Guild Wars 2

I made a thief and wanted to get to level 80 so I could join more guild activities and be better in zergs in WvW, but I started to think what thiefs could actually do to help. I dont know much about thiefs and thats why Im asking. I wanted to know:

-What can they do to buff there allies?
-Do people want them in dungeons or not really?
-Other stuff that thiefs can do which is.are helpful.

Thanks in advance

Buff? Aside from obvious things like “Providing combo fields,”

For boons; 10 in Trickery for “Thrill of the Crime,” 20 in Trickery for “Bountiful Theft,” and 30 in Trickery for “Sleight of Hand.”
All this in total provides (at least) 50% up-time on Fury/Swiftness, and a good chance at a 75% up time on Vigor for allies.

Signet of Agility’s active clears 1 Condi and recovers all endurance for allies in Range.

30 in Shadow Arts allows a Thief to get Venomous Aura, which allows the Thief to share Venoms, a combination of Spider, Skale, Devourer, and Basilisk being rather potent at the moment. This combined with the 20 in Shadow Arts for Leaching Venoms allows for some mediocre AoE healing.

Shortbow #2 is by far the best blast finisher in the game.

Do people want thieves in Dungeons? Honestly, no. Thieves provide (almost) nothing that other classes in the game cannot do better.

Other things that thieves can do which are helpful. Provide stealth for Allies, although this isn’t an exclusively thief thing.

In WvW we’re pretty much a mobile combo finisher with access to good damage. We also have the ability to move behind enemy lines and kill the ranged damage dealers (staff eles for example).

I can’t see why people would drop a thief in a dungeon, or at least good thieves.

• AoE stealth from Shadow Refugee, Black Powder/Smoke Screen with Cluster Bomb combo and Blinding Powder.
• With Shadow Trap we can do things in the Dredge Fractal that other professions can only wish for.
• We can completely lock down ranged opponents for 7 seconds with Smoke Screen while blinding all that stand in it (very useful in Asura fractal!).
• We can AoE blind trash mobs for easy mode.
• We can give our entire team Swiftness, Fury, Might and Vigor every 21 seconds (traited Steal) on top off combo finishers.
• We have access to every single combo finisher in the game!
• Very good damage (not as good as other professions, but definitely worth having)
• If we get downed we can usually get ourself up. Our downed state attack is AoE, so there’s a huge chance of rallying, and we have stealth and teleport from downed state.
• We can strip Defiance from bosses like no one else can. A well timed Pistol Whip / Head Shot / Steal (traited) can interrupt a major attack from the boss.
• With all our AoE stealth we are the best profession for getting our teammates back up again (or we can just Shadow Step across the room and burst the mob they’re trying to defeat for a rally).
• Signet of Agility remove conditions AoE.
• We can share venoms, but it’s better to just have a Necromancer fixing the part of stacking conditions.
• If allies stand in Shadow Refugee and do a whirl or projectile combo finisher they’ll steal life.

I would say any good Thief, that know how to play and know that bringing different weapon sets and utilities for different dungeons and encounters, is a welcome addition to any team.

There was a recent poll that said Thief is the worst PvE profession. (or 2nd worst, just barely better than ranger).

So no, noone wants thieves for PvE.

Excalibur.9748:

There was a recent poll that said Thief is the worst PvE profession. (or 2nd worst, just barely better than ranger).

So no, noone wants thieves for PvE.

And the problem exist because of all those who rolled a thief because they want to have WvW perma stealth. Many of them are going in dungeons with their full backstab zerker build and think they’ll do great. They usually end up getting one shotted by the first strong mob they encounter….

I can’t count how many times I’ve joined a group and been asked if I have any other lvl 80s or just getting kicked… I have a Guardian and a Mesmer, but I’m far better on my Thief, therefore I tell them to give me a chance and I’ll prove that the Thief can be very strong in dungeons. If we wipe, I’m usually the last man standing or the one that doesn’t die. I’m usually the one reviving other players and taking good care of my self. I rarely drop below 90% hp because of the evades, blinds and shadow steps I have in my builds. After a run with pugs, who wanted to kick me or have me get my Guardian, I’m often getting recognition and they ask if I want to join for another path or dungeon. It’s all about showing how useful we can be and prove them wrong when they think I’ll fail.

