Guild Wars 2

I’ve played GW2 since it first released, and thought I was “ok” at the game. Recently I’ve been running a lot of dungeons and fractals and I’m dying ALL THE TIME. I just got kicked from an AC exp group and was told by the leader “kekekeke you suck, l2p”. This is the type of reaction I get every single time I try to do group events. I’m ALWAYS dying.

I chose Thief because I liked the melee play style of wielding two daggers. The problem is, it seems literally impossible to fight anything using melee as a thief. I came up against Kholer in AC, and every time he pulled me towards him and did his whirlwind move, I died, without fail. Group leader said “omg noob learn to dodge”. That’s fair enough, but when his pull is pretty much INSTANT how can I dodge it? It’s impossible to dodge EVERYTHING but if I make 1 little mistake, I’m dead. This leads me to have to sit back and range with a shortbow for 90% of the game. If I wanted to range, I’d have gone Ranger or Elementalist or something. I’m fed up with having to sit back and just range my target constantly, knowing that if I set foot in melee position I’ll wipe.

Yet you see Mesmers, Elementalists, Guardians, Warriors all just standing and melee’ing the boss, whilst I’m stood ages away having to range. I’m constantly the first to go down in dungeons and it’s getting embarassing.

I really don’t know what the answer is. I’ve bought P/V/T gear, tried it, same result so went back to Berserker. My gear is currently as follows:

Armor – Exotic Berserker with Ruby Orb

Weapons – D/D (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force & Accuracy). SB (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force)

Trinkets – Exotic Berserker with Exquisite Ruby Jewel

Build – 25/30/0/15/0

Obviously this is glass cannon like, but having been reading around on this forum and GW2guru etc, “supposedly” the best way to play a Thief IS as a glass cannon, due to their need for high damage Backstabs etc. That would be fine if I was even able to pull off a Backstab, but if I try I usually die so I’m often just forced to sit back and range.

I’ve been contemplating all types of things to help me survive, whether it be changing my gear, changing my traits or what but I’m clueless as to what the best option is. It’s putting me off going into dungeons and fractals now because I know I’m gonna look like an idiot being downed all throughout. I just end up being a huge burden for my team.

What do you guys suggest? It’s getting to the point now where I’m getting so frustrated with this, I don’t feel like logging on due to the embarassment and awkwardness or dying all the time. I also read that if you were to give your Thief defensive stats (whether it be in traits or gear) you’re gimping your Thief, because they’ll do less damage than a Warrior for the same amount of survivability, or less even. Therefore, apparently you’re MEANT to run glass cannon as Thief. I mean I’ve seen videos on Youtube of Thieves using Berserker gear and running my exact build who are flying through Fractals 40 without a scratch, it’s ridiculous.

Would greatly appreciate some help with this guys!

Armor – Exotic Berserker with Ruby Orb
Weapons – D/D (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force & Accuracy). SB (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force)
Trinkets – Exotic Berserker with Exquisite Ruby Jewel
Build – 25/30/0/15/0

Here is problem =) Berserker gear is not good in dungeons.

BTW come to the game i help you with your traits/gear and spells.

Pve dungeons are attrition fights. This si the reason everyone favors heavy armor support roles. If you wish to do dungeons you firt of all need to ensure you can stay alive as much as the next one. So you need to focus on healing traits especially condi removal ones/ and feline grace. i personally favor the shadow rejuvanation trait as well it has saved me a lot. The next thing you need is to be able to give support to your party of some sort as the raw dps output is the last thing everyone looks at in dungeons. Obviously the venom share build comes to mind but personally i find it lacking compared to boon based support i guess the skale venom/venomous aura is ok but i favor shadow rejuvenation a lot more since it has saved me so many times.

Another way is to go support through steal. Since patch with the steal changes the steal based traits have become a lot more potent imo. I favor bountfull theft improvisation and sleight of hand traits.

Lastly you need vit/tough cause the 10k hp build wont cut it. My personall build is condition/survival theif withthe above traits mtioned using either d/d /sb for db spamming or p/d /sb for pew pew bleeds from afar.

Vanchatron.2306:

I came up against Kholer in AC, and every time he pulled me towards him and did his whirlwind move, I died, without fail. Group leader said “omg noob learn to dodge”. That’s fair enough, but when his pull is pretty much INSTANT how can I dodge it?

