Guild Wars 2

I’m not a PvP god by any stroke of the imagination, but here are some things I would keep in mind/try out.

-Always be aware of what is going on so you do not get jumped from out of no where; if you expect the thief to steal/shadow step to you try to dodge it (better said than done)

-if you miss the dodge, be ready with mist form; if you have glyph of storms sequence into casting the storm in earth and stand in it (mostly for the blinds, but the bleeds help too)

-if you get caught in his burst and do not have an escape try to minimize damage; if you have Elemental Attunement (tier 1 arcane trait) immediately sequence into earth for the protection to take 33% less damage; if you have 15 points in water then you can follow this up with a small burst heal + regeneration

-staff isn’t just about aoe nuking, it also has some great control potential (chill, blind, knockback, stun, cripple, immobilize); if you can escape melee range do not let up, try to keep the thief controlled and nearly always sitting in red circles; save Burning Retreat for when they try to close the distance again

The hardest part is keeping all of this in mind AND trying to execute it in the matter of seconds

I apologize if you feel that I mocked you, I was genuinely only trying to be helpful. I’ve played a thief recently to see what they are all about, but I actually main an ele in sPvP.

I tried this very tactic to take the ruins and defend them when I was checking out the thief. It is silly effective against people that try to melee you or do not fully understand what is going on (I certainly did not the first few times I encountered it). But like someone else posted, range the thief and be prepared for a long fight.

The initiative mechanic is interesting, I’m not sure how I feel about it. It promotes spamming for many folks. This is unfortunate because there is sooo much more to the thief than spamming. If anything I think it is supposed to promote an impromptu style of fighting but falls short with the spammers.

@Mandra Yeah, going under the world on purpose is an exploit … doing it on accident is a horrible inconvenience. When this happens to me I want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Whoa, I do not know what is up with all the hate between forum posters … sheesh.

On the bright side, think of this ability in a different light … the thief is essentially self rooted for the entirety of the ability, it only has a relatively small area of effect and the runes capture point is relatively large. A single dodge should be able to get you out of the way easily while the thief just floats around for a few seconds, and you are still within the capture zone. A thief spamming this ability is essentially playing a bunker role, and like any other bunker role you should not expect to be able to take them out quickly 1v1 … especially if they own the zone and there are sharks afoot. So be sure to take a friend or two, especially for the underwater control abilities … land one of those, unload a little and the thief is nearly done for.

One thing I haven’t tested yet is whether or not the evasion of the ability temporarily removes the thief’s capture ability like stealth and mist form seem to do … if that is the case then really the thief is just wasting their own time as long as you can manage to cleanse any snares and dodge.

Edit: their → there

No, no, no …. and no. This is the first time I’ve signed on to reply to a thread since release. The whole appeal of GW2 PvP was that there was no stat progression, it was all cosmetic. Deterring from this, in any way, regardless of how small, violates the very concept upon which it was built. Any and all rewards for sPvP should be strictly cosmetic. Even things like accessories being limited in type to rank is against this idea. It is supposed to be about skill, about how well you play your profession, and how it fits into the meta … it is not supposed to be about how often you can play or grind.