Guild Wars 2

Can anyone help me with finding the best way to learn the thief class? The class seems very fun to play, but out of all the classes in GW2 it seems to take the most practice. In pvp it is possibly the easiest class to recognize if a person is very good or needs to improve. I’m not after specific builds unless they’re simply good for learning to play the class. On the other end of the spectrum, I’m not after a basic list of all the skills and what they do.

Pretty much I’ve always liked the looks of the light armored dps classes in MMOs, but always somehow end up maining more magical classes (can’t stand warriors for some reason). Simply asking seemed a more sure method to finding information I could use to finally give this awesome looking class a go.

I’d say practice your timing.

In all aspects of the game, whenever you fight, strive for perfect timing. I say this because thief is a very timing-reliant class. We have no CD’s on our weapon skills, but you have to time good usage or you will end up with no initiative. Time your dodges, time your stealths, time your movement, time when you will be in a certain position. Especially time your utility skills; the difference between a good and bad thief is a well-timed shadowstep and a poorly timed one.

Also, having knowledge of all classes and what they can potentially do is important in pvp and wvw, but that applies to all classes.

@Klowde: Thanks for the advice. Hopefully as I play the game more I’ll have a better feel for timing and a few other things like how the camera works. Do you think not having a mouse will effect that too much? How about not having the best of computers? Been playing on a non-gaming labtop and GW2 usually seems to run smoothly, but I haven’t done much pvp.

@ixon: Better to have loved and lost… Actually I’ve been playing a PU mesmer so I kind of feel your pain, though I’ve been meaning to change my mesmer’s build to something more challenging/rewarding. Putting all that aside for now though since I’d really like to get good at thief. There’s a reason you all love it and I’m betting it’s justified.

Having a mouse is definitely helpful, especially with camera turning. Camera turning is very helpful as well, because it allows you to react faster, especially if you have a mouse. I don’t think a great computer matters in spvp; I don’t think the effects ever get to the point where they slow framerate when there are only ten players in the map.

Just note that the advice isn’t exclusively for pvp; it extends to all combat portions of the game.

go join dueling arenas and watch other players/do duels yourself

map rotations come from experience which mostly can be gained by doing matches non stop or watch good thieves play

the website http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki has most popular builds that work and short guides for them, once you know class better you can experiment around and make your own~

i think trying out other classes is mandatory if you want to have good chance of winning as thief since most of thief defense is based on offense

and yeah, can’t play thief class effectively by clicking, mouse turning and proper keybinds are kind of must imo

oh and insta cast on ground targetting spells (see in game options) is also very helpful

ixon.2496:

Dont.

Easiest answer. If you do, you will become fond of it, grow to love it- Then, you log on one day, something isnt quite right, can it be? Your damage has decreased? Stealth is bugged? Survivability nerfed? It could be any number of these nightmares.

You will spend sleepless nights pouring over the forums, frantically searching for answers, deep in despair.

You will become…

One of US.

When I mained guardian, I was exited about patches and couldnt wait for them. One day I decided to learn thief and I fell in love. However, my love quickly turned to horror! Patch after patch I saw my precious thief clipped of her wings. And the community… Talk about kicking someone while they’re down.. Nerf after nerf the community cheers and laughs about seeing the thief being hit even harder in times to come.

Hotkey everything and never click a skill. That is the first major step.

Then max camera speed.

Resist mashing buttons and queuing skillz excessively.

Learn to never stop moving nomatter what your’e doing.

Gain love for butts cuz you will want to see more of dat * in battle than their front.

Have someone beat you with a nerf bat over and over till your skin thickens and you gain an emotional pain tolerance.

Then you can begin learning a build you like.

Kury.8210:

… a more sure method to finding information I could use to finally give this awesome looking class a go.

Watch videos – that is the best way.

I’d say, play the class, in the way you think fits you best. Then once your learn the basics, go and research enemy setups and work out how you will fight those in your spec/setup.

And then, practice a whole lot more!

It all comes down to knowledge, staying calm and timing right. Which you cannot learn watching or theory crafting!