That’s a tough boss for just that reason, so don’t feel too down.

I will say, D/D in dungeon is tough if you never swap to an offset ever. Some encounters work better with ranged, or at least specific phases of the encounter. Try swapping P/P.

Put Withdraw and Roll for Initiative on your bar. If you start to feel the heat as d/d, withdraw or roll for initiative, swap to P/P, and DPS like that for a bit, then go back in.

I’m mainly a pvp guy, but when I got into dungeons, I swap my zerk trinkets for pvt trinkets, and I run around 17-18k HP (my armor is still a mix of zerk and valk).

I run S/D, so I always have an shadowreturn up in case things get hairy. I’d suggest you run S/P, but if d/d is the way you want to go I’d really suggest just swapping to SB or PP when things get too hot.

For Kholer, it really does just come down to timing that dodge tho, not much of a way around that.

Also Pugs just suck man, find a casual guild that runs dungeons — they will be much more forgiving of mistakes. Good luck!

try 10 0 0 30 30 carrionr armor and accs with matching jewels on accs and runes are 6x superior adventurer. run all initiative gain skills and spam death blossom you will stack dmg and lots of bleed stacks well up to 25. espeically easy with caltrops. withdraw rollfor initiative caltrops infiltrators signet basilisk venom/thieves guild. runs well with rampagers gear too.

well my build for dungeons is just S/D and shortbow and I don’t have much issue staying alive. i guess stay away from full berserker if you are having trouble staying alive.

For more than 1 mob, use shortbow AA and cluster bomb.

For only 1 mob (or multiple mobs packed in the same spot so the sword can hit all 3 at the same time), you can use S/D…and between the on-demand shadow return (that works even when you’re stunned) and on-demand evade of FS/LS you shouldn’t really have any trouble surviving and you can strip every single boon from the boss unless it doesn’t have any or special boons that can’t be stripped.

First of all, swap your weapons the for encounters as you need them. When people post on the forums about using dagger/dagger or whatever with specific builds then they are primarily talking about SPvP where you can’t change stuff and also WvW where you can’t predict your opponents. In dungeons and especially fractals you can change your weapons and a few traits before each encounter and you should do so if you need to. For a lot of dungeon encounters a shortbow at 900m range is ok.

Secondly you do need to look for the animations of bosses. Kohler raises his arm before he does the pull and you can dodge. In fact there is enough time to dodge too early and get hit afterwards.

Thirdly get some smoke and blindness in place to give some defense. Smokescreen is a must have utility in ranged fights (it even blocks Kohler’s pull but it’s a touch slow to use as a reaction). There are a lot of ways to blind melee trash in dungeons but you usually need to be using some of them.

Thank you guys, that’s great. Would you suggest switching my Berserker armor to something like Valkyrie so that I get added health? I’m currently at 12.5k HP, which just seems ridiculously low, although I notice other thieves doing fine with this amount of health, and staying alive throughout the entire dungeon/fractal yet I get hit once and I’m dead.

I’ve tried getting used to dodging as much as I can, yet it doesn’t seem to help. I STILL get hit, and when I do I can guarantee I’m dead. Surely thieves aren’t expected to NEVER get hit at all in a dungeon are they? I mean, that’s the only way I can see myself surviving, but then again going into a dungeon expecting to NEVER get hit just isn’t going to work, it seems inevitable that I WILL die at some point, which is why I’m so nervous about using D/D even when there’s only 1 mob around.

Evilek.5690:

Armor – Exotic Berserker with Ruby Orb
Weapons – D/D (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force & Accuracy). SB (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force)
Trinkets – Exotic Berserker with Exquisite Ruby Jewel
Build – 25/30/0/15/0

Here is problem =) Berserker gear is not good in dungeons.

BTW come to the game i help you with your traits/gear and spells.

/facepalm, ive read this thread and now i know why people hate pve thieves, if anything every dungeon in this game (EVERY DUNGEON, including 40+ fotm) favors berserker over all other types of gear and if you dont already know why you should go back to WoW

@op i dont really get what your problem is, you listed kholer specifically, his pull couldnt really be more obvious, it has a huge gap between where he starts charging and when it actually happens you just have to learn to watch for it, also if your having problems with d/d try s/d as its a lot easier to survive (sword 2)

You have to get used to the rythm of the game. Dodging on reaction is not going to work 100% unless you have cat-reflexes. It helps a lot to ‘predict’ when the attack is coming, so you can react much faster to danger, or even supressing the need to dodge.

