Advice for NOT leaving the thief

[Haildam.3712]

Hi guys,

I love the thief BUT I find super trustrating playing with this profession on pvp/wvw. I tried S/P, D/P, the last one S/D. I really can't kill a mouse without the help of someone (and I died A LOT). I studied video on youtube from noody, redeemer, vallun, omnielite etc. I really I don't know how you can help not to change this pg because I'm sure it's only a matter of skill to play (that I don't have), not a problem of build/equip. My thoughts about the builds are, S/P is nice but I find the "stop" of the pistol/whip not so simple, i like D/P but I don't find natural for me to use a lot of time the blind (with o without the heartseeker), last one I have to play more is S/D. Do you have any last advice before changing profession? (I would like the mesmer for mobility, roaming etc). (about other builds, I don't like deadeye or condi and I'm using staff only in pve)

 

Thanks a lot guys, have a nice day! (or evening)

 

The wannabe thief

[Bamisama.6853]

Play elementalist for a bit and I promise you you'll appreciate your thief more. :)

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

I main thief, and I think that you will limit your enjoyment of the class as a main if you don't want to try all the specs at least once. My advice would be to find something about that class that you find fun and build around that, because at the end of the day, you can learn to be an amazing thief but unless you find it fun you're not going to want to play it. Thief is a class that revolves around outplaying your opponent, so you will have to know what you're doing to get the most out of it, and that experience generally comes from grabbing a meta build and throwing yourself at everything that comes. Yes, you will die a lot (I have over 11k deaths on my thief lol) but if you concentrate on your own play, you will learn a lot too.

[kash.9213]

I play casually by tactile feel mostly, animation and sound impact. You can feel where your sequence feels connective, crisp, and impactful and where it feels like it hits with a thud. When you get that feeling like your having one of those bad dream fights where all of your punches are awkward and fall flat take notice of their buffs and boons and whatever else their line-up is and review your combat log after. You might have to mess around with equipment and traits to make sure you can knock out some of that line-up with boon steal and interrupting control skills before you can really take a chunk out of them. Bonus if you can fit secondary modifications onto things that are already happening like interrupts and blinds to pile on with.

 

Check out some builds posted in this forum and see if there's some kind of stats base line you can start out with at least. Depending on a stretch of matchups I might try to stay around some thresholds with Power, Health, Crit, etc.

[PeerlessArch.6547]

Soemone made a good point above "get on an elementalist and you'll appreciate thief." The wisdom in that statement actually comes from the fact to be a great thief you should really learn all the other classes first, (at least the meta builds where everyone who runs them will become somewhat predictable) in which then, you will learn how the other classes play so you can know exactly what to do when and how to defeat those classes.

 

Also keep in mind, at least for sPvP, your role as a thief is not to try and 1v1 anyone, but to +1 a teammate (beyond your decapping role). Always look for targets that are already engaged with another enemy. You will find it much more satisfying, and also better help your team. :)

 

 

 

 

[Haildam.3712]

Thank you guys for all the advice! Yes I know that the thief is a +1 / decap but I'm truly fascinated when I see a thief that can duel one or even more guys

Look at this video for example

 

It is not a +1, he can controls more than one player "easily".

Anyway, I'll try to improve my play (now I'm enjoying the S/D build) and I'll try to learn other professions (I have only a war and a thief).

Thanks again!

[DeceiverX.8361]

> @"Haildam.3712" said:

> Thank you guys for all the advice! Yes I know that the thief is a +1 / decap but I'm truly fascinated when I see a thief that can duel one or even more guys

> Look at this video for example

>

>

> It is not a +1, he can controls more than one player "easily".

> Anyway, I'll try to improve my play (now I'm enjoying the S/D build) and I'll try to learn other professions (I have only a war and a thief).

> Thanks again!

 

Ehhhh a lot of those opponents were quite bad. The spellbreaker in that first fight especially...

[Psycoprophet.8107]

Why would u leave thief, have u not been paying attention to all the threads about how OP thief is, ur maining the most powerful,highest damage class that never dies that can simply poof invisible permanently without the use of any resources. Why leave the best duelist, side noder and +1 class in the game?

