Guild Wars 2

Why do this to us Anet? every game is pretty much a full team of thiefs. Did a tournament by myself and got 4 thiefs on my team and 4 thiefs and a mesmer on the other. I wonder why? couldn’t possibly be that they’re over powered or anything. Nope.

Over powered? Absolutely not. (play one before you sling mud) Over used? Quite possibly, but the fact of the matter is that everyone bought the game and can play whatever they want, lots of people go for the stealth class and some are better at it than others. A team stacked heavily with ANY profession would suck to deal with.

The Thief/Rogue/Assassin/Ranger archetype is extremely popular in general, in the MMO genre, and beyond.

It’s got nothing to do with how “OP” they are, rather, the popularity of Thieves is a consequence of a culture obsessed with ninjas, samurai, martial arts, bows and arrows and the like. There are literally SO many instances of this archetype appearing in our mainsteam culture in recent history, it’s ridiculous. I’m not going to write an exhaustive list, but quite literally off the top of my head, The Hunger Games springs to mind as this year’s major ‘phenomenon’, whilst again, off the top of my head there are movies like Underworld, Blade, The Matrix amongst TONS of others that advocate the acrobatic type of combat.

Who was the undisputed ‘favourite’ of the majority in The Lord of the Rings? Legolas. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it.

The Rogue archetype is the most popular in the likes of RIFT and Tera, amongst others, too.

Well I’m a contributor to the overpopulation you claim exists in thieves as of recently. But to be fair I only made a thief because warrior is lackluster and disappointing (if you cite 1-hit-wonder “ganker” warrior using HB>FZ>BR build I’ll giggle at you) in it’s weapon skills and group utility. So I’ve shelved him and because I like melee (I always try to be a “warrior” in rpg’s) I have been playing a roamer guardian and my shiny new thief.

Has nothing to do with the stealth even (though I did have fun with a dedicated stealth build) as I’ve been working on S/D (I know right, but it’s FUN). But the sheer evasion stacking/survivability, mobility and group utility (all of which are lacking on my preferred class) that it brings compared to what I was playing is amazing and I have to say I’m a fan.

Point is, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some other re-rolls from others that were dissatisfied with their class performance when compared to the top-tier classes for tpvp.

My first character was Thief. I played D/D with Shortbow. Not enough survivablity but I was very much enamored with the frenetic gameplay. I know for a fact that that build was not even close to being over-powered.

I then went and tried every class in the game (with the exception of the darkity dark dark emo Necromancer) to at least level 12. I played most of the classes to the mid 30s. I then went back deleted the characters that I absolutely didn’t want to go back to, after salvaging and depositing ducets and whatnot.

I then start a new Thief and chose a new race. I’ve been using a different build with more survivability and less damage. I feel it’s a solid build but needs more damage.

My point is that the way the game is set up, you can build any class a certain way but none of the classes can be more well rounded then another. They all have their strengths, weakness, and different playstyles.

Some people think Thieves need inherent dodge. It’s not the case. We have it built into the class via traits. The caveat is that you have to actively use your endurance to dodge while traiting for endurance regen/refund/ect.

Granted, some Thief builds are over the top because of one or two skills stacking too much front end due to min maxing. However, the min/max builds all have glaring holes that can be exploited. I know this sounds like a TL:DR Learn2play… and it is… sort of.

I think combat in GW2 is more cerebral insofar as the meta is concerned. You’ve got to get inside your opponents head insofar as their build is concerned. The discconnect comes from the fact that every other game on the market has very specific pigeon holed builds. GW2 has them too but it’s robust enough to allow a lot of creativity in your skill selection and trait choices.

This makes for a game where you can’t really nail down “hard counters”. You can’t make broad generalizations about any of the classes. You’ve got to address individual skills and the traits that augment/buff them.

> The Thief/Rogue/Assassin/Ranger archetype is extremely popular in general, in the MMO genre, and beyond.

Spot on.

I actually recall a number of informal polls (with a few thousand responses) pre-release that had the Ranger trailing behind the Thief, Elementalist and Warrior. Come launch and the Ranger is one of the most popular classes (source: ArenaNet blog).

I play a Thief because I’ve played casters for years in MMO’s, and wanted a change (to melee) but still with a “squishy” aspect. FWIW, I’m decked out in a royal blue & black outfit with no hood; the black/red/gold hooded archetype is not my thing.

You should try playing a Thief, seriously. Just roll one and level him to 40 or so, shouldn’t take long.

I guarantee you, your mind will be 100% changed on the outlook of Thief by the time you are done….GUARANTEE you or anyone.

I play a thief from time to time. and yes they are overpowered lol stop denying it. with quickness I regurarly kill targets that carry thoughness gear right before stealth “reappear” animation ends, they drop just before they realize what happened =D afterwars I see in all chat “Hackor” or “i report u”. it is so easy to close the gap with stealth and outright kill them with quickness and the high damage.

a nerf will come for sure.