Guild Wars 2

MY EYES!
This build looks fun only in hotjoin, it is a no go for unrakeds/rankeds cuz of slowness and zero combeack capabilty on top of other core things like trickery and DA.

Deathrubber.3861:

i want to record too.. can u help me with the software please? ive tried some. fraps hurts my notebook and the others drop fps very much too. then i found “playclaw” which is just perfect but its a shareware. u know any freeware for me to use?

Don’t tell anyone, i’m using windows 10 and it has its own benefit, like I can save video from cash. You just need to upgrade your win to 10, and then use Game panel (win+alt+g). This feature can store 30 sec, 1 min or 3 min video from your screen and save it to cash. And when you press ‘capture’ button it saves them into a file.

kash.9213:

I came back to the game awhile ago and I’m seeing more sigil of rage and blood. Are those more build specific and standard is still air/fire or are rage and or blood becoming more prevalent in pvp and wvw?

For most thief build there is Sigil of Air on main weapon set, because it adds damage to brust, has best CD (3 sec), and the second sigil is a weapon of choice.
As for me, while most of my time I stay on Sb, I can count CD of sigil of rage and to syncronize it with steal to get greater burst.
As for blood, it is good for build that focus on sustaining like acro staff or acro sd, But you always may try your way, because sigil of blood is a good choice.

A bit of advertising: check out this topic and watch the vid, which are highlights from my gameplay. It may be useful for you to see some tricks and patterns that I use.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Video-Thief-season-2-PvP-highlights/first#post6173856

Furajir.3815:

What build did you use?

It is common d/p with scholar rune and rage sigil.
All the rest suits metabattle template.

Rome.3192:

Great vid! Your gameplay seems to have improved, Faeleth. Inspires me to play the game again and kick your butt.

Anyday you may try to, but i can’t guarantee that you’ll succeed

On a topic. I’m rendering dueling video atm, so hope to post it here in near future.

Oh guys, thank you so much for this positive feedback! I was afraid you won’t like videos without effects and montage

Set.7461:

Excellent video. Good gameplay and decision making. I saw s/d and was sad that part was so short.

I’ve tried s/d with acro and it was really fun for all new tricks and combos, but unfortunately it was still lacking bits of utility here and there and I ended up with shelfing it.

Talek.6795:

Nice friend – cool video <3

<3 4everever

Thanks fellas!
I’m looking forward for S3 as it will bring thief back in meta. With revenant being nerfed thief is already has upper hand in that duel (except may be condi rev vs. basic DP), so we may hope to see more thiefs in general and on ESL level (our team aswell goes to at least qualifications rounds)

Hello guys, don’t have much time to montage video, but I had some requests for new videos, so i made this 30 minutes long highlights video.

Some good plays and active thief movement. Hope you will enjoy the plays.

Also I have twice more material about dueling with that build against all classes, but really really low free time for montaging it.
So let me know if you’re interested in it.

Cheers!

My ideas

Revealed Training: add 1 stack of stability and/or protection for 3 sec.
Bountiful Theft: make baseline also make this ability to actually steal boons – stacks+duration.
[Insert name here] (instead of bountiful): you transfer 1 condition when you interrupt a foe, 1s ICD.

My 2 cents:

15 ini baseline will open huge build diversity. It won’t buff dp so much, but will give space for other interesting builds.
Revealed training – add stab/prot/both for revealed.
Bountiful theft – make it actual steal of boons with stacks/duration. <3

Hello, mate.
Let me give some feedback on your video.
1. What you do is called “spam”. While i’m okay with spamming AA (we all do this now), there were moments when you spammed it with no actual reason, but beside AA I noticed that you spam your headshot A LOT. Pulmonary impact is a strong trait, but in high ranks people tend to know their invulnerability/evade rotation and you’ll often end up with zero initiative and full target’a health.
2. Reaction time. You yourself noticed that your reaction time is kinda slow. I think it is crucial skill for a thief player, to have perfect reaction time.
3. Weapon swap. I agree, there are moments and matches when you stay a lot in your main weapon set, but for first 4 minutes of video I didn’t see single weaponswap. In high ranks rotation time also means a lot. Well, it can be my personal point, but I swap to SB every single time I know that I’m not going to fight.
4. Single match can’t offer a good sight of what your playstyle (it actually did with your headshot ini dump, but i believe that you may play better). You didn’t initiate a single 1v1, you didn’t get pressured in teamfight, you didn’t count enemies to rotate to free points, etc. In general, as I said, it is a problem of match. Was pretty onesided.

