This picture sums up my feelings about playing Thief.

[capuchinseven.8395]

You see that one defeat? In that game I faced a torrent of abuse of the sort we've probably all heard as Thief, basically it's all the fault of the Thief we lost, Thief doesn't know how to play his class etc. Maybe they are right, maybe I don't but given this picture is a fairly common occurrence for me it seems hard for me to believe that all my wins are a fluke or I'm carried (all those games were as my Thief)

 

Why do I bring this up? Well I've played a lot of games and MMOs over the years and I've never seen anything like the amount of abuse the thief has to deal with in sPVP it is almost comical. Do other Thief players have this issue? I feel the answer is likely yes because when I play Ranger or Ele I see the same abuse thrown at the teams Thief, I've even seen an enemy team complain that "our Thief was crap" as an excuse for why they lost.

 

Frankly it's getting me down and I just can't be bothered to play the game anymore. How do other Thief players deal with it? My time is too short to play a game where I'm seemingly open game for abuse.

 

https://ibb.co/7gSvTCB

[GeneralFailure.3402]

To set my perspective, I play on EU currently in gold2 and i think my ceiling is gold3, also I have started with this game about four months ago.

And no not realy. Of course there are cases of "you suck" or "our thief sucks" but nothing I would consider abusive, especialy when I realized that I was stuck fighting mid instead of decaping :) So thief being favourite scapegoat is part of folklore of the game. In DoTA you blame support xD

 

And how I deal with it. If I realy do play bad I try to play better. If I play good and we still loosing I just ignore it. If the other person is realy mad I reply with lol umad and let them rage because why should I care. However, in most cases I dont have time to read chat anyway, because I am too busy playing the game.

 

[frareanselm.1925]

I used to play p/p pewpew thief and never had a problem or complain from my teammates. When I play other classes i expect the thief do his job of capturing near and far, if he dont do it, and i have to do his job, I'll start lashing him.

[capuchinseven.8395]

Without trying to sound cranky I think maybe the point is missed somewhat. I don't need to defend my ability on thief as my record kinda speaks for that (I'm not here saying, "omg I'm stuck in bronze but I'm great at thief") and even if I was awful on thief (I'm not perfect, I make mistakes even on a good day) I don't even have to be playing thief to see abuse being thrown at people playing thief.

 

A few days back I saw someone raging at a thief (not me) because he wasn't on far and almost at the SAME time someone raged that the thief wasn't on close, thief players just seem to be the games punching bags. I've never seen anything like it.

 

That said, when I made this post I was in a bad mood, I'd just seen someone throwing racist abuse at me and it was the straw that broke my back so my first post was more cranky that it needed to be.

[Aihao.5824]

before feb patch i had stable rank up with my thief, and cuz of more sustain u influenced game more than now.

And now u cand do decapping, +1 whatever , if its teamfight meta, and when some bunker class starts holding node u can do nothing with this. If some necro taks node, u are leaving, and yes, maybe u can beat him 1v1 but it will take much more time, so there a huge chance enemy for +1 this node. U punish less for mistakes - if u could kill ranger due to interrupting a block at 30% hp, now u cant, he just kites u till help will come.

Oftenly ppl blaming u when they got outrotated, just cuz u cant outrotate ranger+mesmer, and noone understands that u need ur team. And the most fun, is that ur guys got annihilated at mid 3v4

[draxynnic.3719]

It takes more map awareness than most people have to judge if the thief is doing a good job or not.

 

The typical thief build requires specific circumstances to shine - namely, that the rest of the team is putting up _enough_ of a fight that there are open points to decap and/or ongoing fights to +1. If the team is getting hammered so hard that the enemy team can afford to have someone sitting on each point at all times, or even in a position where they can watch two points and intervene as soon as they see the thief show up, there's really not much a thief can do.

 

It doesn't help that enemy team members that the thief sees don't necessarily show up on the team's minimap, so if a thief checks far, finds a bunker sitting on it (or even sees an enemy player near enough to stop them from decapping on a build that counters them) and chooses not to engage and to try to find a softer target somewhere else, that often leads to people accusing the thief of running around doing nothing, when the real problem is often that the rest of the team is so ineffective at putting up a fight that the thief just isn't getting any opportunities to exploit.

 

This isn't just a problem with thief, too - anyone acting in a similar role in lieu of a thief is often opening themselves up for the same abuse if the game isn't going well, when often the real problem is... well, it's hard to decap if the rest of the team is putting up such a weak fight that any point you try to decap has someone on it (or even two enemies on it) before you're done, and any fight you try to +1 is over before you get to it.

[ferbz.6987]

Yes, I get it Everytime I lose a game. I used to reply back saying they can't win team fights, but at that point everyone goes against you. What I do now is I turn off chat while in spvp with my thief. Problem solved.