Most boss attacks come at a fixed cadency. Knowing that: ‘The boss is going to attaaaaack …. NOW!!’ is very different than: ’OMG!!! boss attack!!!"

I used 0/30/30/10/0 for dungeons, valkyrie+soldier armor (soldier up to 2400/2450 toughness then val), berserker weapons and trinkets, runes of divinity, +5% dmg and accuracy sigils. Traits where

CS: +7%crit on flanking, 100%crit on stealth, can’t remember.
SA: Regen on stealt/blind on stealth, +2 ini on stealth, regenerate health during stealth.
Acr: can’t remember.

I could melee pretty fine, keep in mind you need to evade some attacks with thief, like Kholer will shot you with any setup.

I agree with Clumsy. This game favors berserkers everywhere in the game, except maybe WvW. Maybe. But, anyway, for dungeons I run berserker with sword/dagger and I find that the extra shadowstep/return skill helps a lot and it’s much easier to dodge in dungeons. Dungeons are the only places where I use sword/dagger though.

why is berserker armor so good? if you take 1 hit you die! (if you’re a thief)

Excalibur.9748:

why is berserker armor so good? if you take 1 hit you die! (if you’re a thief)

dont get hit then, literally ive gone whole fractal runs without getting hit once, but on a more global note – any major boss attacks are going to 1 shot you whether your in full sentinels gear or in berserkers so the only way to survive is to dodge, thus since your avoiding damage altogether its much more efficient to use the higher damage gear

Clumsy.6257:

Excalibur.9748:

why is berserker armor so good? if you take 1 hit you die! (if you’re a thief)

dont get hit then, literally ive gone whole fractal runs without getting hit once, but on a more global note – any major boss attacks are going to 1 shot you whether your in full sentinels gear or in berserkers so the only way to survive is to dodge, thus since your avoiding damage altogether its much more efficient to use the higher damage gear

what’s a major boss attack? i don’t remember being 1 shot by anything.

You guys really can clear a fractal without being hit once?!

Why he heck do people bring guardians?!

Also running zerker gear in all kinds of dungeons. Only time Im missing defensive build is when trying to shuttle newbies through arah

Weapons: sword+dagger and pistol+pistol
For bosses with easy tell I use sword+dagger and those where my track record isnt that great I use p/p.
Shadowstep and sword 2 keep you alive a lot, when used at the right moment.

If you are unsure, start with p/p and try switching to s/d once in a while with sword 2, 3, 3, 2, switch back to p/p 2, 3 and so on. If you have this down pat try staying at boss longer and watch out more closely for his “tells” (raises arms, charge animation etc.).
After that try using your “utility” skills in between above mentioned skill chain and so on.
Its a learning thing

Btw, from experience I can tell you, soldier set or even cleric set wont allow you to facetank anything even as a guardian, and with a thief its just totally wrong imo.
Only talking about pve, mind you.

Lucky Shot.7650:

You guys really can clear a fractal without being hit once?!

Why he heck do people bring guardians?!

for fractals that you cant avoid every attack, specifically uncategorized

Excalibur.9748:

what’s a major boss attack? i don’t remember being 1 shot by anything.

you really need to do a dungeon besides cof p1… CoE’s Alpha on 2 of the paths has a nearly 1 shot if your full health, old AC’s Colossus Rumblus had a guaranteed 1 shot, Arah has several trash mobs and GL that can 1 shot you, TA (either f/f or U/U cant remember but right before the tree) has a boss that can 1 shot you, and theres more i just cant think of them right now (note: i didnt mention any fractal bosses although the majority of them can 1 shot you in high levels)

Btw, from experience I can tell you, soldier set or even cleric set wont allow you to facetank anything even as a guardian, and with a thief its just totally wrong imo.
Only talking about pve, mind you.

It’s not about facetanking, but being able survive a couple of hits if you screw up or hits that you can’t avoid.

Excalibur.9748:

Btw, from experience I can tell you, soldier set or even cleric set wont allow you to facetank anything even as a guardian, and with a thief its just totally wrong imo.
Only talking about pve, mind you.

It’s not about facetanking, but being able survive a couple of hits if you screw up or hits that you can’t avoid.

This.

