Guild Wars 2

I’m relatively new at playing a thief. So far, I’ve been using dual pistols. Compared to my greatsword/rifle warrior, my thief just seems a bit underpowered and squishy. Does it get better with levels? Am I doing it wrong??

Thanks!

Dual pistols do appear to be a bit weak currently, but our other weapons are much better.

As a new thief, I’d try dagger/dagger. We have low HP, but a lot of evades that make us a highly mobile playstlye. Get two daggers with Signet of Malice and try this:

Death Blossom, Death Blossom, dodge back, drop Caltrops, Death Blossom. If anything is still alive, hit it a couple times then do a Heartseeker when you get the Init back.

At early levels, this basic attack pattern destroys small groups of 2-3 mobs, and Signet of Malice keeps your HP up. If you get overwhelmed, use your Caltrops to flee.

Good luck!

Thieves are not under powered in any way.

They are kinda squishy, emphasis on kinda but you have so many ways to survive.

Enjoy! 22222222222222222

Victros.8154:

I’m relatively new at playing a thief. So far, I’ve been using dual pistols. Compared to my greatsword/rifle warrior, my thief just seems a bit underpowered and squishy. Does it get better with levels? Am I doing it wrong??

Thanks!

Each weapon set performs differently. While I was a Warrior in all of the Beta events and started off as one in the live game, I’ve fallen in love with the Thief. Yes, it does feel fragile compared to our Warrior health point pool. Nor do it has the “point click boom” killing of the Greatsword’s 100 Blades. Having said that, the Thief can outperform the Warrior in many areas and my own Thief can solo far more than my Warrior ever could.

If you’re looking for a more survivable build, then you’re going to have to decide whether you want to avoid damage from dodging or from AoE Blind. Like another poster mentioned, the D/D weapon set is good for close range melee AoE damage that keeps you constantly dodging. Yet if that isn’t your style, I’ve ended up loving the Sword/Pistol (S/P) build.

The combo #3 move of Pistol Whip is a great source of dps. Some people build a dps burst spec based around Pistol Whip. Other people like myself use it as a situational skill. In our own playstyles, we’re constantly spamming Pistol #5 for the AoE Blind effect and spamming Sword #1 to cut down multiple foes. Either playstyle is functional if you spec yourself the right way.

Too bad, I was really looking at dual pistols for a “pirate/swashbuckler” type character. How does AOE blind work? I’d rather do that than dodge all the time! Sorry for the noobishness…

I have been roflstomped by a thife so many times as necromancer, and i am considering playing it next. I would say that the theif is not underpowerd and has enough burst to make up for it beeing a squishy class.

How do you build for AOE blind, rather than a dodging build?

Proseph.3504:

Enjoy! 22222222222222222

If you enjoy being easily countered and stomped, sure.

Dual pistols are a bit trashy right now, unfortunately. As fun as they can be stylistically, I’d recommend you try other weapon sets until P/P is given a bit of a buff.

Thieves are definitely not underpowered, though. While we are somewhat squishy, we aren’t meant to stay in the thick of things for long. Initiative, copious amounts of blind and stealth, and the best mobility in the game all add up to a Thief’s major strength being MOBILITY. Learn it, love it, use it, abuse it

P.S. Never run a weapon set without shortbow. Infiltrator’s Arrow is AMAZING.

Dual pistols are meant to be used in conjunction with an ally, preferably an elementalist with a lot of fields. You have no idea how unreal combo stacking is with unload.

10 second burn stack? EZ

Playing my pistol/dagger conditions thief sometimes feels a bit too safe (not too easy, since to stay safe I do a bunch of stuff, but it’s not hard either and I do stay safe).

The auto-attack pistol damage is on the low side, but all other skills with this weapon combo do ok damage (which I supplement with power, and lots of conditions and condition damage).

Throwing the ricocheting off-hand dagger makes sure that up to 4 enemies will stay away from me all the time while I move around shooting at them, since they are kept permanently crippled (and take decent damage and a ton of conditions from the dagger and my poisons and all). If one closes in anyway, I can Shadowstrike with the dagger to do some nice damage and shadowstep back while saving my endurance.

If some ranged foe is giving me trouble I can apply vulnerability with a Body Shot, close in nearly instantaneously to Steal from them (poisoning them and getting boons while I’m at it), use whatever I stole, cloak-and-dagger for some nice damage (and stealth and shed aggro) and follow it up with my stealth attack unloading my pistol at them for very nice damage. If it’s still alive after that and if I don’t want to stay in melee, I can do the Shadowstrike moving back thing again.

