I’ve been a thief since beta and it’s a solid class in every game mode, but only if you learn how to play it- and to play it well. It’s in a rough spot at the moment, but still has one of the highest personal DPS numbers in game, relatively safe WvW roaming, and can still excel in PvP if played by a skilled player. I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who’s actually never played it, but yea it’s a solid choice.
My recommendation would be to go elementalist. They have a ton of dps if spec’ed for PvE, and are constantly needed in dungeons for might stacking and their conjured weapons (Ice Bow, LH etc) If you spec cele D/D, you can beat any class in this game and will have an easier time with it than thief. All in all, it’s your choice, but ele will get you the same results with less work in this meta.
If you have run out of mix and match combinations you aren’t trying hard enough. Anet releases more sets than outfits if you count every tier (light medium heavy) and honestly it will always stay this way because outfits are easier to make like the OP said. Lately on my main I have been running full duelist with glasses, but I switch it up on a weekly basis. Personally I love outfits and have purchased at least 5 of them. Sets like the fancy winter outfit and Ceremonial Plated add a lot of variety to how you can make your character look. When they released the Ceremonial Plated outfit they honestly gave heavy armor to any class, and I love that. Looking at it from a ‘We need more sets’ perspective is completely wrong imo. Outfits are awesome, and add a lot of variety to this game that it wouldn’t otherwise have.
I have been a thief since beta, but mostly PvE’d until a year and a half ago. Learning thief is frustrating sometimes, and a lot harder than most people think. I actually learned how to play thief in 1v1 arenas and hot joins when I first started out. My advice would be to run a meta build (cookie cutter) and just play around with it until you are comfortable with how it works. If you add me, (My ign is Ably) I can help you out. Best of luck ^^
PS: If you are just in this for the backpiece, just keep grinding solo queue and after a day or two you should have it, winning the majority of your games or not.
This thread is a joke right? In PvP, all thieves CAN run is zerk, and it’s in the worst place it’s been in a long time. If you are getting rolled by a thief in this meta, it’s because the thief is playing better than you, not because the thief hard counters you.
In PvE, full glass thief still holds the highest personal dps in game, so people still like it. In WvW, you can still roam extremely well, D/D was all but buffed, D/P is still viable, S/D maybe not as much, but people who love the set are making it work despite the changes. In PvP, thief is still viable, steal bugs, teleports bug and people may ask you to switch to another class but it’s w/e honestly. Solo qeue I guess. PvE exploration is probably the easiest on thief due to stealth. (Stealth capping skill communes, skipping mobs etc.) Farming is probably going to be the hardest for you to do on thief, but with the right utilities and shortbow it kittentainly be done. Anyways, don’t let thief being in a bad spot stop you from trying it out. Thief is the most fun class in game imo, and has a very different play style than other classes, and if you can master it, you can do amazing things.
Best of luck,
Ably
PS: The new leveling system is literally the worst thing I have ever seen implemented into GW2, and it will be painful to level an alt to 80. So be ready for that.
Personally, I think thief still works. I have played almost nothing but D/P since release, and it IS still viable, despite the tele bugs that ARE STILL HAPPENING. I won’t reroll to another class (especially since I have 3k+ hours on thief and don’t find the others interesting) but I see completely what people are talking about. We get buffs to traits that no one uses, and nerfs constantly. I would quit this class, and this game, but I truly love GW2 and after seeing the buffs to mesmers with the latest patch, (a class that has had just as many nerfs as thieves since day 1) it gives me hope that Anet could fix thieves. All we need are devs that play something other than warrior, and for Anet to actually listen to what people on the forums say, as it seems like nothing we do ever makes a difference.
TL;DR: Thief is still viable, Anet (might) fix the bugs we have; have hope.
I wasn’t getting it a week or two ago, but after coming back from break I can’t land anything in a combination so I guess it’s still a thing. But hey, new gem store items.
Anet is always going to cater towards people who haven’t even played the game yet instead of the veteran players. This is just going to make the pvp community smaller gating the access.
I think the problem with thieves after patch is now every other class can do what thief can do, but better. Elementalists have high mobility, and can spike just as fast as a thief can (faster most of the time) and have access to more defensive skills. Rangers, Engineers, Necros, DPS Guard and good Warriors hard counter us on any build we decide to play. Especially with the shift towards AI builds from Anet (buffing spirit weapons, leaving turrets (almost) and minion master as is, mesmer PU) excelling as a thief in pvp will only get harder from here on out. But aside from the qq, give it a month or so and someone will find a strong build again. (Personally, I am starting to use the old EU panic strike meta, 60206, which now seems to be coming back into play on NA)
Also: If Anet could realize that useless traits are useless and buffing them slightly won’t cause thieves to run them, that would be great.
On the real though, I’m not going to play this game anymore. I’m tired of re learning my class every 6 months. Every other class gets buffs and nerfs per usual while we get buffs to stupid traits no one specs and getting pigeonholed into condi builds. Anet has finally managed to kitten me off to the point where I no longer enjoy playing this game as a thief. GG.
Engineer was already a hard fight for any thief, and now it’s basically gg in pvp with the changes. But yea, buffing revealed to a class that can now burst for 18k with one longbow skill is a bit ridiculous.