Clumsy.6257:

Lucky Shot.7650:

You guys really can clear a fractal without being hit once?!

Why he heck do people bring guardians?!

for fractals that you cant avoid every attack, specifically uncategorized

Excalibur.9748:

what’s a major boss attack? i don’t remember being 1 shot by anything.

you really need to do a dungeon besides cof p1… CoE’s Alpha on 2 of the paths has a nearly 1 shot if your full health, old AC’s Colossus Rumblus had a guaranteed 1 shot, Arah has several trash mobs and GL that can 1 shot you, TA (either f/f or U/U cant remember but right before the tree) has a boss that can 1 shot you, and theres more i just cant think of them right now (note: i didnt mention any fractal bosses although the majority of them can 1 shot you in high levels)

I haven’t done any higher level fractals since I don’t have agony resist but CoF p1 p2 is the only thing worth doing these days since it actually has people running it. Except for the new aesther blade which I will be trying soon.

Excalibur.9748:

Clumsy.6257:

Lucky Shot.7650:

You guys really can clear a fractal without being hit once?!

Why he heck do people bring guardians?!

for fractals that you cant avoid every attack, specifically uncategorized

Excalibur.9748:

what’s a major boss attack? i don’t remember being 1 shot by anything.

you really need to do a dungeon besides cof p1… CoE’s Alpha on 2 of the paths has a nearly 1 shot if your full health, old AC’s Colossus Rumblus had a guaranteed 1 shot, Arah has several trash mobs and GL that can 1 shot you, TA (either f/f or U/U cant remember but right before the tree) has a boss that can 1 shot you, and theres more i just cant think of them right now (note: i didnt mention any fractal bosses although the majority of them can 1 shot you in high levels)

I haven’t done any higher level fractals since I don’t have agony resist but CoF p1 p2 is the only thing worth doing these days since it actually has people running it. Except for the new aesther blade which I will be trying soon.

i find it harder to get a party for cof than for any other dungeon
edit: except for cm… that place is a ghost town

Clumsy.6257:

Excalibur.9748:

Clumsy.6257:

Lucky Shot.7650:

You guys really can clear a fractal without being hit once?!

Why he heck do people bring guardians?!

for fractals that you cant avoid every attack, specifically uncategorized

Excalibur.9748:

what’s a major boss attack? i don’t remember being 1 shot by anything.

you really need to do a dungeon besides cof p1… CoE’s Alpha on 2 of the paths has a nearly 1 shot if your full health, old AC’s Colossus Rumblus had a guaranteed 1 shot, Arah has several trash mobs and GL that can 1 shot you, TA (either f/f or U/U cant remember but right before the tree) has a boss that can 1 shot you, and theres more i just cant think of them right now (note: i didnt mention any fractal bosses although the majority of them can 1 shot you in high levels)

I haven’t done any higher level fractals since I don’t have agony resist but CoF p1 p2 is the only thing worth doing these days since it actually has people running it. Except for the new aesther blade which I will be trying soon.

i find it harder to get a party for cof than for any other dungeon

is it really? i thought all the other dungeons are completely empty now.

I used to run AC quite a bit, but ever since AC got nerfed (increased in difficulty) noone ever runs it anymore. Same thing with Caudecus Manor which was super easy mode, I have never seen a single person there anymore.

Excalibur.9748:

Clumsy.6257:

Excalibur.9748:

Clumsy.6257:

Lucky Shot.7650:

You guys really can clear a fractal without being hit once?!

Why he heck do people bring guardians?!

for fractals that you cant avoid every attack, specifically uncategorized

Excalibur.9748:

what’s a major boss attack? i don’t remember being 1 shot by anything.

you really need to do a dungeon besides cof p1… CoE’s Alpha on 2 of the paths has a nearly 1 shot if your full health, old AC’s Colossus Rumblus had a guaranteed 1 shot, Arah has several trash mobs and GL that can 1 shot you, TA (either f/f or U/U cant remember but right before the tree) has a boss that can 1 shot you, and theres more i just cant think of them right now (note: i didnt mention any fractal bosses although the majority of them can 1 shot you in high levels)

I haven’t done any higher level fractals since I don’t have agony resist but CoF p1 p2 is the only thing worth doing these days since it actually has people running it. Except for the new aesther blade which I will be trying soon.

i find it harder to get a party for cof than for any other dungeon

is it really? i thought all the other dungeons are completely empty now.

