Guild Wars 2

Seeing your build, lets take the best of it.
You have an offensive weapon set (axe&torch) and a deffensive (S&D)
Your CCs are Spike Trap, Roots, Ancient seed combo, Plus wolf leap and F2.
We can take the GoEq as a deffensive skill and the serpent Trap as an offensive one.

Now, what can you do according with the tactics I proposed?

I would suggest you to use the S&D to evade initial hits, lure the thief into de Spike Trap and make him use the inmobile ignore due to Ancient seed, short after that try landing a cc with your wolf, root him then burst (switch weaps and pet, lay serpent trap, F2, etc). That might do the job, but if the thief has stun breakers, use the second cc from wolf before landing you burst. In theory if the thief can’t evade, therefore won’t be able to cleanse your condies.
I hope this helps you!

Ps: try to have your pet near you, experienced thieves usually try to make pet chase them afar, then they shadowstep back to you.

I’ve found that the main tactic to follow when dealing with thieves is to stay defensive if the thief is engaging you, try to look for a chance to counter attack using chained CC’s (except inmobilization) then go as offensive as possible.

Thieves main defensive skills rely on stealth or dodging, so it means that if you use the CC in the right moment they will be exposed to your or group hits, so it won’t take much to down them.

That being the general tactic advice, it will be different depending on the build and pets you like to get around (spike trap, taunts, fear, stuns for CC) plus the deffensive skills you rely on.

I run a WS, BM, NM power build, that provides a lot of deffensive skills and CCs, so I don’t have many difficulties when dealing with these thieves.

So, what build are you using mate?