Risk risk such a silly question.

[lare.5129]

don't trust videos .. Cheaters presss buttons, use some skills, not 1111 :'(

so on one moment 2 player can kill 4 others, and when come someone one, who kill them both.

So take any class, relax and get fun

[Anomaly.7612]

It sounds like you want to be able to duel and 1v1 more. Well in order to do that you have to be able to look at the other class and know what builds are meta for that class so you know what CD's they typically run with said build, realize what weapons they're using so you know what attacks do the most damage so you dodge/blind/interrupt the ability, then go on the defensive.

 

The thing with dueling as a thief is you always have the upper hand with stealth. You can use stealth to wait out buffs they pop like rangers, or mesmer clones, necro shroud/lich. It's really a huge counter to most abilities since instead of purely tanking it or using a defensive and committing resources to mitigating, you can just stealth, an infinite resource aside from being revealed.

 

To play thief well you have to pay attention to your resources which are initiative, steal, dodge, utilities. Always know what your condi cleanses are in a particular build, how much initiative you need to burst and when to play more defensive to pool initiative to use for bursting, know when to time your stun breaks. Knowing when the best time is to use steal to keep up your momentum in a fight is crucial too as well as what abilities to interrupt with headshot in d/p, steal, or short bow 4.

 

Being able to keep all those things in mind while keeping your cool in a fight matters a lot and the best part is that those skills and general game sense apply to every other class in the game. Thief is just incredibly nuanced and has tools to deal with basically anything in the game but they have to be utilized properly and at the right time to be very effective. Thief can be really unforgiving to someone newer to the class but very addicting once you get the hang of it. No other class plays similarly to Thief because of all the ports, mobility in general, stealth and initiative. I guarantee you'll play a different class without as many tools and mobility and miss Thief. At least I know I do. xD

 

 

[Haildam.3712]

> @"Psycoprophet.8107" said:

> Why would u leave thief, have u not been paying attention to all the threads about how OP thief is, ur maining the most powerful,highest damage class that never dies that can simply poof invisible permanently without the use of any resources. Why leave the best duelist, side noder and +1 class in the game?

> Risk risk such a silly question.

 

It seems little ironic =)

 

Anyway, a little update, I'm trying to stay focus with my S/D build (I tried some little variants). Dodging and evading attacks I can see I can survive some more (but I can win almost 10% of 1vs1 duels). Another question, in other mmo there was the chance to duel 1 vs 1 even in a city (starting a "session" of duel between two pg). Here sometimes I'm going in the free pvp arena but it's a mess, it's difficult to have a single 1 vs 1 between two player, is it possible to sparring with someone without other people messing around ?

 

Thanks again to everyone!

[AliamRationem.5172]

> @"Haildam.3712" said:

> > @"Psycoprophet.8107" said:

> > Why would u leave thief, have u not been paying attention to all the threads about how OP thief is, ur maining the most powerful,highest damage class that never dies that can simply poof invisible permanently without the use of any resources. Why leave the best duelist, side noder and +1 class in the game?

> > Risk risk such a silly question.

>

> It seems little ironic =)

>

> Anyway, a little update, I'm trying to stay focus with my S/D build (I tried some little variants). Dodging and evading attacks I can see I can survive some more (but I can win almost 10% of 1vs1 duels). Another question, in other mmo there was the chance to duel 1 vs 1 even in a city (starting a "session" of duel between two pg). Here sometimes I'm going in the free pvp arena but it's a mess, it's difficult to have a single 1 vs 1 between two player, is it possible to sparring with someone without other people messing around ?

>

> Thanks again to everyone!

 

Sure, if you mischaracterize the complaints people have about thief. Mostly it's that stealth implementation in this game is a complete joke. Whether thief is trash tier or the most OP thing you can play, stealth is always the same broken shit.

[Dawdler.8521]

> @"Haildam.3712" said:

> Another question, in other mmo there was the chance to duel 1 vs 1 even in a city (starting a "session" of duel between two pg). Here sometimes I'm going in the free pvp arena but it's a mess, it's difficult to have a single 1 vs 1 between two player, is it possible to sparring with someone without other people messing around ?