On a good note, your commentary shows that you understand your own mistakes and general knowledge, so keep improving. Practice makes perfect!
Cheers!

GinghamLion.3614:

Man.. Any thief can run all day.

These forums are a weird place.

You didn’t get the joke
And yes, forums are

Hello mate,

Scrapper has a good counter to everything thief can offer in solid 1v1, but you can kill/outplay them sometimes.
First of all scrapper takes at least 3 “rounds”: slick shoes+ elixir s proc, gyro, by the time you going to finish him, these 3 will be on cd, unless you’re fighting newbie scrapper

To start chopping him, I recommend to CC him first, to proc protection (from protection injection), then proceed to steal it with steal (this trait has 5 sec ICD), but beware of good scrappers, they may block right after daze.
After you stole protection you may chop face, as engi can’t stand this damage. When fight is closing to 50% engi’s hp mark, he’ll use his heal first time, you may try to interrupt 1/2 sec cast, but it is close to impossible.
Then on 25% hp there goes s proc. The best way to deal with it is to time heartseeker to its end, because it will onehit them, because if you fail to do so, they will most likely heal for full.

Fight vs engi is silly and gimmick.
Basically, engi has 5 skills to avoid/counerplay: #2, 3, 4, 5 on hammer, #4 elixir gun + slick shoes.
Once they used their first rotation of hammer block and hammer evade you may try to take initiative of the fight, but his amount of safe buttons summed with offensive capabilities on short cooldowns leaves you close to no space for mistakes, and even then it is not a guaranteed win.

The problem with backstab is that combo:
backstab+steal(mug) + fire/air procs + PI proc

already hits other thieves for like 85-90% hp in one-hit, so further buffing backstab going to oneshot-style fights, where thieves should randomly dodge to prevent being dead, because class don’t have healthy access to protection or other damage mitigation forms.

So, buffing backstab is unhealthy idea and won’t be implemented in any form.

In theory:
you can wait daze him first, to proc the trap,
→ then you have to bait his pull from traits, that also gives him stability
→ now you can steal stability and slash face with melee attack for a bit
→ here goes f3 op blocking → my advice to wait duration of 5 seconds and procceed to slash him.
→ try to wait and interrupt f2 wings, and heal. If you fail to interrupt trap-heal, at least don’t walk into it range.

When guard used his elite meditation, wait for F3 block again and then you can try finish him down if you’re alive at this moment.

In theory…

While I always welcome every thief vid coming to these forums, this footage was pretty tasteless :<

Some random guys, no clutch moments, a lot of disengaging and stealth abusing.
I’m looking up for future videos, hope they’ll be more entertaining!

It says: “Basilisk Venom – Your attacks are unblockable in addition to turn foes to stone. This works with Venomous Aura so all your ally attacks will be unblockable”

It means, when you don’t have mug and sleight of hand traited, still will be blockable, because it doesn’t count as “attack”
When you pick mug and/or sleight of hand it becomes unblockable.

I see the issue here.
Anyway, Steal becoming unblockable ability always was my wet dream. It requires elite now, so may be i’m not that happy, but still.

As long as you have “mug” trait and BV already being cast, does it mean that “steal” will become unblockable ability going through, say, crystal hibernation from rev, or engi hammer #4 block, or guard’s shelter?

I’d take the challenge on EU thief vs thief for say…
5$/500g per duel.

Op as kitten

Are you for real or just for the lulz?

I just like to point out, that in current meta several classes causing problem to this “guaranteed kill” bs. If OP had any decent success in leagues (mean legendary div at this moment already) he would know that:
Bunker mes will laugh at damage with blocks, invul, distort, cc chain etc
Scrapper will escape with S proc ending in stealth gyro, or even fave the damage with block and cc
Tempest will kitten you up with shocking aura, #4 line in earth, cc field and others, also don’t forget 40% from perma protection.
Druid will screw damage with auto weakness proc (which hurts cs more), also Druid hurls a lot of random cc+blinds, which is completely shuts down vaults.
Revenant will taunt your burst, or survive it via crystal hibernation, UA and countless dodges in any meta build
Dragonhunter will counter you with traps’ dazes, random cc and blocks
Reaper will just eat your damage which is charging his DS, and laugh at you, chilled and weakened to death.
Thief will shadowstep our and interrupt you.
Warrior is just warrior.

Don’t forget the fact that you have to really hit your vaults which is not easy vs decent players.
Don’t forget the fact that after your so called burst you left without any initiative.

