Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I’m a pretty experienced thief and I enjoy playing it. I like to think I know very much what i’m doing in pvp as I often rack up the most points (Helps that so many people don’t know how to cap points these days). I just hit Pheonix rank yesterday and it got me thinking about the classes i still struggle to fight in pvp and I was curious what other thieves struggle with.

The only 2 classes I just can’t handle are Necro and Mesmer. Necro is like a raid boss that tanks everything and no matter how many times i Withdraw or enter stealth to remove their conditions they are right back on me as soon as i’m fighting again. I think Necro is a great counter for a thief as we can’t kill them fast and condi damage is our weakness. Did I mention how a downed necro can take me from 100% health to 20% in the time it takes me to do a stomp? Still I see a lot of classes moaning about necros these days. Nerf please?

I should reiterate, A Mesmer played well I struggle against. A bad Mesmer can be killed in seconds but good ones are just enough to make me rage at the sight of them. Shatter virtually one shots me and my daggers constantly hitting illusions which absorb the damage instead of the Mesmer are irritating. It is definitely fun fighting a Mesmer as it becomes a battle of who can out stealth who but still a class I haven’t got to grips with beating. I guess I kinda suck at retargeting each time.

Finally on a side note, Ranger can be annoying. When you have no endurance and cd’s up, Rangers can pretty much one shot you with Barrage. A good Ranger who stays far away from you or has the high ground can also be extremely tough to deal with.

Most other classes are fine for me. I find Guardian, Ele and other Thieves very easy to fight. Warrior and Engi played well can be a nuisance but otherwise nothing special. So I ask you guys, What classes do you find most annoying/difficult to fight against?

I find Guards and Necros to be a pain. I run a condition thief, and so these two classes melt me. Necros take all my damage and dump it right back at me, while guards just use it to buff themselves immensely. (that said, nothing like finding a guard without contemplation of purity).

Elementalists can be a pain too. in large fights, I can get to them and burst them down pretty well, but 1-on-1 all the AoEs mean I spend a lot of time in stealth trying not to get hit. (SR isn’t good for this)

As a Dagger/ Pistol Thief, this is my list.

Profession – Difficult level- Survival rate

1. Condition Mesmer -9/10- 30%-40%.
2. Condition Engineer -8/10- 50%
3. Typical GS Mesmer – 8/10 – 60%
4. Necromancers – 7/10 – 65%
5. Guardians- 8/10 – 50%
6. Ranger – 6/10 – 70%
7. Thief – 7/10 -50%
8. Warrior GS and Rifle 8/10 -45%
9. Warrior Axe Shield 7/10 -65%
10. Elementalist 8/10 -50%

Conditions nowadays are not even funny. It’s gotten to the point where, using Withdraw with 5 stacks of confusion will kill you. Might as well just retreat and pick a better fight.

Guardians and most Engi are pretty much a no no to fight in 1v1 and you even have to be careful in 2v1 against them. Let your team mate get them low enough so that your steal open leave them near dead.

Necros are a lot harder if you have to engage them in a Mark trapped spot, otherwise its doable. Double fear against them is usually really good. You have to be careful about spectral armor because giving them too much lifeforce will make them survive just long enough to fight back when you don’t have much left.

Mesmers.. ugh, sometimes I feel like I finally get how to win this consistently, and then you make a single mistake and you get shattered for all your life. Or sometimes you don’t even make a mistake and they just get lucky with it. I feel like with every mesmers running PU, trying to 1v1 them is a pure waste of our time.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vh33V;1Rw-a0K5N-Fd0;9;4IJM;0148147238;4INl3L;1NV05NV055a

So far, the struggles are minimal. I have very few people I can’t down in one shot, and when I can’t I know they are bunkers and I back up before I take any serious damage. However, these hurt:

Hammer/X Warriors
Condition Mesmers
Taunt Rangers

And only if they are pro-active or have incredible reaction time ^.^
Making my s/d build soon, but I expect it to be even better =D

In WvW roaming

• GS, H Warrior: usually easy kill as dodging their important skills is easy due to animations
• Meditation Guardian: it’s hard but doable against a burst guard, gotta watch out for their gs burst though
• Thief: as I run Improvisation I can usually outstealth them and #4 on pistol to interrupt stealth is really helpful… normally a matter of who is able to get the burst of first though
• Condi Ranger: just take really long to kill while I have to watvh out to cure their condis (which is pretty easy with SE and Improvisation)
• Power Ranger: as long as I got my CDs and therefore my steal gap closer it’s a matter of evading #4 and interrupting/making them cancel #2 on LB until they’re dead
• Condition Engineers: with Lock On really really hard to beat if you can’t burst them to 20-30% health right at the beginning praying for crit on backstab
• Power Engineers: also pretty hard, especially with Lock On… SD does have tons of damage that needs to be avoided somehow (blinds dont work well due to all the different things hitting you)
• Power Mesmers: usually not a big deal unless they really know what they are doing with interrupting HS through BP and so on, as most Burst vs Burst fights it comes down to who is able to burst first…. blinds and evading GS’s #2 even out of stealth help a lot
• Condi Mesmers: pretty much the same as condi rangers but both can condi bomb you to death… also condi mesmers have more access to better stealth so a fight that I usually don’t start because I’d likely be asleep by the time one of us is dead
• Power Necro: As long as I am able to surprise them or they don’t have 100% life force they are pretty easy to beat, otherwise Death Shroud means searching for some LoS and interrupting #4 while evading the last tick of #5
• Condi Necro: A pain in the kitten , condi bomb stronk and with 100% life force I’m like nah thanks, I’m outta here
• Burst Ele: Comes down to the first one who lands his burst usually, Thief has the upper hand though due to cooldown baiting from stealth
• D/D Ele: If I catch them off guard and burst them as well as hit my steal to use Ice Shard after they left water attunement, I stand a very good chance, otherwise it’s a lot about dancing forth and back

That said:
- Struggle against Engineers with Lock On and Condi Necromancers
- Struggle against D/D Ele’s + Medi Guards in a fair fight
- Getting bored against Condi Rangers and Condi Mesmers
- Matter of first burst against Power Thieves and Power Mesmers usually

also pretty experienced btw, r80 with Champion Shadow and ~500 or 600 of my 900 WvW ranks done with Thief

Well played Celestial Engineer or Elementalist, Burst Meditation Guardian, Condition Carrion Ranger/Engineer, PU Mesmers (especially the condition ones) and CC Hammer Warriors if you don’t have enough stunbreak. All these are serious threats where if you have play with extra cautious and experience, even if you play perfectly the odds will still be easily pinned against you.