[ferbz.6987]

> @"frareanselm.1925" said:

> I used to play p/p pewpew thief and never had a problem or complain from my teammates. When I play other classes i expect the thief do his job of capturing near and far, if he dont do it, and i have to do his job, I'll start lashing him.

 

See you are the problem, you are assuming you are doing a good job at team fighting or staying on node depending on what class you are playing. You see sometimes thief can't decap bot when his/her team does mid and now you have their team going sides... People's logic these days.

[ferbz.6987]

> @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> It takes more map awareness than most people have to judge if the thief is doing a good job or not.

>

> The typical thief build requires specific circumstances to shine - namely, that the rest of the team is putting up _enough_ of a fight that there are open points to decap and/or ongoing fights to +1. If the team is getting hammered so hard that the enemy team can afford to have someone sitting on each point at all times, or even in a position where they can watch two points and intervene as soon as they see the thief show up, there's really not much a thief can do.

>

> It doesn't help that enemy team members that the thief sees don't necessarily show up on the team's minimap, so if a thief checks far, finds a bunker sitting on it (or even sees an enemy player near enough to stop them from decapping on a build that counters them) and chooses not to engage and to try to find a softer target somewhere else, that often leads to people accusing the thief of running around doing nothing, when the real problem is often that the rest of the team is so ineffective at putting up a fight that the thief just isn't getting any opportunities to exploit.

>

> This isn't just a problem with thief, too - anyone acting in a similar role in lieu of a thief is often opening themselves up for the same abuse if the game isn't going well, when often the real problem is... well, it's hard to decap if the rest of the team is putting up such a weak fight that any point you try to decap has someone on it (or even two enemies on it) before you're done, and any fight you try to +1 is over before you get to it.

 

Agreed.

[frareanselm.1925]

> @"ferbz.6987" said:

> > @"frareanselm.1925" said:

> > I used to play p/p pewpew thief and never had a problem or complain from my teammates. When I play other classes i expect the thief do his job of capturing near and far, if he dont do it, and i have to do his job, I'll start lashing him.

>

> See you are the problem, you are assuming you are doing a good job at team fighting or staying on node depending on what class you are playing. You see sometimes thief can't decap bot when his/her team does mid and now you have their team going sides... People's logic these days.

 

Thief is able to 1v1 most classes, if he isnt capable just take the other point, they key of thief is mobility. If he instead goes mid to fight its useless.

[saerni.2584]

> @"capuchinseven.8395" said:

> Without trying to sound cranky I think maybe the point is missed somewhat. I don't need to defend my ability on thief as my record kinda speaks for that (I'm not here saying, "omg I'm stuck in bronze but I'm great at thief") and even if I was awful on thief (I'm not perfect, I make mistakes even on a good day) I don't even have to be playing thief to see abuse being thrown at people playing thief.

>

> A few days back I saw someone raging at a thief (not me) because he wasn't on far and almost at the SAME time someone raged that the thief wasn't on close, thief players just seem to be the games punching bags. I've never seen anything like it.

>

> That said, when I made this post I was in a bad mood, I'd just seen someone throwing racist abuse at me and it was the straw that broke my back so my first post was more cranky that it needed to be.

 

Years back I had someone basically attack me for the same reason. I think it shut him down when I told him I couldn’t simultaneously decap far and recap home because I couldn’t be in two places at once.

 

Sadly verbal abuse comes with being a thief when expectations are (or were) both that “thief OP” and “two thieves on our team we auto lose.”

[capuchinseven.8395]

> @"frareanselm.1925" said:

> > @"ferbz.6987" said:

> > > @"frareanselm.1925" said:

> > > I used to play p/p pewpew thief and never had a problem or complain from my teammates. When I play other classes i expect the thief do his job of capturing near and far, if he dont do it, and i have to do his job, I'll start lashing him.

> >

> > See you are the problem, you are assuming you are doing a good job at team fighting or staying on node depending on what class you are playing. You see sometimes thief can't decap bot when his/her team does mid and now you have their team going sides... People's logic these days.

>

> Thief is able to 1v1 most classes, if he isnt capable just take the other point, they key of thief is mobility. If he instead goes mid to fight its useless.

 

Not sure I agree with everything you've said here. Thief can 1v1 but with many Thief builds it takes far too long so really shouldn't be getting into them if it could +1 else where and that +1 elsewhere can be mid, poison field and/or blind fields can turn a fight. If we hold close and I just decapped (but didn't get time to take) far and a Guardian comes plodding along (so now to take it I have to fight him on it) but I can turn the fight faster mid that he just left, I'm going mid if we don't hold a good lead yet.

 

If we do have a good lead already though I'm happy to drag the time along with us both holding a single node so it depends. Some of my best carries have been as PP/PD without a shortbow and relying on Bound into stealth for mobility, which is not really a common sight, in that build I'm more likely to stick around on a node to take it.

