Guild Wars 2

predicting where a thief will go in stealth is usually not difficult. if they had >50% health, look behind you, if they had <50% health, throw down some offensive aoes on the exit. This is not guaranteed to hit them every time, but is just a guideline to increasing your chances.

how about giving it a stun breaker? Don’t change anything about it’s damage, range, init cost. But give it an additional utility?

Just a thought.

Sevans.4619:

That said, I love the idea of putting a short stealth on Signet of the Hunt. I would also appreciate a smoke field either via traps or pets so we can leap through for stealth.

I think a smoke field is genius

Obsidian Sanctum is a great place to take some shots.

1. Good old HS action shot
2. Tried to get armor + weapons in same shot, while still maintaining the assassin theme.

Hope you guys like

It does not crit.

1) D/D & D/P or* (SB) [more commonly d/p]
2) 0/30/30/10/0
3) WvW & PvE [more commonly WvW]

1) P/P & D/P
2) 10/30/0/0/30
3) sPvP

Using some kind of “shadow step to your target” skill usually works when combined with cnd. Personally i use infiltrators sig. although a well placed shadowstep can work as well. and as always the thief staple steal will usually work.

1. cast cnd
2. immediately cast the shadowstep skill
3. ????
4. ownage.

I find when using p/p that pistol #5 has been difficult to use at best. It has a very high init cost and is a small, short lived, stationary field. For pvp situations and WvW its almost impossible to use properly, as the fight is constantly moving. Simply standing in it is not viable either as most enemies will just move on to another target or try to get out of range, which is not difficult because the pistol’s range is only 900.

That being said bp is a very useful skill in multiple other builds and it doesn’t need modification. I think the p/p build can be completely viable with the other 4 skills and #5 just left out of most rotations. I like the idea of adding burning or weakness to #2 and upping the cripple time on ankle shots.

I’m loving the rifle idea! having a sniper sounds amazing. I can see tons of things going wrong with that though. For example, changing weapon swap would give us damage from 1200 and melee, as well as the best mobility in the game. Thieves would be able to kill anybody from anywhere, dodge, shadowstep, and stealth. there are enough complaints about other classes not being able to handle ordinary thieves, let alone good ones. In order to get another weapon I see us getting a serious nerf because of the added utility that It could provide. The same goes for the staff.

Anyways, I still love the idea of having snipers in the game. heres what I would put into a rifle skill bar for a thief.
1. auto-attack – unchained, plain, boring, and a little lack luster.
1Stealth – camouflaged shot – extra damage on single shot. breaks stealth.
2. aimed shot (3 init) (1 sec charge) – kneeling, charged shot that deals serious damage. scales well with crits. (was also thinking of a heartseeker shot?)
3. cripple (3 init) (instant) – simple 5s cripple. there could be an added effect, like an interrupt, or extra condition, or even a small amount of damage.
4. block/stealth (4 init) – I figure since the warrior already has a “butt-end knock back” how about a stealth block, one that puts you in stealth if successful, or refunds init if it fails.
5. Lock ’n Load (5 init) (channeled) – picks 3 targets in front of the thief and fires individual shots at each. works a little like dancing dagger, if there are only 2 targets it will hit target 1 twice. or if there is only one, It will hit that target 3 times.

I know its never going to happen, but one can dream right?

Cycloney.2640:

Imo, most people continue fighting. I normally run away with GS abilities, once i see the class wasting his dodge or some other abilities to reach me, i bull rush + frenzy + hundred blade them off.

Surprise them.

Agreed. Patience is a virtue. and this is the only real way to do it.

knockdowns, stuns, what ever CC you can use will prevent them from doing anything. P/D, D/P is a tough combo to beat because it has a lot of mobility, they basically shadowstep in and out, then heartseeker you to death.

Its all about keeping up to the thief with mobility, I know it sounds ridiculous a warrior keeping up to a thief in mobility, but it is totally feasible… for a short burst. so don’t try it until after they have popped their stealth.

oh, and don’t hundred blade in the black powder. I’ve gotten too many of you guys like that.

Alice.8694:

My recent and likely final armor change for a while, a composite of 5 different sets.

mind sharing your boots gloves and shoulders, your set is my absolute favorite i’ve seen on this thread.

<em>1) Does this sound like a good approach?</em>

dapheonix’s guide is pretty much the gold standard right now as far as im concerned. so if you are using it as a template its a good idea. The only thing I could tell you about your rotation is that you should look into using your water skills a bit more. take advantage of the AoE heal, chill, and the aura there. not to mention water 2 is pretty awesome.

<em>2) I still find myself walking a razor’s edge. When this works, it is beautiful. I mean, a hell of a lot of fun. When it doesn’t work (very well), I find myself downed or nearly downed from just a few hits. Thoughts on how I could improve?</em>

keep in mind we are a low armor, low defense class. Its really only expected that this will happen at the early levels, once you get better gear and some more vitality and toughness, you will find that there are fewer mobs who will be able to handle you. Since your wife prefers a staff you guys already have an advantage in terms of utility. just get her to AoE and CC as much as possible and you kite and DPS thats just the basics, once you get low on health dump all of your healing skills on yourself and keep kiting then go back to it. if you get into a serious pickle you might want to actually switch between ranged DPS and up close DPS just to get those mobs down fast.

how that helps! and good luck!

personally i use staff and usually carry dagger/dagger I find it to be effective for most pve situations. I started off with putting my traits into water and will do earth as my second. also I try to take choose the optional traits that give me extra damage, so i don’t have to rely so much on my defense. other than that I stack toughness and vitality, and i try to pick up +power stats wherever i can. precision, condition, healing, and whatever else are pretty much non existent. Since thief is my main, i’m quite used to doing the whole “dodge and dump” play style so I find daggers a very comfortable fit with tons of utility.

My typical play style is reactive and I will change between earth/fire/air for primary damage, and water once I get low health. I will dump all of my skills regardless of the level of enemy or difficulty and then switch to a different attunement, dump and continue switching, which one I switch to next really depends on the situation,

However, I have been meaning to try out a build which focuses on a dagger/focus set up and stacks toughness and power. or vitality and power.

The best part of GW is never feeling stuck in a set up. the best advice i can give is to just experiment and don’t be afraid to die haha.