Guild Wars 2

I have tried both Hammer/Sword builds and s/s conditioner builds yet the p/d thief still tears me apart!

So much stealth-hit-blind-hit-stealth -repeat -- dead :-(

Any tips (apart fro running away) ?

hammer/ axe shield works pretty good for a taking out thieves.

stun lock them and eviscerate.

although really killing thieves is all a matter of experience.

Hammer only works on morons and should never ever hit a thief, but the axe/shield is probably the best weapon against a p/d thief. Just learn to dodge Cloak and Dagger and dodge the stealth attack and it should run away if the thief is terrible. Good players will never lose a 1 on 1 vs a warrior so don’t bother.

Yeah, no shame in ‘strategic withdrawal’ :-)

if u use S/S LB try adding the trait to deflect missiles. reflect sneak attack whenever u can. they usually apply their venoms in stealth so that should give u a slight advantage. ask shout users if souts are helpful or not cuz im meh with those. sadly u will never keep a good p/d thief pinned down to deliver the finishing touch and will always be able to disengage. it all comes down to landing a flurry and sword 4. However, if they use p/d p/p to add confusion im afraid ur fate has already been sealed.

Axe/Shield is the best to burst them down. Axe AA is horrible though.

in anycase P/D counters warriors. expect to win against bad ones only.

Pistol/Dagger or Dagger/Pistol?

One is burst melee and one is condi mid range.

To kill decent/good thieves you must learn a skill that does not come from your class.

Predict where they are in stealth, otherwise they will always escape you when they need to. Learn to predict and you will hit them enough to finish the job even in stealth, and berserker stance is vital to this also so you will not get blinded when they do pop stealth.

70% plus crit damage, FEAR ME and Evescirate.

I use s/s/ longbow cond spec, and I typically just drop combustive shot right on top of myself to deal with thieves. I have yet to meet a thief that hasn’t popped out of stealth in downed state after I do that. If they try to run, pindown and fear me, then leap on them and flurry.

As traditional hammer/gs solo-roamer:
- d/p thief: learing by dying^^ against them it’s all about experience (and sometimes the latency)
- p/d thief: should be a draw, if you play defensiv. If you know you’ll fight one, it can help to switch merciless hammer for spiked armor.

A build thats really great against those annoying p/d cookie-cutter thiefs is the shout build for zergs. Great mobility, good condi cleanse and 10sec retal uptime. 9/10 thiefs will be annoyed as hell, on the other hands it’s not the best spec to roam with.

Condi or power p/d thief?

Bring a Ranger with you. One Sick Em and 90% of thieves are dead with timed bane on stealth. After reveal, it should be easy for you.

If it is a P/D condi thief, then a max regen warrior is the counter. You’ll have regen of 800-1000 a second and their condis won’t even hurt you.

style.6173:

If it is a P/D condi thief, then a max regen warrior is the counter. You’ll have regen of 800-1000 a second and their condis won’t even hurt you.

It’s not hard to kill a regen warrior that does 0 dmg :P 1000hp a second is a fat lie but still, i bet i could kill you with p/d. It’s so easy to dodge most of warriors attacks & the lack of gap closers with the new “meta” build on warriors is just childs play for any good p/d thief.

Old skullcrack works just fine. 2-3 stuns from MH mace usually enough to burn his stunbreak cooldowns and finish the job. Protip – berserker stance very helpful, you can just step inside smoke circle and literally kitten him.

In most cases you will not be able to beat them. The good part is that if you choose so, they won’t be able to beat you either.

After having put close to 1500 hrs on my warrior i am at a point where i will win 25%, lose 25% and ignore them 50%.

P/D is a troll build and the best way to counter is is to troll them back with S/wh + GS. Seek a window of opportunity where they have wasted most of their stealth abilities and suprise them witha bullsrush+100b. Denying them C&D is also very punishing for them.

Cripple and immobilize.

Longbow and Cleansing Ire are you counter to P/D Thieves. With sneak attack hitting so many times you’ll be farting adrenaline to spam that mother kittener away. You can tank and camp them on your fire field all day long if you have just enough sustain. They need to be on melee range to deliver any significant punishment to you.
If a Thief does not want to die, they most likely wont, but that applies to almost all thives though.

It’s well played P/P acrobatics blind spammer Thieves you should be afraid of. But those tend to be either very glassy or go with Perplexity Runes (which were reciently nerfed) and condition damage. Thieves are all about juking their dodges and timing bursts to kitten them up.

Glassy S/D thieves can be a threat too. But with the Dec10 nerf to sword, not so much anymore.