I think thiefs have the lowest health pool and are the most vulnerable of all professions. Train stealth gameplay of course and, more importantly, train the mechanics of the shadow step. It was quite hard for me to get used to the sheer speed and anticipation that results from the shadow step gameplay.
For example: What do you want to do to an enemy once you used steal on him? Wanna CnD? Or flanking strike? Or get out of melee with shadow strike? Or do you prefer to blind him and stay in melee? Or set a trap? You have to know that before you get close to the ennemy.

The engine of Guild wars 2 allows you to do all this crazy, instantaneous shadow step combos that are incredibly cool and satisfying, but it won’t go without practice!
Your brain has to get used to the speed and timing of shadow steps, so train them! that’s the best advise I can give

Also, to go along with timing, thief is very reliant on patience. You can’t just run into fights and mash your buttons. You need to synergize timing, patience, and positioning together in order to be effective. This is why thieves are one of the hardest (if not THEE hardest) profession in the game. People really just don’t care to play “carefully”, they just want to run in and smash in some faces.

I watch some thieves who sometimes will panic and mash a button like Black Powder (pistol5) to get the smokefield down, and then have no initiative to Heartseeker into stealth. You CANNOT mash buttons as a thief. You will die and be VERY ineffective. This is where dodge rolls come into play. You need to use your dodges in a way that allow you to regen initiative while not taking damage because thieves are incredibly squishy.

Believe it or not, zerging, even as some players claim Raiding to be, is actually good practice, because it’s a test of your awareness and reflexes, which is important for a Thief.

Trying to stay out of AOE or away from the enemy Melee trains, whilst bursting down squishy or low targets; it’s actually challenging while playing with just around 2k armor.

Learn how to survive intense combat. Especially learning to do so without Shadow Arts (2 pts max for SE).

The thief is a very easy class to kill things with. It does a lot of damage.

What’s not so great are its passive defenses and damage mitigation (granted, SA provides this extensively, but it’s an overpowered trait line that rewards poor play techniques and ultimately decreases player skill/learning.

As crimson mentioned, zerging is actually a good way to learn, especially if you force yourself to try and kill a particular target and practice target management. You will be faced with the decision of picking a new target and committing if you see one you can kill. It’s very easy to kill a target, but finding your way out of the mess becomes much more difficult. The bigger mess you get yourself into and escape, the better you’ll master using the thief’s best assets in smaller fights and retain control over the battlefield and your opponent’s cooldowns.

Make sure you get your reaction time and timing down, as those are some of the most important things you will need as a thief. Also, be spatially aware. A lot of people underestimate this as a thief. A spatially aware thief can CnD+ steal at an opponent behind them, shadowstep away to escape a bad situation, or cluster bomb from afar then steal in and hit them with a backstab as the cluster bomb hits them. All of these things make a very good thief.

Thanks for all the feedback! So far I’m loving my thief, though it may be a while before I pvp with it. One thing I got to say though. Not used to glass cannons. It’s like everything seems easy, until you screw up.

So let’s see… Currently using d/p and shortbow. Lvl 35 so not much in traits yet. Any advice for using cluster bomb on shortbow? Feels like I’m doing something wrong when aiming close to me. I’d also love to learn how to do the clusterbomb/steal together. I’ve seen a youtube video where it seems almost instant, but never managed myself. Thanks again for all the advice!

use s/p for lving~

Cynz.9437:

use s/p for lving~

Mind telling me why? If it’s to get used to the skills I understand. For surviving and killing fast though, d/p seems a bit better.

Kury.8210:

Cynz.9437:

use s/p for lving~

Mind telling me why? If it’s to get used to the skills I understand. For surviving and killing fast though, d/p seems a bit better.

Because it has good cleave dmg. Also pistol whip evades. You can run signet of malice if you want, then go into a big group and kill them while regaining health and evading.

In PvE, everything is easier if you know the bosses animations so that you can dodge when there’s a big attack coming. I always go D/D and Shortbow since it’s the best damage dealing combo. In general, while the boss is above 50% health, I use cloak and dagger to stealth → get behind target → backstab. This will give you the “revealed” effect, which gives you +200 power with the trait “revealed training”. Once boss drops below 50% health, just spam heartseeker.