I used to run AC quite a bit, but ever since AC got nerfed (increased in difficulty) noone ever runs it anymore. Same thing with Caudecus Manor which was super easy mode, I have never seen a single person there anymore.

edited my post about cm, but AC if anything was made much easier for coordinated teams, its just pugs that have trouble with AC now

Clumsy.6257:

Excalibur.9748:

Clumsy.6257:

Excalibur.9748:

Clumsy.6257:

Lucky Shot.7650:

You guys really can clear a fractal without being hit once?!

Why he heck do people bring guardians?!

for fractals that you cant avoid every attack, specifically uncategorized

Excalibur.9748:

what’s a major boss attack? i don’t remember being 1 shot by anything.

you really need to do a dungeon besides cof p1… CoE’s Alpha on 2 of the paths has a nearly 1 shot if your full health, old AC’s Colossus Rumblus had a guaranteed 1 shot, Arah has several trash mobs and GL that can 1 shot you, TA (either f/f or U/U cant remember but right before the tree) has a boss that can 1 shot you, and theres more i just cant think of them right now (note: i didnt mention any fractal bosses although the majority of them can 1 shot you in high levels)

I haven’t done any higher level fractals since I don’t have agony resist but CoF p1 p2 is the only thing worth doing these days since it actually has people running it. Except for the new aesther blade which I will be trying soon.

i find it harder to get a party for cof than for any other dungeon

is it really? i thought all the other dungeons are completely empty now.

I used to run AC quite a bit, but ever since AC got nerfed (increased in difficulty) noone ever runs it anymore. Same thing with Caudecus Manor which was super easy mode, I have never seen a single person there anymore.

edited my post about cm, but AC if anything was made much easier for coordinated teams, its just pugs that have trouble with AC now

well i WvW most of the time, and the few times I feel like doing PvE I usually PuG and so I run CoF since it’s the only thing that PUGs run. I guess because it’s easy and fast.

Fractals take a huge amount of time so I don’t get the chance to do it often but it’s pretty fun and not all that kitten the lower difficulties.

Just remembering this guardian chain-dieing while lecturing the rest of the group on the evils of zerker gear.

You dont survive “a couple of hits” with thief anyway. The difference is about one hit. Yes, I actually tried this because people kept on telling me how I need defensive gear and build to survive warriors in asca fractal. Total nonesense. I died just about as fast as with zerker gear, until I started using my skills correctly, then I didnt die with zerker gear.

Yasi.9065:

Just remembering this guardian chain-dieing while lecturing the rest of the group on the evils of zerker gear.

You dont survive “a couple of hits” with thief anyway. The difference is about one hit. Yes, I actually tried this because people kept on telling me how I need defensive gear and build to survive warriors in asca fractal. Total nonesense. I died just about as fast as with zerker gear, until I started using my skills correctly, then I didnt die with zerker gear.

yup. u can use knights or carrion. u will basically only survive 2 MAYBE 3 hits more in pvp but in pve dungeons etc its only saving you 1-2 seconds of life if that. thief doenst matter what armor/traits you have they go down fast. which makes me wonder why more people dont go offensive in pvp. so many bunkers…and outlasting with boon hate and stealth is a game we accel at but only in very small scenarios.

Beserker is the best for dungeons, however If you are having trouble staying alive you should try some different armor sets.

I suggest
For Pug Groups – PVT + Divinity Runes
For Organized Groups – Beserker + Scholar Runes

If you need further assistance I main a thief and I will run up to 5 dungeons to teach you

GL Mate!

Vanchatron.2306:

I’ve played GW2 since it first released, and thought I was “ok” at the game. Recently I’ve been running a lot of dungeons and fractals and I’m dying ALL THE TIME. I just got kicked from an AC exp group and was told by the leader “kekekeke you suck, l2p”. This is the type of reaction I get every single time I try to do group events. I’m ALWAYS dying.

I chose Thief because I liked the melee play style of wielding two daggers. The problem is, it seems literally impossible to fight anything using melee as a thief. I came up against Kholer in AC, and every time he pulled me towards him and did his whirlwind move, I died, without fail. Group leader said “omg noob learn to dodge”. That’s fair enough, but when his pull is pretty much INSTANT how can I dodge it? It’s impossible to dodge EVERYTHING but if I make 1 little mistake, I’m dead. This leads me to have to sit back and range with a shortbow for 90% of the game. If I wanted to range, I’d have gone Ranger or Elementalist or something. I’m fed up with having to sit back and just range my target constantly, knowing that if I set foot in melee position I’ll wipe.