Guild hall arena is a "safe" space, but it has a critical flaw - it uses PvE rules. And most of that is kittened up for PvP.

Otherwise you got sPvP arenas (assuming those still exist, the matches you can join manually), that open sPvP lobby arena, or the south central island on alpine in WvW. Most pugs wont touch you there and they will just run straight past. Maybe not because *you* are good at 1v1, but because there are usually other known duelists that get's pissed off at someone daring to play WvW in their spot.

 

Problem with any of this will be that you dont really get the true dynamic of a real fight. Fighting is best learned by simply... fighting. Lots and lots and lots of fighting.

[manu.7539]

> @"Bamisama.6853" said:

> Play elementalist for a bit and I promise you you'll appreciate your thief more. :)

 

Haha, I'm a main ele (weaver), cant agree more with you! I raged quit WvW this morning because I'm bored to be ganked by thieves and other stealthers. So bored of it I'm downloading WoW atm! :expressionless:

 

Edit: ouch, WoW is so ugly, even gw1 was much nicer so forget about it! To Valhalla then, I'll give a try to Assassins creed :bleep_bloop:

[saerni.2584]

> @"Haildam.3712" said:

> > @"Psycoprophet.8107" said:

> > Why would u leave thief, have u not been paying attention to all the threads about how OP thief is, ur maining the most powerful,highest damage class that never dies that can simply poof invisible permanently without the use of any resources. Why leave the best duelist, side noder and +1 class in the game?

> > Risk risk such a silly question.

>

> It seems little ironic =)

>

> Anyway, a little update, I'm trying to stay focus with my S/D build (I tried some little variants). Dodging and evading attacks I can see I can survive some more (but I can win almost 10% of 1vs1 duels). Another question, in other mmo there was the chance to duel 1 vs 1 even in a city (starting a "session" of duel between two pg). Here sometimes I'm going in the free pvp arena but it's a mess, it's difficult to have a single 1 vs 1 between two player, is it possible to sparring with someone without other people messing around ?

>

> Thanks again to everyone!

 

For sPvP you can try to find an empty server or a duel server to fight on.

 

For WvW you need to be on opposing teams if you are fighting in the normal maps. Or you can fight in Armistice Bastion if you purchase a pass (gemstone content, comes with amenities besides ability to fight other players).

 

SPvP and wvw balance are different. So if you fight in a guild hall it can be very unbalanced due to PvE skills being used. WvW is PvE stats but closer to PvP skills in terms of relative balance (but even there the sPvP skills may have differences from the WvW versions.

 

If you want practice, assuming you are on the North American servers, I'm always willing if you add me in game. Just message me when I'm online.

[Yasai.3549]

Thief is about playing around the opponent's cooldowns and resources and using their busted Ini mechanic to outmaneuver yur opponent.

That being said, if yu dump yur Ini, cooldowns, resources all into an enemy's Block or Evade, yur basically useless.

 

Go play all other professions.

Having done that, yu should know their weaknesses and openings pretty well, then go back onto Thief and beat them.

[Haildam.3712]

You are all super nice! I'm on the EU server (seafarer) if someone want to try my skills :+1:

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

> @"Haildam.3712" said:

> You are all super nice! I'm on the EU server (seafarer) if someone want to try my skills :+1:

 

I'm on underworld, so we're against each other this week. Whisper me in game if you want to set up some duels sometime ^^

[paShadoWn.5723]

Try p/p...

[ArcanistSeven.8720]

its called reroll because thief got nerfed even more in the only roll it was good at. mobility with wet noodle damage still

[Gandrogh.1530]

S/D is a good build.

Take care of sword 2 'cause it become expensive and the 3 too. Never engage with Steal, it's an instant interrupt you want to keep it. Sword 3 is unblockable keep that in mind.

If you want to kill people you'll have to use and abuse you interrupt/blinds. For damage there is the second cast sword 3 (expensive) and auto attack. Don't forget AA it is maybe this point you're missing. Keeping AA while staying alive is one of the keys. You don't alway need to second cast sword 3.

If you want to learn up you may want to to try just staying alive around your opponent. When you handle that you'll see windows in order to start an agressive gameplay.