Quick tip: find a build with lots of damage, but with several viable traits in each line that you can switch in between encounters. You should also have every single weapon combination available at all times in your inventory! Some encounters are best with P/P, some with SB, some with daggers and so on. Have them with you, experiment and find what you think is best for every situation.

If you find yourself never losing much health because you’re good at evading and interrupting you can run full zerker. Thief is the profession that wear zerker best, simply because of our survivability through stealth, shadow step, blind and evades – which we have a lot of!

Acension.9270:

what thiefs could actually do to help?

Kill/distract the things hitting your friends so they stop hitting your friends. Thats a good strategy to employ IMO.

I just started building a support thief and initial testing in random PvP matches and PvE dungeons with my guild have been very fun. I run 0/0/30/10/30 traits and i’ve found that as long as you are smart with your positioning and read the boons on your opponents quickly you can make a huge difference in a team of three or more.

As others have stated, shortbow is the best blast finisher there is, and the importance of venom/stealing here lets you save your initiative to spam it. You deal very little damage on your own but in a large coordinated group, spreading basalisk venom to everyone is incredibly effective. Likewise, skale venom stacks a great deal of vulnerability.

Stealing is the most important piece of the build, and in my opinion the trickiest to use. You need to both target an enemy with useful boons to steal and activate it near allies for the Fury, Might, Swiftness and Vigor boons. At the same time you are ALSO searching for enemies that can be interrupted effectively with a daze. Pulling off the perfect steal is rare at first, but practice does improve your ability.

Geiir.7603:

Many of them are going in dungeons with their full backstab zerker build and think they’ll do great.

Are you implying that some useless venoms are better than spammable 30K backstabs?

They’re not.

Spiuk.8421:

Geiir.7603:

Many of them are going in dungeons with their full backstab zerker build and think they’ll do great.

Are you implying that some useless venoms are better than spammable 30K backstabs?

They’re not.

That sentence was to the guys coming from WvW who created a thief because they got their kitten handed to them… I never implied that any venoms were great, I actually said that I would rather bring a necromancer for that. If you read my post I had many reasons as to why the thief is a great addition to any team

I even said that if you’re good with your thief and know when to dodge, blind, interrupt etc, then full berserker is perfect, because you’ll be a good dps then. Read my entire post before you judge me.

30k backstabs, continuously? If so then you’ll have to have all damage boosts up from traits, food, runes and sigils as well as might and bloodlust. If you can do that, then good for you. On some bosses I’ll backstab and on others I’ll pistol whip, head shot and stuff to interrupt and damage while evading all damage..

Acension.9270:

I made a thief and wanted to get to level 80 so I could join more guild activities and be better in zergs in WvW, but I started to think what thiefs could actually do to help. I dont know much about thiefs and thats why Im asking. I wanted to know:

-What can they do to buff there allies?
-Do people want them in dungeons or not really?
-Other stuff that thiefs can do which is.are helpful.

Thanks in advance

Thieves have traits the give fury and might on steal and traits that grant everyone the thief stealths regeneration. You can also blind bosses constantly if you trait and gear up properly.

Last time I went with a group to do Sorrow’s Embrace p1-3, I used this setup. I was with 2 guardians, an engi and a warrior. The only person who was experienced was the warrior and the guards kept getting downed.

Since I was playing the conditions/support part of the group I would use my AoE stealths as a way to res them because not only did they get regen but the stealth broke targeting long enough that I could get them on their feet.

With Shadow Strike I would hit enemies as soon as they would get in range letting me play the tank when neccessary.

When we get near groups, Caltrops and Dagger Storm used in the middle of the groups would kill them really fast…. I mean REALLY fast. Not only that, I would get healed in the process due to SoM.