[capuchinseven.8395]

I should probably say, PP/PD is really more fo Djiins or Sprit Watch. Black Powder and then Bound into stealth is just a lot of fun with Pistol Sneak Attack into Pistol Unload, and then running stats that boost damage when enemy has low health to finish with DP and Heartseekers.

[cyberzombie.7348]

Thief has a long history of being the first to blame and first to flame regardless of performance.

[Exitus.3297]

> @"draxynnic.3719" said:

> It takes more map awareness than most people have to judge if the thief is doing a good job or not.

>

> The typical thief build requires specific circumstances to shine - namely, that the rest of the team is putting up _enough_ of a fight that there are open points to decap and/or ongoing fights to +1. If the team is getting hammered so hard that the enemy team can afford to have someone sitting on each point at all times, or even in a position where they can watch two points and intervene as soon as they see the thief show up, there's really not much a thief can do.

>

> It doesn't help that enemy team members that the thief sees don't necessarily show up on the team's minimap, so if a thief checks far, finds a bunker sitting on it (or even sees an enemy player near enough to stop them from decapping on a build that counters them) and chooses not to engage and to try to find a softer target somewhere else, that often leads to people accusing the thief of running around doing nothing, when the real problem is often that the rest of the team is so ineffective at putting up a fight that the thief just isn't getting any opportunities to exploit.

>

> This isn't just a problem with thief, too - anyone acting in a similar role in lieu of a thief is often opening themselves up for the same abuse if the game isn't going well, when often the real problem is... well, it's hard to decap if the rest of the team is putting up such a weak fight that any point you try to decap has someone on it (or even two enemies on it) before you're done, and any fight you try to +1 is over before you get to it.

 

Literally this.

 

As another thing worth pointing out, it is very common for Thieves to get few to no end game awards (Most damage, kills, offense, etc) even if they play very well. They won't (typically) participate in the most kills on the team. They won't (typically) do the most damage. They won't (typically) stand on a node for more than they have to, theirs or an enemy's, in the aid to +1 a defender or attacker. Instead, they will do a little bit of everything, and that typically gets them 0 awards because they aren't doing that one thing particularly well, especially if even a few people on their team are doing their jobs. Halfway decent teams know this, so they won't get too upset and get mad at the Thief (or whomever the roamer is). Yet, I frequently see other players throw flak at the Thief thinking they're crap because they don't actually have the map awareness to see what the Thief or enemy players are doing, and then justify it because they have more awards than the Thief.

 

[Dave.6819]

> @"capuchinseven.8395" said:

> You see that one defeat? In that game I faced a torrent of abuse of the sort we've probably all heard as Thief, basically it's all the fault of the Thief we lost, Thief doesn't know how to play his class etc. Maybe they are right, maybe I don't but given this picture is a fairly common occurrence for me it seems hard for me to believe that all my wins are a fluke or I'm carried (all those games were as my Thief)

>

> Why do I bring this up? Well I've played a lot of games and MMOs over the years and I've never seen anything like the amount of abuse the thief has to deal with in sPVP it is almost comical. Do other Thief players have this issue? I feel the answer is likely yes because when I play Ranger or Ele I see the same abuse thrown at the teams Thief, I've even seen an enemy team complain that "our Thief was kitten" as an excuse for why they lost.

>

> Frankly it's getting me down and I just can't be bothered to play the game anymore. How do other Thief players deal with it? My time is too short to play a game where I'm seemingly open game for abuse.

>

> https://ibb.co/7gSvTCB

 

I dealt with it very simply. I quitted PvP entirely. And i was good at it it's not like i quitted cuz i was a noob. Quite alot of games were carried just by my constant decapping and putting the enemy team all over the place. Doesn't matter tho.. even if you're good you'll still get constant dose of negativity. Anyway anet/community hates thief so why even bother. It's a game after all so i realised to hell with it. And i don't enjoy any other class (maybe except Mesmer but we all know how Anet treats mesmers too..) so quitting was the logical choice. My suggestion either quit it or roll another class or play Thief only in PvE (and even there we kind of suck but it's manageable). Just make sure you outdps anyone in your raid/fract run and u'll be fine. If not - they'll kick you. I can't wait for the day when we'll have more options. Something like a support build.. maybe then thief can atlast bring somethin to the table.

[digglur.7285]

I realized this truth early after my return to the game. i kept getting called a bot until i figured my job out. Now i try to do the thief job and think I'm doing just fine until my team is seen fighting in the middle of nowhere and then blame me for not decapping or capping far, or close or pushing home. I feel like its a team game and 1 thief is not going to save 5 others from a loss. People should honestly try to give constructive criticism during the game, its those internet tough guys who yell at the end of match. Dont let the a holes ruin this for you because there are toxic fools in every game we play and at the end of the match you can q for a completely new one. this is not a serious game by any means so let those toxic fuckers have there time and ignore em.