Yet you see Mesmers, Elementalists, Guardians, Warriors all just standing and melee’ing the boss, whilst I’m stood ages away having to range. I’m constantly the first to go down in dungeons and it’s getting embarassing.

I really don’t know what the answer is. I’ve bought P/V/T gear, tried it, same result so went back to Berserker. My gear is currently as follows:

Armor – Exotic Berserker with Ruby Orb

Weapons – D/D (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force & Accuracy). SB (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force)

Trinkets – Exotic Berserker with Exquisite Ruby Jewel

Build – 25/30/0/15/0

Obviously this is glass cannon like, but having been reading around on this forum and GW2guru etc, “supposedly” the best way to play a Thief IS as a glass cannon, due to their need for high damage Backstabs etc. That would be fine if I was even able to pull off a Backstab, but if I try I usually die so I’m often just forced to sit back and range.

I’ve been contemplating all types of things to help me survive, whether it be changing my gear, changing my traits or what but I’m clueless as to what the best option is. It’s putting me off going into dungeons and fractals now because I know I’m gonna look like an idiot being downed all throughout. I just end up being a huge burden for my team.

What do you guys suggest? It’s getting to the point now where I’m getting so frustrated with this, I don’t feel like logging on due to the embarassment and awkwardness or dying all the time. I also read that if you were to give your Thief defensive stats (whether it be in traits or gear) you’re gimping your Thief, because they’ll do less damage than a Warrior for the same amount of survivability, or less even. Therefore, apparently you’re MEANT to run glass cannon as Thief. I mean I’ve seen videos on Youtube of Thieves using Berserker gear and running my exact build who are flying through Fractals 40 without a scratch, it’s ridiculous.

Would greatly appreciate some help with this guys!

thief sucks in pve much more than a guardian/warrior … yet….the nerfbat still hits us …. HAHAHA
somebody there @ the balance team is missing a brain

^^ No Value added I will give a reply though as I find your analysis incorrect.

Thief is very strong for DPS and this is important in PvE. (Above All)

A bad thief is bad, a good thief is going to bring the most single target damage out of any profession in an organized group.

OIIIIIO.7825:

^^ No Value added I will give a reply though as I find your analysis incorrect.

Thief is very strong for DPS and this is important in PvE. (Above All)

A bad thief is bad, a good thief is going to bring the most single target damage out of any profession in an organized group.

warriors will just laugh at what you said…
explain why there are no 4 thieves+mesmer in cof p1 farm ?

Evilek.5690:

Armor – Exotic Berserker with Ruby Orb
Weapons – D/D (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force & Accuracy). SB (Exotic Berserker with Superior Sigil of Force)
Trinkets – Exotic Berserker with Exquisite Ruby Jewel
Build – 25/30/0/15/0

Here is problem =) Berserker gear is not good in dungeons.

BTW come to the game i help you with your traits/gear and spells.

That’s 100% wrong. Zerker is the best in dungeons by FAR. Op, your problem is that you don’t know what to dodge yet. You said Kholer pull is instant, it actually has about a 1.5s cast time. Watch when he pulls his arm back and it gets a light shinning from it, wait 1s, then dodge. Will work without fail every time. You CAN avoid all damage that you need to avoid. You’re playing thief, it’s probably the 1 class that relies on good positioning to survive. You’ll get used to it. I suggest watching some thieves in dungeons videos to see them in melee without dying. Odds are you’ll see what they are dodging and you’ll get better from watching and paying attention to their play.

Edit: I’m reading some more of this “advice” and it’s making me cringe.

I’ve tried getting used to dodging as much as I can, yet it doesn’t seem to help. I STILL get hit, and when I do I can guarantee I’m dead. Surely thieves aren’t expected to NEVER get hit at all in a dungeon are they?

