Guild Wars 2

Just out of curiosity, I’ve ran into an issue. I literally CANNOT 1v1 a good thief who uses Dagger pistol because they can basically keep me near perma-blinded, specifically with things like
Steal -> Black Powder -> Warrior stolen whirl combo.
Then Black powder -> Whirl elite.

I play hambow, it just seems like everything is far too slow to shrug it off, I’m basically forced to hold it as long as I can or leave and let them have it. 8 seconds of zerker stance just doesn’t cut it usually it seems.

Tips, please?

this is easy problem, just use F1 on Longbow that will force him out from BP.
Pro tip: his elite skill has 8 sec uptime and his BP has 4 sec then real fight begin, if he still use BP, pull your LB and kill him

BP is a real small radius brah. It also costs a lot of initiative (6). Step out.

He can’t melee you if you can’t melee him, so he’ll either waste his whirls and stay in BP, or force him out where you can hurt him (the mugged one doesn’t even grant stability FYI) or just stick to your longbow to force him out – your ranged option is a helluva lot better than his.

EDIT: Just remember the elite reflects projectiles, so thats the time to lay down a combustive & arcing or jump in with your Hammer (note it also gives Stability, but you’ll likely lay the hurt down more than he).

Thief blinds were a problem. Then we went to the gym.

Flissy has sound advice, follow it. Often, stunning or immobilising the thief twice will do the trick. Sword Dagger is harder IMO.

A properly timed berserkers stance will always do the trick as well. Good luck.

hambow warriors aren’t the best build for thieves, or even for duels for that matter. Best build against thieves would be condition builds because many thieves lack condition damage and it doesn’t rely on hitting them as much. I’ve faced thieves with seemingly multiple blinds. It takes some time getting used to but I found I was able to fight these thieves with more practice, you just have to learn to step out of BP and hit them.

But much like mesmers, hammer isn’t really a good weapon of choice against good thieves. They can easily break stuns, have high incombat mobility, lots of evades, etc. Longbow is better as a condition build because of F1, Fan of Fire, Pindown, etc all do more damage.

Warrior has some of the best counters to thief, because thieves do burst damage, warriors have burst defense (Stances).
Wait for thief to BP > Zerker stance > 8-10 seconds to burst/cc thief.
The only time you should lose to a thief is when you’re on full cooldown…

Bait them to use their breakers and burn down some of their initiative then try to longbow F1 immob with 5 and the combo field the small 3. Then they take massive DMG from my 100b.

Otherwise I just ignore them.

Summarize really fast: Do not just standing in blinding powder.

style.6173:

Summarize really fast: Do not just standing in blinding powder.

I can take advice, but stop saying stupid things that make it sound easy. The powder isn’t the issue, its the whirl combo in it they can do every 21 seconds on top of the initial blind.

I would say fighting against thieves, the counters vary depending on the weapons they using. Off-hand pistol and the black-powder can be problematic. While true you CAN move outside of the black-powder field, that’s not always an easy option depending on the surrounding terrain. Due to hammer auto attack being slow, it will by its nature be not very good against blinds.
Since you say you using a longbow, keep in mind that the thief can not reflect your #3 and f1 aoe attacks (unless they directly hit the thief) with his reflecting whirls. If you are far enough away from him that his whirl finisher blinds aren’t hitting you, then that also means he’s not hitting you at all.
Thieves I have always hated fighting against because of their spamming stealth/evades/blinds, second to Mesmers and their spamming of unlimited clones. :/

ronpierce.2760:

Just out of curiosity, I’ve ran into an issue. I literally CANNOT 1v1 a good thief who uses Dagger pistol because they can basically keep me near perma-blinded, specifically with things like
Steal -> Black Powder -> Warrior stolen whirl combo.
Then Black powder -> Whirl elite.

I play hambow, it just seems like everything is far too slow to shrug it off, I’m basically forced to hold it as long as I can or leave and let them have it. 8 seconds of zerker stance just doesn’t cut it usually it seems.

Tips, please?

Minus condi food, warhorn with quick breathing trait, berserker stance, cleansing ire trait.

As a d/d thief I have to say the only problems i have with warriors since the patch are the mobile ones, and that’s because they’re too mobile to catch up when they see they’re losing the fight.

Some classes just can’t beat other classes set ups. I can rarely beat decent PU mesmers, the majority I end up retreating as I can just never get that edge, a good(if you call perplexity spamming good), engineer is a bit of a nightmare fight and I can’t afford to make a single mistake.

Warriors are just very straightforward to handle, keep blind up and don’t get hit, if they switch to bow use whirling axe.

So my advice is after a few hits you can determine if the thief is a decent player or is just zerg fodder. If he’s decent just keep on moving, he can’t catch up to you. Sorry.

Furiousbeard.7602:

ronpierce.2760:

Just out of curiosity, I’ve ran into an issue. I literally CANNOT 1v1 a good thief who uses Dagger pistol because they can basically keep me near perma-blinded, specifically with things like
Steal -> Black Powder -> Warrior stolen whirl combo.
Then Black powder -> Whirl elite.

I play hambow, it just seems like everything is far too slow to shrug it off, I’m basically forced to hold it as long as I can or leave and let them have it. 8 seconds of zerker stance just doesn’t cut it usually it seems.

Tips, please?

Minus condi food, warhorn with quick breathing trait, berserker stance, cleansing ire trait.

I’m talking about Spvp. No condi food, warhorn isn’t the best option in tpvp unless you’re bunkering, Zerker stance is 60 second cooldown, any thief with a brain can wait to use their combo until its gone and just run for 8 seconds or teleport away. Cleansing ire, cool I can remove 1 of the blinds with Longbow.

These thieves I’ve fought in tPvP in the top 100 tier in tpvp were not “cowering” at my kitten F1 longbow burst so, either you guys are fighting terrible thieves, lying or just aren’t in the higher tiers because some of the thieves I’ve fought rank 50+ had no issues dealing with Zerker stance.

Mind you I’m also trying to not lose cap points in these scenarios.

Furiousbeard.7602:

ronpierce.2760:

Just out of curiosity, I’ve ran into an issue. I literally CANNOT 1v1 a good thief who uses Dagger pistol because they can basically keep me near perma-blinded, specifically with things like
Steal -> Black Powder -> Warrior stolen whirl combo.
Then Black powder -> Whirl elite.

I play hambow, it just seems like everything is far too slow to shrug it off, I’m basically forced to hold it as long as I can or leave and let them have it. 8 seconds of zerker stance just doesn’t cut it usually it seems.

Tips, please?

Minus condi food, warhorn with quick breathing trait, berserker stance, cleansing ire trait.

Please, I hope nobody listens to this advice. Unless you are fighting a condition-based thief, Warhorn is a terrible weapon against a thief, not counting the fact you need to invest 20 points into tactics to get quick breathing. By the time you use quick breathing, a thief will already be in stealth or hitting you, or you probably already cleansed the blind using an attack.

Zerker stance also isn’t very helpful because for 8 seconds a thief can just kite and avoid you the whole time until the stance is over, unless you pop it at an opportune moment when you have caught the thief in CC which can still backfire if he shadowsteps.

Cleansing Ire relies on your burst actually hitting the person if you are using hammer. Longbow can be an effective cleanse, but it is an awkward weapon to use against a thief sometimes.

What I am trying to say is basically just keep practicing against these thieves and come up with builds through trial and error that can help illeviate some of the trouble you are having. The best counter is your skill, experience and play. Me personally, I try to avoid the black powder as much as possible. Try fighting this type of thief in a 1v1 on a duel server.