Guild Wars 2

I have been playing thief on and off since beta but still have not seemed to get the hang of it. I need help with what to do when you are fighting, when do you stealth and pretty much everything. I play a little bit of everything but I always use d/d or s/d. Any help is appreciated.

The best thing you can do is duel your friends and look on the thief forums for builds to test out and tweak.

Thats what I do.

Watch youtube videos on how to play bro, thats probably your best bet.

Press your buttons 1 at a time; other MMOs & even professions are not penalized for spamming their keys — Thieves are. Break this habit for ensured results

Slow down. Since you are managing a finite resource with ultimately infinite utility, managing that resource is the truest mastery of the profession. Knowing when to use your abilities will mostly be accrued through trial and error, though watching videos should give you hints & guidelines.

Play all the professions. I know it sounds like pure cheese. It kind of is, really. But its the only way you’ll truly know what effect your abilities will have on an enemy at any given time — even then, its just a prediction, with our relatively user-limited UI.

Keep your eyes open. Tunnelling mad heartseekers into a bunker at 40% standing in a regen field is less valuable than keeping blinds / cripples up on the oppositions GCs, especially if you’re outnumbered.

Learn all there is to know about combos.

I can only suggest practice. Find out what works and what doesn’t for you. It took me at least 2 months to finally stop playing P/D at range. When I finally got to where I was comfy dancing in and out, and staying in close when appropriate, it really started to shine for me.

Learn your skills and use them to their fullest. Also, I got better at thief as I started alts of other classes. It helps to know their stuff too so you know what to look out for and when.

Thanks for the help.

I am going to assume WvW here. Duels… see if your server has a GvG or dueling night and go. Contrary to popular forum belief the thief class is actually pretty hard to play against a somewhat skilled opponent on even footing. Cries about thief OP generally come from poor solo builds, lessor skilled players or players who have become frustrated with perma-stealth.

Sure there are vulture players who swoop in to finish off an already half dead walking carcass but in an open fight these players often fold quick.

Relax, breath slowly, be aware of your environment. When fighting for example a 1v1 in open area, even when panicking you have to relax. Start spamming your skills cause you’re panicking will cause you to lose. Always watch for key skills (healing, knockdowns, stuns).

A step further is to also keep watching the environment. See him getting an attack skill up but you’re dodge is on cd? Shadowstep away (or even use infiltator’s strike on a npc). Or more importantly, see a second enemy approaching? Make a decision, kill your target or run away.