Don’t dodge as much as you can, dodge the attacks that are going to hit/hurt and avoid all the others. Get used to using weapon skills for dodging. Initiative can replace your endurance bar in tight situations. Also get used to using signet of agility for the endurance refresh and withdraw for the evade. If you’re just dodging as much as you can then it’s no wonder you’re dying all the time. The whole point of dodging is to dodge important attacks. I’m a main thief and I run with about 13.5k hp – zerker and I rarely die in dungeons. I’m able to survive most big hits and heal up. The trick is not getting hit often. 2 and you’re dead.

thief sucks in pve much more than a guardian/warrior … yet….the nerfbat still hits us …. HAHAHA
somebody there @ the balance team is missing a brain

Thief is amazing at pve. I’m sorry that you don’t know how to play the class in that game type but as a pve thief, I think they are as good at pve as they are at roaming in wvw. It’s all about learning how to play :P

DanH because most people, like you I guess, cant play a thief.

To Yasi.9065
^^ No Value Added (Dan is uninformed and it’s not going to help insulting him)

To DanH.5879
The reason there are no 4 Thieves + 1 Mesmer (commonly seen) is because of the following

Warriors are easier to play / more forgiving for bad players due primarily to
Higher Base Armor + Higher Base Health

Here is a video of my group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyl7BvFKb4g

It’s a bit older , but compare it to the time you do it in.

“Edit: I’m reading some more of this “advice” and it’s making me cringe. -RFF”
^^ I agree. This is why I offer to tutor players

OIIIIIO.7825:

To DanH.5879

The reason there are no 4 Thieves + 1 Mesmer (commonly seen) is because of the following

Warriors are easier to play / more forgiving for bad players due primarily to
Higher Base Armor + Higher Base Health

Here is a video of my group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyl7BvFKb4g

It’s a bit older , but compare it to the time you do it in.

“Edit: I’m reading some more of this “advice” and it’s making me cringe. -RFF”
^^ I agree. This is why I offer to tutor players

what you said hits it right in the face, the average skill level of someone who does a lot of CoF p1 is so low that playing a berserker warrior is almost to much of a challenge for them so playing a berserker thief and actually having to think is out of the question

DanH.5879:

OIIIIIO.7825:

^^ No Value added I will give a reply though as I find your analysis incorrect.

Thief is very strong for DPS and this is important in PvE. (Above All)

A bad thief is bad, a good thief is going to bring the most single target damage out of any profession in an organized group.

warriors will just laugh at what you said…
explain why there are no 4 thieves+mesmer in cof p1 farm ?

Because a few warriors made warrior vids saying warriors is the end all be all of pve. About 50% of the player base is warrior as well and warrior is the easiest profession to play in pve. It’s easier to get a passable warrior then a good thief and the thief needs to be good to be better than a warrior. The best potential for a CoF run is 3 thieves, 1 war, 1 mes (need the banners) but nobody cares about saving a few seconds when it’s 20x harder to get decent thieves and even harder to get a warrior that is willing to put a fire field down to let the thieves stack the might before the fight starts. Most thieves also aren’t running 25-30-x-0-x.

The MAIN reason you don’t see mainly thief runs in cof is b/c of ignorant people like you. You’re close minded about the potential of a class if played properly so you just bash (edit for swear filter) it and believe what every pug tells you. Btw, ignorant isn’t an insult, it just means you aren’t aware of the facts yet.

I run a lot of berserker gears in dungeons, no problem, I’ve even excelled in AC, even made it half-way through the boss fight despite the bug that gets rid of all your utilities and heals. The trick is using mobility.

For me, I like d/p for stealth, or s/d for mobility as well as shortbow.

Lately, I’ve also been playing around with d/d and p/d condi-tank builds.

In kholer, S/D is great, and makes you more survivable than most. use that 2 skill to engage, and when he pulls just hit it again. Otherwise, you can use range, and then use shadowstep to get out if pulled. You always want a stunbreak though (in dungeons and wvw).

You may want to get some heavier gear until you survive better, but honestly, the zerker gear will be almost as good. Many bosses can 1 hit kill any player, so why even try to tank them as a thief? Just get to know the bosses and get good at dodging at the right time.

randomfightfan.4091:

DanH.5879:

OIIIIIO.7825:

^^ No Value added I will give a reply though as I find your analysis incorrect.

Thief is very strong for DPS and this is important in PvE. (Above All)

A bad thief is bad, a good thief is going to bring the most single target damage out of any profession in an organized group.

warriors will just laugh at what you said…
explain why there are no 4 thieves+mesmer in cof p1 farm ?

