Guild Wars 2

Howdy thief community,

I would like to ask you all what sort of role a thief would play in large-scale WvW?

I downloaded GW2 today and have yet to login. So I am as green as they come. I have always enjoyed playing stealthers/alpha-bursters as my first toon in MMOs, so thief is extremely exciting to jump into.

My biggest concern stems from my only other experience in RvR/WvW: Dark Age of Camelot. I played as a nightshade and it was -so- much fun in small-scale or solo fighting. But during any bigtime RvR, I was stuck trying to climb a wall and take out a caster then usually make a long run back from the rez point.

So I guess I’m wondering if an alpha-strike build (or are they all alphas?) thief would have any effective place in WvW? While I love the thought of playing the class, I’m much more interested in being an asset to my team.

Would I be better off going with another profession if being an effective WvW player (a killer—never been good as a support) is my primary goal?

Thanks for any and all input. Really looking forward to playing Guild Wars 2.

<3 Murder

This might be disappointing but the role of the archetype hasn’t evolved much in GW2.

So as a Stealther you still won’t be all that useful in Zerg fights and mostly excel in small-scale combat.

Also bare in mind that the WvW maps in GW2 are a fraction of the size of DAoC maps and with constant revives and resurrections you rarely have to spend much time traveling. It’s a lot more arcadey than DAoC.

To answer your question, Thieves are good, but only in small scale fights (although everyone can join in a Zerg fight). If you want to be useful all around then maybe a Warrior would be a better choice. Great mobility, heavy armor and easy to succeed with.

Thanks, Dee Jay.

It is a little disappointing. But that’s why I asked—I wanted to know

Maybe I’ll go with thief anyway and see how it goes, maybe just alter my expectations a bit. Great to hear about the lack of running 10 minutes to fight for 2.

You suggested warrior as a possibility. Traditionally I’ve stayed away from the warrior. Dunno why, just seemed a little boring. Maybe that’s changed, so I’ll look into it.

Out of curiosity, I was reading about the engineer. Would that profession be more inline with what I’m looking for perhaps?

Again, thanks for the insight.

<3 Murder

Actually, thieves can help out with support, but you do have to sacrifice the power to pwn easily to pull it off. Meaning you have to go Apothecary build. Meaning regen build.

Oh nice. Good to know there’s at least a somewhat-viable option.

I’m sure I will find this out during gameplay but are we able to have different “specs” that we can switch between?

Since you said you want to do dmg and be a killer, Thief is probably the best choice aside from Warrior or Mesmer. While Thieves really don’t bring any real support in large-scale battles, you are still better off than other classes such as Ranger or Mesmer in terms of dealing damage. Unlike those two classes, Thief has shortbow which can deal a lot of AoE dmg and tag a lot of enemies. It’s Trick Shot bounces to 3 additional targets and Clusterbomb can deal massive damage to many enemies.

So while you don’t bring much utility like a Guardian does with concentrations or a Mesmer does such as portal, veil, and time warp, you can still wreck havoc in an enemies side and backlines. And when you get bored of zerging, you can rest easy knowing you are the best roamer in the game with only Warrior as a close second.

One thing that you can do well is finish players with the thief. Have your group call target on whatever they need disabled/distracted/dead and it becomes your job to get it done. One thing though is that there is such a thing as too much survivability on the thief. If you don’t do enough damage, you can’t push people onto the defensive mode which you then take advantage of. A lack of pressure can get you killed just as much as a lack of defense.

Thief is a great class to start with even though it lacks some of the group utility of other classes because you’ll have to learn when/what to dodge and when you do make an alt, you’ll know how to deal with thieves.

Glhf.

Regardless of what anyone says, thieves are just fine in zergs. In fact, they are incredibly useful and my guild runs 2 for every guild raid we do in WvW. Why? Because we quickly eliminate free casting ele’s, necros, etc.

While I will agree they are better in small man/roaming situations, you do NOT need some apothecary regen trash to be successful in larger scale fights. You just need good positioning, awareness, and patience.