Alright guys, this is PURELY about PvP. I know thief in PvE is still very strong, perhaps more now because of the dagger cleave, but PvP is what I do in this game, and it is what I will be talking (ranting) about here. Firstly, S/D hits like a noodle and can now stack 10+ dodges in a row. This will likely cause feline grace to get nerfed eventually, making this set even more useless. (why Anet didn’t just nerf feline grace instead of a whole kittening weapon set I will never understand but that’s irrelevant) D/P still doesn’t have a solid place in team fights, and with the BP nerf and infiltrator’s signet/steal bugs cant land anything, which brings me to my next point. STEAL IS BROKEN. AGAIN. And this time, I have absolutely 0 faith that Anet will fix it. It was buggy before the patch, but actually landing this skill mid-combo after patch is like winning the lottery. Everything being said, I will now be shelving my thief, (my only character with 5k+ hours) and moving on to another class with less kitten to deal with. Thank you Anet, once again, for the pointless trait buffs, and the class breaking nerfs. I may be over-reacting, but I, and many other thieves out there, have been thinking about leaving for quite some time. Maybe I’ll try again 6 months from now, but until then RIP THIEF.
Honestly, I don’t think it will be fixed. This was an issue long before yesterday’s patch, and Anet didn’t even acknowledge it as an issue, let alone fixing it.
For pvp, you can’t really go wrong with 26006 Dagger/Pistol or 20066 Sword/Dagger. They are both strong options atm, but after the patch in two days things could of course change.
Hey everyone, after looking at all of the class changes from the Ready Up episodes, it looks as if the next 6 months may be rough for us thieves. My main fear is that the current meta builds, 20066 and 26006, will not have enough condition removal to remain viable. (Looking at you, PU mesmers) My question is, what is everyone doing to prepare for the patch? Personally, I am going to mess around with the EU panic strike meta for D/P (60206) and see if I can achieve something with that. As a side note, this is directed towards PvP players, but feel free to throw in anything regarding WvW or Pve. ^^
I only play thief. I have only ever played thief. Thief is the only class in this game that I truly enjoy. As my class gets nerfed time and time again, I begin to wonder if I should jump ship and play a different class, but every time I try, I ALWAYS come back to thief. Am I crazy? Are there any other people out there that only play thief? With the newest round of nerfs and buffs to useless traits, I’m thinking of finally switching over to my elementalist, whose been shelved for quite a while.
I only play thief, and back when it DID work, I would literally not know what to do, as I am so used to not having cooldowns. I think your idea would be fair, but the other idea could be fair too. Instead of a cooldown, initiative can not be recovered for 5 or 10 seconds might work, so a thief would need to be careful but would still have options. Giving a thief a cooldown on an initiative skill would work against the system, especially since a lot of the thieves rotations depend on using a skill more than once.
As long as it’s rare, because you can finish a track in a day pretty easily, and the time it takes to get a fractal weapon in PvE is usually waayyy longer than one day.
HoTM is usually my most visited map. I for one, and multiple other people I know, usually pvp on our alts that are not max level. I save all my chests on my low levels alts, then put them in the bank to open on my main. With the Fort Mariner way point being contested and all, it’s quite the trek from HoTM to the bank. This is a request purely for convenience (at least for me) but if the main towns for PvE and WvW have banks and trading posts, why shouldn’t we, the PvPer’s, get access to them in our main town?
As for the rank gated/time gated idea, I don’t think that should be implemented. I’ve been r80 for awhile now, but I know that a large percentage of the people in HoTM aren’t. Implementing a bank and then not letting someone use it because they haven’t PvP’ed enough doesn’t seem fair to me.
Don’t expect to come back from a break and kill warriors with ease using a glass spec. If you truly are running 6/6/2/0/0 with agility, shadows, and assassin’s signets, you have no stunbreaks. So if a warrior lands a cc combo, you’re as good as dead. Running glass d/d takes timing and accuracy, and playing it for 30 minutes after picking the game back up is less than ideal.
I played you on my thief named Ably I think. I don’t hate on the s/p, its a good set with many uses, and can cleave downed better than any other set (besides SB). The only thing I would say is that for your build, you might want to consider taking Executioner for Critical Strikes grandmaster. Hidden Killer is good, but I don’t know how much it would affect Tactical Strike. Running S/P without HiS, you only have 1 source of stealth, that being Shadow Refuge and that makes Hidden Killer really circumstantial. If you land a pistol whip, your targets gonna be somewhere around 50% unless they’re tanky, and the 20% damage increase will help you take them down easier than Hidden Killer would. Other than that, keep running s/p and follow your dreams! \o/
(I have no idea about the runes- I’ve never rune rage before I usually stick to ogre/strength/scholar)
Since release, I have only played thief as a main, and have roughly 3k hours on it. After leveling from 1-40 in pvp from pure thief gameplay, I’ve realized that thieves have SO many counters. Sure I can get 10-12k backstabs running 25/30/0/0/15, but if someone puts more condis than shadowstep/signet of agility/heal can wipe, then I have to sit through the full duration of the condition. Hell, the warrior offhand sword 4 can get me to half if I cant wipe it. And if I run 30 in SA, yes I can pick up healing on stealth along with a free condi clear, but I lose a sizeable chunk of dps. In my experience as thief, the only build I believe is truly OP would be the 10/0/30/0/30 P/D build with full dire gear. The barrage from stealthed pistol 1 isnt too affected by blinds, and the tankiness from the gear is amazing. Condi clears on every cloak and dagger, and 21s steal that gives half you half of the boons in the game and a 1k heal. Overall though, I believe anyone who preaches “nerf thief” or “thief OP” has either never seriously played thief or is too lazy to find a counter.
