases, unlike most other squish classes, thieves have to be constantly in melee range to deal most of our damage. When starting out, i personally died countless times in dungeons and fractals, due to being a pure berserker thief. Over time, I’ve learned to play my class, currently I’d say I’m decent with my class. The immense feeling of satisfaction of being able to fight alongside Warriors and Guardians in melee range against a hard boss without dying is just addictive. In PvP or WvW, being able to survive against multiple opponents is thrilling, although i have to admit I usually ‘run away’ when i find myself in a disadvantageous situation.

Sixth: Epic Troll builds
Okay, most other classes have their own respective troll builds, but you will probably not be able to troll as hard as a thief, namely the Troll Full Tank Condition Medic build. It is basically the best ‘medic build’ in the game, and playing one in a small WvW roaming group (or even a small zerg) is just hilarious. Practically immortal, annoying as kittens on your desk when you are supposed to work, able to revive allies extremely quickly and guaranteed to revive your ally due to stealth on revive and runes of Mercy, seriously you can’t troll your enemies any harder than that, constantly reviving your teammates even when outnumbered in the midst of an enemy zerg. xD

Anyways, these are just my opinions =P

More engaging/reliant on active defense than many of the other classes.

Besides the fact that I love stealth based assassin archetype characters and tend to gravitate toward them in every game I play?

Honestly, it’s the extremely active play style of the class. From the ground up, thieves are built to be always thinking. Always moving. Always on the go. The initiative system is the primary reason behind this and was a very refreshing change of pace from the cooldown system I’m used to. To have the power to choose when is the best time to unload a skill and to be able to unload it more than once… I want to say that it was practically unheard of prior to GW2, but don’t quote me on that. Anyway, it forces you to carefully manage everything you do in order to succeed. IMHO, no other class in this game is a fast paced to play as the thief. Don’t get me wrong; they’re all A LOT better than their equivalents in other MMOs. But after playing the thief, they all feel too slow… Too bogged down. Playing thief is truly a liberating experience for me.

Long story short, I guess that’s the main reason I fell in love with the class; The freedom of it all. Minimal cooldowns coupled with incredible mobility and a very active play style that keeps me from going into MMO auto-pilot. That’s why I love thief.

That… and come on. Who doesn’t enjoy the comedy gold that is the constant stealth/backstab QQ? ;-)

When I bought the game, I wanted to play a class that is agile and can play dirty. Thief fits this perfectly and I played only thief for the first year.

Stealth – I use it as a thief because 1. it is available to me 2. it’s necessary for certain mechanics (ie condi removal, dmg on backstab). While stealth adds to the “dirty” gameplay, I don’t like how much the class relies on it.

The striking difference between initiative and non-initiative combat was apparent to me only after I made another classes. Playing thief for so long is even the reason why “spamming skills” has a bit different meaning to me – using skills that are not the best ones to use at that moment vs what most say “using the same skill again”.

Sometimes 2 heartseekers to create a gap for example are the best use of my resources. If I use 2 HS on a 100% HP target, then that would be just spamming.

With other classes, I realised I often use skills that are not the best to use, but are available to me as they are off cooldown and are “better than nothing” to use.

The reason I like thief class the most appealing is that I have the full freedom to use my resources, it’s only up to me if I waste them or use smartly.

initiative for me mostly – allows me to mix up my attack pattern. As opposed to seeing any other class where you basically know exactly what rotation to expect by the weapons in there hands.

Trickery – not the trait line ( although its amazing) but our ability through shadowsteps and stealth to really mess with a enemies orientation. Ya mesmers can do it to and extent, but blink just cant beat the trickery of shadowstep =D

Short Bow – need i say more?

Mained the class around 2 yrs now with the first 9 months playing nothing but thief, iv taken small breaks here or there to play with other class’s but its mostly to learn the class to fight against it. Just cant stay away from my good ole trusty teef

Mind games
Pop basilisk venom, stare you’r enemy until he dodge twice and leave him afterwards= WIN!

Sneaky, fast, agile, feels like a skilled fighter and a has a lot of subtle, yet interesting mechanics. While most classes in PvP spam AoE and condis everywhere while being tanky, Thief feels like a scalpel. Your every strike counts and you feel like you work for every kill.

Also, I love the endless variety of trenchcoats.

I like ninja class. i always play assassin class. its in my blood

It’s a fast paced, high risk and high gain class. Plus it looks cool. Also, there is a lot of different ways to play it that are very unique. One of my guildmates was showing me a build he came up with yesterday that centers around caltrops and dodging, he just dances around a person by dodging and death blossoming them to death; His main attack is his Dodge, what other class can have an effective build like that?

Pretty much sums up what I like about thief.

Intensive, highly mobile dagger/sword/pistol/shortbow wielding glasscannon.

What’s changing about specs in hot?

Fast playstyle, squishy yet very deadly in the right hands.
Initiative, so I don’t have to wait for cooldowns. One can use the weapon skill that fits when you need it/want it.

Plus I also always play a “rogue/assassin” type of class, and even tho thief is not an assassin, it’s the closest I get in this game.

Plus, dodging with other classes just doesn’t feel the same after playing a lot on thief :P

mompen.7952:

Fast playstyle, squishy yet very deadly in the right hands.
Initiative, so I don’t have to wait for cooldowns. One can use the weapon skill that fits when you need it/want it.

Plus I also always play a “rogue/assassin” type of class, and even tho thief is not an assassin, it’s the closest I get in this game.

Plus, dodging with other classes just doesn’t feel the same after playing a lot on thief :P

^This. Life on the edge, fast and action-filled. I too main rogue/assassin-style characters in MMORPGs. Its become a habit of nature. Go figure.

lets put it like this.. first char in game was a warrior i was having fun killing stuff then a thief came along and did his thing and i was like “yup” and here i am