Guild Wars 2

First a little background:

I played WoW from vanilla, Rift, Aion, all of them. I’ve never been a great PvP player but I was pretty good with my rogue in WoW. I try every class in every game but I always come back to the same two styles: Stealth melee and Ranged. Thief and Ranger. Every time

So, I played GW2 from launch, quit, now I’m back. Got my Ranger to 80 and now am leveling my thief. I always come back to the thief in every game.

My problem is this; I’m not 19 years old with the twitch ability to manage 20 buttons at once anymore. As the games strive to be more challenging, I find myself discouraged by the sheer number of things you have to manage. Hell, SWTOR had 20 key maps at level 20. Yet, despite my desire to play a class that is easier, I can’t bring myself to play a big armored tank.

My question for the community is this: Is there a thief build that can be played effectivly in WvW that doesn’t include 4 different stealth buttons? Can a thief be played without being lightning fast with your fingers? Doesn’t have to be the best build, just capable of not being an embarassment.

So far, I like two weapons sets the best. D/D condition is fun but I see that no one uses DB anymore because BS is just better. I love D/P in PvE but I run with a glass cannon precision/power build. Signets that I never pop. I ShadowShot all over the place and melt mobs down but from what I’ve seen online this won’t work in PvP because we are dead without stealth. S/P is cool for the aoe slashing but I don’t like IS because you only use it once, then you have to wait on the cooldown before you can jump on a new target. It’s like molasses compared to D/P. Tried P/D a few times but can’t quite get the feel of it, again I suspect because you have to have 4 different stealth buttons.

I’m beginning to feel that, as much as I love the class, I’m gonna have to go back to my Ranger, which I hate because I hate weapon swap. I love thief because you don’t have to weapon swap. If I could play my Ranger with Longbow always “on” I’d probably be happy. I know that most players love the dual-weaponset thing but for me it’s just hard. Especially when a-net, in their infinite wisdom, decided to not match attack styles to the same button. Seriously, would it have killed them to put the “interrupt” skill on the same button, regardless of weapon (same for the “cripple” skill).

I suspect that my replies will all say, “Thief is a hard class and not for you” but I thought I would toss it out there first to see if anyone else feels the same.

Thanks!

My problem with P/D is that in order to get the stealth shot damage you have to let the mob close so you can hit #5 and gain stealth. You are shooting and crippling and then you want the thing to catch you so you can do your big damage. It’s counter-intuitive,

I’m the kind of player who just can’t help but tinker. I love to change builds, weapons, etc. I recently started leveling a thief (40’s now) and after spending time reading and trying all the different weapon combinations, I can’t come up with anything that holds a candle to S/P.

The other builds are fun but nothing kills like S/P. It’s depressing when there are so many possible combinations that are fun to play:

I love D/D and don’t mind dodging while the dots tick if only it killed as fast as S/P and gave health from SofM…

D/P is fun because of the port to your target but against multiple mobs it can’t hold up against S/P. It doesn’t even kill solo mobs faster!

P/D is kinds cool but… well, you get the idea….

Feel free to jump in here and tell me that I am missing something because I can’t see any reason to use any build for world PVE leveling other than S/P. It does more damage to a solo mob than any other build, does more against groups and has arguably the best escape ability while also having the best healing with SofM.

What am I missing?

I love the torch offhand even though I rarely see anyone mention it on the forums. I can pull 4-5 mobs with my bow, then switch to axe/torch., drop healing spring, bonfire, throw the torch, throw the axe, drop the tangle vines and jump clear. Dance while everyone gets choked/burned to death.

I often wonder if I am missing something because no one ever seems to mention the huge aoe damage we can do with entangling vines/bonfire…