In the end, problem is not in downing the enemy but within inability to secure stomp in this meta, if you don’t aim impact strike well.

Time will teach you mate. Practice makes perfect.

I underline that thief gameplay present on stream is terrible indeed.
steal+5+5+5 → 3 dodges away no matter what target do. It is the only trick i’ve seen there.
There is a reason you’re ruby mate and since you stream a lot I guess you have enough time to play… make a conclusion.

So, it is not allowed to Q with friends?

Lexander.4579:

Well done, mate, ignore the haters who can’t hold their spite, you really did something cool there.

Perhaps you can give some tips on how to deal with D/P thieves? I’m also running a staff daredevil and I have no problem fighting most other classes or at least staying on my toes but I also seem to be outmatched by D/P thieves most of the time (as rare as I encounter them).

Sorry, I was away for a while.
I think that D/P has an upper hand in duels with staff because of easier acces to stealth and spammable blinds. Also, most dp thieves play with damage on interrupt, sacrificing condi cleanse.
So, the best way to deal with them on a map is to force them to attack someone else, then land some vaults and #2+steal. Because vault itself hits like a truck and weakening charge+steal is your best damage combo.
On the other hand, when you trying to duel them, I’d suggest to use #2-#3 more often, weakening charge will cut their damage, while #3 will give you ability to avoid bursts.
Anyway, good DP thief will be a hard matchup in duel against staff because its damage is faster and also have more options to kill you (pulmonary impact).

Midi.8359:

Grats!

Hoping to do something like this myself with thief. Currently made it to ruby through solo queue only. Using a D/P thief atm, although I’ve been switching builds based on what I find more useful. Did a few games of staff thief that seemed to work pretty well.

Kinda curious. What was your end win/loss rate? (Or win/total game rate? Not that the stat matters very much). Also do you think you could’ve made it to diamond to legend through solo queue only? Also why did you chose to run bandit’s defense?

My winrate is pretty high i believe, not like I have correct numbers, but i think it is close to 70-75%.
While ruby was taken solo for 80%, in diamond i was duo-trioQ for like 50% of games.
Also, last 8 pips of diamond were acquired solo which was very stressful, but somehow i manage to get 8x win streak
I think everything is possible, especially with 70% winrate

BD is a must have with any thief build imo, with the amount of random CC flying around. Also it is a win condition in thief vs thief matches.

Padd.1479:

a staff daredevil! Nice job man, congratz. I hope you didn’t exploit the matchmaking too much. Maybe you wanna share your build or give some tips for everyone who gave up on thief spvp

nah, I didn’t exploit at all, just played games to my best.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZAQJAWVn8lCFmilOBmPBkmiFYCTLBEAyAephzQbYuDWCbhA-TJBFABIt/wCHBAxLDAwhAAA

Can’t give much tips, because most of it are basic.

BE AWARED of ppl participating in teamfights.
PLAY MINDGAMES, try to fool the one who guarding far i.e., jump in the direction of far, use smokebomb, jump back in teamfight -its how you create outnumbering opportunity.
STAY CONCENTRATED, because reaction is your best ally on thief.
NEVER GIVE UP, because comeback is always possible.
ALWAYS MARK YOUR TARGET, thats how you make your teammates help you.
PLAY FOR FUN, because thats what game designed for.

Cheers!

Finally guys!
I’m playing thief exclusively and came here to share a bit of my happiness.
I made it to the legend!
Last 10 pips from diamond to legend were acquired solo, while it was 65% solo and 35% duo, trio, quadro.

Never lose faith and keep playing class we like the most!
Cheers!

messiah.1908:

dont you find the staff almost exactly as s/d beside #2 skill but with more dmg ?

i love the s/d but staff seems to work better

staff is not near even being effective.
While providing some decent damage output with Vaults, staff lacks of everything else.
For example S/D provide boon strip/mobility/stealth access/Soft+Hard CC/ranged damage.
D/P provides gap closer+softCC/interrupt on demand/blind field and leap finisher that comboing with blind field. Not taking into consideration that dagger attacks are fastest in the game (should I say they give biggest DPS?)

