Guild Wars 2

from a WvW perspective:
i mained warrior from launch of the game till june 2013 and in my first period of wvw i didnt like fighting thieves until i made one myself and played it for a long time. i learned how the class works etc etc and i srsly love dueling thieves more than anything. thieves can sometimes be unpredictable while noobs are very predictable while on the other hand you have necros whith skills with barely an amination that put all condis on you except confusion. warriors that can face roll everything without having to think about anything exept using their burst skills frequently, condis overall and stupid tanks. i play shatter mesmer, d/d ele and thief on s/d and d/d.

now what i seriously dont understand is why litteraly all people i see posting on forums say that they hate to duel thieves the most. like the post in the thief forums saying “dont you just hate thieves?”. what do you not hate? unreadeable skills? you can at least predict a thief’s next movement and if not that u can punish him when he comes out of stealth with fast reactions.

please explain…

I agree,

I too love dueling Thieves on when on my Thief and like fighting them on my Warrior too, unless they are P/D.

It’s because once you know and understand the Thief mechanics, you can actually counter them. Denying Cloak and Dagger is the key to beating many Thief builds and it can make a fight quite thrilling.

Against many classes it’s obvious who will win within the first 10 seconds. But against Thieves it’s always exciting since many of them like running glass-cannon, and thus can die at a moment’s notice.

I can see though why other classes might dislike Thieves, especially if they don’t fully understand the Thief’s mechanics. Thief’s put a lot of pressure on an enemy, often unannounced, forcing them to react quickly. Many players can’t handle that sort of pressure and thus cave in quickly.

I did the same thing, I got my thief to 80, got him geared and run S/D and Shortbow Power builds. Even when understanding thief mechanics, D/P is just plain broken, it’s one of the hardest specs to counter in game.

Players get easily frustrated and that frustration comes out in the forums.

d/p is not that hard to counter
it is all about pulls pushes stuns cc.
to interrupt them before they finish there black powder / heart seeker combo.
and your timing weather or not they have shadow refuge on cool down . and how much initiative they have left over when u break there combo

break the combo and the thief can break to

Loco.4561:

I did the same thing, I got my thief to 80, got him geared and run S/D and Shortbow Power builds. Even when understanding thief mechanics, D/P is just plain broken, it’s one of the hardest specs to counter in game.

Players get easily frustrated and that frustration comes out in the forums.

I have to disagree that is “one oft he hardest specs to counter”. I agree it is difficult, but even good d/p thieves can be killed if the spec is understood. Using any sort of immobilize or heavy burst will devastate them. They may be able to heal but if you can pump out enough damage, they can’t out heal it. I kill almost every d/p thief I run into because they are fundamentally flawed in the sense that every single move the make can be anticipated and countered before it even happens. Just takes a knowledge of the class.

D/P is not easy to Counter with S/D that is. I’d perhaps use up a Slot for Devourer Venom along with Basilisk as a counter, while making sure they can’t land a backstab if they enter Stealth.

I pretty much feel safe with S/P along with Sleight of hand which messes up their combinations and uses up their Init, that’s the key to beating many Thieves who aren’t all that as they think they are with Stealth.

<3 for learning thief first instead of qqing on forums like most other people do.

CrimsonNeonite.1048:

D/P is not easy to Counter with S/D that is. I’d perhaps use up a Slot for Devourer Venom along with Basilisk as a counter, while making sure they can’t land a backstab if they enter Stealth.

I pretty much feel safe with S/P along with Sleight of hand which messes up their combinations and uses up their Init, that’s the key to beating many Thieves who aren’t all that as they think they are with Stealth.

I won a 2v1 with SD vs DP thiefs. They liked to backstab at the same time so I got twice as much out of my evades. I guess I won because they were stupid though, but DP is extremely predictable and the movement SD gives you will let you completely destroy them.

Thieves are my favourite targets in WvW while on my Engi. I have never lost to one. They melt under my condi pressure almost instantly and Backstabs can barely make a dent in me. Easiest class to slaughter except for Ranger.

Corpse Flakes.5369:

CrimsonNeonite.1048:

D/P is not easy to Counter with S/D that is. I’d perhaps use up a Slot for Devourer Venom along with Basilisk as a counter, while making sure they can’t land a backstab if they enter Stealth.

I pretty much feel safe with S/P along with Sleight of hand which messes up their combinations and uses up their Init, that’s the key to beating many Thieves who aren’t all that as they think they are with Stealth.

I won a 2v1 with SD vs DP thiefs. They liked to backstab at the same time so I got twice as much out of my evades. I guess I won because they were stupid though, but DP is extremely predictable and the movement SD gives you will let you completely destroy them.

Yea admittedly the Skill Level of the average player in WvWer is not great, but GG on that. I’d like to give it a go even though it sounds tough, they are extremely predictable – P/D Thieves however are pretty annoying Built right.

Thieves are interesting to fight but it really depends on the player I duel on a Deathshroud Power Necro so I can beat an inexperienced thief very quickly which can be a bit dueling but if you find an Experienced thief duelist they can really be a challenge and a hard fought duel.

I would say Thieves are probably the second class I prefer to duel. (Though more than anything that is because everyone is running that Trickery 30 stun trait and I have no Stability otherwise fun!)

ChapDev.7650:

Thieves are interesting to fight but it really depends on the player I duel on a Deathshroud Power Necro so I can beat an inexperienced thief very quickly which can be a bit dueling but if you find an Experienced thief duelist they can really be a challenge and a hard fought duel.

I would say Thieves are probably the second class I prefer to duel. (Though more than anything that is because everyone is running that Trickery 30 stun trait and I have no Stability otherwise fun!)

Actually it’s daze, not stun, it interrupts and you can’t use skills for its duration. You can still walk.

Dee Jay.2460:

Thief’s put a lot of pressure on an enemy, often unannounced, forcing them to react quickly. Many classes are unable handle that sort of pressure and thus cave in quickly.

fify

dueling a non 30 SA shadow rejuvenation thief is always fun!