Guild Wars 2

Hey All!
Did a similar thread in the ele, necro, and mesmer forums and I’m just wondering what it’s like for you to play the game for so long knowing that your main character is the Thief class — what your perspective / outlook is on situations, for example what you feel like when you go solo PvEing, solo roaming — or do you depend more on others.
How do you feel maining Thief in comparison to other class mains -
IS it fun? Do you feel useful everywhere? Do you feel outclassed or unsurvivable? Do you feel all-powerful or niche? Does anything seem possible or do you feel like you might need to barely squeeze into something with a lot of effort?
This is kind of a broad open-ended question but I’m just wondering what everyone’s experience is!
Thanks!

I love being a thief main. Makes everything in the game feel easy when you’re on other classes. As a thief, (from my experience) you tend to look at situations a little more tactically (if that’s a word) You learn very quick how to identify other peoples builds and react to/counter them. Despite the fact that people think we always run away, if you teach yourself early on to commit to a target you will yield impressive results.

After a long time of playing against almost every build in the game, I don’t really ever feel outclassed (except by engis but that’s cause I don’t seem to get fights with them very often) and when you start getting really comfortable with your build you won’t really ever feel unsurvivable because you learn all the little tricks to make you tankier/more survivable.

I personally feel useful everywhere as I seem to be able to find a role to fill anywhere I go whether it be zerging or infiltrating I can fill a spot and contribute positively.

When you reach a high skill level with your thief, yes you will feel all powerful because you’ll realize you are winning outnumbered fights all the time but you will die quite a bit in your life, that can’t discourage you from playing the class (neither can the community hate).

I personally feel you can do anything, it just may require a different approach that you may need to learn the hard way a few times but it is 100% possible to do whatever you want on a thief.

And finally, thief main is so much fun! You can go havoc or small man group with friends, do stealth missions into enemy towers and hit the back of zergs all while feeling you are actually getting better at the game instead of just spamming nonsense *cough*CONDI BUNKERS*cough*

Ario.8964:

I love being a thief main. Makes everything in the game feel easy when you’re on other classes. As a thief, (from my experience) you tend to look at situations a little more tactically (if that’s a word) You learn very quick how to identify other peoples builds and react to/counter them. Despite the fact that people think we always run away, if you teach yourself early on to commit to a target you will yield impressive results.

After a long time of playing against almost every build in the game, I don’t really ever feel outclassed (except by engis but that’s cause I don’t seem to get fights with them very often) and when you start getting really comfortable with your build you won’t really ever feel unsurvivable because you learn all the little tricks to make you tankier/more survivable.

I personally feel useful everywhere as I seem to be able to find a role to fill anywhere I go whether it be zerging or infiltrating I can fill a spot and contribute positively.

When you reach a high skill level with your thief, yes you will feel all powerful because you’ll realize you are winning outnumbered fights all the time but you will die quite a bit in your life, that can’t discourage you from playing the class (neither can the community hate).

I personally feel you can do anything, it just may require a different approach that you may need to learn the hard way a few times but it is 100% possible to do whatever you want on a thief.

And finally, thief main is so much fun! You can go havoc or small man group with friends, do stealth missions into enemy towers and hit the back of zergs all while feeling you are actually getting better at the game instead of just spamming nonsense *cough*CONDI BUNKERS*cough*

Very down to Earth, humble, real reply
Thanks man!

I too love being a thief main. I’ve been a thief since beta, and will always be.

I don’t feel all powerful, but once you get to know your build and options for more damage, survivability etc you start to realize you can stay alive forever – until you make one mistake.

PvE: thief is very strong (godlike against everything but dredge) and if played right; can be a very good addition to any group. Exploring, dungeons and open world events is a walk in the park once you learn what to dodge.

WvW: Solo roaming is fun, duo thief team (or more) is even more fun! I agree completely with what Ario said, so I won’t need to say anything more on the subject.

PvP: Thief has gotten a bad reputation, but good thieves really stand out! A thief that know his rotations, have good situational awareness and can read the mini map is a game changer in most comps. I really feel like thief is in a good spot in sPvP. We can hit hard, but we die within seconds in a team fight. Any focus on a thief in PvP(except S/D evade) is going to kill it. Therefore we are probably the best roaming profession for sPvP.

I generally feel like thief is in a good spot in the game. Any good thieves will stand out, but it requires that thief to have very good knowledge of builds, professions, bosses, tactics and so on. We always need to be on top of our game, and that is what makes it very exciting for me!

Mained thief since beta, and it’s the class I can’t live without. The fact that you can be so smart and so creative with thief…There’s just limitless possibilities with what you are able to do and contribute to your teammates.

A master thief is able to 1v5 and walk away like it was nothing. Two good thieves together and cooperating is unstoppable.