And after doing all those things and instant shadowstepping back and forth, I will still have all my endurance left for dodges when needed, my heal to get back some hp AND to Stealth me (allowing more delicious pistol unloading), or Thieve’s Guild to call in a couple buddies (pistol/pistol and dagger/dagger) to help me out for 40 seconds…

I even have a trait that lets me leave caltrops behind every time I dodge, but I haven’t bothered to use that one yet since there are other good options and the dagger throwing is already great at keeping things away (though the caltrops-dodge should be great for when I use the shortbow – which I only do in group events if I want to obliterate swarms of enemies quickly).

With all that, I’ve been defeated or even downed very little going from level 1 to 45… Mostly when I carelessly let initiative (and all my ways to get it back) run out and can’t do the dagger throwing for a while (foes would close in and pound me) or when I fought more than 4 hard-hitting enemies at my level or, usually, above (one would eventually catch up to me when I was out of dodges/shadowsteps and put me down with a couple thwacks). And I’m pretty sure there are plenty of better thief players and builds out there…

Pistol/Pistol is a very weak weapon set. Body Shot is slow, Unload damage is low and there is no “retreat” or “cripple” ability to keep you at ranged.

JLBernardes.3048:

Playing my pistol/dagger conditions thief sometimes feels a bit too safe (not too easy, since to stay safe I do a bunch of stuff, but it’s not hard either and I do stay safe).

The auto-attack pistol damage is on the low side, but all other skills with this weapon combo do ok damage (which I supplement with power, and lots of conditions and condition damage).

Throwing the ricocheting off-hand dagger makes sure that up to 4 enemies will stay away from me all the time while I move around shooting at them, since they are kept permanently crippled (and take decent damage and a ton of conditions from the dagger and my poisons and all). If one closes in anyway, I can Shadowstrike with the dagger to do some nice damage and shadowstep back while saving my endurance.

If some ranged foe is giving me trouble I can apply vulnerability with a Body Shot, close in nearly instantaneously to Steal from them (poisoning them and getting boons while I’m at it), use whatever I stole, cloak-and-dagger for some nice damage (and stealth and shed aggro) and follow it up with my stealth attack unloading my pistol at them for very nice damage. If it’s still alive after that and if I don’t want to stay in melee, I can do the Shadowstrike moving back thing again.

And after doing all those things and instant shadowstepping back and forth, I will still have all my endurance left for dodges when needed, my heal to get back some hp AND to Stealth me (allowing more delicious pistol unloading), or Thieve’s Guild to call in a couple buddies (pistol/pistol and dagger/dagger) to help me out for 40 seconds…

I even have a trait that lets me leave caltrops behind every time I dodge, but I haven’t bothered to use that one yet since there are other good options and the dagger throwing is already great at keeping things away (though the caltrops-dodge should be great for when I use the shortbow – which I only do in group events if I want to obliterate swarms of enemies quickly).

With all that, I’ve been defeated or even downed very little going from level 1 to 45… Mostly when I carelessly let initiative (and all my ways to get it back) run out and can’t do the dagger throwing for a while (foes would close in and pound me) or when I fought more than 4 hard-hitting enemies at my level or, usually, above (one would eventually catch up to me when I was out of dodges/shadowsteps and put me down with a couple thwacks). And I’m pretty sure there are plenty of better thief players and builds out there…

Exactly right!
P/D is the ultimate option for soloing in PVE.
I kite Bronze elite mobs 3 or 4 levels above me safely, Dancing dagger ability allows you to keep distance from 4 targets(max) and kill them slowly one by one.
I leveled my toon in areas always 3-4 levels above my level, cause of that combo…
Caltrops trait also help alot in soloing things.

Victros.8154:

Too bad, I was really looking at dual pistols for a “pirate/swashbuckler” type character. How does AOE blind work? I’d rather do that than dodge all the time! Sorry for the noobishness…

Nothing is swashbucklier than a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other!

The #5 pistol ability, Black Powder, drops a field for several seconds that blinds enemies repeatedly as long as they stay in the field. It’s not total invincibility, since it’s a pretty small field and enemies that attack quickly can get hits in between blinds, but it’s a dramatic boost to durability against melee foes. Using Pistol Whip to interrupt also goes a long way.

Ouzhyr.2175:

Dual pistols are meant to be used in conjunction with an ally, preferably an elementalist with a lot of fields. You have no idea how unreal combo stacking is with unload.

10 second burn stack? EZ

You can get better results with the short bow’s cluster bomb though. It’ll still apply the effects multiple times, but it’ll also cover an entire area instead of just one enemy.