While staff gives some decent damage and burst, it lacks everything else, can be easily kiteable (even d/d acts better vs kite) and don’t give you any survivability tools. Even S/P while being easily kiteable still provides you more survivability and utility.
That’s why staff is no near to be any viable option (despite Caed’s stream, where he loses hard against any decent teams and stomping plebs)

Treeoflife.4031:

@ Kolly
There are other skills that could mesh well with this build other than RFI. I’d also consider Infiltrator’s Signet, Signet of Agility, or maybe SR. There are a few reasons i prefer RFI. 1) It is a stun break. 2) If you evade an attack with RFI, (due to DD trait line) it will also heal a small amount. 3) It re-positions you … and since you are getting stunned you probably need a re-positioning anyways. 4) my favorite aspect is the amount of initiative it gives all at once. It allows you to go from potentially 0 initiative (which is not a place you want to find yourself) to having enough to set up a burst combo. Or enough to pop off 2 infiltrators arrows and get out of a bad situation. Yes its a 60 sec cd but based on the reasons above i still think its worth it. Also you have a total of 3 stun breaks with one on a 12 sec cd. honestly it comes down to personal preference.

This is exactly the reason to choose Channeled Vigor (CV) over Withdraw also.
You just outresource all fights you have with both pushing power and dodges+mini-heals and one heal/endurance bomb, while landing CC via block and Impact Strike.
This cc combines with #3 LS and CnD very well.

Treeoflife.4031:

Nice now i don’t have to upload a vid :P

Cheers!

PS at 7:22 you kill Sizer….is that the same Sizer?

Yes, he is.
This build is superior to one he is using, at least in duels.

Edit: also the link to the topic I posted the vid
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Video-Unranked-season-Faeleth-S-D/first#post5728847

Here is a video with “your build”

Have fun!

I like your vid, pretty enjoyable!

Cerpin.9152:

Personally I would use Infiltrator’s Signet over Roll for Initiative though.
I guess you picked it for extra evade-spam flavor or to get into position for the heal?

I agree with you inf. signet is solid choice
And comparing to RFI it has some advantages → If you don’t use it, it is +6ini/min, aswell as RFI has 60 sec cd and 6 ini.

But! In my opinion, RFI is good utility skill because not only it gives you 3/4 sec evade, but also it gives you initiative to outsustain other thieves in 1v1 combat. Just like I said, you outsustain other meta builds with your utilities – you have more dodges, more HP gain, more CC, and more initiative. It gives build great staying power even you cukitten up a bit.

Mrbig.8019:

It’s the channel which bugs me.

how is it even possible to handle with so many istant rupts around ?

Don’t be afraid, your dodges are 450 distance, and basically you’re an evade machine that spamming dazes on you to effectively interrupt 3/4 skill is not easy deal. You just evade out of bodies damaging each other, and here you go, with more dodges and HP.

The main thing that this heal ticks, so even if you been interrupted you still got a chunk of hp and endurance

Gabriell.4856:

Vs 2 DH – Tried to +1 but became 2v2. Got recked in the traps. Slow played an interrupt that was very skillful for hitting 1 button. Had to get out with .5 % HP left. Ranger on team came and did a better job at +1 than the thief. WTF? I stopped watching after that.

Slow played an interupt on both guards, first one with steal, second with mace head crack,
Our guard (not ranger btw) came just in time to put pressure on guard which result in winning point.

Go yuck forself, buy some eyes and watch tetris, cause your understanding is not enough for gw2

Mrbig.8019:

IS channeled vigor really worth it over withdraw ?

I don’t play the game anymore ( too much passive crap tbh altough it seems to be somehow better right now) and i’m really wondering if that heal ( which seems utterly crap in my eyes) is really decent or not.

I

It is really great heal skill.
Just compare it –
-20% more heal if endurance is not full, 70% more otherwise,
-2 more dodges “on demand” instead of being just one and same “cast time” (withdraw is instacast, but evade last 3/4 so…),
- when traited with physical skill recharge it is 2 sec less cd. You may say that when traited – withdraw is 14 sec cd, but, don’t forget that you have to give up “bountiful thief” for this.
- withdraw cleanses conditions you don’t suffer at all when you take dash.

Only advantage in withdraw over CV is that it has instant cast, which is still not usable while dazed/stunned, so as for me, CV is superior to withdraw, but it may be just a personal preference.

Sarrow.2785:

Nice clips with some seriously sick plays – grats!

I will add however that this collection of picked and edited clips doesn’t tell the whole story of thief as I’m sure you well know! For example someone with the right ping could put together a similar warrior vid, a vid winning 1v1s with no weapon swaps (seen one of these!) or even a vid of a DH losing every on-point 1v1. Doesn’t mean it paints the whole picture of a class.

