Guild Wars 2

they have to be without a doubt the squishiest class in the game, or very near (elementalist was pretty kitten squishy too). I was thinking of maybe running a tankish build just to last in pvp, but I swear to you, I got an 80 warrior, 40 necro and the thief is hands down ten times more squishy. I have died more times on my thief than my necro and warrior combined.

unlike those two classes where timing is crucial, with a thief – timing is your life. switch up your rhythm and mess around with it more(weapons/traits/builds/etc). Once you find your tempo thief becomes second nature.

And hey, dying is half the fun.

Totally squishy.

For the most part, it’s stealth, or evade, or burst kill for survival with a healthy dose of picking your spots.

Come on, you got 0.25s of evade on Death Blossom, what more do you want? 14k HP base? :p

Yeah, Thief is the squishier profession in the game. A reason why in WvW I roll with both Withdraw and Roll for Initiative. Nothing like long distance roll back + full duration evade + healing + remove all cripple/chill/immobilize/stuns along with some free initiative to get ahead of a killer zerg that wants your death.

Keeping our distance is one of our best survival tool

I honestly think everyone should play thief, it will make your timing much better. I just found it odd that a melee reliant class is so squishy. against 1 mobs its almost unfair, but more than 1 and you are in a world of hurt.

I never noticed my Thief squishy, while leveling or in PvP. Perhaps it is your gear or your playstyle.

For general PvE, use S/P and perma blind the mobs while autoattacking with sword. Boring, but Practical

Albane.8367:

I never noticed my Thief squishy, while leveling or in PvP. Perhaps it is your gear or your playstyle.

No, it’s the Thief. I have played every class but Necro enough to say that Thieves are definitely weaker and require more skill and/or more specific builds than any other class to play effectively.

They are, in fact, squishier than the elementalist, mostly because the Elementalist has better maneuverability and has good versatility while staying at range.

conflict.6539:

against 1 mobs its almost unfair, but more than 1 and you are in a world of hurt.

Thief is the squishiest class in the game and we’re made to be. We are supposed to make up for that with how slippery we are – what with all of our movement abilities and stealth powers. Of course, they keep nerfing stealth so not so much that anymore.

Like someone else said, timing is crucial as a Thief – you really need to have your dodges down and move in and out of combat a lot. When fighting ranged foes get into melee, when fighting melee enemies roll out into range; keep that weapon swap handy.

We have some good distance closers – use them to get into and out of combat. (roll for initiative can get you into combat just as easy as out) Don’t ever stand still – ever. And really get to know your traits, you have some really good stuff in those trait bars. (if you steer away from the shadow arts bar now)

Facing: Always stay on the side and back of your enemy. Don’t be afraid to use your traps … half your venoms suck, but figure out which of them work and use those. If you spec right you can get 4-6 dodges to everyone else’s 2-3 easy.

As a double dagger Thief you should be able to take on mobs of 4-5 guys with some heart pounding, edge of your seat action. Mostly it’s the big bads we have to look out for – mostly it’s a strafe off with those. Mix more than 2 veterans in a group and you might be out of luck unless you’ve really got your game down.

So, yeah, we’re squishy – you can’t play us like you do other classes – but that just keeps us on our toes.

Both Ele and Guardian have a massive amount of boons and heals to keep themselves up. The boons stop the insta-gib, and the heals make up for the low HP pool. Thief has neither of those, instead relying on high evasion, blinds and stealth – this makes it a class that cannot afford mistakes. Conversely, though, is the fact that no damage is > any amount of Vitality, toughness or boons. So your thief has a balance – played right it can take on more than almost any other class, but cannot take a hit as well as any other class. I can step up against any boss or any number of targets on my thief without fear as I know that I can evade/blind my way through it – I can’t do that on my high armor, high HP Warrior (that also has an OP heal) – he may be able to take a hit or two, but if I’m in trouble, I’m in trouble. There’s never really any ‘trouble’ for my thief – if I die, it’s because I screwed up… it just happens to be it doesn’t take much to screw up.

Drawing Guy.3701:

So your thief has a balance – played right it can take on more than almost any other class, but cannot take a hit as well as any other class. … if I die, it’s because I screwed up… it just happens to be it doesn’t take much to screw up.

Thief has the best internal balance in the game, if ya ask me. It’s a risk = reward kinda class. Sure you can play it safe and slow and from a distance, and bunker it down all you want … and chances are you’ll always get away unless you’re not paying attention. But if you want to get into the middle of things you can tear stuff up in scary, exciting ways – but like the drawing guy says, if you mess up, you’re toast.

I’ve played thief since beta and I’m still happy with the class. It’s the only class I really know how to play.

Pros: I can do high burst, 15k backstabs, and kill people before they can react. Unlike other classes that spec glass cannon, I have the tools needed to escape after a burst killing.
Cons: A pair of elementalists can ride the lightning me from 1200 yards away, tracking me into stealth, instantly killing me if I don’t dodge correctly.

This twitchy, walk-on-eggshells style of play is what makes me like the class so much. I’ve adapted, and continue to learn. I think this class is still strong and very playable.

Some thieves (including mine) are bunkers.
It’s just that our bunkage (ok, made up word) didn’t come from dmg mitigation or hp regen. We bunk by avoiding hits all together.

i can still remember, i think it was the second headstart day, someone said in map chat “thieves are so squishy [insert some random qq]”, and i instantly replied “if you keep getting hit you are playing the thief wrong”

as Brassnautilus said, we are meant to dodge, not tank

“If you keep getting hit, your playing the Thief wrong!”

This just became my new signature! Thanks!

Yes we are squishy in the Zerker build. But we have very good DPS in the Zerker build, so for me it’s OK.

thiefs aren’t squishy , and we aren’t seriously

just check out this build , it will open your eye’s to an other side of the thief
( the non stealth version of a thief )

its fun , rewarding , and you are definitely gone be a pain for the enemy’s

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/PVP-bunker-dodger-build-v2-NEW-Vids/first