Guild Wars 2

hi !!! xD
i play engineer these days and i switch between knight build and dire build
when encounter dire thieves i have never won a fight in 1 v 1 situation
i am not a novice and i beat berserker thieves 6 out of 10 times in 1 v 1 situation
but when i encouter dire thieves 1 on 1
they just apply condition and then stealth and wait for condition to tick
apply condition and then stealth and wait for condition to tick
apply condition and then stealth and wait for condition to tick
when i bring down their health to 25%
they would stealth and run away and come back with full health
some how i dont get the out of combat effect but they get full health
they repeat this and i die running out of all my condition removals
when i try to run away i still die because they have better mobility
it makes me feels like its impossible to survive from dire thieves
if youre dire thief please tell me how i can survive from dire thieves !!!!!!!!! xD

As an engineer you have to make sure not to get hit by their steal or cloak and dagger. Since our condition removal is on the poorer end, you need to make sure he can’t confuse you or stack bleeds. But then again, that is the same advice for all classes…

Elixir gun and either grenade and bomb spam is the only thing you can do, but the fight will inevitably take a while, since dire armor is one of the tankiest armor sets (even on a the flimsy thief). It’s best to try to run away. It seems that p/d thieves have lower chase potential than other types. You can drop bombs as you run to deter chasing.

Wait for the Confusion on Steal to wear out. Use Healing Turret to heal after that, which will cleanse the Poison and Bleed stacks and will get you back at full HP.
After that, dodge/block/blind their predictable CnD. Use Shield #4 when they are stealthed to reflect the projectiles if you are low OR use it to knock them off the refuge.

And don’t be picky about using Supply Crate: there is nothing “legit” about a PD condi thief.

Hi! I play thief (p/d build for three years now) and have an engi (fully geared in rabid/dire gear) that I play occasionally for a hiatus from the single target domination that is the thief. I feel most Condi thieves nowadays are all crap, but that is most likely because I know the nuances of the class. Bombs are your best friend. You can keep away any thief by dropping that nasty little fire bomb. Be willing to switch out of bomb kit without dropping all of the bombs, something I have noticed many engineers are reluctant to do. Your pistol can stack more conditions than they can, and they have worse Condi removal. When they enter stealth using SR or blinding powder or heal, throw up some blocks. That’s how I kill me, and that’s not how my thief dies

Like this: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=63aLufLoOQY though my set up is far from optimal. Go full condi and perplex runes yourself with pistol/shield, it will make things a lot easier.

p/d is ridiculous in wvw thanks to it taking advantage of dire gear, perplexity runes, and condition duration food.

they’re still incredibly predictable though. negate their burst/rotation just like any other burst-reliant build and you’re golden.

when initiating, most p/d thieves will get in range and then precast cloak and dagger, steal to you, immediately pistol #1 from stealth, and then use shadow strike. you need to negate steal specifically, doing this either through blocks, evasion, or invulnerability; this will effectively throw off their entire rotation leaving most players scrambling.

why you need to negate steal:

• it rips two boons with priority listing, stealing the best two if you have more than two (trickery master major)
• it inflicts 12-14sec of poison (deadly arts adept minor)
• it inflicts 5.25-5.50sec of weakness (deadly arts master minor)
• it inflicts ~1k of direct damage and heals for ~2k hp (deadly arts adept major)
• it inflicts 5 stacks of confusion for 8-10sec (trickery grandmaster major; slight of hand + perplexity runes OR bewildering ambush)
• it interrupts and inflicts daze, even through aegis thanks to boon rip (trickery grandmaster major; slight of hand)
• gives the thief vigor 11.5sec of vigor (trickery master major)

when precasted with cloak and dagger it also:

• inflicts an addtional 0.7k-1.4k of direct damage
• inflicts 3 stacks of vulnerability for ~7sec
• gives thief 3-4sec of stealth

and if they have any venoms active that instant combo will also inflict:

• 2 stacks of torment and vulnerability for 7sec (skale venom; most common venom)
• 3sec of chill (ice drake venom)
• 16sec of poison (spider venom)
• 5-6sec of immobilize (devourer venom)
• 1.5sec of petrify, 3sec if they use residual venom (basilisk venom; very common elite)

that aside fighting p/d isn’t all that difficult. stay out of melee range so they can’t use cloak & dagger and shadow strike, prevent them entering stealth as much as possible, and avoid their easily avoidable stealth attack. simple strategy but it works very well: staying out of melee range and avoiding their melee attacks denies them access to stealth and heavy damage, and preventing them from entering stealth via distance and other means denies them the strong sustain that shadow arts + stealth offers as well as their only strong source of ranged damage, their stealth attack.

also, it’s a good idea to be as mobile as possible. this plays into what i previously mentioned as p/d suffers from poor mobility and a lot of players don’t bother to cover that weakness with utility teleport skills like infiltrator’s signet or shadowstep as they tend to opt for shadow refuge, blinding powder, signet of shadows, or venoms. if you can move around a lot, do so.

sinject.4607:

that aside fighting p/d isn’t all that difficult. stay out of melee range so they can’t use cloak & dagger and shadow strike, prevent them entering stealth as much as possible, and avoid their easily avoidable stealth attack. simple strategy but it works very well: staying out of melee range and avoiding their melee attacks denies them access to stealth and heavy damage, and preventing them from entering stealth via distance and other means denies them the strong sustain that shadow arts + stealth offers as well as their only strong source of ranged damage, their stealth attack.

also, it’s a good idea to be as mobile as possible. this plays into what i previously mentioned as p/d suffers from poor mobility and a lot of players don’t bother to cover that weakness with utility teleport skills like infiltrator’s signet or shadowstep as they tend to opt for shadow refuge, blinding powder, signet of shadows, or venoms. if you can move around a lot, do so.

