Guild Wars 2

@Badwrong – So you’ll be happy when all thieves are a joke for your warrior…AND they can’t get away at all?

You’re so fail and your logic is so bad, your head MUST hurt.

I find it better than other races. A person standing there, static, looking directly forward is quite a bore. I prefer a little asymmetry when it comes to this sort of thing. I know I’m hardly the only person who would be more annoyed that my other characters stand there like a zombie shrug

Here’s my Sylvari thief, Far Thicket.

I’m really liking a few of the armors and dyes I’m finding along the way. This one just stuck with me – a blade for every situation.

When thinking of the Sylvari race and culture the first time I read about it, I actually had an immediate thought of Native American culture, as opposed to Celtic, Latin, or Roman. I just read it differently than most people, I guess =P

I, too, like the faces and animations. The over the top sexualized things bother me in games.
I can’t stand baywatch animations in games, either – the sylvari running animations are the only ones that are fast, bouncy, and powerful enough to feel like “running.” I also have signet of shadows, so an extra 25% makes my character feel so powerfully fast.

I also came across face #3 and said “omg Garrus!” and that was it. With the orange glow and a mask, it’s a wicked looking face – no Sylvari-innocence left there, heh.

I honestly go back and forth between D/D and S/D. Raw upfront damage in an aggressive style is definately D/D. But S/D…I love the utility. I use S/D in WvW as a harassment spec to lure a couple people out of a zerg. Inflitrator’s Strike is great to get in, then cure a condition and get back out to start a chase. Some overzealous thieves/warrs will inevitably follow you, breaking off one by one until a final person is left for you to 1v1.

I’m not sure what people are saying about Flanking Strike – it was a pain to work properly at first, since the tracking seems to sometimes not work. However, I literally spent a few hours while farming bloods to “practice” it and find out how it really works, and I love it. Spammable evasion ability that strips a boon off the enemy? This plus bountiful theft is a guardian killer for me. Of course, you have to practice it and figure out how to use it effectively.

S/D doesn’t have the damage D/D does, but if you go 20 into acrobatics for the extra dodging and dodge boons, it’s such a great harass spec.

Steal is underwhelming, yes. I mean ele’s get 4 entire sets of abilities as a profession…

But to say steal is useless is hilarious. It’s a CC breaker, teleport, and is completely separate from main ability cooldowns. Hit Cloak and Dagger + Steal at the same time for a gap closing, ability stealing, buffing, CC breaking, damage dealing invisibility.

At least that’s how it’s used by the gank build. Of course it’s the mokittenn stealing the whirlwind from warriors.

Hah, Quasi. I didn’t expect you to take all of this flak for daggerstorm! Poor guy.

I actually prefer daggerstorm, too. I also happen to run Signet of malice and Shadow Refuge, just like you.

It reflects projectiles for 8 sec, makes you immune to CC, provides a nice healing boost in your aforementioned manner, and it’s only a 90 sec CD. I loved Thieve’s Guild, but with 3 minutes of downtime, I just barely use it >.<

Well, the thing that pops out at me is your statement here:
“My idea is running in there cutting up as many people as possible and then disappear away before anyone can retaliate…”

You won’t ever be able to do this. Believe me – My Riftstalker in Rift is the king of cutthroat hit and run like this. It’s the only playstyle I’ve ever really enjoyed. And you have to accept the fact that you cannot do it here.

Let’s face it – Ranged classes will spot you running up from half a mile away, watch you stealth, evade until you pop out 3 (4 with shadow arts) seconds later, then start wailing on you from 1200 if you don’t have gap closers. Unless a player is asleep, and consequently a free kill anyway, you will be spotted and the enemy will be prepared for you. This goes for WvW zergs and structured mists.

I almost quit my thief due to this…lack of tactical backstabbing strategy, but then I adapted to a brand new playstyle and kind of enjoy the thief as-is. You can’t always get what you truly desire, but it happens. No matter what you end up doing, pvp in this game comes down to two players duking it out, timing great evasions, using cooldowns effectively, and chaining skills like a pro.

All of this said, the thief does have some of the things you want. Thieves do have ways to slip away when the going gets tough. Shadow refuge is one of these abilities. I simply don’t pvp without it. You’re fighting some tough mesmer, his friend shows up, you pop refuge and stand in it for the full 15 seconds of stealth and healing. They will AoE for a few seconds, but almost everyone moves on in the heat of the moment.

You also have the acrobatics trait tree. I have played all of the thief trees for a bit now, and acro is by far my favorite. You can evade for half the cost (twice as often), gain might and swiftness from each evade, gain initiative, and of course 10% damage if your endurance is never full (it should never be full lol). Combining any trait tree with acrobatics makes your character more mobile and more aggressive since you dodge sooo much. I also run with 2 daggers, since the second strike grants 10 endurance. I really am dodging a LOT in pvp. I run a dagger main, pistol offhand secondary so I can shadowstab away for a quick blink.

Moving on, there are some pretty awesome “critical stab builds.” Thirty deadly arts, 30 critical strikes, 10 trickery. You take the Mug trait (steal actually kind of hurts with this), 5% dagger damage from deadly arts, plus all of the crit traits from critical strikes, and thrill of the crime from trickery.
For utility skills you need to have assassin’s signet and spider venom. This “stabby” build is based 100% on the opener, and when done correctly it can insta-gib ele’s and thieves (which will probably be changed..).

You activate your spider venom since it has 30 sec as you hunt. You find a target and close in. Once steal is in range –
You hit Cloak and Dagger, then immediately hit steal. Yes, there is absolutely no global cooldown type system. You can go CLICK CLICK one after the other to make this work, I live by it. If you hit Cloak and Dagger + steal as fast as if you were double-clicking something, you will start the cast, teleport to the enemy, proc the Mug trait, proc the poison from deadly arts, proc your spider venom, Cloak and Dagger lands and you go invisible in melee range.

The moment this occurs, you pop your 150% damage assassin signet and land the killer backstab.

It literally occurs within a window of 3 seconds, but it’s very satisfying when you execute it 100%. Anyway, these are just some ideas for you. I personally fo defensive. I run around like a maniac, peeling bloodthirsty people away from zergs, blinking away, leading them on a chase, until only one is left, then engage him 1v1 and wreck him or vanish into stealth to harass him.