Mordecai.6318:

Regardless of what anyone says, thieves are just fine in zergs. In fact, they are incredibly useful and my guild runs 2 for every guild raid we do in WvW. Why? Because we quickly eliminate free casting ele’s, necros, etc.

While I will agree they are better in small man/roaming situations, you do NOT need some apothecary regen trash to be successful in larger scale fights. You just need good positioning, awareness, and patience.

I generally agree with you, but 3 pieces of PVT armor and everything else zerk really bumps up your survivability while sacrificing minimal damage.

@OP: forgot to include this link. gw2skills.net is great for theorycrafting before you spend the gold.

Old time DAoC player and a stealthier at that. RR6 something when I left. Played assassin (go albion!)..

anyway, you will be fine here as a thief. Understand there no perma stealth. it is use to set up abilities, heal, get away and reset fights etc. But no running around like we did in DAOC on bridges and playing the stealth game.

WvW is different here, but has similar tones to Camelot. Zerg wise you will no way be as useful as stealthers were in Camelot. We shine here more with smaller stuff, but keep a shortbow handy for zergs and play smart.

Welcome. And I miss DAoC

30/0/30/10/0 is the classic venom share “support thief”. It does alright when in a group, but it’s not so hot on its own. You can adjust your traits and utilities to be a more “normal” kind of thief, but you’ll be a bit kitten. I’ve run this from time to time and had fun when rolling with a solid group, but have also found myself in bad bad situations with this too.

To those who say the thief is not good in a zerg… I humbly disagree.

As a thief in a zerg it’s very easy to cause havoc by being just to the side of your zerg, harass the opposing zerg on the side and pick off their ranged and low health. Daggerstorm… blast finishers on SB2. SR for ressing. Finishing enemies.

So yeah… run with the zerg, but when you engage… peel off and cause havoc.

As for the thief’s general role in Wv3, it’s typically small group or roaming. Flipping camps, taking paper towers, killing opposing roamers, and reporting in map chat if you see anything untoward.

Maugetarr.6823:

One thing that you can do well is finish players with the thief. Have your group call target on whatever they need disabled/distracted/dead and it becomes your job to get it done. One thing though is that there is such a thing as too much survivability on the thief. If you don’t do enough damage, you can’t push people onto the defensive mode which you then take advantage of. A lack of pressure can get you killed just as much as a lack of defense.

Thief is a great class to start with even though it lacks some of the group utility of other classes because you’ll have to learn when/what to dodge and when you do make an alt, you’ll know how to deal with thieves.

Glhf.

should clarify this. thief can finish in small scale combat only. large scale = death.

Travlane.5948:

Maugetarr.6823:

One thing that you can do well is finish players with the thief. Have your group call target on whatever they need disabled/distracted/dead and it becomes your job to get it done. One thing though is that there is such a thing as too much survivability on the thief. If you don’t do enough damage, you can’t push people onto the defensive mode which you then take advantage of. A lack of pressure can get you killed just as much as a lack of defense.

Thief is a great class to start with even though it lacks some of the group utility of other classes because you’ll have to learn when/what to dodge and when you do make an alt, you’ll know how to deal with thieves.

Glhf.

should clarify this. thief can finish in small scale combat only. large scale = death.

Well small scale which is groups of 15-20 or more. During large scale fights (taking Stonemist or similar) I sit back and wait for a squishy to break group. I’m on anvil rock so there are a fair number of small to mid-sized groups doing things rather than the enormous zergs of the top matchups.

I’m on mag and it’s tough when we fight the tier 1 servers. I can’t seem to get into any battles without running into some sort of zerg. Then I get downed in two seconds and I just kick back w/ SB until someone is way the hell back there trying to catch up. Feel so useless.

I play venom share thief with dire armor and rabid trinkets. It’s very useful to the group, and you have good survivability. I’m often right there with the melee popping daggerstorm or just spamming SB #2. My offhand is P/D.

Our guild uses venom thieves as a primary class, we have one for each group. In larger fights venom share is pretty OP now with the right group comps. With the right timing, and using steal to reset venoms, it’s crazy how often you can keep them up and the damage over time you are contributing to the group is insane.