If there’s a boss that deals too much unpredictable damage then you can put 3 traitpoints into acrobatics for “Feline Grace”, which gives back endurance when you dodge. This way you can dodge a lot more often, and with the usage of death blossom you’ll be almost invincible.

Kury.8210:

Thanks for all the feedback! So far I’m loving my thief, though it may be a while before I pvp with it. One thing I got to say though. Not used to glass cannons. It’s like everything seems easy, until you screw up.

So let’s see… Currently using d/p and shortbow. Lvl 35 so not much in traits yet. Any advice for using cluster bomb on shortbow? Feels like I’m doing something wrong when aiming close to me. I’d also love to learn how to do the clusterbomb/steal together. I’ve seen a youtube video where it seems almost instant, but never managed myself. Thanks again for all the advice!

Cluster bomb deals the most damage when you get it targeted right on your enemy, then explode the bomb in mid-air as soon as it’s totally within the monster’kittenbox. This allows more consistent critical hits since each part of the cluster has its own crit chance (which can raise damage at lower crit % as some will crit instead of likely none), and doing a successful mid-air detonation actually jut has a higher damage coefficient than the single bomb. The detonate cluster also applies bleeding whereas the single bomb does not. I prefer to engage with this since you likely don’t have aggro and the mob is largely stationary.

Point-blank bombing is just spamming the skill. This is done because the bomb thus has a low travel time and ultimately deals more damage in a short amount of time as the wait between bombs/from shooting them is small. This is done mostly for PvP purposes or AoE’ing groups of mobs if you use D/x.

A bomb-combo for D/D is often something like:
Basilisk Venom -> Cluster Bomb (no Detonate) -> While bomb is mid-air Steal/Mug -> CnD -> Stab -> Bomb lands on CC’ed target.

For D/P, you need to be OOC: Blinding Powder → Heartseeker → Venom →Cluster Bomb (no Detonate) → While bomb is mid-air → Shadow Shot/Stab combo

Find a mentor and have him kick your kitten repeatedly.

Also learn how to drop your burst combos from a minimum of 2k units away.

Then start diving into zeros doing it and try to get out

Those 2 will start you training your timing and speed on keys.

To get your reflexes faster is simple. Pan your camera and identify bursts before they happen. Let it come and counter it.

Eventually you’ll get good enough to avoid random adding back stabs.

Here’s the priority I would suggest to learning the class:

1) Learn mobility and how to move through the maps. You can be a great help to winning a game for your team even if you can’t win a fight on a thief due to high mobility that allows you to decap.

2) Learn the teleport tricks and other nuances of thief teleport/sleath/blind mechanics. Here’s an old video, but most of it is still relevant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUmrfBr1R5s

3) Watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKqgE4BwAY

4) Avoid medi guards.

Everything beyond that is pretty much just practice and learning enemy mechanics.

Um… Practice, just like with most things.

And listen to the wise words of Mr.Piccolo:

If you’ve ever played league, its like playing a Zed.

Klowde.9876:

If you’ve ever played league, its like playing a Zed.

Zed is highly toxic in a way that you only need basic coordination with your two hands to kill another individual and come out unharmed, the design of this character was made so you couldn’t possibly fail at this very objective. The damage is high, you have a way out of the mess you get into and you even have an indicator saying if your target will die of the mark’s trigger. Can’t get any dumber than that. The major downside is that you’re using all your power to take care of one person on the field, therefore, not really a win pick.

If you give any value to the Thief class, you’ll retract what you’ve just said.

Zero Day.2594:

Um… Practice, just like with most things.

And listen to the wise words of Mr.Piccolo:

Everytime I hear the mentioning of Piccolo I always think about “I’VE NEVER FELT SUCH POWER!”

And to finish. Well, I’m definitely not a good Thief and will always love my Engineer until the end of times, but if you really cherish your class and character and simply play it, it will come naturally with time. Have to be patient.