Good thieves stand out very well. If you’re a good thief solo roaming will be very fun for you. Thief has a high skill cap and I feel like a lot of great players are thieves. Imo it attracts smart and tactical players because that’s exactly what thief is: Smart, calculating, and tactical. And the class definitely rewards those attributes.

Life as a thief main is great. Don’t listen to the thief haters.

Overall thieves are doing good.

In pve, we are good too but the class requires more active gameplay and thus is not so friendly for new players who die a lot. We also don’t bring “traditional” support to the group and people like swimming in boons. For these reasons, thieves are sometimes not welcome in dungeons, I got booted on log in a few times.

WvW

We have the best disengage ability due to stealth and teleports. Great for roaming.

Sure we can 1 vs X due to stealth, but that’s only when there is a disparity between thief and enemy skills and/or when the thief runs 6pts in SA.

The thing I most don’t like about our class is the attitude I get from players of other classes. So many people think we are broken, faceroll class, this is so engraved in them that they don’t see anything else about thieves.

We can have really high dps if built for it, in exchange all the survivability is active and often 1 mistake equals to death and this is something other players ignore. There are builds for other classes that can hit me for 75-90% of my backstab while they are tanky.

A bit higher dmg on some skills with zero passive defences is the price we pay for stealth, which I use more and more often these days since stealth and run is all I can do against some builds.

I can only speak for the PvE side of things since that’s all I do:

Thief is a lot of fun! They take on more of the traditional damage dealer in a group/dungeon environment. Not many things can out DPS a thief. We are somewhat “squishy” but that makes up for it with our evades and dodges. When I play my thief I make sure that I know what is around me. Thieves can solo almost as much content as a warrior in my opinion, what stops us is our low Health pool. Combat on thief is very activate and you’re not always just standing there auto attacking unlike others like to stereotype about. It’s about positioning and rotation and making sure the timing is there.

Overall, life’s good as a thief main. However, I end up on my Guardian a lot simply because life is better as a guardian in so many circumstances.

Dungeons – Thieves do well overall because of the high DPS, spammable blind fields on trash, and on dungeons like CM, the ability to stealth a group makes a big difference.

However, eles are still the kings of dungeons with their conjured weapons, projectile destruction, might stacking, and top DPS. Guardians are also a solid option, especially for Fractals due to all their utility that can be brought with a DPS build.

WvW – I don’t WvW much, but when I do, it’s usually as a roamer, which is something thieves do well. The short bow also performs well enough to get by in zergs when needed.

sPvP – Thieves still are a solid choice for sPvP, but I find that if you’re doing something like solo queue, then running something like a Guard bunker or Engi decap build makes it easier to get a high win %.

Thief is a joy ride until you realize the effort needed to keep up. Like all classes, there are those few builds that are “cheese” but all in all mistakes are not forgiven on a thief. The high risk high reward results in numerous nerfs, some justified many questionable.

I enjoy thief, but I’ve already moved onto other classes for the most part and only keep the thief if I need to get around (100% map completion and high mobility) with the occasional pvp match trying new builds because I’m bored to hell with most of them. He’s my favorite, but as of lately probably my least played.

I don’t really buy this notion that thieves can’t make mistakes

We have a stun breaker or two, a few teleports and stealth. It’s the thieves that make a mistake, don’t realise it was a mistake, who stay in the fight, who make another mistake straight after their first….. these are the ones that die. You get stunned? Break, withdraw, teleport, reset. You get Condi blasted? Port away, clear asap.
Don’t sit around to see if you can eat the zerker warriors combo and come back from the fight. It’s stupid.

Guardians and thieves are polarised in this aspect. The Thief has extremely low durability but very high surviability due to the mobility and withdraws and shadowsteps and stealthing. The Guardian has extremely high durability with the blocks, armour, boons, blinds etc but extremely LOW survivability when focused by more than just a couple newbs. This is mostly due to their low mobility. So in effect, if a guardian is roaming about and fails to execute some combos correctly you can bet your kitten he is going to suffer some serious incoming damage and better do all he can to run back to a tower or some friendlies cos he’s not outrunning his enemy thats for sure.

When I began back in beta, I had every intention of maining Ele. My Thief was an afterthought to fill the human slot (literally, I had everyone figured down to story and name, my thief was the only one I named without prior planning and research [names are serious business]).

He was the first character I took to 80. Only one I’ve completed personal story on. Only one to see all of the world. Best gear, refined look, and the Legendary I’m slowly working toward is for him.

Basically I wasn’t expecting Thief to be my main at all, but the gameplay just swept me up and kept me running. Thieves are high-risk, high-reward; you are a monster until you make a mistake, and then you’re spiked down if you don’t back up hard. It’s thrilling and fun, and the sense of accomplishment when mobility and positioning let me take down a necro through all three health bars, or a Guardian running on full defense, is like nothing else.

I don’t play a lot of PvP, but in giant battles like happen in EotM, there’s a huge rush to sailing and knifing through a mass of enemies, tagging them all, and dodging out unscathed.