I’ve been watching some of Sizer’s vids on twitch where he streams whole matches. Sizer’s a top tier S/D thief in my eyes and literally runs rings around players, turning them inside out with ports and dodges – but even Sizer, who spends hundreds of hours dueling and learning every single tell gets 100 > 0’d sometimes when he mistimes a dodge or steal, bails on half his 1v1’s and is almost solely relegated to +1ing and decapping.

It also rankles me how you’re basically using this time where thief clearly DOES need some love as an opportunity to stroke your peen.

Great, skillful vid man, but seriously uncool.

I’m going to “stroke my peen” even more and say, that this (mine) build have such an upper hand in thief fights, that I have 75%+ winning chance against Sizer, primarily with help of Channeled vigor and Block knockback, which can be proven not only by my videos, but also with Sizer’s saved streams

Don’t get too offended, I’m just being ironic here.
And while I’m showing highlights, I’m still losing duels and make mistakes sometime.

But it doesn’t matter, because now I just want to show you some archetype/gameplay of thief you’re going to see a lot soon. Just remember my words

glaphen.5230:

SlayerSixx.5763:

I love how he still managed to down notorious elites with the apparently kitten S/D. Nice video, man.

Were we watching the same video? It was just highlights and 90% were Thieves and Mesmers. The one DH he kills already blew his cooldowns on the other guy, the one Revenant was wearing base armor and keyboard turning. Only elite he killed was Scrapper at the very end of the video.

Well, while I agree, there are not much to show, but I tried to include every class in my vid, you forgot about 1v1 vs druid, reaper, and tempest, occured here and there.
Also beside duels, there is a lot of teamfight stuff I’d like to share.

Anyway, thanks for feedback. appreciate it.

Thanks you for feedback guys!
Looking forward for making new videos about ranked plays!

Lamuness.3570:

Is there an advantage for using the new heal skill vs withdraw? Seems you’re using it more.

There is an advantage: not only it heals more (20% more if ini is not full, 70% more otherwise), but it also gives 2 dodges instead of just being one, also, when traited (like in my build) it has shorter cd – 16 seconds.
I’m in love with this skill!

messiah.1908:

gg nice game play
but dont you think anet need to consider thief to play another role as well beside +1
most of you games you were losing

i wish for some soldier cc role with staff

In the end, I end up winning most of my games.
It is just a manner of game, when i’m running from point to point, decapping and finishing wounded targets, waiting for some strategical mistake from opponents.

Hello guys, it is Fae here again!
I’m glad to show you my new footage of S/D daredevil.
Hope you’ll enjoy it.

And this vid can say anyone who ask to buff thief that class isn’t in very bad state.
It is enjoyable to play.

Hope you enjoy my video!
Cheers!

Hello guys, its Fae here again.
I’m glad to show you brand new vid presenting unranked season and its gameplay.

Personally find S/D most well-rounded set for meta now,
Looking for opinions!
Cheers!

Blast in healing seed
and
Cluster bomb

After 30.10 update some of animations look completely messed up:
Using channeled vigor (thief heal skill) appear as I’m laying down a trap (I have mug equipped, so I can’t be wrong)
Using blast finisher into Healing seed (stolen ranger skill) result in huge blast alike trebuchet one.
Using venom acts like i’m using shadow refuge.
Necro’s mark don’t appear at all

Please solve.

Farodin.3286:

First of, great video. A in depth description of your actions would be even more apreciated. I always liked Helseth’s pov mesmer analysis for example. With Toker and Levin not streaming at the moment I think another thief source would be quite nice.

Thx for feedback mate. As of description, I’m planning to make a vid with text descriptions on stop-frame. Stay tuned!

Thx for feedback, guys,
I’m also curious, would you like vid, where I describe all my actions and plans during fight? I’m planning on making such video.

Ross Biddle.2367:

dDuff.3860:

Kitty.1502:

highlight reels are fun and all but what about the other fights?

What do you mean saying other fights? ESLs? Duels? WvW?

In otherwords a montage vs a full match vid.

Montage shows highlights, and success. A full match vids shows every encounter from start to finish.

Well yeah, I got the idea, but this would be just another kind of video.
On boring words, I’m pretty successful thief, in 80% of games I end up with top team score aswell as lost of “top kills”, “skirmishes”, “points neutralize” and so on.
Some day I may end up doing this sort of video called “Tips&tricks” with full match coverage, but this one is definetaly not I was aiming at.

Kitty.1502:

highlight reels are fun and all but what about the other fights?

What do you mean saying other fights? ESLs? Duels? WvW?