If people try to prevent me from getting to melee for CnD, i just cast Body Shot on them (they can dodge/block what they want, its spammable) untill they get rooted.

About the mobility, im running Speed Runes (yep, not optimal for p/d but i like it) for extra HP, swiftness and the speed boost, thus swapping signet for ShadowStep (another gap closer for CnD).

P/D is OP, it is counterable but not that easy. I’d say experience helps, so that you can predict their actions in order to counter it.

Abuse your shield 4 its very good against thievs. Condition is just to overpowered in 1v1’s and small fights.

oscuro.9720:

Hi! I play thief (p/d build for three years now) and have an engi (fully geared in rabid/dire gear) that I play occasionally for a hiatus from the single target domination that is the thief. I feel most Condi thieves nowadays are all crap, but that is most likely because I know the nuances of the class. Bombs are your best friend. You can keep away any thief by dropping that nasty little fire bomb. Be willing to switch out of bomb kit without dropping all of the bombs, something I have noticed many engineers are reluctant to do. Your pistol can stack more conditions than they can, and they have worse Condi removal. When they enter stealth using SR or blinding powder or heal, throw up some blocks. That’s how I kill me, and that’s not how my thief dies

I’m not really sure how you could be anymore wrong.
-First, this game hasn’t even been out 3 years, so I’m 100% positive you haven’t played condi thief that long.
-Second, if you’re keeping a P/D condi thief at bay with bomb kit then that thief has no idea what they are doing. You seem to be forgetting that part where there’s a HUGE insta-cast steal combo that will decimate anything in the game – not to mention the fact that you are using a ranged weapon set so getting hit by bombs is impossible unless you walk into them.
-Third, thieves have the best condi removal in the game. Do you even play this game? The entire engineer repertoire of condi removal is weaker than one trait of the thief’s.

So the only semi-correct thing you offered him was to block when the thief enters stealth. Which is up every 40 (assuming you’re using shield) or 20 seconds with toolkit. That’s like 5-8 different bursts the thief can setup on the block cooldowns alone.

sinject.4607:

p/d is ridiculous in wvw thanks to it taking advantage of dire gear, perplexity runes, and condition duration food.

they’re still incredibly predictable though. negate their burst/rotation just like any other burst-reliant build and you’re golden.

when initiating, most p/d thieves will get in range and then precast cloak and dagger, steal to you, immediately pistol #1 from stealth, and then use shadow strike. you need to negate steal specifically, doing this either through blocks, evasion, or invulnerability; this will effectively throw off their entire rotation leaving most players scrambling.

why you need to negate steal:

• it rips two boons with priority listing, stealing the best two if you have more than two (trickery master major)
• it inflicts 12-14sec of poison (deadly arts adept minor)
• it inflicts 5.25-5.50sec of weakness (deadly arts master minor)
• it inflicts ~1k of direct damage and heals for ~2k hp (deadly arts adept major)
• it inflicts 5 stacks of confusion for 8-10sec (trickery grandmaster major; slight of hand + perplexity runes OR bewildering ambush)
• it interrupts and inflicts daze, even through aegis thanks to boon rip (trickery grandmaster major; slight of hand)
• gives the thief vigor 11.5sec of vigor (trickery master major)

when precasted with cloak and dagger it also:

• inflicts an addtional 0.7k-1.4k of direct damage
• inflicts 3 stacks of vulnerability for ~7sec
• gives thief 3-4sec of stealth

and if they have any venoms active that instant combo will also inflict:

• 2 stacks of torment and vulnerability for 7sec (skale venom; most common venom)
• 3sec of chill (ice drake venom)
• 16sec of poison (spider venom)
• 5-6sec of immobilize (devourer venom)
• 1.5sec of petrify, 3sec if they use residual venom (basilisk venom; very common elite)

that aside fighting p/d isn’t all that difficult. stay out of melee range so they can’t use cloak & dagger and shadow strike, prevent them entering stealth as much as possible, and avoid their easily avoidable stealth attack. simple strategy but it works very well: staying out of melee range and avoiding their melee attacks denies them access to stealth and heavy damage, and preventing them from entering stealth via distance and other means denies them the strong sustain that shadow arts + stealth offers as well as their only strong source of ranged damage, their stealth attack.

also, it’s a good idea to be as mobile as possible. this plays into what i previously mentioned as p/d suffers from poor mobility and a lot of players don’t bother to cover that weakness with utility teleport skills like infiltrator’s signet or shadowstep as they tend to opt for shadow refuge, blinding powder, signet of shadows, or venoms. if you can move around a lot, do so.

Most P/D setups use Krait runes and Bewildering ambush instead of perplex+ sleight of hand. Also, many use Ricochet instead of bountiful theft which should make 1v1s more manageable.

That being said you’re completely right in that it’s still all about negating that opening steal.

Cam Ron.4170:

Most P/D setups use Krait runes and Bewildering ambush instead of perplex+ sleight of hand. Also, many use Ricochet instead of bountiful theft which should make 1v1s more manageable.

That being said you’re completely right in that it’s still all about negating that opening steal.

in spvp i can see why a p/d thief would take that, but in wvw it makes way more sense in my mind to take perplexity and slight of hand because you get the same effect of bewildering ambush but you get an instant interrupt and your steal is on a 20% shorter cool down at the tiny expense of 55% bleed duration and a 6th effect that is harder to use and only inflicts conditions you’d already be inflicting.