Easily my most-played, and though I love other classes I always come back to my Thief main.

In WvW I’m on top of the world. Fearless. Untouchable.

I am like a king sitting on his throne. Knowing at any time I can pass a death sentence on someone.

Or Zeus overseeing the mortals from Mt. Olympus. Knowing at any time I can send a lightning bolt from on high and smite their pitiful mortal selves.

Or Thor riding his chariot. Knowing at any time I can bring the hammer down on some poor souls head.

I am as the almighty. Knowing at any time I can strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger.

I am Thief.

Johje Holan.4607:

In WvW I’m on top of the world. Fearless. Untouchable.

I am like a king sitting on his throne. Knowing at any time I can pass a death sentence on someone.

Or Zeus overseeing the mortals from Mt. Olympus. Knowing at any time I can send a lightning bold from on high and smite their pitiful mortal selves.

Or Thor riding his chariot. Knowing at any time I can bring the hammer down on some poor souls ranger’s head.

I am as the almighty. Knowing at any time I can strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger.

I am Thief.

Couldn’t help it, had to fix that typo. Otherwise I like your post, very original.

WvW- I can’t see myself playing anything else while solo-roaming, which is what I like doing most of the time. I love the steal ability, I love how you can trait it. It’s the best class-skill trait line by far IMO. Thieves seem a lot more versatile with no cool-downs, where other classes have common,predictable rotations due to not having the flexibility to do the same skill twice. One of my best moments was when I dazed 3 different guys trying to stomp a guy on my server. You would never normally need to spam 4 3 times straight, it would be wasted initiative, but in this situation it was satisfying that I had the presence of mind to do that and then execute. This is one of the main reason thief is so rewarding.

I also enjoy being an annoying pest. I’m not one of those pros that can 1v4 and collect 4 bags, but I can play chicken pretty well and thinks its quite fun distracting small groups away from whatever mission they were on

sPvP- Has to be played differently than any other class in PvP. You should always be spamming your sb 5 (or dagger 2 i guess) to zip around the map, back-dooring uncontested points and turning 1v1’s into 2v1’s, chunking half the guys health, then trusting your teammate to down him while you get other kitten done. If you aren’t using your mobility in Spvp play a different class, you can’t bunker or focus on one points like other classes due to sustain being built into stealth (or s/d acro) which doesnt work as well in pvp. Its a lot of fun

PvE- I’m so busy with WvW and PvP I never really play PvE. Maybe I should

Cam Ron.4170:

PvE- I’m so busy with WvW and PvP I never really play PvE. Maybe I should

Aside from Sword/pistol with SR for rallying its not all that fun.

I find PvE to be far more fun than PvP, so it’s all to taste.

Thief has a lot of misconceptions, but it’s actually a really well-rounded class. People always think it only has single target DPS, is unable to tank and is has no support but that’s not even remotely true. To sum it up, thief feels very powerful and well-rounded in PvE and can do a little of everything but feels completely useless if you are new to it due to it’s high difficulty. One of the things that makes it stand out is that a good thief always reaches it’s maximum potential while other classes have to rely on others to control the situation so they can do their stuff. Feels very limited in PvP and has to stay in it’s little niche, but what it does have is very powerful in the right hands. Overall, thief is very capable but if you play one don’t expect to be appreciated because nobody will notice or care. I re-rolled as an engi and I’m starting to regret it. I can’t handle another CoF P2 without my thief, I need that damage and those teleports! safasdgscadv pulls hair out and runs away screaming

If you want details to compare to other classes:

PvE
Thieves have extremely high multi target DPS (S/P) and it’s even higher since they can teleport to their enemies. They also have extremely high ranged DPS (P/P #3 spam). They can tank too. With short bow you don’t even have to get hit, and with S/P you can heal yourself, evade and blind everything close to you. There are many options for party support, too. You can spam blind indefinitely, and if all your allies stack on you hardly anyone will get a scratch. You can also stack might through venoms and with strength rune you can maintain 11 stacks of might for 30 seconds every 36 seconds with hardly any load time and you are able to use it while running, makes it a little better than ele might stacking since you have time to stack before the fight starts and you even get a little fury. Also comes with a an ally heal if you choose not use it for might. Thieves also have spam able blast finishers (great when a ranger is in the party) and have a decent projectile block. One of thieves most lacking abilities is stealth, which has little use when your party members attack an enemy or run out of your Shadow Refuge.

PvP/WvW
Even though I played thief for over a year I didn’t touch PvP or WvW much so I’m not too educated here. They are good if you don’t want to worry about dying. Some builds are unkillable in the right hands and extremely good for solo roaming, they can also fight outnumbered really well (D/D or D/P with stealth), but I’m not sure they can do much else. Without stealth you can’t survive very long against players, it’s kind of disappointing.