Because a few warriors made warrior vids saying warriors is the end all be all of pve. About 50% of the player base is warrior as well and warrior is the easiest profession to play in pve. It’s easier to get a passable warrior then a good thief and the thief needs to be good to be better than a warrior. The best potential for a CoF run is 3 thieves, 1 war, 1 mes (need the banners) but nobody cares about saving a few seconds when it’s 20x harder to get decent thieves and even harder to get a warrior that is willing to put a fire field down to let the thieves stack the might before the fight starts. Most thieves also aren’t running 25-30-x-0-x.

The MAIN reason you don’t see mainly thief runs in cof is b/c of ignorant people like you. You’re close minded about the potential of a class if played properly so you just bash (edit for swear filter) it and believe what every pug tells you. Btw, ignorant isn’t an insult, it just means you aren’t aware of the facts yet.

I’ve done plenty of CoF and AC runs on my thief and find them fun and relatively easy.
Incidentally, not many people run cof p3 because it’s “too hard”. I ran it in a group with a fellow thief. Only one of the players knew the run. He said it was the fastest run he’d ever seen. As a zerker thief, I was able to solo one of the parts where people are supposed to split up. We were able to stealth everyone past some turrets that insta-gib. We also managed to do enough aoe damage while surviving in that major battle against lots of guys. Thieves kept stealth resing people as they fell, and just doing solid, consistent aoe damage with shortbow, while kiting. Nothing shameful about that at all…it’s just thieves have a much lower margin of error in pve dungeons.

Thanks fellas, I have taken in every piece of advice you’ve given to me!

I guess one of my main questions right now is when should I melee and when should I range? Having just come from AR, the new dungeon, I was ranging the whole time I was there with my SB, due to the fact that I didn’t know when it’d be safe to move in and melee.

Is there a specific time I should be melee’ing and a specific time I should be ranging?

Ideally I’d love to melee 24/7 as a thief, although this just seems impossible. So when should I melee and when should I range?

you should be able to melee anytime you want if you’re good with the melee sets. i usually don’t bother because…why? I don’t care about saving a few seconds. against bosses/mini bosses sometimes I do use S/D to strip boons and such. also anytime everyone else is on melee you can be on melee too, because hell why not?

Vanchatron.2306:

Thanks fellas, I have taken in every piece of advice you’ve given to me!

I guess one of my main questions right now is when should I melee and when should I range? Having just come from AR, the new dungeon, I was ranging the whole time I was there with my SB, due to the fact that I didn’t know when it’d be safe to move in and melee.

Is there a specific time I should be melee’ing and a specific time I should be ranging?

Ideally I’d love to melee 24/7 as a thief, although this just seems impossible. So when should I melee and when should I range?

Edit:

Always melee if the situation permits (read: most of the time with few exceptions). A thief that’s sitting at range every fight is pretty worthless. S/P is a great PvE combo because of the evades/blinds, and it got even better this last patch.

Once you get to a certain level, you can tell how “good” a thief is not by how much he gets downed but by how often he’s in melee range. I’d rather pick up a melee thief 3 times than have him sit away at range with a SB plunking for 1.2k per hit.

If you want to melee safely I would suggest S/P vs just trash mobs
AKA mobs w/o defiant (also dredge are immune to blind)

The S/P allows you to http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Powder
then you just auto-attack and dish out AoE blinds.

If you need evades then Pistol-whip will give that to you. There is a slight delay before the evades kick in so it will take practice to get used to the timing.

As far as when to melee
Anytime you can do so w/o going down. This will be different with each players skill level.

Always have at least one stunbreaker in your skill bar, and using shadow refuge helps too, probably the most useful thief skill at dungeons.

Having 20 points in SA could be really useful. I always used berserker armor, weapons, rings and amulets in dungeons, but thank’s to my Valkyrie accesories and my points in SA surviving wasn’t that hard.

Now I just switched my Berserker armor for Valkyrie armor (except the pants) and replaced the Valkyrie accesories for Berserker accesories, and I’m really happy with it. I did lost some precision, but I got some vitality instead that made surviving even easier, with 15k of health, 2,200 of power and 53% of crit chance (with the skill that gives you extra precision and also gives you 2 dodges whenever you need them!) you have a really powerful backstab thief that can avoid and take some hits before going down, and if that’s not good enough, get some more Valkyrie stuff and you should be fine.